PROGRESS OP MON"ACHISM# 305 



were eagerly imitated as icon as they opened a fchool 

 of their ne^ philafophy ; for the moil of their hearers 

 were ladies *i 



Before thefe hairy, or rather briftly, ^Egyptians every 

 one bowed down at Rome that knew how to live, as 

 they were fo extremely agreeable to the ladies. They 

 even began to eclipfe the eccleliaftics, who were al- 

 ready very fpruce and elegant figures. Their praife 

 flew from month to mouth among people of diftinclion. 

 Even men of great gravity were captivated in favour of 

 thefe monks on feeing that the mofc learned and vene- 

 rable of the fathers of the church fet their feal to all 

 the extravagancies and abfurdities of monkery, and held 

 the rnoft ludicrous follies of the monks for tokens of 

 the higheft perfection ; and that they exhorted all chris- 

 tians to look up with admiration to the efficacies of that 

 heavenly order. 



The whole race of them, all thefe illiterate fanatics, 

 all the r e devout or brainlefs heads, all thefe morofe 

 and mifanthropical curiofities, all thefe haughty hypo- 

 crites, would indeed foon have been iiruck dumb and 

 confounded for ever, with all their efficacies, at the 

 approach of the true light of the gofpel. But even 

 men of the fir ft magnitude for force of underflanding, 

 •>H Bafllius, a Gregonus Na&ianfcenusi, a Chryfoftomus, 

 entered the monamc ftate, or attempted at leaft this 



* Many noble roman ladies like wife attended the lectures of 

 ■the heathen Plotinus, who publicly taught at Rome the new pia~ 

 tonic gallimaufry, which was i.i like manner brought out of 

 JEgj pt , and one of them, named Gemina, at length took him 

 into her houfe. 



vol. 11. x auftere 



