Jesus said: ‘And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for me, shall find it’ (Matthew 10:38–9). During his lifetime he attracted disciples who gave up everything for him. But how might this precept be followed after the Resurrection? There were various responses: martyrs embraced death with courage, goading the executioner, while the Egyptian and Syrian Fathers went into the desert, like St Antony, and soon formed the first monastic communities. Hermits and monks vowed to become ‘dead to the world’, whose prince is the Devil (John 12:31). Crucified with Christ, they were freed of all ties from before their baptism which, in the words of St Paul, had made new men of them (Ephesians 4:24). Some chose to live alone, whilst others forged between them spiritual bonds which had nothing to do with the ordinary ties of blood, family connections and life within society. The ‘true family’ of the Gospels (Mark 3:31–5) is in fact completely different, for it demands ‘self-renunciation’ in pursuit of what is beyond – that is, eternal life. It is in fact a premature death in exchange for Life, and the same rationale applies to the anchoritic life. Is that life worthier than the hermit life, or less so? This may be a matter of debate among theoreticians of the religious life but, for some at least, the state of solitary enclosure is the most glorious of all: ‘The epithet “recluse” surpasses all other religious epithets’ – and the danger of losing oneself and of scandalizing one's fellows is evidently balanced by these sublime ambitions. The rediscovery of Aristotle's works provided a further argument that ‘Man alone is either an animal or God’. Paphnutius imprisoned the prostitute Thaïs in solitary confinement, sealing the door, so that she might expiate her life of sin and earn grace in the eyes of the Saviour. With these points in mind, we can embark on our task in this essay. First we need to grasp the difference between the various types of religious status which have endured down the centuries in the search for salvation.