Hist. Natur. v. 15 : " Gens sola, et in toto orbe prseter cjeteros mira, sine ulla fomina, omni venere abdicata, sine pecunia, socia palmarum. Ita per seculorum millia (in- credibile dictu) gens seterna est in qua nemo nascitur. Tam foecunda illis aliorum vitae penitentia est." ^ Eusebius, H. E. ii. 1 7, erroneously takes them for Christians. ■* H. Ruffner, 1. c. vol. i. ch. ii.-ix., gives an extended description of these extra- Christian forms of monasticism, and derives the Christian from them, especially from the Buddhist. * So even Calvin, who, in his commentary on 1 Tim. iv. 3, refers Paul's prophecy § 28. OKIGIN OF CHRISTIiLN MONASTICISM. 153 reconciled with the great place of this phenomenon in history ; and ^^'oukl, furthermore, involve the entii'C ancient church, ■with its greatest and best representatives both east and west, its Athanasius, its Chrjsostom, its Jerome, its Augustine, in the predicted apostasy from the faith. And no one will now liold, that these men, who all admired and commended the monastic life, were antichristian errorists, and that the few and almost exclusively negative opponents of that asceticism, as Jo- vinian, Ilelvidius, and Yigilantius, were the sole representatives of pure Chistianity in the Nicene and next following age. In this whole matter we must carefully distinguish two forms of asceticism, antagonistic and irreconcilable in spirit and principle, though similar in form : the Gnostic dualistic, and the Catholic. The former of these did certainly come from heathenism ; but the latter sprang independently from the Christian spirit of self-denial and longing for moral perfection, and, in spite of all its excrescences, has fulfilled an important mission in the history of the church. The pagan monachism, the pseudo-Jewish, the heretical Christian, above all the Gnostic and Manichsean, is based on an irreconcilable metaphysical dualism between mind and matter ; the Catholic Christian monachism arises from the moral conflict between the spirit and the flesh. The former is prompted throughout by spiritual pride and selfishness ; the latter, by humility and love to God and man. The false ascet- icism aims at annihilation of the body and pantheistic absorp- tion of the human being in the divine ; the Christian strives after the glorification of the body and personal fellowship with of the ascetic apostasy primarily to the Encratites, Gnostics, Montanists, and Mani- cheeans, but extends it also to the Papists, "quando coelibatum et ciborum abstinen- tiam severius urgent quam ullum Dei praeceptum." So, recently, Rufiiier, and especially Is. Taylor, who, in his " Ancient Christianity," vol. i. p. 299 sqq., has a special chapter on The Predicted Ascetic Apostasy. The best modern interpreters, however, are agreed, that the apostle has the heretical Gnostic dualistic asceticism in his eye, which forbade marriage and certain meats as intrinsically impure ; whereas the Roman and Greek churches make marriage a sacrament, only subordinate it to celibacy, and limit the prohibition of it to priests and monks. The application of 1 Tim. iv. 1-3 to the