en the multitude of Pagans
were inclined to estimate the merit of the sacrifice by its apparent
difficulty; and it was in the praise of these chaste spouses of
Christ that the fathers have poured forth the troubled stream of their
eloquence. [98] Such are the early traces of monastic principles and
institutions, which, in a subsequent age, have counterbalanced all the
temporal advantages of Christianity. [99]

[Footnote 91: Beausobro, Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, l. vii. c.
3. Justin, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustin, &c., strongly incline to this
opinion. Note: But these were Gnostic or Manichean opinions. Beausobre
distinctly describes Autustine's bias to his recent escape from
Manicheism; and adds that he afterwards changed his views.--M.]

[Footnote 92: Some of the Gnostic heretics were more consistent; they
rejected the use of marriage.]

[Footnote 93: See a chain of tradition, from Justin Martyr to Jerome, in
the Morale des Peres, c. iv. 6--26.]

[Footnote 94: See a very curious Dissertation on the Vestals, in
the Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. iv. p. 161--227.
Notwithstanding the honors and rewards which were bestowed on those
virgins, it was difficult to procure a sufficient number; nor could the
dread of the most horrible death always restrain their incontinence.]

[Footnote 95: Cupiditatem procreandi aut unam scimus aut nullam.
Minutius Faelix, c. 31. Justin. Apolog. Major. Athenagoras in Legat. c
28. Tertullian de Cultu Foemin. l. ii.]

[Footnote 96: Eusebius, l. vi. 8. Before the fame of Origen had excited
envy and persecution, this extraordinary action was rather admired than
censured. As it was his general practice to allegorize Scripture, it
seems unfortunate that in this instance only, he should have adopted the
literal sense.]

[Footnote 97: Cyprian. Epist. 4, and Dodwell, Dissertat. Cyprianic. iii.
Something like this rash attempt was long afterwards imputed to the
founder of the order of Fontevrault. Bayle has amused himself and his
readers on that very delicate subject.]

[Footnote 98: Dupin (Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique, tom. i. p. 195) gives
a particular account of the dialogue of the ten virgins, as it was
composed by Methodius, Bishop of Tyre. The praises of virginity are
excessive.]

[Footnote 99: The Ascetics (as early as the second century) made a
public profession of mortifying their bodies, and of abstaining from the
use of flesh and wine. Mosheim, p. 310.]

The Christ