Christianity.—Part I.
Origin Progress, And Effects Of The Monastic Life.— Conversion Of
The Barbarians To Christianity And Arianism.— Persecution Of The
Vandals In Africa.—Extinction Of Arianism Among The Barbarians.
The indissoluble connection of civil and ecclesiastical affairs
has compelled, and encouraged, me to relate the progress, the
persecutions, the establishment, the divisions, the final
triumph, and the gradual corruption, of Christianity. I have
purposely delayed the consideration of two religious events,
interesting in the study of human nature, and important in the
decline and fall of the Roman empire. I. The institution of the
monastic life; 1 and, II. The conversion of the northern
Barbarians.
1 (return) [ The origin of the monastic institution has been
laboriously discussed by Thomassin (Discipline de l’Eglise, tom.
i. p. 1119-1426) and Helyot, (Hist. des Ordres Monastiques, tom.
i. p. 1-66.) These authors are very learned, and tolerably
honest, and their difference of opinion shows the subject in its
full extent. Yet the cautious Protestant, who distrusts any
popish guides, may consult the seventh book of Bingham’s
Christian Antiquities.]
I. Prosperity and peace introduced the distinction of the vulgar
and the Ascetic Christians. 2 The loose and imperfect practice of
religion satisfied the conscience of the multitude. The prince or
magistrate, the soldier or merchant, reconciled their fervent
zeal, and implicit faith, with the exercise of their profession,
the pursuit of their interest, and the indulgence of their
passions: but the Ascetics, who obeyed and abused the rigid
precepts of the gospel, were inspired by the savage enthusiasm
which represents man as a criminal, and God as a tyrant. They
seriously renounced the business, and the pleasures, of the age;
abjured the use of wine, of flesh, and of marriage; chastised
their body, mortified their affections, and embraced a life of
misery, as the price of eternal happiness. In the reign of
Constantine, the Ascetics fled from a profane and degenerate
world, to perpetual solitude, or religious society. Like the
first Christians of Jerusalem, 3 311 they resigned the use, or
the property of their temporal possessions; established regular
communities of the same sex, and a similar disposition; and
assumed the names of Hermits, Monks, and Anachorets, expressive
of their lonely retreat in a natural or artificial desert. They
soon acquired the respect of the world, which they despised; and
the loudest applause was bestowed on this Divine Philosophy, 4
which surpassed, without the aid of science or reason, the
laborious virtues of the Grecian schools. The monks might indeed
contend with the Stoics, in the contempt of fortune, of pain, and
of death: the Pythagorean silence and submission were revived in
their servile discipline; and they disdained, as firmly as the
Cynics themselves, all the forms and decencies of civil society.
But the votaries of this Divine Philosophy aspired to imitate a
purer and more perfect model. They trod in the footsteps of the
prophets, who had retired to the desert; 5 and they restored the
devout and contemplative life, which had been instituted by the
Essenians, in Palestine and Egypt. The philosophic eye of Pliny
had surveyed with astonishment a solitary people, who dwelt among
the palm-trees near the Dead Sea; who subsisted without money,
who were propagated without women; and who derived from the
disgust and repentance of mankind a perpetual supply of voluntary
associates. 6
2 (return) [ See Euseb. Demonstrat. Evangel., (l. i. p. 20, 21,
edit. Graec. Rob. Stephani, Paris, 1545.) In his Ecclesiastical
History, published twelve years after the Demonstration, Eusebius
(l. ii. c. 17) asserts the Christianity of the Therapeutae; but
he appears ignorant that a similar institution was actually
revived in Egypt.]
3 (return) [ Cassian (Collat. xviii. 5.) claims this origin for
the institution of the Coenobites, which gradually decayed till
it was restored by Antony and his disciples.]
311 (return) [ It has before been shown that the first Christian
community was not strictly coenobitic. See vol. ii.—M.]
4 (return) [ These are the expressive words of Sozomen, who
copiously and agreeably describes (l. i. c. 12, 13, 14) the
origin and progress of this monkish philosophy, (see Suicer.
Thesau, Eccles., tom. ii. p. 1441.) Some modern writers, Lipsius
(tom. iv. p. 448. Manuduct. ad Philosoph. Stoic. iii. 13) and La
Mothe le Vayer, (tom. ix. de la Vertu des Payens, p. 228-262,)
have compared the Carmelites to the Pythagoreans, and the Cynics
to the Capucins.]
5 (return) [ The Carmelites derive their pedigree, in regular
succession, from the prophet Elijah, (see the Theses of Beziers,
A.D. 1682, in Bayle’s Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres,
Oeuvres, tom. i. p. 82, &c., and the prolix irony of the Ordres
Monastiques, an anonymous work, tom. i. p. 1-433, Berlin, 1751.)
Rome, and the inquisition of Spain, silenced the profane
criticism of the Jesuits of Flanders, (Helyot, Hist. des Ordres
Monastiques, tom. i. p. 282-300,) and the statue of Elijah, the
Carmelite, has been erected in the church of St. Peter, (Voyages
du P. Labat tom. iii. p. 87.)]
6 (return) [ Plin. Hist. Natur. v. 15. Gens sola, et in toto orbe
praeter ceteras mira, sine ulla femina, omni venere abdicata,
sine pecunia, socia palmarum. Ita per seculorum millia
(incredibile dictu) gens aeterna est in qua nemo nascitur. Tam
foecunda illis aliorum vitae poenitentia est. He places them just
beyond the noxious influence of the lake, and names Engaddi and
Massada as the nearest towns. The Laura, and monastery of St.
Sabas, could not be far distant from this place. See Reland.
Palestin., tom. i. p. 295; tom. ii. p. 763, 874, 880, 890.]
Egypt, the fruitful parent of superstition, afforded the first
example of the monastic life. Antony, 7 an illiterate 8 youth of
the lower parts of Thebais, distributed his patrimony, 9 deserted
his family and native home, and executed his monastic penance
with original and intrepid fanaticism. After a long and painful
novitiate, among the tombs, and in a ruined tower, he boldly
advanced into the desert three days’ journey to the eastward of
the Nile; discovered a lonely spot, which possessed the
advantages of shade and water, and fixed his last residence on
Mount Colzim, near the Red Sea; where an ancient monastery still
preserves the name and memory of the saint. 10 The curious
devotion of the Christians pursued him to the desert; and when he
was obliged to appear at Alexandria, in the face of mankind, he
supported his fame with discretion and dignity. He enjoyed the
friendship of Athanasius, whose doctrine he approved; and the
Egyptian peasant respectfully declined a respectful invitation
from the emperor Constantine. The venerable patriarch (for Antony
attained the age of one hundred and five years) beheld the
numerous progeny which had been formed by his example and his
lessons. The prolific colonies of monks multiplied with rapid
increase on the sands of Libya, upon the rocks of Thebais, and in
the cities of the Nile. To the south of Alexandria, the mountain,
and adjacent desert, of Nitria, were peopled by five thousand
anachorets; and the traveller may still investigate the ruins of
fifty monasteries, which were planted in that barren soil by the
disciples of Antony. 11 In the Upper Thebais, the vacant island
of Tabenne, 12 was occupied by Pachomius and fourteen hundred of
his brethren. That holy abbot successively founded nine
monasteries of men, and one of women; and the festival of Easter
sometimes collected fifty thousand religious persons, who
followed his angelic rule of discipline. 13 The stately and
populous city of Oxyrinchus, the seat of Christian orthodoxy, had
devoted the temples, the public edifices, and even the ramparts,
to pious and charitable uses; and the bishop, who might preach in
twelve churches, computed ten thousand females and twenty
thousand males, of the monastic profession. 14 The Egyptians, who
gloried in this marvellous revolution, were disposed to hope, and
to believe, that the number of the monks was equal to the
remainder of the people; 15 and posterity might repeat the
saying, which had formerly been applied to the sacred animals of
the same country, That in Egypt it was less difficult to find a
god than a man.
7 (return) [ See Athanas. Op. tom. ii. p. 450-505, and the Vit.
Patrum, p. 26-74, with Rosweyde’s Annotations. The former is the
Greek original the latter, a very ancient Latin version by
Evagrius, the friend of St. Jerom.]
8 (return) [ Athanas. tom. ii. in Vit. St. Anton. p. 452; and the
assertion of his total ignorance has been received by many of the
ancients and moderns. But Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. vii. p.
666) shows, by some probable arguments, that Antony could read
and write in the Coptic, his native tongue; and that he was only
a stranger to the Greek letters. The philosopher Synesius (p. 51)
acknowledges that the natural genius of Antony did not require
the aid of learning.]
9 (return) [ Aruroe autem erant ei trecentae uberes, et valde
optimae, (Vit. Patr. l. v. p. 36.) If the Arura be a square
measure, of a hundred Egyptian cubits, (Rosweyde, Onomasticon ad
Vit. Patrum, p. 1014, 1015,) and the Egyptian cubit of all ages
be equal to twenty-two English inches, (Greaves, vol. i. p. 233,)
the arura will consist of about three quarters of an English
acre.]
10 (return) [ The description of the monastery is given by Jerom
(tom. i. p. 248, 249, in Vit. Hilarion) and the P. Sicard,
(Missions du Levant tom. v. p. 122-200.) Their accounts cannot
always be reconciled the father painted from his fancy, and the
Jesuit from his experience.]
11 (return) [ Jerom, tom. i. p. 146, ad Eustochium. Hist.
Lausiac. c. 7, in Vit. Patrum, p. 712. The P. Sicard (Missions du
Levant, tom. ii. p. 29-79) visited and has described this desert,
which now contains four monasteries, and twenty or thirty monks.
See D’Anville, Description de l’Egypte, p. 74.]
12 (return) [ Tabenne is a small island in the Nile, in the
diocese of Tentyra or Dendera, between the modern town of Girge
and the ruins of ancient Thebes, (D’Anville, p. 194.) M. de
Tillemont doubts whether it was an isle; but I may conclude, from
his own facts, that the primitive name was afterwards transferred
to the great monastery of Bau or Pabau, (Mem. Eccles. tom. vii.
p. 678, 688.)]
13 (return) [ See in the Codex Regularum (published by Lucas
Holstenius, Rome, 1661) a preface of St. Jerom to his Latin
version of the Rule of Pachomius, tom. i. p. 61.]
14 (return) [ Rufin. c. 5, in Vit. Patrum, p. 459. He calls it
civitas ampla ralde et populosa, and reckons twelve churches.
Strabo (l. xvii. p. 1166) and Ammianus (xxii. 16) have made
honorable mention of Oxyrinchus, whose inhabitants adored a small
fish in a magnificent temple.]
15 (return) [ Quanti populi habentur in urbibus, tantae paene
habentur in desertis multitudines monachorum. Rufin. c. 7, in
Vit. Patrum, p. 461. He congratulates the fortunate change.]
Athanasius introduced into Rome the knowledge and practice of the
monastic life; and a school of this new philosophy was opened by
the disciples of Antony, who accompanied their primate to the
holy threshold of the Vatican. The strange and savage appearance
of these Egyptians excited, at first, horror and contempt, and,
at length, applause and zealous imitation. The senators, and more
especially the matrons, transformed their palaces and villas into
religious houses; and the narrow institution of six vestals was
eclipsed by the frequent monasteries, which were seated on the
ruins of ancient temples, and in the midst of the Roman forum. 16
Inflamed by the example of Antony, a Syrian youth, whose name was
Hilarion, 17 fixed his dreary abode on a sandy beach, between the
sea and a morass, about seven miles from Gaza. The austere
penance, in which he persisted forty-eight years, diffused a
similar enthusiasm; and the holy man was followed by a train of
two or three thousand anachorets, whenever he visited the
innumerable monasteries of Palestine. The fame of Basil 18 is
immortal in the monastic history of the East. With a mind that
had tasted the learning and eloquence of Athens; with an ambition
scarcely to be satisfied with the archbishopric of Caesarea,
Basil retired to a savage solitude in Pontus; and deigned, for a
while, to give laws to the spiritual colonies which he profusely
scattered along the coast of the Black Sea. In the West, Martin
of Tours, 19 a soldier, a hermit, a bishop, and a saint,
established the monasteries of Gaul; two thousand of his
disciples followed him to the grave; and his eloquent historian
challenges the deserts of Thebais to produce, in a more favorable
climate, a champion of equal virtue. The progress of the monks
was not less rapid, or universal, than that of Christianity
itself. Every province, and, at last, every city, of the empire,
was filled with their increasing multitudes; and the bleak and
barren isles, from Lerins to Lipari, that arose out of the Tuscan
Sea, were chosen by the anachorets for the place of their
voluntary exile. An easy and perpetual intercourse by sea and
land connected the provinces of the Roman world; and the life of
Hilarion displays the facility with which an indigent hermit of
Palestine might traverse Egypt, embark for Sicily, escape to
Epirus, and finally settle in the Island of Cyprus. 20 The Latin
Christians embraced the religious institutions of Rome. The
pilgrims, who visited Jerusalem, eagerly copied, in the most
distant climates of the earth, the faithful model of the monastic
life. The disciples of Antony spread themselves beyond the
tropic, over the Christian empire of Æthiopia. 21 The monastery
of Banchor, 22 in Flintshire, which contained above two thousand
brethren, dispersed a numerous colony among the Barbarians of
Ireland; 23 and Iona, one of the Hebrides, which was planted by
the Irish monks, diffused over the northern regions a doubtful
ray of science and superstition. 24
16 (return) [ The introduction of the monastic life into Rome and
Italy is occasionally mentioned by Jerom, tom. i. p. 119, 120,
199.]
17 (return) [ See the Life of Hilarion, by St. Jerom, (tom. i. p.
241, 252.) The stories of Paul, Hilarion, and Malchus, by the
same author, are admirably told: and the only defect of these
pleasing compositions is the want of truth and common sense.]
18 (return) [ His original retreat was in a small village on the
banks of the Iris, not far from Neo-Caesarea. The ten or twelve
years of his monastic life were disturbed by long and frequent
avocations. Some critics have disputed the authenticity of his
Ascetic rules; but the external evidence is weighty, and they can
only prove that it is the work of a real or affected enthusiast.
See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles tom. ix. p. 636-644. Helyot, Hist. des
Ordres Monastiques tom. i. p. 175-181]
19 (return) [ See his Life, and the three Dialogues by Sulpicius
Severus, who asserts (Dialog. i. 16) that the booksellers of Rome
were delighted with the quick and ready sale of his popular
work.]
20 (return) [ When Hilarion sailed from Paraetonium to Cape
Pachynus, he offered to pay his passage with a book of the
Gospels. Posthumian, a Gallic monk, who had visited Egypt, found
a merchant ship bound from Alexandria to Marseilles, and
performed the voyage in thirty days, (Sulp. Sever. Dialog. i. 1.)
Athanasius, who addressed his Life of St. Antony to the foreign
monks, was obliged to hasten the composition, that it might be
ready for the sailing of the fleets, (tom. ii. p. 451.)]
21 (return) [ See Jerom, (tom. i. p. 126,) Assemanni, Bibliot.
Orient. tom. iv. p. 92, p. 857-919, and Geddes, Church History of
Æthiopia, p. 29-31. The Abyssinian monks adhere very strictly to
the primitive institution.]
22 (return) [ Camden’s Britannia, vol. i. p. 666, 667.]
23 (return) [ All that learning can extract from the rubbish of
the dark ages is copiously stated by Archbishop Usher in his
Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates, cap. xvi. p. 425-503.]
24 (return) [ This small, though not barren, spot, Iona, Hy, or
Columbkill, only two miles in length, aud one mile in breadth,
has been distinguished, 1. By the monastery of St. Columba,
founded A.D. 566; whose abbot exercised an extraordinary
jurisdiction over the bishops of Caledonia; 2. By a classic
library, which afforded some hopes of an entire Livy; and, 3. By
the tombs of sixty kings, Scots, Irish, and Norwegians, who
reposed in holy ground. See Usher (p. 311, 360-370) and Buchanan,
(Rer. Scot. l. ii. p. 15, edit. Ruddiman.)]
These unhappy exiles from social life were impelled by the dark
and implacable genius of superstition. Their mutual resolution
was supported by the example of millions, of either sex, of every
age, and of every rank; and each proselyte who entered the gates
of a monastery, was persuaded that he trod the steep and thorny
path of eternal happiness. 25 But the operation of these
religious motives was variously determined by the temper and
situation of mankind. Reason might subdue, or passion might
suspend, their influence: but they acted most forcibly on the
infirm minds of children and females; they were strengthened by
secret remorse, or accidental misfortune; and they might derive
some aid from the temporal considerations of vanity or interest.
It was naturally supposed, that the pious and humble monks, who
had renounced the world to accomplish the work of their
salvation, were the best qualified for the spiritual government
of the Christians. The reluctant hermit was torn from his cell,
and seated, amidst the acclamations of the people, on the
episcopal throne: the monasteries of Egypt, of Gaul, and of the
East, supplied a regular succession of saints and bishops; and
ambition soon discovered the secret road which led to the
possession of wealth and honors. 26 The popular monks, whose
reputation was connected with the fame and success of the order,
assiduously labored to multiply the number of their
fellow-captives. They insinuated themselves into noble and
opulent families; and the specious arts of flattery and seduction
were employed to secure those proselytes who might bestow wealth
or dignity on the monastic profession. The indignant father
bewailed the loss, perhaps, of an only son; 27 the credulous maid
was betrayed by vanity to violate the laws of nature; and the
matron aspired to imaginary perfection, by renouncing the virtues
of domestic life. Paula yielded to the persuasive eloquence of
Jerom; 28 and the profane title of mother-in-law of God 29
tempted that illustrious widow to consecrate the virginity of her
daughter Eustochium. By the advice, and in the company, of her
spiritual guide, Paula abandoned Rome and her infant son; retired
to the holy village of Bethlem; founded a hospital and four
monasteries; and acquired, by her alms and penance, an eminent
and conspicuous station in the Catholic church. Such rare and
illustrious penitents were celebrated as the glory and example of
their age; but the monasteries were filled by a crowd of obscure
and abject plebeians, 30 who gained in the cloister much more
than they had sacrificed in the world. Peasants, slaves, and
mechanics, might escape from poverty and contempt to a safe and
honorable profession; whose apparent hardships are mitigated by
custom, by popular applause, and by the secret relaxation of
discipline. 31 The subjects of Rome, whose persons and fortunes
were made responsible for unequal and exorbitant tributes,
retired from the oppression of the Imperial government; and the
pusillanimous youth preferred the penance of a monastic, to the
dangers of a military, life. The affrighted provincials of every
rank, who fled before the Barbarians, found shelter and
subsistence: whole legions were buried in these religious
sanctuaries; and the same cause, which relieved the distress of
individuals, impaired the strength and fortitude of the empire.
32
25 (return) [ Chrysostom (in the first tome of the Benedictine
edition) has consecrated three books to the praise and defence of
the monastic life. He is encouraged, by the example of the ark,
to presume that none but the elect (the monks) can possibly be
saved (l. i. p. 55, 56.) Elsewhere, indeed, he becomes more
merciful, (l. iii. p. 83, 84,) and allows different degrees of
glory, like the sun, moon, and stars. In his lively comparison of
a king and a monk, (l. iii. p. 116-121,) he supposes (what is
hardly fair) that the king will be more sparingly rewarded, and
more rigorously punished.]
26 (return) [ Thomassin (Discipline de l’Eglise tom. i. p.
1426-1469) and Mabillon, (Oeuvres Posthumes, tom. ii. p.
115-158.) The monks were gradually adopted as a part of the
ecclesiastical hierarchy.]
27 (return) [ Dr. Middleton (vol. i. p. 110) liberally censures
the conduct and writings of Chrysostom, one of the most eloquent
and successful advocates for the monastic life.]
28 (return) [ Jerom’s devout ladies form a very considerable
portion of his works: the particular treatise, which he styles
the Epitaph of Paula, (tom. i. p. 169-192,) is an elaborate and
extravagant panegyric. The exordium is ridiculously turgid: “If
all the members of my body were changed into tongues, and if all
my limbs resounded with a human voice, yet should I be
incapable,” &c.]
29 (return) [ Socrus Dei esse coepisti, (Jerom, tom. i. p. 140,
ad Eustochium.) Rufinus, (in Hieronym. Op. tom. iv. p. 223,) who
was justly scandalized, asks his adversary, from what Pagan poet
he had stolen an expression so impious and absurd.]
30 (return) [ Nunc autem veniunt plerumque ad hanc professionem
servitutis Dei, et ex conditione servili, vel etiam liberati, vel
propter hoc a Dominis liberati sive liberandi; et ex vita
rusticana et ex opificum exercitatione, et plebeio labore.
Augustin, de Oper. Monach. c. 22, ap. Thomassin, Discipline de
l’Eglise, tom. iii. p. 1094. The Egyptian, who blamed Arsenius,
owned that he led a more comfortable life as a monk than as a
shepherd. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 679.]
31 (return) [ A Dominican friar, (Voyages du P. Labat, tom. i. p.
10,) who lodged at Cadiz in a convent of his brethren, soon
understood that their repose was never interrupted by nocturnal
devotion; “quoiqu’on ne laisse pas de sonner pour l’edification
du peuple.”]
32 (return) [ See a very sensible preface of Lucas Holstenius to
the Codex Regularum. The emperors attempted to support the
obligation of public and private duties; but the feeble dikes
were swept away by the torrent of superstition; and Justinian
surpassed the most sanguine wishes of the monks, (Thomassin, tom.
i. p. 1782-1799, and Bingham, l. vii. c. iii. p. 253.) Note: The
emperor Valens, in particular, promulgates a law contra ignavise
quosdam sectatores, qui desertis civitatum muneribus, captant
solitudines secreta, et specie religionis cum coetibus monachorum
congregantur. Cad. Theod l. xii. tit. i. leg. 63.—G.]
The monastic profession of the ancients 33 was an act of
voluntary devotion. The inconstant fanatic was threatened with
the eternal vengeance of the God whom he deserted; but the doors
of the monastery were still open for repentance. Those monks,
whose conscience was fortified by reason or passion, were at
liberty to resume the character of men and citizens; and even the
spouses of Christ might accept the legal embraces of an earthly
lover. 34 The examples of scandal, and the progress of
superstition, suggested the propriety of more forcible
restraints. After a sufficient trial, the fidelity of the novice
was secured by a solemn and perpetual vow; and his irrevocable
engagement was ratified by the laws of the church and state. A
guilty fugitive was pursued, arrested, and restored to his
perpetual prison; and the interposition of the magistrate
oppressed the freedom and the merit, which had alleviated, in
some degree, the abject slavery of the monastic discipline. 35
The actions of a monk, his words, and even his thoughts, were
determined by an inflexible rule, 36 or a capricious superior:
the slightest offences were corrected by disgrace or confinement,
extraordinary fasts, or bloody flagellation; and disobedience,
murmur, or delay, were ranked in the catalogue of the most
heinous sins. 37 A blind submission to the commands of the abbot,
however absurd, or even criminal, they might seem, was the ruling
principle, the first virtue of the Egyptian monks; and their
patience was frequently exercised by the most extravagant trials.
They were directed to remove an enormous rock; assiduously to
water a barren staff, that was planted in the ground, till, at
the end of three years, it should vegetate and blossom like a
tree; to walk into a fiery furnace; or to cast their infant into
a deep pond: and several saints, or madmen, have been
immortalized in monastic story, by their thoughtless and fearless
obedience. 38 The freedom of the mind, the source of every
generous and rational sentiment, was destroyed by the habits of
credulity and submission; and the monk, contracting the vices of
a slave, devoutly followed the faith and passions of his
ecclesiastical tyrant. The peace of the Eastern church was
invaded by a swarm of fanatics, incapable of fear, or reason, or
humanity; and the Imperial troops acknowledged, without shame,
that they were much less apprehensive of an encounter with the
fiercest Barbarians. 39
33 (return) [ The monastic institutions, particularly those of
Egypt, about the year 400, are described by four curious and
devout travellers; Rufinus, (Vit. Patrum, l. ii. iii. p.
424-536,) Posthumian, (Sulp. Sever. Dialog. i.) Palladius, (Hist.
Lausiac. in Vit. Patrum, p. 709-863,) and Cassian, (see in tom.
vii. Bibliothec. Max. Patrum, his four first books of Institutes,
and the twenty-four Collations or Conferences.)]
34 (return) [ The example of Malchus, (Jerom, tom. i. p. 256,)
and the design of Cassian and his friend, (Collation. xxiv. 1,)
are incontestable proofs of their freedom; which is elegantly
described by Erasmus in his Life of St. Jerom. See Chardon, Hist.
des Sacremens, tom. vi. p. 279-300.]
35 (return) [ See the Laws of Justinian, (Novel. cxxiii. No. 42,)
and of Lewis the Pious, (in the Historians of France, tom vi. p.
427,) and the actual jurisprudence of France, in Denissart,
(Decisions, &c., tom. iv. p. 855,) &c.]
36 (return) [ The ancient Codex Regularum, collected by Benedict
Anianinus, the reformer of the monks in the beginning of the
ninth century, and published in the seventeenth, by Lucas
Holstenius, contains thirty different rules for men and women. Of
these, seven were composed in Egypt, one in the East, one in
Cappadocia, one in Italy, one in Africa, four in Spain, eight in
Gaul, or France, and one in England.]
37 (return) [ The rule of Columbanus, so prevalent in the West,
inflicts one hundred lashes for very slight offences, (Cod. Reg.
part ii. p. 174.) Before the time of Charlemagne, the abbots
indulged themselves in mutilating their monks, or putting out
their eyes; a punishment much less cruel than the tremendous vade
in pace (the subterraneous dungeon or sepulchre) which was
afterwards invented. See an admirable discourse of the learned
Mabillon, (Oeuvres Posthumes, tom. ii. p. 321-336,) who, on this
occasion, seems to be inspired by the genius of humanity. For
such an effort, I can forgive his defence of the holy tear of
Vendeme (p. 361-399.)]
38 (return) [ Sulp. Sever. Dialog. i. 12, 13, p. 532, &c.
Cassian. Institut. l. iv. c. 26, 27. “Praecipua ibi virtus et
prima est obedientia.” Among the Verba seniorum, (in Vit. Patrum,
l. v. p. 617,) the fourteenth libel or discourse is on the
subject of obedience; and the Jesuit Rosweyde, who published that
huge volume for the use of convents, has collected all the
scattered passages in his two copious indexes.]
39 (return) [ Dr. Jortin (Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol.
iv. p. 161) has observed the scandalous valor of the Cappadocian
monks, which was exemplified in the banishment of Chrysostom.]
Superstition has often framed and consecrated the fantastic
garments of the monks: 40 but their apparent singularity
sometimes proceeds from their uniform attachment to a simple and
primitive model, which the revolutions of fashion have made
ridiculous in the eyes of mankind. The father of the Benedictines
expressly disclaims all idea of choice of merit; and soberly
exhorts his disciples to adopt the coarse and convenient dress of
the countries which they may inhabit. 41 The monastic habits of
the ancients varied with the climate, and their mode of life; and
they assumed, with the same indifference, the sheep-skin of the
Egyptian peasants, or the cloak of the Grecian philosophers. They
allowed themselves the use of linen in Egypt, where it was a
cheap and domestic manufacture; but in the West they rejected
such an expensive article of foreign luxury. 42 It was the
practice of the monks either to cut or shave their hair; they
wrapped their heads in a cowl to escape the sight of profane
objects; their legs and feet were naked, except in the extreme
cold of winter; and their slow and feeble steps were supported by
a long staff. The aspect of a genuine anachoret was horrid and
disgusting: every sensation that is offensive to man was thought
acceptable to God; and the angelic rule of Tabenne condemned the
salutary custom of bathing the limbs in water, and of anointing
them with oil. 43 431 The austere monks slept on the ground, on a
hard mat, or a rough blanket; and the same bundle of palm-leaves
served them as a seat in the day, and a pillow in the night.
Their original cells were low, narrow huts, built of the
slightest materials; which formed, by the regular distribution of
the streets, a large and populous village, enclosing, within the
common wall, a church, a hospital, perhaps a library, some
necessary offices, a garden, and a fountain or reservoir of fresh
water. Thirty or forty brethren composed a family of separate
discipline and diet; and the great monasteries of Egypt consisted
of thirty or forty families.
40 (return) [ Cassian has simply, though copiously, described the
monastic habit of Egypt, (Institut. l. i.,) to which Sozomen (l.
iii. c. 14) attributes such allegorical meaning and virtue.]
41 (return) [ Regul. Benedict. No. 55, in Cod. Regul. part ii. p.
51.]
42 (return) [ See the rule of Ferreolus, bishop of Usez, (No. 31,
in Cod. Regul part ii. p. 136,) and of Isidore, bishop of
Seville, (No. 13, in Cod. Regul part ii. p. 214.)]
43 (return) [ Some partial indulgences were granted for the hands
and feet “Totum autem corpus nemo unguet nisi causa infirmitatis,
nec lavabitur aqua nudo corpore, nisi languor perspicuus sit,”
(Regul. Pachom xcii. part i. p. 78.)]
431 (return) [ Athanasius (Vit. Ant. c. 47) boasts of Antony’s
holy horror of clear water, by which his feet were uncontaminated
except under dire necessity—M.]