he had inherited from Paul of Thebes, and wore at Easter and Pente- cost, Athanasius does not tell us. After this disposition of his property, Anthony said to his disciples : " Children, farewell ; for Anthony goes away, and will be no more with you." With these words he stretched out his feet and expired with a smiling face, in the year 356, a hundred and five years old. His grave remained for centui'ies unknown. His last will was thus a protest against the worship of saints and relics, which, however, it nevertheless greatly helped to promote. Under Justinian, in 561, his bones, as the BoUandists and Butler minutely re- late, were miraculously discovered, brought to Alexandria, then to Constantinople, and at last to Vienne in South France, and in the eleventh century, during the raging of an epidemic disease, the so-called " holy fire," or " St. Anthony's fire," they are said to have performed great wonders. Athanasius, the greatest man of the Nicene age, concludes his biography of his friend with this sketch of his character : ''From this short narrative you may judge how great a man Anthony was, who persevered in the ascetic life from youth to the highest age. In his advanced age he never allowed him- self better food, nor change of raiment, nor did he even wash his feet. Yet he continued healthy in all his parts. His eye- sight was clear to the end, and his teeth sound, though by long fcd^^ 188 THLRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590. use worn to mere stumps. He retained also the perfect use of his hands and feet, and was more robust and vigorous than those who are accustomed to change of food and clothing and to washing. His fame spread from his remote dwelling on the lone mountain over the whole Roman empire. What gave him his renown, was not learning, nor worldly wisdom, nor human art, but alone his piety toward God And let all the bretln-en know, that the Lord will not only take holy monks to heaven, but give them celebrity in all the earth,' however deep they may bury themselves in the wilderness." The iii»>lmla Nicene age venerated in Anthony a model saint.' This fact brings out most characteristically the vast difference between the ancient and the modern, the old Catho- lic and the evangelical Protestant conception of the nature of the Christian religion. The specifically Christian element in the life of Anthony, especially as measured by the Pauline stand- ard, is very small. Nevertheless we can but admire the needy magnificence, the simple, rude grandeur of this hermit sanctity even in its aberration. Anthony concealed under his sheep- skin a childlike humility, an amiable simplicity, a rare energy of will, and a glowing love to God, which maintained itself for almost ninety years in the absence of all the comforts and pleasures of natural life, and triumphed over all the tempta- tions of the flesh. By piety alone, without the