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| Chapter VII. Of the Sheepskin and the Goatskin.
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Chapter VII.
Of the Sheepskin and the Goatskin.657
| 657 The melotes
(μηλωτής), a sheepskin
garment hanging down on one side, was the usual dress of monks. S.
Anthony bequeathed his, at his death, to S. Athanasius. Ath. Vita
Anton, 91. |
The last article of their
dress is the goat-skin, which is called melotes, or
pera,658
| 658 Pera can hardly be
used here in its ordinary sense of scrip or wallet πήρα. Gazæus suggests that
it may be a transcriber’s error for pœnula, while Ducange
would read, “quæ melotes appellatur, vel pera, et
baculus.” Mr. Sinker, in the Dictionary of Christian
Antiquities (Vol. II. p. 1619), suggests that possibly the word may
be Egyptian. | and a staff,
which they carry in imitation of those who foreshadowed the lines of
the monastic life in the Old Testament, of whom the Apostle says:
“They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being in want,
distressed, afflicted; of whom the world was not worthy; wandering in
deserts, and in mountains, and in dens, and in caves of the
earth.”659
And this garment of
goatskin signifies that having destroyed all wantonness of carnal
passions they ought to continue in the utmost sobriety of virtue, and
that nothing of the wantonness or heat of youth, or of their old
lightmindedness, should remain in their bodies.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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