&94 PROGRESS OF MONACHISM. 



no where, and no where lit down or Hand ftili 

 Some of them make a trade of felling the limbs of 

 martyrs of their own manufacture; others fay, that 

 they have heard, that their parents or relations dwell 

 in this or that country, and falfly pretend that they 

 are travelling to it. They beg of every one, where- 

 with to gratify a covetous difpoiition, or they demand 

 of every one the rewards they pretend to be due to 

 their piety. 



Thofe coenobites, anaehoretes, farabaites, and thefe 

 vagrants ; in a word, the whole; of this facred crew, 

 fpr ung up from the fowing of the great Antonius : all 

 revered him as their fpjritual father, all produced him 

 children like themfelves. 



His fpiritual fon Hilarion was a perfonage that de- 

 ferves fome notice here. We recollect what feparated 

 him from St. Antonius. Animated by his fpirit, he at 

 £rft inhabited a wretched hut in the frightful defart 

 between Gaza and iEgypt, and afterwards as refera- 

 ble a cell, in which he was unable to fraud upright. 

 Thus lived he two and twenty years, till his far-ex- 

 tended fame drew the lick of all defer iptions to him, 

 whom he then, as we may eafily conceive, miraculouOy 

 healed ; for, in the times of which I write, he was a 

 miferable feljow indeed, who could not work mira- 

 cles. 



By means of Hilarion, the paflion for the monaltic 

 life was fpread throughout Syria, and especially in 

 palaeftine. He like wife converted a number of pagans. 

 He drove cjevils out of .poffefTed cattle ; and, in every 

 inftance, could declare by the frnell to what evil fpirit, 

 or to what wicked owner they belonged. Hilarion 



could 



