In a book called the Spiritual Meadow, composed by John Evirat, or, according to some, by St. Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem, which is quoted with great respect in the second Council of Nice, we read that a holy man called Eusebius sitting one day in the field with another anchoret, called Amianus, and this Amianus reading one of the books of the gospel, which the other explained, it happened that Eusebius cast his eyes upon the labourers who tilled the ground in an adjoining field, and at the same time this distraction hindered him from attending to what was read; so that Amianus lighting by chance upon a very hard passage, asked him its explanation. Eusebius, who had not attended, desired him to read it the second time; whereby Amianus came to know he had been distracted, and repeating it, told him it was no wonder he had not heard the words of the gospel, since be had distracted himself by looking upon the workmen. Eusebius remained so confounded at this rebuke, that for the future he strictly prohibited his eyes from beholding either that plain or the stars of heaven any more; and presently rising up, he took a little by-path, and retired into a poor cell which he never afterwards quitted; living more than forty years in this strait prison, to which he had condemned himself. He confirmed this his resolution by such a kind of necessity, as might force him to keep it. For he bound his reins with a girdle of iron, and put another of a great weight about his neck, and then joined these two together by a great chain, which he fastened to the earth; to the end he might always be constrained to remain in such a bent or bowing posture, that he could not go into the fields round about him, nor so much as look upon them, nor even lift up his eyes to heaven. This was the manner wherein this holy man chastised himself for one light inadvertency, for one single dissipation of mind, whilst the other read the word of God. Is not this sufficient to give us an extreme confusion, seeing the little concern we have for all those distractions, that daily happen to us on the like occasions?
