A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

78 PACHOMIUS. PACHOMIUS.
life, and will love and serve all men according to sations, and the utterance of prophecies, are ascribed
thy commandment." He was, however, obliged to to him, but not in such number as to some others.
accompany his fellow-conscripts, and suffered many There are various pieces extant under the name
hardships during this period of enforced service: of Pachomius:-l. Two Regulae Monasticae; one
but the settlement of the contest having released shorter preserved by Palladius (Hist. L~ausiac. c. 38),
him from it, he hastened back into the Thebaid, and said by him to have been given to Pachomius by
and was baptized in the church of Chenoboscia, the angel who conveyed to him the Divine command
near the city of Diospolis the Less; and, aspiring to establish monasteries. This rule is by no means
at pre-eminent holiness, commenced an ascetic life, so rigid as the monastic rules of later times. Palunder' the guidance of Palaemon, an anchoret of ladius reports it partly, it would seem, in the very
high repute. After a time, he withdrew with Pa- words of the original, partly in substance only. He
laemon to Tabenna, or Tabenesis, which appears adds that the monasteries at Tabenna and in the
to have been in an island'or on the bank of the neighbourhood, subject to the rule, contained 7000
Nile, near the common boundary of the Theban and monks, of whom 1500 were in the parent commuTentyrite nomi. Some time after this removal his nity first established by Pachomius; but it is
companion Palaemon died, but whether he died at doubtful if this is to be understood of the original
Tabenna, or whether he had returned to his previous monastery of Tabenna, or that of Proii. The
abode, is not clear. Pachomius found, however, longer Regula, said to have been written in the
another companion in his own elder brother Joannes, Egyptian (Sahidic?) language, and translated into
or John, who became his disciple. But his sphere Greek, is extant in a Latin version made fiom the
of influence was now to be enlarged. Directed Greek by Jerome. It is preceded by a Pl'ralztio,
by what he regarded as a Divine intimation, he in which Jerome gives an account ofthe monasteries
began to incite men to embrace a monastic life; and of Tabenna as they were in his time. Cave (lHist.
obtaining first three disciples, and then many more, Llt. ad ann. 340, vol. i. p. 208, ed. Oxford, 17-10
formed them into a community, and prescribed -1743) disputes the genuineness of this Regula,
rules for their guidance. As the community grew and questions not only the title of Pachomius to
in number, he appointed the needful officers for the authorship of it, but also the title of Jerome to
their regulation and instruction. He built a church be regarded as the translator. He thinks that it
as a place of worship and instruction for the poor may embody the rule of Pachomius as augmented
shepherds of the neighbourhood, to whom, as there by his successors. It is remarkable that this Rewas no other reader, he read the Scriptures. The gula, which comprehends in all a hundred and
bishop of Tentyra would have raised him to the ninety-four articles, is divided into several parts,
rank of presbyter, and requested Athanasius, pa- each with separate titles; and Tillemont supposes
triarch of Alexandria, when visiting the Thebaid, that they are separate pieces, collected and arranged
to ordain him: but Pachomius, being aware of the by Benedictus Anianus. This Regula was first
design, hid himself until the patriarch had departed. published at Rome by Achilles Statius, A. D. 1575,
His refusal of the office of presbyter did not and then by Petrus Ciacconus, also at Rome, A. D.
diminish his reputation or influence; new disciples 1588. It was inserted in the S&tpplementfun Biblioflocked to him, of whom Theodorus or Theodore was theeae Patrzum of Morellus, vol. i. Paris, 1639; in
the most illustrious, new monasteries sprung up in the Bibliotheca Pattruem Ascetica, vol. i. Paris, 1661
his neighbourhood, including one for women, founded in the Codex Regzlarunz of Holstenius, Role, A. D.
by his sister. Of these several communities he was 1661; and in successive editions of the Bibliotheca
visitor and regulator general, appointing his disciple Patramn, from that of Cologn. A. D. 1618: it appears
Theodore superior of his original monastery of Ta- in vol. iv. of the edition of Lyon, A. D. 1677, and
benna, and himself removing to the monastery of in vol. iv. of the edition of Galland, Venice, A. n.
Prou, which was made the head of the monasteries of 1765, &c. It is given also in Vallarsi's edition of
the district. He died ofa pestilential disorder, which the works of Jerome, vol. ii. pars i. 2. Monita,
had broken out among the monks, apparently in extant in a Latin version first published by Gerard
A. D. 348, a short time before the death or expulsion Vossius, with the works of Gregorius Thaumaturgus,
of the Arian patriarch, Gregory [GRaEGORIUS, No. 4to. Mayence, 1604, and given in the Bibliotheca
3], and the restoration of Athanasius [ATHANA- Patru,, (ubi supra). 3. SS. PP. Paclhomii et
sIus], at the age, if his birth is rightly fixed in Tleodlori Epistolae et Verba 1M1[ystica. Eleven of
A. D. 292, of fifty-six. Some place his death in these letters are by Pachomius. They abound in
A. D. 360. incomprehensible allusions to certain mysteries conIn speaking of Pachomius as the founder of tained in or signified by the letters of the Greek
monastic institutions, it must not be supposed that alphabet. They are extant in the Latin version of
he was the founder of the monastic life. Antonius, Jerome (Opera, 1. e. and Bibliotweca Pat-runz, 1. c.),
Ammonas, Paulus and others [ANTONIUS; AM- who subjoined theum as an appendix to the Regula,
MON S; PAUL S] had devoted themselves to but without explaining, probably without underreligious solitude before him; and even the practice standing, the hidden signification of the alphabeof persons living an ascetic life in small communities tical characters, which were apparently employed as
existed before himn; but in these associations there ciphers, to which the correspondents of Pachomitus
was no recognized order or government. What had the key (comp. Gennadius, De Viris Illustr. c.
Pachomius did was to form communities on a regular 7; Sozom. H. E. iii. 14). 4.'EKc Trcv EmroV, sroi
plan, directed by a fixed rule of life, and subject to diyfot IIaxoUvAiou, Praecepta S. Pachom7ii s. Painspection and control. Such monastic communities cheumii, first published in the Acta Sanctorum, Mlais,
as existed before him had no regularity, no per- vol. iii. in Latin in the body of the work, p.
manence: those which he arranged were regularly 346, and in the original Greek in the Appendix, p.
constituted bodies, the continuity of whose existence 62*, and reprinted in the Bibliotheca Patrunz of
was not interrupted by the death of individuals. Galland, vol. iv., where all the extant works of
Miracles, especially divine visions, angelic conver- Pachomius are given. (The chief authorities for