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4. Egyptian Origins; Anthony and Ammonius

Some individual instances of this flight may have existed as early as the beginning of the third century. In connection with Jerome's Vita Pauli (ut sup.) it was formerly the custom to find the origin of Christian monas ticism in Paul of Thebes as a result of the Decian persecution. This was thought to be substantiated by the account in Eusebius (Hist. eccl., VI., xlii.) of "flight into deserts and mountain regions" at this time. But the historicity of the Vita Pauli is now not recognized. As a consequence, if satisfactory historical evidence alone be considered, the title of the first hermit must be assigned to Anthony, whose life was written, from knowledge based on close personal relationship, by Athanasius (soon after Anthony's death, or between 356 and 362; Eng. transl. in NPNF, 2 ser., iv. 188221). St. Anthony was born of wealthy Christian parents at Coma, on the borders of Upper Egypt, c. 250, lost his parents when he was in his eighteenth year, six months later gave all his goods to the poor, leaving his sister to the care of a pious woman, and retired first to a tomb and then to a ruined castle near the Nile, where he lived alone for twenty years. He issued from his retirement at times to instruct the multitudes who came to hear him, and sometimes visited the Christians of Alexandria to comfort them in times of stress. Eventually he retired still farther into the solitude near the Red Sea, where he died at the age of 105, attended only by the two disciples Amathas and Macarius (q.v.). He seems to have created no regular organization; the colonies of hermits which were known as monastewia were united only by ties of free fellowship under his spiritual direction. The "Rule" ascribed to him is not his, though it is of Egyptian origin and very old. Tracing the further develop-

* While in the text the proximate cause of monasticism is probably correctly given, and "imitation" of non-Christian practise is rightly rejected, the more fundamental cause is passed over. This is the belief, common to most advanced and to some primitive religions, that " the world " or " the flesh " in as evil, and that consequently perfection in the religious life is soonest and best attained by retirement from the world and mortification of the flesh. This was the motive in the asceticism of Brahmanism and Buddhism (qq.v.), of Greece, and of the Hanife of Arabia (see Mohammed, Mohammedanism, IV., 1). It is one of the curious facts of history and of logic that the subduing of the flesh was attempted in either of two forms-total abstention from indulgence in sensual pleasures and denial of the demands of appetite or extreme indulgence. In the Christian sphere this latter appeared in certain of the Gnostic outgrowths, and a sporadic case was the Christian-Philadelphia Society (see Buttlar, Eva von).

G. W. G.

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Monasticism

ment of Egyptian monasticism, especially in the HisOrid Lausiaw of Palladius and the Historaa monachomm of Rufinus, during Anthony's lifetime independent colonies of hermits appear to have been established in Lower Egypt by Ammonius or Amun, the father of Nitrian monasticism. He had been married against his will; after a life of continence lasting eighteen years, his wife turned their house into a home for consecrated virgins, while he went out into the desert, forty Roman miles to the south of Alexandria, and gathered (according to Palladius) not less than 500 disciples around him. They lived either solitary or in small communities, and assembled every Saturday and Sunday in the church, served by eight priests, for common worship. The day was divided between work and prayer; the strictest discipline prevailed. After twenty-two years of this life, Ammonius died some time before 356, while Anthony was yet living. Among his disciples were Arsisius, Serapion, Cronius, Putubastus, Asion, and Didymus, while the younger generation of the Nitrian colony included Pambo, Benjamin, Apollonius, and the four " Long Brothers," Ammonius, Dioscurus, Eusebius, and Euthymius. The Nitrian monks were especially devoted to the theology of Origen, and when he was declared a heretic by Theophilus of Alexandria in 399, they had their share of persecution.

Twenty-four hours' journey to the southward, in the Soetic desert near a place called Cellia, another famous colony had its abode. The cells were even more primitive than the Nitrian, and perpetual silence was the rule, except when the monks came

together on Saturdays and Sundays 5. Other for public worship. According to Cas-

Egyptian sian, Macarius, called "the Great," Settlements. was the first to settle here (see MA-

cAmus, 1). Palladius asserts that this was at the age of thirteen, and that he possessed the gifts of healing and prophecy. His sayings in the Apophthegmata and the fifty homilies still preserved give the idea of a pious and humble character and an important representative of primitive Christian mysticism. He died at the age of ninety, either in 387 or in 383. His principal associates were the Ethiopian Moses, Pachon, and Macarius the Younger. Two of his disciples, Evagrius Ponticus (q.v.) and Marcus Eremita (q.v.), attained some importance as writers. By the end of the fourth century Egypt was full of hermits, living either solitary or in communities. The numbers attributed to them may be exaggerated (e.g., 20,000 women and 10,000 men at Oxyrhynchus in central Egypt); but the extent of the movement is attested not only by Athanasius in more than one passage, but by the edict of the Emperor Valens in 365, and by his drafting 5,000 Nitrian monks as soldiers in 375. The loose fellowship of the Egyptian hermits was organized by Pachomius (q.v.), who surrounded the scattered cells by a wall and gave the monks a common rule of life. This earliest monastic rule is primitive and incomplete; but it enforces the duty of labor, makes an effort to systematize the devotional life, contains provisions concerning clothing, food, and hours of sleep, and by forbidding the reception of

strangers attempts to shut off the monastery from the world. While the older sort of hermit colonies still maintained their existence, the cenobitic system spread rapidly throughout Egypt. The hermit life was less adapted for women. Pachomius founded the first convent for his sister Mary, and the cloistered life was adopted by a constantly increasing number of female ascetics. At the same time a number of communities of women continued to exist in which a less strict rule of asceticism and seclusion from the world prevailed.

From Egypt monasticism spread to the peninsula of Sinai, which produced two important ascetic writers in Nilus Sinaita (see Nirus, 1) and Johannes Climacus (q.v.), and to Palestine, in the southern part of which Hilarion (q.v.) of Gaza,

,6. In a disciple of Anthony, introduced the Palestine hermit life in the latter half of the

and Syria. fourth century. Sozomen and Pal ladius mention a number of Palestin ian hermits, and numerous monasteries arose here about the middle of the fourth century. Melania, a rich Roman woman and a friend of Rufinus, founded a convent on the Mount of Olives, and an other Roman, Paula (d. 404), houses for both monks and nuns at Bethlehem. A younger Melania (d. 439) was also a noted founder. The western monks and nuns lived here in the spirit of their Egyptian models, and Jerome translated the rule of Pacho mius for Paula's convent. Syria was, however, after Egypt, the country in which early monasticism flourished most remarkably. The men and women who were associated with Aphraates did not leave the world, and were "solitary" (as he calls them in the sixth homily, of 337) only in the sense of having taken a vow of celibacy. But Jacob of Nisibis (q.v.) seems to have led a hermit's life with Eugenius, the founder of Persian monasti cism, before he became bishop of Nisibis in 309. According to the account which he wrote of Eugo nius (published in P. Bedjan, Ads martyrum .

Syriace, iii. 376-380, 7 vols., Paris, 1890-97), the latter seems to have come from Egypt, bringing with him the cenobitic tradition of the monasteries of Pachomius. He is perhaps to be identified with the Aones whom Sozomen calls (VI., xxxiii. 4) the founder in Syria of the strict hermit life, as Anthony was in Egypt. Among the monastic pioneers of Edessa and Osrhoene, Jerome names as the first a certain Julian, a contemporary of Julian the Apostate; Ephraem Syrus (q.v.) was one of the celebrated ascetics of this region. In eastern Cilicia and in the neighborhood of Antioch flourishing colonies of hermits existed from the middle of the fourth century in the desert of Chalcis, which acquired the name of the Syrian Thebaid. Here Jerome lived as a hermit from 373 to 380. In northern Syria the peculiar form of asceticism represented by the ". pillarsaints" became common in the fifth century. Its earliest example is supposed to have been Simeon, who abode on the top of a column near Antioch, gradually increasing its height, and after thirtysix years died about 460. This form of mortification is apparently connected with pagan Syrian prototypes. Scattered practitioners of it were found in the east until the fifteenth century. The

464

most famous of them was the younger Simeon (d. 596), who lived for sixty-eight years on top of a pillar near Antioch. See Stylites.

Information as to Galatia comes from Palladius, a native of that region. In Roman Armenia, Paphlagonia, and Pontus, monasticism owed its origin to Eustathius of Sebaste (q.v.),

y. In Asia whose semi-Atian associates, like the Minor. bishops Marathonius and Macedonius (q.v.), were zealous supporters of the movement. It assumed a fanatical character in Ar menia, and conflicts resulted with the hierarchy; the Council of Gangm (? 343) was obliged to take action against the exaggerated asceticism of the Eustatbi ans. A cognate phenomenon is the party of the Euchites or Messalians (q.v.) in northern Syria and Pamphylia in the latter half of the fourth century. They were still more radical in their insistence on a life of unbroken prayer, rejected the sacraments and fasts of the Church, and displayed distinctly Mani chean tendencies. Repressed by the bishops, they disappeared for the time, to come up again in the medieval sects of the Bogomiles (see New Manicheans, I.) and Paulicians (q.v.). [The Paulicians had scarcely anything in common with Manicheans or Messaliaas, and their origin can be otherwise ac. counted for. A. H. N.] Monasticism was domesti cated in Cappadocia first by Basil the Great and then by Gregory Nazianzen and Gregory of Nyssa (qq.v.). The work of Basil was epoch-making. The two rules, a longer and a shorter one, which bear his name, while they are rather catechisms on monastic virtues and duties than formal rules, are to-day the only standard of Greek monasticism. His ideal is essentially identical with that of An thony. The monk is the perfect Christian; the ascetic life consists not in specific practises of self denial but in the sanctification of the whole person ality; the monk must exercise, next to the love of God, that of his neighbor, though practically this was confined to his fellow monks and contemplated no far-reaching influence on the Church at large or on society. According to Basil, the monastic life meant not a suppression of nature but the return to it, not opposition to but the completion of ancient wisdom. As to the life in detail, the candidate for admission to a monastery was required to renounce his property and go through a period of probation. No binding vows were made; the apotaga was a re nunciation of all relations with the world, but not an external act. The proestaa or head of the monastery had full disciplinary powers. The daily life of the monks was divided between prayer, for which there were six fixed hours, and work, especially agriculture. There was no prescription as to food except that it should be taken in moderation and not serve to pamper the palate; the use of wine was prohib ited. No special costume was prescribed.

In spite of Basil's influence in favor of a cenobitic system, the hermit life continued to be held in the highest esteem. It seemed to many that the monastic ideal of uninterrupted devotion could be attained only by the anchorite. But the two classes of monks lived peaceably together, the cloister being regarded as a training-school for the higher stage. During the fifth and sixth centuries, Palestine

was the special home of monachism, partly on so-

count of its associations, which brought thither an increasing number of devout pilgrims. Soon after the beginning of the fifth century an

8. Later attempt was made to link together the

History of various monasteries and colonies of

Oriental hermits in a common organization.

Monasti- Each of these classes now had an archi cism. mandrite of its own, chosen by the whole body and confirmed by the patriarch of Jerusalem. These offices assumed considerable importance when the Cappadocian

Theodosius (414-519), head of the monastery founded by him and named after him at Jerusalem, became archimandrite of the monasteries, and an

other Cappadocian, Sabas (q.v.; 439-532), held the

corresponding position among the hermits. Sabas

founded seven ]auras (see Abbey) or colonies of hermits in Palestine, of which that at Jerusalem, under his own guidance, was the principal one.

Even after the Mohammedan conquest in the seventh century, monasticism maintained its footing in Palestine; but its consequent isolation caused it gradually to decline. After Egypt and Palestine had ceased to be the centers of eastern monasticism, this place was taken by Constantinople. About 430 the system of the akoimetw (monks who kept up an unbroken prayer day and night in three divisions which relieved each other) was introduced there by

Alexander, an abbot from a monastery on the

Euphrates. The monastery of this kind founded about 460 by the Roman consular Studius and known from him as Studion attained special im portance in the epoch of the iconoclastic contro versy through the work of its abbot Theodore (see Theodore the Studite), who reformed Byzantine

monasticism by adapting the Basilian rule to al

tered conditions. His "Constitutions," which, if not drawn up by him, represent his work, give pre cise information as to the life of his own house, and were accepted by many others. The reception of a monk, with the binding vow which had been re quired since the Council of Chalcedon, was a solemn act, considered almost as a second baptism in its power to cleanse from sin. It was made at the foot of the altar during the liturgy and in the presence of all the brethren. After receiving the tonsure and habit, the new monk then partook of the com munion. Besides domestic economy and agriculture the monks were occupied in theology, philoso. phy, and grammar, so that their houses became nurseries of orthodox divinity. The abbot was re quired to give a catechetical lecture three times a week to the monks. They were to live simply and

temperately, but the use of meat was allowed. The

distinction between makroschfwi and mikroschftoi seems to have been introduced about the time of the iconoclastic controversy. The latter, answering to the lay brothers in the West, performed the household duties; the former, the western choir brothers, lived in complete abstraction from worldly things, devoted wholly to contemplation and study.

This gradation, though it weakened the sense of unity, served to facilitate the entrance into the monastery of those who did not feel called to take

upon themselves the extremer obligations. The

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next great center was Mount Athos (see Athos), which was inhabited by hermits from the middle of the ninth century, though the first regular monastery was not founded until 963. In the Hesychastic controversy (see Hesychasts) the fanatical element in eastern monachism once more found expression. The monks regarded themselves as inspired and endowed with the gifts of miracles and of prophecy in order to make what amounted to a new development of revelation. The colonies on Mount Athos increased in number until in 1045 there were 180. With its numerous hermits and monasteries of combined aristocratic and democratic constitution, Athos is still the most famous seat of Greek monasticism.

Although monasticism stood out briginally in sharp contrast to the Church in the midst of the world, open conflict was avoided. The bishops, especially Athanasius, succeeded in g. Relation abating the anticlerical tendencies of to Church monasticism, which on its side pre and State. served an abiding respect for the Church and its institutions, so that the relations between secular and regular clergy in the East finally became a very friendly one, until by the increasing enforcement of celibacy and the choosing of dignitaries from the monastic ranks the opposition was almost entirely removed. The trouble which the Church had in the fifth century with monastic fanaticism led to strict regulation by the Council of Chalcedon (canons iv., viii., xxiii., xxiv.). The monasteries and all the monks of a diocese were to be subject to the bishop, without whose leave no new monasteries might be erected; slaves were not to be received without the consent of their masters; to the ordinary vows was added the obligation of "stability" or continuance in one fixed residence, to prevent disorderly roving. The same line was followed by Justinian in his monastic legislation, which became the model for all subsequent state regulations in the East. The second Trullan synod of 692 increased the freedom of entrance into the monastic state, which Justinian had facilitated for slaves, ordered wandering hermits either to allow themselves to be gathered into monasteries or to retire into the desert (see Gyrovagi), and laid down the principle that only he who had approved himself as a cenobite should become a hermit. Under the iconoclastic emperors the monks led the defense of images, with John of Damascus (q.v.), who belonged to the monastery of St. Sabas on the Dead Sea, at their head. The monasteries underwent great trials during this period, and there is some reason to think that the emperors contemplated their total suppression. The Second Council of Nicæa (787) allowed the unrestricted foundation of monasteries (though that of Constantinople, 861, restored the requirement of episcopal permission), and reiterated the prohibition of monks and nuns leaving their convents. Since the Trullan synod of 692 had confined the requirement of celibacy to the bishops, they were thereafter usually taken from the monasteries, which gave great power to monasticism. This was increased by the fact that the monks, who had given to the practise of confession its systematic development, were long its chief ministers. The main service of Greek monasticism as a whole was the awakening of the Church to the consciousness of practical needs. The monks' constant effort for the sanctification of their own hearts had given them a deep insight into the inner life, and the great preachers of the East, such as Basil, Chrysostom, and Gregory Nazianzen, had learned to know human nature through monasticism, while its influence may be traced also in the attention paid to psychological problems in the dogmatic theology of John of Damascus.

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