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VYSENS'KYJ'S IDEA OF REFORM 53One should not forget that this citation from St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians,in its biblical context, played an important role for many authoritieson the spiritual life—from Athanasius's Life of St. Antony 65 and the earlyfathers of the desert in the fourth century to Gregory Palamas and NilSorskij—all of whom defined the spiritual life of the Christian not only inthe context of the battle between supernatural forces 66 but as a war wagedwith the "hidden stratagems" of the devil both in the body and in the soul. 67In addition, as I have shown elsewhere, 68 Vygens'kyj's reference to thisbiblical citation, which is found not only at the very beginning of theKnyïka Ioanna mnixa ViSenskoho (Book of the monk Ivan Vysens'kyj) 69but elsewhere in his writings, 70 is marked by and connected with a belief inthe absolute necessity of the monk's struggle in solitude, a spiritual activityperformed in imitation of the Lord who was sent into the desert for fortydays to be tempted by the devil. 71 Finally, one should note that this biblicalcitation plays a central part in eclogue XIV, specifically in the excerpt fromChrysostom's homily XII. More important, it appears that the reference toEphesians at the end of the excerpt from homily XII found in eclogue XIV,used to underscore the lofty nature of the apostolic struggle, served as the65Athanasius, Vita Antonii 78 (PG XXVI, 951).66Cf. 1 Cor. 2.6; 2 Cor. 4.4. One should remember that the possible impact of dualistic doctrines,such as Gnosticism, have been detected in St. Paul's references to the "god of thisworld"; see R. Grant, Gnosticism and Early Christianity (New York, 1959), pp. 27-57.Indeed, throughout the history of the Church the apocalyptic vision reflected in the idea of asupranatural order was frequently united with various dualist doctrines, "in which the devil andhis kingdom became a rival not only to the Christian soul, but to the divine sovereignty" (Pelikan,The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition, p. 136). In this regard, many scholars havesought—mistakenly, I submit—to see in Vysens'kyj's writings, especially in chapter 1 of theKnyïka (see fn. 71 below), a dualistic world view; see B. Gröschel, Die Sprache IvanVysenskyjs. Untersuchungen und Materialien zur historischen Grammatik des Ukrainischen,Slavistiche Forschungen, no. 13 (Cologne and Vienna, 1972), p. 17, and, most recently, Grabowicz,"The Question of Authority in Ivan Vysens'kyj, pp. 783-85.67Śpidlik, La Spiritualità dell'oriente cristiano, pp. 201-29; Maloney, Russian Hesychasm,pp. 73-78. Here, as in regard to other topics, such as the "Manichean-sounding" definitions ofevil, the theme of the Antichrist, the question of "wicked" and "carnal" priests, and the motiveof apostolic poverty, one can observe striking parallels between certain aspects of Vysens'kyj'sthought and Reformation (and Counter-Reformation) ideology; see fns. 21 -23 above.68Goldblatt, "Godlike 'Simplicity' versus Diabolic 'Craftiness.' "69See fn. 6 above.70See, for example, 20.35-21.1; 46.33-34; 163.13-14; 175.17-19; 180.8-13;191.18-19.71This is the principal theme of chapter 1 of the Knyïka—entitled Oblićenie diavolamiroderïcaі prelestnyj lov eho vtka seho skoro pohibajuSćeho, ot sovleksahosja sxitroupletenyx sîtej eho holjaka-strannika, ko druhomu, buduSiemu vîku hrjaduSëaho,ućinenoe—which offers a dialogue between the devil and a "naked pilgrim." It is hardlyaccidental, therefore, that the epigraph for chapter 1 is drawn from Mt. 4.8-10, that is, the textualexcerpt dealing with Jesus' temptation in the desert.