Chapter 22

After Barlaam had gone out, Josaphat gave himself to prayer and to the warmest tears, and said: "O God, attend to my help. Lord, make haste to help me, for to you the poor man is left; you were the helper of the orphan. Look upon me and have mercy on me, you who will that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth; save me and strengthen me, the unworthy, to walk the road of your holy commandments, for I am weak and wretched and unequal to doing the good; but you are able to save me, who hold together and uphold all things visible and invisible. Do not let me walk after the evil desires of the flesh, but teach me to do your will, and keep me unto your eternal and blessed life. O Father and Son and divine Spirit, the Godhead of one essence and undivided, you I call upon and you I glorify; for all creation hymns you, and the intelligent powers of the bodiless ones glorify you unto the ages. Amen." From that time, then, he kept himself with all watchfulness, securing for himself purity of soul and body, living in self-restraint and in prayers and supplications throughout the night.

For though by day he was often cut off by the company of those who were with him, and at times by the king's visits to him or his summons of the young man to himself, the night made up for him the day's deficiencies, as he stood in prayers and tears until daybreak and called upon God; whence that prophetic word was fulfilled in him: In the nights lift up your hands toward the holy place, and bless the Lord. But that Zardan, perceiving this manner of life and filled with grief, his soul stricken with terrible cares, did not know what to do; at last, worn down by his distress, he withdrew to his own house, pretending to be ill. When this came to the king's knowledge, he sent another of his most trusted men in his stead to wait upon his son; and he himself, caring for Zardan's health, sent him a most skilled physician and judged that he should be treated with much attention. The physician, since Zardan was a favourite of the king's, examined him carefully, and having diagnosed his condition perfectly, reported quickly to the king: "I," he said, "have not been able to find in the man the cause of any disease; whence I suppose that, his soul being stricken with some despondency, he has fallen sick." When the king heard these words, he supposed that his son had behaved grievously toward Zardan, and that for this reason he had grieved and withdrawn. Wishing to learn the matter accordingly, he sent word to Zardan,

saying: "Tomorrow I shall come to see you, and to learn about the illness that has befallen you." When Zardan heard this message, at early dawn he wrapped his garment about him and went to the king. And entering, he prostrated himself before him to the ground. The king said: "Why did you force yourself to come? For I myself wished to visit you, and to make known to all my friendship toward you." But he answered: "My weakness, O king, is not one of the illnesses common to men; rather, from a grieved and care-laden soul, the heart being in pain, the body has suffered with it. But it would have been folly for me, being in such a state, not to come like a servant before your majesty, but to expect your kingship to be troubled to come down to me, your servant." When the king inquired what was the cause of his despondency, Zardan took up the word and said: "Great is my danger, and I am worthy of great punishments, liable to many deaths, because, having dealt carelessly with your orders, I have all but become the cause of much grief to you." Then again the king asked: "And what negligence have you been guilty of? And what is the fear that grips you?" "In my watchfulness over my lord your son I have been negligent," he said. "For a wicked man and sorcerer came and spoke to him of the religion of the Christians." Then he related to the king in detail what the old man had said to his son, and with how much delight the young man had received the discourse, and how he had become wholly Christ's.

He disclosed besides the old man's name, saying that he was called Barlaam. For the king had also heard before of Barlaam and his most extreme ascetic life. When these things came to the king's ears, he was at once thrown into turmoil by the despondency that had fallen upon him, and was filled with anger, and was almost paralyzed by what he heard. And at once he summoned a man called Arachis, who held second place after the king, and was foremost with him in all his secret counsels; and the man was also skilled in astrology. When he had come, the king related to him what had happened with much despondency and distress. But Arachis, beholding his turmoil and the confusion of his soul, said: "Let your mind be untroubled and free from grief, O king; for it is not yet beyond our hope that the young man may change his course. Indeed, I know most surely that he will quickly renounce the teaching of that deceiver and consent to your will." So Arachis, having by these words turned the king toward better cheer, took counsel with him in deliberating about the matter. "And this, O king," he said, "let us do before all else: let us hasten to catch the cunning Barlaam. And if we lay hold of him,

we shall not, I am well assured, miss our aim, nor be disappointed of our hope. For that man himself, persuaded either by plausible words or by the many kinds of instruments of torture, would confess against his will that he had spoken false and erring things, and would persuade my lord your son to hold to his father's doctrine. But if we should not be able to catch him, I know another old hermit, called Nachor, like Barlaam in all respects, who cannot be told apart from him, a man of our own persuasion, and one who became my teacher in the sciences. To him I, going by night, will dictate and relate everything in detail. Then, having spread abroad that Barlaam has been seized, we shall produce this man; and he, naming himself Barlaam, will pretend to plead the cause of the Christians and will appear to defend them. Then, after much disputation, being defeated, he will be utterly overcome. And when the king's son sees this — that Barlaam has been defeated and our side prevails — he will surely consent to the victors; setting great store, besides, on reverencing your kingship and doing what is pleasing to you. For the one who has put on Barlaam's mask will also turn about, and affirm that he was deceived." The king was pleased at what was said, and thought he had taken excellent counsel, leaning upon empty hopes.

Whence, having just learned that Barlaam had withdrawn, he hastened to lay hold of him. So, having posted ambushes and captains over most of the roads out, he himself, mounting horses, pursued at full speed along one of the roads, the one he suspected above all the rest, intending by every means to overtake him first. But having toiled six whole days, he had laboured in vain. Then he himself remained at one of the royal palaces lying among the fields, and sent Arachis with no few horsemen as far as the desert of Senaar itself, in search of Barlaam. When Arachis reached the place, he threw all the dwellers round about into confusion; and when they affirmed that they had never seen the man, the commander went out into the deserts to hunt the pious. And having traversed a great stretch of desert, encircled mountains and crossed trackless and difficult ravines on foot, he reached, with the crowds that were with him, a certain mountain summit,

and standing upon it, he saw at the foot of the mountain a band of hermits walking. And at once, at the commander's order, all rush upon them without pausing for breath, each striving in the running to outstrip the other; and overtaking them, they poured around them like many dogs or like wicked, man-hating beasts; and they seized the men, most venerable in appearance and bearing, who carried upon their faces the marks of the hermit's life; and dragging them, they brought them before the commander, the men not at all disturbed, showing and uttering nothing ignoble or downcast. The one who went before them and was, as it were, their leader carried a hair satchel, full of the relics of certain holy Fathers who had departed before. When Arachis looked them over and did not see Barlaam — for he knew him — he was overwhelmed with grief. And he said to them: "Where is that deceiver, who led astray the king's son?" The one carrying the satchel answered: "He is not among us; God forbid; for he flees from us, pursued by the grace of Christ. But among you he has his dwellings." The commander said: "Do you know him, then?" "Yes," said the hermit; "I know the one called the deceiver, who is the devil, who dwells in your midst and is served and worshipped by you." The commander said: "It is about Barlaam that I am making my search, and I asked you to learn where he is."

The monk said: "And why, then, did you speak to no purpose, framing your question about the one who led the king's son astray? For if you were seeking Barlaam, you should certainly have said: Where is the one who turned the king's son from error and saved him? For that man is our brother and fellow ascetic; but for many days now we have not seen him." Arachis said: "Point out his dwelling." The ascetic answered: "If he wished to see you, he himself would have come out to meet you. But it is not lawful for us to make known his cell to you." At this the commander is filled with anger, and says to him, fixing upon him a glance at once wrathful and beastlike: "I will now put you to death by a strange death, if you do not at once produce Barlaam for me." "And what," said the ascetic, "do you see in us, that we should cling to this present life and be hard to tear from it, and fear the death you will bring upon us? Rather, we shall be the more grateful to you, that you have led us out of life while we hold fast to virtue. For we fear, and not a little, the uncertainty of our end, not knowing in what state it will overtake us,

lest some slip of the will, or some demonic assault, should overturn the firmness of our resolve, and persuade us to think or do otherwise than what we have confessed to God. Therefore, having wholly given up obtaining what you hope, do not hesitate to do what you will. For neither will we point out the dwelling of our God-loving brother, though indeed we know it, nor betray to you any other hidden monasteries, basely enduring to escape death by such means; rather, we shall die a noble death, having offered to God first the sweat of virtue, and now the blood of valour." When the wretch could not endure their speaking so boldly, but was most sharply stirred against the nobility of their spirit, he assailed them with many blows and tortures; and even to the tyrant their greatness of soul and nobility seemed worthy of wonder. But when after many torments he could not prevail, and no one would endure to point out Barlaam to him, he took them and ordered them led to the king, beaten and reviled, carrying also the satchel of relics.