solitude 76 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxvn renounced. 57 and scandalously abused the riches which had been acquired by the austere virtues of their founders. 58 Their natural descent from such painful and dangerous virtue to the common vices of humanity will not, perhaps, excite much grief or indig- nation in the mind of a philosopher. Their The lives of the primitive monks were consumed in penance and solitude, undisturbed by the various occupations which fill the time, and exercise the faculties, of reasonable, active, and social beings. Whenever they were permitted to step beyond the precincts of the monastery, two jealous companions were the mutual guards and spies of each other's actions ; and, after their return, they were condemned to forget, or, at least, to sup- press, whatever they had seen or heard m the world. Strangers, who professed the orthodox faith, were hospitably entertained in a separate apartment ; but their dangerous conversation was re- stricted to some chosen elders of approved discretion and fidelity. Except in their presence, the monastic slave might not receive the visits of his friends or kindred ; and it was deemed highly meritorious if he afflicted a tender sister or an aged parent by the obstinate refusal of a word or look. 59 The monks themselves passed their lives, without personal attachments, among a crowd, which had been formed by accident and was detained, in the same prison, by force or prejudice. Recluse fanatics have few ideas or sentiments to communicate; a special licence of the abbot regulated the time and duration of their familiar visits ; and, at their silent meals, they were enveloped in their cowls, inaccessible, and almost invisible, to each other. 60 Study is the resource of solitude ; but education had not prepared and quali- 57 The sixth general council (the Quinisext in Trullo, Canon xlvii. in Beveridge, torn. i. p. 213) restrains women from passing the night in a male, or men in a female, monastery. The seventh general council (the second Nicene, Canon xx. in Beveridge, torn. i. p. 325) prohibits the erection of double or promiscuous monas- teries of both sexes ; but it appears from Balsamon that the prohibition was not effectual. On the irregular pleasures and expenses of the clergy and monks, see Thomassin, torn. iii. p. 1334-1368. 58 I have somewhere heard or read the frank confession of a Benedictine abbot : " My vow of poverty has given me an hundred thousand crowns a year ; my vow of obedience has raised me to the rank of a sovereign prince ". — I forget the conse- quences of his vow of chastity. 59 Pior, an Egyptian monk, allowed his sister to see him : but he shut his eyes during the whole visit. See Vit. Patrum, 1. iii. p. 504. Many such examples might be added. «" The 7th, 8th, 29th, 30th, 31st, 34th, 57th, 60th, 86th, and 95th articles of the Rule of Pachomius impose most intolerable laws of silenoe and mortification.
