“Venit de Anglia virgo decora valde, pariterque facunda, dicens, Spiritum Sanctum incarnatum in redemptionem mulierum, et baptizavit mulieres in nomine Patris, Filii et sui. Quæ mortua ducta fuit in Mediolanum, ibi et cremata.”—Annales Dominicanorum Colmariensium (in the “Rerum Germanic. Scriptores”).
The three principal are the Historia Monachorum of Rufinus, who visited Egypt a.d. 373, about seventeen years after the death of St. Antony; the Institutiones of Cassian, who, having visited the Eastern monks about a.d. 394, founded vast monasteries containing, it is said, 5,000 monks, at Marseilles, and died at a great age about a.d. 448; and the Historia Lausiaca (so called from Lausus, Governor of Cappadocia) of Palladius, who was himself a hermit on Mount Nitria, in a.d. 388. The first and last, as well as many minor works of the same period, are given in Rosweyde's invaluable collection of the lives of the Fathers, one of the most fascinating volumes in the whole range of literature.
The hospitality of the monks was not without drawbacks. In a church on Mount Nitria three whips were hung on a palm-tree—one for chastising monks, another for chastising thieves, and a third for chastising guests. (Palladius, Hist. Laus. vii.)
Pratum Spirituale, lxxx.
An Irish saint, named Coemgenus, is said to have shown his devotion in a way which was directly opposite to that of the other saints I have mentioned—by his special use of cold water—but the principle in each case was the same—to mortify nature. St. Coemgenus was accustomed to pray for an hour every night in a pool of cold water, while the devil sent a horrible beast to swim round him. An angel, however, was sent to him for three purposes. “Tribus de causis à Domino missus est angelus ibi ad S. Coemgenum. Prima ut a diversis suis gravibus laboribus levius viveret paulisper; secunda ut horridam bestiam sancto infestam repelleret; tertia ut frigiditatem aquæ calefaceret.”—Bollandists, June 3. The editors say these acts are of doubtful authenticity.
Tartuffe (tirant un mouchoir
de sa poche).
“Ah, mon Dieu, je vous prie,
Avant que de parler, prenez-moi ce mouchoir.
Dorine.
Comment!
Tartuffe.