n flesh. Their pre-occupation, and indeed the
pre-occupation of much early Christian literature, with sexual matters,
may be said to be vastly greater than was the case with the pagan society
they had left. Paganism accepted sexual indulgence and was then able to
dismiss it, so that in classic literature we find very little insistence
on sexual details except in writers like Martial, Juvenal and Petronius
who introduce them mainly for satirical ends. But the Christians could not
thus escape from the obsession of sex; it was ever with them. We catch
interesting glimpses of their struggles, for the most part barren
struggles, in the Epistles of St. Jerome, who had himself been an athlete
in these ascetic contests.

"Oh, how many times," wrote St. Jerome to Eustochium, the virgin
to whom he addressed one of the longest and most interesting of
his letters, "when in the desert, in that vast solitude which,
burnt up by the heart of the sun, offers but a horrible dwelling
to monks, I imagined myself among the delights of Rome! I was
alone, for my soul was full of bitterness. My limbs were covered
by a wretched sack and my skin was as black as an Ethiopian's.
Every day I wept and groaned, and if I was unwillingly overcome
by sleep my lean body lay on the bare earth. I say nothing of my
food and drink, for in the desert even invalids have no drink but
cold water, and cooked food is regarded as a luxury. Well, I,
who, out of fear of hell, had condemned myself to this prison,
companion of scorpions and wild beasts, often seemed in
imagination among bands of girls. My face was pale with fasting
and my mind within my frigid body was burning with desire; the
fires of lust would still flare up in a body that already seemed
to be dead. Then, deprived of all help, I threw myself at the
feet of Jesus, washing them with my tears and drying them with my
hair, subjugating my rebellious flesh by long fasts. I remember
that more than once I passed the night uttering cries and
striking my breast until God sent me peace." "Our century," wrote
St. Chrysostom in his _Discourse to Those Who Keep Virgins in
Their Houses_, "has seen many men who have bound their bodies
with chains, clothed themselves in sacks, retired to the summits
of mountains where they have lived in constant vigil and fasting,
giving the example of the most austere discipline