72 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxvii the countries which they may inhabit. 41 The monastic habits of the ancients varied with the climate and their mode of life ; and they assumed, with the same indifference, the sheepskin of the Egyptian peasants or the cloak of the Grecian philosophers. They allowed themselves the use of linen in Egypt, where it was a cheap and domestic manufacture; but in the West they re- jected such an expensive article of foreign luxury. 42 It was the practice of the monks either to cut or shave their hair ; 43 they wrapped their heads in a cowl, to escape the sight of profane objects ; their legs and feet were naked, except in the extreme cold of winter ; and their slow and feeble steps were supported by a long staff. The aspect of a genuine anachoret was horrid and disgusting ; every sensation that is offensive to man was thought acceptable to God ; and the angelic rule of Tabenne condemned the salutary custom of bathing the limbs in water and of anointing them with oil. 44 The austere monks slept on the ground, on a hard mat or a rough blanket ; and the same bundle of palm-leaves served them as a seat in the day and a pillow in the night. Their original cells were low narrow huts, built of the slightest materials ; which formed, by the regular distribution of the streets, a large and populous village, inclosing within the common wall a church, an hospital, perhaps a library, some necessary offices, a garden, and a fountain or reservoir of fresh water. Thirty or forty brethren composed a family of separate discipline and diet ; and the great monasteries of Egypt consisted of thirty or forty families. Their diet Pleasure and guilt are synonymous terms in the language of the monks ; and they had discovered, by experience, that rigid fasts and abstemious diet are the most effectual preser- vatives against the impure desires of the flesh. 45 The rules of 41 Begul. Benedict. No. 55, in Cod. Begul. part ii. p. 51. 42 See the Bule of Ferreolus, bishop of Ufez (No. 31, in Cod. Begul. part ii. p. 136), and of Isidore, bishop of Seville (No. 13, in Cod. Begul. part ii. p. 214). 43 [The tonsure was at first confined to Egypt, where it was practised by the communities of St. Pachomius in the fourth century. It was probably borrowed from the ascetics of Sera pis.] 44 Some partial indulgences were granted for the hands and feet. " Totuni autem corpus nemo unguet nisi causa innrmitatis, nee lavabitur aqua nudo corpore, nisi languor perspicuus sit." (Begul. Pachom. xcii. part i. p. 78.) 46 St. Jerom, in strong, but indiscreet, language, expresses the most important use of fasting and abstinence : " Non quod Deus universitatis Creator et Dominus, intestinorum nostrorum rugitu, et inanitate ventris, pulmonisque ardore delectetur,
