MONASTICISM
OUTLINE: I.--Importance of the institution of monasticism.
II.--Antecedents and analogies. III.--Causes of the origin of
Christian monasticism. IV.--Evolution of Christian
monasticism. V.--Spread of group monasticism from the East to
the West. VI.--Development of monasticism in Western Europe.
VII.--Opposition to monasticism. VIII.--Result and influences
of monasticism. IX.--Sources.
Monasticism, the story of which is one of the strangest problems in
Church history and is enshrouded in legend, originated outside the
Church, but soon became the dominant factor in the Church. It was not
the product of Christianity so much as an inheritance--an adopted child.
It supported the orthodox faith,[198:1] upheld the papal theory,
monopolised ecclesiastical offices, helped to mould the Church
constitution, and supplied the great standing army of the Popes. It was
a determining factor in European civilisation. The monk was the ideal
man of the Middle Ages. He stood for the highest morality and best
culture of that period. As a missionary he planted the Church over
Western Europe. He stood between the laity and the hierarchy, as the
friend of the former and the champion of the latter. He created the
system of public charity and had a marked influence on industry and
agriculture. Before long a monk sat in the chair of St. Peter and
sought to rule the Church. The first series of great ecclesiastical
reforms was produced by the hermits in the fourth century, the
Benedictines in the sixth, the Clugniacs in the eleventh, and the
Begging Orders in the thirteenth. Monasticism, therefore, was a very
important institution in the rise of the Church.
Monasticism originated in antiquity and was based on a general principle
broader than any creed. It grew out of that mystical longing for an
uninterrupted inner enjoyment of the soul--out of a passion for
self-brooding, and out of an abnormal view of the seclusion necessary
for the cultivation of the true religious life, which would save the
soul from sin. It was simply an effort to explain the riddle of
existence and to comprehend the true relations of God, man, and the
world. Every great religion has expressed itself in some form of
monasticism. Centuries before Jesus there were monks and crowded
convents among the Hindoos. The sacred writings of the ancient Hindoos
(2400 B.C.) reveal many legends about holy hermits, and give ascetic
rules.[199:1] Buddha, who founded his faith possibly six centuries B.C.,
enjoined celibacy on his priests.[199:2] Alexander the Great found
monasticism flourishing in the East. In Greece the "Pagan Jesuits," the
Pythagoreans, were a kind of ascetic order.[199:3] Plato, with his
powerful appeal for the ideal life, had a marked influence upon the
ascetic views of the early Christians, and Neo-Platonism became a
positive force in Christendom during the third and fourth centuries.
The priestesses of Delphic Apollo, Achaian Juno, and Scythian Diana were
virgins.[200:1] In Judea the ancient Nazarites[200:2] afford an example.
The Essenes seem to be the direct forerunners of Christian
monasticism.[200:3] In addition there were conspicuous individual
examples in Jewish history like that of Elisha, Elijah, Samuel, and John
the Baptist.[200:4] In Rome the name of vestal virgin was a proverb. In
Egypt, the priests of Serapis were ascetics,[200:5] the priestesses of
Ceres were separated from their husbands,[200:6] and the Therapeutæ were
rigid monks who lived about the time of Jesus.[200:7]
These influences and examples, coupled with Platonic philosophy, and the
interpretation put upon the teachings and lives of Jesus and His
Apostles, produced Christian monasticism. Jesus Himself was unmarried,
poor, and had not "where to lay his head." He commanded the rich young
man to sell his property for the poor,[200:8] and said: "Take no thought
for the morrow what ye shall eat and what ye shall drink, or wherewithal
ye shall be clothed." St. John and probably other Apostles were
celibates.[200:9] The Apostles likewise taught that following Jesus
meant "forsaking father, mother, brethren, wife, children, houses and
lands."[201:1] They urged Christians to crucify the flesh, and
disparaged marriage,[201:2] and they too were poor and homeless like
their Master.[201:3]
The supreme question asked by earnest Christians in all ages has been
this: "What is the true, the ideal Christian life?"[201:4] At every step
of her progress the Church has given a different answer to the important
query. Yet in all this divergent opinion there is plainly seen one
common conviction. To live in the service of God, in the religious
denunciation of the world, and in the abnegation of the joys of
life--that is the universal reply. In the early Church this position was
very strongly emphasised and led, in consequence, to the rise of
monasticism. Hence it may be said that the monastic ideals simply
expressed the highest ideals of the Church, and the history of
monasticism becomes a vital part of the history of the mediæval Church.
It must be remembered, too, that the old belief that the Church was
poor, pure, and wholly spiritual until the time of Constantine is a
false tradition. The secularisation and materialisation of the Church
was so noticeable as to cause complaint as early as the third century.
The Church Fathers unanimously deplore the precocious decay of the
Christian world.[201:5] To the minds of many, therefore, the only way to
escape the damning effects of contamination with the Roman world, the
only way to elude the evils in the Church itself, and the only sure way
of leading the ideal Christian life was to flee from villages and cities
to the mountains and deserts. "They fled not only from the world, but
from the world within the Church." When Christianity was drawn from the
catacombs to the court of the Cæsars, it lost its power to regenerate
souls. That memorable alliance hindered neither the ruin of the Empire,
nor "the servitude and mutilation of the Church."[202:1] Associated with
the power that so long sought to destroy her, the Church was brought
face to face with the tremendous task of transforming and replacing the
Empire. At the same time the Church made a desperate attempt, though in
vain, to keep alive the spiritual torches of apostolic Christianity. The
solution of that great problem, however, was left to the monks.
The philosophy which prevailed among many of the early Christians held
that the material world is all evil, and that the spiritual world is the
only good. Gnosticism, which permeated Christendom in the second
century, declared that the body is the seat of evil and hence that it
must be abused in order to purify the soul within.[202:2] Montanism
advocated an excessive puritanism, and prescribed numerous fasts and
severities, which paved the way for asceticism. Other groups of
Christian philosophers exercised similar influences.[202:3] The Church
itself commended fasting and other practices for the cultivation of
spiritual benefit. Celibacy of the clergy gradually became the rule. As
a result the belief soon developed that the surest way to gain eternal
joys in heaven was to turn away from the transitory pleasures of earth.
Christianity in the first and second centuries was the gospel of
renunciation and resurrection. The next logical step was to make the
body as miserable as possible here--sort of a pious sacrifice--in order
to make the soul happier hereafter. To die that one might really live,
to find one's life in losing it--that became the supreme purpose of
earthly existence. The most eminent of the early Fathers commended
asceticism, particularly fasting and celibacy, and many likewise
practised it. It is easy to feel that the air was charged with ascetic
ideals. The literature, the philosophy, and the religion of the day all
pointed out narrow paths that led to holiness. As a result there were
many ascetics of both sexes, although they were bound by no irrevocable
vow.[203:1]
The persecutions of Christians by the Roman government forced many to
flee for safety to the deserts and mountains.[203:2] Thus Paul of Thebes
and St. Anthony fled in the Decian persecutions about the year 250. When
persecution ceased, martyrdom had become such a holy act, and such a
short, easy road to a sainted, eternal life, that the most devout
resolved that since they could not die as martyrs, they would at least
live as martyrs. The mildness of the climate in Egypt and Palestine,
where the small amount of food and clothing needed for subsistence was
easily procured, made those regions the birthplace of monasticism. The
growth of worldliness in the Church, with the increase of numbers and
wealth, gave rise to many cries for reform. The legalisation and, along
with it, the paganisation of the Church gave birth to much that was
bitterly denounced. The union of the Church and state was the
climax--the Church was no longer the "bride of Christ," it was held, but
the mistress of a worldly ruler. Hence monasticism turned its back not
only on the world but also on the Church. To understand it, therefore,
it must be viewed as the first great reformation in the Church--a desire
to return to simple, pure, spiritual, apostolic Christianity.[204:1]
Christian monasticism did not begin at any fixed time or place. It was
slowly evolved as a curious mixture of heathen, Jewish, and Christian
influences. The whole Church had an ascetic aspect during the apostolic
age, hence endurance, hardihood, and constant self-denial were required
of its members. But for one hundred and fifty years no proofs of a
distinct class of ascetics can be found within the Church, except,
perhaps, the order of widows, devoted to charity, supported by gifts
from the faithful, and sanctioned by the Apostles.[204:2] In the second
century, however, a class of orthodox Christians, who desired to attain
Christian perfection, were called "abstinents" or "ascetics." They
withdrew from society but not from the Church, renounced marriage and
property, fasted and prayed, and eagerly sought a martyr's death.[204:3]
The belief that the end of the world was near no doubt did much to
emphasise the necessity of preparing for the day of judgment. By the
third century the Christian literature, philosophy, and theology were
tinged with asceticism. Cyprian, Origen, Hieracus, Methodius,
Tertullian, and others taught the efficacy of asceticism in one form or
another and, to some extent, practised it themselves,[205:1] but always
within the Church. The heretical sects became still more prominent in
their reverence for austerities and even outdid the orthodox in
practice.[205:2] This first stage of asceticism was neither organised,
nor absolutely cut off from the Church.
The product of this wide-spread ascetic agitation was the creation of a
new type, namely, anchoretism, or hermit life, about the middle of the
third century. This was the second phase of monastic evolution. It
appeared first in Egypt about the fourth century, where the physical
conditions were most suitable, in the home of the Therapeutæ and
Serapis monks, the stronghold of heresy and paganism, the birthplace
of Neo-Platonism amid a people famous for fanaticism. The Decian
persecution in 250 was, apparently, the immediate occasion for
its birth. Anthony of Alexandria, and Ammon were the earliest
representatives of this new form of asceticism. Paul of Thebes, however,
is now generally believed to be a pious romance from the pen of Jerome,
but he may still be viewed as typical.
Anthony (251-356), the "patriarch of the monks," was the real founder of
anchoretism. He early sold his estate for the poor, gave his sister to a
body of virgins, and cut himself off from the world by retiring to a
desert in order to devote his life to spiritual things. He lived as a
strict hermit till a great age, gained a world-wide fame, had many
visitors seeking spiritual guidance, and won many converts to
monasticism. Soon the wildest tales were told about his divine powers.
Before he died Egypt was full of hermits, and some were found in
Palestine. Athanasius wrote his biography, which was read over all
Christendom and scattered seeds of anchoretism everywhere--a book which
influenced the thought of the age. Ammon had a settlement of possibly
5000 hermits at Mount Nitria in Lower Egypt and was almost as renowned
as Anthony, his great contemporary.[206:1]
The example of these illustrious characters drew thousands of both the
curious and the sincere to Egypt.[206:2] Whole congregations, led by
their bishops, withdrew to the desert for salvation.[206:3] Priests fled
from the obligations of their office.[206:4] By the fourth century that
land was full of hermits. Their life was of a negative character,
founded on abstinence and bodily abuse--a holy rivalry of self-torture
and suicidal austerities. These practices may be divided into four
classes: dietetic, sexual, social, and spiritual.
(1) From a dietetic standpoint the hermits either fasted, or ate the
simplest foods, or consumed the smallest quantities. Thus the renowned
Isidore of Alexandria never ate meat, and often at the table would burst
into tears for shame at the thought that he who was destined to eat
angel's food in Paradise should have to eat the material food of
animals. Macarius ate but once a week. His son lived three years on five
ounces of bread a day and seven years on raw vegetables. Alos boasted
that up to his eighteenth year he never ate bread. Symeon ate but once
daily and in fast time not at all. Heliodorus often fasted seven days at
a time. In Mesopotamia a group of hermits lived on grass.[207:1]
(2) Sexually the hermits believed either in absolute virginity or in
abstinence.
(3) The social and domestic vagaries of anchoretism assumed many forms.
The hermits fled from the society of the world; deserted friends and
family; courted the company of wild beasts[207:2]; lived in caves,
dried-up wells, swamps, rude huts, tombs, and on the summits of solitary
columns, or wandered about without fixed homes.[207:3] A monk named
Akepsismas lived sixty years in the same cell without seeing or speaking
to any person and was finally shot for a wolf. Some hermits wore no
clothing,[207:4] and thus exposed the body to the broiling sun and to
biting insects. Macarius, to atone for killing a gnat, lay naked six
months in a swamp and was so badly stung that he was mistaken for a
leper.[207:5] Others wore hair shirts, carried heavy weights suspended
from the body, slept in thorn bushes, against a pillar, in cramped
quarters, or deprived themselves altogether of sleep. Many never washed
their faces nor cared for their hair, beards, teeth, and nails. With
them filthiness seemed to be next to godliness. Anthony and Hilarion
scorned either to cut or to comb their hair except at Easter, or to wash
their hands and faces. St. Abraham never washed his face for fifty
years--yet his biographer proudly says, "His face reflected the purity
of his soul." Theodosius like a second Moses, had a stream of water
burst from a rock that his thirsty monks might drink. One wicked fellow,
overcome by a pitiable weakness for cleanliness, took a bath, when, lo!
the stream dried up. Thereupon the frightened and repentant monks
promised never to insult heaven by using water for that purpose again,
and after a year of waiting a second miracle gave them a fresh supply.
(4) A sincere desire for spiritual improvement expressed itself in
various practices. Prayer was perhaps the most common means to that end,
and it was believed that number and duration counted the most. Paul the
Simple repeated three hundred prayers a day and counted them with
pebbles. A certain famous virgin added four hundred to that number
daily. Some spent all day and others all night in prayer. Meditation and
contemplation were generally employed. Preaching and singing were common
forms of religious activity. Studying and writing engaged those of a
more scholarly bent of mind.
Out of this unorganised anchoretism there grew, by the latter part of
the third century, a crude form of group monasticism. This was the third
stage in the progress of monastic life. Such renowned hermits as St.
Anthony in Upper Egypt, Ammon at Mount Nitria, Joannes in Thebaid,
Macarius in the Scetische Desert, and Hilarion in the Gaza Desert each
had a coterie of imitators imbued with a common purpose and with a
profound respect for their leader; but no uniform rules governed them
at first. As time passed, however, the necessity of regulating the
various relations of so many became apparent.[209:1] The organisations
of the Essenes and Therapeutæ may have served as models. At Mount Nitria
the monks by common arrangement lived in separate cells, but had a
dining room and a chapel for all.[209:2] Pachomius (282-346), a
converted heathen soldier, of little education, a pupil of Palæmon for
twelve years, created the first monastic rule and organised at Tabenna
on the Nile the first monastic congregation (322), while his sister
formed the first convent at Tabenisi. This first walled monastery had
many cells built to accommodate three monks in each. Membership was
guarded by three years' probation on severe discipline. The monks met in
silence for one daily meal and wore white hoods so as not to see each
other. They prayed thirty-six times daily, worked with their hands
indoors and out, and wore over their linen underclothes white goat skins
day and night. They were ruled by "priors" chosen on merit from the
twenty-four classes of monks.[209:3] At the head of the whole system
stood an abbot.[209:4] When Pachomius died (346) he had established nine
cloisters with 3000 monks. He called them all together twice a year, and
paid them annual visits. By 400 the monks numbered 50,000.[209:5] The
great Athanasius visited Tabenna to inspect the system and to study the
operation of this epoch-making rule.
From Tabenna organised monasticism spread over Egypt and then to nearly
every province in the Roman Empire by the end of the fourth
century.[210:1] In the Holy Land laboured Hilarion,[210:2]
Epiphanius,[210:3] Hesycas,[210:4] the Bethlehem brothers,[210:5]
Ammonius,[210:6] Silvanus, and Zacharias. Jerome, the celebrated Church
Father, with Paula, a rich Roman widow, left Rome for the East. After
studying monasticism in Egypt they located at Bethlehem (386). There
Jerome studied the Scriptures and ruled a large crowd of monks, while
Paula became the head of a convent for girls. Melania built a convent on
the Mount of Olives and ruled fifty virgins (375). Goddana and Elias
laboured on the lower Jordan.
In Asia Minor laboured, conspicuous among many, Eustathius who first
prescribed a monastic dress, Basil the Great (c. 379) who originated the
monastic vow,[210:7] the famous Nilus (c. 430), and the hated hermit
Marcus (c. 431). Syria was renowned for at least a dozen hermits, the
most celebrated being Simeon Stylites (c. 459),[210:8] the pillar saint.
From Egypt and Asia the institution spread to Greece and became quite
general by the fourth century. The most famous cloister was that of
Studium (460) at Constantinople. The islands of the Adriatic and Tuscan
Sea were soon covered with monasteries swarming with monks.[210:9]
The fourth and most important step is found in the development of the
institution in western Europe.
Athanasius, a hero and oracle to the Western Church, on a tour to Rome
in 340, carried with him from Egypt two specimens of hermits.[211:1] His
_Life of Anthony_ was soon translated into Latin. The West had already
heard about the institution, and many individuals had visited the most
celebrated hermits in Egypt. After 340 many men and women began to give
enthusiastic support to the new institution. Eusebius (c. 370) lived by
rule with his clergy under one roof at Vercelli in northern
Italy.[211:2] Ambrose fostered it in and around Milan.[211:3] Paul of
Nola (c. 431) lived in Campagna. Conspicuous examples were found among
the Roman virgins and widows.[211:4] Marcella in Rome turned her palace
into a convent.[211:5] Paula and her whole family lived as ascetics. The
widow Lea was an active worker.[211:6] Melania devoted her fortune to
the cause. Many of the nobles of Rome likewise became converts to the
new idea.[211:7] Jerome and Rufinus were conspicuous examples of those
devotees who by precept and practice soon popularised monasticism
throughout Italy. Convents for both sexes were soon founded.[211:8] From
Rome Augustine carried the institution back to north-western Africa.
When Cassian (c. 448) left Egypt and planted two monasteries at
Marseilles, he found monks already in France. Martin, the Bishop of
Tours, turned his episcopal palace into a monastery, and at his death
(400) 2000 monks followed him to the grave.[212:1] Poitiers, Lyons, and
Treves, together with the bordering mountains, were soon scenes of
monastic activity. Donatus, an African monk, early carried the new faith
to Spain where it soon became so popular that by 380 a synod forbade
priests dressing as monks. Athanasius, who lived at Treves as an exile,
probably introduced it into Germany. The British Isles had a flourishing
system long before the mission of Augustine. By the fifth century,
therefore, monasticism had been firmly planted over all western
Europe.[212:2]
Although western monasticism was an offspring of the eastern type, yet
the child differed much from the parent. Anchoretism gained but little
foothold in the West because of climatic and ethnic differences. The
group type was dominant in the West, and extremes and excesses were
absent. No pillar saints and other conspicuous fanatics were found
there.[212:3] Western monasticism was a more practical system, an
economic factor, a powerful missionary machine, an educational agency,
and the pioneer of civilisation. It was not a negative force, but very
aggressive and made history. It led all the great reform movements. It
was uniform in spirit, though widely divergent in form. In some cases
monks were under abbots each with his own rule; others had no fixed
abode--and many of them were tramps of the worst description, living on
their holy calling.[213:1] Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine, and many other
Fathers have left sufficient complaints about the growing monastic
disorders. The need of a common rule, therefore, was generally felt in
order to unify the highly varied, and in part highly doubtful forms of
monasticism.
Early efforts were made to meet that need. Jerome translated the rule of
Pachomius into Latin and it was used in parts of Italy. Rufinus brought
the rule of Basil the Great to Rome and it was adopted in southern Italy
and in Gaul. The rule of Macarius was at least known in the West.
Cassian (c. 448) was the first, however, to write out for the cruder
western institution a detailed constitution (c. 429). He had studied
monasticism in Egypt and drew up a very complete rule which covered all
the essential phases of cloister life. It was used in many cloisters
till the ninth century. During this early unorganised period Popes,
councils, and even secular powers often tried to control and regulate
monasticism.
The great organiser and unifier of western monasticism, however, was St.
Benedict (d. 543), "the patriarch of the monks of the west."[213:2] Born
of rich parents at Nursia in 480, he was sent to Rome to complete his
education. There he became disgusted with the vice about him, fled from
college, family, and fortune, and at the age of sixteen, retired to a
cave at Subiaco thirty miles from Rome. He became a severe ascetic, wore
a hair shirt and a monk's dress of skins, rolled in beds of thistles to
subdue the flesh, and chose to be ignorant and holy rather than educated
and wicked. His fame soon attracted disciples and he established twelve
monasteries, with a dozen monks and a superior in each, but all under
his own supervision. Later he left Subiaco and went to Monte Cassino
where he spent the closing years of his remarkable career. Monte Cassino
became the capital of western monasticism.
To control his monks Benedict drew up in 529 the "Holy Rule,"[214:1]
which became the basis for all western monastic orders and was a rival
of St. Basil's rule in the East. The "Holy Rule" was the product of
Benedict's own sad experience as hermit, cenobite, and superior, and
also of his observations concerning the monastic laxness which he saw on
all hands. It consists of a prologue and chapters on seventy-three
governmental, social, moral, liturgical, and penal subjects. The whole
spirit and aim of the Rule were constructive and reformatory. It
provided for an organisation monarchial at the top and democratic at the
bottom. Each monastery had an abbot elected for life by all the monks to
rule the monastery in the place of Christ. The abbot chose the prior and
deans, on the basis of merit, with the approval of the monks, but minor
officials were named directly by the abbot. The important business
affairs of the monastery were conducted by the abbot in consultation
with all the monks, but minor matters required only the advice of the
superior officers. Admission was open to all ranks and classes of men
above eighteen on an equal footing after one year's probation. The two
fundamental principles in this constitution were labour and obedience.
Indolence was branded as the enemy of the soul. Each candidate had to
take the vow of obedience and constancy to the order; chastity and
poverty of course being implied. A monk's day was minutely regulated,
according to the seasons, and consisted of an alternation of manual
work, study, and worship, with short intervals for food and rest. Labour
was thus regulated in the monastery somewhat as in an industrial
penitentiary. The frugal meal was eaten in silence while some edifying
selection was read. The monks had to renounce the world and give all the
fruits of their labours to the monastery.
Obedience was regarded as the most meritorious and essential condition
of all. Monasticism meant a generous sacrifice of self and implied a
surrender of the will to a superior. The monk must obey not only the
abbot but also the requests of his brethren. Monks were treated as
children grown up. They could not own property--not even the smallest
trifles; they were not allowed to walk abroad at will; if sent away,
they could not eat without the abbot's permission; they could not
receive letters from home; and they were sent to bed early. Once in the
order the vow of stability prevented withdrawal. A violation of any of
the regulations entailed punishment: private admonition, exclusion from
common prayer, whipping, and expulsion.
This Rule, all things considered, was mild, flexible, and general; with
order, proportion, and regularity, yet brief, concise, and well tempered
to the needs of western Europe[215:1]; hence like Aaron's rod it soon
swallowed up the other rules in use. Before 600 it was supreme in Italy.
In 788 the Council of Aachen ordered it and no other to be used
throughout the kingdom of Charles the Great. In the ninth century it
superseded the Isidore rule in Spain. It embraced likewise the Columban
rule in western Europe and by the tenth century prevailed everywhere.
Under it the Benedictines had a remarkable history. At one time they had
37,000 monasteries and altogether produced 24 Popes, 200 cardinals, 4000
bishops, and 55,505 saints.[216:1] The Benedictine monasteries differed
from later monastic bodies in the fact that they were quite independent
of each other and had no common head. After the thirteenth century they
were surpassed by the Begging Orders and devoted themselves mostly to
literary pursuits, soon becoming "more noted for learning than piety."
Their edition of the Church Fathers is a monument of scholarly
industry.[216:2] The order still exists, chiefly in Austria and Italy,
and is noted mostly for its classical learning. They boast of 16,000
distinguished writers.
These early monasteries were like swarming bees in planting monastic
societies in every part of western Europe. The passion grew until it
became a veritable madness which seized the pious and lawless alike.
Popes like Gregory I. praised the institution and promoted its interest
in every possible way. Even kings like Carloman of the Franks, Rochis of
the Lombards, great statesmen like Cassiodorus, and others voluntarily
became monks. Louis the Pious, the Roman Emperor, was prevented from
that course only by his nobles.[216:3] The monk was the leader and
pattern of the Middle Ages. Every father was ambitious to have his son
enter that holy calling. To the quiet and peaceful abode of the
monastery, therefore, went not only the pious, but the student, those
who disliked the soldier's life, the disconsolate, the disgraced,
the disappointed, the indolent, and the weary. And this powerful
organisation was utterly under the control of the great Roman Bishop and
his subordinates.
The remarkable growth of monasticism brought great wealth and political
power, which were used in large measure to strengthen the Church. Kings
and nobles made large grants of lands--especially Charles the Great and
Louis the Pious. Besides many monks brought their possessions as gifts
to the monastery and not infrequently powerful abbots took lands by
force. Monasticism thus gradually became secularised and also
feudalised. Monasteries were often used as prisons for deposed kings,
criminals, and clergy convicted of crime. The abbots were virtually
secular lords who ruled as local sovereigns, claimed immunity from tolls
and taxes, went hunting and hawking, and even fought at the head of
their troops. As a result the office of abbot became a coveted prize,
for the younger and the illegitimate sons of nobles.[217:1] What effect
this secularisation had upon the high ideals may be easily seen. Soon
only certain ceremonies distinguished the monks from the secular clergy.
The monks as such belong to the laity. Monasticism was viewed as a lay
institution as late as the Council of Chalcedon (451)[217:2] when the
legal authority of the bishop over the monks of his diocese was
recognised. The monks were called _religiosi_ in contrast to the
_seculares_, the priests. The monks were the "regulars" who formed the
spiritual nobility and not the ruling class in the hierarchy. They
formed another grade in the hierarchy between the clergy and the laity.
But after the fifth century the difference became less marked. Since
monasticism was considered the perfection of Christian life, it was
natural to choose the clergy from the monks. Gregory the Great was the
first monk to be elected Pope. Monasteries were the theological
seminaries to supply priests for the Church, hence the ignorant clergy
looked up to the educated monks. Still monks at first, because not
ordained, could not say mass nor hear confession. Each monastery kept a
priest or an ordained monk to fulfil these duties. Abbots were usually
in priestly orders.[218:1] In time, however, monks assumed the dress of
priests and became ambitious for priestly powers,[218:2] especially
after the Council of Chalcedon, backed by the state, gave bishops
jurisdiction over cloisters. Often monasteries applied to the Pope for
independence from episcopal jurisdiction and were taken under the
immediate protection of the Bishop of Rome. By the sixth century monks
were classed in the popular mind with the clergy. In 827 a council at
Rome ordered that abbots should be in priests' orders. Monks now began
to sit in and to control Church synods, and to exercise all the rights
of the secular clergy, even to having parishes,[218:3] and thus became
powerful rivals of the established priesthood.
The crystallisation of ascetic ideals into monastic institutions was
attacked by heathenism and did not meet the unanimous approval of
Christendom. Before Constantine the pagans denounced the hermits because
they were guilty of the treasonable act, from a Roman view, of fleeing
from social and civic duties. After Constantine, when monasticism became
the "fad," it was assailed by the aristocratic pagan families, who lost
sons, and especially wives and daughters, in the maelstrom of
enthusiasm, because it broke family ties and caused the neglect of
obvious responsibilities. Julian, the imperial pagan reactionist, called
it fanaticism and idolatry. Pagan poets like Libanus and Rutilius
denounced it as an institution "hostile to light."
Within Christendom hostility came from Christian rulers like Valens,
because monasticism withdrew civil and military strength from the state,
when all was needed against the barbarians, and because it encouraged
idleness and unproductiveness instead of useful activity and heroic
virtue[219:1]; from Christians of wealth and indulgence who felt rebuked
by the earnestness, poverty, and holy zeal of an ascetic life; from the
clergy who did not comprehend the significance of monasticism[219:2];
and from the liberal party in the Church who took a saner view of
salvation and ethics. Jovinian (d. 406), like Luther, first a monk and
then a reformer, held these five points according to Jerome: (1) that
virgins, widows, and wives are all on an equality if good Christians;
(2) that thankfully partaking of food is as efficacious as fasting; (3)
that spiritual baptism is as effectual in overcoming the devil as
baptism; (4) that all sins are equal; (5) that all rewards and
punishments will be equal. Jerome answered him and Pope Siricius
excommunicated him and his followers as heretics (390).[220:1] Helvidius
of Rome denounced the reverence for celibacy and declared that the
marriage state was as holy as that of virginity. Again Jerome wielded
his intellectual cudgel.[220:2] Bonasus, Bishop of Sardica, was
excommunicated for holding the same view (389). Vigilantius, an educated
Gallic slave, a disciple of Jovinian, attacked the necessity of
celibacy, denied the efficacy of virginity, opposed fasting and torture,
ridiculed relics, objected to candles, incense, and prayers for the
dead, and doubted miracles. He was a Protestant living in the fifth
century.[220:3] He too was assailed by Jerome and put under the papal
ban.[220:4] Ærius of Sebasta, a presbyter, called into question the need
or value of fasts, prayers for the dead, the inequality of rank among
the clergy, and the celebration of Easter and of course was outlawed by
the Church.[220:5] Lactantius declared that the hermit life was that of
a beast rather than a man and treasonable to society. But all these loud
outcries against the monks were branded as heresy and drowned in
counter-shouts of praise.
When the results and influences of monasticism are carefully weighed, it
is seen that the good and evil "are blended together almost
inextricably." These diametrically opposite effects are perplexing and
astonishing. Conspicuous among the positive results are the following:
1. _Religious._ The effort to save pure Christianity from the
secularised state-Church by carrying it to the desert or shutting it up
in a monastery, produced the first great reform movement within the
Christian Church. "It was always the monks who saved the Church when
sinking, emancipated her when becoming enslaved to the world, defended
her when assailed."[221:1] Monasticism was, therefore, a realisation of
the ideal in Christianity. In no small sense it likewise paved the way
for the Reformation of the sixteenth century. The monastic conquest of
Christianity left in its train higher ideals of a holy Christian life
and a keener religious enthusiasm, and emphasised the necessity of
humility and purity. Likewise monasticism, through its aggressive
missionary efforts, completed the overthrow of heathenism in the Empire
and in its stead planted the true faith over western Europe. The monks
were the fiercest champions of orthodoxy, and the intellectual giants of
that age, like Jerome and St. Augustine, were in their ranks. The monk
rather than the priest was the apostle of the Middle Ages who taught men
and nations the simple Christian life of the Gospel. In monasticism were
developed the germs of many humanitarian institutions through which
Christianity expressed itself in a most practical manner. The monastery
offered a home to the poor and unfortunate, and gave hope and refuge to
both the religious invalid, who was sick of the world, and to the
religious fanatic. The Papacy, too, was supported and strengthened in a
thousand different ways by monasticism, and the whole religious history
of the Middle Ages was coloured by it.
2. _Social._ Monasticism tended to purify and regenerate society with
lofty ideas. It became an unexcelled machine for the administration of
charity. It fed the hungry, cared for the sick and dying, entertained
the traveller, and was an asylum for all the unfortunates. It helped to
mitigate the terrors of slavery. It inculcated ideas of obedience and
usefulness. It advocated and practised equality and communism, and it
tutored the half-civilised nations of western Europe in the arts of
peace.
3. _Political._ In its organisation and practical life it kept alive
ideas of democracy. From the ranks of the monks came many of the best
statesmen in the various European governments. Monastic zeal had much to
do in saving the Roman Empire from utter destruction at the hands of the
barbarians and in helping to preserve imperial ideas until the rough
Teutons were Latinised in their legal and political institutions. In
addition the monks helped to form the various law codes of the German
tribes, put them into written form, and took an active part in many
forms of local government. In many an instance they saved the
unprotected vassal from the tyrannical noble.
4. _Educational._ In the monasteries the torches of civilisation and
learning were kept burning during the so-called Dark Ages. The first
musicians, painters, sculptors, architects, and educators of Christian
Europe were monks. They not only established the schools, and were the
schoolmasters in them, but also laid the foundations for the
universities. They were the thinkers and philosophers of the day and
shaped the political and religious thought. To them, both collectively
and individually, was due the continuity of thought and civilisation of
the ancient world with the later Middle Ages and with the modern period.
5. _Industrial._ Not only did the monks develop the various arts such as
copying and illuminating books, building religious edifices, painting,
and carving, but they also became the model farmers and horticulturists
of Europe. Every Benedictine monastery was an agricultural college for
the whole region in which it was located. By making manual labour an
essential part of monastic life, labour was greatly ennobled above the
disreputable position it held among the Romans.
The negative effects of monasticism were by no means lacking and may be
stated here under the same institutional headings:
1. _Religious._ In making "war on nature" the ascetics made war also on
God. They aimed not too high religiously but in the wrong direction.
They exaggerated sin and advocated the wrong means to get rid of it.
They took religion away from the crowded centres of population, where it
was most needed, to the desert or monastery. Thus an abnormal,
unwholesome type of piety was created. In replacing faith by works the
monks thus gave birth to a long list of abuses in the Church, and in
nourishing an insane religious fanaticism they entailed many grave
evils. From one point of view monasticism became a "morbid excrescence"
of Christianity and tended to degrade man into a mere religious machine.
At the same time the doctrine of future rewards and punishments reached
an abhorrent evolution. The awful pangs of hell, the terrific judgments
of God, and the ubiquitous and wily devil of the monks' vivid
imagination sound strange to a modern mind. But the gravest error in
the monastic system was the false and harmful distinction so clearly
drawn both in theory and practice between the secular and the religious.
The modern world easily harmonises the two.
2. _Social._ Monasticism disrupted family ties and caused the desertion
of social duties on the ground of a more sacred duty. It lowered respect
for the marriage state by magnifying the virtue of celibacy. In making
the monk the ideal man of the Middle Ages, it advocated social suicide.
All natural pleasures and enjoyments of life were labelled sinful.
Practices, which were little more than superstitions, were advocated.
Society in general was demoralised because monasticism failed to
practise its own teachings.
3. _Political._ By inducing thousands, and many of them men of
character, ability, and experience, to desert their posts of civic duty,
the state was weakened and patriotism forgotten. The monk "died to the
world" and abjured his country. Monasticism aided powerfully in
developing the secular side of the papal hierarchy and soon came to
exercise a large amount of political power itself. The monks frequently
became embroiled in social disputes and military quarrels, and thus
incited rather than allayed the fiercer brute passions of men.
4. _Cultural._ By holding the education of the people in their hands the
monks had a powerful weapon for evil as well as good. In making the monk
the ideally cultured man a false standard was set up and certain
fundamentals in education ignored. Secular learning was not generally
encouraged. The supreme end of all their education was not to produce a
man, but a priest.
5. _Industrial._ Thousands withdrew from the various lines of
industrial activity, some to obtain the higher good, but many to enter
as they supposed a life of ease and idleness. Much of the good that was
done in the earlier days was negatived by the begging friars later.
Of these two sets of influences which predominated? That both were
powerful no one can doubt. All things considered, however, it must be
said that monasticism, as it developed in the West, fulfilled a genuine
need and performed an important service for Christian civilisation. St.
Benedict not only presented a satisfactory solution of the grave dangers
threatening this institution as a force in the evolution of the mediæval
Church, but with his organised army of devoted, obedient followers, he
met the barbarian hosts invading the Roman Empire and gradually won them
to adopt and in due course of time to practise the Christian code.
Indeed it is difficult to imagine how the Church could have forged its
course so triumphantly through all the breakers, trials, and
vicissitudes of this crucial epoch--how its jurisdiction could have been
extended so rapidly and so effectively to all parts of western Europe
and to some points in the East and in northern Africa--how its great
humanising, spiritualising, and edifying influences could have been so
persistent and at the same time so efficient--how the simple,
fundamental truths of the Gospel as set forth in the Apostolic Church
could have been handed on to the later ages--had not the growth of
monasticism been regulated and utilised. Therefore, next to the
evolution of that magnificent organisation of the Papacy, as a creative
factor in the rise of the mediæval Church, must be placed organised,
western monasticism.
SOURCES
A.--PRIMARY:
I.--JEWISH:
1.--_Old Testament._
2.--Josephus, _Antiquities_, i., bk. 15, ch. 10, sec. 4-5; bk.
18, ch. 1, sec. 5; ii., bk. 2, ch. 8, sec. 2-11.
3.--Philo, _Contemplative Life_. Bohn, _Eccl. Lib._, 1855,
iv., 1-21.
II.--GREEK:
1.--_New Testament._
2.--_New Testament Apocrypha._
3.--Eusebius, _Church Hist._, ii., ch. 17. _Nic. and Post-Nic.
Fathers_, i. Several other eds.
4.--Socrates, _Church Hist._, i., 13; iv., 23 _ff._ _Ib._, ii.
Other eds.
5.--Sozomen, _Church Hist._, i., 12-14; iii., 14; vi., 28-34.
_Ib._, ii.
6.--Theodoret, _Church Hist._, ch. 33. _Ib._, iii. Bohn Lib.
7.--Evagrius, _Life of St. Anthony_. Bohn Lib., 1851.
8.--Palladius, _Historia Lausiaca_. Ed. by Butler, _Texts and
Studies_. Camb., 1898.
9.--_Concerning the Ascetic Life._ Not in Eng.
III.--LATIN:
1.--Sulpicius Severus, _Dialogues_, i.-iii. _Nic. and
Post-Nic. Fathers_, 2d ser., xi., pt. 11.
2.--Athanasius, _Life of Anthony_. _Ib._, iv., 195-221.
3.--Ambrose, _Concerning Virgins_. _Ib._, x., 360. _Letters_,
No. 63. _Ib._, 457.
4.--Augustine, _The Work of Monks_. _Fathers of the Holy
Catholic Church_, xxii., 470-516.
5.--Cassian, _Institutes_. _Nic. and Post-Nic. Fathers_, 2d
ser., xi. _Cœnobia_, _Ib._ _Conferences_, _Ib._
6.--Jerome, _Life of St. Paul the First Hermit_. _Ib._, vi.,
299-318; _Letters_, No. 22, 130. _Ib._
7.--Gregory the Great, _Letters_. _Ib._, xii.; _Life and
Miracles of St. Benedict_. Ed. by Luck, Lond., 1880.
8.--Rufinus, _History of Monks_. Not in Eng.
9.--Cassiodorus, _Dissertation on Monasticism_. Not in Eng.
_Letters._ Ed. by Hodgkin, Oxf., 1886.
IV.--COLLECTIONS:
1.--_Apostolic Canons._ See Ch. IX. of this work.
2.--_Apostolic Constitutions._ _Ib._
3.--Henderson, _Select Histor. Docs. of the M. A._, 274-314.
4.--Univ. of Neb., _Europ. Hist. Studies_, ii., No. 6.
5.--Univ. of Pa., _Translations and Reprints_, ii., No. 7.
B.--SECONDARY:
I.--SPECIAL:
1.--Allies, T. W., _The Monastic Life from the Fathers of the
Desert to Charlemagne_. Lond., 1896.
2.--Browne, E. G. K., _Monastic Legends_. Lond.
3.--Butler, A., _Lives of the Saints_. Lond., 1833, 2 vols.
Balt., 1844, 4 vols.
4.--Day, S. P., _Monastic Institutions_. Lond., 1865.
5.--Dill, S., _Roman Society in the Last Century of the
Western Empire_. N. Y., 1904.
6.--Fosbroke, T. D., _British Monachism_. 3d ed. Lond., 1843.
7.--Fox, S., _Monks and Monasticism_ (Eng.). Lond., 1848.
8.--Hardy, H. S., _Eastern Monachism_. Lond., 1864.
9.--Harnack, A., _Monasticism: Its Ideals and Its History_.
1886. Tr. by Gillett, N. Y. Lond., 1895.
10.--Hill, O. T., _English Monasticism_. Lond., 1867.
11.--Jameson, Mrs. A., _Legends of the Monastic Orders_. Lond.,
1850. Rev. ed. Bost., 1896.
12.--Kingsley, C., _The Hermits: Their Lives and Works_. Lond.,
1885.
13.--Lea, H. C., _History of Sacerdotal Celibacy_. Phil., 1884.
3d ed. N. Y., 1907. 2 vols.
14.--Lechner, D. P., _Life and Times of St. Benedict_. Lond.
15.--Littledale, R. F., _Monachism_. Encyc. Brit.
16.--Montalembert, Count de, _Monks of the West_. New ed.
Lond., 1896. 7 vols.
17.--Northcote, J. S., _Celebrated Sanctuaries of the Madonna_.
Lond., 1868.
18.--Ruffner, H., _Fathers of the Desert_. N. Y., 1850. 2 vols.
19.--Smith, I. G., _Christian Monasticism_ (4th-9th cent.).
Lond., 1892.
20.--Wishart, A. D., _Short History of Monks and Monasticism_.
Lond., 1900.
II.--GENERAL:
Adams, _Civ. of M. A._ Adeney, ch. 13. Alzog, ii., 114-121.
Butler, _Ch. Hist._, ch. 34-35. Brown, _Stoics and Saints_,
ch. 5-6. Cheetham, ch. 12, sec. 3-4. Church, _Begin. of M.
A._, 48, 58. Clarke, _Events and Epochs_, ch. 3-4. Coxe, Lect.
3, sec. 3. Cunningham, _West. Civ._, ii., 37-40. Darras, i.,
636; ii., 34, 35, 121, 387; iii., 43. Döllinger, ii., ch. 5,
sec. 9; iii., ch. 4, sec. 6. Draper, _Intel. Develop. of
Europe_. Fisher, 111, 113, 114, 115, 116, 175, 234.
Fitzgerald, i., 215-227. Foulkes, 88, 93, 150-151, 221, 243,
349. Gibbon, ch. 37. Gieseler, ii., ch. 4, sec. 95-97.
Gilmartin, i., ch. 9, 22, 45. Hase, sec. 132-136. Hurst, i.,
ch. 30-31. Jennings, i., ch. 6. Kurtz, i., 248-258, 503-509.
Lecky, _Hist. of Europ. Morals_, ii., ch. 4. Mahan, bk. 4, ch.
12. Maitland, _Dark Ages_. Milman, i., bk. 1, ch. 2; bk. 3,
ch. 1; ii., bk. 3, ch. 6. Milner, i., cent. 4, ch. 5. Moeller,
i., 355-377. Mosheim, bk. ii., cent. iv., ch. 3, § 13.
Neander, ii., 262. Newman, i., 451. Putnam, _Books and their
Makers_, i. Robertson, bk. 2, ch. 6, sec. 4. Schaff, iii.,
147. Zenos, 104, 154, 171.
FOOTNOTES:
[198:1] Jerome, _Ep._, 15.
[199:1] The Hindoo monks exhausted their minds in devising means of
self-torture.
[199:2] Lea, _Sac. Celib._, 24; _Laws of Manu_, bk. 6., st. 1-22. See
Hardy, _Eastern Monasticism_, Lond., 1850.
[199:3] The disciples of Pythagoras were called cenobites. Montalembert,
i., 215.
[200:1] Lea, _Sac. Celib._, 24.
[200:2] Numb. vi., 1-21.
[200:3] Pliny, _Nat. Hist._, v., 15; Porphyry, _De Abstinentia_, iv.,
11; Edersheim, ch. 3; Döllinger, _Gentile and Jew_, ii., 330. See p. 44,
45.
[200:4] Isa. xxii., 2; Dan. ix., 3; Zech. xiii., 4; 2 Kings i., 8; iv.,
10, 39, 42. _Cf._ Heb. xi., 37, 38; _Expositor_, 1893, i., 339.
[200:5] Schaff, ii., 390.
[200:6] Lea, _Sac. Celib._, 24.
[200:7] Eusebius, ii., 17; Philo, _Contemp. Life_, bk. 1; _Jewish Quart.
Rev._, viii., 155; _Baptist Rev._, Jan., 1882, p. 36 _ff._; see _Jewish
Encyc._; Döllinger, ii., 335.
[200:8] Matt. xix., 21; Luke xviii., 22; Mark x., 21.
[200:9] Tertullian held that all the Apostles except Peter were
unmarried.
[201:1] Mark x., 29, 30.
[201:2] Paul, especially 1 Cor. vii.; Lea, _Sac. Celib._, 25.
[201:3] Texts quoted as favourable to monasticism: Acts ii., 44; iv.,
32; xv., 28, 29; 1 Cor. vii., 8; iv., 3; Matt. xix., 12, 21; xxii., 30;
Rev. xiv., 4; Luke xx., 35; Mark x., 29, 30.
[201:4] Harnack, _Monasticism_, 10.
[201:5] Montalembert, i., bk. 1.
[202:1] Montalembert, i., 188.
[202:2] Lightfoot, _The Colossian Heresy_.
[202:3] Marcionites, Valentinians, Abstinents, Apotoctici, Encratites,
etc.
[203:1] Cyprian, _Ep._, 62.
[203:2] Euseb. _Eccl. Hist._, vi., 42.
[204:1] Harnack, _Monasticism_, 65.
[204:2] 1 Tim. v., 3-14. _Cf._ Acts ix., 39, 41.
[204:3] Justin Martyr observed that Christians were commencing to
abstain from flesh, wine, and sexual intercourse. He, with Ignatius and
others, lauds celibacy as the holiest state.
[205:1] Celibacy was habitually practised by some; others devoted their
lives to the poor. Many converts like Cyprian sold their possessions for
the needy. Still others like Origen mutilated themselves.
[205:2] Irenæus, _Against Heresy_, i., 24; Epiphanius, _Heresy_, 23.
[206:1] Rufinus, _Concerning Ascetic Life_, 30; Socrates, iv., 23;
Sozomen, i., 14. See Montalembert, i., 227.
[206:2] Augustine, _Confessions_, viii., 15.
[206:3] Harnack, _Monasticism_, 27.
[206:4] _Ibid._, 47.
[207:1] Sozomen, vi., 33; Tillemont, _Mem._, viii., 292.
[207:2] Severus, _Dialogues_, i., 8.
[207:3] Evagrius, _Ch. Hist._, i., 13, 21; ii., 9; vi., 22; Theodosius,
_Philoth._, 12, 26; Nilus, _Letters_, ii., 114, 115; Gregory of Tours,
viii., 16.
[207:4] Augustine, _City of God_, i., xiv., ch. 51.
[207:5] Tillemont, _Mem._, viii., 633.
[209:1] The rule of St. Oriesis is little more than a mystical praise of
asceticism.
[209:2] Socrates, iv., 23; Sozomen, i., 14.
[209:3] Gwatkin, _Arianism_.
[209:4] Sozomen, iii., 14.
[209:5] Hergenröther, 452.
[210:1] Theod., _Hist. Rel._, 30; Augustine, _De Mor. Eccl._, i., 31.
[210:2] Sozomen, iii., 14; vi., 32.
[210:3] A follower of Hilarion. Made bishop of Cyprus in 367.
[210:4] Sozomen, vi., 32.
[210:5] _Ibid._, vi., 32.
[210:6] Eusebius, viii., 13; Socrates, iv., 36; Sozomen, vi., 38.
[210:7] Sozomen, vi., 32.
[210:8] Theodoret, _Hist. Eccl._, ch. 26.
[210:9] Smith, _Rise of Christ. Monast._, 48.
[211:1] Augustine, _De Mor. Eccl._, p. 33. He had been in Gaul in 337
and 338.
[211:2] Ambrose, _Letters_, 63, 66.
[211:3] Augustine, _Confessions_, viii., 15.
[211:4] Montalembert, i., 291-300.
[211:5] Jerome, _Letter_ 127.
[211:6] Jerome, _Letter_ 23.
[211:7] Montalembert, i., 291; Jerome, _Letter_ 26.
[211:8] Jerome, _Letter_ 96.
[212:1] Sulpic, Severus, _Life of St. Martin_.
[212:2] See Ozanam, _Hist. of Civ. in the 5th Cent._
[212:3] Mosheim, bk. ii., cent. 5, part 2, ch. 3, § 12, tells of a
German fanatic who built a pillar near Treves and attempted to imitate
the career of Simeon Stylites, but the neighbouring bishops pulled it
down.
[213:1] Cassian, _Inst._, ii., 2; St. Benedict, _Rule_, ch. 1; Jerome,
_Ep._, 95.
[213:2] Gregory I., _Dialogues_, bk. ii. See Montalembert, i., bk. 4.
[214:1] Henderson, 274, _Rule of our most Holy Father Benedict_, Lond.,
1886; Ogg, _Source Book_, § 11.
[215:1] Doyle, _The Teaching of St. Benedict_, Lond., 1887.
[216:1] Lea, _Sac. Cel._, 116. See _Cath. Encyc._
[216:2] Stephen, _Essays in Eccl. Biog._, 240.
[216:3] It was boasted that no less than twenty Emperors and forty-seven
kings cast aside their crowns to become Benedictine monks, while ten
Emperors and fifty queens entered convents, but it is impossible to
discover them.
[217:1] Milman, iii., 88.
[217:2] Schaff, iii., 173.
[218:1] The vast amount of legislation on this point is very indicative.
[218:2] Gregory, _Letter_ v., 1; i, 42.
[218:3] This right was prohibited in the 11th and 12th centuries, but
Innocent III. granted the permission in certain cases.
[219:1] Cod. Theodos., xii., 1, 63.
[219:2] See the works of Sulpicius Severus for attacks on the monks in
Gaul and Spain.
[220:1] _Against Jovinian_ (392).
[220:2] The attack is found in two works, _Against Helvidius_ (383) and
his _Apology_.
[220:3] Gilly, _Vigilantius and His Times_, Lond., 1844. See Jerome's
writings.
[220:4] _Against Vigilantius_ (406).
[220:5] Epiphanius, _Heresies_, 75.
[221:1] Harnack, _Monasticism_, 65.