alestine, and
Syria, were surrounded by a Laura, [66] a distant circle of solitary
cells; and the extravagant penance of Hermits was stimulated by applause
and emulation. [67] They sunk under the painful weight of crosses and
chains; and their emaciated limbs were confined by collars, bracelets,
gauntlets, and greaves of massy and rigid iron. All superfluous
encumbrance of dress they contemptuously cast away; and some savage
saints of both sexes have been admired, whose naked bodies were only
covered by their long hair. They aspired to reduce themselves to
the rude and miserable state in which the human brute is scarcely
distinguishable above his kindred animals; and the numerous sect of
Anachorets derived their name from their humble practice of grazing in
the fields of Mesopotamia with the common herd. [68] They often usurped
the den of some wild beast whom they affected to resemble; they buried
themselves in some gloomy cavern, which art or nature had scooped out
of the rock; and the marble quarries of Thebais are still inscribed
with the monuments of their penance. [69] The most perfect Hermits are
supposed to have passed many days without food, many nights without
sleep, and many years without speaking; and glorious was the man (
I abuse that name) who contrived any cell, or seat, of a peculiar
construction, which might expose him, in the most inconvenient posture,
to the inclemency of the seasons.

[Footnote 65: For the distinction of the Coenobites and the Hermits,
especially in Egypt, see Jerom, (tom. i. p. 45, ad Rusticum,) the first
Dialogue of Sulpicius Severus, Rufinus, (c. 22, in Vit. Patrum, l. ii.
p. 478,) Palladius, (c. 7, 69, in Vit. Patrum, l. viii. p. 712, 758,)
and, above all, the eighteenth and nineteenth Collations of Cassian.
These writers, who compare the common and solitary life, reveal the
abuse and danger of the latter.]

[Footnote 66: Suicer. Thesaur. Ecclesiast. tom. ii. p. 205, 218.
Thomassin (Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. i. p. 1501, 1502) gives a good
account of these cells. When Gerasimus founded his monastery in the
wilderness of Jordan, it was accompanied by a Laura of seventy cells.]

[Footnote 67: Theodoret, in a large volume, (the Philotheus in Vit.
Patrum, l. ix. p. 793-863,) has collected the lives and miracles of
thirty Anachorets. Evagrius (l. i. c. 12) more briefly celebrates the
monks and hermits of Palestine.]

[Footnote 68: Sozomen, l. vi. c. 33. The great St. Ephrem comp