760 ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



Led into his mode of life by the two-fold belief that 

 voluntary submission to pain pleases God, and that morti 

 fications of the flesh bring inspiration, the ascetic makes his 

 appearance among the devotees of every religion which 

 reaches any considerable development. Though there is 

 little reference to permanent anchorites in ancient American 

 societies, we are told of temporary religious retirements ; as 

 in Guatemala, where the high-priest, who was in some cases 

 the king, fasted &quot; four, or even eight, months in seclusion ; &quot; 

 and as in Peru, where the Yncas occasionally lived in solitude 

 and fasted. Among the religions of the old world, Buddhism, 

 Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammetanisin, have all fur 

 nished numerous examples. Biblical history shows that &quot; in 

 times anterior to the Gospel, prophets and martyrs in sheep 

 skins and goatskins/ wandered over mountains and deserts, 

 and dwelt in caves.&quot; This discipline of separateness and 

 abstinence, indicated as early as the days of Moses in the 

 &quot; vow of a Nazarite,&quot; and shown by the Essenes to be still 

 existing in later times, reappeared in the discipline of the 

 Christian hermits, who were the first monks or solitaries: 

 the two words being originally equivalent. These grew 

 numerous during the persecutions of the third century, when 

 their retreats became refuges. 



&quot;From that time to the reign of Constantine, monachism was con 

 fined to the hermits, or anchorets, living in private cells in the wilder 

 ness. But when Pachomius had erected monasteries in Egypt, other 

 countries presently followed the example, and so the monastic life came 

 to its full maturity in the church.&quot; 

 Or, as Lingard describes the process : 



&quot; Wherever there dwelt a monk [a recluse] of superior reputation 

 for sanctity, the desire of profiting by his advice and example induced 

 others to fix their habitations in his neighbourhood : he became their 

 Abbas or spiritual father, they his voluntary subjects : and the group 

 of separate cells which they formed around him was known to others 

 by, the name of his monastery.&quot; 



Thus, beginning as usual in a dispersed unorganized form, 

 and progressing to small clusters such as those of the 

 Coenobites in Egypt, severally governed by a superior with a 



