THE
FATHERS OF TIE DESERT;
OR, AN ACCOUNT OF
THE ORIGIN AND PRACTICE OF MONKERY
AMONG HEATHEN NATIONS;
ITS PASSAGE INTO THE CHURCH; AND SOME WONDERFUL
STORIES OF THE FATHERS CONCERNING THE
PRIMITIVE MONKS AND HERMITS.
BY HENRY RUFFNER,
LATE PRESIDENT OF WASHINGTON COLLEGE, VIRGINIA.
VOLUME I.
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY BAKER AND SCRIBNER,
145 NASSAU ST. AND 36 PARK ROW,
1850.




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by
BAKER  AND  SCRIBNER,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern
District ot New York.
C. W. BENEDICT,
Stereotyper,
201 William st, N. Y.




PREFACE.
THE author was led to compose this work, first by reading in
the Christian Fathers of the 4th and 5th centuries, some strangely
romantic legends of the hermits and founders of monastic societies
in their days;-and secondly, by discovering a remarkable resemblance between Christian monachism, and that which has existed
from very ancient times among the Hindoos and the Boodhists of
Eastern Asia.
The fact of this resemblance struck him as so curious and so
interesting, that he determined to investigate it, and see whether
he could trace out any connection between religious institutions so
remote in place, yet so much alike in form and in spirit. He
found that the same principles of religious philosophy, led to the
same unnatural practices, among idolators before our Saviour's
time, and among Christians in the 4th century. How came these
heathenish principles into the Church?-That was the next question. The author has attempted to trace them from their source
in the distant East, through Egypt, Chaldea and Persia, into
Western Asia and Greece.  Thus they got first among the Jews,
and finally into the Church, where they produced all the extravagances of monkery, and other kindred errors and superstitions.
The first part of the work is taken up with a brief and plain
account of the religious principles of the Hindoos, the Boodhists,
and other Eastern nations, and-so far as they existed-of the
penances and monkery that grew out of these principles.  The




iv                        PREFACE.
reader, if he has not heretofore informed himself on these matters, will here meet with some curious and amusing facts, and in a
religious point of view, instructive also.
Some following chapters give a simple and intelligible sketch of
those principles of the Grecian and Jewish philosophies which
were derived from Eastern Asia,-the monastic sects of the Jews,
— the gradual rise of asceticism in the Church, until it ripened into
monkery, under the influence of those principles of philosophy
which came from Eastern Asia.
The second part of the work consists mainly of legends and
anecdotes translated from the Fathers, giving a lively portraiture
of the religion of those times, and a strangely romantic view of
the  wonder-working  saints of the  4th  and  5th  centuries.
Strangely romantic their stories are, whether we consider what is
true, or what is evidently fictitious, in the accounts which the
Fathers give of them.
The author has bestowed much labor and research on the work
which he now presents to the American public.  He has endeavored to make it amusing as well as instructive.  He has therefore
avoided dry and tedious dissertations; he has mingled story and
anecdote with solid matter, and brought before the American
reader in a connected view, what he found scattered in many
books, chiefly in foreign languages. As no writer in our language
has occupied this field of religious literature, he hopes that the
unlearned reader will find in these Monkiana much that is new to
him; and if it be not also interesting and instructive, the fault
must be in the author's mode of presenting it, rather than in
the subject matter of the book.
HENRY RUFFNER,
Virginia, May, 1850.




CONTENTS OF VOL. I,
CHAPTER  I,
iAMES DEFINED, WITH A GLIMPSE OF EARLY MONACHISM IN THE CHURCHI
Page
What is a Monk — Asceticism among early Christians. —The Hermits.
Their principles —Were Anthropomorphists.-Their notions of Demons.-Their manner of life.-Origin of associations of Monks.St. Pachonius and St. Basil. —Monasteries.-Their Rulers.-Ceno.
bites, Anchorites and Sarabaites.-Orders of Monks in later times.
— The Workers and the Mendicants,-their vows, and their wealth
and laziness.-Convents and Nunneries.-The name Nun —Concubinage.-Demons and Demoniacs.-Exorcism.-Dates of the rise
and progress of Monachism,..  
CHAPTER II,
OF MONACHISM AMONG THE HINDOOS.
~1. General Principles of the Hindoo Religion.
Origin of Monachism.-The Vedas and other holy books.-Hindoo
Theology; Brahm and the Trimurte.-Metempsychosis.-All souls
defiled by matter.
~2. Hindoo Doctrine of Penances.
Laws of Menu.-Degrees of sanctity.-The Yogi and the Sannyasi.Hindoo castes.-The Brahmins.-The four degrees of Saintship. —
Fasting.-The Sannyasi.-Story of the Indian Prince.-The Shradhu, a ceremony for the dead.-Atonements.
~3. Doctrine of Fzuture Judgment, Heaven and Ifell.
Journeys of the Righteous and the Wicked to the Judgment Seat. —
Yumu, the Judge.-Degrees of Future Happiness.-Absorption into
Deity.-Crimes of some Ascetics.-Future Punishments.-Geneal
Principles of Hindooisnm




vi                           CONTENTS.
Page
~4. Practices of Hindoo Devotees.
Strabo's Account.-Other Ancient Accounts.-Accounts of Modern
Travelers.-The various strange Exercises of the Devotees,.. 19
CHAPTER  III.
OF MONACHISMI AMONG THE BOODHISTS.
~1. Origin of Boodhism.
Traditions concerning Boodh. —Ward's Account.-The Burman Legend.-The Account in the Puranahs.
~2. Doctrines of Boodhism.
Of a First Cause.-Metempsychosis.-Absorption.-Boodh and his
Relics.-Differences between Boodhism and Brahminism.-Boodhist
Monachism.-The Moral Law  of Boodh.-The Priesthood.-A
Fundamental Principle.
~3. Monachism in Burmah, Siam, and Cochin-China.
Ceylon.-Rhangoon.-The Talapoins of Siam.-Cochin-China; Borri's Account.-Resemblance to Romanism.-Tonquin.
~4. Monachism among the Lamaists of Thibet.
Prevalence of Monachism.-Superstitions.-Resemblance to Romanism.-Theory of the Jesuits to account for it.-Malte Brun's and
Carl Ritter's opinions.-Refutation of the Theory.-Nestorian and
Boodhist Missions in Central Asia and Cathay.-Reports of Rubruquis and Marco Polo.-Prester John.
~5. Monachism in China and Korea.
Chinese Boodhists.-Nieuhoff's Account.-Hamel's account of the
Korean Monks.
~6. Monachism in Tapan.
The Spiritual Sovereign of Japan.-Resemblance to Popery.-The
Sentoists,-their Monachism.-The Mountain Hermits, and their
mode of Confessing Penitents.-The Boodhists of Japan.-The Tolerance of the Japanese Government, till the Jesuits meddled with
Politics and were expelled.-Moral Law.-Doctrine of Purgatory.Service for the Dead.-Monasteries. —emples and Worship.-Bonzes.-Hated and Calumniated by the Jesuit Missionaries.-St. Francis Xavier,...  i52




CONTENTS.                           vii
CHAPTER IV.
MONACHISM AMONG THE MAHOMETANS.
Page
Niebuhr's Account.-Other Accounts.-Religious Orders of the Turks, 102
CHAPTER V.
SKETCH OF THE RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHIES OF ANCIENT PERSIA, CHALDEA
AND EGYPT.
Antiquity of the Oriental Religious Philosophy.-The Westward
Movement of this Philosophy.-The object of this and some following chapters is to trace the course of this Philosophy into the
Church.-1. The Persian Philosophy briefly noticed,-its Dualism,its General Principles.-2. The Chaldean Philosophy,-its Leading
Principles.-The Chaldean Magii and Astronomy.-3. Religious
Philosophy of Ancient Egypt,-its Fundamental Agreement with the
Hindoo System.-Its Theology.-Principle of Emanation.-Demons.
-Metempsychosis,-why the System did not produce Monkery.The Druids believed in Metempsychosis,.... 119
CHAPTER VI.
ASCETIC PHILOSOPHY OF THE GREEKS.
~1. Orpheus and his Philosophy.-Imperfectly known.-His doctrines
of Oriental Origin.
~2. Pythagoras and his Philosophy.-He traveled in the East.-His
Principles Oriental.-His Doctrines,-Ascetic Principles.-Esoteric
School.-The Influence of his Philosophy in Greece.
EMPEDOCLES, A PYTHAGOREAN.
~3. The Stoical Philosophy,-its Fundamental principles.
~4. Plato and his Philosophy.
Its Extensive Influence.-Plato studied the Egyptian Philosophy.-His
Doctrines;-God, Ideas and Matter.-Things Sensible and Intelligible.-Matter, its Primary State.-The Demiurge and Logos.Gods and Demons.-The Mundane Soul.-The Soul of Man, its
Threefold Nature.-The Rational Soul,-how Purified.-Metempsychosis.-The Four Cardinal Virtues.-Plato Borrowed from Pythagoras and the Orientals,.....129




Viii                         CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
PLATONISM OF PHILO THE JEW.
Page
City of Alexandria-Its University and Library.-The Alexandrian
Jews.-The Greek Septuagint.-Philo, an Alexandrian Jew, a Platonist.-Allegorized the Books of Moses.-Philo's Writings.-His
Doctrines,-of God and His Chief Powers.-The Logos.-Angels
and Demons.-The Human Soul.-The Human Body.-Virtue.Ascetism.-The Contemplative Life.-Specimen of his Allegorical
Interpretations,....... 144
CHAPTER VIII.
PHILOSOPHY AND MONACHISM OF THE JEWS.
The Jews had no Philosophy, till after the Babylonish Captivity.-Got
some ideas of Chaldean and Persian Philosophy in Babylon; and began to learn Platonism in Alexandria.-Book of Wisdom contains
Platonic Doctrines.-The Jewish Sects.-The Pharisees.-The Essenes, a Sect of Jewish Monks, described.-The Therapeutes of
Egypt, another Monkish Sect, described.-They differed from the
Essenes.-Were not Christians, as Eusebius pretended.-Origin of
Jewish Monachism,...... 167
CHAPTER IX.
THE LATER JEWISH AND GENTILE PHILOSOPHY.
~1. Jewish Cabalistic Philosophy.-Specimen of Rabbinical Philosophy.
-The earlier Cabbula was merely the Oral Law.-The later Cabalistical Philosophy,-its Principles.-Its affinity with the Gnostic
Doctrines.
~2. The Later Pythagoreans.-Maxims of their Philosophy.
~3. The Eclectics and Newa Platonists.-Originated in Alexandria, A.D.
200.-Their Principal Teachers.-Their Doctrines,-of God-Celestial Beings-Apparitions-Theurgy-The Soul and the BodyAscetical Purification of the Soul.-Remarks on this Philosophy,. 174
CHAPTER X.
IS MONACHISM A SCRIPTURAL INSTITUTION 
The Capuchin Bouldau.-Cardinal Bellarmine defends the Scriptural




CONTENTS.                             ix
Page
Origin of Monkery.-Old Testament Example not Admissible. —
Bellarmines Arguments Stated and Answered,..        189
CHAPTER XI.
ASCETICISM AMONG CHRISTIANS OF THE EARLY AGES.
Tendency to Asceticism in the Apostolic Age.-St. Paul forewarns
Christians against it.-Notions concerning Virginity, Fasting and
Prayer.-Growth of Ascetic Principles and Practices.-Influence of
Platonism  on Christianity.-Renunciation of Worldly Goods and
Pleasures.-Platonizing Fathers.-Growth of Superstition.-Ascetics begin to withdraw into Solitude.-Persecution hastens the development of Monachism.-Fear of Demons and Worldly Enjoyments, drove the Monks to excessive Self-Mortification,.. 197
CHAPTER XII.
SCATTERED NOTICES CONCERNING VIRGINITY, ASCETICISM, &C., COLLECTED
FROM THE EARLY FATHERS.
1st Century.-Hermas, Clement and Ignatius, concerning Fasts, Virginity, &c.
2nd Century.-Tustin Martyr, concerning Angels, Demons, and Religious Virgins.-Tatian, concerning Virgins and Marriage.-The Gnostics.-Extract from Neander.-Irenaeus.-His allusion to the Marcionite Monks.-Athenagoras, on Virginity and Monogamy.-Theophilus, ditto.-Epistle to Diognetus, on the contest between Soul and
Body. — Clement of Alexandria, on Asceticism, Marriage and Virginity.
3rd Century.-Origen.-A  passage on Virginity, Monogamy and
"Useful Deceptions," Pious Frauds, Ascetics.-Apostolical Canons.-A  Canon on Asceticism.-Excessive Fasting.-Dionysius.His Letter to the Gnossians on Virginity.-Answer of their Bishop
Pynitus.-Tertullian.-His Character and Principles.-Exalts Virginity.-Ascribes Heathen Chastity to the Devil.-Jerome's Account
of Heathen Virginity.-Tertullian on Ascetic Mortifications.-His invective against his Admired Virgins.-Cyprian.-His Praise of the
Sacred Virgins.-His Censures of their Levity, Vanity, and Unchastity.-Some of them Caught Sleeping with Men.
4th Century.-St. Basil on Virgins Living with Unmarried Clergymen.-St. Jerome.-His Sojourn in the Desert.-On the Ruin of




X                             CONTENTS.
Page
Religious Virgins,-their Vanity, and their Practice of Cohabiting
with Unmarried Clergymen and Laymen.-Sulpicius Severus, on
the same Practices in Gaul.-St. Jugustine accuses Religious Virgins of going about Tattling, and of getting drunk,...    208
CHAPTER XIII.
EGYPT.
The Deserts, the Nile, and the Character of the Ancient Inhabitants, 239
CHAPTER XIV.
LIFE OF ST. ANTONY THE MONiK; from the Greek of St. Athanasius.
1. Preface.-2. Youth of St. Antony.-3. He begins an Ascetic Course
of Life.-4. His first Contest with the Devil.-5. Prepares for a
Second.-6. Severely Beaten by the Devil.-7. What a hubbub the
Devil raised against him in the Sepulcher.-8. His Hermit-Life in a
Ruined Castle.-9. Comes forth a Miracle-Worker.-10-12. His
Sermon about the Ascetic Life and the Demons.-13. His Boldness
in the Persecution, his Miracles, and the Crowds that frequented his
Monastery.-14, Retreats far into the Desert; Plagued by Demons.
-15. More Miracles and some good Advice.-16. Miracles! Miracles!-17. His Wonderful Vision about the Passage of Souls.-18.
Taken to Alexandria to Oppose the Arians.-19. How he Outwitted
the Philosophers.-20. Sundry Matters.-21. Antony's Death.-Remarks on his Character,..... 247




CHAPTER I.
NAMES DEFINED, WITH A GLIMPSE OF EARLY MONACHISM  IN
THE CHURCH.
THE Church had been planted more than 200 years before it
produced that moral prodigy-a monk.  Idolatrous heathenism
had generated this strange form of religious enthusiasm, many
ages earlier. Corrupted Judaism had taken of the Gentile seed
and planted it in the congenial soil about the Dead Sea and in
the fiery sands of Egypt, where it was found growing by Christianity, but for a long time despised and rejected. At last, however,
Christianity herself became sufficiently impregnated with heathenish superstition and philosophy, to bear in her own bosom a
variegated brood of monks, who strongly resembled their cousins
of the elder stock among the idolatrous Gentiles of the East.
But, what is a Monk?-According to the primitive idea and
the proper sense of his Greek name, Monachos, he is a man who
leads a solitary life,-who separates himself from  human society
that he may devote himself to sanctifying exercises.  He has
renounced all wordly pursuits, property and pleasure.  He exercises himself continually in chastity, fasting, watching, prayer,
and combats with evil spirits.  He macerates his body with
hunger and exposure to the elements. He mortifies to the qtmost
all the desires of his corporeal nature: he denies himself all the
pleasures of the earth, and makes a purgatory of the world, that
he may gain the paradise of heaven.  Such is the primitive iSde
1




2                         CHAPTER I.
of a monk. But the modern monk varies from the primitive
pattern.  We shall see presently how  this variation came to
pass.
A moral discipline founded on principles similar to those of
monkery, was in use among the Greek philosophers before the
birth of Christ.  They called it Askesis or Exercise.  Some
Jewish sects adopted it before the Christian era.  They who
practiced this discipline were called in the Greek language Ascetics,
that is, Exercisers.
The Ascetics, though they proceeded in the way of the monks,
did not always nor necessarily go so far.  Their system  of
Ascetism was generally a defective sort of MVonachism.  It contained the germ which by unfolding grew into monachism. But
Ascetism, although it was innoculated into Christianity even in the
first century, did not expand into monachism until the latter part
of the third century.
As Grecian Ascetism originated with the philosophers, and was
in earlier times practiced by them and their disciples almost exclusively, so they who exercised themselves according to the strict
rules of the philosophers, were said to philosophize, and every
system of ascetism was called philosophy. The Christian Fathers
of the fourth and fifth centuries applied the same terms to the
monachism of their days: he who practiced it was said to philosophize, and the system of its doctrines and rules was dignified
with the name of philosophy.
When the Christian life began to vary from  the simple purity
and social benevolence of the gospel, it first took the form of
ascetism,-a mild ascetism, which it pushed gradually into monachism, by augmenting the severity of its exercises, and then fleeing
from the face of human society into deep, and yet deeper and
drearier solitudes. At first the ascetics merely avoided promiscuous company, and spent much of their time in private devotion.
But then a private room in the house sufficed, or a secluded place
in the neighborhood gave them the requisite secrecy for meditation and prayer. But habits of seclusion, like other habits, would




EARLY MONACHISM IN THE CHURCH.                   3
naturally grow upon devout minds, that preferred the secret to
the social exercises of religion. As every thing mysterious in religion makes a strong impression upon common minds, especially in
a superstitious age, so the very obscurity in which the ascetic involved himself and his devout exercises, invested his character
with a sort of awful sanctity in the eyes of the multitude, and
made many esteem this manner of life peculiarly holy and sanctifying.  Therefore many would be inclined to embrace it, and
the tendency would be to carry out its principles to perfection.
Then too the bloody persecutions of the third century drove multitudes of Christians into the deserts for safety. The ascetics,
and those who were ascetically inclined, found the solitary life
agree so well with their notions of spiritual perfection, and become
by use so congenial to their feelings, that the return of peace to
the church could not recall them to their homes and friends again.
Many remained of choice in the deep solitudes to which necessity
had driven them at first. Thus monachism began.
The term Monachism signifies the manner of life peculiar to
monks, and so does the term monkery; which is however a disrespectful appellation, and has reference to the superstitions and
follies of the monks.
Because the first Christian monks retired to uninhabited places,
and especially to the deserts of Egypt,-they were called Eremites
or Hermits, that is, Men of the Desert. In modern times a hermit
is a monk in the original sense of the term, that is, a recluse or
solitary man, in  distinction from  the monks generally, who
since the fifth century have lived in societies of their own
profession.
At first every monk sought to be what the name imports, a
dweller in solitude.  He shunned the company of mankind, even
of his wife and children, if he had a family,-even of his fellow
monks in the lonely wastes.  Of these holy recluses like himself,
he might tolerate occasional visits; but he shunned all habitual
companionship with human occupants of mortal clay.  By him
the face of a fellow man was not regarded as the " human face




4                         CHAPTER I.
divine;" it was a thing of vile flesh and blood, a symbol of base
animality, of sinful carnality, of decaying mortality. The human
voice made no music in his ears; it was formed by organs of dust
in the atmosphere of the earth; its melodies were dangerous to
the soul because they gave it a carnal pleasure. He despised and
hated his body, as the seat of appetites and of senses, which defiled the soul whenever they afforded it a sensible gratification.
He felt bound therefore, to war against them, and to sanctify the
soul by inflicting on his vile, sinful body all sorts of indignities and
mortifications.
Yet, with a strange inconsistency, most of the early monks of
Christendom  were anthropomorphists.  They believed that the
infinite God had the bodily form and members of a man.* With
a wonderful degree of ignorance and irrationality, they took in a
literal sense those Scripture phrases. which speak figuratively of
God as having organs and members like ourselves.  A well-instructed child of seven years old has sufficient intelligence to understand such phrases aright.  But the monks took everything
in a literal sense, which they read or heard in the Scriptures; and
this ignorant simplicity of theirs was the ground-work of their
monachism.
They conceived also that angels and demons had bodies of a
fine, elastic material, which these spiritual beings could expand,
contract, metamorphose, and render visible or invisible to human
eyes, just as they pleased. They imagined that these heavenborn spirits could lust after earthly things; and had so much of
the grossness of human nature, as to prove dangerous sometimes
to the flesh and bones of men, and even to the chastity of women.
These silly notions about angels and demons were not peculiar to
the monks, however; learned Fathers of the Church, and even
reasoning philosophers, entertained fancies of the same sort; and
there yet' lurks even in the Protestant mind a remnant of these
old superstitions.
Most of the monks-especially if they were monks of noteF See Sozomen~s Ecclesiastical History, Book viii. chap. 11.




EARLY MONACHISM IN THE CHURCH.                  5
thought it necessary to let a servant or friend,-who was always
an admirer and reporter of their sanctity and their miracles,approach them once in a while with a supply of indispensable
food for their contemptible bodies. But some considered this
custom an imperfection that called for amendment.  The solitude
of such monks had a flaw in it; and the bread which they received, though it might be like a stone, was yet made by art and
man's device, and had about it the look, if not the savor, of
human comfort. Therefore these scrupulous brethren would have
no such thing.  Aiming at a perfection as nearly angelical as
could be attained whilst they had any remnant of flesh and blood,
they made themselves superior to vulgar humanity by going stark
naked, and feeding-when they must feed or die-upon the raw
plants which they happened to find in the desert. They thought,
and others thought also, that it was a miraculous token of divine
favor, when their bare bodies grew all hairy like the wild beasts
of the same desert. Having thus made wild beasts of themselves,
they had no objection to the company of bestial hermits like
themselves-lions, hyenas, and wolves.  We read of their associating occasionally with these, which they seemed to prefer to
the wild goats and wild asses that roamed through the same vast
solitudes.  But they had no particular aversion to any sort of
beasts.  What they dreaded was the sight of men-and above
all, of women, whom they esteemed more dangerous than lions,
or serpents, or the devil himself.
One reason why these saintly savages preferred beasts of prey
to others of gentler kind, was probably because the ravenous
eaters of flesh became very meek and pious, and learned to eat
raw vegetables, like good monks, when they associated with one
of these hairy men of God: and one reason-but not the only
one-why they shunned human society, was,'that it spoiled their
conversation with heaven and' made the angels, shy.  These
heavenly messengers would not visit them familiarly —(I speak as
a monk)-until they had weaned themselves thoroughly from all
human attachments and human society, and had renounced every



6                         CHAPTER I.
thing in the world that was grateful to the natural feelings of
man.
Let not the reader suppose that we are drawing an imaginary
picture of enthusiasm run mad.  We delineate the very image
of the saintship most in vogue and most admired in the fourth
and fifth centuries of the Church's history-those pattern centuries of a perfect Christianity in the estimation of Puseyites and
other pretended Protestants, in whom the old leaven of Popish
superstition is yet fermenting.  We draw our sketch from  the
writings of the revered Fathers of those centuries, whose admiration of this monkish saintship knew no bounds, and whose graphic
descriptions and high praises of it will appear in the following
documents which we have translated from  their works.  This is
the sort of sanctity which was believed to confer miraculous
power, and to entitle the practitioner to the very highest place
in the kingdom of heaven. Of its ten thousand wonderful doings
on the earth, in those days, the reader will find many recorded
as indubitable facts in the documents just alluded to.  If he can
believe the tenth part of them, his faith must be founded upon
the presumed infallibility of the holy Fathers, who recorded them
for the edification of believers.
We said before that some of the hermits retained so much of
the dregs of humanity, as to have settled abodes and to eat bread.
These were obliged in the course of years to relax somewhat of
their exclusiveness.  The fame of their extraordinary fastings,
prayers, psalm-sayings,* and combats with the devil and his
legions away out in the deserts, soon spread through half the
villages and cities of Christendom.  Admiring multitudes, especially from the populous valley of the Nile, were soon attracted
to their places of exercise, eager to behold such spiritual heroes,
and to enlist in the holy war under their victorious banners. In
vain did they refuse admittance to those who beset their doors,
and watched day and night about their hiding places.  In vain
* We had written it psalm-singings; but the low monotony of their solitary repetitions did not amount to sing-song.




EARLY MONACHISM IN THE CHURCH.                 7
did they fly from  one solitude to another; in vain, attempt to
conceal themselves in the most dreary wastes, in the most secret
dens of the most desolate mountains, or the obscurest retreats of
distant islands: still their secret found vent;-the faithless
companion or two that waited on them  in their wanderings, or
the silly demons that infested them  everywhere,-would blab,
and draw an admiring crowd of candidates for discipleship around
them.
Overcome at last by such persevering importunity-now when
their fame was at its height and wondering curiosity at its utmost
stretch-they yielded finally to what seemed to be the will of
heaven, or to the express command of an angel;-they emerged
from their caves, or whatever else had concealed them from human
eyes;-vouchsafed to take charge of their waiting followers, and
to instruct them in the mysteries of their wonderful sanctity. In
such way it was that St. Antony, St. Pachomius, St. Hilarion,
and other fathers of monachism, first came to establish schools of
associated monks. At first however, the disciples were not congregated in one building. This would have been too great a departure, all at once, from first principles,-solitude being the
essence of primitive monachism.  Neither had Antony's monks
and others like them, any formal vows or written regulations.
Those of the same school only lived so near to one another in
separate cells, that they could assemble once in a while in the
open air, to hear the instructions of their holy father, and perhaps to join in some act of devotion.  Then every man to his
cell again, and to his solitary exercises, apart from every other.
Solitude was still the general rule: social meetings were the exception, and that restricted to the utmost: no conversation, no,
not a word nor even a look,-not even so much as " how do
you do, brother."
The next step was to organize these fraternities under an
established system  of rules.  This was done first in the Upper
Thebaid (the uppermost province of Egypt), by St. Pachomius.
So important a change in the primitive system  of monachism




8                         CHAPTER I.
could not be effected without divine interposition. An angel appeared to the saint, who had now attained a high degree of
sanctity,-handed him a board with a system  of rules engraven
on it, and ordered him to organize monastic associations under
that system.  This occurred some years after Antony had taken
charge of the first school of monks in the Lower Thebaid. Other
experienced masters soon founded other schools and associations
in other parts of the country, chiefly on the loose plan of the
great St. Antony, who, of all the fathers of monachism, retained
most of the original solitary principle.  But the angelic system of
Pachomius ultimately prevailed in Egypt, and was adopted with
improvements in other countries.  It allowed three monks to
occupy each separate cell; but forbade conversation, and made
them hide their faces from each other by veiling them with a sort
of hood.
Not many years later, Saint Basil the Great, in Asia Minor
near the Black Sea, first established monasteries in the modern
sense of the term.
At first every single monk's place of exercise was his monastery,
were it den, hut, hole in the ground, or old ruined house. Antony made his disciples build their monastic cells so far apart, that
one could not hear another at his exercise.  But as Basil's monks
lived in a rather cold climate, the founder had them congregated
in rather large buildings, with adjoining cells like a modern monastery; though each brother's cell was still his private monastery,
in which he spent the most of his time.  In Antony's schools,
each monk did his little eating and drinking in his own cell, and
provided for himself according to the primitive plan. Pachomius,
as we have said, clubbed his monks.  Each club had a common
table in their cell, but then they were to be mute at table, and
each to have his hood so drawn over his eyes that he could see
his food, but not his fellow's face. Eating was a base affair at
best; to season their mean, scanty meal with friendly looks and
words, would have made it a social pleasure-the very thing that
a true monk should abominate.  But St. Basil's monasteries had




EARLY MONACHISM IN THE CHURCH. 
not only a chapel for social worship, but a refectory for social
meals, at which all sat down together. But to correct the evil
tendency of this sociability, all had during the simple meal to give
mute attention to something sacred, that was spoken or read in
their hearing; and while their ears were occupied with the edifying sounds, their eyes were to be bent upon the table where their
food lay.
In Palestine, and thereabouts, there was in those times a peculiar sort of monastic establishment called Laura, which consisted
of a central church or chapel, surrounded at some distance by a
circle of monastic cells, standing separate, and each occupied by a
monk.  This arrangement was designed to unite the original solitary system with periodical assemblages for instruction and worship.
The head of a monastic society was called Abbot, which is the
Syriac word for father. But as this was a title of respect often
given to private monks of advanced age, the head of a society in
Egypt came to be called David; and the common Father or head
of many societies, was called Archimandrite, that is, the chief of a
mandra, or sheepfold, as the term signifies. In the western countries of Europe, where Latin was spoken, the head of a monastery
was often called Prior, though the building might be called either
Abbey or Priory.*
The primitive hermits and founders of Christian monachism,
were in after times distinguished as The Fathers of the Desert.
Many of the primitive monks did not approve of the social
system of mona'chism, even in its most restricted form. They
regarded it as a corruption of the perfect way of holiness. Though
solitude might still prevail over society in the ratio a hundred to
one, still there was something of society, and that of the worst
kind-human society; and thereby something in the likeness of
worldly comfort, which was not to be endured by a holy man.
Many, therefore, adhered to the primitive pattern; they hid
* See for the signification of these several terms Du Fresne's Glossary, and
Fosbroke's British Monachism.
1*




10                       CHAPTER I.
themselves in deep solitudes, and rejected all society except that
of beasts, which was innocent; of demons, which was unavoidable;
and of angels, which was unattainable until they had divested
themselves of all earth-born humanity.
Now as monachism branched off into diversity, new names had
to distinguish the several classes of monks. Those who lived in
communities under an abbot, were called Cenobites, from their
living together in common; the solitaries were called Anchorites
from their living apart, each one to himself. Between these two
was a third class called Sarabaites, who lived two or three together in a cell, but apart from all other society. Their plan was
generally disapproved by the Fathers of the Church, because
there was less absolute solitude than among the Cenobites, and
no rule or government.
There was still a fourth class who arose after monkery had
gotten into general repute as the most perfect way of life, and
the profession itself, independently of the moral character of the
professors, began to be esteemed a holy thing. This, the least
respectable class, were called Gyrovagi or Vagrants. They took
up the trade of saintship as an easy way of living at the expense
of others.  They went about from  monastery to monastery, and
from house to house in the garb of monks, seeking hospitable entertainment, and like stray dogs, staying longest where they were
best fed.  Beggary and occasional robbery among those vulgar
and unholy beings, the married working people of the world,
afforded them supplies, often of better quality than the meagre
food of the monasteries.  They resembled the vagrant Fakirs
of India and the vagrant Santons of Turkey.
Occasionally the Cenobite monks would become troubled in
spirit, lest even the' silent and joyless company of their fellowmonks at table and in church should defile them. Then they
would get leave of their abbot to retire from the monastery
into the neighboring deserts, where, in perfect solitude and extreme destitution, they would labor and watch and pray for months
or years, to expiate the sin oftheir poor enjoyments in the flesh.




EARLY MONACHISAI IN THE CHURCH.              11
In process of time the Cenobites came to be distinguished into
different orders, as new founders would arise and establish what
they conceived to be more perfect rules of the monastic life.
The orders were named sometimes after their founders, as the
Benedictines from  Saint Benedict, the Dominicans from Saint
Dominic; and sometimes the name had reference to some place
or some peculiarity of dress, as the Carmelites and the Capuchins.
These orders were distinguished externally, as they still are,
by the color and fashion of their costume: but their chief distinction was that between the working orders and the mendicants
or beggars. The primitive hermits and the Cenobites generally,
for a long time, professed to depend on their own labor for support.  The Egyptian and Syrian monks employed their hands in
weaving baskets and mats out of the palm leaves and rushes of
the desert, whilst they occupied their minds with prayers and
meditations, and sometimes their vocal organs with psalmodian
dronings.  It was partly the fear of the devil that kept them so
piously busy; for they judged rightly, that whilst their hands
were occupied with good works and their minds with holy exercises, the omnipresent and ever-watchful fiend could not find a
single point of their spiritual fortress unguarded, nor a single
cranny or loophole where the smallest of his imps might creep
in.  But these worthy hermits considered manual labor as a
matter of religious duty also, according to the apostolical
maxim, If any man will not work, neither should he eat.
When we say that the good old superstitious hermits labored
so worthily for their bread, we mean of course to except those
savage perfectionists who went naked and ate grass, and those
lazy parasites who went in monk's clothing from place to place,
feeding upon the product of other men's labors.  With these
exceptions all the monks for centuries-C (enobites as well as
Anchorites-held like honest men and good Christians, that saintship did not exempt a man from  the obligation of supporting
himself by his own industry. The Cenobites of those best ages of




12                       CHAPTER 1t
monkery, such as the Tabennians of Pachomius, the Basiliang of
Basil, and the Benedictines of Benedict, all adhered to this principle; and where the inmates of a monastery had a community of
goods, as all the later orders of Cenobites had, there each brother
was bound by rule to do his share of labor for the benefit of the
community.
But in later times St, Dominic and St. Francis founded their
orders upon a different principle. They considered productive
industry as a worldly thing, and inconsistent with perfect saintship.  They made it a rule, therefore, that no friar or brother of
their orders, should defile himself with any sort of manual occupation: they were to devote themselves wholly to what was called
the work of God,-such  as fasting, praying, psalm-singing,
preaching and begging, They built their monasteries in or near
cities for the convenience of preaching, and of levying contributions on the wealthy and the industrious, by begging in the name
of God and Saint Mary from  door to door.  Being esteemed the
holiest of the holy, they were abundantly supplied by the pious;
nor were the wicked less liberal when their consciences troubled
them; for they were made to believe that giving to the monks
was the surest way of purchasing the favor of heaven.
o easy a way of gaining spiritual honor and corporeal comforts'
could not fail to attract many followers.  Beggar-monks soon
swarmed like summer flies in every Roman Catholic country,
Thousands of them  were continually gaing about as beggars,
preachers, pardoners, and traders in saints' relics, in which they
drove a very large and a very lucrative business,
All the monks of later times, both workers and beggars, were
under a solemn vow of poverty; which meant originally that they
were to have no property, except a daily supply of necessaries for
their daily wants.  But it came to mean, that while the individual
members could have no private property, the order or community
might have any quantity of any sort of wealth.  Thus the vow of
poverty did not prevent the members from making interest in all
possible ways for their monasteries. So well did they ply the




VARLY MONACHISM IN THE CHURtC.                 13
conlScenCes of the stperstitious —and all were superstitious. during
the Middle Ages when monkery reigned-that the poor and the
rich, the righteous and the wicked, all contributed to the lands
and chattels of the monasteries, until the most of them became
immensely wealthy.  Then the brethren had ho need to work or
to beg any more;  They could be as fat and as lazy as they
pleased upon the princely revenues of their monasteries.  And
fat and lazy did the greater part of them  become, and luxurious
and profligate withal. Hospitable they were to strangers, and
charitable, as they could well afford to be, towards the beggarly
poor: and now and then a brothers peculiar turn of mind led
him  to employ his abundant leisure in literary exercises.  As
their lands and buildings were held sacred, even by warring barbarians; they preserved a portion of every country in Europe
from desolation, during a 1000 years of ravage and of revolution.  Thus did a wise Providence, through their means, preserve
a remnant of civilization in the midst of barbarism and superstition, until Christendom was prepared for a new course of imlprovement, whose brightening ages shall not cease to roll, until
they bring forth the glory of the latter days.
The term Convent is applied to both monasteries and Nvntneries.
In many places the same system of walls and buildings included
both a monastery at one end and a nunnery at the other, with a
chapel in which both monks and nuns met for worship, between
them.   This was a very convenient arrangement in more respects
than one.  The prying eyes of the world could not penetrate the
sacred enclosure. We read without surprise that in many, if not
most, of these establishments, an abominable licentiousness prevailed.  It was the natural consequence of the celibacy, the
wealth, the luxury and the laziness of these degenerate communities,
Before ascetism had ripened into monachism, the church had
a class of sacred virgins, who professed to live chastely for Christ's
sake, and who were cherished and lauded as the brightest ornaments of the church. These generally resided privately in the




14                        CHAPTER I.
houses of their relations; or several together in a separate house;
until Cenobite monachism led to the establishment of nunneries,
which were regulated upon the same principles as the communities
of the other sex.
These sacred virgins were called by different names, such as
Mfioniales and Sanctimoniales among the Latins, and Ascetria,
female exercisers, among the Greeks; but the term  Nona or
Nonis (Nun), finally prevailed over all the rest.  This term
seems to have been originally Egyptian, and to have signified an
elderly woman or mother; but it came to be applied to consecrated virgins as a title of respect, as the term Father was to
priests and monks.*
We are sorry to say that some-perhaps in justice we ought to
say many, if not most-of these darlings of the church, as early
as the beginning of the third century, and for ages afterwards,
disgraced their profession and the cause of virginity, by vain and
licentious conduct.  Would you believe it, reader, that, when it
became disgraceful for priests to marry, and most meritorious for
Christian females not to marry; just then it should become customary for unmarried clergymen and consecrated virgins to live
together in the same house, sit together in the same private room,
and sleep together in the same unconsecrated bed-yet under the
profession of chastity all the while? Yet all this we shall hereafter prove from the writings of the holy Fathers of these purest
ages of Christianity,-as Puseyites and very high churchmen
esteem them to have been.
Nearly all the ancient nations believed that the air around us,
and the circles of the heavens above us, were inhabited by countless numbers and various orders of spiritual beings, both good
and evil.  The Greeks called them  all Demons; but the Jews
called only the evil spirits demons, whose prince they called
* If the reader would investigate the origin and signification of this
term, he may consult the writings of Jerome, Palladius, and Hospinian,
and especially Bingham's Ecclesiastical Antiquities, book vii. chap. 4. ~ 8;
and Du Fresne's Glossary on the word Nona.




EARLY MONACHtSM IN THE CHURCH.                  15
Beelzebub or Satan, in Greek the Devil.  The good spirits they
called Angels or Messengers as Moses called them.  The Christians imitated the Jews in the application of these names.
It was also the common belief of Jews and Christians, that
whilst the demons were everywhere on the earth and in the air,
the dry deserts were filled with legions of them.  These waste
and desolate places being scarcely habitable by man, were claimed
by these-malignant spirits as their own patrimony. They might
with some reason claim it, on the ground, that as they did not,
like man, need sustenance from the fruits of. the earth, those
desolate regions which yielded no sustenance for human flesh and
blood, fell naturally to their lot. Whether such was their reasoning or not, certain it is-if we may believe the holy Fathersthat whosoever ventured to take up his residence in the deserts,especially if he went for religious purposes —was sure to be infested by them in all possible ways; with all manner of alarming
sounds and fearful shapes and threatening actions and deceptive
allurements.  Nowhere would a spiritual warrior have so hard
battling with the fiendish hosts, as in those hot and dreary solitudes which were naturally a sort of hell on the earth. But so
much the greater was the merit of living there; so much more
the glory of defeating the Devil and his legions upon their own
ground.
It was also the common belief of Jews and Gentiles, both before
and after our Saviour's time, that demons took possession of the
bodies of living men, producing madness and epilepsy, and so controlling the man's faculties as to speak and act with his organs.
Those so possessed were called demoniacs.
Both Jews and Gentiles had also among them certain men who
professed to have the power of exorcising the demons, that is,
of driving them  out of the bodies of the possessed, and thus
curing the demoniacs of their madness, or epilepsy, or hypochondria, or whatever mental or corporeal disease these indwclling
spirits had produced. Our Saviour cured all such cases immediately without form  or ceremony, thus exerting what was




16                        CIIPATPR 1.
obviously divine power.  Btt the exorsists pretended to produeo
the same effects by means of certain charms and drugs, administered with much form and ceremony.
The Christians of the third century and after ages, believed
that demons still possessed madmen and epileptics, as they had
done before; that certain holy monks had, by a long course of
ascetism  and fighting with demons in the desert, gained such
miraculous power over them, as to be able to cast them out like
our Saviour. They believed also that pious persons duly authorized and instructed, could expel demons by the forms and
ceremonies of exorcism, as the Jews had formerly done. The
Christian forms were believed, however, to be much more efcacious than those in use among the Jews and unbelieving Gentiles,
because the Christian exorcists employed the sign of the holy
cross, of which the demons were terribly afraid-the name of the
Trinity, which they could not bear-and profuse sprinklings of
holy-water, which was much more efficacious than that of the
Gentiles who were its inventors.  Besides these powerful intruments, the Christian exorcists, like their Jewish and heathen
predecessors, used sundry forms of prayers to God, adjurations
to the demons in every sacred name, and execrations and revilings of these mischievous spirits; who, it was believed, would
often retreat from sheer vexation, when they found that the
exorcist could out-curse and out-rail them, that is, beat them
with their own weapons.  By means of this sort, the exorcists
could expel the demons not only from persons, but from places
and things infested by them.   Among the different officers of
the church from the fourth century downwards, was the exorcist
or devil-driver.  He  continued to be an established officer in
the Roman Catholic Church after the Reformation in the sixteenth
century, and bishops occasionally exercised their genius in devising more powerful and demon-terrifying forms of exorcism,
long after modern science and biblical knowledge began to be
diffused through  the nations of Christendom.  Why have the
Roman Catholic priesthood dropped this part of their infallible




EARLY MONACHISM IN THE CHURCH.               17
system  in this country?  Or if they have not dropped what
Fathers and Popes held for so many ages, why do they keep
their exorcists and exorcisms so completely out of the view of
the public, that we hear and see nothing of them?
We have mentioned this system  of demonology, because it
occupies a conspicuous place in the history of monachism, as
the reader will see.  But we must add that the early Fathers
of the church were not unanimous in respect to the efficacy of
the exorcisms practiced in their time.  Origen of the third century
and Chrysostom of the fourth, had the good sense to disbelieve in
the power of exorcists to cast out demons, though they believed
in the existence of demons and in demoniacal possession. But
in their opinion demoniacs could be cured only by miraculous
power.  Thus Origen (Tract 35 in Matth.) says, "If any one
ask whether it be proper to adjure demons, we answer, He
who sees Jesus commanding demons, and giving [miraculous]
power. to his disciples, will say that to adjure [exorcise] demons
is not according to the power given by the Saviour.  It is a
Jewish practice." He means that the power given by the Saviour
to the apostles, was the power of working miracles; whereas
the adjuration of the exorcists was borrowed of the Jews, and
was a sort of magical operation.  Chrysostom says, " We poor
wretches cannot drive away the flies, much less the demons."
Some'centuries later, however, the great St. Bernard arose, who
had power over the flies as well as over Beelzebub, the lord of
flies.* The legend concerning him relates, that the flies once
proving troublesome in his monastery, he solemnly cursed and
anathematized them; and lo! within twenty-four hours, every fly
of them was dead.
Ascetism  arose in the church early in the second century,
and grew by degrees, until it became monachism about the middle
of the third century. By the end of this century solitary hermits
had begun to multiply in Egypt.  By the middle of the fourth
century, Cenobites and Anchorites, male and female, had increased
* This is the meaning of the Hebrew name Beelzebub.




18                       CHAPTER 1.
in Egypt to a host estimated to number ]00,000. Some of them,
ere long, became fierce and turbulent, and learned to fight men
as well as demons. By this time, too, the monks of Syria and
Asia Minor were counted by tens of thousands, and monachism
had taken firm hold in Western Europe where Latin was spoken.
Shortly afterwards, it had penetrated every nook and corner
of the Church.  In the sixth century monasteries were established in Britain and Ireland, and even in the Western Isles of
Scotland.
After the year 400 it was no longer safe for any man to oppose
the monastic system, as some had done before; for the monks
were terrible enemies to deal with. They did much to overthrow
heathenism and to establish Christianity. They did more to mix
heathenism with Christianity, to promote every kind of superstition, and to bring in and sustain the monstrous system of Popish
tyranny and persecution.  Though in the dark ages of barbarian
violence and confusion, they exerted a conservative influence; yet
when the dark ages began to pass away, the monastic system became the chief obstacle to the reformation of religion and the
general improvement of society.




CHAPTER II.
OF MONACHISM AMONG THE HINDOOS.
~ 1. General Principles of the Hindoo Religion.
MONACHISM originated in Eastern Asia a long time-probably
fifteen hundred years-before the birth of Christ. Its fountainhead is the ancient superstition of Hindostan or India, one of the
primitive seats of human civilization. The people of this country
have sacred books, which must be nearly if not quite as ancient
as the books of Moses; besides other books of their religion,
written after the first, frow time to time, in the ages of remote
antiquity.
The language of these ancient books is called Sanscrit. Like the
Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, it has been for many ages a dead
language, and is the parent of most of the living dialects of
Hindostan, as the Latin is of several modern languages of
Europe.
The most ancient of the Hindoo books are four in number,
called Vedas.  They are filled, for the most part with religious
precepts, prayers, and hymns.  They appear to have been the
books of devotion used by the Hindoos in the primitive times of
their religion.  Like the books of Moses, they bear in their
language, style, and matter, the strongest internal evidence of
great antiquity.
Next in age to the Vedas, is a book entitled, The Laws of Menu,
which unfolds the rules of this ancient religion. Then come a




20                       CHAPTER II.
succession of books called Puranas and Shasters,-besides divers
more which need not be particularly mentioned.
These books form altogether an extensive library. They teach
the doctrines, worship, mythology, and practical rules of this
ancient system of religion. This system is on the whole very extensive and complex, and requires the study of many years for one
to become thoroughly acquainted with it.  We shall give a sketch
of its leading principles, so far as may be necessary to show the
primitive source of ascetism  and monkery.  It will be found
among the principles of this ancient system of religious philosophy.
All the monachism that has appeared in the world may be traced
to this one heathenish source. In this and the following chapters,
we shall trace these principles with their practical effects, over
Eastern Asia and through Egypt and the Greek philosophy into
the Jewish, and finally into the Christian, religion, where we see
them finally developed into the monachism which exists to this day,
and forms a remarkable feature of the Roman Catholic system of
Christianity.
Hindoo books teach, that there is One Infinite Eternal God,
who is the original source of all other beings, and comprehends
them all in his universal essence. He is called Brahm, which,
like Jehovah in the Hebrew, signifies The Self-existent.
But this sublime original Godhead is not the object of Hindoo
worship.  He is thought to be too great for human knowledge.
He is hidden from the human understanding in the infinitude of
his spiritual nature. He possesses no conceivable attributes, exercises no agency in the affairs of"the universe,-but, unconscious
of passing events, reposes in the eternal enjoyment of his own
existence.
Brahm  revealed himself in three forms or persons, called
Brahma, the Creator, Vishnu, the Preserver, and Siva, the Des.troyer. These three divine persons, considered as emanations
from the infinite unknown Godhead, or as distinct unfoldings of
the Universal Being,-constitute the Hindoo Trinity, or Trimurti,
as they call them.  Each of them  has several names descriptive




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE HINDOOS.                   21of his attributes; and each is of both sexes; for every Hindoo
god has his female counterpart, who is essentially one with himself.  These three gods with their united goddesses, are the
supreme objects of Hindoo worship, sometimes under one name
and sometimes under another.  It seems that the worshippers
were in early times divided into sects; some preferring the worship of one, some, of another, of these divine persons, to the exclusion of the rest. Each sect assigned to the favorite god certain
attributes originally appropriated to another. Hence no little
confusion appears in the modern accounts of their distinct attri
butes.
Besides the supreme Trimurti, the Hindoo mythology embraces
many gods and godessess of divers ranks and characters; and these
all have their worshippers-at least the more distinguished among
them have;-each individual choosing the particular objects of
his worship, according to his fancy or the custom of his family or
sect.
About their gods, their actions and transformations, the Hindoos of old invented a thousand allegories and fables, monstrous
and. absurd; of which we need say nothing more, except that
Vishnu, the Preserver, the second person of their trinity, is said
to have gone through nine incarnations or births as animal or
man, each time to effect some work of salvation on the earth, and
that he will become incarnate once more, forthe purpose of delivering mankind from  their sins, and of renovating the world.
The Hindoo books teach that all living creatures have immortal
souls.  Some also assign souls to vegetables and even to minerals,
as the ancient Egyptians did. All souls are considered as emanations or particles drawn from the universal spirit of Brahm;
which have been separated for a time from the common source of
being, as drops from the ocean; but all will be finally absorbed into
it again, and thus loose their separate existence as individuals.
They teach, but somewhat obscurely, that some of the spirits
of the heavenly world revolted and fell to the lower regions;




22                       CHAPTER II.
where they are condemned to punishment, like the fallen angels
of our theology. Certain it is, however, that spiritual beings of
different ranks are believed to inhabit the regions above and
below the earth, and that the lower ones are more or less
malignant.
The doctrine of the Metempyschosis, or Transmigration of Souls
from  one body to another, is a leading doctrine of the Hindoo
theology.  As every living creature on the earth, is supposed to
have an immortal soul; so it is supposed, that souls after death
pass into new bodies, of the same or different kinds from those
which they left.  A brute's soul may become a man's,-or, contrariwise, a soul may be degraded from a human body to that of a
brute or an insect, or as some books teach, even that of a vegetable
or mineral. Of course the faculties of the soul are more or less
unfolded, according to the nature of the body which it occupies;
its powers of reason and sentiment can be exercised in a human
body, but are more or less cramped, or entirely suppressed, in
bodies of inferior organization.
All souls were originally pure, when they emanated from the
Universal Spirit; but became defiled with sin by imprisonment in
material bodies, and by subjection to the passions which spring
from their connection with earthly things. All the gross matter
of the world, is believed to have a polluting influence upon the
spirits that are invested with it; unless they overcome this evil
influence by a resolute resistance and a severe mortification of
the flesh. But few or none avoid defilement in their first incarnation, or imprisonment in a human body. Therefore, when they
die, they transmigrate into other bodies of brutes or men, according as their sins are greater or less.  Those who have been
great criminals, are punished in hell for a time, and then become
snakes, toads, or other loathsome animals-perhaps many of
them in succession-before they gain admission into human bodies
again, and have another trial as men.
Every human soul is now defiled with the sins of a former state,
as well as with those which it may have contracted in its present




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE HINDOOS.                23
body.  Human life in this world is a state of probation, m which
the soul has opportunity to work off its pollutions, and exalt its
future condition, in the manner prescribed by the holy books.
Its defilement comes from the body, and from the material world
through the bodily senses.  It must labor to purify itself, therefore, by counteracting the influence of the body and of the sensible world.  It must subdue the bodily'appetites and desiresmortify all the senses-deny itself the pleasures of the worldseparate itself as much as possible from material things-keep the
body still-forget, if it can, all the things of time and senseshut itself up in silent abstraction-float away in spiritual contemplations; and endeavor to lose its individual consciousness,
by melting into the infinitude of its parent Godhead, as a vapor
loses its distinct existence in the viewless expanse of the serene
atmosphere.
When by such exercises the soul has purified itself from carnal
defilements, and spiritualized itself into its original nature, it is
released at death from  further wandering through bodies; it
ascends to the superior heavens, where it bathes in the pure
essence of light; and finally reaches supreme beatitude, by losing
its individual existence in the universal source of being; as the
rain-drop is lost on the ocean from which it originated.
~ 2. Of the Rindoo Doctrine of Penances or Ascetic Purification
of the Soul.
Learned writers differ in respect to the principle, on which the
Hindoo ascetic performs his acts of austere devotion.
The Hindoo devotee, when -he tortures his senses, is generally
understood to be doing penance, or making atonement for sin.
But some late writers, especially Ward, the missionary, affirm,
that the Hindoo does not consider himself as a penitent, when he
does these acts of self-mortification-but as a meritorious saint,
who thus exalts himself above the common lot of mortals, and
that on the ground of these performances, he assumes a proud
superiority over the vulgar herd of his fellow men.




24                       CHAPTER II.
These views are not essentially inconsistent. The ascetic devotions of the Hindoos may be, and are probably considered to be,
both penitential and meritorious.  So far as they remove guilt
and liability to punishment, they are penances; so far as they
purify the soul, exalt its dignity and promote its spiritual happiness,
they are meritorious. The devotee who both atones for his sin
and merits happiness by voluntary sufferings, may on both accounts
esteem himself holier and worthier than others, and assume a
proud superiority over them.
We shall now proceed to give some account of the ascetic doctrines taught by the ancient Hindoo books.
The laws of Menu, written probably a thousand years before
the Christian era, give the following directions to the man who
would purify himself from sin, and become a saint of high degree.
"Let him  seclude himself from the world, and gain the favor
of the gods, by fasting, subduing the lusts of the flesh and mortifying the senses."
One would think on comparing this general direction with the
early monachism  of the Church, that the Christian monks of
the fourth century had been trained under the laws of Menu,
and were ambitious to become saints of the Hindoo religion.
But Menu gives more particular directions to the candidate for
high saintship.
" Let him  crawl (says Menu) backwards and forwards on his
belly; —or let him  stand all day long on his toes.  Let him
remain always sitting or always standing; only at sunrise, noon,
and sunset, let him go to the water and bathe himself."
There we discover a remarkable difference between the ancient
Hindoo ascetics and their Christian successors.  The Hindoos
associated holiness with personal cleanliness; the Christian monks
despised the body too much to give it the honor of ablution.
Hence they grew filthier without, as they grew holier within.
But the modern Fakirs of Hindostan have learned to be as filthy
as the monkish saints of the fourth century.
But says Menu in continuation, " Let him in the heat of sum



OF MONACHISM AMONG THE HINDOOS.                 25
mer kindle five fires about him. When it rains let him bare himself to the storm where it pelts the hardest.  In the winter, let
him  wear a wet garment.  So let him  rise by degrees in the
strength of his penances."
Here is monkish ascetism in perfection, differing slightly in
mode, but agreeing perfectly in spirit, with that of the Fathers of
the Desert, glorified by the Fathers of the Church in the fourth
and fifth  centuries, as the perfect pattern  of the Christian
life.
But, as the last sentence quoted from Menu implies, there were
degrees of saintship among the Hindoos.
A man might become a Yogi, or common saint, by withdrawing into solitude at forty or fifty years of age, either for life or for
a term  of years.  If he began young, he might, after a certain
number of years, return into the social world, and enjoy the
respect and profit of his sanctity during the remainder of his days.
But he who consecrated all his remaining years to monachism,
and became what was called a forest-anchorite, attained to a
higher degree of sanctity.  One of the sacred books teaches, that
he was too holy to be touched without sacrilege, and that his
curse and his blessing had miraculous power.
The highest degree-that of a Sannyasi-could be attained
only by twenty years of total seclusion from the world, and the
complete abstraction of the mind from  worldly thoughts and
affections.  Then the soul was prepared, without farther transmigration, to ascend to heaven, and after bathing in celestial
light until the last tinge of earthly defilement was purged away,
to consummate its destiny. by absorption into the Divine Nature. A
saint of this degree had such power with the gods, that they would
instantly comply, not only with his formal prayers, but even with
his slightest wishes.*
Having given this general sketch of the subject, we shall now
give a more particular account of the Hindoo system of ascetical
i The above sketch is from Bohlen: Das Alte Indien. ch. ii,
2




26                       CHAPTER II.
sanctification.  To make the account more intelligible, we shall
first notice the Hindoo institution of casts, to which the people
have adhered from the remotest times until this day.
The whole population were originally divided into four casts
or orders, of which the higher possessed privileges that the lower
durst not exercise.  By intermarriage of the people of different
casts, a large number of mixed casts were formed, each of which,
like the original four, had certain employments assigned them, and
had certain privileges and disabilities.
Of the four original casts, the Brahmins are the highest.
They are the sacred cast; and they have the exclusive privilege
of exercising the priestly office, and superintending the affairs of
religion and learning.  From them the Hindoo religion is called
Brahminism.   They pretend  that they were formed out of
Brahma the creator's head, and are therefore entitled to rule and
guide the whole people.  The three inferior casts, namely, the
military cast, that of the husbandmen and artisans, and lastly,
that of the servants,-were formed respectively from the breast
and arms, from  the thighs, and from  the feet of the creator.
Ascetic saintship, as might be expected, has been found chiefly,
though not exclusively, among the Brahmins.  Many Yogis or
common saints have been of other casts; but the Sannyasis are
generally, if not exclusively, Brahmins.
The Hindoo Shasters, or holy books, describe four degrees
or states of probation for the Brahmins who aspire to  cegular
saintship. These degrees are adapted to the age of the probationer.
They are as follows:
First degree; Brahm Charee.
This is entered by the young Brahmin, sometimes, in early
boyhood.  Under an experienced preceptor he studies the Vedas
diligently; exercises himself in prayer, and learns to discipline
his passions by abstaining from  women, from  anger, envy and
revenge, and by acquiring the love of truth and other virtues.
At night he accustoms himself to sleep little and that upon straw,
or upon the skin of an animal, under the covert of a tree. His




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE HINDOOS.                  27
food is of the plainest sort, and he avoids pleasant amusements,
such as singing, dancing, and games of every sort.  Morning and
evening he practices ablution by dipping and sprinkling himself,
and repeating many prayers.  He wears also a particular sort of
plain dress.
In this state of initiatory saintship, the young devotee continues from five to twelve years, before he enters upon the
Second degree; called Gerishth.
When the probationer has completed his first degree, he may
either return to his father's house, or proceed to this higher
degree of sanctity, in which he can acquire much additional
merit.
In this degree the exercises of the former were aggravated:
the ablutions with their prayers and ceremonies, were increased.
Most of the night was spent in contemplating the moon and stars
and vault of heaven, with longing to mount up to the region of
those bright orbs.  In the first degree the devotee lived sparely
on charity: in the second degree he lived on what he could glean
from the fields, or in failure of this, he begged a little rice, a part of
which he threw into the fire as an offering to the Deutab (deified
saint) and to the dead.  The dress was somewhat changed.
Third degree; called Banperisth.
When a Brahmin advances to this degree, he gives up all family
cares, and retires finally from the world into some solitude, where
he builds himself a cell or a grotto. If his wife through affection
desire to accompany him, she may; but then all sexual intercourse
is at an end, and they become as cold as the rocks on which they
repose.
"Here the hoary devotee-wraps his aged limbs in a vestment
made of bark or leaves. He never cuts his hair or pares his nails.
His ablutions with their attendant ceremonies are now trebled.
Solitary and forlorn, he hangs down his head, bending under the
weight of imaginary crimes. With reverential awe he reads and
meditates, silently and assiduously on the holy Vedas. At night he
lies on the bare ground. In the summer he sits often for days and




28                        CHAPTER II.
weeks beneath the broiling sun, with four fires built around him.
In the rainy season he sits exposed to the weather. In the winter
he sits all night in cold water. He fasts all the day and eats only
in the evening. His only food is dried fruits and grain that grows
wild, and these prepared by merely soaking them in water.  If
his supply fails, he goes to a town and begs a little rice, and then
returns to his solitude.
" Ifworn down with labors, he desires to end his life, he may travel
east or north, until he falls down and expires, or he may hang
or drown himself at once.  He is then sure of eternal happiness."
Fasting is one of the chief exercises of the Hindoo saints. The
Holy Books prescribe a great variety of regular fasts, some of
which are of long duration and intensely severe. In one of these
fasts, the devotee is neither to eat nor drink during twelve days
and nights.  In another, he drinks only warm water.  In another,
he builds a fire before his cell-door, where he sits and inhales the
hot air and smoke.  There is another of fifteen days, during
which he lives only upon leaves, seeds, &c.; and another of a
week, during five days of which he lives on the produce of the
cow, to wit-first, the milk; second, the curds; third, the ghee
or clarified butter; fourth, the urine; fifth, the dung.
While fasting, every votary, must abstain fiom all sensual indulgence, all amusements, and all personal comforts, such as shaving, anointing himself, lying on anything except the bare ground.
We come now to the highest, which is the fourth degree, called
Asherum.
This is the state of the Sannyasi, who has reached perfect saintship by regular degrees, according to the precepts of the Holy
Books.  It is the sacred cast of Brahmins, especially, to whom
these precepts are given.  The Yogi is a voluntary or amateur
saint.  He does not confine himself to any prescribed form, but
exercises his own genius and fancy in the adoption or invention of
such modes of self-torture, as will best satisfy his enthusiastic aspirations after holiness, or give him most eclat among the multitudes to whom he exhibits his feats of saintly endurance.




OG MONACHISM AMONG THE HINDOOS.                29
The ancient Greeks called both Sannyasis and Yogis by the
general name of Gymnosophists.  But the Brahmin Sannyasi
does not wander about, naked and filthy; nor display himself to
the public gaze like the mad Yogi, who treats his vile clay with
all possible contempt as the prison of his soul. The Sannyasi is
distinguished by a calm, silent dignity, and by his secluded manner of life in woods and solitudes, where the world sees him not.
He aims to subdue the passions by subduing the body.  He has
discarded all connection with family and fiiends. He throws off
all clothing but a wrapper about his waist. With a staff in one
hand, and a pitcher in the other, he hies to the desert, never to
return. Fasting and miserable he is absorbed in contemplations
of the Deity, and never speaks except to pronounce the mysterious
word Awan, which is the commencement of the Vedas.  His food
is wild fruits, his drink water. The business of his life is mental
prayer and intense contemplation, by which his soul is abstracted
from material things, and so united to the Deity as to endue him
with a degree of divine power.  He exercises an energy that is
felt through the universe.  By means of this divine energy he
can call down the stars, and raise demons fiom the lowest hell.*
The Sannyasis believe that they could even disembody the soul,
and taking an ethereal flight as pure spirits, could return again at
pleasure to the body.  When we consider the enthusiasm of these
men, and their habits of intense contemplation, we are not surprised that they should take a fit of mental abstraction, in which
the body and all visible things around them were forgotten, for an
actual flight of the soul into the regions whose imaginary scenes
were conceived with the vividness of reality.
Father Bouchet in the Lettres Edificantes et Curieuses, tells a
remarkable story founded on this notion.
An ancient Indian prince, who possessed the power of volun* This notion of the miraculous power acquired by means of extraordinary mortification of the body and exercises of devotion, came with Monachism into the Christian church. Every great monkish saint became a
niracle-worker.




30                       CHAPTER II.
tary metempsychosis, used, when he took his voyages through the
heavens, to leave his body in the care of a servant.  The servant, by close observation, at last was able to learn the form  of
prayer, called Mandiran, by which his master disengaged his soul
from his body.  He soon took advantage of this discovery.  The
next time that his master took a flight, he disengaged his soul from
his own body, and transferred it to that of his master. To prevent a dangerous use of his forsaken body by the soul of his master on his return, he cut off the head and carried it away. Thus
secured, he took possession of the prince's throne and bed; no
one being able to detect the imposture.
When the hapless spirit returned and perceived how he had
been defrauded of his throne and his queen, he retired full of
grief and dismay to a grove, which he filled with his desolate
wailings. The goddess of his former devotion, probably Bhavani,
the Indian Venus, took compassion on him, as the story has it,
though it was an ill-judged compassion, and prepared him the
beautiful body of a parrot, in which he flew away to court, where
to his sorrow and vexation he beheld his servant in possession of
his rights and of his lovely queen. The hapless bird flew about
through the palace, until he was caught by a servant and presented to the queen, who admired his splendid plumage and kept him
in her chamber.  This only aggravated his sufferings; for now
he was imprisoned where he had to behold the caresses bestowed
by the queen upon his treacherous slave, and all the mortifying
circumstances of his irremediable loss.
The secret was not discovered, till some ages afterwards, when
a Sannyasi, who, by the power of absorption, could penetrate into
the past, the present and the future,* revealed it as a warning to
the sovereigns of India, not to trust implicitly to their servants.
The Sannyasi, when at his devotions, beholds all the alluring
and all the appalling objects of nature with unmoved indifference
* This wonderful power of penetration, acquired by the Hindoo Sannyasis,
was also attained in later ages by some Christian Sannyasis, or monks of the
highest order of sanctity.




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE HINDOOS.                 31
His soul is fixed on the supreme Brahm.  He sacrifices every
human feeling to devotion.  The pouring rains of the tropic, and
the freezing snows of the Himmalayah are alike unfelt, when they
beat upon the anchorite's naked body.  Emaciated with hunger,
he is not tempted by delicate viands.  Sweet odors, and sweet
sounds of earth, yield him no pleasure. Voluptuous nymphs may
display their wanton attitudes before him, without exciting the
slightest desire in his heart.  His soul has become insensible to all
earthly delights and sufferings.  Corporeal sensations affect not
his soul, he has mortified his flesh till it can feel no more; and
his soul can now soar undisturbed to the celestial regions, and
bathe in the essence of Deity.  Insensible of change, abstracted
from material things, and immersed in the Divine infinitude, it
has reached the summit of spiritual sanctification, and awaits only
its final release from its clay prison, to ascend to the regions of
bliss, where it has heretofore dwelt in contemplation.  There it
will bathe its ethereal essence in uncreated light, until it is finally
absorbed in the Divine source of all being.  This is the Hindoo's
idea of supreme felicity.
After having gone through the four degrees of penance, the Sannyasi sometimes resolves to burn himself as a sacrifice to the
Deity.  This is permitted by the Holy Books, and is deemed
highly meritorious in a Sannyasi.  The sacrifice is made with
great pomp and ceremony.
Many drown themselves, or are drowned by their friends, in
the purifying waters of the Ganges.*
Ward says that there are no such ascetics now as those above
described, if there ever were such. At present there may be no
Sannyasis in the woods and deserts of India; but we shall produce evidence hereafter, that they did exist in ancient times.
* The foregoing account of the degrees. of Hindoo saintship, is taken
chiefly from Maurice's Indian Antiquities, Chapters 3 & 5 of vol. iii.  On
the Hindoo religion, his chief authority is the Ayeen Akbery, one of the
holy books.




32                        CHAPTER II.
We add some further particulars from Ward,* respecting the
Hindoo religion.
The Hindoo Shasters teach what the Christian Scriptures do
not —that is, certain rites for the repose of the soul after death.
The soul after death takes a little body not larger than one's
thumb, and remains in the custody of Yumu, judge of the dead.
When the time of punishment arrives, this little body is enlarged
and made capable of enduring torments.
The performance of a ceremony called Shradhu, delivers the
deceased sufferer at the end of one year, and transfers him to
heaven, where he receives the reward of his meritorious actions,
and afterwards transmigrates to another body, of the sort for
which the general character of his former life has fitted him.
Without the Shradhu the deceased remains in his suffering state,
and cannot transmigrate until the term of his punishment is fulfilled.t
The ceremonies of the Shradhu begin on the eleventh day after
the decease; are continued monthly, and concluded at the expiration of a year. The service consists of offerings and prayers for
the dead, with certain prescribed forms and ceremonies.
Hence it appears that the notion of purgatorial torments after
death, and of shortening their duration by prayers and offerings
for the dead, was not an invention of the Christian Fathers of the
fourth and fifth centuries, but was borrowed, like most other corruptions of Christianity, from  the heathen nations of antiquity.
The most important of them originated in the East Indies and in
Egypt. How they came thence into the Church, we shall attempt
to show in some following chapters.
In the ancient Hindoo books we find also the doctrine of ceremonial uncleanness by contact with certain persons or things
s Ward's View of the History, Literature, and Religion of the Hindoos,
vol. ii. book iv. ch. 2.
t If the reader will pay attention as he proceeds, he will be surprised to
find nearly all the Roman Catholic superstitions among the more aneienr
idolators of Eastern Asia.




OP MONACHISM AMONG THE HINDOOS.               33
deemed unclean, and by the occurrence of certain states of the
body, by which it was supposed to be defiled.  An unclean person could not partake of any religious worship or ceremony, until
he was duly purified in the manner prescribed by the holy books.
The ancient common law of the Hindoos also designated a
multitude of offences, for which the offender was bound to make
atonement.  Some of the designated offences were violations of
common morality; others were founded on the distinction of cast,
and on superstitious notions and doctrines of religion taught in the
sacred books, such as killing an insect or a cow, eating onions,
&c.  The atonements were various, such as paying fines, restitution of property gotten by theft or fraud, religious offerings,
voluntary mortifications of the body, penitential prayers, and repetitions of the name of God, &c. The ancient Hindoo penances
were therefore similar in principle and in practice to those prescribed to penitents now by the Roman Catholic priests.  The
penalty of omitting to perform these penances was also the same,
namely, punishment in a purgatorial hell, with the addition
among the Hindoos, of transmigration into the body of some
noxious animal or miserable man.  For example he who kills an
animal by strangling, or laughs at a Puranah at the time of its
recital, will, after enduring infernal torments, be born a snake,
then a tiger, then a cow, a white heron, a crow, and a man
having the asthma.
The Ugnee Purana assigns to those evil men who lose human
birth, eight millions of inferior births before they can become
men again.  They are to pass through millions of states of minerals and vegetables; then they gradually ascend through fishes,
insects, birds and beasts to the dignity of men again.*
As our works on Christian theology agree in fundamentals, but
differ more or less in details; so do the Hindoo Puranahs; which
being works of the Hindoo fathers, expound in different ways the
fundamental doctrines of the Vedas. In this Puranah we find the
doctrine that every being, minerals not excepted, has a soul.
* Ward's View, book v. ch, I,
2*




34                      CHAPTER 11.
In this as in many other particulars, the ancient Egyptian philosophy agreed with that of the Hindoos.
A consequence of this doctrine of transmigration is, that the
Hindoos consider the sufferings of the present life as punishments
for sins committed in a prior state. Hence, when they become
diseased, many of them sit down in despair, supposing human
remedies to be vain for an evil sent by divine justice.
~ 3. Of the Future Judgment, Heaven and Hell.
The doctrine of judgment after death is taught in the Pudnu
Puranah after this manner.*
Yumu is judge of the dead.  He dwells on a floating island
at the southern extremity of the earth. The meritorious are led
to his seat by a delightful road. On the way they are entertained
with the songs and dances of the heavenly courtesans, and with
choral hymns chanted by inferior Gods in praise of the superior.
At intervals are houses of refreshment, where cool fountains
play, and delicious viands are set out for their entertainment.
Along the road-side limpid waters are adorned with lilies, and
tall trees, embowering the  ways, drop  showers of odorous
blossoms along their path. The road is frequented by heavenly
beings marching in splendid processions, accompanied by bands of
singers, who make the woods and waters vocal with their hymns of
praise and of gladness. Such are the entertainments of the saints
on their way to the judgment seat.
The wicked have on the contrary a long and painful journey to
undergo.
Sometimes they have to travel over burning pavements;-then
to wade through hot embers or scorching sands; —then to tread
over beds of glowing sharp-edged gravel. Now and then showers
of cutting and piercing instruments, or of red-hot cinders, or of
scalding rain, pour down upon them.  Hot winds blister their
skins and scorch their lungs.  They drop into dark wells, or
stumble through gloomy passages over rough stones, amongst
* Wardi book v. ch. 2.




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE HINDOOS.                35
which serpents crawl and nestle. Another while, they must force
their way through a dense thicket of spiny  shrubs; and then
again over heaps of gory clods, rotten bones and putrifying flesh,
alternating with piles of thorns and iron burs. They meet tigers,
jackals, wild elephants, terrible giants, and other fearful monsters.
They travel naked, with disheveled hair, parched lips and throats,
covered with blood and dirt; wailing and shrieking as they go,
with faces of horror and despair.  Sometimes they are dragged
along by thongs tied round their wrists, or fastened by holes in
their noses or heels, or knotted in their hair. Sometimes they
are dragged along with head and heels tied together.  When
at last they arrive, they behold Yumu clothed with terror. He
is two hundred and forty miles high:  His eyes are like two fiery
lakes:  Rays of dazzling splendor shoot from his body:  A flame
issues from his mouth:  The sound of his breathing is like the
roar of a tempest.  In his right hand he grasps an iron club;
and when he utters the sentence of punishment, his voice is like
the thunder that dissolves the universe.   Then having  reproved them  for their crimes, he drives them  with his club
to the different hells to which they are condemned.
Future Happiness,* is, according to the Puranahs, of four degrees:  1st. That enjoyed in the heaven of the inferior gods:
2d. Deification, by which a saint becomes a Deutah or inferior
god:t 3d. Dwelling in the highest heavens among the superior
gods; and 4th. Absorption in the universal spirit of Brahm.
The descriptions of heaven in the Puranahs are in the oriental
style; full of gold and precious stones, cool waters, shady bowers
of bloom, and images of sensual delight.
The meritorious works that carry a man to heaven, are chiefly
such as profit the Brahmins on the earth-says Ward;-such as
ceremonial observances, some of which, as exhibited in the temples, are unmentionably obscene.  This statement is true, so far
as it goes. But missionaries who write of the religion and of the
* Ward; book v. ch. 3.  t Like the Roman Catholic saint-gods.




36.                      CHAPTER lt.
priests that they are laboring to overthrow, can seldom  erepreen
them impartially.  The Hindoo superstition is bad enough, when
justly considered; but Ward should have in this place remembered the ascetic mortifications of the Brahmins. If they impose
on others for their own benefit, they also punish  themselves
severely by their monkish austerities.
As to Absorption, the highest state of Hindoo felicity; it is
considered as the only state which secures the soul against farther
transmigration; because the soul then ceases to have a separate
or individual existence.  It is lost in the universal spirit of
Brahm; and like him, or as a reunited portion of him, enjoys
eternal sleep without ideas or consciousness.
In a sacred book entitled Bhagavat Gheeta, Irishnu-that is
Vishnu under another name-praises the man " who forsaketh
every desire of his heart, is happy within himself, without affection, indifferent to good or evil, to whom  pleasure and pain,
gold, iron, and stones, are alike." The person whose very nature,
as they say, is absorbed in divine meditation,-whose life resembles a sweet sleep, unconscious and undisturbed;-who desires
nothing, not even God, and who is thus changed into the image
of the ever-blessed, obtains absorption into Brahm.
There are, however, some followers of Vishnu, who do not
seek absorption, but a conscious happiness with him.
The practices leading to absorption, have been already mentioned-such as retiring from  the worlds seclusion in a forest,
fasting, prayer, undivided contemplation, &c,
The ascetics did not always succeed in killing their passions,
for the Puranahs relate many instances to the contrary.  Vashisthu, one of these saints, inflicted on himself incredible severities;
yet in the midst of his devotions, (says the Mahabharatu,) he fell
in love with one of the heavenly courtezans, and lived with her
five thousand years. Purasheru, an ascetic, violated the daughter
of another ascetic, while she was ferrying him  over a river.
From this act sprang the famous Vyasu, author of the Mahabharat.
Other instances are related of their committing acts of rage and




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE HIND00.                    37
violence.  Brigu, for example, kicked the god Vishnu on the
breast.  Javalee, an ascetic, stands charged with stealing cow's
flesh at a sacrifice, and when search was made for the beef, changing it into onions, to avoid detection.  Hence onions are forbidden food to the Hindoos.
Future Punishments are described in a book called the ShreeChaga-vutu.  There are various hells for the punishment of different classes of transgressors.  The following sketches of a few
will suffice.
Adulterers, thieves, &c., are to be cast into the hell Tamisrut
and continually famished and beaten. Defrauiders are to be put
into a hell of darkness; gluttons are to be cast into a hell of boiling oil.  Contemners of the Vedas and of the Brahmins are to
be plunged into a hell of burning metal, for three and a half millions of years. He who injures a man of superior order is to be
torn by swine.  The unmerciful are to be tormented in a hell of
snakes, flies, lice, and other vermin. A  Brahmin or king who
drinks spirits, is to be cast into pans of liquid fire.  He who despises a religious devotee, shall stick fast in mud, with his head
downwards.  He who causes sorrow to others, is to be bitten by
snakes with five heads, &c.*
From these specimens the reader can judge of the Hindoo notions of retributive justice, and of the comparative demerit of
crimes.  As the Hindoos had no idea of eternal punishment,
they considered those of all the hells as purgatorial.
We have now put the reader in possession of so much of the
HIindoo system  of religion, as will enable him to understand the
grounds on which the Yogis and Sannyasis practice those ascetical
austerities, which have struck the attention of foreigners for more
than two thousand years past.  If we examine this system philosophically, we shall discover that the whole resolves itself into the
following fundamental principles:
* Ward  book V. ch. 4.




38                        CHAPTER II.
1. Matter and spirit are essentially distinct and incompatible
substances.
2. Matter is essentially evil and impure; spirit is essentially
good and pure; but capable of defilement from contact with material bodies.
3. All spiritual beings, from the highest to the lowest, are
emanations or individualized portions of the eternal and universal
spirit called Brahm, which has no personal properties, no action
nor consciousness, but is the essence of all beings that have them.
4. Individual spirits become souls by assuming material bodies; and every such body is endued with a soul, which may
transmigrate from one body to another.
5. By inhabiting an animated body, the soul is subjected, more
or less, to the impure desires and passions generated by material
objects, operating upon the soul through the bodily senses.  Thus
the soul contracts impurities; it is debased by earthly affections,
and the spiritual repose which constitutes its true happiness, is
destroyed by the agitation of its corporeal desires and passions.
6. All true happiness consists in a calm, unchanging repose of
the spirit.
7. To attain this state of blessed repose, the soul in the flesh
must purify itself, and atone for its offences, by mortifying the
corporeal senses, subduing the desires which disturb it, and dwelling in fixed contemplation of the divine essence from which its
being is derived, and in which alone it can find a pure and undisturbed repose.
These principles can be further reduced to two, which run
through the theory and practice of the whole system.
1. Matter is essentially evil.
2. The happiness of the soul consists in repose, or exemption
from all the affections and passions that spring from matter, and
disturb the repose of the soul.
Hence to reduce the body to insensibility by suffering, and thus
to deliver the soul from its influence, is the Hindoo way of sancti




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE HINDOOS                 39
fication. All that is done for this end is meritorious, purges the
soul from sin, and procures the favor of the gods.
~ 4. Practices of the Hindoo Devotees, as observed by Foreigners
in all ages.
Let us now see how the ascetic doctrines of the ancient Hindoo
books have been carried out in practice, both in ancient and in
modern times.
The earliest accounts by foreigners have come down to us from
the Greeks.
When Alexander the Great, three hundred and thirty years before Christ, conquered the western parts of the country called
India, from the river Indus, he found several sorts of monkish ascetics there.  Some Greek scholars who accompanied his army,
or who conversed afterwards with persons who had been in the
country, wrote accounts of the wonderful things seen in that distant region, of which the Greeks had previously heard nothing
but vague reports. Some things which these writers related from
hearsay, were certainly fabulous; but they gave unquestionably
true accounts of the Hindoo monks, whom they called Gymnosophists or Naked Philosophers.  Both the ancient Hindoo books,
and the notices of travellers in later ages, fully confirm their accounts, however strangely they sounded in Grecian ears.
From these writers of Alexander's time, whose works are now
lost, Strabo, the Greek geographer, about three hundred years
later, compiled the account which we shall quote pretty fully from
his pages.  We have to remark, however, that the Greeks never
penetrated as far as the valley of the Ganges, where the Hindoo
religion originated, and where its institutions flourished in their
highest perfection. Their accounts are, therefore, less full and
satisfactory, than otherwise they might have been.  Yet they are
substantially accurate, and highly interesting from their antiquity.
Few modern travellers have taken such intelligent views of these
Naked Philosophers.
The Greek writers dignified these oriental monks with the title




40                        tIHAPTER it,
of philosophers, as they did every class of men who professed to
live by rule.  So did the Greek Fathers of the Church many
ages afterwards call Christian monachism  by the honorable name
of philosophy.
But we now proceed to give the substance of what Strabo relates from preceding writers concering the Hindoo monks.*
"Megasthenes says that there are two sects of Indian philosophers, the 13rachmanst and the Garmans.  The Brachmans live in
the woods not far fiom cities.  Their manner of'life is simple.
They sleep on straw or skins, use no animal food and abstain from
women.  They attend to serious instructions, and impart them to
such as desire to hear,  But the hearers, while the speaker is
addressing them, must not speak, nor hawk, nor spit.  When
they have lived thirty-seven years from boyhood as anchorites,
they return to their possessions, live pleasantly, dress well, and,
if they choose, marry wives, that they may rear children for the
same mode of life."' Aristobulus, another Writer, says that he saw two Brachmans;
the elder had his head shaven, but the younger wore his hair.
Both were followed by disciples.  They spent a part of their
time in the market-places, where, on account of the esteem in
which they were held for their counsels, they received plentiful
gifts of oil, honey, and corn.  When they came to Alexander
they ate dinner, standing at his table; and to give a specimen of
their patience, they withdrew to a neighboring place, where the
one lay upon his back and exposed himself to the sun and the
rain.  The other stood upon one leg, holding in each hand a
billet of wood three cubits long. When he got tired, he stood
upon the other leg; and so he continued the whole day   This
one said that he intended to persevere in his ascetic life during
forty years.'
" Onesicritus says that he was sent by Alexander to visit some
of these philosophers who went naked, as he had heard, and were
much respected.  He found them  two or three miles from the
city.  Each was naked, motionless in one position, sitting or lyin~
* Strabo, Book xv., ch, 1.        t Brahmins.




OF IMONACHIISM AMONG THE HINDOOS.               41
the whole day exposed to the sun, though it was too hot for others
to bear. 
Such, according to the authors quoted by Strabo, were the
]Brachmans, or Naked Philosophers.  We easily recognize in them
the Sannyasis of the Hindoo books.
Of the Garmans, or, as others call them, Sarmans or Samaneans,
the more respectable sort were called by the Greeks Hylobioi, or
Woods-philosophers, because they lived in the woods upon plants
and wild fruits, and had no clothing but leaves of trees. They
also abstained from women and wine.
Next in respectability to the Woods-philosophers were the Physicians.   These were simple but not wild in their manner
of life.  They fed on rice and cornmeal, which was fieely given
them.  They were hospitably entertained in the houses of the
people; for they could make women bear many children, and male
or female, just as they pleased, with their medicines.*   Both these
sorts of Garmans exercised themselves in voluntary pains and
sufferings. They would continue the whole day motionless in one
posture.
But there were others who practised soothsaying and charms,
and were skilled in the use of incantations for the dying. These
went about the villages and cities. begging.  Some were more
decent in person and manners than  the rest.  These like the
others preached about hell; but in a way to promote religion
and virtue. Some carried women along to philosophize with them,
but they had no sexual intercourse.
Such is Strabo's account of the Hindoo ascetics or monks,
taken from writers who lived about six hundred years before
monachism  appeared in the Christian Church.  They agreed in
every essential particular with the Christian monks of the fourthcentury.  They professed abstinence friom  women and wine.
* Some of the Christian monks even as early as the fourth century. and
many of them in the fifth century, as the Fathers tell us, had this same gift
bf making barren women fruitful. Many longing wives resorted to them
for this purpose. But it does not appear that the holy men used any artiicial medicines.




42                       CHAPTER II.
They rejected all pleasant food, and lived abstemiously on the
spontaneous products of nature.  They wore little clothing, and
lay on the ground.  Most of them lived in solitude, exercising
themselves in patient suffering and silent devotion.
But some of the sects mentioned by Strabo were composed
chiefly of roguish impostors, who practiced beggary and quackery,
-who debauched credulous women, and plundered both men
and women  under hypocritical pretences of devotion, and
knavish pretences of medical skill and magical power.
After the time of Strabo, the Greeks acquired little additional
knowledge of the Hindoo philosophy.  About two hundred years
later, Clement of Alexandria, a Platonic Christian writer, speaks
of the same two classes of ascetics.  In his Stromata, Book I., he
says, there are two kinds of Indian philosophers, the Sarmans
and the Brachmans.  Of the former some are called Allobioi,
who inhabit no cities nor houses.  They are clothed with the
bark of trees, eat acorns and wild berries, and drink water with
their hands. They know nothing of marriage, nor of the procreation of children.
In the third book of the same work, Clement says,-" Many
Brachmans, eat no living creature and drink no wine.  Some of
them take food daily, some only every third day. But they set
no value on life, and despise death, believing it tobe a regeneration.  Those of the Indians called Semnoi —that is, venerablego naked all their lives. They exercise truth, predict the future.
and worship a certain pyramid under which they believe the bone?
of a certain god to repose.  But neither the Gymnosophists no:
those called Semnoi use women, thinking this to be unnatural an(
iniquitous.  Hence they keep themselves chaste.  They hav
also virgins called Semnai. They appear also to observe celestih
phenomena, and from them to predict certain future events."So far Clement.
The term Semnoi which he uses, is a Greek word signifyir
venerable.  He evidently confounds this word with the nan
Samanai or Sarmanx, which are but other forms of the nan




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE HINDOOS.                  43
Garmanse, which Strabo applies to the second class of Indian
ascetics.  The mention of the monumental pyramid, or tomb
of a god, worshipped by the Samaneans, indicates that these
were Boodhists, of whom we shall give an account in the next
chapter...
The Greek philosopher Porphyry flourished in the third century,
about sixty years after Clement. He says that the Brachmans
live, some in the mountains, and some on the banks of the Ganges:
the former eat fruits, milk, and herbs; the latter fruits and rice.
-Palladius_ and Ambrose, two Christian Fathers of the fourth
century, say, that they undergo the severest philosophical exercises, study frugality and piety, sing hymns to God, contemn
transient things, and renounce all the pleasures and conveniences
of life.
The other sect are called Samanaei by Porphyry, Garmans by
Strabo, and Sarmans by others, as already mentioned. Bardesanes
relates that persons admitted into their community, renounced
their worldly goods, left their wives and children, if they had
any,^to the care of others, shaved all the hair from their bodies,
and wore a monastic gown. They lived without the city in houses
and temples.  They had stewards who provided for their wants.
At the ringing of bells they assembled in the house for prayer,
ifter which each had his dish of rice given to him, with the addi-;ion, if he desired it, of some herbs and fruits.
This description applies to the modern system  of Cenobite
nonachism among the Boodhists of Eastern Asia, and seems to
emonstrate, both that the Samaneans were Boodhists, and that
heir monastic system existed before the time of Bardesanes,
bout the year 172 of the Christian era.   But it should be
bserved, that Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian, who lived
few years before Christ, relates in his second book substantially
te same thing of the Brachmans. If he did not err in applying
to them, as he probably did, then it would appear that the
rachmans had also, at that early period,-a regular system  of,nobite monachism.  But as neither the Hindoo books' nor any




44                      CHAPTER II.
other ancient or modern writer recognises such a system as existing among them, the reasonable conclusion seems to be, that
Diodorus ascribed to the one sect what properly belonged, even in
his time, to the other.
We come now to the reports of travellers who have visited
India since the Christian era.  The earliest of these on record
are the travels of two Mahometans of Western Asia, probably
Arabia.  They were translated from the Arabic by Renaudot:
and may be found in the seventh volume of Pinkerton's Collection of Voyages and Travels.
The earlier of these travellers visited India about the year o
our Lord 850. He gives the following graphic sketch of th,
Hindoo ascetics.
" There are in the Indies men who profess to live in the wood
and mountains, and to despise what other men most value. The
abstain from everything but such wild herbs and fruits as groe
in the woods. The put iron buckles on their privy parts to pr(
serve their chastity. Some of them are quite naked, or hat
only a leopard's skin thrown over them. In this plight they keE
standing with their faces towards the sun.  I formerly saw one 
this posture; and when, sixteen years afterwards, I returned
the Indies, I found him  still in the same posture, and was a
tonished that his eyes had not been put out by the sun's heat."
Here we find unchanged the naked philosophers of Alexande
time, nearly twelve centuries before.
About the year 1280, Marco Polo, the famous Venetian t
veller, found them  still unchanged.  Speaking of the Hinc
Brahmins (the Brachmans of Strabo) he says:  " They are)
great abstinence and long life. There are some devotees ami
them, called Tangui, who go altogether naked, live austerely 
rub their bodies with an ointment made of burnt ox-bones.  T;
neither kill nor eat any living creature, nor any herb or i
until it is dried, esteeming everything to have a soul. They,
no dishes, but lay their victuals on dry leaves, &c."




OF MONACHISM  AMONG THE HINDOOS.                45
After the Mahometans conquered Hindostan, the fanaticism of
the conquerors seems to have infused itself into their Hindoo
subjects, and to have incited them to a wilder and more savage
fanaticism  than formerly; as the following accounts of modern
travellers will show. Besides the Yogis, who are a purely Hindoo
sect, we read of a class of religious savages called Fakirs or poor
men, who are partly Mahometans and partly of the Hindoo religion.
Bernier, a French traveller, about the year 1670, thus describes them:
" Amongst the great variety of Fakirs, &c., of the Indies,
there is abundance of them  that have convents, wherein they
naintain vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience,-* leading so
)dd a life, that I doubt whether you can give credit to it. These are
iommonly called Jaguis, (Yogis) as if you should say, united to
rod.  You shall see many of them  sit stark naked, or lie days
nd nights upon ashes, and commonly enough under those large
~ees that are about the'water-tanks, or else in the galleries that,e about their idol temples.  Some of them  have their hair
nmging down to the middle of their legs, and that wreathed into
veral parcels, like those who have the disease called in Poland
e plica.  Of these I have seen some who held one arm or both
rpetually above their heads, and that had at the ends of their
gers wreathed nails, that were longer by measure than the half
my little finger.  Their arms were small and lean, as of hectipersons, because they took not sufficient nourishment, in that
led posture, and they could not let them  down to take anyig with them; wherefore, also, they have young novices, who
re them, as holy men, with great respect.   There is no
rara in hell so terrible to look upon as these men are, all
3d, with their black skin, long hair, dried arlms in the posture
re mentioned, and with long crooked nails."
I have often met in the fields whole squadrons of these
rs, altogether naked, dreadful to behold.  Some held their
* These arc the three vows made by the Roman Catholic monks.




46                       CHAPTER II.
arms lifted up in the posture before mentioned; others had their
terrible hair hanging about them, or else they had wreathed it
about their heads; some had a kind of Hercules club in their
hands; others had dry and stiff tiger skins over their shoulders
I saw them pass thus quite naked, without any shame, through
the midst of a great borough. I admired how men, women, and
children, could look upon them  so indifferently, and how  the
women brought them alms with much devotion, taking them for
very holy men, mlch wiser and better than others."
On the top of a mountain in Cashmire, in the north of India,
Bernier saw an old hermit,   whose religion was not known,
though it was said that he did miracles, caused strange thunders
when he would, and raised storms of hail, snow, rain, and wind.
He looked somewhat savage-like, having a long and large white
beard, uncombed.  He asked alms somewhat fiercely; suffered
us to take up earthen cups of water which he had ranged on a
great stone; made a sign with his hand that we should speedily
march away; and grumbled at those who made a noise; because,
said he, (when I had come into his cave, and softened him by
humbly putting a rupee into his hand,) a noise raiscth furious
storms and tempests."
Hamilton, in his account of the East Indies, dated about the yeai
1700, says-" There is another sort of Banians called Yougies
(Yogis) who practice great austerities and mortifications. The'
contemn worldly riches, and go naked, except a bit of cloth abou
their loins; and some deny themselves even that, delighting i
nastiness and a holy obscenity, with a great show of sanctitJ
They never cut nor comb their hair; but besmear their bodih
and faces with ashes, which makes them look more like devi
than men.  I have seen a sanctified rascal of seven feet higi
with a large turband of his hair wreathed about his head, and h
body bedaubed with ashes and water, sitting quite naked und
the shade of a tree, with a gold ring through his prepuce.  TV
fellow was much revered by young married women, who prostro
ing themselves, ec.'




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE HINDOOS.                 47
Papi, a later traveller,* thus describes a Fakir:~_  Picture to
yourself a fanatical madman, whose face and whole body, which is
naked except a small wrapper about the privy parts, is thickly
besprinkled with a white powder-whose tangled hair, never
touched by a comb, stands out in a hundred bushy tufts, like the
snake's on Megara's head, who from time to time bellows frightfully, who behaves like one possessed by the devil, walks with
long hasty strides, setting all shame and decency at defiance, his
fiery eyes rolling fearfully in his head; and you will see in the
person of this disgusting, filthy madman, the lively image of a
Fakir.  I frequently saw them  lying on their backs in the open
street, perfectly motionless with their eyes closed, when the sun
shone with a scorching heat, and the sand under them was burning hot.  In this position they would hum  through the'teeth
a sacred hymn, and pretend that they were so absorbed in heavenly contemplations, that they did not notice the passers by;
yet, for all that, they kept glancing round to see whether some
one was not throwing them a gift."
It is related of the Indian Emperor Aurengzebe, that he once
invited the Fakirs of southern India to his court, because he had
heard that they kept gold and jewels sewed up in their ragged
garments.  When they came, he gave them  a royal feast in his?alace; and, after the feast, ordered a new suit of clothes to be
)rought forth for each of them, which he then presented to them
vith these words: " It is just and meet that men so entirely deoted as you are to the service of God, should be better clothed.'herefore lay aside these ragged garments, and take, each of you,
ne of these new suits. In vain did the frightened Fakirs make
1 sorts of objections.  They had to make the exchange, and
ent away grievously dissatisfied with the discovery of their hypo)crisy, and the loss of their treasures.
Niebuhr, the celebrated traveller, says-"The Musselmans
Mahometans) of Surat, in India, have among them a great many
Ikirs of their own religion, who are the most insolent beggars in
* Quoted by Bohlen, Das. Alte.Indien. Ch. 2.




48                        CHAPTER II.
the world."  Again he says of the Hindoos: " They have two
orders of Fakirs among them, the Bargais and the Guseeins, who
travel about armed, in troops of some thousands.  These orders
are sworn enemies, and wherever they meet, fierce combats ensue,
The stories of the ridiculous penances of the Fakirs are well
known.  Their fanaticism has not yet become cold.  There died
lately at Surat, one of these madmen, who had lived shut up in a
cage for twenty years, with his arms constantly raised above his
head."
Those dangerous fanatics who go about in troops, always create
alarm when they approach a town.  The men fly, bet the women
generally welcome their coming, expecting a blessing from the private visits and prayers of these holy men.  When a pilgrim of this
sort enters a house, in the absence of the husband, he leaves his
staff or his sandals at the door, to warn the good man, if he should
happen to arrive, that the saint is engaged in private prayer with
his wife.  Seeing this sign, he takes care not to enter, knowing
that if he did, he would get a good beating for his impious intrusion. 
Frequent mention is made of the long filthy hair of these fanatics.  Dr. Fryer, in the seventeenth century, saw at Surat a Yogi
whose hair was four yards long, and trailed upon the ground.
This confirms a remark of Ward, that the Yogi's lengthen the
natural growth of their hair by artificial additions, which they
could easily combine with their uncombed, clotted, and inextricably-tangled locks.
The reader has seen what the Hindoo books say of the Sannyasi's purgatory of five fires. We find in Maurice's Indian An-,
tiquities, a modern instance of this.  It is a proof not only that
the ancient rules of Hindoo ascetism  are yet practiced to some
extent, but that human nature can, under the influence of fanaticism, endure voluntarily, the most intolerable sufferings.
A Yogi resolved for forty days to endure the purgatory of five
* Picard. Ceremonies et Coutumes Religieuses de tous les Peuples dt
Monde. Tome 1, Religion des Brahmes.




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE HINDOOS.                49
fires, the blazing sun being one of the five.  This solemn act was
to take place during a publicfestival, before an innumerable crowd
of spectators.   He seated himself early in the morning on a
quadrangular stage, with three ascents to it. He fell prostrate
and thus continued his devotion until the sun grew hot. He then
rose, stood upon one leg, and fixed his eyes steadfastly upon the
sun.  Four fires, each large enough to roast an ox, were then
built at the corners of the stage, the devotee counting his beads
the while, like a Roman Catholic penitent. After increasing the
heat of the fires by putting incense into them, he bent down with
his eyes still on the sun, and stood on his head during three
hours.  He then sat cross-legged the rest of the day, roasting between the fires, and bathed in the exudations of his own grease.
So he did, or was to do, continually, until the forty days were expired.
Fryer saw others who had vowed to keep a standing posture
for sixteen years.  One had fulfilled his term.  The legs of all
were dreadfully swollen and ulcerated.
Sonnerat says, that some stand on the toes of one foot, the
other foot being lifted up, and both arms elevated, in the midst
of four fires, and with their eyes intently fixed on the solar orb.
Others (says Sonnerat) appear in public quite naked, to show
that they are no longer susceptible of any passion, and have returned to the state of primeval innocence.
Sonnerat agrees with Ward in saying that the devotees are
characterized by pride, self-love, and an inflated conceit of their
superior sanctity.  They avoid the touch of the common people
and of foreigners, as a defilement. They have a sovereign contempt for all who are not sanctified like themselves.*
The class of Yogis called Tapasvinas, exercise their genius in
revising strange modes of self-torture. Some bury themselves in
)its with only small breathing holes at the top.  Some stand
)uried up to the chin, with their heads only above ground.
)thers disdaining to touch the vile earth, have themselves sus* Maurice's Indian Antiquities, as before referred to.
3




50                       CHAPTER II.
pended in cages from the boughs of trees. Some condemn themselves to imprisonment for life in iron cages, with some painful
contortion of the body annexed. Purchas relates on the authority
of the Jesuit missionaries, that one of them had his body enclosed
in an iron cage, with his head and feet outside, so that he could
walk, but neither sit nor lie down.  At night his pious attendants
attached a hundred lighted lamps to the outside of the cage, so
that their master could exhibit himself walking as the light of the
world. "* Some instead of cages wear heavy iron collars or fetters,
like certain Christian saints in the fifth century.  Some give an
expressive sign of their chastity, by dragging a heavy chain
fastened by one end round their privy parts. Others keep their
fists hard shut, until their finger nails grow through the palms of
their hands. Others support their arms above their heads by grasping the branch of a tree, and there they stand motionless, until
their arms stiffen and dry up, like dead tree limbs. Others stand perpetually on one leg, only at night supporting themselves in a leaning posture, by holding the end of a stretched rope. Others keep
their faces turned over one shoulder, until they cannot turn them
back again. Others lie on wooden beds, bristling all over with
iron spikes an inch long above the wood.  Others have themselves fastened for life to the body of a tree by a short chain.
Others suspend themselves for half an hour at a time, feet uppermost, over a hot fire.  Others have themselves suspended by a
chain from the end of a long lever balanced by a pivot on the top
of a post.fifteen feet high, a hook at the lower end of the chair
being thrust through the muscles of their naked backs; and thu
they are whirled round like a stone in a sling, by men at th
other'end of the lever.  But it would be tedious to enumerate a'
the ways in which these heroes of a false sanctity torture then
selves for the good of their souls, and the applause of the spectator
It does not appear that these mad devotees practice their feats
solitude. Their devotion must be stimulated by the presence
a crowd., How different from him who was truly the Light of the world!




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE HINDOOS.                 51
All these ascetics profess abstinence from  women, wine, and
delicate food.  They live on the charity of their admirers-especially the women, who will do anything for such holy men.  Few
of the Hindoo saints appear now to be anchorites, like the ancient
Gymnosophists and woods-philosophers.   They seem  to have
discovered that holy contemplations are aided by the presence
of witnesses.
Popular applause has a wonderful influence on the human
mind.  The Yogi feels its invigorating power.  The Christian
hermit of old felt it in his secret cell, knowing that his deeds of
self-denial would come to light, and that ten thousand tongues
would utter his praise. We shall find instances of this in the
lives of the hermits.
Alexander Von Humboldt found at Astracan, in Russia, where
some Hindoos had settled, a Yogi who was described to him  as
having for twenty years long withstood the severe winters of that
climate, naked, in the vestibule of the temple. Humboldt saw
him  there, sitting where he had always sat, shrivelled up and
overgrown with hair like a wild beast. He sat in the open vestibule, where people could see him, and admire!
Devotees, after they have  signalized  themselves by such
achievements as above described, become first-rate saints: they
enjoy the reputation of being almost divine: they are nurtured in
the temples as beings whose presence is holy and diffuses blessings on all around them.  They are venerated whilst living, as
the Roman Catholics venerate the relics of their dead saints, and
lttribute a miraculous virtue to them.   We know not which
leserves the palm of superior sense and piety,-the Hindoo or
he Roman Catholic.
The Hindoos have also an order of holy virgins in their temples.'hey are devoted by their parents to the service of the gods.'heir office is to weave garlands for the festivals, to adorn the
tars and to sing and dance in honor of the gods.  These holy:rgins of the heathen nations, may be considered as the protopes of the consecrated virgins of the church in the third and
irth centuries, and of the nuns of later ages.




CHAPTER III.
OF MONACHISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS OF EASTERN ASIA.
~ 1. The Origin of Boodhism.
WE mentioned in the preceding chapter that Vishnu, the second god of the Hindoo trinity, had, in a long course of ages,
gone through nine incarnations, to effect some work of salvation
on the earth. In the ninth he appeared as Boodh, or Budhu, as
it is sometimes written.  This name signifies The Wise, and is
rather a title of honor than a proper name.  He is also called
Gaudama or Gotama, which is supposed to have been his proper
name.
Great obscurity rests upon the history of Boodh. There are
no authentic records of his life, either in Hindostan, where he
lived, or among the three hundred millions of people who follow
his religion in Eastern Asia. There are some old legends concerning him; but these are evidently mixed with fabulous traditions, disagreeing with one another, and, except a very few particulars, are founded on no reliable authority.  The historical traditions of Ceylon, one of the primitive seats of Boodhism, say
that there were several different Boodhs in divers times and places
A similar tradition exists in Burmah. It is probable, therefore
that much of the confusion and inconsistency of the legends aros
from this circumstance, just as the confusion of the mythologies
traditions of HIrcules, Bacchus, &c., among the Greeks, aroe




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS.              53
from not properly distinguishing several personages of the same
namle.
The following outline of facts, embraces what learned men
have generally considered, as in the main, authentic, concerning
the founder of Boodhism.
At sometime between six hundred and one thousand years before Christ, a distinguished religious philosopher, whose name was
Gaudama, and his title of honor Boodh, appeared on the banks of
the Ganges, and was believed by the Hind.oos to be an incarnation
of their god Vishnu.  It was afterwards reported that he was
born of a virgin. His doctrine differed in some particulars from
that of the Vedas, which the Brahmins taught.  He gathered
many followers of his new system of religion; but for some reason
not easily explained-perhaps his retired mode of life, and his
mild, unassuming manners-the Brahmins still paid him great respect, and regared him as an incarnation of Vishnu; though they
did not embrace his peculiar doctrines-an inconsistency scarcely
credible. After his death, however, his disciples incurred the
enmity of the old party, and were expelled from Hindostan by a
bloody persecution. They took refuge in the island of Ceylon,
and in the countries north and east of Hindostan; where they
propagated Boodhism with so great success, that when Europeans
began, in modern times, to visit those countries, they found Boodhism prevailing in Ceylon, Burmah, Siam, Thibet, Eastern Tartary, China, and Japan.  In the two last-named countries only,
were the people still divided between their old religions and Boodhism.
Such is the account most generally current respecting the origin of Boodhism.
But Ward gives an entirely different view of the origin of
Boodhism.  He thinks it doubtful whether this was not the primary religion of Hindostan, and Brahminism  a later system,
raised to pre-eminence by the superior influence of the Brahmins.
He says that, according to the Hindoo writings, two of the six
primative schools of Hindoo philosophy, inculcated the atheistical




54                      CHAPTER III.
doctrines concerning a First Cause, which Boodh afterwards
taught.
According to the Hindoo history, about seven hundred years
bafore Christ, Veru Vahoo of the race of Goutuma or Gaudama,
a follower of one of these sects, destroyed his sovereign, and
seized the throne of Delhi.  This king and his three successors
reigned one hundred and eight years.  The last of them  was
Mloohee Pootoo; and as most writers agree in placing the era of
Boodh in the sixth century before Christ, we may suppose him to
have been the son of Moohee Pootoo, whose family name was
Goutuma, one of the family names of Boodh.
In the Temoo Jetoo, a history of one of the incarnations of
Boodh, he is said to have been the son of a king of Benares, and
to have persevered in choosing the life of an ascetic against the
will of his parents. Accounts agree that he was of royal descent, embraced an ascetic life, and adopted a system of philosophy already prevalent; we may, therefore, suppose, (says Ward,)
that he became the patron and idol of the sect already existing,
and which was afterwards distinguished by his name, and supported by the reigning monarchs, who were connected with him
both by agreement of opinion and by ties of blood. Thus the
Boodhist philosophy predominated during a number of succeeding reigns over the religion of the Brahmins.
But the Brahmins still contended earnestly against the doctrines of Boodh, which they esteemed to be  atheistical; but;
whilst the Boodhist kings reigned, they could contend only with
words.  But three hundred years before the Christian era, Dhooranduru dethroned Adytyu, the last of the Boodhist dynasty, and
assumed the sovereignty.  From this time we may date the commencement of the persecutions by which the Boodhists were
finally expelled from Hindostan, about one hundred and twenty
years before Christ.
The learned Burmans hold that Boodhism was introduced int(
their country about four hundred and.fifty years after Boodh'
time, which agrees with the date just given.*
* Ward's View; book vi., ch. 2.




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS.               55
As a curious and interesting specimen of the legendary stories
ccncerning Boodh, we shall give an abridgement of Carey's translation of the Temoo Jetoo, the Burman legend above mentioned.
In the kingdom  of Kasheeku, and the city of Varanusee,
(Benares,) reigned Kashee Raja, an excellent king, who had sixteen thousand wives, but no child. The people came and begged
the king to supplicate for a son.  The king ordered his sixteen
thousand wives to feast the gods and supplicate for a son. They
did so, but without effect. The Queen Chundra was perfectly
versed in holy rites. The king asked her particularly to supplicate for a son.  When the moon was full, she fasted; and,
reflecting upon her virtuous deeds, she relied upon her perfect
devotions to procure her a son. When she performed them the
second time, the divine messenger determined to fulfil her desire.
Looking around for a proper person to become incarnate in her
womb, he beheld Boodhu-sutwu, who had once reigned over the
kingdom of Varanusee during twenty years, but after death had
fallen into a hell, and been punished for the space of eighty thousand years. He was then born again in the country of Tavutingra, and at death desired to ascend to the higher heaven of the
gods.  The divine messenger said to him-" 0 thou great one!
The queen of Kashee supplicateth for a son: wilt thou consent
to be incarnate in her womb, that thou mayest perform meritorious works and make the people happy?"
He consented, and was conceived in the womb of Chundradevu.  At the same time five hundred sons of the gods
were conceived by the wives of the nobility. All were born on
the same day.
The king was delighted at the birth of his son, and of the
five hundred sons of the nobility. He selected faultless nurses
for the prince.  [He had need to be particular on this point, for
the legend says,]
" If an infant sit upon the lap of a very tall woman, to draw
the breast, its neck grows long; if on the lap of a short woman,




56                       CHAPTER III.
it grows hump-backed; if the woman be lean, her thighs injure
it; if very fat, it straddles or staggers when it walks; if the
woman's breasts be very long, they flatten its nose; if she be
very black, her milk is cold; if asthmatic, it is sour; if she has
a goitre, it.is bitter. Therefore rejecting all faulty nurses, he
gave the child four times sixty small-breasted, honey-like-milk-produzing nurses."
When the child was named, the king summoned the prognosticating Brahmins to declare its destiny. They examined its marks
and found every sign propitious.  The king was pleased, and
proceeded to name the child.
When the young prince was a month old, he was brought before the king.  It happened that four thieves were at the same
time brought in to receive sentence.  The king ordered cruel
punishments to be inflicted upon them. The child was filled with
horror and dread at his father's cruelty.  He remembered his
former sufferings in hell, and expected to be cast into hell again
for his father's sins. He resolved, therefore, to adopt forthwith
a system of ascetic austerities. By fasting he made his body
feeble and lame.  He affected to be deaf and dumb and idiotic.
As he grew up, they vainly endeavored to excite his desires by
tempting fruits and all sorts of pleasant things.  They endeavored also to excite his faculties by frightening him: but it was
all in vain.
The soothsaying Brahmins were called in a second time; and
now declared that the prince's condition foreboded evil to his
parents and to the kingdom.  By their advice, therefore, the
king resolved to send him " in the unfortunate carriage through
the unfortunate gate"' to the burial-ground, and there have him
interred alive. But through a mistake, resulting from the merit
of Boodh's austerities, " the fortunate horses were put into the
fortunate carriage," and thus the young prince-now  sixteen
years old-was conducted to a distant forest.  Here Boodh assumed more than mortal strength: he slung the carriage whirling
through the air: he possessed strength enough to go eight hun



OI MONACHISI AMONG  ltH  HINDOOS.             57
dred miles in a day, The god's arrayed him in a divine dress,
and adorned him with such beauty, that when he addressed the
charioteer, who was digging the grave, to bury the poor helpless
boy, he was not recognized.  But the charioteer being convinced
at last of his identity, besought him to return to the palace as
heir of the kingdom.  He refused and declared Mls resolution to
abide in that forest, as a mendicant hermit. Then the charioteer
announced his intention to follow his example. But the prince
sent him to inform his royal parents of what had happened. The
queen mother, when she was told of the wondrous change in her
son, and his resolution\to become a hermit, sent a son of the gods
to the forest to provide for him accommodations suitable to his
purpose.  This mighty genius soon made in the forest a house
of leaves and a pool of water, and caused trees to grow, which
bore fruit at all seasons of the year.
Here the princely hermit took up his abode. Casting off his
splendid vestments, he girded himself with a coat made of bark,
and threw a leopard's skin over his shoulders. He covered his
head with his long twisted hair, and laid a bamboo across his
shoulders. Then taking a staff in his hand, he walked about in
his woodland bower, exclaiming, This indeed is bliss! How happy
am I! In the evening he took of the fruit of the trees, and
boiling it in tasteless water, without salt or acid, he fed on this as
immortal food.
The king first, and then the queen, visited Mahee (for so the
prince was named) in his forest hermitage, taking with them a
great retinue. Their object was to persuade him to return and
inherit the kingdom. He gave them a taste of the boiled leaves
which he often ate. The royal parents did not relish the diet,
and expressed their astonishment, that with such food he should
be so beautiful and so happy: He accounted for it by saying,
" It is my serene repose that makes my countenance so beautiful.
I feel no remorse for the past and no concern for the future, and
I am prepared for whatsoever may happen.  Therefore my countenance is so gay.   The foolish, because they are anxious
3*




58                      CHAPTER IIt.
about the future, and sorry for what is past, wither away like a
green reed plucked up by the roots."
The king offered him all the delights of royal luxury, if he
would return;-elephants, chariots, footmen, horsemen-lovely
maidens for wives, and dancing girls for amusement; or, said
he, you shal, if you choose, have them  here in the forest:
kings' daughters shall come, that you may have posterity by
them.  Then you can be a hermit-priest during the remainder of
your years.
" Oh, (said Boodh in reply) a man ought from  his earliest
youth to perform the virtuous acts of an ascetic life.  He may
become a priest: that is my choice.  I have seen a youth, the
beloved son of anxious parents, die as soon as he could say father
and mother.  I have seen maidens in the bloom of youth and
beauty, perish like the uptorn sprout of a bamboo. Therefore,
since the young die, who can confide in life? The life of mortals
shortens every night. Of what avail then is youth? Men are
continually harrassed, and continually surrounded with cares.
They pass away without seeing good. Why then should you instal
me in the kingdom?"
The sovereign Kasheeku said, " O son, inform me who it is
that harasses, and who agitates mankind, and what it is that passes
away without profit?"
Boodh replied, "Death  harasses mankind, increasing age
gathers around them.  This know, 0, sire, that as the thread is
shortened by every flight of the weaver's shuttle, so dwindles
away the life of man. As the waters of the flowing river never
re-ascend, so the days of man's life never return. As the overflowing river sweeps away the trees on its margin, so do increasing
age and death bear away the generations of mankind."
The king, when he heard the virtuous sayings of Boodh, became dissatisfied with human life; and being desirous of becoming
a hermit, he resolved to cause his son to go and reign in his stead.
He therefore repeated his magnificent offers, and presented every
allurement that he could imagine. To show his disregard of the




OS MOANACI1ISM AMONG THE HINDOOS.             59
kingdom, Mahee replied, " 0, sire, why temptest thou me with
perishing wealth, dying woman, and the fading bloom of youth!
0, king! What to me is love-the smile of beauty-transitory
pleasure-the anxious pursuit of wealth-sons and daughters and
wives —to me who am released from the bonds of iniquity?  I
know that death will notforget me. Of what use then are pleasures and riches to me?  As the fall of ripe fruits is a constant
evil, so to mankind death is a source of constant anxiety. Of the
many people seen in the morning, a diminished number is seen at
night; and when the morning comes again, still fewer of them
are to be found.  Virtuous deeds ought to be practiced to-day, for
who can tell but that we must die to-morrow: the arrows of
death are continually flying, nor can we possibly escape them
0, king! thieves long after riches, but I am freed from the
bonds of iniquity.  Return, 0, king, for I desire not thy kingdom.  
When they heard these sayings, the king and queen, and all
their retinue, maidens and noblemen, desired to become mendicants.  The king then sent a proclamation to the city,-Whoever will, let him come to my son and be a hermit-priest. The
inhabitants of the city then left their merchandise and their houses
open, and went out to the king, who with many of his subjects
immediately embraced a forest life with Mahee.  The hermitage
which the genius had prepared was filled with occupants for the
space of six miles.
All lived on fruits and performed the duty of ascetics. Mahee
by the power of his devotions was lifted up in the air, and thence
delivered virtuous and mellifluous discourses.
A neighboring king, having heard that the king of Varanusee
had abandoned his kingdom, went to take possession of it. But
learning from the drunken remnant of the inhabitants, how the
king's son had drawn the king and the people to the forest to
share his hermit life, he was so impressed, that he too went with
his attendants to see; and when he heard the mellifluous words,
they all embraced the same forest life. So did three other kings




60                      CHAPTER ZIII
in succession.  The elephants and horses became wild; to
chariots decayed and fell to pieces  the coins of the treasuries
dropped neglected into the dust, and the whole concourse of the
people, after accomplishing their austeries, died and went to
heaven.  Even the elephants and horses, having had their souls
enlightened in the society of sages, were reproduced in the six
abodes of the gods, Mahee closed his earthly career as Boodh,
with the declaration, " I who was deaf, dumb, and lame, am declared to be a god."
Ward gives some account of what the Brahminical Puranahs
say of Boodh. One Puranah says that hle was born in the district
of Magudhu. The Boodhu Puranah says that Boodh had sent
his attendant gods to be born of noble families, but he himself
entered the womb of Maya-devu.  Immediately after his birth,
he gave signs of divinity. At school be showed wonderful knowledge, and instructed thousands of his school-fellows.  After
leaving school, he took up his residence under a tree.-Next he
married Gopa, a virgin of pure family, and kept eighty-four thoiusand concubines besides.  Afterwards he fled from them all and
became a Sannyasi.  He practiced great austerities, and made
many converts.  He became so abstracted in holy contemplation,
that the boys ran sticks up his nose without awakening him to
consciousness.
The gods were filled with such admiration of his sanctity, that
they came down and worshipped him.  But a certain man came
and upbraided him so loudly for his austerities, as to rouse him
to reply, " 0, wicked friend I knowest thou not that I am performing Yogu,-which requires the body to be purified by
austerities?  Death is better than continuance in a body so vile
that meritorious actions will not proceed from it.  I wil subdue
my evil desires."
He finally seated himself on a rock with the vow;-" On this
rock may my body, blood, and bones become dry.  Though




OI MONACHISM AMONd THE BOO1HfrsTA.               e1
mny life depart, I will not abandon this Yogu."   The attending god, smitten with admiration at this vow, worshipped him.
Some Brahminical writers charge, that several sects arose
among the Boodhists, some of whom denied the existence of any
spiritual being. Other writers charge the whole sect of Boodhists
with this perfect atheism, But the charge is false,
~ 24 The Docrines of Boodhism.
Boodh has been generally regarded as a reformer of the religion of the Vedas. Certain it is, if the old traditions are corrects
that he appeared long after the Vedas were written, and long
after the religious system taught in them  prevailed in Hindostan.
Yet he may have adopted, as the foundation of his system, the
doctrine of a pre-existing sect.
Colebrook, who is high authority in this matter, thought the
religion of the Vedas to be the most ancient in Hindostan.
The fundamental difference between Boodhism and Brahminism,
is in relation to a First Cause.  According to Ward and some
other late writers, the Boodhists deny the existence of an eternal
God, and the creation of the world, and are therefore essentially
atheists.
The following summary of their religious philosophy, is taken
chiefly from Ward's View.
Matter is eternal.  Every part of nature has its own rise,
tendency and destiny. The condition of men on the earth is regulated by their works of merit and demerit, Works of merit
raise individuals to happiness and the world to prosperity; but
the predominance of vice produces degeneracy and tends to general ruin.  Men raise themselves to the dignity of gods by meritorious deeds, and the greater the merit of their works, the higher
are the glory and power of their godhead after death, But not
even the highest of these self-made gods has the government of
the world in his hands. Four supreme but not infinite gods, have
presided in succession over the celestial hosts, since time began,
Gotoma or Boodh now reigns: his period is 5000 years, 2356 of




82                       CHAPTER ItN
which had expired in the year of our Lord 1814; which carries
us back to the year 542 before Christ for the commencement of
his era.  When his 5000 years have expired, another saint-god
will obtain the supremacy.
The Boodhists, like the Brahminists, hold the doctrine of Metempsychosis or Transmigration of Souls, and believe in the
existence of divers hells, in which the wicked are temporarily
punished according to their deserts.  The next lowest state of
souls is that of brute animals.  These are states of punishment.
The next is that of man, which is a probationary state. Above
this are divers ranks of deity to which human saints are exalted
according to their degrees of merit.  Above the earth is a succession of heavens, differing in elevation and glory. In these the
different ranks of gods have their habitations. All these were
once men on the earth, and raised themselves to divinity by the
merit of their works on earth-like the saint-gods whom the
Roman Catholics worship.
The Boodhists hold also the doctrine that absorption is the
highest state of glory and felicity.  Among the Hindoos absorption is conceived to be a reunion of the soul with the infinite
godhead, from which it emanated.  But what can the atheistical
Boodhists mean by it?  If there be no universal spirit, no
infinite God, from whom souls' originally proceeded-into what
can they be absorbed? Yet do the Boodhists, as all agree, hold
the same doctrine of absorption, which we described in the foregoing chapter, as being held by the Brahminical Hindoos, and as
constituting in their view the highest state of felicity and the
supreme object of desire. Now if the Boodhists are atheistical
unbelievers in the existence of an infinite unchangeable spirit,
then the absorption for which their spirits are willing to sacrifice
all earthly enjoyment, is absorption into nothing; absolute annihilation is to them the state of supreme felicity and the object
of supreme desire; the highest of their gods in the most glorious
of their heavens are yet in a state of inferior bliss; to be perfect
they must be annihilated! The Hindoo idea of absorption into




OP MONACHISM AMONG THE j00DHISTS.                63
the universal spirit of Brahm, attended with the loss of individuality and consciousness, is an absurd conception of happiness;
but the doctrine of absorption into nonentity as the completion of
happiness, is philosophy run mad, and so superlatively ridiculous,
that Ward is staggered by it, and professes not to understand
this part of the Boodhist doctrines. It is not for us who have
never seen a Boodhist book, to explain what was obscure to him;
but we may signify a doubt, whether those who accuse the Boodhists of atheism be not mistaken.  They have listened perhaps
too readily to the accusations of their enemies, the Brahmins,
and too hastily, perhaps, inferred from their doctrine of the eternity of matter and of the innate powers of nature, that they deny
the existence of any spiritual being above that of a human soul
exalted to divinity. We rather suspect that they are a sort of
Pantheists, supposing that there is in nature itself a Divine intelligence and virtue by which all things are governed: for how
else could they imagine the existence of migratory souls, a moral
order and government of the universe, and an absorption of individual souls into a universal essence? Probably they differ from
the  Hindoo  notion of a universal, quiescent Brahm, separate
from  nature and unconcerned in the affairs of the world, and
place the essence of Godhead in nature itself, as the animating,
moving, and governing spirit of the whole.*
Dr. Buchanan says that Nirvaree or absorption means among
the Burmans exemption from  all misery, but by no means annihilation.  Common sense dictates that such must be the true
account of the Boodhist doctrine.
The divine Boodh is the chief object of worship among his
followers. His relics, or reputed relics, receive as profound a
veneration from the Boodhists, as those of the saints do from the
Roman Catholics.  A king of Pegu once gave an immense sum
* This view of the Boodhist doctrine concerning the original Godhead, is
suggested by Captain Mahoney in his account of Ceylon and the Doctrines of
Boodh. See Asiatick Researches, vol. vii., p. 34.




64                       CHAPTtA ItNt
for one of Boodh's teeth. It. is supposed to be an elephant's
tooth.*  This reminds us of the trade in relics so common in
Europe during the middle ages,
Inferior gods are honored with images in Boodhist temples, and
with a subordinate worship, They occupy the same place in
Boodhism  which the deified saints do in Romanism; only the
former are more ancient than the latter; —the heathen saintgods being the originals: the Christian (if we may so call them)
the copies.
The Boodhists acknowledge the Hindoo Trimurti,-namely,
Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, and assign them honorable offices in
the highest heavens, but not the supremacy ascribed to them by
the Brahmins.
The orders of the priesthood, and the rites of worship vary in
different countries where Boodhism  has been established.  We
shall notice some of these variations hereafter,
Besides the doctrines concerning the gods, already mentioned,
the Boodhist religion differs from the Brahminical chiefly in the
following particulars:
1. The Vedas prescribe certain bloody sacrifices of animals,
though in general the Hindoo religion forbids the killing of living
creatures. Boodh forbade the taking of life on any occasion, and
confined his followers to vegetable offerings, such as flowers and
fruits of the earth.
2. Boodh abolished among his followers the old distinction
of casts, to which the Hindoos still tenaciously adhere.  We
mentioned these casts in the preceding chapter.
3. Among the Hindoos the Brahmins are the sacred cast.
They have the exclusive privilege of teaching religion, and conducting its services. This privilege being hereditary, is common
to all Brahmins, who need no ordination and are all of equal
rank.  On the other hand the Boodhists have regular orders of
priests, who differ in rank, but are taken from the people at
large.
* See Carl Ritter's Erdkunde von Asien, vol. iv,, p. 1168.




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS.                 65
4. The Brahmins marry at discretion.  When they engage in
ascetic exercises, each one'chooses his own time and mode of
procedure.   He is not bound to others by any vow, nor subject to  the rule  and government of any order or superior
officer.
The Boodhists on the contrary have connected a regular
system  of monachism  with the priestly office.  Their monastic
system  bears a wonderful resemblance to that of the Roman
Catholics; but as it is much the older system, we may be sure that
it was not borrowed from them.  But the Boodhists have not
quite so many varieties of monastic orders among them. Their
monks for the most part live in monasteries, are bound by vows,
and are subject to rule and government. Monastic discipline is
strict, and great pains are generally taken by the abbots and the
older monks, to keep the younger ones out of temptation, especially from women.
The Boodhist monks are less fanatical and extravagant in their
penances, than the Hindoo Yogis. They adopt in great part the
same principles of ascetic severity against the body, but their
practice is more sober and moderate.  They depend mainly on
fasting, prayer, psalmody, and the use of the whip, to keep their
rebellious flesh in subjection. Like the Hindoo Sannyasis, they
endeavor by intense contemplation to raise their souls above all
earthly thoughts and cares, and to prepare themselves by divine
meditations for the felicity of heaven.  Some monks, in order to
give themselves more undisturbed  to these beatifying  exercises, leave their monasteries, and shut themselves up as anchorites in solitary places, like the Christian anchorites of the
fourth century.  Dark forests and lonely mountain tops, are the
favorite places of retreat for these holy day-dreamers.*
* For a general account of Boodhism, see Guignaut's French edition of
Creutzers Religions de 1P Antiquite, book 1. ch. v., and Bohlen. Das Alte
Indien, ch. ii. For notices of Boodhist monks, see Syme's Embassy to Ava
ch. iv. ix. and xi. Turner's Embassy to Thibet, passim.




66                        CHAPTER III.
The moral law of Boodh is fundamentally comprised in five
precepts, forbidding, first, The killing of animals; second, Theft;
third, Adultery; fourth, Falsehood; and fifth, The use of spirituous
liquors.   These prohibitions apply to all classes of persons.
Devotees who aim  at sanctity, are moreover to abstain from
dancing, singing, instrumental music, festivals, perfumes, elegant
dresses, high seats, &c.
When a man enters the priestly office, he moreover renounces
all the pursuits and customs of the world,-shuns women, lives on
alms, eats nothing except at noon', possesses but three garments,
a begging dish, a girdle, a razor, a needle, and a straining cloth
to take insects out of the water which he drinks, lest he should
kill them, contrary to law.
The monks are schoolmasters, and teach gratuitously as a work
of merit.  In this they differ fiom  the generality of Christian
monks-in the gratuitous part, from  the whole race of them,
ancient and modern.  Boys of fine parts are, if the parents consent, liberally educated for the priesthood, but may choose at a
certain age whether they will be priests or not. Boys of five
years and upwards are admitted into the seminaries as students,
and are trained to observe the five precepts, and those also which
prohibit pleasures and amusements.  Those who obey the rules
may be ordained priests at twenty years of age.  Then if they
obey the law of two hundred and twenty-seven precepts, to which
priests are subj3ct, they may at the expiration of ten years be
promoted to the rank of priests of the first order, who are empowered to have colleges and disciples under them.
The ordination of a priest is a very important ceremony.  It
requires the presence of a priest who has been twenty years in
orders, and of five others who have been ordained ten years at
least. Spectators are excluded from this ceremony.
Religious festivals are regulated by the moon.  The Boodhists
of Ceylon observe every quarter of the moon, so that their sacred
days occur about once a week.  The Burmans keep holy only the
days of full moon and change, having but two festivals a month.
Y~  ~rr —~vu,,~-~-3C




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS.                 67
On these days common business is suspended, people resort to the
temples to worship Gotama or Boodh, with offerings of rice,
flowers, fruits, candles, &c. Old people often fast during the
day.  The priests do not officiate in the temples, but give religious instruction out of their sacred books to those who attend
their colleges, or monasteries, for that purpose. This account is
from Ward and applies chiefly to the Burmans.*
There is a fundamental principle of the religious philosophy
of both Brahmins and Boodhists, that will explain much of what
may seem obscure.
Saints, especially those of high degree, are reverenced as
having a portion of divine energy dwelling in them, and as partaking, so far, of the divine nature. Brahm, the supreme god of
the Hindoos, though supposed to be generally quiescent and even
unconscious, is believed however to have periodical fits of energy,
from which all spiritual beings, and all extraordinary manifestations of spiritual power, proceed. When, therefore, a human
saint exhibits a high control over his corporeal and mental
system, in the voluntary endurance of sufferings, and in abstraction of mind from  all earthly things, he is supposed to be
energized by the universal spirit of Brahm, and to possess a portion of divinity.
The divine energy attributed to Brahm  by the Hindoos, is by
the Boodhists supposed to reside in nature. This energy, when
imparted in an extraordinary degree, to human souls, is therefore supposed to raise them to the rank of gods, and to make
them proper objects of religious worship after death, when they
ascend to the heavens, and reign in subordination to the supreme
power of nature.
~ 3. Monachism in Burmah, Siam, and Cochin China.
The island of Ceylon was one of the earliest seats of Boodhism
* Ward's View, book vi. ch. ii. as before cited.




68                      CHAPTER III.
after its expulsion from Hindostan: but its monastic institutions
present nothing peculiar or remarkable, except it be that the
monk-priests were formerly, and perhaps are yet, exceedingly ostentatious in their devotions. Like many of their Christian brethren,
they walked the streets with their lips and their beads in constant
play, muttering and counting their prayers, as if entirely absorbed in their devout exercises; —an infallible sign that they
were hypocrites, like the Pharisees of old, and sought the praise of
men rather than the praise of God.
The empire of Burmah comprehends the countries of Aracan,
Ava, and Pegu.  We have already given a general account of
Burman monachism. We  add some particulars, taken from
modern books of travels.
In Aracan, " there are three classes of priests. Their chief,
who resides in the Island of Munay, has the direction of the
public worship.  His orders are seldom disobeyed.  The respect
which he inspires, approaches to adoration. The king, absolute,
as he is, never disputes the precedency with him at ceremonies,
and is never covered before him."
So, here we find a little pope among the Boodhists-one
almost as God-like in power, as his holiness of Rome was five
hundred years ago. But we shall find a much greater Boodhist
pope after a while.
" All the priests," says a traveller, " condemn themselves to
eternal celibacy. Whoever transgresses on that point, is immediately degraded, and thrown back among the profane. Though
all obey the same chief, they do not all observe the same discipline.  Some live retired in private abodes, at their own expense.  Retired from the world, and despising the pleasures of
life, they are forgotten by mankind, and inhabit only rocks in
gloomy forests or deserts. When the wants of life oblige them to
appear in public, they have an humble aspect and downcast eyes;
but their modesty seems to be an artifice to command admiration.
Others, more happy and less solitary, inhabit magnificent palaces,
@that is, monasteries,) where they indolently enjoy the wealth




OF MONACIISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS.                 69
that the king and princes bestow on them, with the view of ingratiating themselves with heaven.
" These idolatrous priests are intrusted with the education of
youth, as if men dedicated solely to prayer and mortification,
were qualified to form magistrates, warriors, artists, and ministers
of state. There are, also, hermits-a sort of wild men, who are
esteemed in proportion as they are fantastic.  They, like the
priests, are divided into three orders, who all renounce the
strongest passions of our nature, with an idea of thereby pleasing the Creator, who wisely bestowed these very passions on us,
to be enjoyed, but not abused, nor wholly neglected."
Every trait in this description has its exact counterpart in the
ancient and modern monachism of Christendom.
At Rangoon, in Pegu, are many convents, a little way out of
the city.  The number of Rhahaans and Phongis-the senior
and junior orders of priests-was formerly estimated at one
thousand five hundred. " Like the Carmelite monks of Europe,
they have their heads close shaven."
These clerical monks, like the mendicant orders of Europe,
have no need of storehouse or barn; for the pious working people
feed them daily, with food ready cooked. All that the brethren
have to do, is to detail certain of their number, who shall travel
the streets every morning, with an open provision box.  They
have no need to beg; the good people watch opportunities to
drop their offerings into the box, believing that these charities
will be richly rewarded with spiritual blessings.  Thus the monks
always have a plentiful dinner.
The monk-priests wear yellow  clothing.  This is the distinguishing color of the Boodhist priesthood, and so it was five hundred years-possibly  fifteen hundred years-ago; though in
Cochin China and Japan, other colors were also worn to distinguish several orders of monks.  The Burman monks, as well as
those of other countries, profess to abstain from every sensual
indulgence.  To prevent the brethren, especially the younger,
A Pinkerton's Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol 9, p. 762.




)                       CIIAPTER Itf.
forn fllling, into temptation, no one may go out of the cloister
without leave of the prior.
A Rhahaan detected in a violation of chastity, is punished by
daubing his face with white and black, mounting him on an ass,
drumming him  through the streets, and out into the commons,
where he is turned loose, and told to go and shift for himself.*
In ascending the great river Irrawady, Syme noticed, in a tall,
perpendicular cliff, by the water side, some apertures, resembling
doorways.  He was told that these were the entrances of cells
cut into the rock in former times by hermits, who spent their
lives in those inaccessible dens. Their food had to be let down
to them  with cords from  above.t  The same sort of fantastical
monkery formerly displayed itself in the church. It found practitioners enough, while the vain devotees drew admiring crowds
about their dens, and were duly fed by obsequious attendants.
But when the fashion changed, and they were left to enjoy their
wolf-like solitude unvisited, their holes were left untenanted, except, perhaps, here and there by one Troglodyte, whose melancholy mood drove him into gloomy seclusion; like those madmen
described in the gospel, who dwelt in the tombs, because they
were possessed by a legion of demons.  But we never read of
these solitary devotees having suffered themselves to starve outright, much as they hated to eat and drink.
In Siam, the monk-priests are called Talapoins. They live, for
the most part, in large cloisters about the towns. Within the
walls are separate buildings and cells for the inmates.  There is
an anchorite class of Talapoins, who retire into the gloomy recesses of the forests, and there lead a purely contemplative life,
where a luxuriant tropical vegetation casts a perpetual twilight
over the earth, and tigers and serpents share the dismal solitude
These melancholy Talapoins, remind us of the ancient woodsphilosophers of India, in the days of Alexander the Great.
The profession of a Talapcin is thought to have such sanctity
* Syme's Embassy to Ava, chap. 4.          t Chap. 9.




OF M5ONACIHISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS.                71
and such merit, that all the Siamese are desirous of sharing its
advantages.  Hence, be it only for two or three days, they get
themselves admitted into a cloister, and invested with the sacred
costume.  Being, thereby, sanctified, once for all, they live and
die more contented.  Thus, in the days when Popery was absolute in Europe, a superstitious villain died happy, if he could
breathe his last, and be buried, in the coarse rope-girded habit of
a Franciscan beggar-monk.  Then he thought the devil would
not dare to touch him.  The infallible church did not condemn
prevailing notions of this sort. They were useful to her. They
gave, not only to herself, bodily, but to every rag and rope of her
trumpery, a precious sanctity in the eyes of her subjects-the
wicked no less than the righteous.
The regular Talapoins carried the doctrine of the evil nature
of the body, and its pleasures, a little farther, we think, than
other Boodhists. They held, and, we presume, do still hold, that
marriage is always sinful, and that it is sinful even to look at a
woman.  No wonder, then, that they burn  to death without
mercy, every brother who is convicted of unchastity.  But the
Talapoinesses, or nuns, who occupy separate cloisters, are not so
rigorously punished for this crime.*  Whether the priests regard
female chastity as less important, or the frailty of the sex as a
palliation, we cannot tell. The Talapoins, when they denounce
the smelling of perfumes-even those of flowers-as sinful, only
follow the laws of Boodh; but where did they learn that it was
sinful to make a hole in the ground, or to shed one's urine upon
water, or fire, or the lap of mother earth?
Like the Roman Catholics, they hold the doctrine of confession to a priest, and the penitential efficacy of fasting, and such
like austerities. Pilgrimages to holy places, they deem meritorious.  They devoutly worship their dead saints.  Their worship in the temples consists of ceremonies and entertainments.
The Talapoins in the cloisters must not work, but meditate, pray,
sing, preach, &c.  They are zealous preachers, holding forth,
* Picard, Ceremonies et Coutumes, Tome I. Siam.




72                       CHAPTER III.
sometimes, nearly all the day long.  They have the priestly
tonsure, and practice frequent ablutions.*
The superstitious people hold the Talapoins in great reverence,
as we may infer from  the zeal with which they feed them.  Gothard Arthus, (quoted by Hospinian,) mentioned, some centuries
ago, another and more striking proof of the fact.  The Talapoins
-more cleanly than Christian monks-frequently bathed themselves.  The common people deemed that the water that took off
their carnal impurities, was not only sanctified by the process, but
endued with a sanctifying virtue.
Therefore, they eagerly got it, and used it as a salutary drink.
Carl Ritter says that Boodhism was introduced into Siam, in
the year of our Lord, 63S.t
Cochin China, south of the great Chinese empire, is another
country in which the religion of Boodh has been established for
many ages.  Here the Jesuit missionaries found it about three
centuries ago, and found, to their astonishment, that it was a
religion, which, though thoroughly heathenish, was most wonderfully like their own. In proof of this, we shall give the authority of Borri, one of these missionaries.  The following long
extract is taken from a translation of Borri's Account of Cochin
China.  The reader may find it in Pinkerton's collection, vol. ix.
p. 762.
" There is," says Borri, " such a variety of Omsaiis (or heathen priests) in that country, that it looks as if the devil had
endeavored among the Gentiles, to represent the beauty and
variety of religious orders (that is, of monks) in the Catholic
Church; their several habits answering their several professions:
some are clad in white, some in black, and some in blue and other
colors: some live in community, others like chaplains, canons,
and  prebendaries.  Others profess poverty, living on  alms;
others exercise works of mercy, administering to the sick, &c.
* Carl Ritter, Erdkunde von Asien, Band. IV., Sec. 1170.
t Erdkunde, Band IV. S. 1155.




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS.              73
Others, again, look to the monasteries of women, who live in
community, and admit no man among them, but the Omsaii who
looks after them, and they are all his wives.'
We fear that the zealous missionary was too hasty in imputing
such unchaste practices to his Boodhist brethren and sisters,
though the charge is not incredible; such monastic concubinage
having been rather usual among the monks and nuns of the
Jesuit's own church.  But hear him further"There are vast temples with beautiful towers and steeples.
The idols are generally very large statues, with abundance of gold
and silver shut up in their breasts or bellies. What is remarkable, the priests have chaplets and strings of beads about their
necks, and make so many processions, that they outdo the (Roman
Catholic) Christians in praying to their false Gods. There are
also among them  persons resembling bishops, and abbots, and
archbishops; and they use gilt staves not unlike our croziers;
insomuch, that if any man come newly into that country, he might
be easily persuaded there had been Christians there in former
times; so near has the devil endeavored to imitate us.Here Borri has reversed the truth.  If Boodhism be of the
devil, then, since it is older than Romanism, he should rather
have said, "so nearly have we endeavored to imitate the devil."
We do not adopt this language; we only say, that if there be
imitation in the case, the Romanists were the imitators.
But Borri proceeds to say, that the Boodhists of Cochin China
believe in future rewards and punishments. He charges them with
error in not distinguishing between the human soul and demons,
and in assigning transmigration as one of the rewards of the
soul. The reader is aware that these errors are common to the
Brahmins and the Boodhists.
Another error, or rather superstition, that he imputes to them,
is, that the souls of the dead stand in need of corporeal food; for
which reason the friends of the deceased set out food for them.
In answer to the objection that spirits have no mouths, and that
te food set out for them remains unconsumed, these ingenious
4




74                       CHAPTER III.
heathen said that " the meat consisted of two parts, the one substance, the other accidents of quantity, quality, smell, taste, and
the like.  The immaterial souls of the dead, (say they,) take
only the substance of the meat, which being immaterial, is proper
sustenance for the spirit, and left only the accidents in the dishes,
as they appeared to our corporeal eyes."
We admire the subtlety of this answer.  It would have done
credit to the angelic doctor Thomas Aquinas; and we are
astonished that a believer in the Romish doctrine of transubstantiation, should reject it as unsound, when he himself believes-or
professes to believe-that when a priest says Hoc est corpus over
the bread and wine of the sacrament, the substance of these meats
is taken away, and the accidents remain.  Even in this, the subtlest philosophical theory ever invented to give seeming possibility to an infinite absurdity, the heathen Boodhist had anticipated
the atom-splitting schoolman of Rome.  Or if the former did
not anticipate the latter, so as to give the devil the credit of the
invention, then let Boodhist and Romanist alike share the honor
of devising this philosophical absurdity of supposing the accidents
or sensible properties of a body to exist without any substance, or
with the substance of an entirely different body! It is equivalent to supposing that by the evidence of sense a thing is, when
in fact it is not. But if our senses give fallacious evidence, then
nature and nature's God may be all an illusion. The foundations
of belief are subverted, and nothing can present itself with evidence of reality, but our own thoughts and feelings.  But let us
hear what more Borri has to say of the Cochin Chinese.
" They also err (says he) in respect to the souls themselves,
adoring those of men who were looked upon as holy in this world,
adding them to the number of their idols.
[Listen ye saint worshippers of Rome, to your Jesuit Borri!]
" But the high altar, (says he-and Roman Catholics know very
well what is meant by the high altar-) being the most honorable
place in the temple, is purposely kept empty, behind which is a
vacant dark space, to express him  whom  they adore as God.




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS.                75
Such a multitude of idols, by them accounted gods, giving us occasion to endeavor to demonstrate to them, that there can be but
one God, they agreed to it, saying that they whose images they
placed along the sides of the temples, were not they that had
created the heavens and the earth, but holy men whom they honored as we do the holy apostles, martyrs, and confessors, with the
same distinction of greater and lesser sanctity, as we assign among
our saints.  And therefore, to corroborate their assertion, they
added that the vacant dark place about the high altar was the
proper place of the Creator, who being invisible, could not be represented by visible images; but that under that vacuity and
darkness the adoration was to be given to him as to a thing incomprehensible, using the intercession of the idols, (or saints,)
that they may obtain favors and blessings of him (for their worshippers.")
If Borri does not here describe  a  Boodhist saint-worship
precisely similar to that of the Roman Catholics, then we know
not what can be like it. Indeed the Boodhist doctrine and worship in this country, so far as he describes them in the above extracts, are even, in his own opinion, the exact counterparts of the
Romish system.
Their doctrine concerning a divine creator of the world, was
either misunderstood by the missionary, or the Cochin Chinese
have, on this point, varied from the doctrine of Boodh, as late
writers have generally represented it.
Tonquin is a country lying between Cochin China and the
empire of China. Here, likewise, Boodhism is the predominant
religion, and still carries all the leading features of its resemblance
to Romanism-namely, its convents of monks and nuns, confession of sins to the priests, with priestly absolution; holy water;
temples and altars lighted, and holy flambeaux; rosaries on which
to count repetitions of prayers; religious festivals and jubilees;
sale of dispensations or indulgences, &c. Their monk-priests are
said to promise themselves plenty of wives in heaven for their con



76                      CHAPTER III.
tinence upon earth; for what is a sin here, they think will be a
virtue there.  The monasteries are reported to be places of
debauchery; if so, the priests must act upon the principle, that
a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
~ 4. Monachism among the Lamaists of Thibet.
In the cold mountains of Thibet, the religion of Boodh has
assumed the form of Lamaism; the peculiarity of which is, that
there is an order of superior priests called Lamas; whose supreme
head is the Grand Lama, worshipped as an incarnation of the
supreme God, and also has several provincial subordinates, worshipped also as incarnations of secondary gods.
Nowhere in the world does monachism prevail as it does in this
poor wintry region of mountains and lakes.  Monasteries are
found occupying choice situations in all the inhabited parts of the
country. These are filled with hale, hearty fellows, who show by
their looks, that they are well fed and live much at their ease.
Once a-week, they march in procession to bathe themselves in
the nearest water.  Thrice a-day they assemble for prayer.
They have their fasts and their festivals, their instrumental
music and their hymns, and when they celebrate worship in the
temples they make a prodigious noise.  As far as Turner and
other travellers in the country observed their conduct, they appeared to be gentle, orderly, and strictly chaste. Although, to
the transient eye of a stranger, only the fairer side of their character would appear; yet from all accounts, there seems to be no
reason to doubt, that they live as inoffensively as any monks in
the world.  Turner observed that they shut up their cloisters
every evening, that the young friars and novices might have
no opportunity of intercourse with women.  Sometimes, however, "love laughs at locksmiths:" but then, let us not suspect evil, when all appearances are good.
In Thibet the Boodhist priests constitute a complete and regular
hierarchy. Besides the Gylongs, or common monk-priests, they'have llamas of different ranks, human and divine; and at the




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS.              77
head of all is the Grand Lama, who is the Pope of northern
Boodhism, and of higher'dignity than even the Pope of Rome,
who is God's vicegerent; for the Grand Lama is the great God
himself, incarnate.  He never dies; he only transmigrates from
an old body into a new one. No sooner has he left one human
body, than the priests of his court search for him in some newborn infant, and never fail to discover him by infallible marks.
What those marks are, we know not: but what does it matter?
The priests know them, and that is sufficient. The same remarks
apply to the secondary divine Lamas, who rule over provinces in
subordination to the supreme god incarnate, who resides in the
city of Lassa.
The Lamaists of Thibet have some remarkable superstitions
among them.  We shall mention two things, in which they have
gone beyond even the Rornanists.
The one is a singular contrivance, which they have made for
the purpose of expediting prayers. It is a barrel-formed cylinder,
balanced on an axis, and easily turned by a touch of the hand.
It is covered with written prayers and characters of mysterious
import. It is placed near the doors of temples and by road-sides.
Every devout passer-by gives the cylinder a turn, and thus puts
all the prayers in motion at once.  This is considered as equivalent to an oral repetition of them all, which would require no little
time and labor.  We commend this prayer-saving machine to the
notice of our Roman Catholic friends, when they have to repeat
hundreds of Paternosters and Ave Marias daily as a penance for
their sins, and have to mumble them over with all possible haste,
and to count themn on the beads of the rosary. We submit it to
their pious consideration, whether they might not as well turn
them on a wheel.
The other matter concerns the Grand Lama's excrements;
which being those of a god upon earth, are believed to have in
them  a divine virtue to heal the ailments of poor mortals, and
to guard them  against evil spirits and evil accidents.  Therefore the priests preserve them with intense care, and deal them




78                       CHAPTER III.
out in small portions to the faithful. The faithful reverently mix
the precious substance with their food, as a divine medicine; reserving a small part, which they inclose in a little sack, and wear
as an amulet suspended from the neck.
The Roman Catholics have equal faith in the relics, sound or
rotten, of their dead saints; and so far they are as devout as the
Boodhists of Thibet; but we do not think that they carry their
devotion to the relics of the living Pope to the same extent.
They seem to think that there is beatitude enough in kneeling before his holiness and kissing his BIG TOE.
When the Jesuit missionaries, a century or two ago, entered
Thibet for the purpose of converting the people to Romanism,
the were amazed to find a religion established there which they
could scarcely distinguish from their own.* The resemblance
was even  more complete than  it was in Cochin China and
Tonquin.
There, as we have already stated, was a hierarchy of priests
corresponding with their own;-and there a complete system of
monachism, with monasteries, nunneries, and hermitages, and
monks by thousands and tens of thousands,-all under the same
vows as the Roman Catholic, and subject to the same government
and discipline;-and all, up to the Grand Lama himself, with
shaven heads, like their own priesthood, and clothed in similar
showy sacerdotal robes and caps.
There was a chief holy city like Rome with its Pope, and inferior holy cities with their grand dignitaries, like the metropolitan archbishops and patriarchs of Christendom;-all, but especially the holiest of all, full of priests, temples, monasteries,
ceremonies, festivals, processions, and pilgrims from  distant
lands.
In the temples, they saw a showy ceremonial worship like their
* See the description of Thibet in Pinkerton's Collection of Voyages and
Tavels, vol. vii. The author took his account of these things from the published letters of the Romish missionaries.




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS.              79
own;-an  altar for sacrifice, and a mass of bread and wine
offered upon it; images of saint-gods, before which the worshippers bowed-holy water with which they were sprinkled-prayers
in a dead language, and rosaries or strings of beads on which to
count them.
There too they found sins confessed to priests, and penitents
fasting, repeating prayers with the rosary, and whipping themselves: —there the doctrine of purgatory, prayers for the dead,
and extreme unction for the dying.
The Romish missionaries were so confounded by the general appearance of conformity between Lamaist Boodhism and Romanist
Catholicism, that they did not know what to think, or what to do.
They had nothing, or almost nothing, to convert, except some
doctrines and some names and titles.
The most mortifying circumstance was, the claim of this religion to a higher antiquity than that of their own Church-" The
Mother and Mistress of all Churches." This claim, if admitted,
would make " Holy Mother," in her most distinguishing features,
the image, if not the offspring, of heathenism.  They could
imagine no other way of evading this humiliating conclusion, than
by supposing that these people were a sort of bastard Christians,
who had once been a part of the true church, but had somehow,
most strangely and  unaccountably, substituted  the Boodhist
theology for the Christian, while they retained the forms and institutions of the Catholic Church.
The supposition is egregiously absurd, not only in itself, as a
sort of thing unheard of amongst men and morally impossible, but
in relation also to the fact, that neither the country nor the religion of Thibet exhibits a remnant or a trace of the religion of the
Bible; not a tradition, not a name even, nor a token of any sort,
except the points of resemblance to Romanism above-mentioned;
and not one of these appertains to Scriptural Christianity-they
are all of heathenish origin.
The only historical fact that could give the slightest plausibility
to this supposition is, that a thousand years ago, more or less, the




80                       CHAPTER III.
Nestorians sent missionaries into Eastern Asia, and planted
churches in Tartary, Northern Thibet, and Northern China.
On this foundation the Romish missionaries endeavored to build
their theory of the Christian origin of those Boodhist doctrines,
institutions, and forms of worship, which give such a Roman Catholic appearance to Boodhism.
The learned Malte Brun, in his geography, adopts this theory;
and Carl Ritter, in his great German work on Asia, supposes that
the Lamaists borrowed some religious forms and ceremonies from
the Nestorians, who formerly existed among them.  This opinion
differs much from that of the missionaries before-mentioned; yet
even of this Ritter himself produces no evidence, except the mere
presumption arising from  the conformity of Romanism  with
Lamaism.  But this presumption is overthrown by the fact, that
nearly the same conformity exists in Cochin China, in Tonquin,
and, as we shall hereafter show, in Japan-countries far beyond
the bounds of the Nestorian missions.  No Christian church was
ever planted within 1500 miles of them.  The only Boodhists
with whom the Nestorians came in contact were the Lamaists of
Thibet, Tartary, and Cathay, or Northern China.  But the Boodhists of Cochin China, Tonquin, and Japan are not Lamaists.
If any of them derived their religion from Thibet, it must have
been at a period antecedent to the rise of Lamaism, and to the
existence of Nestorian churches in Northern Thibet or Cathay.
The opinion that the Lamaists were once Nestorian Christians,
and retained their forms of worship when they embraced Boodhism, is as contrary to historical facts, as it is to rational probability. Ritter's opinion, that the Lamaists embellished their
ceremonial by adopting in part the praotices of the Nestorians
among them, is founded, as he says himself, upon the conformity
observed by the Romish missionaries in later times between the
Lamaist worship and their own.*  He seems not to have heen
aware that the missionaries observed almost the same conformity
* Ritter's Erdkunde, vol. 2, page 283. &c.




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS.              81
in Cochin China and Japan, and in like manner ascribed it to the
malice of the devil,
Though it is not) and cannot be, pretended that the Boodhists
derived their monachism from the Nestorians, yet we deem it interesting, both in itself and for the illustration of. our subject, to
pursue the argument somewhat farther.  The religious history of
Central Asia, where different systems met and mingled for centuries, is curious and little known.  We have room for only a few
facts.
Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, was condemned by a
Council in the year 431, for denying that St. Mary was God's
mot/her.  The Catholics persecuted his followers, who took refuge
in Persia, where they were protected by the king.  This opened
Asia to their missions. By the year 500 they had spread as far
as Bactria and India, By the year 636 their missions extended
to China, according to an inscription on a marble slab found in
that country about two hundred years ago. The inscription was
partly in the Syriac language, and purported to have been made
in the year 7S1. Its genuineness is very doubtful. Setting that
aside, it does not appear that the Nestorians penetrated into
Cathay or Northern China till after the year 1000. But they
had previously planted churches in Tangut, or Northern Thibet,
and in Tartary. Such was the progress of Nestorianism.*
In the seventh and eight centuries the Mahometans extended
their missions into Central Asia. They interfered seriously with
the progress of Christianity.
The Magians, or Persian fire-worshippers, were, at the same
time, advancing their missions eastward into the same extensive
regions.
Before all these, the Boodhists of Thibet had been pushing the
missionaries of their religion into Tartary and China. As early as
the year 400 of our era, they had planted Boodhism in the Chinese
* Mosheim. Ch. Hist. Centuries X., XI., XII. Ritter, Erdkunde, vol. 2,
p. 283, &c.
5*




province of Shen-si on the upper waters of the Hoangho.*  Before
the Nestorians had penetrated to the borders of China, the Boodhists had already established one hundred monasteries in the city
of Khotan, upon the high table-land of Tartary, and upon the
waters of the great river that flows north and east into the Lop
Sea. This was the route by which9the caravans passed through
Central Asia, between Cathay and Persia, or India.  By the Lop
Sea and its river Yarkiang, did the missionaries of four religions
meet on their way to the great valley of the Hoangho, and the
populous cities of Cathay. It is certain that the Boodhists were
the earliest and the most successful of them all. For some time,
however, the Nestorians flourished and, in some parts they became
the prevailing denomination. In the twelfth century arose the
great Tartar chief, Ginghis Khan, a Mahometan, who reduced all
Tartary under his dominion, and greatly injured Christianity.
From that time Nestorianism began to decline in Eastern Asia.
In the thirteenth century, Rubruquis, a monk, was sent by
Louis IX., of France, into Tartary; and Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant, went to Cathay.  Both of them found Nestorian
Christians in Tartary, and Polo found them in Cathay, mixed
everywhere with Mahometans or Boodhists, often with both, and in
a few  places with Magian fire-worshippers.  These travellers
usually called those idolaters, who were not Christians or Mahometans.  We should remark that the Nestorians rejected the
use of images in worship, while the Boodhist, like the Roman
Catholie, used them.  This made a notable difference between the
Christians and the Boodhists of Asia; though it was afterwards
a feature of resemblance) when Romanism  came into contact
with Boodhism.
Both these early travellers in Asia agree in representing the
monastic institutions which they met with, as exclusively belonging to the idolaters-that is, the Boodhists. This is an important
fact in the present investigation. Another important fact is, that
between the Christians and the idolaters, though there seems to
* Ritter, Erdkunde, vol. 2, p. 205, &e.




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS.               83
have been peace, there was nothing like fraternization or amalgamation.  The line of separation was strongly drawn, and there
was no appearance of the one melting into the other.  No such
change appears to have been going on as the hypothesis which we
are examining supposes.  Nestorian Christianity afterwards became extinct in those countries; that is certain; but it must
have come to pass by the destruction or conversion of its professors, not by the amalgamation of two religions.
We shall now confirm these statements by quoting from these
early Christian travellers.
Rubruquis, describing the rites and ceremonies common to the
idol temples at Cailac in Tartary, says that the priests had their
heads and faces shaven, and were clad in yellow garments, with
yellow hoods or caps-(the Boodhist uniform)-that after being
shaven, they lived unmarried, one or two hundred together in a
cloister. They also carried about with them strings of nut-shells,
much like the beads of the Roman Catholics, and often repeated
the same form of prayer. Such precisely are the Boodhist priests
of modern times.
Again, says Rubruquis, speaking of the nations that inhabit
Northeastern Asia, " They are all given to idolatry. The Nestorians live among them as strangers, and so do the Saracens-or
Mahometans-as far as Cathay.  The Nestorians inhabit fifteen
cities of Cathay, and have a bishop there in a city called Segin.
But if you proceed further, they are mere idolators. The priests
of the idols of those nations have all broad yellow hoods-(that
is, they are Boodhists.)  There are also among them certain hermits, living in woods and mountains, of an austere and strange
life.  The Nestorians there know nothing; for they say their service out of holy books in the Syrian tongue, which they do not
understand.  They are great usurers and drunkards; and some
of them also, who live among the Tartars, have a plurality of wives.
The bishops visit them only once in a long time. By their evil
life and  covetousness, they drive  the idolators farther from




84                        CHAPTER III,
Christianity; because the life of the Moguls and Tuinians, who
are idolaters, is more just and upright than theirs."
But enough of Rubruquis; let us now take some quotations
from Marco Polo.
" In the province of Chesmur (Cashmere?), the inhabitants are
idolators above all others, cunning enchanters, forcing their idols
to speak, and darkening the day.  There are certain hermits in
this province, who, in monasteries and cells worship idols, honoring
their gods with great abstinence of meat and drink7 and observe
great chastity.  They live long. Many of them are reputed saints,
and the people show  them great reverence.  The men of this province kill no living creature, and shed no blood."
" In Sachion, a city of Tangut, a few Nestorian Christians are
found among the worshippers of Mahomet, Many idolaters are,
also, there.  The city hath many monasteries consecrated to idols."
Again, he says, " Campion is a great city, the principal of the
country of Tangut.  In it are Christians, who have three great
and fair churches.  The rest are Mahometans and idolaters.
The idolaters have many monasteries, where they worship their
idols.  The monks live more honestly than other idolaters, abstaining from whoredom and other base things."
Again, speaking of Jangamur, in Cathay, the place: Where Rublai Khan
A stately pleasure dome decreed,J7
whose beauties so fired the imagination of Coleridge, he says
" there are two sorts of idolaters, called Chebeth and Chesmu,
who, in the midst of storms ascend the palace, and suffer no rain
to fall thereon, which they make the people believe comes to
pass by their sanctity, and, therefore, they go slovenly, and negligent of their persons, nerer washing nor combing themselves.
They are also called Backsi, which is the name of their order, as
Friars Predicants, or Minors, with us.  They have great monasteries, some of the bigness of a city, in which are about two thousand monks) who serve an idol, and are sequestered from the laity,




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS.                85
as appears from their shaving their heads and beards, and wearing a religious garment.  There are some called Sensim, who
observe strict abstinence, leading an austere life; for they eat
nothing but meal mingled with water, till all the flour be gone,
and then they eat the bran.  These worship the fire; and the
men of other rules say that they are heretics, because they worship not idols as they do. They shave their head and beard, and
wear hempen garments, either black or of a bright yellow. They
sleep on mats, and live the severest life in the world."*
Again, speaking of the great city of Quinsai, in China, he
says that the people are idolaters, and have monasteries with many
monks.  He describes all the southern parts of China as being
filled with idolators, and makes no mention of Christians and
Mahometans there.
He speaks of the great province of Mangi as abounding in
monasteries of idolatrous monks, but no Christians except a few
lately sent there by the great Rublai Khan.
Prester John.
During the Middle Ages, while the Crusaders were warring in
Palestine, they heard a rumor of a Christian sovereign somewhere
in the far East, who was called Prester John,-that is, Presbyter
or Priest John.  The rumor was soon carried through Europe
and excited a lively curiosity to learn something definite respecting this mysterious priest-king, whose name was John. As always
happens when people are eager to hear, rumor after rumor was
spread respecting this Prester John; some placing him in one
eastern country and some in another; but all agreed in attributing
to him great power and a magnificent court. Still no one in particular could testify that he had seen him or visited his country.
In those ages of war between Christians in Europe, and Mahometans in Asia, rarely did it happen that a Christian traveller
was venturesome enough, or successful enough, to penetrate to
* From this it appears that the Magian fire-worshippers had their monks,
too. But no mention is made of Christian monks.




g86                    TCHAPTtR it.r
Eastern Asia, where it was supposed tnat Prester John reigned
among surrounding nations of infidels. Though many years had
elapsed from  the beginning of the rumor, before Marco Polo
succeeded in traversing the-vast and little known regions of the
far East, still it was supposed that Prester John was reigning in
that quarter of the world, and Polo was resolved, if possible, to
discover the place of his kingdom. But, although he traversed
Asia east and north and south, still Prester John, like the
horizon, seemed to fly from his approach.  At last, however,
though he did not find him, he imagined that he obtained information of where he was to be found.
He heard of a province called Tenduc or Tandach, lying eastward of Tangut, which is nort-east of Thibet. " Here," says he,
" Prester John resides, who now pays tribute to the Great Khan.
The king of that nation is called George, and is a Christian priest;
and most of the people are Christians.  All the Great Khans,
since the death of Prester John, who was slain by Ghingis Khan,
-give their daughters to these Christian kings to wife.  But
this king George holdeth not all that Priest John before held.
He is the fourth of that family. There is a nation there called
Argons, descended of idolaters and Mahometans,  There are
also two regions where they dwell, called Gog and Magog; but
they which dwell there call them Ung and Mongul.  In Ung are
Gog and in Mongul are Tartars. Riding east seven days towards
Cathay, are many cities peopled by idolaters, Mahometans, and
Nestorians. "
Such was the report that Polo heard and was fain to believe,
for the want of something better. By the aid of his imagination,
he also discovered the Gog and Magog of the Scriptures in the
Chinese name Ung and the Tartar name Mongul.  Ritter thinks
that the name of Prester John might be derived from the Chinese
title TUtg Khan or Oan Khan, meaning over-king or great king,
the title by which the great Tartar Khans of those times were
distinguished. The resemblance of Ung, or Oan, to Joan (pronounced Yoan), connected  with  the report spread by the




OP MONACHISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS.              87
Nestorians of the conversion of an eastern king to Christianity,
might in those times give rise to the whole story of Prester
John.
In the year 1046, the Nestorian Archbishop of Samarchand
published an epistle, announcing that multitudes of converts had
been made in Thibet and Khotan, and that the Nestorians had
seven kings and 70,000 horsemen, and that their king was called
Nasarat.* Carl Ritter thinks that these must have been the Turks,
who then began to bestir themselves in Central Asia, and ruled
over countries in which many Nestorians lived.  It was one of
their princes who was said to been a few years before this time
converted to Christianity. A confused report of all these matters
may have originated the story of Prester John.
As to Polo's Prester George in the province of Tandach or
Tenduc, he was never found; though the enterprising Venetian
pursued all the great routes of travel through the eastern parts
of Central Asia, in which this visionary priest-king must have
been, if he had a local habitation as well as a name. He traversed the whole of Tangut; he describes the more southern
country of Thebet or Thibet.  He says that the people of this
region were idolators, and prostituted their wives and daughters
in honor of their idols. He mentions the great city of Cainduc
on the eastern border of the country, —also of the great lakes that
are laid down on our maps, and of the great extent of the country
westward from  Cainduc; yet, with the exception of a few
Nestorians and Mahometans on the western border, the whole
population of Thibet was composed'of idolaters; that is, of
Boodhists. It is evident, therefore, that no Prester John ever
exisited in Thibet; and what is directly to the point of our present investigation, Christianity never obtained a footing there;
nor could it have exercised any influence in forming the Lamaist
system of Boodhism, which had its chief seat and probably its
origin at Lassa, where Christianity does not appear ever to have
* This epistle is found in the Syrian Annals of Abulfardi. See Ritter's
Erdkunde, vol. ii. p. 283, &c.




88                      tCHAPTER III.
had a church or even a missionary, before the Roman Catholics
found there the exact counterpart of their own corrupt system of
heathenish Christianity.
Polo did not travel through this part of Thibet, and does not
mention the Grand Lama, He travelled nearly six hundred years
ago, and the power of this Boodhist pope may have been in its
infancy, though his brother at Rome was then in the full magnitude of his vicarious godhead.
Nestorianism, though it carried with it some of the early corruptions of Christianity, came yet far short of the Roman Catholic
system, to which Lamaism in Thibet was found to bear so striking
a resemblance, Romanism and Lamaism  are more nearly alike
than Romanism  and Nestorianism, in everything except their
Christian theology, in which Boodhism differs from both.
It is evident from  the reports of Rubruquis and Polo, that
Christianity was declining in Eastern Asia in the thirteenth century,
Boodhism on the one hand, and Mahometanism  on the other,
were pressing it down; its fall was hastened by the ignorance and
the vices of. its professors, and by the want of support from the
West, where Mahometanism was bearing down all denominations
of Christians in Asia, About two hundred years later, when the
Romish missionaries began to penetrate the interior of Eastern
Asia, not a remnant of Nestorianism was found in the countries
where it had flourished a few centuries before.
Here we close our investigation of a curious and obscure part
of the religious history of Central and Eastern Asia. We have
thought it to be sufficiently interesting in itself, and sufficiently
pertinent to our main subject, to justify the space which we have
given to the examination of a hypothesis, resorted to, in the first
place, by Romish missionaries, and too hastily adopted by some
learned men to account for the close resemblance between Romish
Christianity and Boodhism, as it exists in several countries, but
especially among the Lamaists of Thibet.




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS.              89
~ 5. 1'lIonachism in China and Korea.
The Chinese are divided in their religious sentiments; some
adhering to the doctrines of their ancient philosopher Con-fut-see,
or Confucius, whilst the greater number, especially among the
common people, profess the religion of Fo, which is, in fact, the
Lamaism of Thibet.  The name Fo is nothing but the name
Boodh modified, so as to adapt it to the Chinese habits of pronunciation.
Boodhism was introduced into China as early as the first century of our Christian era. Lamaism is probably of later origin
even in Thibet; but it is now the only form of Boodhism known
to exist in the empire. It prevails most in the northern provinces and among the Tartars inhabiting the vast steppes of Upper
Asia, as far as the Chinese dominion extends.
The extracts already given from Marco Polo demonstrate the
flourishing state of Boodhist-Monachism  in China six hundred
years ago.  Two centuries ago the Dutch sent an embassy to
China. Nieuhoff, the secretary, wrote an account of the journey
of the ambassadors from  Canton to Pekin.  From this account
we take two significant extracts.
" On the Maw-wha; near a delightful valley, stands a monastery
with a spacious temple.  It was built by Lu-zu, a reputed saint,
who spent all his time in grinding and sifting rice for the monks,
and wore iron chains day and night on his naked body. These
made holes in his flesh, which, for want of'dressing, putrified and
bred nests of worms; yet Lu-zu would not suffer them to be removed, but when one dropped off, he would pick it up again and
say,' Have you not sufficient to feast yourselves left? why then
forsake you my body, where you are welcome to feed?"
Here was a consistent saint. Holding the Hindoo and Boodhist principle that the body is evil, he punished this vile part of
his nature as a sinful thing.  Holding that worms had souls like
his own, though cramped for the present in mean bodies, he fed




90 -CHAPTER III.
them  liberally on his flesh, which he conceived to be put to its
best use, when it was eaten by worms.
But says Nieuhoff in another part of his work:
" In view of the city (Nankang) stand several stately temples;
the chief of them are built upon mountains, where dwell a great
company of priests and friars, each in a little hut or cell, where
they discipline themselves every day with lashing, which the people believe to be very meritorious in another world, for they hold
the transmigration of souls. They told us that on Quanlyu (one
of these mountains,) there were as many cloisters as days in the
year."
These pious monks might have passed for good Christians;
especially of the sort formerly in vogue among the Roman Catholics, and not yet extinct, called Flagellants or Whippers, if the
author had not mentioned their belief in the transmigration of
souls.
There are in China many sorts of fanatical monks-generally
beggars-similar to the Hindoo Fakirs.  The generality of these
seem to be arrant impostors, who resort to various modes of selftorture, real or apparent, for the purpose of extracting alms from
the people.  Wherever there is superstitious credulity enough
among the people, to reward such feats of pretended saintship with
gifts and admiration, there we may be sure to find fanatics and
impostors enough to turn this popular credulity to their advantage.
The peninsula of Korea has been rarely visited by Christians,
and is little known. It is a dependency of the Chinese empire,
and the religion of the country is Boodhism. Of course it has
the monastic institutions that constitute an inseparable, if not an
essential part of this ancient and wide-spread religion.
Nearly two hundred years ago, the Dutchman Hamel, was shipwrecked on the coast of Korea; and afterwards wrote the best
account that we have seen of this inhospitable country. He represented the people as having little except the form of the reli



OF MONACHISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS.                   91
gion which they professed. But they had numerous monasteries,
built chiefly, as in China, upon the tops of mountains. The early
Christian monks of Asia followed the same custom, as we shall see
hereafter, of locating themselves upon the mountains. " Some of
their monasteries (says Hamel) contain five or six hundred monks,
whereof there are four thousand within the liberties of some
towns."  In fact, Korea swarms with monks.  When a brother
offends against the rules, his superiors punish him with strokes on
the buttocks.  From  this we may infer, what Hamel says, that
the private members who are thus subjected to the bastinado upon
their seat of honor, are despised; while their superiors, who have
the privilege of giving the bastinado, are respected.* There
are also nunneries in Korea.  Some of the monasteries on the
mountains, and in other secluded places, are represented as being places of resort for purposes of debauchery.  But enough of
Korea and its monachism.
~ 6. Monachism in Japan.
Finally, we arrive at the empire of Japan, that singular country of islands in the farthest east. Here is the eastern frontier
of Boodhism, and much that is worthy of observation.  We shall
endeavor, as heretofore, to present, in a concise form, the most
important and the most curious facts relative to the religion and
the monachism of the country under consideration.
Here again, far beyond the utmost range of early Christianity,*
* This is another feature of resemblance between heathenist and Christian monachism. Christian abbots formerly beat offending monks with
whips and cudgels.
* Meylan, a president of the Dutch factory in Japan, relates a story, professedly from Japanese records, of a religion introduced into Japan in the
year fifty, after the birth of Christ; which religion, in some points, resembled Christianity, and which some would be eager to take for Christianity,
in order to account for the resemblance between the Japanese religions and
Romanism. But, unfortunately, Meylan says, that this religion was Brahminical; and the date of its introduction into Japan, is entirely too early
to admit of its having been Christianity. Then, too, the doctrines supposed




92                       CHAPTER III.
Boodhism exhibited its striking similarity to Roman Catholicism,
when the country was first visited by the Jesuit missionaries.
They found, in Japan, two sovereigns-a spiritual sovereign,
like the Pope, residing in the holy city of Meaco; and a temporal
sovereign, like an emperor, residing in his capital city of Jeddo.
The former was the original sovereign, but had lost all civil
power.  Under this spiritual sovereign were religious dignitaries,
priests and monks, with a system of worship, doctrines and practices, essentially identical with those which distinguish Romanism
from Biblical Christianity. We shall notice the leading particulars as we proceed.
The spiritual sovereign just alluded to, was not a Boodhist,
like the Grand Lama of Thibet.  He was the head of the primitive religion of Japan. This religion is called Sint-yu. It is a
system of idolatry, acknowledging one primitive, and many subordinate gods; but founded, in a great measure, upon the deification of the ancient kings and heroes of the country. In Japan,
as in Rome, the Supreme Pontiff assumes to himself the exclusive prerogative of canonization-that is, of declaring who among
the departed is, and shall be, worshipped as a god, or divine
saint. He founds his decision upon the same principles, and the
same sort of evidence, as his holiness of Rome does; to wit,
that departed soul of saint or hero has become a worshipful
divinity, who has appeared after death, or has wrought miracles.
When a temple is built to one of these new gods, his relics are
carefuzlly deposited in the sacred enclosure, and venerated by the
faithful, just as the Romanists do with the relics of their canonized saints-nay, the two religions have a still closer agreement in
this matter; for both Sintoists and Romanists believe that the
relics have miraculous power in them, because they are still animated, or, at least, haunted, by the souls that possessed them
before death. 
The Sintoists have also their monasteries of Cenobite monks,
to have been Christian, namely, those of a Divine Trinity and of a Redeemer
born of a Virgin, are found also among the Braminical sects.




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS.                93
and their wild hermits, who live in the desert mountains, like the
Christian hermits of the fourth and fifth centuries. These wild
hermits are called Jammaboes.  Properly speaking, they are of
a mixed sect, called Rioboo-Synsyu.  They have no settled
abodes, nor any regular system of exercise, but practice much
bodily mortification to purify their souls, and make pilgrimages to
certain high mountain-tops in the desolate regions of the country.
Picard* relates a singular story of the manner in which these
mountain hermits confess penitents; but where he found the
story we cannot tell, as he cites no authority.  His great work
is, however, generally accurate. Hurd, in his universal history
of religions, relates the same story, but cites no authority.
When a sinner wishes to get absolution from these holy wild
men of the deserts, he must climb the mountains, and find some
of them  who live about the outskirts.  These border hermits
will conduct him to others more savage than themselves, in the
wildest parts of the mountains. The latter then prescribe to the
penitent certain preparations for his confession. He must endure
excessive fasting, climb rugged mountains, and scale lofty precipices. If he goes through this stage of his preparation without
finching, he is then conducted through pathless wilds to a dreary
solitude, where he must sit still upon the ground for a day and a
night, with his arms crossed, and his head resting upon his knees.
Ile must not budge, nor show uneasiness in that posture  for if
he do, the fierce guards who watch him, are sure to beat him well
with their clubs.  During these twenty-four hours, he must take
a deliberate review of all his sins.  Being thus prepared, he is
marched, by fatiguing ways, to the top of a high rock to make
his confession.  A great beam  projects over the perpendicular
side of this rock, and a pair of large scales is suspended from the
outer extremity of the beam.  The machinery is so contrived,
that the beam can be drawn in and pushed out at pleasure. The
penitent is placed in one of the scales, and an equal weight in the
other.  Then the hermits push out the beam and suspend their
* Ceremonies et Coutumes, &c., Tome I, Des Japanois.




94                       CHAPTER III.
penitent, nicely balanced, over the frightful precipice below.
In this ticklish situation, he must make his confession with a loud
voice.  If he falter in the confession of any sin, or give indication that he wishes to conceal anything, his savage examiners give
the beam a sudden jerk, so as to throw him out and let him fall
upon the rocks below.  We can scarcely doubt, that, in such circvmstances, he would be careful and prompt-and loud also-in
telling all that he could remember of his sins. If he satisfy his
confessors that he has honestly discharged his conscience, he is
relieved from his perilous situation, pays them a large fee, and is
dismissed, with their absolution and a light heart, to render thanks
to the gods, and to feast and make merry with his friends, in
compensation for the labors and terrors of his confession.
We leave it to the judgment of our readers, whether or not this
rough way of dealing with penitents be more likely to reform
them, than the penances of the Roman Catholic priests, with
their fish diet, (called fasting,) and their Paternosters and Ave
Marias counted upon a strand of beads.
Hempfer in  his history of Japan* remarks, that in  his
time these hermits had much degenerated from  the austerity of
their predecessors; who, according to the rules of their founder,
lived upon nothing but wild plants and roots, and exposed themselves to perpetual and very rude trials and mortifications, fasting,
plunging into cold water, wandering through rocky solitudes, and
wild forests, and the like.
The same author informs us, that there are many more religious orders established in the country; that the common people
have a superstitious veneration for their ecclesiastics; that a
religious life was easy and pleasant, according to the custom of the
time when he wrote; that the convents possessed great wealth;
and that consequently many, under the cloak of devotion and retirement, became monks that they might give themselves to uninterrupted luxury and wantonness.  Such, we may add, appears to
be in every country, and under every system  of religion, the
* For an account of tha Religion of Japan, see chapters xi., xvi.




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS.               95
natural, if not the necessary course of monastic institutions. Being founded on principles contrary to nature, (whose author is
God,) insulted nature will resume her sway; having been forced
out of the channel of virtuous enjoyment, she turns aside into
the lawless courses of vice for gratification.
Boodhism, or Budsdo-as the Japanese call it-was propagated
in Japan many ages ago, and in time gained a preponderance
among the common people over the old Sintoism of the country;
insomuch that many of the Sintoists adopted a sort of mixed religion, compounded of the two. The mixture was not very difficult, because the two systems agreed in several fundamental
principles.
We may remark by the way, that religious persecution was
scarcely known in China and Japan, and a perfect religious freedom reigned, until the Romish missionaries so managed as to excite, first the jealousy, and then the enmity of the government.
Being Jesuits, they pursued the jesuitical policy of making their
religion subservient to their ambition. Their sort of Christianity
had so much in common with the heathenish systems of the country, that they found it no difficult matter to make converts. But
no sooner had they gathered a strong party of adherents, than
they began to pursue a policy which excited the suspicion of
political designs. In Japan they took part in a civil war, that they
might gain political power.  Hence in both China and Japan
they were expelled from the country; their followers were exterminated by persecution; and the very name of Christianity was
made so odious, as to render the conversion of these populous
nations a very difficult undertaking.  Protestant missionaries,
before they can gain even a hearing for their doctrines, have before them the hard task of removing a deeply-rooted prejudice
against the Christian name, and of demonstrating to unwilling
minds, that there is a true Christianity materially different from
Jesuitism; one whose spirit is all purity, benevolence, peace, and
submission to lawful authority; and whose end is not worldly




96                        CHAPTER III.
power and wealth, but the salvation of the soul. But let us return to our subject.
As might be expected, Boodhism varies somewhat in different
countries, retaining everywhere the material parts of the original
system, but modified in some of its forms and circumstantials.
The Boodhists of Japan have in their ancient books the five precepts of their founder, called by them the precepts Siaka-namely,
first, kill not; second, steal not; third, whore not; fourth, lie
not; fifth, drink no strong liquors.
These five commandments are expanded, first into ten Sikkai,
which serve for the general conduct of life; and these again into
five hundred rules called Gofiakkai, which are intended for those
who aim at moral perfection in this life, and the highest felicity in
the life to come. They are exceedingly strict, and prescribe an
ascetic life of the rudest and austerest character; making the
mortification of the bodily senses and appetites their chief end and
aim.  They show how deeply seated in the oriental mind, is that
principle of the ancient heathen philosophy, which makes the
chief part of human virtue consist in bodily mortifications.  From
this principle sprang the monachism of Eastern Asia; and with
the introduction of this principle into the Christian Church in the
second century, came asceticism; with its growth, in the third
century, came monachism, with all its extravagancies.
The Boodhist Bible teaches doctrines very different from those
taught in our Bible, but in some remarkable points identical with
those of the Roman Catholic Church. For example, the doctrine
of purgatory, or purification of the soul after death by torments
for a limited time; and the doctrine of prayers and offeringsthat is, of masses-for the souls in purgatory, who are supposed
to be relieved in part or in whole by these masses, said by the
priests and paid for by surviving friends.*
The priests also celebrate a yearly religious festival for the
dead, very nearly in the same manner, and identically for the
same purpose, as the Roman Catholics celebrate their Feast of
* Kempfer, ch. xvi.




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS.                 97
All-Souls. " The priests perform the service every year on an
appointed day, each in their rank, and in their own pagodas [or
churches.]  They go in a row, one after another in procession,
round a covered grave, chanting litanies and a sort of service for
the departed.*
In Japan, as elsewhere, the Boodhists havetheir monk-priests,
their nuns, and their monasteries,-their shaven heads and their
celibacy. Here they preach, read prayers in a dead language,
bow to their idols, count their beads,-in short, do as the Roman
Catholic priests do.
Here too they have stately temples with convents adjoining.
The temples are full of gilded images,-" In the middle of the
temple (says Kempfer)t stands a fine altar with some images upon
it, and a beautiful candlestick with sweet-scented candles burning
before it. The whole temple is so neatly and curiously adorned,
that one would fancy himself transported into a Roman Catholic
church, did not the monstrous shape of the idols evince the contrary."
From this description of Kempfer, who saw what he describes,
it is evident, that the only circumstance which distinguishes a
Boodhist temple in Japan from  a Roman Catholic church, is the
shape of the idols.
No wonder that the Jesuit missionaries who visited Japan were
astonished, as their brethren were in Cochin China and Thibet,
to find among these remote heathen a religion so much like their
own.  Their letters expressed their astonishment.  Besides the
particulars already mentioned, they noticed the close similarity
between the monastic institutions of the two religions, and between their priests and ceremonies. The Bonzes-as the Boodhist
priests of Japan were called-had large libraries in their convents;
they summoned the monks together by ringing brass bells; the
prior every evening prescribed to his monks a theme on which
they were to meditate; at midnight certain choirs took it in turn
to chant prayers at the altar, like the matins of the Romish
* Pinkerton's Collections vol. vii. p. 629  Ch. xx.




98                      CHAPTER III.
monks; and at the dawn of day all the monks spent an hour in
private meditation.  They also had shaven heads and many
festivals in the course of the year.
These things were good in themselves-in Roman Catholics
very good; but in these heathenish Bonzes, the wondering missionaries took them to be the work of the devil. 
In reading such accounts of the Japanese monk-priests, one
can hardly divest himself of the impression that they belonged to
the Mother and Mistress of all Churches-the Catholic, or Universal Church, as she claims to be. But supposing Boodhism and
Romanism to be not the same, then we can hardly shake off the
impression that they are sisters, the offspring of a very ancient
mother, the primitive religious philosophy and superstition of
Eastern Asia.
The Romish missionaries in Japan were excessively provoked
by the discovery of such a likeness between themselves and those
whom they had come to convert.  They hated their brethren, the
Bonzes, with superlative hatred. In their letters they blackened
their characters to all intents and purposes.  What was commonly
practised among the Romish clergy, they imputed as a mark of
extreme depravity in the Japanese clergy.
For one thing, the Bonzes drove a pretty lucrative traffic in
the sale of Indulgences. They drew bills, containing a form of
words, which they assured the purchasers would not only keep off
evil spirits in this world, but would serve as passports to the
felicity of the world to come. They were equivalent, therefore,
to the Roman Catholic Bills of Indulgence, in which Holy Mother
formerly traded so very profitably, and in which she has continued
to deal in those countries in which the article is still in demand.
Yet this is one of the grounds on which the Romish missionaries
charged the Bonzes with being morally the impurest of mankind
and the most avaricious.
Another sin of which they accused the Bonzes was, that they
would borrow money on a pledge of repayment in a future state;
and to secure the payment, they gave the lender a written bond,




OF MONACHISM AMONG THE BOODHISTS.                   99
Uhich he was to carry with him  into the other world.  If this
priestly trick was not misrepresented by the Jesuitical enemies of
the Bonzes, it was a piece of scurvy imposture which could deceive only the most ignorant.* Yet, in a moral point of view, it
was not a whit worse than the Popish Bills of Indulgence. Is it
any more fraudulent to sell a bond payable in money after death,
than to sell a bill payable in merit to save a man's soul from purgatory?  Few would be simple enough to buy the cash bonds, but
many millions have been imposed on by the merit-bills of the Infallible Church.
They also charged the Bonzes with refusing to offer sacrifices
and prayers for the dead, until they had received a fee; and this
they must have (said the missionaries) even when the surviving
relation who applied for the service, was the poorest of men. Oh,
the wicked Bonzes!  No wonder the good Jesuits were indignant
* Yet a Christian bishop of the fifth century is related to have played the
same sort of trick. In the year 410, Synesius, a Platonic philosopher of
Cyrene, was ordained Bishop of Ptolemais, though he was at the time as
much a Platonist as he was a Christian. But he became zealous to convert
pagans to Christianity.
He had a pagan friend, the philosopher Evagrius, who refused to turn
Christian, unless convinced of the truth of the Scriptural proverb, He that
giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord, who will repay him. Synesius at
last overcame his doubts, and converted him. Then Evagrius put into his
hand three hundred pieces of gold to distribute among the poor; for which
the bishop gave him, in the name of the Lord, a written bond for the money,
payable after death. Evagrius kept the bond carefully, and on his death-bed
ordered his family to put it secretly into his hand when they buried him.
They did so; and three nights afterwards he appeared in a dream to Synesius, and said, Come to my grave and take back your note; I have received
all, and have written a full discharge on the note. Synesius had known nothing of the affair; but on inquiry of the family, he learned that the note
had been buried with the corpse. On opening the grave, he found the note,
with a receipt in full for the money, endorsed upon it in the handwriting of
the dead philosopher, who declared that Jesus Christ had repaid the loan
which he had given to the poor! The note was afterwards carefully preserved in the church of Cyrene. The story is found in the Pratum Spiritale of Moschus. The reader may find it also in Tillemont and in Jostin's
Remarks, A. D. 410.




100                     CHAPTER III.
at their conduct. It is true, we admit, that the Roman Catholic
priests have always made a great deal of money by saying or singing masses-that is, offering sacrifices and prayers-for the dead;
and they have taken fees for this charitable service from even the
poorest of men.  But then, have they not a right?  Are they
not priests of the only true Church?  And have they not power
to pray souls out of purgatory?  At least we can make bold to
affirm that the Bonzes had no such power.
The famous missionary, Francis Xavier, a Jesuit, and the first
who went to Japan, is still more severe on the Bonzes. In one of
his epistles from Japan, he says:
" They are so shamefully given to all sorts of crimes, especially
to sodomy, that they openly avow the practice; and instead of
blushing, when reproved by Christians for using men as women,
they answer them with scoffing and ridicule. They have in their
monasteries many young and handsome sons of the nobility, sent
there to be educated; these they abuse in the flower of their age.
Some of the Bonzes resemble [Roman Catholic], monks, in keeping their heads shaved, and in wearing grey clothing. These are
more lax than others in their discipline. They have nuns of the
same order, with whom they live. All reports agree that when
these women become pregnant, they procure abortion by the use
of drugs."*
St. Francis Xavier, who told these things is almost divine authority; for, on account of the miracles which the Jesuits reported that he had wrought in the far East, the Pope of Rome
canonized him, that is, made him a worshipful saint in heaven,
to succor those on the earth who should pray to him.
It appears from the foregoing passage from his letters, that the
Boodhist monks in Japan, as in other countries, conducted the
education of youth. But we must intimate a little doubt, whether
he is correct in saying that they generally abused the sons of the
nobility in the shameful manner charged; for although a Dutch
* See Commentaries of the Jesuits on the affairs of India and Japan, quoted
by Hospinian, De Origine Monachatus.




OF MONACHISM  AMONG THE BOODHISTS                101
writer* charges the nobility themselves with the same crime, they
would hardly allow their sons to be so abused. That some of the
Bonzes kept catamites is, however, credible enough; for when
men outrage nature in one way, by refusing a lawful indulgence
to a constitutional appetite, they are very apt to outrage it also
in. some other abominable way, as these Bonzes were charged
with doing, and as many a Roman Catholic priest and monk has
done.
But enough: we will close this long chapter with the remark,
which the reader has, no doubt, already made, that the facts
detailed in it are very curious and interesting; and exhibit a resemblance between Boodhism and Roinanism, which is too close
to be accidental, and sufficiently important to deserve farther
investigation.
CONCLUDING NOTE.
Since the time of Kempfer, little has been added to our knowledge of Japan. The best general account is by Von Siebold, a learned German. But
all the late information, obtained through the Dutch traders, amounts to so
little in respect to the religion of the country, that Kempfer, now about
one hundred and fifty years old, is that from which we have drawn most of
the preceding statements.
* Caron in his account of Japan.




CHAPTER IV.
MONACHISM AMONG THE MAHOMETANS.
As Mahomet arose about 600 years after Chirst, of course
neither his doctrine nor his followers could have any thing to do
with the origin of monachism among either heathens or Christians.  On the contrary the Mahometans derived their ascetical
notions and practices from  the Christian and heathen nations
amongst whom they found them.
Our motive for inserting a brief account of the monkish superstitions and fanatical penances of the Mahometans, is to show how
these things operate upon mankind under every system of religious
belief.
All the Mahometan nations have religious orders among them;
that is, either monks, in the full sense of the term; or certain
classes of devotees, who affect an ascetical austerity of manners,
and claim  on that account an extraordinary degree of sanctity,
and often a divine gift of working miracles.
Niebuhr, the celebrated traveller, says that the Sunnites-the
Mahometan sect to which the Turks belong, are known to have
among them a great many religious orders; the members of which
are distinguished by the name of Dervishes and Santons, and are
discriminated from one another by a diversity of dress and manners.
" In Arabia the Dervishes are professors of the Occult Sciences,
or Magic and Miracles.  The highest of the sciences is called




MONACHISM AMONG THE MAHOMETANS.                 103
Ism Allah.  It enables its professors to discover what is passing
in the most distant countries, to make themselves familiar with
genii (a sort of spirits); to oblige them to obey their will; to dispose of the winds and seasons according to their pleasure; to cure
the bites of serpents, and many other diseases.  Persons who
have gone far in the study of this science, have attained, as there
are (pretended) instances to prove, to a facility of performing
their prayers at noon in the Caaba of Mecca without going out of
their houses at Bagdat or Aden."
" The art of procuring sublime visions is not unknown to these
Arabians.  They use the same means that are employed by certain societies in Europe. They shut themselves up for a long
time in a dark place, without eating or drinking, and continue to
repeat their prayers aloud till they faint away. After recovering
from the swoon and leaving the cave, they relate what they have
seen in their trance. The common pretences are, that they have
seen God in his glory, angels and spirits of all sorts, heaven and
hell. "
" The second sort of these sciences, called Simmia, is not of so
exalted a nature.  Although the most sensible of the Mahometan
clergy disapprove ofthis science, some orders of Dervishes, however apply themselves to it, and practice it, in order, they say, to
prove the truth of their religion and the sanctity of the founder
of their order. These pretended miracles are often performed at
Bosra, where I have seen (says Niebuhr) a company of Dervishes
of the order of Bedredden walk about all day in the streets, leaping and dancing, beating the drum, and making gesticulations
with sharp-pointed irons, which they seemed to strike into their
eyes. "
" In the same city I was present at a festival, which the Dervishes of this order celebrate every year.  The scene was in the
open air and in the court of the mosque, which was illuminated
with only three lamps.  Several Mullahs and Dervishes began
with singing some passages out of the Koran. They continued t9
sing with the accompaniment of some drums; and during the




104                     CHAPTER IV.
music, the other Dervishes arose, took the sharp-pointed irons,
and did as if they were piercing their bodies, and even driving the
iron with mallets into their flesh. Next appeared the principal
actor; who, assuming an air of inspiration, directed the music to
proceed, and to be raised to higher animation, in order to assist
his enthusiasm, or rather to stun the ears of the spectators. In
his ecstacy he threw up his turban in the air, loosened his hair
(for this order of Dervishes wear their hair) and pierced his body
with five lances; then mounting a low building by which a pole
sixteen feet long and pointed with iron had been set up, he impaled himself upon the pole, and was carried in this condition
through the square."
It was an affecting sight to see a lean man with a long beard
and disheveled hair, wounded all over with spikes, and then carried about spitted on a pole.  As I went away, I said to a Mullah
of my acquaintance, that the Dervish performed his tricks by
means of a wide belt which he carried in his drawers.  The Mullah replied that he had suspected some such art, but avoided
mentioning his suspicions, lest he should draw upon him  the
enmity of the order of Bedredden."
The science of Kurra teaches to compose billets which secure
the wearer against the power of enchantment, and against evil
accidents of all sorts. These billets are enclosed in small purses
of skin and worn about the body. They are likewise bound upon
the necks of horses and asses to give them an appetite for their
food and to tame them  when unmanageable.  In the city of
Diarbekar a billet of this sort put an end to a troublesome croaking of frogs.  A man of eminence at Aleppo distributed every
year, gratis, billets for freeing houses from flies. The efficacy of
these billets depends upon the day, the hour, and the particular
condition of the messenger sent to ask for them.  Old women
continue to use them, however  after they fail; being sinple
enough to suppose always, that some of the conditions necessary
to their efficacy have been wanting, when they were unsuccessful.
These billets are at least no worse than those for making heas




MONACHISM AMONG THE MAHOMETANS.                105
lay eggs, which were publicly sold by a Jesuit in the middle of
the eighteenth century and among enlightened nations."*
These extracts from  Niebuhr show  what imposters the Dervishes of Arabia are.
But of all the Mahometans the Turks have among thfem the
greatest number and variety of religious orders.  They are little
behind the Roman Catholics in this respect. Monkish saintship
is in great credit among them.
Bartholomew  Georgiwicz, a writer of the sixteenth century,
says, as quoted by Hospinian, that among the Turks, the first
order of their monk-saints have no property, go almost naked and
torture themselves.  Another sort wear their privy parts loaded
with a ring of three pounds weight, to preserve their chastity.
A third sort stay in the mosques, naked; fasting and praying for
the revelation of future events.
John Cuspinian, a German, who died in the year 1529, wrote
a history of the Turks, in which he describes their religious orders
substantially as follows:
Some go naked, except a small covering over their privy parts.
They seem to be insensible to suffering, exposing themselves alike
to all weathers, and bear with indifference the laceration of their
skins. Some profess absolute poverty, think nothing of earthly
things, and lay up nothing for the morrow.  Some live for days
without food or drink. Others observe perpetual silence, refusing
absolutely to speak on any occasion.  Some profess to have
visions and revelations; others to have supernatural raptures and
trances.
The different orders of Dervishes are distinguished by marks
and badges.  Some wear feathers on their heads, to denote that
they are given to meditations and revelations. Others wear earrings, in token of their obedience to the spirit, by which they are
frequently ravished. Others signify the violence of their ecstacies
by wearing chains about their necks.  Others again represent
Niebuhr's Travels, ch. cxxx.
5*




106                      CHAPTER IV.
their poverty by wearing garments composed of variously-colored
rags and patches.
They have also different modes of living. Some mix with other
men: some live separately in convents or villages of their own;
but the greater number live in the woods and deserts as anchorites,
or in the cemeteries, where they subsist on the alms of the people
who visit these cities of the dead.*
The Dervishes do not observe all the rules and customs of their
religion; for many of them  reject marriage as unholy, use no
ablutions, and observe not the stated hours of prayer. But these
wifeless Mahometan saints are not always destitute of human comfort. Some female devotees secretly mix with them, and say that
the children which they bear, were miraculously conceived, without
human agency.  These children of professed virgins are called
Nefesogli.  Two of these unbegotten men, in the city of Brusa,
were reported to expel demons by means of their hair or their
clothes; it being supposed-not without reason-that men supernaturally born must be supernaturally endowed.
All these votaries of an ascetic religion, are venerated as great
saints, preservers of the kingdom, and special friends of God and
Mahomet.  They are of the opinion that the law is profitable;
but that grace is sufficient for salvation without obedience to law.
But they do not argue in support of their opinion; they prove
their doctrine by working miracles. Precisely so did the ancient
monks of Christendom  prove the divine origin of monkery and
monkish opinions.
But there is another sort of Turkish monks called Czofilar,
because they devote themselves to meditation and other spiritual
exercises.  These are deemed successors of the prophet and
fathers of the Sunnite sect, to which the Turks belong. They
possess great authority, alleging in support of their opinion the
tradition of the fathers. They assert that men are saved by merit
* The Turkish cemeteries are remarkable for their extent, and their
large, costly monuments, some of which are roomy enough to serve as
tenements for the living.




MONACHISM AMONG THE MAHOMETANS.                107
without grace or law, by giving themselves to certain forms of
prayer, spiritual exercises, watchings, and beggings.* They pray
continually. By night they assemble, and seating themselves in
a circle, they repeat for some time the words, La Illah Iillahah!
moving their heads in concert. Then they often repeat the word
Lahu! and then Huhu! until they fall down from exhaustion and
sleep. These are venerated chiefly by men who value themselves
on the antiquity and nobility of their families. So far we follow
Cuspinian.
Antonine Menavin, a writer of the same century on the religion of the Turks, says that their monks are chiefly of four
orders.  There were many others; but on account of their singular wickedness, they were all reduced to four.  Those of the first
order are clothed in a lion's skin, and generally carry a book in
their hands.  Those of the second order make a vow of chastity
and keep it, though often with reluctance, says Menavin. The
third order live by begging. The fourth go with a shaved head,
and are utterly illiterate and rude. Menavin says that these are
a sort of crafty impostors; that some of them  are vagrants at
large; some lay snares for women, and the rest devote themselves
to gormandizing.  It is evident that Menavin had a very bad
opinion of the Turkish ascetics.
In the year 1503, a fanatical dervish attempted to assassinate
the Turkish Sultan, Bajazet the Second; for which the whole order
was for a time banished from the Turkish dominions.  Knolles in
his history of the Turks, gives, in his peculiar style, the following account of the affair.
" Bajazet departing thence, upon the way met with a dervisher,
(which is a phantasticall and beggarly kind of Turkish monks,
using no other apparell but two sheepskins, the one hanging before and the other behind,) a lustie, strong, fat fellow, attired
after the manner of his order, with a great ring in each ear, who
* In these notions they agree with the ancient Christian monks. Monkery is founded chiefly on the supposed merit of such things.




108                      CHAPTER IV,
drawing near unto Bajazet, as if he would of him  have reeeived
an alms, desperately assailed him with a short scimitar, which he
had closely concealed under his hypocriticall habit.  But Bajazet,
by the starting of the horse whereon he rid, (being afraid at the
sudden approach of the hobgoblin,) partly avoided the deadly
blow by that traitor intended."
This treacherous attack induced Bajazet to banish the whole
order.  The history of Christian monkery is not without examples of the same murderous fanaticism-as in the case of
Ravaillac, the desperate monk, who, in the year 1610, under a
supposed or pretended impulse of the Holy Spirit, assassinated
the great and good King Henry IV., of France.
The fullest and most distinct account, that we have seen, of the
religious orders of the Turks, is contained in an anonymous French
work on the manners and usages of the Turks, published in Paris
in the year 1747.*
The author justly supposes that the founders of monastic orders
in Turkey imitated Christian models.  He remarks, that the
Turkish annals say nothing of monasteries before the year of our
Lord 1325, when the Turkish dominions were still confined to
Asia; and that at first the Turkish monks lived very austerely,
like those of Christendom in the early ages.  But fanaticism  and
extravagance corrupted their institution.  Now (says he) they
seem to think that the far and white dress which they wear, is a
sufficient mark of their sanctity.  Some afe married and keep
shops; others practice celibacy.
The author describes eight distinct orders of Mahometan monks,
the most of which are found in Turkey.  We shall give from him
the names and leading characteristics of these orders, inserting, as
we proceed, some things from other writers.
1. The l/Ienelevis.
These are so called from Meneleva, their founder.  They affect
Mceurs et Usages des Turcs; 3 vol.~.4to. The accomnt of the Religious
Orders is in vol. ], book iLi ch. vii.




MONACHISM AMONG THE MAHOMETANS.               109
to be patient, humble, modest, and charitable, Some of them
benevolently carry water through the streets for the poor.  Before
their superiors and before strangers, they maintain a profound
silence.  They go with their heads bowed, eyes downcast, and
backs bent.  Their habit is generally a large brown cloth of
camels' hair, with a leathern girdle. They keep their legs and
breasts uncovered.  They'often burn their breasts with a hot iron,
They fast every Thursday.
These are the famous dancing dervishes.  Every Tuesday and
Friday they have a sermon in their mosques on a text of the
Koran; and after sermon, some of them whirl round like a top, to
the sound of a flute.  When the flute stops, they stop instantly
stock still, as if they had been suddenly converted into statues.
They practice this whirling dance, in imitation, they say, of their
founder, Meneleva, who thus whirled incessantly for the space of
fourteen days, while his companion Hamze played the flute.  He
then fell into an ecstacy, in which he received wonderful revelations, and directions for the establishment of his order of monks,*
Bell, who travelled in Asia about the year 1715, witnessed the
worship of these dervishes.
" They are" (says he) " a religious order, who have a mosque
in Pera [a suburb of Constantinople.]  The mosque is built in a
circular form, with a pulpit for the mullah and a gallery for the
music.  The sermon being ended, the musicians began to play on
instruments like flutes and hautbois; upon which five of the dervishes stood up and danced round the mosque in a frantic manner,
turning themselves round as they advanced with so quick a
motion, that their faces were scarcely distinguishable from  their
heads.  They followed each other at certain distances; but an
old man of eighty years outdid all the rest in quickness of turning:
yet, when he left off he did not seem to be at all discomposed by
the violence of the motion. This extravagant sect make vows of
poverty and chastity, and are held in great esteem by the devout. 
This order of dervishes had formerly, and may still have, regu* Moreri, Grande Dictionnaire Historique. Article, Dervis.




110                      CHAPTER IV.
larly organized monasteries, and a general superintendent, who
resided in the monastery of Coigni, in Natolia. They had numerous monasteries in the several provinces of Turkey.
Whilst, like Christian monks, they profess poverty, chastity,
and obedience, they have a very reasonable provision for weak
brethren. If one finds himself unable to. continue his vow of chastity, they permit him to return to the world and marry like an
honest man.  What an amount of impurities and disorders would
have been avoided among the Roman Catholic monks and clergy,
if they had adopted this salutary rule, inculcated by St. Paul, (1
Cor. vii. 9) and obeyed by the Menelevis!
There is a remarkable extravagance of the Egyptian dervishes.
They have (says Moreri) assigned a place in Paradise to the horse
of their Saint Chederle, and to several other meritorious beasts;
to wit, the camel of Mahomet, the ram which Abraham sacrificed
instead of his son Isaac, the heifer of Moses, the ant of Solomon,
the parrot of the Queen of Sheba, the ass of Ezra, and the dog of
the Seven Sleepers.  Some say also the ass of the Messiah; but
others doubt this, seeing that Ezra's ass was already in Paradise.'But the Roman Catholics of the Middle Ages did not forget this
worthy Christian ass. They celebrated in France an annual festival to his honor. Among the worshippers in the church on the
solemn occasion, was a living representative of his long-eared
saintship.  After mass, they sung a funny Latin hymn to his
praise, and concluded the service by three rounds of hearty braying. Whether the four-footed ass joined in this act of devotion,
we know not, but the priest led in this as in other parts of the
service.*  We take him to have been the chief ass among them.
The elegant Busbeque, in his Letters from  Turkey, written
about the year 1560,t relates some things of these monks that
may amuse the reader.  We have translated the following extract
from his Letters:
* For an account of this Feast of Asses, see Du Fresne, Glossarium, Article Festa Afinorum; and Michelet's Hist. of France, B. 4, ch. 9.
t Busbequii Legationis Turcicae Epistble.




MONACHISM AMONG THE MAHOMETANS.               ll
" At Theke Thioi the Turkish monks, called dervishes, have
a great house. We learned much from them concerning a certain
hero named Chederle, of great mental and corporeal fortitude;
who, as they fable, was the same as our Saint George; and they
ascribe to him the same actions, namely, that he saved a virgin
from a huge dragon by killing the monster; to which they add
many things of their own invention, as, that he was accustomed to
travel to distant shores, and came at last to a river whose water
conferred immortality on those who drank of it. But they do not
say in what part of the world this river is to be found-unless,
perchance, it be in Utopia. They affirm only that it is hidden by
gloomy clouds and darkness, and that it was never revealed to any
mortal's sight except Chederle's; that Chederle and his elegant
horse, being here freed from the laws of death, wandered through
the world, giving aid to the injured party engaged in war, or to
the distressed who implored his help, of whatsoever religion they
might be. What makes the story more ridiculous is, that they
hold him to have been a companion and friend of Alexander the
Great.  For the Turks, disregarding chronology, confound and
mix up everything in their stories."  We may add to this remark
of Busbeque's, that the Christian romancers of the Middle Ages
were often quite as regardless of time and space, when they mixed
up their stories of love and heroism, sorcerers and giants. But
let us resume the narrative of Busbeque.
" The marble fountain of pure water which is in their mosque,
they pretend to have originated from Chederle's horse, that shed
his urine there. They tell many stories also of Chederle's companions, and of a niece of his.  They show their sepulchres in
the neighborhood; at these they pretend that great benefits are
conferred on those who invoke their aid. They pretend that even
the stones and gravel on which Chederle stood, when he watched
the dragon, were, if taken in one's drink, a remedy against fever,
headache, and sore eyes."
Thus it appears from Busbeque that the Turkish monks imbibed from their Christian models the monkish spirit of romancing,




112                     CHAPTER IV,
and the practice of invoking the help of dead saints, as well as of
ascribing miraculous cures to their relics.
Busbeque relates another story, which shows that they had also
borrowed the art of imposing pretended miracles of living monks
upon the credulous multitude.
Speaking of a certain monk, he says —"' He walked with a coat
and a white robe flowing down to his feet, his hair loose, and his
whole person much like our pictures of the apostles. Under a
fair face he concealed the soul of an impostor;\,but the Turks
venerated him as a great wonder-worker. They got my interpreters to fetch him to me, that I might see him. He dined with me
soberly and modestly.  He then went out into the yard, and
presently returned, carrying a large stone, with which he inflicted
blows on his naked breast, sufficient to have felled an ox. He
then took out of the fire a piece of iron prepared for the occasion,
and now red hot.  This he inserted into his mouth, and turned it
about there for some time, making the saliva hiss with the heat.
The piece of iron was oblong, and square at the thicker end, which
he had put into his mouth, glowing like a live coal. When he had
done, he put the iron back into the fire, saluted me and left the
house, after having received a gift. One of my servants affirmed
that it was all a trick; that the iron was not really hot; and, to
confirm his opinion, he laid hold on it by the end which stuck out
of the fire. But he was severely burnt, and then ridiculed by
the others, who asked him whether the iron was hot."
" The same monk told me at dinner, that the abbot of his.monastery, renowned for sanctity and miracles, used to spread his
cloak upon the water of a lake by the monastery, and getting
upon it, to sail pleasantly over the lake; and that he would dress
a mutton, ready for roasting, and tying the fore legs to his arms,
and the hind legs to his own legs, he would go with it into a hot
furnace, and stay there until the mutton was roasted. These
stories I believe were false; but the feat with the hot iron I saw;
but I have no doubt that when he went into the yard, he fortified
his mouth with a liquor that secured it from injury."




MONACHISM AMONG THE MAHOMETANS.                113
So far Busbeque.  The feat with the hot iron does not exceed
the power of jugglery; nor does that of the roast mutton transcend similar actions by some fire-kings of.the nineteenth century.
As to the real miracle of sailing upon a cloak, this was stolen by
the Turkish monks-impostors as they are-from  the Roman
Catholic breviary or prayer-book.   Some fifty or sixty years
before Busbeque's embassy to Constantinople, the Italian monk,
St. Francis of Paula, sailed over the boisterous strait of Sicily,
where Charybdis whirled and Scylla howled-upon his cloak.
There can be no doubt of the fact, or it would not have been
inserted in the breviary. Many such miracles of the monk-saints
are found in this great prayer-book, mixed with lessons of Holy
Scripture,-all read to the faithful with equal solemnity, and
all to be received by them  with equal reverence, as the dictates of Holy Mother, whose word is infallible. But let us return
to our Menelevis.
They sometimes procure ecstatic visions by intoxicating themselves with opium or spirits of wine. In this, however, they are
not singular.  Their cloisters are dispersed over the provinces,
and serve as inns for their members, who travel a great deal as
pilgrims and as spies.  These sacred buildings sometimes also
conceal ladies of pleasure. The Grand Vizier Kuprili had one
torn down at Adrianople, because he discovered that it was no
better than a baudy house.  But we have said enough of the
Menelevis, the most important and most regular of the Turkish
monks. The other orders will be dismissed with brief notices.
2. The Ebibuharis.
These devote themselves to constant meditation and prayer,
with fasting.  They aim to abstract their souls from  earth, and
by holy devotion to participate in the glory of heaven. Being
thus purified and abstracted in spirit, they deem the holy place
of Mecca to exist in their cells, as much as elsewhere, to them.
Still they are regarded as a sort of heretics, for not taking their




114                      CHAPTER IV.
bodies, as well as their spirits, on pilgrimage to Mecca, like other
believers.
3. The NVimetulahis
These assemble at night to praise the divine Unity with songs.
Candidates for membership in their order, pass forty days in a
chamber, taking but three ounces of nourishment daily. During
this retreat, they say that they see God face to face, and that all
the glory of Paradise is revealed to them.  When the period of
their seclusion is expired, the other brethren take them into a
meadow, and dance around them.  If, during the dance, the
novice has a vision, he casts back his cloak and falls upon his
face, as if thunderstruck. Then the Superior comes and prays
over him.  When the visionary comes to himself, he raises his
red, wandering eyes, and for a long time has the appearance of
an idiot or a drunkard. Finally, he communicates his vision to
the Superior, or to some other wise person, who understands the
mysteries of religion.  From these facts, the reader can perceive
the spirit of the Nimetulahis.
4. The ifadris.
The Kadris place their religion in macerating their bodies, and
in working themselves up to a divine fury. They go stark naked,
except a clout about their loins.  They join hands and dance in
a ring for hours, or even a whole day; incessantly repeating
vehemently one of the names of God, until, like men seized with
a fit of madness, they fall to the ground with their mouths
foaming and their bodies dripping with sweat. Enough of them.
5. The Sejahs.
Have monasteries, yet they are vagabonds.  They go forth to
collect money and provisions, like the Romish beggar-monks;
and never return, until they have obtained the quantity required
by the Superior, when he sends them out on a mission of beggary.




MONACHISM AMONG THE MAHOMETANS.             115
These monks have a peculiar way of begging. When one of
them enters a city, he repairs to the market or some other place
where multitudes usually collect. Choosing a conspicuous station,
he bawls out with all his might-Oh, God, send me so many
crowns, or so many gallons of rice! When a holy man begs so
lustily of God, pious men are apt to think themselves called
on to answer the prayer.  Having received their contributions
here, the devout beggar-monk goes in quest of another crowd.
Many of these vagrant beggars are found in Hindostan; but
they wander over all Mahometan countries. They do not depend
solely on the begging prayers just mentioned. They practice the
art of story-telling, to amuse the people. Thus they often gain
money where the other method would fail.
When Solyman the Magnificent was reigning over the Turkish
Empire, the Great Mogul of India sent an embassy to offer him
assistance in his wars.  The Grand Vizier, Kuprili Mustapha,
sent back for answer, that the greatest favor which the Great
Mogul could do the Turks, would be to keep his Fakirs or beggar-monks, at home.
6. The Edhemis
Are so called after the name of their founder, Ibrahim Edhem,
who spent his time in the mosques, humbly bent to the ground,
reading the Koran and praying to God. His domestics and others
so admired his piety, that they imitated his example, and thus an
order of monks arose. They renounce the business and pleasures
of the world, and live an austere life of fasting, prayer, and solitude. Most of their monasteries are in Persia.
7. The Bektachis.
Hadji (that is, Saint) Bektach, famous for miracles and prophecies, gave his name to this sect. They can scarcely be called
monks, for they marry and live in towns among the other citizens.
But they are bound to take long journeys to distribute to all
whom they meet copies of the Gazelle, a pathetic song, allegori



116                     CHAPTER IV.
cally applied, like Solomon's Canticles, to divine love,-and the
Elma, that is, one of the names of God, of which they have one
thousand and one.
Their worship consists mainly in crying Hu! hu! Let him
live! Let him live.  But as they do not observe the regular
hours of prayer, they are considered to be a sort of heretics. In
our opinion, Hadji Bektach founded a very silly and very fantastical sect.
8. The Santons.
Their maxim  is, To-day is ours-To-morrow his who shall
enjoy it.  Hence, contrary to other sects, they abandon themselves, on principle, to licentiousness and debauchery. Their object is present pleasure. They will give anything to satisfy their
appetites, and they consider the tavern as holy as the mosque.
On the principle that God made us for enjoying the good that
is before us, they pretend that they serve God as well by disorderly
and sensual lives, as others do by fasting and bodily mortification.
Yet they profess to be religious men! They pass their lives in
pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Bagdat, Damascus, and other holy
places. But these hypocritical pilgrimages are in reality expeditions of brigandage.  They haunt the road-sides, watching for
travellers, whom they will plunder when they can, either by sturdy
begging or by sturdier violence.
The sanctity of some of them consists in acting the fool, that
they may attract attention; gazing steadfastly at the moon;
talking proudly, and quarelling with those whom they meet.
They generally go with head and legs naked, and the body
covered with the rough, dirty skin of some wild beast, with a
girdle of skin about the loins, and a pouch hanging by the side.
Some, instead of a girdle of skin, wear a serpent-like coil of
copper, which their doctors give them as a mark of knowledge.
They carry a sort of club in their hands, which they flourish with
an air as they go.
The Santons of India, who pass through Turkey on their pil



MONACHISM AMONG THE MAHOMETANS.                 117
grimage to Mecca and Jerusalem, demand alms with a sort of
contemptuous smile.  They walk with measured steps.  The
little clothing that they have, is exceedingly ridiculous, being
composed of rags of all colors, picked up on dunghills, and stitched
one over another with coarse twine.
These monks are perfect charlatans.  They make a business
of selling relics to devotees, to wit, some hairs of Mahomet, and
other like precious articles.
Nearly all are impudent hypocrites.  They say their prayers
aloud in the streets, and especially in the market places. There
they are seen from morning till night.  The market place may
be considered as their oratory, their refectory, their cell, and
their convent.  If they tire of this mode of life, they have only
to put on citizens' clothes, and forthwith they are Santons no
more.  But few ever quit their idle, vagrant life. Their feigning
trade of beggary and saintship gives them certain advantages.
They are deemed saints by many, and are secure againt taxes
and military service. They never want simpletons who are ready
to be imposed on by loud professions of sanctity; and then by
practicing quackery, exorcism, charms, and other tricks of the
craft, they can never fail of dupes, who will pay well for being
cheated by almost any sort of religious impostor.
Concluding PLemarks.
All the employments of the Turkish monks are sordid or
ridiculous.  The Menelevis are mercenary.  Of the rest, some
live in contemptible indolence: some pass all their days in the
highways or at the corners of the streets, looking woefully upon
the ground, and receiving whatever alms may be offered without
their asking for them.  Some walk the streets, clothed in a large
sheet, their feet elevated on stilts, a sort of trident in their hands,
and their mouths crying aloud, There is no God but God, and
Mclahomet is his prophet.  Others run through the streets, carrying
a large wallet full of musty bread and putrid mutton, to feed the
cats and dogs which have no master:-Poor cats and dogs! There




118                     CHAPTER IV.
are many such in Turkey.  Those who have a talent, amuse the
people with buffoonery. Others go singing before every door, to
the sound of a tambour.  Some profess to be diviners and prophets. Others interpret dreams, exercise magical arts, and make
certain conjurations, prayers, and exorcisms over the sick. Some
affect dumbness and ask alms by signs. Others burn their flesh
with a hot iron, or cut it with a razor. The people admire this
sort of saints and give them plentiful alms.
The Turks have also their female saints, who generally imitate
the Santons.  They dance to the sound of the tambour in little
mosques of their own. They tell fortunes, interpret dreams, and
pray over the sick. The she-dervishes travel from city to city,
to amuse the idle, and often to make a traffic of their charms.*
Their obedience consists in running about to get money; their
poverty, in taking with all their hands; and their chastity, in
having none.  Their slippers are violet, like those of the Jews;
their veils are large, like those of our nuns-says the author of
Moeurs des Turcs:-They profess to be saints; and many believe
that they are, because they make many loud prayers in public,
live unmarried, and follow no useful occupation! Poor human
nature!
* Picard. Ceremonies, &c. Tome iii. des Musselmans.




CHAPTER V.
BRIEF NOTICE OF THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHIES OF
PERSIA, CHALDEA, AND EGYPT.
THE primary source of monachism was, as we have shown, the
ancient religious philosophies of the Hindoos and Boodhists of
Eastern Asia.   The same fundamental principles of religion
pervaded the ancient nations of Middle and Western Asia, and,
to a great extent, formed the basis of the Egyptian religion. The
origin and early spread of these principles date so far back in
antiquity, that even the obscurest of historical traditions fail to
reach them.  Where, or among what people they originated, or
how they came to be so extensively propagated, are questions
which cannot be solved.  The most ancient records of any heathen religion, are the Vedas of Hindostan. We may reasonably
conjecture from these and other signs of remote antiquity, that
Hindostan was one of the primitive seats of human civilization,
and one of the original fountains of religious philosophy. The
only other countries which may claim a rivalship in these respects
with the Valleys of the Ganges and the Indus, are Egypt on the
Nile, and Chaldea on the Euphrates.  It may be, that they all
derived the elements of their religious philosophy from their common ancestry, an aboriginal people, who branched off as they
spread, and carried with them their patriarchal religion. On this
common basis, each of these ancient nations may have built its
peculiar mythology; and thus may have arisen that uniformity of




120                      CHAPTER V.
leading principles, with diversity of doctrine and practice, which
afterwards characterized their systems of religion.  Commerce
and missions may have, in later times, infused some doctrines
and practices from  the matured system  of one nation into
that of another, and thus produced a closer affinity between
the two;-such as existed between the Hindoo and the Egyptian
systems.
It was from  Egypt, Chaldea, and Persia, that the Jews and
Greeks derived the principles of their ascetic philosophy, and it
was through this philosophy, mainly, that the Church derived
those principles of ascetism that led to all the extravagancies of
Christian monkery.  We purpose in this and some following
chapters, to show, by a deduction of facts, that Christian monachism
originated from the same principles of heathen philosophy, which
had previously given rise to the oriental monachism described in
the second and third chapters. Thus we shall account, in a great
measure, for the striking similarity which was found to exist between institutions so remote from each other, and apparently so
unconnected.  If we succeed in this investigation, our Roman
Catholic brethren will no longer need, as their missionaries did,
to ascribe this similarity to the Devil; nor shall it any longer
seem, as it has seemed to many, to be an accidental coincidence
between a heathenish and a Christian institution. It is unphilosophical, if not somewhat impious, to ascribe such coincidences
to chance.  The same moral causes operated to produce all the
monachism in the world. Certain principles of oriental philosophy
produced ascetism  and monkery in Eastern Asia.  The same
principles spreading westward, and getting finally into the church,
produced the same effects among Christians, which they had before produced among Brahmninists and Boodhists.
As seeds of plants do not vegetate, unless circumstances are favorable, so neither do the principles of monkery always produce
monkery, —at least not a fully-developed monkery. Sometimes
they produce an abortive or stunted growth, where circumstances
are mainly but not wholly unfavorable.  Thus we shall see that




PERSIAN, CHALDEAN AND EGYPTIAN PHILOSOPHY.   121
among some ancient nations, among whom this religious philosophy did in some shape prevail, there was yet no regular or fullgrown monachism.  Still the operation of the ascetic principles
was seen in the religious practices and institutions of the country,
or of the sects who professed those principles.
Having thus explained the object of this and some following
chapters, we proceed to give some account of the religious philosophy of several ancient nations.
~ 1. The Religious Philosophy of the Persians.
The Persians believed in one supreme God, whom they called
Mithras.  The sun was worshipped as his representative.  From
the supreme emanated two antagonistical Gods, Oromazd or Hormisdas, author of Good; and Ahriman, author of Evil; the former
represented by light or fire, and the latter by darkness.  Some
held that these opposite principles were original and independent
beings.  Oromazd was spirit; Ahriman was matter; which is in
itself dark and perverse, while spirit is light and benevolence.
This doctrine of two principles is called dualism.  When these
principles are supposed to have originated from Mithras, the
supreme God, the system  has a trinitarian character, but very
different from the Christian Trinity.
The Persians held that God pervades the world as its soul, and
that fire or light being the most refined and vivifying element
and penetrating all things, is the representative or rather the element of the mundane soul.  They believed in subordiate Gods
of different ranks.
The human soul they believed to have pre-existed in a higher
state, and to be sent into bodies, to keep up the harmony of nature. Of course they believed the soul to be immortal.
The priests of the Persian religion were the magi, who were of
three ranks, the highest of which was the Archimagus or Chief
Priest, who presided over the whole body. They rejected the use
of images. Zoroaster, or Zerdusht, as the Persians called him,
6




122                      CHAPTER V.
was the great reformer of the Persian religion. He taught a pure
morality.
This very brief notice is all that we deem necessary concerning
the ancient Persian religion, which is but obscurely and imperfectly known.  A small remnant of its followers is yet found in
India. They worship fire as the emblem of God.
From the little that is known of the principles of this ancient
religion, we remark the following as belonging to the general system of the east.
1. One supreme God from whom other divine persons emanated. These divine emanations have the actual government of the
world.
2. The pre-existence of human souls and the existence of demons.
3. The evil nature of matter, from which proceed sin and misery. Of course the body causes the pollution and suffering of the
soul.
The distinguishing doctrine of the magian religion, was its
dualism, or doctrine of two contending principles.
~ 2. Sketch of the Chaldean Philosophy.
The ancient Chaldean Philosophy, like that of Persia, is very
imperfectly known. The following appear to have been its leading principles:
1. There is one Supreme God, Father of all, by whose providence the universe was arranged and adorned.
2. Below the Supreme Being are three ranks of spiritual beings
superior to man: 1st. subordinate Gods; 2d. Demons, and 3d.
Heroes.
3. Of the class of demons some are evil. These assume the
deceitful appearance of gods, good angels, and souls. They are
malignant and mischievous to mankind.
4. The inferior gods and good demons or angels, preside over
the different provinces of nature, and the several nations of the
earth. They govern in subordination to the Supreme God.




PERSIAN, CHALDEAN AND EGYPTIAN PHILOSOPHY.   123
5. The Supreme God dwells in inaccessible light, and can' be
approached only through the mediation of subordinate spirits.
This was the universal doctrine of the East. Hence the worship
of oriental nations was directed to these subordinate ministers or
agents of the unapproachable Supreme.  The heavenly bodies
were popularly believed to be divine, and as such were worshipped.
6. Matter is the primary source of evil. Hence the Chaldeans,
as well as the Persians and Egyptians, held that evil demons
became such by being invested with a vehicle or light body, of
coarser material than the element of fire or light that clothed
the good spirits. Hence they, of course, believed that the human
soul became impure and miserable by its imprisonment in a gross
earthly tenement, like the human body.
The Chaldeans were famous for their magic and astronomy.
The Chaldean Magic, was at first, nothing but the secret worship of good spirits. It afterwards employed itself in discovering
the virtues and effects of natural objects; and was then merely
a natural science. It finally degenerated into what has been ever
since understood by the term, to wit, conjuration and dealing with
evil spirits.
The Chaldean Astronomy consisted at first in the study of the
motions and laws of the heavenly bodies.  Afterwards it degenerated into judicial astrology, and was closely connected with theurgy or black magic.  The stars were supposed to influence the
fortunes of men and all the affairs of the word, by their motions,
aspects and conjunctions. Especially were the planets supposed
to govern the course of human events. By pretended knowledge
of these celestial influences, and the virtues of terrestial bodies,
the Chaldean astrologers and magicians undertook to foretell the
fortunes of men, and to prepare talismans by which men could
ward off all sorts of evil accidents or evil influences.* These pretended arts continued in vogue, until two or three centuries ago.
Brucker, Hist. Crit. Vol. i., L. ii., cap. ii.




124                      CHAPTER V.
Improvements in natural science have banished all such superstitions and impostures.
~ 3. Religious Philosophy of Ancient Egypt.
The philosophy of ancient Egypt agreed with the Hindoo in all
its fundamental principles. The agreement is exact and so extensive as to indicate that there was, at some remote period of
antiquity, a connection unexplained by history, between the Hindoos and the Egyptians.  They both had that singular institution, the division of the people into casts, of which the sacerdotal
cast was the highest.  But whilst their religions had the same
general principles, they differed in their mythology or fables of
the Gods, which seem to have been invented long after the primeval dogmas in which they agree, originated.
The Egyptians, like the Hindoos, believed in a Supreme, Original God, whose attributes are unknown, and who exercises no
direct agency in the affairs of the world. From this unknown
God, emanated three divine persons, called, as Cudworth thinks,
Phta, Ammon or Cneph, and Osiris; or, according to Plutarch,
Osiris, Isis, and Horus, corresponding to mind, matter, and the
world that is composed of these two.*
Among the general principles of the Hindoo and Egyptian philosophies, and adopted from them by some of the Greek philosophers, is the following as expressed by Creutzer.t
"In the Egyptian theology, as in all the oriental theologies,
the predominating principle is that of emanation, which consists
not only in distinguishing in thought, but in actually separating
the divers attributes of the Great Being, the one universal God;
so that each attribute becomes a distinct person, and the one God
becomes a multitude of Gods.   But at the same time, when referred to its source, each Attribute, itself God in God, is thereby
alone the whole Godhead, is identical with God.  Each divine
Emanation, each Person, considered in his highest power, is himself
Brucker, Hist. Crit. Phil. L. ii., cap. viii.
t Guignaut's Creutzer, Religion de 1'Egypt. Chap. ii.




PERSIAN, CHALDEAN AND EGYPTIAN PHILOSOPHY.   125
the Great Being from whom he emanated." The Supreme Original
Godhead was considered as unknowable in'himself to the human
mind, and as revealing his existence and performing his works,
only through the Divine Persons who emanated or proceeded
from him,-continued in union with his Universal Being,-and
constituted essentially but one God in that One Supreme. We
shall see this fundamental idea of the Oriental Theology in the
Platonic Philosophy of Greece.
Another of the common principles of orientalism was found in
the Egyptian Philosophy,-namely, that God is the soul of the
world, or that the Divinity resides in nature, so as to be its moving and animating and informing principle, as the human soul is
of the body. All separate souls of animated beings were supposed to be emanations from the universal soul, and finally to return into it again. This was. also an Egyptian principle.
Another common principle of the ancient theology of the East, is
that of the incarnation and consequent suffering of celestial beings,
from the highest Divine Person to the lowest of created spirits.
Thus the Hindoo Vishnu and the Egyptian Osiris, both Divine
Persons of the highest order, become incarnated on earth as men,
labor and suffer for a time, die, ascend to heaven, and resume
their celestial glory and dominion. Thus, too, inferior Gods are
represented as occasionally becoming mortal men in the flesh.
On the same general principle is founded the oriental and
Egyptian doctrine, that the souls of men did not begin to exist
with the body, but pre-existed as demons or spiritual beings in
the upper regions; to which they return, sooner or later, after
experiencing the sins and sufferings of mortality, sometimes in
one body only, but mostly through a succession of bodies,
human or brute, before they ascend to their original abode.
The highest circles of the heavens-that is, the starry regions,
are the proper abodes of the Gods.  The old Sabean idolatry,
which paid divine honors to the heavenly bodies, was incorporated
with the more rational and refined theology, which represents the
Gods as spiritual beings, by supposing the stars to be animated by




126                      CHAPTER V.
divine spirits.  The Egyptians identified their God Osiris with the
sun, as the Persians did their God Mithras.  So the Egyptian
Isis was the moon.  But the Egyptians conceived that their
starry Gods descended and became incarnate on the earth,* it is
evident that they considered them as being essentially spiritual
substances, and separable from the heavenly bodies which they
usually inhabited.
In the lower circles of the heavens beneath the moon, and in
the atmosphere about the earth, dwell the demons or genii; some
of whom are evil, and those lower in station are inferior in nature
as they inhabit less refined elements than the demons and gods
above them.  According to Diodorus Siculus, the Egyptians
conceived the demons to be derived from the soul of the world.
When one of the demons in the higher and purer circles, so far
apostatizes from God, as to desire a corporeal life on the earth, he
is committed to the care of a guardian genius, or angel, who conducts him to this world, prepares him a body, watches over him
during his trials and sufferings as ah human soul; and when these
are over, he conducts him again to his native heaven, freed from
his earthly predilections, and never more to wander from the seats
of the blest.
Material bodies have an evil influence upon the spirits that
occupy them.  Every human soul contracts defilement from  its
connection with the flesh. This must be worked off by abstinence
from carnal pleasures, and by elevating the mind to divine contemplations and enjoyments.  They who in their earthly life
become very sinful, are punished in hell for a time. Those who
on earth are not sufficiently purified for heaven, but are exempt
or released from purgatorial torments, transmigrate into other
bodies, until their trials are over.t  They may become brutes as
well as men, of high or low degree. Those who do not sufficiently
purify themselves in the probationary state of man, have to com* Brucker, as before cited. He found this doctrine in Diodorus Siculus.
L. I. ch. xii.
t Guignaut's Creutzer. Religion de 1' Egypt, ch. ii. and v.




PERSIAN) CHALDEAN AND EGYPTIAN PHILOSOPHY.  127
plete a course of transmigrations during three thousand years before they are released.*
Matter is eternal and uncreated.  Hence its evil nature is
incurable; and the only remedy for the spirits who are involved
in it, is ascetic mortification of the flesh during life, and then a
release from all connection with mortal bodies.
Ancient authors differ somewhat in their accounts of the
Egyptian philosophy.  Hence on some points it is difficult to
come at the truth. We have followed the best authorities within
our reach, and have given for the most part only the views which
are least doubtful.  Mosheim  infers from the various accounts of
ancient authors, that the Egyptians differed among themselves on
some speculative questions. This is likely enough. Thus much
however is certain, that the Egyptian and Hindoo philosophers
agreed in all their fundamental principles, and that these principles are directly ascetic in their tendency. If they did not produce the same degree and kinds of fanatical austerities among the
heathen Egyptians, before the Christian era, as they did in Eastern Asia, it was because their tendency was counteracted by
circumstances into which we need not particularly enquire.  We
may remark, however, for one thing, that Egyptian fanaticism
found sufficient meritorious employment in its brute worship. The
sin which a Hindoo would work off by tormenting his body, an
Egyptian devotee could atone for by feeding cats or crocodiles
while they lived, and embalming them  after they were dead.
When, a long time afterwards, some of the same principles mixed
themselves with Christianity in Egypt, they produced monkery,
because there was nothing in Christianity, that could divert a superstitious mind from carrying them out to their legitimate consequences, and there was something in Christianity that would seem
to a superstitious mind to lead to the same consequences.
Some of the principles of the oriental philosophy were found to
have spread even to the western shores of Europe. The Keltic
Druids of Gaul and Britain, believed that demons or spiritual be* Brucker. Hist. Crit., L II. cap. vii.




128                       CHAPTER V.
ings presided over the different parts of nature; that God was the
soul of the world; that human souls were of divine origin, and
transmigrated from one body to another.*  Some however deny
that they taught this doctrine, because they held that there was a
Hades or infernal abode for departed souls. This, however, is
not inconsistent with transmigration, for the Egyptians and Hindoos held that souls might go to Hell, and afterwards transmigrate.
We have gone somewhat largely into the religious philosophy
of ancient Egypt for two reasons: first, because the Greeks derived
from  that source much of their ascetic philosophy, by which
Christianity was afterwards corrupted; and secondly, because it
was in Egypt where this corruption of Christianity began, and
where the strange phenomenon of Christian monkery first appeared. Here too was Judaism corrupted by philosophy, and then
contributed to the corruption of Christianity.
* Caesar (De Bello' Gallico L. vi. c. 14) says the Druids held non interire
animos, sed aliis post mortem transire ad alios,-which must mean transmigration from body to body.




CHAPTER VI.
THE ASCETIC PHILOSOPHY OF THE GREEKS.
AMONG the Eastern nations of whom we have been speaking,
the religious philosophy of the leYarned might be called the
essence, or rational part, of the popular religion of the country,
the whole being connected and blended together. But in Greece
the systems of the philosophers had little or no connection with
the popular system of idolatry. The Grecian philosophers generally either imported their leading doctrines from the East, or
formed theories of their own without regard to the old religion of
the country.
There are traces of the oriental philosophy in the earliest
systems of Greece.  The reader will recollect that Egyptian
colonies settled in the country at a very early period. It is easy
to conceive, therefore, how the seeds of orientalism may have
been planted in Greece, before the Grecian sages began to travel
eastward for knowledge.
We shall give a sketch of the principal systems of Grecian
philosophy, which were more or less imbued with the ascetic
doctrines of the East, and served as channels through which
oriental ascetism and monkery were communicated to the church.
~ 1. Orpheus and his Philosophy.
One of the earliest philosophers of Greece was Orpheus.  The
6*




130                       CHAPTER Vt.
time when he lived is uncertain, but was it probably not less than
seven or eight centuries before the Christian era. His history is
wrapped in fable, and his doctrines are but obscurely and partially known. They were not transmitted to posterity in a written
form, but by oral tradition through the Orphic mysteries or secret
school of his followers. Therefore no full account of them was
ever published to the world,
His doctrines, so far as known, had so much of the Boodhist
character, that some learned men have thought him to have been
a Hindoo disciple of Boodh, who had wandered into Greece, and
there taught his master's system of religious philosophy. But
Diodorus Siculus (b. iv., c. 25) represents him as a Greek who
travelled in Egypt, and was there initiated into the religious
mysteries. If so, we may easily conjecture that he got his oriental doctrines from the secret school of the Egyptian priests.
He adopted in full the ascetic principles of the eastern philosophy.
He taught that all things had their origin in God, who contains and provides for all. Every being emanated from him and
partakes of his essence. All souls, as they emanated from him, so
they are finally absorbed into him again.
The Supreme God is unapproachable and unknown.  Hence
the inferior Gods, who emanated from him, are the proper objects
of worship. Such is the Orphic doctrine concerning God, as reported by the ancients.  It is entirely oriental,-the very same,
so far as it goes, with the Hindoo and Egyptian theology.*
Plato sayst that Orpheus considered the body as the prison of
the soul; and that the general opinion in Greece during those of
early times, represented the present life as " a life in the grave
-a punishment for previous guilt; whence arises the universal
necessity of penance and purification: while in the future life the
just are to receive the rewards, and the unjust the punishment of
their deeds."  "Joined with these (says the cautious Ritter)t
* Brucker. Pars ii., c. i. Orpheus.     t In Phaedro.
t Not Carl Ritter, but the author of the History of Ancient Philosophy.




PHILOSOPHY OF THE GREEKS.                  131
was probably the doctrine of the metempsychosis," or transmigration of souls.
The Platonists asserted that Orpheus also taught the oriental
doctrine of demons and heroes; and the Egyptian doctrines afterwards adopted by Plato, that the stars are animated beings, bright
Gods.  Orpheus is said also to have introduced into Greece the
poetical ideas of the Egyptians concerning Hades, the country of
the dead,-its Elysian Fields of bliss for the good, and its hell of
torments for the wicked.  But Homer had taught these before.
He taught ascetical practices,-abstinence from animal food at
all times, and bodily mortifications to purify the soul from sin and
guilt;-also lustrations and ceremonies for cleansing and expiation.  Those who were initiated into his mysteries, had to prepare themselves by a course of purifications, and by confession of
their sins.
Such were the leading principles of the Orphic philosophy.
They bear evident marks of their oriental origin, and are
thoroughly ascetic in their character.
2. Pythagoras.
He was the greatest of the Grecian philosophers before Socrates and Plato arose.  He lived between five and six centuries before Christ.  He was reported to have travelled into Egypt and
Chaldea, and some say also into India-to gather wisdom. Though
born in the island of Samos, he finally settled among the Greek
colonies of southern Italy, where he taught philosophy with great
success.  He founded the Italic sect of Grecian philosophers.
His doctrines had great influence in Greece, until Plato and Aristotle arose; then the Italic sect declined.  But a new Pythagoreanism, varying somewhat from the old, sprang up about the time
of our Saviour, was embraced by a numerous school in the eastern provinces of the Roman empire, and contributed to spread
ascetical notions and practices through the countries where monachism first appeared among Christians.




132                      CHIAPTER VI.
The Pythagorean philosophy was founded on oriental principles,
and was decidedly ascetic in its character. Its theology was of
the oriental stamp.  The following are its leading principles:*
There is one Infinite God pervading nature as its soul, and the
source of life to everything that lives.
Next to this supreme God are three ranks of spiritual beings,
Gods, Demons and Heroes or Demigods.  The last were men,
exalted after death for their virtues.
The world is animated, intelligent, spherical: all without the
boundaries of this universal system of nature is a void.
There are successive spheres from the centre to the circumference of the world.  In the highest resides only the first cause,
whatever is nearer to that, is better than the more remote. The
sun, moon and stars are Gods.  Mortals dwell in our gross atmosphere; immortals in the pure ether above. The ether is in
perpetual motion.
The human soul is a particle of the mundane soul.  It is composed of two parts, the one rational, the other irascible and concupiscible; the former only is immortal, the latter comes from the
soul of the world and finally returns to it.  The mind or rational
soul pre-existed as a spiritual being in the upper regions.
Souls transmigrate from body to body; not always immediately
after death (as Laertius represents the Pythagorean doctrine,) but
often after a destined interval in Hades or in the celestial regions.
When a soul migrates into the body of a brute, its rational faculties are cramped by a defective organization of its material body.
Pythagoras believed, with nearly all heathen antiquity, that innumerable demons float in the atmosphere and in the etherial
circles above, —some of whom are good, and others evil.  These
airy beings exercise either a salutary or a noxious influence over
human bodies, and cause our dreams.  They enter into bodies
* Brucker, Hist. Crit. Pars ii. L. ii. c. x. In the huge and sometimes
ill-digested mass of this work, we meet with apparently inconsistent doctrines ascribed to the same philosopher.




PHILOSOPHY OF THE (REEKiS.                  133
conceived in the womb, when they find such as suit them, and
thus become souls.
Pythagoras adopted the opinion, that the incarnation of souls
is a punishment for sins committed in a prior state. Therefore
he regarded the body as a penitentiary house of the immortal
soul, and as the source of its sufferings on the earth. By its conjunction with that base associate, the animal soul, it is agitated by
impure passions, and its intellectual vision is obscured.
Hence the necessity of adopting a strict ascetic mode of life for
the purpose of dispelling the clouds from the intellect, and purging
the immortal soul from the stains of sin. Carnal desires must be
subdued by abstinence, the pleasures of sense must be avoided,
and the soul- must be elevated by the contemplation of pure
entities.  By pure entities are meant abstract ideas, which exist
independent of matter, and are apprehended by the understanding
without the aid of the senses.
The Moral Rules of Pythagoras conformed to his philosophical
theories.   He taught his disciples to abstain from  animal food
like the Hindoos, and to practice an austere self-denying temperance.  He deemed it salutary to inure the body to hardships by
adding voluntary sufferings to those which nature imposes.
"The Pythagoreans (says Stanley*) exhortedthose who came
into their society, to shun pleasure,-for nothing so deceives us
and draws into sin as this passion.  In general, it seems, they
endeavored not to do anything that might tend to pleasure;-this
scope or aim of action being, for the most part, indecent and
hurtful."
Pythagoras did not enjoin celibacy upon his followers; but
whilst he tolerated marriage as a necessary institution, he endeavored, like the Christian Fathers long afterwards, to reconcile it
to his principles by restricting matrimonial indulgence to a point
not far from  total abstinence.  He allowed it only at a certain
season of the year, and then rarely.
The spirit of Pythagoreanism is best seen in the establishm:eent
* History of Philosophy, part ix. ch. 2.




134                      CHAPTER VI,
and regulations of his Esoteric School, or Secret Association. To
the Exoteric or outward disciples Pythagoras taught only plain,
simple precepts, suitable to men aiming at only imperfect attainments-and certain mysterious emblems which he did not explain.
But the Esoteric, or inner disciples, were instructed in the mysteries of philosophy, and trained to the perfection of virtue.  The
members of this Secret Association were bound by an oath, never
to divulge what they were taught behind the veil; for Pythagoras
concealed himself behind a veil when he lectured to the uninitiated;
to the initiated he spoke.face to face.'
Candidates for membership had to go through a trial of five
years. During a part, or the whole of this time, they had to keep
an unbroken silence.
All the members lived in common, like Cenobite monks. They
might have families with them in the cloister, but no private property or separate table.  Their behavior, employments, dress,
food, &c., were prescribed by the rules. Their daily exercises
were not essentially different from those of a Cenobite monastery.
They consisted of worship, study, meditation, and businesspartly in society, partly in solitude. Their diet was vegetable,
selected and prepared for nutriment, not for pleasure.  All
stimulating food and drink were avoided. Their dress was plain,
white, and clean.  In everything they were to exercise temperance
and sobriety, to avoid the pleasures of sense, to quell the tumults
of passion, and to cleanse the soul from earthly defilements,
that it might soar, unencumbered and undisturbed, to the region
of pure entities, and of intellectual truth.
It concerns us not at present to mention the scientific studies
of Pythagoras, his mystical emblems, or his affectation of mystery
and miracle, to gain respect and excite curiosity. We shall only
add, that long after his death, his disciples pretended that he had
wrought supernatural wonders during his life-time.  Such pretences have been too common to excite our surprise.  We do not
find, however, that any of these reporters, like the apostles, pro



ulLrOSOPjIY rP THE GREEKS L.              185
fessed to be eye-witnesses of what they related, and sealed their
testimony with their blood.
The Pythagorean philosophy flourished among the Greeks and
exerted a powerful influence, until it was superseded in a great
measure by later systems, especially those of Plato and Aristotle.
It was revived with some modifications about the time of our
Saviour) and flourished again in Western Asia during two or three
centuries.  Before its first decline, several eminent followers of
the great founder taught the system with distinguished success,
but with some unessential variations and additions. The greatest
of these early teachers of Pythagoreanism was
Empedocles.
He taught that there are two eternal principles, God and
Matter,-that God pervades nature as a soul, giving to all life
and motion;-that the human soul is twofold;-the superior rational part derived from the Divine Soul of the world,-the inferior sensitive part from the physical elements, combining under
the natural laws of love and contention-or, in modern phrase,
attraction and repulsion   He had the notion, we presume, that
the sensitive desires and aversions of the human constitution were
but individual actings of this general law of physical love and contention.
He taught, like his great master, that the rational soul is sent
into the body for punishment.  It assumes bodies of all sorts,
animal and vegetable, migrating from one another, until purified
at last, it returns to God and becomes itself divine.
Plutarch (De Exilio) has preserved some verses of Empedocles,
in which he expresses this oriental doctrine. We give a translation.
The Fates ordained, the gods of old decreed,
If long-aged demons sin, they wander far;
Each suffers pains, an exile from high heaven;
Through earth he strays, full thirty thousand years.
So now I wander by divine command.




136                     CHAPTER VI.
In other verses he represents the demons as being hurled from
heaven by the angry Gods, and as driven and tortured by the elements, until purged and expiated by punishment, they are restored to their former nature and place in heaven.
We shall mention the later Pythagoreans hereafter.
~ 3. The Stoical Philosophy.
We shall notice this system briefly.  It was austere and tended to ascetism in its morality; but its principles differed in some
material points from those that were most influential in producing
Christian monachism.
Zeno, the founder of Stoicism  taught that there were two
eternal principles,-Matter, passive,-and the Divinity, active;
-that God is a living fire, unlike common fire; he is also spirit;
he produces, fashions and permeates all things.  He animates the
world, as its soul.  The human soul is a particle of this mundane
soul, but like other individual beings, liable to perish.
All nature is bound fast by the decrees of Fate, and the course
of events is unalterably fixed.
The wise man will live conformably to nature.  He alone is
free. All true happiness consists in virtue.  Hence, as man
strives in vain against his destiny, and virtue is the only good,
pain is no evil, and all external things,-riches and povertyhonor and infamy-health and sickness-are in themselves indifferent.
On these principles the Stoics professed to despise all that the
world in general pursues as good or shuns as evil; and wrapping
themselves up in the pride of their virtue, to bid a stern defiance
even to Fate.  Such in brief was Stoicism.
~ 4. Plato and his Philosophy.
The philosophy of Plato was that which ultimately gained the
strongest and most extensive influence over the minds of men in
the Roman empire,-especially during the first centuries of the
^ Tenneman's Hist. of Philosophy, Stoicks.




PHILOSOPHY OF THE GREEKS.                  137
Christian era.  Being full of entertaining fancies, and giving
sublimer conceptions of the Godhead than other philosophies of
the time, it suited the imaginative minds of the East, and did more
than all other systems to corrupt the doctrines of the gospel, and
mislead the practice of Christians, in the second and third centuries. It had from the beginning a large infusion of Pythagorean
and oriental doctrines. By the time that Christianity began to
prevail in the eastern provinces of the Roman empire, it had in
those countries received an additional dose of orientalism, and in
its form  of Eclecticism and New Platonism, it mixed itself with
the Christianity of the age, and aided no little in producing that
religious monster- a Christian monk.
Plato lived about 400 years before Christ. He was first a disciple of the admirable Socrates at Athens.  He then travelled
after knowledge into foreign countries,-particularly into Egypt,
where he cultivated acquaintance with the priests, and studied
their philosophy. After some years he returned to Athens, and there
taught philosophy during the remainder of his days. His lectures
were delivered in a public school called the Academy; hence his
followers were long called Academics.
His system of doctrines is very extensive and in great part
very abstruse.  We shall endeavor to give an intelligible sketch
of his theological and moral philosophy,-these being the only
parts of his system that have an important bearing upon the subject of our present investigation.
According to Plato there are three uncreated principles or substances,-God, Ideas, and Matter.  These constitute the primordial Trinity of Plato. It is not a Trinity of divine persons, but
of essentially different substances.
The original supreme God, according to Plato and the orientals,
is utterly beyond human knowledge, in respect to his nature and
his attributes. All that we know of him is, that he is an immaterial being, and the primary source of all that has life, action and
intelligence.




138                     CHAPTER VI.
In the Infinite mind of the supreme Being exist the eternal
Ideas or Forms, after which, as patterns, all created things were
made.  They are neither material nor spiritual, but nevertheless
substantial beings.  They exist forever unchanged.  They are
perfect.  They cannot be apprehended by the senses, which perceive only material objects, which are imperfect representations
of ideas; as a gold-ring imperfectly represents the abstract idea
of a circle. The ideas can be apprehended only by intellect or
pure reason; hence they are called Intelligible Things, to distinguish them from the sensible.
Matter in its primary state was without form, and void of all
sensible properties: it was an obscure, indistinct, elementary material; out of which God created the world, by impressing upon
it the forms that compose the system of material nature, after the
pattern of his eternal ideas.
But as in the oriental theology, so in the Platonic; the supreme
unknown God was not the immediate agent in the creation of the
world.  He employed in this work a divine emanation and image
of himself, who is the second God, called by Plato Demiurge or
Creator —sometimes Logos, meaning word or reason of God, and
sometimes simply The God.  Through his agency also subordinate
Gods and Demons were created.
All these intelligent beings were originally pure; but by some
means many of the demons became vitiated and malignant.
The more exalted of the Divine Intelligences are invested with
the actual government of the world in subordination to the Creator. Their residence is in the fixed stars of the highest heavens.
Indeed Plato speaks of the stars as animated beings and gods of
fiery splendor.  This was the Egyptian doctrine.  How far he
intended here to speak poetically, and to be understood with allowance, we cannot tell.  His rich imagination often led hiis to
invest his doctrines with poetical imagery, so as to make it doubtful to his readers, whether he meant to express facts or fancies,
to state his doctrines or merely to embellish them.  However, he
seems to have seriously taught that every globe of the uni



PHILOSOPHY OF THE GREEKS.                 139
verse was an animated being, and that each of the bright orbs
which shed so benign a light upon this dull earth, was at least the
residence if not the substance of a God.
The good demons who inhabit the space between the starry heavens and the earth, preside over the different parts of nature. They
heed the several tribes of terrestial animals, guard the cities of
men, and conduct the operations of nature-all under the authority
of the higher powers. They act as mediators between Gods and
men.  They convey our prayers up to heaven, and bring down
messages and blessings from  above.  This doctrine of mediating
demons or angels, between poor mortals here below and the Supreme Powers of heaven, was almost universal in the Eastern
world.
According to Plato, therefore, three ranks of beings separate
the human species from the Infinite Supreme.  1. The Divine
Creator, Father of Gods and men, wholly incorporeal, and so
sublime in his nature-though he is but the Image of the Supreme-that he can be but obscurely and partially known by
man.  2. The celestial Gods of the starry regions,-the subordinate rulers of the world-of a bright and fiery nature. 3. The
demons, who are of an aerial nature, and therefore inferior to
the Gods, whose essence is of the finest element in nature.  The
higher demons about the orbit of the moon, are of a more
etherial substance than those who dwell in the grosser atmosphere
of the earth.  Yet they are all of a finer composition than
terrestial animals, whose spirits are invested with the coarse element of water and earth.  Every created spirit, not excepting
the human soul, when divested of its earthly covering, is clothed
with a vehicle.* The more refined and pure the element out of
which this instrument of action was made, the more perfect is the
spiritual being.  This was a common opinion among the ancients.
* OX0ya as the Greeks call it. Every finite spirit was supposed to need
such a vehicle or body, to give it place and locomotion,




140                      CHAPTER VI.
The Demiurge, or Creator-according to Plato's philosophyendowed this world with a soul, by virtue of which it became an
animated being.  The mundane soul is diffused through all the
elements, and is the source of life, and feeling, and action to all
the animated beings of the earth. They derive their corporeal
organization and animal souls from this mundane soul.
Thus is completed the second Trinity of Plato: the Supreme,
the Demiurge or Logos, and the soul of the world,-all Divine
Persons; but unequal, and derived  successively, one from
another.
The mundane soul is of a middle nature between Mind and
Matter. It is superior to Matter, because it possesses Life, Sensation, and Action or Power; but it is inferior to mind in not possessing Intellect or Reason.
The lower animals have naturally no souls but those which they
derive from the soul of the world. But man has also a rational
soul or mind, which pre-existed as a demon in the upper regions.
The animal and the rational souls are united by a third principle
or soul, which Plato calls The Irascible.*  The soul of man is
therefore threefold. It consists of the Rational Soul, which possesses Reason; the Animal Soul which possesses Appetite'; and the
Irascible Soul which possesses Wrath or Excitable Energy, and
serves as a connecting principle between the other two. The Rational Soul or Mind is immortal; the others perish with the body.
Matter is essentially imperfect and refractory, so that everything formed of it or connected with it, partakes of the natural
and insuperable imperfection of the material. Hence the origin
of evil. Hence the imperfect nature of the Mundane Soul, and
all animal souls; and hence the defilement of the immortal soul,
when it inhabits a material body.
Our animal sensations and desires belong only to the animal
soul.  Being of an earthly nature, and having relation to the body,
* So the Greek word Ovio, is commonly translated. But we agree with
Ritter in thinking that the German word muth, Spirit or Energy, more nearly
expresses Plato's meaning.




PHILOSOPHY OF THE GREEKS.                 141
they darken and corrupt the rational soul.  In its pre-existent
state as an incorporeal being, the Mind enjoyed a pure happiness
in the contemplation of the divine ideas, which it could then
clearly perceive. But when it became immersed in the gross elements of the body, and associated with the animal soul, it became
infected with low sensual desires,forgot its former state, ceased to
perceive those ennobling ideas, and became a dim-sighted carnal
thing of the earth.
The only way in which the immortal mind can recover from the
darkness and defilement of its fallen state, is by the enlightening
influence of philosophy. It must strenuously resist the debasing
influence of carnal desires and evil passions, and devote itself to
the pure contemplation of intelligible things. By subduing the
sensual propensities, quieting the turbulence of the passions, and
abstracting its attention from sensible objects, the soul is able,
even in its corporeal prison-house, to disenthral itself in a great
measure from  the gloom  and oblivion of its fallen state, and to
recover a portion of those intellectual visions of truth and beauty,
which it had enjoyed in its etherial birth-place.
Those who during their mortal life have thus subdued their earthborn affections, and purified the mind by divine contemplation, are
exalted after death to the celestial abodes, where a bright star becomes their happy'dwelling-place. But those who live immersed
in the sensuous desires of the flesh and spirit, are punished after death in the infernal regions, for a period of time proportioned
to their degree of sensuality and wickedness: or if their defilement
be comparatively small, their immortal souls are condemned to
transmigration into bodies of a degraded cast; they become women (says Plato), or slaves, or even brutes.  Nor shall any who
sink, after one life in the flesh, ever rise to their star of glory,
until they have, on a new trial, purified themselves from the vices
of their carnal state.
Plato was consistent, when he asserted that none of the vulgar
class of mankind could attain true happiness in a future state.
Their condition and habits subjected them  to the dominion of




142                     CHAPTER VI.
animal affections; and being destitute of " divine philosophy,"
they had no remedy.  Alas for the poor working men of the
world, if Plato's philosophy had been really " divine."  But a
sublimer character than the Grecian sage, has taught a far simpler
and far diviner philosophy, by which the laboring poor can be
saved without dreaming away their lives in abstract contemplation.
Faith, hope, and charity will serve them better, than would a
Platonic knowledge of " the intelligible."
Plato taught that the rational soul has its seat in the head;
the irascible, in the breast; and the animal, in the lower parts of
the body;-and that this arrangement indicated the comparative
dignity of the several parts of the soul. Virtue he made to consist in the subjection of the inferior parts to the government of
reason.  Of the four cardinal virtues, he assigned prudence to
the rational soul in the head; fortitude to the irascible in the
breast; and temperance to the animal, below: Justice he considered as the result of a proper union and subordination of all the
parts of our nature.
In his moral precepts, Plato did not enjoin any definite system
of ascetic discipline.  He did not prescribe any specific rules of
fasting, continence, poverty, or devotional exercises in seclusion
from the world. Such an application of his principles would not
have suited his age and country. But it is obvious to remark
that his philosophy contains all those principles, which in Eastern
Asia brought forth the extravagancies of ascetism  and monkery.
So, when Platonism  became rooted in the congenial soil of
Egypt and Western Asia, it gathered to itself more and more of
the oriental dogmas, and tended more and more towards the
ascetic form in the practice of its professors.*
The foregoing sketch of Plato's philosophy, shows how much
* The foregoing account of Plato's philosophy has been digested from
Brucker's and Ritter's Histories of Philosophy, and Apuleius on the Demon
of Socrates and on the Philosophy of Plato. For a sketch, taken chiefly from
Enfield, see Anthon's Classical Dictionary, article'Plato.




PHILOSOPHY OF THE GREEKS.                143
he was indebted to Pythagoras and the orientals for the elements
of his system.  He merely digested, improved, and adorned
what others had already taught.  What we are chiefly concerned to remark, however, is that by his elegant manner of
combining and treating the elements of the oriental philosophy,
he made it popular among the Greeks, and gave it prevalence
in Egypt and Western Asia, at the time when Christianity began
in those countries, to be embraced by learned men and philosophers.  Thus his philosophy came to be the chief medium
through which the principles of the oriental philosophy were
introduced into the Church. Before this came to pass, however,
new schools of both Pythagorean and Platonic philosophers had
begun to arise in those eastern provinces of the Roman Empire,
where-the Christian doctrine was first corrupted by philosophy,
and Christian monachism originated.  It is important, therefore,
to give some account of these new schools of Pythagoreans and
Platonists, especially of the latter, by whose doctrines the Church
was so much influenced in the second and third centuries.  This
we shall do after we have noticed the earlier philosophy and
monachism of the Jews.




CHAPTER VII.
PLATONISM OF PHILO THE JEW.
IT was in the great city of Alexandria in Egypt, that the
Platonic Philosophy found its most distinguished disciples and
teachers after the commencement of the Christian era.
Alexandria had been before, and continued long to be afterwards, the greatest commercial emporium in the world.  Here
were congregated men of half a dozen nations and religionsHindoos, Egyptians, Arabians, Syrians, Jews, and Greeks.  It
was the chief point of contact between the eastern and the western
nations: the focus into which their doctrines were collected, and
the centre from which they radiated in all directions. Here arose
a great university, the greatest in the world after Athens began
to decline.  In this celebrated school of learning, philosophy,
science and literature, were taught by distinguished men.  Its
founders and early patrons were the Grecian Ptolemies, who,
after the death of Alexander, the founder of the city, reigned
over Egypt.  These enlightened rulers furnished their university with the greatest library of ancient times. It was this
great storehouse of knowledge thas made Alexandria the chief
seat of learning for the space of eight hundred years; until that
fanatical disciple of Mahomet, the Caliph Omar, made fuel of
seven hundred thousand volumes-on the principle, that if they
agreed with the Koran they were superfluous; but if not, they




PLATONISM OF PHILO THE JEW.                 145
were pernicious.  This was like the water-trial of supposed
witches in after times.  If they sank and were drowned, they
perished as innocent persons; but if they floated on the water,
they were burnt as witches.
The Jews constituted, from  they foundation of the city, a
numerous and wealthy part of the Alexandrian population. Josephus quotes from Strabo the statement, that their quarter constituted a large portion of the city;-that they had a special
governor of their own entitled Ethnarch-and that they were a
numerous and powerful people in Egypt.*  The Ethnarch had
also the title of Alabarch.  He administered justice among the
Egyptian Jews, and had the oversight of both civil and religious
affairs.
Here many of the Jews learned the Greek language, and, for
the first time in the history of their nation, some of them studied
the Grecian philosophy.  We should remark that the conquests
of Alexander the Great had diffused the language, and in some
measure the population of Greece, over Western Asia and Egypt.
Greek was thenceforth during many years the language of science,
and to a considerable extent also the language of the people, in
all those countries.
It was for the numerous body of Jews in Egypt, that the
Hebrew books of the Old Testament' were translated into Greek,
more than a century before the birth of Christ.  Many of these
Jews had been already, for so long a time, denizens of a foreign
country, that they had forgotten, not only the ancient Hebrew,
but even the Syro-Chaldaic dialect, spoken in Judea after the
Babylonish captivity.
As to this Greek translation of the Old Testament, it was undoubtedly made in Egypt during the reign of the Ptolemies;
but the story which Josephus took from Aristaeus concerning the
seventy interpreters, is unquestionably fabulous.  It obtained
from him such currency, however, as to give the translation the
title of the Septuagint, or Seyenty..
~ Josephus. Antiquities. Book xiy. chap. 




146                    CHAPTER VII.
It is evident from the style and manner in which the different
parts were translated, that the work was done by different hands,
and probably at different periods of time.
The most distinguished man among the Alexandrian Jews, in
the time of the Apostles, was Philo, surnamed Judaeus, the Jew.
He was brother to Alexander, the Alabarch, and was sent once,
by his countrymen, on an important mission to the emperor, at
Rome.
He was deeply imbued with the philosophy of Plato; yet, also,
a zealous disciple of Moses.  What a conjunction! Plato and
Moses! There was no affinity between them.  How then could
the philosophical oil be combined with the water smitten out of
Sinai's rock? As Plato united the rational soul with the animal,
through the medium of the irascible, so the philosophizing Jews
united Greek Platonism with Mosaic Judaism, through the medium of the allegorical.  The ceremonial worldly system of the
law, (designed only for a temporary purpose,) would appear to
the mind of a Jew, imbued with Plato's idealism, exceedingly dry
and uninstructive. He would, therefore, endeavor to find under
the hard shell of the literal sense, a nutritious kernel of divine
philosophy. In this attempt he could not fail, for he had only to
exercise his imagination. He could then find Platonism in the
books of Moses, quite as easily as Shakspeare's Jacques could
find " Sermons in stones, and good in everything."
Philo was not the first Jew who resorted to the allegorizing
and spiritualizing method of expounding the Holy Scriptures.
Jewish doctors had adopted it to some extent, ages before, chiefly
at Alexandria, where the Gentile philosophy began to allure the
Jewish mind with its ingenious theories.  Of course Judaism
then began to be corrupted with Oriental and Platonic fancies,
just as Christianity suffered afterwards from the same cause.
Whenever religious doctors begin to dive beneath the proper
sense of the sacred writings in search of mystical and allegorical
senses, they soon lose sight of the firm land, and bring up from
the wide abyss of human thought whatsoever may please their




PLATONISM OF PHILO THE JEW.               147
fancies, be it the elegant philosophy of Plato, or the puerile daydream of Swedenborg.
Philo's works consist chiefly of tracts on certain passages in the
books of Moses, and some on other subjects, mostly philosophical.
In all these he teaches Platonic doctrines, but not the pure system of Plato.  Pythagorean and Egyptian sentiments corrupt his
Platonism.  The doctrines of Moses constrained him  also, in
spite of allegory, to deviate, in.some things, from the track of the
Grecian philosopher.  This syncretism, or mixture of doctrinal
systems, led Philo  into frequent inconsistencies, which have
puzzled his commentators in their attempts to reconcile himself
with himself, and to make out a clear statement of his doctrines.
It would be unimportant to determine what they were, if his fame
and his writings had not contributed to infuse heathenish philosophy into apostolical Christianity, and thus to produce errors of
doctrine and practice, which Romanism retains in full, and Protestantism in part, and probably will retain for ages yet to come.
Especially did his writings serve as a medium, through which
ascetical and monkish sentiments passed from  heathenism  into
the Church.  We shall, therefore, give a sketch of his doctrines,
so far as they relate to our subject, and conclude with a specimen
of his allegorical method of interpreting the writings of Moses.
We give the result of our own examination of his writings.
1. Of God and his Chief Powers.
Philo conceived that there was a substantial, but not a formal
agreement between the Platonic and Mosaic doctrines concerning
the Godhead.  According to both, as he conceived, there is one
Supreme God, who creates and governs through the agency of his
divine powers.  These powers are personal agents, divine emanations from  the Infinite Supreme, existing in him, and one with
himself, yet, exercising each his distinct agency. They are, in
short, the divine attributes personified, not figuratively, but really,
They are the powers of God, acting distinctly, yet in union with
the Supreme Father.




148                      CHAPTER VII.
This is the old Oriental doctrine, the general theory of which
is given in our account of the Egyptian philosophy.
In respect to the number and relation of these Divine Powers,
Philo differs from  Plato, and is inconsistent with himself.  He
represents them  differently in different places.   He  adopts
Plato's doctrine of the Divine Logos or Word, speaks often of this
Divine Agent, but so variously and obscurely, that his commentators differ in their explications of his doctrine on this interesting
point. One thing is certain, however, that he ascribed Personal
Agency to the Divine Logos, though Mosheim  thought that he
meant by it the " Intelligible world," or Divine Ideas collectively-according  to Plato's theology.   He adopted  Plato's
doctrine of a Mundane Soul, from which animal souls proceed;
but he does not make this soul of the world one of his Divine
Powers, though sometimes he apparently confounds it with the
Logos.
We shall confirm our statement by translated extracts from his
works; in which the reader will see what his doctrine is, and how
inconsistently he presents it at different times.
In his tract On Abraham, speaking of the three angels who
appeared to the patriarch, he says:' The middle one is the Father of All, properly-named in the
Scriptures, He-that-is (Jehovah.) Those next to him, on either
side, are called The lMIaker and Thle Governor.  The former of
these is called God, by whom all things were made and disposed.
The other is called Lord;* for it is fit that the creation be governed by the Creator.  That Middle One, with his Powers on
either side, exhibits to the discerning mind the appearance, sometimes of one, sometimes of three; of one, when the mind is most
* Philo here translates into Greek, and we into English, the meaning of
the three Hebrew names of the Supreme Being. (n-i,) Jehovah, He-that-is,
commonly rendered Lord in our English Bible; (oitr) Elohim, God;
and ("i1r) Adonai. Lord or Ruler. These are often used interchangeably
in the Old Testament.




PLATONISM OF PHILO THE JEW.               149
accurately cleansed; of three, when the spectator is not initiated
in the Greater Mysteries, but labors in the Lesser, and cannot
yet comprehend Him, as existing alone and of himself-but as
existing in his works as Creator and Sovereign."
In this passage Philo attributes to the three angels the three
Hebrew names of the Supreme Being: the first representing
Jehovah, the Father; the other two, the Divine Creator and
Divine Ruler of the world.  These three appear to the imperfectly-instructed, as three different Gods; but to those who fully
understand the Mosaic doctrine, as one and the same God, or
Supreme Being.  The Heathen  Mysteries of the Gods-or
Secret Schools-to which he here alludes, were of two degrees;
the Lesser, into which the candidate was first initiated, are supposed to have corrected the grosser errors of Polytheism; but
the Greater, to have taught the true doctrine of the Divine
Unity-namely, that all the Divine Beings who emanated from
the Supreme, were united in him, and made with him but one
God.  This doctrine of Divine Emanations, constituting distinct
agents, yet altogether one God in the Supreme, was so prevalent
among the ancients in Asia, Egypt, and Greece, that we cannot
hesitate to construe the language of Philo in this sense.  It is the
easiest and most obvious meaning of his expressions.
In his tract on the Cherubim (Gen. iii. 24) Philo speaks of the
divine Persons or Powers somewhat differently. His text is," He (God) placed at the east end of the garden'of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the
way of the tree of life."
" Next to the one only true God (says Philo) are two supreme
and first Powers, Goodness and Authority: the universe was made
by Goodness; the creation" is governed by Authority.  A third
that unites the two is Logos- Word or Reason,-in the middle.
The Cherubim were the symbols of the two Powers,-the flaming
sword, of the Logos.?'
In the former passage Philo made a divine Trinity; here, he
makes a quaternion, by adding the Logos to the primary Power




150                     CHAPTER VII.
of the Father; thus constituting a Trinity of Powers in the Supreme God, according to the Hindoo and Egyptian theology.  If
in any way the former statement can be reconciled with the latter,
we must suppose that three angels represented the three Powers,
and that the Supreme God did not appear in either of them. But
this is scarcely feasible: so that we must give up Philo as inconsistent in his theology.
As to the Logos mentioned in the latter passage, our learned
Jew often speaks of him as a Divine Person in the Supreme God.
In his tract On the Confusion of Tongues, he calls the Logos,
" The First-born of God," " The oldest Angel,"  The Archangel
of Many Names, who is called The Beginning," " The Name of
God," and " The Man after his Image."  Elsewhere he calls him
" The Image of God," The Vicar or Vicegerent of God" and his' Minister."  He says that the Logos is the seal from whose impression created beings received their forms (which is the Platonic doctrine), and that he is clothed with the world as with a
garment, and that by him the creation is held together and sustained;-which seems to identify him with the soul of the world,
though possibly Philo meant not so.
In his tract On Migration, he says that the high-priest under
the Law of Moses, represented the Divine Logos, whose father is
God the Father of All, and whose mother is Wisdom, through
whom all things were generated. He seems here to allude to the
description of wisdom in the Book of Proverbs, chap. viii. 22-31.
We shall quote but one thing more under this head. In the
tract On Dreams, speaking of the visible appearances of God, he
says it was the Logos who appeared to the Patriarchs; for, says
he,-" as they who cannot look at the sun, may see the reflection
of his rays; so we are to understand that it was the Image of God,
his word (Logos) and Angel, whom they saw as himself." Again
he says, " God is the primary light; his Image, the Logos, is also
most perfect light, and similar to no creature."
From these various expressions concerning the Divine Logos,
our readers may judge for themselves what conception Philo had




PLATONISM OF PI1ILO THE JEW.                151
of this divine being. In the specimen of Philo's allegorical interpretations, near the end of the chapter, the reader will see that the
Logosis represented as God's agent or instrument in the creation
and government of the world.
2. Of Angels and Demons.
Philo, like Plato and all the orientals, taught that our atmosphere and the ethereal regions above it are full of spiritual beings,
some of whom enter into human bodies and become men.
In his tract On the Giants, he comments on the text in Genesis
vi. 2-4, " The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they
were fair," &c.  The Septuagint translation, used by Philo and
all the Greek Fathers of the Church, reads angels of God instead
of sons of God, as it is in the Hebrew. On this ground they all
held that these lovers of fair women and fathers of Giants were
Angels, not men.  But according to Philo, the only difference is,
that angels have no flesh and blood. For in this tract he says as
follows:
" Those whom other philosophers call demons, Moses usually
calls angels; but they are spirits flying through the air. The
whole world must in ail parts have animated beings; the other
elements, earth, water, air and fire* have theirs; so must the
stars of heaven. These spirits are wholly immortal and divine.
The air is full of living creatures that are invisible to us as the
air itself. Some of these souls descend into bodies; the others
disdain to be connected with the earth, and are employed as
ministers and servants by the Father, the Creator, in administrating the affairs of mortals.  But the former, descending into the
body as into a river, are overwhelmed as in a whirlpool. But some
of them by struggling emerge and [after death] fly back to their
home in the upper regions. These souls have, in the body, been
taught a sublime philosophy. But those who sink, are the souls
of men that neglect the wisdom that pertains to the mind, and
* The ancients believed that salamanders lived in fire, as their proper element. Some imagined that they had seen them.




152                      ChAPTER VII.
give themselves to carnal things.  Now, if you consider souls,
demons, and angels to diff3r only in name, you will relieve the
subject of much superstition."
He teaches the same doctrine in other tracts, particularly that
0On Dreams; in which he adds that some souls, after they have
once tried the experiment of a corporeal life, become weary of its
vanity, and consider the body as a sepulchre; and, therefore,
when dismissed at death, they fly up into the ethereal regions and
never return; but that others are so pleased with mortal life,
that they transmigrate into new  bodies after death.  It is the
spirits who inhabit the grosser parts of our atmosphere, that
usually enter into bodies; but the more refined spirits of the
celestial regions, prefer to serve God as mediators between him
and his sons on the earth; conveying divine messages down and
the prayers of the devout up to God.
3. Of the Human Soul.
Philo fully adopted the Patonic doctrine that the human soul
consists of three parts, the rational, the irascible, and the animal
or appetitive.  The first is breathed into ius by God and is immortal.  The others, he says, sometimes are made by inferior
creative powers-" nature's journeymen," as Shakspeare expresses a similar idea.  He says also that the Nous or Rational
soul generates some of the subordinate faculties, such as sense,
voice, and generative power.
In hisaccount, as given above, of God's breathing into us the
rational soul, he seems in following Moses to have forgotten
Plato.  How do the demons get in to be souls-and that too of
their own choice, —if the rational soul be an immediate emanation from God's spirit or breath?
4. The Human Body.
He always speaks of the body as a burden and a prison of the
immortal soul, which enters it as a sojourner from a foreign land;
and that it is an act of Divine mercy which releases it from  the




PLATONISM  OF PHILO THE JEW.                 153
gloom and the miseries of its fleshly tenement, and restores it to
its native country in the heavens.
5. Of Virtue.
He is perfectly Platonic in saying, that virtue is the union of
the three parts of the soul under the government of reason.
" The lovers of virtue," he says in the tract On Dreams, " have
a hard task to perform in resisting the body and its pleasures, and
a hard struggle, besides, against the temptation of external goods)
such as riches, honor," &c. —  The true disciples of Moses exercise continence, frugality, and patience; they disregard wealth,
pleasure, and glory; use only sufficient necessary food to keep off
famine; are ready to bear all hardships for virtue's sake; are
content with mean clothing, and esteem  luxury a disgrace and a
reproach.  To them the grassy sod is a precious bed, with boughs
and leaves for a covering, and a stone for a pillow. The luxurious
esteem this a hard life, but the followers of virtue think it delightful."
6, Of Ascetism.
The last quotation is from  a commentary on Jacob's dream,
when the patriarch slept in the open air.  It is a picture of the
ascetic life when not carried to excess.  He is fond of calling
Jacob the Ascetic.  The following extract from  the same tract,
is expressly to the point:
" Virtue is acquired in three ways —by doctrine (or instruction),
by nature, and by exercise (or the ascetic life.)  Of these three,
the first and last are most easily united; for that by exercise
springs from that by instruction. The faculty of hearing is most
prompt for instruction; the ascetic power fits a man for striving
(against evil influences.)
7. The Contemplative Life.
This he considers, as Plato did, the necessary means of purifying the soul. In the same treatise On Dreams, he says:
7*




154                      CHAPTER VtI.
" The good man, loving a quiet life, delights in solitude, shunning vulgar eyes; not because he hates society, but that he may
fly from vice. Wherefore he usually shuts himself up at home,
and seldom  goes out.  To avoid frequent visitors, he prefers a
rural solitude, where he may live more sweetly, conversing with
the writings of the virtuous dead."
Again, in the tract On the 11/igration of Abraham, he says:
" The senses are an impediment to the contemplation of intelligible things. We should therefore close the senses by seeking
darkness and solitude."-" God gave the mind the power of
knowing the intelligible world by itself, but the visible world by
the senses."
Putting all these things together, we find that Philo was an
advocate of ascetic discipline and solitary contemplation, and
these two things constitute monachism. He was an ardent admirer of the monachism of his countrymen, the Essenes and the
Therapeutes, and he wrote laudatory accounts of these monastic
sects. He has the credit, therefore, if credit be due, of uniting
Platonism, Judaism, and Monachism  into a Triad, sacred to all
who should be influenced by his writings, among both Jews and
Gentiles.
But Philo did not approve of a merely ceremonial and superstitious ascetism. " If you see one (says he) taking his food and
drink at a late hour, refusing to wash and anoint himself, neglecting to clothe his body, lying on the ground without covering, and
then priding himself on his temperance, he is not to be admired;
for his exercises thus far are useless vexations.  Nor will costly
acrifices, ablutions, rearing of temples, &c., entitle one to be
reckoned among the pious.  He has erred from the way of piety
in placing his sanctity in ceremonies and rich offerings to Him
who will not accept them, and in attempts to flatter Him whom
no flattery can reach.  The truly pious offer sincere sacrifices,
but are averse from  ostentatious services."-~Excellent observations, and a graphic sketch of monkish ascetism, as some individuals seem to have practiced it in his day; though some Christian




PLATONISMI OF PHILO THE JEW.                155
monks, three hundred years after his time, went far beyond his
description, in affecting dirt, destitution, and devotion, in order
to rid their souls of all corporeal incumbrances and influences.
Finally, we shall give, as we have promised
8. A Specimen of Philo's Allegorical Interpretation.
In the treatise of the Migration of Abraham, he is commenting
on Genesis xii. 1. " Now the Lord said unto Abraham, get thee
out of thy country, and from  thy kindred, and from the house of
thy father, Sic."
"God wishing to amend the soul of man (says Philo) first
gives him, as an incitement to salvation, migration from  three
things, the body, the senses, and uttered speech; for you must
understand the country as a symbol of the body-the kindred as a
symbol of the senses-and the father's house, of speech. Wherefore? Because the body received its substance from the earth,*
and will at dissolution again return to the ground from which it
was taken, as Moses testifies) Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt
thou return.  For he says that it was formed of clay, and when
dissolved, it must return to what it was at first.  But sense is a
kinsman and brother of the mind, —the irrational, of the rational,
-since both are parts of one soul.  But speech is the father's
house; because our father, the intelligent mind, sows into the
other parts its own powers, and bestowing its energies upon them,
assumes the care and management of them all.  But its dwellinghouse is speech, separate from the other buildings. Wonder not
then, that he calls the mind's utterance or speech, a house; for
God, the mind of the universe, says that the word (Logos) is his
house. For Jacob the Ascetic, when he had a vision of himthat is, of the Logos-openly confesses, This is none other than
the house of God and the gate of heaven; as if he had said,
The house of God is not any of these visible things, nor can be
perceived by sense, but is invisible, obscure, and can be appre* The Hebrew Jretz, and the Greek Ge, both have the double signification of earth and country.




156                     CHAPTER VIT,
hended only by the soul as a spiritual being. Who can it be theno
except the Logos, older than created things, by whom, as a
helm, the pilot of the world steers all things, and whom he employed as an instrument in effecting a faultless creation."
And so this Platonizing interpreter of Moses goes on with his
fantastical allegories, through many and many a page, conjuring
out of the single-minded old Hebrew  prophet many a doctrine
which he never " dreamed of in his philosophy."
Such were the philosophical opinions current among Jews and
Gentiles, and such the Scripture interpretations, by which they
were incorporated with revealed religion, during the early ages of
Christianity.  How then could Christianity escape corruption, as
soon as inspired men ceased to be its teachers?




CHAPTER  VIII,
THE PHILOSOPHY AND MONACHISM OF THE JEWE.
Before the Babylonish captivity, the Jews had no philosophy
of their own, and were too little acquainted with foreign nations
to learn the philosophy of others.  They had no speculative
opinions; they formed no theories concerning the origin and nature of things; that is, they did not philosophize-they did not
reason on the things in heaven or the things on the earth. King
Solomon, who married an Egyptian wife, showed some turn for
philosophical pursuits. But in general the only question that
divided their religious sentiments was, whether they should serve
God according to the precepts of Moses, or Baal, according to
the custom of the Canaanites.
Their residence in Babylonia gave them some knowledge of the
Chaldean philosophy.  The conquest of Babylon by the great
Cyrus, brought many of them into contact with the Magian religion.  When they had again filled their own country after their
restoration, the settlement of many of them in Egypt, Asia Minor,
and Europe, softened their prejudices against everything foreign,
taught them the languages of the Gentiles, and opened their minds
to the admission of new ideas and opinions.
The effect of these circumstances became visible in some of
their subsequent writings, and in the rise of religious sects-indicating freedom of thought and-a disposition to form opinions.
Some of the Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament bear




158                     CHAPTER vr.r,
evidence of an incipient intermixture of the Gentile philosophy
with Scriptural Judaism.
Thus the Apocryphal book called The Wisdom  of Solomon,
written in Greek, probably by an Alexandrian Jew, exhibits evident traces of Pythagorean and Platonic doctrines.  In chap. i.
7, the author says, that " The Spirit of the Lord illeth the world,
and containeth all thing's [rvreZe TranavTal;"  which are Platonic
phrases concerning the soul of the world. Again, in chap. vii.
22-29, the author gives a description of wisdom, in which he
utters several Platonic notions, making her a personal emanation
from God.  He says she is " The worker of all things;"-that in
her is " An understanding spirit, holy, only-begotten, subtle, lively,
clear, &c., -having all power, overseeing all things, going through
all understanding, pure and most subtle spirits."  She is " the
breathing of the Divine power, a pure emanation (unoQQOla) from
the glory of the Omnipotent; —the brightness (or effulgence,
anavxuyaa,) of the everlasting (or invisible, atrdov) light,-the
unspotted mirror of God's power, and the image of his goodness."
All these expressions are conformable to the oriental doctrine,
that Divine Wisdom (evvolav) was a certain substantial power,
eternal and immutable, which they called Aeon (agoxv), and which
flowed or emanated like a ray of light from the fulness (nldwQolpa)
of the Omnipotent God.*  Again in chap. ix. 15, the author
speaks of the body " pressing down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weighing down the mind that museth upon many things,"
which is the oriental andPythagoreo-Platonic notion of the body's
being the prison of the soul and darkening the intellect, In the
preceding chap, viii. 20, the author says, " I was a witty child and
had a good spirit; yea rather, being good, I came into a body uniefiled:" which is the oriental doctrine of the pre-existence of the
soul as a demon or spirit, before it came into the body.
This book was written, it is supposed, in the time of the earlier
Ptolemies, long before the Christian era.
* Brucker. Hist, COitl Period, II. Part. i. L. ii. c. i.




PHILOSOPHY AND MONACHISM OF THu  JEWS.            159
The Jewish Sects were chiefly three, the Sadducees, Pharisees
and Essenes,
The fundamental difference between the Sadducees and Pharisees, was, that the former professed to take the written Law of
Moses, literally interpreted, as the rule of their faith and practices, while the latter followed the Tradition of the Elders, or in
other words, the authority of the Doctors of former times, as the
true expounders of the Law.  The Sadducees would not admit
anything to be Law or Doctrine, which was not expressly taught
in the Books of Moses.  Hence they denied the immortality of
the soul, and-strangely, we think-the existence of angels or
incorporeal spirits.  The Pharisees-like our Roman Catholicstook the Scriptures in the sense of the Fathers, and received as
of Divine authority, whatsoever doctrines and practices, the ancient
Rabbis or Doctors delivered as such. If they were not contained
in the Sacred Records, they were considered as transmitted from
Moses and the Prophets- through Oral Tradition, and therefore
of the same authority as if they had been written by inspired
men.
With the Sadducees our subject has nothing to do; as they ran
to the opposite extreme, from everything tending to ascetism and
monkery.  But the Pharisees inclined much towards an austere
and flesh-mortifying system of doctrine and practice. Their fundamental rule of following the Tradition of the Elders, admitted
of many admixtures of foreign notions and practices with the pure
system of the written law.
Transmigration of souls was believed among the Jews, and
especially among the Pharisees, as Brucker says, We have a sign
of that belief in the Book of Wisdom before quoted,
A  leading doctrine of the Pharisees was, that to attain
righteousness, a man must make satisfaction for his sins by fasting,
ablutions, alms and sacrifices; or by confession of his sins, prayer
for pardon, and purification by suffering after death-as the Talmud teaches.
They taught works of supererogation-that is, meritorious per



160                      CHAPTER VItII
formances more that the law requires, and therefore efficaciotis to
remove guilt.
They macerated their bodies by fasting, watching, lying on rough
narrow boards, and wearing around the border of their garments
a fringe of thorns, with the points projecting inwards, so as to
strike upon their flesh when they moved.  They made long prayers.
Some walked the streets with mortar-like hoods over their heads
and faces, to aid their meditations; but as they could see only the
ground at their feet, they often ran their heads against walls and
posts, —which, we fear, disturbed their meditations;- others walked
without this covering, but so absorbed in contemplation, that they
forgot to lift their feet as they walked, and thereby stumbled over
everything in their way,-which tended, we may conceive, to
break the thread of their divine contemplations. If any one would
know whether the common people admired them for their sanctity,
we can tell him that they did: and if he does not know that they
were hypocritical, self-righteous pretenders to sanctity-let him
read the Gospels and learn their true character,
The Pharisees were ascetics, but not monks.  But the Jews
had among them two monkish sects, who arose some four or five
hundred years before monachism  appeared in the Church; but
long after the Babylonish captivity and the cessation of Jewish
prophecy.  The one of these sects resided in Judea, the other
in Egypt. Josephus gives an account of the former-Philo, of
both.  The Roman philosopher Pliny, also mentions the Essenes.
The Essenes, a Sect of Jewish MlIonks.
We have digested, under distinct heads, the materials facts
given by Josephus, Philo, and Pliny, respecting this remarkable
sect of Jewish monks, whose principles and practices agreed
essentially with those of the Cenobite Christian monks of the
fourth and fifth centuries.
1. The Essenes formed a Separate Society, and had little intercourse with other men.  Some of them occupied houses in the




PHILOSOPHY AND MONACHISMI OF THE JEWS.            161
smaller towns, but the greater number lived in the wilderness of
Judea in the vicinity of the Dead Sea.
They did not beg; but, like honest men, supported themselves
by regular industry. In towns or villages, they carried on innocent trades, but avoided merchandise and navigation, probably
because these occupations would cause them to mix too much
with other men, and might also tempt them to indulge an avaricious desire of gain. In the wilderness they were husbandmen,
shepherds, and keepers of bees.  They produced only necessaries, being opposed to all sorts of luxury, and leading a simple
and frugal manner of life.
Their number in the time of Josephus-some fifty or sixty
years after Christ-was about four thousand.
2. They had a community of goods, like the Cenobite monks
of later ages.  What each one had when he entered the society,
and what he procured afterwards by his labor, was put into the
common stock from which all drew their supplies.
The general body was divided into particular associations, who
labored, ate, and lodged together, like the inmates of a Christian
monastery, under the government of officers.
3. They admitted no women into their society, abstained from
marriage, and practiced a rigid continence. Yet (says Josephus,)
they did not condemn marriage in others, considering it necessary
for the propagation of mankind.
There was an order of Essenes, who differed from  the more
rigid sort, in permitting their members to marry; with the austere restriction, however, that in the marriage state, they should
confine sexual intercourse to the single end of procreating children, allowing the constitutional appetite no indulgence but what
was necessary to this end.  We shall, however, show  that this
austere rule was prescribed to married people by some Christian
Fathers, as early as the second century, and was one of the signs
of forthcoming monkery.
The stricter sort of Essenes appear to have had an ill opinion
of the female sex. Josephus says that by abstaining from mar



162                     CHAPTER VIII.
riage, they guarded against the lacivious behavior of women,
being persuaded that none of them retain their fidelity to one
man.  Brucker tries in vain to make this signify only, that they
could not keep a secret.  For Philo goes even further, saying
that the Essenes had the acuteness to perceive the incompatibility of marriage with the existence of their association.' For
(says he)jwoman loves herself too much, is devoured by excessive
jealousy, and can easily corrupt the morals of her husband by
artifice and enticement. And, if she bear children to her husband, then she who before used artful blandishments, now comes
out boldly and undertakes to rule her husband by main force.
Wherefore, wives were considered most inimical to this society;
for the man who is overcome by voluptuousness, or is ruled by his
wife, can neither be pure in himself, nor honest towards mankind."
This atrocious opinion of the female sex,-which we apprehend to have been Philo's own,-is truly monkish, and outrageously unjust to the amiable sex, who are in general far more
virtuous than the male, —not excepting even the monks, with all
their vows upon them.
4. They supplied their society with new members by training up
boys or young men;-or as Philo, quoted by Eusebius, saysmen of mature age,-who are given by their parents, or who offer
themselves, for that purpose.   They were to pass through a
noviciate of three years, before they were admitted to membership.
The first year was a trial chiefly of their continence. If approved
on this point, they were then purified by baptism, and subjected
for two years longer to the full rigor of the society's discipline, as
a final trial for membership.  If they willingly submitted so long
to their rules of temperance and modes of life, they were then received into full communion, on their taking a solemn vow, or as
Josephus calls it, " a tremendous oath" of fidelity and obedience
to the rules;-one of which was that they should never conceal
anything from their fellow-members, nor reveal any of the society's
secrets to others,-not even to save their lives.




PHILOSOPHY AND MONACIISM OF THE JEWS.             163
5. The Essenes, while all, in theory at least, fared alike, had
nevertheless a system of strict subordination among them. They
had curators or directors, who governed all the movements and
operations of the society.  The curators belonged to the oldest
class of members.  Below them were three other classes divided
according to age.  The younger were bound to reverence and
serve the elder,-a good rule, if it had not been carried too far.
" The juniors are so far inferior to the elders, (says Josephus),
that if an elder be touched by a junior, he must wash himself,as if he had been defiled by the contact." Their government was
therefore a despotism, like that of the Roman Catholic monasteries.
6. If a member committed a heinous offence, they expelled
him from the society. This was almost equivalent to a sentence of
death:-for being bound by his " tremendous oath" not to associate with other persons, nor to partake of their food, the excommunicated member was obliged (says Josephus) to eat grass, until
he was famished with hunger.  They sometimes restored the
offender, when they found that he was ready to perish rather than
violate his oath.
7. Their System of Morals was pure even to austerity.  Their
vow bound them  to be temperate in all things; to deny themselves all corporeal enjoyments beyond what life and health required; to be scrupulously faithful, just, and true; to be pious
towards God, just and charitable towards men; to reverence
their superiors in age and office, and to obey the rulers of their
country. They also exercised themselves in fortitude to such a
degree, as to despise death, and to bear any kind of privations
and tortures, rather than violate their rules. They also " swore
not at all," except their solemn oath of admission at membership.  Their system  of morals was founded on the Pythagorean
and oriental principle, that Pleasure is morally evil, and therefore
to be avoided as incompatible with virtue. It is the principle of
monachism.




164                    CHAPTER VIII.
8. Their Doctrines were in the main Jewish, but considerably
adulterated with Pythagorean and oriental notions.
They had a profound reverence for their lawgiver, Moses, and
for the writings of the prophets.  They neglected the sacrifices
and worship at the temple, just as the Christian hermits afterwards neglected all social worship; but to make up for this defect, they not only practiced a rigid  ascetism, but kept the
Sabbath with more than Pharisaical strictness. They would not,
on that day, kindle a fire, nor move a vessel, wherein they were
no better than the Pharisees; but then, neither would they go to
stool, which was a ceremonial constipation, we think, somewhat
superpharisaical.
They believed the Body to be temporary, and therefore rejected
the Pharisaical doctrine of its resurrection; but the Soul they
believed to be immortal.  They held that the soul is composed of
a subtle air, and that the body is its prison. They considered
mortal life in the flesh, to be a state of bondage, and death a
deliverance.  Here we find Oriental and Pythagorean doctrines
mixed in their system with Biblical Judaism, and laying a founda
tion for their monkish ascetisn. The body, with its senses and
appetites, is essentially evil, all material things, and all the pleasures of sense are evil.  Therefore, the soul must be saved from
their polluting influence, by mortifying the senses and subjecting
the animal body and soul to a strict regimen. All the pleasant
things of the world were to be shunned as evil.  What do such
monkish philosophers think of the Creator, who made our bodies,
and our senses, and so many pleasant objects to gratify them?
The Essenes disregarded all purely speculative philosophy.
With a few principles, such as we have mentioned, they regarded
only what was practical, and taught them to despise all riches,
elegancies, pleasures and amusements.
They were rigid predestinarians-more so than even the Pharisees.  Josephus says, " The Essenes affirm that Fate (or God's
decree) governs all things; and that nothing befals man but what
is according to its determination."*
* Josephus Antiq., B. xiii., Ch. v. Sect. 9.




PHILOSOPHY AND MONACHISM OF THE JEWS.              165
Superstition is of the essence of monkery, and is therefore
always found in connection with it.  The following particulars
show that the Essenes were a superstitious sect. They would not
spit between themselves and another.  This might have passed
for a rule of decency, if they had not been equally scrupulous not
to spit upon the right side.  They imagined too, that by studying
the Holy Books-especially by poring constantly over the discourses of the prophets, and using sundry sorts of ceremonial
purification —they could acquire prophetic skill, interpret dreams
and foretell future events.  Their admirer, Josephus, says, that
they seldom failed in their predictions.  By the same means they
also expected to acquire medical skill, and to find out what minerals and herbs would cure their diseases.  These superstitions
seem to have been a modification of the Chaldean magic and
astrology.
10. Their daily course of life is thus described. The hour of
morning twilight they consecrated to prayer, using the forms received from  their ancestors.  Then their curators sent them to
their labors till eleven o'clock, when they assembled in one place,
bathed themselves in cold water, put on their white garments,
and went silently to their seats at the dinner-table.  The dinner
consisted only of bread and one other kind of food.  The priest
said grace before and after their meals.  After dinner they laid
aside their white garments, and went to their labors again until
the evening.  Then they returned to the house and took a silent
supper.  When they eased nature, they dug a hole in the ground,
then filled it again, and afterwards washed themselves. These
Jewish monks, like the Pharisees, did not conceive-as the Christian hermits afterwards did-that corporeal filthiness contributed
to their spiritual sanctification. But, perhaps, it was not the
love of cleanliness that made the Essenes wash themselves so, but
an opinion that ceremonial ablutions purified the soul; for they
wore their garment to rags before they changed them, and they
would not, like other Jews, anoint themselves, but thought it a




166                    CHAPTER VIII.
good thing to be sweaty with labor. Oiling the body was a comfort to the Jews; therefore the Essenes would not indulge their
vile bodies with an oiling. For the same reason they would not
recline at table, according to the general custom of the age, but
sat upright, as we do in modern times.  Stolberg remarks that
they adopted this position as an austerity.*
These are the chief particulars mentioned by our authorities,
in their account of the Essenes.  A few remarks will conclude
what we have to say of them.
First, it does not appear that the Essenes practiced any fasting,
except the daily abstemiousness of their diet; or that they inflicted
any tortures upon their bodies, by whipping, burning, thorny garments, &c.  In this respect they displayed less fanaticism  than
even the Pharisees.  Their views of bodily mortification were
therefore more sober and rational, than those of most fanatics of
other times and nations.  They do not appear to have held the
Pharisaical and Roman Catholic dogma concerning meritorious
works of supererogation.
Secondly, the quiet, temperate, and regular lives of the Essenes
made them healthy and long lived.  Many of them  lived to be a
hundred or more years old.  We shall see hereafter, that in spite
of their filthiness and excessive abstemiousness, many of the
Christian hermits of after ages lived to be very old. From these
facts, we may draw a useful lesson in favor of temperate eating as
well as temperate drinking.  The gluttonous voracity and luxurious viands of this sensual age and this plentiful country, fill its
inhabitants with diseases, poison their enjoyments, stupify their
intellects, and, we verily believe, deduct on the average some
fifteen or twenty years from the duration of their lives. We would
not be thought, in expressing our disapprobation of monkish
austerity, to sanction the gluttony, drunkenness, and debauchery,
so common among all ranks of society.
* Religionsgeschichte, vol. iv., p. 646.




PHILOSOPHY AND MONACHISM  OF THE JEWS.               167
Stulti dum vitant vitia in contraria currunt.-Fools snun vices
of one sort by running into the contrary.
In matters of this sort all extremes are vicious.  According to
the true saying just quoted from  the Roman poet, monks and
sensualists are at the opposite extremes of intemperance. Both
are guilty of folly. The one party refuse, the other party abuse,
the gifts of a wise and good Providence.
Thirdly, we shall here take from. Stolberg a notice of the
ancient opinion concerning the Elysian Fields. We mentioned
this as an Egyptian  dogma adopted  by Orpheus.   Stolberg
remarks that the Essenes held this doctrine of the Elysian Fields,
as the happy abode of good souls after this life; but he is wrong,
for Josephus says that their idea of future happiness resembled
this, not that it was identical. Our German author quotes Pindax's
and Homer's descriptions of Elysium.
Pindar (Olymp. II. Antist. IV.) thus describes it.
There ocean breezes gently blow
Around the island of the blest:
There flame the flowers of golden hue,
Mantling the sod, while others wreathe
The spreading boughs; the waters bloom
With many more: the blest encircle
Their heads with chaplets, and their arms
With flowery wreaths that never fade.
Homer (Od. IV. 56, &c.) had before described the Elysian
Fields as the abode of heroes, after this manner:
7Tis not ordained for thee, O God-like Menelaus,
In Argive fields where horses feed, to die.
But thee sometime to the Elysian Fields
At earth's remotest bound, the blest shall guide;
Where Rhadamanth, the swarthy hero dwells.
There free from care shalt thou abide in peace.
No wintry snows, no thundering rainstorms fall
Upon that blissful shore; but ocean sends
Soft, cooling zephyrs to refresh the soul.




168                     CHAPTER VIII.
From these passages it is evident that the beautiful idea of the
Elysian Fields was conveyed into Greece from Egypt, before the
time of Orpheus.
Finally, respecting the time, place and circumstances of their
origin, nothing is certainly known. They must have originated more
than 200 years before Christ. Josephus names them with the Sadducees and Pharisees, as one of the established sects among the Jews,
at a period about 160 years before Christ.* Brucker thinks that
they arose in Egypt between 300 and 250 years before Christ,
after Alexander the Great had planted Greeks in that country,
and the Pythagorean philosophy had' become known to the Jews
in that country.  Mosheim's hypothesis is that they originated from
the persecution of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphones, when many
fled to deserts and there learned to lead solitary lives.  But after
all, we do not know their origin, so that it would be of little use
to discuss opinions on the subject.
The Therapeutes.
These were a sect of Egyptian Jews, resembling the Essenes,
yet distinct from  them.  The only original account of them that
has come down to modern times, is given by Philo, who considered
them to be a branch of the Essenes; and perhaps they were originally-; but Philo's own account shows, that they were different
sects at the time when he wrote.
They were called Therapelutes, or Iealers by those who wrote
in Greek,-from  the verb Therapelein to heal, to serve.  Philo
doubts whether they got this name from  their professing to heal
the mind, or to serve God, in a superior manner.
They were, like the Essenes, a sort of Cenobite monks.  They
retired from the society and business of the world, gave their property to their relations and friends, and betook themselves to solitary places, where without distraction they might exercise themJoseph. Antiq. B. xv. ch. v.




PHILOSOPHY AND MONACHISM OF THE JEWS.              169
selves in subduing the body and purifying the soul, by prayer,
reading and contemplation.
The most of them lived on the border of Lake Moeris, about
120 miles south of Alexandria. Here societies of them occupied
cloisters, or enclosed gardens, apart from the other inhabitants of
the country.  Each one had within the walls his separate cell, or
little house, in which he could be solitary, yet conveniently meet
his brethren in their synagogue for social exercises.  The first
monasteries of the Christian Cenobites, 300 years afterwards, were
formed on a similar plan.
The cells of these Therapeutes were of the simplest and plainest sort, and were furnished with nothing but what was necessary
for shelter and subsistence.
They ate only at night, which they considered to be the proper
time for attending to the body; but the day was consecrated wholly
to spiritual exercises.  Some of them ate only once in three-or
even sometimes in six,-days;-so intensely were their souls occupied with divine contemplations.  Their food consisted of bread
only,-or if anything was added, it was salt and hyssop.  Their
only drink was water. Their clothing consisted of one plain garment of linen in the summer;-in the winter they added a large
mantle.  They shunned all ornament of dress as the emblem of
falsehood.
They prayed every morning and evening, and employed the interval in studying the Scriptures, in which they endeavored to
discover an allegorical or spiritual sense. They considered the
literal sense as the body, within which the allegorical sense lay
hidden as the soul-the principle of life-which the devout student must draw forth for his spiritual nourishment.  They read
also the books of the Fathers of their sect, in which the Scriptures
were so allegorized.  They also composed psalms and hymns in
praise of God, and in every variety of metre.  They meditated so
constantly on Divine things, that in their sleep they often dreamed
of them.
They practiced celibacy and continence; but contrary to the




170                    CHAPTER VIII.
custom of the Essenes, they had among them female votariesvirgins generally advanced in life, who out of religious zeal devoted
themselves to the same pious exercises.
On the Sabbath day they assembled in the Synagogue; which
was divided into two parts by a wall five or six feet high.  The
women occupied the one side and the men the other. They seated
themselves in order, according to age, with their hands concealed
under their clothes, the right upon the breast, the left, below. Then
one of their best instructed elders addressed them with a mild
countenance and voice, aiming at instruction without the embellishments of speech. All listened in profound silence, and expressed their approbation only by looks and nods.
Their principal festival was that of Pentecost. He whose turn
it was to conduct their public worship, gave them notice, and
they assembled, clothed in white, to pray, eat, and sing together,
with joy. When they were ranged in order, they lifted up their
hands in prayer for a blessing on their feast. After prayer they
reclined on rush mats, leaning on their elbows; and kept the
profoundest silence, not daring even to breathe audibly. Then
one proposed a question out of the Scriptures, and resolved it
himself, slowly and distinctly, that he might be well understood.
The others listened attentively, and signified by mute signs,
whether they understood, or had some doubt. The interpretations of Scripture, as before mentioned, were allegorical.
After the discourse was finished, they applauded it; and then
the speaker rose and began to sing a hymn, either one of their
ancient ones, or a new one composed by himself. All the others
listened silently to the main part, but joined, both men and
women, in repeating the chorus.
When the hymn was finished, young men chosen for the purpose, brought in the tables, and furnished them with leavened
bread, salt, hyssop, and water. Only the more delicate among
the old men, had warm bread.
When they had partaken of this repast, they cleared a space
in the middle of the hall, and formed two choirs, the one of men,




PHILOSOPHY AND MONACHISM OF THE JEWS.           171
other of women, each conducted by the one who was considered as
the most honorable and the best singer. They sang several hymns
in honor of God, sometimes in concert, sometimes by responses.
Meanwhile they gesticulated with their hands, danced, and expressed the transport of their souls conformably to the tenor and
spirit of their song.
Then they all united in a general dance, intended to represent
the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea. This was
intended to represent Miriam's choral dance upon that occasion
(Exodus xv.)  The grave voices of the men (says Philo) and
the shrill voices of the women, formed an agreeable concert.
Thus they passed the night, and found themselves more lively
at the end of it than they were when they first assembled. At
sunrise they lifted their hands and prayed to God for a happy
day, and for a mind capable of understanding the truth. Then
they retired, each one to his cell, and resumed their ordinary
course of life.*
Such were the Therapeutes, according to Philo. Whilst they
agreed with the Essenes of Judea in being Jews, monks, ascetics,
allegorists, enthusiasts, and so forth, the two sects differed in
their manner of life, so much as to make it evident, that they
composed independent associations, and had lived for ages apart
from one another. They differed in their government and discipline-the Therapeutes allowing much more individual liberty
than the Essenes.  They fasted more: they sang and danced,
and had women amongst them to animate their devotions, so that
their manner of life was much more spirited and impulsive, than
that of the grave, silent, mechanical Essenes, who moved day by
day like clock-work, under the regulating power of a mainspring.
About two hundred and fifty years after Philo, Eusebius the
* See Philo's Tracts On the Contemplative Life, On the Practical.ife ofthe
Essenes, and Every Virtuous Man is Free,




172                      CHAPTER VIII.
Church historian copied the foregoing account of the Therapeutes,*
and had the absurd presumption to say, that these Therapeutes were'Christian converts of St. Mark, the Evangelist, who, according
to an oral tradition, was founder of the Church in Alexandria.
Mark, the Evangelist, may have founded the Alexandrian Church;
but to suppose that he founded the monastic association described
by Philo, or that they were Christian converts of St Mark, or
any other saint, is exceedingly ridiculous. Philo was an aged
man, when the Alexandrian Church was founded.  How  then
could the monastic establishments, which he describes as existing
about the shores of Lake Moeris, far up the country, have been
founded by the Evangelist? Or how could those Jewish monks
have been converted so soon to Christianity? Philo describes
them as a sect of long standing; without one particle of Christianity in their doctrines or practices-mere Jews, who had
imbibed some ascetical notions from  the Oriental philosophy, and
had long pursued, as Philo did after them, an allegorical method
of interpreting the Scriptures. In fact, Philo never once alludes
to Christ or Christians in all his works.
But no sooner had Eusebius, who wrote after monkery arose in
the Church, started the idea that they were Christian converts of
St. Mark, than Sozomen the Church historian, and other monkeryloving Fathers of the Church, seized upon the idea, in order to
give this new institution of Christian monachism the appearance
of an apostolical origin. This shows what the professed opinions
of these Fathers were worth, when they had an end to serve by
propagating an error. So manifestly absurd is Eusebius' opinion
of the Therapeutes, that the less credulous writers among the
modern Roman Catholics have given it up. Valesius, in his notes
on Eusebius, refutes it. Even Fleury, a strong believer in the
miraculous stories of the Fathers, hints his dissent: but Tillemont, whose capacious faith could swallow the Fathers whole,
f Eccles. Hist. B., IT, h. 17. See also Sozomen's Eccl. History, B. I,
ch. 12.




PHILOSOPHY AND MONACHISM OF THE JEWS.              173
endeavors to sustain Eusebius by a feeble argument.*  Father
Helyot, the monk, in his great History of the Religious Orders,
makes an elaborate attempt, on the authority of this passage of
Eusebius, to trace Christian monachism  back to the apostolical
age.  His argument is too feeble to require a particular refutation.
* Tillemont. Ecclesiastical Memoirs, (English folio edition.) Vol. I.
Fol. 74 and 399.




CHAPTER IX.
THE LATER JEWISH AND GENTILE PHILOSOPHY.
CHRISTIAN ascetism began in the second, Christian monachism,
in the third century after the birth of Christ. The earlier philosophy of the Jews and Gentiles prepared the way; their later
philosophy hastened the progress of monastic principles and practices in the Church. We have before remarked, that the Pythagorean and Platonic philosophies did, after the Christian era, imbibe more and more of the Orientalism with which they had been
strongly dosed from  the beginning.  The same is true of the
Jewish philosophy.  Both contributed-but the Grecian more
than the Jewish-to fill the Christian mind with ascetic notions,
and to lead the enthusiasts of the Church into all the extravagancies of monachism.
We shall now give a concise account of the later systems of
philosophy prevalent among Jews and Gentiles in the eastern
parts of the Roman empire, where monachism arose.
1. The Jewish Cabbalistic Philosophy.
A short notice of this will suffice to show how deeply the principles of the oriental philosophy had worked themselves into the
minds of the Jewish doctors in the early ages of Christianity.
But before we touch the Cabbala, we must give the learned
among our readers a taste of Jewish Rabbinism in the first century of our era. We copy from Brucker, who took it from  the
Talmud, that huge collection of the wise, and the foolish, sayings




LATER JEWISH AND GENTILE PHILOSOPHY.             175
of the Rabbis.  We regret that decency forbids us to expose it
to common readers in our vernacular English,-it is so exquisitely
philosophical in its way.
"Rabbi Akibha dixit:-Ingressus sum aliquando post Rabbi
Josuam in sedis secretae locumr; et tune ab co didici, Prime, quod
non versus orientem et occidentem, sed versus septentrionem nos
debemus convertere [quando alveum  deoneremus]:-Secundo,
quod non in pedes erectum, sed jam considentem, se retegere liceat:-Tertio, didici, quod podex non dextro sed sinistra manu,
abstergendus est:-Ad haec objecit ibi Ben Hazar,-Usque adeo
vero perfricuisti frontem erga magistrum  tuum, ut cacantem  observares?  Respondit, Legi haaec arcana sunt, ad quae discenda
id necessario mihi agendum fuit."
What refinement of moral teaching was this, when the most unsavory of human actions was to be so regulated as to give a mystical signification to the whole process! We did not know, until
we met with this passage, that there could be so much philosophical wisdom in cacando, when it was done by rule.
The Hebrew word Cabbala signifies Traditions.  In a general
sense, it means that system of oral Law, which the Pharisees pretended to have come down from Moses, and to be of equal authority with the written Law.  The Cabbala comprehended at first
only a system of traditional doctrines and mystical interpretations
of the written Law, founded on the number, forms &c., of the letters, and on other equally insignificant circumstances.  With this
early part of the Cabbala our subject has nothing to do.  But
after the time of our Saviour, the Cabbalistic doctrine was greatly
enlarged.  It then embraced a system of philosophical speculations and magical superstitions, some of which were of an
ascetic tendency.  We shall give an outline of this part of the
Cabbala.
The Cabbalistic Philosophy contained the following principles:
1. Of nothing, nothing can proceed or be made.
2. God is the primary source of all beings.
3. All things proceed from God by emanation or outflowing,




176                      CHAPTER IX.
as light proceeds from  the sun.  But one being only emanated
immediately from God.  This primary emanation is called Adam
Kadmon.  He is the image of God, the First-Born; from whom
all other beings derived their existence.  Like tte DemiurIge of
Plato and the Logos of Philo, he is the Divine Agent by whom
creation was made.  He is the Divine Mlan after whose image
our first parents were made.
4. From Adam  Kadmon emanated ten luminous fountains or
spirits of purest light, called Sephiroth; from whom, as their immediate source, all celestial beings emanated, and in whom they
yet dwell in their state of emanation, that is, they are not
separated from their source, though existing as distinct personal
agents.
5. These heavenly beings are of two ranks; the higher being
pure spirits, not formed of any prc-existent material; the second
are angelic composed of a fine substance or material previously
existing.
6. Four worlds proceeded fiom these celestial sources.
7. The matter of this world is the last of a series of ten emanations; one thing proceeding from  another, and each successive
emanation being inferior to the preceding. The tenth and lowest is
matter.  It is therefore the most imperfect of all substances, containing the last dregs of existence, and so near to nonentity, that
nothing can emanate from it.  The possible degrees and extent of
being are therefore complete, beginning with the absolutely per-.
feet God, and ending with the almost non-existing matter of the
earth.
8. The universe is composed of ten concentric spheres, corresponding with the ten Sephiroth and the ten degrees of existence.
This earth is the central and lowest sphere; the outermost and
uppermost is the highest heaven, around which infinite space
is filled with Divine light, called in the Greek language, the
Pleromna or fullness.  In this the highest order of celestial beings
have their habitation.  The term Pleroma is several times used
by St. Paul, but never in this peculiar sense.  But the Gnostics




LATER JEWISH AND GENTILE PHILOSOPHY.             177
of the second century made great use of the notion of a supercelestial Pleroma, which they, as well as the Jews, borrowed of
the Persian philosophy.
9. As the spheres are all composed of solid substance with
large spaces between them, there was need of some channel by
which beings could pass through from  one sphere to another.
Such a channel of communication was therefore cut through all
the upper spheres, a sort of hatchways one perpendicularly above
another, like those made in the floors of five story warehouses, for
hoisting up and letting down goods.
10. The Cabbalistic doctrine concerning demons, good and
evil, —that is, the different orders of spiritual beings between
God and man, —is similar to that of all the orientals.
11. The human soul is not a demon incarnate.  All souls preexisted in Adam, and not as demons of the upper regions.  The
Ca.bbalists here varied from the heathen philosophy, as they were
constrained to do by the Mosaic account of the creation of
man.
12. They, however, adopted the Platonic notion of the compound nature of the human soul, but with some modifications,
partly conformable to the doctrine of the New Platonic school of
Alexandria.
First, there is a sensitive soul, called Nephesch in Hebrew,
and corresponding to the animal soul of Plato's philosophy.  It
gives the body its vitality, action, and sensibility. This soul is
common to animals, and perishes with the body.
Secondly, there is a self-subsisting mind or spirit, called Ruach,
endowed with reason and diffused through the body. It is proper to the body, being necessary to complete the constitution of
man, if not of all animals who possess any degree of intelligence.  It seems to have been considered as the animal intellect.
Thirdly, there is a superior intellectual soul called the Neschamah, corresponding to the rational soul of Plato's philosophy:
but instead of being, as Plato taught, a pre-existing demon, it is derived by special communication from the Divine Intellect, and as an
8*




178                     CHAPTER  X.
emanation continues in union with its Divine source. By virtue
of this union it has an intuitive perception of intelligible things.
The notion seems to have been, that it is the high intellect or
reason of man by which he is distinguished from all other animals.
It might be called the scientific soul, possessing the faculty of
discerning abstract ideas, and of discovering the laws of nature
and the existence of invisible beings.
One soul invests another as its vehicle.  Nephesch is the vehicle
or coat of Ruiach, and this of Neschamah; so that one soul envelopes another, like the coats of an onion, or like the abovedescribed spheres of the universe, only, we suppose, the successive
souls are more closely wrapped about one another than the spheres.
This notion of spiritual envelopes was borrowed of the New
Platonists.
Such is, in sum and substance, the Cabbalistic system of philosophy. Mixed with it was a belief in the Chaldean magic. The
reader will discern in the system a compound of Pythagorean,
Persian, Chaldean and Egyptian doctrines, modified by a few ingredients from  Moses.*  Tenneman remarks that many of the
Jews embraced also the Persian and Gnostic doctrine of two
eternal principles, contending for the mastery of the world, as
well as the doctrines of a primitive uncreated light, and of demons
inhabiting the upper regions.T
At what time this philosophical Cabbalism  was matured, is
uncertain. The earlier books on the subject are very obscure,
and the later ones, which develope it more clearly, were written
after the rise of monachism  in the Church.  We can hardly
doubt, however, that as early as the first half of the third century,
when Christian monachism  was as yet unhatched in the shell,
many of the oriental notions embraced in the Cabbala, had
already gotten possession of the Jewish mind, and some of them
a century or two earlier.
* See Brucker, Hist. Crit. Phil., vol. ii. Jewish Phil. y.
t Tenneman's Hist. of Phil. (Compend.) ~ 209.




LATER JEWISH AND GENTILE PHILOSOPIY.             179
There is considerable affinity between this Jewish philosophy
and that of the Gnostics, who so troubled the churches in the
second and third centuries. The Jewish Cabbalists did not all
adopt the Persian doctrine of two eternal principles, as the Gnostics did.  But the doctrines about concentric spheres and a
Pleroma of Divine light above the heavens, of the descent of supernal beings from the pleroma to the earth, the base nature of
matter, and its evil influence upon the soul, were common to
both systems.
2. The later Pythagoreans.
A few words must suffice for these; just enough to show that
Pythagoreanism lost nothing of its oriental and ascetic character
in the hands of its later professors.
Ocells, one of these, taught that every part of the universe
has its distinct sort of beings; the heavens have the Gods, the
air has the demons, and the earth has the human race.  This
characterizes his theory of nature.  His austere system  of
morality is marked by the following principle: "The act of generation is for children only, not at all for pleasure."
Archytas, another Pythagorean, has left us a maxim, which
indicates the spirit of his moral philosophy.  "There is no
greater pest of mankind than pleasure.
Between these and the latest Pythagoreans appeared Heraclitus,
a distinguished philosopher, but not of the same school. He
taught a system, which, in some points, was strongly oriental.
We therefore insert here a brief notice of some of his doctrines.
The soul of the world is from humid evaporation. This mundane soul surrounding a man, passes into him through the channel of the senses; that is, if we understand him aright, the soul
of the world animates the human body at the time of its conception.
All things are full of souls and demons. Souls after death
return to the soul of the world, which is of a kindred nature.




180                      CHAPTER IX.
The body zs to be despised as viler than dung.  The soul loses
much of its fiery nature, while it is compressed in the body, but
regains it when it is released by death and joins the soul of the
world.
Those who were more particularly distinguished as New Pythagoreans, flourished in the Eastern provinces of the Roman empire
after the Christian era.  The most famous of these was Appollonius of Tyana, a man of austere life, and a reputed miracleworker.  IHe lived in the second century.  Among his doctrines
we select the following as characteristic of his moral system:
"The body is a prison of the soul, and this life is a state of
punishment."' No bloody sacrifice should be offered, because of the relationship between the souls of men and of brutes.'"
" Riches bring trouble and anxiety.  Why then should a man
desire to be rich?"
" Loquacity is dangerous; but silence is safe."
The two last maxims have nothing in them decidedly ascetic,
unless they be taken in a Pythagorean sense, as they should be.
Suffice it to say in general, that the later Pythagoreans, instead
of relaxing the ascetic austerity of the original system  of their
great master, rather increased its severity, and showed a constant
tendency, like the new Platonists, towards a monkish hatred of
the body, and an ill usage of it, for the purification of the soul.
3. The Eclectics and New Platonists.
The city of Alexandria, as we have mentioned before, was no
less famous for its schools of learning, than it was for its wealth
and commerce.  The Grecian philosophy coming here into contact with the Oriental systems, could hardly fail to receive some
mixture and modification from the constant collision and agitation of opinions.  This might be expected to take place especially
in the Pythagorean and Platonic systems, which were originally
derived in part from the philosophies of the East.




LATER JEWISH AND GENTILE PHILOSOPHY.            181
Besides the circumstances just mentioned, another tended
greatly, in the second century, and afterwards, to give a gloomy
and ascetic cast to the opinions of mankind in the Roman empire.
The empire was then in its decline; bloody civil war often raged;
fierce barbarians often ravaged the frontiers; taxation to the
utmost consumed much of the fruits. of industry; and slavery,
while it increased the vicious luxury of the rich, diminished the
population, and almost ruined the agriculture of many provinces,
but mostly of Italy, the heart of the empire.*  The distresses of
the times and discouraging views of the future, gave a souring
tendency to men's feelings, and disposed them to gloomy views of
mortal life, and to dissatisfaction with the constitution of nature
in this world. Hence the prevailing system of philosophy would
bend towards a conformity with the general tendency to melancholy in the  minds of the age.  The Oriental philosophies presented those gloomy views of life in the body which
suited this state of mind, and therefore influenced the views of
those who studied and taught the Greek philosophy.
About the year 200, arose at Alexandria a new sect of philosophers called Eclectics, because they selected principles from
different systems and endeavored to combine them together into
a new system.  They were also called New  Platonists, because
they took the old philosophy of Plato as the basis of their new
system, and modified it by incorporating with some of'his leading
doctrines those which they selected from other systems.  Modern
writers sometimes speak of the Eclectics as distinct from the New
Platonists.  As different professors made different combinations
in selecting, or eclecticising, from different sources, so there was
a distinction among the new schools; but that which prevailed
and had most influence was properly New Platonism.  We shall
therefore confine our attention to that. The reader will see how
directly this system tended to all the enthusiasm and extravagance of monkery.
The first distinguished teacher of New Platonism  was Am* Pliny Hist. Nat. 1. xviii., c. 1-7. Livy, 1. vi., c. 12.




182                     CHAPTER IX.
monius Saccas of Alexandria, who had been educated as a Christian, but became merely a philosopher with little or no Christianity in him.  He was followedby Platinus and Porphyry of the
third century, and Jamblichus of the fourth. These were the
most distinguished teachers of the sect. Writings remain of the
three latter, but none of Ammonius.
Their doctrines, so far as they concern our subject, are summarily comprehended under the following heads:
1. Of God.
There is one infinite Supreme God, from whom three chief
Gods emanated, who created and rule the world with supreme
power.
Theodoret, a Christian Father, thought, that the trinity of the
New Platonists resembled the Christian trinity; but as Brucker
well remarks, it was more like the Hindoo Trimunti, three sovereign Gods, sprung from an original infinite quiescent Brahm.
The later Egyptian theology contained a similar doctrine, as we
have stated in our account of the Egyptian philosophy in Chapter
V. Some of the Eclectics, however, taught the doctrine of three
eternal principles, which brought their trinity nigher to that of
the Christians, as defined by the council of Nice. That abovementioned was the doctrine of the Alexandrian Eclectics, who
mixed the old Egyptian theology with the Platonic.
The reader perceives in this new Platonic theology the oriental doctrine of emanation, more distinctly developed than it was
in original Platonism.
2. Celestial Beings.
There are various orders of beings between the highest Gods
and men;-subordinate Gods, angels, demons and heroes.  The
notion of Angels was borrowed from the Jews, Christians or
Chaldeans.
The Gods exercise the government of the several departments
of nature.  Angels and demons have charge over subordinate




LATER JEWISH ANfD GENILE PHILOSOPHY.           183
affairs. All the celestial beings act as mediators between the
supreme Gods and men.  This notion of the mediatorial agency
of inferior Gods and demons, is of oriental origin, and was adopted
by Plato.
The Gods are void of passions; but the demons, of a nature
inferior to them, have passions, and thus partake of both the divine and the human natures, being eternal like the Gods, but
subject to passions like men. The heroes are the lowest order of
celestial beings, and are but one degree above men.
Demons are invested with a body or vehicle-as all created
spirits are,-but this body is not material and corruptible, like
the human body.  It is composed of a refined substance, different from the substances with which we are acquainted. These
celestial bodies are incapable of suffering and of change; but they
derive nourishment or refreshment from the sacrifices that men
offer to them; hence these demons —who were the Gods of the
heathen world-are pleased with sacrifices. They do not, however, derive nourishment from those material parts of the sacrifice, which are suitable to the human body, but from the immaterial part, or refined essence, purged of everything gross enough
to be apprehended by the senses.  This notion of spiritual beings
feeding on immaterial substance existed also among the Boodhists of Eastern Asia, as we have shown in our extracts from
Borri, in Chapter III. of this work.
Jamblichus following the old Egyptian Theology, taught the
doctrine of guardian angels, or demons. The office of the guardian angel of every man was to unite the soul to the body, and to
attend upon it, until it was restored to its original blissful abode in
the heavens.  The monks adopted the same notion, that every
man had a guardian angel who attended him through life.
3. Apparitions.
We come now to those doctrines, in which the new Platonists
departed most widely from Plato himself, and which gave a par



1354                    CHAPTER IX.
ticularly enthusiastic and ascetic character to their religious philosophy.
Whilst they taught that the Gods and demons-indeed all
spiritual beings-could not be perceived by our senses; they
nevertheless believed in spectres and apparitions of Gods, of
demons both good and evil, and of the departed souls of men.
They held, therefore, that these spiritual beings were able to invest themselves with visible forms, and thus to become objects of
sense.
Visions of the Gods (says Jamblichus) are salutary, they bring
health, virtue and intellectual elevation, restoring the faculties
and cheering the heart.  These salutary visions are also uniform
and immutable.
Apparitions of good demons, called archangels and angels, are
of the same character, but in a less degree. As angels are charged
with attendance on individuals, or with special services and
messages, so, when they appear, it is to bring some special benefit.
Apparitions of evil demons are variable; but always frightful
in appearance, as well as hurtful in their effects. They oppress
the body, inflict diseases, hurry the soul into some passionate excitement, and prevent its aspirings after heavenly things by chaining it to earthly and sensual things.
Spectres of departed souls, if pure and enrolled among the
angels, call us upwards and fill us with good hopes.  But impure souls, on the contrary, turn our desires and hopes to sensual
pleasures, excite evil passions and corrupt the mind.
As apparitions differ in their effects, so they do in their attendants and phenomena.  Gods are attended by angels surrounding
them.  Archangels-that is, the highest order of good demons, —
have a train of angels after them. All good demons appear with
tokens of their good works.  Avenging demons exhibit the various sorts of punishment which they inflict. Evil demons bring
with them  noxious beasts with bloody mouths.  Departed souls
exhibit a fire of no certain character, representing the soul of the
world   A purified soul shines with a pure fire, but a sinking soul




LATER JEWISH AND GENTILE PHILOSOPHY.            185
is accompanied by the appearance of chains and tortures.  In
short, all exhibit the sort of appearance which is congenial to
their nature and condition. Aerial spirits exhibit a bright aerial
fire; those of earth, one that is gross and dusky; but the heavenly Gods shine with a pure and brilliant light.
Such was the demonology of the New Platonists.  Psellus
truly remarked, that the same fancies were adopted by the Christians, who related numberless fables of apparitions.  The reader
will see in the following life of St. Antony, by St. Athanasius, a
demonology so much resembling this, as to show that they were
both derived from the same source.
4. T/heurgy.
The New Platonists believed that apparitions of superior beings
could be produced by human agency, according to the rules of
magic or Theurgy.  They derived this as well as some of their
other notions from the Chaldeans.
The theurgist must, in the first place, purify himself by fasting
and other bodily mortifications, and by devotional exercises, so as
to release the soul from its fleshly incumbrances and qualify it for
communionwith the Gods.
He was then, by intense meditation, accompanied by certain
ceremonies to work himself into a state of Divine Enthusiasm, the
signs of which are thus described by Porphyry and Jamblichus,
especially the latter.
The subject of this Divine Enthusiasm was not in his proper
senses, which were in a sleeping state. He had no command of
his mental faculties, nor consciousness of what he said or did. He
was insensible to fire or to any bodily injury. Carried off by a
Divine impulse, he passed through impassable places, through
fire and water, without knowing where he was. He lived not an
animal life, nor that of a human being-but a life more divine.
The cause of this peculiar condition was the divine illumination, which took full possession of the man, absorbed all his
faculties, motions, and senses, making him speak what he did not




186                     CHAPTER IX.
understand-or rather seem  to  speak  it; for he was, in fact,
merely the minister or instrument of the God who possessed him.
We need scarcely remind the reader of the striking resemblance
between the state here described, and that of mesmeric somnambulism, which has caused so much wonder during some years past;
and we cannot help believing that this Divine Enthusiasm of the
ancients, as here described, was the same thing.
By such means, the theurgist could produce visions and apparitions of both good and evil spirits. He performed certain
rites and sacrifices, and thus brought upon himself the enthusiastic state, and produced apparitions.   If all was purely and
rightly done, the good Gods or angels appeared.  Then evil
demons fled, and nothing could disturb the pious theurgist. But
if he was not duly purified, or if he impiously invaded the sacred
rites; he failed to reach the Gods, but was filled with evil and
impious spirits, and became wicked and lascivious like the spirits
who possessed him.
5. Of the Human Soul and Body.
The New Platonists retained the oriental and Platonic doctrine
of the pre-existence of the human soul as a demon in the upper
regions.  Porphyry endeavored to explain how these spiritual
beings came to descend into gross matter, and assume terrestrial
bodies: but his theory is not worth repeating.
They also held the doctrine of transmigration of souls.
They not only considered matter as the source of evil, and the
body as a prison of the soul; but they went so far as to hate the
body, and to feel ashamed of it. So long as the soul is enveloped
in matter, they believed that it could never enjoy true happiness,
unless it delivered itself from the malign influence of the body by
a severe course of ascetic purification.
6. Ascetical Purification of the Soul.
The New Platonists carried out their principles by observing
the severest rules of bodily mortification. They acknowledged and




LATER JEWISH AND GENTILE PHILOSOPHY.             187
lamented the depravity of human nature, resulting from the tnfluence of material things upon the soul, through the appetites and
passions.  They laid the blame upon the body in which the soul
is confined, and therefore declared war against the body and all
the pleasures of sense. Porphyry wrote a special treatise in com-endation of fasting, and especially of abstinence from animal
food.  This sect also considered marriage as a less holy state than
philosophical chastity. Some of them, like the Christian Father
Origen, went so far as to cut off their genitals, that they might
never again defile the soul by venereal gratifications.
Ammonius, the founder of the school, taught, about the year
200, that the soul should cast off the shackles of the body, by resisting its motions and desires, and breaking off all commerce with
it, and reducing its strength by severe fasting;-that the mind
should ascend to its source by prayer and divine contemplations,
night and day, mixing hymns of praise to the Gods, with other
pious exercises; that it should by all means cultivate pure affections, and devote itself to spiritual exercises, taking care not to
indulge in any pleasure of sense.
In short, the New  Platonists, while they differed from  the
Christians in their theology, agreed with the Christian ascetics in
warring against the body and all the pleasures connected with it.
Thus it appears that the oriental doctrines that led to monachism
had thoroughly penetrated the mind of society in the countries
where Christian monachism arose.
The chief end of this New Platonic philosophy-as Brucker
observes-was enthusiasm.  Considering the mind as debased by
the body, it aimed to purify and to elevate it by bodily mortifications and divine exercises, by which they hoped to attain to an
intuitive perception of God and a spiritual communion and intercourse with celestial beings. By a course of purifying exercises,
and by prayer and sacrifice according to the rules of theurgy, they
expected to be so filled with divine illumination, as to have visions
of God and holy beings, thus to prepare themselves for ascending




188                    CHAPTER IX.
at death to the celestial abodes, where they would enjoy etera A1
felicity with God and the angels of light.
The same enthusiasm characterized the Christian ascetics, and
especially the primitive monks. Essentially the same notions of
the body, and of the means by which the soul was to be purified
and delivered from its evil influences, actuated their conduct.
They had essentially the same system of demonology, the same
visions of good and of evil spirits.
So close an affinity between the two systems, shows that they
had the same origin. Brucker supposed that the New Platonists
borrowed of the Christians of their time, and, to some small extent this may be true. But on the other hand, we cannot doubt,
that the Oriental philosophy was the primary source of all those
notions and practices, in which this system differed from the
teachings of the Gospel. We have now concluded our investigation of this subject. We have fully shown the influence of the
Oriental philosophy upon the religious opinions of mankind, in the
countries where Christianity was infected with ascetism and
monkery; and thus we have traced Christian monachism to the
common source of all monachism-the religious philosophy of
the Hindoos and Boodhists of Eastern Asia.




CHAPTER X.
IS MONACHISM A SCRIPTURAL INSTITUTION?
IN the year 1626, the Capuchin Friar, Jacob Boulduc, published at Paris a book on the state of the Church in all ages.
In this work he gave a history of monachism  among the patriarchs before the flood.  It began-that is, monachism beganhe said, with Enos the son of Seth.  When Enos heard his
grandfather Adam  describe the lost felicity of Paradise, he determined to renew this happy life by turning monk. He and his
brothers and sisters, therefore, betook themselves to a solitary
life in the desert, where they lived like angels, praying, singing
psalms and working.*
And whence did Boulduc learn all this? Why, from Genesis,
chapter iv. ver. 26, where it is said, that when Enos was born,
" men began to call upon the Lord.'  That is all.  Now, when
a monk can find monkery in a text like that, he can be at no loss
to find it anywhere in the Bible.
But this poor Capuchin Boulduc, was not the first, nor by a
long way the greatest advocate of monkery, who imagined that
there was some authority for it in that text.  Cardinal Bellarmine, the ablest defender of popery before Bossuet, had previously cited the same text, though rather timidly, as evidence that
monachism existed before the flood.
Now every man who reads the Bible without having his head
previously stuffed with monkish prejudices, must perceive that no
such institution as the monachism existing in the Roman Catholic
* See Weber's" Moncherei, oder Geschichtliche Darstellung der Klasterwelt," atthe beginning.




190                      CHAPTER X.
Church, is in any way recognized, taught or suggested, either in
the Old Testament or in the New. The advocates of monachism,
rely mainly on the Old Testament, as affording examples, which
justify the institution.
Now, we might, properly, in this case, foreclose all argument
from the Old Testament, by alleging these three unquestionable
facts:
1st. That no monastic institution is recognized by Christ or
his Apostles as existing, or as authorized to exist, among the
Jews, in their time. The Essenes did exist, we know; but.they
are never once alluded to in the New Testament.
2d. That neither Christ nor his Apostles established, authorized or suggested anything like monachism, solitary or Cenobite:
and
3d. That the Christians of the two first centuries never understood, either from Scripture or from oral tradition, that such an
institution or manner of life was either necessary or proper for a
Christian man.
Of what avail would it be then, if examples of monachism
could be found in the Old Testament?  They could never reach
us through such a triple wall of separation. We are Christians,
not Jews; we are under the Gospel, not under the law; we are
not bound, nor even authorized, to do everything or anything that
may have been done under the old dispensation, even by inspired
men and holy patriarchs.  Jacob had four wives. May we have
four? Samuel hewed Agag in pieces.  May we do such a thing?
David, as an inspired poet, cursed his enemies. May we curse,
therefore? The prophet Elisha by his solemn curse brought two
she-bears out of a wood to destroy the children who mocked him.
May we therefore have wicked children torn in pieces by bulldogs?  Yet Elisha is the main example of Old Testament
monachism.  Why take one act of his as an example for our
imitation, and reject another which was sanctioned by a divine
m racle? Elijah, the prophet, and King Jehu slew the prophets
of Baal.  This was an example of religious persecution; and




IS MONACHISM A SCRIPTURAL INSTITUTION?          191
well has the Church of Rome followed it, to the utmost of her
power. But does this example, though divinely approved, authorize Christian persecutions?  We say that it does not;
because the Gospel authorizes no such thing. Neither could Old
Testament examples of monachism, if such existed, authorize
Christian monachism, without the sanction  of Christ and his
Apostles.
But let us see what the mighty Bellarmine alleges from the
Bible in favor of monachism.
]. He cites the text before mentioned in the fourth chapter of
Genesis, as evidence of antediluvian monachism.  We have not
another word to say on that text.
2. He alleges the vow of the Nazarite, in Numbers, chapter vi.
as an example of legal monachism.
The material part of this provision of the Mosaic Law is contained in the following verses:
V. 2. When either a man or a woman shall separate themselves
to vow the vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the
Lord;-v. 3, he shall separate himself from wine and strong
drink,-neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist
grapes nor dried;-v. 5. All the days of the vow of his separation,
there shall no razor come upon his head; until the days be fulfilled
in which he separateth himself, he shall be holy, and shall let the
locks of the hair of his head grow. —v. 6. All the days that he
separateth himself unto the Lord, he shall come at no dead body.
-v. 8. All the days of his separation he shall be holy unto the
Lord.
The rest of the law of the Nazarite only prescribed the sacrifices that he was to offer, when he happened to touch a dead body,
and when the days of his separation were fulfilled, and he might
cut his hair.
This law neither enjoins nor recommends the making of a vow
of separation; it merely regulates a custom which some Israelites
had followed, in imitation probably of the Egyptians, who like the
Hindoos were much given to ascetic superstitions.  Indeed we




192                     CHAPTER X.
may safely infer from the form and provisions of the law, that it
wae intended not to encourage but to restrain excesses of this sort.
The customary vow of Nazar or separation was so regulated, that
it came essentially short of monachism. The vow of the Nazarite
did not separate him from his usual business, nor from the society
of his family or of mankind in general. When Saint Paul, on one
of his missionary tours,took such a vow in his character of Jew,
he still pursued his ordinary course of action.  (See Acts xviii.
18).  The Nazarite limited his vow to such time as he chose.
Two extraordinary cases are mentioned-tho~e of Sampson and
of John the Baptist, in which the parents by divine admonition
made their unborn sons Nazarites for life.  In such cases only
was the obligation perpetual.  The Nazarite was bound to three
observations only.  1st. abstinence from wine and grapes: 2d.
avoidance of ceremonial defilement by touching a dead body: and
3d. to let the hair grow uncut. The vow embraced not a single
particular comprehended in the vows and practices of monkery;neither poverty, nor obedience to a superior, nor chastity;neither prayer, nor fasting, nor watching, nor solitude, nor anything else that characterizes the monastic life.
3. We next take up his argument from the Rechabites.  He
cites their customs as an approved example of monachism.
(Jerem. xxxv.)
These people were not Israelites, though they lived among them
and professed their religion. They were of the Kenites, who de —
scended from Jethro, Moses' father-in-law.  Jonadab, ancestor of
these Rechabites, enjoined it upon his family, not to drink wine,
nor live in houses, nor till the ground; but to live in tents as
shepherds and herdsmen, like their fore-fathers in the desert.
And so they lived with their families fiom age to age, as the pastoral tribes of Asia have continued to live until this day.  And
their mode of life is solemnly quoted by a learned divine of the
church of Rome, as an example of monkery!-A tribe of monks
keeping cattle with their wives and children. Oh! but the Rechabites drank no wine!-No; nor do the tribes of the Mahometan




IS MONACHISM A RELIGIOUS INSTITUTION?         193
Arabs, who now pasture their flocks upon the same ground.  Are
they monks, therefore?
4. " We have (says Bellarmine) in the same Old Testament
Elijah, and Elisha, and the sons of the prophets, living without
wives and worldly riches: of whom  St. Jerome says in an
epistle to Rusticus;-" The sons of the prophets whom we read
of as monks in the Old Testament, built themselves cells by the
Jordan, away fiom  the crowds of cities, and lived upon barley
bread and herbs."  And in another epistle to Paulinus, speaking
of monks, he says,-" Our founder Elijah, our Elisha, and our
leaders, the sons of the prophets, lived in the fields and deserts,
and made themselves tabernacles by the flowings of the Jordan."
Such is Bellarmine's, or rather St. Jerome's, argument from the
case of these prophets.
Now supposing that Elijah, Elisha, and their disciples had been
monks, and that their example could break through the triple
wall which separates Old Testament facts from Christian obligation,-still this example would fail to sustain the Roman Catholic
system  of monachism; because it is example, not of an established or permanent institution, but of a temporary expedient
adopted by a few individuals under pressing and peculiar circumstances, and which was laid aside and never resumed, after
those individuals and those circumstances had passed away.
But what are the facts of the case?  Jerome with his head
and heart full of monkish prejudices, did not state the facts either
fully or fairly. 
In a time of general apostacy in Israel, when both king and
people had forsaken the law and worshipped Baal; God raised up
Elijah and Elisha, who at the continual hazard of their lives
should testify against the prevailing idolatry, and preserve the
knowledge of the law among such disciples as they could gather
around them.  These prophets, like some of the apostles and
primitive Christians, were obliged for their own safety, to live
without wives, and without the care of worldly goods, and to keep
themselves much of the time in solitary places, and often to flee
P




194                      CHAPTER X.
from place to place, that they might avoid the persecuting rage of
their enemies.  "Lord, (said Elijah once, when he took refuge
in the desert,) the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant,
thrown down thine altars and slain thy prophets; and I only am
left, and they seek to take away my life."
These two prophets gathered their sons,-that is, their disciples,
-into schools at several places, after the example of former
schools of the prophets. Bethel and Jericho were the chief seats
of these schools, (2 Kings, ch. ii.) These cities were within the
kingdom of Judah, and less exposed to persecution, than the more
idolatrous country of the ten tribes of Israel.
The school at Jerico, a few miles from the Jordan, had increased so much in number during Elisha's time, that they needed
more house-room, and as no timber grew about Jericho, they proposed to their master Elisha, that they should go to the river
where trees grew, and cut beams suitable for the enlargement
of their accommodations.  (2 Kings, ch. vi.)
As the circumstances of their living on barley bread and
herbs, and their building themselves cells by the flowings of the
Jordan-that is, in an uninhabited place-these existed nowhere,
that we have seen, but in the monkish imaginations of Jerome
and Bellarmine., As the circumstances on which the argument is
founded, vanish upon inspection, so does the monkery of Elijah,
Elisha, and the sons of the prophets, who could never have been
dreamed of as founders of monachism, had not the want of Scriptural authority driven the advocates of the system to build upon
such a slight and unstable foundation.
5. Finally, Bellarmine says, that nearly all the Fathers consider John the Baptist as the first hermit.
It is true that John lived in the wilderness, ate locusts and
wild honey, and wore a coarse garment of camel's hair, girded
about him with a leathern girdle.  We may certainly infer that
he was also unmarried, and that having been a Nazarite from his
birth, he had never been either shaven or shorn, and probably not
often either combed or washed; and that he looked exceedingly
shaggy and wild. He wag therefore very like a hermit.




IS MONACHISM A RELIGIOUS INSTITUTION?           195
But it is a very questioaable point whether he did not after all
lack one essential quality of a hermit-that of being a recluse,
or solitary devotee.  In Luke, (ch. i., 80,) we are told that
John " was in the deserts until the day of his showing unto
Israel."  The country in which he and his parents lived, is
elsewhere (in verse 39) called the Hill Country. Though comparatively wild and mountainous, it was not uninhabited.  It is
the region that extends from Jericho southwards along the Jordan
and the Dead Sea.  Being generally too rocky for cultivation,
the inhabitants depended for subsistence mainly on pasturage and
fruit-trees. Here the Essenes led their austere monastic life.
Here was the city-doubtless a small one-in which the Baptizer
was born.  (Luke, i. 39, 40.)  Here he led his private austere
life  until he came forth as a prophet and preacher of repentance.  Whether he lived as an anchorite in some mountain cave,
or like an ascetic of the second century, with his relations in the
city, neither Bellarmine, nor any other man of later ages, could
determine.  His food and dress, as described by the Evangelists,
would not appear so strange to the rude shepherds of his native
wilderness, as they did to the more polished citizens of Jerusalem.
No man, therefore, not even a monkish Father of the fourth
century, had authority to affirm that John Baptist was the first
hermit-or a hermit at all in the sense meant by Bellarmine and
the Fathers.  He came in the spirit and power of Elijah, and
like his prototype, he was an extraordinary man, raised up for an
extraordinary occasion.  His austere manners became him as the
preacher of repentance to an evil and adulterous generation.
But his manner of life is not exhibited as a model for our imitation. Jesus is our pattern, and he was no monk. He came eating and drinking like other men, and associated freely with all
classes of society.  Had Elijah and John been monks to all intents and purposes, what would Christ's disciples have to do with
their example, unless Christ had instructed his disciples to imitate
their peculiar mode of life?  The only case in which a Christian
could imitate their uiacouth austerity, with any appearance of




196                      CHAPTER X.
reason, would be when like them he was divinely commissioned to
rebuke the sins of a generation of vipers. Then a wild, shaggy
exterior, and a body gaunt with famine, may attract public attention and enforce the lessons of a harsh but salutary wisdom.
We have mentioned that the Baptist was brought up in the
same wilderness, in which the Essenes practiced their monastic
austerities, virtues, and follies.  Here then was a most apt occasion for the evangelists and for the Saviour to take some notice
of those Jewish monks.  Had they deemed monachism  a good
thing, here were monks, ready made, severely virtuous, and needing but the Christian doctrine to make them  pattern-monks
for all future ages: Yet were Christ and his apostles as mute
concerning them, as if they had been Gynymnosophists of India.
We have now reviewed all the examples which the defenders
of monachism imagine to exist in the Bible tending to justify the
monastic system.  The reader is convinced, we trust, that they
are of no force whatever.
When a learned monk, who argues in defence of monachism,
rejects the whole mass of these Biblical examples,-St. Jerome
and all the Fathers, and Bellarmine being in this matter set at
naught,-we may presume that the examples are futile. Yet this
was done by no less a writer than Father Helyot, in his great
History of the Religious Orders.
" It is useless," says he, in his Introductory Treatise, " to go
back to Elijah and Elisha; for all that we read of these prophets
and their disciples,-of the Nazarenes, the Rechabites, and of St.
John the Baptist, whom St. Jerome calls the first of the anchorites,
and St. John Chrysostom calls the prince of the monks, were only
the shadow  and form  of monachismi:"-which  means that
they contained nothing of the substance or reality of monachism
in them.
As it is not pretended that either Christ or his apostles established or recommended any form  of monastic institution, our
argument is complete, and the conclusion is, that Mlonachism is
noI a Scripttral Institution.




CHAPTER  XI.
ASCETISM AMONG CHRISTIANS OF THE EARLY AGES.
We have now presented a sketch of the prevailing systems of
religious philosophy among Gentiles and Jews before monachism
arose in the church.  We have shown how certain dogmas concerning the soul, the body, the material world, and the spiritual
beings supposed to inhabit the atmosphere and regions above it,
led to ascetism and monkery before our Saviour's advent. We
have shown how these same dogmas spread among Greeks and
Jews, and then mixed themselves with the doctrines of Christianity
in the minds of its early professors. We propose now to trace the
growing influence of these heathenish notions in the church from
the age of the apostles, until they gave rise to Christian monachism
and other extravagances in the third and fourth centuries.
When the reader considers how thickly the countries where the
gospel was first preached, were sown with the seeds of ascetism
and monkery, he will not be surprised to find that these tares began to spring up with the wheat, even in the apostolic age.
We find in several passages of St. Paul's epistles, evident signs
of an ascetic spirit (not approved of by the apostle) among the first
converts to Christianity. The obstinate attachment of the Jewish converts to the " beggarly elements" of the ceremonial law and
the pharisaical additions to it, was not all that the apostle discerned of a tendency to excess in religious observances among the
primitive Christians. There was a disposition to repudiate mar



198                      CHAPTER XI.
riage as unholy, to abstain from pleasant meats, to practice an
affected humility and a system of bodily mortifications. These
principles and practices he pointedly condemned, as the offspring
of a vain and deceptive philosophy.* He foresaw that they would
in after times grow up into a complex system of error and superstition.  He therefore, in addressing Timothy,- uttered a solemn
warning against them, and against the doctrine concerning demons, taught by the heathen philosophers, afterwards adopted by
Christians, and introductory, not only to the extravagances of
monkery, but also to the worship of human spirits in the character
of saints.  He also condemned the worship of angelic beings,4
called demons by the heathen philosophers, thus intimating, that
both Jews and Gentiles entertained some false notions respecting
celestial beings.
But these warnings were in a great measure unheeded.  The
tendency to ascetic austerity and superstitious devotion was too
strong to be counteracted.  The one-sided views of the devotees,
made them look only at those principles and those phrases of the
Divine Word, which seemed to favor their preconceived notions.
In reference to marriage, they caught at what our Saviour said
about those who made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom  of
heaven's sake, and at St. Paul's qualified recommendation of
celibacy.~ They construed these expressions as laying down a
rule for Christians at all times and under all circumstances; when
in fact, they had reference exclusively to the poverty, distress and
persecutions to which the primitive disciples of Christ were exposed, and were merely counsels of prudence to those who were
unmarried and had the gift of continence.
It was argued, however, with some plausibility, that St. Paul
expressed an absolute preference to celibacy, as a holier state than
marriage, though he justified the latter as free from sin.T Yet a
* Colossians ii. 8, 18, 23.  See M'Knight, Rosenmuller and Loesneri Observationes, on the place.        t 1 Tim. iv. 1-3.
t Col. ii. 18.  ~ Mat. xix. 12. and 1 Corinth. vii. 7-9, 27, 28.
~ 1 Cor. vii. 32-34, 36, 38.




ASCETISM  AMONG CHRISTIANS OF THE EARLY AGES. 199
careful examination of the whole passage will show conclusively,
that he founded his advice upon expediency alone, and that he
limited it to cases in which a man could exercise continence,
while his circumstances would render family cares burdensome
and distressing.  He expressly referred to the distress of the
times and the trouble in the flesh which the married were then
liable to,* as the reason why those who innocently could, had better remain unmarried at the time when he wrote.  His advice
is just such as a prudent man would at any time give to a friend,
under like circumstances.   St. Paul seeking  especially the
spiritual good of those whom he addressed, enforces his advice by
the consideration, that the unmarried could attend to their religious duties without distraction, whereas they who had the care of
families, in circumstances of worldly trouble and distress, would
be too much harassed by cares to serve the Lord with a free and
cheerful mind.t
But the reader should observe how attentive the apostle is, in
giving this advice, to guard against the inference, that there is
anything unholy in the matrimonial state or in the enjoyments
connected with it, and how he abstains from even suggesting, that
a Christian should macerate his body with fasting, or adopt any
other monkish austerities, to destroy the appetites which the
Creator implanted in our constitution. On the contrary, he takes
occasion more than once to condemn ascetic austerities.: Especially in writing to Timothy, he disparages " bodily exercise"that is, ascetic mortifications of the flesh-as unprofitable. He
declares marriage to be honorable in all and the marriage-bed to
be pure.~  No where does any inspired writer intimate, that there
is any superior purity or merit in virginity, or that any kind of
ascetic practice entitles man or woman to higher rewards in
heaven, than those can attain who live piously and virtuously in
the world.
But even in the first century the contrary opinion got posses* 1 Cor. vii. 26, 28, 40.             f 1 Cor. vii. 32-34.
$ Colos. ii. 23. 1 Tim. iv. 3,8.      ~ Heb. xiii. 4.




200                      CHAPTER IX.
sion of some Christian minds.  Influenced by a preconceived
opinion to construe St. Paul's language erroneously, some primitive Christians lived unmarried, not merely from considerations of
expediency, but from a notion that celibacy was a holier state than
matrimony.  Others no doubt had correct views on the subject,
and abstained from  marriage in consequence of " the present
distress," either of the Church or of their private circumstances.
They feared that if they had families, they would be distracted
with worldly cares, and be tempted in the days of persecution to
apostatize for the preservation of those whom they loved.
As to the first class, who conceived that virginity was more
meritorious than matrimony, many of them, even before the end
of the first century, took it into their heads to esteem themselves
holier than others, and were puffed up no little with spiritual
pride and arrogance, so that they had to be reproved by the
bishops. As yet bishops had not generally conceived so exalted
an opinion of the merits of virginity, as those of after ages; yet
even by the close of the first century, some of them  appear to
have taken up the notion that religious celibacy was in itself
better than matrimony.
The notion seems to have been founded on the fact that.perpetual virginity is a perpetual mortification of a constitutional appetite, and this requiring no little self-denial, it seemed to indicate
great strength of religious principle, and therefore, great merit
in the devotee, especially as the sexual appetite is naturally one
of the strongest in the human constitution.
There is a natural connection between this and the appetite for
food and drink.  If the one was to be mortified as an enemy, so
should the other be.  They were both members of that grand
enemy, the body, against whom the war could be most effectually
prosecuted by attacking him  in his stronghold, the stomach,
where all the materials were stored up from which every appetite
and carnal pleasure derived their supplies. By the end of the
first century, a regular system of fasting, or keeping stations, as
they called it, was adopted by many Christians. The principle




ASCETISM AMONG CHRISTIANS OP THt SARLY AGES. 201
gained ground, that all pleasures connected with the body were
dangerous to the soul, and should be regarded with jealousy.
The figurative language of St, Paul respecting the flesh and
spirit, seemed to confirm the notion of the heathen ascetics respecting the evil nature of the body and its senses. The Apostle
justly cautioned Christians against excessive indulgence of the
pleasures of sense, and admonished them to keep the passions in
subjection to the moral law.  But whilst he taught the dangerous
nature of carnal temptations, he never dreamed of teaching, that
the temperate and lawful enjoyment of the divine blessings with
which the world is full, could be evil in itself, or dangerous in its
consequences.
But the devotees laid hold on the literal sense of his metaphor~
ical expressions respecting the flesh and spirit, overlooking the
proper sense and general tenor of his language,  The oriental
dogma respecting the evil nature of the body, was now fixed in
the general mind of both Jews and Greeks, Therefore) a one-,
sided view was taken of the Apostle's doctrine, and the body condemned as a nuisance.  No food or drink was allowed, but such
as life and health might require; and no clothing or furniture,
but such as might afford a moderate degree of physical comfort.
During our Saviour's ministry his disciples did not fast,* and
he severely censured the useless austerities of the Pharisees.T
He himself freely partook of whatsoever food and drink were set
before him.:  He condemned long and oft-repeated prayers.~
In short, whilst he enjoined a spiritual service of God, and a
reasonable attention to all the duties of religion, he expressed a
pointed disapprobation of the ascetic practices of the age,
and all excessive devotion, to the neglect of the duties and enjoyments of the world in which we live.  The Gospel inculcates
temperance, not abstinence, in regard to the pleasures of sense.
But to proceed with our historical sketch.
* Matt ix. 14.   t Luke, xviii. 12; Matt. xxiii. 14, Do. vi. 5-18.
t Matt. xi. 19, and ix. 11. Luke, xiv. 1, 7, 12, 15.
~ Matt. xxiiii 14, and vi. 7.
0*




We are not to suppose that the germ of aseetism, which we
have mentioned as having appeared in the first century, was then
much developed, or received a rapid development afterwards.
With the exception of some cases of celibacy, founded on the
opinion of its superior sanctity, and probably more cases of stated
fasting, and many more of a voluntary renunciation of all luxury
and all fashionable amusements, it does not appear that Christians
adopted a very austere mode of life in the first century.  Generally they set apart some days, as they found it convenient, every
year, during which they devoted themselves to private fasting,
prayer, and meditation on their spiritual concerns. This practice was entirely consonant to the principles of their religion, and
might well be imitated more generally than it is by Christian
professors in these times of luxurious ease and busy fortune-hunting.  But it grew by degrees, among those who aimed at high
attainments in sanctity, until it became a habitual exercise of
bodily mortification and austere devotion. This was especially
the case after the middle of the second century, when the ascetic
philosophy of the Gentiles began to have a strong influence upon
the sentiments and teachings of the clergy.  We see the first
manifestations of this influence in the writings of Justin Martyr,
who had studied the Greek philosophy before he became a Christian, and whose theology was strongly tinctured with Platonic
notions.  He flourished about the year one hundred and forty.
When the stricter sort of Christians had once made a perpetual
war against their bodily appetites and senses, the next step was to
renounce the means by which the appetites and senses might be
gratified. For this, too, the aspirants after spiritual perfection
imagined that they had scriptural authority. Our Saviour's command to the young ruler, " Go sell that thou hast and give to the
poor,"* they understood to be a rule for every one who aimed at
Christian perfection; though it was in reality nothing more than a
test which our Saviour applied, in order to discover to that young
man a secret vice in his character.
* Matt. xiv. 21.




ASCETISM AMONG CHRISTIANS OF THE EARLY AGES. 203
Afterwards, when the oriental doctrines got a deeper hold, some
Went so far as to make a general rule of our Lord's declaration,
that a man must " forsake all that he hath," before he can be
Christ's disciple.* Yet they were absurd enough to admit, that
a man could be a disciple, though not a perfect one, without giving
up all his goods. All such declarations of our Saviour evidently
related to the time and circumstances of his personal ministry.
He was a persecuted teacher, moving from place to place; and they
who would attend upon his instructions,-that is, become his disciples, —must forsake all that they had.
Neander remarks in his Church History, that some converts,
when they were baptized, felt such a glow of gratitude and love to
the Saviour, that they wished to give him all that they had, and
thought that they were doing so when they gave their worldly
goods to the poor, or put them into the treasury of the Church.
But this was not the only motive which led Christian devotees to
renounce their property.  After the second century, the notion
began to prevail in the Church, that everything adapted to give
pleasure to the senses was not only worthless in itself, but injurious to the soul, by withdrawing its affections from heavenly things,
and attaching them to the present evil world.  Hence the soul
must detach itself as much as possible from material things by renouncing earthly possessions.  It was imagined, also, that the
more earthly good the soul renounced, and sacrificed for heaven's
sake, the more of heaven's felicity would God bestow upon it.
Like the poet Horace, the Christian ascetic thought,
Quanto quisque sibi plura negaverit,
A Diis plura feret. Nil cupientiur
Nudus castra peto.
The more a man denies to himself, the more will he receive of the
Gods.  Naked (therefore) Ifly to the camp of those who desire
nothing.
So, at last, did the Christian ascetics. For a time, they thought
it sufficient to lead a retired life, with their friends and Christian
* Luke xiv. 33



204                      CHAPTER XI,
brethren, avoiding the common business and turmoil of the world,
spending much of their time alone, in the exercises of fasting
and prayer.  Many of them, after they had given away their
property, gained a frugal subsistence by some kind of simple
labor.  What they earned above a present supply for their few
wants, they gave to the poor.  They needed little; for they had
no families;-ate only the plainest food, and not much of that;clothed themselves scantily with a coarse garment or two,-and
shuned all soft and pleasant accommodations.  They could therefore employ the most of their time in the purgation of their souls,
by prayer, meditations and bodily mortifications.
We have already intimated that from the time of Justin Martyr in the year 140, professors of the ascetic philosophy of the
Greeks began to enter the Church, and corrupt the Christian
doctrine by foreign admixtures.  Had they been content to elucidate the religion of Christ by the aid of sound reason and philosophy, they would have done good service; but instead of this,
they incorporated much of their " vain and deceptive philosophy,"
as St. Paul characterized it, with the doctrines of the gospel, as
part and parcel of the same.  Alexandria was the chief radiating
point of this Platonic Christianity.  Here the Christians had,-as
the Jews had had before them,-a celebrated theological school, as
the Greeks had also long before had a great university.  The
Christian school was taught by men of learning and sent forth continually both' books and theologians, that spread these corrupt
views of Christian doctrine over nearly all the Christian world.
Hence the heathen " doctrine of demons," or evil spirits infesting
the human mind, was fully incorporated with what the gospel taught
upon the subject, and filled Christian souls with superstitious fancies and fears.  The Christian no longer considered himself exposed merely to the evil suggestions of an invisible tempter: he now
imagined himself to be perpetually beset by legions of foul fiends,
who could at pleasure assume any visible shape, and assault him in
a thousand ways.  The Pythagorean doctrine of " abstinence from
meats," was by degrees carried to the extreme of a constant fam



ASCETISM AMONG CHRISTIANS O' THHE EARLY AOdE. 205
ine, out of hatred to the body as the worst enemy of the soul. The
doctrine " forbidding to marry," became the fixed idea, that virginity was second only to angelic purity of nature, and that rnarriage would be an abominable pollution, if it had not the redeeming merit (as some of the fathers said) of" producing virgins.'
But we must not impute all these extravagant notions to the
intermixture of the Greek philosophy with the Christian doctrine,
although, as we have seen, the Eclectic philosophy had imbibed
at Alexandria an additional dose of ascetic principles from the
oriental systems. Other influences were at work.  Gnosticism,
Montanism, and other heresies founded on ascetic principles,
although they were condemned by the Church, had extensive influence upon the sentiments of the age, and were both the sign
and the effect of a strong tendency in religious minds towards an
ascetic austerity of manners. The excessive luxury and other
vices of the irreligious, tended also to drive those who feared God
into the opposite extreme of a fanatical hatred of the body and of
the world.
Whatever causes may have combined with the influence of
the Gentile philosophy in producing the effect, the effect itself was
wonderful.  Before the middle of the third century, the principles
of a gloomy ascetism  became so powerful, that some Christian
devotees began to withdraw themselves from  the dwellings and
society of men into lonely hiding places about the cities and
villages where they had lived.  Some of the Gnostic enthusiasts
had in the second century adopted a wild sort of monastic life in
the mountains, as we learn from a passage in St. Irenaeus; but
there is not a shadow of evidence that any Catholic Christian had
fallen into this sort of extravagance until near the middle of the
third century, when a few began to retire from the haunts of men
into solitary places. This sort of life had scarcely begun, before
the Decian persecution arose and drove multitudes of Christians
into the deserts for safety.  When in a few years this necessity
ceased, some of the refugees returned to their homes; but others,
who were inclined to ascetism, remained in the deserts. It seems




206A CHAPTEIR Xt.
not to have been the intention of these itcipent monks, whether
they became such of choice or of necessity, to continue all their
lives in solitude,  But many of them  never did return to the
cheerful haunts of men. Habit made this sort of life pleasant to
melancholy minds; and nothing is so productive of melancholy,
as the sort of life which they lived in the hot and dreary solitudes
of Egypt and Syria, combined With their gloomy notions of religion. Still, many of them would have returned to the society of
their friends, if they could, like many of their Hindoo predecessors, have completed the undertaking for which they had fled
from the face of human society.  They had undertaken the hard
task of conquering the demons who infested them, and the harder
task of eradicating the appetites and passions of their nature,all by dint of fasting, prayer, and meditation in solitary places.
But the more they hungered and pined away, the more did gloomy
fancies-that is, the demons-haunt and worry them; and the
more they resisted nature in their dreamy solitude, the more
powerfully did nature resist their opposition to her laws, and fill
their imaginations with forbidden pleasures.  Thus was the war
against their physical constitution, like that of Dryden's Alexander against the nations of the earth; it was " never ending, still
beginning,-fighting still and still destroying,"'-until death ended
the strife.
We have arrived at the consummation of Christian monachism
About the time that the great St. Anthony retired into the deserts
of Egypt, the primitive seat of Platonic Christianity and Christian monachism, the principles had gotten firm  hold of the
Christian mind, that the desire of earthly pleasure was evil, that
the corporeal senses, and the pleasures derived from them,were
evil; that the body itself was a machine for producing sin, and a
loathsome prison of the spirit; that as the body was of earthy
materials, and derived its pleasures, through the senses, from
earthly objects, therefore all the things of the earth that could
afford pleasure to the senses, are evil, and consequently to be
avoided as a snare to the soul.  Therefore cities are evil; human




ASCETISM AMONG CHRISTIANS O  THtl EtARLY AGES. 207
society is evil; green fields, verdant woods, refreshing streams,
balmy breezes, gay and fragrant flowers, the music of voices and
the music of nature, all that was sweet to human senses, was
poison to the soul. Impressed with this abominable notion of his
Maker's works, the superstitious votary at last fled from all that
is " beauty to the eye and music to the ear," into the dreariest
deserts, where arid sands, and naked rocks, and noisome beasts
and reptiles, only presented themselves to view. There, confined
in some miserable den, or roaming naked over burning sands, beneath a fiery sun, he determined to spend his days in punishing
his body, fighting with demons, praying to God and dreaming of
heaven.
Thus was Christian monkery brought to maturity, about three
hundred years after the birth of that Redeemer through whom
men are saved by grace, justified by faith, and guided by the law
of love, under the government of the God of love. Compared
with the law of Moses, the Saviour's yoke is easy, and his burden
is light. But through the influence of a vain and deceitful philosophy, a yoke and a burden were laid upon the Christians of a
superstitious age, so oppressive, that the Mosaic law was light and
easy in comparison.




CHAPTER XII,
SCATTERED  NOTICES CONCERNING  VIRGINITY, ASCETISIM, &C.~
COLLECTED FROM THE EARLY FATHERS OF THE CHURCH.
To confirm  the preceding statement respecting the growth
of ascetical principles and practices in the Church during the
early ages, we shall now give the reader some extracts from the
Fathers, expressive of the opinions and practices of their times,
Few Christian writings of the first century have come down to
us, except those of the Apostles and Evangelists. Few others
were written, and they were generally very short.  The longest
piece that has any evidence of genuineness, is a work entitled,
The Shepherd," by Hermas, supposed by many to be the'Hermas that St. Paul mentions in Romns, xvi., 14.  But this is
very doubtful,  The book was originally written in Greek, but
we have it only in a Latin translation, made in ancient times by
some unknown author.  We cannot judge whether or not the
translation was faithfully made.  Frauds and forgeries became so
common in the Church after the middle of the second century,
that one is often at a loss what to think of such writings as this
Latin translation of Hermas.  There is reason to suspect that
some phrases, at least, were foisted in, to give an air of authority
to certain practices which began in the Church after the time of
Hernnas.  But we are willing to suppose that the translation is in
substance correct.
In the passage from which we are about to quote,* Hermas re* Book iii., Similitude V,




SCATTERED NOTICES.                      209
presents himself as sitting alone on a mountain, fasting and
meditating, when the angel whom he calls the Shepherd appeared,
and asked him what he was doing.  " I answered, (says Hermas,)
To-day I keep a station.'  He answered-What is a station?'
I replied-'It is a fast.'*   He said-' What is that fast?'  I
answered,-' I fast as I have been wont to do.'   Ye know not,
said he,'what it is to fast unto God.'' Iearken,  said he,'the
Lord does not desire such a needless fast; for fasting in this
manner, thou advancest nothing in righteousness.  But the true
fast is this:-Do nothing wickedly in thy life, bnt serve God with
a pure mind, and keep his commandments, and walk according to
his precepts; nor suffer any wicked desire to enter thy mind.
Keep the commandments of the Lord, and thou shalt be approved.  But, if besides those things which the Lord hath comnmanded,
thou shalt add some good thing, thou shalt purchase to thyself a
greater dignity, aznd be in more favor with the Lord, than thou
shouldst otherwise have been.  If, therefore, thou shalt keep the
commandments of the Lord, and shalt add to them  these stations,
thou shalt rejoice.' "
The first part of this extract we consider to be conformable to
sound doctrine, but the latter part teaches unscriptural sentiments.
It attributes direct merit to ascetic exercises, such as fasting, and
broaches the idea of meritorious works of supererogation —of
gaining favor with God by doing  more than his law requires.
This is the principle upon which the Romish doctrines of Justiication by works, satisfaction for sin, Purgatory, Virginity, Monachism, &c., are founded.  The passage admits, however, of an
explanation less repuguant to sound doctrine, though still in part
at variance with it.  Herinas may have meant that fasting is a
duty additional to those prescribed in the Ten Commandments,
and, if duly observed is a good thing, and will purchase for us a
higher reward firom God.
* For an explanation of the Stations of the early Christians, see Du
Fresne's Glossary, article Statio: and Hornbeclks Miscellanea Sacra, p.
606. See also on this passage, Osborne on the Errors of the Early Fathers,
p. 148.




210                       CHAPTER XII.
We can heartily recommend the following rule which the Shepherd of Hermas gives for fasting:
Having performed what is before writte —(that is, kept the
commandments,) the day on which thou fastest thou shalt taste
nothing but bread and water; and computing the quantity of food
which thou dost usually eat upon other days, thou shalt lay aside the
value thereof and give it unto the widow, the fatherless and the
poor."
It was customary in early times for Christians to keep two
weekly stations or fastdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  When
this rule began to be observed cannot be exactly determined: but
certainly not in the first century,-probably not until the latter
part of the second.  Hermas wrote about the close of the first
century.
Besides the merit which he ascribed to fasting, we discover in
him a tendency to ascetism in other particulars. Not only does
he inveigh against luxurious living, which he might do by apostolical authority; but he goes farther, and censures the possession
of wealth, as incompatible with a good Christian life.  " They who
are rich in this world (says he) unless their riches be pared off, cannot be made profitable unto the Lord:"-And  he exhorts
Christians " to procure no more than what is necessary and sufficient for them," and not " to buy houses and lands with their
money, because all such things shall perish with this present
time," but to spend their wealth in works of benevolence.*  So far
as he enjoins moderation in our desires for worldly possessions and
a spirit of benevolence in the use of them, he is scriptural; but
there is in his principles an evident leaning towards an austere
mode of life, and a renunciation of earthly goods as unprofitable
because they are temporal, and even injurious because they are
pleasant.
He does not condemn marriage, but he expressly attributes superior merit to celibacy.  " I said unto the angel, If a husband
* For these passages see Book I. Vision 3. and Book. II. Commands 4 and
12.




SCATTERED NOTICES.                     211
or wife die, and the surviving party marry again, does he sin in so
doing?  He that marries (said the angel) sins not; howbeit if he
remain single, he shall thereby gain to himself great honor before
the Lord."   Here is no reference, as in St. Paul's advice in
1 Corinthians, to any distress as making celibacy expedient.
Abstinence from marriage without regard to circumstances is considered as meritorious before the Lord-no doubt for the reason
that it is an austerity, a mortification of the flesh.  This is the
vital principle of ascetism and monkery.
The book of Hermas was in great repute for a century or two;
it was publicly read in many churches, and was thought by some
in those times to have been written by divine inspiration.  Yet it
is, on the whole, a tedious and insipid production. In some parts
it is downright silly and utterly unworthy to be ranked among the
inspired writings.
In an epistle ascribed to Clement, the first bishop of Rome,
who is named by St. Paul (in Philippians iv. 3), we find the following admonitions:.-" Let not him that is pure in the flesh grow'
proud of it, knowing that it is from another he received the gift of
continence. "
Ignatius, another of the earliest Christian Fathers, in his epistle
to Polycarp, bluntly rebukes these self-conceited professors of
chastity, male and female:-" If any man (said he) can remain
in a virgin state, to the honor of Christ, let him remain so without
boasting; but if he boast he is undone; and if he desire to be
more taken notice of than the bishop, he is corrupted."
These allusions show very plainly that virginity among Christians, as before among certain heathen devotees, had by the end
of the first century begun to be considered by many as meritorious
in the sight of God, and that the professors of virginity had begun
already to assume airs of superiority over the married working
Christians of the time. We shall see the spiritual pride of these
celibates swelling higher in after times, and leading to its natural
consequences.
*Book III. Similitude 1.




212                     CHAPTER XII.
Second Century.
In this century we begin to meet with Christian writers who
had studied the Greek philosophy, and we discover at once a
mixture of Platonic notions in their Christian theology. The
heathen demonology begins to appear. Justin Martyr, who flourished about the year 140, adopted the notion of Philo the Jew,
or rather of the Septuagint Greek translation of the Old Testament, that the giants mentioned in the sixth chapter of Genesis
were the offspring of angelic beings, called demons by the Greeks.
In his First Apology for the Christians, he says:-" Evil demons
in ancient times, when they showed themselves to mankind,
debauched women, corrupted boys, and exhibited fearful appearances to men, who being filled with awe, and not knowing that
they were evil demons, called them Gods."  Here we find ideas
of evil demons such as neither prophets nor apostles taught, but
such as were familiar to the heathen mind in the current fables
of the Gods.
In the same apology, speaking of the chastity of the Christians
in reference to the saying of Christ, that "' some make themselves
eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake," he says, " There are
among us many men and women sixty or seventy years old, who
became disciples of Christ in their childhood, and have ever since
continued pure [that is, virgins], and I can show such persons
among all classes and conditions of people.
Next comes Tatian, a disciple of Justin's. In his oration against
the Greeks, he contrasts the temperance and chastity of the
Christians with the impurity of the heathen Greeks.-" You
Greeks say that we play the fool among wives and boys, virgins
and old women.  But your poetess Sappho was an impudent
courtesan, and sang her own wantonness. But all our women
are chaste, and our virgins at the distaff utter divine oracles,
much more clearly than that girl of yours." He seems to intimate
here that the Christian virgins had a sort of prophetic inspiration
Their virginity was supposed to produce in them such a degree of
spiritual purity, that they were filled with a divine illumination.




SCATTERED NOTICES.                  213
We need not wonder that Tatian should have entertained such
a notion; for after he had written this oration, he set up a sect
called Encratites, or Temperate people, who condemned marriage
as an impurity, and adopted a strictly ascetic rule of life. This
fact, and the prevalence of Gnosticism in the second and third
centuries, show the strong bias of religious minds in those days
towards an ascetic and flesh-mortifying austerity of manners. We
have already seen in chapter ninth how this bias operated to
infuse into the Greek philosophy of those times more and more
of the ascetic principles and practices of the oriental nations.
For a long time the struggle between the Catholic Christians
and the various branches of the Gnostic heresy was severe and
doubtful in its issue, especially in Egypt and Syria, where
the oriental systems of philosophy had taken deeper root than in
Europe.
The foundation of Gnosticism  was the ancient Persian and
Egyptian philosophy, whose first principles was what is called
Dualism, or the doctrine that there are two primary causes of
things, the one good and reigning supreme in the highest heavens,
the other evil, and contending for the mastery in this lower
world.
The Gnostics all held the principle common to the oriental
philosophies, that matter is essentially evil, and that the body is
the prison of the immortal soul.  Hence their hatred of the body
and their professed aversion to all earthly pleasures. They held
also that the universe is full of various orders of spiritual beings
both good and evil; and that Christ was one of the highest Aeons
or good angels of the celestial world, and descended to the earth
for the purpose of delivering mankind from the evil influences of
material things and from the power of the evil demons who ruled
the world.
To these general principles each leader of a Gnostic sect added
a number of details according to his fancy, and from  them  he
deduced such practical rules as suited his particular principles or
peculiar taste. The most of these leaders adopted a severe system




214                      CHAPTER XII.
of ascetical mortification, because they held that the body and its
pleasures are evil: several of them rejected marriage altogether,
as a pollution of the soul; but a few gave a loose to sensuality,
on the principle that as the soul is of heavenly origin, it cannot be
polluted by so vile and foreign a substance as matter, no
more than a diamond can lose its purity by the accidental contact
of mud.
One is at some loss to conceive how the Gnostic doctrines,
many of which were glaringly inconsistent with the teaching of
of the apostles, could find acceptance with well-meaning, intelligent, and reflecting people, such as many of the Gnostics certainly
were.  We cannot easily make due allowance for the influence of
prevalent notions of philosophy, and of circumstances, all differing
so greatly from what we see and feel in our time. But equally
strange must it appear to us Protestants in these days, that monkish fanaticism should have taken such strong and lasting hold
upon the minds of Catholic Christians, in that branch of the
Church which retained in early times the largest portion of true
Christianity.
Neander in his Church History* thus philosophizes upon the
character of the age during which Gnosticism  prevailed.  He
remarks that although Gnosticism was a cdmbination of elements
drawn from old religious systems; yet these elements were but
the corporeal form; the peculiar sentiment of the age was its
animating principle. Every age has its peculiar stamp of feeling,
and this, in times of mental commotion, gives rise to a variety of
systems and sects, which have no external connection, yet are all
to be traced to the same radical principle.  The reigning principle of this age was that of Dualism, or the contest between the
divine powers of good and evil.
"The key-note (says Neander) which governed the sentiments
* Kirchengeschichte, vol. I. p. 639. For want of an English translation, we refer to the Second German Edition. For a charitable account
of the Gnostic leaders and their doctrines, we refer the reader to Lardner's
Credibility.




SCATTERED NOTICES.                      315
of many a serious mind, was a consciousness of the power of evil,
-a feeling  that two parties were contending,-dissatisfaction
with the present state of being,-a desire to pass the narrow bounds
of the earth, and a longing after a higher and better order of things."
To this profound remark of Neander we will venture to add,
that the feeling of which he speaks was caused in a great measure
by the declining state of the Roman empire, which-although it
maintained its external grandeur,-was decaying in the roots of
its prosperity. There was a deep corruption of morals, an oppressive weight of taxation, a failing energy and success in business,
and a consequent sinking of the hearts and hopes of the people.
But to return from this digression; —ffrom a passage in Irenaeus,
it would appear that by the year 170, the Marcionites, a Gnostic
sect who condemned marriage, practised a sort of monachism.
They had charged the Israelites with having robbed the Egyptians, when they left Egypt under Moses,-and the orthodox
Christians of their own times with defiling themselves by commerce
with their heathen neighbors.
"A If (says Irenaeus in reply) he who makes these charges glories in
his science or [Gnosticism*], separates himself from the company
of the unbelievers, and gets nothing from other men, but is simply
naked and barefooted, and lives houseless in the mountains, like
the animals that eat grass,-shall he be excused, because he does
not know the necessity that we are under of dealing with other
men."t
This is a lively description of an anchorite. It clearly indicates
what is probable in itself, that these flesh-hating Marcionites, if
not other Gnostics also, had among them  the same sort of savage
monks that afterwards appeared among the Catholic Christians.
Hence it is evident that Christian monkery began among the here* The Gnostics professed to have the true Gnosis, that is, Science or
Knowledge of Divine things. Hence the name.
t Irenaeius Contra Hereseis. Lib. iv. C. 30. Epiphanius says thatMarcian, founder of the sect, was an anchorite. This confirms the fact that the
Marcionites practiced monachism.




216                      CHAPTER XII.
tics more than a century before the orthodox portion of the Church
adopted the institution.  The style of contempt with which Father
Irenaeus, in the year 175, speaks of this manner of life, shows
that monkery was not as yet recognized among the Catholics as
existing, or as worthy to exist among Christians.
But the principles whlich led to monkery were gaining ground
in the second century.  Athenagoras, contemporary with Irenaeus,
says in his Apology for the Christians (~ 33);   Each one among
us has his own wife, whom he has married accordingto law, and
whom he uses as a wife, for the sole purpose of having children,
and no further. There are also among us both men and women,
who have grown old in celibacy, with the hope of a closer union
with God.  Now if the state of virginity draws us nearer to God,
the very thought and desire of carnal pleasure draw us away from
him.  We therefore avoid those thoughts, and much more the acts
themselves: and it is not in word but in deed that we carry out our
principle, that each one should remain in the virgin purity in which
he was born, or should limit himself to one marriage; for a second
one is but a decent adultery."
Here is a considerable step in advance of the doctrine of the
first century. Virginity takes a far more elevated stand than
marriage, which is barely tolerated as a necessary evil, for the sake
of offspring, and is restricted to the utmost.  Second marriages
are disallowed as virtually if not formally adulterous: and even in
the one tolerated marriage, not even a thought of connubial enjoyment beyond the unfortunate necessity of it for the propagation
of children, is deemed innocent!
We need not say that the Bible teaches no such sentiments.
Second marriages are expressly allowed, and matrimonial enjoyments are subjected to no such unnatural restriction.* Christianity
lays no unnatural, arbitrary, and useless restrictions upon human
enjoyments.  It wages no war against our natural appetites, but
subjects them to such wholesome rules as are necessary to prevent
evil consequences from  the indulgence of them.  There is no
* Rom. vii. 3. i Cforin. vii. 3-5.




SCATTERED NOTICES.                       217
reason for the restriction mentioned by Athenagoras, which does
not apply with equal force to the appetite for food and drink.
According to his principles, we should eat and drink for the sole
purpose of sustaining life, repudiating as evil every thought of
pleasure from this source. Consistency did at last drive the devotees to this extreme, and the result was monkery.
Theophilus of Antioch lived near the same time.  He wrote
three books addressed to one Autolycus. Speaking in the third
book concerning the corrupt practices of the Gentiles, he says:
" Far be it from Christians even to think of doing such things,
among whom, temperance is present, continence is exercised,
monogamy (only one marriage) is kept, chastity is guarded, wrong
exterminated, sin eradicated, &c."
Here again we find ascetism  gaining ground: for the Greek
phrase [sxQoazTe etaxE Tat] translated continence is exercised, technically signifies that course of bodily mortification and prayer,
which the monks afterwards practiced.  Monogamy was commended in the first century as preferable to second marriages:
now it was enforced as an obligation, upon the principle that a
second marriage was but a decent or hidden adultery, as Athenagoras called it.  This father seems to have been the inventor of
a very subtle reason for calling it so. God made for Adam only
one wife, and they two were one flesh. A second marriage therefore breaks this bond of unity by introducing a mixture of other
flesh into the compound.  The argument has no solidity, for the
death of a husband or wife completely and forever destroys the
marriage relation between them.. They are then in no sense onze
flesh.  But Tertullian, some years later, in the true spirit of an
old father, took up this sophistical argument, enlarged it, and
refined and twisted it in all manner of ways.* These reverend
guides of the Church were by no means scrupulous about
the use of sophistry.  Anything that would serve their turn was
welcome.
Our next quotation is from  the epistle to Diognetus, usually
* In his Treatise on Monagamy.
lO




218                     CHAPTER XII.
printed with Justin's works, but written in a style so different from
Justin's as to be evidently the work of another hand. It was probably composed in the second century.
" What the soul is in the body, Christians are in the world.
It dwells in the body, but it is not of the body. The flesh hates
the soul and wars against it, but is unable to injure it. The soul
is imprisoned in the body, but preserves it. The soul is ill-used
by food and drink, but grows better, &c."
These expressions savor strongly of the oriental philosophy and
a superstitious hatred of the body, as an enemy of the soul. But
the author writes in so rhetorical a style, that possibly he meant
nothing more than an exaggerated statement of St Paul's doctrine concerning the opposition between the flesh and spirit-that
is, the good and evil principles in man. But one possessed of the
oriental notions now spreading through the eastern churches, would
be apt to misinterpret St. Paul's figurative language on this subject, as we think this author did.
Clement of Alexandria lived near the close of the second century.  He was a great admirer of the Grecian philosophy, and
mixed its doctrines with those of Christianity.
It is remarked by Schroekh,* that towards the end of the second century, the Ascetics came by Clement and Tertullian to be
called EyxTcrves, in Greek, and Continentes in Latin-that is,
Temperate or Abstinent people.  Clement says that Continence
consists not only in abstaining from venereal pleasures, but in despising all the possessions and pleasures of the world.t " We,
therefore, (says he) from love to the Lord and from honesty, embrace continence, sanctifying the temple of the spirit. But he,
who, from hatred conceived to the flesh, abstains from conjugal
connection and convenient food, is indocile and impious, and continent without reason."
Again he says, " Now concerning those who abhor marriage,
St. Paul says, In the last days many shall depart from the faith* Christliche Kirchengeschichte, vol. iii. p. 137.
t Stromata, L. T.




SCATTERED NOTICES.                     219
forbidding to marry, &c. And again, Let no one seduce you with
a voluntary humility and neglecting of the body, &c. Some just
men of'old brought up children, having lived continently in manriage.  Will they reprove the Apostles?  Peter and Philip begat
children.  Philip also gave his daughter in marriage.  lfe who
marries a wife to beget children, ought to exercise continence, that
he may not lust after his wife, 3;c.'
Again, he says, " We admire single marriages as honorable.
Concerning second marriages, if you burn, says the apostle, get
married "*
These extracts suffice to show that Clement found it necessary
to defend the lawfulness of marriage and in certain cases the expediency of second marriages, against a strong party who were disposed to repudiate them. But lest he should seem to concede too
much to a corporeal appetite, Clement takes care, like Athenagoras, to lay severe restrictions on its indulgence, even where it
may be lawfully indulged.
His condemnation of those who exercise abstinence from hatred
to the body indicates the existence of this hatred among the religious people of his time.
On the whole, Clement is less fanatical in his sentiments on the
subject before us, than most of his cotemporaries were.  Yet he,
like all the rest, had a lofty admiration of virginity, considering it
as a holier state than matrimony.  He is the earliest of the Fathers who taught that Mary the mother of Jesus retained her virginity after the birth of her first-born son.  As authority for this
doctrine, which made a deal of senseless noise in the Church afterwards, he cites a spurious piece, full of " old wives' fables," called
the Protevangelium of James.  He often cited spurious gospels
and other forgeries of the two first centuries.
Third Century.
Whilst we are at Alexandria, we shall quote a passage from
Origen, of the same city, who flourished about 25.years after Cle* Same L. III.




220                      CHAPTER XII.
ment.  Origen was also a Platonist and like Philo the Jew, he
adopted an allegorical mode of interpreting the Scriptures, that he
might incorporate his philosophical opinions with the doctrines of
the Bible.
The passage which we are about to quote is designed to show
that virginity was considered as entitling the possessor to a higher
degree of heavenly felicity than married persons could attain. In
his nineteenth Homily on Jeremiah, Section 4, Origen says:
" I will venture to give an example of useful deceptions.  There
are some who thereby exercise chastity and purity, [that is, abstain from marriage]; and others who thereby exercise monogamy;
the former believing that they are lost if they marry at all: the
latter believing that they are lost if they marry a second time.
Now it profits the person who is once married, if he or she expect
everlasting punishment for marrying a second time, because their
deception prevents a second marriage.  For, let any one look at
the consequences.  It is better indeed to live unmarried or in
widowhood without being deceived, and with a knowledge of the
fact that the twice-married may partake of a degree of salvation,
but not so high a blessedness as one who has lived purely: yet if this
cannot be done, it is better to be deceived in the opinion that the
twice-married are lost, and through the deception to live in purity,
than to know the truth, and thereby to suffer the disadvantage of
being degraded into the rank of the twice-married.")
Here the principle is clearly taught, that marriage, and especially a second marriage, is a comparatively impure state, whilst
virginity has the merit of raising its possessor to the highest
degree of heavenly felicity. But this is not all. Origen here
avows the abominable doctrine that useful deceptions-or pious
frauds, as they are generally called-are justifiable, when they
promote true religion, or what the deceiver may happen to think
is beneficial to his dupes.
This immoral and mischievous principle was adopted by the
Christian Fathers from the heathen philosophers, who considered
the ignorant and unthinking multitude incapable of being guided




SCATTERED NOTICES.                    221
by philosophical truth and reason; hence they deemed it necessary and proper to influence their minds by such false and superstitious notions as were best adapted to inspire them with salutary
fear of the Gods and of future punishment for their crimes.
Brucker, in his History of Philosophy, when speaking of the
Eclectics or New Platonists (Sect. xvi.) says, that the Egyptian
priests-and to some extent those of other nations-held, that
pious fraud and lying are justifiable, when they are useful to
religion.  "It was a saying of Timaeus Locrus, that as we heal
bodies by certain medicines, so we may coerce minds to good by
false speeches, when they are not affected by true ones. Even
Plato was not averse to this principle. He allows princes especially to deceive and lie for the public good. The New Platonists
gloried in these teachers and followed their example.  What
wonder then if they endeavored to sustain a falling superstition
by fables and fictions.  This they did by both feigned miracles
and supposititious books.  These philosophers and the Christian
teachers of these times contended with one another in the use of
these frauds' —each party trying to make the most out of these
knavish impositions.
One would suppose that St. Paul's emphatic condemnation of
the principle-Let us do evil that good may come,* would have
deterred the Christian Fathers from resorting to dishonest means
for the promotion of Christianity, which needed no aid from falsehood, and which taught a morality inconsistent with all manner
of hypocrisy and fraud. But neither apostolic denunciation nor
Christian consistency, could deter the corrupt teachers of an
already corrupted Christianity from using fraudulent means for
the promotion of what they conceived to be useful ends.  In
imitation of the heathen priests and philosophers, they made use
of pretended visions, revelations and miracles, as well as forged
writings, to impose on the credulous multitude, when they had a
purpose to serve, whether it was to convert heathen unbelievers,
or to establish some corrupt innovation in the Church, such as
* Romans iii. 5-8.




222                      CHAPTER XII.
monachism, saint-worship, relic-worship, purgatory, and transubstantiation.  We venture to say, that, since the creation of the
world, there have never been among heathen nations more falsehoods propagated for religious purposes, than there were in the
corrupted  Church  of our blessed  Saviour from  the rise  of
monachism in the fourth century, for the space of twelve hundred
years, during the dark reign of Popish superstition.  The reader
will see in the following lives of some of the primitive monks only
the modest beginning of this system of religious imposture.  Yet
if he has not previously read some of these ecclesiastical romances,
he will be struck with wonder at the unprincipled boldness of their
sainted authors and the stupid credulity of the believing multitude.
But let him recollect, that the venerated Fathers of the fourth
century only carried out Origen's principle of " useful deceptions,"
and quieted their consciences with the belief that " the truth of God
more abounded through their lies to his glory," or if not " the
truth of God," yet something else, which they supposed it would
be useful to establish under that name.
Since the great Reformation under Luther, this system of imposture has been checked, but even to this day it has been frequently resorted to, chiefly among the Roman Catholic priests
and monks, who " hold the tradition of the Fathers," and to some
extent even among Protestant ministers, who in their writings and
discourses too often conceal or discolor the facts of ecclesiastical
history, fearing lest the undisguised truth should injure the cause
of religion.  We shall give those facts, so far as they come within
the range of our subject, without concealment or disguise. Our
divine Christianity needs no fraud nor concealment for its vindication; on the contrary, it does need a full exposure of the truth
of history, for its purification from the inventions of men. But
let us proceed with our quotations.  We take a little more from
Origen.
In his work against Celsus, (Lib. V.), Origen says,   We,
when we abstain from  flesh, do it to chasten the body and
reduce it to servitude, wishing to extinguish our earthly members




SCATTERED NOTICES.                    223
(passions) -whoring, impurity, lasciviousness, depraved affections,
that we may put to death our corporeal actions."
On this extract we have two remarks to make; first, that like
the Hindoos and Boodhists, all the Christian ascetics abstained
from flesh and from wine, and most of them from marriage; and
secondly, that the design of this abstinence was to extinguish the
carnal appetites and passions.
In a book of uncertain date and authorship, but composed probably about this time, called The Apostolical Canons, we find
(in Canon 51) the following rule;-" If any bishop, priest, or
deacon abstain from marriage, flesh, and wine, not for (aoxa)cv)
exercise, but from  abhorence, forgetting that all things are very
good, and that God made man male and female, but blaspheming
calumniates the Creator, let him be either corrected or deposed
and cast out of the Church."*
From this rule as well from  the extract which the reader
has seen from Clement of the same import, it evidently appears
that there was a strong tendency in the Church toward an excessive abstinence from all corporeal pleasures, not only for exercise
in piety, but from a hatred of the body as an evil thing, and an
enemy of the soul, insomuch that stringent discipline was necessary to keep it in check.  We see in this tendency the influence
of that Oriental philosophy of which we have spoken in the preceding chapters.
About this time excessive fasting became common among the
ascetics or exercisers.   Eusebius, the Church historian, (Lib.
V., cap. 24,) quotes Irenaeus as saying, that some thought they
ought to fast one day at a time, some two days, and some even
more.  But Dionysius of Alexandria says, that the ascetics fasted,
some two days, some four, and some six days; showing that in
his time fasting was carried to great excess in Egypt, where
monachism  began.  It was this practice of much fasting, that
gave these persons the name of ascetics. This Dionysius, was
* See Bingham's Ecclesiastical Antiquities. Book VII., ch. 3.




224                      CHAPTER XII.
bishop of Alexandria, about the year 250, just before ascetism began to ripen into monachism.
Eusebius relates in his Church History, (Lib. IV., c. 23,) that
Dionysius wrote an epistle to the Gnossians, in which he exhorted
their bishop, Pynitus, " not to impose the heavy burden of virginity upon the brethren as a necessary thing, but to have regard
to the infirmity of most people."  Pynitus wrote back in answer,
that " he received his advice with great respect," but he exhorted
him in turn, that " he should at last administer strong meat, and
and by a second epistle of more perfect instruction, so feed his
people, that they would not always continue to use the mere milk
of the word, and insensibly grow old in the nurture of infancy."
Eusebius remarks on this answer, that Pynitus showed in it not
only a right faith, and a due care for his flock, but eloquence and
skill in divine things.
The notion was now spreading in the Church, that the Apostolic permission to marry was merely a temporary concession to
the weakness of babes in Christ, and that Christians would
never attain the stature of full-grown saints, until they renounced
marriage altogether.  This was the opinion of Pynitus at least,
and this we think was what he meant in his respectful answer to
Dionysius, when he exhorted that prelate to administer strong
meat to the Gnossians, instead of the soft, milky doctrine of his
first epistle.
These extracts from the Alexandrian Fathers are sufficient to
show the progress of ascetical opinions and practices in that part
of the Church, down to the middle of the third century, when
monaehism was about to come forth in Egypt, of which Alexandria was the great capital.
Let us now turn back to the beginning of the century, and see
what opinions on these subjects prevailed about the city of Carthage, the capital of the African provinces, far west of Alexandria.
Here Latin was the language of the country, and here we find the
earliest Latin Fathers, whose works have come down to us. The




SCATTERED) NOTICES.                    225
first is Tertullian, who flourished about the year 200, that is,
twenty or thirty years before Origen.
He was a vehement advocate of ascetic austerity, an uncompromising monogamist, a rigid exactor of matrimonial abstemiousness-no Pythagorean philosopher or Greek father having imposed severer restrictions on married people-and an ecstatic
admirer of virginity, as the nearest approach to angelic perfection,
and the surest guaranty of angelic felicity in Heaven.  He
would have made a capital saint of the Catholic Church, had he
lived a hundred years later, when his gloomy ideas of religion
would have been considered orthodox.  But he was not satisfied
with what in his day was considered a Catholic degree of ascetic
sanctity.  He joined the sect of Montanus; which, esteeming its
founder to be the Paraclete, or Comforter, promised by our" Saviour, went as far as he desired, in the flesh-tormenting severity
of its rules.  Therefore Tertullian, is not Saint Tertullian.
Nevertheless, he is good authority, admitted on all hands, for the
facts which we are investigating. Most of his writings were composed while he was yet a good Catholic,
Like the Fathers generally of the Third and Fourth Centuries,
he esteemed the merit of virginity as the highest of human merits.
He exalted it above the merits of fasting and other mortifications
of sense. So did the Fathers in general, probably because it was
the most difficult to attain, and required the aid of all the rest.
Virginity could not generally be maintained in its purity without
a rigid system of corporeal maceration, exposure to the rudest
hardships, nocturnal vigilance; in short, the whole corps of
ascetic mortifications;-so to thin the blood, attenuate the flesh,
enfeeble the nerves, dry up the marrow, and exhaust the constitution, as to destroy this natural appetite, and to conquer both
the demon without and the demon within.  No wonder then if
this was deemed the most glorious of spiritual achievements; and
if many who had the form of virginity were destitute of its power,
that is, of the spiritual purity which it was supposed to infuse into
the soul of man. Experience demonstrated even in Tertullian's
10*




226                      CHAPTER XII
time, that the state of virginity might exist, and yet the heart be
as full of worldly vanity and unholy passion, as if those angels on
the earth had been married! It was found too, that a large portion of professed virgins, were virgins only in name, and that indignant nature often impelled them to do worse than to marry!
What mortified Tertullian, Jerome, and other Fathers, more
than the misconduct of the virgins, was the fact, that the institution of virginity, which ought to have been the peculiar glory of
the Church, originated among the heathen idolators, long ages
before the birth of Christ. Tertullian thus expresses his mortification, in his treatise on Monogamy, (Sect. xiii.)
" Since Satan affects to imitate the mysteries of God, it will be
a shame to us, if we be slow to present that contenance to God,
which some present to the Devil, either by virginity or by perpetual
widowhood.  We know the virgins of Vesta, and of Juno, in a
town of Achaia,-of Apollo at Ephesus,-and of Minerva at
several places.  We know continent men also, particularly of the
Egyptian God Apis.  The African Ceres has women too, who,
having renounced their marriage, will afterwards avoid the touch
of a man, and refuse to kiss even their own sons.  See how the
Devil, next to luxury, invented a destructive chastity!/
He elsewhere complains that the Devil had anticipated the
Church in other matters. " The Devil (says he,) who makes it
his business to pervert the truth, imitates the divine sacraments
by idolatrous mysteries. He baptizes some as believers and followers of his; promises them  purification from sin, by baptism;
and if I rightly remember, the god Mithras makes the sign of the
cross upon the foreheads of his worshippers.  And then too, he
limits his chief priest to one marriage, and has also his virgins
and his male professors of continence."*
We remark by the way, that St. Jerome, in his treatise against
Jovinian, gives a long and learned account of the honors paid to
virginity among the heathen, and observes afterwards, that true
virginity suffers no prejudice from the fact that the Devil's virgins
* De Pgescriptione Hereticorum, ~ XL.




SCATTERED NOTICES. 
imitated it.  He says also in some part of his works, that the
virgins of heretics ought to be deemed whores.
Tertullian says in his Treatise on the Resurrection, (~ 8):"They are acceptable sacrifices to God, which the flesh offers by
its own suffering;-I mean (says he) those conflicts of the soul,
fasting, abstinence from flesh and wine; and the dirtinmss annexed
to it;-also virginity, widowhood, monogamy, moderation in connubial indulgences [that is, as he says elsewhere,-limited to the
necessity of the case.]*
We shall take but one more extract from Tertullian.  It is
from his Treatise on the Veiling of Virgins, (~ 14.) It shows
that the young women who professed to consecrate their virginity
to God were much glorified by the Church, and, as might be expected, were made vain by the honors bestowed upon them. They
were fond of showing themselves-went publicly unveiled-and
did not neglect to set off their persons to advantage.  Tertullian
thus censures them.-" Where there is glory there is solicitude
[to avoid vanity]; where there is solicitude, there is constraint
[on one's.inclinations]; where there is constraint, there is necessity
[for its exercise]; where is necessity, there is infirmity [of
nature.]  Deservedly therefore, when virgins do not cover their
heads, and thus for the sake of glory expose themselves to temptations, they are compelled afterwards to hide their shame.t It
is vanity, not religion, that leads them to profess virginity; sometimes it is the belly, their god; they desire a free maintenance;
for the brethren gladly receive and support virgins.  They are
publicly presented to the pastor of the church and consecrated;t
their good deed is proclaimed; they are loaded by the brethren
* We give in Tertullian's Latin a sentiment which we do not choose
to translate. Etiam matrimonii secreta maculosa. See his Address Ad
Uxorem, Lib. II. ~ 3.
t Ventres tegere coguntur infirmatatis ruina.: This disproves the opinion of Bingham and others, that Tertullian
does not here speak of professed or consecrated virgins of the Church. He
does, most explicitly; but some Protestant writers are fain to hide such
disgraceful facts. They have not forgotten Origen's " useful deceptions.'




228                      CHAPTER XtI..
with honors and gifts.  If one falls from  the grace of virginity,
she still appears with head uncovered, and makes no change in her
dress, lest she should betray her condition.  These apostates still
claim to be virgins, and will not confess, until they are betrayed
by the cries of their new-born children! Virgins of this sort
are easy of conception and parturition, and bear children very
like their fathers!  Such are the crimes that spring from a constrained virginity! Then the desire of being seen and of pleasing
the men does not become a virgin.  However good her intentions
may be, there is unavoidable danger in her exposing herself to the
gaze of many eyes; whilst, at the same time, her vanity is tickled
by the fingers that point at her,-whilst she is too much loved,
and is warmed by the constant embraces and kisses of the brethren
and sisters. "-Thus far Tertullian.  We remark that the warm
salutations just mentioned were customary in the Church, and
were not confined to the virgins, though naturally somewhat
warmer in their case.
The passage just quoted gives us some insight into the much
glorified institution of virginity in the Church about the year 200.
We shall obtain a farther knowledge of the subject from the
extracts that we shall now take out of the writings of Cyprian,
the good bishop of Carthage, who lived about 50 years after Tertullian. We shall first extract some passages from his book on
the dress of virgins.'" Virgins (says Cyprian,) are the flower of the ecclesiastical
tree,-the glory and ornament of spiritual grace,-a joyful race —
the perfect and incorrupt work of praise and honor,-the image
of God's holiness,-the most illustrious portion of Christ's flock.
The glorious fecundity of mother Church rejoices in them, and
flourishes through them; and the more copiously virginity adds
to her number, the more does mother's joy increase."
Again, near the end of the book, addressing the virgins, he
says:-" Since there are many mansions with the Father, one
must afford better entertainment than the rest.  You seek that
best one, and by castrating the desires of the flesh) you will obtain




SCATE'RED NOTICEM.                     ~9
in Heaven the reward of your superior grace,  All indeed who
come to the divine washing of baptism, by sanctification put off
there the old man by the grace of the salutary washing, and being
renewed by the Holy Ghost, are purged from the filth of the old
contagion, by the second birth; but a greater sanctity and truth
of the second birth belongs to you, who have now no desires of
the flesh and the body."
Such are some of the high-flown laudations, which Cyprian,
like the other Fathers of these times, pours out upon the virgins
of the Church.  It should be observed that neither he nor the
rest inform  us that the virgins were distinguished from  other
Christians by superior virtue in a single particular, unless it was
their virginity. This was the sole distinction by which they were
to be raised to the highest and best mansion in Heaven.
Whether these angelic beings excelled other Christians in other
respects, will appear from  what this admiring  Father himself
gives us to understand of their behavior. From many passages
of the same book, in which he so bepraises them, it is evident that
they still had all the passions and infirmities of their sex. He
told them that their hardest struggle was to tame the flesh; but
many of them  appear not to have girded themselves for the
contest.
Many of them were very fond of dress and personal ornaments.
They delighted especially in gay-colored clothes, against which he
argues that God did not make scarlet and purple sheep, nor dye
wool with the juice of herbs and shell-fish, nor did he set precious
stones in gold, nor string pearls together for necklaces. He says
that the fallen angels taught these arts; and taught women also
to paint their cheeks and to draw circles of dark-red coloring
round their eyes.  He justly admonishes both virgins and wives,
to abstain fiom  spoiling their natural beauty, by such artifices.
But he ought to have given a better reason,-" Dares any one (he
asks,) change that which God made?  They lay impious hands
upon God's work, who undertake to reform  and transfigure it;




283                       CHAPTER  Xtt.
not knowing that what is naturally produced is God's work, but
whatsoever is changed is of the Devil."
The very pen with which Cyprian wrote those words, might
have furnished his gay virgins with an apt retort. But he is
wittily severe upon these virgin belles of the Church. "Are you
not afraid (says he,) that when you rise from the dead, your
Maker will not know you!-and that he will shut you out of
Heaven with this strong rebuke?-You are none of my work; you
have not my image; you have stained your skin with falsifying
drugs; your hair is adulterated with dye; your face is disguised
with falsehood; your figure is tran.sformed; * your look is
strange; you cannot see God when your eyes are not such as God
made them, but are infected by the Devil.  You have followed
him; you have imitated the red-colored eyes of the old serpent;
and having been decked out by your enemy, you shall burn with
him."
After this severe rebuke, Cyprian warns these holy virgins from
attending marriage-feasts, at which he says there was commonly
a license inconsistent with a chaste and sober morality; and he
makes no exception in favor of Christian weddings. The customs
of which he speaks, seem to have been common to all classes of
people in the diocese of Carthage, and probably throughout the
Roman provinces.
" Some virgins (he says,) are not ashamed to be present when
people are married, and to mix in the wanton sports and conversations of the occasion; and are observed to be present at the
filthy speeches and drunken carousals, by which lust is inflamed,
and the passions of the married couple are excited."
St. Chrysostom gives a similar account of the marriage customs
of the Eastern provinces about the end of the fourth century,
He  says that marriages were  celebrated  with dances, immodest songs, hymns in  honor  of Venus, and  representa* From this it would seem, that like our modern ladies of fashion, they
endeavored to improve, by artificial stuffing and padding, the form which
God had given them.




SCATTERED NOTICES.                    231
tions of adulteries.  Prostitutes were invited to the entertainment; and after the feast, the guests, most of them intoxicated,
led about the town the bride splendidly arrayed and painted, and
sang scandalous ballads, offensive to Pagans as well as Christians.
We would fain believe, that even in Constantinople, such abominable practices occurred only among the more depraved classes
of the population.
To attend such marriage feasts was bad enough for consecrated
virgins; but some of them did even worse: they were so immodest as to frequent the mixed baths, where the two sexes went
naked into the water together.  He supposes a virgin to excuse
herself by saying that she went purely to bathe, not to see nor to
be seen. But he justly rejects all excuse for so indecent a custom.
We know that allowance should be made for the customs of different times and countries, and that practices deemed by us immodest, may not be so considered in a different state of society
and manners; yet nature itself must condemn a virgin who would
expose herself to the temptations of mixed bathing and of licentious songs and jests at a wedding feast.
Upon the whole, it appears that these consecrated brides of
Christ-as they were called, were many of them  in ill repute.
" The Church (says Cyprian) often complains of her virgins, and
groans at the infamous stories that are told of them. Thus the
flower of the virgins is withered; the honor of continency and
purity is destroyed; and all their glory and dignity are profaned."
But we have not yet mentioned the worst of all the infamous
things which resulted from this institution of virginity, combined
with the celibacy of the clergy, which had now become general.
In his sixty-second epistle, Cyprian mentions a practice, dishonorable alike to the petted virgins of the Church, and to some
of the clergy.  Pomponius, to whom  the epistle was addressed,
had consulted Cyprian about a case of this sort:-" You ask me
(says Cyprian) to write you my opinion of what should be done
with those virgins, who, after firmly resolving to live chastely in




2,32                    CHAVIPTER XtfL
their virgin state, were caught lying in bed with men, olie of whom
you say was a deacon; and who confessed that they had slept
with the men, but affirmed that they were yet pure virgins."
As a general rul, he advises that virgins should not be permitted to live in the same house with [unmarried] men;-much
less should they permitted to sleep with them. lie gives strong
reasons for his advice: we only wonder that he should think any
reasoning necessary to justify such advice.
The practice of unmarried men —some of them  clergymen —
and consecrated virgins living together, seems to have prevailed
to a considerable extent, even at this early period; but then the
parties professed that there was no harm in it, seeing that it was
all the while a chaste familiarity, a purely spiritual conjunction!
" Let such be separated (says Cyprian) whilst yet they innocently may.  We have seen many grievous falls spring from this
practice; and through these illicit and dangerous connections, we
have, to our sorrow, seen a great many virgins corrupted."From these words of Cyprian we can easily infer how common the
practice was. If so many virgins, to Cyprian's knowledge, gave
signs of having been corrupted-what numbers of them must have
practiced this sort of concubinage!
He advised also that the men who had offended in this case,
should be restored to the communion of the Church, upon due
repentance and separation from their virgin concubines. As to
these sweet virgins,-" the flower of the ecclesiastical tree" —he
advised that they should separate from  their chaste paramours,
and that they should be diligently inspected by the midwives. If
found to have the physical symptoms of virginity, they might be
admitted to the communion immediately, although he had just
before expressed the opinion that the inspection by midwives was
not a reliable test.  How indulgent this good Father was to " the
brides o  Christ."  Had other females, married or unmarried,
been guilty of such licentious behavior, we think that his sense of
what was due to the honor of Christ, would have made him
anathematize them to all intents and purposes.




SCATTERED NOTICES.                 233
We would fain say no more upon this nauseous subject.  But,
since we have undertaken to give a true history of those opinions
and practices in the Church which led to monachism or were
associated with it-and since we deem  it important that the
reader should have a just view  of the state of religion in the
Church, when monachism was in its prime, virginity and celibacy
in the highest estimation, and when saint-worship and relic-worship and other corruptions of Christianity were coming forthwe must bespeak the reader's attention to a further development of this never-enough-to-be-praised institution of virginity.
One might be inclined to believe that the disgraceful practices
of which we have spoken were confined to Carthage, where Tertullian and Cyprian lived, and to the third century in which they
lived. But this was far from being the case. Celibacy led to the
same evil practices throughout the Church, and throughout the
long ages of monkish austerity, priestly celibacy, and Popish
domination.  We shall confine our remaining quotations to works
which were written in the
Fourth Century.
It was in this century that monachism  was established and
many of the corruptions of Christianity were introduced.
We shall first quote a passage from St. Basil, bishop of Cesarea, in Asia Minor.  It is in his LVth Epistle, addressed to
Paregorius, a priest, who had kept a professed virgin in his house,
and attempted to justify himself to Basil.  The bishop answers
him in this Epistle. Among other things, he says: " We are not
the first who have decreed that [unmarried] women should not
live with men. Read the canon published by our Fathers in the
Council of Nice, which plainly enacts that there should be no
[avlstcaxT8;] women kept in a man's house, who are not his
near relations. The honor of celibacy consists in separation from
women.  Wherefore, if any one who professes it, does what married people do with their wives, it is evident that he follows vir



234                      CHAPTER XII.
ginity only in name, when in fact he abstains not from indecent
pleasures."
This priest being 70 years old, Basil acquitted him of sinful
intercourse with the woman; but, for the sake of example, required him, under the penalty of excommunication to put her
away into a monastery.
What we have chiefly to remark on this passage of Basil is,
that he informs us of a decree of the General Council of Nice,
early in the fourth century, forbidding what must then have been
a not unfrequent custom  of the unmarried clergy-namely, the
keeping of what were called privately-introduced women in their
houses.  But in vain did Councils forbid and Fathers censure a
practice, which naturally grew out of the celibacy of the clergy
and the professed virginity of young women.  The practice continued to prevail to a scandalous extent, as will appear from what
we shall now take from the writings of the most learned of the
Latin Fathers, and, if we except Origen, of all the Fathers,
whether Greek or Latin.  This was Hieronymus, or Jerome, as
he is commonly called.  He was educated at Rome, resided a
while in Gaul-travelled extensively in the East, resided again in
Italy, and finally settled in Palestine, where he wrote the most of
his voluminous works.  He was, therefore, well acquainted with
the state of the Church in both the East and the West.  He
flourished about the year four hundred, that is, one hundred and
fifty years after the time of Cyprian.
Monachism was now in the full tide of successful experiment,
and St. Jerome was a fiery advocate of the system, and an unsparing assailant of all who dared to oppose it, as some yet dared
to do. Virginity was an object of his enthusiastic and neverceasing admiration. Most of the one hundred and fifty epistles,
found in his extant works, have monachism  and virginity for
their subjects.  Many were addressed to professed virgins and
widows professedly opposed to marrying a second time.  Much
of his anxiety was to keep these holy pets of the Church in order.
The frequent exhortations, advices, cautions and rebukes, which




SCATTERED NOTICES.                    235
he administered to them, prove that in his time, as well as in
preceding ages, these terrestrial angels were difficult to manage,
or at least found it difficult to manage themselves, and often acted
like creatures of mere flesh and blood. Indeed, from his invectives against many of them, it appears that they were worse than
even St. Cyprian's virgins.
In his long epistle to Eustochium, a favorite virgin, he exhorts
her constant vigilance, fasting and avoidance of the sight of men,
in order to subdue the natural desires of the constitution; and to
show how difficult this was, he tells her of his own experience in
warring against nature.  Like other monks of his time, he had
fled to the deserts, that he might get away from  all tempting
objects.
" Oh how often (says he,) when I was in that vast desert,
scorched by the sunbeams, which affords a horrible dwelling-place
to the monks, did I imagine myself to be amidst all the delightful
scenes and luxuries of Rome! When I awoke from  this daydream, I would find myself sitting alone in the desert, and my
soul was filled with bitterness.  My lirmbs were covered with
rough sackcloth; my shrivelled skin was black like an Ethiopian's.  Day by day, my tears flowed and my groans broke
forth; and when, in spite of my efforts to keep awake, an oppressive sleep overpowered my senses, my naked bones, that scarcely
hung together, fell clattering upon the ground.  I say nothing of
my food or drink; even when sick, monks drink nothing but cold
water, and anything cooked is to them an unusual luxury. Yet,
even I, who, from fear of hell, had condemned myself to such a
prison, and whose only companions were scorpions and wild beasts,
yes, even then, I often thought myself surrounded by choirs of beautiful girls, charming me with heir songs and dances.  Whilst my
face was pale from fastings, and my emaciated body was as cold
as a corpse, my soul yet burnt with desires and boiled with the
flames of lust.  Therefore, when all other help failed me, I
threw myself at the feet of Jesus, I washed them with my tears, I
wiped them with the hairs of my head; and I subjugated my re



236                      CHAPTER XII.
bellious flesh by fasting week after week.  Day and night I cried
aloud, nor ceased to beat my breast, until the Lord rebuked me,
and I became calm again."
"Then I grew afraid of my little cell, as if it were a witness
of my thoughts.  Angry at myself, and resolute, I started forth,
and all alone penetrated the deepest recesses of the desert.
Wherever I met with the hollow of a valley, the ruggedness of a
mountain, or a precipice of rocks, there was my place of prayer;
there was the penitentiary of my miserable flesh; and as the
Lord is my witness, after many tears, and after long and steadfast looking up to heaven, I seemed to myself at times to be
among bands of angels, and then I would joyfully sing-we will
run after theefor the odor of thy ointments."
Such in substance is Jerome's account of his hermit life. It is
a picture of fanatical austerity, such as we often read of in the
lives of The Fathers of the Desert.
Having thus warned Eustochium  of the extreme difficulty of
suppressing our natural desires-he afterwards supposes her to
object, that, as she was of a noble family, and had been brought
up in the delights of luxury, she could not live by such severe
rules of abstinence. He answers, " Well then, live according to
your own law, if you cannot submit to God's.  Think not, however, that God, the Creator and Lord of the Universe, takes any
pleasure in the rumbling of our intestines, the emptiness of our
stomachs, and the scorching of our lungs with the hot air of the
desert:-but observe, chastity can in no other way be safe."Again he admonishes her that " even at home, not aface can be
looked at with safety.'
Then he warns her by the example of other virgins.  " I am
ashamed (says he) to mention how many virgins are ruined every
day; how many children of her bosom  mother Church loses;
upon what lofty stars [virgins] the proud enemy sets his throne;
in how many rocks the serpent makes holes for his dwelling place.
You may see most widows, before they marry again, hiding their
evil conscience only with a deceiving robe, until their manifest




SCATTERED NOTICES.                    237
pregnancy and the cries of their infants expose them: but until
then they walk with outstretched neck and mincing steps. Others
produce barrenness or destroy the foetus with drugs." Then, after
speaking of the full feeding and drinking of others, he says;" These are the sort who walk forth in the most public manner,
and by sly winks draw after them  crowds of young men.  They
dress only in thin purple robes, tie their hair loose that it may
fall over their shoulders, over which a mantle is loosely thrown.
They wear short sleeves and thin slippers, and go tottering as
they walk.  And this is all their virginity!  Let them  have
flatterers of their own sort that they may perish more profitably.
As to ourselves, we are willing to displease them."
"I blush to say it; but alas! it is true.  Oh! whence came that
pest into the Church-of clergymen keeping mistresses?-unmarried
women, not called wives?  Nay, whence this new sort of concubines?  I will go further;-Whence these one-man whores?
They occupy the same house, the same chamber, often the same
bed; yet they complain that we are suspicious.  The brother
forsakes his virgin sister for another; the virgin spurns her unmarried kinsman, and seeks a brother of a different family;
though the brother and sister both pretend to have the same purpost
of living in unmarried purity; yet they seek spiritual comfort
in a connection with others, that they may have carnal intercourse
at home."
The professed purpose of these people to live in unmarried
purity, proves that they were not merely single persons; they had
made profession of perpetual virginity, or of celibacy at least, from
religious motives.
Sulpicius Severus in his first Dialogue, of which the reader will
find a translation in a subsequent part of this work, quotes a part
of the foregoing passage.  Speaking of St. Jerome, he says;
" But how truly and forcibly has he argued concerning the familiarities of the monks and even of the clergy, with the virgins!"
For this reason he is said not to be liked by certain persons whom
I shall not name.  These men are said to be enraged when they




238                      CHAPTER XII.
read the following words in that little work:-" The virgin
despises an unmarried man who is a real brother; she seeks a
connection with one who is not of her own family." From this
passage of Severus it is evident that the same infamous practice
of which Jerome spoke was not uncommon in Gaul, where Severus
lived and wrote.
St. Chrysostom, cotemporary with Jerome, wrote two treatises
against this practice-but we shall make no more extracts in
relation to it. We have given facts and authorities enough to
prove beyond controversy, that the celibacy of the clergy and the
monks, and the institution of religious virginity among females,
led to the most shameful practices, and that, instead of promoting
holiness, it occasioned the most scandalous violations of the Divine
law  and of common decency.  If, in these latter days, there is
less appearance of the same scandalous practices resulting from
the same causes, it may still be a question, whether this is a sign
of purer morals, or of more cautious and ingenious methods of concealment.
Before we leave this famous order of ecclesiastical virgins, we
must present the reader with another trait in their character, as
drawn by St. Augustine.  This celebrated Father, in his commentary on Psalm  xcix. says;-" You find consecrated virgins
(sanctimoniales) who are disorderly. Many of them do not stay at
home, but go from  house to house, tattling, talking proudly, ana
getting drunk.  If they be virgins, what avails the chastity of
their flesh, when their minds are corrupt?  Humble marriage
would be better than such self-conceited virginity. If they were
married, they would not have the name of virgins to swell the
pride of their hearts, and they would have a bridle to restrain their
waywardness. "




CHAPTER  XIII.
OF EGYPT AND SOME ADJACENT COUNTRIES, IN WHICH  CHRISTIAN MONACHISM FIRST PREVAILED.
CLIMATE and other physical circumstances have great influence
on the feelings, habits, and institutions, of mankind. Egypt, in
which Christian monachism arose, is a country of such uncommon
characteristics, and was anciently so remarkable for the superstition of its inhabitants, that we are led to inquire, whether its geographical character could account, in any measure, for the early
rise and rapid increase of monkery within its boundaries.  We
shall, for the general illustration of our subject, and for the particular illustration of this point of enquiry, give a descriptive
sketch of Egypt and some other countries in which nionachism
prevailed in early times.
1. The most extensive deserts of the earth are found on the
Eastern  Continent, stretching in an unbroken, but somewhat
irregular zone, from  the Western  coast of Africa eastwards
through Egypt, Arabia and Persia, to the valley of the River
Indus,-a space of not less than 5,000 miles in length. These
immense tracts of dry barrens lie between the 18th and 34th
parallels of latitude, but do not occupy the whole of this broad
interval; for wheresoever a system  of high mountains attracts
copious rains, or fresh-water streams irrigate the lands, there the
labors of agriculture are rewarded by good harvests. Rains, more
or less, fall likewise on some favorably-situated plains, and pro



240                       CHAPTER XIII.
duce some pasturage on which flocks and herds can be kept. But
over a vast extent of these deserts, particularly in Africa, no rain
ever falls, or if any, yet too little to cause any sort of vegetation
to relieve the utter desolation of the scene.
2. Three great rivers flow  across these deserts from  interior
mountains to the sea;-the Indus, at the eastern extremity; the
Euphrates, of which the Persian gulf is a continuation; and the
Nile of Egypt, the most remarkable of them all.
The waters of the Nile, descend from the high mountains of
Abyssinia, where its thousand branches are fed by copious rains,
from November till April.  The streams unite in the low country of Sennaar, and form the great river, which then pours its
swelling flood through the desert a thousand miles wide, receiving
not a single tributary between its parent mountains and the sea.
The upper part of its course is through a deep, narrow valley;
but when it has passed over the rocks of Syene, the valley of
Egypt begins to expand, and widens gradually to the breadth of
ten or twelve miles, until it approaches the sea.  Here the river
divides, the mountains diverge to the right and left, and the low
lands sink, till land, sea and river, are nearly on the same level.
In June, the swelling waters of Abyssinia reach the valley of
Egypt, and continue to rise until all the low grounds of the valley are inundated with muddy water.  The valley is then a sea
bounded by mountains, and diversified by islets crowned with
villages, and by promontories of barren sand! where the waters
subside, they leave a deposit of slime on which the husbandman
drops his seed. Then, in a few weeks, instead of an expanse of
muddy water, the valley of Egypt becomes a smiling scene of
exuberant vegetation, which ripens into abundant harvests. But
whilst the watered valley presents such diversity and even contrast at different seasons, the deserts that touch this fertility on
both sides, present at all seasons and through all ages, one changeless scene of sterility and desolation.
3. Thle Egyptian Deserts cover the whole space of the country
not reached by the fertilizing waters of-the river.  The transition




OF EGYPT.                         241
is immediate from  exuberant fertility to everlasting and irreclaimable barrenness.
Between the Nile and the Red Sea is a desert about a hundred
miles wide, in part mountainous towards upper Egypt, and relieved
in a few spots by fountains of fiesh water, issuing from the bases
of the mountains, and fertilizing a small space of low ground
before they are absorbed by the sands, or evaporated in the dry,
hot atmosphere of the desert.  Wherever such watered spots
occur, the date-palm  grows, and, with its sweet, nutritious nut,
supplies the nomadic tribes with luxurious food.
The Great Western Desert, between the Nile and the Atlantic
Ocean, is the most dreary region of the earth, though dotted at
wide intervals with Oases, where a low basin or vale is fertilized
by springs of water.
Most of the fountains that occur in the deserts are warm and
bitter, poisoning all that they touch, and making the sands through
which they trickle incurably sterile.
4. Through all these dreary regions, the mountains are masses
of barren sun-burnt rocks, the valleys and ravines are composed of
drifted sands at the bottom, and naked rocks at the sides.  The
plains are covered with gravel and loose sands, which the breezes
roll along in ripples, the whirlwinds gather and lift up in tall
sandspouts, and the tempests hurl aloft in clouds that darken the
atmosphere, and sometimes bury whole caravans, where they fall
in cataracts upon the ground.
5. The Poisonous Wind, called Simoon or Samiel, is often distinguished by its purplish tinge.  It comes sometimes silently
stealing over the hot desert, blasting vegetation, parching the
human skin, and curdling the blood, if inhaled into the lungs.
At other times it drives along in a gale from the hottest-regions
of the desert, and though it is then less charged with the reddish
blue poison of the silent wind, it is yet so hot and so loaded with
pestiferous exhalations, that man, beast, and vegetable, languish
and sicken under its scorching blast.
6. The Heat of the Deserts is far beyond anything known in
11




242                      CHAPTER XIII.
countries blessed with refreshing rains, shady woods, and green
fields. Here are no clouds to intercept the sun's rays; here is
no moisture to absorb and carry off the heat. A surface composed
of naked sands and rocks for thousands of miles, receives day by
day perpetually the full force of southern sunshine, till the sands
are scorching hot, and the rocks almost glow with accumulated
heat.  During the night, as cloudless as the day, the sands and
rocks continue to radiate their gathered heat into free space.
This is a partial relief. The breezes on the highlands, sometimes
also, feel refreshing to those who have been half-suffocated by the
sultry atmosphere of the valleys.
The constant glare of the sunshine by day, and the fine sand
which the wind drives through the atmosphere, are hurtful to the
eyes and often cause blindness.  Excessive heat and drought
relax the human system, and weaken the digestive power of the
stomach.   Strong food and stimulating drinks are injurious;
abstinence from  animal food and alcoholic liquors is easy and
natural, and moderate fasting is dictated by nature, and salutary.
8. In such circumstances there is a constant tendency to indolent
relaxation, melancholy fancies, and solitary contemplation.  The
scenery of the desert is well adapted to aggravate this tendency,
and to nourish those principles of the oriental philosophy, which
produce a monkish hatred of the body and enthusiastic dreams of
heaven.
The desert is the image of death.  Over its dreary wastes
scarcely a sign of life appears. All is solitude and silence and
death, while the winds are still; but when the stormy winds are
roused, they are messengers of wrath, their breath is poisonous,
and the clouds which they drive are hot sands. The blessed sunshine that cheers the inhabitants of temperate climates, here
quickens nothing into life so much as serpents and scorpions; it
makes no fields green, no meadows bloom, no forest shady with
verdure, no birds sing among the branches;-it is a fire that
burns, a glare that blinds, a light that reveals the horrors of
eternal desolation.




OF EGYPT.                         243
9. But here, where the earth is stripped of every attraction and
converted into an emblem of hell, the nocturnal heavens are ever
bright and glorious.  By day the wretched traveller or dweller
in the desert pants with thirst, and would fain seek in some cavern
a refuge from  the scorching sunshine, the sand-storm, and the
dismal aspect of the scene around him. By night he can emerge
from his hiding place, when the sad earth is shrouded in gloom,
and behold the unclouded heavens, where all is peace and purity;
where the moon and stars exhibit a soft and dewy radiance, and
give the imagination a boundless range among worlds of glory and
beauty.
The soul is thus led from earth to heaven, from the visible to
the invisible;-and taking as a basis whatever religious ideas it
may have imbibed, it constructs a fabric of the imagination, and
converting its conceptions into realities, it peoples the deserts
with malignant demons, whose moan is heard in the night wind,
and whose changeful and horrid shapes are seen in the undefined
shadows of the desert.  Haunted by its own creations, the soul
fights against its spiritual enemies, by prayer and fasting; and by
the exercise of faith, sees visions of heavenly messengers, and
scenes of celestial bliss.  Animated by these, it labors to free itsself from its fleshy prison, and from  this dreary world of sin and
death; and endeavors by the exclusion of all earthly thoughts,
the suppression of all earthly sympathies and desires, and by perpetual dreamy contemplations of the spiritual world,to fit itself for
an immediate entrance into the celestial paradise, whose outskirts
are seen in the nocturnal heavens above the desert.
10. Now it is not difficult to conceive how such a country as
Egypt, may predispose the soul to a solitary contemplative life,
and how the desert into which the imaginative enthusiast retires,
may breed in his soul all the feelings and fancies, that so remarkably distinguished the Egyptian hermits.
Nor is it wonderful, that in such times and circumstances, wellmeaning, pious souls, should be carried away by one-sided views
of religion; and neglecting the earthly relations and duties of




244                     CHAPTER XIII.
man, should run the principle of devotion to God into error, by
running it into excess. In a region where the earth is divested of
its charms, and human life of its principal enjoyments, the soul
naturally seeks a refuge in heaven from the dreariness of its mortal state.  Society can afford little pleasure where desolation
reigns, and all the powers of life are enfeebled by heat and drought.
Hence the duties of society are often shunned as burdensome.
Celibacy is preferred to marriage, and solitude to society, by those
whose religious feelings incline them  to take gloomy views of
human life.  Such views the climate and aspects of Egypt are
well adapted to produce.
11. But it is only when certain principles of religious philosophy predominate, that monkery arises in a country like Egypt.
The Bedouins of the desert do not resort to celibacy and solitude
for relief, though they are great admirers of monkish saints, and
always have been.   They are lean, shriveled, red-eyed, black,
diminutive creatures.  Perpetual want makes them fierce and
predatory.  Necessity drives them from place to place for subsistence.  They are prone to religious enthusiasm.  Of this Mahomet took advantage-he fired their imaginhtions with the promise
of a paradise filled with all the sensual delights which their passions craved, but their circumstances denied them.  For these
they fought bravely, because a speedy death would introduce them
the sooner to paradise.  Had Mahomet persuaded them  that a
life of monastic seclusion and mortification was a passport to
paradise, the Bedouins would have been enthusiastically devoted
monks.
12. From Egypt, monachism spread into Palestine.  St. Hilarion, founder of the Palestine monasteries, selected as his place of
exercise the desert of Gaza, which is but a continuation of the
Egyptian deserts. His disciples spread Eastward along the border of the desert that bounds the fertile land of Palestine on the
South and East. This desert extends northwardly along the Eastern border of Syria. The multiplying monks followed this border,
being deterred from  penetrating'deeply into the Arabian and




OF EGYPT.                        245.
Mesopotamian deserts, by the fear of the Saracens, who claimed
possession of every spot on those barren wilds, where water and
vegetation afforded subsistence for man. But the monks of Palestine and Syria, and afterwards those farther north, found more
eligible solitudes on the mountain tops, where they were protected
from disturbance, because the surrounding valleys were occupied
chiefly by a Christian population.  By the end of the fourth
century, scarcely a high mountain in the eastern parts of the
Roman Empire between Armenia and Arabia, was without a
colony of monks.
12. To illustrate the lives of St. Antony and other Egyptian
monks, we shall notice the chief divisions of Egypt and the chief
localities of the monasteries.
Egypt has been usually distinguished into Lower, Middle, and
Upper Egypt.
Lower Egypt embraces the broad triangle anciently called the
Delta, in which the river divides and the low grounds spread out
to a breadth of more than a hundred miles along the seacoast.
At the north-western angle of this Delta are the seaport and once
great city of Alexandria, now reduced to one-tenth of its former
population. It stands on a sandy peninsula between the sea and
a salt lake, anciently called Mareotis.  Near the southern shore of
this lake, and on the border of the desert, many monks of the
fourth and fifth centuries established themselves.  At no great
distance farther south, were the Mountain of Nitria and the
marshy grounds of Scetis, which were famous seats of monasteries.
Middle Egypt comprehends the broader part of the Valley of the
Nile above the Delta.  The average width of this part of the
valley is some eight or ten miles; but a singular recess of the
mountains on the western side, opens a large space of fertile low
country, in which Lake Moeris is situated. The lake is connected
with the Nile by the great canal of Arsinoe. On the southern
side of this lake the Jewish Therapeutes had their monasteries.
Christian monks also settled there in the fourth century.
Upper Egypt was usually called Thebaid, from the once great




246                      CHAPTER XIII.
city of Thebes, whose ruins are yet an object of wonder to travellers. The valley in these upper parts is narrow, the average
width not exceeding four miles, or thereabouts; and the bordering
mountains are higher and more abrupt than they are below.  In
Thebaid St. Pachomius founded his order of monks, in the
district of Tabenna. The mountains of Upper Egypt as well as
of the lower parts of the country, were filled with monks.  It was
in Middle Egypt, or the Lower Thebaid that St. Antony founded
his monasteries, in the mountains bordering the valley.
13. The excessive superstition of the ancient Egyptians is well
known. But they bore a bad character in other respects. Aelian
says that they would endure the severest tortures without flinching,
and that they would rather be racked to death than confess the
truth.*
Ammianus Marcellinus says, that the Egyptians were swarthy,
lean, and dry in their persons; fiery in all their motions; quarrelsome and bitter in their disputes.  A man among them would be
ashamed of himself, if he could not show on his back the marks of
the whippings that he had gotten for refusing to pay his taxes.
No torture could wring from a thief a confession of his name or
crime.t
These were the sort of people to make great monks.  What
would be almost unendurably hard for others to bear, would come
easy to them.
* Var Hist. vii. 18.         t Amm. Marcell. xxii. 16.




CHAPTER XIV.
THE LIFE OF ST. ANTONY THE MONK.
Translated with some abridgment fromw the Greek of St. Athanasius.
PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR.
ST. ANTONY was born in Egypt in the year 251, and died in
the year 356, aged 105 years.  St Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, who wrote this life of Antony, was born about the year 296
and died in the year 373, after having been bishop of Alexandria
for the space of 46 years, though he spent a part of the time in
exile.  Being an Egyptian by birth, having lived so many years
cotemporarily with Antony, and been personally acquainted with
him and with some of his most intimate disciples, he had good
opportunities of learning the facts which he relates of the great
founder of monasteries, and of investigating the truth of the wonderful things that he relates of him. Now, as no sober-minded
man, in these days, can believe the stories of demons and of
miracles which this sainted bishop relates of the sainted founder
of monasteries, we must suppose that either St. Antony, or his
disciples, or his sainted biographer, fancied or feigned these incredible things to have really happened.  It is hard to accuse
such glorified saints of wilful imposture, and quite as hard, if not
harder, to account for such fables in such a case, without the
supposition of both wilful imposture and superstitious credulity.
St. Athanasius wrote in a rather prolix, though simple style,
and some parts of his narrative are of no importance. We have
therefore somewhat abbreviated his work in the translation. We
have also added some notes by way of explanation or comment.




248                     CHAPTER XIV.
LIFE OE ST. ANTONY.
1. The Preface addressed to the foreign Monks.
You gloriously seek to emulate the monks of Egypt in all their
virtues: for among you also the institutions and usages of monachism  now exist.  You have requested that I should write the
life of St. Antony, because he first instituted monasteries.  You
wish to know whether the reports concerning him are true; and
you are desirous of imitating his holy zeal. With pleasure do I
comply with your request; for it will do me good to remember
St. Antony, and your admiration will cause you to emulate his
holy example.
You need not scruple to believe what you have heard concerning him.  You have probably heard but a small part of what he
did; and what I shall write will yet leave a great part of his
history untold; nor will the narration equal the dignity of the
subject. To ascertain the facts, I have consulted those monks
who were longest and most intimately acquainted with him. I
have duly investigated the truth of what I relate, and have carefully recorded what I know of myself (for I saw him often), and
what I have been told by those who were with him, and especially by one who acted for a considerable time as his servant, and
poured water on his hands when he washed.
2. The youth of St. Antony until he became a Monk.
Antony was born in Egypt, of noble parents, from whom, as
they were Christians, he received a Christian education.  He was
brought up in the house of his parents, and had no intercourse
with other persons. When he approached the age of manhood,
he was unwilling to go to school, because he disliked the company
of other youth.  His whole desire was to live like Jacob (Gen




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                   249
Xxv. 27.)-a simple life at home.  But nevertheless, when he
went to church with his parents, he was not a negligent hearer or
worshipper, even in his boyhood.  He was an obedient son and
attentive to the lessons read in church, and applied them to his
own practical use. He did not, as the sons of rich parents are apt
to do, complain if he was not furnished with luxurious fare: he took
no pleasure in such things, but was content with whatever was
given him.
By the death of his parents, when he was eighteen or twenty
years old, he was left in charge of the house and of a very young
sister.  Within six months afterwards, when he went to church
one day as usual, and before the service began, he fell into a
meditation on the apostles and primitive Christians,-how  the
former had left all to follow their Saviour, and. the latter had sdld
their possessions for the benefit of the poor.  Full of these
thoughts he entered the church, while the lesson from the gospel
was being read, and heard how the Lord said to the rich young
man,.If thou wouldst be perfect, go, sell that thou hast and give to
the poor, and come follow  me, and thou shalt have treasure zn
heaven.  Antony felt this to be a divine admonition to himself
Therefore, when he went home, he divided his inheritance, consisting of 300 acres of fertile land, among the people of the
village; and having sold his moveables, he gave the proceeds to
the poor, reserving only a small portion for his young sister.
When he went to church again, he heard the Lord saying,
Take no thought for the morrow.  Without delay he went and
gave this reserved portion to the poor, and committed his sister to
the care of some virgins of his acquaintance that she might be
nourished in the Virgin-house.* He then left the dwellings of
* The Greek word is Parthenon, Virgin-house. Tillemont supposed it
was a nunnery, and the earliest mentioned in the Church; but Fleury
and Helyot with more reason took it to have been merely a virgin-house,
that is, a dwelling, or part of a dwelling, in which two or three holy virgins lived together privately with their relations, according to the custom
then prevalent in the Church. We venture to suggest that this one was
11*




250                     CHAPTER XIV.
men, and devoted himself to an ascetic life of prayer and bodily
mortification.
3. He begins an ascetic course of Life.
As yet no monasteries existed in Egypt or elsewhere; nor had
any monk penetrated the pathless deserts; but each one who had
a mind to devote himself to ascetism, retired to some solitary
place near his own village.
Near Antony's village was an old man, who bad, from his youth
led a solitary life. When Antony found him and saw his manner
of life, he began to imitate him beautifully. He presently took
up his abode more remote from  the villages; and whenever he
heard of an ascetic distinguished for virtue, he sought him out as
a bee seeks the flowers; and never left him  until, like a bee, he
had gathered something good to carry home.  He never returned
to his father's dwelling, nor took any interest in the affairs of the
neighborhood, but devoted himself exclusively to his spiritual
exercises. But he worked with his hands, after he had learned
that if any one will not work, neither should he eat.  He lived on
a part of what he made, and gave the rest to the poor.  He
prayed continually, after he heard pray without ceasing. He gave
attention to reading, that he might not loose anything of what was
written; and he retained everything so well, that his mind afterwards served him instead of books.
Living after this manner, Antony was beloved by all. He subjected himself sincerely to the instructions of every good man
whom he approached, and learned of each that virtue in which
each excelled.  He contemplated in one his gracious manners, in
another his earnestness in prayer, in another his meekness or humanity, or love of reading; he admired this man's watchfulness,
that man's fasting and lying on the ground; and another's selfdenial.  In short, he marked how pious all were towards Christ,
how affectionate towards one another. Filled with these observaa sort of boarding-school for girls, since Antony's sister was too young to
enter as a nun or professed virgin.




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                   251
tions, he returned to his own place of exercise, and labored to reduce to practice all that he had learned, He had with his fellows
no contest but this,-not to appear inferior to them  in their
several virtues; and this he did, not to grieve but to gladden.
their hearts. Therefore, all who lived in this vicinity, and whose
company he kept, called him the beloved of God, and the elder
saluted him as a son, the younger as a brother.*
4. Antonyms first contest with the' Devil.
But that hater of good, the envious Devil, could not bear the
holy purpose of the young man, and set himself against all his
pious endeavors.  He first attempted to draw him  away from his
ascetic life, calling to his remembrance his former possessions, the
care of his sister,t the nobility of his family,'the love of money,
the desire of glory, the pleasures of wealth and of ease; and on
the other hand, the hardness of virtue, the laboriousness of his
life, the infirmities of his body, and the long struggle before him.
In a word, he confounded his understanding with subtle reasonings, that he might draw him  from  the right way.  When he
failed thus to shake Antony's purpose, and was baffled by his
constancy, his faith and his unceasing prayers, he resorted to the
weapons near the navel of a young man's belly-the most dangerous of all.  He troubled him by night and vexed him  by day,
with unclean thoughts, which Antony drove away by prayer. He
tickled his flesh, till the young man blushed, and had to fortify
his mind by prayer and fasting.  He assumed the shape, and
imitated the actions of a woman, by night, that he might deceive
Antony.  But the young man thought of Christ and of his high
* From this chapter it is evident that many ascetics had retired into
solitary places, before Antony began his course, but this is the earliest
mention of the solitary mode of life in the deserts.
t This is one among many instances in the lives of monks, in which
the struggling of. natural reason and conscience against superstition, is
considered as a temptation of the Devil. c, The care of his sister," was so
obviously a natural duty, that he could not abandon her without some
uneasy feeling.




252                     CHAPTER XIV.
calling, and of the superiority of intellect over sense; and thus he
quenched the live coal of this temptation.
When the enemy again suggested the delights of sensual indul-,gence, Antony became angry, and called to mind the threat
of hell-fire, and of the worm that never dies; and so he escaped
unhurt.
Thus was the Devil disgraced in all these contests. He thought
himself a god, yet he was fooled by a youth.
The Dragon, when he found that he could not prevail by
assaulting him with internal reasonings and imagined pleasures,
gnashed his teeth with rage, and henceforth used the human voice,
and thus addressed Antony.  I have deceived and conquered
many in my time; but now in your case, as in that of many others,
I am defied by your ascetic labors.
And who are you, (said Antony, surprised at this address) who
talk to me of such matters?
I am (said the Devil in a loud complaining tone of voice) the
one who tickles the flesh of young men:-I am called the Spirit
of Fornication.  Ah! many a one who desired to live chastely
have I seduced: many have I hypocritically misled by tickling
their flesh. I am he of whom the prophet speaks' in these words
- The Spirit of Fornication deceived them. (Hos. iv. 12.)  Often
have I disturbed you, and as often been driven away by you.
Then Antony gave thanks to the Lord, and taking courage, he
said to the Devil:-Then you are a contemptible black-heartedfellow, and as weak as a boy. For the future I shall despise you,
The Lord is my helper.
The black fellow was frightened at these words, and fled; being
now afraid to come near Antony. So ended Antony's first battle
with the Devil,
5. HOW Antony preparedC for a second encownter.
Because he had routed the demon once, he did not therefore
become remiss; nor did the Devil cease to watch Antony.  He
walked round him like a roaring lion, watching' for an opportunity




ST. ANTONY THE MONKT                     253
to assail him.  Aotony, on his part, knowing from the Scriptures
that the Devil had many ways of tempting men, applied himself
vigorously to his exercises, that he might be prepared at all points
for his adversary. He subjected his body to a severer discipline;
lest, having conquered in one way, he might be defeated in
some other.  He determined, therefore, to accustom himself to
harder exercises. Many were astonished at the ease with which
he bore them.  But by long practice.he had acquired a confirmed
habit of bodily mortification. He would watch whole nights, at
which people wondered.  Often he ate but once a day, and then,
after sunset; but sometimes he would eat but once in two days,
or even four days.  His usual food was bread and salt; his drink,
water only.  As to flesh and wine, we need not mention them,
for they were not found among any of the ascetics., For sleeping,
he was content with a mat at most —generally with the bare
ground.  He would not anoint himself with oil, saying, that young
persons better adorned the ascetic life by cheerfully submitting
to hardships, than by laboring for things that made the body
effeminate.  The mind, he said, was strengthened by weakening
the pleasures of the body.
6. How the Devil gave Antony a beating,
Such being the manner of his life, he retired farther from the
village and dwelt among the sepulchres. A servant was at long
intervals to fetch him a supply of bread. Having entered one of
the sepulchres, he shut the door upon himself and there abode.
When his enemy, the Devil, saw this, he feared that the whole
desert would soon be filled with ascetics. Therefore he came upon
him one night with a whole troop of demons, and beat him so unmercifully, that he lay on the ground like a dead man.  On the
next day his servant came with bread for him, and found him
there, apparently dead. He carried him into the village temple,
and laid him upon the floor.  Many of his relations and other
people came and sat by his body, supposing it to be a corpse.
In the night he revived; and perceiving that all the company




254                     CHAPTER XIV.
were asleep, except his servant, he beckoned to him, and commanded him not to waken the rest, but to carry him back to the
sepulchre. This being done, he shut himself up as before, and
remained in the vault.
7. What a hmubbub the Devil raised against Antony in the Sepulchre.
As he could not stand by reason of the wounds which the demons had inflicted upon him, Antony prayed as he lay on the
ground. When he had finished his prayers, he said in a loud
voice,-Here, Devils, here am I, Antony, ready for more of your
wounds. Try your worst, for you shall never separate me from
Christ.  He also sang the Psalm, Though a host should encamp
against me, yet my heart shall not fear.
This was the true spirit of an ascetic, and those were his words.
But that black Devil, hater of good, wondering that Antony
dared to return after the beating that he had given him, called to
his hell-hounds, and bursting with indignation, said to themn
Don't you see now?  This fellow could not be restrained, either
by the spirit of fornication, or by bangs and bruises. Nay, he
comes against us only the more audaciously.  We must assail
him in another way. So spake the Devil.
It was no hard matter for him to devise other and still other
schemes of malice. So that night they raised such a hubbub, that
the whole place was shaken; the four walls of the sepulchre were
broken, and the demons rushed in through the breaches, in all
manner of fearful shapes. The whole room and the space around
were filled with spectral lions, bears, leopards, bulls, serpents,
asps, scorpions, wolves. Every one acted according to his character.  The lion roared and sprang; the bull, bellowing, rushed
with presented horns; the serpent crawled; the wolf howled and
growled. In short all seemed to be in a threatening rage.
Antony, though he suffered yet greviously from the whips and
clubs of the demons, now watched them with a calm mind, though
he had to groan from the pains of his body. Feeling excited by




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                    255
this scene, he said in a mocking way: If you could do any harm,
you would be satisfied to come one at a time; but being weakened
by the Lord, you try to frighten me after a fashion by your numbers. It is also an evident token of your impotence that you
put on the shapes of brute animals. Then after a pause, he said
confidently: Come on now; do your worst! What is the use of
all this vain uproar?  If ye have power to hurt, why don't you?
But you can't; for the Lord is my shield, and my wall of safety.
Then the demons attempted many things. They gnashed their
teeth at him, being enraged to find how they deluded themselves,
and only made sport for him.  Now the Lord who watched over
the contest, came to Antony's assistance.  The saint raised his
eyes, and saw through the open roof a ray of light descending
upon him.  Then the demons vanished, the pains of his body
were mitigated, and the building became whole and sound.
When Antony perceived these tokens of God's help, he asked,
Where wast thou? why didst thou not appear for my relief
at first?  Then a voice came to him, saying: I was here,
Antony; but I wanted to witness your combat.  Now you have
finished it, without having flinched. Henceforth I will be your
helper, and will make your name celebrated far and wide.* —
When he heard this, he rose and prayed, and was soon sensible
that he had gained strength by this contest.
8. Antony's hermit-life in a ruined castle.
He was now in the 35th year of his age.  The day after the
hubbub, he went to the old man before-mentioned (in Chap. IIl),
and proposed they should go out into the desert and live together
as hermits. The old man, either because he was too old, or because the scheme was a new one, refused.  He determined then
* The love of fame, says Young, is the universal passion. Even the solitary ascetic felt it in his most secret feats of starvation, prayer, and demon-fighting. He was conscious of the fact, all the while, that his spiritual heroism would give him renown, and draw around him  admiring
crowds of spectators.




to go alone,- and set off straightway for the mountain."  There
again, the enemy, seeing his ardent zeal, endeavored to draw him
back from his course. He threw the appearance of a large silver
disk or coin in the way before him. Antony, when he saw this
trickery of the unclean spirit, stopped, looked at it, and discerning the Devil in the disk, he said to it contemptuously:-Ho,
you disk, how came you here in the desert, where there is no
beaten way, nor a trace of any traveller having passed?  If any
had dropped you, you must have been missed; or if you had been
lost, you could easily have been found again in this naked solitude.  So this must be a trick.  But, Mr. Devil, you shall not
hinder my purpose by this contrivance.  You and your money
go to perdition together.  Thus spoke Antony; and the words
were no sooner out of his mouth, than away went the silver disk
in fumes, like smoke from a fire.
Passing on, he saw-not a phantom-but real substantial gold,
cast in the way before him.  Whether this was done by the same
enemy, or by some heavenly being, who would exercise the saint's
piety, and show the devil that Antony cared not a straw even
for genuine money —neither did Antony tell us, nor can we
determine anything about it, except that the gold was real gold.
Antony wondered at the great quantity of it; he would not
touch it, however, but leaped over it as if it were fire, and ran
hastily on without a moment's pause, that he might not know the
place again, nor be tempted to return for the gold. Thus, with a
confirmed purpose he reached the mountain. Here on the eastern
side of the river he found the deserted ruins of an old castle,
which, by length of time, had become a den of serpents.  He
took possession of it as an abode for himself, and no sooner had
he done so, than the serpents took fright and scampered away
forthwith.  He blocked up the entrance, after having laid in
* That is the desert mountain bordering the valley of the Nile, probably
in sight of his residence. His native town was Coma, near Heraclea Minor
in upper Egypt, or Thebaid, where the Valley is narrow.-SozomxI.
Eccl. History. Book i., chap. 13.




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                    257
a store of bread for six months, (tis the Thebans of Egypt often do;
for bread will keep there a whole year*); and having a spring of
water inside, here ensconcing himself as in a sanctuary, he dwelt
alone; making a monastery of the old castle, and neither going out
himself, nor giving admittance to those who visited the place.
Thus he lived a long time, secluded as an ascetic, only receiving
once in six months a new supply of bread, let down to him from
above.  But those of his acquaintance who came to the place
staid often whole days and nights outside.  Then they would hear
from within the noise of a multitude in a tumult, shouting and
crying with a voice of distress.  Get away, Antony, from  our
possessions.  What business have you in the desert?  At first
those who stood outside supposed it must be men quarreling with
him, who had gotten in by means of ladders. But afterwards, by
looking through a crevice, they saw that there was no man with
him: then they supposed that demons had made the noise. Then
they became terrified, and called to Antony, but he heard them
no more than he heeded the demons.  Alarmed at receiving no
answer they often broke in, and then they heard Antony sing
psalms, such as, Let the Lord arise and his enemies shall be scattered, &c.t
9.  Antony comes forth a miracle-worker.
Thus did Antony privately exercise himself during almost
twenty years,' without leaving his old castle, or being easily seen
* Because in Upper Egypt the climate is exceedingly dry, no rain ever
falling there. But this bread, so long kept in such a climate, must have
become exceedingly dry and hard. So much the better for a monk, as
Anthony would say; for then the eating of it would be unpleasant.
t On reading this story one is tempted to reflect, that if these reported
noises in Antony's monastery were really heard by those outside, they
must have been made, either by those spiritual beings called demons,
who have no corporeal organs of speech or sound of any sort, or by saint
Antony himself. Here is a hypothetical dilemma, which the reader may
solve for himself.
$ Twenty years' seclusion made a miracle-working saint among the
Hindoos,




258                        CHAPTER XIV.
by any one.  Many in the meantime desired ardently to imitat
his ascetic mode of life, insomuch that some of his friends determined finally to break open his door, that they might get access
to him.  Then at last Antony yielded to their eager desire, and
came forth from his sanctuary, like one issuing from a heathen
temple, after having been initiated into the mysteries of the Gods.
His soul was full of a divine inspiration; but as to his body, those
who saw him  for the first time wondered to see it as strong as
ever, neither fat nor yet emaciated by his long fasting.  He bore
no mark of his long warfare with demons; for his appearance
was unchanged, his mind was as vigorous, and his manners were
as pure, as when he first became an anchorite in his castle.
By him, then, the Lord healed many of their diseases; others
he delivered from  evil spirits; and bestowing upon Antony the
grace of speech, he comforted many who were in distress, and
reconciled many who had been at variance. By his conversation
he induced many to be mindful of their future welfare. He persuaded many to embrace a solitary  life.  Hence arose those
monasteries in the mountains, and those seats and abodes of
monks in the desert, who gave up their worldly goods that they
might be enrolled among the citizens of heaven.
In one of his journeys to visit the brethren of middle Egypt,
he had to cross the canal of Arsinoe, which was full of crocodiles.*
* The ancient geographer Strabo (Book 17, ch. 9.) explains why this
canal, which let the waters of the Nile into Lake Mceris, was full of crocodiles. The people of Arsinoe, by this canal, had a great veneration for
crocodiles, esteeming them sacred. They had tame ones in the canal, and
the priests fed them with bread, meat, and wine, while they lived, and embalmed them after they were dead. Strabo once saw the priests feeding
these divine pets, which were basking themselves upon the margin of the
canal. Whilst some of the priests held open their monstrous jaws, others
would put the dainty meats and drinks upon their tongues. No wonder
that the canal of Arsinoe was full of crocodiles. Saint Antony, too, was
not so lean as to be a despicable morsel for them. By this time also, it
is probable that the veneration for them had nearly ceased, and as they
were less fed by devout priests they would not scruple to devour a monk.




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                     259
All he had to do was to pray, then he and all his companions
passed over safely.
Afterwards he returned to his monastery, and strenuously
applied himself again to his ascetic labors. Thus, by word and
by example, he increased the zeal of his disciples for the monastic
life, and incited others to the love of ascetism, so that by his
influence a large number of monasteries were founded, over which
he presided as abbot, or spiritual father.
One day, when he came forth, he was applied to by all the
monks to give them a sermon. He consented, and spoke to them
in the Egyptian tongue, after this manner.
10. St. Antony's Sermon to the Monks. Part I. Exhortation
to the Monastic Life.
The Scriptures are sufficient for your instruction;* yet it is a
good thing for us to exhort one another to fidelity, and to exercise
ourselves in teaching. Wherefore do you, as children, tell your
father what you know, and I as the elder will impart to you what
I know, and what I have experienced.
Now in the first place, let all of you aim at the same thing, and
never flag in the pursuit, nor relax your labors, nor say, We have
continued long in the exercise;t but, rather, beginning anew,
every day let us increase our diligence: For the whole of man's
life is exceedingly short, compared with the ages to come; so that
all our time on earth is nothing to eternal life. Everything in
this world is sold at its value, and exchanges are made of value
for value received. But the promise of eternal life is bought for
a small price: for it is written, The days of our life are three
score years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be fourscore
years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow.  If then we should
continue the whole eighty years in our exercise, we shall afterwards reign for ages of ages.  Our labor is upon the earth, but
* An unpapistical sentiment. The necessity of oral traditions, and the
supremacy of the Pope of Rome, were as yet undiscovered.
t r aTK7-ct —the ascetic practice, fasting, watching, prayer, &o.




260                      CIIAPTER XIV.
our promised inheritance is in the heavens.  We lay down our
mortal bodies, and again receive them immortal.
Therefore, my sons, let us not grow weary, nor think the time
long, nor that we are doing a great thing: For the sufferings of
the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory, that
shall be revealed in us. Nor, when we look at this world, let us
think it so very large; for the whole earth is small, compared with
the whole heavens. Therefore, if we were lords of the whole earth,
we should bid it all farewell, as unworthy to be compared with
the kingdom of heaven: just as one would despise a brass penny,
when he might gain a hundred golden guineas. If you give up a
piece of land, it is almost nothing; or if you give up a house or a
large sum of gold, you should neither boast nor be down-hearted.
On the contrary, we ought to reckon that as nothing, which we
give up for virtue.  When we die, we often leave our possessions
to others whom we would not, as Ecclesiastes says.  Why then
should we not leave them for virtue's sake, that we may inherit a
kingdom?
For the same reason, let us not covet these things; for what
profit is there in acquiring what we cannot carry with us to the
other world?  Let us rather gain durable possessions, such as
prudence, righteousness, temperance, courage, understanding,
charity, love of the poor, faith in Christ, forbearance, hospitality.
If we gain these, we shall find hospitable entertainment among
the meek of the earth.  Let no one of us therefore think meanly
of himself, especially when he considers himself as the Lord's servant, and as bound to devote himself to his master's service.
Now the servant cannot presume to say, Since I labored yesterday, I will not labor to-day; nor counting on the labors of his
past days, will he cease for the days to come; but every day, as
the Gospel says, he will show the same diligence to please the
Lord. So let us continue daily in our exercise, knowing that if
we lose a day, we shall not be forgiven on account of the past
time; but the Lord will be angry with us for our negligence. So
we have heard in Ezekiel (xxxiii. 12); and Judas in one night lost




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                   261
the labor of the time past.  Let us therefore, my children, cleave
to the exercise, and not flag; for in this we have also the Lord as
a fellow-worker, as it is written, To every one that chooseth what is
good, God is also a co-worker for good; * and that we may not
be negligent, it is well to meditate on the Apostle's saying (1 Cor.
xv. 31,) I die daily; for if we live every day as if we were dying,
we shall not sin.  The saying means this; when we rise in the
morning, let us consider that we may not live until the evening;
and when we lie down at night, we should consider that we may
not rise in the morning. Our life is naturally uncertain, and is
dealt out to us day by day; being duly affected by this, and living
day by day with this upon our minds, we shall not sin, nor desire
any earthly thing, nor be angry with any one; but as daily expecting to die, we shall possess nothing, forgive everything to all,
have nQ desire for women, nor any sordid pleasure, but turn away
from them as transient things, ever anxiously striving, and looking
for the day of judgment: for the prevailing fear of future torments always dissipates the advantage of pleasure, and strengthens
the soul against temptation.
Therefore, having entered upon the way of virtue, let us strive
the more to reach the things before us, and let no one turn back
to the things behind, like Lot's wife (Phil. iii. 14; Luke ix. 62);
especially as the Lord hath said that no one, who, having put his
hand to the plough, tuzrneth back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
To turn back is nothing else than for one to mind worldly things
again, after he hath repented. Fear not when ye hear of virtue,
nor think that the name signifies some strange thing.  The thing
is not far off, nor without us; it is within us; and the work is easy,
if we be only willing.  The Greeks travel over land and sea after
knowledge: but we have no need to go abroad for the kingdom of
heaven, nor to cross the sea after virtue; for the Lord hath said,
The kingdom of heaven is within you.  (Luke xvii. 21.)  Virtue
needeth only the consent of the will; since it is within us and
originateth in the mind; for it is a part of the mind, which is
* There is no such text in the Bible.




262                        CHAPTER XIV.
naturally intelligent: the soul is therefore in its natural state,
when it remaineth as it was originally created; for it was made
beautiful and upright.  Now that the Lord may acknowledge his
work, let us keep the soul for him in its original state of virtue.
If the soul vary from this, and turn from its original nature, this
is called vice.  The thing is therefore not difficult; for if we remain as we were originally made, then we are in a state of virtue.
But if we entertain  evil thoughts, then we are judged to be
vicious.  Now, if the thing had to be obtained from  without,
there would be real difficulty; but since it is within us, let us
guard the soul as a precious deposit, which the Lord hath committed to our keeping, in order that he may acknowledge his
work to be as he made it. Be it our task to prevent anger from
tyrannizing, and lust from ruling over us.*
11. St. Antony's Sermon continued.  Part 2. Demonology, or
the doctrine of demons.
Living after this manner, let us watch, and as it is written,
keep our hearts with all diligence; for we have keen and crafty
enemies, the evil demons; and besides, as the Apostle saith, We
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities
and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
the spiritual things of wickedness in the heavenly places.  (Ephes.
vi. 12.) There is therefore a great multitude of them in the air
about us; but they differ much among themselves.  But to ex* The foregoing somewhat metaphysical argument about virtue and the
soul, savors more of the polemic bishop of Alexandria, than of the illiterate monk of the desert, into whose mouth he puts it. The doctrine is
such as Pelagius afterwards taught,-attributing the sanctification of the
soul to itself without the aid of Divine grace, and denying original sin and
depravity in the soul. This was the general doctrine of the earlier monks;
and was prevalent in the Church during the second and third centuries,
and indeed until Saint Augustine hewed it down in his controversy with
Pelagius. Its origin was not the Bible, nor even apostolical tradition; but
the Platonism of the fathers from the time of Justin Martyr. Plato taught
the entire moral ability of man to purify his soul from sin.




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                   263
plain their nature and their differences, would require a long discourse, and greater ability than we possess. All that we need to
know at present, is the arts which they use against us.
First then, we know that the demons were not created evil
beings (for God made nothing evil), but were originally good, and
fell from their heavenly wisdom, and were cast down to the earth.*
They deceived the Gentiles by false appearances;- but envying
us Christians, they put everything in motion to obstruct our way
to heaven, that we may not reach the place from which they were
expelled. Hence the need of much prayer and exercise, that one
may by the divine gift of discerning spirits, be able to know which
among them  are more, and which less, evil than others; what
each of them specially studies to perform; and how each may be
defeated and cast out; for, many are their evil devices and
mischievous plots. Therefore the blessed apostle and his associates
said, We are not ignorant of his devices. (2 Cor. ii. 11).  But we
when we are tempted by them, ought to assist one another. Therefore I, having had some experience of them, speak to you as
children.
Now, when they see Christians, but especially monks, making
progress by diligent labor, they first assault and tempt them by
putting obstacles in their way. These obstacles are evil thoughts,
which they suggest. But we should not fear their threats. They
are baffled immediately by prayer and fasting, and faith in the
Lord; but when baffled, they do not give up their attempts, but
come on again with their tricks and devices; for when they cannot deceive the heart by what is manifestly impure pleasure,
they change their mode of action.  They endeavor to delude or
to frighten us by visionary appearances. They put on the shapes
of women, of beasts, of serpents, of huge monsters, and of an
army of soldiers. But neither should we fear these fantastic re* St. Peter says that God cast them down to hell, and confined them in chains
of darkness, until the judgment of the great day; which is inconsistent with
this whole doctrine concerning demons, and all these stories about their
tricks. See 2 Peter ii. 4,




264                        CHAPTER X1V.
presentations; for they are nothing, and soon disappear, especially
when one fortifies himself by faith and the sign of the cross. But
they are an audacious and impudent set; for though they be thus
defeated, they will try to impose on you in another way.  They
pretend to foretell future events; and they swell themselves up to
a prodigious bulk, making themselves as tall as a house, and of
enormous breadth'; that they may by such phantasms, carry
off those unawares, whom  they could not delude by reasonings.
But if they find the soul secured by faith against this trick, they
finally bring their prince with them.
Antony said also, that they often appeared such as the Lord
described the Devil to Job (lxi. 18-21). His eyes are as the appearance of the morning star, out of his mouth proceed burning
lamps, and they are scattered as coals of fire, 4c.*
Such being the appearance of the prince of demons, he terrifieth
people-as I said before-the crafty braggart: as again the Lord
showeth what he is, saying to Job, " He esteemeth iron'as stubble,
and brass as rotten wood, he regardeth the sea as a pot of ointment,
and the depth of hell as a prisoner; he counteth the deep as a playground. (Job. xli. Septuagint).  And by Moses (Exod. xv. 9.)
The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake: and by Isaiah
(x. 14.) I will take away the whole earth, as a nest, and as forsaken
eggs.t  Such are their boastings and pretences, that they may
impose on the pious. But we who are faithful, should neither fear
the Devil's empty phantasms, nor heed his words: for he is out
* Some of the Fathers thought this description of Leviathan in Job
must mean the Devil, because there was so much fire in it: but some
thought that Leviathan was the Devil"s father, as Jerome tells us in his
commentary on Isaiah, ch. xiii  Athanasius quotes the text in Job from
the Greek Septuagint.
f Here we have some fair specimens of the manner in which most of
the Fathers interpreted and applied the Holy Scriptures. Any one who
will read the passages from which these quotations are taken, may see
that they have no more relation to " the prince of demons," than to the
man in the moon. Yet the Romanists would have us rely implicitly upon
these miserable interpreters!




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                265
and out a liar; and his visible shapes are as false as his words:
for that is not true light which appears in them, but rather an
image of the fire prepared for their punishment. The demons
show themselves in the flames in which they are to burn, and try
to frighten men with them; and when they vanish, they carry
with them this image of the fire that is to burn them, hurting none
of the faithful.
They are great cheats, and ready to turn themselves into every
sort of shape, and put on every sort of character.  They often
pretend, without showing themselves, to sing psalms; and they
tell us where passages of Scripture are to be found. Sometimes
when we are reading, they repeat after us what we read, like an
echo.  Sometimes also, when we are asleep, they waken us up to
our prayers, and that so often as to let us get hardly any sleep.
Sometimes, too, they appear in the habit of monks, and talk
very religiously, in order to gain our confidence, and then to
seduce us.
But we must not give heed to them, even when they waken us up
to prayer, or admonish us to abstain from eating, or pretend to
accuse us of negligence, and charge us to lie on the ground;
though they are sometimes very indulgent to us in respect to
these things.  It is not from piety that they do these things, but
to drive the simple to desperation, and make them  think the
exercise a useless thing, and the life of a monk disgusting and
oppressive.  Our Lord would not suffer the demons to speak,
even when they confessed the truth, lest they should defile the
truth with their own uncleanness: so should we turn away our
ears from them, even when they speak the truth: for it is unbecoming, when we have the Holy Scriptures, to receive instruction
from  the Devil.-For the demons do everything to deceive the
simple; they put on false appearances; they make disturbance
and noise, sometimes break out in loud laughter, and sometimeswhisper in your ears. If you do not mind these things, then they
will weep and lament, as if they were beaten.  But let us not
listen to them, nor obey them; but be the iore strenuous iq the




266                     CHAPTER XIV.
exercise, and not suffer them to turn us aside from our path, whatever artifices they may use. Nor let us fear them, even when they
make a show of attacking us, or threaten us with death; for they
are weak and can do nothing but threaten.*
Thus far I have given you only a sketch of the subject; but
now it will not be unprofitable to take a wider and deeper view of
the nature and history of demons; the knowledge of which will be
very useful to you.
When the Lord sojourned upon earth, the enemy fell and his
powers were weakened. Yet the fallen tyrant, though powerless,
will not rest; though all he can do is to threaten. Think of this,
and you can despise the demons. If they had bodies like ours,
men might hide from them, and thus escape injury; as we hide
from one another by closing our doors. But such is not their
nature. They can enter when the doors are shut; and they are
everywhere in the atmosphere around us.  Their prince is the
Devil, a murderer from the beginning, and the father of wickedness, as our Saviour called him.  So are they all malicious, and
ready to do mischief. No place is free from their snares. If they
spare us, it is not out of good will; for the more virtuous and
devout we are, the more do they try to harm  us.  The reason
why they do us no mischief is that they cannot: they can only
threaten. If they had the power, they would tear us up in a
moment: they would not leave a Christian of us alive; for in our
assemblies we are always speaking ill of them; and they know
that their power fails as our spiritual strength increases. Piety
is an abomination to the sinner. Having no power against us,
they wound one another, when they find that they cannot hurt
those whom they threaten. Think of this and fear them not. If
they had any real power over us, they would not come in crowds
* Yet they gave Antony a substantial beating in the sepulchre. We
know of but one way in which his doctrine here can be reconciled with
his experience there, and that is, to suppose that the clubs and whips in
the sepulchre were wielded by depnonp of flesh and blood, such as are apt
to be found in villages.




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                  267
upon us, nor assume visionary shapes to deceive us; but, one of
them  alone would be sufficient to work his will; and especially
because every one had effective power, he would not resort to a
vain show —an airy nothing-nor fetch a crowd with him, to
frighten us; but he would directly employ his power in fulfilling
his purpose. But because they can do no harm, the demons play
like actors on the stage, changing their forms and scaring the
boys with the visionary appearance of a'multitude of frightful
shapes.  Wherefore they are only the more contemptible.  The
angel of the Lord who destroyed the Assyrian host (2 Kings
xix. 35), had no need of such vanities. But'some one may say,
Did not the Devil show power against Job, when he destroyed
his flocks and herds, killed his children by tearing down the house
over their heads, and then afflicted his person with a sore disease?
Yes; but this was not Satan's own power; it was the power
which God granted him for a time, in order to try Job's patience.
Without this Divine permission, the contemptible enemy could
have done nothing against Job.  We read in the Evangelist
(Mat. viii. 31) how the demons said to the Lord, Permit tus to'go
into the herd of swine. So they have of themselves no power even
over swine, much less over those who are made after the image of
God.  Therefore we ought to fear God only, and to despise the
demons.  Still, however, the more they attempt against us, the
more zealously should we devote ourselves to the exercise: for an
upright life and faith towards God are a strong defence against
them. They are afraid of the ascetic's fasting, watching, prayers,
meekness, quietness, contempt of money and of vainglory,-of his
humility, love of the poor, alms, freedom from anger, and above
all, piety towards Christ.  They endeavor by all means to prevent men from  obtaining the power to tread them  under their
feet, according to the Saviour's promise to his disciples (Luke
x. 19.)
Therefore, when they pretend to foretell future events, let no
one give heed to them.  They often tell us, days beforehand, of
brethren coming to visit us, and the brethren come accordingly.




268                        CHAPTER -XIV.
They do this, not out of regard for those who hear them, but to
persuade men to put confidence in them, that they may afterwards lead them to destruction. Instead of trusting them, we
ought to drive them away, because we have no need of their predictions.  They have in reality no foreknowledge.  What wonder
is it, if by means of their lighter bodies,* they are able, when
they see men set off on a journey, to outrun them, and foretell
their coming?  A  swift horseman might do -the same thing, by
out-travelling a man on foot. Only the omniscient God has proper foreknowledge of events. These roguish imposters, when they
see and hear things among us, steal off to another place and tell
it, before people can hear it by other means.  Suppose one were
to leave Thebes or some other place, to travel to another distant
place on foot.  Before he departs, they know  nothing about it;
but when they see him going, they run ahead and announce his
coming.  But sometimes their news is false, because the traveller
turns back.  So they babble sometimes about the overflowings
of the river (Nile.) Having seen much rain fall in Ethiopia, and
knowing that this causes the rising of the water, they run down
to Egypt, and announce that the flood is coming.t  Such were
the Greek oracles, by which, through the agency of demons, men
were in like manner led into error by pretended prophecies. But
these deceptive oracles have ceased, since Christ came into the
world and abolished the deceitful arts of demons. These often
make plausible conjectures of coming events, without having absolute foreknowledge; as physicians learn by experience to make
probable conjectures of the issue of diseases, and navigators and
husbandmen, of the changes of the weather.
* It was the common opinion of the early Fathers, derived originally
from the heathen, that spiritual beings and the human soul after death,
were invested with material bodies, so refined as to be generally invisible.
Still they might be made visible. Hence visible demons and ghosts of
men.
t As the fertility of Egypt depends on the overflowings of the Nile, the
people look for them  in their season with great anxiety, as a failure
would be fatal to their crops.




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                  269
As for the predictions of the demons, we have no need of them.
What does it profit us to hear of such things a few days before
they happen?  Such knowledge contributes nothing to virtue.
None of us will be condemned for ignorance of these matters, nor
rewarded for knowing them; but each one will be judged according to his faith, and his obedience to the Divine commands,
Wherefore we should disregard these things, and apply ourselves
to our exercise and our spiritual labors; not to gain foreknowledge, but the Divine approbation. We should pray, not for the
knowledge of future events, as a reward for our labors, but for
the help of the Lord, that we may gain the victory in our conflict
with the Devil.  If, however, we be solicitous to know future
events, let us purify our minds; for I am fully persuaded, that a
mind thoroughly purified, and calmly steadfast in its nature, is
endued with a much clearer vision, by Divine revelation, than
any of the demons possess. Such was the mind of Elisha, when
he saw his servant Gehazi, and the host of angels standing by him
(2 Kings v. 26 and vi. 17.)   When, therefore, they come by
night, to announce future things, or say, We are angels; believe
them not, for they lie. Even if they praise the ascetic life, and
pronounce you blessed; do not listen to them, nor accept their
commendations; but rather fortify yourselves and the house by
the sign of the cross, and betake yourselves to prayer: then you
will see them vanish away; for they are timid, and are dreadfully
afraid when they see the sign of the Lord's cross, since the
Saviour spoiled them upon it, and publicly triumphed over them
(Col. ii. 15.)
12. The Sermon concluded.  More about the Demons.
Hear now in what manner we may easily distinguish the presence of the evil angels from that of the good. When good angels
appear, there is no disturbance-no contention, no clamor,-but
something so calm and gentle, that it fills the soul with gladness;
for the Lord is with them. The thoughts of the soul are then
subject to no agitation, but the soul is illuminated, so as to behold




270                      -CHAPTER XIV.
those who appear, and is so filled with heavenly desires, that it
would fain fly away with them, when they depart. If at first sight
men are afraid, when angels appear,'these soon change that fear
into love; as Gabriel did to Zacharias, (Luke i. ll,) and the angel
at the Lord's sepulchre to the women.'(Mat. xxviii. 5.)  Such
is the appearance of good angels.
But the rush and vision of evil demons is full of confusion with
clamor, noise and shouting, like the noise made by a parcel of
riotous young men, or a party of robbers in the desert.  Hence
our minds are affected with timidity, and our thoughts become
disturbed and confused, our countenances downcast and sad, our
ascetism hateful; we remember with sorrow the homes and friends
that we left, and the fear of death invades our souls; finally, the
desire of evil things, and the contempt of virtue, corrupt our
hearts.  Therefore when a vision appears, and you are at first
terrified, but soon filled with unspeakable joy, and you feel delightfully tranquillized and refreshed, your soul enjoying peace, confidence, and love towards God;-then take courage and go to
prayer: for the joy and self-possession of the soul manifests the
presence of holy beings.  So Abraham rejoiced when he saw the
Lord (John viii. 56), and John Baptist leaped for joy at the salutation of Mary the mother of God.* (Luke i. 41.) But if, when
superior beings appear, there be tumult and hubbub from without,
a visionary show of worldly grandeur, and threatenings of death,
as before described,-then know that this is an onset of evil spirits. Moreover, this is a further sign, when your fear of the apparition is permanent, then they are enemies who appear: for the
demons do not take away your fear; on the contrary, when they
see you afraid, they augment their visionary exhibitions, to make
them more terrible, and then they come up to you, mocking, and
* OsoroKos. This impious title began to be given to Mary the mother of
Jesus (as the Evangelists call her,) in this age, during the Arian controversy.  Yet it is not more impious than some expressions occasionally
heard among Protestants, as that " God the mighty Maker died," in Watts's
Hymns.




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                    271
say, Fall down and worship.  It was in this way they deluded the
Gentiles to idolatry, making them believe these demons were Gods.
But the Lord has not suffered them  to deceive us.  When the
Devil tried him with such arts, the Lord said, Get thee behind me,
Satan.  (Luke iv. 8.)  Wherefore the old rogue ought to be
more and more despised by us; for the Lord said that he had
done this on our account; so that when the demons hear us utter
such words, they may be driven away; the Lord having rebuked
them in these words.*
But we must not be vain when we cast out demons, nor puff
ourselves up when we heal the sick: for he who casts out demons
is not alone worthy of admiration; nor should he who is unable to
do it be therefore despised.  But whenever one excels in the
exercise of virtue, him we ought to imitate, and endeavor even to
excel; for to work miracles is not of ourselves. The power is the
Lord's.  Thus he said to his'disciples, Rejoice not that the demons
are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.  (Luke x. 20.)  To have our names written in heaven, is a
testimony of our virtue; but to cast out demons, is the Saviour's
gift. But as I said before, we should pray for the gift of discerning spirits,-that, as it is written, we may not believe every spirit.
(1 John iv. 1.)
I would rather not say anything of myself. But that you may
not think I say these things simply, and without experience of
their truth, but may be persuaded of them, though I become as a
fool (2 Cor. xii. 1.) —but the Lord knoweth that it is not out of
regard for myself, but out of love to you, and for your instruction that I speak of what I have seen concerning the devices of
demons.  As often as they blessed me, I cursed them  in the
name of the Lord.  As often as they foretold the rising of the
river, I said to them, What business is that of yours?  Some*Let the reader compare this Christian account of good and evil apparitions with the fancies of the New Platonists on the same subject, as described in our 9th chapter, ~ 3, and he will easily see the heathenish origin of these notions among the Fathers and Monks.




272                       CHAPTER XIV.
times they would come threateting me, and would surround me
in the form of an army of horsemen, fully equipped.  Sometimes
they would fill the house with wild beasts and serpents, then
I sang the psalm, Some in chariots, some on horses; but we will
magnify the name of the Lord our God-(Ps. xx. 7.)-so our
prayers overthrew  them.  Sometimes they came in the dark,
having the appearance of light, and said, Antony, we have come
to give you light; but I shut my eyes and prayed.  The light of
the wicked was put out in a moment. A few months afterwards
they came singing psalms, as it were, and speaking from  the
Scriptures.  But I, as if deaf, heard them not. Once they shook
the monastery like an earthquake, but I prayed that my mind
might remain unmoved.  Afterwards they came again, clapping,
whistling, and dancing. But when I fell down, and began to pray
and sing psalms to myself, straightway they began to whimper
and cry, as if they had been unnerved. But I glorified God for
thus openly quelling their audacity and madness.  Once a monstrously tall demon came with a show, and had the audacity to
say, I am the power and the providence of God.  What shall
I do for you? Then I spit at him, and calling upon the name of
Christ, tried to strike him, and thought that I did strike him, and
straightway this huge fellow, with all his demons, vanished at the
name of Christ.  Once, too, when I was fasting, he came in the
shape of a monk-the hypocritical knave-carrying the appearance of loaves, and he counseled me, saying, Eat, and cease fromn
your many labors.  You too are a man, and your strength will
fail. But I, perceiving his craftiness, rose up to pray. He could
not stand that, for he walked off, and passed through the door in
the form of smoke.  Many a time in the desert he displayed the
appearance of gold, that I might touch it, and look at it.  But I
sang psalms at the gold-fiend, and it melted away. Oftentimes
they lashed me with whips, but when I said, Nothing shall separate me from the love of Christ, then they turned and lashed one
another.*  But it was not I who defeated them  so, it was the
* We have a difficulty about this devil's bread, and gold, and whipping.




ST. ANTONY THb  MONK.                    273
Lord, who said, I saw Satan as lightning falling from heaven.
(Luke x. 18.)  But I, my children, remembering the Apostle's
word, have in a figure transferred it to myself, that you may
learn, not to flag in the exercise, nor to fear the appearances
of the Devil and his imps,  And since I have become a fool
in telling these things, take another instance as a proof that you
may be safe and fearless. Believe me, for I tell no lie. Once on
a time some one knocked at the door of my monastery.  When I
went out, I saw a tall, huge phantom.  When I asked, Who
are you? he answered, I am  Satan.  When I asked, What is
your business here? he said, Why do all the monks and Christians of every sort slander me so? Why are they cursing me
every hour?  I answered, Because you trouble them.  But,
said he, it is not I that trouble them; they only plague themselves about me; for I have become weak.  Have they not read,
The weapons of the enemy have failed forever, and thou hast
destroyed their cities?-(Ps, ix. 6.)  Now I have no weapon, no
city. Christians are found everywhere, and even the desert is
full of monks.  Let them  keep watch over themselves, and not
curse me for nothing.* —So spake the devil. Then I, admiring the
grace of the Lord, said to him, You are always a liar, and never
tell the truth; nevertheless, you have this time unwillingly said a
true thing; for Christ has weakened and cast you down. When
If they were the real, substantial things, then the Devil is not so powerless
as Father Antony would make out. If they were mere phantoms or optical
illusions, they could not be eaten, touched, or felt: and what an old
fool must the Devil be to try men with such unsubstantial things. If the
men rejected them, and sung or prayed them away, the Devil was defeated,
but if they offered to take them, and found that they were nothing, then
surely the Devil would lose all credit with them, and be worse defeated
than in the other case. To ascribe such silly tricks to Satan, is to make
him as great a fool as that young devil was that the witty blackguard
Rabelais represented as having been cheated by a clown.
* Here the author unconsciously satirizes his own " doctrine of demons"
and silly fancies about the pranks which they play upon ascetic devotees.
He puts into the Devil's mouth by far the most rational language in the
whole sermon.
12*




274                       CHAPTEnfXIV.
he heard the name of Christ, he was scorched by it and vanished.
Now, since the Devil himself confesses that he can do nothing, we
ought wholly to despise both him and his imps.  Such as I have
stated are the various devices of the enemy and his dogs. But let
us keep in mind, that when the Lord is with us these enemies can
do nothing against us. For when they come, such as they find us,
such are they towards us, and they accommodate their appearances
to the state of our minds.*  When they find us fearful and troubled, straightway like robbers they assault the place which they
find unguarded; and whatsoever gloomy thoughts we have of
ourselves, these they put into a visible shape with additions, Now,
if they see us fearful and timid, they increase the fear by apparitions and threats, and so the unhappy soul is punished.  But if
they find us rejoicing in the Lord, and meditating or conversing
on divine things, then demons have no power over the Christian,
nor indeed over any one thus engaged: for when they see the
soul secured by such thoughts, they turn away deeply ashamed of
themselves. Therefore, if we would despise the enemy, let us
always think of divine things and rejoice in hope, then we shall
always see the pranks of demons dissolve like smoke, and the demons themselves flying rather than pursuing: for, as I said before,
they are very timid, always expecting the fire prepared for them.
Particularly this token of security you may always have against
them,  When an apparition presents itself, do not fall into a
fright, but, whatever it be, boldly  ask, Who art thou? and
whence?  Then if it be a holy vision it will show itself clearly), Here the author suggests a principles without being aware of it, by
which,we may solve the phenomena of these visions of demons, so far as
they were believed to be real by those who professed to have seen them.
The brooding imagination of a solitary hypochrondriac would. become so
excited, one while with gloomy) another while with rapturous conceptions, that his mind would project these images into space, and make them
ppear as objects of sense. The philosophy of these apparitions has begun
of late years to be well understood, so that we can account for many things
of the sort related in ancient books, without supposing them all to have
been falsely reported,




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                    275
and your fear will be changed into joy.  But if it be the Devil,
it will fade and vanish away, seeing the soul fortified; for, asking,
a question is a sign of self-possession. So Joshua, the son of
Nun, learned the character of the vision by a question (Josh.
v. 13): but the enemy could not conceal himself when Daniel
asked him a question,*
END OF THE SERMON.
13. Antony's conduct in the Persecution-his 1Airacles-and
the crowds that resorted to his Mlonastery.
All listened with delight to this discourse of Antony. The
effect of it was, that in some the love of virtue increased, in others
negligence was cast away, in others vanity was brought to an end,
and all learned to despise the schemes of the Devil, while they
admired Antony's gift of discerning spirits.  Then were the
monasteries in the mountains like tabernacles filled with the
choirs of heaven, singing psalms, discoursing, fasting, praying,
rejoicing in the hope of future things, laboring that they might
give alms, having love and sympathy for one another; and truly
the place looked like one set apart for religion and righteousness,
for no one there either did or suffered wrong, and the tax-gatherer's voice was unheard.  The whole multitude were ascetics,
all engaged in the same pursuit of virtue; so that one beholding
the monasteries and the order of the monks might exclaim, How
beautiful are thy dwellings, 0  Jacob, and thy tents, 0  Israel!
(Num. xiv. 5.)
But Antony, retiring again to his monastery, there shut himself up, and from day to day increased the severity of his selfdiscipline, and the fervor of his devotion. When he thought of
the heavenly mansions, he longed for them, and groaned when he
looked at the daily life of man.  When he had to eat, and sleep,
* The author was mistaken here, if he meant that the book of Daniel
mentions a vision in which an enemy appeared to the prophet Perhaps
the allusion is to a story in the apocryphal book of Susanna.




276                       CHAPTER XIV.
and comply with the other necessities of the body, he felt ashamed
of himself, especially when he thought of the nobler exercises of
the soul. Often, therefore, when he was to eat with other monks,
and called to mind the food of the soul, he declined, and went far
away from them, esteeming it shameful to be seen eating with
others.  He ate because it was necessary for the body, often by
himself, sometimes too with the brethren.  He was ashamed
when he did it; but he took occasion to speak freely about such
matters.
We ought (said he) to devote all our spare time to the soul, not
to the body: a little time must indeed of necessity be given to the
body, but let all the rest go in preference to the benefit of the
soul, that it may not be degraded by the pleasures of the body,
but rather make the body its own servant: for this is what the
Saviour said, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, nor
wherewith the body shall be clothed: but seek ye first the kingdom  of heaven, and all these things shall be added unto you.
(Mat. vi. 31).
After this came the persecution which the Emperor Maximin
raised against the Church. The holy martyrs having been led to
Alexandria, Antony left his monastery and followed them to that
city, saying, Let us also go down, that if called, we too may engage in the contest, or at least see them contending: —for Antony
had a desire for martyrdom; but he was not willing to deliver
himself to the persecutors.*  He attended upon the confessors in
the mines and prisons.  He accompanied those who were summoned before the judges, and exhorted them to submit readily to
martyrdom.  When the judge saw the boldness of Antony and
* Because that would have been a sort of self-murder. But he chose to
put himself in the way of being apprehended and put to death-which was
very little better. Antony had a strong passion for renown, and like some
military men, was willing to purchase it by voluntary martyrdom.
Martyrs were more honored in the Church than even monks who died a
natural death.  Those who confessed Christ before heathen judges in
time of persecution, were called confessors, and were greatly honored,
though they escaped with life.




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                    277
his associates, he forbade the monks to appear in court, and
ordered them to leave the city.  The other monks hid themselves
for that day; but Antony not only disregarded the order, but
washed his monk's coat* to render it more conspicuous; and took
his station in a high place directly in front of the judge.  He was
seen, not only by the judge, but by the governor of the city and
his officers, as they passed by.  Everybody admired the boldness
and intrepidity with which he stood there.  He wished to be
apprehended and martyred.  But too his great sorrow, they took
no further notice of him. The Lord preserved him for the benefit
of many, that he might teach the ascetic life which he had learned
from the Scriptures: For many, by the mere sight of his mode of
life, were excited to imitate him. A second time he went, and
after his own manner served the confessors; and as if bound with
them, he underwent the labors and services to which they were
condemned.
When the persecution was over, he left the city, and returned
to his monastery, where he applied himself more intensely than
ever to his ascetic practice.  He fasted continually; he wore
inside a hair shirt; outside, a skin.  These he kept on to the end
of his days.  He never washed the dirt from his body.  He would
not even wash his feet, nor let them  touch water when he could
help it.  No one ever saw  him  stripped, till his dead body was
laid out for burial.
Having shut himself up for a certain time, then, with the resolution that he would neither go out himself, nor let anybody
come in, it happened that Martianus, a military officer, arrived
during the time, and troubled Antony no little about his daughter,
who was infested by a demon.  When he continued knocking at
his door, and begging him for God's sake to come and pray for
* In Greek Ependyte, which seems to denote a sort of upper garment;
but the fashion of it is unknown. Those who wish to see a discussion of
the various opinions about it, may consult Helyot's Life of St. Antony,
B. I. ch. ii. Likely enough, as Bolland thought, it was a mellote, or white
sheepskin overcoat or mantle. See ch. xxii.




278                     CHAPTER XIV.
his daughter; he refused to open the door, but getting up to a
high place, he peeped down at him, and said, Man, why do you
clamor so at me? I am a man as well as yourself. If you believe,
pray to God, and it will be done.  Martianus believed immediately; and having called upon Christ, he returned home, and
his daughter was cleansed from the demon. Many other miracles
did the Lord work by him, as he said, Ask and ye shall receive.
For a great number of afflicted sat outside by the door of his
monastery, and by believing and praying there, were healed.
Afterwards, the crowd became troublesome to him, and he could
not use secret retirement when he chose; he feared too that those
things which the Lord had done by him, might make him think
too highly of himself, and make others think so too.  He therefore determined to go to the monks of the Upper Thebaid-the
farthest part of Egypt-where they knew him not.
14. Antony goes away into the heart of the desert. Plagued with
demons,
Having got some loaves of the brethren, he seated himself on
the river bank, to watch for a passing vessel, in which he might
go up the river.  While he was looking out, a voice came to him
from the air above him, saying, Antony, whither art thou going,
and wherefore? He was not in the least disturbed, for he had
been often called in this way.  When he heard the questions, he
answered, saying, Because the crowd will not let me rest.  For
this reason I wish to go into the Upper Thebaid, on account of
the many disturbances that happen to me, and especially because
they require of me things which are above my power. But the
voice said unto him, Even if thou goest up to the Upper Thebaid;
or if-as thou hast it in mind-thou comest down among the herds
of cattle, thou hast to bear more-yea, two-fold more-labor.
If thou wouldst really have quiet, go away now into the heart of
the desert.  Antony said, And who will show me the way? for I
am ignorant of it.  He straightway showed him  a company of
Saracens about to travel that way.  Antony then went to them,




ST. ANTONY  riUX    MONK 1$              279
and asked to go with them into the desert. They, as if by order
of Divine Providence, readily received him    When he had travelled three days and three nights with them, he came to a very
high mountain.  At the foot of the mountain, was a spring of
clear, sweet, cold water:* a plain spread out from  it, and a few
wild palm-trees grew  there.. Antony, as if moved by Divine
inspiration, was delighted with the place. This was the place
signified by him who had spoken to him on the bank of the river.
Therefore, as a supply to begin upon, he got some loaves from
his fellow travellers, and remained alone by this mountain. Not
a soul staid with him: for, from this time he considered the place
as peculiarly his own: and even the Saracens, when they saw
Antony's devotion to a solitary life, made it their business to pass
that way, and carry him supplies of bread.t  The palm-trees also
afforded him some pleasant refreshment. The brethren, too, after
they learned where he Was, being mindful of him as children of a
father, took care to send him bread,'But Antony, when he saw that this occasioned them  much
fatigue and labor, considered how  he might spare them all this
trouble.  When he had fixed upon his plan, he asked some men
who where passing that way, to bring him a spade, an axe, and a
little wheat,  When these were brought, he examined the land
about the mountain, and found a suitable spot for cultivation,
where he could water it plentifully.  Here he sowed his seed.
So he did every year, and thus supplied himself with bread:
rejoicing that by this means he could support himself without
troubling or burdening anybody.j Afterwards, when he saw that
* Such springs rarely occur in those dry deserts; when they do, they
are apt to become places of great resort for the Saracens, or wandering
Arabs. Date-bearing palm-trees are apt to grow about them. The date is
a sweet nutritious nut, and is an important article of food among the Arabs
of the desert.
t The wild Arabs have always had great reverence for saints, especially
for those who lived a solitary ascetic life, and were very dirty, as St.
Antony was.
I Antony was a good old ignorant superstitious enthusiast, who, with all




280                        CHAPTER XIV.
travellers often came that way, he planted a few seeds of garden
vegetables, that the traveller might have something to refresh
him, after the fatigues of his difficult journey through the desert.
But the wild beasts of the desert, coming to the spring for water,
often injured his crops.  Having caught one of these intruders,
without hurting him, he thus addressed them  all:  Why do ye
injure me, when I do you no harm?  Go now, all of you, in the
name of the Lord, and never again set foot upon my premises.
From that hour, the beasts, as if awed by the command, never
again came near the place.  So he lived alone in the mountainx
devoted to prayer and fasting. But the brethren, who ministered
to him, besought that he would suffer them to come once a-month,
and bring him  olives, beans, and oil: for he was now old, and
led a hard life there, and had many a battle with the demons: as
we have been told by those who visited him:  For they heard
there tumults, and many voices, and a clashing, as of arms.  By
night, they saw the mountain full of wild beasts, and himself they
beheld, as it were, fighting with the apparitions, and praying
against them.  On these occasions he encouraged his visitors;
and himself fought upon his knees, praying to the Lord.  He was
truly worthy of admiration, because, being alone in such a desert,
he dreaded neither the assaults of demons, nor the ferocity of the
numerous wild beasts and serpents that were there.  Then the
Devil, as David saith in the Psalm, (xxxvii. 12), watched him and
gnashed upon him with his teeth.  But Antony, by calling upon the
Saviour, continued unhurt by his trickery and subtile schemes.
While Antony was watching by night, the Devil let loose upon
his erroneous notions, had, in some essential points, the heart of a true
Christian, as the fact just related demonstrates. How different was he,
in this particular, from the swarms of good-for-nothing, lazy, fanatical,
beggar monks, who long afterwards arose in the Church, and continue
among the Roman Catholics to this day, doing no service (for their idle
bead-roll mutterings are not worth a straw) and living upon the alms of
the laboring population!
* This mountain stands near the shore of the Red Sea.  Compare
Jerome's description of the place, in his Life of Hilarion, ~ 31.




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                     281
him the wild beasts: nearly all the hyenas of the desert came
out of their holes, and surrounded him, grinning and threatening to bite. Antony, observing what the enemy would be at,
said to them all;-If ye have received power against me, come
on; I am ready to be devoured by you; but if the demons have
put this into your heads,-then, not a moment longer, but begone
with you! I am the servant of Christ. Hardly had Antony got
out these words, before they scampered away, as if driven by
the whip of his word.*
A few days afterwards, Antony was at work, making a basket,
when somebody standing at the door, drew the string that he was
using at his work.  By the by, he usually gave the baskets that
he made to his visitors, for anything that they chose to offer him.
When he felt his basket-string pulled, he rose up and beheld a
monster, like a man down to his thighs, but his legs and feet were
like those of an ass. Antony only crossed himself and said; I
am Christ's servant; if thou art sent against me; behold, here I
am.  But the beast with his demons fled in such a hurry, that he
fell and broke his neck.  Now the death of the beast was the
defeat of the demons.  Their scheme was, by means of him, to
carry Antony out of the desert; but they were not able.
15. M/lore mziracles, and some good advice.
Having been besought once by the monks to come down and
pay them a visit, and see the places where they lived, he travelled
with the monks who had come after him.  A camel carried their
bread and water; for the whole of that desert is without drinkable
water, excepting in the mountain where Antony lived.  Their
water failing by the way, and the weather being excessively hot,
* This story, like some novels, may be " founded on fact." The African
hyena is a bold beast, and by night scruples not to, come into houses,
prowling for garbage. Several together may have entered Antony's cell,
and been frightened away by his loud Quixotic speech. The old many
excited imagination may have multiplied them into " all the hyenas of the
mountains," and of course sent by the Devil.




282                      CHAPTER XIV.
they were all in danger of perishing. They searched all around
for water, but found none; and their strength failed, so that they
were unable to walk, and had to lie down upon the ground. They
let their camel go wherever he pleased, giving themselves up for
lost.  The old man seeing their desperate case, groaned for sorrow, then going a little way from the rest, he kneeled, lifted up
his hands, and prayed. Straightway the Lord made a fountain of
water burst forth at the spot where he was praying. So all drank
and were refreshed.  Then having filled their skins with water,
they sought their camel and found him;* for his halter happened
to be caught by a stone; so he was held fast.  Having led him
to the spring and given him  a drink, they put the water-skins
upon him and went their way.  When they arrived at the outer
monasteries,t all embraced and kissed him as a father; and he,
as bringing them supplies from the mountain, entertained them
with discourses, and made them  partakers of the fruits of his
experience. Again, there was joy in the mountains, zeal for improvement, and mutual exhortation through faith.  Then he also
rejoiced, seeing the ready-mindedness of the monks, and seeing
also his sister, who had grown old in virginity, and presided over
other virgins. After some time, he returned again to the mountain.
Then  at last many monks visited him, and others who had
diseases ventured to come.  The monks who came, he exhorted
continually to faith, love, and purity of mind: he directed them
to avoid carnal pleasures, and vain-glory; to pray without ceasing,
to sing psalms before and after sleep; to repeat the Scripture
commands, and remember the acts of the saints, that their minds
might be excited to imitation. Above all, he admonished them to
meditate continually upon the saying of the apostle, Let not the
* Camels can smell water in the desert, a long way off. But we dare
not insinute that this most wonderful fountain was discovered by the
camel's nose, while Antony was praying. Even then a sort of miracle
might have been made of it; but not near so good as the one which we
have.
t'I'hat is, the monasteries on the outer verge of the desert, in the mountains that bound te Valley i f.e Nile.




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                   283
sun go down upon your wrath. (Eph. iv. 26.)  This he thought
was meant, not of anger alone, but of every sin.  Let every
man, said he, daily call himself to account for his actions by
night and by day.  If he have sinned, let him cease; if not, let
him not glory, but persevere without relaxing in his duties.  Let
him not condemn his neighbor, nor justify himself, but await the
day of judgment: for a man is often unconsciously guilty of sins
which God knows.  Leaving the judgment to God, let us sympathize with one another, and bear one another's burdens.  Let us
examine ourselves strictly, and strenuously endeavor to amend
our failings.  A good way to detect and avoid sin, is for one to
write down candidly his outward actions and his exercises of mind,
as he would tell them  to another; and he will assuredly feel
ashamed of some of them, and sin no more.  For why should
any one, by sinning, wish to injure himself?  Or who, after he
has sinned, does not cheat himself by concealing it? Therefore,
as we would not commit fornication in the sight of others, so, if
we declare our thoughts to ourselves by writing them down, we
shall better guard ourselves from  filthy imaginations, being
ashamed to expose them to our own eyes.  Then let the writing
serve us instead of the eyes of our fellow ascetics; that, blushing
as much to write our evil thoughts, as to let others see them, we
may banish them from  our minds.  By conforming ourselves to
this rule, we shall be able to subdue the body, to please the Lord,
and to frustrate the schemes of the enemy.*
Such were the precepts which Antony gave to those who met
him.  He sympathized and prayed with the afflicted, and in many
cases, the Lord heard him, and healed them. But then he neither
boasted when he was heard, nor murmured when he was nott
but always gave thanks to the Lord. He exhorted the sick to be
* With the exception of a little too much ascetism at the beginning,
we can heartily recommend those rules to the reader's attention and observance.
t He often failed in his efforts to heal the sick;-and when by the power
of imagination or otherwise, they got better, it was deemed a miracle!




284                     CHAPTER XIV.
patient, and to consider that to heal was not in his nor any man's
power, but only in God's. Thus the afflicted received this benefit
at least, that they learned from Antony's discourses to bear their
sufferings patiently, and if they were healed, to thank not Antony,
but God only, for the blessing.
16. Miracles! M'iracles!
There was one Fronto, a courtier, who had a dreadful malady;
for he had gnawed off his tongue, and appeared likely also to injure his eyes. He came to the mountain and besought Antony to
pray for him.  Antony prayed, and then told him to return to
Egypt and he would be healed of his fits. Fronto at first refused
to go, and staid several days; until Antony said to him, If you
stay here, you cannot be healed. Go, and as soon as you enter
Egypt, you will see a sign that will be given you. He believed
and went.  No sooner had he seen Egypt, than he felt himself to
be a sound man.
Again, a certain virgin of Busiris had a sore and disgusting
malady.  Her tears, her mucus, and the moisture from her ears,
when they fell to the ground, became maggots.  Her body was
paralyzed, and her eyes were not natural. Her parents, hearing
that some monks were going to Antony, and believing in the
Lord, who had once healed a woman's issue of blood (Mat. ix. 20),
begged that they might accompany them  with their daughter.
The monks consented.  The parents and child remained outside
of the mountain with Paphnutius, a confessor* and monk.  The
others entered and had scarcely begun to tell Antony about the
virgin, when he anticipated them, described the girl's disease and
told of her having travelled with them.  When they asked that
she and her parents might come in, he would not permit it; but
-said he-do you go out to the place, and you will find her
* Those who, in times ofpersecution, confessed before the judges that
they were Christians, and were ready to undergo any punishment rather
than deny Christ, were called confessors, if they were not put to death,
martyrs, if they were.




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                  285
either dead or cured: for, as I have no power to perform such a
cure, it is useless to bring her to me, miserable man as I am. It
is the Lord who has healed the poor woman, out of regard to her
prayers, and he hath only revealed to me that he would do it in
that place.  The miracle was performed accordingly; for when
they went out, they found her healed, and the parents rejoicing.
Again; two brethren were coming out of Egypt to see him;
but their water having failed, the one was dead and the other almost dead, for he was unable to travel, and lay down, expecting to
die. But Antony, sitting in his mountain cell, called two monks
who happened to be there, and said, Take quickly a pitcher of
water, and run down the road towards Egypt; for two brethren
are on the way; one has died, and the other will die unless you
make haste; for so it has been revealed to me when praying.
The monks went accordingly; and found the one's dead body,
which they buried; but the other they restored by means of the
water, and brought him to the old man.  The distance was a
day's journey.  Now, should any one ask, Why did not Antony
send off the monks in time to save the other?  He would wrong
Antony; for the determination whether the man should live or
die, was with God only; Antony could do nothing till the revelation came to him.
Another time, Antony was sitting in the mountain, and looking
up he saw one carried up on high, and a joyful band meeting him.
Filled with wonder, he pronounced them a band of the blessed,
and prayed to learn what this might be. And straightway came
a voice to him, saying, This is the soul of Ammon, the monk of
Nitria, who led an ascetic life down to his old age.  Thus
spake the voice.  Now the distance from Nitria to Antony's cell
in the mountain was thirteen days' journey. Those who were
present, seeing Antony filled with wonder, asked him the cause of
it.  He answered that Ammon had just ended his life.  This
monk was well known to Antony by reason of his frequent visits,
and his numerous miracles; of which this was one.  Ammon
once having need to cross the river Lycus, when it was high, re



286                     CHAPTER XIV.
quested Theodorus who was with him, to go some distance apart
from him, that they might not see one another naked, when they
crossed the water.  When Theodorus was gone, he still felt
ashamed to see himself naked.  Whilst he considered what he
should do to avoid this shame, he was suddenly carried over to
the other side. When Theodorus had crossed and met him there
without wet, he desired to know how he had passed over; but
he refused to tell.  Then Theodorus embraced his feet, and
vowed that he would not let him go, until he was informed.
Ammon out of regard partly to his earnestness, and partly to his
vow, —after charging him not to speak of it during his life-time,
-explained the matter to him.  He had been carried over the
water without touching it, not by human hands, but by divine
power. Theodorus told this after Ammon's death. The monks
to whom Antony spoke of his death noted the day. Thirty days
afterwards some brethren from Nitria arrived with the intelligence of his death. He had died the very day and hour in which
Antony saw his soul ascending. The monks admired the purity
of Antony's mind, who could see what had happened at such a
great distance.
The Count Archelaus once happening to find him praying alone,
outside of his cell in the mountain, asked him to intercede for
Polycratea, an admirable virgin of Laodicea; for she was dreadfully afflicted in her stomach and side, and was altogether enfeebled in body, from excessive ascetism-that is, fasting and other
bodily mortifications.*  Antony prayed accordingly.  The Count
noted the day on which the prayer was made.  On returning to
Laodicea, he found that the virgin had got well on that very day.
He often predicted, days-sometimes even a month-beforehand, not only the coming of brethren, but also the cause of
their coming.  Some came simply to see him; others, because
they were sick; and others again, because they were infested by
* Many persons thus destroyed their health and their lives, as we learn
by occasional hints in the Fathers, most of whom, in their superstitious
zeal for monkery, seldom alluded to cases of this sort.




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                    287
demons.  None of them  esteemed the fatigue of the journey,
either an annoyance or a loss; for every one felt the benefit of it.
Going down once again to the outer monasteries, he was asked
to go on board of a vessel and pray with the monks.  He alone
perceived a nauseous and very strong smell. The crew of the
vessel said that there was pickled fish in the vessel, and that this
caused the smell. Antony replied that there was a stink of something else.  While he spoke, a young man, who had a demon,
and lay hid in the hold, cried out: but the demon, being rebuked
in the name of our Lord, went out, and the young man was healed.
Then all knew that the demon had made the stench.
There was another, a man of distinction, who was so possessed
by the demon, that he was ignorant of his having come to Antony,
and ate the excrements of his own body.  Those who brought
him, entreated Antony to pray for him.  Antony, pitying the
poor young man, prayed, and watched over him  all the night.
At day-break the young man suddenly ran at Antony and pushed
him.  Those that came with him were angry at this; but Antony
said, Be not angry with the young man; for it was not he who
did it, but the demon within him; who being rebuked, and ordered
to be gone into dry places, raved and went. Therefore give glory
to the Lord; for the demon's assault upon me is a sign to you of
his departure.  Whilst Antony was saying these things, the young
man was restored to his right mind, knew where he was, embraced
the old man, and gave thanks to God.
A  great many monks have with one accord related numbers
more of his miracles;* but these are not so wonderful as others
of a different sort that appear still more wonderful.
* Yes, set monks to telling miraculous stories, and they will always have
enough of them. Their lives are so monotonous and insipid; they have so
little of nature, of reason, or of learning in them, or about them, and such
dreamy fanatical notions of spiritual things, that miracles become as necessary a stimulant to them as brandy to a languid sot. Yet grave Fathers of
the Church gathered up all their wonderful stories, and used all their
authority to give them currency as sacred verities.




288                        CHAPTER XIV.
17. Antony's wonderful visions about the passage of souls, and
the Devil's attempt to seize them.
Once when he was going to eat, and had risen up to pray, about
the ninth hour, he felt himself rapt into a trance; and-strange
to tell-he saw himself, as it were, carried out of himself, and
conducted by certain ones through the air: then he saw certain
malignant and terrible beings standing in the air and stopping up
his way, so that he could not pass. When his conductors strove
with them they demanded that he should give an account of himself, as if he were responsible to them.  They wishing then to
take up the account from the day of his birth, Antony's conductors forbade it, saying that the Lord had blotted out these
earlier matters, but that they might begin their examination of
him from the time that he became a monk and had consecrated
himself to God.  Then they brought accusations against him;
but as they could not convict him, they gave way, and allowed
him free passage. Then immediately he saw himself come back
and stand near himself, and presently he found himself to be all
Antony again.  Then indeed he forgot to eat; and so he continued the rest of the day, and the whole night, groaning and praying: for he was astonished to see with what hosts we have to contend, and what hard work one has to get along through the air:
and he remembered the apostle's saying-According to the prince
of the power of the air (Eph. ii. 2):* for in the air the enemy
has the power, by fighting and tempting, to hinder those who are
passing.  Wherefore he commended the saying, Put on the whole
* St. Paul here speaks according to the common opinion among those to
whom he wrote. We are not to infer that he meant to teach it as a doctrine of revelation, no more than we are to infer, from a similar allusion
of our Saviour, that the disciples of the Pharisees actually cast out demons.
(Luke xi. 19.) In our account of the Greek philosophy and the opinions
of Philo the Jew, we noticed this opinion concerning demons in the air.
We take from Rosenmiiller's note on Eph. ii. 2, the following extracts
from Greek writers: Diogenes Laertius says, "The whole atmosphere is
full of spirits, which are thought to be demons and heroes."  And Plutarch
says, " The air beneath and the heavens above are full of gods and demons."




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                      2S9
armor of God, $c.  (Eph. vi. 13.)  Let us also remember the
words of the apostle, saying, Whether in the body, or out of the
body, I cannot tell. (2 Cor. xii. 2.)
Antony had, moreover, this gift. If at any time, when he was
sitting alone, in the mountain, he doubted in himself concerning
anything, this was revealed to him by Providence, while he was
praying; as it is written, The saint is taught of God.*  (John
vi. 45.)
After the vision just mentioned he was once conversing with
some who were with him, about the way in which the soul passed
into a future state, and what sort of a place it would have there.
The next night some one from  above called to him, and said,
Antony, arise-come forth, and see. Then he arose (for he knew
to whom he ought to give ear), and beheld a tall, gloomy, and terrible form, whose stature reached to the clouds, and other forms
ascending as if with wings. The giant form stretched forth his
hands, and arrested some of the ascending spirits; but others of
them flew above him, and passing by, had then a free passage upwards.  The monster gnashed his teeth when these escaped him,
but rejoiced over those that fell.t Then came a voice to Antony,
saying, Consider the vision. His understanding being opened, he
perceived it to represent the passage of souls-the tall figure to
be the Devil, who envies the faithful, and who seizes and stops
those that are liable to his arrest, but cannot lay hold on those
that fly above him, because they have not obeyed him.
After he saw this vision, considering it as an admonition to
* This is not correctly quoted here.
T It is pleasant to find among the vapid imaginings of monkery a truly
poetical conception, like this of old Antony. His vast gloomy devil, with
his feet on the earth and his head in the clouds, is not inferior to Camoens's
Spirit of the Cape, so much admired by the critics. But in awfully
descriptive power, nothing of the kind is equal to Job's vision of the night,
when deep sleep falleth upon man, when a spirit passed before his face,
and made the hair of his flesh stand up; when the image whose form he
could not discern stood still before his eyes, and a voice sounded in bis
ars, " Shall mortal man be more just than God'"  (Job. iv. 13.)
13




290                      CHAPTER XIV,
himself, he strove hard to make farther progress, every day, in
his exercises of prayer and fasting.  But as to the vision, he
could scarcely be persuaded to tell it. But the long time that he
spent in his prayers on that occasion, raised the curiosity of his
companions, and their eager inquiries at length drew it from him
-he believing that the narration would be useful to them.
18. How Antony was taken to Alexandria to preach against the
Arians.
He held all clergymen in the greatest honor.  He was not
ashamed to bow his head before bishops and priests: and if
a deacon at any time met with him, and discoursed in a profitable
manner, he yielded him the precedence in prayer, for he was not
ashamed to learn from  any one.  He often asked questions for
information, and deigned to hear all who were present.
He possessed a wonderful grace of countenance, insomuch that
a stranger visiting a company of monks, would at first sight
be attracted by his look, and attach himself to him in preference
to the rest.  Yet he was not taller nor larger than the others: it
was by his kindliness and ease of manner, and by the purity of his
mind, that he won all hearts.  His look was always serene and
cheerful, showing a soul undisturbed by evil passions.
Excellent and admirable also were his faith and piety. For he
would have nothing to do with the Meletian schismatics,* after he
knew their wickedness and apostasy from the church. Nor would
he associate with the Manichees,- or any other heretics, except
* Followers of Meletius, an Egyptian bishop, who was deposed from his
office by a party headed by Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, but being sustained by a large minority, he made a schism which continued a long
time. His enemies charged him with having sacrificed to idols in the late
persecution. He alleged that the cause of their enmity was his opposition to Peter's indulgent.policy towards those who had apostatized. The
monks were of Peter's party.
t Followers of Mani, a Persian, who incorporated the Magian doctrine
of two eternal principles with Christianity. According to the Manichees,
the good principle is God, represented by light-the evil principle, matter,




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                    291
so far as to admonish them, and exhort them to turn to the true
religion: for he considered and declared that their friendship and
society were destructive to the soul. He also abominated the
heresy of the Arians, and exhorted  the faithful never to go
near them, nor to touch their corrupt doctrine. So when once
some Arians came to visit him, and he discovered that they
belonged to this impious sect, he drove them  away from  the
mountain, saying, that their doctrines were worse than the poison
of serpents: and when some Arians once told him, falsely, that
their opinions agreed with his, he was filled with indignation and
wrath against them.
Afterwards, at the request of the bishops and all the brethren,
he left his mountain and went down to Alexandria, and preached
violently against the Arians, saying that theirs was the last heresy
and the forerunner of Antichrist. He taught the people that the
Son of God was no creature, but the Eternal Word and Wisdom
of the Father. Wherefore, said he, have no fellowship with these
abominably impious Arians.  You are Christians; but they who
say that the Son and Word of God is a created being, are no
better than the heathen, who worship the creature rather than the
Creator. Believe me, that the whole creation is angry with them
for putting the Creator and Lord of all things in the number of
creatures.
The people all rejoiced to see so great a man denouncing and
endued with a living energy, called also the Devil, and represented by
darkness. Matter being essentially evil, the body is therefore the prison
of the soul, and the cause of its vice and misery. They denied the reality
of Christ's body, supposing that a divine being would not unite himself
with the evil principle. With such a foundation for their system, they
would of course adopt ascetic rules of living. They divided their community into two classes, the elect, who were severely ascetic, practicing
continence, and all the bodily m9rtifications of monkery, and the auditors,
who were allowed to marry if they could not contain, but were taught to
fast much, and live austerely. The Manichees rose in the third century,
agreed in fundamentals with the Gnostics that preceded them, were
diffused over Christendom, and continued for ages.




292                        CIAPTER XIV.
cursing this anti-Christian heresy. All the people of the city ran
together to see Antony. Even the heathen part of the people,
and those called their priests, came to the church, asking to see the
man of God, as everybody called him.  There, too, the Lord
by him  purified many of demons and of insanity.  Many of the
heathen, too, requested that they might only touch him, believing
that it would do them good. Verily, as many were converted to
Christianity in those few days, as we usually see in a whole year.*
When some supposed that he must be troubled by the crowds
that surrounded him, he said that he was not; that he had struggled with quite as numerous crowds of demons in the desert.
When he left us and we had attended him as far as the city gate,
a woman came bawling after us, Stop! stop, thou man of God:
my daughter is woefully vexed with demons; stop, I pray thee, or
I shall kill myself with running.  The old man stopped; and
when the woman came near, her daughter was jerked to the
ground by the demon.  When Antony prayed, the unclean spirit
* Athanasius spent his life in battling with the Arians, who denied that
the Son was of the same substance with the Father, though they affirmed
his divinity and likeness to the Father. They were a strong party in
Alexandria, as well as in other parts of the church, and several times got
the emperor to banish Athanasius from the city. Hence he hated them
with a perfect hatred.
He knew what he was about, when he brought the famous dirty old monk
from the desert to work upon the minds of the Alexandrian populace,
against the Arian party. The untaught multitude are always mightily
taken with such characters. Many a wonderful report had they heard in
Alexandria of St. Antony's doings in the deserts of Upper Egypt, four hundred miles away-of his fastings, prayings, miracles, battles with demons
-and of his not having washed himself, nor changed his rough garments,
nor cut nor combed his hair, or beard, for at least fifty years. Wonderful
man! Wonderful saint! No wonder that they ran in crowds to see such
a body and such a soul. The fact that he was totally illiterate was to thein
an argument that he was a heaven-taught expounder of the mysteries of
the Godhead. Had he not conversed with the angels, and did he not know
divine mysteries better than learned doctors of divinity? These sentiments
were common to the heathen and the Christian populace.




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                   993,
went out, and the girl got up sound well.  Then the old man
departed for his own home in the mountain.
19. How Antony out-witted the philosophers.
It is wonderful how prudent and how sharp-witted Antony was,
considering that he had never learned to read.
Two Greek philosophers came to him, one day, in the outer
mountain [next to the Nile], thinking that they could confound
him.  When he saw them, he knew by their looks what they
were.*  He said to them, by an interpreter,t Heigh, philosophers! Do you put yourselves to all this trouble to visit a fool?
They answered [perhaps ironically], You are no fool, but a wise
man.  Antony replied, If you have come to see a fool, you have
lost your labor: but if, as you say, I am a wise man, then be what
I am; for it is good to imitate a good thing. If I had gone to see
you, I should have imitated you: but as you have come to see
me, be Christians, as I am a Christian. The philosophers retired,
admiring Antony; for they saw he was qualified to make demons
afraid of him.
Others of the same sort came to him in the outer mountain,
intending to make sport out of him, because he was illiterate.
Antony said to them, Which is better, good sense or learning?
And which is the cause of the other? good sense, of learning? or
learning, of good sense?  They answered, Good sense is to be
preferred, and is the inventor of learning.  Well, then, said
Antony, he who has a sound mind has no need of learning.  This
reply confounded the philosophers, and they went away, wondering how an illiterate man could have so much wit.T
* Professed philosophers distinguished themselves by wearing beards,
and a cloak of singular fashion. The Platonic Christian philosophers
generally adopted the same habit.
t Antony knew only the Coptic, that is, the Egyptian language.
t In both these instances Antony showed a ready wit: in the former,
the turn that he took upon the philosophers was admirable; in the latter,
it was ingenious, but by no means conclusive. If the philosophers had
possessed half the mother-wit of old Antony, they could readily have




294                       CHAPTER XIV,
Another time, some, who were esteemed wise Men by the
Greeks, came to demand of him a reason for our faith in Christ,
-thinking that they could turn his argument to ridicule.  He
paused awhile, and then said to them, through an interpreter,
Which is better, to confess the cross of Christ, or to attribute
adultery and sodomy to those whom  you believe to be Gods?
[NOTE.-Here Athanasius puts a long argument into the mouth
of Antony.  Most of it would be uninteresting to the reader; we
therefore omit it all, except a few select passages, which contain
something striking.]
- "Which is better, to say that the Word of God assumed a
human body, that, by partaking of human nature, he might make
men partakers of a divine and intellectual nature; or to liken the
Divine nature to brutes, and on that account to worship fourfooted beasts, and reptiles, and images of men * For these are
objects of worship to your wise men. And how dare you scoff at
us for saying that Christ appeared as man, when you yourselves
say that the soul-which you consider a distinct thing from  the
intelligent mind-went astray, and fell from  the circle of the
heavens into a body; and that it transmigrates not only into the
human body, but also into the bodies of beasts and reptiles;t
replied, that man has need not only of sound natural sense, but of the
improvement in knowledge which is best acquired by means of books.
In respect even to religion, what would it be without letters? And what
would all men be without them, but savages? But perhaps the philosophers considered it useless to present such an argument to an illiterate
monk, who could not appreciate its force, and who thought that this
world, and these bodies, which God had made for us, were very contemptible contrivances; who thought, moreover, that the best way to
please the Creator of the world, was to reject the gifts that he offered us,
hate the pleasures that he had prepared for us, and to renounce, as far as
possible, the earthly life which he had assigned us.
* Brute worship was a part of the old Egyptian superstition, but the
philosophers did not adopt or advocate that absurdity. As to image worship, the Catholic Church had not yet borrowed it of the idolaters, as she
did afterwards, in spite of the Divine prohibition.
t The philosophers held that the animal soul of man was earth-born,




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                      295
You depend on demonstrative reasonings to establish your doctrines; and having this art, you would also have us not to worship
God without argumentative proof.  Now tell me: How are facts,
and especially how  is the knowledge of God, most accurately
ascertained? Is it by demonstration of reason? or by energy of
faith?  Which is older, faith wrought in the soul, or demonstration by reason?  The philosophers admitted that inwrought faith
was older.  You say well (continued Antony), for faith springs
from an affection of the soul; logic from  human art.  Therefore
to those in whom faith has been wrought, demonstration by reasoning is unnecessary, if not superfluous; for what we understand
by faith, you endeavor to prove by arguments.  We are often
unable to express what we understand by faith; so that the operation of faith is better than the operation of your sophistical arguments. "*
"Behold the martyrs despising death for Christ's sake.  Behold the virgins of the Church, who, for Christ's sake, keep their
bodies pure and unpolluted.  These are sufficient tokens to show
that the Christian faith is the only true religion. You are now
unbelieving, because you demand  [philosophical] reasons and
and that it was the rational soul, or intellect, which "went astray and
fell." The doctrine of transmigration was common through nearly all the
ancient world. It seems -to have originated from the idea that this corporeal life is a state of punishment. The same doctrine became current
among the Jews after the captivity.
* Learned infidels have laid hold of passages like this in the Fathers, in
order to show that the early Christians repudiated reason, and relied solely
upon the power of faith to establish the truth of their religion. It is true
that the Fathers generally were unskillful reasoners, and often made use of
silly and unfounded arguments. But it would be a great mistake to suppose that they disclaimed rational grounds of conviction, and relied solely
on faith wrought in the soul by Divine Power. Even here, old Antony
professes to exhibit external evidence of the truth of Christianity. His
meaning-or rather that of Athanasius-was, that Christians did not prove
their religion by that sort of abstract reasoning which the philosophers
employed to establish the truth of their system of philosophy. He was
right. Christianity comes by revelation: philosophy by reason alone.




296                        CHAPTER XIV.
arguments.  We do not use the persuasive arguments of the
Grecian philosophy (1 Cor. ii. 4), but by faith we give a clear
confirmation of what we teach. Behold here are some men suffering from demons."
Then Antony brought forward several who were troubled with
demons, and said, Can you heal these men by your reasonings?
or by any art or magic, calling upon your idols? Saying these
things he called upon the name of Christ, marked the demoniacs
with the sign of the' cross, a first, second, and third time. Immediately these men were perfectly healed of their insanity. The
philosophers wondered at Antony's wisdom, and at the miracle
which was performed.*
20. Containing sundry matters.
The fame of Antony extended even to the imperial court.
The emperor Constantine, and his sons Constantius and Constans,
wrote to him as a father, and requested an answer. But he had
no respect for the art of writing, and took no pleasure in letters.
He was unwilling, therefore, to receive the emperor's letter, because he was unable to write an answer. But being told by the
monks that the imperial family were Christians, and if he thus
cast them off they would be offended, he suffered the letter to be
read to him, and dictated an answer to the effect that he was glad
to hear they worshiped  Christ.  He admonished them  not to
* The belief in demons, demoniacal possessions, and magic, was universal in this age, and for many ages both before and afterwards. To cast
out demons from the possessed, who were generally lunatic or epileptic,
was supposed to require the power of God, or of magic, by which the aid
of a superior demon was obtained, or else the aid of some natural object
which had an occult virtue to expel demons. Our Saviour exhibited divine
power by healing instantly before his enemies those known to be incurable
by human art. But this story of Antony's healing the demoniacs is very
suspicious. He had his professed demoniacs ready for the occasion. It was
easy to feign madness or epilepsy. If the philosophers wondered and suspected nothing, we should remember that philosophers are sometimes very
credulous and not very wise.




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                    297
think highly of present things, but rather to remember the future
judgment, and to know that Christ alone is the true and eternal
king.  He exhorted them to be humane and just, and mindful of
the poor.  They rejoiced when they received this letter.
After these things he returned again to the mountain, in the
heart of the desert, and applied himself to his usual exercise.
Often when he sat or walked with those present, he would be
struck dumb with amazement, for the space of an hour, after
which he would pursue his conversation with the brethren, who
knew from this that he had seen a vision. For, oftentimes, when
he was in the mountain, events then happening in Egypt, would
be presented to him in vision.
Once when he was seated in company he fell into a trance,
and groaned heavily at the vision he saw.  After an hour, he
turned to the company, groaned, trembled, stood up and prayed,
and then falling upon his knees he continued long in that posture.
When he rose at last, weeping, the brethren importuned him to
tell them what the matter was. At last he said, Children, would
that I had died before I saw this vision.  Wrath is coming upon
the Church; she will be delivered to men who are like natural
brute beasts. I have seea mules standing round the Lord's table,
kicking and leaping in wild disorder. You heard how I groaned,
when a voice said, My altar will become an abomination.  This
was the old man's vision. Two years afterwards the Arians made
that inroad upon Egypt which yet continues.* During the Arian
persecution, a certain prefect, named Balacius, in his zeal for
Arianism, treated the (Catholic) Christians with great cruelty.
He beat the virgins, and, stripping the monks, scourged them
with whips.  Antony sent some brethren to him, with a letter to
* Bv a decree of the Emperor Constantius, Athanasius was banished for
the third time from Alexandria, and the Arians were put in possession of
the churches. They committed many outrages upon the Catholics. As
to Father Antony's prophecy of this event, we suspect that it was notpublished before it was fulfilled. Antony, being a sagacious old man, may have
expressed some apprehensions beforehand that such a thing would happen.
If so, his disciples would believe that he prophesied it,
13*




.298                    CHAPTER XIV.
this effect: I see the wrath of God impending over you. Cease
to persecute the Christians, lest it fall upon you, as it will in a
very short time. Balacius laughed at the letter, threw it on the
ground, spit upon it, and said insultingly to those who brought it,
Go tell Antony, that since he takes the monks under his protection, I shall soon come upon him.
Fiye days had not passed before the wrath overtook him. He
rode out of the city with Nestorius, President of Egypt. Both
horses belonged to Balacius, and were the gentlest that he had.
They had scarcely reached the open country, when the horses
became playful, as horses confined in a stable are apt to be when
they get out.  Suddenly, the horse which Nestorius rode, in snapping at the other, gave the thigh of Balacius such a lacerating bite
that he had to be carried into the city. In three days he died.
Such was the influence of Antony over those who visited him,
that many, even of the soldiers and of the wealthy, left the cares
and burdens of this life, and became monks. He was indeed as
a heaven-born physician to Egypt.  For who went to him in sorrow, and did not come back rejoicing?  Who went to him in
anger, and was not converted into a friend?  What poor man
met him, with a dejected heart, who, after he saw and heard him,
did not go away despising riches, and content with poverty? If
a monk was remiss, he excited him to diligence. If a young man
went to the mountain and beheld Antony, he straightway renounced
pleasure and embraced a life of temperance.  Whosoever came to
him, tempted by a demon, was relieved; or if troubled with evil
thoughts and reasonings, was tranquilized.  For this was the
grand attainment of Antony's exercise, that, as I said before, he
had the gift of discerning spirits, and knew all their movements,
and what was each one's aim and inclination. Not only was he
himself fiee from  their delusions, but he could advise those
troubled in mind how to defeat their designs, by describing to
them the weakness of the inworking demons, and their villainous
acts. Thus each one being trained for the contest, went forth
courageously against the devices of the devil and his demons.




ST. ANTONY THE MONK                     299
Many virgins already espoused* to men, by merely seeing
Antony at a distance, remained virgins for Christ..21. Antony's Death.
How he ended his life, it becomes me also to relate, and you
to hear with diligent attention; for in this also he was worthy of
imitation.
According to custom, he visited the monks in the outer mountain; and being providentially warned of his approaching end,
he said to the brethren: This is my last visit, and I shall think
it strange if we ever meet again in this life. It is time for me to
depart, for I am  nearly 105 years old.  When they heard this
they wept, fell upon the old man's neck and kissed him. But he,
as if going home from a foreign land, conversed with them cheerfully, and exhorted them to persevere in their labor and exercise,
to live daily as if they were dying, diligently to guard their hearts
against evil thoughts, to be zealous for the saints, and not to go
near the schismatic Meletians. And (said he) have nothing to
do with the Arians, whose impiety is manifested to all.
When the brethren insisted that he should stay and end his
days with them, he refused, principally for this reason: The
Egyptians are accustomed to embalm the bodies of their dead,
especially of the holy martyrs, and to wrap them in linen cloths,
but not to bury them in the ground.  They lay them on couches,
and keep them  in private apartments of their houses.  But
Antony disapproved of this, and had often remonstrated against
it with the bishops, and people, as contrary to the custom of
the patriarchs and the example of our Lord.  Fearing that his
body might be treated in this way, he hastened away to the interior mountain where he had usually resided.
Here, after a few months, he was taken sick. He had, during
* Virgins of the East were often espoused long before the marriage was
consummated. Antony must have emitted a powerful anti-matrimonial
influence, when a distant sight of him was sufficient to dissolve a mark
riage contract. What would a touch have done?




300                     CHAPTER XIV.
the last fifteen years, kept two monks here with him, who
ministered to him  on account of his great age.  To these he
repeated his frequent exhortations and charges to others-never
to relax in the exercise, not to fear the demons, and to have
nothing to do with schismatics and Arian heretics.  He charged
them  not to suffer his body to be carried into Egypt to be kept
in houses, but to bury it in the earth and conceal the place.*
Finally, he made his will. " Distribute my clothes (said he)Give one of my sheepskins to Athanasius, the bishop, and also my
undercoat, which he gave me when it was new, and I now return
to him  well-worn.  Give my other sheepskin to Sarapion, the
bishop.  Keep my hair-shirt for yourselves. Finally, children,
farewell; for Antony is passing away, and will be with you no
more."- So saying, he stretched out his feet, and with a smiling
countenance, expired.  They buried him, according to his directions, and to this day no one knows where his body is hidden,
except those two brethren.
The sheepskins and coat which he had worn, were thankfully
received, and are kept as things of great value.
From  this brief narrative you may judge how great a man
Antony was, who from youth to extreme old age, steadfastly persevered in his ascetic life. He never indulged his old age with
better food, nor his infirmity with a change of clothing; nor did
he ever wash his feet. Yet he continued sound in all his members.  His eyesight was unimpaired to the last, and his teeth
were sound, though worn to mere stumps by long use.  He
retained also the perfect use of his feet and hands; and in fine,
was more sleek and vigorous than those who use variety of food,
washing, and change of clothing.  His fame spread through all
the Roman Empire, from  his remote habitation in the desert
mountain. That which rendered him famous, was neither learning
nor worldly wisdom, nor human art; but only his piety towards
God. And let this be known to all the brethren, that them who
live as monks ought to do, will the Lord not only lead to heaven,
* See Jerome's Life of Hilarion, ~ 31, near the end.




ST. ANTONY THE MONK.                 301
but render illustrious and renowned through all the earth, however deeply they may hide themselves in the desert.
APPENDIX.
From Socrates's Hist. Eccl. Book IV. Ch. 23.
A philosopher said to Antony:  How can you live without the
consolation of books? My books, 0 philosopher, said Antony,
is the nature of the things created; and I can readily, when I
will, read the word of God.
From the same, Ch. 25.
It is said that Antony, when he went to Alexandria on account
of the Arians, met with blind Didymus; and finding out how
sensible a man he was, said to him: 0 Didymus, let not the loss
of your external eyes grieve you, for with such eyes even gnats
and flies can see; but rejoice that you have the eyes with which
angels see, and God himself is seen, and his light is apprehended.
Concluding Note.
Having gone through the life of St. Antony, we-cannot refuse
him the parting tribute of our admiration for the real greatness
of his character.  He was the prince of the hermits, and the
founder of monachism  among Christians.  Perfectly illiterate,
and a recluse in a desert for eighty years, the force of his mere
example was such as to draw thousands after him, and to establish an institution that soon spread through the Church, and
for 1500 years has continued to exert a powerful influence over
the minds of men.
Those qualities in Antony which made his example so influential, were, first, his steadfastness of purpose, and secondly the
natural strength of his intellect. Setting out upon the principle,
14




302                     CHAPTER XIV.
that what he understood to be the commands of Christ, he would
obey to the letter; he did so with an unwavering resolution
during eighty-five years; denying himself every earthly comfort,
which the soul naturally desires, and the God of nature benevolently offers.  While we condemn the error of his views, we
must admire the steadfastness of his adherence to what he conceived to be his duty to Christ.
He was conscious of a strength of mind, which he conceived to
make the aid of other men unnecessary, either for his instruction,
or his confirmation in the path of duty.  He relied upon himself
alone, and the occasional help of God, to conquer all the hosts
of darkness and all the passions of his nature.  And in his
way he did conquer.  Then he had a sagacity, a ready wit,
a persuasive power of thought, which completed his character,
and fitted him to be the captain of all who were disposed to war
against nature.