One who lives in a convent, or in community, under a certain rule; in opposition to a hermit, who lives in solitude. Cassian makes this difference between a convent and a monastery, that the latter may be applied to the residence of a single religious or recluse; whereas the convent implies coenobites, or numbers of religious living in common. Fleury speaks of three kinds of monks in Egypt; anachorets, who live in solitude; coenobites, who continue to live in community; and sarabaites, who are a kind of monks-errant, that stroll from place to place. He refers the institution of coenobites to the time of the apostles, and makes it a kind of imitation of the ordinary lives of the faithful at Jerusalem; though St. Pachomius is ordinarily owned to be the institutor of the coenobite life, as being the first who gave a rule to any community.
Despite a stated reliance on the plain meaning of the Bible and the dictates of common sense, Buck's Theological Dictionary, first published in London in 1802, seeks to provide a textual basis for the evangelical community. By combining brief essays on orthodox belief and practice with historical entries on various denominations, Buck provided an interpretive lens that allowed antebellum Protestants to see Christianity's almost two millennia as their own history.Wikipedia
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