Yet if it were possible entirely to lay aside one's prepossessions respecting monastic hist

Parkman said of the Roman Catholic Church is true of the monastic institution: "Clearly she is of earth, not of heaven; and her transcendently dramatic life is a type of the good and i

ast pardons its transgressions, on the ground that perfection in man or in institutions is unattainable. Another condemns the whole system, believing that the sum of its evils far outweighs whatever benefits it may have conferred upon mankind. Schaff cuts the Gordian knot, maintaining that the contradic

of thine? It is that of having none, of engaging one's self by an inviolable oath to be a fool and a slave, and to live at the expense of others." But he was the philosophical skeptic of Paris. "Where is the town," cries Montalembert, "which has not been founded or enriched or protected by some religious community? Where is the church which owes not to them a patron, a relic, a pious and popular tradition? Wherever there is a luxuriant forest, a pure stream, a majestic hill, we may be sure that religion has left there her stamp by the hand of the monk." But this

agement of vice. It was the patron of industry and the promoter of idleness. It was a pioneer in education and the teacher of superstition. It was the disburser of alms and a many-handed robber. It was the friend of human liberty and the

warmest sympathies of numerous men and women who have been honorably distinguished for their intellectual attainments and moral character, must have possessed elements of truth a

y monks, groping their way toward the light in an age of ignorance and superstition, were inspired by the purest motives. "Conscience," observes Waddington, "however misguide

elf-Sacrifice Up

good may be seriously impaired by a perversion of the principle of self-abnegation. Unnatural severity and excessive abstinence often produce the opposite effect from that intended. Instead of a peaceful mind there is delirium, and instead of freedom from temptation there are a thousand horrible fiends hovering in the air and ready, at any moment, to pounce upon their prey. "The history of ascetics," says Martensen, "teaches us that by such overdone fasting the fancy is often excited to an amazing degree, and in its airy domain affords the very things that one thought to have buried, by means of mortification, a magical resurre

atching his growth in grace. An interest in others and a strong mind in a strong body are the best antidotes to religious despair and the temptations of the soul. Life in the monastery was generally less severe than in the desert's solitude. There was more and better food,

Solitude Upon

rinciple to an extreme, and they overestimated its benefits. "Ambition, avarice, irresolution, fear, and inordinate desires," says Montaigne, "do not leave us because we fo

onk. Indeed there is something wanting in even the loftiest monastic characters. "The heroes of monasticism," says Allen, "are not the heroes of modern life. All put together, they would not furnish out one such soul as William of Orange, or Gustavus, or Milton. Independence of thought and liberty of conscience, they renounced once for al

and pride often sat as joint rulers on the throne of his heart. He who had trampled on all filial relations would scarcely recognize the bonds of human brotherhood. He who heard not the prayer of his own mother would not be likely to listen to the

er the throne of God than his fellow-mortals. When dead, he was worshiped as a saint and regarded as an intercessor between God

e monks of the cloister, escaped from all such services, and selfishly gave themselves up to saving their own souls by contemplation and prayer. Ministration to the needy is the external side of the inner religious life. It is the fruit of faith and prayer. The monk sought solitude, not for the purpose of fitting himself for a place in society, but for selfish, personal ends. Saint Bruno, in a letter to his friend Ralph le Verd, eulogizes the

ce and comfort that holy men can furnish, was forgotte

h cries and lamentations?" "It is because I long to see you," she replied. "Am I not your mother? I am now an old and wrinkled woman, and my heart is troubled at the sound of your voices." But even a mother's love could not cope with their fearful fanaticism., and she went away with their cold promise that they would meet in heaven. St. John of Calama visited his sister in disguise, and a chronicler, telling the story

e of kindred, as a gift of heaven and a spring of virtue, the monk spurned it and trampled it beneath his feet as an obstacle to his spiritual progress. "The m

s as Mis

onasticism, the Benedictine monks are entitled to the lasting gratitude of mankind for their splendid services in reducing barbaric Europe to some sort of order and civilization. But again the mixture of good and evil is strangely illustrated. It seems impossible to accord the monks unqualified praise. The potency of the evil ten

sm and Ci

rom the outside as it were, attempted to exert an influence for good, he largely failed. His ideals of life were not formulated in a real world, but in an artificial, antisocial environment. He was unable to appreciate the political needs of men. He could not enter sympathetically into their serio

n patriots. No human power could have averted the ruin which overtook that corrupt world. Perhaps their non-combata

olitical monks, inspired by a natural breadth of vision and a love of humanity, secured the passage of wise and humane regulations. Palgrave says: "The mitre has resisted many blows which would have broken the helmet, and the crosier has kept more fo

development of a normal civilization. Industrial, mental and moral progress depend upon a certain breadth of mind and energy of soul. Asceticism saps the vitality of human nature and confines the activity of the mind within artificial limits. "Hence the dreary

writes of the period just prior to the Reformation: "The great want was freedom from ecclesiastical domination; and from the feeling of the hour, scarcely any price would be deemed too great to be paid for that object." The history of modern Jesuitism, against which the legislation of almost every civilized nation has been directed, affords abundant testimony to the inherent hostility of the monastic system, even in its modified modern form, to every species of government which in any way guarantees freedom of thought to its people. This stern fact c

ermined by fixing the gaze on any one century of its history, or by holding

ural Service

t to be threshed. Benedict bent himself to the task of teaching the rich and the proud, the poor and the lazy the alphabet of prosperity and happiness. Agriculture was at its lowest ebb. Marshes covered once fertile fields, and the men who should have tilled the land spurned the plough as degrading, or were too indolent to undertake the tasks of the farm. The monks left their cells and their prayers to dig ditches and plough fields. The effect was magi

monk was held up as an ideal and sacred personage. "The spirit that makes men devote themselves in vast numbers," says Lecky, "to a monotonous life of asceticism and poverty is so essentially opposed to the spirit that creates the energy and enthusiasm of industry, that their continued coexistence may be regarde

and Secula

eat universities, including those of Paris, Oxford and Cambridge. For these, and other valuable services, the monks merit the praise of posterity. It is, however, too much to affirm, as Montalembert does, that "without the monks, we should have been as ignorant of our history as children." It is altogether improbab

ch they lived. Unfortunately the monkish mind was concentrated upon a theology, the premises of which have been largely set aside by modern science. Their writings are so permeated by grotesque

sm was ever at war with true intellectual progress. The monks imprisoned Roger Bacon fourteen years, and tried to blast his fair name by calling him a magician, merely beca

hilosophical, allegorical, moral commentary. They desired only to form priests; all studies, whatsoever their nature, were directed to this result." There was no disinterested love of learning; no desire to become acquainted with God's world. In fact, the old hostility to everything natural characterizes al

cords of self-flagellation, and found the heavens clear, beautiful, and well worth living under, and the world full of good things which one might desire and yet not be given over to evil. He ventured to look at life for himself and found it full of wonderful dignity and power. He opened his Vir

ic church against heresy. Heresy need never hope that the society will make terms with it, or remain quiescent ... No peace need be expected, for the seed of hatred is born within us. What Hamilcar was to Hannibal, Ignatius is to us. At his instigation, we have sworn upon the altars eternal war

nd the common people encouraged to exercise their minds without fear of excommunication or death. It is sad to reflect how many great thoughts must have per

ity of t

tle or no care for the members of Christ, and if Christ himself lies naked and dying before our doors." This spirit, so charmingly expressed, was never quite absent from the monkish orders. The monasteries were asylums for the hungry during famines, and the sick during plagues. They served as hotels where the traveler found a cordial welcome, comf

ore gold than they could easily give away. Thus abuses grew up. Bernard said: "Piety gave birth to wealth, and the daughter devoured the mother." Jacob of Vitry complained that money, "by various and deceptive tricks," was exacted from the people by the monks, most of which adhered "to their unfaithful fingers." While Lecky eloquently prai

nknown. It is difficult, even to-day, to restrain that good-natured, but baneful, benevolence which takes no account of circumstances and consequences, and often fosters the growth of pauperism. The monks kept alive that sweet sp

ism and

equate treatment of this theme would require volumes instead of paragraphs. A few points, howev

tongue and lips, of my ears, teeth and hair, of my marrow and any other part whatsoever, whether it be soft or hard, wet or dry." This emphasis on man's sinfulness and the need of redemption was sadly needed in Rome and all down the ages. "It was a protest," says Clarke, "against pleasure as the end of li

ts constant insistence upon poverty and obedience, fostered a spirit of loyalty to Christ and the cross, which served as a protest, not only against the general laxity of morals, but also against the faithlessness of corrupt monks. Harnack says: "It was always monasticism that rescued the church when sinking, freed her when secularized, defended her when attacked. It warmed hearts that we

we are in danger of minimizing the doctrine of personal accountability to God, then we cannot afford to ignore the underlying ideal of monasticism. In so far as monasticism contributed to a

ness. The monks failed to define sin in accordance with facts. Many innocent pleasures and legitimate satisfactions were erroneously thought to be sinful. Honorable and useful aspirations that, under wise control, minister to man's highest development were selected for eradication. "Every instinct of human nature," says W.E. Channin

d to be wisely directed. It is not enough for a mother to love her child; she must know how to give that love proper expression. In her attemp

tures developed within his soul an unnatural piety, "a piety," says White, "that became visionary and introspective, a theology of black clouds and lightning and thunder, a superstitious religion based on dreams and saint's bo

atoned for by pecuniary gifts. It may be said that they did not ignore true feelings of repentance, of which the gold was merely a tangible expression, but the notion widely prevailed that the prayers of

ation of the Scriptures and the dictates of human reason. "It measured virtue," says Schaff, "by the quantity of outward exercises, in

ed and sighed as human souls were plunged into the awful depths. God was held up as a fearful judge, and the saving mercy of Christ himself paled before the rescuing power of his mother. These fearful caricatures of God, these detailed, revolting descriptions of pain and ang

with all that it signifies, is the most powerful force in the spread of Christianity. The spiritual nature of man needs to be trained and disciplined. But does this truth lead the Christian to the monastic method? Was the self-renunciation of Jesus like that of the ascetics, with their ecstasies and self-punishments? Is God more pleased with the recluse who turns from a needy world to shut himself u

forego the pleasures of the world and the prospects of material gain or social preferment, for the sake of ministering to a needy humanity. The essence of Christianity is a love to God and man that expresses itself in terms of social service and self-sacri

tible with wealth, health and social joys. The realms of industry, politics and home-life are a part of God's world. A religious ideal based on a distorted view of social life, that involves a renunciation of human joy and the extinction of natural desires, and that prohibits the free exercise of beneficent faculties, as conditions of its realiz

spirit of lofty consecration to the Eternal, and so carried on, may, in their way, minister to the highest welfare of humanity. The old distinction, therefore, between the secular and the sacred

l that libera

bles, sweetens,

al extravagances of the early monks. The old monasticism never could have arisen under a religious system controlled by natural and healthful spiritual ideas. It has no attr

earted, and its loving care of the poor, must ever remain as a shining example of practical Christianity. In the simplicity of the monk's life, in the idea of "brotherhood," in the common life for common ends, a Christian democracy will always find food for reflection. As the social experiments of modern times reveal the hidden laws of social and religious progress,

uman passion and human greed, its child-like love of the heavenly kingdom will never die. The revolt against its superstitions and ex

PE

TE

f a few monastic terms may b

itle originally given to any monk, but afterwards

the classification of religious ascetics, the anchorets were those who were most excessive in t

applied to those practicing self-denial for athletic purposes. In its ecclesi

priests living in a community like monks, and acting as assistants to the bishops. They gradually formed separate and independent bodies. Benedict XII. (1399) tried to secure a genera

os], common, and [Greek: bios], life;

e: the Theatines, founded by Cajetan of Thiene, subsequently Pope Paul IV.; and Priests of the Oratory, instituted by Philip N

ich closes or shuts, an inclosure; hence, a

e, solitary. One who dwells alone apart from society, or with

nks. The term, however, strictly includes the abbey, the priory, the nunnery, the friary, and in

m the world for religious meditation. In later use, a member of a community. It is used

e word is probably of Coptic origin, and

clerical order. Before that time they were known as religiosi or regulares. Afterwards a dis

monastic words, see The Century Dictionary and Cy

TE

r austerities. Like the Jesuits, the Pythagorean league entangled itself with politics and became the object of hatred and violence. Its mee

TE

a divides the monastic ins

5. Clerks Regular. All of these have communities of women, e

hree in the same cell. 4. Gyrovagi, who wander from monastery to monastery. The last two kinds he condemns. The Gyrovagi or wandering monks were the pest of convents and the disg

nct stages in the developmen

racticed various forms of self-den

an external separation from the world. Here are to

r, consisting of associations of monks

abbots being under the authority of one supreme head, wh

ganizations. The members of these orders commenced their monastic life in monasteries, and were therefore coenobites

TE

ic Church, especially in monastic orders. It properly begins at midnight. The name is also applied to th

ith matins; so called from the reiterated

llows after matins and lauds; originally inten

ird hour; half-way be

, originally and pro

se, or the middle hour between midday

he last of the canonic

d after the evening meal and before retiring to sleep, but in l

lessed Vi

TE

nd the best treatment of this subject in the scholarly yet popular work of George Haven Putnam, "Books and

TE

alike. True, there are no monkish vows in the Salvation Army and its doctrines bear a general resemblance to those of other Protestant communions, but like the old Franciscan order, it is dominated by a powerful missionary spirit, and its members are actuated by an unsurpassed devotion to the

TE

tral Music Hall, Chicago, Illinois, on Monday, February 5, 1894, in which he extolle

TE

is" and "Casus Conscienti?." Gury was Professor of Moral Theology in the College Romain, the Jesuits' College in Rome. His works have passed through several editions. They were translated from the Latin into French by Paul Bert, member of t

TE

he pontiffs. He opposed pilgrimages, held loosely to image-worship and rejected the system of tithing as it was then carried on. Wyclif was also a persistent and public foe of the mendicant friars. The views of this eminent reformer were courageously advocated by his followers, and for nearly two generations they continued to agitate the English people. It is easy to under

TE

August 18, 1792, amounted (without reckoning various minor establishments) to 8

death of Maria Theresa, in 1780, Joseph II., her son, dissolved the Mendicant Orde

es, and the general degeneration of the monks. Various minor suppressions had taken place in Italy, but it was not until the unification of the kingdom that the religious houses wer

une 21, 1835, which suppressed nine hundred monasteries at a blow

in proportion to its population and area as Por

TE

: "Do not imagine that the kingdom of Heaven is only for monks and hermits. When God will judge each one of us, he will not reproach the lost for not having been monks or solitaries, but for not having been true Christians. Now, to be a true Christian, three things are necessary; and if one of these thre

E

N

see Mon

4; description of installation of, 145; wealth and political influence of, 147;

posed by B

the hermit,

no virtue in

onal, sense of maint

Success

and the Cistercian monks, 192; fostered

Goth sack

ey of, Morton on

gnus, a Dom

rdwick on same, 233; Dominic preaches against

ons of monks, 173;

ata of St. Francis, 221; and the

omplains of monks, 173; hi

confiscated, 338

n crusade, 238; on spiritual pride of the Mendicants, 257; on the geni

ing, see

nd the stigmata o

s on, 115; saying of Gibbon applied to, 116; describe

e hermit, vi

respecting the early

nd British Chr

ish invasion on, 181; effect of D

bury, on flight f

Paul, 41; birth and early life of, 43; his austerities, 44, 45; miracles of

Royal Commi

omas, a Dom

ospection, 392; meaning of wo

n apostolic times, 27; the Gnostics, 27; and the Bible, 30, 366; in post-apostolic times, 31; modifications of, u

ds revolt against

nce of same on Rome, 80, 83; spreads Pachomian rule, 63; visits Rome

the monk's influence

ticism, 117, 119; influenced by biography of Anthony, 43; o

of, adopted by D

onk, his mission

inians

, Christianity du

on on, 94. See Ascet

Canon

anciscan, 228; imp

on the English r

he fall of the m

rosperity of the

founded, 123; slaugh

f the monks with, 148, 149

founder of Greek monasticism, 64, 65; his rules, 65; adopts irre

he British Church, 123; o

Mendicants, Franci

onsecrates Monte Cassino, 135; on

ane, his attemp

s opposition, 133; retires to Monte Cassino, 134; conquers Paganism, 135; his miracles and power over barbarians, 137; hi

; abbots of, 144; manual labor, 147, 403; Schaff on rules of, 148; its dealings with barbarians, 148, 398; its literar

his monastery, 192; on drugs and doctors, 194; his reforms, 195; Vaughan

father of Francis

ries at, 85, 88; Paula esta

and monastic

, of mo

astic history

on the sti

against monks at

fall of the m

s on his visit to

e, and Henr

ic, on Dominic and

f Francis, 220; a Franciscan,

apostle to the

s Prior Houghton to sign

asceticism

ristianity in, 123;. relation of early churc

d of Penit

abbot of

kin on the order, 189; the monastery of the

, on fall of mo

the ascetic

asceticism

d by Gasquet on fall

rt of Royal Com

r, on Chine