d to his flesh; let him put upon it fasting, watching and
labor according to its lust and wantonness, and no more, although pope,
Church, bishop, father-confessor or any one else whosoever have
commanded it. For no one should measure and regulate fasting, watching
and labor according to the character or quantity of the food, or
according to the days, but according to the withdrawal or approach of
the lust and wantonness of the flesh, for the sake of which alone the
fasting, watching and labor is ordained, that is, to kill and to subdue
them. If it were not for this lust, eating were as meritorious as
fasting, sleeping as watching, idleness as labor, and each were as good
as the other without all distinction.

XX. Now, if some one should find that more wantonness arose in his
flesh from eating fish than from eating eggs and meat, let him eat meat
and not fish. Again, if he find that his head becomes confused and
crazed or his body and stomach injured through fasting, or that it is
not needful to kill the wantonness of his flesh, he shall let fasting
alone entirely, and eat, sleep, be idle as is necessary for his health,
regardless whether it be against the command of the Church, or the
rules of monastic orders: for no commandment of the Church, no law of
an order can make fasting, watching and labor of more value than it has
in serving to repress or to kill the flesh and its lusts. Where men go
beyond this, and the fasting, eating, sleeping, watching are practised
beyond the strength of the body, and more than is necessary to the
killing of the lust, so that through it the natural strength is ruined
and the head is racked; then let no one imagine that he has done good
works, or excuse himself by citing the commandment of the Church or the
law of his order. He will be regarded as a man who takes no care of
himself, and, as far as in him lies, has become his own murderer.

For the body is not given us that we should kill its natural life or
work, but only that we kill its wantonness; unless its wantonness were
so strong and great that we could not sufficiently resist it without
ruin and harm to the natural life. For, as has been said, in the
practice of fasting, watching and labor, we are not to look upon the
works in themselves, not on the days, not on the number, not on the
food, but only on the wanton and lustful Adam, that through them he may
be cured of his evil appetite.

XXI. From this we can judge how wisely or