A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

274 A Source Book for Ancient Church Historyhad been of us, they would have continued with us” [I John 2:18f.]. Whence it appears that all are adversaries of the Lord and areantichrists who are known to have departed from the charity andfrom the unity of the Catholic Church.§ 53. The Beginnings of MonasticismAsceticism in some form is common to almost all religions. Itwas practised extensively in early Christianity and ascetics ofboth sexes were numerous. This asceticism, in addition to a lifelargely devoted to prayer and fasting, was marked by refrainingfrom marriage. But these ascetics lived in close relations withthose who were non-ascetics. Monasticism is an advance uponthis earlier asceticism in that it attempts to create, apart fromnon-ascetics, a social order composed only of ascetics in whichthe ascetic ideals may be more successfully realized. The transitionwas made by the hermit life in which the ascetic livedalone in deserts and other solitudes. This became monasticismby the union of ascetics for mutual spiritual aid. This advance isassociated with St. Anthony. See also Pachomius, in § 77.Additional source material: Pseudo-Clement. De Virginitate(ANF, VIII, 53); Methodius, Symposium (ANF, VI, 309); theLausiac History of Palladius, E. C. Butler, Texts and Studies,Cambridge, 1898; Paradise, or Garden of the Holy Fathers,trans. by E. A. W. Budge, London, 1907.[249]Athanasius, Vita S. Antonii, 2-4, 44. (MSG, 26:844, 908.)Anthony, although not the first hermit, gave such an impetusto the ascetic life and did so much to bring about some unionof ascetics that he has been popularly regarded as the founderof monasticism. He died 356, at the age of one hundredand five. His Life, by St. Athanasius, although formerly