ntless other uncouth forms, under the hot sun of that
climate they seemed to be spawned from the mud of the Nile. As soon as
from some celebrated hermitage a monastery had formed, the associates
submitted to the rules of brotherhood. Their meal, eaten in silence,
consisted of bread and water, oil, and a little salt. The bundle of
papyrus which had served the monk for a seat by day, while he made his
baskets or mats, served him for a pillow by night. Twice he was roused
from his sleep by the sound of a horn to offer up his prayers. The
culture of superstition was compelled by inexorable rules. A discipline
of penalties, confinement, fasting, whipping, and, at a later period
even mutilation, was inflexibly administered.

[Sidenote: Spread of monasticism from Egypt.]

[Sidenote: Increase of the religious houses.]

From Egypt and Syria monachism spread like an epidemic. It was first
introduced into Italy by Athanasius, assisted by some of the disciples
of Anthony; but Jerome, whose abode was in Palestine, is celebrated for
the multitude of converts he made to a life of retirement. Under his
persuasion, many of the high-born ladies of Rome were led to the
practice of monastic habits, as far as was possible, in secluded spots
near that city, on the ruins of temples, and even in the Forum. Some
were induced to retreat to the Holy Land, after bestowing their wealth
for pious purposes. The silent monk insinuated himself into the privacy
of families for the purpose of making proselytes by stealth. Soon there
was not an unfrequented island in the Mediterranean, no desert shore, no
gloomy valley, no forest, no glen, no volcanic crater, that did not
witness exorbitant selfishness made the rule of life. There were
multitudes of hermits on the desolate coasts of the Black Sea. They
abounded from the freezing Tanais to the sultry Tabenne. In rigorous
personal life and in supernatural power the West acknowledged no
inferiority to the East; his admiring imitators challenged even the
desert of Thebais to produce the equal of Martin of Tours. The solitary
anchorite was soon supplanted by the coenobitic establishment, the
monastery. It became a fashion among the rich to give all that they had
to these institutions for the salvation of their own souls. There was
now no need of basket-making or the weaving of mats. The brotherhoods
increased rapidly. Whoever wanted to escape from the barbarian invaders,
or to avoid the hardships of serving