A caste apart
When Christianity became official and persecutions ceased, converts flocked in, but fervour declined. As a reaction, a number of laity, led by St. Anthony of Egypt (+356), took to the hermit life, and are seen as pioneers of monasticism. Many clergy were also recommended to follow this style of life, at least for a time. Coupled with this was the promotion of sexual abstinence for the clergy, and of celibacy. Clerical celibacy did not become compulsory for many centuries, but it had its early champions, notably St. Ambrose in Milan.
As the Eucharist, the Mass, became increasingly seen as a ‘sacrifice set apart’, so the clergy increasingly became seen as a separate caste. Expressions like the priestly “care of souls” begin to be encountered for the first time. St. Ambrose (+397) in the West promoted this view in his battles against heresy; at Constantinople, it was St. John Chrysostom (+407), constantly at odds with the imperial court. St. John was a formidable speaker who doggedly defended the poor, but he sometimes got carried away, and as he attacked clergy who tried to “make themselves popular with female parishioners” we can see the beginnings of future separations.
Whereas in the early Church the norm was the bishop, now the norm was the priest, with the bishop superimposed as, more or less, a pseudo-State official.
The Roman Empire in the West came to an end in the year 476, though prior to that it was mortally sick. What was going to fill the gap? Who else but the Bishop of Rome, the Pope? And at precisely the same time there was born at Norcia in central Italy the one whose monastic rule was to prove so alluring and effective: St. Benedict.