y days,
(Sulp. Sever. Dialog. i. 1.) Athanasius, who addressed his Life of St.
Antony to the foreign monks, was obliged to hasten the composition, that
it might be ready for the sailing of the fleets, (tom. ii. p. 451.)]

[Footnote 21: See Jerom, (tom. i. p. 126,) Assemanni, Bibliot. Orient.
tom. iv. p. 92, p. 857-919, and Geddes, Church History of Aethiopia,
p. 29-31. The Abyssinian monks adhere very strictly to the primitive
institution.]

[Footnote 22: Camden's Britannia, vol. i. p. 666, 667.]

[Footnote 23: All that learning can extract from the rubbish of the
dark ages is copiously stated by Archbishop Usher in his Britannicarum
Ecclesiarum Antiquitates, cap. xvi. p. 425-503.]

[Footnote 24: This small, though not barren, spot, Iona, Hy, or
Columbkill, only two miles in length, aud one mile in breadth, has been
distinguished, 1. By the monastery of St. Columba, founded A.D. 566;
whose abbot exercised an extraordinary jurisdiction over the bishops
of Caledonia; 2. By a classic library, which afforded some hopes of
an entire Livy; and, 3. By the tombs of sixty kings, Scots, Irish, and
Norwegians, who reposed in holy ground. See Usher (p. 311, 360-370) and
Buchanan, (Rer. Scot. l. ii. p. 15, edit. Ruddiman.)]

These unhappy exiles from social life were impelled by the dark and
implacable genius of superstition. Their mutual resolution was supported
by the example of millions, of either sex, of every age, and of every
rank; and each proselyte who entered the gates of a monastery, was
persuaded that he trod the steep and thorny path of eternal happiness.
[25] But the operation of these religious motives was variously
determined by the temper and situation of mankind. Reason might subdue,
or passion might suspend, their influence: but they acted most forcibly
on the infirm minds of children and females; they were strengthened by
secret remorse, or accidental misfortune; and they might derive some aid
from the temporal considerations of vanity or interest. It was naturally
supposed, that the pious and humble monks, who had renounced the world
to accomplish the work of their salvation, were the best qualified for
the spiritual government of the Christians. The reluctant hermit was
torn from his cell, and seated, amidst the acclamations of the people,
on the episcopal throne: the monasteries of Egypt, of Gaul, and of the
East, supplied a regular succession of saints and bishops; and ambition
soon discovered the secret