O'lfjGIN OP MO&ACHISM. fffj 



6f Jems. It was ever the cuftom with the segyptiant 

 afcetics to believe they were perpetually finning ; that 

 penance was therefore always necelTary, without being 

 enjoined by the church, and though the neglect of 

 this work cf piety did not exclude them from parti- 

 cipating in the fac ram ems': In this then they acted like 

 thofe, who fondly imagined, by disfiguring their 

 faces, by fitting in ragged garments, by rolling them- 

 felves ih the duft^ and by fmearing their bodies with 

 dirt, to obtain the forgivehefs of their fins. The 

 afcetic virgins were afhamed of their fex ; the youths 

 emafculated themfelves in facred fury, from the mi£- 

 eonflrued injunction, if a member offend tKee, cut it 

 off*. 



Before the birth of segyptiah philbfophy, that fa- 

 mous medley which fprung up in Alexandria, from 

 the doctrines of Pythagoras and Plato, Had mingled 

 with oegyptiah chriftianity ; and folitude and monkery 

 were, in the eyes of numberlefs inhuman segyptian* 

 and orientals, the peculiar defoliation of man, and the 

 proper end of life ; there already were people wild 

 abandoned their relations, and retired frorrt all inter- 

 courfe with the world* Many of them, however, did 



* From this falfe exegetic, there arofe, about the year of 

 Chrift 240. a clafs of afcetics far more dangerous ftill. The/v 

 were called Valefiahs. C'ecoient des heretiques fort dangereu;£/ 

 Jays a french hiftorian, car croyaht que la concupifcence ctoit la 

 liberte, its foutenoient, qu'ii falloit en fopprimer la fource, en f<s 

 faifant eunuques : et its pouffoient leur charite et ieur zc\c jufqu'a 

 faire eunuques de tons ceux qn s ils pouvoient attraper C'etoit la 

 Ifeuf bonne oeuvre principale. 



not 



