world. His clothing is a hair shirt and a wild beast's skin ; his food, bread and salt ; his dwelling, a cave ; his employment, prayer, afiliction of the body, and conflict with Satanic powers and wild images of fancy. This mode of life was founded by Paul of Thebes and St. Anthony, and came to perfection in the East. It was too eccentric and unjiractical for the "West, and hence less frequent there, especially in the rougher climates. To the female sex it was entirely unsuited. There was a class of hermits, the Sarabaites in Egypt, and the Khemoboths in Syria, who lived in bands of at least two or ^ From avax<^p^<^ to retire (from human society), ai'axo^pv'V^, (prifji'nri^ (from ep7]ij.la, a desert). The word fiovaxo^ (from fiovo^, alone, and nova^itv, to Hve alone), monachus (whence monk), also points originally to solitary, hermit life, but is commonly synonymous with coenobite or friar. I i § 29. DEVELOPMENT OF MONASTICISM. 157 three together ; but their quarrelsomeness, occasional intemper- ance, and opposition to the clergy, brought tliein into ill repute. The third step in the progress of the monastic life brings us to coenobitism or cloister life, monasticism in the ordinary sense of the word.' It originated likewise in Egypt, from the exam- ple of the Essenes and Therapeutae, and was carried by St. Pachomius to the East, and afterward by St. Benedict to the West. Both these ascetics, like the most celebrated order- founders of later days, were originally hermits. Cloister life is a regular organization of the ascetic life on a social basis. It recognizes, at least in a measure, the social element of human nature, and represents it in a narrower sphere secluded from the larger world. As hermit life often led to cloister life, BO the cloister life was not only a refuge for the spirit weary of the world, but also in many ways a school for practical life in the church. It formed the transition from isolated to social Christianity. It consists in an association of a number of an- chorets of the same sex for mutual advancement in ascetic holiness. The coenobites live, somewhat according to the laws of civilization, under one roof, and under a superintendent or abbot.'^ They divide their time between common devotions and manual labor, and devote their surplus provisions to charity ; except the mendicant monks, who themselves live by alms. In this modified form monasticism became available to the female sex, to which the solitary desert life was utterly im- practicable ; and with the cloisters of monks, there appear at once cloisters also of nuns.' Between the anchorets and the coe- ' Koiu60tov, coenobium ; from Koivhs $ios, vita communis ; then the congregation of monks ; sometimes also used for the building. In the same sense inai/Spa, stable, fold, and tiovaar-npiov, claustrum (whence cloister). Also \avpai, laurae (literally, Btreets), that is cells, of which usually a number were built not far apart, so