d
monastery of St. Sabas, could not be far distant from this place. See
Reland. Palestin., tom. i. p. 295; tom. ii. p. 763, 874, 880, 890.]

Egypt, the fruitful parent of superstition, afforded the first example
of the monastic life. Antony, [7] an illiterate [8] youth of the lower
parts of Thebais, distributed his patrimony, [9] deserted his family
and native home, and executed his monastic penance with original and
intrepid fanaticism. After a long and painful novitiate, among the
tombs, and in a ruined tower, he boldly advanced into the desert three
days' journey to the eastward of the Nile; discovered a lonely spot,
which possessed the advantages of shade and water, and fixed his last
residence on Mount Colzim, near the Red Sea; where an ancient monastery
still preserves the name and memory of the saint. [10] The curious
devotion of the Christians pursued him to the desert; and when he was
obliged to appear at Alexandria, in the face of mankind, he supported
his fame with discretion and dignity. He enjoyed the friendship of
Athanasius, whose doctrine he approved; and the Egyptian peasant
respectfully declined a respectful invitation from the emperor
Constantine. The venerable patriarch (for Antony attained the age of
one hundred and five years) beheld the numerous progeny which had been
formed by his example and his lessons. The prolific colonies of monks
multiplied with rapid increase on the sands of Libya, upon the rocks of
Thebais, and in the cities of the Nile. To the south of Alexandria, the
mountain, and adjacent desert, of Nitria, were peopled by five thousand
anachorets; and the traveller may still investigate the ruins of fifty
monasteries, which were planted in that barren soil by the disciples of
Antony. [11] In the Upper Thebais, the vacant island of Tabenne, [12]
was occupied by Pachomius and fourteen hundred of his brethren. That
holy abbot successively founded nine monasteries of men, and one of
women; and the festival of Easter sometimes collected fifty thousand
religious persons, who followed his angelic rule of discipline. [13]
The stately and populous city of Oxyrinchus, the seat of Christian
orthodoxy, had devoted the temples, the public edifices, and even the
ramparts, to pious and charitable uses; and the bishop, who might preach
in twelve churches, computed ten thousand females and twenty thousand
males, of the monastic profession. [14] The Egyptians, who gloried in
this marvellous revolution,