from the world, took the i^lace of the criminals and political victims whom the justice or tyran- ny and jealousy of the emperors had been accustomed to banish thither. A^iBROSE, whose sister, Marcellina, was among the first Roman nuns, established a monastery in Milan,' one of the first in Italy, and with the warmest zeal encouraged celibacy even against the will of parents ; insonnich that the mothers of Milan kept their daughters out of the way of his preaching ; whilst from other quarters, even from Mauritania, virgins flocked to him to be consecrated to the solitary life.^ The coasts and small islands of Italy were gradually studded with cloisters.^ Augustine, whose evangelical principles of the free grace of God as the only ground of salvation and peace were essen- tially inconsistent with the more Pelagian theory of the mo- nastic life, nevertheless went with the then reigning spirit of the church in this respect, and led, with his clei'gy, a monk-like life in voluntary poverty and celibacy,^ after the pattern, as he thought, of the pnmitive church of Jerusalem ; but with all his zealous commendation he could obtain favor for monasti- eism in North Africa only among the liberated slaves and the * Augustine, Conf. vii. 6 : "Erat monasterium Mediolani plenum bonis fratribus. extra urbis mcBnia, sub Ambrosio nutritore." * Ambr. : De virgiuibus, lib. iii., addressed to his sister Marcellina, about 377. Comp. Tillem. x. 102-105, and Schroekh, viii..355 sqq. ' Ambr. : Hexaemeron, 1. iii. c. 5. Hieron. : Ep. ad Oeeanum de morte Fabiolae, Ep. 11 ed. Vail. (84 ed. Ben., al. 30). * He himself speaks of a monasterium clericorum in his episcopal residence, and his biographer, Possidius, says of him. Vita, c. 5 : " Factus ergo presbyter monas- terium inter ecclesiam mox instituit, et cum Dei servis vivere coepit secundum modum . et regulara sub Sanctis apostolis constitutam, maxime ut nemo quidquam proprium haberet, sed eis essent omnia commuuia." § 40. MONASTICISM IN THE WEST. AUGUSTINE. 203 lower classes.' He viewed it in its noblest aspect, as a life of undivided surrender to God, and undisturbed occupation with spiritual and eternal things. But he acknowledged also its abuses ; he distinctly condemned the vagrant, begging monks, like the Circumcelliones and Gyrovagi, and wrote a book (De opere monachorum) against the monastic aversion to labor. Monasticism was planted in Gaul by Martin of Tours, whose life and miracles were described in fluent, pleasing lan- guage by his disciple, Sulpitius Sevenis,'* a few years after his death. This celebrated saint, the patron of fields, was born in Pannouia (Hungary), of pagan parents. He was edu- cated in Italy, and served three years, against his will, as a soldier under Constantius and Julian the Apostate. Even at that time he showed an uncommon degree of temperance, hu- mility, and love. He often cleaned his servant's shoes, and once cut his only cloak in two with his sword, to clothe a naked beggar with