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 chap, xxxvii] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 77 fied for any liberal studies the mechanics and peasants, who filled the monastic communities. They might work ; but the vanity of spiritual perfection was tempted to disdain the exercise of manual labour, and the industry must be faint and languid which is not excited by the sense of personal interest. According to their faith and zeal, they might employ the Their devo- day, which they passed in their cells, either in vocal or mental visions prayer ; they assembled in the evening, and they were awak- ened in the night, for the public worship of the monastery. The precise moment was determined by the stars, which are seldom clouded in the serene sky of Egypt ; and a rustic horn or trumpet, the signal of devotion, twice interrupted the vast silence of the desert. 61 Even sleep, the last refuge of the un- happy, was rigorously measured ; the vacant hours of the monk heavily rolled along, without business or pleasure; and, before the close of each day, he had repeatedly accused the tedious progress of the Sun. 62 In this comfortless state, superstition still pursued and tormented her wretched votar- ies. 63 The repose which they had sought in the cloister was disturbed by tardy repentance, profane doubts, and guilty de- sires ; and, while they considered each natural impulse as an unpardonable sin, they perpetually trembled on the edge of a flaming and bottomless abyss. From the painful struggles of disease and despair these unhappy victims were sometimes relieved by madness or death ; and, in the sixth century, an hospital was founded at Jerusalem for a small portion of the austere penitents, who were deprived of their senses. 64 Their visions, before they attained this extreme and acknowledged 61 The diurnal and nocturnal prayers of the monks are copiously discussed by Cassian in the third and fourth books of his Institutions ; and he constantly prefers the liturgy, which an angel had dictated to the monasteries of Tabenne. 62 Cassian, from his own experience, describes the acedia, or listlessness of mind and body to which a monk was exposed, when he sighed to find himself alone. Saapiusque egreditur et ingreditur cellam, et Solem velut ad occasum tardius pro- perantem crebrius intuetur (Institut. x. 1). 63 The temptations and sufferings of Stagirius were communicated by that unfortunate youth to his friend St. Chrysostom. See Middleton's Works, vol. i. p. 107-110. Something similar introduces the life of every saint ; and the famous Inigo, or Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits (Vie d'Inigo de Guiposcoa, torn. i. p. 29-38), may serve as a memorable example. 64 Fleury, Hist. Ecclesiastique, torn. vii. p. 46. I have read somewhere, in the Vitas Patrum, but I cannot recover the place, that several, I believe many, of the monks, who did not reveal their temptations to the abbot, became guilty of suicide.