Evagrius, an adorer of monkery, hath given us a strange account of the monks of Palestine in the fifth century. Some, says he, shut up in monasteries, exercise all sorts of macerations; some dwell in little dens of the earth, just big enough to hold them; 0thers of a more eminent degree, males and females, repair to desert places, wearing nothing except a small covering of their nakedness; and walking upon allfour, eat grass and roots like the beasts, and if they see any passenger, they run away and hide themselves. Another sort of monks, more perfect than all the former, haunt the cities and the places of the greatest resort, pretending to be mad, and run into public houses*, and eat and drink with any sort of people, and frequent the baths continually, and above all, seek out the company of the women who go there, and wash themselves along with them, &c. Balnea publica frequenter adeunt, et simul cum mulieribus diversantur et lavant. Adeo omni perturbatione animi superiores, ut naturæ ipsi vim inferant, et nec aspectu, nec tactu, nec amplexu ipso mulieris, ad ea que naturæ ipsorum propria sunt, inclinari queant. Sed cum viris quidem viri sunt, feminæ vero cum feminis. Non enim unius, sed utriusque simul sexus esse cupiunt. i. 21. You may think perhaps that Evagrius intended to insult or ridicule them. 'Tis no such thing; he is very serious. Gregory Nazianzen, celebrating the absurd austerities and mortifications of the monks of Nazianzen, tells us, that some of them, through an excess of zeal, killed themselves, to be released from the wicked world, p. 107. Pachomius the monk earnestly exhorted his disciples to discover without delay their temptations to the * Into brothel-houses, says Nicephorus. wisest wisest of their brethren, by whom they might be instructed how to get the victory over them, lest by concealing them too long, they should be carried to horrible extremities; for he assured them that many upon that account had flung themselves from the rocks, had their bellies, and had killed themselves in vaTillemont H. E. vii. 199. Nothing is more probable than that such a course of life should produce melancholy madness. cut open rious ways. Some of the philosophers had exercised strange severities upon themselves and upon their disciples, from the days of Pythagoras down to the time of Lucian, who introduces the philosopher Nigrinus as condemning such practices, and observing that they had occasioned the death of several persons. Vol. i. p. 67. where Hemsterhusius says; Christiani Ascète, postquam vestitum veterum philosophorum adsciverant, hæc quoque quæe Lucianus merito deridet, prepostera formanda pietatis instrumenta non spreverunt; quo de genere non pauca reperies in Vitis Patrum, et Cassiani Institutionibus. Multa notant, sed admodum perturbate. Cresoll. Th. Rhet. v. 6, 7. Boilav. Hist. Flag. c. iv. p. 78. They who had not the resolution to join themselves with these monks, yet admired what they would not imitate, and all the people magnified them. Monkery was pretty well established in the time of Constantine. It began in the eastern countries, in Egypt, Palestine, and Persia, before it was introduced into the western parts of the Roman empire. "Palladius was a friend of Rufinus and of St Chry"sostom, a defender of Origen, a favourer of Pelagius, "and an adversary of St Jerom. His History of the Monks and of their miracles, contains, like most other accounts of this kind, many extraordinary things 66 66 things. Amongst several instances of solid virtue "and useful reflections, we find in it childish obser"vations, examples which it would be dangerous to "imitate, extravagant austerities, unreasonable ac"tions, and injudicious enterprises." Du Pin, Palladius was a bishop, and had been a monk himself. He wrote the lives of the monks down to his own time, to A. D. 420. His book is called Historia Lausiaca; a work, says Fabricius, quod nemo leget sine summa admiratione studii incredibilis quo viri illi et feminæ tam enixe conați sunt austeritate vitre celibis et solitaria, cultu durissimo, inedia ac jejuniis vix humanis, et abstinentia ab omnibus commodis vitæ, assequi sanctimoniam. Quamquam hanc in longe aliis rebus consistere, aliis peti alique, neque in solitudines esse relegandam, et cum conjugio et societate hominum neutiquam pugnare tum sacræ literæ tum ratio sana et sanctorum hominum non solitariorum conjugumque exempla, et Monachorum atque Eremitarum peccata testantur. Bibl. Gr, ix. 5. The Greek philosophers had a particular dress, and affected to appear rough, mean, and dirty, for which they were sometimes insulted in the streets by boys, and by the populace; and the Cynics, very prudently, were armed with a staff, to defend themselves from dogs and from the rabble. The Christian monks imitated the old philosophers in their garb and appearance, and many of them seemed, in the opinion of those who loved them not, to have inherited the rags, the pride, and the contentious spirit of the former. Some of them, out of mortification, would not catch. or kill the vermin which devoured them; in which they far surpassed the Jews, who only spared them upon the Sabbath day. Qui pediculum Subbato necat, tam tam reus est, quam qui camelum Sabbato necaret: says a Rabbi. Ammon, the father of the Egyptian monks, in the days of his youth, being importuned by his relations to take a wife, married a young virgin, and on the wedding evening entertained her with a long harangue against the married state, and made her as fanatical as himself. The conclusion of which was, that they both eloped from their house, and fled to the desert, and there led a monastic life. Socrates iv. 23. We may compare this with the metamorphosis of Hippomenes and Atalanta, who on their wedding day were turned into lions: modo levia fulvæ Colla juba velant: digiti curvantur in ungues: Iram vultus habet; pro verbis murmura reddunt : Pro thalamis celebrant silvas. Ovid Met. x. However, the monks, even in the earliest times, were not all of them such wonderful examples of mor tification, as we learn from an unexceptionable witness, who was a fast friend and patron of monkery, from Athanasius. Writing to Dracontius, a monk, who had been chosen a bishop, and wanted much to decline the office, he says, When you are a bishop, you may fast and drink no wine: for we have known bishops who were fasters, and monks who were eaters; bishops who abstained from wine, and monks who drank it; bishops who wrought miracles, and monks who wrought none: many of the bishops have kept themselves even from matrimony, and monks have been the fathers of children. Epist. ad Dracont. VOL. II. B Tillemont, Tillemont, when he gives an account of this epistle, omits the passage we have cited; and Du Pin in his Bibliotheque hath inserted it. Each had his reasons. Jerom exhorts Rusticus, a monk, to live in a monastery, rather than to be an hermit in a solitary place. He sets forth the inconveniencies and bad consequences of this way of life. An hermit, says he, becomes proud, thinks himself a man of importance, forgets what he is, eats what he will, sleeps as much as he thinks fit, stands in awe of no person, is oftener rambling in the streets than at home in his cell. Not that I blame a solitary life, but I would have men first learn their spiritual exercises in 2 monastery. Du Pin. They who have judged monasteries to be hurtful or useless, yet ever approved of universities, colleges, halls, schools, public libraries, hospitals, and places set apart for the relief of the miserable, the encouragement of literature, and the education of youth. Our Chelsea-college, as they say, was designed by King James I. for polemic divines; and then, with a very small and easy alteration, it was made a receptacle of maimed and disabled soldiers. If the king's project had been put in execution, the house would probably have been an house of discord; and Peace be within thy walls, would have been a fruitless wish, and a prayer bestowed in vain upon it.Eo primum fine fundatum fuit (hoc Collegium) a Jacobo primo, ut illic Theologi alerentur, quorum officium esset, ut publice oppugnarent novas in Ecclesia haereses. Act. Erudit. MDCCIx. p. 114. The Baleares, to teach their children the use of the sling, hung up their dinner, and did not let them eat it, till they had fetched it down with a stone. In like manner, |