Note 640 — Chapter XIII · MORAL HISTORY OF THE AGE OF CHRISTIAN ASCETICISM

The ascetic movement was a reaction not only against the moral dissoluteness of pagan society, but also against the moral degeneracy which, before the end of the third century, had set in within the Christian community itself. The Church had become to a lamentable degree conformed unto the world, and had lost much of that moral fervor which characterized it during the first two centuries.