دیگا ڈو

Lea

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1867, by

HENRY C. LEA,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

PHILADELPHIA:

COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREFT.

PREFACE.

THE following work was written several years since, simply as an historical study, and with little expectation of its publication. Recent movements in several portions. great Christian Church seem to indicate, however, that a record of ascetic celibacy, as developed in the past, may not be without interest to those who are watching the tendencies of the present.

of the

So far as I am aware, no work of the kind exists in English literature, and those which have appeared in the Continental languages are exclusively of a controversial character. It has been my aim to avoid polemics, and I have therefore sought merely to state facts as I found them, without regard to their bearing on either side of the questions involved. As those questions have long been the subject of ardent disputation, it has seemed proper to substantiate every statement with a reference to its authority, and frequently to give extracts by which the accuracy of the text may be verified. Much illustrative matter has also

been

placed in the foot-notes, in order not to interrupt the

Continuity of the narrative.

The

scope of the work is designedly confined to the enforced celibacy of the sacerdotal class. The vast history of monachism has therefore only been touched upon incidenta 11 y when it served to throw light upon the rise and progress of religious asceticism. The various celibate communities which have arisen in this country, such as the