Chapter XCII. How the body ought to be treated to prevent it from murmuring

129. The Saint moreover once said: "Brother body should be provided for with discretion, that the tempest of sloth be not raised by him: and to the end he be not wearied in watching and reverent persistence in prayer, let him be deprived of occasion for murmuring. For he might say: v I am faint with hunger; I cannot bear the burden of thy exercise'. But if after eating sufficient food he should mutter such things, let him know that a lazy beast wants the spur, and that the goad awaits a sluggish ass."

In this teaching alone did the most holy father's deeds not correspond with his words, for he subjected his body, assuredly innocent, to scourgings and hardships, multiplying wounds upon it without cause, inasmuch as the heat of the spirit had already so refined his body that even as "his soul was athirst for God, so also was his most holy flesh in manifold wise n}