Further, of those who receive the seed as they ought there are three degrees.
Wherefore it goes on, “And these are they who are sown on good ground.”
Those who bear fruit an hundred-fold are those who lead a perfect and an obedient life, as virgins and hermits. Those who bear fruit sixty-fold are those who are in the mean as continent persons [ed. note: The word translated continentes . . . means ascetics, who mix in the affairs of the world; whereas hermits lived quite out of them, and gave themselves up to contemplation; caenobites came between the two, living together in convents, and combined both the practical and contemplative life, see Greg. Naz. Or. 43, 62] and those who are living in convents.
Those who bear thirty-fold are those who though weak indeed, bear fruit according to their own virtue, as laymen and married persons.
Reproduced in full. Translation: Oxford 1841 (Newman), public domain (Public domain).