e: The emperor Valens, in particular,
promulgates a law contra ignavise quosdam sectatores, qui desertis
civitatum muneribus, captant solitudines secreta, et specie religionis
cum coetibus monachorum congregantur. Cad. Theod l. xii. tit. i. leg.
63.--G.]

The monastic profession of the ancients [33] was an act of voluntary
devotion. The inconstant fanatic was threatened with the eternal
vengeance of the God whom he deserted; but the doors of the monastery
were still open for repentance. Those monks, whose conscience was
fortified by reason or passion, were at liberty to resume the character
of men and citizens; and even the spouses of Christ might accept the
legal embraces of an earthly lover. [34] The examples of scandal, and
the progress of superstition, suggested the propriety of more forcible
restraints. After a sufficient trial, the fidelity of the novice was
secured by a solemn and perpetual vow; and his irrevocable engagement
was ratified by the laws of the church and state. A guilty fugitive
was pursued, arrested, and restored to his perpetual prison; and the
interposition of the magistrate oppressed the freedom and the merit,
which had alleviated, in some degree, the abject slavery of the
monastic discipline. [35] The actions of a monk, his words, and even his
thoughts, were determined by an inflexible rule, [36] or a capricious
superior: the slightest offences were corrected by disgrace or
confinement, extraordinary fasts, or bloody flagellation; and
disobedience, murmur, or delay, were ranked in the catalogue of the
most heinous sins. [37] A blind submission to the commands of the
abbot, however absurd, or even criminal, they might seem, was the ruling
principle, the first virtue of the Egyptian monks; and their patience
was frequently exercised by the most extravagant trials. They were
directed to remove an enormous rock; assiduously to water a barren
staff, that was planted in the ground, till, at the end of three
years, it should vegetate and blossom like a tree; to walk into a fiery
furnace; or to cast their infant into a deep pond: and several
saints, or madmen, have been immortalized in monastic story, by their
thoughtless and fearless obedience. [38] The freedom of the mind, the
source of every generous and rational sentiment, was destroyed by the
habits of credulity and submission; and the monk, contracting the
vices of a slave, devoutly followed the faith and passions of his
ecclesiastical tyrant. T