[166] _History of European Morals_, ii. pp. 107-10. For a careful description of the monastic discipline in its more normal aspects, see Bingham's Works, vol. ii. bk. vi. Gibbon gives his usual brilliant summary of the movement in chapter xxxvii. of the _Decline and Fall_. A host of facts similar to those cited by Lecky will be found in _The Book of Paradise_, 2 vols., trans. by Wallis Budge. Lea's _History of Sacerdotal Celibacy_ gives the classical and authoritative account of the moral consequences of the practice of celibacy. For a vivid picture of the psychology of the ascetic, see Flaubert's great romance, _St. Antony_. [167] Cited by Lecky, ii. p. 131. [168] Dean Milman, _Hist. of Latin Christianity_, ii. pp. 81-2. [169] Lecky, ii. pp. 134-5. [170] _Hereditary Genius_, 1869, p. 357. [171] Lea, p. 109. [172] Lea, p. 332. [173] See Lea, pp. 353-4. [174] For a fine sketch of Roman municipal life, see Dill's _Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_, chap. ii. [175] _Hist. of Latin Christianity_, i. pp. 317-8. CHAPTER NINE RELIGIOUS EPIDEMICS--(_CONCLUDED_) It is not easy to overestimate the influence of monasticism on subsequent religious history. The lives of its votaries provided examples of almost every conceivable kind of self-torture or semi-maniacal behaviour. It had made the world thoroughly familiar with extravagance of action as the symptom of intense religious conviction. And its influence on social development had been such that the susceptibility of the public mind to suggestions was as a raw wound in the presence of a powerful irritant. Such an institution as the Inquisition could only have maintained itself among a people thoroughly familiar with supernaturalism, and to whom its preservation was the first and most sacred of duties. A society habituated to the commanding presence of the monk, fed upon stories of their miraculous encounters with celestial and diabolic visitants, and so accustomed to regard the priesthood as in a very peculiar sense the mouthpiece of divinity, was well prepared for such a series of events as the crusades for the recovery of the Holy Land. Pilgrimages to the burial-places of saints, and to spots connected, by legend or otherwise, with Christian history, had long been in vogue, and formed a source of both revenue to the Church and of inspiration to the faithful. As early as 833 a guide-book had been prepared called the _Itinerary from Bordeaux to Jerusalem_, and along the route marked convents and shelters for the pilgrims were established. A lucrative traffic in relics of every description had also been established, and any interference with this touched the Church in its tenderest point. Added to which the expected end of the world in the year 1000 had the effect of still further increasing the crowd of pilgrims to the Holy Land, where it was firmly believed the second advent would take place.