ABSTRACT
Most early monastic Christians are inaccessible to us. A few of them wrote orwere written about, and some lived in places accessible to modern archaeological excavation. Their greatest monument is the living monastic tradition that claims their insights to be its foundation. The search for early monastic traces is hindered by the apologetics and polemics that have often distorted the study of early Christian monasticism. Until very recently, historical investigations typically were coloured by the religious intentions of scholars who sought to vindicate, to criticize or to dismiss monastic traditions. Ascetics were portrayed as heroic nonconformists, as deluded fanatics (most famously by Gibbon), as social misfits, or as docile loyalists. Both Martin Luther’s rejection of monastic vows and the Roman defence of them turned on evidence alleged from early monastic texts.
