Whoever aspired to act powerfully upon the people, must imitate Elias; and, as solitary life had been the essential characteristic of this prophet, they were accustomed to conceive "the man of God" as a hermit.

They imagined that all the holy personages had had their days of penitence, of solitude, and of austerity.[3] The retreat to the desert thus became the condition and the prelude of high destinies.
[Footnote 1: Malachi iv.

5, 6; (iii.

23, 24, according to the Vulg.); _Ecclesiasticus_ xlviii.

10; Matt.xvi.14, xvii.