06 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxvii Propaga- practice of the monastic life ; and a school of this new philo- monastic sophy was opened by the disciples of Antony, who accompanied Rome. their primate to the holy threshold of the Vatican. The A.D. 341 strange and savage appearance of these Egyptians excited, at first, horror and contempt, and at length applause and zealous imitation. The senators, and more especially the matrons, transformed their palaces and villas into religious houses ; and the narrow institution of six Vestals was eclipsed by the fre- quent monasteires, which were seated on the ruins of ancient temples, and in the midst of the Eoman Forum. 16 Inflamed by the example of Antony, a Syrian youth, whose name was miarion in Bfilarion, 17 fixed his dreary abode on a sandy beach, between _fc fljlGSulQ©" a.d. 328 the sea and a morass, about seven miles from Gaza. The austere penance, in which he persisted forty-eight years, diffused a similar enthusiasm; and the holy man was followed by a train of two or three thousand anachorets, whenever he visited Basil in the innumerable monasteries of Palestine. The fame of Basil 1S a.d. 360 is immortal in the monastic history of the East. With a mind that had tasted the learning and eloquence of Athens, with an ambition scarcely to be satisfied by the archbishopric of Caesarea, Basil retired to a savage solitude in Pontus ; and deigned, for a while, to give laws to the spiritual colonies which he profusely Martin in scattered along the coast of the Black Sea. In the West, 370 11 3 * Martin of Tours, 19 a soldier, an hermit, a bishop, and a saint, 16 The introduction of the monastic life into Rome and Italy is occasionally mentioned by Jerom (torn. i. p. 119, 120, 199). [There is no reason to doubt Jerome's statement (ep. 127) that Marcella at Rome learned about the hermit An- tony and the monk Pachomius from Athanasius. The Index of the Festal Letters states that Antony visited Alexandria, July 27, a.d. 337, and Athanasius must have heard about him on his return from the west at the end of the same year. The Vita Pachomii (see Appendix 3) states that Athanasius became acquainted with the institutions of Pachomius as early as a.d. 329. Hence he could describe the monasticism of Egypt to his friends at Rome during his visit in a.d. 341. Cp. Griitzmacher, Pachomius, p. 56.] 17 See the life of Hilarion, by St. Jerom (torn. i. p. 241, 252 [Migne, vol. xxxiii. p. 30, 46]). The stories of Paul, Hilarion, and Malchus, by the same author, are admirably told ; and the only defect of these pleasing compositions is the want of truth and common sense. 18 His original retreat was in a small village on the banks of the Iris, not far from Neo-Csesarea. The ten or twelve years of his monastic life were disturbed by long and frequent avocations. Some critics have disputed the authenticity of his Ascetic rules ; but the external evidence is weighty, and they can only prove that it is the work of a real or affected enthusiast. See Tillemont, M6m. Eccles. torn. ix. p. 636-644. Helyot, Hist, des Ordres Monastiques, torn. i. p. 175-181. 19 See his Life, and the three Dialogues by Sulpicius Severus, who asserts (Dialog, i. 16) that the booksellers of Rome were delighted with the quick and ready sale of his popular work.
