It has been the lot of many a scholar to grapple with the difficulties of an ancient text so successfully that the result of his labors has been accepted as substantially representing the original work of the author: few editors indeed can be credited with an achievement equal to that of Abbot Butler, who brought order out of confusion and rescued for the historian a document, which had been regarded with the utmost suspicion. His conclusions were at once recognized as correct, and much that had been written on early monasticism became obsolete, based as it was on an erroneous estimate of the original authorities. The solitary life, begun in the desert as described above, was organized about 305 by St. Antony, who is justly reckoned as the founder of Christian monasticism. Through the efforts of him and his disciples great colonies of monks arose, the most famous of which were at Nitria and Scete. This is a work by one of those who lived and dies there as one of them.
