I think you really need to go back to see what the Church actually looked like after the Peace of Constantine, rather than relying on protestant critiques of Rome's later abuses which accept the false papal claim to have been the head of the Church and use it to read the later abuses back to the time when the persecutions ceased.
holds up as an example of repentence St. Mary of Egypt, who abandoned the world in penance, ... and lived as a hermit in the desert.Two observations. One, did she believe that Christ's atonement and her rebirth into a new woman that would "go and sin no more", were not sufficient? Two, how did that satisfy the Great Commission? Maybe its just me, but were I in a position to offer a suggestion, perhaps a greater service to the Lord would have been preaching the Gospel to her fellow "Ladies of the evening" and her "Johns". But, that's just me.
he mechanism Christians developped for staying on the edge when the Church ceased to be persecuted: monasticism
Must be tough to win souls when you are avoiding them. There are two signs on the way into my converted Bowling Alley churh building: "Give 'em Heaven" and "Win, Equip, Send". I'm not too sure if Win, Equip, Hide was what we were supposed to do.
BTW, I am sorry if I was overly rude in my prior post; that was inexcusable of me. I am sure that we will meet in New Jerusalem, since you do have a bold faith in our Redeemer. Then, we will, perhaps hear that both of us were right, just diferrently shaped stones, or that neither of us "got it". :-)