The Medieval Church · c. 1180
On the Improvement of Monastic Life
Eustathius of Thessalonica · c. 1115–c. 1195
What it is
An attack on monks who sell their monastery's books, keep private property, and despise learning as a distraction from holiness.
Why it lasted
A rare piece of sustained internal criticism of Byzantine monasticism, and evidence of manuscripts being sold off for cash.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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