, was termed an Anchorite (the man who is set
apart), or a Monk (solitary). This custom began in the East in the
middle of the third century. The first anchorites established
themselves in the deserts and the ruins of the district of Thebes in
Upper Egypt, which remained the holy land of the solitaries.

Paul (235-340), the oldest of the monks, lived to his ninetieth year
in a grotto near a spring and a palm-tree which furnished him with
food and clothing. The model of the monks was St Anthony.[167] At the
age of twenty he heard read one day the text of the gospel, "If thou
wilt be perfect, sell all thy goods and give to the poor." He was fine
looking, noble, and rich, having received an inheritance from his
parents. He sold all his property, distributed it in alms and buried
himself in the desert of Egypt. He first betook himself to an empty
tomb, then to the ruins of a fortress; he was clad in a hair-shirt,
had for food only the bread that was brought to him every six months,
fasted, starved himself, prayed day and night. Often sunrise found
him still in prayer. "O sun," cried he, "why hast thou risen and
prevented my contemplating the true light?" He felt himself surrounded
by demons, who, under every form, sought to distract him from his
religious thoughts. When he became old and revered by all Egypt, he
returned to Alexandria for a day to preach against the Arian heretics,
but soon repaired to the desert again. They besought him to remain: he
replied, "The fishes die on land, the monks waste away in the city; we
return to our mountains like the fish to the water."

Women also became solitaries. Alexandra, one of these, shut herself in
an empty tomb and lived there for ten years without leaving it to see
anybody.

=Asceticism.=--These men who had withdrawn to the desert to escape the
world thought that everything that came from the world turned the soul
from God and placed it in the peril of losing salvation. The Christian
ought to belong entirely to God; he should forget everything behind
him. "Do you not know," said St. Nilus later, "that it is a trap of
Satan to be too much attached to one's family?" The monk Poemen had
withdrawn to the desert with his brothers, and their mother came to
visit them. As they refused to appear, she waited a little until they
were going to the church; but on seeing her, they fled and would not
consent to speak to her unless they were concealed. She asked to see
them, but they cons