more or less as part of the regular Christian life among those who aimed at thoroughness.
2. During the second century asceticism received a powerful impulse from sectional bodies of Christians in protest against the increasing secularisation of the Church after the high enthusiasm of primitive times had cooled down. This was especially cultivated by the Gnostics, who claimed that in practical ethics as well as in intellectual conceptions they constituted a sort of spiritual aristocracy among their fellow Christians. Marcion, while attempting to follow St. Paul in his gospel of grace, appeared as a moral reformer in a quite un-Pauline asceticism, although his "forbidding marriage" like his other extravagances was really an exaggerated and distorted Paulinism.[1] The Montanists also pressed the rigour of their Puritanism in the same direction. On the Jewish side the Encratites were pronounced ascetics. Meanwhile, as usual, the main body of the Church took a middle course; it regarded asceticism with great respect, while not requiring it. Virginity is repeatedly honoured in the Shepherd of Hermas,[2] and Justin Martyr refers to celibate old men and women in terms of admiration.[3] By the third century this idea is much advanced, and we find Cyprian ranking celibacy as definitely higher than marriage.[4] By the fourth century we see this view of giving exceptional honour to virginity (while not demanding it, as had been done by the Encratites, Marcion, Tatian, and other Gnostics) definitely registered as the rule of the Church. In the Apostolical Constitution vows of virginity are recognised though not demanded.[5] Here then we are at the second stage in the development of asceticism. Certain people elect to live a celibate life and take vows accordingly. But these people do not come out from among their fellows; they mingle with general society; they remain as members of the family in their own homes.
3. The next stage is the most fertile and significant.
