OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

and a fugitive; the vigilance of the civil and chapmilitary powers were excited by the imperialedicts; liberal rewards were promised to theman who should produce Athanasius , eitheralive or dead ; and the most severe penaltieswere denounced against those who should dareto protect the public enemy. 2 But the desertsof Thebais were now peopled by a race of wild,yet submissive fanatics, who preferred the com-mands of their abbot to the laws of their sove-reign. The numerous disciples of Antony andPachomius received the fugitive primate as theirfather, admired the patience and humility withwhich he conformed to their strictest institu-tions, collected every word which dropt fromhis lips as the genuine effusions of inspired wis-dom, and persuaded themselves, that their pray-ers, their fasts, and their vigils, were less meri-torious than the zeal which they expressed, andthe dangers which they braved, in the defenceof truth and innocence.* The monasteries ofEgypt were seated in lonely and desolate places,on the summit of mountains, or in the islands ofthe Nile ; and the sacred horn or trumpet ofTabenne was the well-known signal which as-sembled several thousand robust and determin-ed monks, who, for the most part, had beenthe peasants of the adjacent country. When

2 Hinc jam toto orbe profugus Athanasius , nec ullus ci tutus ad la-tendum super*erat locus. Tribuni, Prefecti, Comites , exercitus quoque,ad pervestigandum eum moventur edictis imperialibus; premia delato-l ibus proponuntur, si quis eum vivum, si id minus, caput certe Athapasiidetulisset. Rufin. 1. i, c. 16.

* Gregor. Nazianzcn. tom. i, Orat. xxi, p. 384,385. SeeTilipmont,

Mem. Eccles. tom. vii, p. 176-410; 820-8S0.