336 St. Greg. Nyss. _Ad eund. Hieros_. Some Catholic writers have attempted to throw doubt upon the genuineness of this epistle, but, Dean Milman thinks, with no sufficient reason. Its account of Jerusalem is to some extent corroborated by St. Jerome. (_Ad Paulinum_, _Ep._ xxix.) 337 “Præterea non taceo charitati vestræ, quia omnibus servis Dei qui hic vel in Scriptura vel in timore Dei probatissimi esse videntur, displicet quod bonum et honestas et pudicitia vestræ ecclesiæ illuditur; et aliquod levamentum turpitudinis esset, si prohiberet synodus et principes vestri mulieribus et velatis feminis illud iter et frequentiam, quam ad Romanam civitatem veniendo et redeundo faciunt, quia magna ex parte pereunt, paucis remeantibus integris. Perpaucæ enim sunt civitates in Longobardia vel in Francia aut in Gallia in qua non sit adultera vel meretrix generis Anglorum, quod scandalum est et turpitudo totius ecclesiæ vestræ.”—(A.D. 745) _Ep._ lxiii. 338 See Milman’s _Latin Christianity_, vol. ii. p. 8. 339 Tillemont, _Hist. eccl._ tome xi. p. 547. 340 This was enjoined in the rule of St. Paphnutius. See Tillemont, tome x. p. 45. 341 “Omnimodis monachum fugere debere mulieres et episcopos.”—Cassian, _De Cœnob. Inst._ xi. 17. 342 We also find now and then, though I think very rarely, intellectual flashes of some brilliancy. Two of them strike me as especially noteworthy. St. Arsenius refused to separate young criminals from communion though he had no hesitation about old men; for he had observed that young men speedily get accustomed and indifferent to the state of excommunication, while old men feel continually, and acutely, the separation. (Socrates, iv. 23.) St. Apollonius explained the Egyptian idolatry with the most intelligent rationalism. The ox, he thought, was in the first instance worshipped for its domestic uses; the Nile, because it was the chief cause of the fertility of the soil &c. (Rufinus, _Hist. Mon._ cap. vii.) 343 Palladius, _Hist. Laus._ cap. xix. 344 Rufinus, _Hist. Monach._ cap. xxix. 345 Tillemont, _Hist. eccl._ tome viii. pp. 583, 584. 346 Ibid. p. 589. 347 Theodoret, _Philoth._ cap. iii. _ 348 Verba Seniorum._ 349 Theodoret, _Philoth._ cap. ii. 350 Tillemont, tome viii. pp. 594-595. 351 Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ viii. 1. Many anecdotes of elephants are collected viii. 1-12. See, too, Dion Cassius, xxxix. 38. 352 Pliny, viii. 40. 353 Donne’s _Biathanatos_. p. 22. This habit of bees is mentioned by St. Ambrose. The pelican, as is well known, afterwards became an emblem of Christ. 354 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ x. 6. 355 A long list of legends about dogs is given by Legendre, in the very curious chapter on animals, in his _Traité de l’Opinion_, tome i. pp. 308-327.