Pillar saints; an appellation given to a kind of solitaries, who stood motionless upon the tops of pillars, raised for the exercise of their patience, and remained there for several years, amidst the admiration and applause of the stupid populace. Of these, we find several mentioned in ancient writers, and even as low as the twelfth century, when they were totally suppressed. The founder of the order was St. Simeon Stylites, a famous anchoret in the fifth century, who first took up his abode on a column six cubits high; then on a second of twelve cubits; a third of twenty-two; a fourth of thirty-six; and on another of forty cubits, where he thus passed thirty-seven years of his life. The tops of these columns were only three feet in diameter, and were defended by a rail that reached almost to the girdle, somewhat resembling a pulpit. There was no lying down in it. The Faquirs or devout people of the East, imitate this extraordinary kind of life to this day.
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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