Page:1909historyofdec04gibbuoft.djvu/90

 64 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxvii Antony and the monks of Egypt - a.d. 305 derived from the disgust and repentance of mankind a perpetual supply of voluntary associates. 6 Egypt, the fruitful parent of superstition, afforded the first example of the monastic life. Antony, 7 an illiterate 8 youth of the lower parts of Thebais, distributed his patrimony, 9 deserted his family and native home, and executed his monastic penance with original and intrepid fanaticism. After a long and painful novitiate among the tombs and in a ruined tower, he boldly ad- vanced into the desert three days' journey to the eastward of the Nile ; discovered a lonely spot, which possessed the advant- ages of shade and water ; and fixed his last residence on Mount Colzim near the Red Sea, where an ancient monastery still preserves the name and memory of the saint. 10 The curious devotion of the Christians pursued him to the desert; and, when he was obliged to appear at Alexandria, in the face of mankind, he supported his fame with discretion and dignity. He enjoyed the friendship of Athanasius, whose doctrine he approved; and the Egyptian peasant respectfully declined a respectful invitation from the emperor Constantine. The a.d. 251-366 venerable patriarch (for Antony attained the age of one hundred 6 Plin. Hist. Natur. v. 15. Gens sola, et in toto orbe prater ceteras mira, sine ulla femina, omni venere abdicata, sine pecunia, socia palmarum. Ita per secu- lorum millia (incredibile dictu) gens seterna est in qua nemo nascitur. Tarn fcecunda illis aliorum vitse poenitentia est. He places them just beyond the noxious influence of the lake, and names Engaddi and Masada as the nearest towns. The Laura and monastery of St. Sabas could not be far distant from this place. See Eeland. Palestin. torn. i. p. 295, torn. ii. p. 763, 874, 880, 890. 7 See Athanas. Op. torn. ii. p. 450-505 [cp. Migne, Patr. Gr., vol. xxvi. p. 835 sqq.] and the Vit. Patrum [ed. 1628], p. 26-74, with Bosweyde's Annotations. The former i6 the Greek original ; the latter a very ancient Latin version by Eva- grius, the friend of St. Jerom. [On Evagrius see Zockler, Evagrius Ponticus, 1893.] 8 Tpd^ixara fj.ev fxaOeTv ovk ^"fcrxero, Athanas. torn. ii. in Vit. St. Anton, p. 452 ; and the assertion of his total ignorance has been received by many of the ancients and moderns. But Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. torn. vii. p. 666) shews, by some probable arguments, that Antony could read and write in the Coptic, his native tongue, and that he was only a stranger to the Greek letters. The philosopher Synesius (p. 51) acknowledges that the natural genius of Antony did not require the aid of learning. 9 Arurce autem erant ei trecentse uberes, et valde optimre (Vit. Patr. 1. i. p. 36). If the Antra be a Bquare measure of an hundred Egyptian cubits (Rosweyde, Onomasticon ad Vit. Patrum, p. 1014, 1015) and the Egyptian cubit of all ages be equal to twenty-two English inches (Greaves, vol. i. p. 233), the arura will consist of about three-quarters of an English acre. 10 The description of the monastery is given by Jerom (torn. i. p. 248, 249, in Vit. Hilarion. [Migne, vol. xxiii. p. 45]) and the P. Sicard (Missions du Levant, torn. v. p. 122-200). Their accounts cannot always be reconciled : the father painted from his fancy, and the Jesuit from his experience.