ascesis, n.All

Ascesis (n.) was ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠once the price of truth, the work you did on yourself to be worthy of it, until Descartes decided that seeing what is evident was enough.

Ascesis (n.) took ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the form of work in the seventeenth-century hospital: a moral exercise, a punishment and a sign of a good heart, so that inmates who wanted to work could be set free.