ALTHOUGH various books and articles have been published recently upon the subject of monasticism, there is singularly little that deals with its origin in Egypt. English, French and German writers, whose works cover a wider field, have necessarily been unable to devote much space to the particular question of the origin. The purpose therefore of the first part of this study is an attempt to show how monasticism grew out of the special conditions of thought and life in Egypt, a mode of approach which has not apparently been adopted elsewhere to the same extent.