CENOBUM (χληβιον), the state of living in a society or community where all things are common. Pythagoras is believed to be the author or institutor of this kind of life; his disciples, though some hundreds in number, being obliged to give up all their private estates, to be added to the common stock. The Essenians among the Jews, and the Platonists among the Greeks, are said to have lived in the same manner. Many of the Christians also have thought this the most perfect kind of society, as being that in which Christ and his apostles chose to live.