PK.OGR.ESS OF MONACHISM. 



The others were termed anachoretes, hermits, or inha- 

 bitants of the defart. 



Properly fpeaking, there were four fpecies of Egyp- 

 tian monks : coenobites, anachoretes, remoboth or 

 farabaites, and itinerants. 



Coenobites were fuch as dwelt in common and toge- 

 ther. We read the account of their whole ceconomy iri 

 Hieronymus. They were divided into communities of 

 tens and hundreds. Every nine of them had a fuperior. 

 They dwelt in cells apart from each other, and did not 

 come together till the ninth hour, excepting the fupe- 

 rior, who viflted his fheep one by one. At every hour 

 they united for the purpofe of ringing pfalrhs and reading 

 the fcriptures, and for prayer. This done, the father* 

 fitting in the middle, began to fpeak ; during which 

 hone prefumed to look at another, nor even to fpit. 

 When the meeting was over, every ten went to table 

 with their fuperior. Here no perfon fpoke : they ate 

 nothing but bread, pulfe and herbs, feafoned with 

 fait, and occasionally with oil. Wine was allowed on- 

 ly to the aged, to whom, as well as to the lick, a din- 

 ner was frequently ferved , that the former might be 

 ftrengthened, and the latter not too much reduced. 

 The repaft being ended, they rofe up, fung a hymn, 

 and returned to their penns * ; and there each fuperior 



held 



* This is the proper name of them* and the only one fu-ited 

 to the mcnafreries of thofe times : fince then they have been 

 very much altered. Mandra was the name of the place on which 

 thefe cotes or penns were conilructed ; and this word denotes a 

 fheep-fold. Like the fheep-fokls, thefe habitations of the monks 

 had no other covering but the Iky, and nothing round them but a 



v z fence. 



