A Short History of Monks and Monasteries written by Alfred Wesley Wishart

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It would be unjust, however, to censure the monks for not recognizing
the evil social effects of indiscriminate alms-giving. While their
system was imperfect, it was the only one possible in an age when the
social sciences were unknown. 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 spirit of philanthropy which
is so essential to all the higher forms of civilization. It is easier to
discover the proper methods for the exercise of generous sentiments,
than to create those feelings or to arouse them when dormant.

_Monasticism and Religion_

No doctrine in theology, or practice of religion, has been free from
monastic influences. An adequate treatment of this theme would require
volumes instead of paragraphs. A few points, however, may be touched
upon by way of suggestion to those who may wish to pursue the
subject further.

The effect of the monastic ideal was to emphasize the sinfulness of man
and his need of redemption. To get rid of sin--that is the problem of
humanity. A quaint formula of monastic confession reads: "I confess all
the sins of my body, of my flesh, of my bones and sinews, of my veins
and cartilages, of my 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 life ... It proved the reality
of the religious sentiment to a skeptical age.... If this long period of
self-torture has left us no other gain, let us value it as a proof that
in man religious aspiration is innate, unconquerable, and able to
triumph over all that the world hopes and over all that it fears."

Thus the monks helped to keep alive the enthusiasm of religion. There
was a fervor, a devotion, a spirit of sacrifice, in the system, which
acted as a corrective to the selfish materialism of the early and middle
ages. Christian history furnishes many sad spectacles of brutality and
licentiousness, of insolent pride and uncontrolled greed, masked in the
garb of religion. Monasticism, by its 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 were growing cold, restrained unruly spirits, won back the people
when alienated from the church." It may have been in harmony with divine
plans, that religion was to have been kept alive and vigorous by
excessive austerities, even as in later days it needed the stern and
unyielding Puritan spirit, now regarded as too grim and severe, to cope
successfully with the forces of tyranny and sin.

If it be true, as some are inclined to believe, that this age is losing
a definite consciousness of sin, that in the reaction from the
asceticism of the monks and the gloom of the Puritans 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 normal consciousness of human freedom
and personal guilt, and maintained a grip upon the conscience of the
sinner, it has rendered the cause of true religion a genuine and
permanent service.

But the mistake of the monks was twofold. They exaggerated sin, and they
employed unhealthy methods to get rid of it. Excessive introspection,
instead of exercising a purifying influence, tends to distort one's
religious conceptions, and creates an unwholesome type of piety. Man is
a sinner, but he also has potential and actual goodness. 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. Channing, "has its destined purpose in life,
and the perfect man is to be found in the proportionate cultivation of
each element of his character, not in the exaggerated development of
those faculties which are deemed primarily good, nor in the repression
of those which are evil only when their prominence destroys the balance
of the whole."

But the methods employed by the monks to get rid of sin afford another
illustration of the fact that noble sentiments and holy aspirations need
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 attempt to
guide and train her loved one she may fatally mislead him. The modern
emphasis upon method deserves wider recognition than it has received.

The applause of the church that sounded so sweet in the ears of the
monk, as he laid the stripes upon his body, proclaims the high esteem in
which penance was held. But the monk cruelly deceived himself. His
self-inflicted tortures 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 bones." True penitence consists in high and
holy purposes, in pure and unselfish living, and not in disfigurements
and in misery. Dreariness and fear are not the proper manifestations of
that perfect love which casteth out fear.

The influence of monasticism upon the doctrine of atonement for sin
was, in many respects, prejudicial to the best interests of religion.
The monks are largely responsible for the theory that sin can be 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 the
monks, purchased by temporal gifts, secured the forgiveness of the
transgressor. The worship of saints, pilgrimages to shrines, and
reverence for bones and other relics, were assiduously encouraged.

Thus the monkish conception of salvation and of the means by which it is
to be obtained were at variance with any reasonable interpretation of
the Scriptures and the dictates of human reason. "It measured virtue,"
says Schaff, "by the quantity of outward exercises, instead of the
quality of the inward disposition, and disseminated self-righteousness
and an anxious, legal, and mechanical religion[K]."

[Footnote K: Appendix, Note K.]

The doctrine of future punishment reached its most repulsive and
abnormal developments in the hands of the monks. A vast literature was
produced by them, portraying, with vivid minuteness, the pangs of hell.
Volcanoes were said to be the portals of the lower world, that heaved
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 anguish, could
not but have a hardening effect upon the minds of men. "To those," says
Lecky, "who do not regard these teachings as true, it must appear
without exception, the most odious in the religious history of the
world, subversive of the very foundations of Christianity."

Finally, the greatest error of monastic teaching was in its false and
baneful distinction between the secular and the religious.
Unquestionably the Christian ideal is founded on some form of
world-renunciation. The teachings and example of Jesus, the lives of the
Apostles, and the characters of the early Christians, exhibit in varying
phases the ideal of self-crucifixion. The doctrine of the cross, 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 up to prayer and
meditation, than He is with him who cultivates holy emotions and
heavenly aspirations, while pursuing some honorable and useful calling?
The answer to these questions discloses the chief fallacy in the
monastic ideal, the effect of which was the creation of an artificial
piety. There is no special virtue in silence, celibacy, and abstinence
from the enjoyment of God's gifts to mankind.

The crying need of Christianity to-day is a willingness on the part of
Christ's followers to live for others instead of self. Men and women are
needed who, like many of the monks and nuns, will identify themselves
with the toiling multitudes, and who will 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-sacrifice. Monasticism helped to preserve that noble essence
of all true religion. But a revival of the apostolic spirit in these
times would not mean a triumph for monasticism. Stripped of its rigid
vows of celibacy, poverty and obedience, monasticism is dead.

The spirit of social service, the insistence upon soul-purity, and the
craving for participation in the divine nature, are the fruits of
Christianity, not of monasticism, which merely sought to carry out the
Christian ideal. But it is not necessary, in order to realize this
ideal, to wage war on human nature. True Christianity is perfectly
compatible 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
realization, can never establish its right to permanent and universal
dominion. The faithful discharge of unromantic, secular duties, the
keeping of one's heart pure in the midst of temptation, and the
unheralded altruism of private life, must ever be as welcome in the
sight of God as the prayers of the recluse, who scorns the world of
secular affairs.

True religion, the highest religion, is possible beyond the walls of
churches and convents. The so-called secular employments of business and
politics, of home and school, may be conducted in a 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 is pernicious and false.
There are some other sacred things besides monasteries and prayers.
Human life itself is holy; so are the commonplace duties of the untitled
household and factory saints.

"God is in all that liberates and lifts,
In all that humbles, sweetens, and consoles."

Modern monasticism has forsaken the column of St. Simeon Stylites and
the rags of St. Francis. It has given up the ancient and fantastic feats
of asceticism, and the spiritual 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
attractions for minds unclouded by superstition. It has lost its hold
upon the modern man because the ancient ideas of God and his world, upon
which it thrived, have passed away.

Such are some of the effects of the monastic institution. Its history is
at once a warning and an inspiration. Its dreamy asceticism, its gloomy
cells, are gone. Its unworldly motives, its stern allegiance to duty,
its protest against self-indulgence, its courage and sincerity, will
ever constitute the potent energy of true religion. Its ministrations to
the broken-hearted, 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, it will be found that in spite of its glaring
deficiencies, monasticism was a magnificent attempt to realize the ideal
of Christ in individual and social life. As such it merits neither
ridicule nor obloquy. It was a heroic struggle with inveterate ignorance
and sin, the history of which flashes many a welcome light upon the
problems of modern democracy and religion.

Monastic forms and vows may pass away with other systems that will have
their day, but its fervor of faith, and its warfare against human
passion and human greed, its child-like love of the heavenly kingdom
will never die. The revolt against its superstitions and excesses is
justifiable only in a society that seeks to actualize its underlying
religious ideal of personal purity and social service.

APPENDIX

NOTE A

The derivation and meaning of a few monastic terms may be of interest to
the reader.

Abbot, from [Greek: abba], literally, father. A title originally given
to any monk, but afterwards restricted to the head or superior of a
monastery.

Anchoret, anchorite, from the Greek, [Greek: anachoretes], a recluse,
literally, one retired. In the classification of religious ascetics, the
anchorets were those who were most excessive in their austerities, not
only choosing solitude but subjecting themselves to the greatest
privations.

Ascetic, [Greek: asketes], one who exercises, an athlete. The term was
first applied to those practicing self-denial for athletic purposes. In
its ecclesiastical sense, it denotes those who seek holiness through
self-mortification.

Canon Regular. About A.D. 755, Chrodegangus, Bishop of Metz, gave a
cloister-life law to his clergy, who came to be called canons, from
[Greek: kanon], rule. The canons were originally 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 general adoption of the rule of Augustine for these
canons, which gave rise to the distinction between canons regular (i.e.,
those who follow that rule), and canons secular (those who do not).

Cenobite, from the Greek, [Greek: koinos], common, and [Greek: bios],
life; applied to those living in monasteries.

Clerks Regular. This is a title given to certain religious orders
founded in the sixteenth century. The principal societies are: the
Theatines, founded by Cajetan of Thiene, subsequently Pope Paul IV.;
and Priests of the Oratory, instituted by Philip Neri, of Florence.
These two orders have been held in high repute, numbering among their
members many men of rank and intellect.

Cloister, from the Latin, _Claustra_, that which closes or shuts, an
inclosure; hence, a place of religious retirement, a monastery.

Hermit, or eremite, from the Greek, [Greek: heremos], desolate,
solitary. One who dwells alone apart from society, or with but few
companions. Not used of those who dwell in cloisters.

Monastery, comes from the same source as monk. Commonly applied to a
house used exclusively by monks. The term, however, strictly includes
the abbey, the priory, the nunnery, the friary, and in this broad sense
is synonymous with convent, which is from the Latin, _convenire_, to
meet together.

Monk, from the Greek, [Greek: mhonos], alone, single. Originally, a man
who retired from the world for religious meditation. In later use, a
member of a community. It is used indiscriminately to denote all persons
in monastic orders, in or out of the monasteries.

Nun, from _nouna_, i.e., chaste, holy. "The word is probably of Coptic
origin, and occurs as early as in Jerome." (Schaff).

Regulars. Until the tenth century it was not customary to regard the
monks as a part of the clerical order. Before that time they were known
as _religiosi_ or _regulares_. Afterwards a distinction was made between
parish priests, or secular clergy, and the monks, or regular clergy.

For more detailed information on these and other monastic words, see The
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, and McClintock and Strong's
Encyclopedia.

NOTE B

The Pythagoreans are likened to the Jesuits probably on account of their
submission to Pythagoras as Master, their love of learning and their
austerities. Like the Jesuits, the Pythagorean league entangled itself
with politics and became the object of hatred and violence. Its
meeting-houses were everywhere sacked and burned. As a philosophical
school Pythagoreanism became extinct about the middle of the
fourth century.

NOTE C

The Encyclopaedia Brittanica divides the monastic institutions into five
classes:

1. Monks. 2. Canons Regular. 3. Military Orders. 4. Friars. 5. Clerks
Regular. All of these have communities of women, either actually
affiliated to them, or formed on similar lines.

Saint Benedict distinguishes four sorts of monks: 1. Coenobites, living
under an abbot in a monastery. 2. Anchorites, who retire into the
desert. 3. Sarabaites, dwelling two or three 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 disgrace of monasticism. They evaded all responsibilities and spent
their time tramping from place to place, living like parasites, and
spreading vice and disorder wherever they went.

There were really four distinct stages in the development of the
monastic institution:

1. Asceticism. Clergy and laymen practiced various forms of self-denial
without becoming actual monks.

2. The hermit life, which was asceticism pushed to an external
separation from the world. Here are to be found anchorites, and stylites
or pillar-saints.

3. Coenobitism, or monastic life proper, consisting of associations of
monks under one roof, and ruled by an abbot.

4. Monastic orders, or unions of cloisters, the various abbots being
under the authority of one supreme head, who was, at first, generally
the founder of the brotherhood.

Under this last division are to be classed the Mendicant Friars, the
Military Monks, the Jesuits and other modern organizations. The members
of these orders commenced their monastic life in monasteries, and were
therefore coenobites, but many of them passed out of the cloister to
become teachers, preachers or missionary workers in various fields.

NOTE D

Matins. One of the canonical hours appointed in the early church, and
still observed in the Roman Catholic Church, especially in monastic
orders. It properly begins at midnight. The name is also applied to the
service itself, which includes the Lord's Prayer, the Angelic
Salutation, the Creed and several psalms.

Lauds, a religious service in connection with matins; so called from the
reiterated ascriptions of praise to God in the psalms.

Prime. The first hour or period of the day; follows after matins and
lauds; originally intended to be said at the first hour after sunrise.

Tierce, terce. The third hour; half-way between sunrise and noon.

Sext. The sixth hour, originally and properly said at midday.

None, noon. The ninth hour from sunrise, or the middle hour between
midday and sunset--that is, about 3 o'clock.

Vespers, the next to the last of the canonical hours--the even-song.

Compline. The last of the seven canonical hours, originally said after
the evening meal and before retiring to sleep, but in later medieval and
modern usage following immediately on vespers.

B.V.M.--Blessed Virgin Mary.

NOTE E

The literary and educational services of the monks are described in many
histories, but the reader will find the best treatment of this subject
in the scholarly yet popular work of George Haven Putnam, "Books and
Their Makers During the Middle Ages," to which we are largely indebted
for the facts given in this volume.

NOTE F

In many interesting particulars St. Francis may be compared with General
Booth of the Salvation Army. In their intense religious fervor, in their
insistence upon obedience, humility, and self-denial, in their services
for the welfare of the poor, in their love of the "submerged tenth,"
they are 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 common people. In the autocratic,
military features of the Army, it more nearly approaches the ideal of
Loyola. It is quite possible that the differences between Francis and
Booth are due more to the altered historical environment than to any
radical diversities in the characters of the two men.

NOTE G

The quotations from Father Sherman are taken from an address delivered
by him in Central Music Hall, Chicago, Illinois, on Monday, February 5,
1894, in which he extolled the virtues of Loyola and defended the aims
and character of the Society of Jesus.

NOTE H

Those who may wish to study the casuistry of the Jesuits, as it appears
in their own works, are referred to two of the most important and
comparatively late authorities: Liguori's "_Theologia Moralis_," and
Gury's "_Compendium Theologioe Moralis_" and "_Casus Conscientiae_." 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 the
Chamber of Deputies. An English translation of the French rendering was
published by B.F. Bradbury, of Boston, Massachusetts. The reader is also
referred to Pascal's "Provincial Letters" and to Migne's "_Dictionnaire
de cas de Conscience_."

NOTE I

The student may profitably study the life and teachings of Wyclif in
their bearing upon the destruction of the monasteries. Wyclif was
designated as the "Gospel Doctor" because he maintained that "the law
of Jesus Christ infinitely exceeds all other laws." He held to the right
of private judgment in the interpretation of Scripture, and denied the
infallibility claimed by the 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 understand,
therefore, how Wyclif's opinions assisted in preparing the nation for
the Reformation of the sixteenth century, although it seemed that
Lollardy had been everywhere crushed by persecution. The Lollards
condemned, among other things, pilgrimages to the tombs of the saints,
papal authority and the mass. Their revolt against Rome led in some
instances to grave excesses.

NOTE J

In France, the religious houses suppressed by the laws of February 13,
1790, and August 18, 1792, amounted (without reckoning various minor
establishments) to 820 abbeys of men and 255 of women, with aggregate
revenues of 95,000,000 livres.

The Thirty Years' War in Germany wrought much mischief to the
monasteries. On the death of Maria Theresa, in 1780, Joseph II., her
son, dissolved the Mendicant Orders and suppressed the greater number of
monasteries and convents in his dominions.

Although Pope Alexander VII. secured the suppression of many small
cloisters in Italy, he was in favor of a still wider abolition on
account of the superfluity of religious institutes, 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 were declared national property. The total number of
monasteries suppressed in Italy, down to 1882, was 2,255, involving an
enormous displacement of property and dispersion of inmates.

The fall of the religious houses in Spain dates from the law of June 21,
1835, which suppressed nine hundred monasteries at a blow. The remainder
were dissolved on October 11th, in the same year.

No European country had so many religious houses in proportion to its
population and area as Portugal. In 1834 the number suppressed
exceeded 500.

NOTE K

The criticism of Schaff is just in its estimate of the general influence
of the monastic ideal, but there were individual monks whose views of
sin and salvation were singularly pure and elevating. Saint Hugh, of
Lincoln, said to several men of the world who were praising the lives of
the Carthusian monks: "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 three things is wanting to us, we are
Christians only in name, and our sentence will be all the more severe,
the more we have made profession of perfection. The three things are:
_Charity in the heart, truth on the lips, and purity of life_; if we are
wanting in these, we are unworthy of the name of Christian."

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