The origin of the new monastic movement is difficult to pinpoint.

The movement differs from other Christian monastic movements in many ways.

The change seems to have come about through the development of a primitive monastic movement in Egypt and Syria.

The response of Rome was to take over, to discipline and so to contain the monastic movement.

Without the voluntary principle, the monastic movement was bound to become an embarrassment to Christianity.

Some survived, however, and the 19th century brought a revival in the monastic movement.

So what real difference did Christ as head of the monastic movement in Persia create?

Struggle, not flight, was the core of his monastic movement.

Rather than exclude the monastic movement, the church moved, in the fourth century, to bring the monks into line with episcopal authority.

But all the time, within the church, there had been a living protest against this process: the monastic movement.