III. THE MONASTERIES OF PONTUS

The mother-land of monasticism was Egypt. The movement there assumed two main forms, the eremitic and the coenobitic.

St. Antony (c. 250-c. 350) was the pioneer of the former, the devotees of which led solitary lives in their cells, either quite independently, or grouped around some central church, as at Nitria or Scete. In some cases there was a considerable amount of organisation, but the solitary or eremitic life lived in common was always quite different from the true common life.

Pachomius (c. 290-346) was the originator of ccenobitism, which was first put into practice at his monastery of Tabennisi.

In 357-8 Basil visited Egypt and returned ^[14] home, resolved to initiate the Pachomian mode of life in his own country. Eustathius of Sebaste was already working on the same lines, and the unorganised ascetic life in the world, to which Gregory of Nazianzus refers in his works, had paved the way for monasticism proper. Basil called his friend Gregory to fulfil a promise made in student days at Athens and join him in the ascetic life. This Gregory eventually did, though he was unable at first to pay more than a brief visit. Basil chose for his experiment a spot of much natural beauty on the banks of the Iris. At Annesi, on the opposite side of the river, his mother Emmelia and sister Macrina were living on the family estate. Basil put himself at the head of a community of men likeminded with himself, while Macrina, as described in the present book, began to organise a monastery on her side of the river. Basil took Pachomius' coenobium at Tabennisi for his model, with certain modifications suggested by his own original and practical mind.

In the Life of St. Macrina we find a double ^[15] monastery, the men presided over by Peter, the women by Macrina. This seems to have been a natural development of the earlier ascetic family life to which Macrina had drawn her mother after the death of Naucratius. We do not know to what extent it conformed to the regulations for double monasteries prescribed by Basil in his Rules. It is not clear whether Basil's monastery on the far side of the Iris was still existing when Gregory visited Macrina. It may be surmised that, when Basil became bishop of Caesarea and Peter reached man's estate, the brethren were transferred to the opposite bank and came under the joint rule of Macrina and Peter.

The subject of the Basilian coenobia and their place in the history of monasticism has been worked out in two recent monographs, St. Basil and his Rule (Oxford, 1912), by E. F. Morison, and St. Basil the Great: a Study in Monasticism (Cambridge, 1913), by the present writer. Through the Latin version of Rufinus Basil's Rules became known in the West and influenced St. Benedict. ^[16] 

The Life of St. Macrina throws a light on the arrangements of a double monastery in primitive times, and supplements the account given in the Pachomian and Basilian Rules. This subject has not yet been worked out with any completeness, so far as the writer is aware. It is not clear what influence, if any, Rufinus' version of Basil's Rules had upon the origin of double monasteries in Ireland and elsewhere. Perhaps the system arose independently in different lands and centuries under similar conditions of primitive enthusiasm. Reference may be made to a paper by Sir William Hope, The Gilbertian Priory of Watton (London, 1901, reprinted from The Archaeological Journal, LVIII, No. 229). The rules governing the relations of monks and nuns in this priory bear so close a resemblance to those found in St. Basil, that the student will probably not be far wrong if he assumes that the plan of the buildings as sketched by Dr. Hope in his monograph fairly represents the topography of the scenes described in Gregory's Life of his sister.

Gregory of Nyssa, Life of St. Macrina (1916) pp. 17-79 ; English Translation