Anthony and Pachomius in Egypt. Anthony was the founder of a monastic colony, which was a direct development from the eremitical life. He laid down no rule for the guidance of the lives of the monks, but permitted the maximum of individual freedom. It was Pachomius who first established a truly cenobitical monastery, in which the monks lived a common life under the direction of a single head, the abbot, according to a prescribed rule with fixed religious exercises and daily labor. The organization of convents for women accompanied the foundation of the monasteries. However, the Antonian type of monkhood continued to be the more popular in Egypt, where monasticism flourished throughout the fourth, but began to decline in the fifth, century.
Eastern monasticism. From Egypt the movement spread to Palestine, but in Syria and Mesopotamia there was an independent development from the local eremitical ideals. Characteristic of Syrian asceticism were the pillar hermits who passed their lives upon the top of lofty pillars. The founder of the Greek monasticism was Basil (c. 360 A. D.), who copied Pachomius in organizing a fully cenobitical life. He discouraged excessive asceticism and emphasized the value of useful toil. The eastern monks were noted for their fanaticism and they took a very prominent part in the religious disorders of the time. The abuses of the early, unregulated monastic life led to the formulation of monastic rules and the subjection of the monks to the authority of the bishops.
Monasticism in the west: Benedict. Monasticism was introduced in the West by Athanasius, who came from Egypt to Rome in 339. From Italy it spread to the rest of western Europe. The great organizer of western monasticism was Benedict, who lived in the early sixth century, and founded the monastery at Monte Cassino about 520 A. D. His monastic rule definitely abandoned the eremitical ideal in favor of the cenobitical. In addition to worship and [pg 396]work, the Benedictine rule made reading a monastic duty. This stimulated the collection of libraries in the monasteries and made the monks the guardians of literary culture throughout the Middle Ages.
As yet no distinct monastic orders had developed, but each monastery was autonomous under the direction of its own abbot.
V. Literature and Art
General characteristics. The period between the accession of Diocletian and the death of Justinian saw the gradual disappearance of the ancient Graeco-Roman culture. In spite of Diocletian’s reëstablishment of the empire, there was a steady lowering of the general cultural level. This was due chiefly to the progressive barbarization of the empire and to the decline of paganism which lay at the roots of ancient civilization. The one creative force of the time was Christianity, but, save in the fields of religion and ethics, it did little to stem the ebbing tide of old world culture.
Literature. The dying out of this culture is clearly to be seen in the history of the Greek and Roman literatures of the period, each of which shows the same general traits. In the fourth century, under the impulse of the restoration of Diocletian, there is a brief revival of productivity in pagan literature. But this is characterized by archaism and lack of creative power. The imitation of the past produces not only an artificiality of style, but also of language, so that literature loses touch with contemporary life and the language of the literary world is that of previous centuries, no longer that of the people. Rhetorical studies are the sole form of higher education, and are in part responsible for the archaism and artificiality of contemporary literature, owing to the emphasis which they laid upon literary form to the neglect of substance. In the fifth century, following the complete triumph of Christianity, pagan literature comes to an end.
The recognition of Christianity as an imperial religion by Constantine, its subsequent victorious assault upon paganism, and the intensity of sectarian strife gave to Christian literature a freshness and vigor lacking in the works of pagan writers, and produced a wealth of apologetic, dogmatic and theological writings. But the Christian authors followed the accepted categories of the pagan literature, and while producing polemic writings, works of translation and of religious [pg 397]exegesis, they entered the fields of history, biography, oratory and epistolography. Thus arose a profane, as well as a sacred, Christian literature. And since Christian writers were themselves men of education and appealed to educated circles, their works are dominated by the current rhetorical standards of literary taste. Yet in some aspects, in particular in sacred poetry and popular religious biography, they break away from classical traditions and develop new literary types.
But after the first half of the fifth century originality and productivity in Christian literature also are on the wane. This is in part due to the effects of the struggle of the empire with barbarian peoples; in part to the suppression of freedom of religious thought by the orthodox church. Even after the extinction of paganism the classical literatures of Greece and Rome afforded the only material for a non-religious education. And since they no longer constituted a menace to Christianity, the church became reconciled to their use for purposes of instruction, and it was to the church, and especially to the monasteries, that the pagan literature owes its preservation throughout the Dark Ages.