A certain monk named Amun had been much grieved by the occurrence of seminal emissions during sleep, and he wrote to Athanasius to inquire if such emissions are a sin.

In the letter he wrote in reply, Athanasius seeks to reassure Amun.

"All things," he tells him, "are pure to the pure.

For what, I ask, dear and pious friend, can there be sinful or naturally impure in excrement?
Man is the handwork of God.

There is certainly nothing in us that is impure."[58] We feel as we read these utterances that the seeds of prudery and pruriency are already alive in the popular mind, but yet we see also that some of the most distinguished thinkers of the early Christian Church, in striking contrast to the more morbid and narrow-minded mediaeval ascetics, clearly stood aside from the popular movement.