"But when those cruel and brutal tyrants brought their miserable
lives to a miserable end, and persecution ceased, and Christian
kings ruled throughout the world, then others too in succession
emulated the Martyrs' zeal and divine desire, and, wounded at
heart with the same love, considered well how they might present
soul and body without blemish unto God, by cutting off all the
workings of sinful lusts and purifying themselves of every
defilement of flesh and spirit. But, as they perceived that this
could only be accomplished by the keeping of the commandments of
Christ, and that the keeping of his commandments and the practice
of the virtues was difficult to attain in the midst of the
turmoils of the world, they adopted for themselves a strange and
changed manner of life, and, obedient to the voice divine,
forsook all, parents, children, friends, kinsfolk, riches and
luxury, and, hating everything in the world, withdrew, as exiles,
into the deserts, being destitute, afflicted, evil entreated,
wandering in wildernesses and mountains, and in dens and caves of
the earth, self-banished from all the pleasures and delights upon
earth, and standing in sore need even of bread and shelter. This
they did for two causes: firstly, that never seeing the objects
of sinful lust, they might pluck such desires by the root out of
their soul, and blot out the memory thereof, and plant within
themselves the love and desire of divine and heavenly things: and
secondly, that, by exhausting the flesh by austerities, and
becoming Martyrs in will, they might not miss the glory of them
that were made perfect by blood, but might be themselves, in
their degree, imitators of the sufferings of Christ, and become
partakers of the kingdom that hath no end. Having then come to
this wise resolve, they adopted the quiet of monastic life, some
facing the rigours of the open air, and braving the blaze of the