attracted persons of opposite character and from opposite ' Comp. Col. ii. 16-2.3. ^ Comp. 1 Cor. xiii. 1-3. Comp. p. 168 sq. 164: TKIllD PEKIOD. A.D. 311-590. motives. Moral earnestness and religious enthusiasm were accompanied here, as formerly in martyi'dom, though even in larger measure than there, with all kinds of sinister motives ; indolence, discontent, weariness of life, misanthropy, ambition for spiritual distinction, and every sort of misfortune or acci- dental circumstance. Palladius, to mention but one illustri- ous example, tells of Paul the Simple,' that, from indignation against his wife, whom he detected in an act of infidelity, he hastened, with the current oath of that day, "in the name of Jesus," ^ into the wilderness ; and immediately, though now sixty years old, under the direction of Anthony, he became a very model monk, and attained an astonishing degree of humility, simplicity, and perfect submission of will. In view of these different motives we need not be surprised that the moral character of the monks varied greatly, and pre- sents opposite extremes. Augustine says he found among the monks and nuns the best and the worst of mankind. Looking more closely, in the first place, at anchoretism, we meet in its history unquestionably many a heroic character, who attained an incredible mastery over his sensual nature, and, like the Old Testament prophets and John the Baptist, by their mere appearance and their occasional preaching, made an overwhelming impression on his contemporaries, even among the lieathen. St, Anthony's visit to Alexandria was to the gazing multitude like the visit of a messenger from the other world, and resulted in many conversions. His emaciated face, the glare of his eye, his spectral yet venerable foim, his con- tempt of the world, and his few aphoristic sentences told more powerfully on that age and people than a most elaborate ser- mon. St. Symeon, standing on a column from year to year, fasting, praying, and exhorting the visitors to repentance, was to his generation a standing miracle and a sign that pointed them to heaven. Sometimes, in seasons of public calamity, such hermits saved whole cities and provinces from the impe- I'ial wrath, by their effectual intercessions. When Theodosius, * "ATrXacTTos, lit. 7iot moulded ; hence iiatural, sincere. ^ Ma Tov 'Itjo-oDj/ {per Christum, in Salvian), which now took the place of the pagan oath : ^a tlv Aia, by Jupiter. § 32. LIGHTS AND SHADES OF MONASTIC LIFE. 1G5 in 3SY, was about to destroy Antiocli for a sedition, the hermit Macedonius met the two imperial commissaries, who reverently dismounted and kissed his hands and feet ; he reminded them and the emperor of their own weakness, set before them the value of men as immortal images of God, in comparison with the perishable statues of the emperor, and thus saved the city from demolition.* The heroism of the anchoretic life, in the voluntary renunciation of lawful pleasures and the patient endurance of self-inflicted pains, is worthy of admiration