THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
blance to the apology of Justin, the date of the work must be placed somewhere in the second century. It is addressed to the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Aurelius Commodus, and various passages indicate the period between 176 and 178. After an introduction (i-iii) the author refutes the chief calumnies urged against the Christians in that day, viz., that they were atheists (iv-xxx), and that they ate human flesh and committed the most horrible crimes in their assemblies (xxxi-xxxvi). In the treatise on the resurrection, Athenagoras argues in its favor from the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, together with the natural constitution of man. (A. Harnack.)
Bibliography: The text of Athenagoras is given in MPG, vi; the best editions are by J. C. T. Otto, in Corpus apologetarum Christianorum, vol. vii, Jena, 1876, and E Schwarz, in TV, iv, 2, Leipsic, 1891; a handy ed. is by F. A. March, New York, 1876; an Eng. transl. is to be found in ANF, ii, 125-162. Consult Harnack, Litteratur, i. 256-258, ii, 317-319; Kriiger, History, pp. 130-132; L. Arnould, De Apologia Athenagorce, Paris, 1898 A full bibliography up to 1886 is in ANF, Bibliography, 36-38.
ATHENS. See Greece, I., § 2.
ATH'OS : The easternmost of the three tongues of land projecting into the ^Egean Sea from the Chalcidian peninsula. It is about 35 miles long and culminates at the southern extremity in Mt. Athos proper, 6,780 feet high. Grand forests, murmuring brooks, clear air, and charming combination of rocks and sea, make it one of the most beautiful spots of Europe. By the Orthodox Greeks it is always called " the Holy Mount." According to the legend, the Holy Virgin Christianized Mt. Athos and Constantine the Great founded the first monasteries there. But the Athos monasticism does not appear in church history before the middle of the ninth century. At that time the monks formed a laura of the old fashion, with its center at Karyas, presided over by a protos appointed by the emperor in Constantinople. With the founding of the Laura of St. Athanasius, the first great monastery there, in 963,
Athos rises in historical importance. The Various The founder of this monastery (which Monasteries, still bears his name) and of the whole
monastic life on Mt Athos, belonged to a noble family in Trebizond. Through Michael Maleinos, the famous hegumenos of Mt. Kyminos in Asia Minor, where he himself lived at first as monk, he became acquainted with the future emperor, Nicephoras II (Phocas). The two men became good friends and the laura was founded at the instance of the emperor. Ever after Athos enjoyed imperial favor and monasteries were founded in rapid succession. To the tenth century belongs the founding of Iveron, Vatopedi, and Philotheu; to the eleventh, Xeropotam, Esfigmenu, Dochiariu, Agiu Paulu, Karakallu, and Xenophontos; to the twelfth, the two important Slav monasteries, Russiko and Chilandari; to the thirteenth, Zografu; and to the fourteenth, Pantokratoros, Simopetra, Dionysiu, and Gregoriu. The most recent is Stauronikita, founded in 1542. There were others which long ago disappeared, such as a Latin monastery of the Amalfines.
Until the fifteenth century all the monks lived together, according to rules laid down by Athanasius in his three writings, the The Mon- Kanonikon, the Diatheke, and the astic Life so-called Diatyposis (cf . Meyer, Hauptto the Fif- urkunden). Any man of unblemished teenth character could be received; but
Century, women, children, beardless youths, and people of royal descent were forbidden entrance. After a three years' probation admission into the holy company of the brethren took place and the tonsure was received. At the head of the monastery stood the hegoumenos, assisted by a council of " the chosen," i.e., the higher monastic officers and the priest-monks. Two ephors, generally a noble layman outside of Athos and a monk not belonging to the monastery, formed a non-resident directorate. Approved monks could live by themselves, and received a special dwelling (Gk. kellion), whence they were called kelliotes, or after their mode of living, ascetics or hesychasts, but were dependent on the monastery. The relation of the monasteries to each other and the entire constitution of the holy mount was regulated at that period by the typica of 975, 1045, and 1394 (printed in Meyer). The protos stood at the head, by his side the synaxis, consisting of the representatives of the monasteries, which as before met at Karyas. At first the life during this period was austere, but in the eleventh century it relaxed, and at one time nomads with wives and children were sheltered at Athos (Meyer, 163 sqq.). The Latin rule at Constantinople was an especially sad time for the monasteries. In the Hesychastic controversy (1341-51) western science was rejected especially through the influence of the Athos monks and quietistic mysticism was received into the teachings of the Greek Church (see Hesychasts) .
With the fifteenth century a new period commences in the constitution of the holy mount, which by degrees transformed the entire life. The idiorrhythmic life begins, which consisted in the abolition of the common life in the monasteries and the adoption of a plan whereby every monk, sometimes with a few friends, lived by himself. The common roof and the church
Changes alone are common to all. Since after 1500. every one lived at his own expense, the power of the hegumenos was soon crippled. But the influence of idiorrhythm went still further. As the monasteries following it soon became worldly, the stricter tendency, which was by no means extinct, reacted upon the monks and new places of earnest asceticism were established outside of the monasteries, such as the sketai, monastic villages, the first of which was founded by St. Anna in 1572. Here one could live an ascetic life after the old fashion. Such sketes were dependent on their monasteries; their rights are set forth in separate collections of canons (cf. Meyer, 248). The last regulation of the rights of the kelliotes, who still remained, and of the sketists took place in 1864 (Meyer, 254). The influence of idiorrhythm was ultimately of such a character on the general constitution of the holy mount, that