Running away from society has long been a pastime. Who was the first monk? How did monasteries begin?

ASCETICS AND MONKS

St. Anthony the Great of Egypt, considered the Father of Christian Monasticism

Josephus, John the Baptist, and Qumran

John the Baptist Preaching in the Wilderness by Anton Raphael Mengs, 1760

In New Testament times there were both individual and communal ascetics in Palestine.  Josephus, the Jewish historian, mentions that he received some of his teaching from a hermit called Banus.  John the Baptist, living a solitary ascetic life in the Judean desert, also represents this tradition.  On the communal side, the best-known are the Essenes, of whom the group at Qumran who produced the Dead Sea Scrolls were the most prominent.  But some Essenes lived ascetic lives in their community, as did some of the Pharisees.

James, the Lord's brother, and moral laxity

Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai, early 6th century

None of the earliest Christians appears to have lived as a hermit or in an ascetic community.  Individuals, however, were noted for their rigour of life and devotion to God.  James, the Lord's brother, for example, was admired by many non-Christian Jews for his constant fasting and prayer.  Also, in the early period, any consistent Christian life was likely to be viewed as extremely ascetic by a morally lax society.  Some noble Roman ladies, who may have been Christians, are reported by pagan sources to have lived in mourning and seclusion for years, presumably because they had no time for the pagan social life surrounding them.

Martyrdom, Syriac-speaking churches, the spiritual elite, widows, virgins, Jewish-Christian groups, Marcionites, Montanists, Encratites, Clement and Origen

Clement from Les vrais pourtraits et vies des hommes illustres grecz, latins et payens (1584) by André Thévet. Origen reportedly studied under Clement of Alexandria and was influenced by his thought.

While Christianity was under threat of persecution, congregations tended to be small, and to keep very high moral standards (even if there were some lapses, which were severely punished).  Martyrdom was valued as the supreme example of devotion to God.  Although some churches may have had church membership requirements that were ascetic (for instance, some Syriac-speaking appear to have accepted as baptized members only those were celibate), there was no sign of an organized 'spiritual elite' inside the church apart from groups of widows and virgins.  On the fringes of mainstream Christianity, for example among Jewish-Christians groups, Marcionites, and Montanists, asceticism was very popular, often in the form of 'encratism' (Greek for 'self-control').  Encratites rejected marriage, wine, and meat.  Clement of Alexandria and Origen laid the foundations for an orthodox theology of asceticism.

THE FIRST MONKS

Icon of Saint Anthony the Great, the founder of Christian monasticism

Monks replace martyrs as the spiritual elite

Frescos at the Syrian Monastery, Scetes, Egypt

The late third and early fourth centuries saw the beginnings of monastic asceticism in Christianity.  General toleration of Christianity even before Constantine produced an influx of new members into the churches and growth in numbers was accompanied by a lowering of standards.  At the same time martyrdom became less and less frequent, and the martyrs and confessors were replaced as the spiritual elite by the first monks.  The monks aimed to live the Christian life to the full, and felt that continued residence in the 'world' hindered this.  They tried to achieve a pure Christianity and a deep communion with God which they considered unattainable in the existing churches.

Saint Catherine in Egypt's southern Sinai Peninsula, on a snowy winter morning.

There is considerable debate as to where monasticism began.  The first monks were individuals who retreated to the desert in Egypt or Syria.  Sometimes these retreats were only temporary, and may have been prompted by the need to flee persecution; often they became permanent.  Although he may not have been the earliest, Antony (about 256-356), a Coptic peasant from Egypt, was the first famous hermit.  His example was followed by others, and soon there were many hermits, living either singly or in loosely-associated groups on the edge of the desert.

The hermit

St. Jerome, who lived as a hermit near Bethlehem, depicted in his study being visited by two angels (Cavarozzi, early 17th century).

The main routine of the hermit was prayer and meditation, supplemented by reading of the Bible.  Fasting was also important, and they attempted many other rigorous feats such as standing for hours while praying.  Some of the prayers were rather mechanical, involving the repetition of short set formulas.

Loneliness and shortage of food

Solitude, Jean Jacques Henner

The prolonged loneliness and the shortage of food and sleep fostered hallucinations as well as growth in spiritual awareness of God.  Conflicts with demons were frequent.  Many of the visions, trances, and strange experiences of the desert hermits have obvious psychological explanations (for example, the appearance of the devil as a seductive woman could be the result of repressed sexual feelings).  Those who retreated to the desert inevitably abandoned family life, and celibacy was the rule, although some married couples retreated together into the desert, but lived without sexual intercourse.  Most hermits remained fairly stationary, but there were some wanderers, especially in the regions of Syria, including more extreme groups such as the unruly Messalians who wandered about, sleeping rough and keeping up a continual chanting.

Going to extremes

A copy by the young Michelangelo after an engraving by Martin Schongauer around 1487–9, The Torment of Saint Anthony. Oil and tempera on panel. One of many artistic depictions of Saint Anthony's trials in the desert

Some hermits went to unnatural extremes, such as living at the top of pillars, or walling themselves up in caves.  Early hermits were largely lay people.  Occasionally they might meet to receive the Eucharist, or a priest who was a hermit would minister to a group throughout an area.  But the Eucharist had little place in the routines of the early hermits.

PACHOMIUS STARTS A COMMUNITY

Pachomius the Great, Father of Spiritual Communal Monastic Life

Pachomius founds communal monasticism

Painting of Pachomius the Great in the Curtea Veche, Bucharest.

Communal monasticism was begun about 320 by Pachomius.  He was a converted solider, and after discharge he spent some time as a hermit before setting up his first ascetic community at Tabennisi, by the River Nile in Egypt.  The rule of his community survives in a Latin translation made by Jerome.

Life at the monastery

The Monastery of Saint Anthony in Egypt, built over the tomb of Saint Anthony, the "Father of Christian Monasticism".

Pachomius set his face against extremism.  He insisted on regular meals and worship, and aimed to make his communities self-supporting through such industries as the weaving of palm-mats or growing fruit and vegetables for sale.  Entrants to his community had to hand over their personal wealth to a common fund, and were only admitted as full members after a period of probation.  To prove their initial earnestness they were required to stand outside the monastery door for several days.  Part of the qualifications for full membership was to memorize parts of the Bible; and if the candidates were illiterate they were taught how to read and write.  Although Pachomius' first communities were for me, before his death he supervised the establishment of the earliest communities for women as well.  Pachomius created the basic framework which was followed by all later monastic communities.

Athanasius brings monasticism to the West

Icon of St Athanasius

Monasticism appeared first out of Eastern Christianity.  It was first brought to the notice of the Western Churches by Athanasius.  While he was in exile in the West between 340 and 346, he was accompanied by two Egyptian monks.  Athanasius spent parts of his later exiles hiding among the hermits of the Egyptian desert, and subsequently wrote the life of Antony.  This biography provides almost all our knowledge about Antony, and largely helped to spread the ideals of the ascetic movement.  It was soon translated into Latin, and among those influenced by it was Augustine of Hippo.  In the West monasticism had the backing of church leaders such as Ambrose from the very beginning.

Source: Smith, Michael A. "Chapter 15: Ascetics and Monks." In Introduction to the History of Christianity. Second Edition, ed. Tim Dowley, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013, pages 169-171.

John Newton (1725-1807) reproves those involved in contraband, smuggling and income tax evasion in 18th century England.

A word to professors in trade

A skirmish with smugglers from Finland at the Russian border, 1853. A painting by Vasily Hudiakov.

Christians in the late 18th century are engaging in smuggling to avoid taxes

A book with a concealed space for hiding cigarettes.

It is suspected (or, rather, it is too certainly known), that, among those who are deemed Gospel professors, there are some people who allow themselves in the practice of dealing in prohibited, smuggled goods, to the injury of the public revenue, and the detriment of the fair trader.

Jesus says, "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's."

Egyptian peasants seized for non-payment of taxes. (Pyramid Age)

The decisions of the word of God, upon this point, are so plain and determinate, that it is rather difficult to conceive how a sincere mind can either overlook or mistake them. The same authority which forbids us to commit adultery or murder, requires us to "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's." "Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue." These precepts enjoin no more than what the common sense of mankind pronounces to be due, from subjects and members of society, to the governments they live under, and by which they are protected. But the obligation is greatly enforced upon those who acknowledge themselves the disciples of Christ, since he has been pleased to make their compliance herein a part of the obedience they owe to himself. And it is plain, that these injunctions are universal and binding, under all civil governments, as such; for none can justly suppose, that tributes exacted by the Roman emperors (under whose dominion the first Christians lived), such as Tiberius or Nero, had the sanction of our Lord and his apostles on account of their peculiar equity.

Honest businesses suffer because they have to raise their prices to pay for taxes so you shouldn't buy smuggled goods as this represents fraud and perjury

Poster issued by the British tax authorities to counter offshore tax evasion.

The vending of smuggled goods, or the buying them, if known to be so, is likewise injurious to the fair trader, who, conscientiously paying the prescribed taxes, cannot afford to sell so cheap as the smuggler, and therefore must expect the fewer customers. In this view, it offends the royal law of "doing to others as we desire that they should do unto us." The force of this argument may be easily felt, by anyone who will honestly make the case his own. Without any fancy reasoning, people may know in a moment that they would not like to be put to this disadvantage. It is therefore unjust (that is sinful, and utterly unfitting a professor of religion) to purchase smuggled goods, even in small quantities, and for family use. As for those who, being in trade themselves, make this practice a branch of their business, and, under the semblance of a fair reputation, are doing things in secret which they would tremble to have discovered, being afraid of the tax collector, though not of God; I can only pray, that God may give them repentance: for it is a work of darkness, and needs it. Transactions of this kind cannot be carried on for a course of time, without such a series and complication of fraud and baseness, and for the most part of perjury likewise, as would be scandalous, not only in a professed Christian, but in an avowed infidel.

Smugglers fight, murder, waste their money, and stupefy their consciences and you encourage them by buying their goods

X-ray of an abdomen piled up with cocaine

It should be observed likewise, that there is hardly any set of men more lost to society, or in a situation more dangerous to themselves and others, than the people who are called smugglers. Frequent fighting, and sometimes murder itself, are the consequence of their illicit commerce. Their money is ill gotten, and it is generally ill spent. They are greatly to be pitied. The employment they are accustomed to, has a direct tendency to deprive them of character and the privileges of social life, and to harden their hearts and stupefy their consciences in the ways of sin. But for whom are they risking their lives and ruining their souls? I would hope, Reader, not for you, if you account yourself a Christian. If you, for the sake of gain, encourage and assist them, by buying or selling their goods, you are so far responsible for the consequences: you encourage them in sin; you expose them to mischief. And have you so learned Christ? Is this the testimony you give of the uprightness of your hearts and ways? Is it thus you show your compassion for the souls of men? Ah! shake your hands from gain so dearly earned. Think not to support the cause of God with such gain; he hates robbery for burnt-offering. Think it not lawful, or safe, to put a farthing of it into your treasury, lest it secretly communicate a moth and a curse to all that you possess: for it is the price of blood, the blood of souls. If you are indeed a child of God, and will persist in this path after admonition received, be assured your sin will find you out. If the Lord loves you, he will not allow you to prosper in your perverseness. You may rather expect, that, as a little rotted corn is sufficient to spoil the whole heap to which it is laid, so money thus obtained will deprive you of the blessing and comfort you might otherwise expect from your lawful acquisitions.

Dealing in smuggled goods is in opposition to Scripture, law, equity, humanity, and Christian conscience

A poster warning the German women and girls about the danger of human traffic in the USA (ca 1900)

If you are determined to persist, in opposition to Scripture, to law, to equity and humanity, you have doubtless, as I suppose you a professor, some plea or excuse with which you attempt to justify yourself, and to keep your conscience quiet. See to it, that it be such a one as will bear the examination of a dying hour. You will not surely plead, that "things are come to such a pass, there is no carrying on business upon other terms to advantage!" Will the practice of the world, who know not Christ, be a proper precedent for you, who call yourself by his name? That cannot be, since his command is, "You shall not follow a multitude to do evil." That the truth and power of his grace may be manifested, he is pleased to put his servants into such situations, that they must forego some seeming advantages, and suffer some seeming hardships, in their worldly connections, if they will approve themselves faithful to him, and live in the exercise of a good conscience. He promises that his grace shall be sufficient for them. It is the blessing of the Lord which makes rich; and for lack of this we see many rise early, take late rest, and eat the bread of carefulness, to no purpose. And I believe, integrity and diligence in business, with a humble dependence upon his Providence, are the best methods of thriving even in temporals. However, those who lose for him are in no danger of losing by him. They may be confident of so much as he sees best for them; and they shall have his peace and blessing with it. But if, when you are placed in a state of trial, the love of the world is so powerful in your heart that you cannot resist the temptation of enriching yourself by unlawful means, you have great reason to fear you have not his Spirit, and are therefore none of his.

Pieter Brueghel the Younger, The tax collector's office, 1640

Source: Newton, John. The Works of the Rev. John Newton. Volume I, London: J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church-yard and J. Smith, No 6, Coleman-Street-Buildings, 1808, Letter XL, pages 378-381.