150 



ANACHARS1S THE YOUNGKU ANACHORETS'. 



only in H tew congregations without rclviptism. 

 They consider tin- Pure and Mennoiiites as luv- 

 tlir-n ; seldom exclude memltrrs, except from the 

 sacrament, and this not MI frequently as Ilif latter 

 |i:. rtirs; permit iniliuiry service, ;nul (lie discharge 

 of civil offices, ami even an oath of testimony, ;nnl 

 prohibit only tlie oath of promise. They allow of 

 learning, and have erected a seminary at Amster- 

 dam for the education of ministers, to which young 

 men of the Mennonite party are also admitted. In 

 Holland, the Anabaptists obtained toleration under 

 William I., and complete religious liberty in 1(526. 

 There are now in that country 131 churches, and 

 ;s.i teachers of all tlie parties of Anabaptists, of 

 whom the majority belong to the Remonstrants, 

 about one-third to the Mennonites, and a few small 

 congregations to the Pure. The Anabaptists in 

 (id-many, where they are most- numerous, on the 

 banks of the Rhine, in East Prussia, Switzerland, 

 Alsace, and Lorraine, consider themselves proper 

 Mennonite.s. In the religious worship of all these 

 parties, there is but a trifling difference from the 

 terms of the Protestant service; but they more 

 nearly resemble the Calvinists than the Lutherans. 

 The Pure have elders or bishops who administer the 

 sacraments, ministers who preach, and deacons or 

 almoners. All these officers are chosen by the vote 

 i>f the churches. The Mennonites have ministers or 

 deacons, of whom the former are the proper pastors, 

 ami the latter only exhorters or preachers; but 

 both are chosen by the ecclesiastical council or pres- 

 Iiyu-Yy. The Remonstrants pursue a similar course. 

 In general, the Anabaptists still deserve tlie praise 

 formerly bestowed upon them, of diligence, industry, 

 order, and purity of morals. Many of them, how- 

 ever, have become so accustomed to the manners of 

 the world, that the peculiarities of this sect have 

 gradually worn away, and the sect itself seems 

 hastening to decay. The Baptists (q. v.) in England 

 form a distinct sect, without any connexion with the 

 successors of the ancient Anabaptists here described. 

 ANACHARSIS THE YOUNGER, a Scythian, and brother 

 of the king Saulus, was a lover of wisdom and of the 

 sciences, and esteemed one of the seven wise men 

 of Greece. The love of knowledge induced him to 

 leave his barbarous country, and travel among the 

 more civilized nations. In the time of Solon, he 

 visited Athens, from whence he proceeded to other 

 countries. After his return, the king put him to 

 death, in order to prevent the introduction of the 

 effeminate manners 'and 'worship of the Greeks, 

 which was attempted by A. See Voyage du jet/ne 

 shiacharsis, par Barthvlemi ; see also the transla- 

 tion, Travels of j4nacharsi$ the Younger. 



ANACHORETS, or ANCHORETS, In ecclesiastical his- 

 tory, were a celebrated class of religious persons, 

 who generally passed their lives in cells, (rom which 

 they never removed. Their habitations were, in 

 many instances, entirely separated from the abodes 

 of other men, sometimes in the depth of wilder- 

 nesses, in pits or caverns ; at other times, several of 

 these individuals fixed their habitations in the vici- 

 nity of each other, when their cells were called by 

 the collective name of (aura ; but they always lived 

 personally separate. Thus the laura was distin- 

 guished from the coenobium or convent, where the 

 monks lived in society on a common stock ; and the 

 anachoret differed from a, hermit, although his abode 

 was frequently called a hermitage, inasmuch as the 

 latter ranged at liberty, while the former rarely, 

 Hrid, in many instances, never, quitted his cell. But 

 a convent was sometimes surrounded by a [aura, to 

 which the more devout or the more idle of the monks 

 would -ultimately retire. Paul the Hermit is said to 

 have been the first person who devoted himself to 



this kind of solitude. In nil ages and in all coun- 

 tries, retirement from the \\orlil has |>eeii considered 

 as facilitating the attainment of a virtuous life,.,as 

 adding strength to strong characters, and enabling 

 tlie mind to follow out great ideas without interrup- 

 tion. The prophets prepared themselves in solitude 

 for their tasks; the Pythagoreans, Stoics, Cynics, 

 and Platiniists recommend the self-denial and the 

 quiet happiness- of the solitary sige. Vasari calls 

 solitude the delight and school of great minds. In 

 many parts ot'the Rast, where a sombre religion throws 

 over life a melancholy shade, it has been thought, 

 from time immemorial, a religious act to quit for 

 ever the busy world, and even to add liodily pain (o 

 the melancholy of solitude. This spirit, which still 

 prevails in the F.a-t, passed over, with many other 

 Oriental ideas, doctrines, and customs, to the early 

 Christians, and the state of the world, in the begin- 

 ning of the Christian era, was peculiarly fitted to 

 favour its growth. The continual prevalence ot 

 bloody wars and civil commotions, at this period, 

 must have made retirement anil religious meditation 

 agreeable to men of quiet and contemplative minds. 

 Accordingly, we find, in the first centuries of our 

 era, very eminent and virtuous men among the ana- 

 chorets, e. g. St Augnstin. This spirit, however, a- 

 might have been expected, soon led to fanatical ex- 

 cesses. All the horrid penances of the East were 

 introduced among Christian hermits ; and we find, 

 at the close of the 4th century, Simeon Stylites pass- 

 ing thirty years on the top of a column, without ever 

 descending from it, and finally dying there. Though 

 we must needs pity such unhappy delusion, such a 

 moral insanity, we cannot help acknowledging the 

 strong power of will exhibited in this and many 

 other instances of a similar kind. In fact, the spirit 

 of retirement and self-torment raged like an epidemic 

 among the early Christians in the East. In Egypt 

 and Syria, where Christianity became blended with 

 the Grecian philosophy, and strongly tinged with the 

 peculiar notions of the- East, the anachorets were 

 most numerous ; and from those who lived in cells, 

 in the vicinity of a church, such as Moore descrilx-s 

 in the Epicurean, the convents of a later period 

 sprung, which were filled with inmates anxious to 

 escape from the tumult and bloodshed, which marked 

 the beginning of the middle ages. Early in the 

 seventh century, the councils began to lay down 

 rules for the order of anachorets. The Trullan 

 canons say " Those who affect to be anachorets 

 shall first, for three years, be confined to a cell in a 

 monastery ; and if, after this, they profess that they 

 persist, let them be examined by the bishop or ab- 

 bot, let them live one year at large, and, if they 

 still approve of their first choice, let them be con- 

 fined to their cell, and not be permitted to go out of 

 it but by the consent and after the benediction of 

 the bishop, in case of great necessity." Frequently, 

 at this period, the monks of various abbeys would 

 select from among them a brother, who was thought 

 to be most exemplary in his profession, and devote 

 him to entire seclusion, as an honour, and to give 

 him the greater opportunity of indulging his reli- 

 gious contemplations. InFosbrook'sMonachism, 4to, 

 1817, the ceremony by which an anachoret was con- 

 secrated to seclusion from the world is described at 

 length. The cells in which the anachorets lived 

 were, according to some rules, only twelve feet 

 square, of stone, with three windows. ,The door 

 was locked upon the anachoret, and often walled 

 up. The cell which is said to have been occupied 

 by St Dunstan, at Glastonbury, was, according to 

 Osborn, in his life of that monk, not more than five 

 feet long, two and a half feet broad, and Iwely the 

 height of a man. Here the recluse passed his time 



