The monks of Pachomius were divided into bands of tens and hundreds, each tenth man being an under officer in turn subject to the hundredth, and all subject to the superior or abbot of the mother house.  They lived three in a cell, and a congregation of cells constituted a laura or monastery.  There was a common room for meals and worship.  Each monk wore a close fitting tunic and a white goatskin upper garment which was never laid aside at meals or in bed, but only at the Eucharist.  Their food usually consisted of bread and water, but occasionally they enjoyed such luxuries as oil, salt, fruits and vegetables.  They ate in silence, which was sometimes broken by the solemn voice of a reader.

“No man,” says Jerome, “dares look at his neighbor or clear his throat.  Silent tears roll down their cheeks, but not a sob escapes their lips.”  Their labors consisted of some light handiwork or tilling the fields.  They grafted trees, made beehives, twisted fish-lines, wove baskets and copied manuscripts.  It was early apparent that as man could not live alone so he could not live without labor.  We shall see this principle emphasized more clearly by Benedict, but it is well to notice that at this remote day provision was made for secular employments.  Jerome enjoins Rusticus, a young monk, always to have some work on hand that the devil may find him busy.  “Hoe your ground,” says he, “set out cabbages; convey water to them in conduits, that you may see with your own eyes the lovely vision of the poet,—­

     “Art draws fresh water from the hilltop near,
     Till the stream, flashing down among the rocks,
     Cools the parched meadows and allays their thirst.”

There were individual cases of excessive self-torture even among these congregations of monks but we may say that ordinarily, organized monasticism was altogether less severe upon the individual than anchoretic life.  The fact that the monk was seeking human fellowship is evidence that he was becoming more humane, and this softening of his spirit betrayed itself in his treatment of himself.  The aspect of life became a little brighter and happier.

Four objects were comprehended in these monastic roles,—­solitude, manual labor, fasting and prayer.  We need not pity these dwellers far from walled cities and the marts of trade.  Indeed, they claim no sympathy.  Religious ideals can make strange transformations in man’s disposition and tastes.  They loved their hard lives.

The hermit Abraham said to John Cassian, “We know that in these, our regions, there are some secret and pleasant places, where fruits are abundant and the beauty and fertility of the gardens would supply our necessities with the slightest toil.  We prefer the wilderness of this desolation before all that is fair and attractive, admitting no comparison between the luxuriance of the most exuberant soil and the bitterness of these sands.”  Jerome himself exclaimed, “Others may think what they like and follow each his own bent.  But to me a town is a prison and solitude paradise.”