ASCETICS

(Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.), I exercise.) Persons who, in the early ages of Christianity, devoted themselves to a solitary and contemplative life, following the system of the E enes and Therepeutae among the Jews, and practising great austerities, with a view to mortify the flesh,ind abstract the mind from worldly objects. They had their origin in Egypt and SjTia, and appear to have suggested the first idea of monachism. [s. 107]