diligently attended divine worship with his parents, and so carefully heard the Scripture lessons, that he retained them in memory.^ Memory was his library. He afterward ' Jerome says of Anthony, in his Vita Pauli Theb. (c. i.) : " Non tarn ipse ante omnes (eremitas) fuit, quam ab eo omnium incitata sunt studia." ^ According to the common opinion, which was also Augustine's, Anthony could not even read. But Tillcmont (tom. vii. 107 and 666), Butler, and others think that this ignorance related only to the Greek alphabet, not to the Egyptian. Atha- nasius, p. 795, expresses liimself somewhat indistinctly ; that, from dread of society, he would not ij.abe7v ypa.^ip.a.To, (letters ? or the arts ?), but speaks afterward of hin regard for reading. ' Augustine says of him, De doctr. Christ. § 4, that, without being able to read, from only hearing the Bible, he knew it by heart. The life of Athanasius shows, in- deed, that a number of Scripture passages were very famiUar to him. But of a con- nected and deep knowledge of Scripture in him, or in these anchorets generally, we find no trace. 182 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590. made faithful, but oulj too literal use of single passages of Scriptui'e, and began his discourse to the hermits with the very uncatholic-sounding declaration : " The holy Scriptures give us instruction enough." In his eighteenth year, about 270, the death of his parents devolved on him the care of a younger sister and a considerable estate. Six months afterward he heard in the church, just as he was meditating on the apostles' implicit following of Jesus, the word of the Lord to the rich young ruler : " If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven ; and come and follow me." ' This word was a voice of God, which determined his life. He divided his real estate, consisting of three hundred acres of fertile land, among the in- habitants of the ^dllage, and sold his jDersonal property for the benefit of the poor, excepting a moderate reserve for the sup- port of his sister. But when, soon afterward, he heard in the church the exhortation, " Take no thought for the morrow," ^ he distributed the remnant to the poor, and intrusted his sister to a society of pious virgins.^ He visited her only once after — a fact characteristic of the ascetic depreciation of natural ties. He then forsook the hamlet, and led an ascetic life in the neighborhood, praying constantly, according to the exhorta- tion : " Pray without ceasing ; " and also laboring, according to the maxim : " If any will not work, neither should he eat." What he did not need for his slender support, he gave to the poor. He visited the neighboring ascetics, who were then al- ready very plentiful in Egypt, to learn humbly and thankfully their