Among the Christians, whose religion assumes a spiritural and solitary nature among some,—a man used, as he thought, to elevate his soul above the world by hiding himself in buildings of thick stone, with little low doors and windows barely sufficient to let in the light of Heaven. Monasteries were first founded in the deserts of Upper Egypt, where Antony commonly called “the Great,” collected a number of hermits, about the year 305. These, for the sake of enjoying the benefit of retirement from the world in each other’s society, built their huts close together, and performed their devotional exercises in common. In the middle of the fourth century, Pachomius built a number of houses at a small distance from each other, upon the island of Tabenna, on the Nile, each of which was occupied by three or four monks in cells, who were all under the superintendance of a Prior. These Priories formed together the Cænobium, or Monastery—which was under the care of a Superior, the Abbot (from Abbas father)—and the monks were obliged to submit to uniform rules of life. Many of the monasteries were strictly enclosed with high walls, so as to preserve the immates from the temptations of the world around them; and to supply the place of the solitude of deserts. Hence the name of Cloisters, from Claustra, “inclosures.” The monks were soon after made to conform to still more strict discipline, which, in many cases, consisted in the most extreme mortification of the body. Stone beds, hair shirts, roots to eat and water to drink; long kneelings, frequent prostrations, severe whippings, and endless repetitions of prayers, were among the more common ways of securing admission to the realms of bliss; thus monasteries became the resort of all those who thought that heaven was attainable by such methods. Similar establishments for females were also instituted, called Nunneries, where women underwent complete exclusion from the world and the severest mortifications, many of which have been attempted to be revived in our own times, in connection with the Church of England. The Nunneries were, in some instances, worse in their effects than the monasteries; and it is a well-known fact that the vilest means were taken to imprison young females in such places by wicked relatives, who divided their fortunes with the priests, who shut them in. [Illustration]