confined
to Palestine, is better known.[2070] The Jewish features in their system
are: acceptance of the Jewish Scriptures, observance of the Sabbath,
recognition of the temple by sending unbloody offerings, regard for
ceremonial purity. Non-Jewish features are: rejection of marriage, trade
and (according to Philo) animal sacrifice, turning to the sun in prayer
(or, according to Josephus, praying to the sun), the teaching that the
soul, when set free from the body, passes, if good, to a delightful
region across the ocean, and, if bad, to a dark den of ceaseless
punishment. Foreign influence in these latter practices and beliefs is
obvious, but its precise source is uncertain. There are suggestions of
Pythagoreanism and possibly of Zoroastrianism;[2071] it can only be said
that various ideas were in the air of Palestine, and that the Essene
formulation was effected under conditions and at a time not known to
us.[2072] The monastic constitution was clearly of foreign (non-Jewish)
origin. Essenism seems not to have affected the Jewish religious ideas
of the time. Jesus, though he may have taken from it the prohibition of
swearing and possibly one or two other points, was in the main and on
all important points (except ethical teaching, which was largely common
property) the reverse of what Essenism stood for.

+1126+. Christian monachism, which appeared first in eremitic form
(second century) and later in organized communal form, may have been an
independent creation of Christian piety; but it is also possible that it
was suggested by the traditions of its birthplace, Egypt;[2073] definite
data on this point are lacking. Whatever its origin, it speedily overran
the Christian world, in which it has maintained itself up to the present
day.[2074]

+1127+. Monachism has rendered valuable aid to Buddhism and Christianity
by training men and women, laity and clergy, who were devoted to the
forms of religion represented by these organizations. It has done a
higher service by establishing communities that have often been beacon
lights, representing, particularly in times of popular ignorance, ideals
of conduct. Such communities have often been homes of beneficence and
learning. They have, on the other hand, injured religion by severing it
from ordinary life. By assuming that the secluded life was holier than
that of the world they have tended to put a stigma of unholiness on the
latter. Buddhism taught that only the monk could a