211 On these penances, see Bingham, _Antiq._ book vii. Bingham, I think, justly divides the history of asceticism into three periods. During the first, which extends from the foundation of the Church to A.D. 250, there were men and women who, with a view to spiritual perfection, abstained from marriage, relinquished amusements, accustomed themselves to severe fasts, and gave up their property to works of charity; but did this in the middle of society and without leading the life of either a hermit or a monk. During the second period, which extended from the Decian persecution, anchorites were numerous, but the custom of a common or cœnobitic life was unknown. It was originated in the time of Constantine by Pachomius. 212 This is expressly stated by St. Jerome (_Vit. Pauli_). 213 See on this subject some curious evidence in Neander’s _Life of Chrysostom_. St. Chrysostom wrote a long work to console fathers whose sons were thus seduced to the desert. 214 On this tradition see Champagny, _Les Antonins_, tome i. p. 193. _ 215 Ep._ cxxiii. 216 Euseb. _Eccl. Hist._ ii. 23. 217 Gibbon, _Decline and Fall_, ch. xxxvii.; a brief but masterly sketch of the progress of the movement. 218 Palladius, _Hist. Laus._ xxxviii. 219 Jerome, Preface to the Rule of St. Pachomius, § 7. 220 Cassian, _De Cœnob. Inst._ iv. 1. 221 Rufinus, _Hist. Monach._ ch. v. Rufinus visited it himself. 222 Palladius, _Hist. Laus._ lxxvi. 223 Rufinus, _Hist. Mon._ vii. 224 There is a good deal of doubt and controversy about this. See a note in Mosheim’s _Eccl. Hist._ (Soame’s edition), vol. i. p. 354. 225 Most of the passages remaining on the subject of the foundation of monachism are given by Thomassin, _Discipline de l’Église_, part i. livre iii. ch. xii. This work contains also much general information about monachism. A curious collection of statistics of the numbers of the monks in different localities, additional to those I have given and gleaned from the _Lives of the Saints_, may be found in Pitra (_Vie de St. Léger_, Introd. p. lix.); 2,100, or, according to another account, 3,000 monks, lived in the monastery of Banchor.