300 FR0GRESS ~OF MONACHISM. 



Afterwards, that at leaft he might be able to ftand up- 

 right, he lived in the open air, but his arms were per- 

 petually extended towards heaven; and he wrapped 

 himfelf up in the fkin of a bea v ft, in which he had cut 

 a fmall hole for enjoying the benefit of refpiration. 



Jacobus, a contemporary, but on account of his 

 miraculous powers, a far more famous anchorite, lived 

 likewife at fxrlt in a little hut, and alfo afterwards in 

 the open air. He had no covering but the iky and his 

 fkin, and he habituated himfelf to every fmart pro- 

 duced by heat and cold. About his neck and his body 

 he wound an iron chain ; four other chains hung down 

 from his neck, two before, and as many behind : and, 

 as if thefe were not enough, his arms were wound round 

 with chains. His food confifted in nothing but lentils ; 

 and he was often, for three days and three nights, fo 

 covered with fnow, as he was praying on his knees, 

 that he could fcarcely be feen. 



Barfanupii, an asgyptian faint and anchorite, fhut 

 himfelf up in a cell in Pal ^itine about the year 552; 

 and fifty years afterward fome tokens were found that 

 he was ftill alive, though no man had feen him during 

 all this fpace of half an age. 



Saint Simeon Salus, a great anchorite, out of hu- 

 mility feigned himfelf mad; and thus, in his folitude, 

 converted a multitude of finners. 



Such were the great mafs of fanatics, who have been 

 adored for fo many centuries, and are ftill adored as 

 the moft perfect of mankind. 



But, in thofe days of univerfal fuperftition and the 

 moll unbounded fanaticifm, when almoft nations entire 

 feemed to have loft their wits, Chrift, whofe defign it 



had 



