The fourth Century was
the age of Christian asceticism. The era of the martyrs had come and gone.
There remained, however, martyrdom in intention, the fight against demons on
the desert frontiers by other means: by celibacy, poverty, self-abasement and
rejection of the outside world. It was Ambrose who gave episcopal guidance to
the movement in the West and provided the same moderating influence on the
individualist zeal of ascetic as Basil had done in the East.
The origins of the ascetic movement go back beyond Christianity itself. From
the Quietist groups of Jews who betook themselves to the caves during the
Maccabean wars, and refused to fight
even to save their lives on the Sabbath, to the Covenanters of Qumran and the
Essenes and Therapeutae described by Philo there are strong historical
connections. Of the latter, Philo tells us that they spend their lives
‘pursuing solitude’ and that their ultimate aim was ‘the vision of the Existent
to soar above the run of their senses, earnestly desiring things heavenly.’ No
wonder the historian Eusebius saw in these Jewish monks the forerunners of the
Christian ascetics of his own day.
In addition, the Eastern tradition of theology had always held ‘philosophy,’
meaning a life devoted to contemplation and asceticism, in high respect. The
pagan philosopher accepted solitude, a strictly continent life and often a vegetarian
diet. In the fifth century the historian Sozomen could still write of the monks
as ‘practicing philosophy’ just as Philo had described the Therapeutae. The
asceticism practiced by well-to-do Christian households in the towns in the
fourth and fifth centuries would seem to owe much to these ideas.
Before the victory of the Church it was taken for granted that the ascetic life
was the mark of a true Christian. It was the ‘whole yoke of the Lord’ in the words
of the writer of the Didache*. Later,
in the mid-second century it inspired the Encratite** movement which was
flourishing among the greater Churches of the Eastern Mediterranean. It was regarded
as a principal means of gaining the gifts of the Spirit and formed an essential
part of a confessor’s struggle with the Devil in the amphitheater.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didache
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encratites
This rigorous interpretation of the Christian message had to face two
challenges. First, it was to some extent associated at this time with
apocalyptic, and as the Montanist controversy showed, the spiritual claims of
the prophet and martyr clashed with those of the bishop and clergy. [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montanism
]. Secondly, some elements of asceticism also became associated in parts of the
East with the exaggerated disdain of the flesh taught by Gnostic heretics such as
Carpocrates. Already, about 200, Clement of Alexandria was replying that the
‘true Gnostic’ could advance toward communion with the divine by progressive
elevation of the soul without undergoing martyrdom. This argument was
reinforced by Origen. All his life Origen desired to die a martyr’s death but
his teaching led to a different conclusion. The Christian should lay hold of
life, and by using his free will to subdue his bodily passions defeat the Devil
and rise toward God. Martyrdom could be the martyrdom of the spirit rather than
of the body. Origen’s way of life was that of an ascetic teacher, sleeping on
the ground, going about barefoot, contenting himself with one garment only, and
drinking no wine. Quite rightly, his ideals have been regarded as an
inspiration to the monastic movement, and his works were read eagerly in the
monastic settlements Indeed, disputes among Egyptian monks over his view of
universal salvation were then occasion of his formal condemnation as a heretic
in 399.
In the latter part of the third century other developments combined to replace
the martyr by the ascetic as the highest example of the Christian way of life.
First, the Church was attaining a recognized place in the Empire, and so the
chances of dying a martyr’s death were diminishing. In the Great Persecution it
seems clear that except in Egypt and perhaps Numidia, not many died unless they
deliberately provoked the authorities. The increase in the numbers of
Christians, too, induced a less self-sacrificing spirit. Moreover, as we have
already seen, a further impulse to go out in the desert was provided by the crushing
weight of taxation which drove many a smallholder to abandon his farm and flee.
In Antony’s community ‘there was heard neither the evil-doer, nor him who had
been wronged (by the magistrates) nor the reproaches of the tax-gatherer.
Finally, the last decade of the century witnessed the missionary activity
within the Roman Empire of the new ascetic creed of Manichaeism – a challenge
to the orthodox Christian to do better. But, the true aim of the monk still
remained the spiritual imitation of martyrdom. This was never better expressed
than in the seventh century romance, the Book
of Barlaam and Joasaph, ‘Monasticism arose from men’s desire to become
martyrs in intention.’ They were the new ‘friends of Christ,’ and ‘athletes’
against the Devil.
Despite his Greek name, Anthony was a Copt, speaking nothing but Coptic. He was the
son of a well-to-do farmer from a large village on the upper Nile, south of
Memphis. His parents were Christians. The story of his life is told by Athanasius
who may have met him as early as 318 and held him in the deepest respect. His
parents died in about the year 270. He placed his young sister in a community
of virgins, and meditated on how to serve God. In this frame of mind he entered
the village church, and then, to continue in the words of Athanasius, ‘It
happened that the Gospel was being read, and he heard the Lord saying to the
rich man ‘If thou wouldst be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give it to
the poor, and come follow me and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.’ Antony
immediately went out and sold his farm for the benefit of the needy, keeping a small
sum for the maintenance of his sister. He placed himself under the direction of
an old man who was already a hermit and practiced asceticism alone near the
edge of the village. His life now consisted of manual work, prayer and memorizing
the Bible. Temptations to return to ordinary secular life were severe. He
describes how the Devil ‘tried to lead him away from the discipline, whispering
to him the remembrance of his wealth, care for his sister and the clams of
kindred.’ Then, the Devil took ‘the shape of a woman and imitated all her acts
to beguile Anthony’ But Anthony held fast. He migrated to a cemetery on a
mountainside, and later, in about 285, crossed the Nile where he found an ancient
fort which was to be his abode for twenty years. He was assaulted by temptations
again. His cell ‘was filled with the forms of lions, bulls, bears, leopards,
serpents and scorpions. He was struck down with bodily pains. Another apparition
admitted that he was Satan, and reproached Antony from troubling him, but all
fled at the sign of the Cross.
By this time he was beginning to attract Disciples, and by the outbreak of the
Great Persecution the ‘desert was becoming full of monks.’ He went down to
Alexandria, for ‘longed to suffer martyrdom but not being willing to give
himself up, he ministered to the confessors in the mines and prisons.” This is
an interesting passage, because it shows, first, that martyrdom was reserved at
this stage for those who literally demanded it and, secondly, that Anthony
himself did not regard the martyr’s lot as the sole means of attaining
Paradise.
After the Persecution he retired again, this time to a mountain in the eastern
desert near the Red Sea. He now began to make his influence felt against the
enemies of Athanasius with his followers
throwing his weight against Arians, Meletians, Manichaeans and pagans. In 337-8
he came down to Alexandria to denounce the Arians with tremendous effect. He
had become renowned as a prophet and seer. He could deal on equal terms with
officials who were favoring Arianism and at the same time would give homely
advice to those in difficulty; he cheered doubters ad inspired many to follow
his example. His affection for Athananius never wavered. On his deathbed in
January 356 at the ripe old age of 105, he bequeathed to him his most prized
possessions- his old sheepskin tunic and the mantle upon which he slept.
His monasticism was primarily individual and was bared purely on his own
understanding of the Bible. The asceticism which he taught was rigorous. ‘He
kept vigil to such an extent that he often continued the whole night without
sleep. He ate once a day, after sunset, sometimes once in two days, and often
even four. His food was bread and salt and water only.’ He told his monks ‘The
Scriptures are enough for instruction’ and armed with their power they could
overthrow the demons. Basically, he was thinking in non-ecclesiastical terms.
It has been pointed out that his retirement proved that in his view the organized
church had become an impossible dwelling-place for anyone who wished to lead a
truly Christian life. The Bible, solitary prayer and fasting took precedence
over the common life, public worship and ecclesiastical control. Though
salvation in Paradise was his object, for most of his life he could never
receive the Eucharist, and his monks were laymen. And yet, his friendship with Athanasius
was to make his movement the most formidable weapon in the armory of the Church
of Egypt.
Anthony had many imitators, among whom was another Copt, a close friend named
Amoun. In about 320 the latter left his wife with whom he had been living for
eighteen years in celibate union and went to the mountain of Nitria southwest
of the Delta. Soon a vast settlement grew up. There were upwards of 5,000
monks, each living in a separate cell. Amoun and his wife visited each other
twice yearly. At Nitria we begin to find evidence of a common way of life. The
monks would assemble for services each Saturday and Sunday, and they were
served by eight priests under the authority of the Bishop of Hermopolis.
Similar developments took place at another center, Scete, west of Niria. Nevertheless,
there was no set discipline. Newcomers attached themselves to a ‘master’ and
learned asceticism from him. It was in these monasteries that prodigies of
healing and fantastic competitions in
spiritual perfection took place. Macarius of Alexandria, for instance,
attempted to keep awake for twenty nights on end, to stand upright the whole of
Lent, and subsist on a diet of cabbage leaves. Another monk, Pachom, we are
told in Palladius’s Lausic History,
sought to be devoured by wild beasts but hyenas whose cave he invaded would not
touch him.
This was the flight from the Hellenistic world carried to extreme lengths. With
Packom (Pachomius) (290-345) we may discern the beginnings of a more ordered
community asceticism which was to extend its influence throughout the Greek
world, and ultimately provide a model for the monasteries in the West.
Packomius was born of heathen parents and was originally a soldier in the army
of Licinius. He experienced, however, the kindness and charity of Christians in
the Thebaid when he was incarcerated with other recruits awaiting enrollment,
and on his disbandment about 314, became a Christian himself. Almost at once he
joined a solitary named Palaemon who had
a hermit’s cabin opposite Denderah on the right bank of the Nile in Upper
Egypt. He felt himself, however, drawn strongly toward community life, and in response
to a divine command established himself in the nearby village of Tabennese. ‘Stay
here and build a monastery and many will come to you in order to be monks.’ He
did so, and it was as the voice said. By the time he died in 345 there were nine
monasteries and two nunneries with several thousand adherents forming part of his
‘Order.’
The important step which Pachomius took was to transform the loose association
of groups of hermits into an organized community subject to definite
discipline. As with Anthony, the Bible formed the basis of the monk’s learning. Each novice first learned by heart twenty psalms, and two Pauline Epistles or
their equivalent. He then became literate in Coptic.Greek-speakers were few and
far between. After this, he was allocated to one of the houses in the monastery,
where he would find himself living as a member of a group of about twenty monks
probably working at the same trade. He would be clothed in uniform dress, which
included hood, mantle of goatskin, girdle and stick, and he would be under the
discipline of his seniors. There would be a superior in each house responsible
to the father of the monastery, who in turn would take his instructions from
Pachomius himself. These monasteries were
large and self-supporting settlements carrying on every sort of trade and occupation,
whose inmates numbered thousands. Palladius speaks of 1,400 at Pachomius’s
chief monastery. Socially, they represent a transition which was taking place
throughout the Mediterranean world from the predominance of the city state to
that of a rural native community.
In these great monasteries extremes of asceticism were discouraged. Though
Pachomius emphasized the value of work, most of the monks’ time was spent in
services and the study of the Bible. Each Easter and on 13 August a general
assembly was held at which all attended in a single vast congregation.
Pachomius, like Anthony, was entirely loyal o Athanasius ever since the latter
visited his monasteries at the beginning of his episcopate. Pachomius’s monks
welcomed him on his return from his second exile in 346 and in Julia’s reign
Tabennese provided him with a retreat.
In Egypt, the monastic movement flourished as nowhere else. Monasteries and
nunneries grew up outside practically every town and village of any size. In
Upper Egypt alone there were nearly 490 settlements with their attendant monasteries. The number
of monks must have been enormous. The alliance between the patriarchate of
Alexandria and the monks provides a clue to the strength of the position
occupied by successive patriarchs of Alexandria from Athanasius to Dioscores
(328-455). In the first half of the fifth century there was no formidable a
figure in Christendom than Schnoudi (343-452), the abbot of the White
Monastery, and head of the Pachomian monks.
His was the leadership that ensured that the Coptic Church was to go its
own way after the excommunication of Dioscoros at Chalcedon in 451.
In Palestine and Syria the early years of the fourth century had already
witnessed the popularity of ascetic forms of Christianity. Here there was no
difference of view between Athanasians and Origenists. Indeed, it is from one
of the latter, Eusebius of Emesa (flor.
330-50), that we derive the most interesting picture of asceticism as it was
practiced within the walls of the homes of prominent citizens in the first half
of the century. The dedicated virgin read the Bible, observed daily hours of
prayer, kept to a Lenten diet and distinctive dress.
In Palestine, one of Anthony’s disciple, Hilarion (flor. 320),established the first group of anchorites near Gaza, but
in Syria the monastic movement seems to have begun independently. In that province,
ascetics, particularly in the form of strict sexual continence, had long had
its upholders, and there too the movement was primarily inspired by native,
Syriac-speaking Christians. As in Egypt the monks finally established
Christianity as the dominant religion in the countryside. Their spirit was
individualistic. They preferred great settlements of separate cells to common
life in a monastery. When Jerome came from Rome to the desert of Chalcis in
northern Syria in 373, he complained that the desert had already become
overcrowded. The monk’s doctrines, too, were not easy to fit into
ecclesiastical patterns and their temper was often anarchic. Fanatically
orthodox on dogmatic subjects, their morality was tinged with dualism.
Abhorring the world, they saw no sense in working in it. From the safety of their
cells, Jerome commented, they damned the world. The behavior of many of them
was far more like that of Indian fakirs than Christians. Not for nothing were
the Syrian ascetic sects of Messalians and sack-wearers equated in
381-3 with the Manichees, as devotees who were carrying asceticism beyond the
bounds of Christian teaching.
A different concept of the ascetics vocation was to prevail ultimately in Asia
Minor. Significantly, the condemnation of the Messalians and the other Syrian
sects was inspired by the two greatest
names in the story on monasticism, St. Basil and his friend Amphilochius of
Iconium. We have already discussed Basil’s work in preparing the way for the
second Ecumenical Council. Even more important
was his part in organizing monasticism in his native province of
Cappadocia. The Rule of St. Basil has
remained the model on which monasticism in the Orthodox Church is formed down
to the present day.
The background of Basil’s upbringing had been the
Christian asceticism of his mother and grandmother. From them he had learned
the ideal of the contemplative life with which Origen had inspired in his disciples.
In 357, after leaving Athens at the age of twenty-seven or twenty-eight, Basil
made a journey through Mesopotamia, Palestine, Lower Egypt and Syria to study
monasticism there. He returned deeply impressed with what he had seen. ‘I
admire,’ he wrote, ‘their (the monks’) continence in living, and their endurance
in toil. I was amazed at their persistence in prayer and their triumphing over
sleep . . . they showed in very deed
what it is to sojourn for a while in this life and to have one’s citizenship
and home in heaven. I prayed that I might imitate them.” At first he did so. He
retired to the magnificent country of the Iris valley in eastern Cappadocia,
and there, encouraged by Eustathius, Bishop of Sebaste, led the life of an
anchorite. But already in 359 he had taken deacon’s orders, and three years
later he was a priest. He was committed
to the Church as an organization. Ultimately, the earlier influences in his
life were to prevail. The ideal of a hermit gave way to that of a common
endeavor towards sanctity within an ecclesiastical framework. Man was a social
and not a solitary animal. So, too, the iron discipline and drive for
self-sufficiency of the Pachomian rule
was replaced by ideals of brotherliness (adelphotes)
and social service. Basil’s Rules
were deduced from the requirements of the Christian Platonism which dominated
his life. The spirit was that of an ideal society to which the monk gradually
made his ascent. It was Hellenic in
outlook, profoundly different from its Coptic and Syrian counterparts.
For the details of Basil’s monastic organization we are indebted to two
documents known as the Longer and Shorter Rule of St. Basil, and also to
numerous passages in his Letters. His
object, described by his brother Gregory of Nyssa, was a mean between the
solitary life of a hermit and the household asceticism practiced by some of his
contemporaries. The fundamental aim was the common life. The monasteries were
small, restricted to some thirty-forty members directed by a Superior. There
was common dress and property, but no excesses of asceticism were permitted,
and even private fasts were discouraged. We hear little of visions and
prophesy. Emphasis was laid equally on prayer and work. Prayers were said
in six services during the day and two during the nighttime, the object being
to destroy evil desires and prevent sloth by an ever varying cycle of
devotions. The Eucharist was celebrated four times a week in a church attached
to the monastery. The Rules
recognized full episcopal; control over the affairs of the cloister. Monasteries
were placed in towns as well as in the countryside. Thus, religious life was no
longer to be regarded as a flight from the world, and Basil himself was Bishop
as well as a monk. Work was done with the deliberate aim of serving the community.
Schools for children and hospitals were established and staffed by monks. There
was scope for the learned to study as well as for the craftsman and laborer. The fulfillment of these aims was to bring a lasting benefit to the people of Asia
Minor. They elevated the monastic ideal from personal to social service. It is
not surprising that last survivals of Christianity in Asia Minor were monastic
rather than episcopal.
In the West the monastic movement was still in its infancy as late as 380. In
northwestern Europe a rougher climate, the deep-rooted character of Celtic
paganism, and the failure of Christianity to penetrate far beyond the walls
of city combined to prevent its spread. In Africa popular enthusiasm
was concentrated in the Circumcellion
movement which had extended the concept of martyrdom to the struggle against
social injustice in an apocalyptic setting. The Donatist extremists, Fasir and
Axido, were self-styled ‘leaders of the saints.’ The deep-seated impatience populaire of Mediterranean Christianity
was still expressed by authors and poets such as Commodian and Salvian of Marseille who identified
the powers of evil with the Roman government and looked forward to persecution,
conflict and the End.
In contrast to the East, Western monasticism was originally aristocratic and middle-class
in inspiration. Athanasius’s stay in
Rome in 341 accompanied by two monks had aroused the curiosity and respect of
the Christian Roman nobility. Jerome’s early careers among the orthodox
Christian provincialism of northeast Italy in the 360s shows how earnest young
Christians were tired of this sort of thing, and longed to get away to quasi-solitude
and celibate existence on the rigged islands off the Adriatic coast. Even so,
monasticism was not always popular. There exists a curious work, the ‘Discussions
between Zacchaeus and Apollonius,’ recording a supposed dialogue between a
pagan and a Christian ascetic in which the pagan asks, ‘Tell me what is that
community or nest of monks and why are they the object of hatred even among
Christians?’ To this, the Christian replied that monks like every other calling
included unworthy elements. In Jerome’s time in the 380s the pale face of a
fasting woman would be stigmatized as that of a ‘miserable Manichaean nun.”
At this period Eastern asceticism was still being admired as something of a
sensation. Rich heiresses like the Roman aristocrat Melania went out and
visited Anthony’s hermitage at Pisir as tourists. Jerome’s friend, Rufinus, went
to Scete and Nitria and others went to Palestine. By 350 there was a regular
pilgrim route from Bordeaux to Jerusalem with hospices on the way. The story of
Etheria, a noble and observant lady from northwestern Spain who traveled as far
as Thebaid and then via the Sinai desert first to Jerusalem and then to
Constantinople, reads like a modern travelogue. She was determined to see everything
from monastic cells to the rock which Moses struck. The ancient world was
gradually being transformed into the Middle Ages with its pilgrimages, its
monastic sagas and elaborate cult of saints. In northern Gaul the 370s were to
see the first and brilliantly successful piece of monastic missionary
enterprise in the West, that of Martin of Tours among the Celts at a time when
Christianity had been still an unknown faith to most of them.
Jerome’s career (345-420) fits into the current pattern of intellectual asceticism.
His wanderings in the East early in his life, his curiosity and enthusiasm combined
with ignorance of Eastern habits of mind and theological problems ,represented
a prevalent outlook among the new generation of aristocratic Roman Christians.
His salon, centered on the household of the rich matron Paula and her daughter
Eustochion, on the Aventine was a real center of religious life and learning.
When in 385, disappointed of succeeding Pope Damasus, the translator of the
Vulgate, sailed away to Palestine and his ‘cave' at Bethlehem he left an
example of asceticism combined with
scholarship which the Benedictines of the early Middle Ages were able to take
to heart. Even so, the center of his activity as a monk was the East. Another generation would go by
before John Cassian provided the Western provinces with a monastic rule which
they could accept, and which was to prepare the way for the Benedictine Order.
