ruin of Italy is originally imputed,142 was extorted for the use of the conquerors. Injuries were aggravated by insults; the sense of actual sufferings was embittered by the fear of more dreadful evils; and as new lands were allotted to new swarms of barbarians, each senator was apprehensive lest the arbitrary surveyors should approach his favourite villa, or his most profitable farm. The least unfortunate were those who submitted without a murmur to the power which it was impossible to resist. Since they desired to live, they owed some gratitude to the tyrant who had spared their lives; and since he was the absolute master of their fortunes, the portion which he left must be accepted as his pure and voluntary gift.143 The distress of Italy was mitigated by the prudence and humanity of Odoacer, who had bound himself, as the price of his elevation, to satisfy the demands of a licentious and turbulent multitude. The kings of the barbarians were frequently resisted, deposed, or murdered, by their native subjects; and the various bands of Italian mercenaries, who associated under the standard of an elective general, claimed a larger privilege of freedom and rapine. A monarchy destitute of national union and hereditary right hastened to its dissolution. After a reign of fourteen years Odoacer was oppressed by the superior genius of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths; a hero alike excellent in the arts of war and of government, who restored an age of peace and prosperity, and whose name still excites and deserves the attention of mankind. 142 Verumque confitentibus, latifundia perdidere Italiam. Plin. Hist. Natur. xviii. 7 [§ 3]. 143 Such are the topics of consolation, or rather of patience, which Cicero (ad Familiares, lib. ix. Epist. 17) suggests to his friend Papirius Pætus, under the military despotism of Cæsar. The argument, however, of "vivere pulcherrimum duxi," is more forcibly addressed to a Roman philosopher, who possessed the free alternative of life or death. A.D. 251-356 THE MONASTIC LIFE. *305 CHAPTER XXXVII. ORIGIN, PROGRESS, AND EFFECTS OF THE MONASTIC LIFE. CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS TO CHRISTIANITY AND ARIANISM. PERSECUTION OF THE VANDALS IN AFRICA.-EXTINCTION OF ARIANISM AMONG THE BARBARIANS. THE indissoluble connexion of civil and ecclesiastical affairs has compelled and encouraged me to relate the progress, the persecutions, the establishment, the divisions, the final triumph, and the gradual corruption of Christianity. I have purposely delayed the consideration of two religious events interesting in the study of human nature, and important in the decline and fall of the Roman empire. I. The institution of the monastic life; and, II. The conversion of the northern barbarians. Origin of I. Prosperity and peace introduced the distinction of the vulgar and the Ascetic Christians.2 The loose and imperfect 1. THE MOpractice of religion satisfied the conscience of the multitude. NASTIC LIFE. The prince or magistrate, the soldier or merchant, reconciled the monks. their fervent zeal and implicit faith with the exercise of their profession, the pursuit of their interest, and the indulgence of their passions: but the Ascetics, who obeyed and abused the rigid precepts of the Gospel, were inspired by the savage enthusiasm which represents man as a criminal, and God as a tyrant. They seriously renounced the business and the pleasures of the age; abjured the use of wine, of flesh, and of marriage; chastised their body, mortified. their affections, and embraced a life of misery, as the price of eternal happiness. In the reign of Constantine the Ascetics fled from a profane and degenerate world to perpetual solitude or religious society. Like the first Christians of Jerusalem,3a they resigned the use or the 1 The origin of the monastic institution has been laboriously discussed by Thomassin (Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. i. p. 1419–1426) and Helyot (Hist. des Ordres Monastiques, tom. i. p. 1-66). These authors are very learned and tolerably honest, and their difference of opinion shows the subject in its full extent. Yet the cautious Protestant, who distrusts any Popish guides, may consult the seventh book of Bingham's Christian Antiquities. 2 See Euseb. Demonstrat. Evangel. (1. i. p. 20, 21, edit. Græc. Rob. Stephani, Paris, 1545). In his Ecclesiastical History, published twelve years after the Demonstration, Eusebius (1. ii. c. 17) asserts the Christianity of the Therapeuta; but he appears ignorant that a similar institution was actually revived in Egypt. 3 Cassian (Collat. xviii. 5 [Max. Bibl. Patr. t. vii. p. 208]) claims this origin for the It has before been shown that the first Christian community was not strictly cœnobitic. See vol. ii. p. 197.-M. property of their temporal possessions; established regular communities of the same sex and a similar disposition; and assumed the names of Hermits, Monks, and Anachorets, expressive of their lonely retreat in a natural or artificial desert. They soon acquired the respect of the world, which they despised; and the loudest applause was bestowed on this DIVINE PHILOSOPHY, which surpassed, without the aid of science or reason, the laborious virtues of the Grecian schools. The monks might indeed contend with the Stoics in the contempt of fortune, of pain, and of death: the Pythagorean silence and submission were revived in their servile discipline; and they disdained as firmly as the Cynics themselves all the forms and decencies of civil society. But the votaries of this Divine Philosophy aspired to imitate a purer and more perfect model. They trod in the footsteps of the prophets, who had retired to the desert; and they restored the devout and contemplative life, which had been instituted by the Essenians in Palestine and Egypt. The philosophic eye of Pliny had surveyed with astonishment a solitary people, who dwelt among the palm-trees near the Dead Sea; who subsisted without money; who were propagated without women; and who derived from the disgust and repentance of mankind a perpetual supply of voluntary associates." 5 Egypt, the fruitful parent of superstition, afforded the first example of the monastic life. Antony," an illiterate youth of the lower parts institution of the Coenobites, which gradually decayed till it was restored by Antony and his disciples. 4 Ωφελιμώτατον γάρ τι χρῆμα εἰς ἀνθρώπους ἐλθοῦσα παρὰ Θέου ἡ τοιαύτη φιλοσοφία. These are the expressive words of Sozomen, who copiously and agreeably describes (1. i. c. 12, 13, 14) the origin and progress of this monkish philosophy (see Suicer. Thesaur. Eccles. tom. ii. p. 1441). Some modern writers, Lipsius (tom. iv. p. 448; Manuduct. ad Philosoph. Stoic. iii. 13) and La Mothe le Vayer (tom. ix. de la Vertu des Payens, p. 228-262), have compared the Carmelites to the Pythagoreans, and the Cynics to the Capucins. 5 The Carmelites derive their pedigree in regular succession from the prophet Elijah (see the Theses of Beziers, A.D. 1682, in Bayle's Nouvelles de la République des Lettres, Euvres, tom. i. p. 82, &c.; and the prolix irony of the Ordres Monastiques, an anonymous work, tom. i. p. 1-433; Berlin, 1751). Rome and the inquisition of Spain silenced the profane criticism of the Jesuits of Flanders (Helyot, Hist. des Ordres Monastiques, tom. i. p. 282-300), and the statue of Elijah the Carmelite has been erected in the church of St. Peter (Voyages du P. Labat, tom. iii. p. 87). 6 Plin. Hist. Natur. v. 15. Gens sola, et in toto orbe præter ceteras mira, sine ullâ feminâ, omni venere abdicatâ, sine pecuniâ, socia palmarum. Ita per seculorum millia (incredibile dictu) gens æterna est in quâ nemo nascitur. Tam fecunda illis aliorum vitæ pœnitentia est. He places them just beyond the noxious influence of the lake, and names Engaddi and Masada as the nearest towns. The Laura and monastery of St. Sabas could not be far distant from this place. See Reland, Palestin. tom. i. p. 295; tom. ii. p. 763, 874, 880, 890. 7 See Athanas. Op. tom. ii. p. 450-505 [tom. i. p. 793-866, ed. Bened. 1698], and the Vit. Patrum, p. 26-74, with Rosweyde's Annotations. The former is the Greek original; the latter, a very ancient Latin version by Evagrius, the friend of St. Jerom. 8 гgáμpara pèv páleiv ovx nvíoxern. Athanas. tom. ii. in Vit. St. Anton, p. 452 [p. A.D. 251-356. THE MONKS OF EGYPT. 9 307 the monks A.D. 305. of Thebais, distributed his patrimony, deserted his family and native home, and executed his monastic penance with Antony and original and intrepid fanaticism. After a long and painful of Egypt, noviciate, among the tombs, and in a ruined tower, he boldly advanced into the desert three days' journey to the eastward of the Nile; discovered a lonely spot, which possessed the advantages of shade and water; and fixed his last residence on Mount Colzim, near the Red Sea, where an ancient monastery still preserves the name and memory of the saint.10 The curious devotion of the Christians pursued him to the desert; and when he was obliged to appear at Alexandria, in the face of mankind, he supported his fame with discretion and dignity. He enjoyed the friendship of Athanasius, whose doctrine he approved; and the Egyptian peasant respectfully declined a respectful invitation from the emperor Constantine. The venerable patriarch (for Antony attained the age of one hundred and five years) beheld the numerous progeny which had been formed by his example and his lessons. The prolific colonies of monks multiplied with rapid increase on the sands of Libya, upon the rocks of Thebais, and in the cities of the Nile. To the south of Alexandria, the mountain, and adjacent desert, of Nitria, was peopled by five thousand anachorets; and the traveller may still investigate the ruins of fifty monasteries, which were planted in that barren soil by the disciples of Antony. In the Upper Thebais, the vacant island of Tabenne12 was occupied by Pachomius and fourteer. hundred of his brethren. That holy abbot successively founded nine 11 A.D. 251-356. 795, ed. Bened. 1698; cf. c. 72, p. 849], and the assertion of his total ignorance has been received by many of the ancients and moderns. But Tillemont (Mém. Ecclés. tom. vii. p. 666) shows, by some probable arguments, that Antony could read and write in the Coptic, his native tongue; and that he was only a stranger to the Greek letters. The philosopher Synesius (p. 51 [ed. Par. 1612]) acknowledges that the natural genius of Antony did not require the aid of learning. 9 Arura autem erant ei trecentæ uberes, et valde optimæ (Vit. Patr. 1. v. [1. i.] p. 36). If the Arura be a square measure of an hundred Egyptian cubits (Rosweyde, Onomasticon ad Vit. Patrum, p. 1014, 1015 [p. 1009]), and the Egyptian cubit of all ages be equal to twenty-two English inches (Greaves, vol. i. p. 233), the arura will consist of about three-quarters of an English acre. 10 The description of the monastery is given by Jerom (tom. i. p. 248, 249, in Vit. Hilarion [tom. ii. p. 31, ed. Vallars.]), and the P. Sicard (Missions du Levant, tom. v. p. 122-200). Their accounts cannot always be reconciled: the father painted from his fancy, and the Jesuit from his experience. 11 Jerom, tom. i. p. 146, ad Eustochium [Ep. 22, p. 119, ed. Vall.]; Hist. Lausiac. c. 7, in Vit. Patrum, p. 712 [p. 982]. The P. Sicard (Missions du Levant, tom. ii. p. 29-79) visited and has described this desert, which now contains four monasteries, and twenty or thirty monks. See D'Anville, Description de l'Egypte, p. 74. 12 Tabenne is a small island in the Nile, in the diocese of Tentyra or Dendera, between the modern town of Girge and the ruins of ancient Thebes (D'Anville, p. 194). M. de Tillemont doubts whether it was an isle; but I may conclude, from his own facts, that the primitive name was afterwards transferred to the great monastery of Bau or Pabau (Mém. Ecclés. tom. vii. p. 678, 688). monasteries of men, and one of women; and the festival of Easter sometimes collected fifty thousand religious persons, who followed his angelic rule of discipline.13 The stately and populous city of Oxyrinchus, the seat of Christian orthodoxy, had devoted the temples, the public edifices, and even the ramparts, to pious and charitable uses; and the bishop, who might preach in twelve churches, computed ten thousand females, and twenty thousand males, of the monastic profession.14 The Egyptians, who gloried in this marvellous revolution, were disposed to hope, and to believe, that the number of the monks was equal to the remainder of the people; 15 and posterity might repeat the saying which had formerly been applied to the sacred animals of the same country, that in Egypt it was less difficult to find a god than a man. Propagation of the monastic A.D. 341. Athanasius introduced into Rome the knowledge and practice of the monastic life; and a school of this new philosophy was opened by the disciples of Antony, who accompanied their life at Rome, primate to the holy threshold of the Vatican. The strange and savage appearance of these Egyptians excited, at first, horror and contempt, and, at length, applause and zealous imitation. The senators, and more especially the matrons, transformed their palaces and villas into religious houses; and the narrow institution of six Vestals was eclipsed by the frequent monasteries, which were seated on the ruins of ancient temples, and in the midst of the Roman • Hilarion in Palestine, A.D. 328. forum.16 Inflamed by the example of Antony, a Syrian youth, whose name was Hilarion,17 fixed his dreary abode on a sandy beach between the sea and a morass, about seven miles from Gaza. The austere penance, in which he persisted forty-eight years, diffused a similar enthusiasm; and the holy man was followed by a train of two or three thousand anachorets, whenever he visited the innumerable monasteries of Palestine. Basil in The fame of Basil18 is immortal in the monastic 13 See in the Codex Regularum (published by Lucas Holstenius, Rome, 1661) a preface of St. Jerom to his Latin version of the Rule of Pachomius, tom. i. p. 61 [tom. p. 25, ed. Augsb. 1759]. i. 14 Rufin. c. 5, in Vit. Patrum, p. 459. He calls it civitas ampla valde et populosa, and reckons twelve churches. Strabo (1. xvii. p. 1166 [p. 812, ed. Casaub.]) and Ammianus (xxii. 16) have made honourable mention of Oxyrinchus, whose inhabitants adored a small fish in a magnificent temple. 15 Quanti populi habentur in urbibus, tantæ pene habentur in desertis multitudines monachorum. Rufin. c. 7, in Vit. Patrum, p. 461. He congratulates the fortunate change. 16 The introduction of the monastic life into Rome and Italy is occasionally mentioned by Jerom, tom. i. p. 119, 120, 199. 17 See the Life of Hilarion, by St. Jerom (tom. i. p. 241, 252 [tom. ii. p. 15, 24, ed. Vall.]). The stories of Paul, Hilarion, and Malchus, by the same author, are admirably told; and the only defect of these pleasing compositions is the want of truth and common sense. 1 His original retreat was in a small village on the banks of the Iris, not far from |