of the dead (as in the life of Martin of Tours), of the growth of a dry stick into a fruitful tree, and of a monk's passing unseared, in absolute obedience to his abbot, through a furnace of fire as through a cooling bath. (Comp. Sulp. Sever. Dial. i. c. 12 and 1.3.) Even wild beasts play a large part, and are transformed into rational servants of the Egyp- tian saints of the desert. At the funeral of Paul of Thebes, according to Jerome, two lions voluntarily performed the ofBce of sexton. Pachomius walked unharmed over serpents and scorpions, and crossed the XUe on crocodiles, which, of their own accord, presented their backs. The younger Macarius, or (according to other state- ments of the Historia Lausiaca ; comp. the investigation of Tillemont, tom. viii. p. 811 sqq.) the monk Marcus stood on so good terms with the beasts, that a hyena (according to Rufinus, V. P. ii. 4, it was a lioness) brought her young one to him in his cell, that he might open its eyes ; which he did by prayer and application of spittle ; and the next day she offered him, for gratitude, a large sheepskin ; the saint at first declined the gift, and reproved the beast for the double crime of murder and theft, by which she had obtained the skin ; but when the hyena showed repentance, and with a nod promised amendment, Macarius took the skin, and afterward be- queathed it to the great bishop Athanasius. Severus (Dial. i. c. 9) gives a very similar account of an unknown anchoret, but, like Rufinus, substitutes for the hyena of Palladius a lioness with five whelps, and makes the saint receive the present of the skin without scruple or reproof. Shortly before (c. 8), he speaks, however, of a wolf, which once robbed a friendly hermit, whose evening meal she was accustomed to share, showed deep repentance for it, and with bowed head begged forgiveness of the saint. Perhaps Palladius or his Latin translator has combined these two anecdotes. .A r^ ^ § 35. PAUL OF THEBES AND ST. ANTHONY. 179 to this day the mournful state of things in the southern coun- tries of Europe and America, where monasticism is most preva- lent, and sets the extreme of ascetic sanctity in contrast with the profane laity, hut where there exists no healthful middle class of morality, no blooming family life, no moral vigor in the masses. In the sixteenth centm*y the monks were the bitterest enemies of the Reformation and of all true progress. And yet the greatest of the reformers was a pupil of the convent, ami a child of the monastic system, as the boldest and most free of the apostles had been the strictest of the Pharisees. § 35. Paul of Thebes and St. Anthony. I. Athaxasius : Vita S. Antonii (in Greek, Opera, ed. Ben. ii. Y93-866). The same in Latin, by EvAGRirs, in the fourth century. .Jebome :