stians, and practising greater austerities, their cause
gained ground, especially in the eastern provinces in the fifth century. A
copy of the pretended works of Dionysius, was sent by Balbus to Louis the
Meek, in the year 824, which kindled the flame of mysticism in the western
provinces, and filled the Latins with the most enthusiastic admiration of
this new religion. In the twelfth century these mystics took the lead in
their method of expounding Scripture; and by searching for mysteries and
hidden meanings in the plainest expressions, forced the word of God into a
conformity with their visionary doctrines, their enthusiastic feelings, and
the system of discipline which they had drawn from the excursion of their
irregular fancies. In the thirteenth century they were the most formidable
antagonists of the schoolmen, and toward the close of the fourteenth many
of them resided and propagated their tenets in {86} almost every part of
Europe. In the fifteenth century they had many persons of distinguished
merit in their number; and in the sixteenth, previously to the Reformation,
it is said that the only true sparks of real piety were to be found among
them.[95]

Let us, then, examine the rise of confraternities attached to, and of, the
Christian church, yet not necessarily more than its other laity entitled to
authority which they afterward usurped.

Monachism took its rise in the East, where a solitary and contemplative
life, devoted to the consideration of divine subjects, had always been
considered more meritorious than active exertion. This calling was
gradually adopted by so many, that at the end of the third century, the
Egyptian Antonius, who had cast away his vast possessions, and chosen the
desert for his residence, collected together the hitherto dispersed
anchorites (monachi) into fenced places (monasteria, caenobia, claustra,
cloisters), that they might live together in fellowship; and his disciple,
Pachomius, soon gave the brotherhood a rule. Monachism soon extended to the
west. In the sixth century, Benedict, of Nursia, established the first
monastery on Mount Casius, in Lower Italy, and became, by this means, the
founder of the widely-spread order of Benedictines, which rapidly extended
itself among all nations, and built many convents. These monasteries,
erected, for the most part, in {87} beautiful and remote situations, and
the inhabitants of which were obliged to take the three vows of chastity
(celiba