PROGRESS OF MONACHISM. 293 



Remoboth or Sarabaites, as we learn from Hierony- 

 mus, were wretched and defpifed ; though, in his pro- 

 vince, they were either the only, or the principal clafs 

 in being. Two or three of them, hardly ever more, 

 dwelt together, entirely as they pleafed in perfect inde- 

 pendence. They lived in common on the profits ari- 

 ling from their work. Great numbers of them took 

 up their quarters in towns and fortrefles. All they fold 

 was clear. Quarrels frequently arofe among them, as 

 they would live on the fruits of their own induflxy, 

 and be in fubjeclion to no man. They even run after 

 girls, fays Hieronymus, fpeak evil of eccleliafcics, 

 and eat, on holidays, till they are ready to burft. 

 Gaffian (peaks of thefe reclufe 7 , as of people who fhook 

 oft the monaitic difcipline and their obedie nce towards 

 the abbot, that they might live in greater licence and 

 follow their inordinate del' res, who even dwelt in cities 

 and in their paternal houfes, and who, either that they 

 might eat the more, or fruin motives of avarice, 

 heaped up a provilion for many years to come. 



A fourth clafs of segyptian monks were called vaga- 

 bonds [gyrovagi], for, like canons and prebendaries, 

 who have feveral benefices, they made but a lliort reli- 

 clence in any place. At firft 'they had devoted them- 

 felves to the monaftic life ; but very foon, as their hu- 

 mility and patience wore out, they repaired to differ- 

 ent cells apart, that, where virtue is not put to the tefl, 

 they might ufurp the reverence due to virtue. Au- 

 gufVme fpeaking of thefe corrupt anachoretes, fays, 

 the enemy of the human race has every where diftri- 

 buted a multitude of hypocrites in the guife of monks, 

 who roam about the country, are fent no where, abide 



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