IN the previous chapters the chief Orders of monks and regular canons have been referred to, but there has been no account of their constitution. An attempt must now be made to explain the main differences, coupled with a short sketch of monastic history.

The central principle of monasticism is retirement from the world. At specially corrupt times, when vice was unblushing, it has seemed to many good people to be a solemn duty to get away from the haunts of men, either alone or with others, to work out their own salvation and pray for the world. The monks have aimed at many other things—study, manual labour, hospitality, and so on—but the first and main principle of the whole system was retirement from the world.

There have been monks in most religions, such as the Essenes and Therapeutists among the Jews, and the Buddhist monks of Ceylon and Burma. In Christianity, the system took its rise in the third century, when Paul went into the desert of Egypt and founded the eremitic or hermit life. The most celebrated of the early monks was St Anthony, born in 251 of good family. At the age of 20 he sold his land and plunged into the desert, where for fifteen years he practised severe self discipline. He was followed by disciples who built their huts near his. The coenobitic system, or life in common, inevitably took the place of the anchoritic or life of complete withdrawal.