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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13206 ***
+
+A SHORT HISTORY OF
+
+MONKS
+
+AND MONASTERIES
+
+
+_By_ ALFRED WESLEY WISHART
+
+Sometime _Fellow_ in _Church History_ in _The University of Chicago_
+
+ALBERT BRANDT, PUBLISHER
+TRENTON, NEW JERSEY
+MDCCCC
+
+1900
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The aim of this volume is to sketch the history of the monastic
+institution from its origin to its overthrow in the Reformation period,
+for although the institution is by no means now extinct, its power was
+practically broken in the sixteenth century, and no new orders of
+importance or new types have arisen since that time.
+
+A little reflection will enable one to understand the great difficulties
+in the execution of so broad a purpose. It was impracticable in the
+majority of instances to consult original sources, although intermediate
+authorities have been studied as widely as possible and the greatest
+caution has been exercised to avoid those errors which naturally arise
+from the use of such avenues of information. It was also deemed
+unadvisable to burden the work with numerous notes and citations. Such
+notes as were necessary to a true unfolding of the subject will be found
+in the appendix.
+
+A presentation of the salient features of the whole history was
+essential to a proper conception of the orderly development of the
+ascetic ideal. To understand the monastic institution one must not only
+study the isolated anchorite seeking a victory over a sinful self in the
+Egyptian desert or the monk in the secluded cloister, but he must also
+trace the fortunes of ascetic organizations, involving multitudes of
+men, vast aggregations of wealth, and surviving the rise and fall of
+empires. Almost every phase of human life is encountered in such an
+undertaking. Attention is divided between hermits, beggars,
+diplomatists, statesmen, professors, missionaries and pontiffs. It is
+hoped the critical or literary student will appreciate the immense
+difficulties of an attempt to paint so vast a scene on so small a
+canvas. No other claim is made upon his benevolence.
+
+There is a process of writing history which Trench describes as "a moral
+whitewashing of such things as in men's sight were as blackamoors
+before." Religious or temperamental prejudice often obscures the vision
+and warps the judgment of even the most scholarly minds. Conscious of
+this infirmity in the ablest writers of history it would be absurd to
+claim complete exemption from the power of personal bias. It is
+sincerely hoped, however, that the strongest passion in the preparation
+of this work has been that commendable predilection for truth and
+justice which should characterize every historical narrative, and that,
+whatever other shortcomings may be found herein, there is an absence of
+that unreasonable suspicion, not to say hatred, of everything monastic,
+which mars many otherwise valuable contributions to monastic history.
+
+The author's grateful acknowledgment is made, for kindly services and
+critical suggestions, to Eri Baker Hulbert, D.D., LL.D., Dean of the
+Divinity School, and Professor and Head of the Department of Church
+History; Franklin Johnson, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Church History and
+Homiletics; Benjamin S. Terry, Ph.D., Professor of Medieval and English
+History; and Ralph C.H. Catterall, Instructor in Modern History; all of
+The University of Chicago. Also to James M. Whiton, Ph.D., of the
+Editorial Staff of "The Outlook"; Ephraim Emerton, Ph.D., Winn Professor
+of Ecclesiastical History in Harvard University; S. Giffard Nelson,
+L.H.D., of Brooklyn, New York; A.H. Newman, D.D., LL.D., Professor of
+Church History in McMaster University of Toronto, Ontario; and Paul Van
+Dyke, D.D., Professor of History in Princeton University.
+
+A.W.W.
+Trenton, March, 1900.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                                        Page
+PREFACE,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .      5
+BIBLIOGRAPHY,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     13
+
+                   I
+
+MONASTICISM IN THE EAST, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     17
+  The Hermits of Egypt,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     33
+  The Pillar Saint,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     51
+  The Cenobites of the East,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     57
+
+                   II
+
+MONASTICISM IN THE WEST: ANTE-BENEDICTINE MONKS,
+    340-480 A.D.,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     71
+  Monasticism and Women, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    106
+  The Spread of Monasticism in Europe,  .  .  .  .  .    115
+  Disorders and Oppositions,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    124
+
+                   III
+
+THE BENEDICTINES,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    131
+  The Rules of Benedict, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    138
+  The Struggle Against Barbarism, .  .  .  .  .  .  .    148
+  The Spread of the Benedictine Rule,   .  .  .  .  .    158
+
+                   IV
+
+REFORMED AND MILITARY ORDERS,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    173
+  The Military Religious Orders,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    197
+
+                   V
+
+THE MENDICANT FRIARS, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    205
+  Francis Bernardone, 1182-1226 A.D.,   .  .  .  .  .    208
+  The Franciscan Orders, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    226
+  Dominic de Guzman, 1170--1221 A.D.,   .  .  .  .  .    230
+  The Dominican Orders,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    241
+  The Success of the Mendicant Orders,  .  .  .  .  .    242
+  The Decline of the Mendicants,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    253
+
+                  VI
+
+THE SOCIETY OF JESUS, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    258
+  Ignatius de Loyola, 1491-1556 A.D.,   .  .  .  .  .    261
+  Constitution and Polity of the Order, .  .  .  .  .    265
+  The Vow of Obedience,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    266
+  The Casuistry of the Jesuits,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .    272
+  The Mission of the Jesuits,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    276
+  Retrospect,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    284
+
+                  VII
+
+THE FALL OF THE MONASTERIES,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    286
+  The Character of Henry VIII.,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .    290
+  Events Preceding the Suppression,  .  .  .  .  .  .    293
+  The Monks and the Oath of Supremacy,  .  .  .  .  .    301
+  The Royal Commissioners and their Methods of
+    Investigation, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    308
+  The Report of the Commissioners,   .  .  .  .  .  .    316
+  The Action of Parliament, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    319
+  The Effect of the Suppression Upon the People, .  .    322
+  Henry's Disposal of Monastic Revenues,   .  .  .  .    328
+  Was the Suppression Justifiable?   .  .  .  .  .  .    331
+  Results of the Dissolution,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    347
+
+                   VIII
+
+CAUSES AND IDEALS OF MONASTICISM, .  .  .  .  .  .  .    354
+  Causative Motives of Monasticism,  .  .  .  .  .  .    355
+  Beliefs Affecting the Causative Motives, .  .  .  .    365
+  Causes of Variations in Monasticism,  .  .  .  .  .    371
+  The Fundamental Monastic Vows,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    375
+
+                    IX
+
+THE EFFECTS OF MONASTICISM, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    386
+  The Effects of Self-Sacrifice Upon the Individual,     390
+  The Effects of Solitude Upon the Individual,   .  .    393
+  The Monks as Missionaries,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    398
+  Monasticism and Civic Duties,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .    399
+  The Agricultural Services of the Monks,  .  .  .  .    403
+  The Monks and Secular Learning, .  .  .  .  .  .  .    405
+  The Charity of the Monks, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    410
+  Monasticism and Religion, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    412
+
+APPENDIX, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    425
+INDEX, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    433
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LIST OF PORTRAITS
+
+SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI, DYING, is CONVEYED TO THE
+CHURCH OF SAINTE MARIE DE PORTIUNCULE,  .  .  .  .  _facing title_.
+
+After the painting by J.J. Weerts. Originally published by
+Goupil & Co. of Paris, and here reproduced by their permission.
+
+     [Jean Joseph Weerts was born at Roubaix (Nord), on May 1,
+     1847. He was a pupil of Cabanel, Mils and Pils. He was
+     awarded the second-class medal in 1875, was made Chevalier of
+     the Legion of Honor in 1884, received the silver medal at the
+     Universal Exposition of 1889, and was created an Officer of
+     the Legion of Honor in 1897. He is a member of the "Société
+     des Artistes Français," and is _hors concours_.]
+
+SAINT BERNARD, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    192
+
+After an engraving by Ambroise Tardieu, from a painting on glass
+in the Convent of the R.P. Minimes, at Rheims.
+
+     [Ambroise Tardieu was born in Paris, in 1790, and died in
+     1837. He was an engraver of portraits, landscapes and
+     architecture, and a clever manipulator of the burin. For a
+     time he held the position of "Geographical Engraver" to the
+     Departments of Marine, Fortifications and Forests. He was a
+     member of the French Geographical and Mathematical
+     Societies.]--_Nagler_.
+
+SAINT DOMINIC, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    230
+
+From a photograph of Bozzani's painting, preserved in his cell at
+Santa Sabina, Rome. Here reproduced from Augusta T. Drane's
+"History of St. Dominic," by courtesy of the author and the publishers,
+Longmans, Green & Co., of London and New York.
+
+     ["Although several so-called portraits (of St. Dominic) are
+     preserved, yet none of them can be regarded as the _vera
+     effigies_ of the saint, though that preserved at Santa Sabina
+     probably presents us with a kind of traditionary
+     likeness."]--_History of St. Dominic_.
+
+     [In the "History of St. Dominic," on page 226, the author
+     credits the portrait shown to "Bozzani." We are unable to
+     find any record of a painter by that name. Nagler, however,
+     tells of a painter of portraits and historical subjects,
+     Carlo Bozzoni by name, who was born in 1607 and died in 1657.
+     He was a son of Luciano Bozzoni, a Genoese painter and
+     engraver. He is said to have done good work, but no other
+     mention is made of him.]
+
+IGNATIUS DE LOYOLA,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    261
+
+After the engraving by Greatbach, "from a scarce print by H.
+Wierz." Originally published by Richard Bentley, London, in 1842.
+
+     [W. Greatbach was a London engraver in the first half of the
+     nineteenth century. He worked chiefly for the "calendars" and
+     "annuals" of his time, and did notable work for the general
+     book trade of the better class.]
+
+     [A search of the authorities does not reveal an engraver
+     named "H. Wierz." This is probably intended for Hieronymus
+     Wierex (or Wierix, according to Bryant), a famous engraver,
+     born in 1552, and who is credited by Nagler, in his
+     "Künstler-Lexikon," with having produced "a beautiful and
+     rare plate" of "St. Ignaz von Loyola." The error, if such it
+     be, is easily explained by the fact that portrait engravers
+     seldom cut the lettering of a plate themselves, but have it
+     engraved by others, who have a special aptitude for making
+     shapely letters.]
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+ADAMS, G.B.: Civilization during the Middle Ages.
+ARCHER, T.A., and KINGSFORD, CHARLES L.: The Crusaders.
+BARROWS, JOHN H., (Editor): The World's Parliment of Religions.
+BLUNT, I.J.: Sketches of the Reformation in England.
+BLUNT, JOHN HENRY: The Reformation of the Church of England,
+  its History, Principles and Results.
+BREWER, JOHN SHERREN: The Reign of Henry VIII.
+BRYCE, JAMES: The Holy Roman Empire.
+BURNET, GILBERT: History of the Reformation of the Church of
+  England.
+BUTLER, ALBAN: Lives of the Saints.
+CARLYLE, THOMAS: Past and Present: The Ancient Monk. Miscellaneous
+  Papers: Jesuitism.
+CAZENOVE, JOHN G.: St. Hilary of Poitiers and St. Martin of Tours.
+CHALIPPE, CANDIDE: The Life of St. Francis of Assisi.
+CHILD, GILBERT W.: Church and State Under the Tudors.
+CHURCH, R.W.: The Beginning of the Middle Ages.
+CLARK, WILLIAM: The Anglican Reformation.
+CLARKE, STEPHEN REYNOLDS: Vestigia Anglicana.
+CLARKE, JAMES FREEMAN: Events and Epochs in Religious History.
+COOK, KENINGALE: The Fathers of Jesus.
+COX, G.W.: The Crusaders.
+CUTTS, EDWARD LEWES: St. Jerome and St. Augustine.
+DILL, SAMUEL: Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western
+  Empire.
+DRAPER, JOHN WILLIAM: History of the Intellectual Development
+  of Europe.
+DRAKE, AUGUSTA T.: The History of St. Dominic.
+DUGDALE, Sir WILLIAM: Monasticum Anglicanum.
+DURUY, VICTOR: History of Rome.
+ECKENSTEIN, LINA: Woman Under Monasticism.
+EDERSHEIM, ALFRED: The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.
+ELIOT, SAMUEL: History of Liberty.
+FARRAR, FREDERICK W.: The Early Days of Christianity.
+FOSBROKE, J.D.: British Monachism.
+FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY: History of England.
+FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY: Short Studies.
+GAIRDNER, JAMES, and SPEDDING, JAMES: Studies in English History.
+GASQUET, FRANCIS A.: Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries.
+GASQUET, FRANCIS A.: The Eve of the Reformation.
+GIBBON, EDWARD: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
+GIESELER, J.K.L.: Manual of Church History.
+GNEIST, RUDOLPH: History of the English Constitution.
+GNEIST, RUDOLPH: The English Parliament.
+GREEN, JOHN RICHARD: History of the English People.
+GUÉRANGER, PROSPER: Life of St. Cecilia.
+GUIZOT, F.P.G.: The History of France.
+GUIZOT, F.P.G.: The History of Civilization in Europe.
+HALLAM, HENRY: Europe During the Middle Ages.
+HALLAM, HENRY: Constitutional History of England.
+HALLAM, HENRY: Introduction to the Literature of Europe.
+HARDY, R. SPENCER: Eastern Monasticism.
+HARDWICK, CHARLES: History of the Christian Church in the Middle
+  Ages.
+HARNACK, ADOLF: Monasticism: Its Ideals and Its History: _Christian
+  Literature Magazine_, 1894-95.
+HILL, O'DELL T.: English Monasticism: Its Rise and Influence.
+HUGHES, T.: Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits.
+HUME, DAVID: The History of England.
+JAMESON, ANNA: Legends of the Monastic Orders.
+JESSOPP, AUGUSTUS: The Coming of the Friars.
+KINGSLEY, CHARLES: The Hermits.
+KINGSLEY, CHARLES: Hypatia.
+KINGSLEY, CHARLES: The Roman and the Teuton.
+LAPPENBERG, J.M.: A History of England Under the Anglo-Saxon
+  Kings.
+LARNED, J.N.: History for Ready Reference and Topical Reading.
+LEA HENRY C.: History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages.
+LEA, HENRY C.: Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church.
+LECKY, WILLIAM E.H.: History of Rationalism in Europe.
+LECKY, WILLIAM E.H.: History of European Morals.
+LEE F.G.: The Life of Cardinal Pole.
+LINGARD, JOHN: History of England.
+LINGARD, JOHN: History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon
+  Church.
+LORD, JOHN: Beacon-Lights of History.
+LORD, JOHN: The Old Roman World.
+LUDLOW, JAMES M.: The Age of the Crusades.
+MACKINTOSH, JAMES: History of England.
+MAITLAND, SAMUEL R.: The Dark Ages.
+MAITLAND, SAMUEL R.: Essays on the Reformation.
+MATHEWS, SHAILER: Social Teachings of Jesus.
+MILMAN, HENRY H.: The History of Latin Christianity.
+MILMAN, HENRY H.: The History of Christianity.
+MONTALEMBERT, C.F.R.: Monks of the West.
+MOSHIEM, J.L. VON: Institutes of Ecclesiastical History.
+NEANDER, AUGUSTUS: General History of the Christian Religion
+  and Church.
+OLIPHANT, MARY O.W.: Life of St. Francis of Assisi.
+PARKMAN, FRANCIS: The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth
+  Century.
+PIKE, LUKE OWEN: A History of Crime in England.
+PUTNAM, G.H.: Books and Their Makers in the Middle Ages.
+READE, CHARLES: The Cloister and the Hearth.
+RUFFNER, H.: The Fathers of the Desert.
+SABATIER, PAUL: Life of St. Francis of Assisi.
+SCHAFF, PHILIP: History of the Christian Church.
+SCHAFF, PHILIP, and WACE, HENRY, (Editors): The Nicene and
+  Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church. (Lives and
+  writings of Jerome, Athanasius, Cassian, St. Martin of Tours,
+  and other early supporters of the monastic movement).
+SCOTT, WALTER: The Monastery.
+SCOTT, WALTER: The Abbot.
+SIENKIEWICZ, HENRY K.: The Knights of the Cross.
+SMITH, PHILIP: Student's Ecclesiastical History.
+SMITH, R.F.: St. Basil.
+STANLEY, ARTHUR P.: History of the Eastern Church.
+STILLÉ, CHARLES J.: Studies in Medieval History.
+STORRS, RICHARD S.: Bernard of Clairvaux.
+STRYPE, J.: Annals of the Reformation.
+STUBBS, WILLIAM: Lectures on the Study of Medieval History.
+TAUNTON, ETHELRED L.: The English Black Monks of St. Benedict.
+THOMPSON, R.W.: The Footprints of the Jesuits.
+THURSTON, H.: The Life of St. Hugh of Lincoln.
+TRAILL, H.D.: Social England.
+TRENCH, RICHARD C.: Lectures on Medieval Church History.
+TREVELYAN, GEORGE M.: England in the Age of Wycliffe.
+VAUGHAN, ROBERT: Revolutions in English History.
+VAUGHAN, ROBERT: Hours with the Mystics.
+WADDINGTON, GEORGE: History of the Church.
+WATERMAN, LUCIUS: The Post-Apostolic Age.
+WHITE, A.D.: A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology.
+WHITE, JAMES: The Eighteen Christian Centuries.
+WOODHOUSE, FREDERICK C.: The Military Religious Orders of
+  the Middle Ages.
+
+ENCYCLOPÆDIAS: McClintock and Strong, Schaff-Herzog, Brittanica,
+  English, and Johnson. (Articles on "Monasticism,"
+  "Benedict," "Francis," "Dominic," "Loyola," etc.)
+
+Many other authorities were consulted by the author, but only
+those works that are easily accessible and likely to prove of direct value
+to the student are cited above.
+
+
+
+MONKS
+
+AND MONASTERIES
+
+I
+
+_MONASTICISM IN THE EAST_
+
+The monk is a type of religious character by no means peculiar to
+Christianity. Every great religion in ancient and modern times has
+expressed itself in some form of monastic life.
+
+The origin of the institution is lost in antiquity. Its genesis and
+gradual progress through the centuries are like the movement of a mighty
+river springing from obscure sources, but gathering volume by the
+contributions of a multitude of springs, brooks, and lesser rivers,
+entering the main stream at various stages in its progress. While the
+mysterious source of the monastic stream may not be found, it is easy to
+discover many different influences and causes that tended to keep the
+mighty current flowing majestically on. It is not so easy to determine
+which of these forces was the greatest.
+
+"Monasticism," says Schaff, "proceeds from religious seriousness,
+enthusiasm and ambition; from a sense of the vanity of the world, and an
+inclination of noble souls toward solitude, contemplation, and freedom
+from the bonds of the flesh and the temptations of the world." A strong
+ascetic tendency in human nature, particularly active in the Orient,
+undoubtedly explains in a general way the origin and growth of the
+institution. Various forms of philosophy and religious belief fostered
+this monastic inclination from time to time by imparting fresh impetus
+to the desire for soul-purity or by deepening the sense of disgust with
+the world.
+
+India is thought by some to have been the birthplace of the institution.
+In the sacred writings of the venerable Hindûs, portions of which have
+been dated as far back as 2400 B.C., there are numerous legends about
+holy monks and many ascetic rules. Although based on opposite
+philosophical principles, the earlier Brahminism and the later system,
+Buddhism, each tended toward ascetic practices, and they each boast
+to-day of long lines of monks and nuns.
+
+The Hindoo (Brahmin) ascetic, or naked philosopher, as the Greeks called
+him, exhausted his imagination in devising schemes of self-torture. He
+buried himself with his nose just above the ground, or wore an iron
+collar, or suspended weights from his body. He clenched his fists until
+the nails grew into his palms, or kept his head turned in one direction
+until he was unable to turn it back. He was a miracle-worker, an oracle
+of wisdom, and an honored saint. He was bold, spiritually proud, capable
+of almost superhuman endurance. We will meet him again in the person of
+his Christian descendant on the banks of the Nile.
+
+The Buddhist ascetic was, perhaps, less severe with himself, but the
+general spirit and form of the institution was and is the same as among
+the Brahmins. In each religion we observe the same selfish
+individualism,--a desire to save one's own soul by slavish obedience to
+ascetic rules,--the extinction of natural desires by self-punishment.
+"A Brahmin who wishes to become an ascetic," says Clarke, "must abandon
+his home and family and go live in the forest. His food must be roots
+and fruit, his clothing a bark garment or a skin, he must bathe morning
+and evening, and suffer his hair to grow."
+
+The fact to be remembered, however, is that in India, centuries before
+the Christian Era, there existed both phases of Christian monasticism,
+the hermit[A] and the crowded convent.
+
+[Footnote A: Appendix, Note A.]
+
+Dhaquit, a Chaldean ascetic, who is said to have lived about 2000 B.C.,
+is reported to have earnestly rebuked those who tried to preserve the
+body from decay by artificial resources. "Not by natural means," he
+said, "can man preserve his body from corruption and dissolution after
+death, but only through good deeds, religious exercises and offering of
+sacrifices,--by invoking the gods by their great and beautiful names, by
+prayers during the night, and fasts during the day."
+
+When Father Bury, a Portuguese missionary, first saw the Chinese bonzes,
+tonsured and using their rosaries, he cried out, "There is not a single
+article of dress, or a sacerdotal function, or a single ceremony of the
+Romish church, which the Devil has not imitated in this country." I have
+not the courage to follow this streamlet back into the devil's heart.
+The attempt would be too daring. Who invented shaved heads and monkish
+gowns and habits, we cannot tell, but this we know: long before Father
+Bury saw and described those things in China, there existed in India the
+Grand Lama or head monk, with monasteries under him, filled with monks
+who kept the three vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. They had
+their routine of prayers, of fasts and of labors, like the Christian
+monks of the middle ages.
+
+Among the Greeks there were many philosophers who taught ascetic
+principles. Pythagoras, born about 580 B.C., established a religious
+brotherhood in which he sought to realize a high ideal of friendship.
+His whole plan singularly suggests monasticism. His rules provided for a
+rigid self-examination and unquestioning submission to a master. Many
+authorities claim that the influence of the Pythagorean philosophy was
+strongly felt in Egypt and Palestine, after the time of Christ. "Certain
+it is that more than two thousand years before Ignatius Loyola assembled
+the nucleus of his great society in his subterranean chapel in the city
+of Paris, there was founded at Crotona, in Greece, an order of monks
+whose principles, constitution, aims, method and final end entitle them
+to be called 'The Pagan Jesuits[B].'"
+
+[Footnote B: Appendix, Note B.]
+
+The teachings of Plato, no doubt, had a powerful monastic influence,
+under certain social conditions, upon later thinkers and upon those who
+yearned for victory over the flesh. Plato strongly insisted on an ideal
+life in which higher pleasures are preferred to lower. Earthly thoughts
+and ambitions are to yield before a holy communion with the Divine. Some
+of his views "might seem like broken visions of the future, when we
+think of the first disciples who had all things in common, and, in later
+days, of the celibate clergy, and the cloisteral life of the religious
+orders." The effect of such philosophy in times of general corruption
+upon those who wished to acquire exceptional moral and intellectual
+power, and who felt unable to cope with the temptations of social life,
+may be easily imagined. It meant, in many cases, a retreat from the
+world to a life of meditation and soul-conflict. In later times it
+exercised a marked influence upon ascetic literature.
+
+Coming closer to Christianity in time and in teaching, we find a Jewish
+sect, called Essenes, living in the region of the Dead Sea, which bore
+remarkable resemblances to Christian monasticism. The origin and
+development of this band, which numbered four thousand about the time of
+Christ, are unknown. Even the derivation of the name is in doubt, there
+being at least twenty proposed explanations. The sect is described by
+Philo, an Alexandrian-Jewish philosopher, who was born about 25 B.C.,
+and by Josephus, the Jewish historian, who was born at Jerusalem A.D.
+37. These writers evidently took pains to secure the facts, and from
+their accounts, upon which modern discussions of the subject are largely
+based, the following facts are gleaned.
+
+The Essenes were a sect outside the Jewish ecclesiastical body, bound by
+strict vows and professing an extraordinary purity. While there were no
+vows of extreme penance, they avoided cities as centers of immorality,
+and, with some exceptions, eschewed marriage. They held aloof from
+traffic, oaths, slave-holding, and weapons of offence. They were strict
+Sabbath observers, wore a uniform robe, possessed all things in common,
+engaged in manual labor, abstained from forbidden food, and probably
+rejected the bloody sacrifices of the Temple, although continuing to
+send their thank-offerings. Novitiates were kept on probation three
+years. The strictest discipline was maintained, excommunication
+following detection in heinous sins. Evidently the standard of character
+was pure and lofty, since their emphasis on self-mastery did not end in
+absurd extravagances. Their frugal food, simple habits, and love of
+cleanliness; combined with a regard for ethical principles, conduced to
+a high type of life. Edersheim remarks, "We can scarcely wonder that
+such Jews as Josephus and Philo, and such heathens as Pliny, were
+attracted by such an unworldly and lofty sect."
+
+Some writers maintain that they were also worshipers of the sun, and
+hence that their origin is to be traced to Persian sources. Even if so,
+they seemed to have escaped that confused and mystical philosophy which
+has robbed Oriental thought of much power in the realm of practical
+life. Philo says, "Of philosophy, the dialectical department, as being
+in no wise necessary for the acquisition of virtue, they abandon to the
+word-catchers; and the part which treats of the nature of things, as
+being beyond human nature, they leave to speculative air-gazers, with
+the exception of that part of it which deals with the subsistance of God
+and the genesis of all things; but the ethical they right well
+work out."
+
+Pliny the elder, who lived A.D. 23-79, made the following reference to
+the Essenes, which is especially interesting because of the tone of
+sadness and weariness with the world suggested in its praise of this
+Jewish sect. "On the western shore (of the Dead Sea) but distant from
+the sea far enough to escape from its noxious breezes, dwelt the
+Essenes. They are an eremite clan, one marvelous beyond all others in
+the whole world; without any women, with sexual intercourse entirely
+given up, without money, and the associates of palm trees. Daily is the
+throng of those that crowd about them renewed, men resorting to them in
+numbers, driven through weariness of existence, and the surges of
+ill-fortune, to their manner of life. Thus it is that through thousands
+of ages--incredible to relate!--their society, in which no one is born,
+lives on perennial. So fruitful to them is the irksomeness of life
+experienced by other men."
+
+Admission to the order was granted only to adults, yet children were
+sometimes adopted for training in the principles of the sect. Some
+believed in marriage as a means of perpetuating the order.
+
+Since it would not throw light on our present inquiry, the mooted
+question as to the connection of Essenism and the teachings of Jesus may
+be passed by. The differences are as great as the resemblances and the
+weight of opinion is against any vital relation.
+
+The character of this sect conclusively shows that some of the elements
+of Christian monasticism existed in the time of Jesus, not only in
+Palestine but in other countries. In an account of the Therapeutæ, or
+true devotees, an ascetic body similar to the Essenes, Philo says,
+"There are many parts of the world in which this class may be found....
+They are, however, in greatest abundance in Egypt."
+
+During Apostolic times various teachings and practices were current that
+may be characterized as ascetic. The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the
+Colossians, doubtless had in mind a sect or school which despised the
+body and abstained from meats and wine. A false asceticism, gathering
+inspiration from pagan philosophy, was rapidly spreading among
+Christians even at that early day. The teachings of the Gnostics, a
+speculative sect of many schools, became prominent in the closing days
+of the Apostolic age or very soon thereafter. Many of these schools
+claimed a place in the church, and professed a higher life and knowledge
+than ordinary Christians possessed. The Gnostics believed in the
+complete subjugation of the body by austere treatment.
+
+The Montanists, so called after Montanus, their famous leader, arose in
+Asia Minor during the second century, when Marcus Aurelius was emperor.
+Schaff describes the movement as "a morbid exaggeration of Christian
+ideas and demands." It was a powerful and frantic protest against the
+growing laxity of the church. It despised ornamental dress and
+prescribed numerous fasts and severities.
+
+These facts and many others that might be mentioned throw light on our
+inquiry in several ways. They show that asceticism was in the air. The
+literature, philosophy and religion of the day drifted toward an ascetic
+scheme of life and stimulated the tendency to acquire holiness, even at
+the cost of innocent joys and natural gratifications. They show that
+worldliness was advancing in the church, which called for rebuke and a
+return to Apostolic Christianity; that the church was failing to satisfy
+the highest cravings of the soul. True, it was well-nigh impossible for
+the church, in the midst of such a powerful and corrupt heathen
+environment, to keep itself up to its standards.
+
+It is a common tradition that in the first three centuries the practices
+and spirit of the church were comparatively pure and elevated. Harnack
+says, "This tradition is false. The church was already secularized to a
+great extent in the middle of the third century." She was "no longer in
+a position to give peace to all sorts and conditions of men." It was
+then that the great exodus of Christians from the villages and cities to
+mountains and deserts began. Although from the time of Christ on there
+were always some who understood Christianity to demand complete
+separation from all earthly pleasures, yet it was three hundred years
+and more before large numbers began to adopt a hermit's life as the only
+method of attaining salvation. "They fled not only from the world, but
+from the world within the church. Nevertheless, they did not flee out of
+the church."
+
+We can now see why no definite cause for the monastic institution can be
+given and no date assigned for its origin. It did not commence at any
+fixed time and definite place. Various philosophies and religious
+customs traveled for centuries from country to country, resulting in
+singular resemblances and differences between different ascetic or
+monastic sects. Christian monasticism was slowly evolved, and gradually
+assumed definite organization as a product of a curious medley of
+Heathen-Jewish-Christian influences.
+
+A few words should be said here concerning the influence of the Bible
+upon monasticism. Naturally the Christian hermits and early fathers
+appealed to the Bible in support of their teachings and practices. It is
+not necessary, at this point, to discuss the correctness of their
+interpretations. The simple fact is that many passages of scripture were
+considered as commands to attain perfection by extraordinary sacrifices,
+and certain Biblical characters were reverenced as shining monastic
+models. In the light of the difficulties of Biblical criticism it is
+easy to forgive them if they were mistaken, a question to be discussed
+farther on. They read of those Jewish prophets described in Hebrews:
+"They went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; ... wandering in deserts
+and mountains and caves, and the holes of the earth." They pointed to
+Elijah and his school of prophets; to John the Baptist, with his raiment
+of camel's hair and a leathern girdle about his loins, whose meat was
+locusts and wild honey. They recalled the commandment of Jesus to the
+rich young man to sell all his possessions and give to the poor. They
+quoted the words, "Take no thought for the morrow what ye shall eat and
+what ye shall drink or wherewithal ye shall be clothed." They construed
+following Christ to mean in His own words, "forsaking father, mother,
+brethren, wife, children, houses and lands." They pointed triumphantly
+to the Master himself, unmarried and poor, who had not "where to lay his
+head." They appealed to Paul's doctrine of marriage. They remembered
+that the Church at Jerusalem was composed of those who sold their
+possessions and had all things in common. Whatever these and numerous
+other passages may truly mean, they interpreted them in favor of a
+monastic mode of life; they understood them to teach isolation,
+fastings, severities, and other forms of rigorous self-denial. Accepting
+Scripture in this sense, they trampled upon human affection and gave
+away their property, that they might please God and save their souls.
+
+Between the time of Christ and Paul of Thebes, who died in the first
+half of the fourth century, and who is usually recognized as the founder
+of monasticism, many Christian disciples voluntarily abandoned their
+wealth, renounced marriage and adopted an ascetic mode of life, while
+still living in or near the villages or cities. As the corruption of
+society and the despair of men became more widespread, these anxious
+Christians wandered farther and farther away from fixed habitations
+until, in an excess of spiritual fervor, they found themselves in the
+caves of the mountains, desolate and dreary, where no sound of human
+voice broke in upon the silence. The companions of wild beasts, they
+lived in rapt contemplation on the eternal mysteries of this most
+strange world.
+
+My task now is to describe some of those recluses who still live in the
+biographies of the saints and the traditions of the church. Ducis, while
+reading of these hermits, wrote to a friend as follows: "I am now
+reading the lives of the Fathers of the Desert. I am dwelling with St.
+Pachomius, the founder of the monastery at Tabenna. Truly there is a
+charm in transporting one's self to that land of the angels--one could
+not wish ever to come out of it." Whether the reader will call these
+strange characters angels, and will wish he could have shared their beds
+of stone and midnight vigils, I will not venture to say, but at all
+events his visit will be made as pleasant as possible.
+
+In writing the life of Mahomet, Carlyle said, "As there is no danger of
+our becoming, any of us, Mahometans, I mean to say all the good of
+Mahomet I justly can." So, without distorting the picture that has come
+down to us, I mean to say all the good of these Egyptian hermits that
+the facts will justify.
+
+
+
+_The Hermits of Egypt_
+
+Egypt was the mother of Christian monasticism, as she has been of many
+other wonders.
+
+Vast solitudes; lonely mountains, honey-combed with dens and caves; arid
+valleys and barren hills; dreary deserts that glistened under the
+blinding glare of the sun that poured its heat upon them steadily all
+the year; strange, grotesque rocks and peaks that assumed all sorts of
+fantastic shapes to the overwrought fancy; in many places no water, no
+verdure, and scarcely a thing in motion; the crocodile and the bird
+lazily seeking their necessary food and stirring only as compelled;
+unbounded expanse in the wide star-lit heavens; unbroken quiet on the
+lonely mountains--a fit home for the hermit, a paradise to the lover of
+solitude and peace.
+
+Of life under such conditions Kingsley has said: "They enjoyed nature,
+not so much for her beauty as for her perfect peace. Day by day the
+rocks remained the same. Silently out of the Eastern desert, day by day,
+the rising sun threw aloft those arrows of light which the old Greeks
+had named 'the rosy fingers of the dawn.' Silently he passed in full
+blaze above their heads throughout the day, and silently he dipped
+behind the Western desert in a glory of crimson and orange, green and
+purple.... Day after day, night after night, that gorgeous pageant
+passed over the poor hermit's head without a sound, and though sun, moon
+and planet might change their places as the years rolled round, the
+earth beneath his feet seemed not to change." As for the companionless
+men, who gazed for years upon this glorious scene, they too were of
+unusual character, Waddington finely says: "The serious enthusiasm of
+the natives of Egypt and Asia, that combination of indolence and energy,
+of the calmest languor with the fiercest passions, ... disposed them to
+embrace with eagerness the tranquil but exciting duties of religious
+seclusion." Yes, here are the angels of Ducis in real flesh and blood.
+They revel in the wildest eccentricities with none to molest or make
+afraid, always excepting the black demons from the spiritual world. One
+dwells in a cave in the bowels of the earth; one lies on the sand
+beneath a blazing sun; one has shut himself forever from the sight of
+man in a miserable hut among the bleak rocks of yonder projecting peak;
+one rests with joy in the marshes, breathing with gratitude the
+pestilential vapors.
+
+Some of these saints became famous for piety and miraculous power.
+Athanasius, fleeing from persecution, visited them, and Jerome sought
+them out to learn from their own lips the stories of their lives. To
+these men and to others we are indebted for much of our knowledge
+concerning this chapter of man's history. Less than fifty years after
+Paul of Thebes died, or about 375 A.D., Jerome wrote the story of his
+life, which Schaff justly characterizes as "a pious romance." From
+Jerome we gather the following account: Paul was the real founder of the
+hermit life, although not the first to bear the name. During the Decian
+persecution, when churches were laid waste and Christians were slain
+with barbarous cruelty, Paul and his sister were bereaved of both their
+parents. He was then a lad of sixteen, an inheritor of wealth and
+skilled for one of his years in Greek and Egyptian learning. He was of a
+gentle and loving disposition. On account of his riches he was denounced
+as a Christian by an envious brother-in-law and compelled to flee to the
+mountains in order to save his life. He took up his abode in a cave
+shaded by a palm that afforded him food and clothing. "And that no one
+may deem this impossible," affirms Jerome, "I call to witness Jesus and
+his holy angels that I have seen and still see in that part of the
+desert which lies between Syria and the Saracens' country, monks of whom
+one was shut up for thirty years and lived on barley bread and muddy
+water, while another in an old cistern kept himself alive on five dried
+figs a day."
+
+It is impossible to determine how much of the story which follows is
+historically true. Undoubtedly, it contains little worthy of belief, but
+it gives us some faint idea of how these hermits lived. Its chief value
+consists in the fact that it preserves a fragment of the monastic
+literature of the times--a story which was once accepted as a credible
+narrative. Imagine the influence of such a tale, when believed to be
+true, upon a mind inclined to embrace the doctrines of asceticism. Its
+power at that time is not to be measured by its reliability now. Jerome
+himself declares in the prologue that many incredible things were
+related of Paul which he will not repeat. After reading the following
+story, the reader may well inquire what more fanciful tale could be
+produced even by a writer of fiction.
+
+The blessed Paul was now one hundred and thirteen years old, and
+Anthony, who dwelt in another place of solitude, was at the age of
+ninety. In the stillness of the night it was revealed to Anthony that
+deeper in the desert there was a better man than he, and that he ought
+to see him. So, at the break of day, the venerable old man, supporting
+and guiding his weak limbs with a staff, started out, whither he knew
+not. At scorching noontide he beholds a fellow-creature, half man, half
+horse, called by the poets Hippo-centaur. After gnashing outlandish
+utterances, this monster, in words broken, rather than spoken, through
+his bristling lips, points out the way with his right hand and swiftly
+vanishes from the hermit's sight. Anthony, amazed, proceeds thoughtfully
+on his way when a mannikin, with hooked snout, horned forehead and
+goat's feet, stands before him and offers him food. Anthony asks who he
+is. The beast thus replies: "I am a mortal being, and one of those
+inhabitants of the desert, whom the Gentiles deluded by various forms of
+error worship, under the name of Fauns and Satyrs." As he utters these
+and other words, tears stream down the aged traveler's face! He rejoices
+over the glory of God and the destruction of Satan. Striking the ground
+with his staff, he exclaims, "Woe to thee, Alexandria, who, instead of
+God, worshipest monsters! Woe to thee, harlot city, into which have
+flowed together the demons of the world! What will you say now? Beasts
+speak of Christ, and you, instead of God, worship monsters." "Let none
+scruple to believe this incident," says the chronicler, "for a man of
+this kind was brought alive to Alexandria and the people saw him; when
+he died his body was preserved in salt and brought to Antioch that the
+Emperor might view him."
+
+Anthony continues to traverse the wild region into which he had entered.
+There is no trace of human beings. The darkness of the second night
+wears away in prayer. At day-break he beholds far away a she-wolf
+gasping with parched thirst and creeping into a cave. He draws near and
+peers within. All is dark, but perfect love casteth out fear. With
+halting step and bated breath, he enters. After a while a light gleams
+in the distant midnight darkness. With eagerness he presses forward, but
+his foot strikes against a stone and arouses the echoes; whereupon the
+blessed Paul closes the door and makes it fast. For hours Anthony lay at
+the door craving admission. "I know I am not worthy," he humbly cries,
+"yet unless I see you I will not turn away. You welcome beasts, why not
+a man? If I fail, I will die here on your threshold."
+
+     "Such was his constant cry; unmoved he stood,
+      To whom the hero thus brief answer made."
+
+"Prayers like these do not mean threats, there is no trickery in tears."
+So, with smiles, Paul gives him entrance and the two aged hermits fall
+into each other's embrace. Together they converse of things human and
+divine, Paul, close to the dust of the grave, asks, Are new houses
+springing up in ancient cities? What government directs the world?
+Little did this recluse know of his fellow-beings and how fared it with
+the children of men who dwelt in those great cities around the blue
+Mediterranean. He was dead to the world and knew it no more.
+
+A raven brought the aged brothers bread to eat and the hours glided
+swiftly away. Anthony returned to get a cloak which Athanasius had given
+him in which to wrap the body of Paul. So eager was he to behold again
+his newly-found friend that he set out without even a morsel of bread,
+thirsting to see him. But when yet three days' journey from the cave he
+saw Paul on high among the angels. Weeping, he trudged on his way. On
+entering the cave he saw the lifeless body kneeling, with head erect and
+hands uplifted. He tenderly wrapped the body in the cloak and began to
+lament that he had no implements to dig a grave. But Providence sent two
+lions from the recesses of the mountain that came rushing with flying
+manes. Roaring, as if they too mourned, they pawed the earth and thus
+the grave was dug. Anthony, bending his aged shoulders beneath the
+burden of the saint's body, laid it lovingly in the grave and departed.
+
+Jerome closes this account by challenging those who do not know the
+extent of their possessions,--who adorn their homes with marble and who
+string house to house,--to say what this old man in his nakedness ever
+lacked. "Your drinking vessels are of precious stones; he satisfied his
+thirst with the hollow of his hand. Your tunics are wrought of gold; he
+had not the raiment of your meanest slave. But on the other hand, poor
+as he was, Paradise is open to him; you, with all your gold, will be
+received into Gehenna. He, though naked, yet kept the robe of Christ;
+you, clad in your silks, have lost the vesture of Christ. Paul lies
+covered with worthless dust, but will rise again to glory; over you are
+raised costly tombs, but both you and your wealth are doomed to burning.
+I beseech you, reader, whoever you may be, to remember Jerome the
+sinner. He, if God would give him his choice, would sooner take Paul's
+tunics with his merits, than the purple of kings with their punishment."
+
+Such was the story circulated among rich and poor, appealing with
+wondrous force to the hearts of men in those wretched years.
+
+What was the effect upon the mind of the thoughtful? If he believed such
+teaching, weary of the wickedness of the age, and moved by his noblest
+sentiments, he sold his tunics wrought of gold and fled from his palaces
+of marble to the desert solitudes.
+
+But the monastic story that most strongly impressed the age now under
+consideration, was the biography of Anthony, "the patriarch of monks"
+and virtual founder of Christian monasticism. It was said to have been
+written by Athanasius, the famous defender of orthodoxy and Archbishop
+of Alexandria; yet some authorities reject his authorship. It exerted a
+power over the minds of men beyond all human estimate. It scattered the
+seeds of asceticism wherever it was read. Traces of its influence are
+found all over the Roman empire, in Egypt, Asia Minor, Palestine, Italy
+and Gaul. Knowing the character of Athanasius, we may rest assured that
+he sincerely believed all he really recorded (it is much interpolated)
+of the strange life of Anthony, and, true or false, thousands of others
+believed in him and in his story. Augustine, the great theologian of
+immortal fame, acknowledged that this book was one of the influences
+that led to his conversion, and Jerome, whose life I will review later,
+was mightily swayed by it.
+
+Anthony was born about 251 A.D., in Upper Egypt, of wealthy and noble
+parentage. He was a pious child, an obedient son, and a lover of
+solitude and books. His parents died when he was about twenty years old,
+leaving to his care their home and his little sister. One day, as he
+entered the church, meditating on the poverty of Christ, a theme much
+reflected upon in those days, he heard these words read from the pulpit,
+"If thou wouldst be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast, and give to
+the poor, and come, follow me." As if the call came straight from heaven
+to his own soul, he left the church at once and made over his farm to
+the people of the village. He sold his personal possessions for a large
+sum, and distributed the proceeds among the poor, reserving a little for
+his sister. Still he was unsatisfied. Entering the church on another
+occasion, he heard our Lord saying in the gospel, "Take no thought for
+the morrow." The clouds cleared away. His anxious search for truth and
+duty was at an end. He went out and gave away the remnant of his
+belongings. Placing his sister in a convent, the existence of which is
+to be noted, he fled to the desert. Then follows a striking statement,
+"For monasteries were not common in Egypt, nor had any monk at all known
+the great desert; but every one who wished to devote himself to his own
+spiritual welfare performed his exercise alone, not far from
+the village."
+
+Laboring with his hands, recalling texts of Scripture, praying whole
+sleepless nights, fasting for several days at a time, visiting his
+fellow saints, fighting demons, so passed the long years away. He slept
+on a small rush mat, more often on the bare ground. Forgetting past
+austerities, he was ever on the search for some new torture and pressing
+forward to new and strange experiences. He changed his habitation from
+time to time. Now he lived in a tomb, in company with the silent dead;
+then for twenty years in a deserted castle, full of reptiles, never
+going out and rarely seeing any one. From each saint he learned some
+fresh mode of spiritual training, observing his practice for future
+imitation and studying the charms of his Christian character that he
+might reproduce them in his own life; thus he would return richly laden
+to his cell.
+
+But in all these struggles Anthony had one foe--the arch-enemy of all
+good. He suggests impure thoughts, but the saint repels them by prayer;
+he incites to passion, but the hero resists the fiend with fastings and
+faith. Once the dragon, foiled in his attempt to overcome Anthony,
+gnashed his teeth, and coming out of his body, lay at his feet in the
+shape of a little black boy. But the hermit was not beguiled into
+carelessness by this victory. He resolved to chastise himself more
+severely. So he retired to the tombs of the dead. One dark night a crowd
+of demons flogged the saint until he fell to the ground speechless with
+torture. Some friends found him the next day, and thinking that he was
+dead, carried him to the village, where his kinsfolk gathered to mourn
+over his remains. But at midnight he came to himself, and, seeing but
+one acquaintance awake, he begged that he would carry him back to the
+tombs, which was done. Unable to move, he prayed prostrate and sang, "If
+an host be laid against me, yet shall not my heart be afraid." The
+enraged devils made at him again. There was a terrible crash; through
+the walls the fiends came in shapes like beasts and reptiles. In a
+moment the place was filled with lions roaring at him, bulls thrusting
+at him with their horns, creeping serpents unable to reach him, wolves
+held back in the act of springing. There, too, were bears and asps and
+scorpions. Mid the frightful clamor of roars, growls and hisses, rose
+the clear voice of the saint, as he triumphantly mocked the demons in
+their rage. Suddenly the awful tumult ceased; the wretched beings became
+invisible and a ray of light pierced the roof to cheer the prostrate
+hero. His pains ceased. A voice came to him saying, "Thou hast withstood
+and not yielded. I will always be thy helper, and will make thy name
+famous everywhere." Hearing this he rose up and prayed, and was stronger
+in body than ever before.
+
+This is but one of numerous stories chronicling Anthony's struggles with
+the devil. Like conflicts were going on at that hour in many another
+cave in those great and silent mountains.
+
+There are also wondrous tales of his miraculous power. He often
+predicted the coming of sufferers and healed them when they came. His
+fame for curing diseases and casting out devils became so extensive that
+Egypt marveled at his gifts, and saints came even from Rome to see his
+face and to hear his words. His freedom from pride and arrogance was as
+marked as his fame was great. He yielded joyful obedience to presbyters
+and bishops. His countenance was so full of divine grace and heavenly
+beauty as to render him easily distinguishable in a crowd of monks.
+Letters poured in upon him from every part of the empire. Kings wrote
+for his advice, but it neither amazed him nor filled his heart with
+pride. "Wonder not," said he, "if a king writes to us, for he is but a
+man, but wonder rather that God has written His law to man and spoken to
+us by His Son." At his command princes laid aside their crowns, judges
+their magisterial robes, while criminals forsook their lives of crime
+and embraced with joy the life of the desert.
+
+Once, at the earnest entreaty of some magistrates, he came down from the
+mountain that they might see him. Urged to prolong his stay he refused,
+saying, "Fishes, if they lie long on the dry land, die; so monks who
+stay with you lose their strength. As the fishes, then, hasten to the
+sea, so must we to the mountains."
+
+At last the shadows lengthened and waning strength proclaimed that his
+departure was nigh. Bidding farewell to his monks, he retired to an
+inner mountain and laid himself down to die. His countenance brightened
+as if he saw his friends coming to see him, and thus his soul was
+gathered to his fathers. He is said to have been mourned by fifteen
+thousand disciples.
+
+This is the story which moved a dying empire. "Anthony," says
+Athanasius, "became known not by worldly wisdom, nor by any art, but
+solely by piety, and that this was the gift of God who can deny?" The
+purpose of such a life was, so his biographer thought, to light up the
+moral path for men, that they might imbibe a zeal for virtue.
+
+The "Life of St. Anthony" is even more remarkable for its omissions than
+for its incredible tales. While I reserve a more detailed criticism of
+its Christian ideals until a subsequent chapter, it may be well to quote
+here a few words from Isaac Taylor. After pointing out some of its
+defects he continues: there is "not a word of justification by faith;
+not a word of the gracious influence of the Spirit in renewing and
+cleansing the heart; not a word responding to any of those signal
+passages of Scripture which make the Gospel 'Glad Tidings' to guilty
+men." This I must confess to be true, even though I may and do heartily
+esteem the saint's enthusiasm for righteousness.
+
+So far I have described chiefly the spiritual experiences of these men,
+but the details of their physical life are hardly less interesting.
+There was a holy rivalry among them to excel in self-torture. Their
+imaginations were constantly employed in devising unique tests of
+holiness and courage. They lived in holes in the ground or in dried up
+wells; they slept in thorn bushes or passed days and weeks without
+sleep; they courted the company of the wildest beasts and exposed their
+naked bodies to the broiling sun. Macarius became angry because an
+insect bit him and in penitence flung himself into a marsh where he
+lived for weeks. He was so badly stung by gnats and flies that his
+friends hardly knew him. Hilarion, at twenty years of age, was more like
+a spectre than a living man. His cell was only five feet high, a little
+lower than his stature. Some carried weights equal to eighty or one
+hundred and fifty pounds suspended from their bodies. Others slept
+standing against the rocks. For three years, as it is recorded, one of
+them never reclined. In their zeal to obey the Scriptures, they
+overlooked the fact that cleanliness is akin to godliness. It was their
+boast that they never washed. One saint would not even use water to
+drink, but quenched his thirst with the dew that fell on the grass. St.
+Abraham never washed his face for fifty years. His biographer, not in
+the least disturbed by the disagreeable suggestions of this
+circumstance, proudly says, "His face reflected the purity of his soul."
+If so, one is moved to think that the inward light must indeed have been
+powerfully piercing, if it could brighten a countenance unwashed for
+half a century. There is a story about Abbot Theodosius who prayed for
+water that his monks might drink. In response to his petition a stream
+burst from the rocks, but the foolish monks, overcome by a pitiful
+weakness for cleanliness, persuaded the abbot to erect a bath, when lo,
+the stream dried. Supplications and repentance availed nothing. After a
+year had passed, the monks, promising never again to insult Heaven by
+wishing for a bath, were granted a second Mosaic miracle.
+
+Thus, unwashed, clothed in rags, their hair uncut, their faces unshaven,
+they lived for years. No wonder that to their disordered fancy the
+desert was filled with devils, the animals spake and Heaven sent angels
+to minister unto them.
+
+
+
+_The Pillar Saint_
+
+But the strangest of all strange narratives yet remains. We turn from
+Egypt to Asia Minor to make the acquaintance of that saint whom Tennyson
+has immortalized,--the idol of monarchs and the pride of the
+East,--Saint Simeon Stylites. Stories grow rank around him like the
+luxuriant products of a tropical soil. How shall I briefly tell of this
+man, whom Theodoret, in his zeal, declares all who obey the Roman rule
+know--the man who may be compared with Moses the Legislator, David the
+King and Micah the Prophet? He lived between the years 390 and 459 A.D.
+He was a shepherd's son, but at an early age entered a monastery. Here
+he soon distinguished himself by his excessive austerities. One day he
+went to the well, removed the rope from the bucket and bound it tightly
+around his body underneath his clothes. A few weeks later, the abbot,
+being angry with him because of his extreme self-torture, bade his
+companions strip him. What was his astonishment to find the rope from
+the well sunk deeply into his flesh. "Whence," he cried, "has this man
+come to us, wanting to destroy the rule of this monastery? I pray thee
+depart hence."
+
+With great trouble they unwound the rope and the flesh with it, and
+taking care of him until he was well, they sent him forth to commence a
+life of austerities that was to render him famous. He adopted various
+styles of existence, but his miracles and piety attracted such crowds
+that he determined to invent a mode of life which would deliver him from
+the pressing multitudes. It is curious that he did not hide himself
+altogether if he really wished to escape notoriety; but, no, he would
+still be within the gaze of admiring throngs. His holy and fanciful
+genius hit upon a scheme that gave him his peculiar name. He took up his
+abode on the top of a column which was at first about twelve feet high,
+but was gradually elevated until it measured sixty-four feet. Hence, he
+is called Simeon Stylites, or Simeon the Pillar Saint.
+
+On this lofty column, betwixt earth and heaven, the hermit braved the
+heat and cold of thirty years. At its base, from morning to night,
+prayed the admiring worshipers. Kings kneeled in crowds of peasants to
+do him homage and ask his blessing. Theodoret says, "The Ishmaelites,
+coming by tribes of two hundred and three hundred at a time, and
+sometimes even a thousand, deny, with shouts, the error of their
+fathers, and breaking in pieces before that great illuminator, the
+images which they had worshiped, and renouncing the orgies of Venus,
+they received the Divine sacrament." Rude barbarians confessed their
+sins in tears. Persians, Greeks, Romans and Saracens, forgetting their
+mutual hatred, united in praise and prayer at the feet of this strange
+character.
+
+Once a week the hero partook of food. Many times a day he bowed his head
+to his feet; one man counted twelve hundred and forty-four times and
+then stopped in sheer weariness from gazing at the miracle of endurance
+aloft. Again, from the setting of the sun to its appearance in the East,
+he would stand unsoothed by sleep with his arms outstretched like
+a cross.
+
+If genius can understand such a life as that and fancy the thoughts of
+such a soul, Tennyson seems not only to have comprehended the
+consciousness of the Pillar Saint, but also to have succeeded in giving
+expression to his insight. He has laid bare the soul of Simeon in its
+commingling of spiritual pride with affected humility, and of a
+consciousness of meritorious sacrifice with a sense of sin. The Saint
+spurns notoriety and the homage of men, yet exults in his control over
+the multitudes.
+
+The poet thus imagines Simeon to speak as the Saint is praying God to
+take away his sin:
+
+     "But yet
+     Bethink thee, Lord, while thou and all the saints
+     Enjoy themselves in heaven, and men on earth
+     House in the shade of comfortable roofs,
+     Sit with their wives by fires, eat wholesome food,
+     And wear warm clothes, and even beasts have stalls,
+     I, 'tween the spring and downfall of the light,
+     Bow down one thousand and two hundred times,
+     To Christ, the Virgin Mother, and the Saints;
+     Or in the night, after a little sleep,
+     I wake: the chill stars sparkle; I am wet
+     With drenching dews, or stiff with crackling frost.
+     I wear an undress'd goatskin on my back;
+     A grazing iron collar grinds my neck;
+     And in my weak, lean arms I lift the cross,
+     And strive and wrestle with thee till I die:
+     O mercy, mercy! wash away my sin.
+
+     O Lord, thou knowest what a man I am;
+     A sinful man, conceived and born in sin:
+     'Tis their own doing; this is none of mine;
+     Lay it not to me. Am I to blame for this,
+     That here come those that worship me? Ha! ha!
+     They think that I am somewhat. What am I?
+     The silly people take me for a saint,
+     And bring me offerings of fruit and flowers:
+     And I, in truth (thou wilt bear witness here)
+     Have all in all endured as much, and more
+     Than many just and holy men, whose names
+     Are register'd and calendared for saints.
+
+     Good people, you do ill to kneel to me.
+     What is it I can have done to merit this?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Yet do not rise; for you may look on me,
+     And in your looking you may kneel to God.
+     Speak! is there any of you halt or maim'd?
+     I think you know I have some power with Heaven
+     From my long penance: let him speak his wish.
+
+     Yes, I can heal him. Power goes forth from me.
+     They say that they are heal'd. Ah, hark! they shout
+     'St. Simeon Stylites.' Why, if so,
+     God reaps a harvest in me. O my soul,
+     God reaps a harvest in thee.  If this be,
+     Can I work miracles and not be saved?"
+
+Once, the devil, in shape like an angel, riding in a chariot of fire,
+came to carry Simeon to the skies. He whispered to the weary Saint,
+"Simeon, hear my words, which the Lord hath commanded thee. He has sent
+me, his angel, that I may carry thee away as I carried Elijah." Simeon
+was deceived, and lifted his foot to step out into the chariot, when the
+angel vanished, and in punishment for his presumption an ulcer appeared
+upon his thigh.
+
+But time plays havoc with saints as well as sinners, and death slays the
+strongest. Bowed in prayer, his weary heart ceased to beat and the eyes
+that gazed aloft were closed forever. Anthony, his beloved disciple,
+ascending the column, found that his master was no more. Yet, it seemed
+as if Simeon was loath to leave the spot, for his spirit appeared to his
+weeping follower and said, "I will not leave this column, and this
+blessed mountain. For I have gone to rest, as the Lord willed, but do
+thou not cease to minister in this place and the Lord will repay thee
+in heaven."
+
+His body was carried down the mountain to Antioch. Heading the solemn
+procession were the patriarch, six bishops, twenty-one counts and six
+thousand soldiers, "and Antioch," says Gibbon, "revered his bones as
+her glorious ornament and impregnable defence."
+
+
+
+_The Cenobites of the East_
+
+We cannot linger with these hermits. I pass now to the cenobitic[C]
+life. We go back in years and return to Egypt. Man is a social animal,
+and the social instinct is so strong that even hermits are swayed by its
+power and get tired of living apart from one another. When Anthony died
+the deserts were studded with hermitages, and those of exceptional fame
+were surrounded by little clusters of huts and dens. Into these cells
+crowded the hermits who wished to be near their master.
+
+[Footnote C: Appendix, Note C.]
+
+Thus, step by step, organized or cenobitic monasticism easily and
+naturally came into existence. The anchorites crawled from their dens
+every day to hear the words of their chief saint,--a practice giving
+rise to stated meetings, with rules for worship. Regulations as to
+meals, occupations, dress, penances, and prayers naturally follow.
+
+The author of the first monastic rules is said to have been Pachomius,
+who was born in Egypt about the year 292 A.D. He was brought up in
+paganism but was converted in early life while in the army. On his
+discharge he retired with a hermit to Tabenna, an island in the Nile. It
+is said he never ate a full meal after his conversion, and for fifteen
+years slept sitting on a stone. Natural gifts fitted him to become a
+leader, and it was not long before he was surrounded by a congregation
+of monks for whom he made his rules.
+
+The monks of Pachomius were divided into bands of tens and hundreds,
+each tenth man being an under officer in turn subject to the hundredth,
+and all subject to the superior or abbot of the mother house. They lived
+three in a cell, and a congregation of cells constituted a laura or
+monastery. There was a common room for meals and worship. Each monk wore
+a close fitting tunic and a white goatskin upper garment which was never
+laid aside at meals or in bed, but only at the Eucharist. Their food
+usually consisted of bread and water, but occasionally they enjoyed such
+luxuries as oil, salt, fruits and vegetables. They ate in silence, which
+was sometimes broken by the solemn voice of a reader.
+
+"No man," says Jerome, "dares look at his neighbor or clear his throat.
+Silent tears roll down their cheeks, but not a sob escapes their lips."
+Their labors consisted of some light handiwork or tilling the fields.
+They grafted trees, made beehives, twisted fish-lines, wove baskets and
+copied manuscripts. It was early apparent that as man could not live
+alone so he could not live without labor. We shall see this principle
+emphasized more clearly by Benedict, but it is well to notice that at
+this remote day provision was made for secular employments. Jerome
+enjoins Rusticus, a young monk, always to have some work on hand that
+the devil may find him busy. "Hoe your ground," says he, "set out
+cabbages; convey water to them in conduits, that you may see with your
+own eyes the lovely vision of the poet,--
+
+     "Art draws fresh water from the hilltop near,
+     Till the stream, flashing down among the rocks,
+     Cools the parched meadows and allays their thirst."
+
+There were individual cases of excessive self-torture even among these
+congregations of monks but we may say that ordinarily, organized
+monasticism was altogether less severe upon the individual than
+anchoretic life. The fact that the monk was seeking human fellowship is
+evidence that he was becoming more humane, and this softening of his
+spirit betrayed itself in his treatment of himself. The aspect of life
+became a little brighter and happier.
+
+Four objects were comprehended in these monastic roles,--solitude,
+manual labor, fasting and prayer. We need not pity these dwellers far
+from walled cities and the marts of trade. Indeed, they claim no
+sympathy. Religious ideals can make strange transformations in man's
+disposition and tastes. They loved their hard lives.
+
+The hermit Abraham said to John Cassian, "We know that in these, our
+regions, there are some secret and pleasant places, where fruits are
+abundant and the beauty and fertility of the gardens would supply our
+necessities with the slightest toil. We prefer the wilderness of this
+desolation before all that is fair and attractive, admitting no
+comparison between the luxuriance of the most exuberant soil and the
+bitterness of these sands." Jerome himself exclaimed, "Others may think
+what they like and follow each his own bent. But to me a town is a
+prison and solitude paradise."
+
+The three vows of chastity, poverty and obedience were adopted and
+became the foundation stones of the monastic institution, to be found in
+every monastic order. There is a typical illustration in Kingsley's
+Hypatia of what they meant by obedience. Philammon, a young monk, was
+consigned to the care of Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria, and a
+factious, cruel man, with an imperious will. The bishop received and
+read his letter of introduction and thus addressed its bearer,
+"Philammon, a Greek. You are said to have learned to obey. If so, you
+have also learned to rule. Your father-abbot has transferred you to my
+tutelage. You are now to obey me." "And I will," was the quick response.
+"Well said. Go to that window and leap forth into the court." Philammon
+walked to it and opened it. The pavement was fully twenty feet below,
+but his business was to obey and not to take measurements. There was a
+flower in a vase upon the sill. He quietly removed it, and in an instant
+would have leaped for life or death, when Cyril's voice
+thundered, "Stop!"
+
+The Pachomian monks despised possessions of every kind. The following
+pathetic incident shows the frightful extent to which they carried this
+principle, and also illustrates the character of that submission to
+which the novitiate voluntarily assented: Cassian described how Mutius
+sold his possessions and with his little child of eight asked admission
+to a monastery. The monks received but disciplined him. "He had already
+forgotten that he was rich, he must forget that he was a father." His
+child was taken, clothed in rags, beaten and spurned. Obedience
+compelled the father to look upon his child wasting with pain and grief,
+but such was his love for Christ, says the narrator, that his heart was
+rigid and immovable. He was then told to throw the boy into the river,
+but was stopped in the act of obeying.
+
+Yet men, women, and even children, coveted this life of unnatural
+deprivations. "Posterity," says Gibbon, "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." Though
+the hermit did not claim to be a god, yet there were more monks in many
+monasteries than inhabitants in the neighboring villages. Pachomius had
+fourteen hundred monks in his own monastery and seven thousand under his
+rule. Jerome says fifty thousand monks were sometimes assembled at
+Easter in the deserts of Nitria. It was not uncommon for an abbot to
+command five thousand monks. St. Serapion boasted of ten thousand.
+Altogether, so we are told, there were in the fifth century more than
+one hundred thousand persons in the monasteries, three-fourths of
+whom were men.
+
+The rule of Pachomius spread over Egypt into Syria and Palestine. It was
+carried by Athanasius into Italy and Gaul. It existed in various
+modified forms until it was supplanted by the Benedictine rule.
+
+Leaving Egypt, again we cross the Mediterranean into Asia Minor. Near
+the Black Sea, in a wild forest abounding in savage rocks and gloomy
+ravines, there dwelt a young man of twenty-six. He had traveled in
+Egypt, Syria and Palestine. He had visited the hermits of the desert and
+studied philosophy and eloquence in cultured Athens. In virtue eminent,
+in learning profound, this poetic soul sought to realize its ideal in a
+lonely and cherished retreat--in a solitude of Pontus.
+
+The young monk is the illustrious saint and genius,--Basil the
+Great,--the Bishop of Cæsarea, and the virtual founder of the monastic
+institution in the Greek church. The forest and glens around his hut
+belonged to him, and on the other bank of the river Iris his mother and
+sister were leading similar lives, having abandoned earthly honors in
+pursuit of heaven. Hard crusts of bread appeased his hunger. No fires,
+except those which burned within his soul, protected him from the wintry
+blast. His years were few but well spent. After a while his powerful
+intellect asserted itself and he was led into a clearer view of the true
+spiritual life. His practical mind revolted against the gross ignorance
+and meaningless asceticism of Egypt. He determined to form an order that
+would conform to the inner meaning of the Bible and to a more sensible
+conception of the religious life. For his time he was a wise legislator,
+a cunning workman and a daring thinker. The modification of his ascetic
+ideal was attended by painful struggles. Many an hour he spent with his
+bosom friend, Gregory of Nazianza, discussing the subject. The middle
+course which they finally adopted is thus neatly described by Gregory:
+
+     "Long was the inward strife, till ended thus:
+     I saw, when men lived in the fretful world,
+     They vantaged other men, but missed the while
+     The calmness, and the pureness of their hearts.
+     They who retired held an uprighter post,
+     And raised their eyes with quiet strength toward heaven;
+     Yet served self only, unfraternally.
+     And so, 'twixt these and those, I struck my path,
+     To meditate with the free solitary,
+     Yet to live secular, and serve mankind."
+
+Monks in large numbers flocked to this mountain retreat of Basil's.
+These he banded together in an organization, the remains of which still
+live in the Greek church. So great is the influence of his life and
+teachings, "that it is common though erroneous to call all Oriental
+monks Basilians." His rules are drawn up in the form of answers to two
+hundred and three questions. He added to the three monastic vows a
+fourth, which many authorities claim now appeared for the first
+time,--namely, that of irrevocable vows--once a monk, always a monk.
+
+Basil did not condemn marriage, but he believed that it was incompatible
+with the highest spiritual attainments. For the Kingdom of God's sake it
+was necessary to forsake all. "Love not the world, neither the things of
+the world," embraced to his mind the married state. By avoiding the
+cares of marriage a man was sure to escape, so he thought, the gross
+sensuality of the age. He struck at the dangers which attend the
+possession of riches, by enforcing poverty. An abbot was appointed over
+his cloisters to whom absolute obedience was demanded. Everywhere men
+needed this lesson of obedience. The discipline of the armies was
+relaxed. The authority of religion was set at naught; laxity and
+disorder prevailed even among the monks. They went roaming over the
+country controlled only by their whims. Insubordination had to be
+checked or the monastic institution was doomed. Hence, Basil was
+particular to enforce a respect for law and order.
+
+Altogether this was an honest and serious attempt to introduce fresh
+power into a corrupt age and to faithfully observe the Biblical commands
+as Basil understood them. The floods of iniquity were engulfing even the
+church. A new standard had to be raised and an inner circle of pious and
+zealous believers gathered from the multitude of half-pagan Christians,
+or all was lost.
+
+The subsequent history of Greek monachism has little interest. In
+Russia, at a late date, the Greek monks served some purpose in keeping
+alive the national spirit under the Tartar yoke, but the practical
+benefits to the East were few, in comparison with the vigorous life of
+the Western monasticism.
+
+Montalembert, the brilliant champion of Christian monasticism, becomes
+an adverse critic of the system in the East, although it is noteworthy
+he now speaks of monasticism as it appears in the Greek church, which he
+holds to be heretical; yet his indictment is quite true: "They yielded
+to all the deleterious impulses of that declining society. They have
+saved nothing, regenerated nothing, elevated nothing."
+
+We have visited the hermit in the desert and in the monastery governed
+by its abbot and its rules. We must view the monk in one other aspect,
+that of theological champion. Here the hermit and the monk of the
+monastery meet on common ground. They were fighters, not debaters;
+fighters, not disciplined soldiers; fighters, not persuading Christians.
+They swarmed down from the mountains like hungry wolves. They fought
+heretics, they fought bishops, they fought Roman authorities, they
+fought soldiers, and fought one another. Ignorant, fanatical and cruel,
+they incited riots, disturbed the public peace and shed the blood
+of foes.
+
+Theological discord was made a thousand times more bitter by their
+participation in the controversies of the time. Furious monks became the
+armed champions of Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria. They insulted the
+prefect, drove out the Jews and, to the everlasting disgrace of the
+monks, Cyril and the church, they dragged the lovely Hypatia from her
+lecture hall and slew her with all the cruelty satanic ingenuity could
+devise. Against a background of black and angry sky she stands forth, as
+a soul through whose reason God made himself manifest. Her unblemished
+character, her learning and her grace forever cry aloud against an
+orthodoxy bereft alike of reason and of the spirit of the Nazarene.
+
+The fighting monks crowded councils and forced decisions. They deposed
+hostile bishops or kept their favorites in power by murder and violence.
+Two black-cowled armies met in Constantinople, and amid curses fought
+with sticks and stones a battle of creeds. Cries of "Holy! Holy! Holy!"
+mingled with, "It's the day of martyrdom! Down with the tyrant!" The
+whole East was kept in a feverish state. The Imperial soldiers confessed
+their justifiable fears when they said, "We would rather fight with
+barbarians than with these monks."
+
+No wonder our perplexity increases and it seems impossible to determine
+what these men really did for the cause of truth. We have been unable to
+distinguish the hermit from the beasts of the fields. We hear his
+groans, see his tears, and watch him struggle with demons. We are
+disgusted with his filth, amused at his fancies, grieved at his
+superstition. We pity his agony and admire his courage. We watch the
+progress of order and rule out of chaos. We see monasteries grow up
+around damp caves and dismal huts. We behold Simeon praying among the
+birds of heaven, and look into the face of the young and handsome Basil,
+in whom the monastic institution of the East reaches the zenith of
+its power.
+
+I am free to confess a profound reverence for many of these men
+determined at all hazards to keep their souls unspotted from the world.
+I bow before a passion for righteousness ready to part with life itself
+if necessary. Yet the gross extravagances, the almost incredible
+absurdities of their unnatural lives compel us to withhold our judgment.
+
+One thing is certain, the strange life of those far-off years is an
+eloquent testimony to the indestructible craving of the human soul for
+self-mastery and soul-purity.
+
+
+
+II
+
+_MONASTICISM IN THE WEST: ANTE-BENEDICTINE MONKS 340-480 A.D._
+
+We are now to follow the fortunes of the monastic system from its
+introduction in Rome to the time of Benedict of Nursia, the founder of
+the first great monastic order.
+
+Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, who made
+Christianity the predominant religion in the Roman Empire, died in 337
+A.D. Three years later Rome heard, probably for the first time, an
+authentic account of the Egyptian hermits. The story was carried to the
+Eternal City by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, one of the most
+remarkable characters in the early church, a man of surpassing courage
+and perseverance, an intrepid foe of heresy, "heroic and invincible," as
+Milton styled him. Twenty of the forty-six years of his official life
+were spent in banishment.
+
+Athanasius was an intimate friend of the hermit Anthony and a persistent
+advocate of the ascetic ideal. When he fled to Rome, in 340, to escape
+the persecutions of the Arians, he took with him two specimens of
+monastic virtue--Ammonius and Isidore. These hermits, so filthy and
+savage in appearance, albeit, as I trust, clean in heart, excited
+general disgust, and their story of the tortures and holiness of their
+Egyptian brethren was received with derision. But men who had faced and
+conquered the terrors of the desert were not to be so easily repulsed.
+Aided by other ascetic travelers from the East they persisted in their
+propaganda until contempt yielded to admiration. The enthusiasm of the
+uncouth hermits became contagious. The Christians in Rome now welcomed
+the story of the recluses as a Divine call to abandon a dissolute
+society for the peace and joy of a desert life.
+
+But before this transformation of public opinion can be appreciated, it
+is needful to know something of the social and religious condition of
+Rome in the days when Athanasius and his hermits walked her streets.
+
+After suffering frightful persecutions for three centuries, the Church
+had at last nominally conquered the Roman Empire; nominally, because
+although Christianity was to live, the Empire had to die. "No medicine
+could have prevented the diseased old body from dying. The time had
+come. When the wretched inebriate embraces a spiritual religion with one
+foot in the grave, with a constitution completely undermined, and the
+seeds of death planted, then no repentance or lofty aspiration can
+prevent physical death. It was so in Rome." The death-throes were long
+and lingering, as befits the end of a mighty giant, but death was
+certain. There are many facts which explain the inability of a
+conquering faith to save a tottering empire, but it is impracticable for
+us to enter upon that wide field. Some help may be gained from that
+which follows.
+
+Of morals, Rome was destitute. She possessed the material remains and
+superficial acquirements of a proud civilization, such as great public
+highways, marble palaces, public baths, temples and libraries. Elegance
+of manners and acquisitions of wealth indicate specious outward
+refinement. But these things are not sufficient to guarantee the
+permanence of institutions or the moral welfare of a nation. In the
+souls of men there was a fatal degeneracy. There was outward prosperity
+but inward corruption.
+
+Professor Samuel Dill, in his highly instructive work on "Roman Society
+in the Last Century of the Western Empire," points out the fact that
+Rome's fall was due to economic and political causes as well as to the
+deterioration of her morals. A close study of these causes, however,
+will reveal the presence of moral influences. Professor Dill says: "The
+general tendency of modern inquiry has to discover in the fall of that
+august and magnificent organization, not a cataclysm, precipitated by
+the impact of barbarous forces, but a process slowly prepared and
+evolved by internal and economic causes." Two of these causes were the
+dying out of municipal liberty and self-government, and the separation
+of the upper class from the masses by sharp distributions of wealth and
+privilege. It is indeed true that these causes contributed to Rome's
+ruin; that the central government was weak; that the civil service was
+oppressive and corrupt; that the aristocratic class was selfish; and
+that the small landed proprietors were steadily growing poorer and
+fewer, while, on the contrary, the upper or senatorial class was
+increasing in wealth and power. But after due emphasis has been accorded
+to these destructive factors, it yet remains true that the want of
+public spirit and the prevailing cultivated selfishness may be traced to
+a decline of faith in those religious ideals that serve to stimulate the
+moral life and thus preserve the national integrity.
+
+Society was divided into three classes. It is computed that one-half the
+population were slaves. A large majority of the remainder were paupers,
+living on public charity, and constituting a festering sore that
+threatened the life of the social organism. The rich, who were
+relatively few, squandered princely incomes in a single night, and
+exhausted their imaginations devising new and expensive forms of
+sensuous pleasure. The profligacy of the nobles almost surpasses
+credibility, so that trustworthy descriptions read like works of
+fiction. Farrar says: "A whole population might be trembling lest they
+should be starved by the delay of an Alexandrian corn ship, while the
+upper classes were squandering a fortune at a single banquet, drinking
+out of myrrhine and jeweled vases worth hundreds of pounds, and feasting
+on the brains of peacocks and the tongues of nightingales." The
+frivolity of the social and political leaders of Rome, the insane thirst
+for lust and luxury, the absence of seriousness in the face of
+frightful, impending ruin, almost justify the epigram of Silvianus,
+"Rome was laughing when she died."
+
+     "On that hard pagan world disgust
+     And secret loathing fell;
+     Deep weariness and sated lust
+     Made human life a hell.
+     In his cool hall, with haggard eyes,
+     The Roman noble lay;
+     He drove abroad in furious guise
+     Along the Appian Way;
+     He made a feast, drank fierce and fast,
+     And crowned his hair with flowers
+     No easier nor no guicker past
+     The impracticable hours."
+
+Pagan mythology and Pagan philosophy were powerless to resist this
+downward tendency. Although Christianity had become the state religion,
+it was itself in great danger of yielding to the decay that prevailed.
+The Empire was, in fact, but nominally Christian. Thousands of
+ecclesiastical adherents were half pagan in their spirit and practice.
+Harnack declares, "They were too deeply affected by Christianity to
+abandon it, but too little to be Christians. Pure religious enthusiasm
+waned, ideals received a new form, and the dependence and responsibility
+of individuals became weaker." Even ordinary courage had everywhere
+declined and the pleasures of the senses controlled the heart of
+Christian society.
+
+Many of the men who should have resisted this gross secularization of
+the church, who ought to have set their faces against the departure from
+apostolic ideals by exalting the standards of the earlier Christianity;
+these men, the clergy of the Christian church, had deserted their post
+of duty and surrendered to the prevailing worldliness.
+
+Jerome describes, with justifiable sarcasm, these moral weaklings,
+charged with the solemn responsibility of preaching a pure gospel to a
+dying empire. "Such men think of nothing but their dress; they use
+perfumes freely, and see that there are no creases in their leather
+shoes. Their curling hair shows traces of the tongs; their fingers
+glisten with rings; they walk on tiptoe across a damp road, not to
+splash their feet. When you see men acting that way, think of them
+rather as bridegrooms than as clergymen. If he sees a pillow that takes
+his fancy, or an elegant table-cover, or, indeed, any article of
+furniture, he praises it, looks admiringly at it, takes it into his
+hand, and, complaining that he has nothing of the kind, begs or rather
+extorts it from its owner." Such trifling folly was fatal. The times
+demanded men of vigorous spirit, who dared to face the general decline,
+and cry out in strong tones against it. The age needed moral warriors,
+with the old Roman courage and love of sacrifice; martyrs willing to rot
+in prison or shed their blood in the street, not effeminate men, toying
+with fancy table-covers and tiptoeing across a sprinkled road. "And as a
+background," says Kingsley, "to all this seething heap of corruption,
+misrule and misery, hung the black cloud of the barbarians, the Teutonic
+tribes from whom we derive our best blood, ever coming nearer and
+nearer, waxing stronger and stronger, to be soon the conquerors of the
+Cæsars and the masters of the world."
+
+But there were many pure and sincere Christians--a saving remnant. The
+joyous alacrity with which men and women responded to the monastic call,
+and entered upon careers of self-torture for the sake of deliverance
+from moral corruption, shows that the spirit of true faith was not
+extinct. These seekers after righteousness may be described as "a dismal
+and fanatical set of men, overlooking the practical aims of life," but
+it is a fair question to ask, "if they had not abandoned the world to
+its fate would they not have shared that fate?" "The glory of that age,"
+says Professor Dill, "is the number of those who were capable of such
+self-surrender; and an age should be judged by its ideals, not by the
+mediocrity of conventional religion masking worldly self-indulgence.
+This we have always with us; the other we have not always."
+
+Yet the sad fact remains that the transforming power of Christianity was
+practically helpless before the surging floods of vice and superstition.
+The noble struggles of a few saints were as straws in a hurricane. The
+church had all she could do to save herself.
+
+"When Christianity itself was in such need of reform," says Lord, "when
+Christians could scarcely be distinguished from pagans in love of
+display, and in egotistical ends, how could it reform the world? When it
+was a pageant, a ritualism, an arm of the state, a vain philosophy, a
+superstition, a formula, how could it save, if ever so dominant? The
+corruptions of the church in the fourth century are as well
+authenticated as the purity and moral elevation of Christians in the
+second century." Even in the early days of Christianity the ruin of Rome
+was impending, but, at that time, the adherents of the Christian
+religion were few and poor. They did not possess enough power and
+influence to save the state. When monasticism came to Rome, the lords of
+the church were getting ready to sit upon the thrones of princes, but
+the dazzling victory of the church was not a spiritual conquest of sin,
+so the last ray of hope for the Empire was extinguished. Her fall was
+inevitable.
+
+With this outlined picture in mind, fancy Athanasius and his monks at
+Rome. These men despise luxury and contemn riches. They have come to
+make Rome ring with the old war cries,--although they wrestled not
+against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in high
+places. Terror and despair are on every side, but they are not afraid.
+They know what it means to face the demons of the desert, to lie down at
+night with wild beasts for companions. They have not yielded to the
+depravity of the human heart and the temptations of a licentious age.
+They have conquered sinful appetites by self-abnegation and fasting.
+They come to a distracted society with a message of peace--a peace won
+by courageous self-sacrifice. They call men to save their perishing
+souls by surrendering their wills to God and enlisting in a campaign
+against the powers of darkness. They appeal to the ancient spirit of
+courage and love of hardship. They arouse the dormant moral energies of
+the profligate nobles, proud of the past and sick of the present. The
+story of Anthony admonished Rome that a life of sensuous gratification
+was inglorious, unworthy of the true Roman, and that the flesh could be
+mastered by heroic endeavor.
+
+Women, who spent their hours in frivolous amusements, welcomed with
+gratitude the discovery that they could be happy without degradation,
+and joyfully responded to the call of righteousness. "Despising
+themselves," says Kingsley, "despising their husbands to whom they had
+been wedded in loveless wedlock, they too fled from a world which had
+sated and sickened them."
+
+Woman's natural craving for lofty friendships and pure aspirations found
+satisfaction in the monastic ideal. She fled from the incessant broils
+of a corrupt court, from the courtesans that usurped the place of the
+wife, from the insolence and selfishness of men who scorned even the
+appearance of virtue and did not hesitate to degrade even their wives
+and sisters. She would disprove the biting sarcasm of Juvenal,--
+
+     "Women, in judgment weak, in feeling strong,
+     By every gust of passion borne along.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     A woman stops at nothing, when she wears
+     Rich emeralds round her neck, and in her ears
+     Pearls of enormous size; these justify
+     Her faults, and make all lawful in her eye."
+
+Therefore did the women hear with tremulous eagerness the story of the
+saintly inhabitants of the desert, and flinging away their trinkets,
+they hastened to the solitude of the cell, there to mourn their folly
+and seek pardon and peace at the feet of the Most High.
+
+Likewise, the men, born to nobler tasks than fawning upon princes and
+squandering life and fortune in gluttony and debauchery, blushed for
+shame, and abandoned forever the company of sensualists and parasites.
+Potitianus, a young officer of rank, read the life of Anthony, and cried
+to his fellow-soldier: "Tell me, I pray thee, whither all our labors
+tend? What do we seek? For whom do we carry arms? What can be our
+greatest hope in the palace but to be friend to the Emperor? And how
+frail is that fortune! What perils! When shall this be?" Inspired by the
+monastic story he exchanged the friendship of the Emperor for the
+friendship of God, and the military life lost all its attractiveness.
+
+A philosopher and teacher hears the same narrative, and his countenance
+becomes grave; he seizes the arm of Alypius, his friend, and earnestly
+asks: "What, then, are we doing? How is this? What hast thou been
+hearing? These ignorant men rise; they take Heaven by force, and we,
+with our heartless sciences, behold us wallowing in the flesh and in
+our blood! Is it shameful to follow them, and are we not rather
+disgraced by not following them?" So, disgusted with his self-seeking
+career, his round of empty pleasures, he, too, is moved by this higher
+call to abandon his wickedness and devote his genius to the cause of
+righteousness.
+
+Ambrose, Paulinus, Chrysostom, Basil, Gregory, and many others, holding
+important official posts or candidates for the highest honors, abandoned
+all their chances of political preferment in order to preach the gospel
+of ascetic Christianity.
+
+Yes, for good or evil, Rome is profoundly stirred. The pale monk, in all
+his filth and poverty, is the master of the best hearts in the capital.
+Every one in whom aspiration is still alive, who longs for some new
+light, and all who vaguely grope after a higher life, hear his voice and
+become pliant to his will.
+
+"Great historic movements," says Grimke, "are born not in whirlwinds, in
+earthquakes, and pomps of human splendor and power, but in the agonies
+and enthusiasms of grand, heroic spirits." Monastic history, like
+secular, centers in the biographies of such great men as Anthony, Basil,
+Jerome, Benedict, Francis, Dominic and Loyola. To understand the
+character of the powerful forces set in motion by the coming of the
+monks to Rome, it is necessary to know the leading spirits whose
+preeminent abilities and lofty personalities made Western monasticism
+what it was.
+
+The time is about 418 A.D.; the place, a monastery in Bethlehem, near
+the cave of the Nativity. In a lonely cell, within these monastic walls,
+we shall find the man we seek. He is so old and feeble that he has to be
+raised in his bed by means of a cord affixed to the ceiling. He spends
+his time chiefly in reciting prayers. His voice, once clear and
+resonant, sinks now to a whisper. His failing vision no longer follows
+the classic pages of Virgil or dwells fondly on the Hebrew of the Old
+Testament. This is Saint Jerome, the champion of asceticism, the
+biographer of hermits, the lion of Christian polemics, the translator of
+the Bible, and the worthy, brilliant, determined foe of a dissolute
+society and a worldly church. Although he spent thirty-four years of his
+life in Palestine, I shall consider Jerome in connection with the
+monasticism of the West, for it was in Rome that he exercised his
+greatest influence. His translation of the Scriptures is the Vulgate of
+the Roman church, and his name is enrolled in the calendar of her
+saints. "He is," observes Schaff "the connecting link between the
+Eastern and Western learning and religion."
+
+By charming speech and eloquent tongue Jerome won over the men, but
+principally the women, of Rome to the monastic life. So powerful was his
+message when addressed to the feminine heart, that mothers are said to
+have locked their daughters in their rooms lest they should fall under
+the influence of his magnetic voice. It was largely owing to his own
+labors that he could write in after years: "Formerly, according to the
+testimony of the apostles, there were few rich, few noble, few powerful
+among the Christians. Now, it is no longer so. Not only among the
+Christians, but among the monks are to be found a multitude of the wise,
+the noble and the rich."
+
+Near to the very year that Athanasius came to Rome, or about 340 A.D.,
+Jerome was born at Stridon, in Dalmatia, in what is now called the
+Austro-Hungarian monarchy. His parents were modestly wealthy and were
+slaveholders. His student days were spent in Rome, where he divided his
+time between the study of books and the revels of the streets. One day
+some young Christians induced him to visit the catacombs with them.
+Here, before the graves of Christian martyrs, a quiet and holy influence
+stole into his heart, that finally led to his conversion and baptism.
+Embracing the monastic ideal, he gathered around him a few congenial
+friends, who joined him in a covenant of rigid abstinence and ascetic
+discipline. Then followed a year of travel with these companions,
+through Asia Minor, ending disastrously at Antioch. One of his friends
+returned home, two of them died, and he himself became so sick with
+fever that his life was despaired of. Undismayed by these evils, brought
+on by excessive austerities, he determined to retire to a life
+of solitude.
+
+About fifty miles southeast from Antioch was a barren waste of nature
+but a paradise for monks--the Desert of Chalcis. On its western border
+were several monasteries. All about for miles, the dreary solitudes were
+peopled with shaggy hermits. They saw visions and dreamed dreams in
+caves infested by serpents and wild beasts. They lay upon the sands,
+scorched in summer by the blazing sun, and chilled in winter by the
+winds that blew from snowcapped mountains. For five years, Jerome dwelt
+among these demon-fighting recluses. Clad in sackcloth stained by
+penitential tears, he toiled for his daily bread, and struggled against
+visions of Roman dancing girls. He was a most industrious reader of
+books and a great lover of debate. Monks from far and near visited him,
+and together they discussed questions of theology and philosophy.
+
+But we may not follow this varied and eventful life in all its details.
+After a year or two spent at Constantinople, and three years at Rome, he
+returned to the East, visiting the hermits of Egypt on his way, and
+finally settled at Bethlehem. His fame soon drew around him a great
+company of monks. These he organized into monasteries. He built a
+hospital, and established an inn for travelers. Lacking the necessary
+funds to carry out his projects, he dispatched his brother to the West
+with instructions to sell what was left of his property, and the
+proceeds of this sale he devoted to the cause. While in Bethlehem he
+wrote defences of orthodoxy, eulogies of the dead, lives of saints and
+commentaries on the Bible. He also completed his translation of the
+Scriptures, and wrote numerous letters to persons dwelling in various
+parts of the empire.
+
+Jerome rendered great service to monasticism by his literary labors. He
+invested the dullest of lives with a halo of glory; under the magic
+touch of his rhetoric the wilderness became a gladsome place and the
+desert blossomed as the rose. His glowing language transfigured the pale
+face and sunken eyes of the starved hermit into features positively
+beautiful, while the rags that hung loosely upon his emaciated frame
+became garments of lustrous white. "Oh, that I could behold the desert,"
+he cries, "lovelier than any city! Oh, that I could see those lonely
+spots made into a paradise by the saints that throng them!" Without
+detracting from the bitterness of the prospect, he glorifies the courage
+that can face the horrors of the desert, and the heart that can rejoice
+midst the solitude of the seas. Hear him describe the home of Bonosus, a
+hermit on an isle in the Adriatic:
+
+"Bonosus, your friend, is now climbing the ladder foreshown in Jacob's
+dream. He is bearing his cross, neither taking thought for the morrow,
+nor looking back at what he has left. Here you have a youth, educated
+with us in the refining accomplishments of the world, with abundance of
+wealth and in rank inferior to none of his associates; yet he forsakes
+his mother, his sister, and his dearly loved brother, and settles like a
+new tiller of Eden on a dangerous island, with the sea roaring round its
+reefs, while its rough crags, bare rocks and desolate aspect make it
+more terrible still.... He sees the glory of God which even the apostles
+saw not, save in the desert. He beholds, it is true, no embattled towns,
+but he has enrolled his name in the new city. Garments of sackcloth
+disfigure his limbs, yet so he will the sooner be caught up to meet
+Christ in the clouds. Round the entire island roars the frenzied sea,
+while the beetling crags along its winding shores resound as the billows
+beat against them. Precipitous cliffs surround his dreadful abode as if
+it were a prison. He is careless, fearless, armed from head to foot in
+the apostles' armor."
+
+Listen to these trumpet tones as Jerome calls to a companion of his
+youth in Rome: "O desert, enamelled with the flowers of Christ! O
+retreat, which rejoicest in the friendship of God! What dost thou in the
+world, my brother, with thy soul greater than the world? How long wilt
+thou remain in the shadow of roofs, and in the smoky dungeons of cities?
+Believe me, I see here more light."
+
+To pass hastily over such appeals, coming from distant lands across the
+sea to stir the minds of the thoughtful in Rome, is to ignore one of the
+causes which produced the great exodus that followed. He made men see
+that they were living in a moral Sodom, and that if they would save
+their souls they must escape to the desert. The power of personal
+influence, of inspiring private letters, can hardly be overemphasized in
+studying the remarkable progress of asceticism. Great awakenings in the
+moral, as in the political or the social world, may be traced to the
+profound influence of individuals, whose prophetic insight and moral
+enthusiasm unfold the germ of the larger movements. There may be
+widespread unrest, the ground may be prepared for the seed, but the
+immediate cause of universal uprisings is the clarion call of genius.
+Thus Luther's was the voice that cried in the wilderness, inciting a
+vast host for whom centuries had been preparing.
+
+But Jerome's fame as a man of learning, possessing a critical taste and
+a classic style of rare beauty and simplicity, must not blind us to the
+crowning glory of his brilliant career. He was above all a spiritual
+force. His chief appeal was to the conscience. He warmed the most torpid
+hearts by the fervor of his love, and encouraged the most hopeless by
+his fiery zeal and heroic faith. As a promoter of monasticism, he
+clashed with the interests of an enfeebled clergy and a corrupt laity.
+Nothing could swerve him from his course. False monks might draw
+terrible rebukes from him, but the conviction that the soul could be
+delivered from captivity to the body only by mortification remained
+unshaken. He induced men to break the fetters of society that they
+might, under the more favorable circumstances of solitude, wage war
+against their unruly passions.
+
+When parents objected to his monastic views, Jerome quoted the saying of
+Jesus respecting the renunciation of father and mother, and then said:
+"Though thy mother with flowing hair and rent garments, should show thee
+the breasts which have nourished thee; though thy father should lie upon
+the threshold; yet depart thou, treading over thy father, and fly with
+dry eyes to the standard of the cross. The love of God and the fear of
+hell easily rend the bonds of the household asunder. The Holy Scripture
+indeed enjoins obedience, but he who loves them more than Christ loses
+his soul."
+
+Jerome vividly portrays his own spiritual conflicts. The deserts were
+crowded with saintly soldiers battling against similar temptations, the
+nature of which is suggested by the following excerpt from Jerome's
+writings: "How often," he says, "when I was living in the desert, in the
+vast solitude which gives to hermits a savage dwelling-place, parched by
+a burning sun, how often did I fancy myself among the pleasures of Rome!
+I used to sit alone because I was filled with bitterness. Sack-cloth
+disfigured my unshapely limbs and my skin from long neglect had become
+black as an Ethiopian's. Tears and groans were every day my portion; and
+if drowsiness chanced to overcome my struggles against it, my bare
+bones, which hardly held together, clashed against the ground. Now
+although in my fear of hell I had consigned myself to this prison where
+I had no companions but scorpions and wild beasts, I often found myself
+amid bevies of girls. Helpless, I cast myself at the feet of Jesus, I
+watered them with my tears, and I subdued my rebellious body with weeks
+of abstinence. I remember how I often cried aloud all night till the
+break of day. I used to dread my cell as if it knew my thoughts, and
+stern and angry with myself, I used to make my way alone into the
+desert. Wherever I saw hollow valleys, craggy mountains, steep cliffs,
+there I made my oratory; there the house of correction for my unhappy
+flesh. There, also, when I had shed copious tears and had strained my
+eyes to heaven, I sometimes felt myself among angelic hosts and sang for
+joy and gladness."
+
+No doubt these men were warring against nature. Their yielding to the
+temptation to obtain spiritual dominance by self-flagellation and
+fasting may be criticized in the light of modern Christianity.
+"Fanaticism defies nature," says F.W. Robertson, "Christianity refines
+it and respects it. Christianity does not denaturalize, but only
+sanctifies and refines according to the laws of nature. Christianity
+does not destroy our natural instincts, but gives them a higher and
+nobler direction." To all this I must assent, but, at the same time, I
+cannot but reverence that pure passion for holiness which led men,
+despairing of acquiring virtue in a degenerate age, to flee from the
+world and undergo such torments to attain their soul's ideal. The form,
+the method of their conflict was transient, the spirit and purpose
+eternal. All honor to them for their magnificent and terrible struggle,
+which has forever exalted the spiritual ideal, and commanded men
+everywhere to seek first "the Kingdom of God and its righteousness."
+
+Jerome was always fond of the classics, although pagan writers were not
+in favor with the early Christians. One night he dreamed he was called
+to the skies where he was soundly flogged for reading certain pagan
+authors. This vision interrupted his classical studies for a time. In
+later years he resumed his beloved Virgil; and he vigorously defended
+himself against those who charged him with being a Pagan and an
+apostate on account of his love for Greek and Roman literature. If his
+admiration for Virgil was the Devil's work, I but give the Devil his due
+when I declare that much of the charm of Jerome's literary productions
+is owing to the inspiration of classic models.
+
+Our attention must now be transferred from Jerome to the high-born Roman
+matrons, who laid off their silks that they might clothe themselves in
+the humble garb of the nun. As the narrative proceeds I shall let Jerome
+speak as often as possible, that the reader may become acquainted with
+the style of those biographies and eulogies which were the talk of Rome,
+and which have been admired so highly by succeeding generations.
+
+Those who embraced monasticism in Rome did so in one of two ways. Some
+sold their possessions, adopted coarse garments, and subsisted on the
+plainest food, but they did not leave the city and were still to be seen
+upon the streets. Jerome writes to Pammachius: "Who would have believed
+that a last descendant of the consuls, an ornament of the race of
+Camillus, could make up his mind to traverse the city in the black robe
+of a monk, and should not blush to appear thus clad in the midst of
+senators." Some of those who remained at Rome established a sort of
+retreat for their ascetic friends.
+
+But another class left Rome altogether. Some took up their abode on the
+rugged isles of the Adriatic or the Mediterranean. Large numbers of them
+went to the East, principally to Palestine. Jerome was practically the
+abbot of a Roman colony of monks and nuns. Two motives, beside the
+general ruling desire to achieve holiness, produced this exodus to the
+Holy Land, which culminated centuries later in the crusades. One was a
+desire to see the deserts and caves, the abode of hermits famous for
+piety and miracles. Jerome, as I have shown, invested these lonely
+retreats and strange characters with a sort of holy romance, and hence,
+faith, mingled with curiosity, led men to the East. Another motive was
+the desire to visit the land of the Saviour, to tread the soil
+consecrated by his labors of love, to live a life of poverty in the land
+where He had no home He could call his own.
+
+St. Paula was one of the women who left Rome and went to Palestine. The
+story of her life is told in a letter designed to comfort her daughter
+Eustochium at the time of Paula's death. The epistle begins: "If all the
+members of my body were to be converted into tongues, and if each of my
+limbs were to be gifted with a human voice, I could still do no justice
+to the virtues of the holy and venerable Paula. Of the stock of the
+Gracchi, descended from the Scipios, she yet preferred Bethlehem to
+Rome, and left her palace glittering with gold to dwell in a mud cabin."
+Her husband was of royal blood and had died leaving her five children.
+At his death, she gave herself to works of charity. The poor and sick
+she wrapped in her own blankets. She began to tire of the receptions and
+other social duties which her position entailed upon her. While in this
+frame of mind, two Eastern bishops were entertained at her home during a
+gathering of ecclesiastics. They seem to have imparted the monastic
+impulse, perhaps by the rehearsal of monastic tales, for we are informed
+that at this time she determined to leave servants, property and
+children, in order to embrace the monastic life.
+
+Let us stand with her children and kinsfolk on the shore of the sea as
+they take their final farewell of Paula. "The sails were set and the
+strokes of the rowers carried the vessel into the deep. On the shore
+little Toxotius stretched forth his hands in entreaty, while Rufina, now
+grown up, with silent sobs besought her mother to wait until she should
+be married. But still Paula's eyes were dry as she turned them
+heavenwards, and she overcame her love for her children by her love for
+God. She knew herself no more as a mother that she might approve herself
+a handmaid of Christ. Yet her heart was rent within her, and she
+wrestled with her grief as though she were being forcibly separated from
+parts of herself. The greatness of the affection she had to overcome
+made all admire her victory the more. Though it is against the laws of
+nature, she endured this trial with unabated faith."
+
+So the vessel ploughed onward, carrying the mother who thought she was
+honoring God and attaining the true end of being through ruthless
+strangling of maternal love. She visited Syria and Egypt and the islands
+of Ponta and Cyprus. At the feet of the hermit fathers she begged their
+blessing and tried to emulate the virtues she believed they possessed.
+At Jerusalem she fell upon her face and kissed the stone before the
+sepulcher. "What tears, she shed, what groans she uttered, what grief
+she poured out all Jerusalem knows!"
+
+She established two monasteries at Bethlehem, one of which was for
+women. Here, with her daughter, she lived a life of rigid abstinence.
+Her nuns had nothing they could call their own. If they paid too much
+attention to dress Paula said, "A clean body and a clean dress mean an
+unclean soul." To her credit, she was more lenient with others than with
+herself. Jerome admits she went to excess, and prudently observes:
+"Difficult as it is to avoid extremes, the philosophers are quite right
+in their opinion that virtue is a mean and vice an excess, or, as we may
+express it in one short sentence, in nothing too much." Paula swept
+floors and toiled in the kitchen. She slept on the ground, covered by a
+mat of goat's hair. Her weeping was incessant. As she meditated over the
+Scriptures, her tears fell so profusely that her sight was endangered.
+Jerome warned her to spare her eyes, but she said: "I must disfigure
+that face which, contrary to God's commandment, I have painted with
+rouge, white lead and antimony." If this be a sin against the Almighty,
+bear witness, O ye daughters of Eve! Her love for the poor continued to
+be the motive of her great liberality. In fact, her giving knew no
+bounds. Fuller wisely remarks that "liberality must have banks as well
+as a stream;" but Paula said: "My prayer is that I may die a beggar,
+leaving not a penny to my daughter and indebted to strangers for my
+winding sheet." Her petition was literally granted, for she died leaving
+her daughter not only without a penny but overwhelmed in a mass
+of debts.
+
+As Jerome approaches the description of Paula's death, he says:
+"Hitherto the wind has all been in my favor and my keel has smoothly
+ploughed through the heaving sea. But now my bark is running upon the
+rocks, the billows are mountain high, and imminent shipwreck awaits me."
+Yet Paula, like David, must go the way of all the earth. Surrounded by
+her followers chanting psalms, she breathed her last. An immense
+concourse of people attended her funeral. Not a single monk lingered in
+his cell. Thus, the twenty hard years of self-torture for this Roman
+lady of culture ended in the rest of the grave.
+
+Upon her tombstone was placed this significant inscription:
+
+     "Within this tomb a child of Scipio lies,
+     A daughter of the far-famed Pauline house,
+     A scion of the Gracchi, of the stock
+     Of Agamemnon's self, illustrious:
+     Here rests the lady Paula, well beloved
+     Of both her parents, with Eustochium
+     For daughter; she the first of Roman dames
+     Who hardship chose and Bethlehem for Christ."
+
+Another interesting character of that period was Marcella, a beautiful
+woman of illustrious lineage, a descendant of consuls and prefects.
+After a married life of seven years her husband died. She determined not
+to embark on the matrimonial seas a second time, but to devote herself
+to works of charity. Cerealis, an old man, but of consular rank, offered
+her his fortune that he might consider her less his wife than his
+daughter. "Had I a wish to marry," was her noble reply, "I should look
+for a husband and not for an inheritance." Disdaining all enticements to
+remain in society, she began her monastic career with joy and turned
+her home into a retreat for women who, like herself, wished to retire
+from the world. It is not known just what rules governed their
+relations, but they employed the time in moderate fasting, prayers and
+alms-giving.
+
+Marcella lavished her wealth upon the poor. Jerome praises her
+philanthropic labors thus: "Our widow's clothing was meant to keep out
+the cold and not to show her figure. She stored her money in the
+stomachs of the poor rather than to keep it at her own disposal." Seldom
+seen upon the streets, she remained at home, surrounded by virgins and
+widows, obedient and loving to her mother. Among the high-born women it
+was regarded as degrading to assume the costume of the nun, but she bore
+the scorn of her social equals with humility and grace.
+
+This quiet and useful life was rudely and abruptly ended by a dreadful
+catastrophe. Alaric the Goth had seized and sacked Rome. The world stood
+aghast. The sad news reached Jerome in his cell at Bethlehem, who
+expressed his sorrow in forceful language: "My voice sticks in my
+throat; and as I dictate, sobs choke my utterance. The city which has
+taken the whole world is itself taken." Rude barbarians invaded the
+sanctity of Marcella's retreat. They demanded her gold, but she pointed
+to the coarse dress she wore to show them she had no buried treasures.
+They did not believe her, and cruelly beat her with cudgels. A few days
+after the saintly heroine of righteousness went to her long home to
+enjoy richly-merited rest and peace.
+
+     "Who can describe the carnage of that night?
+     What tears are equal to its agony?
+     Of ancient date a sovran city falls;
+     And lifeless in its streets and houses lie
+     Unnumbered bodies of its citizens.
+     In many a ghastly shape doth death appear."
+
+Marcella and her monastic home fell in the general ruin, but in the
+words of Horace, she left "a monument more enduring than brass." Her
+noble life, so full of kind words and loving deeds, still stirs the
+hearts of her sisters who, while they may reject her ascetic ideal,
+will, nevertheless, try to emulate her noble spirit. As Jerome said of
+Paula: "By shunning glory she earned glory; for glory follows virtue as
+its shadow; and deserting those who seek it, it seeks those who
+despise it."
+
+Still another woman claims our attention,--Fabiola, the founder of the
+first hospital. Lecky declares that "the first public hospital and the
+charity planted by that woman's hand overspread the world, and will
+alleviate to the end of time the darkest anguish of humanity." She, too,
+was a widow who refused to marry again, but broke up her home, sold her
+possessions, and with the proceeds founded a hospital into which were
+gathered the sick from the streets. She nursed the sufferers and washed
+their ulcers and wounds. No task was beneath her, no sacrifice of
+personal comfort too great for her love. Many helped her with their
+gold, but she gave herself. She also aided in establishing a home for
+strangers at Portus, which became one of the most famous inns of the
+time. Travelers from all parts of the world found a welcome and a
+shelter on landing at this port. When she died the roofs of Rome were
+crowded with those who watched the funeral procession. Psalms were
+chanted, and the gilded ceilings of the churches resounded to the music
+in commendation of her loving life and labors.
+
+These and other characters of like zeal and fortitude exemplify the
+spirit of the men and women who interested the West in monasticism. Much
+as their errors and extravagances may be deplored, there is no question
+that some of them were types of the loftiest Christian virtues, inspired
+by the most laudable motives.
+
+Noble and true are Kingsley's words: "We may blame those ladies, if we
+will, for neglecting their duties. We may sneer, if we will, at their
+weaknesses, the aristocratic pride, the spiritual vanity, we fancy we
+discover. We must confess that in these women the spirit of the old
+Roman matrons, which seemed to have been dead so long, flashed up for
+one splendid moment ere it sank into the darkness of the middle ages."
+
+
+
+_Monasticism and Women_
+
+The origin of nunneries was coeval with that of monasteries, and the
+history of female recluses runs parallel to that of the men. Almost
+every male order had its counterpart in some sort of a sisterhood. The
+general moral character of these female associations was higher than
+that of the male organizations. I have confined my treatment in this
+work to the monks, but a few words may be said at this point concerning
+female ascetics.
+
+Hermit life was unsuited to women, but we know that at a very early date
+many of them retired to the seclusion of convent life. It will be
+recalled that in the biography of St. Anthony, before going into the
+desert he placed his sister in the care of some virgins who were living
+a life of abstinence, apart from society. It is very doubtful if any
+uniform rule governed these first religious houses, or if definitely
+organized societies appear much before the time of Benedict. The
+variations in the monastic order among the men were accompanied by
+similar changes in the associations of women.
+
+The history of these sisterhoods discloses three interesting and
+noteworthy facts that merit brief mention:
+
+First, the effect of a corrupt society upon women. As in the case of
+men, women were moved to forsake their social duties because they were
+weary of the sensual and aimless life of Rome. Those were the days of
+elaborate toilettes, painted faces and blackened eyelids, of intrigues
+and foolish babbling. Venial faults--it may be thought--innocent
+displays of tender frailty; but woman's nature demands loftier
+employments. A great soul craves occupations and recognizes obligations
+more in harmony with the true nobility of human nature. Rome had no
+monitor of the higher life until the monks came with their stories of
+heroic self-abnegation and unselfish toil. The women felt the force and
+truth of Jerome's criticism of their trifling follies when he said: "Do
+not seek to appear over-eloquent, nor trifle with verse, nor make
+yourself gay with lyric songs. And do not, out of affectation, follow
+the sickly taste of married ladies, who now pressing their teeth
+together, now keeping their lips wide apart, speak with a lisp, and
+purposely clip their words, because they fancy that to pronounce them
+naturally is a mark of country breeding."
+
+Professor Dill is inclined to discount the testimony of Jerome
+respecting the morals of Roman society. He thinks Jerome exaggerated the
+perils surrounding women. He says: "The truth is Jerome is not only a
+monk but an artist in words; and his horror of evil, his vivid
+imagination, and his passion for literary effect, occasionally carry him
+beyond the region of sober fact. There was much to amend in the morals
+of the Roman world. But we must not take the leader of a great moral
+reformation as a cool and dispassionate observer." But this observation
+amounts to nothing more than a cautionary word against mistaking evils
+common to all times for special symptoms of excessive immorality.
+Professor Dill practically concedes the truthfulness of contemporary
+witnesses, including Jerome, when he says: "Yet, after all allowances,
+the picture is not a pleasant one. We feel that we are far away from the
+simple, unworldly devotion of the freedmen and obscure toilers whose
+existence was hardly known to the great world before the age of the
+Antonines, and who lived in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount and in
+constant expectation of the coming of their Lord. The triumphant Church,
+which has brought Paganism to its knees, is very different from the
+Church of the catacombs and the persecutions." The picture which Jerome
+draws of the Roman women is indeed repulsive, and Professor Dill would
+gladly believe it to be exaggerated, but, nevertheless, he thinks that
+"if the priesthood, with its enormous influence, was so corrupt, it is
+only probable that it debased the sex which is always most under
+clerical influence."
+
+But far graver charges cling to the memories of the Roman women. Crime
+darkened every household. The Roman lady was cruel and impure. She
+delighted in the blood of gladiators and in illicit love. Roman law at
+this time permitted women to hold and to control large estates, and it
+became a fad for these patrician ladies to marry poor men, so that they
+might have their husbands within their power. All sorts of alliances
+could then be formed, and if their husbands remonstrated, they, holding
+the purse strings, were able to say: "If you don't like it you can
+leave." A profligate himself, the husband usually kept his counsel, and
+as a reward, dwelt in a palace. "When the Roman matrons became the equal
+and voluntary companions of their lords," says Gibbon, "a new
+jurisprudence was introduced, that marriage, like other partnerships,
+might be dissolved by the abdication of one of the associates." I have
+but touched the fringe of a veil I will not lift; but it is easy to
+understand why those women who cherished noble sentiments welcomed the
+monastic life as a pathway of escape from scenes and customs from which
+their better natures recoiled in horror.
+
+Secondly, the fine quality of mercy that distinguishes woman's character
+deserves recognition. Even though she retired to a convent, she could
+not become so forgetful of her fellow creatures as her male companions.
+From the very beginning we observe that she was more unselfish in her
+asceticism than they. It is true the monk forsook all, and to that
+extent was self-sacrificing, but in his desire for his own salvation, he
+was prone to neglect every one else. The monk's ministrations were too
+often confined to those who came to him, but the nun went forth to heal
+the diseased and to bind up the broken-hearted. As soon as she embraced
+the monastic life we read of hospitals. The desire for salvation drove
+man into the desert; a Christ-like mercy and divine sympathy kept his
+sister by the couch of pain.
+
+Lastly, a word remains to be said touching the question of marriage. At
+first, the nun sometimes entered the marriage state, and, of course,
+left the convent; but, beginning with Basil, this practice was
+condemned, and irrevocable vows were exacted. In 407, Innocent I. closed
+even the door of penitence and forgiveness to those who broke their vows
+and married.
+
+Widows and virgins alike assumed the veil. Marriage itself was not
+despised, because the monastic life was only for those who sought a
+higher type of piety than, it was supposed, could be attained amid the
+ordinary conditions of life. But marriage, as well as other so-called
+secular relations, was eschewed by those who wished to make their
+salvation sure. Jerome says: "I praise wedlock, I praise marriage, but
+it is because they give me virgins; I gather the rose from the thorns,
+the gold from the earth, the pearl from the shell." He therefore
+tolerated marriage among people contented with ordinary religious
+attainments, but he thought it incompatible with true holiness.
+Augustine admitted that the mother and her daughter may be both in
+heaven, but one a bright and the other a dim star. Some writers, as
+Helvidius, opposed this view and maintained that there was no special
+virtue in an unmarried life; that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was also
+the mother of other children, and as such was an example of Christian
+virtue. Jerome brought out his guns and poured hot shot into the
+enemies' camp. In the course of his answer, which contained many
+intolerant and acrimonious statements, he drew a comparison between the
+married and the unmarried state. It is interesting because it reflects
+the opinions of those who disparaged marriage, and reveals the character
+of the principles which the early Fathers advocated. It is very evident
+from this letter against Helvidius that Jerome regarded all secular
+duties as interfering with the pursuit of the highest virtue.
+
+"Do you think," he says, "there is no difference between one who spends
+her time in prayer and fasting, and one who must, at her husband's
+approach, make up her countenance, walk with a mincing gait, and feign a
+show of endearment? The virgin aims to appear less comely; she will
+wrong herself so as to hide her natural attractions. The married woman
+has the paint laid on before her mirror, and, to the insult of her
+Maker, strives to acquire something more than her natural beauty. Then
+come the prattling of infants, the noisy household, children watching
+for her word and waiting for her kiss, the reckoning up of expenses, the
+preparation to meet the outlay. On one side you will see a company of
+cooks, girded for the onslaught and attacking the meat; there you may
+hear the hum of a multitude of weavers. Meanwhile a message is delivered
+that her husband and his friends have arrived. The wife, like a swallow,
+flies all over the house. She has to see to everything. Is the sofa
+smooth? Is the pavement swept? Are the flowers in the cup? Is dinner
+ready? Tell me, pray, amid all this, is there room for the thought
+of God?"
+
+Such was Roman married life as it appeared to Jerome. The very duties
+and blessings that we consider the glory of the family he despised. I
+will return to his views later, but it is interesting to note the
+absence at this period, of the modern and true idea that God may be
+served in the performance of household and other secular duties. Women
+fled from such occupations in those days that they might be religious.
+The disagreeable fact of Peter's marriage was overcome by the assertion
+that he must have washed away the stain of his married life by the blood
+of his martyrdom. Such extreme views arose partly as a reaction from and
+a protest against the dominant corruption, a state of affairs in which
+happy and holy marriages were rare.
+
+
+
+_The Spread of Monasticism in Europe_
+
+Much more might be said of monastic life in Rome, were it not now
+necessary to treat of the spread of monasticism in Europe. There are
+many noble characters whom we ought to know, such as Ambrose, one of
+Christendom's greatest bishops, who led a life of poverty and strict
+abstinence, like his sister Marcella, whom we have met. He it was, of
+whom the Emperor Theodosius said: "I have met a man who has told me the
+truth." Well might he so declare, for Ambrose refused him admission to
+the church at Milan, because his hands were red with the blood of the
+murdered, and succeeded in persuading him to submit to discipline. To
+Ambrose may be applied the words which Gibbon wrote of Gregory
+Nazianzen: "The title of Saint has been added to his name, but the
+tenderness of his heart and the elegance of his genius reflect a more
+pleasing luster on his memory."
+
+The story of John, surnamed Chrysostom, who was born at Antioch, in 347,
+is exceedingly interesting. He was a young lawyer, who entered the
+priesthood after his baptism. He at once set his heart on the monastic
+life, but his mother took him to her chamber, and, by the bed where she
+had given him birth, besought him in fear, not to forsake her. "My son,"
+she said in substance, "my only comfort in the midst of the miseries of
+this earthly life is to see thee constantly, and to behold in thy traits
+the faithful image of my beloved husband, who is no more. When you have
+buried me and joined my ashes with those of your father, nothing will
+then prevent you from retiring into the monastic life. But so long as I
+breathe, support me by your presence, and do not draw down upon you the
+wrath of God by bringing such evils upon me who have given you no
+offence." This singularly tender petition was granted, but Chrysostom
+turned his home into a monastery, slept on the bare floor, ate little
+and seldom, and prayed much by day and by night.
+
+After his mother's death Chrysostom enjoyed the seclusion of a monastic
+solitude for six years, but impairing his health by excessive
+self-mortification he returned to Antioch in 380. He rapidly rose to a
+position of commanding influence in the church. His peerless oratorical
+and literary gifts were employed in elevating the ascetic ideal and in
+unsparing denunciations of the worldly religion of the imperial court.
+He incurred the furious hatred of the young and beautiful Empress
+Eudoxia, who united her influence with that of the ambitious Theophilus,
+patriarch of Alexandria, and Chrysostom was banished from
+Constantinople, but died on his way to the remote desert of Pityus. His
+powerful sermons and valuable writings contributed in no small degree to
+the spread of monasticism among the Christians of his time.
+
+Then there was Augustine, the greatest thinker since Plato. "We shall
+meet him," says Schaff, "alike on the broad highways and the narrow
+foot-paths, on the giddy Alpine heights and in the awful depths of
+speculation, wherever philosophical thinkers before him or after him
+have trod." He, too, like all the other leaders of thought in his time,
+was ascetic in his habits. Although he lived and labored for
+thirty-eight years at Hippo, a Numidian city about two hundred miles
+west of Carthage, in Africa, Augustine was regarded as the intellectual
+head not only of North Africa but of Western Christianity. He gathered
+his clergy into a college of priests, with a community of goods, thus
+approaching as closely to the regular monastic life as was possible to
+secular clergymen. He established religious houses and wrote a set of
+rules, consisting of twenty-four articles, for the government of
+monasteries. These rules were superseded by those of Benedict, but they
+were resuscitated under Charlemagne and reappeared in the famous Austin
+Canons of the eleventh century. Little did Augustine think that a
+thousand years later an Augustinian monk--Luther--would abandon his
+order to become the founder of modern Protestantism.
+
+Augustine published a celebrated essay,--"On the Labor of Monks,"--in
+which he pointed out the dangers of monachism, condemned its abuses, and
+ended by sighing for the quiet life of the monk who divided his day
+between labor, reading and prayer, whilst he himself spent his years
+amid the noisy throng and the perplexities of his episcopate.
+
+These men, and many others, did much to further monasticism. But we must
+now leave sunny Africa and journey northward through Gaul into the land
+of the hardy Britons and Scots.
+
+Athanasius, the same weary exile whom we have encountered in Egypt and
+in Rome, had been banished by Constantine to Treves, in 336. In 346 and
+349 he again visited Gaul. He told the same story of Anthony and the
+Egyptian hermits with similar results.
+
+The most renowned ecclesiastic of the Gallican church, whose name is
+most intimately associated with the spread of monasticism in Western
+Europe, before the days of Benedict, was Saint Martin of Tours. He lived
+about the years 316-396 A.D. The chronicle of his life is by no means
+trustworthy, but that is essential neither to popularity nor saintship.
+Only let a Severus describe his life and miracles in glowing rhetoric
+and fantastic legend and the people will believe it, pronouncing him
+greatest among the great, the mightiest miracle-worker of that
+miracle-working age.
+
+Martin was a soldier three years, against his will, under Constantine.
+One bleak winter day he cut his white military coat in two with his
+sword and clothed a beggar with half of it. That night he heard Jesus
+address the angels: "Martin, as yet only a catechumen has clothed me
+with his garment." After leaving the army he became a hermit, and,
+subsequently, bishop of Tours. He lived for years just outside of Tours
+in a cell made of interlaced branches. His monks dwelt around him in
+caves cut out of scarped rocks, overlooking a beautiful stream. They
+were clad in camel's hair and lived on a diet of brown bread, sleeping
+on a straw couch.
+
+But Martin's monks did not take altogether kindly to their mode of life.
+Severus records an amusing story of their rebellion against the meager
+allowance of food. The Egyptian could exist on a few figs a day. But
+these rude Gauls, just emerging out of barbarism, were accustomed to
+devour great slices of roasted meat and to drink deep draughts of beer.
+Such sturdy children of the northern forests naturally disdained dainty
+morsels of barley bread and small potations of wine. True, Athanasius
+had said, "Fasting is the food of angels," but these ascetic novices, in
+their perplexity, could only say: "We are accused of gluttony; but we
+are Gauls; it is ridiculous and cruel to make us live like angels; we
+are not angels; once more, we are only Gauls." Their complaint comes
+down to us as a pathetic but humorous protest of common sense against
+ascetic fanaticism; or, regarded in another light, it may be considered
+as additional evidence of the depravity of the natural man.
+
+In spite of all complaints, however, Martin did not abate the severity
+of his discipline. As a bishop he pushed his monastic system into all
+the surrounding country. His zeal knew no bounds, and his strength
+seemed inexhaustible. "No one ever saw him either gloomy or merry,"
+remarks his biographer. Amid many embarrassments and difficulties he was
+ever the same, with a countenance full of heavenly serenity. He was a
+great miracle-worker--that is, if everything recorded of him is true. He
+cast out demons, and healed the sick; he had strange visions of angels
+and demons, and, wonderful to relate, thrice he raised bodies from
+the dead.
+
+But all conquerors are at last vanquished by the angel of death, and
+Martin passed into the company of the heavenly host and the category of
+saints. Two thousand monks attended his funeral. His fame spread all
+over Europe. Tradition tells us he was the uncle of Saint Patrick of
+Ireland. Churches were dedicated to him in France, Germany, Scotland and
+England. The festival of his birth is celebrated on the eleventh of
+November. In Scotland this day still marks the winter term, which is
+called Martinmas. Saint Martin's shrine was one of the most famous of
+the middle ages, and was noted for its wonderful cures. No saint is
+held, even now, in higher veneration by the French Catholic.
+
+It is not known when the institution was planted in Spain, but in 380
+the council of Saragossa forbade priests to assume monkish habits.
+Germany received the institution some time in the fifth century. The
+introduction of Christianity as well as of monasticism into the British
+Isles is shrouded in darkness. A few jewels of fact may be gathered from
+the legendary rubbish. It is probable that before the days of Benedict,
+Saint Patrick, independently of Rome, established monasteries in Ireland
+and preached the gospel there; and, without doubt, before the birth of
+Benedict of Nursia, there were monks and monasteries in Great Britain.
+The monastery of Bangor is said to have been founded about 450 A.D.
+
+It is probable that Christianity was introduced into Britain before the
+close of the second century, and that monasticism arose some time in the
+fifth century. Tertullian, about the beginning of the third century,
+boasts that Christianity had conquered places in Britain where the Roman
+arms could not penetrate. Origen claimed that the power of the Savior
+was manifest in Britain as well as in Muritania. The earliest notice we
+have of a British church occurs in the writings of the Venerable Bede
+(673-735 A.D.), a monk whose numerous and valuable works on English
+history entitle him to the praise of being "the greatest literary
+benefactor this or any other nation has produced." He informs us that a
+British king--Lucius--embraced Christianity during the reign of the
+Emperor Aurelius, and that missionaries were sent from Rome to Britain
+about that time. Lingard says the story is suspicious, since "we know
+not from what source Bede, at the distance of five centuries, derived
+his information." It seems quite likely that there must have been some
+Christians among the Roman soldiers or civil officials who lived in
+Britain during the Roman occupation of the country. The whole problem
+has been the theme of so much controversy, however, that a fuller
+discussion is reserved for the next chapter.
+
+
+
+_Disorders and Oppositions_
+
+But was there no protest against the progress of these ascetic
+teachings? Did the monastic institution command the unanimous approval
+of the church from the outset? There were many and strong outcries
+against the monks, but they were quickly silenced by the counter-shouts
+of praise. Even when rebellion against the system seemed formidable, it
+was popular nevertheless. The lifted hand was quickly struck down, and
+voices of opposition suddenly hushed. Like a mighty flood the movement
+swept on,--kings, when so inclined, being powerless to stop it. As Paula
+was carried fainting from the funeral procession of Blæsilla, her
+daughter, whispers such as these were audible in the crowd: "Is not this
+what we have often said? She weeps for her daughter, killed with
+fasting. How long must we refrain from driving these detestable monks
+out of Rome? Why do we not stone them or hurl them into the Tiber? They
+have misled this unhappy mother; that she is not a nun from choice is
+clear. No heathen mother ever wept for her children as she does for
+Blæsilla." And this is Paula, who, choked with grief, refused to weep
+when she sailed from her children for the far East!
+
+Unhappily, history is often too dignified to retail the conversations of
+the dinner-table and the gossip of private life. But this narrative
+indicates that in many a Roman family the monk was feared, despised and
+hated. Sometimes everyday murmurs found their way into literature and so
+passed to posterity. Rutilius, the Pagan poet, as he sails before a
+hermit isle in the Mediterranean, exclaims: "Behold, Capraria rises
+before us; that isle is full of wretches, enemies of light. I detest
+these rocks scene of a recent shipwreck." He then goes on to declare
+that a young and rich friend, impelled by the furies, had fled from men
+and gods to a living tomb, and was now decaying in that foul retreat.
+This was no uncommon opinion. But contrast it with what Ambrose said of
+those same isles: "It is there in these isles, thrown down by God like a
+collar of pearls upon the sea, that those who would escape from the
+charms of dissipation find refuge. Nothing here disturbs their peace,
+all access is closed to the wild passions of the world. The mysterious
+sound of waves mingles with the chant of hymns; and, while the waters
+break upon the shores of these happy isles with a gentle murmur, the
+peaceful accents of the choir of the elect ascend toward Heaven from
+their bosom." No wonder the Milanese ladies guarded their daughters
+against this theological poet.
+
+Even among the Christians there were hostile as well as friendly critics
+of monasticism; Jovinian, whom Neander compares to Luther, is a type of
+the former. Although a monk himself, he disputed the thesis that any
+merit lay in celibacy, fasting or poverty. He opposed the worship of
+saints and relics, and believed that one might retain possession of his
+property and make good use of it. He assailed the dissolute monks and
+claimed that many of Rome's noblest young men and women were withdrawn
+from a life of usefulness into the desert. He held that there was really
+but one class of Christians, namely, those who had faith in Christ, and
+that a monk could be no more. But Jovinian was far in advance of his
+age, and it was many years before the truth of his view gained any
+considerable recognition. He was severely attacked by Jerome, who called
+him a Christian Epicurean, and was condemned as a heretic by a synod at
+Milan, in 390. Thus the reformers were crushed for centuries. The Pagan
+Emperor, Julian, and the Christian, Valens, alike tried in vain to
+resist the emigration into the desert. Thousands fled, in times of peril
+to the state, from their civil and military duties, but the emperors
+were powerless to prevent the exodus.
+
+That there were grounds for complaint against the monks we may know from
+the charges made even by those who favored the system. Jerome Ambrose,
+Augustine, and in fact almost every one of the Fathers tried to correct
+the growing disorders. We learn from them that many fled from society,
+not to become holy, but to escape slavery and famine; and that many were
+lazy and immoral. Their "shaven heads lied to God." Avarice, ambition,
+or cowardice ruled hearts that should have been actuated by a love of
+poverty, self-sacrifice or courage. "Quite recently," says Jerome, "we
+have seen to our sorrow a fortune worthy of Croesus brought to light by
+a monk's death, and a city's alms collected for the poor, left by will
+to his sons and successors."
+
+Many monks traveled from place to place selling sham relics. Augustine
+wrote against "those hypocrites who, in the dress of monks, wander about
+the provinces carrying pretended relics, amulets, preservatives, and
+expecting alms to feed their lucrative poverty and recompense their
+pretended virtue." It is to the credit of the Fathers of the church
+that they boldly and earnestly rebuked the vices of the monks and tried
+to purge the monastic system of its impurities.
+
+But the church sanctioned the monastic movement. She could not have done
+anything else. "It is one of the most striking occurrences in history,"
+says Harnack, "that the church, exactly at the time when she was
+developing more and more into a legal institution and a sacramental
+establishment, outlined a Christian life-ideal which was incapable of
+realization within her bounds, but only alongside of her. The more she
+affiliated herself with the world, the higher and more superhuman did
+she make her ideal."
+
+It is also noteworthy that this "life-ideal" seems to have led,
+inevitably, to fanaticism and other excesses, so that even at this early
+date there was much occasion for alarm. Gross immorality was disclosed
+as well as luminous purity; indolence and laziness as well as the love
+of sacrifice and toil. So we shall find it down through the centuries.
+"The East had few great men," says Milman, "many madmen; the West,
+madmen enough, but still very many, many great men." We have met some
+madmen and some great men. We shall meet more of each type.
+
+After 450 A.D., monasticism suffered an eclipse for over half a century.
+It seemed as if the Western institution was destined to end in that
+imbecility and failure which overtook the Eastern system. But there came
+a man who infused new life into the monastic body. He systematized its
+scattered principles and concentrated the energies of the wandering and
+unorganized monks.
+
+Our next visit will be to the mountain home of this renowned character,
+fifty miles to the west of Rome. "A single monk," says Montalembert, "is
+about to form there a center of spiritual virtue, and to light it up
+with a splendor destined to shine over regenerated Europe for ten
+centuries to come."
+
+
+
+III
+
+_THE BENEDICTINES_
+
+Saint Benedict, the founder of the famous monastic order that bears his
+name, was born at Nursia, about 480 A.D. His parents, who were wealthy,
+intended to give him a liberal education; but their plans were defeated,
+for at fifteen years of age Benedict renounced his family and fortune,
+and fled from his school life in Rome. The vice of the city shocked and
+disgusted him. He would rather be ignorant and holy, than educated and
+wicked. On his way into the mountains, he met a monk named Romanus,--the
+spot is marked by the chapel of Santa Crocella,--who gave him a
+haircloth shirt and a monastic dress of skins. Continuing his journey
+with Romanus, the youthful ascetic discovered a sunless cave in the
+desert of Subiaco, about forty miles from Rome. Into this cell he
+climbed, and in it he lived three years. It was so inaccessible that
+Romanus had to lower his food to him by a rope, to which was attached a
+bell to call him from his devotions. Once the Devil threw a stone at the
+rope and broke it.
+
+But Benedict's bodily escape from the wickedness of Rome did not secure
+his spiritual freedom. "There was a certain lady of thin, airy shape,
+who was very active in this solemnity; her name was Fancy." Time and
+again, he revisited his old haunts, borne on the wings of his
+imagination. The face of a beautiful young girl of previous acquaintance
+constantly appeared before him. He was about to yield to the temptation
+and to return, when, summoning all his strength, he made one mighty
+effort to dispel the illusion forever. Divesting himself of his clothes,
+he rolled his naked body among the thorn-bushes near his cave. It was
+drastic treatment, but it seems to have rid his mind effectually of
+disturbing fancies. This singular self-punishment was used by Godric,
+the Welsh saint, in the twelfth century. "Failing to subdue his
+rebellious flesh by this method, he buried a cask in the earthen floor
+of his cell, filled it with water and fitted it with a cover, and in
+this receptacle he shut himself up whenever he felt the titillations of
+desire. In this manner, varied by occasionally passing the night up to
+his chin in a river, of which he had broken the ice, he finally
+succeeded in mastering his fiery nature."
+
+One day some peasants discovered Benedict at the entrance of his cave.
+Deceived by his savage appearance, they mistook him for a wild beast,
+but the supposed wolf proving to be a saint, they fell down and
+reverenced him.
+
+The fame of the young ascetic attracted throngs of hermits, who took up
+their abodes near his cell. After a time monasteries were established,
+and Benedict was persuaded to become an abbot in one of them. His
+strictness provoked much opposition among the monks, resulting in
+carefully-laid plots to compass the moral ruin of their spiritual guide.
+An attempt to poison him was defeated by a miraculous interposition, and
+Benedict escaped to a solitary retreat.
+
+Again the moral hero became an abbot, and again the severity of his
+discipline was resented. This time a wicked and jealous priest sought to
+entrap the saint by turning into a garden in which he was accustomed to
+walk seven young girls of exquisite physical charms. When Benedict
+encountered this temptation, he fled from the scene and retired to a
+picturesque mountain--the renowned Monte Cassino. Let Montalembert
+describe this celebrated spot among the western Apennines: "At the foot
+of this rock Benedict found an amphitheatre of the time of the Cæsars,
+amidst the ruins of the town of Casinum, which the most learned and
+pious of Romans, Varro, that pagan Benedictine, whose memory and
+knowledge the sons of Benedict took pleasure in honoring, had rendered
+illustrious. From the summit the prospect extended on one side towards
+Arpinum, where the prince of Roman orators was born, and on the other
+towards Aquinum, already celebrated as the birthplace of Juvenal.... It
+was amidst those noble recollections, this solemn nature, and upon that
+predestinated height, that the patriarch of the monks of the West
+founded the capital of the monastic order."
+
+In the year 529 a great stronghold of Paganism in these wild regions
+gave way to Benedict's faith. Upon the ruins of a temple to Apollo, and
+in a grove sacred to Venus, arose the model of Western monasticism,--the
+cloister of Monte Cassino, which was to shine resplendent for a thousand
+years. The limitations of my purpose will prevent me from following in
+detail the fortunes of this renowned retreat, but it may not be out of
+place to glance at its subsequent history.
+
+Monte Cassino is located three and a half miles to the northeast of the
+town of Cassino, midway between Rome and Naples. About 589 A.D. the
+Lombards destroyed the buildings, but the monks escaped to Rome, in
+fulfilment, so it is claimed, of a prophecy uttered by Benedict. It lay
+in ruins until restored by Gregory II. in 719, only to be burned in 884
+by the Saracens; seventy years later it was again rebuilt. It afterwards
+passed through a variety of calamities, and was consecrated, for the
+third time, by Benedict XII., in 1729. Longfellow quotes a writer for
+the _London Daily News_ as saying: "There is scarcely a pope or emperor
+of importance who has not been personally connected with its history.
+From its mountain crag it has seen Goths, Lombards, Saracens, Normans,
+Frenchmen, Spaniards, Germans, scour and devastate the land which,
+through all modern history, has attracted every invader."
+
+It was enriched by popes, emperors and princes. In its palmy days the
+abbot was the first baron in the realm, and commanded over four hundred
+towns and villages. In 1866, it shared the fate of all the monasteries
+of Italy. It still stands upon the summit of the mountain, and can be
+seen by the traveler from the railway in the valley. At present it
+serves as a Catholic seminary with about two hundred students. It
+contains a spacious church, richly ornamented with marble, mosaics and
+paintings. It has also a famous library which, in spite of bad usage, is
+still immensely valuable. Boccaccio made a visit to the place, and when
+he saw the precious books so vilely mutilated, he departed in tears,
+exclaiming: "Now, therefore, O scholar, rack thy brains in the making of
+books!" The library contains about twenty thousand volumes, and about
+thirty-five thousand popes' bulls, diplomas and charters. There are also
+about a thousand manuscripts, some of which are of priceless value, as
+they date from the sixth century downward, and consist of ancient
+Bibles and important medieval literature.
+
+Benedict survived the founding of this monastery fourteen years. His
+time was occupied in establishing other cloisters, perfecting his rule,
+and preaching. Many stories are related of his power over the hearts of
+the untamed barbarians. Galea the Goth, out on a marauding expedition,
+demanded a peasant to give him his treasures. The peasant, thinking to
+escape, said he had committed them to the keeping of Benedict. Galea
+immediately ordered him to be bound on a horse and conducted to the
+saint. Benedict was seated at the gateway reading when Galea and his
+prisoner arrived. Looking up from his book he fastened his eyes upon the
+poor peasant, who was immediately loosed from his bonds. The astonished
+Galea, awed by this miracle, fell at the feet of the abbot, and, instead
+of demanding gold, supplicated his blessing. Once a boy was drowning,
+and, at the command of Benedict, St. Maur, a wealthy young Roman, who
+had turned monk, walked safely out upon the water and rescued the lad.
+Gregory also tells us many stories of miraculous healing, and of one
+resurrection from the dead.
+
+Benedict's last days were linked with a touching incident. His sister,
+Scholastica, presided over a convent near his own. They met once a year.
+On his last visit to her, Scholastica begged him to remain and "speak of
+the joys of Heaven till the morning." But Benedict would not listen; he
+must return. His sister then buried her face in her hands weeping and
+praying. Suddenly the sky was overcast with clouds, and a terrific storm
+burst upon the mountains, which prevented her brother's return. Three
+days later Benedict saw the soul of his sister entering heaven. On March
+21, 543, a short time after his sister's death, two monks beheld a
+shining pathway of stars over which the soul of Benedict passed from
+Monte Cassino to heaven. Such, in brief, is the story preserved for us
+in his biography by the celebrated patron of monasticism, Pope
+Gregory I.
+
+
+
+_The Rules of Benedict_
+
+The rules, _regulae_, of St. Benedict, are worthy of special
+consideration, since they constitute the real foundation of his success
+and of his fame. His order was by far the most important monastic
+brotherhood until the thirteenth century. Nearly all the other orders
+which sprang up during this interval were based upon Benedictine rules,
+and were really attempts to reform the monastic system on the basis of
+Benedict's original practice. Other monks lived austere lives and worked
+miracles, and some of them formulated rules, but it is to Benedict and
+his rules that we must look for the code of Western monachism. "By a
+strange parallelism," says Putnam, "almost in the very year in which the
+great Emperor Justinian was codifying the results of seven centuries of
+Roman secular legislation for the benefit of the judges and the
+statesmen of the new Europe, Benedict, on his lonely mountain-top, was
+composing his code for the regulation of the daily life of the great
+civilizers of Europe for seven centuries to come."
+
+The rules consist of a preface and seventy-three chapters. The prologue
+defines the classes of monks, and explains the aim of the "school of
+divine servitude," as Benedict described his monastery. The following is
+a partial list of the subjects considered: The character of an abbot,
+silence, maxims for good works, humility, directions as to divine
+service, rules for dormitories, penalties, duties of various monastic
+officers, poverty, care of the sick daily rations of food and drink,
+hours for meals, fasting, entertainment of guests, and dress. They close
+with the statement that the Benedictine rule is not offered as an ideal
+of perfection, or even as equal to the teaching of Cassian or Basil, but
+for mere beginners in the spiritual life, who may thence
+proceed further.
+
+The Benedictine novitiate extended over one year, but was subsequently
+increased to three. At the close of this period the novice was given the
+opportunity to go back into the world. If he still persisted in his
+choice, he swore before the bones of the saints to remain forever cut
+off from the rest of his fellow beings. If a monk left the monastery, or
+was expelled, he could return twice, but if, after the third admission,
+he severed his connection, the door was shut forever.
+
+The monk passed his time in manual labor, copying manuscripts, reading,
+fasting and prayer. He was forbidden to receive letters, tokens or
+gifts, even from his nearest-relatives, without permission from the
+abbot. His daily food allowance was usually a pound of bread, a pint of
+wine, cider or ale, and sometimes fish, eggs, fruit or cheese. He was
+dressed in a black cowl. His clothing was to be suitable to the climate
+and to consist of two sets. He was also furnished with a straw mattress,
+blanket, quilt, pillow, knife, pen, needle, handkerchief and tablets. He
+was, in all things, to submit patiently to his superior, to keep
+silence, and to serve his turn in the kitchen. In the older days the
+monks changed their clothes on the occasion of a bath, which used to be
+taken four times a year. Later, bathing was allowed only twice a year,
+and the monks changed their clothes when they wished.
+
+Various punishments were employed to correct faults. Sometimes the
+offender was whipped on the bare shoulders with a thick rod; others had
+to lie prostrate in the doorway of the church at each hour, so that the
+monks passed over his body on entering or going out.
+
+The monks formerly rose at two o'clock, and spent the day in various
+occupations until eight at night, when they retired. The following rules
+once governed St. Gregory's Monastery in England: "3:45 A.M. Rise. 4
+A.M. Matins and lauds, recited; half-hour mental prayer; prime _sung_;
+prime B.V.M. recited. 6:30 A.M. Private study; masses; breakfast for
+those who had permission. 8 A.M. Lectures and disputations. 10 A.M.
+Little hours B.V.M., recited; tierce, mass, sext, _sung_. 11:30 A.M.
+Dinner. 12 noon. None _sung_; vespers and compline B.V.M., recited.
+12:30 P.M. Siesta, 1 P.M. Hebrew or Greek lecture. 2 P.M. Vespers
+_sung_. 2:30 P.M. Lectures and disputations. 4 P.M. Private study. 6
+P.M. Supper. 6:30 P.M. Recreation. 7:30 P.M. Public spiritual reading;
+compline _sung_; matins and lauds B.V.M., recited; half-hour mental
+prayer. 8:45 P.M. Retire[D]."
+
+[Footnote D: Appendix, Note D.]
+
+Such a routine suggests a dreary life, but that would depend upon the
+monk's temperament. Regularity of employment kept him healthy, and if he
+did not take his sins too much to heart, he was free from gloom. Hill
+very justly observes: "Whenever men obey that injunction of labor, no
+matter what their station, there is in the act the element of happiness,
+and whoever avoids that injunction, there is always the shadow of the
+unfulfilled curse darkening their path." Thus, their ideal was "to
+subdue one's self and then to devote one's self," which De Tocqueville
+pronounces "the secret of strength." How well they succeeded in
+realizing their ideal by the methods employed we shall see later.
+
+The term "order," as applied to the Benedictines, is used in a different
+sense from that which it has when used of later monastic bodies. Each
+Benedictine house was practically independent of every other, while the
+houses of the Dominicans, Franciscans or Jesuits were bound together
+under one head. The family idea was peculiar to the Benedictines. The
+abbot was the father, and the monastery was the home where the
+Benedictine was content to dwell all his life. In the later monastic
+societies the monks were constantly traveling from place to place.
+Taunton says: "As God made society to rest on the basis of the family,
+so St. Benedict saw that the spiritual family is the surest basis for
+the sanctification of the souls of his monks. The monastery therefore is
+to him what the 'home' is to lay-folk.... From this family idea comes
+another result: the very fact that St. Benedict did not found an Order
+but only gave a Rule, cuts away all possibility of that narrowing
+_esprit de corps_ which comes so easily to a widespread and
+highly-organized body."
+
+In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, however, it became necessary
+for the general good of each family to secure some kind of union. The
+Chapter then came into existence, which was a representative body,
+composed of the heads of the different houses and ordinary monks
+regularly appointed as delegates. To the Chapter were committed various
+matters of jurisdiction, and also the power of sending visitors to the
+different abbeys in the pope's name.
+
+Each society was ruled by an abbot, who governed in Christ's stead.
+Sometimes the members of the monastery were consulted, the older ones
+ordinarily, the whole congregation; in important matters. But implicit
+obedience to the abbot, as the representative of God, was demanded
+by the vows.
+
+The abbot was to be elected by the monks. At various periods popes and
+princes usurped this power, but the monks always claimed the right as an
+original privilege. Carlyle quotes Jocelin on Abbot Samson, who says
+that the monks of St. Edmundsbury were compelled to submit their choice
+to Henry II., who, looking at the committee of monks somewhat sternly,
+said: "You present to me Samson; I do not know him; had it been your
+prior, whom I do know, I should have accepted him; however, I will now
+do as you wish. But have a care of yourselves. By the true eyes of God,
+if you manage badly, I will be upon you."
+
+In Walter Scott's novel, "The Abbot," there is an interesting contrast
+drawn between the ceremonies attending an abbot's installation, when the
+monasteries were in their glory, and the pitiable scenes in the days of
+their decline, when Mary Stuart was a prisoner in Lochleven. In the
+monastery of Kennaquhair, which had been despoiled by the fury of the
+times, a few monks were left to mourn the mutilated statues and weep
+over the fragments of richly-carved Gothic pillars. Having secretly
+elected an abbot, they assembled in fear and trembling to invest him
+with the honors of his office. "In former times," says Scott, "this was
+one of the most splendid of the many pageants which the hierarchy of
+Rome had devised to attract the veneration of the faithful. When the
+folding doors on such solemn occasions were thrown open, and the new
+abbot appeared on the threshold in full-blown dignity, with ring and
+mitre and dalmatique and crosier, his hoary standard-bearers and
+juvenile dispensers of incense preceding him, and the venerable train of
+monks behind him, his appearance was the signal for the magnificent
+jubilate to rise from the organ and the music-loft and to be joined by
+the corresponding bursts of 'Alleluiah' from the whole assembled
+congregation.
+
+"Now all was changed. Father Ambrose stood on the broken steps of the
+high altar, barefooted, as was the rule, and holding in his hand his
+pastoral staff, for the gemmed ring and jewelled mitre had become
+secular spoils. No obedient vassals came, man after man, to make their
+homage and to offer the tribute which should provide their spiritual
+superior with palfrey and trappings. No bishop assisted at the solemnity
+to receive into the higher ranks of the church nobility a dignitary
+whose voice in the legislature was as potent as his own."
+
+We are enabled by this partially-quoted description to imagine the
+importance attached to the election of an abbot. He became, in feudal
+times, a lord of the land, the richest man in the community, and a
+tremendous power in political councils and parliaments. A Benedictine
+abbot once confessed: "My vow of poverty has given me a hundred thousand
+crowns a year; my vow of obedience has raised me to the rank of a
+sovereign prince."
+
+No new principle seems to be disclosed by the Benedictine rules. The
+command to labor had been emphasized even in the monasteries of Egypt.
+The Basilian code contained a provision enforcing manual labor, but the
+work was light and insufficient to keep the mind from brooding. The
+monastery that was to succeed in the West must provide for men who not
+only could toil hard, but who must do so if they were to be kept pure
+and true; it must welcome men accustomed to the dangerous adventures of
+pioneer life in the vast forests of the North. The Benedictine system
+met these conditions by a unique combination and application of
+well-known monastic principles; by a judicious subordination of minor
+matters to essential discipline; by bringing into greater prominence
+the doctrine of labor; by tempering the austerities of the cell to meet
+the necessities of a severe climate; and lastly, by devising a scheme of
+life equally adaptable to the monk of sunny Italy and the rude Goth of
+the northern forests.
+
+It was the splendid fruition of many years of experiment amid varying
+results. "It shows," says Schaff, "a true knowledge of human nature, the
+practical wisdom of Rome and adaptation to Western customs; it combines
+simplicity with completeness, strictness with gentleness, humility with
+courage and gives the whole cloister life a fixed unity and compact
+organization, which, like the episcopate, possessed an unlimited
+versatility and power of expansion."
+
+
+
+_The Struggle against Barbarism_
+
+No institution has contributed as much to the amelioration of human
+misery or struggled as patiently and persistently to influence society
+for good as the Christian church. In spite of all that may be said
+against the followers of the Cross, it still remains true, that they
+have ever been foremost in the establishment of peace and justice
+among men.
+
+The problem that confronted the church when Benedict began his labors,
+was no less than that of reducing a demoralized and brutal society to
+law and order. Chaos reigned, selfishness and lust ruled the hearts of
+Rome's conquerors. The West was desolated by barbarians; the East
+dismembered and worn out by theological controversy. War had ruined the
+commerce of the cities and laid waste the rural districts. Vast swamps
+and tracts of brush covered fields once beautiful with the products of
+agricultural labor. The minds of men were distracted by apprehensions of
+some frightful, impending calamity. The cultured Roman, the untutored
+Goth and the corrupted Christian were locked in the deadly embrace of
+despair. "Constantly did society attempt to form itself," says Guizot,
+"constantly was it destroyed by the act of man, by the absence of the
+moral conditions under which alone it can exist."
+
+But notwithstanding failures and discouragements, the work of
+reconstructing society moved painfully on, and among the brave master
+builders was Benedict of Nursia. "He found the world, physical and
+social, in ruins," says Cardinal Newman, "and his mission was to restore
+it in the way,--not of science, but of nature; not as if setting about
+to do it; not professing to do it by any set time, or by any series of
+strokes; but so quietly, patiently, gradually, that often till the work
+was done, it was not known to be doing. It was a restoration rather than
+a visitation, correction or conversion. The new world he helped to
+create was a growth rather than a structure."
+
+But the chaos created by the irruption of the barbarous nations at this
+period seriously affected the moral character and influence of the
+clergy and the monks. The church seemed unequal to the stupendous
+undertaking of converting the barbarians. The monks, as a class, were
+lawless and vicious. Benedict himself testifies against them, and
+declares that they were "always wandering and never stable; that they
+obey their own appetites, whereunto they are enslaved." Unable to
+control their own desires by any law whatsoever, they were unfitted to
+the task before them. It was imperative, then, that unity and order
+should be introduced among the monasteries; that some sort of a uniform
+rule, adapted to the existing conditions, should be adopted, not only
+for the preservation of the monastic institution, but for the
+preparation of the monks for their work. Therefore, although the
+Christianity of that time was far from ideal, it was, nevertheless, a
+religion within the grasp of the reckless barbarians; and subsequent
+events prove that it possessed a moral power capable of humanizing
+manners, elevating the intellect, and checking the violent temper of
+the age.
+
+Excepting always the religious services of the Benedictine monks, their
+greatest contribution to civilization was literary and educational[E].
+The rules of Benedict provided for two hours a day of reading, and it
+was doubtless this wise regulation that stimulated literary tastes, and
+resulted in the collecting of books and the reproduction of manuscripts.
+"Wherever a Benedictine house arose, or a monastery of any one of the
+Orders, which were but offshoots from the Benedictine tree, books were
+multiplied and a library came into existence, small indeed at first, but
+increasing year by year, till the wealthier houses had gathered together
+collections of books that would do credit to a modern university."
+There was great danger that the remains of classic literature might be
+destroyed in the general devastation of Italy. The monasteries rescued
+the literary fragments that escaped, and preserved them. "For a period
+of more than six centuries the safety of the literary heritage of
+Europe,--one may say of the world,--depended upon the scribes of a few
+dozen scattered monasteries."
+
+[Footnote E: Appendix, Note E.]
+
+The literary services of the earlier monks did not consist in original
+production, but in the reproduction and preservation of the classics.
+This work was first begun as a part of the prescribed routine of
+European monastic life in the monastery at Vivaria, or Viviers, France,
+which was founded by Cassiodorus about 539. The rules of this cloister
+were based on those of Cassian, who died in the early part of the fifth
+century. Benedict, at Monte Cassino, followed the example of
+Cassiodorus, and the Benedictine Order carried the work on for the seven
+succeeding centuries.
+
+Cassiodorus was a statesman of no mean ability, and for over forty years
+was active in the political circles of his time, holding high official
+positions under five different Roman rulers. He was also an exceptional
+scholar, devoting much of his energy to the preservation of classic
+literature. His magnificent collection of manuscripts, rescued from the
+ruins of Italian libraries, "supplied material for the pens of thousands
+of monastic scribes." If we leave out Jerome, it is to Cassiodorus that
+the honor is due for joining learning and monasticism.
+
+"Thus," remarks Schaff, "that very mode of life, which, in its founder,
+Anthony, despised all learning, became in the course of its development
+an asylum of culture in the rough and stormy times of the migration and
+the crusades, and a conservator of the literary treasures of antiquity
+for the use of modern times."
+
+Cassiodorus, with a noble enthusiasm, inspired his monks to their task.
+He even provided lamps of ingenious construction, that seem to have been
+self-trimming, to aid them in their work. He himself set an example of
+literary diligence, astonishing in one of his age.
+
+Putnam is justified in his praises of this remarkable character when he
+declares: "It is not too much to say that the continuity of thought and
+civilization of the ancient world with that of the middle ages was due,
+more than to any other one man, to the life and labors of Cassiodorus."
+
+But the monk was more than a scribe and a collector of books, he became
+the chronicler and the school-teacher. "The records that have come down
+to us of several centuries of medieval European history are due almost
+exclusively to the labors of the monastic chroniclers." A vast fund of
+information, the value of which is impaired, it is true, by much useless
+stuff, concerning medieval customs, laws and events, was collected by
+these unscientific historians and is now accessible to the student.
+
+At the end of the ninth century nearly all the monasteries of Europe
+conducted schools open to the children of the neighborhood. The
+character of the educational training of the times is not to be judged
+by modern standards. A beginning had to be made, and that too at a time
+"when neither local nor national governments had assumed any
+responsibilities in connection with elementary education, and when the
+municipalities were too ignorant, and in many cases too poor, to make
+provision for the education of the children." It is therefore to the
+lasting credit of Benedict, inspired no doubt by the example of
+Cassiodorus, that he commanded his monks to read, encouraged literary
+work, and made provision for the education of the young.
+
+The Benedictines rendered a great social service in reclaiming deserted
+regions and in clearing forests. "The monasteries," says Maitland,
+"were, in those days of misrule and turbulence, beyond all price, not
+only as places where (it may be imperfectly, but better than elsewhere)
+God was worshipped,... but as central points whence agriculture was to
+spread over bleak hills and barren downs and marshy plains, and deal its
+bread to millions perishing with hunger and its pestilential train."
+Roman taxation and barbarian invasions had ruined the farmers, who left
+their lands and fled to swell the numbers of the homeless. The monk
+repeopled these abandoned but once fertile fields, and carried
+civilization still deeper into the forests. Many a monastery with its
+surrounding buildings became the nucleus of a modern city. The more
+awful the darkness of the forest solitudes, the more the monks loved
+it. They cut down trees in the heart of the wilderness, and transformed
+a soil bristling with woods and thickets into rich pastures and ploughed
+fields. They stimulated the peasantry to labor, and taught them many
+useful lessons in agriculture. Thus, they became an industrial, as well
+as a spiritual, agency for good.
+
+The habits of the monks brought them into close contact with nature.
+Even the animals became their friends. Numerous stories have been
+related of their wonderful power over wild beasts and their
+conversations with the birds. "It is wonderful," says Bede, "that he who
+faithfully and loyally obeys the Creator of the universe, should, in his
+turn, see all the creatures obedient to his orders and his wishes." They
+lived, so we are told, in the most intimate relations with the animal
+creation. Squirrels leaped to their hands or hid in the folds of their
+cowls. Stags came out of the forests in Ireland and offered themselves
+to some monks who were ploughing, to replace the oxen carried off by the
+hunters. Wild animals stopped in their pursuit of game at the command of
+St. Laumer. Birds ceased singing at the request of some monks until
+they had chanted their evening prayer, and at their word the feathered
+songsters resumed their music. A swan was the daily companion of St.
+Hugh of Lincoln, and manifested its miraculous knowledge of his
+approaching death by the most profound melancholy. While all the details
+of such stories are not to be accepted as literally true, no doubt some
+of this poetry of monastic history rests upon interesting and
+charming facts.
+
+A fuller discussion of the permanent contributions which the monk made
+to civilization is reserved for the last chapter. I have somewhat
+anticipated a closer scrutiny of his achievements in order to present a
+clearer view of his life and labors. His religious duties were, perhaps,
+wearisome enough. We might tire of his monotonous chanting and incessant
+vigils, but it is gratifying to know that he also engaged in practical
+and useful employments. The convent became the house of industry as well
+as the temple of prayer. The forest glades echoed to the stroke of the
+axe as well as to hymns of praise. Yes, as Carlyle writes of the twelfth
+century, "these years were no chimerical vacuity and dreamland peopled
+with mere vaporous phantasms, but a green solid place, that grew corn
+and several other things. The sun shone on it, the vicissitudes of
+seasons and human fortunes. Cloth was woven and worn; ditches were dug,
+furrowed fields ploughed and houses built."
+
+
+
+_The Spread of the Benedictine Rule_
+
+It is generally held that Benedict had no presentiment of the vast
+historical importance of his system; and that he aspired to nothing
+beyond the salvation of his own soul and those of his brethren.
+
+But the rule spread with wonderful rapidity. In every rich valley arose
+a Benedictine abbey. Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, France and Spain
+adopted his rule. Princes, moved by various motives, hastened to bestow
+grants of land on the indefatigable missionary who, undeterred by the
+wildness of the forest and the fierceness of the barbarian, settled in
+the remotest regions. In the various societies of the Benedictines there
+have been thirty-seven thousand monasteries and one hundred and fifty
+thousand abbots. For the space of two hundred and thirty-nine years the
+Benedictines governed the church by forty-eight popes chosen from their
+order. They boast of two hundred cardinals, seven thousand archbishops,
+fifteen thousand bishops and four thousand saints. The astonishing
+assertion is also made that no less than twenty emperors and forty-seven
+kings resigned their crowns to become Benedictine monks. Their convents
+claim ten empresses and fifty queens. Many of these earthly rulers
+retired to the seclusion of the monastery because their hopes had been
+crushed by political defeat, or their consciences smitten by reason of
+crime or other sins. Some were powerfully attracted by the heroic
+element of monastic life, and these therefore spurned the luxuries and
+emoluments of royalty, in order by personal sacrifice to achieve
+spiritual domination in this life, and to render their future salvation
+certain. But whatever the motive that drew queens and princes to the
+monastic order, the retirement of such large numbers of the nobility
+indicates the influence of a religious system which could cope so
+successfully with the attractions of the palace and the natural passion
+for political dominion.
+
+Saint Gregory the Great, the biographer of Benedict, who was born at
+Rome in 540 A.D. and so was nearly contemporaneous with Benedict was a
+zealous promoter of the monastic ideal, and did as much as any one to
+advance its ecclesiastical position and influence. He founded seven
+monasteries with his paternal inheritance, and became the abbot of one
+of them. He often expressed a desire to escape the clamor of the world
+by retirement to a lonely cell. Inspired by the loftiest estimates of
+his holy office, he sought to reform the church in its spirit and life.
+Many of his innovations in the church service bordered upon a dangerous
+and glittering pomp; but the musical world will always revere his memory
+for the famous chants that bear his name.
+
+Gregory surrounded himself with monks, and did everything in his power
+to promote their interests. He increased the novitiate to two years, and
+exempted certain monasteries from the control of the bishops. Other
+popes added to these exemptions, and thus widened the breach which
+already existed between the secular clergy and the monks. He also fixed
+a penalty of lifelong imprisonment for abandonment of the
+monastic life.
+
+Under Gregory's direction many missionary enterprises were carried on,
+notably that of Augustine to England. The story runs that one day
+Gregory saw some men and beautiful children from Britain put up for sale
+in the market-place. Deeply sighing, he exclaimed: "Alas for grief! That
+the author of darkness possesses men of so bright countenance, and that
+so great grace of aspect bears a mind void of inward grace!" He then
+asked the children the name of their nation. "Angles," was the reply.
+"It is well," he said, "for they have _angelic_ faces. What is the name
+of your province?" It was answered, "Deira." "Truly," he said,
+"_De-ira-ns,_ drawn from anger, and called to the mercy of Christ. How
+is your king called?" They answered, "Ælla, or Ella." Then he cried
+"_Alleluia!_ it behooves that the praise of God the Creator should be
+sung in those parts." While it is hard to accept this evidently fanciful
+story in its details, it seems quite probable that the sale of some
+English slaves in a Roman market drew the attention of Gregory to the
+needs of Britain.
+
+Some years afterwards, in 596, Gregory commissioned Augustine, prior of
+the monastery of St. Andrew's on the Celian Hill, at Rome, with forty
+companions, to preach the gospel in Britain. When this celebrated
+missionary landed on the island of Thanet, he found monasticism had
+preceded him. But what was the nature of this British monasticism? On
+that question Rome and England are divided.
+
+The Romanist declares that no country received the Christian faith more
+directly from the Church of Rome than did England; that the most careful
+study of authentic records reveals no doctrinal strife, no diversity of
+belief between the early British monks and the Pope of Rome; that St.
+Patrick, of Ireland, and St. Columba, of Scotland, were loyal sons of
+their Roman mother.
+
+The Anglican, on the other hand, believes that Christianity was
+introduced into Britain independently of Rome. As to the precise means
+employed, he has his choice of ten legends. He may hold with Lane that
+it is reasonable to suppose one of Paul's ardent converts, burning with
+fervent zeal, led the Britons to the cross. Or he may argue with others:
+"What is more natural than to imagine that Joseph of Arimathea, driven
+from Palestine, sailed away to Britain." In proof of this assumption, we
+are shown the chapel of St. Joseph, the remains of the oldest Christian
+church, where the holy-thorn blossoms earlier than in any other part of
+England. Many Anglicans wisely regard all this as legendary. It is also
+held that St. Patrick and St. Columba were not Romanists, but
+represented a type of British Christianity, which, although temporarily
+subjected to Rome, yet finally threw off the yoke under Henry VIII. and
+reasserted its ancient independence. Still others declare that when
+Augustine was made archbishop, the seat of ecclesiastical authority was
+transferred from Rome to Canterbury, and the English church became an
+independent branch of the universal church. It was Catholic, but
+not Roman.
+
+The difficulty of ascertaining when and by whom Christianity was
+originally introduced into southern Britain must be apparent to every
+student. But some things may be regarded as historically certain. The
+whole country had been desolated by war when Augustine arrived. For a
+hundred and fifty years the brutality and ignorance of the barbarians
+had reigned supreme. All traces of Roman civilization had nearly
+disappeared with the conquest of the heathen Anglo-Saxons. Whatever may
+be thought about the subsequent effects of the triumph of Roman
+Christianity, it is due to Rome to recognize the fact that with the
+coming of the Roman missionaries religion and knowledge began a
+new life.
+
+The Anglo-Saxons had destroyed the Christian churches and monasteries,
+whose origin, as we have seen, is unknown. They drove away or massacred
+the priests and monks. Christianity was practically extirpated in those
+districts subject to the Germanic yoke. But when Augustine landed
+British monks were still to be found in various obscure parts of the
+country, principally in Ireland and Wales. Judging from what is known of
+these monks, it is safe to say that their habits and teachings were
+based on the traditions of an earlier Christianity, and that originally
+British Christianity was independent of Rome.
+
+The monks in Britain at the time when Augustine landed differed from the
+Roman monks in their tonsures, their liturgy, and the observance of
+Easter, although no material difference in doctrine can be established.
+The clergy did not always observe the law of celibacy nor perhaps the
+Roman rules of baptism. It is also admitted, even by Catholic
+historians, that the British monks refused to acknowledge Augustine
+their archbishop; that this question divided the royal family; and that
+the old British church was not completely subdued until Henry II.
+conquered Ireland and Wales. These statements are practically supported
+by Ethelred L. Taunton, an authoritative writer, whose sympathy with
+Roman monasticism is very strong. He thinks that a few of the British
+monks submitted to Augustine, but of the rest he says: "They would not
+heed the call of Augustine, and on frivolous pretexts refused to
+acknowledge him." A large body of British monks retired to the monastery
+of Bangor, and when King Ethelfrid invaded the district of Wales, he
+slew twelve hundred of them in the open field as they were upon their
+knees praying for the success of the Britons. It was then that the power
+of the last remnants of Celtic or British Christianity was practically
+broken, and the Roman type henceforth gradually acquired the mastery.
+
+Montalembert says: "In no other country has Catholicism been persecuted
+with more sanguinary zeal; and, at the same time, none has greater need
+of her care." While the latter observation is open to dispute, it is
+certainly true that England has never remained quiet under the dominion
+of Rome. Goldsmith's tribute to the English character suggests a
+reasonable explanation of this historic fact:
+
+     "Stern o'er each bosom reason holds her state,
+     Fierce in their native hardiness of soul,
+     True to imagined right, above control,
+     While even the peasant boasts those rights to scan,
+     And learns to venerate himself as man."
+
+The fact to be remembered, as we emerge from these ecclesiastical
+quarrels and the confusions of this perplexing history, is that the
+monks were the intellectual and religious leaders of those days. They
+exercised a profound influence upon English society, and had much to do
+with the establishment of English institutions.
+
+But, on the other hand, the continent is indebted to England for the
+gift of many noble monks who served France and Germany as intellectual
+and moral guides, at a time when these countries were in a state of
+extreme degradation. Boniface, the Apostle to the Germans, who is
+regarded by Neander as the Father of the German church and the real
+founder of the Christian civilization of Germany, was the gift of the
+English cloisters, and a native of Devonshire. Alcuin, the
+ecclesiastical prime minister of Charlemagne and the greatest educator
+of his time, was born and trained in England. Nearly all the leading
+schools of France were founded or improved by this celebrated monk. It
+was largely due to Alcuin's unrivaled energy and splendid talents that
+Charlemagne was able to make so many and so glorious educational
+improvements in his empire.
+
+Notable among the men who introduced the Benedictine rule into England
+was St. Wilfred (634-709 A.D.), who had traveled extensively in France
+and Italy, and on his return carried the monastic rule into northern
+Britain. He also is credited with establishing a course of musical
+training in the English monasteries. He was the most active prelate of
+his age in the founding of churches and monasteries, and in securing
+uniformity of discipline and harmony with the Church of Rome.
+
+One of the most famous monastic retreats of those days was the wild and
+lonely isle of Iona, the Mecca of monks and the monastic capital of
+Scotland. It is a small island, three miles long and one broad, lying
+west of Scotland. Many kings of Scotland were crowned here on a stone
+which now forms a part of the British coronation chair. Its great
+monastery enjoyed the distinction from the sixth to the eighth century
+of being second to none in its widespread influence in behalf of the
+intellectual life of Europe.
+
+This monastery was originally founded in the middle of the sixth century
+by Columba, the Apostle to Caledonia, an Irish saint actively associated
+with a wonderful intellectual awakening. The rule of the monastery is
+unknown, but it is probable that it could not have been, at the first,
+of the Benedictine type. Columba's followers traveled as missionaries
+and teachers to all parts of Europe, and it is said, they dared to sail
+in their small boats even as far as Iceland.
+
+Dr. Johnson says in his "Tour to the Hebrides": "We are now treading
+that illustrious island which was once the luminary of the Caledonian
+regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits
+of knowledge and the blessing of religion. That man is little to be
+envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon,
+or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona." The
+monastery which Columba founded here was doubtless of the same character
+as the establishments in Ireland. Many of these Celtic buildings were
+made of the branches of trees and supported by wooden props. It was some
+time before properly-constructed wooden churches or monasteries became
+general in these wild regions. In such rude huts small libraries were
+collected and the monks trained to preach. Ireland was then the center
+of knowledge in the North. Greek, Latin, music and such science as the
+monks possessed were taught to eager pupils. Copies of their manuscripts
+are still to be found all over Europe. Their schools were open to the
+rich and poor alike. The monks went from house to house teaching and
+distributing literature. As late as the sixteenth century, students from
+various parts of the Continent were to be found in these Irish schools.
+
+There is an interesting story related of Columba's literary activities.
+It is said that on one occasion while visiting his master, Finnian, he
+undertook to make a clandestine copy of the abbot's Psalter. When the
+master learned of the fact, he indignantly charged Columba with theft,
+and demanded the copy which he had made, on the ground that a copy made
+without permission of the author was the property of the original owner,
+because a transcript is the offspring of the original work. Putnam, to
+whom I am indebted for this story, says: "As far as I have been able to
+ascertain, this is the first instance which occurs in the history of
+European literature of a contention for a copyright." The conflict for
+this copyright afterwards developed into a civil war. The copy of the
+Latin Psalter "was enshrined in the base of a portable altar as the
+national relic of the O'Donnell clan," and was preserved by that family
+for thirteen hundred years. It was placed on exhibition as late as 1867,
+in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy.
+
+Enough has now been said to enable the reader to understand something of
+the spirit and labors of the monks in an age characteristically
+barbaric. For five centuries, from the fifth to the tenth, the
+condition of Europe was deplorable. "It may be doubted," says an old
+writer, "whether the worst of the Cæsars exceeded in dark malignity, or
+in capriciousness of vengeance, the long-haired kings of France." The
+moral sense of even the most saintly churchmen seems to have been
+blunted by familiarity with atrocities and crimes. Brute force was the
+common method of exercising control and administering justice. The
+barbarians were bold and independent, but cruel and superstitious. Their
+furious natures needed taming and their rude minds tutoring. Even though
+during this period churches and monasteries were raised in amazing
+numbers, yet the spirit of barbarism was so strong that the Christians
+could scarcely escape its influence. The power of Christianity was
+modified by the nature of the people, whose characters it aimed to
+transform. The remarks of William Newton Clarke respecting the
+Christians of the first and second centuries are also appropriate to the
+period under review: "The people were changed by the new faith, but the
+new faith was changed by the people." Christianity "made a new people,
+better than it found them, but they in turn made a new Christianity,
+with its strong points illustrated and confirmed in their experience,
+but with weakness brought in from their defects."
+
+Yes, the work of civilizing the Germanic nations was a task of herculean
+proportions and of tremendous significance. Out of these tribes were to
+be constructed the nations of modern Europe. To this important mission
+the monks addressed themselves with such courage, patience, faith and
+zeal, as to entitle them to the veneration of posterity. With singular
+wisdom and unflinching bravery they carried on their missionary and
+educational enterprises, in the face of discouragements and obstacles
+sufficient to dismay the bravest souls. The tenacious strength of those
+wild forces that clashed with the tenderer influences of the cloister
+should soften our criticism of the inconsistencies which detract from
+the glory of those early ministers of righteousness and exemplars of
+gentleness and peace.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+_REFORMED AND MILITARY ORDERS_
+
+The monastic institution was never entirely good or entirely bad. In
+periods of general degradation there were beautiful exceptions in
+monasteries ruled by pure and powerful abbots. From the beginning
+various monasteries soon departed from their discipline by sheltering
+iniquity and laziness, while other establishments faithfully observed
+the rules. But during the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries there was a
+widespread decline in the spirit of devotion and a shameful relaxation
+of monastic discipline. Malmesbury, King Alfred, Alcuin, in England, and
+many continental writers, sorrowfully testified against the monks
+because of their vices, their revelings, their vain and gorgeous
+ornaments of dress and their waning zeal for virtue. The priests hunted
+and fought, prayed, preached, swore and drank as they pleased. "We
+cannot wonder," says an anonymous historian, "that they should commit
+the more reasonable offence of taking wives." Disorders were common
+everywhere; the monastic vows were sadly neglected. Political and
+religious ideals were lost sight of amid the prevailing confusion and
+wild commotion of those dark days. "It is true," says Carlyle, "all
+things have two faces, a light one and a dark. It is true in three
+centuries much imperfection accumulates; many an ideal, monastic or
+otherwise, shooting forth into practice as it can, grows to a strange
+reality; and we have to ask with amazement, Is this your ideal? For alas
+the ideal has to grow into the real, and to seek out its bed and board
+there, often in a sorry way."
+
+This, then, may be accepted as the usual history of a monastery or a
+monastic order. First, vows of poverty, obedience and chastity zealously
+cherished and observed; as a result of loyalty to this ideal, a spirit
+of devotion to righteousness is created, and a pure, lofty type of
+Christian life is formed, which, if not the highest and truest, is
+sufficiently exalted to win the reverence of worldly men and an
+extra-ordinary power over their lives and affections. There naturally
+follow numerous and valuable gifts of land and gold. The monks become
+rich as well as powerful. Then the decline begins. Vast riches have
+always been a menace to true spirituality. Perhaps they always will be.
+The wealthy monk falls a prey to pride and arrogance; he becomes
+luxurious in his habits, and lazy in the performance of duty. Vice
+creeps in and his moral ruin is complete. The transformation in the
+character of the monk is accompanied by a change in public opinion. The
+monk is now an eyesore; his splendid buildings are viewed with envy by
+some, with shame by others. Then arise the vehement cries for the
+destruction of his palatial cloister, and the heroic efforts of the
+remnant that abide faithful to reform the institution. This has been the
+pathway over which every monastic order has traveled. As long as there
+was sufficient vitality to give birth to reformatory movements, new
+societies sprang up as off-shoots of the older orders, some of which
+adopted the original rules, while others altered them to suit the views
+of the reforming founder. "For indeed," says Trench, "those orders,
+wonderful at their beginning, and girt up so as to take heaven by storm,
+seemed destined to travel in a mournful circle from which there was no
+escape." These facts partly explain the reformatory movements which
+appear from the ninth century on.
+
+The first great saint to enter the lists against monastic corruption was
+Benedict of Aniane (750-821 A.D.), a member of a distinguished family in
+southern France. The Benedictine rule in his opinion was formed for
+novices and invalids. He attributed the prevailing laxity among the
+monks to the mild discipline. As abbot of a monastery he undertook to
+reform its affairs by adopting a system based on Basil of Asia Minor and
+Pachomius of Egypt. But he leaned too far back for human nature in the
+West, and the conclusion was forced upon him that Benedict of Nursia had
+formulated a set of rules as strict as could be enforced among the
+Western monks. Accordingly he directed his efforts to secure a faithful
+observance of the original Benedictine rules, adding, however, a number
+of rigid and burdensome regulations. Although at first the monks doubted
+his sanity, kicked him and spat on him, yet he afterwards succeeded in
+gathering about three hundred of them under his rule. Several colonies
+were sent out from his monastery, which was built on his patrimonial
+estate near Montpellier. His last establishment, which was located near
+Aix-la-Chapelle, became famous as a center of learning and sanctity.
+
+One of the most celebrated reform monasteries was the convent of Cluny,
+or Clugny, in Burgundy, about fifteen miles from Lyons, which was
+founded by Duke William of Aquitaine in 910. It was governed by a code
+based on the rule of St. Benedict. The monastery began with twelve monks
+under Bruno, but became so illustrious that under Hugo there were ten
+thousand monks in the various convents under its rule. It was made
+immediately subject to the pope,--that is, exempt from the jurisdiction
+of the bishop. Some idea of its splendid equipment may be formed from
+the fact that it is said, that in 1245, after the council of Lyons, it
+entertained Innocent IV., two patriarchs, twelve cardinals, three
+archbishops, fifteen bishops, many abbots, St. Louis, King of France,
+several princes and princesses, each with a considerable retinue, yet
+the monks were not incommoded. It gave to the church three
+popes,--Gregory VII., Urban II. and Paschal II.
+
+From his cell at Cluny, Hildebrand, who became the famous Gregory VII.,
+looked out upon a world distracted by war and sunk in vice. "In
+Hildebrand's time, while he was studying those annals in Cluny," says
+Thomas Starr King, "a boy pope, twelve years old, was master of the
+spiritual scepter, and was beginning to lead a life so shameful, foul
+and execrable that a subsequent pope said, 'he shuddered to
+describe it.'"
+
+Connected with the monastery was the largest church in the world,
+surpassed only a little, in later years, by St. Peter's at Rome. Its
+construction was begun in 1089 by the abbot Hugo, and it was consecrated
+in 1131, under the administration of Peter the Venerable. It boasted of
+twenty-five altars and many costly works of art.
+
+So great was the fame and influence of this establishment that numerous
+convents in France and Italy placed themselves under its control, thus
+forming "The Congregation of Cluny."
+
+After the administration of Peter the Venerable (1122-1156), this
+illustrious house began to succumb to the intoxication of success, and
+it steadily declined in character and influence until its property was
+confiscated by the Constituent Assembly, in 1799, and the church sold
+for one hundred thousand francs. It is now in ruin.
+
+But in spite of every attempt at reform during the ninth and tenth
+centuries the decline of the continental monasteries continued. Many
+persons of royal blood, accustomed to the license of palaces, entered
+the cloister and increased the disorders. The monks naturally respected
+their blood and relaxed the discipline in their favor. The result was
+costly robes, instead of the simple, monastic garb, riotous living, and
+a general indifference to spirituality. Spurious monasteries sprang up
+with rich lay-abbots at their head, who made the office hereditary in
+their families. Laymen were appointed to rich benefices simply that they
+might enjoy the revenues. These lay-abbots even went so far as to live
+with their families in their monasteries, and rollicking midnight
+banquets were substituted for the asceticism demanded by the vows. They
+traveled extensively attended by splendid retinues. Some of the monks
+seemed intent on nothing but obtaining charters of privileges and
+exemptions from civil and military duties.
+
+In England the state of affairs was even more distressing than on the
+Continent. The evil effects of the Saxon invasion, the demoralization
+that accompanied the influx of paganism, and the almost complete
+destruction of the religious institutions of British Christianity have
+already been noted. About the year 700, the island was divided among
+fifteen petty chiefs, who waged war against one another almost
+incessantly. Christianity, as introduced by Augustine, had somewhat
+mitigated the ferocity of war, and England had begun to make some
+approach toward a respect for law and a veneration for the Christian
+religion, when the Danes came, and with them another period of
+disgraceful atrocities and blighting heathenism. The Danish invasion had
+almost extirpated the monastic institution in the northern districts.
+Carnage and devastation reigned everywhere. Celebrated monasteries fell
+in ruins and the monks were slain or driven into exile. Hordes of
+barbaric warriors roamed the country, burning and plundering.
+
+"At the close of this calamitous period," says Lingard, in his "History
+and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church," "the Anglo-Saxon church
+presented a melancholy spectacle to the friends of religion: 1. The
+laity had resumed the ferocious manners of their pagan forefathers. 2.
+The clergy had grown indolent, dissolute and illiterate. 3. The monastic
+order had been apparently annihilated. It devolved on King Alfred,
+victorious over his enemies, to devise and apply the remedies for these
+evils." The good king endeavored to restore the monastic institution,
+but, owing to the lack of candidates for the monastic habit, he was
+compelled to import a colony of monks from Gaul.
+
+The moral results of Alfred's reformatory measures, as well as those of
+his immediate successors, were far from satisfactory, although he did
+vastly stimulate the educational work of the monastic schools. He
+devoted himself so faithfully to the gathering of traditions, that he is
+said to be the father of English history. The tide of immorality,
+however, was too strong to be stemmed in a generation or two. It was a
+century and a half before there was even an approach to substantial
+victory over the disgraceful abuses among the clergy and the monks.
+
+The churchman who is credited with doing most to distinguish the monks
+as a zealous and faithful body was Dunstan (924-988 A.D.), first Abbot
+of Glastonbury, then Bishop of Winchester, and finally Archbishop of
+Canterbury. He is the most conspicuous ecclesiastical personage in the
+history of those dark days, but his character and labors have given rise
+to bitter and extensive controversy.
+
+It was Dunstan's chief aim to subjugate the Anglo-Saxon church to the
+power of Rome, and to correct existing abuses by compelling the clergy
+and the monks to obey the rule of celibacy. He was a fervent believer in
+the efficacy of the Benedictine vows, and in the value of clerical
+celibacy as a remedy for clerical licentiousness. Naturally, Protestant
+writers, who hold that papal supremacy never was a blessing in any
+country or in any age, and who think that clerical celibacy has always
+been a fruitful source of crime and sin, condemn the reforms of Dunstan
+in the most unqualified terms. A statement of a few of the many and
+perplexing facts may assist us to form a fairly just judgment of the
+man and his work.
+
+The principle of sacerdotal celibacy appeared early in the history of
+Christianity, and for many centuries it was the subject of sharp
+contention. Roman Catholics themselves have been divided upon it. In
+every Christian country, from the Apostolic period onward, there were
+priests and teachers who opposed the imposition of this rule upon the
+clergy, and, on the other hand, there were those who practiced and
+advocated celibacy as the indispensable guarantee of spiritual power
+and purity.
+
+What the rule of celibacy was at this period, in England, seems
+uncertain. Lingard maintains that marriage was always permitted to the
+clergy in minor orders, who were employed in various subordinate
+positions, but that those in higher orders, whose office it was to
+minister at the altar and to offer the sacrifice, were expressly bound
+to a life of the strictest continence. During the invasion of the Danes,
+when confusion reigned, many priests in the higher orders had not only
+forsaken their vows of chastity, but had plunged into frightful
+immoralities; and married clerks of inferior orders were raised to the
+priesthood to fill the ranks depleted by war. These promoted clerks were
+previously required to separate from their wives, but apparently many of
+them did not do so. Consequently, from several causes, the married
+priests became a numerous body, and since the common opinion seems to
+have been that a married priest was disgracing his office, this body was
+regarded as a menace to the welfare of the church and the state.
+
+Lea, in his elaborate "History of Sacerdotal Celibacy," holds that the
+rule of celibacy was only binding on the regulars, or monks, and that
+the secular priesthood was at liberty to marry. But from several other
+passages in his work it seems that he also recognizes the fact that,
+while marriage was common, it was in defiance of an ancient canon. "It
+is evident," he says, "that the memory of the ancient canons was not
+forgotten, and that their observance was still urged by some ardent
+churchmen, but that the customs of the period had rendered them
+virtually obsolete, and that no sufficient means existed of enforcing
+obedience. If open scandals and shameless bigamy and concubinage could
+be restrained, the ecclesiastical authorities were evidently content.
+Celibacy could not be enjoined as a law, but was rendered attractive by
+surrounding it with privileges and immunities denied to him who yielded
+to the temptations of the flesh."
+
+Throughout Western Christendom the law of celibacy was openly and
+shamefully trampled upon, and every reformer seemed to think that the
+very first step toward any improvement in clerical morals was to be
+taken by enforcing this rule.
+
+When Dunstan commenced his reforms, the clergy were guilty of graver
+sins than that of living in marriage relations. Adultery, bigamy,
+swearing, fighting and drinking were the order of the day. The
+monasteries were occupied by secular priests with wives or concubines.
+All the chroniclers of this period agree in charging the monks and
+clergy with a variety of dissipations and disorders.
+
+It is quite clear, therefore, that in Dunstan's view he was doing the
+only right thing in trying to correct the existing abuses by compelling
+the priests to adopt that celibate life without which it was popularly
+believed the highest holiness and the largest usefulness could not be
+attained. In the light of this purpose and this common opinion of his
+time, Dunstan and his mission should be judged.
+
+Dunstan was aided in his work by King Edgar the Pacific, who, by the
+way, was himself compelled to go without his crown seven years for
+violating the chastity of a nun. Oswald, the Bishop of Worcester, and
+Ethelwold, the Bishop of Winchester, were also zealously engaged in the
+task of reform.
+
+A law was enacted providing that priests, deacons and sub-deacons should
+live chastely or resign. As a result of this law, many priests were
+ejected from the monasteries and from their official positions. Strict
+monks were put in their places. A strong opposition party was created,
+and the ejected clergy aroused such discontent that a civil war was
+barely averted. This state of things continued until the Norman
+invasion, when the monks and secular clergy joined forces in the common
+defence of their property and ecclesiastical rights.
+
+It would seem that many writers, misled by legends for which Dunstan
+must not be held responsible, and blinded by religious prejudice, have
+unjustly charged him with hypocrisy and even crime. All his methods may
+not be defensible when estimated in the light of modern knowledge, and
+even his ideal may be rejected when judged by modern standards of
+Christian character, but he must be considered with the moral and
+intellectual life of his times in full view. He was a champion of the
+oppressed, a friend of the poor, an unflinching foe of sinful men in the
+pulpit or on the throne. His will was inflexible, his independence noble
+and his energy untiring. In trying to bring the Anglo-Saxon church into
+conformity to Rome he was actuated by a higher motive than the merely
+selfish desire for ecclesiastical authority. He regarded this harmony as
+the only remedy for the prevailing disorders. He believed, like many
+other churchmen of unquestioned purity and honesty, that it was
+necessary to compel temporal authorities to recognize the power of the
+church in order to overcome that defiance of moral law which was the
+chief characteristic of the kings and princes in that turbulent period.
+
+What the Anglo-Saxon church might have been if the rule of celibacy had
+not been forced upon her, and if she had not submitted to Roman
+authority in other matters, is a theme for speculation only. The fact
+is that Dunstan found a church corrupt to the core and left it, as a
+result of his purifying efforts, with some semblance, to say the least,
+of moral influence and spiritual purity. Some other kind of
+ecclesiastical polity than that advocated by Dunstan might have achieved
+the same results as his, but the simple fact is that none did. In so far
+as Dunstan succeeded in his monastic measures, he laid the foundations
+of an ecclesiastical power which afterwards became a serious menace to
+the political freedom of the Anglo-Saxon race. The battle begun by him
+raged fiercely between the popes, efficiently supported by the monks,
+and the kings of England, with varying fortunes, for many centuries. But
+perhaps, under the plans of that benign Providence who presides over the
+destiny of nations, it was essentially in the interests of civilization,
+that the lawlessness of rulers and the vices of the people should be
+restrained by that ecclesiastical power, which, in after years, and at
+the proper time, should be forced to recede to its legitimate sphere and
+functions.
+
+Another celebrated reformatory movement was begun by St. Bruno, who
+founded the Carthusian Order about the year 1086. Ruskin says: "In
+their strength, from the foundation of the order at the close of the
+eleventh century to the beginning of the fourteenth, they reared in
+their mountain fastnesses and sent out to minister to the world a
+succession of men of immense mental grasp and serenely authoritative
+innocence, among whom our own Hugh of Lincoln, in his relations with
+Henry II. and Coeur de Lion, is to my mind the most beautiful sacerdotal
+figure known to me in history."
+
+Bruno, with six companions, established the famous Grand Chartreuse in a
+rocky wilderness, near Grenoble, in France, separated from the rest of
+the world by a chain of wild mountains, which are covered with ice and
+snow for two-thirds of the year.
+
+Until the time of Guigo (1137), the Grand Chartreuse was governed by
+unwritten rules. Thirteen monks only were permitted to live together,
+and sixteen converts in the huts at the foot of the hill. The policy of
+this monastery was at first opposed to all connection with other
+monasteries. But applications for admission were so numerous that
+colonies were sent out in various directions, all subject to the mother
+house. The Carthusians differed in many respects from other orders. The
+rules of Dom Guigo indicate that the chief aim was to preclude the monks
+from intercourse with the world, and largely with each other, for each
+monk had separate apartments, cooked his own food, and so rarely met
+with his brethren, that he was practically a hermit. The clothing
+consisted of a rough hair shirt, worn next the skin, a white cassock
+over it, and, when they went out, a black robe. Fasting was observed at
+least three days a week, and meat was strictly forbidden. Respecting
+contact with women Dom Guigo says: "Under no circumstances whatever do
+we allow women to set foot within our precincts, knowing as we do that
+neither wise man, nor prophet, nor judge, nor the entertainer of God,
+nor the sons of God, nor the first created of mankind, fashioned by
+God's own hands, could escape the wiles and deceits of women."
+
+Blistering and bleeding, as well as fasting, were employed to control
+evil impulses. On the whole, the austerities were as severe as human
+nature in that wild and cold region could endure. Yet the prosperity
+that rewarded the piety and labors of the Carthusian monks proved more
+than a match for their rigorous discipline, and in the middle of the
+thirteenth century we read charges of laxity and disorder.
+
+The Carthusians settled in England in the twelfth century, and had a
+famous monastery in London, since called the Charterhouse. The order was
+in many respects the most successful attempt at reform, but as has been
+said, "the whole order, and each individual member, is like a
+petrifaction from the Middle Ages." Owing to its extremely solitary
+ideal and its severe discipline, it was unfitted to secure extensive
+control, or to gain a permanent influence upon the rapidly-developing
+European nations. Its chief contributions to modern civilization were
+made by the gift of noble men who passed from the seclusion of the cell
+into the active life of the world, thus practically proving that the
+monks' greatest usefulness was attained when loyalty to their vows
+yielded to a broader ideal of Christian character and service.
+
+Thus the months passed into years and the years into centuries. Man was
+slowly working out his salvation. Painfully, laboriously he emerged out
+of barbarism into the lower forms of civilization; wearily he trudged
+on his way toward the universal kingdom of righteousness and peace.
+
+There were many other attempts at reform which may not even be
+mentioned, but one character deserves brief consideration,--Bernard of
+Clairvaux,--the fairest flower of those corrupt days. The order to which
+he belonged was the Cistercians, so named because their mother house was
+at Citeaux (Latin, _Cistercium_), in France. Its members are sometimes
+called the "White Monks," because of their white tunics. Their
+buildings, with their bare walls and low rafters, were a rebuke to the
+splendid edifices of the richer orders. Austere simplicity characterized
+their churches, liturgy and habits. Gorgeousness in decoration and
+ostentation in public services were carefully avoided. They used no
+pictures, stained glass or images. Once a week they flogged their sinful
+bodies. Only four hours' sleep was allowed. Seeking out the wildest
+spots and most rugged peaks they built their retreats, beautiful in
+their simplicity and furnishing some of the finest examples of monastic
+architecture. The order spread into England, where the first
+Cistercians were characterized by devoutness and poverty. After a while
+the hand of fate wrote of them as it had of so many, "none were more
+greedy in adding farm to farm; none less scrupulous in obtaining grants
+of land from wealthy patrons." In general, the order was no better and
+no worse than the rest, but its chief glory is derived from the luster
+that was shed upon it by Bernard.
+
+[Illustration: SAINT BERNARD]
+
+This illustrious counselor of kings and Catholic saint was born in
+Burgundy in 1091. When about twenty years of age he entered the
+monastery at Citeaux with five of his brothers. His genius might have
+secured ecclesiastical preferment, but he chose to dig ditches, plant
+fields and govern a monastery. He entered the cloister at Citeaux
+because the monks were few and poor, and when it became crowded because
+of his fame, and its rule became lax because of the crowds, he left the
+cloister to found a home of his own. The abbot selected twelve monks,
+following the number of apostles, and at their head placed young
+Bernard. He led the twelve to the valley of Wormwood, and there, in a
+cheerless forest, he established the monastery of Clairvaux, or Clear
+Valley. His rule was fiercely severe because he himself loved hardships
+and rough fare. "It in no way befits religion," he writes, "to seek
+remedies for the body, nor is it good for health either. You may now and
+then take some cheap herb,--such as poor men may,--and this is done
+sometimes. But to buy drugs, to hunt up doctors, to take doses, is
+unbecoming to religion and hostile to purity." His success in winning
+men to the monastic life was almost phenomenal. It was said that
+"mothers hid their sons, wives their husbands, and companions their
+friends, lest they be persuaded by his eloquent message to enter the
+cloister." "He was avoided like a plague," says one.
+
+Bernard's monks changed the whole face of the country by felling trees
+and tilling the ground. Their spiritual power rid the valley of Wormwood
+of its robbers, and the district grew rich and prosperous. Thus Bernard
+became the most famous man of his time. He was the arbiter in papal
+elections, the judge in temporal quarrels, the healer of schisms and a
+powerful preacher of the crusades. He was the embodiment of all that was
+best in the thought of his age. His weaknesses and faults may largely be
+explained by the fact that no man can rise entirely above the spirit of
+his times and absolutely free himself from all pernicious tendencies.
+"As an advocate for the rights of the church, for the immunities of the
+clergy, no less than for the great interests of morality, he was fierce,
+intractable, unforgiving, haughty and tyrannical." There was, however,
+no note of insincerity in his work or writings, and no tinge of
+hypocrisy in fervent zeal. He was brave, honest and pure; controlled
+always by a consuming passion for the moral welfare of the people.
+
+Our chief interest in Bernard relates to his monastic work which shed
+undying luster on his name. Vaughan, in his "Hours with the Mystics,"
+says of him: "His incessant cry for Europe is, Better monasteries, and
+more of them. Let these ecclesiastical castles multiply; let them cover
+and command the land, well garrisoned with men of God, and then, despite
+all heresy and schism, theocracy will flourish, the earth shall yield
+her increase, and all people praise the Lord.... Bernard had the
+satisfaction of improving and extending monasticism to the utmost; of
+sewing together, with tolerable success, the rended vesture of the
+papacy; of suppressing a more popular and more scriptural Christianity
+for the benefit of his despotic order; of quenching for a time, by the
+extinction of Abelard, the spirit of free inquiry, and of seeing his
+ascetic and superhuman ideal of religion everywhere accepted as the
+genuine type of Christianity."
+
+But in spite of Dunstans, Brunos and Bernards, the monastic institution
+keeps on crumbling. The edifice will not stand much more propping and
+tinkering. While we admire this display of moral force, this commendable
+struggle of fresh courage and new hope against disintegrating forces,
+the conviction gains ground that something is radically wrong with the
+institution. There is something in it which fosters greed and desperate
+ambition. "Is it not a shame," we feel compelled to ask, "that so much
+splendid, chivalrous courage and magnificent energy should be expended
+in trying to prevent a structure from falling, which, it seems, could
+not possibly have been saved?" But while the decay could not be stayed,
+we must admire the noble aims and pious enthusiasm of the reformers who
+sought to preserve an institution which to them seemed the only hope of
+a sinful world.
+
+Dr. Storrs, in his life of Bernard, says: "His soon-canonized name has
+shone starlike in history ever since he was buried; and it will not
+hereafter decline from its height or lose its luster, while men continue
+to recognize with honor the temper of devoted Christian consecration, a
+character compact of noble forces, and infused with self-forgetful love
+for God and man."
+
+
+
+_The Military Religious Orders_
+
+The life of Bernard forms an appropriate introduction to a consideration
+of the Military Religious Orders. Although weary with labor and the
+weight of years, he traveled over Europe preaching the second crusade.
+"To kill or to be killed for Christ's sake is alike righteous and alike
+safe," this was his message to the world. In spite of the opposition of
+court advisers, Bernard induced Louis VII. and Conrad of Germany to take
+the crusader's vow. He gave the Knights Templars a new rule and kindled
+afresh a zeal for the knighthood. Although the members of the Military
+Orders were not monks in the strict sense of the word, yet they were
+soldier-monks, and as such deserve to be mentioned here.
+
+At the basis of all monastic orders, as has been pointed out, were the
+three vows of obedience, celibacy and poverty. Certain orders, by adding
+to these rules other obligations, or by laying special stress on one of
+the three ancient vows, produced new and distinct types of monastic
+character and life.
+
+The Knights of the Hospital assumed as their peculiar work the care of
+the sick. The Begging Friars, as will be seen later, were distinguished
+by the importance which they attached to the rule of poverty; the
+Jesuits, by exalting the law of unquestioning obedience. In view of the
+warlike character of the Middle Ages it is strange the soldier-monk did
+not appear earlier than he did. The abbots, in many cases, were feudal
+lords with immense possessions which needed protection like secular
+property, but as this could not be secured by the arts of peace, we find
+traces of the union of the soldier and the monk before the distinct
+orders professing that character. The immediate cause of such
+organizations was the crusades. There were numerous societies of this
+character, some of them so far removed from the monastic type as
+scarcely to be ranked with monastic institutions. One list mentions two
+hundred and seven of these Orders of Knighthood, comprising many
+varieties in theory and practice. The most important were three,--the
+Knights of the Hospital, or the Knights of St. John; the Knights
+Templars; and the Teutonic Knights. The Hospitallers wore black mantles
+with white crosses, the Templars white mantles with red crosses, and the
+Teutonic Knights white mantles with black crosses. The mantles were in
+fact the robe of the monk adorned with a cross. The whole system was
+really a marriage of monasticism and chivalry, as Gibbon says: "The
+firmest bulwark of Jerusalem was founded in the Knights of the Hospital
+and of the Temple, that strange association of monastic and military
+life. The flower of the nobility of Europe aspired to wear the cross and
+profess the vows of these orders; their spirit and discipline were
+immortal."
+
+A passage in the Alexiad quoted in Walter Scott's "Robert of Paris"
+reads: "As for the multitude of those who advanced toward the great city
+let it be enough to say, that they were as the stars in the heaven or
+as the sand of the seashore. They were in the words of Homer, as many as
+the leaves and flowers of spring." This figurative description is almost
+literally true. Europe poured her men and her wealth into the East. No
+one but an eye-witness can conceive of the vast amount of suffering
+endured by those fanatical multitudes as they roamed the streets of
+Jerusalem looking for shelter, or lay starving by the roadside on a
+bed of grass.
+
+The term Hospitallers was applied to certain brotherhoods of monks and
+laymen. While professing some monastic rule, the members of these
+societies devoted themselves solely to caring for the sick and the poor,
+the hospitals in those days being connected with the monasteries.
+
+About the year 1050 some Italian merchants secured permission to build a
+convent in Jerusalem to shelter Latin pilgrims. The hotels which sprang
+up after this were gradually transformed into hospitals for the care of
+the sick and presided over by Benedictine monks. The sick were carefully
+nursed and shelter granted to as many as could be accommodated. Nobles
+abandoned the profession of arms and, becoming monks, devoted
+themselves to caring for the unfortunate crusaders in these inns. The
+work rapidly increased in extent and importance. In the year 1099,
+Godfrey de Bouillon endowed the original hospital, which had been
+dedicated to St. John. He also established many other monasteries on
+this holy soil. The monks, most of whom were also knights, formed an
+organization which received confirmation from Rome, as "The Knights of
+St. John of Jerusalem." The order rapidly assumed a distinctly military
+character, for, to do its work completely, it must not only care for the
+sick in Jerusalem, but defend the pilgrim on his way to the Holy City.
+This ended in an undertaking to defend Christendom against Mohammedan
+invasion and in fighting for the recovery of the Holy Sepulcher.
+
+After visiting some of these Palestinian monasteries, a king of Hungary
+thus describes his impressions: "Lodging in their houses, I have seen
+them feed every day innumerable multitudes of poor, the sick laid on
+good beds and treated with great care. In a word, the Knights of St.
+John are employed sometimes like Martha, in action, and sometimes like
+Mary, in contemplation, and this noble militia consecrate their days
+either in their infirmaries or else in engagements against the enemies
+of the cross."
+
+The Knights Templars were far more militant than the Knights of St.
+John, but they also were actuated by the monastic spirit. Bernard tried
+to inspire this order with a strong Christian zeal so that, as he said,
+"War should become something of which God could approve." The success
+which attended its operations led as usual to its corruption and
+decline. Beginning with a few crusaders leagued together for service and
+living on the site of the ancient Temple at Jerusalem, it soon widened
+the scope of its services and became a powerful branch of the crusading
+army. It was charged by Philip IV. of France, in 1307, with the most
+fearful crimes, to sustain or to deny which accusations many volumes
+have been composed. Five years later the order was suppressed and its
+vast accumulations transferred to the Knights of St. John. "The horrible
+fate of the Templars," says Allen, "was taken by many as a beginning and
+omen of the destruction that would soon pass upon all the hated
+religious orders. And so this final burst of enthusiasm and splendor in
+the religious life was among the prognostics of a state of things in
+which monasticism must fade quite away."
+
+Wondrous changes have taken place in those dark and troubled years since
+Benedict began his labors at Monte Cassino, in 529. The monk has prayed
+alone in the mountains, and converted the barbarian in the forest. He
+has preached the crusades in magnificent cathedrals, and crossed stormy
+seas in his frail bark. He has made the schools famous by his literary
+achievements, and taught children the alphabet in the woodland cell. He
+has been good and bad, proud and humble, rich and poor, arrogant and
+gentle. He has met the shock of lances on his prancing steed, and
+trudged barefoot from town to town. He has copied manuscripts in the
+lonely Scottish isle, and bathed the fevered brow of the pilgrim in the
+hospital at Jerusalem. He has dug ditches, and governed the world as the
+pope of the Church. He has held the plow in the furrow, and thwarted the
+devices of the king. He has befriended the poor, and imposed penance
+upon princes. He has imitated the poverty and purity of Jesus, and aped
+the pomp and vice of kings. He has dwelt solitary on cold mountains,
+subsisting on bread, roots and water, and he has surrounded himself with
+menials ready to gratify every luxurious wish, amid the splendor of
+palatial cloisters. Still there are new types and phases of monasticism
+yet to appear. The monk has other tasks to undertake, for the world is
+not yet sufficiently wearied of his presence to destroy his cloister and
+banish him from the land.
+
+
+
+V
+
+_THE MENDICANT FRIARS_
+
+Abraham Lincoln only applied a general principle to a specific case when
+he said, "This nation cannot long endure half slave and half free."
+Glaring inconsistencies between faith and practice will eventually
+destroy any institution, however lofty its ideal or noble its
+foundation. God suffers long and is kind, but His forbearance is not
+limitless. Monasticism, as has been shown, was never free from serious
+inconsistency, from moral dualism. But the power of reform prolonged its
+existence. It was constantly producing fresh models of its ancient
+ideals. It had a hidden reserve-force from which it supplied shining
+examples of a living faith and a self-denying love, just at the time
+when it seemed as if the system was about to perish forever. When these
+fresh exhibitions of monastic fidelity likewise became tarnished, when
+men had tired of them and predicted the speedy collapse of the
+institution, forth from the cloister came another body of monkish
+recruits, to convince the world that monasticism was not dead; that it
+did not intend to die; that it was mightier than all its enemies. The
+day came, however, when the world lost its confidence in an institution
+which required such constant reforming to keep it pure, which demanded
+so much cleansing to keep it clean. Ideals that could so quickly lose
+their influence for good came to be looked upon with suspicion.
+
+At the beginning of the thirteenth century we are confronted by the
+anomaly of a church grossly corrupt but widely obeyed. She is nearing
+the pinnacle of her power and the zenith of her glory, although the
+parochial clergy have sunk into vice and incapacity, and the monks, as a
+class, are lazy, ignorant and notoriously corrupt. Two things,
+especially, command the attention,--first, the immorality and laxity of
+the monks; and second, the growth of heresies and the tendency toward
+open schism. The necessity of reform was clearly apprehended by the
+church as well as by the heretical parties, but, since the church had
+such a hold upon society, those who sought to reform the monasteries by
+returning to old beliefs and ancient customs were much more in favor
+than those who left the church and opposed her from the outside. The
+impossibility of substantial, internal reform had not yet come to be
+generally recognized. As time passed the conviction that it was of no
+use to attempt reforms from the inside gained ground; then the
+separatists multiplied, and the shedding of blood commenced. The world
+had to learn anew that it was futile to put new wine into old bottles or
+to patch new cloth on an old garment.
+
+"It is the privilege of genius," says Trench, "to evoke a new creation,
+where to common eyes all appears barren and worn out." Francis and
+Dominic evoked this new creation; but although the monk now will appear
+in a new garb, he will prove himself to be about the same old character
+whom the world has known a great many years; when this discovery is made
+monasticism is doomed. Perplexed Europe will anxiously seek some means
+of destruction, but God will have Luther ready to aid in the solution of
+the problem.
+
+
+
+_Francis Bernardone_, 1182-1226 _A.D._.
+
+Saint Francis, the founder of the Franciscan Order, was born at Assisi,
+a walled town of Umbria, in Italy. His father, Peter Bernardone, or
+Bernardo, was in France on business when his son was born and named. On
+his return, or, as some say, at a later time, he changed his son's name
+from John to Francis. His wealth enabled him to supply Francis with the
+funds necessary to maintain his leadership among gay companions.
+Catholic writers are fond of describing the early years of their saints
+as marked by vice in order to portray them as miracles of grace. It is
+therefore uncertain whether Francis was anything worse than a happy,
+joyous lad, who loved fine clothes, midnight songs and parties of
+pleasure. He was certainly a very popular and courteous lad, very much
+in love with the world. During a short service in the army he was taken
+prisoner. After his release he fell sick, and experienced a temporary
+disgust with his past life. With his renewed health his love of
+festivities and dress returned.
+
+Walking out one day, dressed in a handsome new suit, he met a poor and
+ill-clad soldier; moved to pity, he exchanged his fine clothes for the
+rags of the stranger. That night Francis dreamed of a splendid castle,
+with gorgeous banners flying from its ramparts, and suits of armor
+adorned with the cross. "These," said a voice, "are for you and for your
+soldiers." We are told that this was intended to be taken spiritually
+and was prophetic of the Begging Friars, but Francis misunderstood the
+dream, taking it as a token of military achievements. The next day he
+set off mounted on a fine horse, saying as he left, "I shall be a great
+prince." But his weak frame could not endure such rough usage and he was
+taken sick at Spoleto. Again he dreamed. This time the vision revealed
+his misinterpretation of the former message, and so, on his recovery, he
+returned somewhat crestfallen to Assisi, where he gave his friends a
+farewell feast. Thus at the threshold of his career we note two
+important facts,--disease and dreams. All through his life he had these
+fits of sickness, attended by dreams; and throughout his life he was
+guided by these visions. Neander remarks: "It would be a matter of some
+importance if we could be more exactly informed with regard to the
+nature of his disease and the way in which it affected his physical and
+mental constitution. Perhaps it might assist us to a more satisfactory
+explanation of the eccentric vein in his life, that singular mixture of
+religious enthusiasm bordering insanity; but we are left wholly in
+the dark."
+
+Francis now devoted himself to his father's business, but dreams and
+visions continued to distress him. His spiritual fervor increased daily.
+He grieved for the poor and gave himself to the care of the sick,
+especially the lepers. During a visit to Rome he became so sad at the
+sight of desperate poverty that he impetuously flung his bag of gold
+upon the altar with such force as to startle the worshipers. He went out
+from the church, exchanged his clothes for a beggar's rags, and stood
+for hours asking alms among a crowd of filthy beggars.
+
+But though Francis longed to associate himself in some way with the
+lowest classes, he could obtain no certain light upon his duty. While
+prostrated before the crucifix, in the dilapidated church of St.
+Damian, in Assisi, he heard a voice saying, "Francis, seest thou not
+that my house is in ruins? Go and restore it for me." Again it is said
+that this pointed to his great life-work of restoring spiritual power to
+the church, but he again accepted the message in a literal sense.
+Delighted to receive a command so specific, the kneeling Francis
+fervently responded, "With good will, Lord," and gladly entered upon the
+task of repairing the church of St. Damian. "Having fortified himself by
+the sign of the cross," he took a horse and a valuable bundle of goods
+belonging to his father and sold both at Falingo. Instead of turning the
+proceeds over to his father, Francis offered them to the priest of St.
+Damian, who, fearing the father's displeasure, refused to accept the
+stolen funds. The young zealot, "who had utter contempt for money,"
+threw the gold on one of the windows of the church. Such is the story as
+gleaned from Catholic sources. The heretics, who have criticised Francis
+for this conduct, are answered by the following ingenious but dangerous
+sophistry: "It is certainly quite contrary to the ordinary law of
+justice for one man to take for himself the property of another; but if
+Almighty God, to whom all things belong, and for whom we are only
+stewards, is pleased to dispense with this His own law in a particular
+case, and to bestow what He has hitherto given to one upon another, He
+confers at the same time a valid title to the gift, and it is no robbery
+in him who has received it to act upon that title."
+
+Fearing his father's wrath, Francis hid himself in the priest's room,
+and contemporary authors assure us that when the irate parent entered,
+Francis was miraculously let into the wall. Wading (1731 A.D.) says the
+hollow place may still be seen in the wall.
+
+After a month, the young hero, confident of his courage to face his
+father, came forth pale and weak, only to be stoned as a madman by the
+people. His father locked him up in the house, but the tenderer
+compassion of his mother released him from his bonds, and he found
+refuge with the priest. When his father demanded his return, Francis
+tore off his clothes and, as he flung the last rag at the feet of his
+astounded parent, he exclaimed: "Peter Bernardone was my father; I have
+but one father, He that is in Heaven." The crowd was deeply moved,
+especially when they saw before them the hair shirt which Francis had
+secretly worn under his garments. Gathering up all that was left to him
+of his son, the father sadly departed, leaving the young enthusiast to
+fight his own way through the world. Many times after that, the parents,
+who tenderly watched over the lad in sickness and prayed for his
+recovery, saw their beloved son leading his barefooted beggars through
+the streets of his native town. But he will never more sing his gay
+songs underneath their roof or sally forth with his merry companions in
+search of pleasure. Francis was given a laborer's cloak, upon which he
+made the sign of a cross with some mortar, "thus manifesting what he
+wished to be, a half-naked poor one, and a crucified man." Such was the
+saint, in 1206, in his twenty-fifth year.
+
+Francis now went forth, singing sacred songs, begging his food, and
+helping the sick and the poor. He was employed "in the vilest affairs of
+the scullery" in a neighboring monastery. At this time he clothed
+himself in the monk's dress, a short tunic, a leathern girdle, shoes and
+a staff. He waited upon lepers and kissed their disgusting ulcers. Yet
+more, he instantly cured a dreadfully cancerous face by kissing it. He
+ate the most revolting messes, reproaching himself for recoiling in
+nausea. Thus the pauper of Jesus Christ conquered his pride and
+luxurious tastes.
+
+Francis finally returned to repair the church of St. Damian. The people
+derided, even stoned him, but he had learned to rejoice in abuse. They
+did not know of what stern stuff their fellow-townsman was made. He bore
+all their insults meekly, and persevered in his work, carrying stones
+with his own hands and promising the blessing of God on all who helped
+him in his joyful task. His kindness and smiles melted hatred; derision
+turned to admiration. "Many were moved to tears," says his biographers,
+"while Francis worked on with cheerful simplicity, begging his
+materials, stone by stone, and singing psalms about the streets."
+
+Two years after his conversion, or in 1208, while kneeling in the church
+of Sta. Maria dei Angeli, he heard the words of Christ: "Provide neither
+gold nor silver nor brass in your purses, neither two coats nor shoes
+nor staff, but go and preach." Afterwards, when the meaning of these
+words was explained to him, he exclaimed: "This is what I seek for!" He
+threw away his wallet, took off his shoes, and replaced his leather
+girdle by a cord. His hermit's tunic appearing too delicate, he put on a
+coarse, gray robe, reaching to his feet, with sleeves that came down
+over his fingers; to this he added a hood, covering his head and face.
+Clothing of this character he wore to the end of his life. This was in
+1208, which is regarded as the first year of the Order of St. Francis.
+The next year Francis gave this habit to those who had joined him.
+
+So the first and chief of Franciscan friars, unattended by mortal
+companions, went humbly forth to proclaim the grandeur and goodness of a
+God, who, according to monastic teaching, demands penance and poverty of
+his creatures as the price of his highest favor and richest blessings.
+Nearly seven hundred long years have passed since that eventful day, but
+the begging Brothers of Francis still traverse those Italian highways
+over which the saint now journeyed with meek and joyous spirit.
+
+     "He was not yet far distant from his rising
+     Before he had begun to make the earth
+     Some comfort from his mighty virtue feel.
+     For he in youth his father's wrath incurred
+     For certain Dame, to whom, as unto death,
+     The gate of pleasure no one doth unlock;
+     And was before his spiritual court
+     _Et coram patre_ unto her united;
+     Then day by day more fervently he loved her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     But that too darkly I may not proceed,
+     Francis and Poverty for these two lovers
+     Take thou henceforward in my speech diffuse."
+
+     --_Dante_.
+
+In 1210, with eleven companions, his entire band, Francis went to Rome
+to secure papal sanction. Pope Innocent III. was walking in a garden of
+the Lateran Palace when a beggar, dusty and pale, confronted him.
+Provoked at being disturbed in his thoughts, he drove him away. That
+night it was the pope's turn to dream. He saw a falling church supported
+by a poor and miserable man. Of course, that man was Francis. Four or
+five years later the pope will dream the same thing again. Then the poor
+man will be Dominic. In the morning he sent for the monk whom he had
+driven from him as a madman the day before. Standing before his holiness
+and the college of cardinals, Francis pleaded his cause in a touching
+and eloquent parable. His quiet, earnest manner and clear blue eyes
+impressed every one. The pope did not give him formal sanction
+however--this was left for Honorius III., November 29, 1223--but he
+verbally permitted him to establish his order and to continue his
+preaching.
+
+Several times Francis set out to preach to the Mohammedans, but failed
+to reach his destination. He finally visited Egypt during the siege of
+Damietta, and at the risk of his life he went forth to preach to the
+sultan encamped on the Nile. He is described by an eye-witness "as an
+ignorant and simple man, beloved of God and men." His courage and
+personal magnetism won the Mohammedan's sympathy but not his soul.
+Although Francis courted martyrdom, and offered to walk through fire to
+prove the truth of his message, the Oriental took it all too
+good-naturedly to put him to the test, and dismissed him with kindness.
+
+Francis was a great lover of birds. The swallows he called his sisters.
+A bird in the cage excited his deepest sympathy. It is said he sometimes
+preached to the feathered songsters. Longfellow has cast one of these
+homilies into poetic form:
+
+     "O brother birds, St. Francis said,
+     Ye come to me and ask for bread,
+     But not with bread alone to-day
+     Shall ye be fed and sent away.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Oh, doubly are ye bound to praise
+     The great Creator in your lays;
+     He giveth you your plumes of down,
+     Your crimson hoods, your cloaks of brown.
+
+     He giveth you your wings to fly
+     And breathe a purer air on high,
+     And careth for you everywhere,
+     Who for yourselves so little care."
+
+Like all ascetics, Francis was tempted in visions. One cold night he
+fancied he was in a home of his own, with his wife and children around
+him. Rushing out of his cell he heaped up seven hills of snow to
+represent a wife, four sons and daughters, and two servants. "Make
+haste," he cried, "provide clothing for them lest they perish with the
+cold," and falling upon the imaginary group, he dispelled the vision of
+domestic bliss in the cold embrace of the winter's snow. Mrs. Oliphant
+points out the fact that, unlike most of the hermits and monks, Francis
+dreams not of dancing girls, but of the pure love of a wife and the
+modest joys of a home and children. She beautifully says: "Had he, for
+one sweet, miserable moment, gone back to some old imagination and seen
+the unborn faces shine beside the never-lighted fire? But Francis does
+not say a word of any such trial going on in his heart. He dissipates
+the dream by the chill touch of the snow, by still nature hushing the
+fiery thoughts, by sudden action, so violent as to stir the blood in his
+veins; and then the curtain of prayer and silence falls over him, and
+the convent walls close black around."
+
+The experience of the saint on Mount Alverno deserves special
+consideration, not merely on account of its singularity, but also
+because it affords a striking illustration of the difficulties one
+encounters in trying to get at the truth in monastic narratives. Francis
+had retired to Mount Alverno, a wild and rugged solitude, to meditate
+upon the Lord's passion. For days he had been almost distracted with
+grief and holy sympathy. Suddenly a seraph with six wings stood before
+him. When the heavenly being departed, the marks of the Crucified One
+appeared upon the saint's body. St. Bonaventure says: "His feet and
+hands were seen to be perforated by nails in their middle; the heads of
+the nails, round and black, were on the inside of the hands, and on the
+upper parts of the feet; the points, which were rather long, and which
+came out on the opposite sides, were turned and raised above the flesh,
+from which they came out." There also appeared on his right side a red
+wound, which often oozed a sacred blood that stained his tunic.
+
+This remarkable story has provoked considerable discussion. One's
+conclusions respecting its credibility will quite likely be determined
+by his general view of numerous similar narratives, and by the degree of
+his confidence in the value of human testimony touching such matters.
+The incongruities and palpable impostures that seriously impair the
+general reliability of monkish historians render it difficult to
+distinguish between the truths and errors in their writings.
+
+Some authorities hold that the marks did not appear on St. Francis, and
+that the story is without foundation. But Roman writers bring forward
+the three early biographers of Francis who claim that the marks did
+appear. Pope Alexander IV. publicly averred that he saw the wounds, and
+pronounced it heresy to doubt the report. Popes Benedict XI., Sixtus
+IV., and Sixtus V. consecrated and canonized the impressions by
+instituting a particular festival in their honor. Numerous persons are
+said to have seen the marks and to have kissed the nails, after the
+death of the saint. Singularly enough, the Dominicans were inclined to
+regard the story as a piece of imposture designed to exalt Francis
+above Dominic.
+
+But, if it be admitted that the marks did appear, as it is not
+improbable, how shall the phenomenon be explained? At least four
+theories are held: 1. Fraud; 2. The irresponsible self-infliction of the
+wounds; 3. Physical effects due to mental suggestion or some other
+psychic cause; 4. Miracle.
+
+1. The temptation is strong to claim a fraud, especially because the
+same witnesses who testify to the truth of the tale, also relate such
+monstrous, incredible stories, that one is almost forced to doubt
+either their integrity or their sanity. But there is no evidence in
+support of so serious an indictment. After showing that signs and
+portents attend every crisis in history, Mrs. Oliphant says: "Every
+great spiritual awakening has been accompanied by phenomena quite
+incomprehensible, which none but the vulgar mind can attribute to
+trickery and imposture;" but still she herself remains in doubt about
+the whole story.
+
+2. Although Mosheim uses the term "fraud," it would seem that he means
+rather the irresponsible self-infliction of the wounds. He says: "As he
+[Francis] was a most superstitious and fanatical mortal, it is
+undoubtedly evident that he imprinted on himself the holy wounds. Paul's
+words, 'I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus,' may have
+suggested the idea of the fraud." The notion certainly prevailed that
+Francis was a sort of second Christ, and a book was circulated showing
+how he might be compared to Christ in forty particulars. There are many
+things in his biography which, if true, indicate that Francis yearned to
+imitate literally the experiences of his Lord.
+
+3. Numerous experiments, conducted by scientific men, have established
+the fact that red marks, swellings, blisters, bleeding and wounds have
+been produced by mental suggestion. Björnstrom, in his work on
+"Hypnotism," after recounting various experiments showing the effect of
+the imagination on the body, says, respecting the _stigmata_ of the
+Middle Ages: "Such marks can be produced by hypnotism without deceit and
+without the miracles of the higher powers." Prof. Fisher declares:
+"There is no room for the suspicion of deceit. The idea of a strange
+physical effect of an abnormal state is more plausible." Trench thinks
+this is a reasonable view in the case of a man like Francis, "with a
+temperament so irrepressible, of an organization so delicate, permeated
+through and through with the anguish of the Lord's sufferings,
+passionately and continually dwelling on the one circumstance of his
+crucifixion." But others, despairing of any rational solution, cut the
+Gordian knot and declare that "the kindest thing to think about Francis
+is that he was crazy."
+
+4. Roman Catholics naturally reject all explanations that exclude the
+supernatural, for, as Father Candide Chalippe affirms: "Catholics ought
+to be cautious in adopting anything coming from heretics; their opinions
+are almost always contagious." He therefore holds fast to the miracles
+in the lives of the saints, not only because he accepts the evidence,
+but because he believes these wonderful stories "add great resplendency
+to the merits of the saints, and, consequently, give great weight to the
+example they afford us."
+
+It is altogether probable that each one will continue to view the whole
+affair as his predispositions and religious convictions direct; some
+unconvinced by traditionary evidence and undismayed by charges of
+heresy; others devoutly accepting every monkish miracle and marveling at
+the obstinacy of unbelief.
+
+Two years after the event just described Francis was carried on a cot
+outside the walls of Assisi, where, lifting his hands he blessed his
+native city. Some few days later, on October 4, 1226, he passed away,
+exclaiming, "Welcome, Sister Death!"
+
+Whatever we may think of the legends that cluster about his life,
+Francis himself must not be held responsible for all that has been
+written about him. He himself was no phantom or mythical being, but a
+real, earnest man who, according to his light, tried to serve his
+generation. As he himself said: "A man is just so much and no more as he
+is in the sight of God." "Francis appears to me," says Forsyth, "a
+genuine, original hero, independent, magnanimous, incorruptible. His
+powers seemed designed to regenerate society; but taking a wrong
+direction, they sank men into beggars." Through the mist of tradition
+the holy beggar and saintly hero shines forth as a loving, gentle soul,
+unkind to none but himself. However his biography may be regarded, his
+life illustrates the beauty and power of voluntary renunciation,--the
+fountain not only of religion but of all true nobility of character. He
+may have been ignorant, perhaps grossly so, as Mosheim thinks, but
+nevertheless he merits our highest praise for striving honestly to keep
+his vow of poverty in the days when worldly monks disgraced their sacred
+profession by greed, ambition, and lustful indulgence.
+
+
+
+_The Franciscan Orders_
+
+
+
+The orders which Francis founded were of three classes:
+
+1. Franciscan Friars or Order of Friars Minor, called also Gray or
+Begging Friars. The year in which Francis took the habit, 1208, is
+reckoned the first year of the order, but the Rule was not given
+until 1210.
+
+This Rule, which has not been preserved, was very simple, and doubtless
+consisted of a group of gospel passages, bearing on the vow of poverty,
+together with a few precepts about the occupations of the brethren. The
+pope was not asked to sanction the Rule but only to give his approbation
+to the missions of the little band. Some of the cardinals expressed
+their doubts about the mode of life provided for in the rules. "But,"
+replied Giovanni di San Paolo, "if we hold that to observe gospel
+perfection and make profession of it is an irrational and impossible
+innovation, are we not convicted of blasphemy against Christ, the Author
+of the Gospel?"
+
+There was also the Rule of 1221, which makes an intermediate stage
+between the first Rule and that which was approved by the pope November
+29, 1223. The Rule of 1210 was thoroughly Franciscan. It was the
+expression of the passionate, fervent soul of Francis. It was the cry of
+the human heart for God and purity. The Rule of 1223 shows that the
+church had begun to direct the movement. Sabatier says of these two
+rules: "At the bottom of it all is the antinome of law and love. Under
+the reign of law we are the mercenaries of God, bound down to an irksome
+task, but paid a hundred-fold, and with an indisputable right to our
+wages." Such was the conception underlying the Rule of 1223. That of
+1210 is thus described: "Under the rule of love we are the sons of God,
+and co-workers with Him; we give ourselves to Him without bargaining and
+without expectation; we follow Jesus, not because this is well, but
+because we cannot do otherwise, because we feel that He has loved us and
+we love Him in our turn."
+
+Francis would not allow his monks to be called Friars; he preferred
+Friars Minor or Little Brothers as a more humble designation[F].
+
+[Footnote F: Appendix, Note F.]
+
+Ten years after the founding of the order, it is claimed, over five
+thousand friars assembled in Rome for the general chapter. The monks
+lodged in huts made of matting and hence this convention has been called
+the "Chapter of Mats." The order was strongest numerically about fifty
+years after the death of Francis, when it numbered eight thousand
+convents and two hundred thousand monks. Many of its members were highly
+distinguished, such as St. Bonaventura, Duns Scotus, Roger Bacon and
+Cardinal Ximenes.
+
+2. Nuns of St. Clara or Poor Claras, dates from 1212, but it did not
+receive its rule from Francis until 1224. The order was founded in the
+following manner: Clara, a daughter of a noble family, was distinguished
+for her beauty and by her love for the poor. Francis often met her, and,
+in the language of his biographer, "exhorted her to a contempt of the
+world and poured into her ears the sweetness of Christ." Guided, no
+doubt, by his counsel, she stole one night from her home to a
+neighboring church where Francis and his beggars were assembled. Her
+long and beautiful hair was cut off, while a coarse woolen gown was
+substituted for her own rich garments. Standing in the midst of the
+ragged monks, she renounced the dregs of Babylon and a wicked world,
+pledging her future to the monastic institution. Out from this little
+church into the darkness of the night, Francis led this beautiful girl
+of seventeen years and committed her to a Benedictine nunnery. Later on
+Clara became the abbess of a Franciscan convent at St. Damian, and the
+Sisterhood of St. Clara was established. It was an order of sadness and
+penitential tears. It is said that Clara never but once (when she
+received the blessing of the pope) lifted her eyelids so that the color
+of her eyes might be discerned.
+
+3. The Third Order, called also "Brotherhood of Penitence," was composed
+of lay men and women. So many husbands and wives were desirous of
+leaving their homes in order to enter the monastic state, that Francis,
+not wishing to break up happy marriages, so it is said, was compelled to
+give these enthusiasts some sort of a rule by which they might
+compromise between their established life and the monastic career. This
+state of things led to the formation, in 1221, of the Third Order of
+St. Francis, or the Order of Tertiaries, in relation to the Friars Minor
+and the Poor Claras. Sabatier says this generally-accepted date is
+wrong; that it is impossible to fix any date, for that which came to be
+known as the Third Order was born of the enthusiasm excited by the
+preaching of Francis soon after his return from Rome in 1210. Candidates
+for admission into this order were required to make profession of all
+the orthodox truths, special care being employed to guard against the
+intrusion of heretics. Days of fasting and abstinence were enjoined, and
+members were urged to avoid profanity, the theater, dancing and
+law-suits. The order met with astonishing success, cardinals, bishops,
+emperors, empresses, kings and queens, gladly enrolling themselves among
+the followers of St. Francis.
+
+_Dominic de Guzman, 1170-1221 A.D._
+
+Half-way between Osma and Aranda in Old Castile, Spain, is a little
+village known as "the fortunate Calahorra." Here was the castle of the
+Guzmans, where Dominic was born. His family was of high rank and
+character, a noble house of warriors, statesmen and saints. If we accept
+the legends, his greatness was foreshadowed. Before his birth, his
+mother dreamed she saw her son under the figure of a black-and-white
+dog, with a torch in his mouth. "A true dream," says Milman, "for he
+will scent out heresy and apply the torch to the faggots;" but, as will
+be seen later, this observation does not rest on undisputed evidence.
+
+[Illustration: PHOTOGRAVURE--RINGLER CO
+
+SAINT DOMINIC
+
+FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE PAINTING PRESERVED IN HIS CELL IN THE CONVENT
+OF SANTA SABINA, AT ROME
+
+TRENTON: ALBERT BRANDT, PUBLISHER, 1900]
+
+In the year 1191, when Spain was desolated by a terrible famine, Dominic
+was just finishing his theological studies. He gave away his money and
+sold his clothes, his furniture and even his precious manuscripts, that
+he might relieve distress. When his companions expressed astonishment
+that he should sell his books, Dominic replied: "Would you have me study
+off these dead skins, when men are dying of hunger?" This noble
+utterance is cherished by his admirers as the first saying from his lips
+that has passed to posterity.
+
+Dominic was educated in the schools of Palencia, afterwards a
+university, where he devoted six years to the arts and four to theology.
+In 1194, when twenty-five years of age, Dominic became a canon regular,
+at Osma, under the rule of St. Augustine. Nine years after he
+accompanied his bishop, Don Diego, on an embassy for the king of
+Castile. When they crossed the Pyrenees they found themselves in an
+atmosphere of heresy. The country was filled with preachers of strange
+doctrines, who had little respect for Dominic, his bishop, or their
+Roman pontiff. The experiences of this journey inspired in Dominic a
+desire to aid in the extermination of heresy. He was also deeply
+impressed by an important and significant observation. Many of these
+heretical preachers were not ignorant fanatics, but well-trained and
+cultured men. Entire communities seemed to be possessed by a desire for
+knowledge and for righteousness. Dominic clearly perceived that only
+preachers of a high order, capable of advancing reasonable argument,
+could overthrow the Albigensian heresy.
+
+It would be impossible, in a few words, to tell the whole story of this
+Albigensian movement. Undoubtedly the term stood for a variety of
+theological opinions, all of which were in opposition to the teachings
+of Rome. "From the very invectives of their enemies," says Hallam, "and
+the acts of the Inquisition, it is manifest that almost every shade of
+heterodoxy was found among these dissidents, till it vanished in a
+simple protestation against the wealth and tyranny of the clergy." Many
+of the tenets of these enthusiasts were undoubtedly borrowed from the
+ancient Manicheism, and would be pronounced heretical by every modern
+evangelical denomination. But associated with those holding such
+doctrines were numerous reformers, whose chief offense consisted in
+their incipient Protestantism. However heretical any of these sects may
+have been, it is impossible to make them out enemies to the social
+order, except as all opponents of established religious traditions
+create disturbance. "What these bodies held in common," says Hardwick,
+"and what made them equally the prey of the inquisitor, was their
+unwavering belief in the corruption of the medieval church, especially
+as governed by the Roman pontiffs."
+
+In 1208 Dominic visited Languedoc a second time, and on his way he
+encountered the papal legates returning in pomp to Rome, foiled in their
+attempt to crush this growing schism. To them he administered his famous
+rebuke: "It is not the display of power and pomp, cavalcades of
+retainers, and richly-houseled palfreys, or by gorgeous apparel, that
+the heretics win proselytes; it is by zealous preaching, by apostolic
+humility, by austerity, by seeming, it is true, but by seeming holiness.
+Zeal must be met by zeal, humility by humility, false sanctity by real
+sanctity, preaching falsehood by preaching truth." It is extremely
+unfortunate for the reputation of Dominic that he ever departed from the
+spirit of these noble words, which so clearly state the conditions of
+true religious progress.
+
+Dominic now gathered about him a few men of like spirit and began his
+task of preaching down heresy. But "the enticing words of man's wisdom"
+failed to win the Albigensians from what they believed to be the words
+of God. So, unmindful of his admonition to the papal legates, Dominic
+obtained permission of Innocent III. to hold courts, before which he
+might summon all persons suspected of heresy. When eloquence and courts
+failed, the pope let loose the "dogs of war." Then followed twenty years
+of frightful carnage, during which hundreds of thousands of heretics
+were slain, and many cities were laid waste by fire and sword. "This was
+to punish a fanaticism," says Hallam, "ten thousand times more innocent
+than their own, and errors which, according to the worst imputations,
+left the laws of humanity and the peace of social life unimpaired."
+Peace was concluded in 1229, but the persecution of heretics went on.
+
+What part Dominic personally had in these bloody proceedings is
+litigated history. His admirers strive to rescue his memory from the
+charge that he was "a cruel and bloody man." It is argued that while the
+pope and temporal princes carried on the sanguinary war against the
+heretics, Dominic confined himself to pleading with them in a spirit of
+true Christian love. He was a minister of mercy, not an avenging angel,
+sword in hand. It has to be conceded that the constant tradition of the
+Dominican order that Dominic was the first Inquisitor, whether he bore
+the title or not, rests upon good authority. But what was the nature of
+the office as held by the saint? As far as Dominic was concerned, it is
+argued by his friends that the office "was limited to the
+_reconciliation_ of heretics and had nothing to do with their
+_punishment_." It is also claimed that while Dominic did impose
+penances, in some cases public flagellation, no evidence can be produced
+showing that he ever delivered one heretic to the flames. Those who were
+burned were condemned by secular courts, and on the ground that they
+were not only heretics but enemies of the public peace and perpetrators
+of enormous crimes.
+
+But while it may not be proved that Dominic himself passed the sentence
+of death or applied the torch to the faggots with his own hand, he is by
+no means absolved from all complicity in those frightful slaughters, or
+from all responsibility for the subsequent establishment of the Holy
+Inquisition. The principles governing the Inquisition were practically
+those upon which Dominic proceeded; the germs of the later atrocities
+are to be found in his aims and methods. By what a narrow margin does
+Dominic escape the charge of cruelty when it is boasted "that he
+resolutely insisted on no sentence being carried out until all means had
+been tried by which the conversion of a prisoner could be effected."
+Another statement also contains an inkling of a significant fact,
+namely, that secular judges and princes were constantly under the
+influence of the monks and other ecclesiastical persons, who incited
+them to wage war, and to massacre, in the Albigensian war as in other
+crusades against heresy. No word from Dominic can be produced indicating
+that he remonstrated with the pope, or that he tried to stop the
+crusade. In a few instances he seems to have interceded with the crazed
+soldiery for the lives of women and children. But he did not oppose the
+bloody crusade itself. He was constantly either with the army or
+following in its wake. He often sat on the bench at the trial of
+dissenters. He remained the life-long friend of Simon de Montfort, the
+cruel agent of the papacy, and he blessed the marriage of his sons and
+baptized his daughter. Special courts for trying heretics were
+established, previous to the more complete organization of the
+Inquisition, and in these he held a commission.
+
+The Holy Office of the Inquisition was made a permanent tribunal by
+Gregory IX., in 1233, twelve years after the death of Dominic, and
+curiously enough, in the same year in which he was canonized. The
+Catholic Bollandists claim that although the _title_ of Inquisitor was
+of later date than Dominic, yet the _office_ was in existence, and that
+the splendor of the Holy Inquisition owes its beginning to that saint.
+Certain it is that the administration of the Inquisition was mainly in
+the hands of Dominican monks.
+
+In view of all these facts, Professor Allen is justified in his
+conclusions respecting Dominic and his share in the persecution of
+heretics: "Whatever his own sweet and heavenly spirit according to
+Catholic eulogists, his name is a synonym of bleak and intolerant
+fanaticism. It is fatally associated with the blackest horrors of the
+crusade against the Albigenses, as well as with the infernal skill and
+deadly machinery of the Inquisition."
+
+In 1214, Dominic established himself, with six followers, in the house
+of Peter Cellani, a rich resident of Toulouse. Eleven years of active
+and public life had passed since the Subprior of Osma had forsaken the
+quietude of the monastery. He now resumed his life of retirement and
+subjected himself and his companions to the monastic rules of prayer and
+penance. But the restless spirit of the man could not long remain
+content with the seclusion and inactivity of a monk's life. The scheme
+of establishing an order of Preaching Friars began to assume definite
+shape in his mind. He dreamed of seven stars enlightening the world,
+which represented himself and his six friends. The final result of his
+deliberations was the organization of his order, and the appearance of
+Dominic in the city of Rome, in 1215, to secure the approval of the
+pope, Innocent III. Although some describe his reception as "most
+cordial and flattering," yet it required supernatural interference to
+induce the pope to grant even his approval of the new order. It was not
+formally confirmed until 1216 by Honorius III.
+
+Dominic now made his headquarters at Rome, although he traveled
+extensively in the interests of his growing brotherhood of monks. He was
+made Master of the Sacred Palace, an important official post, including
+among its functions the censorship of the press. It has ever since been
+occupied by members of the Dominican order.
+
+Throughout his life Dominic is said to have zealously practiced rigorous
+self-denial. He wore a hair shirt, and an iron chain around his loins,
+which he never laid aside, even in sleep. He abstained from meat and
+observed stated fasts and periods of silence. He selected the worst
+accommodations and the meanest clothes, and never allowed himself the
+luxury of a bed. When traveling, he beguiled the journey with spiritual
+instruction and prayers. As soon as he passed the limits of towns and
+villages, he took off his shoes, and, however sharp the stones or
+thorns, he trudged on his way barefooted. Rain and other discomforts
+elicited from his lips nothing but praises to God.
+
+Death came at the age of fifty-one and found him exhausted with the
+austerities and labors of his eventful career. He had reached the
+convent of St. Nicholas, at Bologna, weary and sick with a fever. He
+refused the repose of a bed and bade the monks lay him on some sacking
+stretched upon the ground. The brief time that remained to him was
+spent in exhorting his followers to have charity, to guard their
+humility, and to make their treasure out of poverty. Lying in ashes upon
+the floor he passed away at noon, on the sixth of August, 1221. He was
+canonized by Gregory IX., in 1234.
+
+
+
+_The Dominican Orders_
+
+The origin of the Order of the Preaching Friars has already been
+described. It is not necessary to dwell upon the constitution of this
+order, because in all essential respects it was like that of the
+Franciscans. The order is ruled by a general and is divided into
+provinces, governed by provincials. The head of each house is called a
+prior. Dominic adopted the rules laid down by St. Augustine, because the
+pope ordered him to follow some one of the older monastic codes, but he
+also added regulations of his own.
+
+Soon after the founding of the order, bands of monks were sent out to
+Paris, to Rome, to Spain and to England, for the purpose of planting
+colonies in the chief seats of learning. The order produced many
+eminent scholars, some of whom were Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus,
+Echard, Tauler and Savonarola.
+
+As among the Franciscans, there was also an Order of Nuns, founded in
+1206, and a Third Order, called the Militia of Jesus Christ, which was
+organized in 1218.
+
+
+
+_The Success of the Mendicant Orders_
+
+In 1215, Innocent III. being pope, the Lateran council passed the
+following law: "Whereas the excessive diversity of these [monastic]
+institutions begets confusion, no new foundations of this sort must be
+formed for the future; but whoever wishes to become a monk must attach
+himself to some of the already existing rules." This same pope approved
+the two Mendicant orders, urging them, it is true, to unite themselves
+to one of the older orders; but, nevertheless, they became distinct
+organizations, eclipsing all previous societies in their achievements.
+The reason for this disregard of the Lateran decree is doubtless to be
+found in the alarming condition of religious affairs at that time, and
+in the hope held out to Rome by the Mendicants, of reforming the
+monasteries and crushing the heretics.
+
+The failure of the numerous and varied efforts to reform the monastic
+institution and the danger to the church arising from the unwonted
+stress laid upon poverty by different schismatic religious societies,
+necessitated the adoption of radical measures by the church to preserve
+its influence. At this juncture the Mendicant friars appeared. The
+conditions demanded a modification of the monastic principle which had
+hitherto exalted a life of retirement. Seclusion in the cloister was no
+longer possible in the view of the remarkable changes in religious
+thought and practice.
+
+Innocent III. was wise enough to perceive the immediate utility of the
+new societies based upon claims to extraordinary humility and poverty.
+The Mendicant orders were, in themselves, not only a rebuke to the
+luxurious indolence and shameful laxity of the older orders, but when
+sanctioned by the church, the existence of the new societies attested
+Rome's desire to maintain the highest and the purest standards of
+monastic life. Hence, the Preaching Friars were permitted to reproach
+the clergy and the monks for their vices and corruptions.
+
+"The effect of such a band of missionaries," says John Stuart Mill,
+"must have been great in rousing and feeding dormant devotional
+feelings. They were not less influential in regulating those feelings,
+and turning into the established Catholic channels those vagaries of
+private enthusiasm which might well endanger the church, since they
+already threatened society itself."
+
+Two novel monastic features, therefore, now appear for the first time:
+1. The substitution of itineracy for the seclusion of the cloister; and
+2. The abolition of endowments.
+
+1. The older orders had their traveling missionaries, but the general
+practice was to remain shut up within the monastic walls. The Mendicants
+at the start had no particular abiding place, but were bound to travel
+everywhere, preaching and teaching. It was distinctly the mission of
+these monks to visit the camps, the towns, cities and villages, the
+market places, the universities, the homes and the churches, to preach
+and to minister to the sick and the poor. They neither loved the
+seclusion of the cell nor sought it. Theirs to tramp the dusty roads,
+with their capacious bags, begging and teaching. Only by this itinerant
+method could the people be reached and the preachers of heresy be
+encountered.
+
+2. One of the chief sources of strength in the heretical sects was the
+justness of their attack upon the Catholic monastic orders, whose
+immense riches belied their vows of poverty. The heretics practiced
+austerities and adopted a simplicity of life that won the hearts of the
+people, by reason of its contrast to the loose habits of the monks and
+clergy. Since it was impossible to reform the older orders, it became
+absolutely essential to the success of the Mendicants that they should
+rigorously respect the neglected discipline. As the abuse of the vow of
+poverty was particularly common, the Mendicants naturally
+emphasized this vow.
+
+While it is true that a begging monk was by no means unknown, yet now,
+for the first time, was the practice of mendicity formally adopted by
+entire orders. Owing to the excessive multiplication of mendicant
+societies, Pope Gregory X., at a general council held at Lyons in 1272,
+attempted to check the growing evil. The number of Mendicant orders was
+confined to four, viz., the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Carmelites
+and the Augustinians or Hermits of Augustine. The Council of Trent
+confined mendicity to the Observantines and Capuchins, since the other
+societies had practically abandoned their original interpretation of
+their vow of poverty and had acquired permanent property.
+
+When Francis tried to enforce the rule of poverty, his rigor gave rise
+to most serious dissensions, which began in his own lifetime and ended
+after his death in open schism. Some of his followers were not pleased
+with his views on that subject. They resisted his extreme strictness,
+and after his death they continued to advocate the holding of property.
+The popes tried to settle the quarrel, but ever and anon it broke out
+afresh with volcanic fierceness. They finally interpreted the rule of
+poverty to mean that the friars could not hold property in their own
+names, but they might enjoy its use. Under this interpretation of the
+rule, the beggars soon became very rich. Matthew of Paris said: "The
+friars who have been founded hardly forty years have built even in the
+present day in England residences as lofty as the palaces of our kings."
+But the better element among the Franciscans refused to consent to such
+a palpable evasion of the rule. A portion of this class separated
+themselves from the Franciscans, rejected their authority, and formed a
+new sect called the _Fratricelli_, or Little Brothers. It is very
+important to keep the history of this name clearly in mind, for it
+frequently appears in the Reformation period and has been the cause of
+much misunderstanding. The word "Fratricelli" came to be a term of
+derision applied to any one affecting the dress or the habits of the
+monks. When heretical sects arose, it was applied to them as a stigma,
+but it was used first by a sect of rigid Franciscans who deserted their
+order, adopted this name as their own, and exulted in its use. The
+quarrel among the monks led to a variety of complications and is
+intricately interwoven with the political and religious history of the
+thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. "These rebellious
+Franciscans," says Mosheim, "though fanatical and superstitious in some
+respects, deserve an eminent rank among those who prepared the way for
+the Reformation in Europe, and who excited in the minds of the people a
+just aversion to Rome."
+
+The Mendicants were especially active in educational work. This is to be
+attributed to several causes. Unquestionably the general and increasing
+interest in theological doctrines and the craving for knowledge affected
+the monastic orders. Europe was just arousing from her medieval
+slumbers. The faint rays of the Reformation dawn were streaking the
+horizon. The intellect as well as the conscience was touched by the
+Spirit of God. The revolt against moral iniquity was often accompanied
+by skepticism concerning the authority and dogmas of the church.
+Questions were being asked that ignorant monks could not answer. Too
+long had the church ignored these symptoms of the approach of a new
+order of things. The church was forced to meet the heretics on their own
+ground, to offset the example of their simplicity and purity of life by
+exalting the neglected standards of self-denial, and to silence them, if
+possible, by exposing their errors. Then came the Franciscans, with
+their austere simplicity and their insistence upon poverty. Then also
+appeared the Dominicans, or as they were called, "The Watch-dogs of the
+Church," who not only barked the church awake, but tried to devour
+the heretics.
+
+Francis halted for some time before giving encouragement to educational
+enterprises. A life of devotion and prayer attracted him, because, as he
+said, "Prayer purifies the affections, strengthens us in virtue, and
+unites us to the sovereign good." But, he went on, "Preaching renders
+the feet of the spiritual man dusty; it is an employment which
+dissipates and distracts, and which causes regular discipline to be
+relaxed." After consulting Brother Sylvester and Sister Clara, he
+decided to adopt their counsel and entered upon a ministry of preaching.
+The example and success of the Dominicans probably inspired the
+Franciscans to give themselves more and more to intellectual work.
+
+Both orders received appointments in all the leading universities, but
+they did not gain this ascendency without a severe conflict. The regular
+professors and the clergy were jealous of them for various causes, and
+resisted them at every point. The quarrel between the Dominicans and the
+University of Paris is the most famous of these struggles. It began in
+1228 and did not end until 1259. The Dominicans claimed the right to two
+theological professorships. One had been taken from them, and a law was
+passed that no religious order should have what these friars demanded.
+The Dominicans rebelled and the University passed sentences of
+expulsion. Innocent IV., wishing to become master of Italy, sided with
+the University, but the next month he was dead,--in answer to their
+prayers, said the Dominicans, but rumor hinted an even blacker cause.
+The thirty-one years of the struggle dragged wearily on, disturbed by
+papal bulls, appeals, pamphlets and university slogans. At last
+Alexander IV., in 1255, decided that the Dominicans might have the
+second professorship and also any other they thought proper. The noise
+of conflict now grew louder and boded ill for the peace of the church.
+The pulpits flashed forth fiery utterances. The monks were assailed in
+every quarter. William of Amour published his essay on "The Perils of
+the Last Times," in which he claimed that the perilous times predicted
+by the Apostle Paul were now fulfilled by these begging friars. He
+exposed their iniquities and bitterly complained of their arrogance and
+vice. His book was burned and its author banished. Although meaning to
+be a friend of Rome, he unconsciously contributed his share to the
+coming reform. In 1259, Rome thundered so loud that all Europe was
+terrified and the University was awed into submission.
+
+Another interesting feature in the history of their educational
+enterprises is the entrance of the Mendicants into England, where they
+acted a leading part in the educational and political history of the
+country. The Dominicans settled first at Oxford, in 1221. The
+Franciscans, after a short stay at Canterbury, went to Oxford in 1224.
+The story of how the two Gray friars journeyed from Canterbury to Oxford
+runs as follows: "These two forerunners of a famous brotherhood, being
+not far from Oxford, lost their way and came to a farmhouse of the
+Benedictines. It was nearly night and raining. They gently knocked, and
+asked admittance for God's sake. The porter gazed on their patched robes
+and beggarly aspect and supposed them to be mimics or despised persons.
+The prior, pleased with the tidings, invited them in. But instead of
+sportively performing, these two friars insisted, with sedate
+countenances, that they were men of God. Whereat the Benedictines in
+jealousy, and displeased to be cheated out of their expected fun, kicked
+and buffeted the two poor monks and turned them out of doors. One young
+monk pitied them and smuggled them into a hay-loft where we trust they
+slept soundly and safe from the cold and rain." The two friars finally
+reached Oxford and were well received by their Dominican brothers. Such
+was the simple beginning of a brilliant career that was profoundly to
+affect the course of English history. Both at Cambridge and Oxford the
+monastic orders exercised a remarkable influence. Traces of their labors
+and power may still be seen in the names of the colleges, and in the
+religious portions of the university discipline. They built fine
+edifices and manned their schools with the best teachers, so that they
+became great rivals of the regular colleges which did not have the funds
+necessary to compete with these wealthy beggars. Another cause of their
+rapid progress was the exodus of students from Paris to England. During
+the quarrel at Paris, Henry III. of England offered many inducements to
+the students, who left for England in large numbers. Many of them were
+prejudiced in favor of the friars, and they naturally drifted to the
+monastic college. The secular clergy charged the friars with inducing
+the college students to enter the monasteries or to turn begging monks.
+The pope, the king, and the parliament became involved in the struggle,
+which grew more bitter as the years passed. After a while Wyclif
+appeared, and when he began his mighty attack upon the friars the joy
+with which the professors viewed the struggle can be appreciated.
+
+
+
+_The Decline of the Mendicants_
+
+The Mendicant friars won their fame by faithful and earnest labors. Men
+admired them because they identified themselves with the lowest of
+mankind and heroically devoted themselves to the poor and sick. These
+"sturdy beggars," as Francis called his companions, were contrasted with
+the lazy, rich, and, too often, licentious monks of the other orders.
+Everywhere the friars were received with veneration and joy. The people
+sought burial in their rags, believing that, clothed in the garments of
+these holy beggars, they would enter paradise more speedily.
+
+Instead of seeking the seclusion of the convent to save his own soul,
+the friar displayed remarkable zeal trying to save mankind. He became
+the arbiter in the quarrels of princes, the prime mover in treaties
+between nations, and the indispensable counselor in political
+complications. The pope employed him as his authorized agent in the most
+difficult matters touching the welfare of the church. His influence upon
+the common people is thus described by the historian Green: "The theory
+of government wrought out in the cell and lecture-room was carried over
+the length and breadth of the land by the Mendicant brother begging his
+way from town to town, chatting with the farmer or housewife at the
+cottage door and setting up his portable pulpit in village green or
+market-place. The rudest countryman learned the tale of a king's
+oppression or a patriot's hope as he listened to the rambling,
+passionate, humorous discourse of the beggar friar."
+
+By these methods the Mendicants were enabled to render most efficient
+service to their patrons at Rome in their efforts to establish their
+temporal power. They were, in fact, before the Reformation, just what
+the Jesuits afterwards became, "the very soul of the hierarchy." Yes,
+they were immensely, prodigiously successful. The popes hastened to do
+them honor. Because the friars were such enthusiastic supporters of the
+church, the popes poured gold and privileges into their capacious
+coffers. Thankful peasants threw in their mites and the admiring noble
+bestowed his estates.
+
+The secular clergy, with envy and chagrin, awoke to the alarming fact
+that the beggars had won the hearts of the people; their hatred was
+increased by the fact that when the Roman pontiffs enriched these
+indefatigable toilers and valiant foes of heresy, they did so at the
+expense of the bishops and clergy, which, perhaps, was robbing Paul to
+pay Peter.
+
+Baluzii says: "No religious order had the distribution of so many and
+such ample indulgences as the Franciscans. In place of fixed revenues,
+lucrative indulgences were placed in their hands." So ill-judged was the
+distribution of these favors that discipline was overturned. Many
+churchmen, feeling that their rights were being encroached upon,
+complained bitterly, and resolved on retaliation. It is just here that a
+potent cause of the Mendicant's fall is to be found. He helped to dig
+his own grave.
+
+Having elevated monasticism to the zenith of its power, the Mendicant
+orders, like all the other monastic brotherhoods, entered upon their
+shameful decline. The unexampled prosperity, so inconsistent with the
+original intentions of the founders of the orders, was attended by
+corruptions and excesses. The decrees of councils, the denunciations of
+popes and high ecclesiastical dignitaries, the satires of literature,
+the testimony of chroniclers and the formation of reformatory orders,
+constitute a body of irrefragable evidence proving that the lowest level
+of sensuality, superstition and ignorance had been reached. The monks
+and friars lost whatever vigor and piety they ever possessed.
+
+It is again evident that a monk cannot serve God and mammon. Success
+ruins him. Wealth and popular favor change his character. The people
+slowly realize the fact that the fat and lazy medieval monk is not dead,
+after all, but has simply changed his name to that of Begging Friar. As
+Allen neatly observes: "Their gray gown and knotted cord wrapped a
+spiritual pride and capacity of bigotry, fully equal to the rest."
+
+Here, then, are the "sturdy beggars" of Francis, dwelling in palatial
+convents, arrogant and proud, trampling their ideal into the dust. Thus
+it came to pass in accordance with the principle stated at the beginning
+of this chapter, that when the ideal became a cloak to cover up sham,
+decay had set in, and ruin, even though delayed for years, was sure to
+come. The poor, sad-faced, honest, faithful friar everybody praised,
+loved and reverenced. The insolent, contemptuous, rich monk all men
+loathed. So a change of character in the friar transformed the songs of
+praise into shouts of condemnation. Those golden rays from the morning
+sun of the Reformation are ascending toward the highest heaven, and
+daybreak is near.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+_THE SOCIETY OF JESUS_
+
+In many respects it would be perfectly proper to consider the Mendicant
+orders as the last stage in the evolution of the monastic institution.
+Although the Jesuitical system rests upon the three vows of poverty,
+celibacy and obedience, yet the ascetic principle is reduced to a
+minimum in that society. Father Thomas E. Sherman, the son of the famous
+general, and a Jesuit of distinguished ability, has declared: "We are
+not, as some seem to think, a semi-military band of men, like the
+Templars of the Middle Ages. We are not a monastic order, seeking
+happiness in lonely withdrawal from our fellows. Our enemies within and
+without the church would like to make us monks, for then we would be
+comparatively useless, since that is not our end or aim.... We are
+regulars in the army of Christ; that is, men vowed to poverty, chastity
+and obedience; we are a collegiate body with the right to teach granted
+by the Catholic church[G]."
+
+[Footnote G: Appendix, Note G.]
+
+The early religious orders were based upon the idea of retirement from
+the world for the purpose of acquiring holiness. But as has already been
+shown, the constant tendency of the religious communities was toward
+participation in the world's affairs. This tendency became very marked
+among the friars, who traveled from place to place, and occupied
+important university positions, and it reaches its culmination in the
+Society of Jesus. Retirement among the Jesuits is employed merely as a
+preparation for active life. Constant intercourse with society was
+provided for in the constitution of the order. Bishop John J. Keane, a
+Roman Catholic authority, says: "The clerks regular, instituted
+principally since the sixteenth century, were neither monks nor friars,
+but priests living in common and busied with the work of the ministry.
+The Society of Jesus is one of the orders of clerks regular."
+
+Other differences between the monastic communities and the Jesuits are
+to be observed. The Jesuit discards the monastic gown, and is decidedly
+averse to the old monastic asceticism, with its rigorous and painful
+treatment of the body. While the older religious societies were
+essentially democratic in spirit and government, the monks sharing in
+the control of the monastic property and participating in the election
+of superiors, the Jesuitical system is intensely monarchical, a
+despotism pure and simple. In the older orders, the welfare of the
+individual was jealously guarded and his sanctification was sought.
+Among the Jesuits the individual is nothing, the corporate body
+everything. Admission to the monastic orders was encouraged and easily
+obtained. The novitiate of the Jesuits is long and difficult. Access to
+the highest grades of the order is granted only to those who have served
+the society many weary years.
+
+[Illustration: IGNATIUS DE LOYOLA
+
+AFTER GREATBACH'S ENGRAVING FROM THE WIERZ PRINT
+
+BENTON: ALBERT BRANDT, PUBLISHER, 1900]
+
+But in spite of such variations from the old monastic type, the Society
+of Jesus would doubtless never have appeared, had not the way for its
+existence been paved by previous monastic societies. Its aims and its
+methods were the natural sequence of monastic history. They were merely
+a development of past experiences, for the objects of the society were
+practically the objects of the Mendicants; the vows were the same with a
+change of emphasis. The abandonment of austerities as a means of
+salvation or spiritual power was the natural fruit of past experiments
+that had proved the uselessness of asceticism merely for the sake of
+acquiring a spirit of self-denial. The extirpation of heresy undertaken
+by Ignatius had already been attempted by the friars, while the
+education of the young had long been carried on with considerable
+success by the Benedictine and Dominican monks. The spirit of its
+founder, however, gave the Society of Jesus a unique character, and
+monasticism now passed out from the cell forever. The Jesuit may fairly
+be regarded as a monk, unlike any of his predecessors but nevertheless
+the legitimate fruit of centuries of monastic experience.
+
+
+
+_Ignatius de Loyola, 1491-1556 A.D._
+
+Inigo Lopez de Recalde, or Loyola, as he is commonly known, was born at
+Guipuzcoa, in Spain, in 1491. He was educated as a page in the court of
+Ferdinand the Catholic. He afterwards became a soldier and led a very
+wild life until his twenty-ninth year. During the siege of Pamplona, in
+1521, he was severely wounded, and while convalescing he was given lives
+of Christ and of the saints to read. His perusal of these stories of
+spiritual combat inspired a determination to imitate the glorious
+achievements of the saints. For a while the thirst for military renown
+and an attraction toward a lady of the court, restrained his spiritual
+impulses. But overcoming these obstacles, he resolutely entered upon his
+new career.
+
+Sometime after he visited the sanctuary of Montserrat, where he hung his
+shield and sword upon the altar of the Virgin Mary and gave his oath of
+fealty to the service of God. A tablet, erected by the abbot of the
+monastery in commemoration of this event, reads as follows: "Here,
+blessed Ignatius of Loyola, with many prayers and tears, devoted himself
+to God and the Virgin. Here, as with spiritual arms, he fortified
+himself in sackcloth, and spent the vigil of the night. Hence he went
+forth to found the Society of Jesus, in the year MDXXII."
+
+After spending ten months in Manresa, Loyola went on a pilgrimage to the
+Holy Land, intending to remain there, but he was sent home by the
+Eastern monks, and reached Italy in 1524.
+
+Now began his struggle for an education. At the age of thirty-three he
+took his seat on the school-bench at Barcelona. In 1526 he entered the
+University at Alcala. He was here looked upon as a dangerous innovator,
+and was imprisoned six weeks, by order of the Inquisition, for preaching
+without authority, since he was not in holy orders. After his release he
+attended the University of Salamanca, but he finally took his degree of
+Master of Arts at the University of Paris, in 1533.
+
+During this period he was several times imprisoned as a dangerous
+fanatic, but each time he succeeded in securing a verdict in his favor.
+The hostility to Ignatius and his work forms a strange parallel to the
+bitter antagonism which his society has always encountered.
+
+Nine men, among whom was Francis Xavier, afterwards widely renowned, had
+been chosen with great care, as the companions of Ignatius. He called
+them together in July, 1534, and on August 15th of the same year he
+selected six of them and bade them follow him to the Church of the
+Blessed Virgin, at Montmartre, in Paris. There and then they bound
+themselves to renounce all their goods, and to make a voyage to
+Jerusalem, in order to convert the Eastern infidels; if that scheme
+proved impracticable, they agreed to offer themselves to the sovereign
+pontiff for any service he might require of them. War prevented the
+journey to the Holy Land, and so, after passing through a variety of
+experiences, Ignatius and his companions met at Rome, to secure the
+sanction of Pope Paul III. for the new society. After a year and a half
+of deliberation and discussion a favorable decision was reached, which
+was, no doubt, partly facilitated by the growth of the Reformation. The
+new society was chartered on September 27, 1540, for the "defence and
+advance of the faith."
+
+Ignatius was elected as the general of the order and entered upon his
+duties, April 17, 1541. He soon prepared a constitution which was not
+adopted until after his death, and then in an amended form. Loyola ended
+his remarkable and stormy career, July 31, 1556.
+
+
+
+_Constitution and Polity of the Order_
+
+The _Institutum_, which contains the governing laws of the society, is a
+complex document consisting of papal bulls and decrees, a list of the
+privileges which have been granted to the order, ten chapters of rules,
+decrees of the general congregations, the plan of studies (_ratio
+studiorum_), and three ascetic writings, of which the Spiritual
+Exercises of Ignatius constitute the chief part.
+
+The society is distributed into six grades: novices, scholastics,
+temporal coadjutors, spiritual coadjutors, professed of the three vows,
+and professed of the four vows.
+
+The professed form only a small percentage of the entire body, and
+constitute a sort of religious aristocracy, from which the officers of
+the society are selected. Only the professed of the fourth vow, who add
+to the three vows a pledge of unconditional obedience to the pope,
+possess the full rights of membership. This final grade cannot be
+reached until the age of forty-five, so that if the candidate enters the
+order at the earliest age permissible, fourteen, he has been on
+probation thirty-one years when he reaches the final grade.
+
+The society is ruled by a general, to whom unconditional obedience is
+required. The provinces, into which the order is divided, are governed
+by provincials, who must report monthly to the general. The heads of all
+houses and colleges must report weekly to their provincials. An
+elaborate system of checks and espionage is employed to ensure the
+perfect working of this complex ecclesiastical machinery. Fraud or
+evasion is carefully guarded against, and every possible means is
+employed to enable the general to keep himself fully informed concerning
+the minutest details of the society's affairs.
+
+_The Vow of Obedience_
+
+That which has imparted a peculiar character to the Jesuit and
+contributed more than any other force to his success, is the insistence
+upon unquestioning submission to the will of the superior. This emphasis
+on the vow of obedience deserves, therefore, special consideration.
+Loyola, in his "Spiritual Exercises," commanded the novice to preserve
+his freedom of mind, but it is difficult for the fairest critic to
+conceive of such a possibility in the light of Loyola's rule of
+obedience, which reads: "I ought not to be my own, but His who created
+me, and his too by whose means God governs me, yielding myself to be
+moulded in his hands like so much wax.... I ought to be like a corpse,
+which has neither will nor understanding, or like a small crucifix,
+which is turned about at the will of him who holds it, or like a staff
+in the hands of an old man, who uses it as may best assist or
+please him."
+
+As an example of the kind of obedience demanded of the Jesuit, Loyola
+cited the obedience of Abraham, who, when he believed that Jehovah
+commanded him to commit the crime of infanticide, was ready to obey. The
+thirteenth of the rules appended to the Spiritual Exercises says: "If
+the Church shall have defined that to be black which to our eyes appears
+white, we ought to pronounce the thing in question black."
+
+Loyola is reported as having said to his secretary that "in those who
+offer themselves he looked less to purely natural goodness than to
+firmness of character and ability for business." But that he did not
+mean _independent_ firmness of character is clearly seen in the obvious
+attempt of the order to destroy that noble and true independence which
+is the crowning glory of a lofty character. The discipline is
+marvelously contrived to "scoop the will" out of the individual. Count
+Paul von Hoensbroech, who recently seceded from the society, has set
+forth his reasons for so doing in two articles which appeared in the
+"Preussische Jahrbücher." A most interesting discussion of these
+articles, in the "New World," for December, 1894, places the opinions of
+the Count at our disposal. It is quite evident that he is no passionate,
+blind foe of the society. His tone is temperate and his praises
+cordially given. While recognizing the genius shown in the machinery of
+the society and the nobility of the real aims of the Jesuitical
+discipline, and while protesting against the unfounded charges of
+impurity, and other gross calumnies against the order, Count Paul
+nevertheless maintains that it "rests on so unworthy a depreciation of
+individuality, and so exaggerated an apprehension of the virtue of
+obedience, as to render it unfit for its higher ends." The uniform of
+the Jesuit is not an external garb, but such freedom is insignificant in
+the light of the "veritable strait-jacket," which is placed upon the
+inward man. The unformed and pliable novice, usually between the ages of
+sixteen and twenty, is subjected to "a skillful, energetic and
+unremitting assault upon personal independence." Every device that a
+shrewd and powerful intellect could conceive of is employed to break up
+the personal will. "The Jesuit scheme prescribes the gait, the way to
+hold the hands, to incline the head, to direct the eyes, to hold and
+move the person."
+
+Every novice must go through the "Spiritual Exercises" in complete
+solitude, twice in his life. They occupy thirty days. The "Account of
+the Conscience" is of the very essence of Jesuitism. The ordinary
+confession, familiar to every Catholic, is as nothing compared with this
+marvelous inquiry into the secrets of the human heart and mind. Every
+fault, sin, virtue, wish, design, act and thought,--good, bad or
+indifferent,--must be disclosed, and this revelation of the inner life
+may be used against him who makes it, "for the good of the order."
+Thus, after fifteen years of such ingenious and detailed discipline, the
+young man's intellectual and moral faculties are moulded into Jesuitical
+forms. He is no longer his own. He is a pliable and obedient, even
+though it may be a virtuous and brilliant, tool of a spiritual
+master-mechanic who will use him according to his own purposes, in the
+interest of the society.
+
+The Jesuits have signally failed to convince the world that the type of
+character produced by their system is worthy of admiration. The
+"sacrifice of the intellect"--a familiar watchword of the Jesuit--is far
+too high a price to pay for whatever benefits the discipline may confer.
+It is contrary to human nature, and hence to the divine intention, to
+keep a human soul in a state of subordination to another human will. As
+Von Hoensbroech says of the society: "Who gave it a right to break down
+that most precious possession of the individual being, which God gave,
+and which man has no authority to take away?"
+
+It is true that no human organization has so magnificently brought to
+perfection a unity of purpose and oneness of will. It is also true that
+a spirit of defiance toward human authority is often accompanied by a
+disobedience of divine law. But the remedy for the abuses of human
+freedom is neither in the annihilation of the will itself, nor in its
+mere subjection to some other will irrespective of its moral character.
+Carlyle may have been too vehement in some of his censures of Jesuitism,
+but he certainly exposed the fallaciousness of Loyola's views concerning
+the value of mere obedience, at the same time justly rebuking the too
+ardent admirers of the perverted principle: "I hear much also of
+'obedience,' how that and kindred virtues are prescribed and exemplified
+by Jesuitism; the truth of which, and the merit of which, far be it from
+me to deny.... Obedience is good and indispensable: but if it be
+obedience to what is wrong and false, good heavens, there is no name for
+such a depth of human cowardice and calamity, spurned everlastingly by
+the gods. Loyalty? Will you be loyal to Beelzebub? Will you 'make a
+covenant with Death and Hell'? I will not be loyal to Beelzebub; I will
+become a nomadic Choctaw rather, ... anything and everything is
+venial to that."
+
+
+
+_The Casuistry of the Jesuits_
+
+It is often asserted, even by authoritative writers, that a Jesuit is
+bound by his vows to commit either venial or mortal sin at the command
+of his superior; and that the maxim, "The end justifies the means," has
+not only been the principle upon which the society has prosecuted its
+work but is also explicitly taught in the rules of the order. There is
+nothing in the constitution of the society to justify these two serious
+charges, which are not to be regarded as malicious calumnies, however,
+because the slovenly Latin in one of the rules on obedience has misled
+such competent scholars as John Addington Symonds and the historian
+Ranke. Furthermore, judging from the doctrines of the society as set
+forth by many of their theologians and the political conduct of its
+representatives, the conclusion seems inevitable that while the society
+may not teach in its rules that its members are bound to obedience even
+to the point of sin, yet practically many of its leaders have so held
+and its emissaries have rendered that kind of obedience.
+
+Bishop Keane admits that one of the causes for the decline and overthrow
+of the society was its marked tendency toward lax moral teaching. There
+can be but little doubt that the Jesuits have ever been indulgent toward
+many forms of sin and even crime, when committed under certain
+circumstances and for the good of the order or "the greater glory
+of God."
+
+To enable the reader to form some sort of an independent judgment on
+this question, it is necessary to say a few words on the subject of
+casuistry and the doctrine of probabilism.
+
+Casuistry is the application of general moral rules to given cases,
+especially to doubtful ones. The medieval churchmen were much given to
+inventing fanciful moral distinctions and to prescribing rules to govern
+supposable problems of conscience. They were not willing to trust the
+individual conscience or to encourage personal responsibility. The
+individual was taught to lean his whole weight on his spiritual adviser,
+in other words, to make the conscience of the church his own. As a
+result there grew up a confused mass of precepts to guide the perplexed
+conscience. The Jesuits carried this system to its farthest extreme. As
+Charles C. Starbuck says: "They have heaped possibility upon possibility
+in their endeavors to make out how far there can be subjective innocence
+in objective error, until they have, in more than one fundamental point,
+hopelessly confused their own perceptions of both[H]."
+
+[Footnote H: Appendix, Note H.]
+
+The doctrine of probabilism is founded upon the distinctions between
+opinions that are sure, less sure, or more sure. There are several
+schools of probabilists, but the doctrine itself practically amounts to
+this: Since uncertainty attaches to many of our decisions in moral
+affairs, one must follow the more probable rule, but not always, cases
+often arising when it is permissible to follow a rule contrary to the
+more probable one. Furthermore, as the Jesuits made war upon individual
+authority, which was the key-note of the Reformation, and contended for
+the authority of the church, the teaching naturally followed, that the
+opinion of "a grave doctor" may be looked upon "as possessing a fair
+amount of probability, and may, therefore, be safely followed, even
+though one's conscience insist upon the opposite course." It is easy to
+see that this opens a convenient door to those who are seeking
+justification for conduct which their consciences condemn. No doubt one
+can find plausible excuses for the basest crimes, if he stills the voice
+of conscience and trusts himself to confusing sophistry. The glory of
+God, the gravity of circumstances, necessity, the good of the church or
+of the order, and numerous other practical reasons can be urged to
+remove scruples and make a bad act seem to be a good one. But crime,
+even "for the glory of God," is crime still.
+
+This disagreeable subject will not be pursued further. To say less than
+has been said would be to ignore one of the most prominent causes of the
+Jesuits' ruin. To say more than this, even though the facts might
+warrant it, would incur the liability of being classed among those
+malicious fomentors of religious strife, for whom the writer has mingled
+feelings of pity and contempt. The Society of Jesus is not the Roman
+Catholic Church, which has suffered much from the burden of
+Jesuitism--wounds that are scarcely atoned for by the meritorious and
+self-sacrificing services on her behalf in other directions. The
+Protestant foes have never equaled the Catholic opponents of Jesuitism,
+either in their fierce hatred of the system or in their ability to
+expose its essential weakness. A writer in the "Quarterly Review,"
+September, 1848, says: "Admiration and detestation of the Jesuits
+divide, as far as feeling is concerned, the Roman Catholic world, with a
+schism deeper and more implacable than any which arrays Protestant
+against Protestant."
+
+
+
+_The Mission of the Jesuits_
+
+The Society of Jesus has been described as "a naked sword, whose hilt is
+at Rome, and whose point is everywhere." It is an undisputed historical
+fact that Loyola's consuming passion was to accomplish the ruin of
+Protestantism, which had twenty years the start of him and was
+threatening the very existence of the Roman hierarchy. It has already
+been shown that the destruction of heresy was the chief aim of the
+Dominicans. What the friars failed to attain, Loyola attempted. The
+principal object of the Jesuits was the maintenance of papal authority.
+Even to-day the Jesuit does not hesitate to declare that his mission is
+to overthrow Protestantism. The Reformation was inspired by a new
+conception of individual freedom. The authority of tradition and of the
+church was set at naught. Loyola planted his system upon the doctrine of
+absolute submission to authority. The partial success of the Jesuits,
+for they did beat back the Reformation, is no doubt attributable to
+their fidelity, virtue and learning. Their devotion to the cause they
+loved, their willingness to sacrifice life itself, their marvelous and
+instantaneous obedience to the slightest command of their leaders, made
+them a compact and powerful papal army. Their methods, in many
+particulars, were not beyond question, and, whatever their character,
+the order certainly incurred the fiercest hostility of every nation in
+Europe, and even of the church itself.
+
+Professor Anton Gindely, in his "History of the Thirty Years' War,"
+shows that Maximilian, of Bavaria, and Ferdinand, of Austria, the
+leaders on the Catholic side, were educated by Jesuits. He also fixes
+the responsibility for that war partly upon them in the plainest terms:
+"In a word, they had the consciences of Roman Catholic sovereigns and
+their ministers in their hands as educators, and in their keeping as
+confessors. They led them in the direction of war, so that it was at the
+time, and has since been called the Jesuits' War."
+
+The strictures of Carlyle, Macaulay, Thackeray, and Lytton have been
+repeatedly denounced by the Jesuits, but even their shrewd, sophistical
+defences of their order afford ample justification for the attitude of
+their foes. For example, in a masterful oration, previously quoted from,
+in which the virtues of the Jesuits are extolled and defended, Father
+Sherman says: "We are expelled and driven from pillar to post because we
+teach men to love God." He describes Loyola as "the knightly, the loyal,
+the true, the father of heroes, and the maker of saints, the lover of
+the all-good and the all-beautiful, crowned with the honor of sainthood,
+the best-loved and the best-hated man in all the world, save only his
+Master and ours." "'Twas he that conceived the daring plan of forging
+the weapon to beat back the Reformation." No one but a Jesuit could
+reconcile the aim of "preaching the love of God" with "beating back the
+Reformation," especially in view of the methods employed.
+
+Numerous gross calumnies have been circulated against the Society of
+Jesus. The dread of a return to that deplorable intellectual and moral
+slavery of the pre-Reformation days is so intense, that a calm,
+dispassionate consideration of Jesuit history is almost impossible. But
+after all just concessions have been made, two indisputable facts
+confront the student: first, the universal antagonism to the order, of
+the church that gave birth to it, as well as of the states that have
+suffered from its meddling in political affairs; and second, the
+complete failure of the order's most cherished schemes. France, Germany,
+Switzerland, Spain, Great Britain and other nations, have been compelled
+in sheer self-defence to expel it from their territories. Such a
+significant fact needs some other explanation than that the Jesuit has
+incurred the enmity of the world merely for preaching the love of God.
+
+Clement XIV., when solemnly pronouncing the dissolution of the order, at
+the time his celebrated bull, entitled "_Dominus ac Redemptor Noster_"
+which was signed July 21, 1773, was made public, justified his action in
+the following terms: "Recognizing that the members of this society have
+not a little troubled the Christian commonwealth, and that for the
+welfare of Christendom it were better that the order should disappear,"
+etc. When Rome thus delivers her _ex cathedra_ opinion concerning her
+own order, an institution which she knows better than any one else, one
+cannot fairly be charged with prejudice and sectarianism in speaking
+evil of it.
+
+But while there is much to be detested in the methods of the order,
+history does not furnish another example of such self-abnegation and
+intense zeal as the Jesuits have shown in the prosecution of their aims.
+They planted missions in Japan, China, Africa, Ceylon, Madagascar, North
+and South America.
+
+In Europe the Mendicant friars by their coarseness had disgusted the
+upper classes; the affable and cultured Jesuit won their hearts. The
+Jesuits became chaplains in noble families, learned the secrets of every
+government in Europe, and became the best schoolmasters in the age. They
+were to be found in various disguises in every castle of note and in
+every palace. "There was no region of the globe," says Macaulay, "no
+walk of speculative or active life in which Jesuits were not to be
+found." That they were devoted to their cause no one can deny. They were
+careless of life and, as one facetiously adds, of truth also. They
+educated, heard confessions, plotted crimes and revolutions, and
+published whole libraries. Worn out by fatigue, the Jesuits still toiled
+on with marvelous zeal. Though hated and opposed, they wore serene and
+cheerful countenances. In a word, they had learned to control every
+faculty and every passion, and to merge every human aspiration and
+personal ambition into the one supreme purpose of conquering an opposing
+faith and exalting the power of priestly authority. They hold up before
+the subjects of the King of Heaven a wonderful example of loving and
+untiring service, which should be emulated by every servant of Christ
+who too often yields an indifferent obedience to Him whom he professes
+to love and to serve.
+
+Francis Parkman, in his brilliant narrative of "The Jesuits in North
+America," presents the following interesting contrast between the
+Puritan and the Jesuit: "To the mind of the Puritan, heaven was God's
+throne; but no less was the earth His footstool; and each in its degree
+and its kind had its demands on man. He held it a duty to labor and to
+multiply; and, building on the Old Testament quite as much as on the
+New, thought that a reward on earth as well as in heaven awaited those
+who were faithful to the law. Doubtless, such a belief is widely open to
+abuse, and it would be folly to pretend that it escaped abuse in New
+England; but there was in it an element manly, healthful and
+invigorating. On the other hand, those who shaped the character, and in
+a great measure the destiny, of New France had always on their lips the
+nothingness and the vanity of life. For them, time was nothing but a
+preparation for eternity, and the highest virtue consisted in a
+renunciation of all the cares, toils and interests of earth. That such a
+doctrine has often been joined to an intense worldliness, all history
+proclaims; but with this we have at present nothing to do. If all
+mankind acted on it in good faith, the world would sink into
+decrepitude. It is the monastic idea carried into the wide field of
+active life, and is like the error of those who, in their zeal to
+cultivate their higher nature, suffer the neglected body to dwindle and
+pine, till body and mind alike lapse into feebleness and disease."
+
+Notwithstanding the success of the Jesuits in stopping the progress of
+the Reformation, it may be truthfully said that they have failed. The
+principles of the Reformation dominate the world and are slowly
+modifying the Roman church in America. "In truth," says Macaulay, "if
+society continued to hold together, if life and property enjoyed any
+security, it was because common sense and common humanity restrained men
+from doing what the order of Jesus assured them they might with a safe
+conscience do." Our hope for the future progress of society lies in the
+guiding power of this same common sense and common humanity.
+
+The restoration of the order by Pius VII., August 7th, 1814, while it
+renewed the papal favor, did not allay the hostility of the civil
+powers. Various states have expelled them since that time, and wherever
+they labor, they are still the objects of open attack or ill-disguised
+suspicion. Although the order still shows "some quivering in fingers and
+toes," as Carlyle expresses it, the principles of the Reformation are
+too widely believed, and its benefits too deeply appreciated, to
+justify any hope or fear of the ultimate triumph of Jesuitism.
+
+
+
+_Retrospect_
+
+So the Christian monk has greatly changed since he first appeared in the
+deserts of Nitria, in Egypt. He has come from his den in the mountains
+to take his seat in parliaments, and find his home in palaces. He is no
+longer filthy in appearance, but elegant in dress and courtly in manner.
+He has exchanged his rags for jewels and silks. He is no longer the
+recluse of the lonely cliffs, chatting with the animals and gazing at
+the stars. He is a man of the world, with schemes of conquest filling
+his brain and a love of dominion ruling his heart. He is no longer a
+ditch-digger and a ploughman, but the proud master of councils or the
+cultured professor of the university. He still swears to the three vows
+of celibacy, poverty and obedience, but they do not mean the same thing
+to him that they did to the more ignorant, less cultured, but more
+genuinely frank monk of the desert. Yes, he has all but completely lost
+sight of his ancient monastic ideal. He professes the poverty of
+Christ, but he cannot follow even so simple a man as his Saint Francis.
+
+It is a long way from Jerome to Ignatius, but the end of the journey is
+nigh. Loyola is the last type of monastic life, or changing the figure,
+the last great leader in the conquered monastic army. The good within
+the system will survive, its truest exponents will still fire the
+courage and win the sympathy of the devout, but best of all, man will
+recover from its poison.
+
+
+
+VII
+
+_THE FALL OF THE MONASTERIES_
+
+The rise of Protestantism accelerated the decline and final ruin of the
+monasteries. The enthusiasm of the Mendicants and the culture of the
+Jesuits failed to convince the governments of Europe that monasticism
+was worthy to survive the destruction awaiting so many medieval
+institutions. The spread of reformatory opinions resulted in a
+determined and largely successful attack upon the monasteries, which
+were rightly believed to constitute the bulwark of papal power. So
+imperative were the popular demands for a change, that popes and
+councils hastened to urge the members of religious orders to abolish
+existing abuses by enforcing primitive rules. But while Rome practically
+failed in her attempted reformations, the Protestant reformers in church
+and state were widely successful in either curtailing the privileges
+and revenues of the monks or in annihilating the monasteries.
+
+Since the sixteenth century the leading governments of Europe, even
+including those in Catholic countries, have given tangible expression to
+popular and political antagonism to monasticism, by the abolition of
+convents, or the withdrawal of immunities and favors, for a long time a
+source of monastic revenue and power. The results of this hostility have
+been so disastrous, that monasticism has never regained its former
+prestige and influence. Several of the older orders have risen from the
+ruins, and a few new communities have appeared, some of which are
+distinguished by their most laudable ministrations to the poor and the
+sick, or by their educational services. Yet notwithstanding the
+modifications of the system to suit the exigencies of modern times, it
+seems altogether improbable that the monks will ever again wield the
+power they possessed before the Reformation,
+
+In the present chapter attention will be confined to the dissolution of
+the monasteries under Henry VIII., in England. The suppression in that
+country was occasioned partly by peculiar, local conditions, and was
+more radical and permanent than the reforms in other lands, yet it is
+entirely consistent with our general purpose to restrict this narrative
+to English history. Penetrating beneath the varying externalities
+attending the ruin of the monasteries in Germany, Spain, France,
+Switzerland, Italy, and other countries, it will be found that the
+underlying cause of the destruction of the monasteries was that the
+monastic ideal conflicted with the spirit of the modern era. A
+conspicuous and dramatic example of this struggle between medievalism,
+as embodied in the monastic institution, and modern political, social
+and religious ideals, is to be found in the dissolution of the English
+monasteries. The narrative of the suppression in England also conveys
+some idea of the struggle that was carried on throughout Europe, with
+varying intensity and results.
+
+There is no more striking illustration of the power of the personal
+equation in the interpretation of history than that afforded by the
+conflicting opinions respecting the overthrow of monasticism in England.
+Those who mourn the loss of the monasteries cannot find words strong
+enough with which to condemn Henry VIII., whom they regard as
+"unquestionably the most unconstitutional, the most vicious king that
+ever wore the English crown." Forgetting the inevitable cost of human
+freedom, and lightly passing over the iniquities of the monastic system,
+they fondly dwell upon the departed glory of the ancient abbeys. They
+recall with sadness the days when the monks chanted their songs of
+praise in the chapels, or reverently bent over their books of parchment,
+bound in purple and gold, not that they might "winnow the treasures of
+knowledge, but that they might elicit love, compunction and devotion."
+The charming simplicity and loving service of the cloister life, in the
+days of its unbroken vows, appeal to such defenders of the monks with
+singular potency.
+
+Truly, the fair-minded should attempt to appreciate the sorrow, the
+indignation and the love of these friends of a ruined institution.
+Passionless logic will never enable one to do justice to the sentiments
+of those who cannot restrain their tears as they stand uncovered before
+the majestic remains of a Melrose Abbey, or properly to estimate the
+motives and methods of those who laid the mighty monastic institution
+in the dust.
+
+
+
+_The Character of Henry VIII_
+
+Before considering the actual work of suppression, it may be interesting
+to glance at the royal destroyer and his times. The character of Henry
+VIII. is utterly inexplicable to many persons, chiefly because they do
+not reflect that even the inconsistencies of a great man may be
+understood when seen in the light of his times. A masterly and
+comprehensive summary of the virtues and vices of the Tudor monarch, who
+has been described as "the king, the whole king, and nothing but the
+king," may be found in "A History of Crime in England," by Luke Owen
+Pike. The distinguished author shows that in his brutality, his love of
+letters, his opposition to Luther, his vacillation in religious
+opinions, King Henry reflects with remarkable fidelity the age in which
+he lived, both in its contrasts and its inconsistencies. "It is only the
+previous history of England which can explain all the contradictions
+exhibited in his conduct,--which can explain how he could be rapacious
+yet sometimes generous, the Defender of the Faith yet under sentence of
+excommunication, a burner of heretics yet a heretic himself, the pope's
+advocate yet the pope's greatest enemy, a bloodthirsty tyrant yet the
+best friend to liberty of thought in religion, an enthusiast yet a
+turncoat, a libertine and yet all but a Puritan. He was sensual because
+his forefathers had been sensual from time immemorial, rough in speech
+and action because there had been but few men in Britain who had been
+otherwise since the Romans abandoned the island. He was superstitious
+and credulous because few were philosophical or gifted with intellectual
+courage. Yet he had, what was possessed by his contemporaries, a faint
+and intermittent thirst for knowledge, of which he himself hardly knew
+the meaning." Henry was shrewd, tenacious of purpose, capricious and
+versatile. In spite of his unrestrained indulgences and his monstrous
+claims of power, which, be it remembered, he was able to enforce, and
+notwithstanding any other vices or faults that may be truthfully charged
+against him, he was, on the whole, a popular king. Few monarchs have
+ever had to bear such a strain as was placed upon his abilities and
+character. Rare have been the periods that have witnessed such
+confusion of principles, social, political and religious. Those were the
+days when liberty was at work, "but in a hundred fantastical and
+repulsive shapes, confused and convulsive, multiform, deformed." Blind
+violence and half-way reforms characterized the age because the
+principles that were to govern modern times were not yet formulated.
+
+Judged apart from his times Henry appears as an arrogant, cruel and
+fickle ruler, whose virtues fail to atone for his vices. But still, with
+all his faults, he compares favorably with preceding monarchs and even
+with his contemporaries. If he had possessed less intelligence, courage
+and ambition, he would not now be so conspicuous for his vices, but the
+history of human liberty and free institutions, especially in England,
+would have been vastly different. His praiseworthy traits were not
+sufficiently strong to enable him to control his inherited passions, but
+they were too regnant to permit him to submit without a struggle to the
+hierarchy which had dominated his country so many centuries. Such was
+
+                "the majestic lord,
+     That broke the bonds of Rome."
+
+
+
+_Events Preceding the Suppression_
+
+Many causes and incidents contributed to the progress of the reformation
+in England, and to the demolition of the monasteries. Only a few of them
+can be given here, and they must be stated with a brevity that conveys
+no adequate conception of their profound significance.
+
+Henry VIII. ascended the throne, in the year 1509, when eighteen years
+of age. In 1517, Luther took his stand against Rome. Four years later
+Henry wrote a treatise in defence of the Seven Sacraments and in
+opposition to the German reformer. For this princely service to the
+church the king received the title "Defender of the Faith" from Pope
+Leo X.
+
+About 1527 it became known that Henry was questioning the validity of
+his marriage with Catharine of Aragon, whom he had married when he was
+twelve years old. She was the widow of his brother Arthur. The king
+professed conscientious scruples about his marriage, but undoubtedly his
+desire for male offspring, and later, his passion for Anne Boleyn,
+prompted him to seek release from his queen. In 1529, Henry and
+Catharine stood before a papal tribunal, presided over by Cardinal
+Wolsey, the king's prime minister, and Cardinal Campeggio, from Rome,
+for the purpose of determining the validity of the royal marriage. The
+trial was a farce. The enraged king laid the blame upon Wolsey, and
+retired him from office. The great cardinal was afterwards charged with
+treason, but died broken-hearted, on his way to the Tower, November
+29, 1530.
+
+The breach between Henry and Rome, complicated by numerous international
+intrigues, widened rapidly. Henry began to assume an attitude of bold
+defiance toward the pope, which aroused the animosity of the Catholic
+princes of Europe.
+
+Notwithstanding the desire of a large body of the English people to
+remain faithful to Rome, the dangers which menaced their country from
+abroad and the ecclesiastical abuses at home, which had been a fruitful
+cause for complaint for many years, tended to lessen the ancient horror
+of heresy and schism, and inclined them to support their king. Another
+factor that assisted in preparing the English people for the
+destruction of the monasteries was Lollardism. As an organized sect, the
+Lollards had ceased to exist, but the spirit and the doctrines of Wyclif
+did not die. A real and a vital connection existed between the Lollards
+of the fourteenth, and the reformers of the sixteenth, centuries. In
+Henry's time, many Englishmen held practically the same views of Rome
+and of the monks that had been taught by Wyclif[I].
+
+[Footnote I: Appendix, Note I.]
+
+A considerable number of Henry's subjects, however, while ostensibly
+loyal to him, were inwardly full of hot rebellion. The king was
+surrounded with perils. The princes of the Continent were eagerly
+awaiting the bull for his excommunication. Henry's throne and his
+kingdom might at any moment be given over by the pope to invasion by the
+continental sovereigns.
+
+Reginald Pole, afterwards cardinal, a cousin of the king, and a strong
+Catholic, stood ready to betray the interests of his country to Rome.
+Writing to the king, he said: "Man is against you; God is against you;
+the universe is against you; what can you look for but destruction?"
+"Dream not, Caesar," he encouragingly declared to Emperor Charles V.,
+"that all generous hearts are quenched in England; that faith and piety
+are dead. In you is their trust, in your noble nature, and in your zeal
+for God--they hold their land till you shall come." Thus, on the
+testimony of a Roman Catholic, there were traitors in England waiting
+only for the call of Charles V., "To arms!" Pole was in full sympathy
+with all the factions opposed to the king, and stood ready to aid them
+in their resistance. He publicly denounced the king in several
+continental countries.
+
+The monks were especially enraged against Henry. They did all they could
+to inflame the people by preaching against him and the reformers. Friar
+Peyto, preaching before the king, had the assurance to say to him: "Many
+lying prophets have deceived you, but I, as a true Micah, warn you that
+the dogs will lick your blood as they did Ahab's." While the courage of
+this friar is unquestioned, his defiant attitude illustrates the
+position occupied by the monks toward those who favored separation from
+Rome. The whole country was at white heat. The friends of Rome looked
+upon Henry as an incarnate fiend, a servant of the devil and an enemy
+of all religion. Many of them opposed him with the purest and best
+motives, believing that the king was really undermining the church of
+God and throwing society into chaos.
+
+In 1531, the English clergy were coerced into declaring that Henry was
+"the protector and the supreme head of the church and of the clergy of
+England," which absurd claim was slightly modified by the words, "in so
+far as is permitted by the law of Christ." Chapuys, in one of his
+despatches informing Charles V. of this action of convocation, said that
+it practically declared Henry the Pope of England. "It is true," he
+wrote, "that the clergy have added to the declaration that they did so
+only so far as permitted by the law of God. But that is all the same, as
+far as the king is concerned, as if they had made no reservation, for no
+one will now be so bold as to contest with his lord the importance of
+the reservation." Later on, Chapuys says that the king told the pope's
+nuncio that "if the pope would not show him more consideration, he would
+show the world that the pope had no greater authority than Moses, and
+that every claim not grounded on Scripture was mere usurpation; that
+the great concourse of people present had come solely and exclusively to
+request him to bastinado the clergy, who were hated by both nobles and
+the people." ("Spanish Despatches," number 460.)
+
+Parliament, in 1534, conferred on Henry the title "Supreme Head of the
+Church of England," and empowered him "to visit, and repress, redress,
+reform, order, correct, restrain, or amend all errors, heresies, abuses,
+offences, contempts, and enormities, which fell under any spiritual
+authority or jurisdiction." The "Act of Succession" was also passed by
+Parliament, cutting off Princess Mary and requiring all subjects to take
+an oath of allegiance to Elizabeth.
+
+It was now an act of treason to deny the king's supremacy. All persons
+suspected of disloyalty were required to sign an oath of allegiance to
+Henry, and to Elizabeth as his successor, and to acknowledge the
+supremacy of the king in church and state. This resulted in the death of
+some prominent men in the realm, among them Sir Thomas More. In the
+preamble of the oath prescribed by law, the legality of the king's
+marriage with Anne was asserted, thus implying that his former marriage
+with Catharine was unlawful. More was willing to declare his allegiance
+to the infant Elizabeth, as the king's successor, but his conscience
+would not permit him to affirm that Catharine's marriage was unlawful.
+
+The life of the brilliant and lovable More is another illustration of
+the mental confusions and inconsistencies of that age. As an apostle of
+culture he favored the new learning, and yet he viewed the gathering
+momentum of reformatory principles with alarm, and cast in his lot with
+the ultra-conservatives. Four years of his young manhood were spent in a
+monastery. He devoted his splendid talents to a criticism of English
+society, and recommended freedom of conscience, yet he became an ardent
+foe of reform and even a persecutor of heretics, of whom he said: "I do
+so detest that class of men that, unless they repent, I am the worst
+enemy they have." When a man, whom even Protestant historians hasten to
+pronounce "the glory of his age," so magnificent were his talents and so
+blameless his character, was tainted with superstition, and sanctioned
+the persecution of liberal thinkers, is it remarkable that inferior
+intellects should have been swayed by the brutality and tyranny of
+the times?
+
+The unparalleled claims of Henry and his attitude toward the pope made
+the breach between England and Rome complete, but many years of painful
+internal strife and bloodshed were to elapse before the whole nation
+submitted to the new order of things, and before that subjective freedom
+from fear and superstition without which formal freedom has little
+value, was secured.
+
+The breach with Rome was essential to the attainment of that religious
+and political freedom that England now enjoys. But the first step toward
+making that separation an accomplished fact, acquiesced in by the people
+as a whole, was to break the power of the monastic orders. It may
+possibly be true that the same ends would have been eventually attained
+by trusting to the slower processes of social evolution, but the history
+of the Latin nations of Europe would seem to prove the contrary. As the
+facts stand it would appear that peace and progress were impossible with
+thousands of monks sowing seeds of discord, and employing every measure,
+fair or foul, to win the country back to Rome. Gairdner and others
+argue that Henry was far too powerful a king to have been successfully
+resisted by the pope, unless the pope was backed by a union of the
+Christian princes, which was then impracticable. That fact may make the
+execution of More, Fisher and the Charterhouse monks inexcusable, but it
+by no means proves that Henry would have been strong enough to maintain
+his position if the monasteries had been permitted to exist as centers
+of organized opposition to his will. Many of the monks, when pressed by
+the king's agents, took the oath of allegiance. Threats, bribes and
+violence were used to overcome the opposition of the unwilling.
+
+
+
+_The Monks and the Oath of Supremacy_
+
+It is quite evident that the king's purpose to destroy the whole
+monastic institution was partly the result of the determined resistance
+which the monks offered to his authority. The contest between the king
+and the monks was exceedingly fierce and bloody. Many good men lost
+their lives and many innocent persons suffered grievously. Perhaps the
+most pathetic incident in the sanguinary struggle between the king and
+the monks was the tragic fall of the Charterhouse of London. The facts
+are given at length by Froude, in his "History of England," who bases
+his account on the narrative of Maurice Channey, one of the monks who
+escaped death by yielding to the king. The unhappy monk confesses that
+he was a Judas among the apostles, and in a touching account of the ruin
+that came upon his monastic retreat he praises the boldness and fidelity
+of his companions, who preferred death to what seemed to them dishonor.
+
+The pages of Channey are filled with the most improbable stories of
+miracles, but his charming picture of the cloister life of the
+Carthusians is doubtless true to reality. The Carthusian fathers were
+the best fruit of monasticism in England. To a higher degree than any of
+the other monastic orders they maintained a good discipline and
+preserved the spirit of their founders. "A thousand years of the world's
+history had rolled by," says Froude, "and these lonely islands of prayer
+had remained still anchored in the stream; the strands of the ropes
+which held them, wearing now to a thread, and very near their last
+parting, but still unbroken." In view of the undisputed purity and
+fearlessness of these noble monks, a recital of their woes will place
+the case for the monastic institution in the most favorable light.
+
+Channey says the year 1533 was ushered in with signs,--the end of the
+world was nigh. Yes, the monk's world was drawing to a close; the moon,
+for him, was turning into blood, and the stars falling from heaven.
+
+More and Fisher were in the Tower. The former's splendid talents and
+noble character still swayed the people. It was no time for trifling;
+the Carthusian fathers must take the oath of allegiance or perish. So
+one morning the royal commissioners appeared before the monastery door
+of the Charterhouse to demand submission. Prior Houghton answered them:
+"I know nothing of the matter mentioned; I am unacquainted with the
+world without; my office is to minister to God, and to save poor souls
+from Satan." He was committed to the Tower for one month. Then Dr.
+Bonner persuaded the prior to sign with "certain reservations." He was
+released and went back to his cloister-cell to weep. Calling his monks
+together he said he was sorry; it looked like deceit, but he desired to
+save his brethren and their order. The commissioners returned; the monks
+were under suspicion; the reservations were disliked, and they must sign
+without conditions. In great consternation the prior assembled the
+monks. All present cried out: "Let us die together in our integrity, and
+heaven and earth shall witness for us how unjustly we are cut off."
+Prior Houghton conceived a generous idea. "If it depends on me alone; if
+my oath will suffice for the house, I will throw myself on the mercy of
+God; I will make myself anathema, and to preserve you from these
+dangers, I will consent to the king's will." Thus did the noble old man
+consent to go into heaven with a lie on his conscience, hoping to escape
+by the mercy of God, because he sought to save the lives of his
+brethren. But all this was of no avail; Cromwell had determined that
+this monastery must fall, and fall it did. The monks prepared for their
+end calmly and nobly; beginning with the oldest brother, they knelt
+before each other and begged forgiveness for all unkindness and offence.
+"Not less deserving," says Froude, "the everlasting remembrances of
+mankind, than those three hundred, who, in the summer morning, sate
+combing their golden hair in the passes of Thermopylæ." But rebellion
+was blazing in Ireland, and the enemies of the king were praying and
+plotting for his ruin. These monks, with More and Fisher, were an
+inspiration to the enemies of liberty and the kingdom. Catholic Europe
+crouched like a tiger ready to spring on her prostrate foe. It is sad,
+but these recluses, praying for the pope, instilling a love for the
+papacy in the confessional, these honest and conscientious but dangerous
+men must be shorn of their power to encourage rebels. There was a farce
+of a trial. Houghton was brought to the scaffold and died protesting his
+innocence. His arm was cut off and hung over the archway of the
+Charterhouse, as other arms and heads were hideously hanging over many a
+monastic gate in Merry England. Nine of the monks died of prison fever,
+and others were banished. The king's court went into mourning, and Henry
+knotted his beard and henceforth would be no more shaven--eloquent
+evidence to the world that whatever motive dominated the king's heart,
+these bloody deeds were unpleasantly disturbing. Certainly such a
+spectacle as that of a monk's arm nailed to a monastery was never seen
+by Englishmen before.
+
+The Charterhouse fell, let it be carefully noted, because the monks
+could not and would not acknowledge the king's supremacy, and not
+because the monks were immoral. Some spies in Cromwell's service offered
+to, bring in evidence against six of these monks of "laziness and
+immorality." Cromwell indignantly refused the proposal, saying, "He
+would not hear the accusation; that it was false, wilfully so."
+
+The news of these proceedings, and of the beheading of More and Fisher,
+awakened the most violent rage throughout Catholic Europe. Henry was
+denounced as the Nero of his times. Paul III. immediately excommunicated
+the king, dissolved all leagues between Henry and the Catholic princes,
+and gave his kingdom to any invader. All Catholic subjects were ordered
+to take up arms against him. Although these censures were passed, the
+pope decided to defer their publication, hoping for a peaceful
+settlement. But Henry knew, and the Catholic princes of Europe knew,
+that the blow might fall at any time. He had to make up his mind to go
+further or to yield unconditionally to the pope. The world soon
+discovered the temper of the enraged and stubborn monarch. He might
+vacillate on speculative questions, but there were no tokens of feeble
+hesitancy in his dealings with Rome. The hour of doom for the
+monasteries had struck.
+
+Having thus glanced at the character of Henry VIII., the prime mover in
+the attack upon the monasteries, and having surveyed some of the events
+leading up to their fall, we are now prepared to consider the actual
+work of suppression, which will be described under the following heads:
+First, The royal commissioners and their methods of investigation;
+Second, The commissioners' report on the condition of affairs; Third,
+The action of Parliament; Fourth, The effect of the suppression upon the
+people; and Fifth, The use Henry made of the monastic possessions. These
+matters having been set forth, it will then be in order to inquire into
+the justification, real or alleged, of the suppression.
+
+
+
+_The Royal Commissioners and Their Methods of Investigation_
+
+The fall of Sir Thomas More left Thomas Cromwell the chief power under
+the king, and for seven years he devoted his great administrative
+abilities to making his royal patron absolute ruler in church and state.
+
+Cromwell, Earl of Essex, was of lowly origin, but his energy and
+shrewdness, together with the experience acquired by extensive travels,
+commanded the attention of Cardinal Wolsey, who took him into his
+service. He was successively merchant, scrivener, money-lender, lawyer,
+member of parliament, master of jewels, chancellor, master of rolls,
+secretary of state, vicar-general in ecclesiastical affairs, lord privy
+seal, dean of Wells and high chamberlain.
+
+Close intimacy with Wolsey enabled Cromwell to grasp the full
+significance of Henry's ambition, and his desire to please his royal
+master, coupled with his own love of power, prompted him to throw
+himself with characteristic energy into the work of centralizing all
+authority in the hands of the king and of his prime minister. In secular
+affairs, this had already been accomplished. The task before him was to
+subdue the church to the throne, to execute which he became the
+protector of Protestantism and the foe of Rome. Green says: "He had an
+absolute faith in the end he was pursuing, and he simply hews his way to
+it, as a woodman hews his way through the forest, axe in hand." Froude
+says: "To him ever belonged the rare privilege of genius to see what
+other men could not see, and therefore he was condemned to rule a
+generation which hated him, to do the will of God and to perish in his
+success. He pursued an object, the excellence of which, as his mind saw
+it, transcended all other considerations, the freedom of England and the
+destruction of idolatry, and those who, from any motive, noble or base,
+pious or impious, crossed his path, he crushed and passed on over
+their bodies."
+
+There seems to be a general agreement that Cromwell was not a
+Protestant. His struggle against the temporal power of the pope fostered
+the reformatory movement, but that did not make Cromwell a Protestant
+any more than it did his master, Henry VIII. Foxe describes Cromwell "as
+a valiant soldier and captain of Christ," but Maitland retorts "that
+Foxe forgot, if he ever knew, who was the father of lies."
+
+Without doubt Cromwell ruled with an iron hand. He was guilty of
+accepting bribes, and, as some maintain, "was the great patron of
+ribaldry, and the protector of the low jester and the filthy." But,
+sadly enough, that is no serious charge against one in his times. It is
+said that Henry used to say, when a knave was dealt to him in a game of
+cards, "Ah, I have a Cromwell!" Francis Aidan Gasquet, a Benedictine
+monk, in his valuable work on "Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries,"
+says of Cromwell: "No single minister in England ever exercised such
+extensive authority, none ever rose so rapidly, and no one has ever left
+behind him a name covered with greater infamy and disgrace."
+
+In 1535, Henry, as supreme head of the church, appointed Cromwell as his
+"Vicegerent, Vicar-General and Principal Commissary in causes
+ecclesiastical." His immediate duty was to enforce recognition of the
+king's supremacy. The monks and the clergy were now to be coerced into
+submission. A royal commission, consisting of Legh, Layton, Ap Rice,
+London and various subordinates, was appointed to visit the monasteries
+and to report on their condition.
+
+Henry Griffin says in his chronicle: "I was well acquainted with all the
+commissioners; indeed I knew them well; they were very smart men, who
+understood the value of money, for they had tasted of adversity. I think
+the priests were the worst of the whole party, although they had a good
+reputation at the time, but they were wicked, deceitful men. I am sorry
+to speak thus of my own order, but I speak God's truth." "It is a
+dreadful undertaking," said Lord Clinton. "Ah! but I have great faith in
+the tact and judgment of the men I am about to select,"
+retorted Cromwell.
+
+Dr. John London was a base tool of Cromwell, and a miserable exponent of
+the reform movement. He joined Gardiner in burning heretics, was
+convicted of adultery at Oxford, was pilloried for perjury and died in
+jail. The other royal agents were also questionable characters. Dean
+Layton wrote the most disgusting letters to Cromwell. Once he informed
+his patron that he prayed regularly for him, prefacing this information
+with the remark, "I will now tell you something to make you laugh."
+
+Father Gasquet sums up his view of the commissioners in the words of
+Edmund Burke: "It is not with much credulity that I listen to any when
+they speak ill of those whom they are going to plunder. I rather suspect
+that vices are feigned, or exaggerated, when profit is looked for in the
+punishment--an enemy is a bad witness; a robber worse." Burke
+indignantly declares: "The inquiry into the moral character of the
+religious houses was a mere pretext, a complete delusion, an insidious
+and predetermined foray of wholesale and heartless plunder."
+
+Such are the protests from the defenders of the monasteries even before
+a hearing is granted. "What," say they, "believe such perjurers,
+adulterers and gamblers; men forsworn to bring in a bad report; men who
+were selected because they were worthless characters who could be
+relied on to return false charges against an institution loved by
+the people?"
+
+The commissioners began their work at Oxford, in September, 1535. The
+work was vigorously pushed. On reaching the door of a monastery, they
+demanded admittance; if it was not granted, they entered by breaking
+down the gate with an axe. They then summoned the monks before them, and
+plied them with questions. An inventory was taken of everything; nothing
+escaped their searching eyes. When the king decided to suppress the
+lesser monasteries, and ordered a new visitation of the larger ones,
+they seized and sold all they could lay their hands on; "stained glass,
+ironwork, bells, altar-cloths, candles, books, beads, images, capes,
+brewing-tubs, brass bolts, spits for cooking, kitchen utensils, plates,
+basins, all were turned into money." Many valuable books were destroyed;
+jewels and gold and silver clasps were torn from old volumes, and the
+paper sold as waste; parchment manuscripts were used to scour tubs and
+grease boots. Out of the wreck about a hundred and thirty thousand
+manuscripts have been saved. It must be admitted that the commissioners
+were not delicate in their labors; that they insulted many nuns, robbed
+the monks, violated the laws of decency and humanity, and needlessly
+excited the rage of the people and outraged the religious sentiments of
+the Catholics. They even used sacred altar-cloths for blankets on their
+horses, and rode across the country decorated in priestly and monkish
+garments. There seems to be some ground for the statement that Henry was
+ignorant, or at least not fully informed, of their unwarranted violence
+and gross sacrilege. The abbey of Glastonbury was one of the oldest and
+finest cloisters in England. It was a majestic pile of buildings in the
+midst of gardens and groves covering sixty acres; its aisles were vocal
+with the chanting of monks, who marched in gorgeous processions among
+the tall, gray pillars. The exterior of the buildings was profusely
+decorated with sculpture; monarchs, temple knights, mitered abbots,
+martyrs and apostles stood for centuries in their niches of stone while
+princes came and passed away, while kingdoms rose and fell. The nobles
+and bishops of the realm were laid to rest beneath the altars around
+which many generations of monks had assembled to praise and to pray. The
+royal commissioners one day appeared before the walls. The abbot,
+Richard Whiting, who was then eighty-four years of age, was at
+Sharphorn, another residence of the community. He was brought back and
+questioned. At night when he was in bed, they searched his study for
+letters and books, and they claimed to have found a manuscript of
+Whiting's arguments against the divorce of the king and Queen Catharine;
+it had never been published; they did not know whether the venerable
+abbot had such intent or not. Stephen declares the spies themselves
+brought the book into the library. However, the abbot was chained to a
+cart and taken to London. The abbey had immense wealth; every Wednesday
+and Friday it fed and lodged three hundred boys; it was esteemed very
+highly in the neighborhood and received large donations from the knights
+in the vicinity. The abbot was accused of treason for concealing the
+sacred vessels; he was old, deaf, and sick, but was allowed no counsel.
+He asked permission to take leave of his monks, and many little
+orphans; Russell and Layton only laughed. The people heard of his
+captivity and determined "to deliver or avenge" their favorite, but
+Russell hanged half a dozen of them and declared that "law, order and
+loyalty were vindicated." Whiting's body was quartered, and the pieces
+sent to Wells, Bath, Chester and Bridgewater, while his head, adorned
+with his gray hairs clotted by blood, was hung over the abbey gate.
+
+
+
+_The Report of the Commissioners_
+
+The original report of the commissioners does not exist. Burnet declares
+that he saw an extract from it, concerning one hundred and forty-four
+houses, which contained the most revolting revelations. Many of the
+commissioners' letters and various documents touching the suppression
+have been collected and published by the Camden Society. Waiving, for
+the present, the inquiry into the truth of the report, it was in
+substance as follows:
+
+The commissioners reported about one-third of the houses to be fairly
+well conducted, some of them models of excellent management and pure
+living; but the other two-thirds were charged with looseness beyond
+description. The number of inmates in some cloisters was kept below the
+required number, that there might be more money to divide among the
+monks. The number of servants sometimes exceeded that of the monks.
+Abbots bought and sold land in a fraudulent manner; gifts for
+hospitality were misapplied; licentiousness, gaming and drinking
+prevailed extensively. Crime and absolution for gold went hand in hand.
+One friar was said to have been the proud father of an illegitimate
+family of children, but he had in his possession a forged license from
+the pope, who permitted his wandering, "considering his frailty."
+Froude, in commenting upon the report, says: "If I were to tell the
+truth, I should have first to warn all modest eyes to close the book and
+read no farther."
+
+All sorts of pious frauds were revealed. At Hales the monks claimed to
+have the blood of Christ brought from Jerusalem, and not visible to
+anyone in mortal sin until he had performed good works, or, in other
+words, paid enough for his absolution. Two monks took the blood of a
+duck, which they renewed every week; this they put into a phial, one
+side of which consisted of a thin, transparent crystal; the other thick
+and opaque; the dark side was shown until the sinner's gold was
+exhausted, when, presto! change, the blood appeared by turning the other
+side of the phial. Innumerable toe-parings, bones, pieces of skin, three
+heads of St. Ursula, and other anatomical relics of departed saints,
+were said to cure every disease known to man. They had relics that could
+drive away plagues, give rain, hinder weeds, and in fact, render the
+natural world the plaything of decaying bones and shreds of dried skin.
+The monks of Reading had an angel with one wing, who had preserved the
+spear with which our Lord was pierced. Abbots were found to have
+concubines in or near the monasteries; midnight revels and drunken
+feasts were pleasant pastimes for monks weary with prayers and fasting.
+While it would be unjust to argue that the existence of "pious frauds"
+affords a justification for the suppression of the monasteries, it must
+be remembered that they constituted one element in that condition of
+ecclesiastical life that was becoming repugnant to the English people.
+For several generations there had been a marked growth in the hostility
+toward various forms of superstition. True, neither Henry nor Cromwell
+can be accredited with the lofty intention of exterminating
+superstition, but the attitude of many people toward "pious frauds"
+helped to reconcile them to the destruction of the monasteries.
+
+
+
+_The Action of Parliament_
+
+The report of the commissioners was laid before Parliament in 1536. As
+it declared that the smaller monasteries were more corrupt than the
+larger ones, Parliament ordered the suppression of all those houses
+whose revenues were less than two hundred pounds per annum. By this act,
+three hundred and seventy-six houses were suppressed, whose aggregate
+revenue was thirty-two thousand pounds yearly. Movable property valued
+at about one hundred thousand pounds was also handed over to the "Court
+of Augmentations of the King's Revenue," which was established to take
+care of the estates, revenues and other possessions of the monasteries.
+It is claimed that ten thousand monks and nuns were turned out into the
+world, to find bed and board as best they could. In 1538, two years
+later, the greater monasteries met a similar fate, which was no doubt
+hastened by the rebellions that followed the abolition of the smaller
+houses. Many of the abbots and monks were suspected of aiding in the
+rebellion against the king's authority by inciting the people to take up
+arms against him. Apprehending the coming doom, many abbots resigned;
+others were overcome by threats and yielded without a struggle. In many
+instances such monks received pensions varying from fifty-three
+shillings and four pence to four pounds a year. The investigations were
+constantly carried on, and all the foul stories that could be gathered
+were given to the people, to secure their approval of the king's action.
+With remorseless zeal the king and his commissioners, supported by
+various acts of parliament, persevered in their work of destruction,
+until even the monastic hospitals, chantries, free chapels and
+collegiate churches, fell into the king's hands. By the year 1545, the
+ruin was complete. The monastic institution of England was no more. The
+total number of monasteries suppressed is variously estimated, but the
+following figures are approximately correct: monasteries, 616; colleges,
+90; free chapels, 2,374; and hospitals, 110. The annual income was about
+one hundred and fifty thousand pounds, which was a smaller sum than was
+then believed to be in the control of the monks. Nearly fifty thousand
+persons were driven from the houses, to foment the discontent and to
+arouse the pity of the people. Such, in brief, was the extent of the
+suppression, but a little reflection will show that these statements of
+cold facts convey no conception of the confusion and sorrow that must
+have accompanied this terrific and wholesale assault upon an institution
+that had been accumulating its possessions for eight hundred years. At
+this distance from those tragic events, it is impossible to realize the
+dismay of those who stood aghast at this ruthless destruction of such
+venerable establishments.
+
+
+
+_The Effect of the Suppression Upon the People_
+
+For months the country had seen what was coming; letters from abbots and
+priors poured in upon the king and parliament, begging them to spare the
+ancient strongholds of religion. The churchmen argued: "If he plunders
+the monasteries, will not his next step be to plunder the churches?"
+They recalled what Sir Thomas More had said of their sovereign: "It is
+true, his majesty is very gracious with me, but if only my head would
+give him another castle in France, it would not be long before it
+disappeared." Sympathy for the monks, an inborn conservatism, a natural
+love for ancient institutions, a religious dread of trampling upon that
+which was held sacred by the church, a secret antipathy to reform, all
+these and other forces were against the suppression. But the report of
+the visitors was appalling, and the fear of the king's displeasure was
+widespread; so the bill was passed amid mingled feelings of joy,
+sympathy, hatred, fear, anxiety and uncertainty. The bishops were
+sullen; Latimer was disappointed, for he wanted the church to have
+the proceeds.
+
+Outside of Parliament there was much discontent among the nobles and
+gentry of Roman tendencies. Even the indifferent felt bitter against the
+king, because it seemed unjust that the monks, who had been sheltered,
+honored and enriched by the people, should be so rudely and so suddenly
+turned out of their possessions. A dangerously large portion of the
+people felt themselves insulted and outraged. At first, however, there
+were few who dared to voice their protests. "As the royal policy
+disclosed itself," says Green, "as the monarchy trampled under foot the
+tradition and reverence of ages gone by, as its figure rose, bare and
+terrible, out of the wreck of old institutions, England simply held her
+breath. It is only through the stray depositions of royal spies that we
+catch a glimpse of the wrath and hate which lay seething under the
+silence of the people." That silence was a silence of terror. To use the
+figure by which Erasmus describes the time, men felt "as if a scorpion
+lay sleeping under every stone." They stopped writing, gossiping, going
+to confession, and sending presents for the most thoughtless word or
+deed might be tortured into treason against the king by the command
+of Cromwell.
+
+The rebellion which followed the first attack upon the monasteries was
+not caused wholly by religious sentiments. The nobles regarded Cromwell
+as a base-born usurper and yearned for his fall, while the clergy felt
+outraged by his monstrous claims of authority in ecclesiastical affairs.
+In a sense the conflict that ensued was but a continuation of the
+long-standing struggle between the king, the barons, and the clergy for
+the supreme power. From the reign of Edward I., the people had commenced
+to assert their rights and the struggle had become a four-sided one.
+
+These four factions were constantly shifting their allegiance, according
+to the varying conditions, and guided by their changing interests. At
+this time, the clergy, the nobles and the people in northern England,
+particularly, combined against the king, although the alliance was not
+formidable enough to overcome the forces supporting the king.
+
+The secular clergy felt that they were disgraced and coerced into
+submission. They felt their revenues, their honors, their powers, their
+glory, slipping away from them; they joined their mutterings and
+discontent with that of the monks, and then the fires of the rebellion
+blazed forth in the north, where the monasteries were more popular than
+in any other part of England.
+
+The first outbreak occurred in Lincolnshire, in the autumn of 1536. It
+was easily and quickly suppressed. But another uprising in Yorkshire, in
+northern England, followed immediately, and for a time threatened
+serious consequences. Some of the best families in that part of the
+country joined the revolt, although it is noteworthy that these same
+families were afterwards Protestant and Puritan; the rebel army numbered
+about forty thousand men, well equipped for service. Many prominent
+abbots and sixteen hundred monks were in the ranks. The masses were
+bound by oath "to stand together for the love which they bore to
+Almighty God, His faith, the Holy Church, and the maintenance thereof;
+to the preservation of the king's person and his issue; to the purifying
+of the nobility, and to expel all villein blood and evil counsellors
+from the king's presence; not from any private profit, nor to do his
+pleasure to any private person, nor to slay or murder through envy, but
+for the restitution of the Church, and the suppression of heretics and
+their opinions." It is clear, from the language of the oath, that the
+rebels aimed their blows at Cromwell. The secular clergy hated him
+because he had shorn them of their power; the monks hated him because he
+had turned them out of their cloisters, and clergy and people loathed
+him as a maintainer of heresy, a low-born foe of the Church. The
+insurgents carried banners on which was printed a crucifix, a chalice
+and host, and the five wounds, hence they called themselves "Pilgrims of
+Grace." The revolt was headed by Robert Aske, a barrister.
+
+Cromwell acted most cautiously; he selected the strongest men to take
+the field. Richard Cromwell said of one of them, Sir John Russell, "for
+my lord admiral, he is so earnest in the matter that I dare say he could
+eat the Pilgrims without salt." The Duke of Norfolk was entrusted with
+the command of the king's forces.
+
+Henry preferred negotiation to battle, in accepting which the rebels
+were doomed. To wait was to fail. Their demands reduced to paper were:
+1. The religious houses should be restored. 2. England should be
+reunited with Rome. 3. The first fruits and tenths should not be paid to
+the crown. 4. Heretics, meaning Cranmer, Latimer and others, should
+cease to be bishops. 5. Catharine's daughter Mary should be restored as
+heiress to the crown. These and other demands, the granting of which
+would have meant the death of the Reformation, were firmly refused by
+the king, who marveled that ignorant churls, "brutes and inexpert folk"
+should talk of theological and political subjects to him and to
+his council.
+
+After several ineffectual attempts to meet the royal army in battle,
+partly due to storms and lack of subsistence, the rebels were induced to
+disperse and a general amnesty was declared. But new insurrections broke
+out in various quarters, and the enraged king determined to stamp out
+the smoldering fires of sedition. About seventy-five persons were
+hanged, and many prominent men were imprisoned and afterwards executed.
+This effectually suppressed the rebellion.
+
+The revolt showed the strength of the opponents to the king's will, but
+it also proved conclusively that the monarchy was the strongest power in
+the realm; that the star of ecclesiastical domination had set forever in
+England; that henceforth English kings and not Italian popes were to
+govern the English people. True, the king was carrying things with a
+high hand, but one reform at a time; the yoke of papal power must first
+be lifted, even if at the same time the king becomes despotic in the
+exercise of his increased power. Once free from Rome, constitutional
+rights may be asserted and the power of an absolute monarchy judiciously
+restricted.
+
+Following the Pilgrimage of Grace came the complete overthrow of the
+monastic system by the dissolution of the larger monasteries.
+
+
+
+_Henry's Disposal of Monastic Revenues_
+
+What use did Henry make of the revenues that fell into his hands? As
+soon as the vast estates of the monks were under the king's control, he
+was besieged by nobles, "praying for an estate." They kneeled before
+him and specified what lands they wanted. They bribed Cromwell, who sold
+many of the estates at the rate of a twenty years' purchase, and in some
+instances presented valuable possessions to the king's followers. Many
+families, powerful in England at the present time, date the beginning of
+their wealth and position to the day when their ancestors received their
+share of the king's plunder.
+
+The following interesting passage from Sir Edward Coke's Institutes,
+shows that Henry sought to quiet the fears of the people by making the
+most captivating promises concerning the decrease of taxes, and other
+magnificent schemes for the general welfare: "On the king's behalf, the
+members of both houses were informed in Parliament that no king or
+kingdom was safe but where the king had three abilities: 1. To live of
+his own and able to defend his kingdom upon any sudden invasion or
+insurrection. 2. To aid his confederates, otherwise they would never
+assist him. 3. To reward his well-deserving servants. Now the project
+was, that if Parliament would give unto him all the abbeys, priories,
+friaries, nunneries, and other monasteries, that forever in time then
+to come he would take order that the same should not be converted to
+private uses, but first, that his exchequer, for the purpose aforesaid,
+should be enriched; secondly, the kingdom should be strengthened by a
+continual maintenance of forty thousand well-trained soldiers; thirdly,
+for the benefit and ease of the subject, who never afterwards (as was
+projected), in any time to come, should be charged with subsidies,
+fifteenths, loans or other common aids; fourthly, lest the honor of the
+realm should receive any diminution of honor by the dissolution of the
+said monasteries, there being twenty-nine lords of Parliament of the
+abbots and priors, ... that the king would create a number of nobles."
+
+The king was granted the revenues of the monasteries. About half the
+money was expended in coast defences and a new navy; and much of it was
+lavished upon his courtiers. With the exception of small pensions to the
+monks and the establishment of a few benefices, very little of the
+splendid revenue was ever devoted to religious or educational purposes.
+Small sums were set apart for Cambridge, Oxford and new grammar schools.
+Not-withstanding the pensions, there was much suffering; it is said
+many of the outcast monks and nuns starved and froze to death by the
+roadside. Latimer and others wanted the king to employ the revenues for
+religious purposes, but Henry evidently thought the church had enough
+and refused. He did, however, intend to allot eighteen thousand pounds a
+year for eighteen new bishoprics, but once the gold was in his
+possession, his pious intentions suffered a decline, and he established
+only six, with inferior endowments, five of which exist to-day.
+
+
+
+_Was the Suppression Justifiable?_
+
+It is quite common to restrict this inquiry to a consideration of the
+report made by the commissioners against the monks, and to the methods
+employed by them in their investigations. The implication is that if the
+accusations against the monasteries can be discredited, or if it can be
+shown that the motives of the destroyers were selfish and their methods
+cruel, then it follows that the overthrow of the monasteries was a most
+iniquitous and unwarrantable proceeding. Reflection will show that the
+question cannot be so restricted. It may be found that the monastic
+institution should have been destroyed, even though the charges against
+the monks were grossly exaggerated, the motives of the king unworthy,
+and the means he employed despicable.
+
+At the outset a few facts deserve mention. It is usual for Protestants
+to recall with pride the glorious heroism of Protestant martyrs, but it
+should be remembered that Roman Catholicism also has had its martyrs.
+Protestant powers have not been free from tyranny and bloodshed. That
+noble spirit of self-sacrifice which has glorified many a character in
+history is not to be despised in one who dies for what we may pronounce
+to be false.
+
+It must also be granted that the action of the king was not dictated by
+a pure passion for religious reform. Indeed it is a fair question
+whether Henry may be claimed by the Protestants at all. Aside from his
+rejection of the pope's authority, he was thoroughly Catholic in
+conviction and in practice. His impatience with the pope's position
+respecting his divorce, his need of money, his love of power, and many
+other personal considerations determined his attitude toward
+the papacy.
+
+It should also be freely conceded that the royal commissioners were far
+from exemplary characters, and that they were often insolent and cruel
+in the prosecution of their work.
+
+"Our posterity," says John Bale, "may well curse this wicked fact of our
+age; this unreasonable spoil of England's most noble antiquities." "On
+the whole," says Blunt, "it may be said that we must ever look back on
+that destruction as a series of transactions in which the sorrow, the
+waste, the impiety that were wrought, were enough to make the angels
+weep. It may be true that the monastic system had worn itself out for
+practical good; or at least, that it was unfitted for those coming ages
+which were to be so different from the ages that were past. But
+slaughter, desecration and wanton destruction, were no remedies for its
+sins, or its failings; nor was covetous rapacity the spirit of
+reformation."
+
+Hume observes that "during times of faction, especially of a religious
+kind, no equity is to be expected from adversaries; and as it was known
+that the king's intention in this visitation was to find a pretext for
+abolishing the monasteries, we may naturally conclude that the reports
+of the commissioners are very little to be relied upon." Hallam declares
+that "it is impossible to feel too much indignation at the spirit in
+which the proceedings were conducted."
+
+But these and other just and honorable concessions in the interests of
+truth, which are to be found on the pages of eminent Protestant
+historians, are made to prove too much. It must be said that writers
+favorable to monasticism take an unfair advantage of these admissions,
+which simply testify to a spirit of candor and a love of truth, but do
+not contain the final conclusions of these historians. Employing these
+witnesses to confirm their opinions, the defenders of monasticism
+proceed with fervid, glowing rhetoric, breathing devotion and love on
+every page, to paint the sorrows and ruin of the Carthusian Fathers, and
+the abbots of Glastonbury and Reading. They ask, "Is this your boasted
+freedom, to slay these men in cold blood, not for immorality, but
+because they honestly did not acknowledge what no Protestant of to-day
+admits, viz.: that King Henry was the Supreme Head of the Church?"
+Having pointed out the exaggerations in the charges against the monks
+and having made us weep for the aged fathers of the Charterhouse, they
+skillfully lead the unwary to the conclusion that the suppression should
+never have taken place. This conclusion is illogical. The case is
+still open.
+
+Furthermore, if one cared to indulge in historical reminiscences, he
+might justly express astonishment that Rome should object to an
+investigation conducted by men whose minds were already made up, or that
+she should complain because force was employed to carry out a needed
+reform. Did the commissioners take a few altar-cloths and decorate their
+horses? Did Rome never adorn men in garments of shame and parade them
+through streets to be mocked by the populace, and finally burned at the
+stake? Were the altar-cloths dear to Catholic hearts? Were not the
+Bibles burned in France, in Germany, in Spain, in Holland, in England,
+dear to the hearts of the reformers? But however justifiable such a line
+of argument may be, there is little to be gained by charging the sins of
+the past against the men of to-day. Nevertheless, if these facts and
+many like them were remembered, less would be said about the cruelties
+that accompanied the suppression of the monasteries.
+
+Were the charges against the monks true? It seems impossible to doubt
+that in the main they were, although it should be admitted that many
+monasteries were beyond reproach. Eliminating gross exaggerations, lies
+and calumnies, there still remains a body of evidence that compels the
+verdict of guilt. The legislation of the church councils, the decrees of
+popes, the records of the courts, the reports of investigating
+committees appointed by various popes, the testimony of the orders
+against each other, the chronicles, letters and other extant literature,
+abound in such detailed, specific charges of monastic corruption that it
+is simply preposterous to reject the testimony. All the efforts at
+reformation, and they were many, had failed. Many bishops confessed
+their inability to cope with the growing disorders. It is beyond
+question that lay robbers were encouraged to perpetrate acts of
+sacrilege because the monks were frequently guilty of forgery and
+violence. Commenting upon the impression which monkish lawlessness must
+have made upon the minds of such men as Wyclif, Pike says: "They saw
+with their own eyes those wild and lawless scenes, the faint reflection
+of which in contemporaneous documents may excite the wonder of modern
+lawyers and modern moralists." The legislation of church and state for a
+century before Henry VIII. shows that the monks were guilty of brawling,
+frequenting taverns, indulging in licentious pleasures and upholding
+unlawful games.
+
+Bonaventura, the General of the Franciscan Order in its earliest days,
+and its palmiest, for the first years of a monastic order were always
+its best years--this mendicant, their pride and their glory, tells us
+that within fifty years of the death of its founder there were many
+mendicants roaming around in disorderly fashion, brazen and shameless
+beggars of scandalous fame. This unenviable record was kept up down to
+the days of Wyclif, who charged the begging friars with representing
+themselves as holy and needy, while they were robust of body, rich in
+possessions, and dwelt in splendid houses, where they gave sumptuous
+banquets. What shall one say of the hysterical ravings against Henry of
+the "Holy Maid of Kent," whose fits and predictions were palmed off by
+five ecclesiastics, high in authority, as supernatural manifestations?
+What must have been the state of monasteries in which such meretricious
+schemes were hatched, to deceive silly people, thwart the king and stop
+the movements for reform?
+
+Moreover, the various attempts to reform or to suppress the monasteries
+prior to Henry's time show he was simply carrying out what, in a small
+way, had been attempted before. King John, Edward I. and Edward III.,
+had confiscated "alien priories." Richard II. and Henry IV. had made
+similar raids. In 1410, the House of Commons proposed the confiscation
+of all the temporalities held by bishops, abbots and priors, that the
+money might be used for a standing army, and to increase the income of
+the nobles and secular clergy. It was not done, but the attempt shows
+the trend of public opinion on the question of abolishing the
+monasteries. In 1416, Parliament dissolved the alien priories and vested
+their estates in the crown. There is extant a letter of Cardinal Morton,
+Legate of the Apostolic See, and Archbishop of Canterbury, to the abbot
+of St. Albans, one of the mightiest abbeys in all England. It was
+written as the result of an investigation started by Innocent VIII., in
+1489. In this communication the abbot and his monks were charged with
+the grossest licentiousness, waste and thieving. Lina Eckenstein, in her
+interesting work on "Woman Under Monasticism," says: "It were idle to
+deny that the state of discipline in many houses was bad, but the
+circumstances under which Morton's letter was penned argue that the
+charges made in it should be accepted with some reservation." In 1523,
+Cardinal Wolsey obtained bulls from the pope authorizing the suppression
+of forty small monasteries, and the application of their revenues to
+educational institutions, on the ground that the houses were homes
+neither of religion nor of learning.
+
+What Henry did, every country in Europe has felt called upon to do in
+one way or another. Germany, Italy, Spain, France have all suppressed
+monasteries, and despite the suffering which attended the dissolution in
+England, the step was taken with less loss of life and less injury to
+the industrial welfare of the people than anywhere else in Europe[J].
+
+[Footnote J: Appendix, Note J.]
+
+Hooper, who was made a bishop in the reign of Edward VI., expressed the
+Protestant view of Henry's reforms in a letter written about the year
+1546. "Our king," he says, "has destroyed the pope, but not popery....
+The impious mass, the most shameful celibacy of the clergy, the
+invocation of saints, auricular confession, superstitious abstinence
+from meats, and purgatory, were never before held by the people in
+greater esteem than at the present moment." In other words, the
+independence of the Church of England was secured by those who, if they
+were not Roman Catholics, were certainly closer in faith to Rome than
+they were to Protestantism. The Protestant doctrines did not become the
+doctrines of the Church of England until the reign of Edward VI., and it
+was many years after that before the separation from Rome was complete
+in doctrine as well as respects the authority of the pope.
+
+These facts indicate that there must have been other causes for the
+success of the English Reformation than the greed or ambition of the
+monarch. Those causes are easily discovered. One of them was the
+hostility of the people to the alien priories. The origin of the alien
+priories dates back to the Norman conquest. The Normans shared the
+spoils of their victory with their continental friends. English
+monasteries and churches were given to foreigners, who collected the
+rents and other kinds of income. These foreign prelates had no other
+interest in England than to derive all the profit they could from their
+possessions. They appointed whom they pleased to live in their houses,
+and the monks, being far away from their superiors, became a source of
+constant annoyance to the English people. The struggle against these
+alien priories had been carried on for many years, and so many of them
+had been abolished that the people became accustomed to the seizure of
+monasteries.
+
+Large sums of money were annually paid to the pope, and the English
+people were loudly complaining of the constant drain on their resources.
+It was a common saying in the reign of Henry III., that "England is the
+pope's farm." The "Good Parliament," in 1376, affirmed "that the taxes
+paid to the church of Rome amounted to five times as much as those
+levied for the king; ... that the brokers of the sinful city of Rome
+promoted for money unlearned and unworthy caitiffs to benefices of the
+value of a thousand marks, while the poor and learned hardly obtain one
+of twenty." Various laws, heartily supported by the clergy as well as by
+the civil authorities, were enacted from time to time, aimed at the
+abuses of papal power. So steadfast and strong was the opposition to the
+interference of foreigners in English affairs, it would be possible to
+show that there was an evolution in the struggle against Rome that was
+certain to culminate in the separation, whether Henry had accomplished
+it or not. What might have occurred if the monks had reformed and the
+pope withdrawn his claims it is impossible to know. The fact is that the
+monks grew worse instead of better, and the arrogance of foreigners
+became more unendurable. "The corruption of the church establishment, in
+fact," says Lea, "had reached a point which the dawning enlightenment of
+the age could not much longer endure.... Intoxicated with centuries of
+domination, the muttered thunders of growing popular discontent were
+unheeded, and its claims to spiritual and temporal authority were
+asserted with increasing vehemence, while its corruptions were daily
+displayed before the people with more careless cynicism." In view of
+this condition of affairs, the existence of which even the adherents of
+modern Rome must acknowledge, one cannot but wonder that the ruin of the
+monasteries should be attributed to Henry's desire "to overthrow the
+rights of women, to degrade matrimony and to practice concubinage." Such
+an explanation is too superficial; it ignores a multitude of
+historical facts.
+
+The monasteries had to fall if England was to be saved from the horrors
+of civil war, if the hand of the pope was to remain uplifted from her,
+if the insecure gains of the Reformation were to become established and
+glorious achievements; if, in fact, all those benefits accompanying
+human progress were to become the heritage of succeeding ages.
+
+Whatever benefits the monks had conferred upon mankind, and these were
+neither few nor slight, they had become fetters on the advancement of
+freedom, education and true religion. They were the standing army of the
+pope, occupying the last and strongest citadel. They were the unyielding
+advocates of an ideal that was passing away. It was sad to see the
+Carthusian house fall, but in spite of the high character of its
+inmates, it was a part of an institution that stood for the right of
+foreigners to rule England. It was unfortunate they had thrown
+themselves down before the car of progress but there they were; they
+would not get up; the car must roll on, for so God himself had decreed,
+and hence they were crushed in its advance. Their martyrdom was truly a
+poor return for their virtues, but there never has been a moral or
+political revolution that has furthered the general well-being of
+humanity, in which just and good men have not suffered. It would be
+delightful if freedom and progress could be secured, and effete
+institutions destroyed or reformed, without the accompaniment of
+disaster and death, but it is not so.
+
+The monks stood for opposition to reform, and therefore came into direct
+conflict with the king, who was blindly groping his way toward the
+future, and who was, in fact, the unconscious agent of many reform
+forces that concentrated in him. He did not comprehend the significance
+of his proceedings. He did not take up the cause of the English people
+with the pure and intelligent motive of encouraging free thought and
+free religion. He did not realize that he was leading the mighty army of
+Protestant reformers. He little dreamed that the people whose cause he
+championed would in turn assert their rights and make it impossible for
+an English sovereign to enjoy the absolute authority which he wielded.
+Truly "there is a power, not ourselves," making for freedom, progress
+and truth.
+
+Thus a number of causes brought on the ruin of the monasteries. Henry's
+need of money; the refusal of the monks to sign the acts of supremacy
+and succession; the general drift of reform, and the iniquity of the
+monks. They fell from natural causes and through the operation of laws
+which God alone controls. As Hill neatly puts it, "Monasticism was
+healthy, active and vigorous; it became idle, listless and extravagant;
+it engendered its own corruption, and out of that corruption
+came death."
+
+Richard Bagot, a Catholic, in a recent article on the question, "Will
+England become Catholic?" which was published in the "Nuova Antologia,"
+says: "Though it is impossible not to blame the so-called Reformers for
+the acts of sacrilege and barbarism through which they obtained the
+religious and political liberty so necessary to the intellectual and
+social progress of the race, it cannot be denied that no sooner had the
+power of the papacy come to an end in England than the English nation
+entered upon that free development which has at last brought it to its
+present position among the other nations of the world." Mr. Bagot also
+admits that "the political intrigues and insatiable ambition of the
+papacy during the succeeding centuries constituted a perpetual menace
+to England."
+
+The true view, therefore, is that two types of religious and political
+life, two epochs of human history, met in Henry's reign. The king and
+the pope were the exponents of conflicting ideals. The fall of the
+monasteries was an incident in the struggle. "The Catholics," says
+Froude, "had chosen the alternative, either to crush the free thought
+which was bursting from the soil, or to be crushed by it; and the future
+of the world could not be sacrificed to preserve the exotic graces of
+medieval saints."
+
+The problem is reduced to this, Was the Reformation desirable? Is
+Protestantism a curse or a blessing? Would England and the world be
+better off under the sway of medieval religion than under the influence
+of modern Protestantism? If monasticism were a fetter on human liberty
+and industry, if the monasteries were "so many seminaries of
+superstition and of folly," there was but one thing to do--to break the
+fetters and to destroy the monasteries. To have succeeded in so radical
+a reform as that begun by King Henry, with forty thousand monks
+preaching treason, would have been an impossibility. Henry cannot be
+blamed because the monks chose to entangle themselves with politics and
+to side with Rome as against the English nation.
+
+
+
+_Results of the Dissolution_
+
+Many important results followed the fall of the monasteries. The
+majority of the House of Lords was now transferred from the abbots to
+the lay peers. The secular clergy, who had been fighting the monks for
+centuries, were at last accorded their proper standing in the church.
+Numerous unjust ecclesiastical privileges were swept aside, and in many
+respects the whole church was strengthened and purified. Credulity and
+superstition began to decline. Ecclesiastical criminals were no longer
+able to escape the just penalty for their crimes. Naturally all these
+beneficent ends were not attained immediately. For a while there was
+great disorder and distress. Society was disturbed not only by the
+stoppage of monastic alms-giving, but the wandering monks, unaccustomed
+to toil and without a trade, increased the confusion.
+
+In this connection it is well to point out that some writers make very
+much of the poverty relieved by the monks, and claim that the nobles,
+into whose hands the monastic lands fell, did almost nothing to mitigate
+the distresses of the unfortunate. But they ignore the fact that a blind
+and undiscriminating charity was the cause, and not the cure, of much of
+the miserable wretchedness of the poor. Modern society has learned that
+the monastic method is wholly wrong; that fraud and laziness are
+fostered by a wholesale distribution of doles. The true way to help the
+poor is to enable the poor to assist themselves; to teach them trades
+and give them work. The sociological methods of to-day are thoroughly
+anti-monastic.
+
+On the other hand, the infidel Zosimus, quoted by Gibbon, was not far
+wrong when he said "the monks robbed an empire to help a few beggars."
+The fact that the religious houses did distribute alms and entertain
+strangers is not disputed; indeed it is pleasant to reflect upon this
+noble charity of the monks; it is a bright spot in their history. But it
+is in no sense true that they deserve all the credit for relieving
+distress. They received the money for alms in the shape of rents, gifts
+and other kinds of income. Hallam says, "There can be no doubt that many
+of the impotent poor derived support from their charity. But the blind
+eleemosynary spirit inculcated by the Romish church is notoriously the
+cause, not the cure, of beggary and wickedness. The monastic
+foundations, scattered in different countries, could never answer the
+ends of local and limited succor. Their gates might, indeed, be open to
+those who knocked at them for alms.... Nothing could have a stronger
+tendency to promote that vagabond mendicity which severe statutes were
+enacted to repress."
+
+It seems almost ungracious to quote such an observation, because it may
+be distorted into a criticism of charity itself, or made to serve the
+purposes of certain anti-Romanists who cannot even spare those noble
+women who minister to the sick in the home or hospital from their
+bigoted criticisms. Small indeed must be the soul of that man who
+permits his religious opinions to blind his eyes to the inestimable
+services of those heroic and self-sacrificing women. But even Roman
+Catholic students of social problems must recognize the folly of
+indiscriminate alms-giving. "In proportion as justice between man and
+man has declined, that form of charity which consists in giving money
+has been more quickened." The promotion of industry, the repression of
+injustice, the encouragement of self-reliance and thrift, are needed far
+more than the temporary relief of those who suffer from oppression or
+from their own wrong-doing.
+
+Some of those who deplore the fall of the monasteries make much of the
+fact that the modern world is menaced by materialism. "With very rare
+exceptions," cries Maitre, a French Catholic, "the most undisguised
+materialism has everywhere replaced the lessons and recollections of the
+spiritual life. The shrill voice of machinery, the grinding of the saw
+or the monotonous clank of the piston, is heard now, where once were
+heard chants and prayers and confessions. Once the monk freely undid
+the door to let the stranger in, and now we see a sign, 'no admittance,'
+lest a greedy rival purloin the tricks of trade." Montalembert,
+referring to the ruin of the cloisters in France, grieves thus:
+"Sometimes the spinning-wheel is installed under the ancient sanctuary.
+Instead of echoing night and day the praises of God, these dishonored
+arches too often repeat only the blasphemies of obscene cries." The
+element of truth in these laments gives them their sting, but one should
+beware of the fervid rhetoric of the worshipers of medievalism. This
+century is nobler, purer, truer, manlier, and more humane than any of
+the centuries that saw the greatest triumphs of the monks. They, too,
+had their blasphemies, often under the cloak of piety; they, too, had
+their obscene cries. Their superstitions and frauds concealed beneath
+those "dishonored arches" were infinitely worse than the noise of
+machinery weaving garments for the poor, or producing household comforts
+to increase the happiness of the humblest man.
+
+There is much that is out of joint, much to justify doleful prophecies,
+in the social and religious conditions of the present age, but the
+signs of the times are not all ominous. At all events, nothing would be
+gained by a return to the monkish ideals of the past. The hope of the
+world lies in the further development and completer realization of those
+great principles of human freedom that distinguish this century from the
+past. The history of monasticism clearly shows that the monasteries
+could not minister to that development of liberty, truth and justice,
+which constitute the indispensable condition of human happiness and
+human progress. Unable to adjust themselves to the new age, unwilling to
+welcome the new light, rejecting the doctrine of individual freedom, the
+monks were forced to retire from the field.
+
+So fell in England that institution which, for twelve centuries, had
+exercised marvelous dominion over the spiritual and temporal interests
+of the continent, and for eight hundred years had suffered or thrived on
+English soil. "The day came, and that a drear winter day, when its last
+mass was sung, its last censer waved, its last congregation bent in rapt
+and lovely adoration before the altar." Its majestic and solemn ruins
+proclaim its departed grandeur. Its deeds of mercy, its conflicts with
+kings and bishops, its prayers and chants and penances, its virtues and
+its vices, its trials and its victories, its wealth and its poverty, all
+are gone. Silence and death keep united watch over cloister and tomb. We
+should be ungrateful if we forgot its blessings; we should be untrue if,
+ignoring its evils, we sought to bring back to life that which God has
+laid in the sepulcher of the dead.
+
+     "Where pleasant was the spot for men to dwell,
+     Amid its fair broad lands the abbey lay,
+     Sheltering dark orgies that were shame to tell,
+     And cowled and barefoot beggars swarmed the way,
+     All in their convent weeds of black, and white, and gray.
+
+     From many a proud monastic pile, o'erthrown,
+     Fear-struck, the brooded inmates rushed and fled;
+     The web, that for a thousand years had grown
+     O'er prostrate Europe, in that day of dread
+     Crumbled and fell, as fire dissolves the flaxen thread."
+
+     --_Bryant_.
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+_CAUSES AND IDEALS OF MONASTICISM_
+
+All forms of religious character and conduct are grounded in certain
+cravings of the soul, which, in seeking satisfaction, are influenced by
+theoretical opinions. The longings of the human heart constitute the
+impulse, or the energy, of religion. The intellectual convictions act as
+guiding forces. As a religious type, therefore, the monk was produced by
+the action of certain desires, influenced by specific opinions
+respecting God, the soul, the body, the world and their relations.
+
+The existence of monasticism in non-Christian religions implies that
+whatever impetus the ascetic impulses in human nature received from
+Christian teaching, there is some broader basis for monastic life than
+the tenets of any creed. Biblical history and Christian theology furnish
+some explanation of the rise of Christian monasticism, but they do not
+account for the monks of ancient India. The teachings of Jesus exerted a
+profound influence upon the Christian monks, but they cannot explain the
+Oriental asceticism that flourished before the Christ of the New
+Testament was born. There must have been some motive, or motives,
+operating on human nature as such, a knowledge of which will help to
+account for the monks of Indian antiquity as well as the begging friars
+of modern times. It will therefore be in order to begin the present
+inquiry by seeking those causes which gave rise to monasticism
+in general.
+
+
+
+_Causative Motives of Monasticism_
+
+Whatever the origin of religion itself, it is certain that it is man's
+inalienable concern. He is, as Sabatier says, "incurably religious." Of
+all the motives ministering to this ruling passion, the longing for
+righteousness and for the favor of God is supreme. The savage only
+partially grasps the significance of his spiritual aspirations, and
+dimly understands the nature of the God he adores or fears. His worship
+may be confined to frantic efforts to ward off the vengeful assaults of
+an angry deity, but however gross his religious conceptions, there is at
+the heart of his religion a desire to live in peaceful relations with
+the Supreme Being.
+
+As religion advances, the ethical character of God and the nature of
+true righteousness are more clearly apprehended. But the idea that moral
+purity and fellowship with God are in some way associated with
+self-denial has always been held by the religious world. But what does
+such a conception involve? What must one do to deny self? The answer to
+that question will vastly influence the form of religious conduct. Thus
+while all religious men may unite in a craving for holiness by a
+participation in the Divine nature, they will differ widely in their
+opinions as to the nature of this desirable righteousness and as to the
+means by which it may be attained. Roman Catholicism, by the voice of
+the monk, whom it regards as the highest type of Christian living, gives
+one answer to these questions; Protestantism, protesting against
+asceticism, gives a different reply.
+
+The desire for salvation was, therefore, the primary cause of all
+monasticism. Many quotations might be given from the sacred writings of
+India, establishing beyond dispute, that underlying the confusing
+variety of philosophical ideas and ascetic practices of the
+non-Christian monks, was a consuming desire for the redemption of the
+soul from sin. Buddha said on seeing a mendicant, "The life of a devotee
+has always been praised by the wise. It will be my refuge and the refuge
+of other creatures, it will lead us to a real life, to happiness and
+immortality."
+
+Dharmapala, in expounding the teachings of the Buddha, at the World's
+Parliament of Religions, in Chicago, clearly showed that the aim of the
+Buddhist is "the entire obliteration of all that is evil," and "the
+complete purification of the mind." That this is the purpose of the
+asceticism of India is seen by the following quotation from Dharmapala's
+address: "The advanced student of the religion of Buddha when he has
+faith in him thinks: 'Full of hindrances is household life, a path
+defiled by passions; free as the air is the life of him who has
+renounced all worldly things. How difficult is it for the man who dwells
+at home to live the higher life in all its fullness, in all its purity,
+in all its perfection! Let me then cut off my hair and beard, let me
+clothe myself in orange-colored robes and let me go forth from a
+household life into the homeless state!'"
+
+In the same parliament, Mozoomdar, the brilliant and attractive
+representative of the Brahmo Somaj, in describing "Asia's Service to
+Religion," thus stated the motives and spirit of Oriental asceticism:
+"What lesson do the hermitages, the monasteries, the cave temples, the
+discipline and austerities of the religious East teach the world?
+Renunciation. The Asiatic apostle will ever remain an ascetic, a
+celibate, a homeless Akinchana, a Fakeer. We Orientals are all the
+descendants of John the Baptist. Any one who has taken pains at
+spiritual culture must admit that the great enemy to a devout
+concentration of mind is the force of bodily and worldly desire.
+Communion with God is impossible, so long as the flesh and its lusts are
+not subdued.... It is not mere temperance, but positive asceticism; not
+mere self-restraint, but self-mortification; not mere self-sacrifice,
+but self-extinction; not mere morality, but absolute holiness." And
+further on in his address, Mozoomdar claimed that this asceticism is
+practically the essential principle in Christianity and the meaning of
+the cross of Christ: "This great law of self-effacement, poverty,
+suffering, death, is symbolized in the mystic cross so dear to you and
+dear to me. Christians, will you ever repudiate Calvary? Oneness of will
+and character is the sublimest and most difficult unity with God." The
+chief value of these quotations from Mozoomdar lies in the fact that
+they show forth the underlying motive of all asceticism. It would be
+unjust to the distinguished scholar to imply that he defends those
+extreme forms of monasticism which have appeared in India or in
+Christian countries. On the contrary, while he maintains, in his
+charming work, "The Oriental Christ," that "the height of self-denial
+may fitly be called asceticism," he is at the same time fully alive to
+its dangerous exaggerations. "Pride," he says, "creeps into the holiest
+and humblest exercises of self-discipline. It is the supremest natures
+only that escape. The practice of asceticism therefore is always
+attended with great danger." The language of Mozoomdar, however, like
+that of many Christian monastic writers, opens the door to many grave
+excesses. It is another evidence of the necessity for defining what one
+means by "self-mortification" and "self-extinction."
+
+Turning now to Christian monasticism, it will be found that, as in the
+case of Oriental monasticism the yearning for victory over self was
+uppermost in the minds of the best Christian monks. A few words from a
+letter written by Jerome to Rusticus, a young monk, illustrates the
+truth of this observation: "Let your garments be squalid," he says, "to
+show that your mind is white, and your tunic coarse, to show that you
+despise the world. But give not way to pride, lest your dress and your
+language be found at variance. Baths stimulate the senses, and are
+therefore to be avoided."
+
+To keep the mind white, to despise the world, to overcome pride, to stop
+the craving of the senses for gratification,--these were the objects of
+the monks, in order to accomplish which they macerated and starved their
+bodies, avoided baths, wore rags, affected humble language and fled from
+the scenes of pleasure. The goal was highly commendable, even if the
+means employed were inadequate to produce the desired results.
+
+All down through the Middle Ages, the idea continued to prevail that the
+monastic life was the highest and purest expression of the Christian
+religion, and that the monks' chances of heaven were much better than
+those of any other class of men. The laity believed them to be a little
+nearer God than even the clergy, and so they paid them gold for their
+prayers. It will readily be understood that in degenerate times, so
+profitable a doctrine would be earnestly encouraged by the monks. The
+knight, whose conscience revolted against his conduct but who could not
+bring himself to a complete renunciation of the world, believed that
+heaven would condone his faults or crimes if in some way he could make
+friends with the dwellers in the cloister. To this end, he founded
+abbeys and sustained monasteries by liberal gifts of gold and land. Such
+a donation was made in the following language: "I, Gervais, who belong
+to the chivalry of the age, caring for the salvation of my soul, and
+considering that I shall never reach God by my own prayers and fastings,
+have resolved to recommend myself in some other way to those who, night
+and day, serve God by these practices, so that, thanks to their
+intercession, I may be able to obtain that salvation which I of myself
+am unable to merit." Another endowment was made by Peter, Knight of
+Maull, in these quaint terms: "I, Peter, profiting by this lesson, and
+desirous, though a sinner and unworthy, to provide for my future
+destiny, I have desired that the bees of God may come to gather their
+honey in my orchards, so that when their fair hives shall be full of
+rich combs, they may be able to remember him by whom the hive
+was given."
+
+The people believed that the prayers of the monks lifted their souls
+into heaven; that their curses doomed them to the bottomless pit. A
+monastery was the safe and sure road to heaven. The observation of
+Gibbon respecting the early monks is applicable to all of them: "Each
+proselyte who entered the gates of a monastery was persuaded that he
+trod the steep and thorny path of eternal happiness."
+
+The second cause for monasticism in general was a natural love of
+solitude, which became almost irresistible when reinforced by a despair
+of the world's redemption. The poet voiced the feelings of almost every
+soul, at some period in life, when he wrote:
+
+     "O for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
+     Some boundless contiguity of shade,
+     Where rumor of oppression or deceit,
+     Of unsuccessful or successful war,
+     Might never reach me more."
+
+The longing for solitude accompanied the desire for salvation. An
+unconquerable weariness of the world, with its strife and passion,
+overcame the seeker after God. A yearning to escape the duties of social
+life, which were believed to interfere with one's duty to God, possessed
+his soul. The flight from the world was merely the method adopted to
+satisfy his soul-longings. If such times of degeneracy and rampant
+iniquity ever return, if humanity is again compelled to stagger under
+the moral burdens that crushed the Roman Empire, without doubt the love
+of solitude, which is now held in check by the satisfactions of a
+comparatively pure and peaceful social life, will again arise in its
+old-time strength and impel men to seek in waste and lonely places the
+virtues they cannot acquire in a decaying civilization.
+
+Even amid the delights of human fellowship, and surrounded by so much
+that ministers to restfulness of soul, it is often hard to repress a
+longing to shatter the fetters of custom, to flee from the noise and
+confusion of this hurrying, fretful world, and to pass one's days in a
+coveted retirement, far from the maddening strife and tumult.
+Montalembert's profound appreciation of monastic life was never more
+aptly illustrated than in the following declaration: "In the depths of
+human nature there exists without doubt, a tendency instinctive, though
+confused and evanescent, toward retirement and solitude. What man,
+unless completely depraved by vice or weighed down by care and cupidity,
+has not experienced once, at least, before his death, the attraction of
+solitude?"
+
+While the motives just described were unquestionably preeminent among
+the causative factors in monasticism, it should not be taken for granted
+that there were no others, or that either or both of these motives
+controlled every monk. The personal considerations tending to keep up
+the flight from the world were numerous and active. It would be a
+mistake to credit all the monks, and at some periods even a majority of
+them, with pure and lofty purposes. Oftentimes criminals were pardoned
+through the intercession of abbots on condition that they would retire
+to a monastery. The jilted lover and the commercial bankrupt, the
+deserted or bereaved wife, the pauper and the invalid, the social
+outcast and the shirker of civic duties, the lazy and the fickle were
+all to be found in the ranks of the monastic orders. Ceasing to feel any
+interest in the joys of society, they had turned to the cloister as a
+welcome asylum in the hour of their sorrow or disappointment. To some it
+was an easy way out of the struggle for existence, to others it meant an
+end to taxes and to military service, to still others it was a haven of
+rest for a weary body or a disappointed spirit. Thus many specific,
+individual considerations acted with the general desires for salvation
+and solitude to strengthen and to perpetuate the institution.
+
+
+
+_Beliefs Affecting the Causative Motives_
+
+In the first chapter it was shown that a variety of views respecting the
+relation of the body and the soul influenced the origin and development
+of Christian monasticism. It will not now be necessary to repeat what
+was there said. The essential teaching of all these false opinions was
+that the body was in itself evil, that the gratification of natural
+appetites was inherently wrong, and that true holiness consisted in the
+complete subjection of the body by self-denial and torture. Jerome
+distinctly taught that what was natural was opposed to God. The Gnostics
+and many of the early Christians believed that this world was ruled by
+the devil. The Gnostics held that this opposition of the kingdom of
+matter to God was fundamental and eternal. The Christians, however,
+maintained that the antagonism was temporary, the Lord having given the
+world over to evil spirits for a time. The prevailing opinion among
+almost all schools was that a union with God was only possible to those
+who had extinguished bodily desires.
+
+The ascetic theory undoubtedly derived much support from the views held
+concerning the teachings of the Bible. The Oriental monks frequently
+quoted from their sacred books to justify their habits and ideals. In
+like manner, the Christian monks believed that they, and they alone,
+were literally obeying the commands of Christ and his apostles. This
+phase of the subject will receive attention when the three vows of
+monasticism are considered.
+
+In the West, two conditions, one political and social, the other
+religious, set in motion all these spiritual desires and ascetic beliefs
+tending toward monasticism. One was the corrupted state, of Roman
+society and the approaching overthrow of the Roman Empire. The other was
+the secularization of the church.
+
+Men naturally cling to society as long as there exists any well-founded
+hope for its regeneration, but when every expectation for the survival
+of righteousness yields to a conviction that doom is inevitable, then
+the flight from the world begins. This was precisely the situation in
+the declining days of Rome and Alexandria, when Christian monasticism
+came into being. The monks believed that the end of the world was nigh,
+that all things temporal and earthly were doomed, and that God's hand
+was against the empire. "That they were correct in their judgment of the
+world about them," says Kingsley, "contemporary history proves
+abundantly. That they were correct, likewise, in believing that some
+fearful judgment was about to fall on man, is proved by the fact that it
+did fall."
+
+So they fled to escape being caught in the ruins of society's tottering
+structure,--fled to make friends with the angels and with God. If one
+cannot live purely in the midst of corruption, by all means let him live
+purely away from corruption, but let him never forget that his piety is
+of a lower order than that which abides uncorrupted in the midst of
+degenerate society. There is much truth in the observation of Charles
+Reade in "The Cloister and the Hearth": "So long as Satan walks the
+whole earth, tempting men, and so long as the sons of Belial do never
+lock themselves in caves but run like ants, to and fro corrupting
+others, the good man that sulks apart, plays the Devil's game, or at
+least gives him the odds."
+
+But the early Christian monks believed that their safety was only in
+flight. It was not altogether an unworthy motive; at least it is easy to
+sympathize with these men struggling against odds, of the magnitude of
+which the modern Christian has only the faintest conception.
+
+The conviction that the only true and certain way to secure salvation
+is by flight from the world, continued to prevail during the succeeding
+centuries of monastic history, and it can hardly be said to have
+entirely disappeared even at the present time. Anselm of Canterbury, in
+the twelfth century, wrote to a young friend reminding him that the
+glory of this world was perishing. True, not monks only are saved,
+"but," says he, "who attains to salvation in the most certain, who in
+the most noble way, the man who seeks to love God alone, or he who seeks
+to unite the love of God with the love of the world?... Is it rational
+when danger is on every side, to remain where it is the greatest?"
+
+The Christian church set up an ideal of life which it was impossible to
+realize within her borders, and one which differed in many respects from
+the teachings of Jesus. Her demands involved a renunciation of the
+world, a superiority to all the enticements of bodily appetites, a lofty
+scorn of secular bonds and social concerns. A vigorous religious faith
+had conquered a mighty empire, but corruption attended its victory. The
+standard of Christian morals was lowered, or had at least degenerated
+into a cold, formal ideal that no one was expected to realize; hence
+none strove to attain it but the monks. When Roman society with its
+selfishness, lust and worldliness, swept in through the open doors of
+the church and took possession of the sanctuary, those who had cherished
+the ascetic ideal gave up the fight against the world, and the flight
+from the world-church began. They could not tolerate this union of the
+church with a pagan state and an effete civilization. In some respects,
+as a few writers maintain, many of these hermits were like the old
+Jewish prophets, fighting single-handed against corruption in church and
+state, refusing to yield themselves as slaves to the authority of
+institutions that had forsaken the ideals of the past.
+
+Thus the conviction that the end of human society was nigh, and that the
+church could no longer serve as an asylum for the lovers of
+righteousness, with certain philosophical ideas respecting the body, the
+world and God, united to produce the assumption that salvation was more
+readily attainable in the deserts; and Christian monasticism, in its
+hermit form, began its long and eventful history.
+
+
+
+_Causes of Variations in Monasticism_
+
+Prominent among the causes producing variations in the monastic type was
+the influence of climatic conditions and race characteristics.
+
+The monasticism as well as the religion of the East has always differed
+from the monasticism and the religion of the West. The Eastern mind is
+mystical, dreamy, contemplative; the Western mind loves activity, is
+intensely practical. Representatives of the Eastern faiths in the recent
+Parliament of Religions accused the West of materialism, of loving the
+body more than the soul. They affected to despise all material
+prosperity, and gloried in their assumed superiority, on account of
+their love for religious contemplation. This radical difference between
+the races of the East and West is clearly seen in the monastic
+institution. Benedict embodied in his rules the spirit and active life
+of the West, and hence, the monastic system, then in danger of dying, or
+stagnating, revived and spread all over Europe. Again, the hermit life
+was ill-adapted to the West. Men could not live out of doors in Europe
+and subsist on small quantities of food as in Egypt. The rigors of the
+climate in Europe demanded an adaptation to new conditions.
+
+But aside from the differences between Eastern and Western monasticism,
+the Christian institution passed through a variety of changes. The
+growth of monasticism from the hermit stage to the cloistral life has
+already been described. To what shall the development of the community
+system be attributed? No religious institution can remain stationary,
+unaffected by the changing conditions of the society in which it exists.
+The progress of the intellect, and the development of social, political
+and industrial conditions, effect great transformations in religious
+organizations.
+
+The monastic institution grew up amid the radical changes of European
+society. In its early days it witnessed the invasion of the barbarians,
+which swept away old political divisions and destroyed many of the
+heritages of an ancient civilization. Then the process of reconstruction
+slowly began. New states were forming; nations were crystallizing. The
+barbarian was to lay the foundations of great cities and organize
+powerful commonwealths out of wild but victorious tribes. The monk
+could not remain in hiding. He was brother to the roving warrior. The
+blood in his veins was too active to permit him to stand still amid the
+mighty whirl of events. Without entirely abandoning his cloistral life,
+he became a zealous missionary of the church among the barbarians, a
+patron of letters and of agriculture, in short a stirring participant in
+the work of civilization.
+
+Next came the crusades. Jerusalem was to be captured for Christ and the
+church. The monk then appeared as a crusade-preacher, a warrior on the
+battle-field, or a nurse in the military hospital.
+
+The rise of feudalism likewise wrought a change in the spirit and
+position of the monks. The feudal lord was master of his vassals. "The
+genius of feudalism," says Allen, "was a spirit of uncontrolled
+independence." So the abbot became a feudal lord with immense
+possessions and powers. He was no longer the obscure, spiritual father
+of a little family of monks, but a temporal lord also, an aristocrat,
+ruling wide territories, and dwelling in a monastery little different
+from the castle of the knight and often exceeding it in splendor. With
+wealth came ease, and hard upon the heels of ease came laziness,
+arrogance, corruption.
+
+Then followed the marvelous intellectual awakening, the moral revival,
+the discoveries and inventions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
+The human mind at last had aroused itself from a long repose, or turned
+from a profitless activity into broad and fruitful fields. The
+corruption of the monasteries meant the laxity of vows, the cessation of
+ministration to the poor and the sick. Then arose the tender and loving
+Francis, with his call to poverty and to service. The independent
+exercise of the intellect gave birth to heresies, but the Dominicans
+appeared to preach them down.
+
+The growth of the secular spirit and the progress of the new learning
+were too much for the old monasticism. The monk had to adapt himself to
+a new age, an age that is impatient of mere contemplation, that spurns
+the rags of the begging friar and rebels against the fierce intolerance
+of the Dominican preaching. So, lastly, came the suave, determined,
+practical, cultured Jesuit, ready to comply, at least outwardly, with
+all the requirements of modern times. Does the new age reject monastic
+seclusion? Very well, the Jesuit throws off his monastic garb and
+forsakes his cloister, to take his place among men. Are the ignorance
+and the filth of the begging friars offensive? The Jesuit is cultured,
+affable and spotlessly clean. Does the new age demand liberty?
+"Liberty," cries the Jesuit, "is the divine prerogative, colossal in
+proportion, springing straight from the broad basin of the
+soul's essence!"
+
+Such in its merest outlines is the story of the development of the
+monastic type and its causes.
+
+
+
+_The Fundamental Monastic Vows_
+
+The ultimate monastic ideal was the purification of the soul, but when
+translated into definite, concrete terms, the immediate aim of the monk
+was to live a life of poverty, celibacy and obedience. Riches, marriage
+and self-will were regarded as forms of sinful gratification, which
+every holy man should abandon. The true Christian, according to
+monasticism, is poor, celibate and obedient. The three fundamental
+monastic vows should therefore receive special consideration.
+
+1. The Vow of Poverty. The monks of all countries held the possession of
+riches to be a barrier to high spiritual attainments. In view of the
+fact that an inordinate love of wealth has proved disastrous to many
+nations, and that it is extremely difficult for a rich man to escape the
+hardening, enervating and corrupting influences of affluence, the
+position of the monks on this question is easily understood. The
+Christian monks based their vow of poverty upon the Bible, and
+especially upon the teachings of Christ, who, though he was rich, yet
+for our sakes became poor. He said to the rich young man, "Sell all that
+thou hast and give to the poor." In commissioning the disciples to
+preach the gospel He said: "Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass
+in your purses; nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, nor
+shoes." In the discourse on counting the cost of discipleship, He said:
+"So therefore, whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he
+hath, he cannot be my disciple." He promised rewards to "every one that
+left houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children,
+or lands for my name's sake." "It is easier," He once said, "for a
+camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter the
+kingdom of heaven." He portrayed the pauper Lazarus as participating in
+the joys of heaven, while the rich Dives endured the torments of the
+lost. As reported in Luke, He said, "Blessed are ye poor." He Himself
+was without a place to lay His head, a houseless wanderer upon
+the earth.
+
+The apostle James cries to the men of wealth: "Go to now, ye rich men,
+weep and howl, for your miseries that shall come upon you." John said:
+"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any
+man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
+
+Whatever these passages, and many others of like import, may signify, it
+is not at all strange that Christians, living in times when wealth was
+abused, and when critical Biblical scholarship was unknown, should have
+understood Christ to command a life of poverty as an indispensable
+condition of true holiness.
+
+There are three ways of interpreting Christ's doctrine of wealth. First,
+it may be held that Jesus intended His teachings to be literally obeyed,
+not only by His first disciples but by all His followers in subsequent
+years, and that such literal obedience is practicable, reasonable and
+conducive to the highest well-being of society. Secondly, it has been
+said that Jesus was a gentle and honest visionary, who erroneously
+believed that the possession of riches rendered religious progress
+impossible, but that strict compliance with His commands would be
+destructive of civilization. Laveleye declares that "if Christianity
+were taught and understood conformably to the spirit of its Founder, the
+existing social organism could not last a day." Thirdly, neither of
+these views seems to do justice to the spirit of Christ, for they fail
+to give proper recognition to many other injunctions of the Master and
+to many significant incidents in his public ministry. Exhaustive
+treatment of this subject is, of course, impossible here. Briefly it may
+be remarked, that Jesus looked upon wealth as tending oftentimes to
+foster an unsocial spirit. Rich men are liable to become enemies of the
+brotherhood Jesus sought to establish, by reason of their covetousness
+and contracted sympathies. The rich man is in danger of erecting false
+standards of manhood, of ignoring the highest interests of the soul by
+an undue emphasis on the material. Wealth, in itself, is not an evil,
+but it is only a good when it is used to advance the real welfare of
+humanity. Jesus was not intent upon teaching economics. His purpose was
+to develop the man. It was the moral value and spiritual influence of
+material things that concerned him. Professor Shailer Mathews admirably
+states the true attitude of Jesus towards rich men: "Jesus was a friend
+neither of the working man nor the rich man as such. He calls the poor
+man to sacrifice as well as the rich man. He was the Son of Man, not the
+son of a class of men. But His denunciation is unsparing of those men
+who make wealth at the expense of souls; who find in capital no
+incentive to further fraternity; who endeavor so to use wealth as to
+make themselves independent of social obligations, and to grow fat with
+that which should be shared with society;--for those men who are gaining
+the world but are letting their neighbors fall among thieves and Lazarus
+rot among their dogs."
+
+Jesus was therefore not a foe to rich men as such, but to that
+antisocial, abnormal regard for wealth and its procurements, which leads
+to the creation of class distinctions and impedes the full and free
+development of our common humanity along the lines of brotherly love and
+coöperation. A Christian may consistently be a rich man, provided he
+uses his wealth in furthering the true interests of society, and
+realizes, as respects his own person, that "a man's life consisteth not
+in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." The error of
+monasticism consists in making poverty a virtue and an essential
+condition of the highest holiness. It is true that some callings
+preclude the prospect of fortune. The average clergyman cannot hope to
+amass wealth. The resident of a social settlement may possess capacities
+that would win success in business, but he must forego financial
+prospects if he expects to live and labor among the poor. In so far as
+the monks deliberately turned their backs on the material rewards of
+human endeavors that they might be free to devote themselves to the
+service of humanity, their vow of poverty was creditable and reasonable.
+But they erred when they exalted poverty as of itself commending them in
+a peculiar degree to the mercy of God.
+
+2. The Vow of Celibacy. "The moral merit of celibacy," says Allen, "was
+harder to make out of the Scripture, doubtless, since family life is
+both at the foundation of civil society and the source of all the common
+virtues." The monks held that Christ and Paul both taught and practiced
+celibacy. In the early and middle ages celibacy was looked upon by all
+churchmen as in itself a virtue. The prevailing modern idea is that
+marriage is a holy institution, in no sense inferior in sacredness to
+any ecclesiastical order of life. He who antagonizes it plays into the
+hands of the foes to social purity and individual virtue.
+
+The ideas of Jerome, Ambrose, and all the early Fathers, respecting
+marriage, are still held by many ecclesiastics. One of them, in
+defending the celibacy of existing religious orders, says: "Celibacy is
+enjoined on these religious orders as a means to greater sanctification,
+greater usefulness, greater absorption in things spiritual, and to
+facilitate readier withdrawal from things earthly." He gives two reasons
+for the celibacy of the priesthood, which are all the more interesting
+because they substantially represent the opinions held by the Christian
+monks in all ages: First, "That the service of the priest to God may be
+undivided and unrestrained." In support of this, he quotes I. Cor., 7:
+32, 33, which reads: "But I would have you free from cares. He that is
+unmarried is careful for the things of the Lord, how he may please the
+Lord: but he that is married is careful for the things of the world, how
+he may please his wife." And secondly, "Celibacy," according to Trent,
+"is more blessed than marriage." He also quotes the words of Christ that
+there are "eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake." He then adds: "It
+is desirable that those called to the ministry of the altar espouse a
+life of continence because holier and more angelic."
+
+It is generally admitted that the vow of celibacy was not demanded of
+the clergy in primitive Christian times. It was only after many years of
+bitter debate and in response to the growing influence of the monastic
+ideal, that celibacy finally came to be looked upon as the highest form
+of Christian virtue, and was enforced upon the clergy. As in the case of
+the vow of poverty, there certainly can be no reasonable objection to
+the individual adoption of celibacy, if one is either disinclined to
+marriage or feels that he can do better work unmarried. But neither
+Scripture nor reason justifies the imposition of celibacy upon any man,
+nor the view that a life of continence is holier than marriage. It may
+be reverently said that God would be making an unreasonable demand upon
+mankind, if the holiness He requires conflicted with the proper
+satisfaction of those impulses He himself has deeply implanted in
+human nature.
+
+3. The Vow of Obedience. The monks were required to render absolute
+obedience to the will of their superiors, as the representatives of God.
+Dom Guigo, in his rules for the Carthusian Order, declares: "Moreover,
+if the Prior commands one of his religious to take more food, or to
+sleep for a longer time, in fact, whatever command may be given us by
+our Superior, we are not allowed to disobey, lest we should disobey God
+also, who commands us by the mouth of our Superior. All our practices of
+mortification and devotion would be fruitless and of no value, without
+this one virtue of obedience, which alone can make them acceptable
+to God."
+
+Thus a strict and uncomplaining obedience, not to the laws of God as
+interpreted by the individual conscience, but to the judgment and will
+of a brother man, was demanded of the monks.
+
+     "Theirs not to reason why,
+     Theirs not to make reply,
+     Theirs but to do and die."
+
+They were often severely beaten or imprisoned and sometimes mutilated
+for acts of disobedience. While the monks, especially the Friars and
+Jesuits, carried this principle of obedience to great extremes, yet in
+the barbarous ages its enforcement was sadly needed. Law and order were
+words which the untamed Goth could not comprehend. He had to be taught
+habits of obedience, a respect for the rights of others, and a proper
+appreciation of his duty to society for the common good. But while, at
+the beginning, the monastic vow of obedience helped to inculcate these
+desirable lessons, and vastly modified the ferocity of unchecked
+individualism, it tended, in the course of time, to generate a servile
+humility fatal to the largest and freest personal development. In the
+interests of passive obedience, it suppressed freedom of thought and
+action. Obedience became mechanical and unreasoning. The consequence was
+that the passion for individual liberty was unduly restrained, and the
+extravagant claims of political and ecclesiastical tyrants were greatly
+strengthened.
+
+Such was the monastic ideal and such were some of the means employed to
+realize it. The ascetic spirit manifests itself in a great variety of
+ways, but all these visible and changing externals have one common
+source. "To cherish the religious principle," says William E. Channing,"
+some have warred against their social affections, and have led solitary
+lives; some against their senses, and have abjured all pleasure in
+asceticism; some against reason, and have superstitiously feared to
+think; some against imagination, and have foolishly dreaded to read
+poetry or books of fiction; some against the political and patriotic
+principles, and have shrunk from public affairs,--all apprehending that
+if they were to give free range to their natural emotions their
+religious life would be chilled or extinguished."
+
+
+
+IX
+
+_THE EFFECTS OF MONASTICISM_
+
+"We read history," said Wendell Phillips, "not through our eyes but
+through our prejudices." Yet if it were possible entirely to lay aside
+one's prepossessions respecting monastic history, it would still be no
+easy task to estimate the influences of the monks upon human life.
+
+In every field of thought and activity monasticism wrought good and
+evil. Education, industry, government and religion have been both
+furthered and hindered by the monks. What Francis Parkman said of the
+Roman Catholic Church is true of the monastic institution: "Clearly she
+is of earth, not of heaven; and her transcendently dramatic life is a
+type of the good and ill, the baseness and nobleness, the foulness and
+purity, the love and hate, the pride, passion, truth, falsehood,
+fierceness, and tenderness, that battle in the restless heart of man."
+
+A careful and sympathetic survey of monastic history compels the
+conclusion that monasticism, while not uniformly a blessing to the
+world, was not an unmitigated evil. The system presents one long series
+of perplexities and contradictions. One historian shuts his eyes to its
+pernicious effects, or at least pardons its transgressions, on the
+ground that perfection in man or in institutions is unattainable.
+Another condemns the whole system, believing that the sum of its evils
+far outweighs whatever benefits it may have conferred upon mankind.
+Schaff cuts the Gordian knot, maintaining that the contradiction is
+easily solved on the theory that it was not monasticism, as such, which
+has proved a blessing to the Church and the world. "It was Christianity
+in monasticism," he says, "which has done all the good, and used this
+abnormal mode of life as a means of carrying forward its mission of love
+and peace."
+
+To illustrate the diversities of opinion on this subject, and
+incidentally to show how difficult it is to present a well-balanced,
+symmetrically fair and just estimate of the monastic institution as a
+whole, contrast the opinions of four celebrated men. Pius IX. refers to
+the, monks as "those chosen phalanxes of the army of Christ which have
+always been the bulwark and ornament of the Christian republic as well
+as of civil society." But then he was the Pope of Rome, the Arch-prelate
+of the Church. "Monk," fiercely demands Voltaire, "Monk, what is that
+profession of thine? It is that of having none, of engaging one's self
+by an inviolable oath to be a fool and a slave, and to live at the
+expense of others." But he was the philosophical skeptic of Paris.
+"Where is the town," cries Montalembert, "which has not been founded or
+enriched or protected by some religious community? Where is the church
+which owes not to them a patron, a relic, a pious and popular tradition?
+Wherever there is a luxuriant forest, a pure stream, a majestic hill, we
+may be sure that religion has left there her stamp by the hand of the
+monk." But this was Montalembert, the Roman Catholic historian, and the
+avowed champion of the monks. "A cruel, unfeeling temper," writes
+Gibbon, "has distinguished the monks of every age and country; their
+stern indifference, which is seldom mollified by personal friendship,
+is inflamed by religious hatred; and their merciless zeal has
+strenuously administered the holy office of the Inquisition." But this
+was Gibbon, the hater of everything monastic. Between these extreme
+views lies a wide field upon which many a deathless duel has been fought
+by the writers of monastic history.
+
+The variety of judgments respecting the nature and effects of
+monasticism is partly due to the diversity in the facts of its history.
+Monasticism was the friend and the foe of true religion. It was the
+inspiration of virtue and the encouragement of vice. It was the patron
+of industry and the promoter of idleness. It was a pioneer in education
+and the teacher of superstition. It was the disburser of alms and a
+many-handed robber. It was the friend of human liberty and the abettor
+of tyranny. It was the champion of the common people and the defender of
+class privileges. It was, in short, everything that man was and is, so
+varied were its operations, so complex was its influence, so
+comprehensive was its life.
+
+Of some things we may be certain. Any religious institution or ideal of
+life that has survived the changes of twelve centuries, and that has
+enlisted the enthusiastic services and warmest sympathies of numerous
+men and women who have been honorably distinguished for their
+intellectual attainments and moral character, must have possessed
+elements of truth and moral worth. A contemptuous treatment of
+monasticism implies either an ignorance of its real history or a wilful
+disregard of the deep significance of its commendable features.
+
+It is also certain that while the methods of monasticism, judged by
+their effects upon the individual and upon society, may be justly
+censured, it is beyond question that many monks, groping their way
+toward the light in an age of ignorance and superstition, were inspired
+by the purest motives. "Conscience," observes Waddington, "however
+misguided, cannot be despised by a reflecting mind. When it leads one to
+self-sacrifice and moral fortitude we cannot but admire his spirit,
+while we condemn his sagacity and method."
+
+
+
+_The Effects of Self-Sacrifice Upon the Individual_
+
+Christianity requires some sort of self-denial as the condition of true
+Christian discipleship. Self-love is to yield to a love of others. In
+some sense, the Christian is to become dead to the world and its
+demoralizing pleasures. But this primal demand upon the soul needs to be
+interpreted. What is it to love the world? What is it to keep the body
+in subjection? What are harmful indulgences? To give wrong answers to
+these questions is to set up a false ideal; the more strenuously such
+false ideal is followed, the more disastrous are the consequences. One's
+struggle for moral purity may end in failure, and one's efficiency for
+good may be seriously impaired by a perversion of the principle of
+self-abnegation. Unnatural severity and excessive abstinence often
+produce the opposite effect from that intended. Instead of a peaceful
+mind there is delirium, and instead of freedom from temptation there are
+a thousand horrible fiends hovering in the air and ready, at any moment,
+to pounce upon their prey. "The history of ascetics," says Martensen,
+"teaches us that by such overdone fasting the fancy is often excited to
+an amazing degree, and in its airy domain affords the very things that
+one thought to have buried, by means of mortification, a magical
+resurrection." In attempting to subdue the body, many necessary
+requirements of the physical organism were totally ignored. The body
+rebelled against such unnatural treatment, and the mind, so closely
+related to it, in its distraction, gave birth to the wildest fancies.
+Men, who would have possessed an ordinarily pure mind in some useful
+occupation of life, became the prey of the most lewd and obnoxious
+imaginations. Then they fancied themselves vile above their fellows, and
+laid on more stripes, put more thorns upon their pillows, and fasted
+more hours, only to find that instead of fleeing, the devils became
+blacker and more numerous.
+
+Self-forgetfulness is the key to happiness. The monk thought otherwise,
+and slew himself in his vain attempt to fight against nature. He never
+lifted his eyes from his own soul. He was always feeling his spiritual
+pulse, staring at his lean spiritual visage, and tearfully watching his
+growth in grace. An interest in others and a strong mind in a strong
+body are the best antidotes to religious despair and the temptations of
+the soul. Life in the monastery was generally less severe than in the
+desert's solitude. There was more and better food, shelter, and comfort,
+but there were many unnecessary and unnatural restrictions, even in the
+best days of monasticism. There were too many hours of prayer, too many
+needless regulations for silence, fasting and penance, to produce a
+healthy, vigorous type of religious life.
+
+
+
+_The Effects of Solitude Upon the Individual_.
+
+It has already been shown that some solitude is essential to our richest
+culture. Our higher nature demands time for reflection and meditation.
+But the monks carried this principle to an extreme, and they
+overestimated its benefits. "Ambition, avarice, irresolution, fear, and
+inordinate desires," says Montaigne, "do not leave us because we forsake
+our native country, they often follow us even to cloisters and
+philosophical schools; nor deserts, nor caves, nor hair shirts, nor
+fasts, can disengage us from them."
+
+Besides these passions, which the monks carried with them, their
+solitary life tended to foster spiritual pride, contract sympathy, and
+engender an inhumane spirit. True, there were exceptions; but the
+sublime characters which survive in monastic history are by no means
+typical of its usual effects. Seclusion did not benefit the average
+monk. Indeed there is something wanting in even the loftiest monastic
+characters. "The heroes of monasticism," says Allen, "are not the heroes
+of modern life. All put together, they would not furnish out one such
+soul as William of Orange, or Gustavus, or Milton. Independence of
+thought and liberty of conscience, they renounced once for all, in
+taking upon them the monastic vow. All the larger enterprises, all the
+broad humanities, which to our mind make a greater career, were rigidly
+shut off by a barrier that could not be crossed. All the warmth and
+wealth of social and domestic life was a field of forbidden fruit, to be
+entered only through the gate of unpardonable sin."
+
+Thus self-excluded from a normal life in society, often the subject of
+self-inflicted pain, it is no wonder that the monk impaired all the
+nobler and manlier feelings of the soul, that he became strangely
+indifferent to human affection, that bigotry and pride often sat as
+joint rulers on the throne of his heart. He who had trampled on all
+filial relations would scarcely recognize the bonds of human
+brotherhood. He who heard not the prayer of his own mother would not be
+likely to listen to the cry of the tortured heretic for mercy. Man as
+man was not reverenced. It was the monk in man who was esteemed. As
+Milman puts it, "Bigotry has always found its readiest and sternest
+executioners among those who have never known the charities of life."
+
+Nor is it a matter of surprise that the monk was spiritually proud. He
+was supposed to stand in the inner circle, a little nearer the throne of
+God than his fellow-mortals. When dead, he was worshiped as a saint and
+regarded as an intercessor between God and his lower fellow-creatures.
+His hatred of the base world easily passed over into a sense of
+superiority and ignoble pride.
+
+"True social life," says Martensen, "leads to solitude." This truth the
+monks emphasized to the exclusion of the converse, "true life in
+solitude leads back to society." John Tauler, the mystic monk, realized
+this truth when he said: "If God calls me to a sick person, or to the
+service of preaching, or to any other service of love, I must follow,
+although I am in the state of highest contemplation." The hermits of the
+desert, and too often the monks of the cloister, escaped from all such
+services, and selfishly gave themselves up to saving their own souls by
+contemplation and prayer. Ministration to the needy is the external side
+of the inner religious life. It is the fruit of faith and prayer. The
+monk sought solitude, not for the purpose of fitting himself for a place
+in society, but for selfish, personal ends. Saint Bruno, in a letter to
+his friend Ralph le Verd, eulogizes the solitude of the monastic cell,
+and among other sentiments he gives expression to the following: "I am
+speaking here of the contemplative life; and although its sons are less
+numerous than those of active life, yet, like Joseph and Benjamin, they
+are infinitely dearer to their Father.... O my brother, fear not then to
+fly from the turmoil and the misery of the world; leave the storms that
+rage without, to shelter yourself in this safe haven."
+
+Thus sinful and sorrowing humanity, needing the guidance and comfort
+that holy men can furnish, was forgotten in the desire for personal
+peace and future salvation.
+
+Another baneful result of isolation was the strangulation of filial
+love. When the monk abandoned the softening, refining influence of women
+and children, one side of his nature suffered a serious contraction. An
+Egyptian mother stood at the hut of two hermits, her sons. Weeping
+bitterly, she begged to see their faces. To her piteous entreaties, they
+said: "Why do you, who are already stricken with age, pour forth such
+cries and lamentations?" "It is because I long to see you," she replied.
+"Am I not your mother? I am now an old and wrinkled woman, and my heart
+is troubled at the sound of your voices." But even a mother's love could
+not cope with their fearful fanaticism., and she went away with their
+cold promise that they would meet in heaven. St. John of Calama visited
+his sister in disguise, and a chronicler, telling the story afterwards,
+said, "By the mercy of Jesus Christ he had not been recognized, and they
+never met again." Many hermits received their parents or brothers and
+sisters with their eyes shut. When the father of Simeon Stylites died,
+his widowed mother prayed for entrance into her son's cell. For three
+days and nights she stood without, and then the blessed Simeon prayed
+the Lord for her, and she immediately gave up the ghost.
+
+These as well as numerous other stories of a similar character that
+might be quoted illustrate the hardening influence of solitude. Instead
+of cherishing a love of kindred, as a gift of heaven and a spring of
+virtue, the monk spurned it and trampled it beneath his feet as an
+obstacle to his spiritual progress. "The monks," says Milman, "seem
+almost unconscious of the softening, humanizing effect of the natural
+affections, the beauty of parental tenderness and filial love."
+
+
+
+_The Monks as Missionaries_
+
+The conversion of the barbarians was an indispensable condition of
+modern civilization. Every step forward had to be taken in the face of
+barbaric ignorance and cruelty. In this stupendous undertaking the monks
+led the way, displaying in their labors remarkable generalship and
+undaunted courage. Whatever may be thought of later monasticism, the
+Benedictine monks are entitled to the lasting gratitude of mankind for
+their splendid services in reducing barbaric Europe to some sort of
+order and civilization. But again the mixture of good and evil is
+strangely illustrated. It seems impossible to accord the monks
+unqualified praise. The potency of the evil tendencies within their
+system vitiated every noble achievement. Their methods and practical
+ideals were so at variance with the true order of nature that every
+commendable victory involved a corresponding obstacle to real social and
+religious progress. The justice of these observations will be more
+apparent as this inquiry proceeds.
+
+
+
+_Monasticism and Civic Duties_
+
+The withdrawal of a considerable number of men of character and talent
+from the exercise of civic duties is injurious to the state. The burdens
+upon those who remain become heavier, while society is deprived of the
+moral influence of those who forsake their civic responsibilities. When
+the monk, from the outside as it were, attempted to exert an influence
+for good, he largely failed. His ideals of life were not formulated in a
+real world, but in an artificial, antisocial environment. He was unable
+to appreciate the political needs of men. He could not enter
+sympathetically into their serious employments or innocent delights.
+Controlled by superstition, and exalting a servile obedience to human
+authority, he became a very unsafe guide in political affairs. He could
+not consistently labor for secular progress, because he had forsaken a
+world in which secular interests were prominent.
+
+It may be true that in the early days of monasticism the monks pursued
+the proper course in refusing to become Roman patriots. No human power
+could have averted the ruin which overtook that corrupt world. Perhaps
+their non-combatant attitude gave them more influence with the
+conquerors of Rome, who were to become the founders of modern nations.
+
+In later years, the abbots of the principal monasteries occupied seats
+in the legislative assemblies of Germany, Hungary, Spain, England,
+Italy, and France. In many instances they stood between the violence of
+the nobles and the unprotected vassal. Political monks, inspired by a
+natural breadth of vision and a love of humanity, secured the passage of
+wise and humane regulations. Palgrave says: "The mitre has resisted many
+blows which would have broken the helmet, and the crosier has kept more
+foes in awe than the lance. It is, then, to these prelates that we
+chiefly owe the maintenance of the form and spirit of free government,
+secured to us, not by force, but by law; and the altar has thus been the
+corner-stone of our ancient constitution."
+
+Although there is much truth in the foregoing observation, yet on the
+other hand, when the influence of the monastic ideal upon civilization
+is studied in its deeper aspects, it cannot be justly maintained that
+the final effects of monasticism minister to the development of a normal
+civilization. Industrial, mental and moral progress depend upon a
+certain breadth of mind and energy of soul. Asceticism saps the vitality
+of human nature and confines the activity of the mind within artificial
+limits. "Hence the dreary, sterile torpor," says Lecky, "that
+characterized those ages in which the ascetic principle has been
+supreme, while the civilizations which have attained the highest
+perfection have been those of ancient Greece and modern Europe, which
+were most opposed to it."
+
+The monks did not hesitate to become embroiled in military quarrels, or
+to incite the fiercer passions of men when it suited their purpose.
+Their opposition to kings and princes was often not based on a love of
+popular freedom, but on an indisposition to share power with secular
+rulers. The legislative enactments against heretics, many of which they
+inspired, clearly show that they neither desired nor tolerated liberty
+of speech or conduct. They were the Almighty's vicars on earth, before
+whom it was the duty of king and subject to bow down. Vaughan writes of
+the period just prior to the Reformation: "The great want was freedom
+from ecclesiastical domination; and from the feeling of the hour,
+scarcely any price would be deemed too great to be paid for that
+object." The history of modern Jesuitism, against which the legislation
+of almost every civilized nation has been directed, affords abundant
+testimony to the inherent hostility of the monastic system, even in its
+modified modern form, to every species of government which in any way
+guarantees freedom of thought to its people. This stern fact confronts
+the student, however much he may be inclined to yield homage to the
+early monks. It must be held in mind when one reads this pleasing
+sentence from Macaulay: "Surely a system which, however deformed by
+superstition, introduced strong moral restraints into communities
+previously governed only by vigor of muscle and by audacity of spirit, a
+system which taught the fiercest and mightiest ruler that he was, like
+his meanest bondman, a responsible being, might have seemed to deserve a
+more respectful mention from philosophers and philanthropists."
+
+The general effect of monasticism on the state is, therefore, not to be
+determined by fixing the gaze on any one century of its history, or by
+holding up some humane and patriotic monk as a representative product of
+the system.
+
+
+
+_The Agricultural Services of the Monks_
+
+Europe must ever be indebted to Benedict and his immediate followers for
+their services in reclaiming waste lands, and in removing the stigma
+which a corrupt civilization had placed upon labor. Benedict came before
+the world saying: "No person is ever more usefully employed than when
+working with his hands or following the plough, providing food for the
+use of man." Care was taken that councils should not be called when
+ploughing was to be done or wheat to be threshed. Benedict bent himself
+to the task of teaching the rich and the proud, the poor and the lazy
+the alphabet of prosperity and happiness. Agriculture was at its lowest
+ebb. Marshes covered once fertile fields, and the men who should have
+tilled the land spurned the plough as degrading, or were too indolent to
+undertake the tasks of the farm. The monks left their cells and their
+prayers to dig ditches and plough fields. The effect was magical. Men
+once more turned back to a noble but despised industry. Peace and plenty
+supplanted war and poverty. "The Benedictines," says Guizot, "have been
+the great clearers of land in Europe. A colony, a little swarm of monks,
+settled in places nearly uncultivated, often in the midst of a pagan
+population--in Germany, for example, or in Brittany; there, at once
+missionaries and laborers, they accomplish their double service, through
+peril and fatigue."
+
+It is to be regretted that history throws a shadow across this pleasing
+scene. When labor came to be recognized as honorable and useful, along
+came the begging friars, creating, both by precept and example, a
+prejudice against labor and wealth. Rags and laziness came to be
+associated with holiness, and a beggar monk was held up as an ideal and
+sacred personage. "The spirit that makes men devote themselves in vast
+numbers," says Lecky, "to a monotonous life of asceticism and poverty is
+so essentially opposed to the spirit that creates the energy and
+enthusiasm of industry, that their continued coexistence may be regarded
+as impossible." But such a fatal mistake could not long captivate the
+mind, or cause men to forget Benedict and his industrial ideal. The
+blessings of wealth rightly administered, and the dignity of labor
+without which wealth is impossible, came to be recognized as necessary
+factors in the true progress of man.
+
+
+
+_The Monks and Secular Learning_
+
+For many centuries, as has been previously shown, the monks were the
+schoolmasters of Europe. They also preserved the manuscripts of the
+classics, produced numerous theological works, transmitted many pious
+traditions, and wrote some interesting and some worthless chronicles.
+They laid the foundations of several great universities, including those
+of Paris, Oxford and Cambridge. For these, and other valuable services,
+the monks merit the praise of posterity. It is, however, too much to
+affirm, as Montalembert does, that "without the monks, we should have
+been as ignorant of our history as children." It is altogether
+improbable that the human mind would have been unproductive in the field
+of historical writing had monasticism not existed during the middle
+ages. While, also, the monks should be thanked for preserving the
+classics, it should not be supposed that all knowledge of Latin and
+Greek literature would have perished but for them.
+
+It is surprising that the literary men of the medieval period should
+have written so little of interest to the modern mind, or that helps us
+to an understanding of the momentous events amid which they lived.
+Unfortunately the monkish mind was concentrated upon a theology, the
+premises of which have been largely set aside by modern science. Their
+writings are so permeated by grotesque superstitions that they are
+practically worthless to-day. Their hostility to secular affairs blinded
+them to the tremendous significance of the mighty political and social
+movements of the age.
+
+It is undeniable that the monks never encouraged a love of secular
+learning. They did not try to impart a love of the classics which they
+preserved. The spirit of monasticism was ever at war with true
+intellectual progress. The monks imprisoned Roger Bacon fourteen years,
+and tried to blast his fair name by calling him a magician, merely
+because he stepped beyond the narrow limits of monkish inquiry. Many
+suffered indignities, privations or death for questioning tradition or
+for conducting scientific researches.
+
+So while it is true that the monks rendered many services to the cause
+of education, it is also true that their monastic theories tended to
+narrow the scope of intellectual activity. "This," says Guizot, "is the
+foundation of their instruction; all was turned into commentary of the
+Scriptures, historical, philosophical, allegorical, moral commentary.
+They desired only to form priests; all studies, whatsoever their nature,
+were directed to this result." There was no disinterested love of
+learning; no desire to become acquainted with God's world. In fact, the
+old hostility to everything natural characterizes all monastic history.
+Europe did not enter upon that broad and noble intellectual development
+which is the glory of our era, until the right arm of monasticism was
+struck down, the dread of heresy banished from the human mind, and
+secular learning welcomed as a legitimate and elevated field for
+mental activity.
+
+Hamilton W. Mabie, in his delightful essay on "Some Old Scholars,"
+describes this step from the gloom of the cloister to the light of God's
+world: "Petrarch really escaped from a sepulcher when he stepped out of
+the cloister of medievalism, with its crucifix, its pictures of
+unhealthy saints, its cords of self-flagellation, and found the heavens
+clear, beautiful, and well worth living under, and the world full of
+good things which one might desire and yet not be given over to evil. He
+ventured to look at life for himself and found it full of wonderful
+dignity and power. He opened his Virgil, brushed aside the cobwebs which
+monkish brains had spun over the beautiful lines, and met the old poet
+as one man meets another; and lo! there arose before him a new,
+untrodden and wholly human world, free from priestcraft and pedantry,
+near to nature and unspeakably alluring and satisfying."
+
+The Dominicans and Jesuits set their faces like flint against all
+education tending to liberalize the mind. Here is a passage from a
+document published by the Jesuits at their first centenary: "It is
+undeniable that we have undertaken a great and uninterrupted war in the
+interests of the Catholic church against heresy. Heresy need never hope
+that the society will make terms with it, or remain quiescent ... No
+peace need be expected, for the seed of hatred is born within us. What
+Hamilcar was to Hannibal, Ignatius is to us. At his instigation, we have
+sworn upon the altars eternal war." When this proclamation is read in
+the light of history, its meaning stands forth with startling clearness.
+Almost every truth in science and philosophy, no matter how valuable it
+was destined to become as an agent in enhancing the well-being of the
+race, has had to wear the stigma of heresy.
+
+It is an interesting speculation to imagine what the intellectual
+development of Europe would have been, had secular learning been
+commended by the monks, and the common people encouraged to exercise
+their minds without fear of excommunication or death. It is sad to
+reflect how many great thoughts must have perished still-born in the
+student's cloister cell, and to picture the silent grief with which
+many a brilliant soul must have repressed his eager imagination.
+
+
+
+_The Charity of the Monks_
+
+In the eleventh century, a monk named Thieffroy wrote the following: "It
+matters little that our churches rise to heaven, that the capitals of
+their pillars are sculptured and gilded, that our parchment is tinted
+purple, that gold is melted to form the letters of our manuscripts, and
+that their bindings are set with precious stones, if we have little or
+no care for the members of Christ, and if Christ himself lies naked and
+dying before our doors." This spirit, so charmingly expressed, was never
+quite absent from the monkish orders. The monasteries were asylums for
+the hungry during famines, and the sick during plagues. They served as
+hotels where the traveler found a cordial welcome, comfortable shelter
+and plain food. If he needed medical aid, his wants were supplied.
+During the black plague, while many monks fled with the multitude,
+others stayed at their posts and were to be found daily in the homes of
+the stricken, ministering to their bodily and spiritual needs. Many of
+them perished in their heroic and self-sacrificing labors.
+
+Alms-giving was universally enjoined as a sure passport to heaven. The
+most glittering rewards were held out to those who enriched the monks
+with legacies to be used in relief of the poor. It was, no doubt, the
+unselfish activities of the monks that caused them to be held in such
+high esteem; the result was their coffers were filled with more gold
+than they could easily give away. Thus abuses grew up. Bernard said:
+"Piety gave birth to wealth, and the daughter devoured the mother."
+Jacob of Vitry complained that money, "by various and deceptive tricks,"
+was exacted from the people by the monks, most of which adhered "to
+their unfaithful fingers." While Lecky eloquently praises the monks for
+their beautiful deeds of charity, "following all the windings of the
+poor man's grief," still he condones in the strongest terms the action
+of Henry VIII. in transferring the monastic funds to his own treasury:
+"No misapplication of this property by private persons could produce as
+much evil as an unrestrained monasticism."
+
+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: anachorêtês], 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: askêtês], 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: kanôn], 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: herêmos], 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 Encyclopædia 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 Conscientiæ_." 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."
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+A
+
+Abbey, _see_ Monastery.
+Abbot, meaning of word, 425;
+  as father of family of monks, 143;
+  election of, 144;
+  description of installation of, 145;
+  wealth and political influence of, 147;
+  disorders among lay, 179;
+  as a feudal lord, 373;
+  in legislative assemblies, 400.
+Abelard opposed by Bernard, 196.
+Abraham, St., the hermit, 50;
+  quoted, 60.
+Abstinence, no virtue in false, 419.
+Accountability, personal, sense of maintained by monks, 414.
+Act of Succession, 298.
+Agriculture, monasteries centers of, 155;
+  and the Cistercian monks, 192;
+  fostered by monks, 403.
+  _See_ Benedict, Order of St.
+Alaric the Goth sacks Rome, 103.
+Albans, St., Abbey of, Morton on its vices, 338.
+Albertus Magnus, a Dominican, 242.
+Albigensians, Hallam on doctrines of, 232;
+  Hardwick on same, 233;
+  Dominic preaches against, 234;
+  Dominic's part in crusade against, 235.
+Alcuin, on corruptions of monks, 173;
+  education and, 167.
+Alexander IV., Pope, on the stigmata of St. Francis, 221;
+  and the University of Paris quarrel, 250.
+Alfred, King, the Great, complains of monks, 173;
+  his reformatory measures, 181.
+Alien Priories, confiscated, 338;
+  origin of, 340.
+Allen, on the fate of the Templars, 202;
+  on Dominic and the Albigensian crusade, 238;
+  on spiritual pride of the Mendicants, 257;
+  on the genius of feudalism, 373;
+  on the deficiencies of monastic characters, 394.
+Alms-giving, _see_ Charity.
+Alverno, Mount, and the stigmata of St. Francis, 219.
+Ambrose, embraces ascetic Christianity, 84;
+  Theodosius on, 115;
+  saying of Gibbon applied to, 116;
+  describes Capraria, 126;
+  his influence on Milanese women, 126.
+Ammonius, the hermit, visits Rome, 72.
+Anglicans, claims of, respecting the early British Church, 162.
+Anglo-Saxons and British Christianity, 164.
+Anglo-Saxon Church, effect of Danish invasion on, 181;
+  effect of Dunstan's work on, 187.
+  _See_ Britain.
+Anslem, of Canterbury, on flight from the world, 369.
+Anthony, St.,
+  visits Paul of Thebes, 37;
+  his strange experiences, 38;
+  buries Paul, 41;
+  birth and early life of, 43;
+  his austerities, 44, 45;
+  miracles of, 46;
+  his fame and influence, 47;
+  his death, 48;
+  Taylor on biography of, 48.
+Ap Rice, a Royal Commissioner, 311.
+Aquinas, Thomas, a Dominican, 242.
+Ascetic, The, his morbid introspection, 392;
+  meaning of word, 425.
+  _See_ Monks and Hermits.
+Asceticism, in India, 18-20, 357;
+  among Chaldeans, 20;
+  in China, 20;
+  among the Greeks, 21, 22;
+  the Essenes, 23;
+  in apostolic times, 27;
+  the Gnostics, 27;
+  and the Bible, 30, 366;
+  in post-apostolic times, 31;
+  modifications of, under Basil, 64;
+  protests against, in early Rome, 124;
+  various forms of, 385;
+  effects of, 391, 401.
+  _See_ Monasticism.
+Aske, Robert, heads revolt against Henry VIII., 326.
+Athanasius, St., visits hermits, 35;
+  his life of Anthony, 42;
+  influence of same on Rome, 80, 83;
+  spreads Pachomian rule, 63;
+  visits Rome, 71,
+    and effect of, 80;
+  visits Gaul, 119;
+  his saying on fasting, 121.
+Atonement, for sin, the monk's influence on doctrine of, 417.
+Augustine, Bishop of Hippo,  his life, and services to monasticism,
+     117, 119;
+  influenced by biography of Anthony, 43;
+  on marriage and celibacy, 112;
+  charges monks with fraud, 128.
+Augustine, Rule of, adopted by Dominic, 232, 241.
+Augustine, the monk, his mission to England, 161.
+Augustinians, 246.
+Aurelius, Emperor, Christianity during reign of, 124.
+Austerities, Robertson on, 94.
+  _See_ Asceticism and Self-denial
+Austin Canons, 118.
+
+
+B
+
+Bacon, Roger, a Franciscan, 228;
+  imprisonment of, 407.
+Bagot, Richard, on the English reformation, 345.
+Bale, John, on the fall of the monasteries, 333.
+Baluzii, on the prosperity of the Franciscans, 255.
+Bangor, Monastery of, founded, 123;
+  slaughter of its monks, 165.
+Barbarians, the struggle of the monks with, 148, 149, 170;
+  conversion of, 398.
+Basil the Great, 63;
+  revolts against excessive  austerities, 64;
+  founder of Greek monasticism, 64, 65;
+  his rules, 65;
+  adopts irrevocable vows, 65;
+  on marriage, 66;
+  enforces strict obedience, 66.
+Bede, The Venerable, on the British
+  Church, 123; on monks and
+  animals, 156.
+Begging Friars, _see_ Mendicants,
+  Franciscans and Dominicans.
+Benedict, Pope, XI., 221; XII.,
+  consecrates Monte Cassino,
+  135; on the stigmata of St.
+  Francis, 221.
+Benedict of Aniane, his attempted
+  reform, 176.
+Benedict, of Nursia, birth and
+  early life, 131; his trials, 132;
+  his fame attracts followers, 133;
+  his strictness provokes opposition,
+  133; retires to Monte Cassino,
+  134; conquers Paganism,
+  135; his miracles and power
+  over barbarians, 137; his last
+  days, 13 8; his rules, 138; Schaff
+  on same, 148; Cardinal Newman
+  on mission of, 149; saying
+  of, on manual labor, 403.
+Benedict, Order of St., 131; rules
+  of, 138; the novitiate, 140;
+  daily life of monks, 140; meaning
+  of term "order," 143;
+  abbots of, 144; manual labor,
+  147, 403; Schaff on rules of,
+  148; its dealings with barbarians,
+  148, 398; its literary and
+  educational services, 151; its
+  agricultural work, 155, 404;
+  spread of, 158; its followers
+  among the royalty, 159.
+Bernard, of Clairvaux, his birth
+  and monastic services, 193;
+  character of his monastery,
+  192; on drugs and doctors,
+  194; his reforms, 195; Vaughan
+  on, 195; Storrs on, 197; the
+  Crusades, 197; on the abuses
+  of charity, 411.
+Bernardone, Peter, father of Francis,
+  208. _See_ Francis.
+Bethlehem, Jerome's monasteries
+  at, 85, 88; Paula establishes
+  monasteries at, 100.
+Bible, The, and monasticism, 30,
+  376.
+Bigotry, of monks, 394.
+Biography, monastic history centers
+  in, 84.
+Björnstrom, on the stigmata, 223.
+Blæsilla, murmurs against monks
+  at her funeral, 125.
+Blunt, on the: fall of the monasteries,
+  333.
+Boccaccio, comments on his visit
+  to Monte Cassino, 136.
+Boleyn, Anne, and Henry VIII.,
+  294.
+Bollandists, Catholic, on Dominic
+  and the Inquisition, 238.
+Bonaventura, on the stigmata of
+  Francis, 220; a Franciscan, 228;
+  on vices of the monks, 337.
+Boniface, the apostle to the Germans,
+  167.
+Bonner, Bishop, persuades Prior
+  Houghton to sign oath of
+  supremacy, 303.
+Brahminism, asceticism under, 19.
+Britain, Tertullian, Origen, and
+  Bede, on Christianity in, 123;.
+  relation of early church in, to
+  Rome, 162; monasticism in,
+  162, 168.
+Brotherhood of Penitence, 229.
+Bruno, the abbot of Cluny, 177.
+Bruno, founder of Carthusian order,
+  188; Ruskin on the order, 189;
+  the monastery of the Chartreuse, 189;
+  his eulogy of solitude, 396.
+Bryant, poem of, on fall of monasteries, 353.
+Buddha, on the ascetic life, 357.
+Buddhism, asceticism under, 19.
+Burke, Edmund, quoted by Gasquet on fall of monasteries, 312.
+Burnet, on report of Royal Commissioners, 316.
+Bury, Father, on Chinese monks, 20.
+
+
+C
+
+Cambridge, University of, the friars at, 252, 405.
+Campeggio, Cardinal, the divorce proceedings of Henry VIII. and, 294.
+Capraria, Rutilius and Ambrose on island of, 126.
+Capuchins, 246.
+Carlyle, Thomas, on Mahomet, 33;
+  quotes Jocelin on Abbot Samson's election, 145;
+  on the twelfth century, 157;
+  on the monastic ideal, 174;
+  on Jesuitical obedience, 271;
+  views of, criticised, 278.
+Carmelites, 246.
+Carthusians, The, establishment of, 188;
+  famous monastery of, 189;
+  rules of, 189;
+  in England, 191, 334.
+  _See_ Charterhouse.
+Cassiodorus, the literary labors of, 152.
+Casuistry, of the Jesuits, 272; 429.
+Catacombs, visited by Jerome, 87.
+Catharine, of Aragon, Henry's divorce from, 293.
+Catholic, Roman, _see_ Rome, Church of.
+Celibacy, praised by Jerome and Augustine, 112;
+  views of Helvidius on, opposed by Jerome, 113;
+  the struggle to establish sacerdotal, 183;
+  Lingard on, 183;
+  Lea on, 184;
+  vow of, 380;
+  and Scripture teaching, 381;
+  early Fathers on, 381;
+  a modern ecclesiastic's reasons for, 381;
+  how vow of, came to be imposed, 382;
+  no special virtue in, 419.
+Cellani, Peter, Dominic retires to house of, 238;
+Celtic Church, _see_ Britain.
+Cenobites, meaning of term, 425;
+  origin of, in the East, 57;
+  habits of early, 58;
+  aims of, 60.
+Chalcis, desert of, 87.
+Chaldea, asceticism in, 20.
+Chalippe, Father Candide, on miracles of saints, 224.
+Channey, Maurice, on fall of the Charterhouse, 302.
+Channing, William E., on various manifestations of the ascetic
+     spirit, 385;
+  on exaggerations of monasticism, 415.
+Chapter, The,
+  defined, 144;
+  of Mats, 228.
+Chapuys, despatches of, to Charles V., 297.
+Charity, of monks, 348, 410;
+  true and false, 348, 412;
+  Bernard, Jacob of Vitry and Lecky on abuses of, 411;
+  as a passport to Heaven, 411.
+Charlemagne, 118.
+Charles V., Emperor, Pole writes to, 296;
+  Chapuy's despatches to, 297.
+Charterhouse, of London, 191;
+  execution of monks of, 301, 334;
+  and the progress of England, 343.
+  _See_ Carthusians.
+Chartreuse, Grand, monastery, 189.
+Chastity, vow of, in Pachomian rule, 61.
+  _See_ Celibacy.
+China, asceticism in, 20.
+Chinese monks, Father Bury on, 20.
+Christ, _see_ Jesus Christ.
+Christian clergy, character of, in the fourth century, 77.
+Christian ideal, tending toward fanaticism, 129.
+Christian discipleship, nature of true, 390.
+Christianity, asceticism and apostolic, 27, 28, 31;
+  conquers Roman empire, 71, 76;
+  endangered by success, 77;
+  in Rome in the fourth century, 79;
+  Lord on same, 80;
+  is opposed to fanaticism, 94;
+  in ancient Britain, 123, 161, 162;
+  Clarke on, 171;
+  Mozoomdar on essential principle of, 359;
+  requires some sort of self-denial, 390, 418, 419;
+  monasticism and, compared, 420;
+  monasticism furnishes example of, 422.
+  _See_ Britain and Church.
+Chrysostom, becomes an ascetic, 84;
+  brief account of life of, 116;
+  monastic cause furthered by, 117.
+Church, Christian, the triumphant, compared with church in age of
+     persecution, 109;
+  ideal of, furthers monasticism, 129;
+  and the barbarians, 149;
+  of the thirteenth century, 206;
+  its life-ideal, 369;
+  its union with paganism, 370.
+  _See_ Anglo-Saxon Church, Britain, and England, Church of.
+Cistercian Order, the monks and rule of, 192;
+  decline of, 193.
+Citeaux, Monastery at, 192.
+Civic duties and monasticism, 399.
+  _See_ Monasticism.
+Clairvaux, Bernard of, _see_ Bernard;
+  Monastery of, 193.
+Clara, St., Nuns of, founded, 228.
+Clarke, William Newton, on Christianity of first and second
+     centuries, 171.
+Clarke, James Freeman, on Brahmin ascetics, 20.
+Classics, Jerome's fondness for the, 95;
+  the monks and the, 405.
+Clement XIV., Pope, dissolves the Society of Jesus, 279.
+Clergy of the Christian Church, 77.
+Clinton, Lord, on the work of suppression, 311.
+Cloister, 426.
+  _See_ Monastery.
+Cluny, Monastery at, 177;
+  the congregation of, 178.
+Coke, Sir Edward, quoted, 329.
+Columba, St., his church relations, 162.
+Commissioners, The Royal, appointed to visit monasteries of England,
+     their methods, 308, 333;
+  character of, 311;
+  begin their work, 313;
+  their report, 316;
+  Parliament acts on same, 319.
+Confession, among the Jesuits, 269.
+Conscience, liberty of, renounced by monks, 394.
+Constantine the Great, 71.
+Contemplation, John Tauler on, 395;
+  Bruno on, 396.
+Convents. _See_ Monasteries.
+Copyright, first instance of quarrel for, 170.
+Council, of Saragossa, 122;
+  of Trent, 382;
+  Lateran, 242.
+Court of Augmentation, 319.
+Crocella, Santa, chapel of, 131;
+  Romanus the monk, 131.
+Cromwell, Richard, on Sir John Russell, 326.
+Cromwell, Thomas, his life and aims, 308;
+  Green and Froude on, 309;
+  his religious views, 309;
+  Foxe and Gasquet on character of, 310;
+  becomes Vicegerent, 310;
+  inspires terror and hatred, 324;
+  his removal demanded, 326;
+  overcomes the Pilgrims of Grace, 326;
+  bribed for estates, 329.
+Cross, loyalty to the, fostered by monks, 414;
+  power of the doctrine of, 418.
+Crusades, effect of, on monastic types, 373.
+  _See_ Military Orders and Bernard.
+Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, 61;
+  and murder of Hypatia, 68.
+
+
+D
+
+Damian, Church of St., repaired by Francis, 211, 214.
+Danish invasion of England, its consequences, 180.
+Dante, on Francis and poverty, 215.
+Democracy, Christian, and monasticism, 422.
+Desert, Jerome on attractions of, 89.
+De Tocqueville, on self-subjection, 143.
+Dhaquit, the Chaldean, quoted, 20.
+Dharmapala, on the ascetic ideal in India, 357.
+Dill, Samuel, on Rome's fall and the Christian Church, 74, 79, 108,
+     109.
+Domestic life, a field of forbidden fruit, 394, 398.
+  _See_ Family-ideal and Jerome.
+Dominic, St., Innocent III. dreams of, 216;
+  early life of, 230;
+  his mother's dream, 231;
+  visits Languedoc, 232;
+  rebukes papal legates, 234;
+  his crusade against Albigensians, 234;
+  his relation to the Holy Inquisition, 235;
+  establishes his order, 239;
+  at Rome, 239;
+  his self-denial and death, 240;
+  canonized, 241.
+Dominic, St., Nuns of, 242.
+Dominicans, The, the Inquisition and, 238;
+  order of, founded, 239;
+  constitution of the order of, 241;
+  spread of, 241;
+  eminent members, 242;
+  three classes of, 242;
+  the preaching of, 249;
+  quarrel with the Franciscans, 249;
+  enter England, 251;
+  fatal success and decline of, 253, 256;
+  on the stigmata of Francis, 221;
+  liberal education and, 408.
+Ducis, on the Hermits, 32.
+Duns Scotus, a Franciscan, 228.
+Dunstan, reforms of, 182;
+  his character and life-work, 186.
+
+
+E
+
+East, monasticism in the, _see_ Monasticism and Monks.
+Echard, a Dominican, 242.
+Eckenstein, Lina, on Morton's letter, 339.
+Edersheim, on the Essenes, 24.
+Edgar, King, aids Dunstan in reform, 186.
+Education, The Mendicants and, 248;
+  the monks further, in England, 253;
+  the effect of monasticism on, 407.
+Edward I. and III., confiscate alien priories, 338.
+Egypt, The hermits of, 33;
+  Kingsley and Waddington on same, 34.
+Elijah, and asceticism, 30.
+Elizabeth, Princess, and the Act of Succession, 298.
+Endowments of monasteries, abolished by first Mendicants, 244;
+  reason for some, 361.
+England, Church of, separates from Rome, 328;
+  causes of, and by whom separation secured, 340, 342.
+  _See_ Britain.
+Essenes, asceticism of, 23.
+Ethelwold, aids Dunstan, 186.
+Eudoxia, Empress, banishes Chrysostom, 117.
+Eustochium, _see_ Paula.
+
+
+F
+
+Fabiola, St., Lecky on her charities, 105;
+  her care for sick, 105;
+  her death, 105.
+Family-ideal, of monastery, Taunton on, 143.
+  _See_ Domestic Life.
+Fanaticism, Christianity hostile to, 94;
+  tendency toward, among early Christians, 129.
+Farrar, on the luxury of Rome, 75.
+Fasting, amusing instance of rebellion of monks against, 120;
+  Athanasius on, 121.
+  _See_ Self-denial, Ascetic and Asceticism.
+Ferdinand, of Austria, educated by Jesuits, 277.
+Feudalism, monasticism affected by, 373.
+Finnian, the monk, quarrels with Columba, 170.
+Fisher, G.P., on the stigmata of Francis, 223.
+Fisher, execution of, by Henry VIII., 301, 306.
+Filial love, strangulation of, by monks, 397.
+Forsyth, on St. Francis, 225.
+Foxe, on Thomas Cromwell, 310.
+France, New, and the Jesuits, 282.
+Francis, St., his birth and early years, 208;
+  his dreams and sickness, 209;
+  visits Rome, 210;
+  seeking light on his duty, 210, 211;
+  sells his father's merchandise and keeps proceeds, 211;
+  renounces his father, 212;
+  assumes monkish habit, 213;
+  repairs Church of St. Damian, 214;
+  Dante on poverty and, 215;
+  visits Innocent III., 216;
+  visits Mohammedans, 217; a
+  lover of birds, 217;
+  Longfellow's poem on a homily of, 218;
+  his temptations, 218;
+  the stigmata, 219;
+  death of, 224;
+  his character, 225;
+  his rule, 226;
+  on prayer and preaching, 249;
+  method of, forsaken, 421.
+Franciscans, The, first year of, 215;
+  order of, sanctioned, 216, 217;
+  three classes of, 226;
+  the rule of, 226;
+  Sabatier on rule of, 227;
+  the title "Friars Minor," 227;
+  number of, 228;
+  St. Clara and, 228;
+  The Third Order of, 229;
+  quarrel over the vow of poverty, 246;
+  prosperity of, 246;
+  educational work of, 248;
+  quarrel with Dominicans, 249;
+  settle in England, 251;
+  Baluzii on success of, 255;
+  fatal success of, 253.
+Fratricelli, sketch of the, 247.
+Freedom, religious, want of, 402.
+Friars, Begging, _see_ Franciscans, Dominicans and Mendicants.
+Friars Minor, 227.
+Froude, on the Charterhouse monks, 302, 304;
+  on Thomas Cromwell, 309;
+  on the report of the Royal Commissioners, 317;
+  on the Catholics and the Reformation, 346.
+Future punishment, the monks and the doctrine of, 417.
+
+
+G
+
+Gairdner, on Henry's breach with Rome, 301.
+Galea, the Goth, awed by St. Benedict, 137.
+Gardiner, burns heretics, 311.
+Gasquet, on Thomas Cromwell, 310;
+  quotes Burke on the suppression, 312.
+Gauls, monastic, complain to St. Martin, 120.
+Germany, monasticism enters, 122.
+Gervais, reason for his donations, 361.
+Gibbon, on bones of Simeon, 57;
+  on Egyptian monks, 62;
+  on Roman marriages, 110;
+  saying of, applied to Ambrose, 116;
+  on military orders, 199;
+  quotes Zosimus, 348;
+  on the monastic aim, 362;
+  on the character of the monks, 388.
+Gindeley, on the Jesuits and the Thirty Years' War, 277.
+Giovanni di San Paolo, on gospel perfection, 226.
+Glastonbury, fall of Abbey of, 314.
+Gnostics, and asceticism, 27, 366.
+Godfrey de Bouillon, endows Hospital of St. John, 201.
+Godric, his unique austerities, 132.
+Goldsmith, on the English character, 166.
+Grand Chartreuse, monastery, 189.
+Greece, asceticism in, 20.
+Greeks, ancient, asceticism among the, 21.
+Greek Church, monasticism of the, 64, 67.
+Green, J.R., on the preaching friars, 254;
+  on Thomas Cromwell, 309;
+  on the suppression, 323.
+Gregory of Nazianza, on ascetic moderation, 65.
+Gregory, Pope, I., 138;
+  II., 135;
+  VII., 160, 178;
+  IX., 241;
+  X., 245.
+Gregory, St., Monastery of, rules of, 141.
+Griffin, Henry, on the Royal Commissioners, 311.
+Grimke, on historic movements, 84.
+Guigo, rules of, 190;
+  on vow of obedience, 383.
+Guizot, on state of early Europe, 149;
+  on the Benedictines, 404;
+  on monastic education, 407.
+Gustavus, contrasted to monks, 394.
+Guzman, _see_ Dominic.
+
+
+H
+
+Hallam, on the Albigensians, 233, 235;
+  on the suppression, 334;
+  on charity of the monks, 349.
+Happiness, the key to, 392.
+Hardwick, on the Albigensian doctrines, 233.
+Harnack, on early ascetics, 28;
+  on nominal Christianity of Rome, 77;
+  on life-ideal in the early church, 129;
+  on monasticism and the church, 414.
+Hell, the monks' teachings about, 417.
+Helvidius, on celibacy, 113.
+Henry, King, II., and the British church, 165;
+  III., invites students to England, 252;
+  IV., confiscates alien priories, 338.
+Henry VIII., and the independence of English church, 163;
+  and the fall of the monasteries, 286;
+  opinions respecting his character, 288, 290;
+  inconsistencies of, 291;
+  "Defender of the Faith," 293;
+  his divorce from Catharine, 293;
+  breach with Rome, 294, 300;
+  dangers to his throne, 295;
+  monks enraged at, 296;
+  as "Head of the Church," 297, 298;
+  Act of Succession, 298;
+  Oath of Supremacy, 298, 301;
+  excommunicated, 306;
+  the struggle for power, 324;
+  suppresses "Pilgrims of Grace," 326;
+  his use of monastic revenues, 328, 330;
+  Coke on his promises to Parliament, 329;
+  his motives for the suppression, 332;
+  Hooper on reforms of, 339;
+  an unconscious agent of new forces, 344;
+  two epochs met in reign of, 346;
+  Lecky on his use of monastic funds, 411.
+Heresy, growth of, in thirteenth century, 206;
+  monks attempt extirpation of, 261, 402;
+  Jesuits and, 276, 409.
+Heretical sects, attack vices of monks, 245.
+Hermit life, founder of, 35;
+  unsuited to women, 107.
+Hermits, The, of India, 20;
+  of Egypt, 33;
+  their mode of life, 49;
+  visit Rome, 71;
+  effect of story of, in Rome, 71, 80, 84;
+  of Augustine, 246.
+Hilarion, the hermit, 49.
+Hildebrand, _see_ Gregory VII.
+Hill, on manual labor, 142;
+  on fall of monasticism, 345.
+History, monastic contributions to, 406.
+Hoensbroech, Count Paul von, on Jesuitical discipline, 268.
+Holiness, false views of, 421.
+  _See_ Soul-purity and Salvation.
+Holy Land, motives for exodus to, 97.
+Holy Maid of Kent, 337.
+Home-life, not to be despised, 420.
+Honorius, III., Pope, sanctions Franciscan Order, 217;
+  confirms Dominican Order, 239.
+Hooper, Bishop, on Henry's reforms, 339.
+Hospital, Knights of, _see_ Knights.
+Hospitals, founded by Fabiola, 105;
+  Lecky on, 105;
+  result of woman's sympathy, 111.
+Houghton, Prior, _see_ Charterhouse.
+Household duties, Jerome on, 114.
+  _See_ Domestic Life.
+House of Lords, majority in the, changed, 347.
+Houses, Religious, _see_ Monasteries.
+Hugh, St., of Lincoln, and the swan, 157;
+  Ruskin on, 189.
+Human affection, monks indifferent to, 394, 397.
+Hume, on the suppression, 333.
+Hypatia, Kingsley's, quoted, 61;
+  death of, 48.
+
+
+I
+
+Ideal, monastie, 354. _See_ Monasticism.
+Ignatius, St., _see_ Loyola.
+Independence, Jesuitism and personal, 270;
+  of thought, renounced  by monks, 394.
+  _See_ Freedom, Liberty.
+India, asceticism in, 18, 357.
+India, monasticism in, 18, 357, 358;
+  causes of same, 355.
+Individual, influence of the, 91;
+  effect of self-sacrifice upon the, 390;
+  effect of solitude upon the, 393.
+Industry, modern, not to be despised, 420.
+Innocent, Pope, III., 216, 234, 239, 242;
+  IV., 250;
+  VIII., 339.
+Inquisition, The Holy, the Albigensian crusade and, 233;
+  relation of Dominicans toward, 235;
+  its establishment and management, 238.
+Intellectual progress, monasticism opposed to true, 407;
+  in Europe, 409.
+Introspection, evil effects of morbid, 392.
+Iona, Monastery of, 168.
+Ireland, St. Patrick labors in, 123;
+  monasteries of, as centers of culture, 169.
+Isidore, the hermit, visits Rome, 72.
+Itineracy, substituted for seclusion in cloister, 244.
+
+
+J
+
+Jacob of Vitry, on abuses of charity, 411.
+James, the Apostle, quoted on rich men, 377.
+Jerome, St., his life of Paul of Thebes, 35;
+  on Pachomian monks, 59;
+  his letter to Rusticus, 59;
+  on solitude, 61;
+on number of Egyptian monks,
+  63; on clergy of the fourth and
+  fifth centuries, 77; in his cell,
+  85; Schaff on, 86; his birth
+  and early life, 86; his travels,
+  and austerities, 87, 92; organizes
+  monastic brotherhood,
+  88; his literary labors, 88;
+  glorifies desert life, 89; influences
+  Rome, 91; his temptations,
+  93; his fondness for the
+  classics, 95; his biographies of
+  Roman nuns, 96; his life of
+  St. Paula, 97, and of Marcella,
+  102; on folly of Roman women,
+  108; on marriage and celibacy,
+  112; on household duties, 113;
+  attacks the foes of monks, 127;
+  on vices of monks, 128; on
+  monastic aim, 360; on the
+  natural, 366.
+Jesuits, _see_ Jesus, The Society of.
+Jesuits, The Pagan, 22, 426.
+Jesus Christ, the Essenes and, 26;
+  quoted by early ascetics, 31,
+  and by Jerome, 92; teachings
+  of, used by monks, 366, 376;
+  his doctrine of wealth, 377;
+  his attitude toward rich men,
+  379; the doctrine of the cross
+  and, 418.
+Jesus, The Society of, Sherman on
+  nature of, 258; rejects seclusion,
+  258; Bishop Keane on,
+  259, 273; how differs from
+  other monastic communities,
+  259; founded by Loyola, 264;
+  constitution and polity of, 265;
+  grades of members of, 265;
+  vow of obedience in, 266; von
+  Hoensbroech on, 268; confession
+  in, 269; Carlyle on
+  obedience in, 271; casuistry of,
+  272, 429; its doctrine of probabilism,
+  274; the Roman
+  Church and, 275; Roman foes
+  of, 276; mission of, 276; its attitude
+  toward Reformation, 277;
+  the Thirty Years' War and, 277;
+  calumnies against, 279; Clement
+  XIV. dissolves, 279; expulsion
+  of, from Europe, 279;
+  missionary labors of, 280; Parkman
+  contrasts, with Puritans,
+  281; failure of, 283; restoration
+  of, 283; causes for rise of,
+  374; hostility of, to free government,
+  402; liberal education
+  opposed by, 409. _See_ Loyola.
+Jewish asceticism, 23.
+Jocelin, quoted by Carlyle, 145.
+John,  King, confiscates alien
+  priories, 338.
+John, St., Knights of, _see_ Knights.
+John, St., of Calama, visits his
+  sister in disguise, 397.
+John, the Apostle, on love of the
+  world, 377.
+John the Baptist, and asceticism,
+  30.
+Johnson, on Monastery of Iona,
+  168.
+Joseph, St., Church of, in England,
+  163.
+Josephus on the Essenes, 23.
+Jovinian, hostility of, toward
+  monks, 127; compared by
+  Neander to Luther, 127.
+Julian, Emperor, the exodus of
+  monks and the, 127.
+Juvenal, satire of, on Roman
+  women, 82.
+
+
+K
+
+Keane, Bishop, on the Jesuits,
+  259, 273.
+Kennaquhair, installation of abbot
+  of, 145.
+King, on Hildebrand, 178.
+Kingsley, on Egypt and the hermits,
+  34; on Roman women,
+  82, 106; on fall of Rome, 78,
+  367.
+Knights of St. John, their origin
+  and mission, 200.
+Knights of the Hospital, sketch
+  of the, 198.
+Knights Templars, rule of the,
+  197; rise and fall of, 202.
+
+
+L
+
+Labor, manual, Jerome on, 59;
+  in Pachomian rule, 60; Hill on
+  benefits of, 142; among the
+  Benedictines, 147, 404; Benedict
+  on, 403; effect of Mendicants
+  on, 404; not to be despised,
+  420.
+Lama, Grand, in India, 21.
+Lateran Council, 242.
+Latimer, Bishop, and the monastic
+  funds, 323.
+Laumer, St., and wild animals,
+  156.
+Laveleye on Christianity, 378.
+Lay abbots, disorders among the,
+  179.
+Layton, a Royal Commissioner,
+  311. 312.
+Lea, on celibacy, 184; on the
+  Reformation, 342.
+Learning, influence of Alcuin
+  and Wilfred on, 167; Irish
+  monasteries as centers of, 169;
+  monks further, in England,
+  252; the monks and secular,
+  406; effects of monasticism on
+  the course of, 407. _See_ Literary
+  services.
+Lecky, on Fabiola's hospitals, 105;
+  on asceticism and civilization,
+  401; on industry and the monastic
+  ideal, 405; on abuses of
+  alms-giving, 411; on the monastic
+  doctrines of hell, 418.
+Legh, a Royal Commissioner, 311.
+Leo X., Pope, 293.
+Liberty, the Jesuits on, 375. _See_
+  Freedom and Independence.
+Libraries, monastic, 152.
+Lincoln, Abraham, quoted, 205.
+Lingard, on Bede and the conversion
+  of King Lucius, 124;
+ on the Anglo-Saxon Church,
+  181.
+Literary services of monks, 153,
+  406. _See_ Learning.
+Lollardism, way paved for destruction
+  of cloisters by, 294.
+  _See_ 429.
+Lombards destroy Monte Cassino,
+  135.
+London, John, a Royal Commissioner,
+  311.
+Longfellow, poem of, on Francis,
+  218; on Monte Cassino, 135-
+Lord, John, on needed religious
+  reforms, 80.
+Loyola, St. Ignatius, his birth,
+  261; enters upon religious work,
+  262; his pilgrimage to the Holy
+  Land, 263; his education, 263;
+imprisonments, 263; founds Society
+  of Jesus, 264; his "Spiritual
+  Exercises," 265, 267; on
+  obedience, 267; his mission,
+  276; Sherman on, 278; compared
+  with Hamilcar, 409. _See_
+  Society of Jesus.
+Lucius, a British king, embraces
+  Christianity, 124.
+Luther, influence of, in history, 92;
+  an Augustinian monk, 118;
+  Henry VIII. attacks, 293.
+Lytton, his views of Jesuits denounced,
+  278.
+
+
+M
+
+Macarius, the hermit, 49.
+Macaulay, his views of Jesuits
+  opposed, 278; on the aims of
+  Jesuits, 283; on the Roman
+  Church, 402.
+Mabie, H.W., on the monks
+  and the classics, 408.
+Mahomet, Carlyle on, 33.
+Maitland, on Benedictine monasteries,
+  155.
+Maitre, on desecration of cloisters,
+  350.
+Malmesbury, his charges against
+  the monks, 173.
+Manicheism, relation of, to Albigensians,
+  233.
+Marcella, St., Jerome on life of,
+  102; her austerities and charity,
+  103.
+Maria dei Angeli, Sta., Francis
+  hears call in church of, 214.
+Marriage, Basil on, 66; how
+  esteemed in Rome, 110; Gibbon
+  on, in Rome, 110; Jerome
+  and Augustine on, 112;
+  vow of celibacy and, 381.
+Married life in Rome, Jerome on,
+  114.
+Martensen, on ascetics, 391; on
+  solitude and society, 395.
+Martin, St., of Tours, credibility
+  of biography of, 119; sketch
+  of his life, 120; his death, 122;
+  churches and shrines in honor
+  of, 122.
+Martinmas, 122.
+Materialism, monasticism and, 350,
+  413; of the West, 371.
+Mathews, Shailer, on Christ and
+  riches, 379.
+Matthew of Paris, on prosperity
+  of friars, 246.
+Maur, St., walks on water, 137.
+Maximilian, of Bavaria, educated
+  by Jesuits, 277.
+Melrose Abbey, 289.
+Mendicant Friars, The, 205; success
+  of, 242, 255; their value
+  to Rome, 243; confined to four
+  societies, 246; quarrels among,
+  246; their educational work,
+  248; in England, 251; decline
+  of, 253; as preachers, 244;
+  254; effects of prosperity on,
+  256.
+Mendicity of monks, 245.
+Milan, church of, Emperor refused
+  entrance to the, 115.
+Military-religious orders, their origin,
+  labors and decline, 197.
+Militia of Jesus Christ, 242.
+Mill, John Stuart, on preaching
+  friars, 244.
+Milman, on the early church leaders,
+  129; on dream of Dominic's mother, 231;
+on bigotry of monks, 395;
+  on monks and natural affections, 398.
+Milton, contrasted to monks, 394.
+Miracles, 224.
+  _See_ Anthony, Stylites, St. Martin, etc.
+Missionary labors, of monks, 148, 171, 398;
+  of the Jesuits, 280, 281.
+Modern life and thought, monasticism rejected by, 421.
+Mohammedans, mission of Francis to, 217.
+Monastery, of Pachomius, 58;
+  Monte Cassino, 134;
+  St. Gregory's, rules of, 141;
+  Kennaquhair, 145;
+  Vivaria, 152;
+  Bangor, 165;
+  Iona, 168;
+  Cluny, 177;
+  Grand Chartreuse, 189;
+  Charterhouse, 191, 301, 334, 343;
+  Citeaux, 192;
+  Clairvaux, 193;
+  St. Nicholas, 240;
+  Melrose, 289;
+  Glastonbury, 314.
+Monasteries, in Egypt, 44;
+  of Jerome, 88;
+  of Paula, 100;
+  in early Britain, 123;
+  as literary centers, 151;
+  decline of, in Middle Ages, 173;
+  destruction of, by Danes, 180;
+  corruptions of, in Dunstan's time, 185;
+  abandonment of endowments, 244;
+  fall of, in England, 286;
+  fall of, in various countries, 288, 430;
+  obstacles to progress, 343;
+  new uses of, 350;
+  life in, 392;
+  charity of, 410.
+Monasteries, The Fall of, in England, 286;
+  various views of, 288;
+  necessity for dispassionate judgment, 289;
+  events preceding, 293;
+  progress and, 300;
+  the Charterhouse, 302;
+  the Royal Commissioners and their methods, 308, 313;
+  Glastonbury, 314;
+  report of commissioners, 313, 314;
+  action of Parliament, 319;
+  the lesser houses, 319;
+  the larger houses, 320;
+  total number and the revenues of, 321;
+  effect of, upon the people, 322;
+  Green on same, 323;
+  uprisings and rebellions, 325;
+  use of funds, 328;
+  justification for, 331;
+  Bale, Blunt and Hume on justification for, 333;
+  Hallam on, 334;
+  charges against monks true, 336;
+  Bonaventura and Wyclif on vices of monks, 337;
+  confiscation of alien priories, 338;
+  compared with suppression in other countries, 339, 430;
+  alienation of England from Rome, 342;
+  superficial explanation of, 343;
+  true view of, 344;
+  monks and reform, 344;
+  causes of, enumerated, 345;
+  results of, 345, 347;
+  general review of, 352;
+  Bryant on, 353.
+Monasticism, Eastern, origin of, 17, 29;
+  philosophy and, 18;
+  Christian, 29;
+  the Scriptures and, 30;
+  in Egypt, 33;
+  virtual founder of, 42;
+  under Pachomius, 58, 63;
+  under Basil, 63;
+  character of, in Greek church, 67;
+  perplexing character of, 69.
+  _See_ Jerome, Basil and Athanasius.
+Monasticism, Western, 71;
+  introduction in Rome, 71;
+  effect upon Rome, 80;
+women and, 96, 106;
+  Gregory the Great and, 160;
+  in England, 162; spread of, 115;
+  in Germany, 122;
+  in Spain, 122;
+  in early Britain, 123, 168;
+  disorders and oppositions, 124;
+  enemies of, 127;
+  its eclipse, 130;
+  code of, 139;
+  reforms of, and military types, 173, 197;
+  decline of, in the Middle Ages, 173, 179;
+  Benedict of Aniane tries to reform, 176;
+  in England, in Middle Ages, 180;
+  failure of reforms, 196, 207;
+  its moral dualism, 205;
+  its recuperative power, 205;
+  in the thirteenth century, 206;
+  new features of, 244;
+  popes demand reforms in, 286;
+  attacked by governments, 287;
+  Hill on fall of, in England, 345;
+  a fetter on progress, 347;
+  alms-giving and, 348;
+  age of, compared to modern times, 351.
+Monasticism, Causes and Ideals of, 354;
+  causative motives, 355;
+  the desire for salvation, 356;
+  quotations on the ideal, 129, 173, 174, 357, 358, 360;
+  nothing gained by return to ideal, 352;
+  motive for endowments, 361;
+  the love of solitude, 362;
+  various motives, 364;
+  beliefs affecting the causative motives, 365;
+  Gnostic teachings, 366;
+  effect of the social condition of Roman Empire, 367;
+  the flight from the world, 368;
+  causes of variations in types, 371;
+  East and West compared, 371;
+  effect of political changes, 372;
+  the Crusades, 373;
+  effect of feudalism, 373;
+  effect of the intellectual awakening, 374;
+  the Modern Age and the Jesuits, 374;
+  the fundamental vows, 375.
+Monasticism, Effects of, 386;
+  the good and evil of, 387;
+  variety of opinions respecting, 387;
+  the diversity of facts, 389;
+  elements of truth and worth, 390;
+  effects of self-sacrifice, 390, of solitude, 393;
+  the monks as missionaries, 398;
+  civic duties, 399;
+  upon civilization, 401;
+  upon agriculture, 403;
+  upon secular learning, 405;
+  the charity of monks, 410;
+  upon religion, 412, 413;
+  the sense of sin, 414;
+  the atonement for sin, 417;
+  the distinction between the secular and the religious, 418;
+  monasticism and Christianity, 420;
+  old monastic methods forsaken, 421;
+  summary of effects, 423.
+Monastic Orders, the usual history of, 174.
+  _See_ Benedict, Order of St., Franciscans, etc.
+Monks, not peculiar to Christianity, 17;
+  Jerome on habits of, 36;
+  in Egypt, 44;
+  Pachomian, 58;
+  number of Eastern, 63;
+  under Basil, 63;
+  character of Eastern, 67, 69;
+  as theological fighters, 68;
+  Hypatia and the, 68;
+  in the desert of Chalcis, 87;
+  in early Rome, 96;
+  motives of early, 106, 128;
+  of Augustine, 118; under
+Martin of Tours, 120;
+  opposition to Roman, 125, 147;
+  disorders among the early, 128, 150;
+  literary services of, 151, 153, 167, 169, 248, 253, 405, 406;
+  agricultural services of, 155, 192, 403;
+  wild animals and the, 156;
+  early British, 162, 168;
+  influence of the, in England, 166;
+  the barbarians and the, 148, 171, 398;
+  military, 173, 197;
+  corruptions of, 124, 173, 175, 179, 196, 206, 336;
+  the celibacy of, 183;
+  changes in the character of, 284;
+  rebel against Henry VIII., 296;
+  as obstacles to progress, 300, 343;
+  required to take the Oath of Supremacy, 301;
+  pious frauds of, in England, 318;
+  receive pensions, 320;
+  oppose reforms in England, 344;
+  privileges and powers of the, affected by the suppression, 347;
+  charity of the, 348, 410, 411;
+  objects of the, 360;
+  once held in high esteem, 361;
+  their flight from Rome, 368;
+  diversity of opinions respecting the, 388;
+  effect of austerities on the, 390;
+  effect of solitude on the, 393;
+  deficiencies in the best, 394;
+  as missionaries, 398;
+  civic duties and the, 399;
+  military quarrels incited by the, 401;
+  enthusiasm for religion kept alive by the, 413;
+  their sense of sin, exaggeration in their views and methods, 413;
+  their doctrine of hell, 417;
+  the doctrine of the cross and the, 418.
+  _See_ Mendicants, Benedict, Order of St., etc.
+Montaigne, on the temptations of solitude, 393.
+Montalembert, on Eastern monachism, 67;
+  on Benedict, 130;
+  on the ruin of French cloisters, 351;
+  on the attractions of solitude, 364;
+  on the value of the monks, 388, 406.
+Montanists, The, and asceticism, 27.
+Monte Cassino, Monastery at, Montalembert on, 134;
+  sketch of its history, 134.
+Montserrat, tablet on Ignatius in church at, 262.
+More, Sir Thomas, causes of his death, 298;
+  his character, 299;
+  influence of, in prison, 303, 305;
+  on Henry's ambition, 322.
+Morton, Cardinal, on the vices of the monks, 338.
+Mosheim, on Francis, 225;
+  on the quarrel of the Franciscans, 247.
+Mozoomdar, on the motives and spirit of Oriental asceticism, 358.
+Mutius, taught renunciation, 62.
+
+
+N
+
+Neander, compares Jovinian to Luther, 127;
+  on the dreams of Francis, 209.
+Newman, Cardinal, on Benedict's mission, 149.
+Nicholas, St., Monastery of, 240.
+Normans, The, and the alien priories, 341.
+Novitiate, Benedictine, extended by Gregory, 160;
+  of the Jesuits, 260, 269.
+  _See_ various orders.
+Nun, _see_ Women.
+Nunneries, origin of, 106.
+
+
+O
+
+Obedience, vow of, in Pachomian rule, 61;
+  enforced by Basil, 66;
+  among the Jesuits, 266;
+  Loyola on, 267;
+  Dom Guigo on, 383;
+  its value and its abuses, 384.
+Observantines, 246.
+Oliphant, Mrs., on the temptations of Francis, 218;
+  on the stigmata, 222.
+Origen, on Christianity in Britain, 123.
+Oswald, aids Dunstan in reforms, 186.
+Oxford University, friars enter, 251;
+  founded by monks, 406.
+
+
+P
+
+Pachomius, St., 32;
+  birth and early life of, 58.
+Pachomian Monks, rules of, 58;
+  vows, 61;
+  their number and spread, 63.
+Pagan philosophy powerless to save Rome, 76.
+Palgrave on the miter, 400.
+Pamplona, Ignatius wounded at siege of, 262.
+Parkman, Francis, on the Puritans and the Jesuits, 281;
+  on the Roman Church, 386.
+Parliament of Religions, World's Fair, views of asceticism at the,
+  357, 358.
+Paris, University of, 249, 406.
+Paschal II., Pope, the gift of Cluny, 178.
+Patrick, St., 122;
+  labors in Ireland, 123;
+  was he a Romanist? 162.
+Paul, The Apostle, on asceticism, 27.
+Paul III., Pope, excommunicates Henry VIII., 306.
+Paul of Thebes, Jerome's life of, 35;
+  his early life, 36;
+  visited by Anthony, 37;
+  his death, 40;
+  effect of his biography on the times, 42.
+Paula, St., Jerome on death of, 98, 101;
+  her austerities and charities, 98, 100;
+  separates from her children, 98;
+  her monasteries at Bethlehem, 100;
+  inscription on her tombstone, 102;
+  faints at her daughter's funeral, 125.
+Paulinus, embraces ascetic Christianity, 84.
+Peter, The Apostle, marriage of, 115.
+Peter the Venerable, 178.
+Petrarch, Mabie on, and the classics, 408.
+Peyto, Friar, denounces Henry VIII., 296:
+Philanthropy, spirit of, kept alive by monks, 412.
+  _See_ Charity.
+Philip IV., King, of France, his charges against the Knights, 202.
+Phillips, Wendell, on the reading of history, 386.
+Philo, on the Essenes, 23;
+  on the Therapeutæ, 27.
+Philosophy, ascetic influence of Greek, 21;
+  Gnostic, 27;
+  Pagan, and fall of Rome, 76.
+Pike, Luke Owen, on the character of Henry VIII., 290;
+  on the lawlessness of monks, 336.
+Pilgrims of Grace, 326;
+  their demands and overthrowal, 327.
+Pillar Saints, 51.
+Plague, Black, and the monks, 410.
+Plato, ascetic teachings of, 22.
+Pliny, on the Essenes, 25.
+Pole, Reginald, on Henry VIII. and Rome, 295.
+Politics, not to be despised, 420.
+Portus, inn at, 105.
+Potitianus, affected by Anthony's biography, 83.
+Poverty, vow of, in Pachomian rule, 61;
+  Franciscans quarrel over, 246;
+  and the Scriptures, 376.
+Preaching Friars, _see_ Dominicans, Franciscans and Mendicants.
+Pride, spiritual, of monks, 395.
+Probabilism, doctrine of, 274.
+Protestantism, effect of, upon monasticism, 286;
+  guilty of persecution, 332;
+  and the Church of England, 340;
+  its real value to England, 346;
+  its religious ideal, 356.
+Putnam, on the rule of St. Benedict, 139;
+  on Cassiodorus, 153;
+  on the first quarrel over copyright, 170.
+Pythagoras, asceticism of, 21, 426.
+
+
+R
+
+Reade, Charles, on the monk's flight from the world, 368.
+Reading, the monks of, their pious frauds, 318.
+Recluses, _see_ Hermits.
+Reformed Orders, 173.
+Reform, monastic, 173, 205;
+  fails to stop decline of monasteries, 196, 207, 286;
+  demanded by popes, 286;
+  failure of, 336.
+  _See_ Monasticism.
+Reformation, The Protestant, furthered by certain Franciscans, 247;
+  relation of Mendicants to, 248;
+  the Jesuits and, 277; 278, 283;
+  in England, its character, and results, 345,346;
+  and the monastic life, 374.
+Relics, fraudulent, 128, 318.
+Religion, monasticism and, 18, 412;
+  influence of feelings and opinions, 354;
+  enthusiasm for, fostered by monks, 413;
+  the sense of sin, 414;
+  salvation, 417;
+  the distinction between the secular and the religious, 418, 420;
+  the doctrine of the cross, 418;
+  essence of, 419;
+  true, possible outside of convents, 421.
+Religious houses, _see_ Monasteries.
+Renunciation of the world, 358, 369.
+  _See_ Self-denial.
+Rice, Ap, a Royal Commissioner, 311.
+Riches, _see_ Wealth.
+Richard II., confiscates alien priories, 338.
+Robertson, F. W., on excessive
+  austerities, 94.
+Rome, Church of, her claims
+  respecting the early British
+  Church, 162; writers of, on
+  the stigmata, 223; her relation
+  to the Jesuits, 275, and the
+  English people, 294, 341;
+  martyrs of, 332; writers of, on
+  the fall of monasteries, 334,
+  335; England separates from,
+  342; her religious ideal, 356;
+  Parkman on, 386; Macaulay
+  on, 403. _See_ Henry VIII.
+Rome, Monasticism introduced in,
+  71; social and religious state
+  of, in the fourth century, 72,
+  74; Dill on causes of the
+  fall of, 74; classes of society
+  in, 75; Farrar on luxury of,
+  75; epigram of Silvianus, 76;
+  Kingsley on ruin of, 78; Jerome
+  on sack of, by Alaric, 103.
+  _See_ Jerome.
+Roman Empire, nominally Christian,
+  73;. its impending doom,
+  73, 367.
+Romanus, a monk, 131.
+Royalty, affected by monasticism,
+  179.
+Rules, monastic, the first, 58;
+  before Benedict, 107; of Augustine,
+  118; of St. Benedict,
+  138, 139, 147, 151, 158; of
+  Dom Guigo, 189; of St. Francis,
+  226. _See_ Celibacy, Poverty,
+  Obedience.
+Ruskin, on St. Hugh of Lincoln,
+  189.
+Rusticus, a monk, 59.
+Rutilius, on the monks, 126.
+
+
+S
+
+Sabatier, on rule of St. Francis,
+  227.
+Saint, Paul of Thebes, 35; Anthony,
+  37; Athanasius, 42; Abraham,
+  50, 60; Macarius, 49;
+  Hilarion, 49; Simeon Stylites,
+  51; Pachomius, 58; Basil,
+  63; Gregory of Nazianza, 65;
+  Jerome, 85; Paula, 97; Marcella,
+  102; Fabiola, 105; Ambrose,
+  115; Chrysostom, 116;
+  Augustine, 117; Martin of
+  Tours, 119; Maur, 137; Patrick,
+  123, 162; Benedict of
+  Nursia, 131; Hugh of Lincoln,
+  157, 189; Gregory the Great,
+  159; Columba, 162, 168, 170;
+  Boniface, 167; Wilfred, 167;
+  Benedict of Aniane, 176;
+  Dunstan, 182; Bruno, 188;
+  Bernard, 192; Francis, 208;
+  Clara, 228; Dominic, 230;
+  Loyola, 261.
+Salvation, the desire for, 70, 111,
+  355, 396; the struggle for,
+  95; monastic views of, 417.
+Samson, Abbot, election of, 145.
+Santa Crocella, chapel of, 131.
+Saracens burn Monte Cassino
+  monastery, 135.
+Saragossa, Council of, forbids
+  priests to assume monks' robes,
+  122.
+Savonarola, a Dominican, 242.
+Saxons invade England, 180.
+Schaff, Philip, on origin of monasticism,
+  18; on Montanists,
+  28; on the biography of the
+hermit Paul, 35;
+  on St. Jerome, 86;
+  on Augustine, 117;
+  on Benedictine rule, 148;
+  on monasteries as centers of learning, 153;
+  on effects of monasticism, 387.
+Scholastica, story about, 138.
+Schools, monastic, 154, 167.
+  _See _ Learning.
+Scott, Walter, on installation of an abbot, 145;
+  on the crusaders, 199.
+Seclusion, 244, 259.
+  _See_ Solitude.
+Secular life, duties of, 113;
+  the monks and, 399;
+  distinction between religion and the, 418;
+  true view of, 420.
+Self-crucifixion, 418.
+Self-denial, its nature, 356;
+  Mozoomdar on, 358.
+Selfishness, engendered by monasticism, 396.
+Self-forgetfulness, the key to happiness, 392.
+Self-mastery, the craving for, 70.
+Self-sacrifice, effect of, upon the individual, 390;
+  meaning of true, 419.
+  _See_ Asceticism.
+Serapion, monks of, 63.
+Severus, his life of St. Martin, 119.
+Sherman, Father Thomas E., on the Society of Jesus, 258;
+  on Loyola, 278.
+Sick, ministered to by women, 350.
+  _See_ Charity.
+Silvianus, epigram of, on dying Rome, 76.
+Simon de Montfort, 237.
+Simeon Stylites, birth and early life of, 51;
+  austerities of, 52;
+  his fame, 52;
+  lives on a pillar, 53;
+  Tennyson on, 54;
+  death of, 56;
+  refuses to see his mother, 397;
+  method of, forsaken, 421.
+Sin, monastic confessions of, 413;
+  consciousness of, preserved by monks, 414;
+  exaggerated views of, 415;
+  false methods to get rid of, 416;
+  monastic influence on doctrine of atonement for, 417.
+Sisterhoods, _see_ Women.
+Sixtus IV. and V., Popes, on the stigmata, 221.
+Social service, spirit of, 419, 423.
+Solitude, of Egypt, 33;
+  provided for in Pachomian rules, 60;
+  Jerome on, 61;
+  the love of, as a cause of monasticism, 362, 363;
+  effects of, upon the individual, 393;
+  Montaigne on temptations of, 393;
+  society and, 395.
+Soul-purity, struggles for, 95.
+  _See_ Salvation.
+Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius, 265.
+Spain, monasticism enters, 122.
+Starbuck, Charles C., on the casuistry of the Jesuits, 274.
+Stigmata, of St. Francis, 219.
+Storrs, on Bernard, 197.
+Subiaco, desert of, 131.
+Superstitions, monastic, when revolt against is justifiable, 423.
+Suppression of monasteries,
+  _see_ Monasteries, The Fall of.
+Supremacy, the monks required to take the oath of, 301.
+
+
+T
+
+Tabenna, Monastery at, 32, 58.
+Tauler, John, a Dominican, 242;
+  on service and contemplation,
+  395.
+
+Taunton, E.L., on the family-idea
+  of monasteries, 143; on Augustine
+  and British monks, 165.
+Taylor, Isaac, on the biography
+  of Anthony, 48.
+Templars, _see_ Knights.
+Tennyson, on Stylites, 54.
+Tertullian, on Christianity in
+  Britain, 123.
+Thackeray, views of, on Jesuits
+  opposed, 278.
+Theodoret, on Stylites, 51, 53.
+Theodosius, Abbot, 50.
+Theology, the monks and, 406;
+  White on same, 416.
+Theophilus, joins Eudoxia against
+  Chrysostom, 117.
+Therapeutæ, Philo on the, 27.
+Thieffroy, on charity of monks,
+  410.
+Third Order, _see_ Franciscans and
+  Dominicans.
+Thirty Years' War, the Jesuits
+  and the, 277.
+Trench, on monastic history, 175;
+  on genius in creation, 207;
+  on the stigmata, 223.
+Trent, Council of, restricts Mendicants,
+  246; on marriage, 382.
+
+
+U
+
+Universities, foundations of, laid
+  by monks, 405.
+Urban II., Pope, the gift of
+  Cluny monastery, 178.
+
+
+V
+
+Valens, Emperor, fails to stop
+  flight from Rome, 127.
+Vaughan, on Bernard's reforms,
+  195; on the need of reformation,
+  402.
+Virgins, _see_ Marriage.
+Virgil, Jerome's fondness for, 95;
+  Mabie on reading of, 408.
+Vivaria, literary work in monastery
+  at, 152.
+Voltaire, on the monks, 388.
+Vows, monastic, 61; irrevocable,
+  66, 112; usual history of,
+  174; of the military orders,
+  198; the fundamental, 375;
+  the passing away of, 423. _See_
+  Poverty, Celibacy and Obedience.
+Vulgate, Jerome, 85.
+
+
+W
+
+Waddington, on the hermits, 34;
+  on conscience and method of
+  monks, 390.
+War, monks incite to, 401.
+Watch-dogs of the Church, a term
+  applied to the Dominicans, 249.
+Wealth, Christ's doctrine of, 377;
+  not in itself an evil, 379; its
+  true value, 405; compatible
+  with Christianity, 420.
+White, on the theology of the
+  monks, 416.
+Whiting, Richard, Abbot of
+  Glastonbury, 315.
+Widows, _see_ Women and Marriage.
+Wilfred, St., his monastic labors, 167.
+William of Aquitaine, 177.
+William of Amour, 250.
+William of Orange, 394.
+Wolsey, Cardinal, 294, 308.
+Women, welcome call of monks, 81;
+  Kingsley on same, 82;
+  Juvenal on Roman women, 82;
+  Jerome's influence on, 86, 96;
+  monasticism and, 106;
+  hermit life unsuited to, 107;
+  effect of corrupt society on, 107,
+  no; distinguished by mercy, in, 350;
+  compared with monks, 111;
+  married life of, in Rome, 112;
+  influence of Ambrose upon, 126;
+  regulation of Guigo concerning monks and, 190.
+Wyclif, attacks the friars, 253, 337;
+  spirit of, affects monasticism, 295, 429.
+
+
+X
+
+Ximenes, Cardinal, a Franciscan, 228.
+
+
+Z
+
+Zosimus, on charity of monks, 348.
+
+
+_Printed at_ THE BRANDT PRESS, _Trenton, N.J., U.S.A_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Short History of Monks and
+Monasteries, by Alfred Wesley Wishart
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13206 ***
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13206 ***</div>
+
+<h2>A SHORT HISTORY OF</h2>
+<h1>MONKS</h1>
+<h2>AND MONASTERIES</h2>
+<br>
+<h3><i>By</i> ALFRED WESLEY WISHART</h3>
+<h4>Sometime <i>Fellow</i> in <i>Church History</i> in <i>The
+University of Chicago</i></h4>
+<h5>ALBERT BRANDT, PUBLISHER<br>
+TRENTON, NEW JERSEY MDCCCC</h5>
+<h4>1900</h4>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page5"></a>[pg 5]</span>
+<h2><a name="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The aim of this volume is to sketch the history of the monastic
+institution from its origin to its overthrow in the Reformation
+period, for although the institution is by no means now extinct,
+its power was practically broken in the sixteenth century, and no
+new orders of importance or new types have arisen since that
+time.</p>
+<p>A little reflection will enable one to understand the great
+difficulties in the execution of so broad a purpose. It was
+impracticable in the majority of instances to consult original
+sources, although intermediate authorities have been studied as
+widely as possible and the greatest caution has been exercised to
+avoid those errors which naturally arise from the use of such
+avenues of information. It was also deemed unadvisable to burden
+the work with numerous notes and citations. Such notes as were
+necessary to a true unfolding of the subject will be found in the
+appendix.</p>
+<p>A presentation of the salient features of the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page6"></a>[pg 6]</span> whole history was
+essential to a proper conception of the orderly development of the
+ascetic ideal. To understand the monastic institution one must not
+only study the isolated anchorite seeking a victory over a sinful
+self in the Egyptian desert or the monk in the secluded cloister,
+but he must also trace the fortunes of ascetic organizations,
+involving multitudes of men, vast aggregations of wealth, and
+surviving the rise and fall of empires. Almost every phase of human
+life is encountered in such an undertaking. Attention is divided
+between hermits, beggars, diplomatists, statesmen, professors,
+missionaries and pontiffs. It is hoped the critical or literary
+student will appreciate the immense difficulties of an attempt to
+paint so vast a scene on so small a canvas. No other claim is made
+upon his benevolence.</p>
+<p>There is a process of writing history which Trench describes as
+"a moral whitewashing of such things as in men's sight were as
+blackamoors before." Religious or temperamental prejudice often
+obscures the vision and warps the judgment of even the most
+scholarly minds. Conscious of this infirmity in the ablest writers
+of history it <span class="pagenum"><a name="page7"></a>[pg
+7]</span> would be absurd to claim complete exemption from the
+power of personal bias. It is sincerely hoped, however, that the
+strongest passion in the preparation of this work has been that
+commendable predilection for truth and justice which should
+characterize every historical narrative, and that, whatever other
+shortcomings may be found herein, there is an absence of that
+unreasonable suspicion, not to say hatred, of everything monastic,
+which mars many otherwise valuable contributions to monastic
+history.</p>
+<p>The author's grateful acknowledgment is made, for kindly
+services and critical suggestions, to Eri Baker Hulbert, D.D.,
+LL.D., Dean of the Divinity School, and Professor and Head of the
+Department of Church History; Franklin Johnson, D.D., LL.D.,
+Professor of Church History and Homiletics; Benjamin S. Terry,
+Ph.D., Professor of Medieval and English History; and Ralph C.H.
+Catterall, Instructor in Modern History; all of The University of
+Chicago. Also to James M. Whiton, Ph.D., of the Editorial Staff of
+"The Outlook"; Ephraim Emerton, Ph.D., Winn Professor of
+Ecclesiastical History in <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page8"></a>[pg 8]</span> Harvard University; S. Giffard Nelson,
+L.H.D., of Brooklyn, New York; A.H. Newman, D.D., LL.D., Professor
+of Church History in McMaster University of Toronto, Ontario; and
+Paul Van Dyke, D.D., Professor of History in Princeton
+University.</p>
+<blockquote>A.W.W.<br>
+Trenton, March, 1900.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page9"></a>[pg 9]</span>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<div class="indx">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p><a href="#PREFACE">PREFACE.</a></p>
+<p><a href="#BIBLIOGRAPHY">BIBLIOGRAPHY.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p class="i5"><a href="#I">I</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p><a href="#MONASTICISM_IN_THE_EAST">MONASTICISM IN THE
+EAST.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Hermits_of_Egypt">The Hermits of
+Egypt.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Pillar_Saint">The Pillar Saint.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Cenobites_of_the_East">The Cenobites of
+the East.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p class="i5"><a href="#II">II</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p><a href="#MONASTICISM_IN_THE_WEST">MONASTICISM IN THE WEST:
+ANTE-BENEDICTINE MONKS</a> 340-480 A.D.</p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Monasticism_and_Women">Monasticism and
+Women.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Spread_of_Monasticism_in_Europe">The
+Spread of Monasticism in Europe.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Disorders_and_Oppositions">Disorders and
+Oppositions.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p class="i5"><a href="#III">III</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p><a href="#THE_BENEDICTINES">THE BENEDICTINES.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Rules_of_Benedict">The Rules of
+Benedict.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Struggle_against_Barbarism">The
+Struggle Against Barbarism.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Spread_of_the_Benedictine_Rule">The
+Spread of the Benedictine Rule.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p class="i5"><a href="#IV">IV</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p><a href="#REFORMED_AND_MILITARY_ORDERS">REFORMED AND MILITARY
+ORDERS.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Military_Religious_Orders">The Military
+Religious Orders.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p class="i5"><a href="#V">V</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p><a href="#THE_MENDICANT_FRIARS">THE MENDICANT FRIARS</a>.</p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Francis_Bernardone">Francis Bernardone</a>,
+1182-1226 A.D.</p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Franciscan_Orders">The Franciscan
+Orders.</a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page10"></a>[pg 10]</span>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Dominic_de_Guzman">Dominic de
+Guzman.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Dominican_Orders">The Dominican
+Orders.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Success_of_the_Mendicant_Orders">The
+Success of the Mendicant Orders.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Decline_of_the_Mendicants">The Decline
+of the Mendicants.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p class="i5"><a href="#VI">VI</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p><a href="#THE_SOCIETY_OF_JESUS">THE SOCIETY OF JESUS.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Ignatius_de_Loyola">Ignatius de Loyola</a>,
+1491-1556 A.D.</p>
+<p class="i1"><a href=
+"#Constitution_and_Polity_of_the_Order">Constitution and Polity of
+the Order.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Vow_of_Obedience">The Vow of
+Obedience.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Casuistry_of_the_Jesuits">The Casuistry
+of the Jesuits.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Mission_of_the_Jesuits">The Mission of
+the Jesuits.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Retrospect">Retrospect.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p class="i5"><a href="#VII">VII</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p><a href="#THE_FALL_OF_THE_MONASTERIES">THE FALL OF THE
+MONASTERIES.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Character_of_Henry_VIII">The Character
+of Henry VIII.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Events_Preceding_the_Suppression">Events
+Preceding the Suppression.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Monks_and_the_Oath_of_Supremacy">The
+Monks and the Oath of Supremacy.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Royal_Commissioners">The Royal
+Commissioners and their Methods of Investigation.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Report_of_the_Commissioners">The Report
+of the Commissioners.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Action_of_Parliament">The Action of
+Parliament.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href=
+"#The_Effect_of_the_Suppression_Upon_the_People">The Effect of the
+Suppression Upon the People.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href=
+"#Henry's_Disposal_of_Monastic_Revenues">Henry's Disposal of
+Monastic Revenues.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Was_the_Suppression_Justifiable?">Was the
+Suppression Justifiable?</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Results_of_the_Dissolution">Results of the
+Dissolution.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p class="i5"><a href="#VIII">VIII</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p><a href="#CAUSES_AND_IDEALS_OF_MONASTICISM">CAUSES AND IDEALS OF
+MONASTICISM.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Causative_Motives_of_Monasticism">Causative
+Motives of Monasticism.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href=
+"#Beliefs_Affecting_the_Causative_Motives">Beliefs Affecting the
+Causative Motives.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Causes_of_Variations_in_Monasticism">Causes
+of Variations in Monasticism.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Fundamental_Monastic_Vows">The
+Fundamental Monastic Vows.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p class="i5"><a href="#IX">IX</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page11"></a>[pg
+11]</span>
+<p><a href="#THE_EFFECTS_OF_MONASTICISM">THE EFFECTS OF
+MONASTICISM.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href=
+"#The_Effects_of_Self-Sacrifice_Upon_the_Individual">The Effects of
+Self-Sacrifice Upon the Individual.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href=
+"#The_Effects_of_Solitude_Upon_the_Individual">The Effects of
+Solitude Upon the Individual.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Monks_as_Missionaries">The Monks as
+Missionaries.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Monasticism_and_Civic_Duties">Monasticism
+and Civic Duties.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Agricultural_Services_of_the_Monks">The
+Agricultural Services of the Monks.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Monks_and_Secular_Learning">The Monks
+and Secular Learning.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Charity_of_the_Monks">The Charity of
+the Monks.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Monasticism_and_Religion">Monasticism and
+Religion.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p><a href="#APPENDIX">APPENDIX.</a></p>
+<p><a href="#INDEX">INDEX.</a></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<h2>LIST OF PORTRAITS</h2>
+<blockquote>SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI, DYING, is CONVEYED TO THE<br>
+CHURCH OF SAINTE MARIE DE PORTIUNCULE, . . . . <i>facing
+title</i>.<br>
+<br>
+After the painting by J.J. Weerts. Originally published by<br>
+Goupil &amp; Co. of Paris, and here reproduced by their
+permission.<br>
+<br>
+[Jean Joseph Weerts was born at Roubaix (Nord), on May 1, 1847. He
+was a pupil of<br>
+Cabanel, Mils and Pils. He was awarded the second-class medal in
+1875, was made<br>
+Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1884, received the silver medal
+at the Universal<br>
+Exposition of 1889, and was created an Officer of the Legion of
+Honor in 1897. He is a<br>
+member of the "Soci&eacute;t&eacute; des Artistes Fran&ccedil;ais,"
+and is <i>hors concours</i>.]<br>
+<br>
+<a href="#image193.jpg">SAINT BERNARD</a><br>
+<br>
+After an engraving by Ambroise Tardieu, from a painting on
+glass<br>
+in the Convent of the R.P. Minimes, at Rheims.<br>
+<br>
+[Ambroise Tardieu was born in Paris, in 1790, and died in 1837. He
+was an engraver<br>
+of portraits, landscapes and architecture, and a clever manipulator
+of the burin. For a<br>
+time he held the position of "Geographical Engraver" to the
+Departments of Marine,<br>
+Fortifications and Forests. He was a member of the French
+Geographical and Mathematical<br>
+Societies.]--<i>Nagler</i>.<br>
+<br>
+<a href="#image232.jpg">SAINT DOMINIC</a><br>
+<br>
+From a photograph of Bozzani's painting, preserved in his cell
+at<br>
+Santa Sabina, Rome. Here reproduced from Augusta T. Drane's<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page12"></a>[pg 12]</span> "History
+of St. Dominic," by courtesy of the author and the publishers,<br>
+Longmans, Green &amp; Co., of London and New York.<br>
+<br>
+["Although several so-called portraits (of St. Dominic) are
+preserved, yet none of them<br>
+can be regarded as the <i>vera effigies</i> of the saint, though
+that preserved at Santa Sabina<br>
+probably presents us with a kind of traditionary
+likeness."]--<i>History of St. Dominic</i>.<br>
+<br>
+[In the "History of St. Dominic," on page 226, the author credits
+the portrait shown<br>
+to "Bozzani." We are unable to find any record of a painter by that
+name. Nagler,<br>
+however, tells of a painter of portraits and historical subjects,
+Carlo Bozzoni by name,<br>
+who was born in 1607 and died in 1657. He was a son of Luciano
+Bozzoni, a Genoese<br>
+painter and engraver. He is said to have done good work, but no
+other mention is made<br>
+of him.]<br>
+<br>
+<a href="#image263.jpg">IGNATIUS DE LOYOLA</a><br>
+<br>
+After the engraving by Greatbach, "from a scarce print by H.<br>
+Wierz." Originally published by Richard Bentley, London, in
+1842.<br>
+<br>
+[W. Greatbach was a London engraver in the first half of the
+nineteenth century. He<br>
+worked chiefly for the "calendars" and "annuals" of his time, and
+did notable work<br>
+for the general book trade of the better class.]<br>
+<br>
+[A search of the authorities does not reveal an engraver named "H.
+Wierz." This<br>
+is probably intended for Hieronymus Wierex (or Wierix, according to
+Bryant), a famous<br>
+engraver, born in 1552, and who is credited by Nagler, in his
+"K&uuml;nstler-Lexikon,"<br>
+with having produced "a beautiful and rare plate" of "St. Ignaz von
+Loyola." The<br>
+error, if such it be, is easily explained by the fact that portrait
+engravers seldom cut the<br>
+lettering of a plate themselves, but have it engraved by others,
+who have a special aptitude<br>
+for making shapely letters.]</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page13"></a>[pg 13]</span>
+<h2><a name="BIBLIOGRAPHY"></a>BIBLIOGRAPHY</h2>
+<blockquote>ADAMS, G.B.: Civilization during the Middle Ages.<br>
+ARCHER, T.A., and KINGSFORD, CHARLES L.: The Crusaders.<br>
+BARROWS, JOHN H., (Editor): The World's Parliment of Religions.<br>
+BLUNT, I.J.: Sketches of the Reformation in England.<br>
+BLUNT, JOHN HENRY: The Reformation of the Church of England, its
+History, Principles and Results.<br>
+BREWER, JOHN SHERREN: The Reign of Henry VIII.<br>
+BRYCE, JAMES: The Holy Roman Empire.<br>
+BURNET, GILBERT: History of the Reformation of the Church of
+England.<br>
+BUTLER, ALBAN: Lives of the Saints.<br>
+CARLYLE, THOMAS: Past and Present: The Ancient Monk. Miscellaneous
+Papers: Jesuitism.<br>
+CAZENOVE, JOHN G.: St. Hilary of Poitiers and St. Martin of
+Tours.<br>
+CHALIPPE, CANDIDE: The Life of St. Francis of Assisi.<br>
+CHILD, GILBERT W.: Church and State Under the Tudors.<br>
+CHURCH, R.W.: The Beginning of the Middle Ages.<br>
+CLARK, WILLIAM: The Anglican Reformation.<br>
+CLARKE, STEPHEN REYNOLDS: Vestigia Anglicana.<br>
+CLARKE, JAMES FREEMAN: Events and Epochs in Religious History.<br>
+COOK, KENINGALE: The Fathers of Jesus.<br>
+COX, G.W.: The Crusaders.<br>
+CUTTS, EDWARD LEWES: St. Jerome and St. Augustine.<br>
+DILL, SAMUEL: Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western
+Empire.<br>
+DRAPER, JOHN WILLIAM: History of the Intellectual Development of
+Europe.<br>
+DRAKE, AUGUSTA T.: The History of St. Dominic.<br>
+DUGDALE, Sir WILLIAM: Monasticum Anglicanum.<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page14"></a>[pg 14]</span> DURUY,
+VICTOR: History of Rome.<br>
+ECKENSTEIN, LINA: Woman Under Monasticism.<br>
+EDERSHEIM, ALFRED: The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.<br>
+ELIOT, SAMUEL: History of Liberty.<br>
+FARRAR, FREDERICK W.: The Early Days of Christianity.<br>
+FOSBROKE, J.D.: British Monachism.<br>
+FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY: History of England.<br>
+FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY: Short Studies.<br>
+GAIRDNER, JAMES, and SPEDDING, JAMES: Studies in English
+History.<br>
+GASQUET, FRANCIS A.: Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries.<br>
+GASQUET, FRANCIS A.: The Eve of the Reformation.<br>
+GIBBON, EDWARD: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.<br>
+GIESELER, J.K.L.: Manual of Church History.<br>
+GNEIST, RUDOLPH: History of the English Constitution.<br>
+GNEIST, RUDOLPH: The English Parliament.<br>
+GREEN, JOHN RICHARD: History of the English People.<br>
+GU&Eacute;RANGER, PROSPER: Life of St. Cecilia.<br>
+GUIZOT, F.P.G.: The History of France.<br>
+GUIZOT, F.P.G.: The History of Civilization in Europe.<br>
+HALLAM, HENRY: Europe During the Middle Ages.<br>
+HALLAM, HENRY: Constitutional History of England.<br>
+HALLAM, HENRY: Introduction to the Literature of Europe.<br>
+HARDY, R. SPENCER: Eastern Monasticism.<br>
+HARDWICK, CHARLES: History of the Christian Church in the Middle
+Ages.<br>
+HARNACK, ADOLF: Monasticism: Its Ideals and Its History:
+<i>Christian Literature Magazine</i>, 1894-95.<br>
+HILL, O'DELL T.: English Monasticism: Its Rise and Influence.<br>
+HUGHES, T.: Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits.<br>
+HUME, DAVID: The History of England.<br>
+JAMESON, ANNA: Legends of the Monastic Orders.<br>
+JESSOPP, AUGUSTUS: The Coming of the Friars.<br>
+KINGSLEY, CHARLES: The Hermits.<br>
+KINGSLEY, CHARLES: Hypatia.<br>
+KINGSLEY, CHARLES: The Roman and the Teuton.<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page15"></a>[pg 15]</span>
+LAPPENBERG, J.M.: A History of England Under the Anglo-Saxon
+Kings.<br>
+LARNED, J.N.: History for Ready Reference and Topical Reading.<br>
+LEA HENRY C.: History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages.<br>
+LEA, HENRY C.: Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church.<br>
+LECKY, WILLIAM E.H.: History of Rationalism in Europe.<br>
+LECKY, WILLIAM E.H.: History of European Morals.<br>
+LEE F.G.: The Life of Cardinal Pole.<br>
+LINGARD, JOHN: History of England.<br>
+LINGARD, JOHN: History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon
+Church.<br>
+LORD, JOHN: Beacon-Lights of History.<br>
+LORD, JOHN: The Old Roman World.<br>
+LUDLOW, JAMES M.: The Age of the Crusades.<br>
+MACKINTOSH, JAMES: History of England.<br>
+MAITLAND, SAMUEL R.: The Dark Ages.<br>
+MAITLAND, SAMUEL R.: Essays on the Reformation.<br>
+MATHEWS, SHAILER: Social Teachings of Jesus.<br>
+MILMAN, HENRY H.: The History of Latin Christianity.<br>
+MILMAN, HENRY H.: The History of Christianity.<br>
+MONTALEMBERT, C.F.R.: Monks of the West.<br>
+MOSHIEM, J.L. VON: Institutes of Ecclesiastical History.<br>
+NEANDER, AUGUSTUS: General History of the Christian Religion and
+Church.<br>
+OLIPHANT, MARY O.W.: Life of St. Francis of Assisi.<br>
+PARKMAN, FRANCIS: The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth
+Century.<br>
+PIKE, LUKE OWEN: A History of Crime in England.<br>
+PUTNAM, G.H.: Books and Their Makers in the Middle Ages.<br>
+READE, CHARLES: The Cloister and the Hearth.<br>
+RUFFNER, H.: The Fathers of the Desert.<br>
+SABATIER, PAUL: Life of St. Francis of Assisi.<br>
+SCHAFF, PHILIP: History of the Christian Church.<br>
+SCHAFF, PHILIP, and WACE, HENRY, (Editors): The Nicene and<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church.
+(Lives and<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page16"></a>[pg 16]</span>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;writings of Jerome, Athanasius, Cassian, St.
+Martin of Tours,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;and other early supporters of the monastic
+movement).<br>
+SCOTT, WALTER: The Monastery.<br>
+SCOTT, WALTER: The Abbot.<br>
+SIENKIEWICZ, HENRY K.: The Knights of the Cross.<br>
+SMITH, PHILIP: Student's Ecclesiastical History.<br>
+SMITH, R.F.: St. Basil.<br>
+STANLEY, ARTHUR P.: History of the Eastern Church.<br>
+STILL&Eacute;, CHARLES J.: Studies in Medieval History.<br>
+STORRS, RICHARD S.: Bernard of Clairvaux.<br>
+STRYPE, J.: Annals of the Reformation.<br>
+STUBBS, WILLIAM: Lectures on the Study of Medieval History.<br>
+TAUNTON, ETHELRED L.: The English Black Monks of St. Benedict.<br>
+THOMPSON, R.W.: The Footprints of the Jesuits.<br>
+THURSTON, H.: The Life of St. Hugh of Lincoln.<br>
+TRAILL, H.D.: Social England.<br>
+TRENCH, RICHARD C.: Lectures on Medieval Church History.<br>
+TREVELYAN, GEORGE M.: England in the Age of Wycliffe.<br>
+VAUGHAN, ROBERT: Revolutions in English History.<br>
+VAUGHAN, ROBERT: Hours with the Mystics.<br>
+WADDINGTON, GEORGE: History of the Church.<br>
+WATERMAN, LUCIUS: The Post-Apostolic Age.<br>
+WHITE, A.D.: A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology.<br>
+WHITE, JAMES: The Eighteen Christian Centuries.<br>
+WOODHOUSE, FREDERICK C.: The Military Religious Orders of the
+Middle Ages.<br>
+<br>
+ENCYCLOP&AElig;DIAS: McClintock and Strong, Schaff-Herzog,
+Brittanica,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;English, and Johnson. (Articles on
+"Monasticism,"<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Benedict," "Francis," "Dominic," "Loyola,"
+etc.)<br>
+<br>
+Many other authorities were consulted by the author, but only<br>
+those works that are easily accessible and likely to prove of
+direct value<br>
+to the student are cited above.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page17"></a>[pg 17]</span>
+<h2>MONKS</h2>
+<h2>AND MONASTERIES</h2>
+<h2><a name="I"></a>I</h2>
+<h2><i><a name="MONASTICISM_IN_THE_EAST"></a>MONASTICISM IN THE
+EAST</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The monk is a type of religious character by no means peculiar
+to Christianity. Every great religion in ancient and modern times
+has expressed itself in some form of monastic life.</p>
+<p>The origin of the institution is lost in antiquity. Its genesis
+and gradual progress through the centuries are like the movement of
+a mighty river springing from obscure sources, but gathering volume
+by the contributions of a multitude of springs, brooks, and lesser
+rivers, entering the main stream at various stages in its progress.
+While the mysterious source of the monastic stream may not be
+found, it is easy to discover many different <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page18"></a>[pg 18]</span> influences and causes
+that tended to keep the mighty current flowing majestically on. It
+is not so easy to determine which of these forces was the
+greatest.</p>
+<p>"Monasticism," says Schaff, "proceeds from religious
+seriousness, enthusiasm and ambition; from a sense of the vanity of
+the world, and an inclination of noble souls toward solitude,
+contemplation, and freedom from the bonds of the flesh and the
+temptations of the world." A strong ascetic tendency in human
+nature, particularly active in the Orient, undoubtedly explains in
+a general way the origin and growth of the institution. Various
+forms of philosophy and religious belief fostered this monastic
+inclination from time to time by imparting fresh impetus to the
+desire for soul-purity or by deepening the sense of disgust with
+the world.</p>
+<p>India is thought by some to have been the birthplace of the
+institution. In the sacred writings of the venerable Hind&ucirc;s,
+portions of which have been dated as far back as 2400 B.C., there
+are numerous legends about holy monks and many ascetic rules.
+Although based on opposite philosophical <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page19"></a>[pg 19]</span> principles, the
+earlier Brahminism and the later system, Buddhism, each tended
+toward ascetic practices, and they each boast to-day of long lines
+of monks and nuns.</p>
+<p>The Hindoo (Brahmin) ascetic, or naked philosopher, as the
+Greeks called him, exhausted his imagination in devising schemes of
+self-torture. He buried himself with his nose just above the
+ground, or wore an iron collar, or suspended weights from his body.
+He clenched his fists until the nails grew into his palms, or kept
+his head turned in one direction until he was unable to turn it
+back. He was a miracle-worker, an oracle of wisdom, and an honored
+saint. He was bold, spiritually proud, capable of almost superhuman
+endurance. We will meet him again in the person of his Christian
+descendant on the banks of the Nile.</p>
+<p>The Buddhist ascetic was, perhaps, less severe with himself, but
+the general spirit and form of the institution was and is the same
+as among the Brahmins. In each religion we observe the same selfish
+individualism,--a desire to save one's own soul by slavish
+obedience to ascetic rules,--the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page20"></a>[pg 20]</span> extinction of natural desires by
+self-punishment. "A Brahmin who wishes to become an ascetic," says
+Clarke, "must abandon his home and family and go live in the
+forest. His food must be roots and fruit, his clothing a bark
+garment or a skin, he must bathe morning and evening, and suffer
+his hair to grow."</p>
+<p>The fact to be remembered, however, is that in India, centuries
+before the Christian Era, there existed both phases of Christian
+monasticism, the hermit[<a href="#NOTE_A">A</a>] and the crowded
+convent.</p>
+<p>Dhaquit, a Chaldean ascetic, who is said to have lived about
+2000 B.C., is reported to have earnestly rebuked those who tried to
+preserve the body from decay by artificial resources. "Not by
+natural means," he said, "can man preserve his body from corruption
+and dissolution after death, but only through good deeds, religious
+exercises and offering of sacrifices,--by invoking the gods by
+their great and beautiful names, by prayers during the night, and
+fasts during the day."</p>
+<p>When Father Bury, a Portuguese missionary, first saw the Chinese
+bonzes, tonsured and using <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page21"></a>[pg 21]</span> their rosaries, he cried out, "There is
+not a single article of dress, or a sacerdotal function, or a
+single ceremony of the Romish church, which the Devil has not
+imitated in this country." I have not the courage to follow this
+streamlet back into the devil's heart. The attempt would be too
+daring. Who invented shaved heads and monkish gowns and habits, we
+cannot tell, but this we know: long before Father Bury saw and
+described those things in China, there existed in India the Grand
+Lama or head monk, with monasteries under him, filled with monks
+who kept the three vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. They
+had their routine of prayers, of fasts and of labors, like the
+Christian monks of the middle ages.</p>
+<p>Among the Greeks there were many philosophers who taught ascetic
+principles. Pythagoras, born about 580 B.C., established a
+religious brotherhood in which he sought to realize a high ideal of
+friendship. His whole plan singularly suggests monasticism. His
+rules provided for a rigid self-examination and unquestioning
+submission to a master. Many authorities claim that the influence
+of the Pythagorean philosophy was <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page22"></a>[pg 22]</span> strongly felt in Egypt and Palestine,
+after the time of Christ. "Certain it is that more than two
+thousand years before Ignatius Loyola assembled the nucleus of his
+great society in his subterranean chapel in the city of Paris,
+there was founded at Crotona, in Greece, an order of monks whose
+principles, constitution, aims, method and final end entitle them
+to be called 'The Pagan Jesuits[<a href="#NOTE_B">B</a>].'"</p>
+<p>The teachings of Plato, no doubt, had a powerful monastic
+influence, under certain social conditions, upon later thinkers and
+upon those who yearned for victory over the flesh. Plato strongly
+insisted on an ideal life in which higher pleasures are preferred
+to lower. Earthly thoughts and ambitions are to yield before a holy
+communion with the Divine. Some of his views "might seem like
+broken visions of the future, when we think of the first disciples
+who had all things in common, and, in later days, of the celibate
+clergy, and the cloisteral life of the religious orders." The
+effect of such philosophy in times of general corruption upon those
+who wished to acquire exceptional moral <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page23"></a>[pg 23]</span> and intellectual
+power, and who felt unable to cope with the temptations of social
+life, may be easily imagined. It meant, in many cases, a retreat
+from the world to a life of meditation and soul-conflict. In later
+times it exercised a marked influence upon ascetic literature.</p>
+<p>Coming closer to Christianity in time and in teaching, we find a
+Jewish sect, called Essenes, living in the region of the Dead Sea,
+which bore remarkable resemblances to Christian monasticism. The
+origin and development of this band, which numbered four thousand
+about the time of Christ, are unknown. Even the derivation of the
+name is in doubt, there being at least twenty proposed
+explanations. The sect is described by Philo, an Alexandrian-Jewish
+philosopher, who was born about 25 B.C., and by Josephus, the
+Jewish historian, who was born at Jerusalem A.D. 37. These writers
+evidently took pains to secure the facts, and from their accounts,
+upon which modern discussions of the subject are largely based, the
+following facts are gleaned.</p>
+<p>The Essenes were a sect outside the Jewish ecclesiastical body,
+bound by strict vows and <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page24"></a>[pg 24]</span> professing an extraordinary purity.
+While there were no vows of extreme penance, they avoided cities as
+centers of immorality, and, with some exceptions, eschewed
+marriage. They held aloof from traffic, oaths, slave-holding, and
+weapons of offence. They were strict Sabbath observers, wore a
+uniform robe, possessed all things in common, engaged in manual
+labor, abstained from forbidden food, and probably rejected the
+bloody sacrifices of the Temple, although continuing to send their
+thank-offerings. Novitiates were kept on probation three years. The
+strictest discipline was maintained, excommunication following
+detection in heinous sins. Evidently the standard of character was
+pure and lofty, since their emphasis on self-mastery did not end in
+absurd extravagances. Their frugal food, simple habits, and love of
+cleanliness; combined with a regard for ethical principles,
+conduced to a high type of life. Edersheim remarks, "We can
+scarcely wonder that such Jews as Josephus and Philo, and such
+heathens as Pliny, were attracted by such an unworldly and lofty
+sect."</p>
+<p>Some writers maintain that they were also worshipers
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page25"></a>[pg 25]</span> of the
+sun, and hence that their origin is to be traced to Persian
+sources. Even if so, they seemed to have escaped that confused and
+mystical philosophy which has robbed Oriental thought of much power
+in the realm of practical life. Philo says, "Of philosophy, the
+dialectical department, as being in no wise necessary for the
+acquisition of virtue, they abandon to the word-catchers; and the
+part which treats of the nature of things, as being beyond human
+nature, they leave to speculative air-gazers, with the exception of
+that part of it which deals with the subsistance of God and the
+genesis of all things; but the ethical they right well work
+out."</p>
+<p>Pliny the elder, who lived A.D. 23-79, made the following
+reference to the Essenes, which is especially interesting because
+of the tone of sadness and weariness with the world suggested in
+its praise of this Jewish sect. "On the western shore (of the Dead
+Sea) but distant from the sea far enough to escape from its noxious
+breezes, dwelt the Essenes. They are an eremite clan, one marvelous
+beyond all others in the whole world; without any women, with
+sexual intercourse entirely given up, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page26"></a>[pg 26]</span> without money, and
+the associates of palm trees. Daily is the throng of those that
+crowd about them renewed, men resorting to them in numbers, driven
+through weariness of existence, and the surges of ill-fortune, to
+their manner of life. Thus it is that through thousands of
+ages--incredible to relate!--their society, in which no one is
+born, lives on perennial. So fruitful to them is the irksomeness of
+life experienced by other men."</p>
+<p>Admission to the order was granted only to adults, yet children
+were sometimes adopted for training in the principles of the sect.
+Some believed in marriage as a means of perpetuating the order.</p>
+<p>Since it would not throw light on our present inquiry, the
+mooted question as to the connection of Essenism and the teachings
+of Jesus may be passed by. The differences are as great as the
+resemblances and the weight of opinion is against any vital
+relation.</p>
+<p>The character of this sect conclusively shows that some of the
+elements of Christian monasticism existed in the time of Jesus, not
+only in Palestine but in other countries. In an account of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page27"></a>[pg 27]</span>
+Therapeut&aelig;, or true devotees, an ascetic body similar to the
+Essenes, Philo says, "There are many parts of the world in which
+this class may be found.... They are, however, in greatest
+abundance in Egypt."</p>
+<p>During Apostolic times various teachings and practices were
+current that may be characterized as ascetic. The Apostle Paul, in
+his letter to the Colossians, doubtless had in mind a sect or
+school which despised the body and abstained from meats and wine. A
+false asceticism, gathering inspiration from pagan philosophy, was
+rapidly spreading among Christians even at that early day. The
+teachings of the Gnostics, a speculative sect of many schools,
+became prominent in the closing days of the Apostolic age or very
+soon thereafter. Many of these schools claimed a place in the
+church, and professed a higher life and knowledge than ordinary
+Christians possessed. The Gnostics believed in the complete
+subjugation of the body by austere treatment.</p>
+<p>The Montanists, so called after Montanus, their famous leader,
+arose in Asia Minor during the second century, when Marcus Aurelius
+was emperor. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page28"></a>[pg
+28]</span> Schaff describes the movement as "a morbid exaggeration
+of Christian ideas and demands." It was a powerful and frantic
+protest against the growing laxity of the church. It despised
+ornamental dress and prescribed numerous fasts and severities.</p>
+<p>These facts and many others that might be mentioned throw light
+on our inquiry in several ways. They show that asceticism was in
+the air. The literature, philosophy and religion of the day drifted
+toward an ascetic scheme of life and stimulated the tendency to
+acquire holiness, even at the cost of innocent joys and natural
+gratifications. They show that worldliness was advancing in the
+church, which called for rebuke and a return to Apostolic
+Christianity; that the church was failing to satisfy the highest
+cravings of the soul. True, it was well-nigh impossible for the
+church, in the midst of such a powerful and corrupt heathen
+environment, to keep itself up to its standards.</p>
+<p>It is a common tradition that in the first three centuries the
+practices and spirit of the church were comparatively pure and
+elevated. Harnack says, "This tradition is false. The church was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page29"></a>[pg 29]</span> already
+secularized to a great extent in the middle of the third century."
+She was "no longer in a position to give peace to all sorts and
+conditions of men." It was then that the great exodus of Christians
+from the villages and cities to mountains and deserts began.
+Although from the time of Christ on there were always some who
+understood Christianity to demand complete separation from all
+earthly pleasures, yet it was three hundred years and more before
+large numbers began to adopt a hermit's life as the only method of
+attaining salvation. "They fled not only from the world, but from
+the world within the church. Nevertheless, they did not flee out of
+the church."</p>
+<p>We can now see why no definite cause for the monastic
+institution can be given and no date assigned for its origin. It
+did not commence at any fixed time and definite place. Various
+philosophies and religious customs traveled for centuries from
+country to country, resulting in singular resemblances and
+differences between different ascetic or monastic sects. Christian
+monasticism was slowly evolved, and gradually assumed definite
+organization <span class="pagenum"><a name="page30"></a>[pg
+30]</span> as a product of a curious medley of
+Heathen-Jewish-Christian influences.</p>
+<p>A few words should be said here concerning the influence of the
+Bible upon monasticism. Naturally the Christian hermits and early
+fathers appealed to the Bible in support of their teachings and
+practices. It is not necessary, at this point, to discuss the
+correctness of their interpretations. The simple fact is that many
+passages of scripture were considered as commands to attain
+perfection by extraordinary sacrifices, and certain Biblical
+characters were reverenced as shining monastic models. In the light
+of the difficulties of Biblical criticism it is easy to forgive
+them if they were mistaken, a question to be discussed farther on.
+They read of those Jewish prophets described in Hebrews: "They went
+about in sheepskins, in goatskins; ... wandering in deserts and
+mountains and caves, and the holes of the earth." They pointed to
+Elijah and his school of prophets; to John the Baptist, with his
+raiment of camel's hair and a leathern girdle about his loins,
+whose meat was locusts and wild honey. They recalled the
+commandment of Jesus to the rich <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page31"></a>[pg 31]</span> young man to sell all his possessions
+and give to the poor. They quoted the words, "Take no thought for
+the morrow what ye shall eat and what ye shall drink or wherewithal
+ye shall be clothed." They construed following Christ to mean in
+His own words, "forsaking father, mother, brethren, wife, children,
+houses and lands." They pointed triumphantly to the Master himself,
+unmarried and poor, who had not "where to lay his head." They
+appealed to Paul's doctrine of marriage. They remembered that the
+Church at Jerusalem was composed of those who sold their
+possessions and had all things in common. Whatever these and
+numerous other passages may truly mean, they interpreted them in
+favor of a monastic mode of life; they understood them to teach
+isolation, fastings, severities, and other forms of rigorous
+self-denial. Accepting Scripture in this sense, they trampled upon
+human affection and gave away their property, that they might
+please God and save their souls.</p>
+<p>Between the time of Christ and Paul of Thebes, who died in the
+first half of the fourth century, and who is usually recognized as
+the founder of monasticism, many Christian disciples voluntarily
+abandoned <span class="pagenum"><a name="page32"></a>[pg 32]</span>
+their wealth, renounced marriage and adopted an ascetic mode of
+life, while still living in or near the villages or cities. As the
+corruption of society and the despair of men became more
+widespread, these anxious Christians wandered farther and farther
+away from fixed habitations until, in an excess of spiritual
+fervor, they found themselves in the caves of the mountains,
+desolate and dreary, where no sound of human voice broke in upon
+the silence. The companions of wild beasts, they lived in rapt
+contemplation on the eternal mysteries of this most strange
+world.</p>
+<p>My task now is to describe some of those recluses who still live
+in the biographies of the saints and the traditions of the church.
+Ducis, while reading of these hermits, wrote to a friend as
+follows: "I am now reading the lives of the Fathers of the Desert.
+I am dwelling with St. Pachomius, the founder of the monastery at
+Tabenna. Truly there is a charm in transporting one's self to that
+land of the angels--one could not wish ever to come out of it."
+Whether the reader will call these strange characters angels, and
+will wish he could have shared their beds of stone and midnight
+vigils, I will not <span class="pagenum"><a name="page33"></a>[pg
+33]</span> venture to say, but at all events his visit will be made
+as pleasant as possible.</p>
+<p>In writing the life of Mahomet, Carlyle said, "As there is no
+danger of our becoming, any of us, Mahometans, I mean to say all
+the good of Mahomet I justly can." So, without distorting the
+picture that has come down to us, I mean to say all the good of
+these Egyptian hermits that the facts will justify.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Hermits_of_Egypt"></a>The Hermits of
+Egypt</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Egypt was the mother of Christian monasticism, as she has been
+of many other wonders.</p>
+<p>Vast solitudes; lonely mountains, honey-combed with dens and
+caves; arid valleys and barren hills; dreary deserts that glistened
+under the blinding glare of the sun that poured its heat upon them
+steadily all the year; strange, grotesque rocks and peaks that
+assumed all sorts of fantastic shapes to the overwrought fancy; in
+many places no water, no verdure, and scarcely a thing in motion;
+the crocodile and the bird lazily seeking their necessary food and
+stirring only as compelled; unbounded expanse <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page34"></a>[pg 34]</span> in the wide star-lit
+heavens; unbroken quiet on the lonely mountains--a fit home for the
+hermit, a paradise to the lover of solitude and peace.</p>
+<p>Of life under such conditions Kingsley has said: "They enjoyed
+nature, not so much for her beauty as for her perfect peace. Day by
+day the rocks remained the same. Silently out of the Eastern
+desert, day by day, the rising sun threw aloft those arrows of
+light which the old Greeks had named 'the rosy fingers of the
+dawn.' Silently he passed in full blaze above their heads
+throughout the day, and silently he dipped behind the Western
+desert in a glory of crimson and orange, green and purple.... Day
+after day, night after night, that gorgeous pageant passed over the
+poor hermit's head without a sound, and though sun, moon and planet
+might change their places as the years rolled round, the earth
+beneath his feet seemed not to change." As for the companionless
+men, who gazed for years upon this glorious scene, they too were of
+unusual character, Waddington finely says: "The serious enthusiasm
+of the natives of Egypt and Asia, that combination of indolence and
+energy, of the calmest languor with the fiercest passions,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page35"></a>[pg 35]</span> ...
+disposed them to embrace with eagerness the tranquil but exciting
+duties of religious seclusion." Yes, here are the angels of Ducis
+in real flesh and blood. They revel in the wildest eccentricities
+with none to molest or make afraid, always excepting the black
+demons from the spiritual world. One dwells in a cave in the bowels
+of the earth; one lies on the sand beneath a blazing sun; one has
+shut himself forever from the sight of man in a miserable hut among
+the bleak rocks of yonder projecting peak; one rests with joy in
+the marshes, breathing with gratitude the pestilential vapors.</p>
+<p>Some of these saints became famous for piety and miraculous
+power. Athanasius, fleeing from persecution, visited them, and
+Jerome sought them out to learn from their own lips the stories of
+their lives. To these men and to others we are indebted for much of
+our knowledge concerning this chapter of man's history. Less than
+fifty years after Paul of Thebes died, or about 375 A.D., Jerome
+wrote the story of his life, which Schaff justly characterizes as
+"a pious romance." From Jerome we gather the following account:
+Paul was the real founder of the hermit life, although not the
+first to bear the name. <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page36"></a>[pg 36]</span> During the Decian persecution, when
+churches were laid waste and Christians were slain with barbarous
+cruelty, Paul and his sister were bereaved of both their parents.
+He was then a lad of sixteen, an inheritor of wealth and skilled
+for one of his years in Greek and Egyptian learning. He was of a
+gentle and loving disposition. On account of his riches he was
+denounced as a Christian by an envious brother-in-law and compelled
+to flee to the mountains in order to save his life. He took up his
+abode in a cave shaded by a palm that afforded him food and
+clothing. "And that no one may deem this impossible," affirms
+Jerome, "I call to witness Jesus and his holy angels that I have
+seen and still see in that part of the desert which lies between
+Syria and the Saracens' country, monks of whom one was shut up for
+thirty years and lived on barley bread and muddy water, while
+another in an old cistern kept himself alive on five dried figs a
+day."</p>
+<p>It is impossible to determine how much of the story which
+follows is historically true. Undoubtedly, it contains little
+worthy of belief, but it gives us some faint idea of how these
+hermits lived. Its chief value consists in the fact that it
+preserves a <span class="pagenum"><a name="page37"></a>[pg
+37]</span> fragment of the monastic literature of the times--a
+story which was once accepted as a credible narrative. Imagine the
+influence of such a tale, when believed to be true, upon a mind
+inclined to embrace the doctrines of asceticism. Its power at that
+time is not to be measured by its reliability now. Jerome himself
+declares in the prologue that many incredible things were related
+of Paul which he will not repeat. After reading the following
+story, the reader may well inquire what more fanciful tale could be
+produced even by a writer of fiction.</p>
+<p>The blessed Paul was now one hundred and thirteen years old, and
+Anthony, who dwelt in another place of solitude, was at the age of
+ninety. In the stillness of the night it was revealed to Anthony
+that deeper in the desert there was a better man than he, and that
+he ought to see him. So, at the break of day, the venerable old
+man, supporting and guiding his weak limbs with a staff, started
+out, whither he knew not. At scorching noontide he beholds a
+fellow-creature, half man, half horse, called by the poets
+Hippo-centaur. After gnashing outlandish utterances, this monster,
+in words broken, rather than spoken, through his bristling
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page38"></a>[pg 38]</span> lips,
+points out the way with his right hand and swiftly vanishes from
+the hermit's sight. Anthony, amazed, proceeds thoughtfully on his
+way when a mannikin, with hooked snout, horned forehead and goat's
+feet, stands before him and offers him food. Anthony asks who he
+is. The beast thus replies: "I am a mortal being, and one of those
+inhabitants of the desert, whom the Gentiles deluded by various
+forms of error worship, under the name of Fauns and Satyrs." As he
+utters these and other words, tears stream down the aged traveler's
+face! He rejoices over the glory of God and the destruction of
+Satan. Striking the ground with his staff, he exclaims, "Woe to
+thee, Alexandria, who, instead of God, worshipest monsters! Woe to
+thee, harlot city, into which have flowed together the demons of
+the world! What will you say now? Beasts speak of Christ, and you,
+instead of God, worship monsters." "Let none scruple to believe
+this incident," says the chronicler, "for a man of this kind was
+brought alive to Alexandria and the people saw him; when he died
+his body was preserved in salt and brought to Antioch that the
+Emperor might view him."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page39"></a>[pg 39]</span>
+<p>Anthony continues to traverse the wild region into which he had
+entered. There is no trace of human beings. The darkness of the
+second night wears away in prayer. At day-break he beholds far away
+a she-wolf gasping with parched thirst and creeping into a cave. He
+draws near and peers within. All is dark, but perfect love casteth
+out fear. With halting step and bated breath, he enters. After a
+while a light gleams in the distant midnight darkness. With
+eagerness he presses forward, but his foot strikes against a stone
+and arouses the echoes; whereupon the blessed Paul closes the door
+and makes it fast. For hours Anthony lay at the door craving
+admission. "I know I am not worthy," he humbly cries, "yet unless I
+see you I will not turn away. You welcome beasts, why not a man? If
+I fail, I will die here on your threshold."</p>
+<blockquote>"Such was his constant cry; unmoved he stood,<br>
+To whom the hero thus brief answer made."</blockquote>
+<p>"Prayers like these do not mean threats, there is no trickery in
+tears." So, with smiles, Paul gives him entrance and the two aged
+hermits fall into each <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page40"></a>[pg 40]</span> other's embrace. Together they converse
+of things human and divine, Paul, close to the dust of the grave,
+asks, Are new houses springing up in ancient cities? What
+government directs the world? Little did this recluse know of his
+fellow-beings and how fared it with the children of men who dwelt
+in those great cities around the blue Mediterranean. He was dead to
+the world and knew it no more.</p>
+<p>A raven brought the aged brothers bread to eat and the hours
+glided swiftly away. Anthony returned to get a cloak which
+Athanasius had given him in which to wrap the body of Paul. So
+eager was he to behold again his newly-found friend that he set out
+without even a morsel of bread, thirsting to see him. But when yet
+three days' journey from the cave he saw Paul on high among the
+angels. Weeping, he trudged on his way. On entering the cave he saw
+the lifeless body kneeling, with head erect and hands uplifted. He
+tenderly wrapped the body in the cloak and began to lament that he
+had no implements to dig a grave. But Providence sent two lions
+from the recesses of the mountain that came rushing with flying
+manes. Roaring, as if they too mourned, they pawed the earth and
+thus <span class="pagenum"><a name="page41"></a>[pg 41]</span> the
+grave was dug. Anthony, bending his aged shoulders beneath the
+burden of the saint's body, laid it lovingly in the grave and
+departed.</p>
+<p>Jerome closes this account by challenging those who do not know
+the extent of their possessions,--who adorn their homes with marble
+and who string house to house,--to say what this old man in his
+nakedness ever lacked. "Your drinking vessels are of precious
+stones; he satisfied his thirst with the hollow of his hand. Your
+tunics are wrought of gold; he had not the raiment of your meanest
+slave. But on the other hand, poor as he was, Paradise is open to
+him; you, with all your gold, will be received into Gehenna. He,
+though naked, yet kept the robe of Christ; you, clad in your silks,
+have lost the vesture of Christ. Paul lies covered with worthless
+dust, but will rise again to glory; over you are raised costly
+tombs, but both you and your wealth are doomed to burning. I
+beseech you, reader, whoever you may be, to remember Jerome the
+sinner. He, if God would give him his choice, would sooner take
+Paul's tunics with his merits, than the purple of kings with their
+punishment."</p>
+<p>Such was the story circulated among rich and <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page42"></a>[pg 42]</span> poor, appealing with
+wondrous force to the hearts of men in those wretched years.</p>
+<p>What was the effect upon the mind of the thoughtful? If he
+believed such teaching, weary of the wickedness of the age, and
+moved by his noblest sentiments, he sold his tunics wrought of gold
+and fled from his palaces of marble to the desert solitudes.</p>
+<p>But the monastic story that most strongly impressed the age now
+under consideration, was the biography of Anthony, "the patriarch
+of monks" and virtual founder of Christian monasticism. It was said
+to have been written by Athanasius, the famous defender of
+orthodoxy and Archbishop of Alexandria; yet some authorities reject
+his authorship. It exerted a power over the minds of men beyond all
+human estimate. It scattered the seeds of asceticism wherever it
+was read. Traces of its influence are found all over the Roman
+empire, in Egypt, Asia Minor, Palestine, Italy and Gaul. Knowing
+the character of Athanasius, we may rest assured that he sincerely
+believed all he really recorded (it is much interpolated) of the
+strange life of Anthony, and, true or false, thousands of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page43"></a>[pg 43]</span> others
+believed in him and in his story. Augustine, the great theologian
+of immortal fame, acknowledged that this book was one of the
+influences that led to his conversion, and Jerome, whose life I
+will review later, was mightily swayed by it.</p>
+<p>Anthony was born about 251 A.D., in Upper Egypt, of wealthy and
+noble parentage. He was a pious child, an obedient son, and a lover
+of solitude and books. His parents died when he was about twenty
+years old, leaving to his care their home and his little sister.
+One day, as he entered the church, meditating on the poverty of
+Christ, a theme much reflected upon in those days, he heard these
+words read from the pulpit, "If thou wouldst be perfect, go and
+sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and come, follow
+me." As if the call came straight from heaven to his own soul, he
+left the church at once and made over his farm to the people of the
+village. He sold his personal possessions for a large sum, and
+distributed the proceeds among the poor, reserving a little for his
+sister. Still he was unsatisfied. Entering the church on another
+occasion, he heard our Lord saying in the gospel, "Take no thought
+for the morrow." The clouds <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page44"></a>[pg 44]</span> cleared away. His anxious search for
+truth and duty was at an end. He went out and gave away the remnant
+of his belongings. Placing his sister in a convent, the existence
+of which is to be noted, he fled to the desert. Then follows a
+striking statement, "For monasteries were not common in Egypt, nor
+had any monk at all known the great desert; but every one who
+wished to devote himself to his own spiritual welfare performed his
+exercise alone, not far from the village."</p>
+<p>Laboring with his hands, recalling texts of Scripture, praying
+whole sleepless nights, fasting for several days at a time,
+visiting his fellow saints, fighting demons, so passed the long
+years away. He slept on a small rush mat, more often on the bare
+ground. Forgetting past austerities, he was ever on the search for
+some new torture and pressing forward to new and strange
+experiences. He changed his habitation from time to time. Now he
+lived in a tomb, in company with the silent dead; then for twenty
+years in a deserted castle, full of reptiles, never going out and
+rarely seeing any one. From each saint he learned some fresh mode
+of spiritual training, observing his practice for future imitation
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page45"></a>[pg 45]</span> and
+studying the charms of his Christian character that he might
+reproduce them in his own life; thus he would return richly laden
+to his cell.</p>
+<p>But in all these struggles Anthony had one foe--the arch-enemy
+of all good. He suggests impure thoughts, but the saint repels them
+by prayer; he incites to passion, but the hero resists the fiend
+with fastings and faith. Once the dragon, foiled in his attempt to
+overcome Anthony, gnashed his teeth, and coming out of his body,
+lay at his feet in the shape of a little black boy. But the hermit
+was not beguiled into carelessness by this victory. He resolved to
+chastise himself more severely. So he retired to the tombs of the
+dead. One dark night a crowd of demons flogged the saint until he
+fell to the ground speechless with torture. Some friends found him
+the next day, and thinking that he was dead, carried him to the
+village, where his kinsfolk gathered to mourn over his remains. But
+at midnight he came to himself, and, seeing but one acquaintance
+awake, he begged that he would carry him back to the tombs, which
+was done. Unable to move, he prayed prostrate and sang, "If an host
+be laid against me, yet shall not my heart be afraid." <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page46"></a>[pg 46]</span> The enraged devils
+made at him again. There was a terrible crash; through the walls
+the fiends came in shapes like beasts and reptiles. In a moment the
+place was filled with lions roaring at him, bulls thrusting at him
+with their horns, creeping serpents unable to reach him, wolves
+held back in the act of springing. There, too, were bears and asps
+and scorpions. Mid the frightful clamor of roars, growls and
+hisses, rose the clear voice of the saint, as he triumphantly
+mocked the demons in their rage. Suddenly the awful tumult ceased;
+the wretched beings became invisible and a ray of light pierced the
+roof to cheer the prostrate hero. His pains ceased. A voice came to
+him saying, "Thou hast withstood and not yielded. I will always be
+thy helper, and will make thy name famous everywhere." Hearing this
+he rose up and prayed, and was stronger in body than ever
+before.</p>
+<p>This is but one of numerous stories chronicling Anthony's
+struggles with the devil. Like conflicts were going on at that hour
+in many another cave in those great and silent mountains.</p>
+<p>There are also wondrous tales of his miraculous power. He often
+predicted the coming of sufferers <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page47"></a>[pg 47]</span> and healed them when they came. His
+fame for curing diseases and casting out devils became so extensive
+that Egypt marveled at his gifts, and saints came even from Rome to
+see his face and to hear his words. His freedom from pride and
+arrogance was as marked as his fame was great. He yielded joyful
+obedience to presbyters and bishops. His countenance was so full of
+divine grace and heavenly beauty as to render him easily
+distinguishable in a crowd of monks. Letters poured in upon him
+from every part of the empire. Kings wrote for his advice, but it
+neither amazed him nor filled his heart with pride. "Wonder not,"
+said he, "if a king writes to us, for he is but a man, but wonder
+rather that God has written His law to man and spoken to us by His
+Son." At his command princes laid aside their crowns, judges their
+magisterial robes, while criminals forsook their lives of crime and
+embraced with joy the life of the desert.</p>
+<p>Once, at the earnest entreaty of some magistrates, he came down
+from the mountain that they might see him. Urged to prolong his
+stay he refused, saying, "Fishes, if they lie long on the dry land,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page48"></a>[pg 48]</span> die; so
+monks who stay with you lose their strength. As the fishes, then,
+hasten to the sea, so must we to the mountains."</p>
+<p>At last the shadows lengthened and waning strength proclaimed
+that his departure was nigh. Bidding farewell to his monks, he
+retired to an inner mountain and laid himself down to die. His
+countenance brightened as if he saw his friends coming to see him,
+and thus his soul was gathered to his fathers. He is said to have
+been mourned by fifteen thousand disciples.</p>
+<p>This is the story which moved a dying empire. "Anthony," says
+Athanasius, "became known not by worldly wisdom, nor by any art, but
+solely by piety, and that this was the gift of God who can deny?"
+The purpose of such a life was, so his biographer thought, to light
+up the moral path for men, that they might imbibe a zeal for
+virtue.</p>
+<p>The "Life of St. Anthony" is even more remarkable for its
+omissions than for its incredible tales. While I reserve a more
+detailed criticism of its Christian ideals until a subsequent
+chapter, it may be well to quote here a few words from Isaac
+Taylor. After pointing out some of its defects he <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page49"></a>[pg 49]</span> continues: there is
+"not a word of justification by faith; not a word of the gracious
+influence of the Spirit in renewing and cleansing the heart; not a
+word responding to any of those signal passages of Scripture which
+make the Gospel 'Glad Tidings' to guilty men." This I must confess
+to be true, even though I may and do heartily esteem the saint's
+enthusiasm for righteousness.</p>
+<p>So far I have described chiefly the spiritual experiences of
+these men, but the details of their physical life are hardly less
+interesting. There was a holy rivalry among them to excel in
+self-torture. Their imaginations were constantly employed in
+devising unique tests of holiness and courage. They lived in holes
+in the ground or in dried up wells; they slept in thorn bushes or
+passed days and weeks without sleep; they courted the company of
+the wildest beasts and exposed their naked bodies to the broiling
+sun. Macarius became angry because an insect bit him and in
+penitence flung himself into a marsh where he lived for weeks. He
+was so badly stung by gnats and flies that his friends hardly knew
+him. Hilarion, at twenty years of age, was more like a spectre than
+a living man. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page50"></a>[pg
+50]</span> His cell was only five feet high, a little lower than
+his stature. Some carried weights equal to eighty or one hundred
+and fifty pounds suspended from their bodies. Others slept standing
+against the rocks. For three years, as it is recorded, one of them
+never reclined. In their zeal to obey the Scriptures, they
+overlooked the fact that cleanliness is akin to godliness. It was
+their boast that they never washed. One saint would not even use
+water to drink, but quenched his thirst with the dew that fell on
+the grass. St. Abraham never washed his face for fifty years. His
+biographer, not in the least disturbed by the disagreeable
+suggestions of this circumstance, proudly says, "His face reflected
+the purity of his soul." If so, one is moved to think that the
+inward light must indeed have been powerfully piercing, if it could
+brighten a countenance unwashed for half a century. There is a
+story about Abbot Theodosius who prayed for water that his monks
+might drink. In response to his petition a stream burst from the
+rocks, but the foolish monks, overcome by a pitiful weakness for
+cleanliness, persuaded the abbot to erect a bath, when lo, the
+stream dried. Supplications and repentance availed nothing.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page51"></a>[pg 51]</span> After a
+year had passed, the monks, promising never again to insult Heaven
+by wishing for a bath, were granted a second Mosaic miracle.</p>
+<p>Thus, unwashed, clothed in rags, their hair uncut, their faces
+unshaven, they lived for years. No wonder that to their disordered
+fancy the desert was filled with devils, the animals spake and
+Heaven sent angels to minister unto them.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Pillar_Saint"></a>The Pillar Saint</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>But the strangest of all strange narratives yet remains. We turn
+from Egypt to Asia Minor to make the acquaintance of that saint
+whom Tennyson has immortalized,--the idol of monarchs and the pride
+of the East,--Saint Simeon Stylites. Stories grow rank around him
+like the luxuriant products of a tropical soil. How shall I briefly
+tell of this man, whom Theodoret, in his zeal, declares all who
+obey the Roman rule know--the man who may be compared with Moses
+the Legislator, David the King and Micah the Prophet? He lived
+between the years 390 and 459 A.D. He was a shepherd's son, but at
+an early age entered a monastery. Here <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page52"></a>[pg 52]</span> he soon distinguished
+himself by his excessive austerities. One day he went to the well,
+removed the rope from the bucket and bound it tightly around his
+body underneath his clothes. A few weeks later, the abbot, being
+angry with him because of his extreme self-torture, bade his
+companions strip him. What was his astonishment to find the rope
+from the well sunk deeply into his flesh. "Whence," he cried, "has
+this man come to us, wanting to destroy the rule of this monastery?
+I pray thee depart hence."</p>
+<p>With great trouble they unwound the rope and the flesh with it,
+and taking care of him until he was well, they sent him forth to
+commence a life of austerities that was to render him famous. He
+adopted various styles of existence, but his miracles and piety
+attracted such crowds that he determined to invent a mode of life
+which would deliver him from the pressing multitudes. It is curious
+that he did not hide himself altogether if he really wished to
+escape notoriety; but, no, he would still be within the gaze of
+admiring throngs. His holy and fanciful genius hit upon a scheme
+that gave him his peculiar name. He took up his abode on the top
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page53"></a>[pg 53]</span> of a
+column which was at first about twelve feet high, but was gradually
+elevated until it measured sixty-four feet. Hence, he is called
+Simeon Stylites, or Simeon the Pillar Saint.</p>
+<p>On this lofty column, betwixt earth and heaven, the hermit
+braved the heat and cold of thirty years. At its base, from morning
+to night, prayed the admiring worshipers. Kings kneeled in crowds
+of peasants to do him homage and ask his blessing. Theodoret says,
+"The Ishmaelites, coming by tribes of two hundred and three hundred
+at a time, and sometimes even a thousand, deny, with shouts, the
+error of their fathers, and breaking in pieces before that great
+illuminator, the images which they had worshiped, and renouncing
+the orgies of Venus, they received the Divine sacrament." Rude
+barbarians confessed their sins in tears. Persians, Greeks, Romans
+and Saracens, forgetting their mutual hatred, united in praise and
+prayer at the feet of this strange character.</p>
+<p>Once a week the hero partook of food. Many times a day he bowed
+his head to his feet; one man counted twelve hundred and forty-four
+times and then stopped in sheer weariness from gazing at the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page54"></a>[pg 54]</span> miracle
+of endurance aloft. Again, from the setting of the sun to its
+appearance in the East, he would stand unsoothed by sleep with his
+arms outstretched like a cross.</p>
+<p>If genius can understand such a life as that and fancy the
+thoughts of such a soul, Tennyson seems not only to have
+comprehended the consciousness of the Pillar Saint, but also to
+have succeeded in giving expression to his insight. He has laid
+bare the soul of Simeon in its commingling of spiritual pride with
+affected humility, and of a consciousness of meritorious sacrifice
+with a sense of sin. The Saint spurns notoriety and the homage of
+men, yet exults in his control over the multitudes.</p>
+<p>The poet thus imagines Simeon to speak as the Saint is praying
+God to take away his sin:</p>
+<blockquote>"But yet<br>
+Bethink thee, Lord, while thou and all the saints<br>
+Enjoy themselves in heaven, and men on earth<br>
+House in the shade of comfortable roofs,<br>
+Sit with their wives by fires, eat wholesome food,<br>
+And wear warm clothes, and even beasts have stalls,<br>
+I, 'tween the spring and downfall of the light,<br>
+Bow down one thousand and two hundred times,<br>
+To Christ, the Virgin Mother, and the Saints;<br>
+Or in the night, after a little sleep,<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page55"></a>[pg 55]</span> I wake:
+the chill stars sparkle; I am wet<br>
+With drenching dews, or stiff with crackling frost.<br>
+I wear an undress'd goatskin on my back;<br>
+A grazing iron collar grinds my neck;<br>
+And in my weak, lean arms I lift the cross,<br>
+And strive and wrestle with thee till I die:<br>
+O mercy, mercy! wash away my sin.<br>
+<br>
+O Lord, thou knowest what a man I am;<br>
+A sinful man, conceived and born in sin:<br>
+'Tis their own doing; this is none of mine;<br>
+Lay it not to me. Am I to blame for this,<br>
+That here come those that worship me? Ha! ha!<br>
+They think that I am somewhat. What am I?<br>
+The silly people take me for a saint,<br>
+And bring me offerings of fruit and flowers:<br>
+And I, in truth (thou wilt bear witness here)<br>
+Have all in all endured as much, and more<br>
+Than many just and holy men, whose names<br>
+Are register'd and calendared for saints.<br>
+<br>
+Good people, you do ill to kneel to me.<br>
+What is it I can have done to merit this?<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+Yet do not rise; for you may look on me,<br>
+And in your looking you may kneel to God.<br>
+Speak! is there any of you halt or maim'd?<br>
+I think you know I have some power with Heaven<br>
+From my long penance: let him speak his wish.<br>
+<br>
+Yes, I can heal him. Power goes forth from me.<br>
+They say that they are heal'd. Ah, hark! they shout<br>
+'St. Simeon Stylites.' Why, if so,<br>
+God reaps a harvest in me. O my soul,<br>
+God reaps a harvest in thee.&nbsp;&nbsp;If this be,<br>
+Can I work miracles and not be saved?"</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page56"></a>[pg 56]</span>
+<p>Once, the devil, in shape like an angel, riding in a chariot of
+fire, came to carry Simeon to the skies. He whispered to the weary
+Saint, "Simeon, hear my words, which the Lord hath commanded thee.
+He has sent me, his angel, that I may carry thee away as I carried
+Elijah." Simeon was deceived, and lifted his foot to step out into
+the chariot, when the angel vanished, and in punishment for his
+presumption an ulcer appeared upon his thigh.</p>
+<p>But time plays havoc with saints as well as sinners, and death
+slays the strongest. Bowed in prayer, his weary heart ceased to
+beat and the eyes that gazed aloft were closed forever. Anthony,
+his beloved disciple, ascending the column, found that his master
+was no more. Yet, it seemed as if Simeon was loath to leave the
+spot, for his spirit appeared to his weeping follower and said, "I
+will not leave this column, and this blessed mountain. For I have
+gone to rest, as the Lord willed, but do thou not cease to minister
+in this place and the Lord will repay thee in heaven."</p>
+<p>His body was carried down the mountain to Antioch. Heading the
+solemn procession were the patriarch, six bishops, twenty-one
+counts and six <span class="pagenum"><a name="page57"></a>[pg
+57]</span> thousand soldiers, "and Antioch," says Gibbon, "revered
+his bones as her glorious ornament and impregnable defence."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Cenobites_of_the_East"></a>The Cenobites of the
+East</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>We cannot linger with these hermits. I pass now to the
+cenobitic[<a href="#NOTE_C">C</a>] life. We go back in years and
+return to Egypt. Man is a social animal, and the social instinct is
+so strong that even hermits are swayed by its power and get tired
+of living apart from one another. When Anthony died the deserts
+were studded with hermitages, and those of exceptional fame were
+surrounded by little clusters of huts and dens. Into these cells
+crowded the hermits who wished to be near their master.</p>
+<p>Thus, step by step, organized or cenobitic monasticism easily
+and naturally came into existence. The anchorites crawled from
+their dens every day to hear the words of their chief saint,--a
+practice giving rise to stated meetings, with rules for worship.
+Regulations as to meals, occupations, dress, penances, and prayers
+naturally follow.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page58"></a>[pg 58]</span>
+<p>The author of the first monastic rules is said to have been
+Pachomius, who was born in Egypt about the year 292 A.D. He was
+brought up in paganism but was converted in early life while in the
+army. On his discharge he retired with a hermit to Tabenna, an
+island in the Nile. It is said he never ate a full meal after his
+conversion, and for fifteen years slept sitting on a stone. Natural
+gifts fitted him to become a leader, and it was not long before he
+was surrounded by a congregation of monks for whom he made his
+rules.</p>
+<p>The monks of Pachomius were divided into bands of tens and
+hundreds, each tenth man being an under officer in turn subject to
+the hundredth, and all subject to the superior or abbot of the
+mother house. They lived three in a cell, and a congregation of
+cells constituted a laura or monastery. There was a common room for
+meals and worship. Each monk wore a close fitting tunic and a white
+goatskin upper garment which was never laid aside at meals or in
+bed, but only at the Eucharist. Their food usually consisted of
+bread and water, but occasionally they enjoyed such luxuries as
+oil, salt, fruits and vegetables. They ate in silence, which
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page59"></a>[pg 59]</span> was
+sometimes broken by the solemn voice of a reader.</p>
+<p>"No man," says Jerome, "dares look at his neighbor or clear his
+throat. Silent tears roll down their cheeks, but not a sob escapes
+their lips." Their labors consisted of some light handiwork or
+tilling the fields. They grafted trees, made beehives, twisted
+fish-lines, wove baskets and copied manuscripts. It was early
+apparent that as man could not live alone so he could not live
+without labor. We shall see this principle emphasized more clearly
+by Benedict, but it is well to notice that at this remote day
+provision was made for secular employments. Jerome enjoins
+Rusticus, a young monk, always to have some work on hand that the
+devil may find him busy. "Hoe your ground," says he, "set out
+cabbages; convey water to them in conduits, that you may see with
+your own eyes the lovely vision of the poet,--</p>
+<blockquote>"Art draws fresh water from the hilltop near,<br>
+Till the stream, flashing down among the rocks,<br>
+Cools the parched meadows and allays their thirst."</blockquote>
+<p>There were individual cases of excessive self-torture
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page60"></a>[pg 60]</span> even
+among these congregations of monks but we may say that ordinarily,
+organized monasticism was altogether less severe upon the
+individual than anchoretic life. The fact that the monk was seeking
+human fellowship is evidence that he was becoming more humane, and
+this softening of his spirit betrayed itself in his treatment of
+himself. The aspect of life became a little brighter and
+happier.</p>
+<p>Four objects were comprehended in these monastic
+roles,--solitude, manual labor, fasting and prayer. We need not
+pity these dwellers far from walled cities and the marts of trade.
+Indeed, they claim no sympathy. Religious ideals can make strange
+transformations in man's disposition and tastes. They loved their
+hard lives.</p>
+<p>The hermit Abraham said to John Cassian, "We know that in these,
+our regions, there are some secret and pleasant places, where
+fruits are abundant and the beauty and fertility of the gardens
+would supply our necessities with the slightest toil. We prefer the
+wilderness of this desolation before all that is fair and
+attractive, admitting no comparison between the luxuriance of the
+most exuberant <span class="pagenum"><a name="page61"></a>[pg
+61]</span> soil and the bitterness of these sands." Jerome himself
+exclaimed, "Others may think what they like and follow each his own
+bent. But to me a town is a prison and solitude paradise."</p>
+<p>The three vows of chastity, poverty and obedience were adopted
+and became the foundation stones of the monastic institution, to be
+found in every monastic order. There is a typical illustration in
+Kingsley's Hypatia of what they meant by obedience. Philammon, a
+young monk, was consigned to the care of Cyril, the Bishop of
+Alexandria, and a factious, cruel man, with an imperious will. The
+bishop received and read his letter of introduction and thus
+addressed its bearer, "Philammon, a Greek. You are said to have
+learned to obey. If so, you have also learned to rule. Your
+father-abbot has transferred you to my tutelage. You are now to
+obey me." "And I will," was the quick response. "Well said. Go to
+that window and leap forth into the court." Philammon walked to it
+and opened it. The pavement was fully twenty feet below, but his
+business was to obey and not to take measurements. There was a
+flower in a vase upon the sill. He quietly removed it, and in an
+instant would have <span class="pagenum"><a name="page62"></a>[pg
+62]</span> leaped for life or death, when Cyril's voice thundered,
+"Stop!"</p>
+<p>The Pachomian monks despised possessions of every kind. The
+following pathetic incident shows the frightful extent to which
+they carried this principle, and also illustrates the character of
+that submission to which the novitiate voluntarily assented:
+Cassian described how Mutius sold his possessions and with his
+little child of eight asked admission to a monastery. The monks
+received but disciplined him. "He had already forgotten that he was
+rich, he must forget that he was a father." His child was taken,
+clothed in rags, beaten and spurned. Obedience compelled the father
+to look upon his child wasting with pain and grief, but such was
+his love for Christ, says the narrator, that his heart was rigid
+and immovable. He was then told to throw the boy into the river,
+but was stopped in the act of obeying.</p>
+<p>Yet men, women, and even children, coveted this life of
+unnatural deprivations. "Posterity," says Gibbon, "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 <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page63"></a>[pg 63]</span> find a god than a
+man." Though the hermit did not claim to be a god, yet there were
+more monks in many monasteries than inhabitants in the neighboring
+villages. Pachomius had fourteen hundred monks in his own monastery
+and seven thousand under his rule. Jerome says fifty thousand monks
+were sometimes assembled at Easter in the deserts of Nitria. It was
+not uncommon for an abbot to command five thousand monks. St.
+Serapion boasted of ten thousand. Altogether, so we are told, there
+were in the fifth century more than one hundred thousand persons in
+the monasteries, three-fourths of whom were men.</p>
+<p>The rule of Pachomius spread over Egypt into Syria and
+Palestine. It was carried by Athanasius into Italy and Gaul. It
+existed in various modified forms until it was supplanted by the
+Benedictine rule.</p>
+<p>Leaving Egypt, again we cross the Mediterranean into Asia Minor.
+Near the Black Sea, in a wild forest abounding in savage rocks and
+gloomy ravines, there dwelt a young man of twenty-six. He had
+traveled in Egypt, Syria and Palestine. He had visited the hermits
+of the desert and studied <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page64"></a>[pg 64]</span> philosophy and eloquence in cultured
+Athens. In virtue eminent, in learning profound, this poetic soul
+sought to realize its ideal in a lonely and cherished retreat--in a
+solitude of Pontus.</p>
+<p>The young monk is the illustrious saint and genius,--Basil the
+Great,--the Bishop of C&aelig;sarea, and the virtual founder of the
+monastic institution in the Greek church. The forest and glens
+around his hut belonged to him, and on the other bank of the river
+Iris his mother and sister were leading similar lives, having
+abandoned earthly honors in pursuit of heaven. Hard crusts of bread
+appeased his hunger. No fires, except those which burned within his
+soul, protected him from the wintry blast. His years were few but
+well spent. After a while his powerful intellect asserted itself
+and he was led into a clearer view of the true spiritual life. His
+practical mind revolted against the gross ignorance and meaningless
+asceticism of Egypt. He determined to form an order that would
+conform to the inner meaning of the Bible and to a more sensible
+conception of the religious life. For his time he was a wise
+legislator, a cunning workman and a daring thinker. The
+modification of his ascetic <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page65"></a>[pg 65]</span> ideal was attended by painful
+struggles. Many an hour he spent with his bosom friend, Gregory of
+Nazianza, discussing the subject. The middle course which they
+finally adopted is thus neatly described by Gregory:</p>
+<blockquote>"Long was the inward strife, till ended thus:<br>
+I saw, when men lived in the fretful world,<br>
+They vantaged other men, but missed the while<br>
+The calmness, and the pureness of their hearts.<br>
+They who retired held an uprighter post,<br>
+And raised their eyes with quiet strength toward heaven;<br>
+Yet served self only, unfraternally.<br>
+And so, 'twixt these and those, I struck my path,<br>
+To meditate with the free solitary,<br>
+Yet to live secular, and serve mankind."</blockquote>
+<p>Monks in large numbers flocked to this mountain retreat of
+Basil's. These he banded together in an organization, the remains
+of which still live in the Greek church. So great is the influence
+of his life and teachings, "that it is common though erroneous to
+call all Oriental monks Basilians." His rules are drawn up in the
+form of answers to two hundred and three questions. He added to the
+three monastic vows a fourth, which many authorities claim now
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page66"></a>[pg 66]</span> appeared
+for the first time,--namely, that of irrevocable vows--once a monk,
+always a monk.</p>
+<p>Basil did not condemn marriage, but he believed that it was
+incompatible with the highest spiritual attainments. For the
+Kingdom of God's sake it was necessary to forsake all. "Love not
+the world, neither the things of the world," embraced to his mind
+the married state. By avoiding the cares of marriage a man was sure
+to escape, so he thought, the gross sensuality of the age. He
+struck at the dangers which attend the possession of riches, by
+enforcing poverty. An abbot was appointed over his cloisters to
+whom absolute obedience was demanded. Everywhere men needed this
+lesson of obedience. The discipline of the armies was relaxed. The
+authority of religion was set at naught; laxity and disorder
+prevailed even among the monks. They went roaming over the country
+controlled only by their whims. Insubordination had to be checked
+or the monastic institution was doomed. Hence, Basil was particular
+to enforce a respect for law and order.</p>
+<p>Altogether this was an honest and serious attempt <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page67"></a>[pg 67]</span> to introduce fresh
+power into a corrupt age and to faithfully observe the Biblical
+commands as Basil understood them. The floods of iniquity were
+engulfing even the church. A new standard had to be raised and an
+inner circle of pious and zealous believers gathered from the
+multitude of half-pagan Christians, or all was lost.</p>
+<p>The subsequent history of Greek monachism has little interest.
+In Russia, at a late date, the Greek monks served some purpose in
+keeping alive the national spirit under the Tartar yoke, but the
+practical benefits to the East were few, in comparison with the
+vigorous life of the Western monasticism.</p>
+<p>Montalembert, the brilliant champion of Christian monasticism,
+becomes an adverse critic of the system in the East, although it is
+noteworthy he now speaks of monasticism as it appears in the Greek
+church, which he holds to be heretical; yet his indictment is quite
+true: "They yielded to all the deleterious impulses of that
+declining society. They have saved nothing, regenerated nothing,
+elevated nothing."</p>
+<p>We have visited the hermit in the desert and in <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page68"></a>[pg 68]</span> the monastery
+governed by its abbot and its rules. We must view the monk in one
+other aspect, that of theological champion. Here the hermit and the
+monk of the monastery meet on common ground. They were fighters,
+not debaters; fighters, not disciplined soldiers; fighters, not
+persuading Christians. They swarmed down from the mountains like
+hungry wolves. They fought heretics, they fought bishops, they
+fought Roman authorities, they fought soldiers, and fought one
+another. Ignorant, fanatical and cruel, they incited riots,
+disturbed the public peace and shed the blood of foes.</p>
+<p>Theological discord was made a thousand times more bitter by
+their participation in the controversies of the time. Furious monks
+became the armed champions of Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria. They
+insulted the prefect, drove out the Jews and, to the everlasting
+disgrace of the monks, Cyril and the church, they dragged the
+lovely Hypatia from her lecture hall and slew her with all the
+cruelty satanic ingenuity could devise. Against a background of
+black and angry sky she stands forth, as a soul through whose
+reason God made himself manifest. Her unblemished character, her
+learning <span class="pagenum"><a name="page69"></a>[pg 69]</span>
+and her grace forever cry aloud against an orthodoxy bereft alike
+of reason and of the spirit of the Nazarene.</p>
+<p>The fighting monks crowded councils and forced decisions. They
+deposed hostile bishops or kept their favorites in power by murder
+and violence. Two black-cowled armies met in Constantinople, and
+amid curses fought with sticks and stones a battle of creeds. Cries
+of "Holy! Holy! Holy!" mingled with, "It's the day of martyrdom!
+Down with the tyrant!" The whole East was kept in a feverish state.
+The Imperial soldiers confessed their justifiable fears when they
+said, "We would rather fight with barbarians than with these
+monks."</p>
+<p>No wonder our perplexity increases and it seems impossible to
+determine what these men really did for the cause of truth. We have
+been unable to distinguish the hermit from the beasts of the
+fields. We hear his groans, see his tears, and watch him struggle
+with demons. We are disgusted with his filth, amused at his
+fancies, grieved at his superstition. We pity his agony and admire
+his courage. We watch the progress of order and rule out of chaos.
+We see monasteries grow up around damp <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page70"></a>[pg 70]</span> caves and dismal
+huts. We behold Simeon praying among the birds of heaven, and look
+into the face of the young and handsome Basil, in whom the monastic
+institution of the East reaches the zenith of its power.</p>
+<p>I am free to confess a profound reverence for many of these men
+determined at all hazards to keep their souls unspotted from the
+world. I bow before a passion for righteousness ready to part with
+life itself if necessary. Yet the gross extravagances, the almost
+incredible absurdities of their unnatural lives compel us to
+withhold our judgment.</p>
+<p>One thing is certain, the strange life of those far-off years is
+an eloquent testimony to the indestructible craving of the human
+soul for self-mastery and soul-purity.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page71"></a>[pg 71]</span>
+<h2><a name="II"></a>II</h2>
+<h3><i><a name="MONASTICISM_IN_THE_WEST"></a>MONASTICISM IN THE
+WEST: ANTE-BENEDICTINE MONKS 340-480 A.D.</i></h3>
+<br>
+<p>We are now to follow the fortunes of the monastic system from
+its introduction in Rome to the time of Benedict of Nursia, the
+founder of the first great monastic order.</p>
+<p>Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, who made
+Christianity the predominant religion in the Roman Empire, died in
+337 A.D. Three years later Rome heard, probably for the first time,
+an authentic account of the Egyptian hermits. The story was carried
+to the Eternal City by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, one of the
+most remarkable characters in the early church, a man of surpassing
+courage and perseverance, an intrepid foe of heresy, "heroic and
+invincible," as Milton styled him. Twenty of the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page72"></a>[pg 72]</span> forty-six years of
+his official life were spent in banishment.</p>
+<p>Athanasius was an intimate friend of the hermit Anthony and a
+persistent advocate of the ascetic ideal. When he fled to Rome, in
+340, to escape the persecutions of the Arians, he took with him two
+specimens of monastic virtue--Ammonius and Isidore. These hermits,
+so filthy and savage in appearance, albeit, as I trust, clean in
+heart, excited general disgust, and their story of the tortures and
+holiness of their Egyptian brethren was received with derision. But
+men who had faced and conquered the terrors of the desert were not
+to be so easily repulsed. Aided by other ascetic travelers from the
+East they persisted in their propaganda until contempt yielded to
+admiration. The enthusiasm of the uncouth hermits became
+contagious. The Christians in Rome now welcomed the story of the
+recluses as a Divine call to abandon a dissolute society for the
+peace and joy of a desert life.</p>
+<p>But before this transformation of public opinion can be
+appreciated, it is needful to know something of the social and
+religious condition of Rome in <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page73"></a>[pg 73]</span> the days when Athanasius and his
+hermits walked her streets.</p>
+<p>After suffering frightful persecutions for three centuries, the
+Church had at last nominally conquered the Roman Empire; nominally,
+because although Christianity was to live, the Empire had to die.
+"No medicine could have prevented the diseased old body from dying.
+The time had come. When the wretched inebriate embraces a spiritual
+religion with one foot in the grave, with a constitution completely
+undermined, and the seeds of death planted, then no repentance or
+lofty aspiration can prevent physical death. It was so in Rome."
+The death-throes were long and lingering, as befits the end of a
+mighty giant, but death was certain. There are many facts which
+explain the inability of a conquering faith to save a tottering
+empire, but it is impracticable for us to enter upon that wide
+field. Some help may be gained from that which follows.</p>
+<p>Of morals, Rome was destitute. She possessed the material
+remains and superficial acquirements of a proud civilization, such
+as great public highways, marble palaces, public baths, temples and
+libraries. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page74"></a>[pg
+74]</span> Elegance of manners and acquisitions of wealth indicate
+specious outward refinement. But these things are not sufficient to
+guarantee the permanence of institutions or the moral welfare of a
+nation. In the souls of men there was a fatal degeneracy. There was
+outward prosperity but inward corruption.</p>
+<p>Professor Samuel Dill, in his highly instructive work on "Roman
+Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire," points out the
+fact that Rome's fall was due to economic and political causes as
+well as to the deterioration of her morals. A close study of these
+causes, however, will reveal the presence of moral influences.
+Professor Dill says: "The general tendency of modern inquiry has to
+discover in the fall of that august and magnificent organization,
+not a cataclysm, precipitated by the impact of barbarous forces,
+but a process slowly prepared and evolved by internal and economic
+causes." Two of these causes were the dying out of municipal
+liberty and self-government, and the separation of the upper class
+from the masses by sharp distributions of wealth and privilege. It
+is indeed true that these causes contributed to Rome's ruin;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page75"></a>[pg 75]</span> that the
+central government was weak; that the civil service was oppressive
+and corrupt; that the aristocratic class was selfish; and that the
+small landed proprietors were steadily growing poorer and fewer,
+while, on the contrary, the upper or senatorial class was
+increasing in wealth and power. But after due emphasis has been
+accorded to these destructive factors, it yet remains true that the
+want of public spirit and the prevailing cultivated selfishness may
+be traced to a decline of faith in those religious ideals that
+serve to stimulate the moral life and thus preserve the national
+integrity.</p>
+<p>Society was divided into three classes. It is computed that
+one-half the population were slaves. A large majority of the
+remainder were paupers, living on public charity, and constituting
+a festering sore that threatened the life of the social organism.
+The rich, who were relatively few, squandered princely incomes in a
+single night, and exhausted their imaginations devising new and
+expensive forms of sensuous pleasure. The profligacy of the nobles
+almost surpasses credibility, so that trustworthy descriptions read
+like works of fiction. Farrar says: "A whole population might be
+trembling lest they <span class="pagenum"><a name="page76"></a>[pg
+76]</span> should be starved by the delay of an Alexandrian corn
+ship, while the upper classes were squandering a fortune at a
+single banquet, drinking out of myrrhine and jeweled vases worth
+hundreds of pounds, and feasting on the brains of peacocks and the
+tongues of nightingales." The frivolity of the social and political
+leaders of Rome, the insane thirst for lust and luxury, the absence
+of seriousness in the face of frightful, impending ruin, almost
+justify the epigram of Silvianus, "Rome was laughing when she
+died."</p>
+<blockquote>"On that hard pagan world disgust<br>
+And secret loathing fell;<br>
+Deep weariness and sated lust<br>
+Made human life a hell.<br>
+In his cool hall, with haggard eyes,<br>
+The Roman noble lay;<br>
+He drove abroad in furious guise<br>
+Along the Appian Way;<br>
+He made a feast, drank fierce and fast,<br>
+And crowned his hair with flowers<br>
+No easier nor no guicker past<br>
+The impracticable hours."</blockquote>
+<p>Pagan mythology and Pagan philosophy were powerless to resist
+this downward tendency. Although Christianity had become the state
+religion, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page77"></a>[pg 77]</span>
+it was itself in great danger of yielding to the decay that
+prevailed. The Empire was, in fact, but nominally Christian.
+Thousands of ecclesiastical adherents were half pagan in their
+spirit and practice. Harnack declares, "They were too deeply
+affected by Christianity to abandon it, but too little to be
+Christians. Pure religious enthusiasm waned, ideals received a new
+form, and the dependence and responsibility of individuals became
+weaker." Even ordinary courage had everywhere declined and the
+pleasures of the senses controlled the heart of Christian
+society.</p>
+<p>Many of the men who should have resisted this gross
+secularization of the church, who ought to have set their faces
+against the departure from apostolic ideals by exalting the
+standards of the earlier Christianity; these men, the clergy of the
+Christian church, had deserted their post of duty and surrendered
+to the prevailing worldliness.</p>
+<p>Jerome describes, with justifiable sarcasm, these moral
+weaklings, charged with the solemn responsibility of preaching a
+pure gospel to a dying empire. "Such men think of nothing but their
+dress; they use perfumes freely, and see that there <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page78"></a>[pg 78]</span> are no creases in
+their leather shoes. Their curling hair shows traces of the tongs;
+their fingers glisten with rings; they walk on tiptoe across a damp
+road, not to splash their feet. When you see men acting that way,
+think of them rather as bridegrooms than as clergymen. If he sees a
+pillow that takes his fancy, or an elegant table-cover, or, indeed,
+any article of furniture, he praises it, looks admiringly at it,
+takes it into his hand, and, complaining that he has nothing of the
+kind, begs or rather extorts it from its owner." Such trifling
+folly was fatal. The times demanded men of vigorous spirit, who
+dared to face the general decline, and cry out in strong tones
+against it. The age needed moral warriors, with the old Roman
+courage and love of sacrifice; martyrs willing to rot in prison or
+shed their blood in the street, not effeminate men, toying with
+fancy table-covers and tiptoeing across a sprinkled road. "And as a
+background," says Kingsley, "to all this seething heap of
+corruption, misrule and misery, hung the black cloud of the
+barbarians, the Teutonic tribes from whom we derive our best blood,
+ever coming nearer and nearer, waxing stronger and stronger, to be
+soon the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page79"></a>[pg 79]</span>
+conquerors of the C&aelig;sars and the masters of the world." But
+there were many pure and sincere Christians--a saving remnant. The
+joyous alacrity with which men and women responded to the monastic
+call, and entered upon careers of self-torture for the sake of
+deliverance from moral corruption, shows that the spirit of true
+faith was not extinct. These seekers after righteousness may be
+described as "a dismal and fanatical set of men, overlooking the
+practical aims of life," but it is a fair question to ask, "if they
+had not abandoned the world to its fate would they not have shared
+that fate?" "The glory of that age," says Professor Dill, "is the
+number of those who were capable of such self-surrender; and an age
+should be judged by its ideals, not by the mediocrity of
+conventional religion masking worldly self-indulgence. This we have
+always with us; the other we have not always."</p>
+<p>Yet the sad fact remains that the transforming power of
+Christianity was practically helpless before the surging floods of
+vice and superstition. The noble struggles of a few saints were as
+straws in a hurricane. The church had all she could do to save
+herself.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page80"></a>[pg 80]</span>
+<p>"When Christianity itself was in such need of reform," says
+Lord, "when Christians could scarcely be distinguished from pagans
+in love of display, and in egotistical ends, how could it reform
+the world? When it was a pageant, a ritualism, an arm of the state,
+a vain philosophy, a superstition, a formula, how could it save, if
+ever so dominant? The corruptions of the church in the fourth
+century are as well authenticated as the purity and moral elevation
+of Christians in the second century." Even in the early days of
+Christianity the ruin of Rome was impending, but, at that time, the
+adherents of the Christian religion were few and poor. They did not
+possess enough power and influence to save the state. When
+monasticism came to Rome, the lords of the church were getting
+ready to sit upon the thrones of princes, but the dazzling victory
+of the church was not a spiritual conquest of sin, so the last ray
+of hope for the Empire was extinguished. Her fall was
+inevitable.</p>
+<p>With this outlined picture in mind, fancy Athanasius and his
+monks at Rome. These men despise luxury and contemn riches. They
+have come to make Rome ring with the old war cries,--although
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page81"></a>[pg 81]</span> they
+wrestled not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual
+wickedness in high places. Terror and despair are on every side,
+but they are not afraid. They know what it means to face the demons
+of the desert, to lie down at night with wild beasts for
+companions. They have not yielded to the depravity of the human
+heart and the temptations of a licentious age. They have conquered
+sinful appetites by self-abnegation and fasting. They come to a
+distracted society with a message of peace--a peace won by
+courageous self-sacrifice. They call men to save their perishing
+souls by surrendering their wills to God and enlisting in a
+campaign against the powers of darkness. They appeal to the ancient
+spirit of courage and love of hardship. They arouse the dormant
+moral energies of the profligate nobles, proud of the past and sick
+of the present. The story of Anthony admonished Rome that a life of
+sensuous gratification was inglorious, unworthy of the true Roman,
+and that the flesh could be mastered by heroic endeavor.</p>
+<p>Women, who spent their hours in frivolous amusements, welcomed
+with gratitude the discovery that they could be happy without
+degradation, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page82"></a>[pg
+82]</span> joyfully responded to the call of righteousness.
+"Despising themselves," says Kingsley, "despising their husbands to
+whom they had been wedded in loveless wedlock, they too fled from a
+world which had sated and sickened them."</p>
+<p>Woman's natural craving for lofty friendships and pure
+aspirations found satisfaction in the monastic ideal. She fled from
+the incessant broils of a corrupt court, from the courtesans that
+usurped the place of the wife, from the insolence and selfishness
+of men who scorned even the appearance of virtue and did not
+hesitate to degrade even their wives and sisters. She would
+disprove the biting sarcasm of Juvenal,--</p>
+<blockquote>"Women, in judgment weak, in feeling strong,<br>
+By every gust of passion borne along.<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+A woman stops at nothing, when she wears<br>
+Rich emeralds round her neck, and in her ears<br>
+Pearls of enormous size; these justify<br>
+Her faults, and make all lawful in her eye."</blockquote>
+<p>Therefore did the women hear with tremulous eagerness the story
+of the saintly inhabitants of the desert, and flinging away their
+trinkets, they hastened to the solitude of the cell, there to mourn
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page83"></a>[pg 83]</span> their
+folly and seek pardon and peace at the feet of the Most High.</p>
+<p>Likewise, the men, born to nobler tasks than fawning upon
+princes and squandering life and fortune in gluttony and
+debauchery, blushed for shame, and abandoned forever the company of
+sensualists and parasites. Potitianus, a young officer of rank,
+read the life of Anthony, and cried to his fellow-soldier: "Tell
+me, I pray thee, whither all our labors tend? What do we seek? For
+whom do we carry arms? What can be our greatest hope in the palace
+but to be friend to the Emperor? And how frail is that fortune!
+What perils! When shall this be?" Inspired by the monastic story he
+exchanged the friendship of the Emperor for the friendship of God,
+and the military life lost all its attractiveness.</p>
+<p>A philosopher and teacher hears the same narrative, and his
+countenance becomes grave; he seizes the arm of Alypius, his
+friend, and earnestly asks: "What, then, are we doing? How is this?
+What hast thou been hearing? These ignorant men rise; they take
+Heaven by force, and we, with our heartless sciences, behold us
+wallowing in the flesh and <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page84"></a>[pg 84]</span> in our blood! Is it shameful to follow
+them, and are we not rather disgraced by not following them?" So,
+disgusted with his self-seeking career, his round of empty
+pleasures, he, too, is moved by this higher call to abandon his
+wickedness and devote his genius to the cause of righteousness.</p>
+<p>Ambrose, Paulinus, Chrysostom, Basil, Gregory, and many others,
+holding important official posts or candidates for the highest
+honors, abandoned all their chances of political preferment in
+order to preach the gospel of ascetic Christianity.</p>
+<p>Yes, for good or evil, Rome is profoundly stirred. The pale
+monk, in all his filth and poverty, is the master of the best
+hearts in the capital. Every one in whom aspiration is still alive,
+who longs for some new light, and all who vaguely grope after a
+higher life, hear his voice and become pliant to his will.</p>
+<p>"Great historic movements," says Grimke, "are born not in
+whirlwinds, in earthquakes, and pomps of human splendor and power,
+but in the agonies and enthusiasms of grand, heroic spirits."
+Monastic history, like secular, centers in the biographies of such
+great men as Anthony, Basil, Jerome, Benedict, Francis, Dominic and
+Loyola. To understand the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page85"></a>[pg 85]</span> character of the powerful forces set in
+motion by the coming of the monks to Rome, it is necessary to know
+the leading spirits whose preeminent abilities and lofty
+personalities made Western monasticism what it was.</p>
+<p>The time is about 418 A.D.; the place, a monastery in Bethlehem,
+near the cave of the Nativity. In a lonely cell, within these
+monastic walls, we shall find the man we seek. He is so old and
+feeble that he has to be raised in his bed by means of a cord
+affixed to the ceiling. He spends his time chiefly in reciting
+prayers. His voice, once clear and resonant, sinks now to a
+whisper. His failing vision no longer follows the classic pages of
+Virgil or dwells fondly on the Hebrew of the Old Testament. This is
+Saint Jerome, the champion of asceticism, the biographer of
+hermits, the lion of Christian polemics, the translator of the
+Bible, and the worthy, brilliant, determined foe of a dissolute
+society and a worldly church. Although he spent thirty-four years
+of his life in Palestine, I shall consider Jerome in connection
+with the monasticism of the West, for it was in Rome that he
+exercised his greatest influence. His translation of the Scriptures
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page86"></a>[pg 86]</span> is the
+Vulgate of the Roman church, and his name is enrolled in the
+calendar of her saints. "He is," observes Schaff "the connecting
+link between the Eastern and Western learning and religion."</p>
+<p>By charming speech and eloquent tongue Jerome won over the men,
+but principally the women, of Rome to the monastic life. So
+powerful was his message when addressed to the feminine heart, that
+mothers are said to have locked their daughters in their rooms lest
+they should fall under the influence of his magnetic voice. It was
+largely owing to his own labors that he could write in after years:
+"Formerly, according to the testimony of the apostles, there were
+few rich, few noble, few powerful among the Christians. Now, it is
+no longer so. Not only among the Christians, but among the monks
+are to be found a multitude of the wise, the noble and the
+rich."</p>
+<p>Near to the very year that Athanasius came to Rome, or about 340
+A.D., Jerome was born at Stridon, in Dalmatia, in what is now
+called the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. His parents were modestly
+wealthy and were slaveholders. His student days were spent in Rome,
+where he divided <span class="pagenum"><a name="page87"></a>[pg
+87]</span> his time between the study of books and the revels of
+the streets. One day some young Christians induced him to visit the
+catacombs with them. Here, before the graves of Christian martyrs,
+a quiet and holy influence stole into his heart, that finally led
+to his conversion and baptism. Embracing the monastic ideal, he
+gathered around him a few congenial friends, who joined him in a
+covenant of rigid abstinence and ascetic discipline. Then followed
+a year of travel with these companions, through Asia Minor, ending
+disastrously at Antioch. One of his friends returned home, two of
+them died, and he himself became so sick with fever that his life
+was despaired of. Undismayed by these evils, brought on by
+excessive austerities, he determined to retire to a life of
+solitude.</p>
+<p>About fifty miles southeast from Antioch was a barren waste of
+nature but a paradise for monks--the Desert of Chalcis. On its
+western border were several monasteries. All about for miles, the
+dreary solitudes were peopled with shaggy hermits. They saw visions
+and dreamed dreams in caves infested by serpents and wild beasts.
+They lay upon the sands, scorched in summer by the blazing sun, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page88"></a>[pg 88]</span> chilled
+in winter by the winds that blew from snowcapped mountains. For
+five years, Jerome dwelt among these demon-fighting recluses. Clad
+in sackcloth stained by penitential tears, he toiled for his daily
+bread, and struggled against visions of Roman dancing girls. He was
+a most industrious reader of books and a great lover of debate.
+Monks from far and near visited him, and together they discussed
+questions of theology and philosophy.</p>
+<p>But we may not follow this varied and eventful life in all its
+details. After a year or two spent at Constantinople, and three
+years at Rome, he returned to the East, visiting the hermits of
+Egypt on his way, and finally settled at Bethlehem. His fame soon
+drew around him a great company of monks. These he organized into
+monasteries. He built a hospital, and established an inn for
+travelers. Lacking the necessary funds to carry out his projects,
+he dispatched his brother to the West with instructions to sell
+what was left of his property, and the proceeds of this sale he
+devoted to the cause. While in Bethlehem he wrote defences of
+orthodoxy, eulogies of the dead, lives of saints and commentaries
+on the Bible. He also completed his <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page89"></a>[pg 89]</span> translation of the Scriptures, and
+wrote numerous letters to persons dwelling in various parts of the
+empire.</p>
+<p>Jerome rendered great service to monasticism by his literary
+labors. He invested the dullest of lives with a halo of glory;
+under the magic touch of his rhetoric the wilderness became a
+gladsome place and the desert blossomed as the rose. His glowing
+language transfigured the pale face and sunken eyes of the starved
+hermit into features positively beautiful, while the rags that hung
+loosely upon his emaciated frame became garments of lustrous white.
+"Oh, that I could behold the desert," he cries, "lovelier than any
+city! Oh, that I could see those lonely spots made into a paradise
+by the saints that throng them!" Without detracting from the
+bitterness of the prospect, he glorifies the courage that can face
+the horrors of the desert, and the heart that can rejoice midst the
+solitude of the seas. Hear him describe the home of Bonosus, a
+hermit on an isle in the Adriatic:</p>
+<p>"Bonosus, your friend, is now climbing the ladder foreshown in
+Jacob's dream. He is bearing his cross, neither taking thought for
+the morrow, nor <span class="pagenum"><a name="page90"></a>[pg
+90]</span> looking back at what he has left. Here you have a youth,
+educated with us in the refining accomplishments of the world, with
+abundance of wealth and in rank inferior to none of his associates;
+yet he forsakes his mother, his sister, and his dearly loved
+brother, and settles like a new tiller of Eden on a dangerous
+island, with the sea roaring round its reefs, while its rough
+crags, bare rocks and desolate aspect make it more terrible
+still.... He sees the glory of God which even the apostles saw not,
+save in the desert. He beholds, it is true, no embattled towns, but
+he has enrolled his name in the new city. Garments of sackcloth
+disfigure his limbs, yet so he will the sooner be caught up to meet
+Christ in the clouds. Round the entire island roars the frenzied
+sea, while the beetling crags along its winding shores resound as
+the billows beat against them. Precipitous cliffs surround his
+dreadful abode as if it were a prison. He is careless, fearless,
+armed from head to foot in the apostles' armor."</p>
+<p>Listen to these trumpet tones as Jerome calls to a companion of
+his youth in Rome: "O desert, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page91"></a>[pg 91]</span> enamelled with the flowers of Christ! O
+retreat, which rejoicest in the friendship of God! What dost thou
+in the world, my brother, with thy soul greater than the world? How
+long wilt thou remain in the shadow of roofs, and in the smoky
+dungeons of cities? Believe me, I see here more light."</p>
+<p>To pass hastily over such appeals, coming from distant lands
+across the sea to stir the minds of the thoughtful in Rome, is to
+ignore one of the causes which produced the great exodus that
+followed. He made men see that they were living in a moral Sodom,
+and that if they would save their souls they must escape to the
+desert. The power of personal influence, of inspiring private
+letters, can hardly be overemphasized in studying the remarkable
+progress of asceticism. Great awakenings in the moral, as in the
+political or the social world, may be traced to the profound
+influence of individuals, whose prophetic insight and moral
+enthusiasm unfold the germ of the larger movements. There may be
+widespread unrest, the ground may be prepared for the seed, but the
+immediate cause of universal uprisings is the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page92"></a>[pg 92]</span> clarion call of
+genius. Thus Luther's was the voice that cried in the wilderness,
+inciting a vast host for whom centuries had been preparing.</p>
+<p>But Jerome's fame as a man of learning, possessing a critical
+taste and a classic style of rare beauty and simplicity, must not
+blind us to the crowning glory of his brilliant career. He was
+above all a spiritual force. His chief appeal was to the
+conscience. He warmed the most torpid hearts by the fervor of his
+love, and encouraged the most hopeless by his fiery zeal and heroic
+faith. As a promoter of monasticism, he clashed with the interests
+of an enfeebled clergy and a corrupt laity. Nothing could swerve
+him from his course. False monks might draw terrible rebukes from
+him, but the conviction that the soul could be delivered from
+captivity to the body only by mortification remained unshaken. He
+induced men to break the fetters of society that they might, under
+the more favorable circumstances of solitude, wage war against
+their unruly passions.</p>
+<p>When parents objected to his monastic views, Jerome quoted the
+saying of Jesus respecting the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page93"></a>[pg 93]</span> renunciation of father and mother, and
+then said: "Though thy mother with flowing hair and rent garments,
+should show thee the breasts which have nourished thee; though thy
+father should lie upon the threshold; yet depart thou, treading
+over thy father, and fly with dry eyes to the standard of the
+cross. The love of God and the fear of hell easily rend the bonds
+of the household asunder. The Holy Scripture indeed enjoins
+obedience, but he who loves them more than Christ loses his
+soul."</p>
+<p>Jerome vividly portrays his own spiritual conflicts. The deserts
+were crowded with saintly soldiers battling against similar
+temptations, the nature of which is suggested by the following
+excerpt from Jerome's writings: "How often," he says, "when I was
+living in the desert, in the vast solitude which gives to hermits a
+savage dwelling-place, parched by a burning sun, how often did I
+fancy myself among the pleasures of Rome! I used to sit alone
+because I was filled with bitterness. Sack-cloth disfigured my
+unshapely limbs and my skin from long neglect had become black as
+an Ethiopian's. Tears and groans were every day my portion; and if
+drowsiness chanced to overcome <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page94"></a>[pg 94]</span> my struggles against it, my bare bones,
+which hardly held together, clashed against the ground. Now
+although in my fear of hell I had consigned myself to this prison
+where I had no companions but scorpions and wild beasts, I often
+found myself amid bevies of girls. Helpless, I cast myself at the
+feet of Jesus, I watered them with my tears, and I subdued my
+rebellious body with weeks of abstinence. I remember how I often
+cried aloud all night till the break of day. I used to dread my
+cell as if it knew my thoughts, and stern and angry with myself, I
+used to make my way alone into the desert. Wherever I saw hollow
+valleys, craggy mountains, steep cliffs, there I made my oratory;
+there the house of correction for my unhappy flesh. There, also,
+when I had shed copious tears and had strained my eyes to heaven, I
+sometimes felt myself among angelic hosts and sang for joy and
+gladness."</p>
+<p>No doubt these men were warring against nature. Their yielding
+to the temptation to obtain spiritual dominance by
+self-flagellation and fasting may be criticized in the light of
+modern Christianity. "Fanaticism defies nature," says F.W.
+Robertson, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page95"></a>[pg
+95]</span> "Christianity refines it and respects it. Christianity
+does not denaturalize, but only sanctifies and refines according to
+the laws of nature. Christianity does not destroy our natural
+instincts, but gives them a higher and nobler direction." To all
+this I must assent, but, at the same time, I cannot but reverence
+that pure passion for holiness which led men, despairing of
+acquiring virtue in a degenerate age, to flee from the world and
+undergo such torments to attain their soul's ideal. The form, the
+method of their conflict was transient, the spirit and purpose
+eternal. All honor to them for their magnificent and terrible
+struggle, which has forever exalted the spiritual ideal, and
+commanded men everywhere to seek first "the Kingdom of God and its
+righteousness."</p>
+<p>Jerome was always fond of the classics, although pagan writers
+were not in favor with the early Christians. One night he dreamed
+he was called to the skies where he was soundly flogged for reading
+certain pagan authors. This vision interrupted his classical
+studies for a time. In later years he resumed his beloved Virgil;
+and he vigorously defended himself against those who charged him
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page96"></a>[pg 96]</span> with
+being a Pagan and an apostate on account of his love for Greek and
+Roman literature. If his admiration for Virgil was the Devil's
+work, I but give the Devil his due when I declare that much of the
+charm of Jerome's literary productions is owing to the inspiration
+of classic models.</p>
+<p>Our attention must now be transferred from Jerome to the
+high-born Roman matrons, who laid off their silks that they might
+clothe themselves in the humble garb of the nun. As the narrative
+proceeds I shall let Jerome speak as often as possible, that the
+reader may become acquainted with the style of those biographies
+and eulogies which were the talk of Rome, and which have been
+admired so highly by succeeding generations.</p>
+<p>Those who embraced monasticism in Rome did so in one of two
+ways. Some sold their possessions, adopted coarse garments, and
+subsisted on the plainest food, but they did not leave the city and
+were still to be seen upon the streets. Jerome writes to
+Pammachius: "Who would have believed that a last descendant of the
+consuls, an ornament of the race of Camillus, could make up his
+mind to traverse the city in the black robe of a monk, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page97"></a>[pg 97]</span> and should not blush
+to appear thus clad in the midst of senators." Some of those who
+remained at Rome established a sort of retreat for their ascetic
+friends.</p>
+<p>But another class left Rome altogether. Some took up their abode
+on the rugged isles of the Adriatic or the Mediterranean. Large
+numbers of them went to the East, principally to Palestine. Jerome
+was practically the abbot of a Roman colony of monks and nuns. Two
+motives, beside the general ruling desire to achieve holiness,
+produced this exodus to the Holy Land, which culminated centuries
+later in the crusades. One was a desire to see the deserts and
+caves, the abode of hermits famous for piety and miracles. Jerome,
+as I have shown, invested these lonely retreats and strange
+characters with a sort of holy romance, and hence, faith, mingled
+with curiosity, led men to the East. Another motive was the desire
+to visit the land of the Saviour, to tread the soil consecrated by
+his labors of love, to live a life of poverty in the land where He
+had no home He could call his own.</p>
+<p>St. Paula was one of the women who left Rome and went to
+Palestine. The story of her life is <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page98"></a>[pg 98]</span> told in a letter designed to comfort
+her daughter Eustochium at the time of Paula's death. The epistle
+begins: "If all the members of my body were to be converted into
+tongues, and if each of my limbs were to be gifted with a human
+voice, I could still do no justice to the virtues of the holy and
+venerable Paula. Of the stock of the Gracchi, descended from the
+Scipios, she yet preferred Bethlehem to Rome, and left her palace
+glittering with gold to dwell in a mud cabin." Her husband was of
+royal blood and had died leaving her five children. At his death,
+she gave herself to works of charity. The poor and sick she wrapped
+in her own blankets. She began to tire of the receptions and other
+social duties which her position entailed upon her. While in this
+frame of mind, two Eastern bishops were entertained at her home
+during a gathering of ecclesiastics. They seem to have imparted the
+monastic impulse, perhaps by the rehearsal of monastic tales, for
+we are informed that at this time she determined to leave servants,
+property and children, in order to embrace the monastic life.</p>
+<p>Let us stand with her children and kinsfolk on the shore of the
+sea as they take their final farewell <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page99"></a>[pg 99]</span> of Paula. "The sails
+were set and the strokes of the rowers carried the vessel into the
+deep. On the shore little Toxotius stretched forth his hands in
+entreaty, while Rufina, now grown up, with silent sobs besought her
+mother to wait until she should be married. But still Paula's eyes
+were dry as she turned them heavenwards, and she overcame her love
+for her children by her love for God. She knew herself no more as a
+mother that she might approve herself a handmaid of Christ. Yet her
+heart was rent within her, and she wrestled with her grief as
+though she were being forcibly separated from parts of herself. The
+greatness of the affection she had to overcome made all admire her
+victory the more. Though it is against the laws of nature, she
+endured this trial with unabated faith."</p>
+<p>So the vessel ploughed onward, carrying the mother who thought
+she was honoring God and attaining the true end of being through
+ruthless strangling of maternal love. She visited Syria and Egypt
+and the islands of Ponta and Cyprus. At the feet of the hermit
+fathers she begged their blessing and tried to emulate the virtues
+she <span class="pagenum"><a name="page100"></a>[pg 100]</span>
+believed they possessed. At Jerusalem she fell upon her face and
+kissed the stone before the sepulcher. "What tears, she shed, what
+groans she uttered, what grief she poured out all Jerusalem
+knows!"</p>
+<p>She established two monasteries at Bethlehem, one of which was
+for women. Here, with her daughter, she lived a life of rigid
+abstinence. Her nuns had nothing they could call their own. If they
+paid too much attention to dress Paula said, "A clean body and a
+clean dress mean an unclean soul." To her credit, she was more
+lenient with others than with herself. Jerome admits she went to
+excess, and prudently observes: "Difficult as it is to avoid
+extremes, the philosophers are quite right in their opinion that
+virtue is a mean and vice an excess, or, as we may express it in
+one short sentence, in nothing too much." Paula swept floors and
+toiled in the kitchen. She slept on the ground, covered by a mat of
+goat's hair. Her weeping was incessant. As she meditated over the
+Scriptures, her tears fell so profusely that her sight was
+endangered. Jerome warned her to spare her eyes, but she said: "I
+must disfigure that face <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page101"></a>[pg 101]</span> which, contrary to God's commandment,
+I have painted with rouge, white lead and antimony." If this be a
+sin against the Almighty, bear witness, O ye daughters of Eve! Her
+love for the poor continued to be the motive of her great
+liberality. In fact, her giving knew no bounds. Fuller wisely
+remarks that "liberality must have banks as well as a stream;" but
+Paula said: "My prayer is that I may die a beggar, leaving not a
+penny to my daughter and indebted to strangers for my winding
+sheet." Her petition was literally granted, for she died leaving
+her daughter not only without a penny but overwhelmed in a mass of
+debts.</p>
+<p>As Jerome approaches the description of Paula's death, he says:
+"Hitherto the wind has all been in my favor and my keel has
+smoothly ploughed through the heaving sea. But now my bark is
+running upon the rocks, the billows are mountain high, and imminent
+shipwreck awaits me." Yet Paula, like David, must go the way of all
+the earth. Surrounded by her followers chanting psalms, she
+breathed her last. An immense concourse of people attended her
+funeral. Not a single monk lingered in his cell. Thus, the twenty
+hard years <span class="pagenum"><a name="page102"></a>[pg
+102]</span> of self-torture for this Roman lady of culture ended in
+the rest of the grave.</p>
+<p>Upon her tombstone was placed this significant inscription:</p>
+<blockquote>"Within this tomb a child of Scipio lies,<br>
+A daughter of the far-famed Pauline house,<br>
+A scion of the Gracchi, of the stock<br>
+Of Agamemnon's self, illustrious:<br>
+Here rests the lady Paula, well beloved<br>
+Of both her parents, with Eustochium<br>
+For daughter; she the first of Roman dames<br>
+Who hardship chose and Bethlehem for Christ."</blockquote>
+<p>Another interesting character of that period was Marcella, a
+beautiful woman of illustrious lineage, a descendant of consuls and
+prefects. After a married life of seven years her husband died. She
+determined not to embark on the matrimonial seas a second time, but
+to devote herself to works of charity. Cerealis, an old man, but of
+consular rank, offered her his fortune that he might consider her
+less his wife than his daughter. "Had I a wish to marry," was her
+noble reply, "I should look for a husband and not for an
+inheritance." Disdaining all enticements to remain in society, she
+began her <span class="pagenum"><a name="page103"></a>[pg
+103]</span> monastic career with joy and turned her home into a
+retreat for women who, like herself, wished to retire from the
+world. It is not known just what rules governed their relations,
+but they employed the time in moderate fasting, prayers and
+alms-giving.</p>
+<p>Marcella lavished her wealth upon the poor. Jerome praises her
+philanthropic labors thus: "Our widow's clothing was meant to keep
+out the cold and not to show her figure. She stored her money in
+the stomachs of the poor rather than to keep it at her own
+disposal." Seldom seen upon the streets, she remained at home,
+surrounded by virgins and widows, obedient and loving to her
+mother. Among the high-born women it was regarded as degrading to
+assume the costume of the nun, but she bore the scorn of her social
+equals with humility and grace.</p>
+<p>This quiet and useful life was rudely and abruptly ended by a
+dreadful catastrophe. Alaric the Goth had seized and sacked Rome.
+The world stood aghast. The sad news reached Jerome in his cell at
+Bethlehem, who expressed his sorrow in forceful language: "My voice
+sticks in my throat; and as <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page104"></a>[pg 104]</span> I dictate, sobs choke my utterance.
+The city which has taken the whole world is itself taken." Rude
+barbarians invaded the sanctity of Marcella's retreat. They
+demanded her gold, but she pointed to the coarse dress she wore to
+show them she had no buried treasures. They did not believe her,
+and cruelly beat her with cudgels. A few days after the saintly
+heroine of righteousness went to her long home to enjoy
+richly-merited rest and peace.</p>
+<blockquote>"Who can describe the carnage of that night?<br>
+What tears are equal to its agony?<br>
+Of ancient date a sovran city falls;<br>
+And lifeless in its streets and houses lie<br>
+Unnumbered bodies of its citizens.<br>
+In many a ghastly shape doth death appear."</blockquote>
+<p>Marcella and her monastic home fell in the general ruin, but in
+the words of Horace, she left "a monument more enduring than
+brass." Her noble life, so full of kind words and loving deeds,
+still stirs the hearts of her sisters who, while they may reject
+her ascetic ideal, will, nevertheless, try to emulate her noble
+spirit. As Jerome said of Paula: "By shunning glory she earned
+glory; for glory follows virtue as its shadow; and deserting
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page105"></a>[pg 105]</span> those
+who seek it, it seeks those who despise it."</p>
+<p>Still another woman claims our attention,--Fabiola, the founder
+of the first hospital. Lecky declares that "the first public
+hospital and the charity planted by that woman's hand overspread
+the world, and will alleviate to the end of time the darkest
+anguish of humanity." She, too, was a widow who refused to marry
+again, but broke up her home, sold her possessions, and with the
+proceeds founded a hospital into which were gathered the sick from
+the streets. She nursed the sufferers and washed their ulcers and
+wounds. No task was beneath her, no sacrifice of personal comfort
+too great for her love. Many helped her with their gold, but she
+gave herself. She also aided in establishing a home for strangers
+at Portus, which became one of the most famous inns of the time.
+Travelers from all parts of the world found a welcome and a shelter
+on landing at this port. When she died the roofs of Rome were
+crowded with those who watched the funeral procession. Psalms were
+chanted, and the gilded ceilings of the churches resounded to the
+music in commendation of her loving life and labors.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page106"></a>[pg 106]</span>
+<p>These and other characters of like zeal and fortitude exemplify
+the spirit of the men and women who interested the West in
+monasticism. Much as their errors and extravagances may be
+deplored, there is no question that some of them were types of the
+loftiest Christian virtues, inspired by the most laudable
+motives.</p>
+<p>Noble and true are Kingsley's words: "We may blame those ladies,
+if we will, for neglecting their duties. We may sneer, if we will,
+at their weaknesses, the aristocratic pride, the spiritual vanity,
+we fancy we discover. We must confess that in these women the
+spirit of the old Roman matrons, which seemed to have been dead so
+long, flashed up for one splendid moment ere it sank into the
+darkness of the middle ages."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Monasticism_and_Women"></a>Monasticism and
+Women</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The origin of nunneries was coeval with that of monasteries, and
+the history of female recluses runs parallel to that of the men.
+Almost every male order had its counterpart in some sort of a
+sisterhood. The general moral character of these female
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page107"></a>[pg 107]</span>
+associations was higher than that of the male organizations. I have
+confined my treatment in this work to the monks, but a few words
+may be said at this point concerning female ascetics.</p>
+<p>Hermit life was unsuited to women, but we know that at a very
+early date many of them retired to the seclusion of convent life.
+It will be recalled that in the biography of St. Anthony, before
+going into the desert he placed his sister in the care of some
+virgins who were living a life of abstinence, apart from society.
+It is very doubtful if any uniform rule governed these first
+religious houses, or if definitely organized societies appear much
+before the time of Benedict. The variations in the monastic order
+among the men were accompanied by similar changes in the
+associations of women.</p>
+<p>The history of these sisterhoods discloses three interesting and
+noteworthy facts that merit brief mention:</p>
+<p>First, the effect of a corrupt society upon women. As in the
+case of men, women were moved to forsake their social duties
+because they were weary of the sensual and aimless life of Rome.
+Those <span class="pagenum"><a name="page108"></a>[pg 108]</span>
+were the days of elaborate toilettes, painted faces and blackened
+eyelids, of intrigues and foolish babbling. Venial faults--it may
+be thought--innocent displays of tender frailty; but woman's nature
+demands loftier employments. A great soul craves occupations and
+recognizes obligations more in harmony with the true nobility of
+human nature. Rome had no monitor of the higher life until the
+monks came with their stories of heroic self-abnegation and
+unselfish toil. The women felt the force and truth of Jerome's
+criticism of their trifling follies when he said: "Do not seek to
+appear over-eloquent, nor trifle with verse, nor make yourself gay
+with lyric songs. And do not, out of affectation, follow the sickly
+taste of married ladies, who now pressing their teeth together, now
+keeping their lips wide apart, speak with a lisp, and purposely
+clip their words, because they fancy that to pronounce them
+naturally is a mark of country breeding."</p>
+<p>Professor Dill is inclined to discount the testimony of Jerome
+respecting the morals of Roman society. He thinks Jerome
+exaggerated the perils surrounding women. He says: "The truth is
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page109"></a>[pg 109]</span> Jerome
+is not only a monk but an artist in words; and his horror of evil,
+his vivid imagination, and his passion for literary effect,
+occasionally carry him beyond the region of sober fact. There was
+much to amend in the morals of the Roman world. But we must not
+take the leader of a great moral reformation as a cool and
+dispassionate observer." But this observation amounts to nothing
+more than a cautionary word against mistaking evils common to all
+times for special symptoms of excessive immorality. Professor Dill
+practically concedes the truthfulness of contemporary witnesses,
+including Jerome, when he says: "Yet, after all allowances, the
+picture is not a pleasant one. We feel that we are far away from
+the simple, unworldly devotion of the freedmen and obscure toilers
+whose existence was hardly known to the great world before the age
+of the Antonines, and who lived in the spirit of the Sermon on the
+Mount and in constant expectation of the coming of their Lord. The
+triumphant Church, which has brought Paganism to its knees, is very
+different from the Church of the catacombs and the persecutions."
+The picture which Jerome draws of the Roman women <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page110"></a>[pg 110]</span> is indeed
+repulsive, and Professor Dill would gladly believe it to be
+exaggerated, but, nevertheless, he thinks that "if the priesthood,
+with its enormous influence, was so corrupt, it is only probable
+that it debased the sex which is always most under clerical
+influence."</p>
+<p>But far graver charges cling to the memories of the Roman women.
+Crime darkened every household. The Roman lady was cruel and
+impure. She delighted in the blood of gladiators and in illicit
+love. Roman law at this time permitted women to hold and to control
+large estates, and it became a fad for these patrician ladies to
+marry poor men, so that they might have their husbands within their
+power. All sorts of alliances could then be formed, and if their
+husbands remonstrated, they, holding the purse strings, were able
+to say: "If you don't like it you can leave." A profligate himself,
+the husband usually kept his counsel, and as a reward, dwelt in a
+palace. "When the Roman matrons became the equal and voluntary
+companions of their lords," says Gibbon, "a new jurisprudence was
+introduced, that marriage, like other partnerships, might be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page111"></a>[pg 111]</span>
+dissolved by the abdication of one of the associates." I have but
+touched the fringe of a veil I will not lift; but it is easy to
+understand why those women who cherished noble sentiments welcomed
+the monastic life as a pathway of escape from scenes and customs
+from which their better natures recoiled in horror.</p>
+<p>Secondly, the fine quality of mercy that distinguishes woman's
+character deserves recognition. Even though she retired to a
+convent, she could not become so forgetful of her fellow creatures
+as her male companions. From the very beginning we observe that she
+was more unselfish in her asceticism than they. It is true the monk
+forsook all, and to that extent was self-sacrificing, but in his
+desire for his own salvation, he was prone to neglect every one
+else. The monk's ministrations were too often confined to those who
+came to him, but the nun went forth to heal the diseased and to
+bind up the broken-hearted. As soon as she embraced the monastic
+life we read of hospitals. The desire for salvation drove man into
+the desert; a Christ-like mercy and divine sympathy kept his sister
+by the couch of pain.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page112"></a>[pg 112]</span>
+<p>Lastly, a word remains to be said touching the question of
+marriage. At first, the nun sometimes entered the marriage state,
+and, of course, left the convent; but, beginning with Basil, this
+practice was condemned, and irrevocable vows were exacted. In 407,
+Innocent I. closed even the door of penitence and forgiveness to
+those who broke their vows and married.</p>
+<p>Widows and virgins alike assumed the veil. Marriage itself was
+not despised, because the monastic life was only for those who
+sought a higher type of piety than, it was supposed, could be
+attained amid the ordinary conditions of life. But marriage, as
+well as other so-called secular relations, was eschewed by those
+who wished to make their salvation sure. Jerome says: "I praise
+wedlock, I praise marriage, but it is because they give me virgins;
+I gather the rose from the thorns, the gold from the earth, the
+pearl from the shell." He therefore tolerated marriage among people
+contented with ordinary religious attainments, but he thought it
+incompatible with true holiness. Augustine admitted that the mother
+and her daughter may be both in heaven, but one a bright
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page113"></a>[pg 113]</span> and the
+other a dim star. Some writers, as Helvidius, opposed this view and
+maintained that there was no special virtue in an unmarried life;
+that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was also the mother of other
+children, and as such was an example of Christian virtue. Jerome
+brought out his guns and poured hot shot into the enemies' camp. In
+the course of his answer, which contained many intolerant and
+acrimonious statements, he drew a comparison between the married
+and the unmarried state. It is interesting because it reflects the
+opinions of those who disparaged marriage, and reveals the
+character of the principles which the early Fathers advocated. It
+is very evident from this letter against Helvidius that Jerome
+regarded all secular duties as interfering with the pursuit of the
+highest virtue.</p>
+<p>"Do you think," he says, "there is no difference between one who
+spends her time in prayer and fasting, and one who must, at her
+husband's approach, make up her countenance, walk with a mincing
+gait, and feign a show of endearment? The virgin aims to appear
+less comely; she will wrong herself so as to hide her natural
+attractions. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page114"></a>[pg
+114]</span> The married woman has the paint laid on before her
+mirror, and, to the insult of her Maker, strives to acquire
+something more than her natural beauty. Then come the prattling of
+infants, the noisy household, children watching for her word and
+waiting for her kiss, the reckoning up of expenses, the preparation
+to meet the outlay. On one side you will see a company of cooks,
+girded for the onslaught and attacking the meat; there you may hear
+the hum of a multitude of weavers. Meanwhile a message is delivered
+that her husband and his friends have arrived. The wife, like a
+swallow, flies all over the house. She has to see to everything. Is
+the sofa smooth? Is the pavement swept? Are the flowers in the cup?
+Is dinner ready? Tell me, pray, amid all this, is there room for
+the thought of God?"</p>
+<p>Such was Roman married life as it appeared to Jerome. The very
+duties and blessings that we consider the glory of the family he
+despised. I will return to his views later, but it is interesting
+to note the absence at this period, of the modern and true idea
+that God may be served in the performance of household and other
+secular duties. Women fled <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page115"></a>[pg 115]</span> from such occupations in those days
+that they might be religious. The disagreeable fact of Peter's
+marriage was overcome by the assertion that he must have washed
+away the stain of his married life by the blood of his martyrdom.
+Such extreme views arose partly as a reaction from and a protest
+against the dominant corruption, a state of affairs in which happy
+and holy marriages were rare.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Spread_of_Monasticism_in_Europe"></a>The Spread
+of Monasticism in Europe</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Much more might be said of monastic life in Rome, were it not
+now necessary to treat of the spread of monasticism in Europe.
+There are many noble characters whom we ought to know, such as
+Ambrose, one of Christendom's greatest bishops, who led a life of
+poverty and strict abstinence, like his sister Marcella, whom we
+have met. He it was, of whom the Emperor Theodosius said: "I have
+met a man who has told me the truth." Well might he so declare, for
+Ambrose refused him admission to the church at Milan, because his
+hands were red with the blood of the murdered, and succeeded in
+persuading him to submit to <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page116"></a>[pg 116]</span> discipline. To Ambrose may be applied
+the words which Gibbon wrote of Gregory Nazianzen: "The title of
+Saint has been added to his name, but the tenderness of his heart
+and the elegance of his genius reflect a more pleasing luster on
+his memory."</p>
+<p>The story of John, surnamed Chrysostom, who was born at Antioch,
+in 347, is exceedingly interesting. He was a young lawyer, who
+entered the priesthood after his baptism. He at once set his heart
+on the monastic life, but his mother took him to her chamber, and,
+by the bed where she had given him birth, besought him in fear, not
+to forsake her. "My son," she said in substance, "my only comfort
+in the midst of the miseries of this earthly life is to see thee
+constantly, and to behold in thy traits the faithful image of my
+beloved husband, who is no more. When you have buried me and joined
+my ashes with those of your father, nothing will then prevent you
+from retiring into the monastic life. But so long as I breathe,
+support me by your presence, and do not draw down upon you the
+wrath of God by bringing such evils upon me who have given you no
+offence." This <span class="pagenum"><a name="page117"></a>[pg
+117]</span> singularly tender petition was granted, but Chrysostom
+turned his home into a monastery, slept on the bare floor, ate
+little and seldom, and prayed much by day and by night.</p>
+<p>After his mother's death Chrysostom enjoyed the seclusion of a
+monastic solitude for six years, but impairing his health by
+excessive self-mortification he returned to Antioch in 380. He
+rapidly rose to a position of commanding influence in the church.
+His peerless oratorical and literary gifts were employed in
+elevating the ascetic ideal and in unsparing denunciations of the
+worldly religion of the imperial court. He incurred the furious
+hatred of the young and beautiful Empress Eudoxia, who united her
+influence with that of the ambitious Theophilus, patriarch of
+Alexandria, and Chrysostom was banished from Constantinople, but
+died on his way to the remote desert of Pityus. His powerful
+sermons and valuable writings contributed in no small degree to the
+spread of monasticism among the Christians of his time.</p>
+<p>Then there was Augustine, the greatest thinker since Plato. "We
+shall meet him," says Schaff, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page118"></a>[pg 118]</span> "alike on the broad highways and the
+narrow foot-paths, on the giddy Alpine heights and in the awful
+depths of speculation, wherever philosophical thinkers before him
+or after him have trod." He, too, like all the other leaders of
+thought in his time, was ascetic in his habits. Although he lived
+and labored for thirty-eight years at Hippo, a Numidian city about
+two hundred miles west of Carthage, in Africa, Augustine was
+regarded as the intellectual head not only of North Africa but of
+Western Christianity. He gathered his clergy into a college of
+priests, with a community of goods, thus approaching as closely to
+the regular monastic life as was possible to secular clergymen. He
+established religious houses and wrote a set of rules, consisting
+of twenty-four articles, for the government of monasteries. These
+rules were superseded by those of Benedict, but they were
+resuscitated under Charlemagne and reappeared in the famous Austin
+Canons of the eleventh century. Little did Augustine think that a
+thousand years later an Augustinian monk--Luther--would abandon his
+order to become the founder of modern Protestantism.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page119"></a>[pg 119]</span>
+<p>Augustine published a celebrated essay,--"On the Labor of
+Monks,"--in which he pointed out the dangers of monachism,
+condemned its abuses, and ended by sighing for the quiet life of
+the monk who divided his day between labor, reading and prayer,
+whilst he himself spent his years amid the noisy throng and the
+perplexities of his episcopate.</p>
+<p>These men, and many others, did much to further monasticism. But
+we must now leave sunny Africa and journey northward through Gaul
+into the land of the hardy Britons and Scots.</p>
+<p>Athanasius, the same weary exile whom we have encountered in
+Egypt and in Rome, had been banished by Constantine to Treves, in
+336. In 346 and 349 he again visited Gaul. He told the same story
+of Anthony and the Egyptian hermits with similar results.</p>
+<p>The most renowned ecclesiastic of the Gallican church, whose
+name is most intimately associated with the spread of monasticism
+in Western Europe, before the days of Benedict, was Saint Martin of
+Tours. He lived about the years 316-396 A.D. The chronicle of his
+life is by no means trustworthy, but that is essential neither to
+popularity <span class="pagenum"><a name="page120"></a>[pg
+120]</span> nor saintship. Only let a Severus describe his life and
+miracles in glowing rhetoric and fantastic legend and the people
+will believe it, pronouncing him greatest among the great, the
+mightiest miracle-worker of that miracle-working age.</p>
+<p>Martin was a soldier three years, against his will, under
+Constantine. One bleak winter day he cut his white military coat in
+two with his sword and clothed a beggar with half of it. That night
+he heard Jesus address the angels: "Martin, as yet only a
+catechumen has clothed me with his garment." After leaving the army
+he became a hermit, and, subsequently, bishop of Tours. He lived
+for years just outside of Tours in a cell made of interlaced
+branches. His monks dwelt around him in caves cut out of scarped
+rocks, overlooking a beautiful stream. They were clad in camel's
+hair and lived on a diet of brown bread, sleeping on a straw
+couch.</p>
+<p>But Martin's monks did not take altogether kindly to their mode
+of life. Severus records an amusing story of their rebellion
+against the meager allowance of food. The Egyptian could exist on a
+few figs a day. But these rude Gauls, just emerging <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page121"></a>[pg 121]</span> out of barbarism,
+were accustomed to devour great slices of roasted meat and to drink
+deep draughts of beer. Such sturdy children of the northern forests
+naturally disdained dainty morsels of barley bread and small
+potations of wine. True, Athanasius had said, "Fasting is the food
+of angels," but these ascetic novices, in their perplexity, could
+only say: "We are accused of gluttony; but we are Gauls; it is
+ridiculous and cruel to make us live like angels; we are not
+angels; once more, we are only Gauls." Their complaint comes down
+to us as a pathetic but humorous protest of common sense against
+ascetic fanaticism; or, regarded in another light, it may be
+considered as additional evidence of the depravity of the natural
+man.</p>
+<p>In spite of all complaints, however, Martin did not abate the
+severity of his discipline. As a bishop he pushed his monastic
+system into all the surrounding country. His zeal knew no bounds,
+and his strength seemed inexhaustible. "No one ever saw him either
+gloomy or merry," remarks his biographer. Amid many embarrassments
+and difficulties he was ever the same, with a countenance
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page122"></a>[pg 122]</span> full of
+heavenly serenity. He was a great miracle-worker--that is, if
+everything recorded of him is true. He cast out demons, and healed
+the sick; he had strange visions of angels and demons, and,
+wonderful to relate, thrice he raised bodies from the dead.</p>
+<p>But all conquerors are at last vanquished by the angel of death,
+and Martin passed into the company of the heavenly host and the
+category of saints. Two thousand monks attended his funeral. His
+fame spread all over Europe. Tradition tells us he was the uncle of
+Saint Patrick of Ireland. Churches were dedicated to him in France,
+Germany, Scotland and England. The festival of his birth is
+celebrated on the eleventh of November. In Scotland this day still
+marks the winter term, which is called Martinmas. Saint Martin's
+shrine was one of the most famous of the middle ages, and was noted
+for its wonderful cures. No saint is held, even now, in higher
+veneration by the French Catholic.</p>
+<p>It is not known when the institution was planted in Spain, but
+in 380 the council of Saragossa forbade priests to assume monkish
+habits. Germany <span class="pagenum"><a name="page123"></a>[pg
+123]</span> received the institution some time in the fifth
+century. The introduction of Christianity as well as of monasticism
+into the British Isles is shrouded in darkness. A few jewels of
+fact may be gathered from the legendary rubbish. It is probable
+that before the days of Benedict, Saint Patrick, independently of
+Rome, established monasteries in Ireland and preached the gospel
+there; and, without doubt, before the birth of Benedict of Nursia,
+there were monks and monasteries in Great Britain. The monastery of
+Bangor is said to have been founded about 450 A.D.</p>
+<p>It is probable that Christianity was introduced into Britain
+before the close of the second century, and that monasticism arose
+some time in the fifth century. Tertullian, about the beginning of
+the third century, boasts that Christianity had conquered places in
+Britain where the Roman arms could not penetrate. Origen claimed
+that the power of the Savior was manifest in Britain as well as in
+Muritania. The earliest notice we have of a British church occurs
+in the writings of the Venerable Bede (673-735 A.D.), a monk whose
+numerous and valuable works on English history <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page124"></a>[pg 124]</span> entitle him to the
+praise of being "the greatest literary benefactor this or any other
+nation has produced." He informs us that a British
+king--Lucius--embraced Christianity during the reign of the Emperor
+Aurelius, and that missionaries were sent from Rome to Britain
+about that time. Lingard says the story is suspicious, since "we
+know not from what source Bede, at the distance of five centuries,
+derived his information." It seems quite likely that there must
+have been some Christians among the Roman soldiers or civil
+officials who lived in Britain during the Roman occupation of the
+country. The whole problem has been the theme of so much
+controversy, however, that a fuller discussion is reserved for the
+next chapter.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Disorders_and_Oppositions"></a>Disorders and
+Oppositions</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>But was there no protest against the progress of these ascetic
+teachings? Did the monastic institution command the unanimous
+approval of the church from the outset? There were many and strong
+outcries against the monks, but they were <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page125"></a>[pg 125]</span> quickly silenced by
+the counter-shouts of praise. Even when rebellion against the
+system seemed formidable, it was popular nevertheless. The lifted
+hand was quickly struck down, and voices of opposition suddenly
+hushed. Like a mighty flood the movement swept on,--kings, when so
+inclined, being powerless to stop it. As Paula was carried fainting
+from the funeral procession of Bl&aelig;silla, her daughter,
+whispers such as these were audible in the crowd: "Is not this what
+we have often said? She weeps for her daughter, killed with
+fasting. How long must we refrain from driving these detestable
+monks out of Rome? Why do we not stone them or hurl them into the
+Tiber? They have misled this unhappy mother; that she is not a nun
+from choice is clear. No heathen mother ever wept for her children
+as she does for Bl&aelig;silla." And this is Paula, who, choked
+with grief, refused to weep when she sailed from her children for
+the far East!</p>
+<p>Unhappily, history is often too dignified to retail the
+conversations of the dinner-table and the gossip of private life.
+But this narrative indicates that in many a Roman family the monk
+was feared, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page126"></a>[pg
+126]</span> despised and hated. Sometimes everyday murmurs found
+their way into literature and so passed to posterity. Rutilius, the
+Pagan poet, as he sails before a hermit isle in the Mediterranean,
+exclaims: "Behold, Capraria rises before us; that isle is full of
+wretches, enemies of light. I detest these rocks scene of a recent
+shipwreck." He then goes on to declare that a young and rich
+friend, impelled by the furies, had fled from men and gods to a
+living tomb, and was now decaying in that foul retreat. This was no
+uncommon opinion. But contrast it with what Ambrose said of those
+same isles: "It is there in these isles, thrown down by God like a
+collar of pearls upon the sea, that those who would escape from the
+charms of dissipation find refuge. Nothing here disturbs their
+peace, all access is closed to the wild passions of the world. The
+mysterious sound of waves mingles with the chant of hymns; and,
+while the waters break upon the shores of these happy isles with a
+gentle murmur, the peaceful accents of the choir of the elect
+ascend toward Heaven from their bosom." No wonder the Milanese
+ladies guarded their daughters against this theological poet.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page127"></a>[pg 127]</span>
+<p>Even among the Christians there were hostile as well as friendly
+critics of monasticism; Jovinian, whom Neander compares to Luther,
+is a type of the former. Although a monk himself, he disputed the
+thesis that any merit lay in celibacy, fasting or poverty. He
+opposed the worship of saints and relics, and believed that one
+might retain possession of his property and make good use of it. He
+assailed the dissolute monks and claimed that many of Rome's
+noblest young men and women were withdrawn from a life of
+usefulness into the desert. He held that there was really but one
+class of Christians, namely, those who had faith in Christ, and
+that a monk could be no more. But Jovinian was far in advance of
+his age, and it was many years before the truth of his view gained
+any considerable recognition. He was severely attacked by Jerome,
+who called him a Christian Epicurean, and was condemned as a
+heretic by a synod at Milan, in 390. Thus the reformers were
+crushed for centuries. The Pagan Emperor, Julian, and the
+Christian, Valens, alike tried in vain to resist the emigration
+into the desert. Thousands fled, in times of peril to the state,
+from <span class="pagenum"><a name="page128"></a>[pg 128]</span>
+their civil and military duties, but the emperors were powerless to
+prevent the exodus.</p>
+<p>That there were grounds for complaint against the monks we may
+know from the charges made even by those who favored the system.
+Jerome Ambrose, Augustine, and in fact almost every one of the
+Fathers tried to correct the growing disorders. We learn from them
+that many fled from society, not to become holy, but to escape
+slavery and famine; and that many were lazy and immoral. Their
+"shaven heads lied to God." Avarice, ambition, or cowardice ruled
+hearts that should have been actuated by a love of poverty,
+self-sacrifice or courage. "Quite recently," says Jerome, "we have
+seen to our sorrow a fortune worthy of Croesus brought to light by
+a monk's death, and a city's alms collected for the poor, left by
+will to his sons and successors."</p>
+<p>Many monks traveled from place to place selling sham relics.
+Augustine wrote against "those hypocrites who, in the dress of
+monks, wander about the provinces carrying pretended relics,
+amulets, preservatives, and expecting alms to feed their lucrative
+poverty and recompense their <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page129"></a>[pg 129]</span> pretended virtue." It is to the
+credit of the Fathers of the church that they boldly and earnestly
+rebuked the vices of the monks and tried to purge the monastic
+system of its impurities.</p>
+<p>But the church sanctioned the monastic movement. She could not
+have done anything else. "It is one of the most striking
+occurrences in history," says Harnack, "that the church, exactly at
+the time when she was developing more and more into a legal
+institution and a sacramental establishment, outlined a Christian
+life-ideal which was incapable of realization within her bounds,
+but only alongside of her. The more she affiliated herself with the
+world, the higher and more superhuman did she make her ideal."</p>
+<p>It is also noteworthy that this "life-ideal" seems to have led,
+inevitably, to fanaticism and other excesses, so that even at this
+early date there was much occasion for alarm. Gross immorality was
+disclosed as well as luminous purity; indolence and laziness as
+well as the love of sacrifice and toil. So we shall find it down
+through the centuries. "The East had few great men," says Milman,
+"many madmen; the West, madmen <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page130"></a>[pg 130]</span> enough, but still very many, many
+great men." We have met some madmen and some great men. We shall
+meet more of each type.</p>
+<p>After 450 A.D., monasticism suffered an eclipse for over half a
+century. It seemed as if the Western institution was destined to
+end in that imbecility and failure which overtook the Eastern
+system. But there came a man who infused new life into the monastic
+body. He systematized its scattered principles and concentrated the
+energies of the wandering and unorganized monks.</p>
+<p>Our next visit will be to the mountain home of this renowned
+character, fifty miles to the west of Rome. "A single monk," says
+Montalembert, "is about to form there a center of spiritual virtue,
+and to light it up with a splendor destined to shine over
+regenerated Europe for ten centuries to come."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page131"></a>[pg 131]</span>
+<h2><a name="III"></a>III</h2>
+<h2><i><a name="THE_BENEDICTINES"></a>THE BENEDICTINES</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Saint Benedict, the founder of the famous monastic order that
+bears his name, was born at Nursia, about 480 A.D. His parents, who
+were wealthy, intended to give him a liberal education; but their
+plans were defeated, for at fifteen years of age Benedict renounced
+his family and fortune, and fled from his school life in Rome. The
+vice of the city shocked and disgusted him. He would rather be
+ignorant and holy, than educated and wicked. On his way into the
+mountains, he met a monk named Romanus,--the spot is marked by the
+chapel of Santa Crocella,--who gave him a haircloth shirt and a
+monastic dress of skins. Continuing his journey with Romanus, the
+youthful ascetic discovered a sunless cave in the desert of
+Subiaco, about forty miles from Rome. Into this <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page132"></a>[pg 132]</span> cell he climbed,
+and in it he lived three years. It was so inaccessible that Romanus
+had to lower his food to him by a rope, to which was attached a
+bell to call him from his devotions. Once the Devil threw a stone
+at the rope and broke it.</p>
+<p>But Benedict's bodily escape from the wickedness of Rome did not
+secure his spiritual freedom. "There was a certain lady of thin,
+airy shape, who was very active in this solemnity; her name was
+Fancy." Time and again, he revisited his old haunts, borne on the
+wings of his imagination. The face of a beautiful young girl of
+previous acquaintance constantly appeared before him. He was about
+to yield to the temptation and to return, when, summoning all his
+strength, he made one mighty effort to dispel the illusion forever.
+Divesting himself of his clothes, he rolled his naked body among
+the thorn-bushes near his cave. It was drastic treatment, but it
+seems to have rid his mind effectually of disturbing fancies. This
+singular self-punishment was used by Godric, the Welsh saint, in
+the twelfth century. "Failing to subdue his rebellious flesh by
+this method, he buried a cask in the earthen floor of his cell,
+filled it with water <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page133"></a>[pg 133]</span> and fitted it with a cover, and in
+this receptacle he shut himself up whenever he felt the
+titillations of desire. In this manner, varied by occasionally
+passing the night up to his chin in a river, of which he had broken
+the ice, he finally succeeded in mastering his fiery nature."</p>
+<p>One day some peasants discovered Benedict at the entrance of his
+cave. Deceived by his savage appearance, they mistook him for a
+wild beast, but the supposed wolf proving to be a saint, they fell
+down and reverenced him.</p>
+<p>The fame of the young ascetic attracted throngs of hermits, who
+took up their abodes near his cell. After a time monasteries were
+established, and Benedict was persuaded to become an abbot in one
+of them. His strictness provoked much opposition among the monks,
+resulting in carefully-laid plots to compass the moral ruin of
+their spiritual guide. An attempt to poison him was defeated by a
+miraculous interposition, and Benedict escaped to a solitary
+retreat.</p>
+<p>Again the moral hero became an abbot, and again the severity of
+his discipline was resented. This time a wicked and jealous priest
+sought to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page134"></a>[pg
+134]</span> entrap the saint by turning into a garden in which he
+was accustomed to walk seven young girls of exquisite physical
+charms. When Benedict encountered this temptation, he fled from the
+scene and retired to a picturesque mountain--the renowned Monte
+Cassino. Let Montalembert describe this celebrated spot among the
+western Apennines: "At the foot of this rock Benedict found an
+amphitheatre of the time of the C&aelig;sars, amidst the ruins of
+the town of Casinum, which the most learned and pious of Romans,
+Varro, that pagan Benedictine, whose memory and knowledge the sons
+of Benedict took pleasure in honoring, had rendered illustrious.
+From the summit the prospect extended on one side towards Arpinum,
+where the prince of Roman orators was born, and on the other
+towards Aquinum, already celebrated as the birthplace of
+Juvenal.... It was amidst those noble recollections, this solemn
+nature, and upon that predestinated height, that the patriarch of
+the monks of the West founded the capital of the monastic
+order."</p>
+<p>In the year 529 a great stronghold of Paganism in these wild
+regions gave way to Benedict's faith. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page135"></a>[pg 135]</span> Upon the ruins of a
+temple to Apollo, and in a grove sacred to Venus, arose the model
+of Western monasticism,--the cloister of Monte Cassino, which was
+to shine resplendent for a thousand years. The limitations of my
+purpose will prevent me from following in detail the fortunes of
+this renowned retreat, but it may not be out of place to glance at
+its subsequent history.</p>
+<p>Monte Cassino is located three and a half miles to the northeast
+of the town of Cassino, midway between Rome and Naples. About 589
+A.D. the Lombards destroyed the buildings, but the monks escaped to
+Rome, in fulfilment, so it is claimed, of a prophecy uttered by
+Benedict. It lay in ruins until restored by Gregory II. in 719,
+only to be burned in 884 by the Saracens; seventy years later it
+was again rebuilt. It afterwards passed through a variety of
+calamities, and was consecrated, for the third time, by Benedict
+XII., in 1729. Longfellow quotes a writer for the <i>London Daily
+News</i> as saying: "There is scarcely a pope or emperor of
+importance who has not been personally connected with its history.
+From its mountain crag it has seen Goths, Lombards, Saracens,
+Normans, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page136"></a>[pg
+136]</span> Frenchmen, Spaniards, Germans, scour and devastate the
+land which, through all modern history, has attracted every
+invader."</p>
+<p>It was enriched by popes, emperors and princes. In its palmy
+days the abbot was the first baron in the realm, and commanded over
+four hundred towns and villages. In 1866, it shared the fate of all
+the monasteries of Italy. It still stands upon the summit of the
+mountain, and can be seen by the traveler from the railway in the
+valley. At present it serves as a Catholic seminary with about two
+hundred students. It contains a spacious church, richly ornamented
+with marble, mosaics and paintings. It has also a famous library
+which, in spite of bad usage, is still immensely valuable.
+Boccaccio made a visit to the place, and when he saw the precious
+books so vilely mutilated, he departed in tears, exclaiming: "Now,
+therefore, O scholar, rack thy brains in the making of books!" The
+library contains about twenty thousand volumes, and about
+thirty-five thousand popes' bulls, diplomas and charters. There are
+also about a thousand manuscripts, some of which are of priceless
+value, as they date from the sixth century downward, and consist
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page137"></a>[pg 137]</span> of
+ancient Bibles and important medieval literature.</p>
+<p>Benedict survived the founding of this monastery fourteen years.
+His time was occupied in establishing other cloisters, perfecting
+his rule, and preaching. Many stories are related of his power over
+the hearts of the untamed barbarians. Galea the Goth, out on a
+marauding expedition, demanded a peasant to give him his treasures.
+The peasant, thinking to escape, said he had committed them to the
+keeping of Benedict. Galea immediately ordered him to be bound on a
+horse and conducted to the saint. Benedict was seated at the
+gateway reading when Galea and his prisoner arrived. Looking up
+from his book he fastened his eyes upon the poor peasant, who was
+immediately loosed from his bonds. The astonished Galea, awed by
+this miracle, fell at the feet of the abbot, and, instead of
+demanding gold, supplicated his blessing. Once a boy was drowning,
+and, at the command of Benedict, St. Maur, a wealthy young Roman,
+who had turned monk, walked safely out upon the water and rescued
+the lad. Gregory also tells us many stories of miraculous healing,
+and of one resurrection from the dead.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page138"></a>[pg 138]</span>
+<p>Benedict's last days were linked with a touching incident. His
+sister, Scholastica, presided over a convent near his own. They met
+once a year. On his last visit to her, Scholastica begged him to
+remain and "speak of the joys of Heaven till the morning." But
+Benedict would not listen; he must return. His sister then buried
+her face in her hands weeping and praying. Suddenly the sky was
+overcast with clouds, and a terrific storm burst upon the
+mountains, which prevented her brother's return. Three days later
+Benedict saw the soul of his sister entering heaven. On March 21,
+543, a short time after his sister's death, two monks beheld a
+shining pathway of stars over which the soul of Benedict passed
+from Monte Cassino to heaven. Such, in brief, is the story
+preserved for us in his biography by the celebrated patron of
+monasticism, Pope Gregory I.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Rules_of_Benedict"></a>The Rules of
+Benedict</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The rules, <i>regulae</i>, of St. Benedict, are worthy of
+special consideration, since they constitute the real foundation of
+his success and of his fame. <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page139"></a>[pg 139]</span> His order was by far the most
+important monastic brotherhood until the thirteenth century. Nearly
+all the other orders which sprang up during this interval were
+based upon Benedictine rules, and were really attempts to reform
+the monastic system on the basis of Benedict's original practice.
+Other monks lived austere lives and worked miracles, and some of
+them formulated rules, but it is to Benedict and his rules that we
+must look for the code of Western monachism. "By a strange
+parallelism," says Putnam, "almost in the very year in which the
+great Emperor Justinian was codifying the results of seven
+centuries of Roman secular legislation for the benefit of the
+judges and the statesmen of the new Europe, Benedict, on his lonely
+mountain-top, was composing his code for the regulation of the
+daily life of the great civilizers of Europe for seven centuries to
+come."</p>
+<p>The rules consist of a preface and seventy-three chapters. The
+prologue defines the classes of monks, and explains the aim of the
+"school of divine servitude," as Benedict described his monastery.
+The following is a partial list of the subjects considered: The
+character of an abbot, silence, maxims <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page140"></a>[pg 140]</span> for good works,
+humility, directions as to divine service, rules for dormitories,
+penalties, duties of various monastic officers, poverty, care of
+the sick daily rations of food and drink, hours for meals, fasting,
+entertainment of guests, and dress. They close with the statement
+that the Benedictine rule is not offered as an ideal of perfection,
+or even as equal to the teaching of Cassian or Basil, but for mere
+beginners in the spiritual life, who may thence proceed
+further.</p>
+<p>The Benedictine novitiate extended over one year, but was
+subsequently increased to three. At the close of this period the
+novice was given the opportunity to go back into the world. If he
+still persisted in his choice, he swore before the bones of the
+saints to remain forever cut off from the rest of his fellow
+beings. If a monk left the monastery, or was expelled, he could
+return twice, but if, after the third admission, he severed his
+connection, the door was shut forever.</p>
+<p>The monk passed his time in manual labor, copying manuscripts,
+reading, fasting and prayer. He was forbidden to receive letters,
+tokens or gifts, even from his nearest-relatives, without
+permission <span class="pagenum"><a name="page141"></a>[pg
+141]</span> from the abbot. His daily food allowance was usually a
+pound of bread, a pint of wine, cider or ale, and sometimes fish,
+eggs, fruit or cheese. He was dressed in a black cowl. His clothing
+was to be suitable to the climate and to consist of two sets. He
+was also furnished with a straw mattress, blanket, quilt, pillow,
+knife, pen, needle, handkerchief and tablets. He was, in all
+things, to submit patiently to his superior, to keep silence, and
+to serve his turn in the kitchen. In the older days the monks
+changed their clothes on the occasion of a bath, which used to be
+taken four times a year. Later, bathing was allowed only twice a
+year, and the monks changed their clothes when they wished.</p>
+<p>Various punishments were employed to correct faults. Sometimes
+the offender was whipped on the bare shoulders with a thick rod;
+others had to lie prostrate in the doorway of the church at each
+hour, so that the monks passed over his body on entering or going
+out.</p>
+<p>The monks formerly rose at two o'clock, and spent the day in
+various occupations until eight at night, when they retired. The
+following rules once governed St. Gregory's Monastery in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page142"></a>[pg 142]</span>
+England: "3:45 A.M. Rise. 4 A.M. Matins and lauds, recited;
+half-hour mental prayer; prime <i>sung</i>; prime B.V.M. recited.
+6:30 A.M. Private study; masses; breakfast for those who had
+permission. 8 A.M. Lectures and disputations. 10 A.M. Little hours
+B.V.M., recited; tierce, mass, sext, <i>sung</i>. 11:30 A.M.
+Dinner. 12 noon. None <i>sung</i>; vespers and compline B.V.M.,
+recited. 12:30 P.M. Siesta, 1 P.M. Hebrew or Greek lecture. 2 P.M.
+Vespers <i>sung</i>. 2:30 P.M. Lectures and disputations. 4 P.M.
+Private study. 6 P.M. Supper. 6:30 P.M. Recreation. 7:30 P.M.
+Public spiritual reading; compline <i>sung</i>; matins and lauds
+B.V.M., recited; half-hour mental prayer. 8:45 P.M. Retire[<a href=
+"#NOTE_D">D</a>]."</p>
+<p>Such a routine suggests a dreary life, but that would depend
+upon the monk's temperament. Regularity of employment kept him
+healthy, and if he did not take his sins too much to heart, he was
+free from gloom. Hill very justly observes: "Whenever men obey that
+injunction of labor, no matter what their station, there is in the
+act the element of happiness, and whoever avoids that <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page143"></a>[pg 143]</span> injunction, there
+is always the shadow of the unfulfilled curse darkening their
+path." Thus, their ideal was "to subdue one's self and then to
+devote one's self," which De Tocqueville pronounces "the secret of
+strength." How well they succeeded in realizing their ideal by the
+methods employed we shall see later.</p>
+<p>The term "order," as applied to the Benedictines, is used in a
+different sense from that which it has when used of later monastic
+bodies. Each Benedictine house was practically independent of every
+other, while the houses of the Dominicans, Franciscans or Jesuits
+were bound together under one head. The family idea was peculiar to
+the Benedictines. The abbot was the father, and the monastery was
+the home where the Benedictine was content to dwell all his life.
+In the later monastic societies the monks were constantly traveling
+from place to place. Taunton says: "As God made society to rest on
+the basis of the family, so St. Benedict saw that the spiritual
+family is the surest basis for the sanctification of the souls of
+his monks. The monastery therefore is to him what the 'home' is to
+lay-folk.... From this <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page144"></a>[pg 144]</span> family idea comes another result: the
+very fact that St. Benedict did not found an Order but only gave a
+Rule, cuts away all possibility of that narrowing <i>esprit de
+corps</i> which comes so easily to a widespread and
+highly-organized body."</p>
+<p>In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, however, it became
+necessary for the general good of each family to secure some kind
+of union. The Chapter then came into existence, which was a
+representative body, composed of the heads of the different houses
+and ordinary monks regularly appointed as delegates. To the Chapter
+were committed various matters of jurisdiction, and also the power
+of sending visitors to the different abbeys in the pope's name.</p>
+<p>Each society was ruled by an abbot, who governed in Christ's
+stead. Sometimes the members of the monastery were consulted, the
+older ones ordinarily, the whole congregation; in important
+matters. But implicit obedience to the abbot, as the representative
+of God, was demanded by the vows.</p>
+<p>The abbot was to be elected by the monks. At various periods
+popes and princes usurped this power, but the monks always claimed
+the right as an <span class="pagenum"><a name="page145"></a>[pg
+145]</span> original privilege. Carlyle quotes Jocelin on Abbot
+Samson, who says that the monks of St. Edmundsbury were compelled
+to submit their choice to Henry II., who, looking at the committee
+of monks somewhat sternly, said: "You present to me Samson; I do
+not know him; had it been your prior, whom I do know, I should have
+accepted him; however, I will now do as you wish. But have a care
+of yourselves. By the true eyes of God, if you manage badly, I will
+be upon you."</p>
+<p>In Walter Scott's novel, "The Abbot," there is an interesting
+contrast drawn between the ceremonies attending an abbot's
+installation, when the monasteries were in their glory, and the
+pitiable scenes in the days of their decline, when Mary Stuart was
+a prisoner in Lochleven. In the monastery of Kennaquhair, which had
+been despoiled by the fury of the times, a few monks were left to
+mourn the mutilated statues and weep over the fragments of
+richly-carved Gothic pillars. Having secretly elected an abbot,
+they assembled in fear and trembling to invest him with the honors
+of his office. "In former times," says Scott, "this was one of the
+most splendid of the many pageants which the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page146"></a>[pg 146]</span> hierarchy of Rome
+had devised to attract the veneration of the faithful. When the
+folding doors on such solemn occasions were thrown open, and the
+new abbot appeared on the threshold in full-blown dignity, with
+ring and mitre and dalmatique and crosier, his hoary
+standard-bearers and juvenile dispensers of incense preceding him,
+and the venerable train of monks behind him, his appearance was the
+signal for the magnificent jubilate to rise from the organ and the
+music-loft and to be joined by the corresponding bursts of
+'Alleluiah' from the whole assembled congregation.</p>
+<p>"Now all was changed. Father Ambrose stood on the broken steps
+of the high altar, barefooted, as was the rule, and holding in his
+hand his pastoral staff, for the gemmed ring and jewelled mitre had
+become secular spoils. No obedient vassals came, man after man, to
+make their homage and to offer the tribute which should provide
+their spiritual superior with palfrey and trappings. No bishop
+assisted at the solemnity to receive into the higher ranks of the
+church nobility a dignitary whose voice in the legislature was as
+potent as his own."</p>
+<p>We are enabled by this partially-quoted description <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page147"></a>[pg 147]</span> to imagine the
+importance attached to the election of an abbot. He became, in
+feudal times, a lord of the land, the richest man in the community,
+and a tremendous power in political councils and parliaments. A
+Benedictine abbot once confessed: "My vow of poverty has given me a
+hundred thousand crowns a year; my vow of obedience has raised me
+to the rank of a sovereign prince."</p>
+<p>No new principle seems to be disclosed by the Benedictine rules.
+The command to labor had been emphasized even in the monasteries of
+Egypt. The Basilian code contained a provision enforcing manual
+labor, but the work was light and insufficient to keep the mind
+from brooding. The monastery that was to succeed in the West must
+provide for men who not only could toil hard, but who must do so if
+they were to be kept pure and true; it must welcome men accustomed
+to the dangerous adventures of pioneer life in the vast forests of
+the North. The Benedictine system met these conditions by a unique
+combination and application of well-known monastic principles; by a
+judicious subordination of minor matters to essential discipline;
+by bringing into <span class="pagenum"><a name="page148"></a>[pg
+148]</span> greater prominence the doctrine of labor; by tempering
+the austerities of the cell to meet the necessities of a severe
+climate; and lastly, by devising a scheme of life equally adaptable
+to the monk of sunny Italy and the rude Goth of the northern
+forests.</p>
+<p>It was the splendid fruition of many years of experiment amid
+varying results. "It shows," says Schaff, "a true knowledge of
+human nature, the practical wisdom of Rome and adaptation to
+Western customs; it combines simplicity with completeness,
+strictness with gentleness, humility with courage and gives the
+whole cloister life a fixed unity and compact organization, which,
+like the episcopate, possessed an unlimited versatility and power
+of expansion."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Struggle_against_Barbarism"></a>The Struggle
+against Barbarism</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>No institution has contributed as much to the amelioration of
+human misery or struggled as patiently and persistently to
+influence society for good as the Christian church. In spite of all
+that may be said against the followers of the Cross, it still
+remains true, that they have ever been foremost <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page149"></a>[pg 149]</span> in the
+establishment of peace and justice among men.</p>
+<p>The problem that confronted the church when Benedict began his
+labors, was no less than that of reducing a demoralized and brutal
+society to law and order. Chaos reigned, selfishness and lust ruled
+the hearts of Rome's conquerors. The West was desolated by
+barbarians; the East dismembered and worn out by theological
+controversy. War had ruined the commerce of the cities and laid
+waste the rural districts. Vast swamps and tracts of brush covered
+fields once beautiful with the products of agricultural labor. The
+minds of men were distracted by apprehensions of some frightful,
+impending calamity. The cultured Roman, the untutored Goth and the
+corrupted Christian were locked in the deadly embrace of despair.
+"Constantly did society attempt to form itself," says Guizot,
+"constantly was it destroyed by the act of man, by the absence of
+the moral conditions under which alone it can exist."</p>
+<p>But notwithstanding failures and discouragements, the work of
+reconstructing society moved painfully on, and among the brave
+master builders was Benedict of Nursia. "He found the world,
+physical <span class="pagenum"><a name="page150"></a>[pg
+150]</span> and social, in ruins," says Cardinal Newman, "and his
+mission was to restore it in the way,--not of science, but of
+nature; not as if setting about to do it; not professing to do it
+by any set time, or by any series of strokes; but so quietly,
+patiently, gradually, that often till the work was done, it was not
+known to be doing. It was a restoration rather than a visitation,
+correction or conversion. The new world he helped to create was a
+growth rather than a structure."</p>
+<p>But the chaos created by the irruption of the barbarous nations
+at this period seriously affected the moral character and influence
+of the clergy and the monks. The church seemed unequal to the
+stupendous undertaking of converting the barbarians. The monks, as
+a class, were lawless and vicious. Benedict himself testifies
+against them, and declares that they were "always wandering and
+never stable; that they obey their own appetites, whereunto they
+are enslaved." Unable to control their own desires by any law
+whatsoever, they were unfitted to the task before them. It was
+imperative, then, that unity and order should be introduced among
+the monasteries; that some sort of a uniform <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page151"></a>[pg 151]</span> rule, adapted to
+the existing conditions, should be adopted, not only for the
+preservation of the monastic institution, but for the preparation
+of the monks for their work. Therefore, although the Christianity
+of that time was far from ideal, it was, nevertheless, a religion
+within the grasp of the reckless barbarians; and subsequent events
+prove that it possessed a moral power capable of humanizing
+manners, elevating the intellect, and checking the violent temper
+of the age.</p>
+<p>Excepting always the religious services of the Benedictine
+monks, their greatest contribution to civilization was literary and
+educational[<a href="#NOTE_E">E</a>]. The rules of Benedict
+provided for two hours a day of reading, and it was doubtless this
+wise regulation that stimulated literary tastes, and resulted in
+the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page152"></a>[pg 152]</span>
+collecting of books and the reproduction of manuscripts. "Wherever
+a Benedictine house arose, or a monastery of any one of the Orders,
+which were but offshoots from the Benedictine tree, books were
+multiplied and a library came into existence, small indeed at
+first, but increasing year by year, till the wealthier houses had
+gathered together collections of books that would do credit to a
+modern university." There was great danger that the remains of
+classic literature might be destroyed in the general devastation of
+Italy. The monasteries rescued the literary fragments that escaped,
+and preserved them. "For a period of more than six centuries the
+safety of the literary heritage of Europe,--one may say of the
+world,--depended upon the scribes of a few dozen scattered
+monasteries."</p>
+<p>The literary services of the earlier monks did not consist in
+original production, but in the reproduction and preservation of
+the classics. This work was first begun as a part of the prescribed
+routine of European monastic life in the monastery at Vivaria, or
+Viviers, France, which was founded by Cassiodorus about 539. The
+rules of this cloister were based on those of Cassian, who died in
+the early part of the fifth century. Benedict, at Monte Cassino,
+followed the example of Cassiodorus, and the Benedictine Order
+carried the work on for the seven succeeding centuries.</p>
+<p>Cassiodorus was a statesman of no mean ability, and for over
+forty years was active in the political <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page153"></a>[pg 153]</span> circles of his
+time, holding high official positions under five different Roman
+rulers. He was also an exceptional scholar, devoting much of his
+energy to the preservation of classic literature. His magnificent
+collection of manuscripts, rescued from the ruins of Italian
+libraries, "supplied material for the pens of thousands of monastic
+scribes." If we leave out Jerome, it is to Cassiodorus that the
+honor is due for joining learning and monasticism.</p>
+<p>"Thus," remarks Schaff, "that very mode of life, which, in its
+founder, Anthony, despised all learning, became in the course of
+its development an asylum of culture in the rough and stormy times
+of the migration and the crusades, and a conservator of the
+literary treasures of antiquity for the use of modern times."</p>
+<p>Cassiodorus, with a noble enthusiasm, inspired his monks to
+their task. He even provided lamps of ingenious construction, that
+seem to have been self-trimming, to aid them in their work. He
+himself set an example of literary diligence, astonishing in one of
+his age.</p>
+<p>Putnam is justified in his praises of this remarkable character
+when he declares: "It is not too <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page154"></a>[pg 154]</span> much to say that the continuity of
+thought and civilization of the ancient world with that of the
+middle ages was due, more than to any other one man, to the life
+and labors of Cassiodorus."</p>
+<p>But the monk was more than a scribe and a collector of books, he
+became the chronicler and the school-teacher. "The records that
+have come down to us of several centuries of medieval European
+history are due almost exclusively to the labors of the monastic
+chroniclers." A vast fund of information, the value of which is
+impaired, it is true, by much useless stuff, concerning medieval
+customs, laws and events, was collected by these unscientific
+historians and is now accessible to the student.</p>
+<p>At the end of the ninth century nearly all the monasteries of
+Europe conducted schools open to the children of the neighborhood.
+The character of the educational training of the times is not to be
+judged by modern standards. A beginning had to be made, and that
+too at a time "when neither local nor national governments had
+assumed any responsibilities in connection with elementary
+education, and when the municipalities were too ignorant, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page155"></a>[pg 155]</span> in many
+cases too poor, to make provision for the education of the
+children." It is therefore to the lasting credit of Benedict,
+inspired no doubt by the example of Cassiodorus, that he commanded
+his monks to read, encouraged literary work, and made provision for
+the education of the young.</p>
+<p>The Benedictines rendered a great social service in reclaiming
+deserted regions and in clearing forests. "The monasteries," says
+Maitland, "were, in those days of misrule and turbulence, beyond
+all price, not only as places where (it may be imperfectly, but
+better than elsewhere) God was worshipped,... but as central points
+whence agriculture was to spread over bleak hills and barren downs
+and marshy plains, and deal its bread to millions perishing with
+hunger and its pestilential train." Roman taxation and barbarian
+invasions had ruined the farmers, who left their lands and fled to
+swell the numbers of the homeless. The monk repeopled these
+abandoned but once fertile fields, and carried civilization still
+deeper into the forests. Many a monastery with its surrounding
+buildings became the nucleus of a modern city. The more awful the
+darkness of the forest solitudes, the more the monks <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page156"></a>[pg 156]</span> loved it. They cut
+down trees in the heart of the wilderness, and transformed a soil
+bristling with woods and thickets into rich pastures and ploughed
+fields. They stimulated the peasantry to labor, and taught them
+many useful lessons in agriculture. Thus, they became an
+industrial, as well as a spiritual, agency for good.</p>
+<p>The habits of the monks brought them into close contact with
+nature. Even the animals became their friends. Numerous stories
+have been related of their wonderful power over wild beasts and
+their conversations with the birds. "It is wonderful," says Bede,
+"that he who faithfully and loyally obeys the Creator of the
+universe, should, in his turn, see all the creatures obedient to
+his orders and his wishes." They lived, so we are told, in the most
+intimate relations with the animal creation. Squirrels leaped to
+their hands or hid in the folds of their cowls. Stags came out of
+the forests in Ireland and offered themselves to some monks who
+were ploughing, to replace the oxen carried off by the hunters.
+Wild animals stopped in their pursuit of game at the command of St.
+Laumer. Birds ceased singing at the request of some monks
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page157"></a>[pg 157]</span> until
+they had chanted their evening prayer, and at their word the
+feathered songsters resumed their music. A swan was the daily
+companion of St. Hugh of Lincoln, and manifested its miraculous
+knowledge of his approaching death by the most profound melancholy.
+While all the details of such stories are not to be accepted as
+literally true, no doubt some of this poetry of monastic history
+rests upon interesting and charming facts.</p>
+<p>A fuller discussion of the permanent contributions which the
+monk made to civilization is reserved for the last chapter. I have
+somewhat anticipated a closer scrutiny of his achievements in order
+to present a clearer view of his life and labors. His religious
+duties were, perhaps, wearisome enough. We might tire of his
+monotonous chanting and incessant vigils, but it is gratifying to
+know that he also engaged in practical and useful employments. The
+convent became the house of industry as well as the temple of
+prayer. The forest glades echoed to the stroke of the axe as well
+as to hymns of praise. Yes, as Carlyle writes of the twelfth
+century, "these years were no chimerical vacuity and dreamland
+peopled with mere vaporous phantasms, but a <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page158"></a>[pg 158]</span> green solid place,
+that grew corn and several other things. The sun shone on it, the
+vicissitudes of seasons and human fortunes. Cloth was woven and
+worn; ditches were dug, furrowed fields ploughed and houses
+built."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Spread_of_the_Benedictine_Rule"></a>The Spread
+of the Benedictine Rule</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>It is generally held that Benedict had no presentiment of the
+vast historical importance of his system; and that he aspired to
+nothing beyond the salvation of his own soul and those of his
+brethren.</p>
+<p>But the rule spread with wonderful rapidity. In every rich
+valley arose a Benedictine abbey. Britain, Germany, Scandinavia,
+France and Spain adopted his rule. Princes, moved by various
+motives, hastened to bestow grants of land on the indefatigable
+missionary who, undeterred by the wildness of the forest and the
+fierceness of the barbarian, settled in the remotest regions. In
+the various societies of the Benedictines there have been
+thirty-seven thousand monasteries and one hundred and fifty
+thousand abbots. For the space of two <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page159"></a>[pg 159]</span> hundred and
+thirty-nine years the Benedictines governed the church by
+forty-eight popes chosen from their order. They boast of two
+hundred cardinals, seven thousand archbishops, fifteen thousand
+bishops and four thousand saints. The astonishing assertion is also
+made that no less than twenty emperors and forty-seven kings
+resigned their crowns to become Benedictine monks. Their convents
+claim ten empresses and fifty queens. Many of these earthly rulers
+retired to the seclusion of the monastery because their hopes had
+been crushed by political defeat, or their consciences smitten by
+reason of crime or other sins. Some were powerfully attracted by
+the heroic element of monastic life, and these therefore spurned
+the luxuries and emoluments of royalty, in order by personal
+sacrifice to achieve spiritual domination in this life, and to
+render their future salvation certain. But whatever the motive that
+drew queens and princes to the monastic order, the retirement of
+such large numbers of the nobility indicates the influence of a
+religious system which could cope so successfully with the
+attractions of the palace and the natural passion for political
+dominion.</p>
+<p>Saint Gregory the Great, the biographer of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page160"></a>[pg 160]</span> Benedict, who was
+born at Rome in 540 A.D. and so was nearly contemporaneous with
+Benedict was a zealous promoter of the monastic ideal, and did as
+much as any one to advance its ecclesiastical position and
+influence. He founded seven monasteries with his paternal
+inheritance, and became the abbot of one of them. He often
+expressed a desire to escape the clamor of the world by retirement
+to a lonely cell. Inspired by the loftiest estimates of his holy
+office, he sought to reform the church in its spirit and life. Many
+of his innovations in the church service bordered upon a dangerous
+and glittering pomp; but the musical world will always revere his
+memory for the famous chants that bear his name.</p>
+<p>Gregory surrounded himself with monks, and did everything in his
+power to promote their interests. He increased the novitiate to two
+years, and exempted certain monasteries from the control of the
+bishops. Other popes added to these exemptions, and thus widened
+the breach which already existed between the secular clergy and the
+monks. He also fixed a penalty of lifelong imprisonment for
+abandonment of the monastic life.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page161"></a>[pg 161]</span>
+<p>Under Gregory's direction many missionary enterprises were
+carried on, notably that of Augustine to England. The story runs
+that one day Gregory saw some men and beautiful children from
+Britain put up for sale in the market-place. Deeply sighing, he
+exclaimed: "Alas for grief! That the author of darkness possesses
+men of so bright countenance, and that so great grace of aspect
+bears a mind void of inward grace!" He then asked the children the
+name of their nation. "Angles," was the reply. "It is well," he
+said, "for they have <i>angelic</i> faces. What is the name of your
+province?" It was answered, "Deira." "Truly," he said,
+"<i>De-ira-ns,</i> drawn from anger, and called to the mercy of
+Christ. How is your king called?" They answered, "&AElig;lla, or
+Ella." Then he cried "<i>Alleluia!</i> it behooves that the praise
+of God the Creator should be sung in those parts." While it is hard
+to accept this evidently fanciful story in its details, it seems
+quite probable that the sale of some English slaves in a Roman
+market drew the attention of Gregory to the needs of Britain.</p>
+<p>Some years afterwards, in 596, Gregory commissioned <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page162"></a>[pg 162]</span> Augustine, prior of
+the monastery of St. Andrew's on the Celian Hill, at Rome, with
+forty companions, to preach the gospel in Britain. When this
+celebrated missionary landed on the island of Thanet, he found
+monasticism had preceded him. But what was the nature of this
+British monasticism? On that question Rome and England are
+divided.</p>
+<p>The Romanist declares that no country received the Christian
+faith more directly from the Church of Rome than did England; that
+the most careful study of authentic records reveals no doctrinal
+strife, no diversity of belief between the early British monks and
+the Pope of Rome; that St. Patrick, of Ireland, and St. Columba, of
+Scotland, were loyal sons of their Roman mother.</p>
+<p>The Anglican, on the other hand, believes that Christianity was
+introduced into Britain independently of Rome. As to the precise
+means employed, he has his choice of ten legends. He may hold with
+Lane that it is reasonable to suppose one of Paul's ardent
+converts, burning with fervent zeal, led the Britons to the cross.
+Or he may argue with others: "What is more natural than to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page163"></a>[pg 163]</span> imagine
+that Joseph of Arimathea, driven from Palestine, sailed away to
+Britain." In proof of this assumption, we are shown the chapel of
+St. Joseph, the remains of the oldest Christian church, where the
+holy-thorn blossoms earlier than in any other part of England. Many
+Anglicans wisely regard all this as legendary. It is also held that
+St. Patrick and St. Columba were not Romanists, but represented a
+type of British Christianity, which, although temporarily subjected
+to Rome, yet finally threw off the yoke under Henry VIII. and
+reasserted its ancient independence. Still others declare that when
+Augustine was made archbishop, the seat of ecclesiastical authority
+was transferred from Rome to Canterbury, and the English church
+became an independent branch of the universal church. It was
+Catholic, but not Roman.</p>
+<p>The difficulty of ascertaining when and by whom Christianity was
+originally introduced into southern Britain must be apparent to
+every student. But some things may be regarded as historically
+certain. The whole country had been desolated by war when Augustine
+arrived. For a hundred and fifty years the brutality and ignorance
+of the barbarians had <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page164"></a>[pg 164]</span> reigned supreme. All traces of Roman
+civilization had nearly disappeared with the conquest of the
+heathen Anglo-Saxons. Whatever may be thought about the subsequent
+effects of the triumph of Roman Christianity, it is due to Rome to
+recognize the fact that with the coming of the Roman missionaries
+religion and knowledge began a new life.</p>
+<p>The Anglo-Saxons had destroyed the Christian churches and
+monasteries, whose origin, as we have seen, is unknown. They drove
+away or massacred the priests and monks. Christianity was
+practically extirpated in those districts subject to the Germanic
+yoke. But when Augustine landed British monks were still to be
+found in various obscure parts of the country, principally in
+Ireland and Wales. Judging from what is known of these monks, it is
+safe to say that their habits and teachings were based on the
+traditions of an earlier Christianity, and that originally British
+Christianity was independent of Rome.</p>
+<p>The monks in Britain at the time when Augustine landed differed
+from the Roman monks in their tonsures, their liturgy, and the
+observance of Easter, although no material difference in doctrine
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page165"></a>[pg 165]</span> can be
+established. The clergy did not always observe the law of celibacy
+nor perhaps the Roman rules of baptism. It is also admitted, even
+by Catholic historians, that the British monks refused to
+acknowledge Augustine their archbishop; that this question divided
+the royal family; and that the old British church was not
+completely subdued until Henry II. conquered Ireland and Wales.
+These statements are practically supported by Ethelred L. Taunton,
+an authoritative writer, whose sympathy with Roman monasticism is
+very strong. He thinks that a few of the British monks submitted to
+Augustine, but of the rest he says: "They would not heed the call
+of Augustine, and on frivolous pretexts refused to acknowledge
+him." A large body of British monks retired to the monastery of
+Bangor, and when King Ethelfrid invaded the district of Wales, he
+slew twelve hundred of them in the open field as they were upon
+their knees praying for the success of the Britons. It was then
+that the power of the last remnants of Celtic or British
+Christianity was practically broken, and the Roman type henceforth
+gradually acquired the mastery.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page166"></a>[pg 166]</span>
+<p>Montalembert says: "In no other country has Catholicism been
+persecuted with more sanguinary zeal; and, at the same time, none
+has greater need of her care." While the latter observation is open
+to dispute, it is certainly true that England has never remained
+quiet under the dominion of Rome. Goldsmith's tribute to the
+English character suggests a reasonable explanation of this
+historic fact:</p>
+<blockquote>"Stern o'er each bosom reason holds her state,<br>
+Fierce in their native hardiness of soul,<br>
+True to imagined right, above control,<br>
+While even the peasant boasts those rights to scan,<br>
+And learns to venerate himself as man."</blockquote>
+<p>The fact to be remembered, as we emerge from these
+ecclesiastical quarrels and the confusions of this perplexing
+history, is that the monks were the intellectual and religious
+leaders of those days. They exercised a profound influence upon
+English society, and had much to do with the establishment of
+English institutions.</p>
+<p>But, on the other hand, the continent is indebted to England for
+the gift of many noble monks who served France and Germany as
+intellectual and moral guides, at a time when these countries were
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page167"></a>[pg 167]</span> in a
+state of extreme degradation. Boniface, the Apostle to the Germans,
+who is regarded by Neander as the Father of the German church and
+the real founder of the Christian civilization of Germany, was the
+gift of the English cloisters, and a native of Devonshire. Alcuin,
+the ecclesiastical prime minister of Charlemagne and the greatest
+educator of his time, was born and trained in England. Nearly all
+the leading schools of France were founded or improved by this
+celebrated monk. It was largely due to Alcuin's unrivaled energy
+and splendid talents that Charlemagne was able to make so many and
+so glorious educational improvements in his empire.</p>
+<p>Notable among the men who introduced the Benedictine rule into
+England was St. Wilfred (634-709 A.D.), who had traveled
+extensively in France and Italy, and on his return carried the
+monastic rule into northern Britain. He also is credited with
+establishing a course of musical training in the English
+monasteries. He was the most active prelate of his age in the
+founding of churches and monasteries, and in securing uniformity of
+discipline and harmony with the Church of Rome.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page168"></a>[pg 168]</span>
+<p>One of the most famous monastic retreats of those days was the
+wild and lonely isle of Iona, the Mecca of monks and the monastic
+capital of Scotland. It is a small island, three miles long and one
+broad, lying west of Scotland. Many kings of Scotland were crowned
+here on a stone which now forms a part of the British coronation
+chair. Its great monastery enjoyed the distinction from the sixth
+to the eighth century of being second to none in its widespread
+influence in behalf of the intellectual life of Europe.</p>
+<p>This monastery was originally founded in the middle of the sixth
+century by Columba, the Apostle to Caledonia, an Irish saint
+actively associated with a wonderful intellectual awakening. The
+rule of the monastery is unknown, but it is probable that it could
+not have been, at the first, of the Benedictine type. Columba's
+followers traveled as missionaries and teachers to all parts of
+Europe, and it is said, they dared to sail in their small boats
+even as far as Iceland.</p>
+<p>Dr. Johnson says in his "Tour to the Hebrides": "We are now
+treading that illustrious island which was once the luminary of the
+Caledonian regions, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page169"></a>[pg
+169]</span> whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the
+benefits of knowledge and the blessing of religion. That man is
+little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the
+plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the
+ruins of Iona." The monastery which Columba founded here was
+doubtless of the same character as the establishments in Ireland.
+Many of these Celtic buildings were made of the branches of trees
+and supported by wooden props. It was some time before
+properly-constructed wooden churches or monasteries became general
+in these wild regions. In such rude huts small libraries were
+collected and the monks trained to preach. Ireland was then the
+center of knowledge in the North. Greek, Latin, music and such
+science as the monks possessed were taught to eager pupils. Copies
+of their manuscripts are still to be found all over Europe. Their
+schools were open to the rich and poor alike. The monks went from
+house to house teaching and distributing literature. As late as the
+sixteenth century, students from various parts of the Continent
+were to be found in these Irish schools.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page170"></a>[pg 170]</span>
+<p>There is an interesting story related of Columba's literary
+activities. It is said that on one occasion while visiting his
+master, Finnian, he undertook to make a clandestine copy of the
+abbot's Psalter. When the master learned of the fact, he
+indignantly charged Columba with theft, and demanded the copy which
+he had made, on the ground that a copy made without permission of
+the author was the property of the original owner, because a
+transcript is the offspring of the original work. Putnam, to whom I
+am indebted for this story, says: "As far as I have been able to
+ascertain, this is the first instance which occurs in the history
+of European literature of a contention for a copyright." The
+conflict for this copyright afterwards developed into a civil war.
+The copy of the Latin Psalter "was enshrined in the base of a
+portable altar as the national relic of the O'Donnell clan," and
+was preserved by that family for thirteen hundred years. It was
+placed on exhibition as late as 1867, in the museum of the Royal
+Irish Academy.</p>
+<p>Enough has now been said to enable the reader to understand
+something of the spirit and labors of the monks in an age
+characteristically <span class="pagenum"><a name="page171"></a>[pg
+171]</span> barbaric. For five centuries, from the fifth to the
+tenth, the condition of Europe was deplorable. "It may be doubted,"
+says an old writer, "whether the worst of the C&aelig;sars exceeded
+in dark malignity, or in capriciousness of vengeance, the
+long-haired kings of France." The moral sense of even the most
+saintly churchmen seems to have been blunted by familiarity with
+atrocities and crimes. Brute force was the common method of
+exercising control and administering justice. The barbarians were
+bold and independent, but cruel and superstitious. Their furious
+natures needed taming and their rude minds tutoring. Even though
+during this period churches and monasteries were raised in amazing
+numbers, yet the spirit of barbarism was so strong that the
+Christians could scarcely escape its influence. The power of
+Christianity was modified by the nature of the people, whose
+characters it aimed to transform. The remarks of William Newton
+Clarke respecting the Christians of the first and second centuries
+are also appropriate to the period under review: "The people were
+changed by the new faith, but the new faith was changed by the
+people." Christianity "made a new people, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page172"></a>[pg 172]</span> better than it
+found them, but they in turn made a new Christianity, with its
+strong points illustrated and confirmed in their experience, but
+with weakness brought in from their defects."</p>
+<p>Yes, the work of civilizing the Germanic nations was a task of
+herculean proportions and of tremendous significance. Out of these
+tribes were to be constructed the nations of modern Europe. To this
+important mission the monks addressed themselves with such courage,
+patience, faith and zeal, as to entitle them to the veneration of
+posterity. With singular wisdom and unflinching bravery they
+carried on their missionary and educational enterprises, in the
+face of discouragements and obstacles sufficient to dismay the
+bravest souls. The tenacious strength of those wild forces that
+clashed with the tenderer influences of the cloister should soften
+our criticism of the inconsistencies which detract from the glory
+of those early ministers of righteousness and exemplars of
+gentleness and peace.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page173"></a>[pg 173]</span>
+<h2><a name="IV"></a>IV</h2>
+<h2><i><a name="REFORMED_AND_MILITARY_ORDERS"></a>REFORMED AND
+MILITARY ORDERS</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The monastic institution was never entirely good or entirely
+bad. In periods of general degradation there were beautiful
+exceptions in monasteries ruled by pure and powerful abbots. From
+the beginning various monasteries soon departed from their
+discipline by sheltering iniquity and laziness, while other
+establishments faithfully observed the rules. But during the
+eighth, ninth and tenth centuries there was a widespread decline in
+the spirit of devotion and a shameful relaxation of monastic
+discipline. Malmesbury, King Alfred, Alcuin, in England, and many
+continental writers, sorrowfully testified against the monks
+because of their vices, their revelings, their vain and gorgeous
+ornaments of dress and their waning zeal for virtue. The priests
+hunted and fought, prayed, preached, swore <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page174"></a>[pg 174]</span> and drank as they
+pleased. "We cannot wonder," says an anonymous historian, "that
+they should commit the more reasonable offence of taking wives."
+Disorders were common everywhere; the monastic vows were sadly
+neglected. Political and religious ideals were lost sight of amid
+the prevailing confusion and wild commotion of those dark days. "It
+is true," says Carlyle, "all things have two faces, a light one and
+a dark. It is true in three centuries much imperfection
+accumulates; many an ideal, monastic or otherwise, shooting forth
+into practice as it can, grows to a strange reality; and we have to
+ask with amazement, Is this your ideal? For alas the ideal has to
+grow into the real, and to seek out its bed and board there, often
+in a sorry way."</p>
+<p>This, then, may be accepted as the usual history of a monastery
+or a monastic order. First, vows of poverty, obedience and chastity
+zealously cherished and observed; as a result of loyalty to this
+ideal, a spirit of devotion to righteousness is created, and a
+pure, lofty type of Christian life is formed, which, if not the
+highest and truest, is sufficiently exalted to win the reverence of
+worldly men and an extra-ordinary <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page175"></a>[pg 175]</span> power over their lives and
+affections. There naturally follow numerous and valuable gifts of
+land and gold. The monks become rich as well as powerful. Then the
+decline begins. Vast riches have always been a menace to true
+spirituality. Perhaps they always will be. The wealthy monk falls a
+prey to pride and arrogance; he becomes luxurious in his habits,
+and lazy in the performance of duty. Vice creeps in and his moral
+ruin is complete. The transformation in the character of the monk
+is accompanied by a change in public opinion. The monk is now an
+eyesore; his splendid buildings are viewed with envy by some, with
+shame by others. Then arise the vehement cries for the destruction
+of his palatial cloister, and the heroic efforts of the remnant
+that abide faithful to reform the institution. This has been the
+pathway over which every monastic order has traveled. As long as
+there was sufficient vitality to give birth to reformatory
+movements, new societies sprang up as off-shoots of the older
+orders, some of which adopted the original rules, while others
+altered them to suit the views of the reforming founder. "For
+indeed," says <span class="pagenum"><a name="page176"></a>[pg
+176]</span> Trench, "those orders, wonderful at their beginning,
+and girt up so as to take heaven by storm, seemed destined to
+travel in a mournful circle from which there was no escape." These
+facts partly explain the reformatory movements which appear from
+the ninth century on.</p>
+<p>The first great saint to enter the lists against monastic
+corruption was Benedict of Aniane (750-821 A.D.), a member of a
+distinguished family in southern France. The Benedictine rule in
+his opinion was formed for novices and invalids. He attributed the
+prevailing laxity among the monks to the mild discipline. As abbot
+of a monastery he undertook to reform its affairs by adopting a
+system based on Basil of Asia Minor and Pachomius of Egypt. But he
+leaned too far back for human nature in the West, and the
+conclusion was forced upon him that Benedict of Nursia had
+formulated a set of rules as strict as could be enforced among the
+Western monks. Accordingly he directed his efforts to secure a
+faithful observance of the original Benedictine rules, adding,
+however, a number of rigid and burdensome regulations. Although at
+first the monks doubted his sanity, kicked him <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page177"></a>[pg 177]</span> and spat on him,
+yet he afterwards succeeded in gathering about three hundred of
+them under his rule. Several colonies were sent out from his
+monastery, which was built on his patrimonial estate near
+Montpellier. His last establishment, which was located near
+Aix-la-Chapelle, became famous as a center of learning and
+sanctity.</p>
+<p>One of the most celebrated reform monasteries was the convent of
+Cluny, or Clugny, in Burgundy, about fifteen miles from Lyons,
+which was founded by Duke William of Aquitaine in 910. It was
+governed by a code based on the rule of St. Benedict. The monastery
+began with twelve monks under Bruno, but became so illustrious that
+under Hugo there were ten thousand monks in the various convents
+under its rule. It was made immediately subject to the pope,--that
+is, exempt from the jurisdiction of the bishop. Some idea of its
+splendid equipment may be formed from the fact that it is said,
+that in 1245, after the council of Lyons, it entertained Innocent
+IV., two patriarchs, twelve cardinals, three archbishops, fifteen
+bishops, many abbots, St. Louis, King of France, several princes
+and princesses, each with a considerable <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page178"></a>[pg 178]</span> retinue, yet the
+monks were not incommoded. It gave to the church three
+popes,--Gregory VII., Urban II. and Paschal II.</p>
+<p>From his cell at Cluny, Hildebrand, who became the famous
+Gregory VII., looked out upon a world distracted by war and sunk in
+vice. "In Hildebrand's time, while he was studying those annals in
+Cluny," says Thomas Starr King, "a boy pope, twelve years old, was
+master of the spiritual scepter, and was beginning to lead a life
+so shameful, foul and execrable that a subsequent pope said, 'he
+shuddered to describe it.'"</p>
+<p>Connected with the monastery was the largest church in the
+world, surpassed only a little, in later years, by St. Peter's at
+Rome. Its construction was begun in 1089 by the abbot Hugo, and it
+was consecrated in 1131, under the administration of Peter the
+Venerable. It boasted of twenty-five altars and many costly works
+of art.</p>
+<p>So great was the fame and influence of this establishment that
+numerous convents in France and Italy placed themselves under its
+control, thus forming "The Congregation of Cluny."</p>
+<p>After the administration of Peter the Venerable <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page179"></a>[pg 179]</span> (1122-1156), this
+illustrious house began to succumb to the intoxication of success,
+and it steadily declined in character and influence until its
+property was confiscated by the Constituent Assembly, in 1799, and
+the church sold for one hundred thousand francs. It is now in
+ruin.</p>
+<p>But in spite of every attempt at reform during the ninth and
+tenth centuries the decline of the continental monasteries
+continued. Many persons of royal blood, accustomed to the license
+of palaces, entered the cloister and increased the disorders. The
+monks naturally respected their blood and relaxed the discipline in
+their favor. The result was costly robes, instead of the simple,
+monastic garb, riotous living, and a general indifference to
+spirituality. Spurious monasteries sprang up with rich lay-abbots
+at their head, who made the office hereditary in their families.
+Laymen were appointed to rich benefices simply that they might
+enjoy the revenues. These lay-abbots even went so far as to live
+with their families in their monasteries, and rollicking midnight
+banquets were substituted for the asceticism demanded by the vows.
+They traveled extensively attended by <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page180"></a>[pg 180]</span> splendid retinues.
+Some of the monks seemed intent on nothing but obtaining charters
+of privileges and exemptions from civil and military duties.</p>
+<p>In England the state of affairs was even more distressing than
+on the Continent. The evil effects of the Saxon invasion, the
+demoralization that accompanied the influx of paganism, and the
+almost complete destruction of the religious institutions of
+British Christianity have already been noted. About the year 700,
+the island was divided among fifteen petty chiefs, who waged war
+against one another almost incessantly. Christianity, as introduced
+by Augustine, had somewhat mitigated the ferocity of war, and
+England had begun to make some approach toward a respect for law
+and a veneration for the Christian religion, when the Danes came,
+and with them another period of disgraceful atrocities and
+blighting heathenism. The Danish invasion had almost extirpated the
+monastic institution in the northern districts. Carnage and
+devastation reigned everywhere. Celebrated monasteries fell in
+ruins and the monks were slain or driven into exile. Hordes of
+barbaric warriors roamed the country, burning and plundering.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page181"></a>[pg 181]</span>
+<p>"At the close of this calamitous period," says Lingard, in his
+"History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church," "the
+Anglo-Saxon church presented a melancholy spectacle to the friends
+of religion: 1. The laity had resumed the ferocious manners of
+their pagan forefathers. 2. The clergy had grown indolent,
+dissolute and illiterate. 3. The monastic order had been apparently
+annihilated. It devolved on King Alfred, victorious over his
+enemies, to devise and apply the remedies for these evils." The
+good king endeavored to restore the monastic institution, but,
+owing to the lack of candidates for the monastic habit, he was
+compelled to import a colony of monks from Gaul.</p>
+<p>The moral results of Alfred's reformatory measures, as well as
+those of his immediate successors, were far from satisfactory,
+although he did vastly stimulate the educational work of the
+monastic schools. He devoted himself so faithfully to the gathering
+of traditions, that he is said to be the father of English history.
+The tide of immorality, however, was too strong to be stemmed in a
+generation or two. It was a century and a half <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page182"></a>[pg 182]</span> before there was
+even an approach to substantial victory over the disgraceful abuses
+among the clergy and the monks.</p>
+<p>The churchman who is credited with doing most to distinguish the
+monks as a zealous and faithful body was Dunstan (924-988 A.D.),
+first Abbot of Glastonbury, then Bishop of Winchester, and finally
+Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the most conspicuous ecclesiastical
+personage in the history of those dark days, but his character and
+labors have given rise to bitter and extensive controversy.</p>
+<p>It was Dunstan's chief aim to subjugate the Anglo-Saxon church
+to the power of Rome, and to correct existing abuses by compelling
+the clergy and the monks to obey the rule of celibacy. He was a
+fervent believer in the efficacy of the Benedictine vows, and in
+the value of clerical celibacy as a remedy for clerical
+licentiousness. Naturally, Protestant writers, who hold that papal
+supremacy never was a blessing in any country or in any age, and
+who think that clerical celibacy has always been a fruitful source
+of crime and sin, condemn the reforms of Dunstan in the most
+unqualified terms. A statement of a few of the many and perplexing
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page183"></a>[pg 183]</span> facts
+may assist us to form a fairly just judgment of the man and his
+work.</p>
+<p>The principle of sacerdotal celibacy appeared early in the
+history of Christianity, and for many centuries it was the subject
+of sharp contention. Roman Catholics themselves have been divided
+upon it. In every Christian country, from the Apostolic period
+onward, there were priests and teachers who opposed the imposition
+of this rule upon the clergy, and, on the other hand, there were
+those who practiced and advocated celibacy as the indispensable
+guarantee of spiritual power and purity.</p>
+<p>What the rule of celibacy was at this period, in England, seems
+uncertain. Lingard maintains that marriage was always permitted to
+the clergy in minor orders, who were employed in various
+subordinate positions, but that those in higher orders, whose
+office it was to minister at the altar and to offer the sacrifice,
+were expressly bound to a life of the strictest continence. During
+the invasion of the Danes, when confusion reigned, many priests in
+the higher orders had not only forsaken their vows of chastity, but
+had plunged into frightful immoralities; and <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page184"></a>[pg 184]</span> married clerks of
+inferior orders were raised to the priesthood to fill the ranks
+depleted by war. These promoted clerks were previously required to
+separate from their wives, but apparently many of them did not do
+so. Consequently, from several causes, the married priests became a
+numerous body, and since the common opinion seems to have been that
+a married priest was disgracing his office, this body was regarded
+as a menace to the welfare of the church and the state.</p>
+<p>Lea, in his elaborate "History of Sacerdotal Celibacy," holds
+that the rule of celibacy was only binding on the regulars, or
+monks, and that the secular priesthood was at liberty to marry. But
+from several other passages in his work it seems that he also
+recognizes the fact that, while marriage was common, it was in
+defiance of an ancient canon. "It is evident," he says, "that the
+memory of the ancient canons was not forgotten, and that their
+observance was still urged by some ardent churchmen, but that the
+customs of the period had rendered them virtually obsolete, and
+that no sufficient means existed of enforcing obedience. If open
+scandals and shameless bigamy <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page185"></a>[pg 185]</span> and concubinage could be restrained,
+the ecclesiastical authorities were evidently content. Celibacy
+could not be enjoined as a law, but was rendered attractive by
+surrounding it with privileges and immunities denied to him who
+yielded to the temptations of the flesh."</p>
+<p>Throughout Western Christendom the law of celibacy was openly
+and shamefully trampled upon, and every reformer seemed to think
+that the very first step toward any improvement in clerical morals
+was to be taken by enforcing this rule.</p>
+<p>When Dunstan commenced his reforms, the clergy were guilty of
+graver sins than that of living in marriage relations. Adultery,
+bigamy, swearing, fighting and drinking were the order of the day.
+The monasteries were occupied by secular priests with wives or
+concubines. All the chroniclers of this period agree in charging
+the monks and clergy with a variety of dissipations and
+disorders.</p>
+<p>It is quite clear, therefore, that in Dunstan's view he was
+doing the only right thing in trying to correct the existing abuses
+by compelling the priests to adopt that celibate life without which
+it was popularly believed the highest holiness and the largest
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page186"></a>[pg 186]</span>
+usefulness could not be attained. In the light of this purpose and
+this common opinion of his time, Dunstan and his mission should be
+judged.</p>
+<p>Dunstan was aided in his work by King Edgar the Pacific, who, by
+the way, was himself compelled to go without his crown seven years
+for violating the chastity of a nun. Oswald, the Bishop of
+Worcester, and Ethelwold, the Bishop of Winchester, were also
+zealously engaged in the task of reform.</p>
+<p>A law was enacted providing that priests, deacons and
+sub-deacons should live chastely or resign. As a result of this
+law, many priests were ejected from the monasteries and from their
+official positions. Strict monks were put in their places. A strong
+opposition party was created, and the ejected clergy aroused such
+discontent that a civil war was barely averted. This state of
+things continued until the Norman invasion, when the monks and
+secular clergy joined forces in the common defence of their
+property and ecclesiastical rights.</p>
+<p>It would seem that many writers, misled by legends for which
+Dunstan must not be held responsible, and blinded by religious
+prejudice, have unjustly charged him with hypocrisy and even crime.
+All his methods <span class="pagenum"><a name="page187"></a>[pg
+187]</span> may not be defensible when estimated in the light of
+modern knowledge, and even his ideal may be rejected when judged by
+modern standards of Christian character, but he must be considered
+with the moral and intellectual life of his times in full view. He
+was a champion of the oppressed, a friend of the poor, an
+unflinching foe of sinful men in the pulpit or on the throne. His
+will was inflexible, his independence noble and his energy
+untiring. In trying to bring the Anglo-Saxon church into conformity
+to Rome he was actuated by a higher motive than the merely selfish
+desire for ecclesiastical authority. He regarded this harmony as
+the only remedy for the prevailing disorders. He believed, like
+many other churchmen of unquestioned purity and honesty, that it
+was necessary to compel temporal authorities to recognize the power
+of the church in order to overcome that defiance of moral law which
+was the chief characteristic of the kings and princes in that
+turbulent period.</p>
+<p>What the Anglo-Saxon church might have been if the rule of
+celibacy had not been forced upon her, and if she had not submitted
+to Roman authority in other matters, is a theme for speculation
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page188"></a>[pg 188]</span> only.
+The fact is that Dunstan found a church corrupt to the core and
+left it, as a result of his purifying efforts, with some semblance,
+to say the least, of moral influence and spiritual purity. Some
+other kind of ecclesiastical polity than that advocated by Dunstan
+might have achieved the same results as his, but the simple fact is
+that none did. In so far as Dunstan succeeded in his monastic
+measures, he laid the foundations of an ecclesiastical power which
+afterwards became a serious menace to the political freedom of the
+Anglo-Saxon race. The battle begun by him raged fiercely between
+the popes, efficiently supported by the monks, and the kings of
+England, with varying fortunes, for many centuries. But perhaps,
+under the plans of that benign Providence who presides over the
+destiny of nations, it was essentially in the interests of
+civilization, that the lawlessness of rulers and the vices of the
+people should be restrained by that ecclesiastical power, which, in
+after years, and at the proper time, should be forced to recede to
+its legitimate sphere and functions.</p>
+<p>Another celebrated reformatory movement was begun by St. Bruno,
+who founded the Carthusian <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page189"></a>[pg 189]</span> Order about the year 1086. Ruskin
+says: "In their strength, from the foundation of the order at the
+close of the eleventh century to the beginning of the fourteenth,
+they reared in their mountain fastnesses and sent out to minister
+to the world a succession of men of immense mental grasp and
+serenely authoritative innocence, among whom our own Hugh of
+Lincoln, in his relations with Henry II. and Coeur de Lion, is to
+my mind the most beautiful sacerdotal figure known to me in
+history."</p>
+<p>Bruno, with six companions, established the famous Grand
+Chartreuse in a rocky wilderness, near Grenoble, in France,
+separated from the rest of the world by a chain of wild mountains,
+which are covered with ice and snow for two-thirds of the year.</p>
+<p>Until the time of Guigo (1137), the Grand Chartreuse was
+governed by unwritten rules. Thirteen monks only were permitted to
+live together, and sixteen converts in the huts at the foot of the
+hill. The policy of this monastery was at first opposed to all
+connection with other monasteries. But applications for admission
+were so numerous that colonies were sent out in various directions,
+all <span class="pagenum"><a name="page190"></a>[pg 190]</span>
+subject to the mother house. The Carthusians differed in many
+respects from other orders. The rules of Dom Guigo indicate that
+the chief aim was to preclude the monks from intercourse with the
+world, and largely with each other, for each monk had separate
+apartments, cooked his own food, and so rarely met with his
+brethren, that he was practically a hermit. The clothing consisted
+of a rough hair shirt, worn next the skin, a white cassock over it,
+and, when they went out, a black robe. Fasting was observed at
+least three days a week, and meat was strictly forbidden.
+Respecting contact with women Dom Guigo says: "Under no
+circumstances whatever do we allow women to set foot within our
+precincts, knowing as we do that neither wise man, nor prophet, nor
+judge, nor the entertainer of God, nor the sons of God, nor the
+first created of mankind, fashioned by God's own hands, could
+escape the wiles and deceits of women."</p>
+<p>Blistering and bleeding, as well as fasting, were employed to
+control evil impulses. On the whole, the austerities were as severe
+as human nature in that wild and cold region could endure. Yet the
+prosperity that rewarded the piety and labors of the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page191"></a>[pg 191]</span> Carthusian monks
+proved more than a match for their rigorous discipline, and in the
+middle of the thirteenth century we read charges of laxity and
+disorder.</p>
+<p>The Carthusians settled in England in the twelfth century, and
+had a famous monastery in London, since called the Charterhouse.
+The order was in many respects the most successful attempt at
+reform, but as has been said, "the whole order, and each individual
+member, is like a petrifaction from the Middle Ages." Owing to its
+extremely solitary ideal and its severe discipline, it was unfitted
+to secure extensive control, or to gain a permanent influence upon
+the rapidly-developing European nations. Its chief contributions to
+modern civilization were made by the gift of noble men who passed
+from the seclusion of the cell into the active life of the world,
+thus practically proving that the monks' greatest usefulness was
+attained when loyalty to their vows yielded to a broader ideal of
+Christian character and service.</p>
+<p>Thus the months passed into years and the years into centuries.
+Man was slowly working out his salvation. Painfully, laboriously he
+emerged out <span class="pagenum"><a name="page192"></a>[pg
+192]</span> of barbarism into the lower forms of civilization;
+wearily he trudged on his way toward the universal kingdom of
+righteousness and peace.</p>
+<p>There were many other attempts at reform which may not even be
+mentioned, but one character deserves brief consideration,--Bernard
+of Clairvaux,--the fairest flower of those corrupt days. The order
+to which he belonged was the Cistercians, so named because their
+mother house was at Citeaux (Latin, <i>Cistercium</i>), in France.
+Its members are sometimes called the "White Monks," because of
+their white tunics. Their buildings, with their bare walls and low
+rafters, were a rebuke to the splendid edifices of the richer
+orders. Austere simplicity characterized their churches, liturgy
+and habits. Gorgeousness in decoration and ostentation in public
+services were carefully avoided. They used no pictures, stained
+glass or images. Once a week they flogged their sinful bodies. Only
+four hours' sleep was allowed. Seeking out the wildest spots and
+most rugged peaks they built their retreats, beautiful in their
+simplicity and furnishing some of the finest examples of monastic
+architecture. The order spread into England, where the first
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page193"></a>[pg 193]</span>
+Cistercians were characterized by devoutness and poverty. After a
+while the hand of fate wrote of them as it had of so many, "none
+were more greedy in adding farm to farm; none less scrupulous in
+obtaining grants of land from wealthy patrons." In general, the
+order was no better and no worse than the rest, but its chief glory
+is derived from the luster that was shed upon it by Bernard.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image193.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image193.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image193.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Saint Bernard.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>This illustrious counselor of kings and Catholic saint was born
+in Burgundy in 1091. When about twenty years of age he entered the
+monastery at Citeaux with five of his brothers. His genius might
+have secured ecclesiastical preferment, but he chose to dig
+ditches, plant fields and govern a monastery. He entered the
+cloister at Citeaux because the monks were few and poor, and when
+it became crowded because of his fame, and its rule became lax
+because of the crowds, he left the cloister to found a home of his
+own. The abbot selected twelve monks, following the number of
+apostles, and at their head placed young Bernard. He led the twelve
+to the valley of Wormwood, and there, in a cheerless forest, he
+established the monastery of Clairvaux, or Clear Valley. His rule
+was fiercely <span class="pagenum"><a name="page194"></a>[pg
+194]</span> severe because he himself loved hardships and rough
+fare. "It in no way befits religion," he writes, "to seek remedies
+for the body, nor is it good for health either. You may now and
+then take some cheap herb,--such as poor men may,--and this is done
+sometimes. But to buy drugs, to hunt up doctors, to take doses, is
+unbecoming to religion and hostile to purity." His success in
+winning men to the monastic life was almost phenomenal. It was said
+that "mothers hid their sons, wives their husbands, and companions
+their friends, lest they be persuaded by his eloquent message to
+enter the cloister." "He was avoided like a plague," says one.</p>
+<p>Bernard's monks changed the whole face of the country by felling
+trees and tilling the ground. Their spiritual power rid the valley
+of Wormwood of its robbers, and the district grew rich and
+prosperous. Thus Bernard became the most famous man of his time. He
+was the arbiter in papal elections, the judge in temporal quarrels,
+the healer of schisms and a powerful preacher of the crusades. He
+was the embodiment of all that was best in the thought of his age.
+His weaknesses and faults may largely be explained by the fact that
+no man can rise <span class="pagenum"><a name="page195"></a>[pg
+195]</span> entirely above the spirit of his times and absolutely
+free himself from all pernicious tendencies. "As an advocate for
+the rights of the church, for the immunities of the clergy, no less
+than for the great interests of morality, he was fierce,
+intractable, unforgiving, haughty and tyrannical." There was,
+however, no note of insincerity in his work or writings, and no
+tinge of hypocrisy in fervent zeal. He was brave, honest and pure;
+controlled always by a consuming passion for the moral welfare of
+the people.</p>
+<p>Our chief interest in Bernard relates to his monastic work which
+shed undying luster on his name. Vaughan, in his "Hours with the
+Mystics," says of him: "His incessant cry for Europe is, Better
+monasteries, and more of them. Let these ecclesiastical castles
+multiply; let them cover and command the land, well garrisoned with
+men of God, and then, despite all heresy and schism, theocracy will
+flourish, the earth shall yield her increase, and all people praise
+the Lord.... Bernard had the satisfaction of improving and
+extending monasticism to the utmost; of sewing together, with
+tolerable success, the rended vesture of the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page196"></a>[pg 196]</span> papacy; of
+suppressing a more popular and more scriptural Christianity for the
+benefit of his despotic order; of quenching for a time, by the
+extinction of Abelard, the spirit of free inquiry, and of seeing
+his ascetic and superhuman ideal of religion everywhere accepted as
+the genuine type of Christianity."</p>
+<p>But in spite of Dunstans, Brunos and Bernards, the monastic
+institution keeps on crumbling. The edifice will not stand much
+more propping and tinkering. While we admire this display of moral
+force, this commendable struggle of fresh courage and new hope
+against disintegrating forces, the conviction gains ground that
+something is radically wrong with the institution. There is
+something in it which fosters greed and desperate ambition. "Is it
+not a shame," we feel compelled to ask, "that so much splendid,
+chivalrous courage and magnificent energy should be expended in
+trying to prevent a structure from falling, which, it seems, could
+not possibly have been saved?" But while the decay could not be
+stayed, we must admire the noble aims and pious enthusiasm of the
+reformers who sought to preserve an institution which to them
+seemed the only hope of a sinful world.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page197"></a>[pg 197]</span>
+<p>Dr. Storrs, in his life of Bernard, says: "His soon-canonized
+name has shone starlike in history ever since he was buried; and it
+will not hereafter decline from its height or lose its luster,
+while men continue to recognize with honor the temper of devoted
+Christian consecration, a character compact of noble forces, and
+infused with self-forgetful love for God and man."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Military_Religious_Orders"></a>The Military
+Religious Orders</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The life of Bernard forms an appropriate introduction to a
+consideration of the Military Religious Orders. Although weary with
+labor and the weight of years, he traveled over Europe preaching
+the second crusade. "To kill or to be killed for Christ's sake is
+alike righteous and alike safe," this was his message to the world.
+In spite of the opposition of court advisers, Bernard induced Louis
+VII. and Conrad of Germany to take the crusader's vow. He gave the
+Knights Templars a new rule and kindled afresh a zeal for the
+knighthood. Although the members of the Military Orders were not
+monks in the strict sense of the word, yet they <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page198"></a>[pg 198]</span> were soldier-monks,
+and as such deserve to be mentioned here.</p>
+<p>At the basis of all monastic orders, as has been pointed out,
+were the three vows of obedience, celibacy and poverty. Certain
+orders, by adding to these rules other obligations, or by laying
+special stress on one of the three ancient vows, produced new and
+distinct types of monastic character and life.</p>
+<p>The Knights of the Hospital assumed as their peculiar work the
+care of the sick. The Begging Friars, as will be seen later, were
+distinguished by the importance which they attached to the rule of
+poverty; the Jesuits, by exalting the law of unquestioning
+obedience. In view of the warlike character of the Middle Ages it
+is strange the soldier-monk did not appear earlier than he did. The
+abbots, in many cases, were feudal lords with immense possessions
+which needed protection like secular property, but as this could
+not be secured by the arts of peace, we find traces of the union of
+the soldier and the monk before the distinct orders professing that
+character. The immediate cause of such organizations was the
+crusades. There were numerous <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page199"></a>[pg 199]</span> societies of this character, some of
+them so far removed from the monastic type as scarcely to be ranked
+with monastic institutions. One list mentions two hundred and seven
+of these Orders of Knighthood, comprising many varieties in theory
+and practice. The most important were three,--the Knights of the
+Hospital, or the Knights of St. John; the Knights Templars; and the
+Teutonic Knights. The Hospitallers wore black mantles with white
+crosses, the Templars white mantles with red crosses, and the
+Teutonic Knights white mantles with black crosses. The mantles were
+in fact the robe of the monk adorned with a cross. The whole system
+was really a marriage of monasticism and chivalry, as Gibbon says:
+"The firmest bulwark of Jerusalem was founded in the Knights of the
+Hospital and of the Temple, that strange association of monastic
+and military life. The flower of the nobility of Europe aspired to
+wear the cross and profess the vows of these orders; their spirit
+and discipline were immortal."</p>
+<p>A passage in the Alexiad quoted in Walter Scott's "Robert of
+Paris" reads: "As for the multitude of those who advanced toward
+the great city let it <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page200"></a>[pg 200]</span> be enough to say, that they were as
+the stars in the heaven or as the sand of the seashore. They were
+in the words of Homer, as many as the leaves and flowers of
+spring." This figurative description is almost literally true.
+Europe poured her men and her wealth into the East. No one but an
+eye-witness can conceive of the vast amount of suffering endured by
+those fanatical multitudes as they roamed the streets of Jerusalem
+looking for shelter, or lay starving by the roadside on a bed of
+grass.</p>
+<p>The term Hospitallers was applied to certain brotherhoods of
+monks and laymen. While professing some monastic rule, the members
+of these societies devoted themselves solely to caring for the sick
+and the poor, the hospitals in those days being connected with the
+monasteries.</p>
+<p>About the year 1050 some Italian merchants secured permission to
+build a convent in Jerusalem to shelter Latin pilgrims. The hotels
+which sprang up after this were gradually transformed into
+hospitals for the care of the sick and presided over by Benedictine
+monks. The sick were carefully nursed and shelter granted to as
+many as could be accommodated. Nobles abandoned the profession of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page201"></a>[pg 201]</span> arms
+and, becoming monks, devoted themselves to caring for the
+unfortunate crusaders in these inns. The work rapidly increased in
+extent and importance. In the year 1099, Godfrey de Bouillon
+endowed the original hospital, which had been dedicated to St.
+John. He also established many other monasteries on this holy soil.
+The monks, most of whom were also knights, formed an organization
+which received confirmation from Rome, as "The Knights of St. John
+of Jerusalem." The order rapidly assumed a distinctly military
+character, for, to do its work completely, it must not only care
+for the sick in Jerusalem, but defend the pilgrim on his way to the
+Holy City. This ended in an undertaking to defend Christendom
+against Mohammedan invasion and in fighting for the recovery of the
+Holy Sepulcher.</p>
+<p>After visiting some of these Palestinian monasteries, a king of
+Hungary thus describes his impressions: "Lodging in their houses, I
+have seen them feed every day innumerable multitudes of poor, the
+sick laid on good beds and treated with great care. In a word, the
+Knights of St. John are employed sometimes like Martha, in action,
+and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page202"></a>[pg 202]</span>
+sometimes like Mary, in contemplation, and this noble militia
+consecrate their days either in their infirmaries or else in
+engagements against the enemies of the cross."</p>
+<p>The Knights Templars were far more militant than the Knights of
+St. John, but they also were actuated by the monastic spirit.
+Bernard tried to inspire this order with a strong Christian zeal so
+that, as he said, "War should become something of which God could
+approve." The success which attended its operations led as usual to
+its corruption and decline. Beginning with a few crusaders leagued
+together for service and living on the site of the ancient Temple
+at Jerusalem, it soon widened the scope of its services and became
+a powerful branch of the crusading army. It was charged by Philip
+IV. of France, in 1307, with the most fearful crimes, to sustain or
+to deny which accusations many volumes have been composed. Five
+years later the order was suppressed and its vast accumulations
+transferred to the Knights of St. John. "The horrible fate of the
+Templars," says Allen, "was taken by many as a beginning and omen
+of the destruction that would soon pass upon <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page203"></a>[pg 203]</span> all the hated
+religious orders. And so this final burst of enthusiasm and
+splendor in the religious life was among the prognostics of a state
+of things in which monasticism must fade quite away."</p>
+<p>Wondrous changes have taken place in those dark and troubled
+years since Benedict began his labors at Monte Cassino, in 529. The
+monk has prayed alone in the mountains, and converted the barbarian
+in the forest. He has preached the crusades in magnificent
+cathedrals, and crossed stormy seas in his frail bark. He has made
+the schools famous by his literary achievements, and taught
+children the alphabet in the woodland cell. He has been good and
+bad, proud and humble, rich and poor, arrogant and gentle. He has
+met the shock of lances on his prancing steed, and trudged barefoot
+from town to town. He has copied manuscripts in the lonely Scottish
+isle, and bathed the fevered brow of the pilgrim in the hospital at
+Jerusalem. He has dug ditches, and governed the world as the pope
+of the Church. He has held the plow in the furrow, and thwarted the
+devices of the king. He has befriended the poor, and imposed
+penance upon princes. He has imitated the poverty and purity of
+Jesus, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page204"></a>[pg
+204]</span> aped the pomp and vice of kings. He has dwelt solitary
+on cold mountains, subsisting on bread, roots and water, and he has
+surrounded himself with menials ready to gratify every luxurious
+wish, amid the splendor of palatial cloisters. Still there are new
+types and phases of monasticism yet to appear. The monk has other
+tasks to undertake, for the world is not yet sufficiently wearied
+of his presence to destroy his cloister and banish him from the
+land.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page205"></a>[pg 205]</span>
+<h2><a name="V"></a>V</h2>
+<h2><i><a name="THE_MENDICANT_FRIARS"></a>THE MENDICANT
+FRIARS</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Abraham Lincoln only applied a general principle to a specific
+case when he said, "This nation cannot long endure half slave and
+half free." Glaring inconsistencies between faith and practice will
+eventually destroy any institution, however lofty its ideal or
+noble its foundation. God suffers long and is kind, but His
+forbearance is not limitless. Monasticism, as has been shown, was
+never free from serious inconsistency, from moral dualism. But the
+power of reform prolonged its existence. It was constantly
+producing fresh models of its ancient ideals. It had a hidden
+reserve-force from which it supplied shining examples of a living
+faith and a self-denying love, just at the time when it seemed as
+if the system was about to perish forever. When these fresh
+exhibitions of monastic fidelity likewise <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page206"></a>[pg 206]</span> became tarnished,
+when men had tired of them and predicted the speedy collapse of the
+institution, forth from the cloister came another body of monkish
+recruits, to convince the world that monasticism was not dead; that
+it did not intend to die; that it was mightier than all its
+enemies. The day came, however, when the world lost its confidence
+in an institution which required such constant reforming to keep it
+pure, which demanded so much cleansing to keep it clean. Ideals
+that could so quickly lose their influence for good came to be
+looked upon with suspicion.</p>
+<p>At the beginning of the thirteenth century we are confronted by
+the anomaly of a church grossly corrupt but widely obeyed. She is
+nearing the pinnacle of her power and the zenith of her glory,
+although the parochial clergy have sunk into vice and incapacity,
+and the monks, as a class, are lazy, ignorant and notoriously
+corrupt. Two things, especially, command the attention,--first, the
+immorality and laxity of the monks; and second, the growth of
+heresies and the tendency toward open schism. The necessity of
+reform was clearly apprehended by the church as well as by the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page207"></a>[pg 207]</span>
+heretical parties, but, since the church had such a hold upon
+society, those who sought to reform the monasteries by returning to
+old beliefs and ancient customs were much more in favor than those
+who left the church and opposed her from the outside. The
+impossibility of substantial, internal reform had not yet come to
+be generally recognized. As time passed the conviction that it was
+of no use to attempt reforms from the inside gained ground; then
+the separatists multiplied, and the shedding of blood commenced.
+The world had to learn anew that it was futile to put new wine into
+old bottles or to patch new cloth on an old garment.</p>
+<p>"It is the privilege of genius," says Trench, "to evoke a new
+creation, where to common eyes all appears barren and worn out."
+Francis and Dominic evoked this new creation; but although the monk
+now will appear in a new garb, he will prove himself to be about
+the same old character whom the world has known a great many years;
+when this discovery is made monasticism is doomed. Perplexed Europe
+will anxiously seek some means of destruction, but God will have
+Luther ready to aid in the solution of the problem.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page208"></a>[pg 208]</span>
+<h2><i><a name="Francis_Bernardone"></a>Francis Bernardone</i>,
+1182-1226 <i>A.D.</i>.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Saint Francis, the founder of the Franciscan Order, was born at
+Assisi, a walled town of Umbria, in Italy. His father, Peter
+Bernardone, or Bernardo, was in France on business when his son was
+born and named. On his return, or, as some say, at a later time, he
+changed his son's name from John to Francis. His wealth enabled him
+to supply Francis with the funds necessary to maintain his
+leadership among gay companions. Catholic writers are fond of
+describing the early years of their saints as marked by vice in
+order to portray them as miracles of grace. It is therefore
+uncertain whether Francis was anything worse than a happy, joyous
+lad, who loved fine clothes, midnight songs and parties of
+pleasure. He was certainly a very popular and courteous lad, very
+much in love with the world. During a short service in the army he
+was taken prisoner. After his release he fell sick, and experienced
+a temporary disgust with his past life. With his renewed health his
+love of festivities and dress returned.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page209"></a>[pg 209]</span>
+<p>Walking out one day, dressed in a handsome new suit, he met a
+poor and ill-clad soldier; moved to pity, he exchanged his fine
+clothes for the rags of the stranger. That night Francis dreamed of
+a splendid castle, with gorgeous banners flying from its ramparts,
+and suits of armor adorned with the cross. "These," said a voice,
+"are for you and for your soldiers." We are told that this was
+intended to be taken spiritually and was prophetic of the Begging
+Friars, but Francis misunderstood the dream, taking it as a token
+of military achievements. The next day he set off mounted on a fine
+horse, saying as he left, "I shall be a great prince." But his weak
+frame could not endure such rough usage and he was taken sick at
+Spoleto. Again he dreamed. This time the vision revealed his
+misinterpretation of the former message, and so, on his recovery,
+he returned somewhat crestfallen to Assisi, where he gave his
+friends a farewell feast. Thus at the threshold of his career we
+note two important facts,--disease and dreams. All through his life
+he had these fits of sickness, attended by dreams; and throughout
+his life he was guided by these visions. Neander remarks: "It would
+be a <span class="pagenum"><a name="page210"></a>[pg 210]</span>
+matter of some importance if we could be more exactly informed with
+regard to the nature of his disease and the way in which it
+affected his physical and mental constitution. Perhaps it might
+assist us to a more satisfactory explanation of the eccentric vein
+in his life, that singular mixture of religious enthusiasm
+bordering insanity; but we are left wholly in the dark."</p>
+<p>Francis now devoted himself to his father's business, but dreams
+and visions continued to distress him. His spiritual fervor
+increased daily. He grieved for the poor and gave himself to the
+care of the sick, especially the lepers. During a visit to Rome he
+became so sad at the sight of desperate poverty that he impetuously
+flung his bag of gold upon the altar with such force as to startle
+the worshipers. He went out from the church, exchanged his clothes
+for a beggar's rags, and stood for hours asking alms among a crowd
+of filthy beggars.</p>
+<p>But though Francis longed to associate himself in some way with
+the lowest classes, he could obtain no certain light upon his duty.
+While prostrated before the crucifix, in the dilapidated church of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page211"></a>[pg 211]</span> St.
+Damian, in Assisi, he heard a voice saying, "Francis, seest thou
+not that my house is in ruins? Go and restore it for me." Again it
+is said that this pointed to his great life-work of restoring
+spiritual power to the church, but he again accepted the message in
+a literal sense. Delighted to receive a command so specific, the
+kneeling Francis fervently responded, "With good will, Lord," and
+gladly entered upon the task of repairing the church of St. Damian.
+"Having fortified himself by the sign of the cross," he took a
+horse and a valuable bundle of goods belonging to his father and
+sold both at Falingo. Instead of turning the proceeds over to his
+father, Francis offered them to the priest of St. Damian, who,
+fearing the father's displeasure, refused to accept the stolen
+funds. The young zealot, "who had utter contempt for money," threw
+the gold on one of the windows of the church. Such is the story as
+gleaned from Catholic sources. The heretics, who have criticised
+Francis for this conduct, are answered by the following ingenious
+but dangerous sophistry: "It is certainly quite contrary to the
+ordinary law of justice for one man to take for himself the
+property of another; but if <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page212"></a>[pg 212]</span> Almighty God, to whom all things
+belong, and for whom we are only stewards, is pleased to dispense
+with this His own law in a particular case, and to bestow what He
+has hitherto given to one upon another, He confers at the same time
+a valid title to the gift, and it is no robbery in him who has
+received it to act upon that title."</p>
+<p>Fearing his father's wrath, Francis hid himself in the priest's
+room, and contemporary authors assure us that when the irate parent
+entered, Francis was miraculously let into the wall. Wading (1731
+A.D.) says the hollow place may still be seen in the wall.</p>
+<p>After a month, the young hero, confident of his courage to face
+his father, came forth pale and weak, only to be stoned as a madman
+by the people. His father locked him up in the house, but the
+tenderer compassion of his mother released him from his bonds, and
+he found refuge with the priest. When his father demanded his
+return, Francis tore off his clothes and, as he flung the last rag
+at the feet of his astounded parent, he exclaimed: "Peter
+Bernardone was my father; I have but one father, He that is in
+Heaven." The crowd was deeply <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page213"></a>[pg 213]</span> moved, especially when they saw
+before them the hair shirt which Francis had secretly worn under
+his garments. Gathering up all that was left to him of his son, the
+father sadly departed, leaving the young enthusiast to fight his
+own way through the world. Many times after that, the parents, who
+tenderly watched over the lad in sickness and prayed for his
+recovery, saw their beloved son leading his barefooted beggars
+through the streets of his native town. But he will never more sing
+his gay songs underneath their roof or sally forth with his merry
+companions in search of pleasure. Francis was given a laborer's
+cloak, upon which he made the sign of a cross with some mortar,
+"thus manifesting what he wished to be, a half-naked poor one, and
+a crucified man." Such was the saint, in 1206, in his twenty-fifth
+year.</p>
+<p>Francis now went forth, singing sacred songs, begging his food,
+and helping the sick and the poor. He was employed "in the vilest
+affairs of the scullery" in a neighboring monastery. At this time
+he clothed himself in the monk's dress, a short tunic, a leathern
+girdle, shoes and a staff. He waited upon lepers and kissed their
+disgusting <span class="pagenum"><a name="page214"></a>[pg
+214]</span> ulcers. Yet more, he instantly cured a dreadfully
+cancerous face by kissing it. He ate the most revolting messes,
+reproaching himself for recoiling in nausea. Thus the pauper of
+Jesus Christ conquered his pride and luxurious tastes.</p>
+<p>Francis finally returned to repair the church of St. Damian. The
+people derided, even stoned him, but he had learned to rejoice in
+abuse. They did not know of what stern stuff their fellow-townsman
+was made. He bore all their insults meekly, and persevered in his
+work, carrying stones with his own hands and promising the blessing
+of God on all who helped him in his joyful task. His kindness and
+smiles melted hatred; derision turned to admiration. "Many were
+moved to tears," says his biographers, "while Francis worked on
+with cheerful simplicity, begging his materials, stone by stone,
+and singing psalms about the streets."</p>
+<p>Two years after his conversion, or in 1208, while kneeling in
+the church of Sta. Maria dei Angeli, he heard the words of Christ:
+"Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses, neither
+two coats nor shoes nor staff, but go and preach." Afterwards, when
+the meaning of these words was <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page215"></a>[pg 215]</span> explained to him, he exclaimed: "This
+is what I seek for!" He threw away his wallet, took off his shoes,
+and replaced his leather girdle by a cord. His hermit's tunic
+appearing too delicate, he put on a coarse, gray robe, reaching to
+his feet, with sleeves that came down over his fingers; to this he
+added a hood, covering his head and face. Clothing of this
+character he wore to the end of his life. This was in 1208, which
+is regarded as the first year of the Order of St. Francis. The next
+year Francis gave this habit to those who had joined him.</p>
+<p>So the first and chief of Franciscan friars, unattended by
+mortal companions, went humbly forth to proclaim the grandeur and
+goodness of a God, who, according to monastic teaching, demands
+penance and poverty of his creatures as the price of his highest
+favor and richest blessings. Nearly seven hundred long years have
+passed since that eventful day, but the begging Brothers of Francis
+still traverse those Italian highways over which the saint now
+journeyed with meek and joyous spirit.</p>
+<blockquote>"He was not yet far distant from his rising<br>
+Before he had begun to make the earth<br>
+Some comfort from his mighty virtue feel.<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page216"></a>[pg 216]</span> For he
+in youth his father's wrath incurred<br>
+For certain Dame, to whom, as unto death,<br>
+The gate of pleasure no one doth unlock;<br>
+And was before his spiritual court<br>
+<i>Et coram patre</i> unto her united;<br>
+Then day by day more fervently he loved her.<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+But that too darkly I may not proceed,<br>
+Francis and Poverty for these two lovers<br>
+Take thou henceforward in my speech diffuse."<br>
+<br>
+--<i>Dante</i>.</blockquote>
+<p>In 1210, with eleven companions, his entire band, Francis went
+to Rome to secure papal sanction. Pope Innocent III. was walking in
+a garden of the Lateran Palace when a beggar, dusty and pale,
+confronted him. Provoked at being disturbed in his thoughts, he
+drove him away. That night it was the pope's turn to dream. He saw
+a falling church supported by a poor and miserable man. Of course,
+that man was Francis. Four or five years later the pope will dream
+the same thing again. Then the poor man will be Dominic. In the
+morning he sent for the monk whom he had driven from him as a
+madman the day before. Standing before his holiness and the college
+of cardinals, Francis pleaded his cause in a touching and eloquent
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page217"></a>[pg 217]</span>
+parable. His quiet, earnest manner and clear blue eyes impressed
+every one. The pope did not give him formal sanction however--this
+was left for Honorius III., November 29, 1223--but he verbally
+permitted him to establish his order and to continue his
+preaching.</p>
+<p>Several times Francis set out to preach to the Mohammedans, but
+failed to reach his destination. He finally visited Egypt during
+the siege of Damietta, and at the risk of his life he went forth to
+preach to the sultan encamped on the Nile. He is described by an
+eye-witness "as an ignorant and simple man, beloved of God and
+men." His courage and personal magnetism won the Mohammedan's
+sympathy but not his soul. Although Francis courted martyrdom, and
+offered to walk through fire to prove the truth of his message, the
+Oriental took it all too good-naturedly to put him to the test, and
+dismissed him with kindness.</p>
+<p>Francis was a great lover of birds. The swallows he called his
+sisters. A bird in the cage excited his deepest sympathy. It is
+said he sometimes preached to the feathered songsters. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page218"></a>[pg 218]</span> Longfellow has cast
+one of these homilies into poetic form:</p>
+<blockquote>"O brother birds, St. Francis said,<br>
+Ye come to me and ask for bread,<br>
+But not with bread alone to-day<br>
+Shall ye be fed and sent away.<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+Oh, doubly are ye bound to praise<br>
+The great Creator in your lays;<br>
+He giveth you your plumes of down,<br>
+Your crimson hoods, your cloaks of brown.<br>
+<br>
+He giveth you your wings to fly<br>
+And breathe a purer air on high,<br>
+And careth for you everywhere,<br>
+Who for yourselves so little care."</blockquote>
+<p>Like all ascetics, Francis was tempted in visions. One cold
+night he fancied he was in a home of his own, with his wife and
+children around him. Rushing out of his cell he heaped up seven
+hills of snow to represent a wife, four sons and daughters, and two
+servants. "Make haste," he cried, "provide clothing for them lest
+they perish with the cold," and falling upon the imaginary group,
+he dispelled the vision of domestic bliss in the cold embrace of
+the winter's snow. Mrs. Oliphant points out the fact that,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page219"></a>[pg 219]</span> unlike
+most of the hermits and monks, Francis dreams not of dancing girls,
+but of the pure love of a wife and the modest joys of a home and
+children. She beautifully says: "Had he, for one sweet, miserable
+moment, gone back to some old imagination and seen the unborn faces
+shine beside the never-lighted fire? But Francis does not say a
+word of any such trial going on in his heart. He dissipates the
+dream by the chill touch of the snow, by still nature hushing the
+fiery thoughts, by sudden action, so violent as to stir the blood
+in his veins; and then the curtain of prayer and silence falls over
+him, and the convent walls close black around."</p>
+<p>The experience of the saint on Mount Alverno deserves special
+consideration, not merely on account of its singularity, but also
+because it affords a striking illustration of the difficulties one
+encounters in trying to get at the truth in monastic narratives.
+Francis had retired to Mount Alverno, a wild and rugged solitude,
+to meditate upon the Lord's passion. For days he had been almost
+distracted with grief and holy sympathy. Suddenly a seraph with six
+wings stood before <span class="pagenum"><a name="page220"></a>[pg
+220]</span> him. When the heavenly being departed, the marks of the
+Crucified One appeared upon the saint's body. St. Bonaventure says:
+"His feet and hands were seen to be perforated by nails in their
+middle; the heads of the nails, round and black, were on the inside
+of the hands, and on the upper parts of the feet; the points, which
+were rather long, and which came out on the opposite sides, were
+turned and raised above the flesh, from which they came out." There
+also appeared on his right side a red wound, which often oozed a
+sacred blood that stained his tunic.</p>
+<p>This remarkable story has provoked considerable discussion.
+One's conclusions respecting its credibility will quite likely be
+determined by his general view of numerous similar narratives, and
+by the degree of his confidence in the value of human testimony
+touching such matters. The incongruities and palpable impostures
+that seriously impair the general reliability of monkish historians
+render it difficult to distinguish between the truths and errors in
+their writings.</p>
+<p>Some authorities hold that the marks did not appear on St.
+Francis, and that the story is without <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page221"></a>[pg 221]</span> foundation. But
+Roman writers bring forward the three early biographers of Francis
+who claim that the marks did appear. Pope Alexander IV. publicly
+averred that he saw the wounds, and pronounced it heresy to doubt
+the report. Popes Benedict XI., Sixtus IV., and Sixtus V.
+consecrated and canonized the impressions by instituting a
+particular festival in their honor. Numerous persons are said to
+have seen the marks and to have kissed the nails, after the death
+of the saint. Singularly enough, the Dominicans were inclined to
+regard the story as a piece of imposture designed to exalt Francis
+above Dominic.</p>
+<p>But, if it be admitted that the marks did appear, as it is not
+improbable, how shall the phenomenon be explained? At least four
+theories are held: 1. Fraud; 2. The irresponsible self-infliction
+of the wounds; 3. Physical effects due to mental suggestion or some
+other psychic cause; 4. Miracle.</p>
+<p>1. The temptation is strong to claim a fraud, especially because
+the same witnesses who testify to the truth of the tale, also
+relate such monstrous, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page222"></a>[pg 222]</span> incredible stories, that one is
+almost forced to doubt either their integrity or their sanity. But
+there is no evidence in support of so serious an indictment. After
+showing that signs and portents attend every crisis in history,
+Mrs. Oliphant says: "Every great spiritual awakening has been
+accompanied by phenomena quite incomprehensible, which none but the
+vulgar mind can attribute to trickery and imposture;" but still she
+herself remains in doubt about the whole story.</p>
+<p>2. Although Mosheim uses the term "fraud," it would seem that he
+means rather the irresponsible self-infliction of the wounds. He
+says: "As he [Francis] was a most superstitious and fanatical
+mortal, it is undoubtedly evident that he imprinted on himself the
+holy wounds. Paul's words, 'I bear in my body the marks of the Lord
+Jesus,' may have suggested the idea of the fraud." The notion
+certainly prevailed that Francis was a sort of second Christ, and a
+book was circulated showing how he might be compared to Christ in
+forty particulars. There are many things in his biography which, if
+true, indicate that Francis yearned to imitate literally the
+experiences of his Lord.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page223"></a>[pg 223]</span>
+<p>3. Numerous experiments, conducted by scientific men, have
+established the fact that red marks, swellings, blisters, bleeding
+and wounds have been produced by mental suggestion.
+Bj&ouml;rnstrom, in his work on "Hypnotism," after recounting
+various experiments showing the effect of the imagination on the
+body, says, respecting the <i>stigmata</i> of the Middle Ages:
+"Such marks can be produced by hypnotism without deceit and without
+the miracles of the higher powers." Prof. Fisher declares: "There
+is no room for the suspicion of deceit. The idea of a strange
+physical effect of an abnormal state is more plausible." Trench
+thinks this is a reasonable view in the case of a man like Francis,
+"with a temperament so irrepressible, of an organization so
+delicate, permeated through and through with the anguish of the
+Lord's sufferings, passionately and continually dwelling on the one
+circumstance of his crucifixion." But others, despairing of any
+rational solution, cut the Gordian knot and declare that "the
+kindest thing to think about Francis is that he was crazy."</p>
+<p>4. Roman Catholics naturally reject all explanations
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page224"></a>[pg 224]</span> that
+exclude the supernatural, for, as Father Candide Chalippe affirms:
+"Catholics ought to be cautious in adopting anything coming from
+heretics; their opinions are almost always contagious." He
+therefore holds fast to the miracles in the lives of the saints,
+not only because he accepts the evidence, but because he believes
+these wonderful stories "add great resplendency to the merits of
+the saints, and, consequently, give great weight to the example
+they afford us."</p>
+<p>It is altogether probable that each one will continue to view
+the whole affair as his predispositions and religious convictions
+direct; some unconvinced by traditionary evidence and undismayed by
+charges of heresy; others devoutly accepting every monkish miracle
+and marveling at the obstinacy of unbelief.</p>
+<p>Two years after the event just described Francis was carried on
+a cot outside the walls of Assisi, where, lifting his hands he
+blessed his native city. Some few days later, on October 4, 1226,
+he passed away, exclaiming, "Welcome, Sister Death!"</p>
+<p>Whatever we may think of the legends that <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page225"></a>[pg 225]</span> cluster about his
+life, Francis himself must not be held responsible for all that has
+been written about him. He himself was no phantom or mythical
+being, but a real, earnest man who, according to his light, tried
+to serve his generation. As he himself said: "A man is just so much
+and no more as he is in the sight of God." "Francis appears to me,"
+says Forsyth, "a genuine, original hero, independent, magnanimous,
+incorruptible. His powers seemed designed to regenerate society;
+but taking a wrong direction, they sank men into beggars." Through
+the mist of tradition the holy beggar and saintly hero shines forth
+as a loving, gentle soul, unkind to none but himself. However his
+biography may be regarded, his life illustrates the beauty and
+power of voluntary renunciation,--the fountain not only of religion
+but of all true nobility of character. He may have been ignorant,
+perhaps grossly so, as Mosheim thinks, but nevertheless he merits
+our highest praise for striving honestly to keep his vow of poverty
+in the days when worldly monks disgraced their sacred profession by
+greed, ambition, and lustful indulgence.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page226"></a>[pg 226]</span>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Franciscan_Orders"></a>The Franciscan
+Orders</i></h2>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p>The orders which Francis founded were of three classes:</p>
+<p>1. Franciscan Friars or Order of Friars Minor, called also Gray
+or Begging Friars. The year in which Francis took the habit, 1208,
+is reckoned the first year of the order, but the Rule was not given
+until 1210.</p>
+<p>This Rule, which has not been preserved, was very simple, and
+doubtless consisted of a group of gospel passages, bearing on the
+vow of poverty, together with a few precepts about the occupations
+of the brethren. The pope was not asked to sanction the Rule but
+only to give his approbation to the missions of the little band.
+Some of the cardinals expressed their doubts about the mode of life
+provided for in the rules. "But," replied Giovanni di San Paolo,
+"if we hold that to observe gospel perfection and make profession
+of it is an irrational and impossible innovation, are we not
+convicted of blasphemy against Christ, the Author of the
+Gospel?"</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page227"></a>[pg 227]</span>
+<p>There was also the Rule of 1221, which makes an intermediate
+stage between the first Rule and that which was approved by the
+pope November 29, 1223. The Rule of 1210 was thoroughly Franciscan.
+It was the expression of the passionate, fervent soul of Francis.
+It was the cry of the human heart for God and purity. The Rule of
+1223 shows that the church had begun to direct the movement.
+Sabatier says of these two rules: "At the bottom of it all is the
+antinome of law and love. Under the reign of law we are the
+mercenaries of God, bound down to an irksome task, but paid a
+hundred-fold, and with an indisputable right to our wages." Such
+was the conception underlying the Rule of 1223. That of 1210 is
+thus described: "Under the rule of love we are the sons of God, and
+co-workers with Him; we give ourselves to Him without bargaining
+and without expectation; we follow Jesus, not because this is well,
+but because we cannot do otherwise, because we feel that He has
+loved us and we love Him in our turn."</p>
+<p>Francis would not allow his monks to be called Friars; he
+preferred Friars Minor or Little Brothers as a more humble
+designation[<a href="#NOTE_F">F</a>].</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page228"></a>[pg 228]</span>
+<p>Ten years after the founding of the order, it is claimed, over
+five thousand friars assembled in Rome for the general chapter. The
+monks lodged in huts made of matting and hence this convention has
+been called the "Chapter of Mats." The order was strongest
+numerically about fifty years after the death of Francis, when it
+numbered eight thousand convents and two hundred thousand monks.
+Many of its members were highly distinguished, such as St.
+Bonaventura, Duns Scotus, Roger Bacon and Cardinal Ximenes.</p>
+<p>2. Nuns of St. Clara or Poor Claras, dates from 1212, but it did
+not receive its rule from Francis until 1224. The order was founded
+in the following manner: Clara, a daughter of a noble family, was
+distinguished for her beauty and by her love for the poor. Francis
+often met her, and, in the language of his biographer, "exhorted
+her to a contempt of the world and poured into her ears the
+sweetness of Christ." Guided, no doubt, by his counsel, she stole
+one night from her home to a neighboring church where Francis and
+his beggars were assembled. Her long and beautiful hair was cut
+off, while a coarse woolen gown was <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page229"></a>[pg 229]</span> substituted for her own rich
+garments. Standing in the midst of the ragged monks, she renounced
+the dregs of Babylon and a wicked world, pledging her future to the
+monastic institution. Out from this little church into the darkness
+of the night, Francis led this beautiful girl of seventeen years
+and committed her to a Benedictine nunnery. Later on Clara became
+the abbess of a Franciscan convent at St. Damian, and the
+Sisterhood of St. Clara was established. It was an order of sadness
+and penitential tears. It is said that Clara never but once (when
+she received the blessing of the pope) lifted her eyelids so that
+the color of her eyes might be discerned.</p>
+<p>3. The Third Order, called also "Brotherhood of Penitence," was
+composed of lay men and women. So many husbands and wives were
+desirous of leaving their homes in order to enter the monastic
+state, that Francis, not wishing to break up happy marriages, so it
+is said, was compelled to give these enthusiasts some sort of a
+rule by which they might compromise between their established life
+and the monastic career. This state of things led to the formation,
+in <span class="pagenum"><a name="page230"></a>[pg 230]</span>
+1221, of the Third Order of St. Francis, or the Order of
+Tertiaries, in relation to the Friars Minor and the Poor Claras.
+Sabatier says this generally-accepted date is wrong; that it is
+impossible to fix any date, for that which came to be known as the
+Third Order was born of the enthusiasm excited by the preaching of
+Francis soon after his return from Rome in 1210. Candidates for
+admission into this order were required to make profession of all
+the orthodox truths, special care being employed to guard against
+the intrusion of heretics. Days of fasting and abstinence were
+enjoined, and members were urged to avoid profanity, the theater,
+dancing and law-suits. The order met with astonishing success,
+cardinals, bishops, emperors, empresses, kings and queens, gladly
+enrolling themselves among the followers of St. Francis.</p>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Dominic_de_Guzman"></a>Dominic de Guzman, 1170-1221
+A.D.</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Half-way between Osma and Aranda in Old Castile, Spain, is a
+little village known as "the fortunate Calahorra." Here was the
+castle of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page231"></a>[pg
+231]</span> Guzmans, where Dominic was born. His family was of high
+rank and character, a noble house of warriors, statesmen and
+saints. If we accept the legends, his greatness was foreshadowed.
+Before his birth, his mother dreamed she saw her son under the
+figure of a black-and-white dog, with a torch in his mouth. "A true
+dream," says Milman, "for he will scent out heresy and apply the
+torch to the faggots;" but, as will be seen later, this observation
+does not rest on undisputed evidence.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image232.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image232.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image232.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Saint Dominic.</b><br>
+From a photograph of the painting preserved<br>
+in his cell in the convent of Santa Sabina, at Rome<br>
+Trenton: Albert Brandt, Publisher, 1900]</p>
+<br>
+<p>In the year 1191, when Spain was desolated by a terrible famine,
+Dominic was just finishing his theological studies. He gave away
+his money and sold his clothes, his furniture and even his precious
+manuscripts, that he might relieve distress. When his companions
+expressed astonishment that he should sell his books, Dominic
+replied: "Would you have me study off these dead skins, when men
+are dying of hunger?" This noble utterance is cherished by his
+admirers as the first saying from his lips that has passed to
+posterity.</p>
+<p>Dominic was educated in the schools of Palencia, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page232"></a>[pg 232]</span> afterwards a
+university, where he devoted six years to the arts and four to
+theology. In 1194, when twenty-five years of age, Dominic became a
+canon regular, at Osma, under the rule of St. Augustine. Nine years
+after he accompanied his bishop, Don Diego, on an embassy for the
+king of Castile. When they crossed the Pyrenees they found
+themselves in an atmosphere of heresy. The country was filled with
+preachers of strange doctrines, who had little respect for Dominic,
+his bishop, or their Roman pontiff. The experiences of this journey
+inspired in Dominic a desire to aid in the extermination of heresy.
+He was also deeply impressed by an important and significant
+observation. Many of these heretical preachers were not ignorant
+fanatics, but well-trained and cultured men. Entire communities
+seemed to be possessed by a desire for knowledge and for
+righteousness. Dominic clearly perceived that only preachers of a
+high order, capable of advancing reasonable argument, could
+overthrow the Albigensian heresy.</p>
+<p>It would be impossible, in a few words, to tell the whole story
+of this Albigensian movement. <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page233"></a>[pg 233]</span> Undoubtedly the term stood for a
+variety of theological opinions, all of which were in opposition to
+the teachings of Rome. "From the very invectives of their enemies,"
+says Hallam, "and the acts of the Inquisition, it is manifest that
+almost every shade of heterodoxy was found among these dissidents,
+till it vanished in a simple protestation against the wealth and
+tyranny of the clergy." Many of the tenets of these enthusiasts
+were undoubtedly borrowed from the ancient Manicheism, and would be
+pronounced heretical by every modern evangelical denomination. But
+associated with those holding such doctrines were numerous
+reformers, whose chief offense consisted in their incipient
+Protestantism. However heretical any of these sects may have been,
+it is impossible to make them out enemies to the social order,
+except as all opponents of established religious traditions create
+disturbance. "What these bodies held in common," says Hardwick,
+"and what made them equally the prey of the inquisitor, was their
+unwavering belief in the corruption of the medieval church,
+especially as governed by the Roman pontiffs."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page234"></a>[pg 234]</span>
+<p>In 1208 Dominic visited Languedoc a second time, and on his way
+he encountered the papal legates returning in pomp to Rome, foiled
+in their attempt to crush this growing schism. To them he
+administered his famous rebuke: "It is not the display of power and
+pomp, cavalcades of retainers, and richly-houseled palfreys, or by
+gorgeous apparel, that the heretics win proselytes; it is by
+zealous preaching, by apostolic humility, by austerity, by seeming,
+it is true, but by seeming holiness. Zeal must be met by zeal,
+humility by humility, false sanctity by real sanctity, preaching
+falsehood by preaching truth." It is extremely unfortunate for the
+reputation of Dominic that he ever departed from the spirit of
+these noble words, which so clearly state the conditions of true
+religious progress.</p>
+<p>Dominic now gathered about him a few men of like spirit and
+began his task of preaching down heresy. But "the enticing words of
+man's wisdom" failed to win the Albigensians from what they
+believed to be the words of God. So, unmindful of his admonition to
+the papal legates, Dominic obtained permission of Innocent III. to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page235"></a>[pg 235]</span> hold
+courts, before which he might summon all persons suspected of
+heresy. When eloquence and courts failed, the pope let loose the
+"dogs of war." Then followed twenty years of frightful carnage,
+during which hundreds of thousands of heretics were slain, and many
+cities were laid waste by fire and sword. "This was to punish a
+fanaticism," says Hallam, "ten thousand times more innocent than
+their own, and errors which, according to the worst imputations,
+left the laws of humanity and the peace of social life unimpaired."
+Peace was concluded in 1229, but the persecution of heretics went
+on.</p>
+<p>What part Dominic personally had in these bloody proceedings is
+litigated history. His admirers strive to rescue his memory from
+the charge that he was "a cruel and bloody man." It is argued that
+while the pope and temporal princes carried on the sanguinary war
+against the heretics, Dominic confined himself to pleading with
+them in a spirit of true Christian love. He was a minister of
+mercy, not an avenging angel, sword in hand. It has to be conceded
+that the constant tradition of the Dominican <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page236"></a>[pg 236]</span> order that Dominic
+was the first Inquisitor, whether he bore the title or not, rests
+upon good authority. But what was the nature of the office as held
+by the saint? As far as Dominic was concerned, it is argued by his
+friends that the office "was limited to the <i>reconciliation</i>
+of heretics and had nothing to do with their <i>punishment</i>." It
+is also claimed that while Dominic did impose penances, in some
+cases public flagellation, no evidence can be produced showing that
+he ever delivered one heretic to the flames. Those who were burned
+were condemned by secular courts, and on the ground that they were
+not only heretics but enemies of the public peace and perpetrators
+of enormous crimes.</p>
+<p>But while it may not be proved that Dominic himself passed the
+sentence of death or applied the torch to the faggots with his own
+hand, he is by no means absolved from all complicity in those
+frightful slaughters, or from all responsibility for the subsequent
+establishment of the Holy Inquisition. The principles governing the
+Inquisition were practically those upon which Dominic proceeded;
+the germs of the later atrocities are <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page237"></a>[pg 237]</span> to be found in his
+aims and methods. By what a narrow margin does Dominic escape the
+charge of cruelty when it is boasted "that he resolutely insisted
+on no sentence being carried out until all means had been tried by
+which the conversion of a prisoner could be effected." Another
+statement also contains an inkling of a significant fact, namely,
+that secular judges and princes were constantly under the influence
+of the monks and other ecclesiastical persons, who incited them to
+wage war, and to massacre, in the Albigensian war as in other
+crusades against heresy. No word from Dominic can be produced
+indicating that he remonstrated with the pope, or that he tried to
+stop the crusade. In a few instances he seems to have interceded
+with the crazed soldiery for the lives of women and children. But
+he did not oppose the bloody crusade itself. He was constantly
+either with the army or following in its wake. He often sat on the
+bench at the trial of dissenters. He remained the life-long friend
+of Simon de Montfort, the cruel agent of the papacy, and he blessed
+the marriage of his sons and baptized his daughter. Special courts
+for trying heretics were established, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page238"></a>[pg 238]</span> previous to the
+more complete organization of the Inquisition, and in these he held
+a commission.</p>
+<p>The Holy Office of the Inquisition was made a permanent tribunal
+by Gregory IX., in 1233, twelve years after the death of Dominic,
+and curiously enough, in the same year in which he was canonized.
+The Catholic Bollandists claim that although the <i>title</i> of
+Inquisitor was of later date than Dominic, yet the <i>office</i>
+was in existence, and that the splendor of the Holy Inquisition
+owes its beginning to that saint. Certain it is that the
+administration of the Inquisition was mainly in the hands of
+Dominican monks.</p>
+<p>In view of all these facts, Professor Allen is justified in his
+conclusions respecting Dominic and his share in the persecution of
+heretics: "Whatever his own sweet and heavenly spirit according to
+Catholic eulogists, his name is a synonym of bleak and intolerant
+fanaticism. It is fatally associated with the blackest horrors of
+the crusade against the Albigenses, as well as with the infernal
+skill and deadly machinery of the Inquisition."</p>
+<p>In 1214, Dominic established himself, with six followers, in the
+house of Peter Cellani, a rich <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page239"></a>[pg 239]</span> resident of Toulouse. Eleven years of
+active and public life had passed since the Subprior of Osma had
+forsaken the quietude of the monastery. He now resumed his life of
+retirement and subjected himself and his companions to the monastic
+rules of prayer and penance. But the restless spirit of the man
+could not long remain content with the seclusion and inactivity of
+a monk's life. The scheme of establishing an order of Preaching
+Friars began to assume definite shape in his mind. He dreamed of
+seven stars enlightening the world, which represented himself and
+his six friends. The final result of his deliberations was the
+organization of his order, and the appearance of Dominic in the
+city of Rome, in 1215, to secure the approval of the pope, Innocent
+III. Although some describe his reception as "most cordial and
+flattering," yet it required supernatural interference to induce
+the pope to grant even his approval of the new order. It was not
+formally confirmed until 1216 by Honorius III.</p>
+<p>Dominic now made his headquarters at Rome, although he traveled
+extensively in the interests of his growing brotherhood of monks.
+He was made <span class="pagenum"><a name="page240"></a>[pg
+240]</span> Master of the Sacred Palace, an important official
+post, including among its functions the censorship of the press. It
+has ever since been occupied by members of the Dominican order.</p>
+<p>Throughout his life Dominic is said to have zealously practiced
+rigorous self-denial. He wore a hair shirt, and an iron chain
+around his loins, which he never laid aside, even in sleep. He
+abstained from meat and observed stated fasts and periods of
+silence. He selected the worst accommodations and the meanest
+clothes, and never allowed himself the luxury of a bed. When
+traveling, he beguiled the journey with spiritual instruction and
+prayers. As soon as he passed the limits of towns and villages, he
+took off his shoes, and, however sharp the stones or thorns, he
+trudged on his way barefooted. Rain and other discomforts elicited
+from his lips nothing but praises to God.</p>
+<p>Death came at the age of fifty-one and found him exhausted with
+the austerities and labors of his eventful career. He had reached
+the convent of St. Nicholas, at Bologna, weary and sick with a
+fever. He refused the repose of a bed and bade the monks lay him on
+some sacking stretched upon <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page241"></a>[pg 241]</span> the ground. The brief time that
+remained to him was spent in exhorting his followers to have
+charity, to guard their humility, and to make their treasure out of
+poverty. Lying in ashes upon the floor he passed away at noon, on
+the sixth of August, 1221. He was canonized by Gregory IX., in
+1234.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Dominican_Orders"></a>The Dominican
+Orders</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The origin of the Order of the Preaching Friars has already been
+described. It is not necessary to dwell upon the constitution of
+this order, because in all essential respects it was like that of
+the Franciscans. The order is ruled by a general and is divided
+into provinces, governed by provincials. The head of each house is
+called a prior. Dominic adopted the rules laid down by St.
+Augustine, because the pope ordered him to follow some one of the
+older monastic codes, but he also added regulations of his own.</p>
+<p>Soon after the founding of the order, bands of monks were sent
+out to Paris, to Rome, to Spain and to England, for the purpose of
+planting colonies in the chief seats of learning. The order
+produced <span class="pagenum"><a name="page242"></a>[pg
+242]</span> many eminent scholars, some of whom were Thomas
+Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, Echard, Tauler and Savonarola.</p>
+<p>As among the Franciscans, there was also an Order of Nuns,
+founded in 1206, and a Third Order, called the Militia of Jesus
+Christ, which was organized in 1218.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Success_of_the_Mendicant_Orders"></a>The
+Success of the Mendicant Orders</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>In 1215, Innocent III. being pope, the Lateran council passed
+the following law: "Whereas the excessive diversity of these
+[monastic] institutions begets confusion, no new foundations of
+this sort must be formed for the future; but whoever wishes to
+become a monk must attach himself to some of the already existing
+rules." This same pope approved the two Mendicant orders, urging
+them, it is true, to unite themselves to one of the older orders;
+but, nevertheless, they became distinct organizations, eclipsing
+all previous societies in their achievements. The reason for this
+disregard of the Lateran decree is doubtless to be found in the
+alarming condition of religious affairs at that time, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page243"></a>[pg 243]</span> and in the hope
+held out to Rome by the Mendicants, of reforming the monasteries
+and crushing the heretics.</p>
+<p>The failure of the numerous and varied efforts to reform the
+monastic institution and the danger to the church arising from the
+unwonted stress laid upon poverty by different schismatic religious
+societies, necessitated the adoption of radical measures by the
+church to preserve its influence. At this juncture the Mendicant
+friars appeared. The conditions demanded a modification of the
+monastic principle which had hitherto exalted a life of retirement.
+Seclusion in the cloister was no longer possible in the view of the
+remarkable changes in religious thought and practice.</p>
+<p>Innocent III. was wise enough to perceive the immediate utility
+of the new societies based upon claims to extraordinary humility
+and poverty. The Mendicant orders were, in themselves, not only a
+rebuke to the luxurious indolence and shameful laxity of the older
+orders, but when sanctioned by the church, the existence of the new
+societies attested Rome's desire to maintain the highest and the
+purest standards of monastic life. Hence, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page244"></a>[pg 244]</span> the Preaching
+Friars were permitted to reproach the clergy and the monks for
+their vices and corruptions.</p>
+<p>"The effect of such a band of missionaries," says John Stuart
+Mill, "must have been great in rousing and feeding dormant
+devotional feelings. They were not less influential in regulating
+those feelings, and turning into the established Catholic channels
+those vagaries of private enthusiasm which might well endanger the
+church, since they already threatened society itself."</p>
+<p>Two novel monastic features, therefore, now appear for the first
+time: 1. The substitution of itineracy for the seclusion of the
+cloister; and 2. The abolition of endowments.</p>
+<p>1. The older orders had their traveling missionaries, but the
+general practice was to remain shut up within the monastic walls.
+The Mendicants at the start had no particular abiding place, but
+were bound to travel everywhere, preaching and teaching. It was
+distinctly the mission of these monks to visit the camps, the
+towns, cities and villages, the market places, the universities,
+the homes and the churches, to preach and to minister to the sick
+and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page245"></a>[pg 245]</span> the
+poor. They neither loved the seclusion of the cell nor sought it.
+Theirs to tramp the dusty roads, with their capacious bags, begging
+and teaching. Only by this itinerant method could the people be
+reached and the preachers of heresy be encountered.</p>
+<p>2. One of the chief sources of strength in the heretical sects
+was the justness of their attack upon the Catholic monastic orders,
+whose immense riches belied their vows of poverty. The heretics
+practiced austerities and adopted a simplicity of life that won the
+hearts of the people, by reason of its contrast to the loose habits
+of the monks and clergy. Since it was impossible to reform the
+older orders, it became absolutely essential to the success of the
+Mendicants that they should rigorously respect the neglected
+discipline. As the abuse of the vow of poverty was particularly
+common, the Mendicants naturally emphasized this vow.</p>
+<p>While it is true that a begging monk was by no means unknown,
+yet now, for the first time, was the practice of mendicity formally
+adopted by entire orders. Owing to the excessive multiplication of
+mendicant societies, Pope Gregory X., at a general <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page246"></a>[pg 246]</span> council held at
+Lyons in 1272, attempted to check the growing evil. The number of
+Mendicant orders was confined to four, viz., the Dominicans, the
+Franciscans, the Carmelites and the Augustinians or Hermits of
+Augustine. The Council of Trent confined mendicity to the
+Observantines and Capuchins, since the other societies had
+practically abandoned their original interpretation of their vow of
+poverty and had acquired permanent property.</p>
+<p>When Francis tried to enforce the rule of poverty, his rigor
+gave rise to most serious dissensions, which began in his own
+lifetime and ended after his death in open schism. Some of his
+followers were not pleased with his views on that subject. They
+resisted his extreme strictness, and after his death they continued
+to advocate the holding of property. The popes tried to settle the
+quarrel, but ever and anon it broke out afresh with volcanic
+fierceness. They finally interpreted the rule of poverty to mean
+that the friars could not hold property in their own names, but
+they might enjoy its use. Under this interpretation of the rule,
+the beggars soon became very rich. Matthew of Paris said: "The
+friars who have been founded hardly forty years have built even
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page247"></a>[pg 247]</span> in the
+present day in England residences as lofty as the palaces of our
+kings." But the better element among the Franciscans refused to
+consent to such a palpable evasion of the rule. A portion of this
+class separated themselves from the Franciscans, rejected their
+authority, and formed a new sect called the <i>Fratricelli</i>, or
+Little Brothers. It is very important to keep the history of this
+name clearly in mind, for it frequently appears in the Reformation
+period and has been the cause of much misunderstanding. The word
+"Fratricelli" came to be a term of derision applied to any one
+affecting the dress or the habits of the monks. When heretical
+sects arose, it was applied to them as a stigma, but it was used
+first by a sect of rigid Franciscans who deserted their order,
+adopted this name as their own, and exulted in its use. The quarrel
+among the monks led to a variety of complications and is
+intricately interwoven with the political and religious history of
+the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. "These
+rebellious Franciscans," says Mosheim, "though fanatical and
+superstitious in some respects, deserve an eminent rank among those
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page248"></a>[pg 248]</span> who
+prepared the way for the Reformation in Europe, and who excited in
+the minds of the people a just aversion to Rome."</p>
+<p>The Mendicants were especially active in educational work. This
+is to be attributed to several causes. Unquestionably the general
+and increasing interest in theological doctrines and the craving
+for knowledge affected the monastic orders. Europe was just
+arousing from her medieval slumbers. The faint rays of the
+Reformation dawn were streaking the horizon. The intellect as well
+as the conscience was touched by the Spirit of God. The revolt
+against moral iniquity was often accompanied by skepticism
+concerning the authority and dogmas of the church. Questions were
+being asked that ignorant monks could not answer. Too long had the
+church ignored these symptoms of the approach of a new order of
+things. The church was forced to meet the heretics on their own
+ground, to offset the example of their simplicity and purity of
+life by exalting the neglected standards of self-denial, and to
+silence them, if possible, by exposing their errors. Then came the
+Franciscans, with their austere simplicity and their insistence
+upon poverty. Then also appeared the Dominicans, or as they were
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page249"></a>[pg 249]</span> called,
+"The Watch-dogs of the Church," who not only barked the church
+awake, but tried to devour the heretics.</p>
+<p>Francis halted for some time before giving encouragement to
+educational enterprises. A life of devotion and prayer attracted
+him, because, as he said, "Prayer purifies the affections,
+strengthens us in virtue, and unites us to the sovereign good."
+But, he went on, "Preaching renders the feet of the spiritual man
+dusty; it is an employment which dissipates and distracts, and
+which causes regular discipline to be relaxed." After consulting
+Brother Sylvester and Sister Clara, he decided to adopt their
+counsel and entered upon a ministry of preaching. The example and
+success of the Dominicans probably inspired the Franciscans to give
+themselves more and more to intellectual work.</p>
+<p>Both orders received appointments in all the leading
+universities, but they did not gain this ascendency without a
+severe conflict. The regular professors and the clergy were jealous
+of them for various causes, and resisted them at every point. The
+quarrel between the Dominicans and the University of Paris is the
+most famous of these <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page250"></a>[pg 250]</span> struggles. It began in 1228 and did
+not end until 1259. The Dominicans claimed the right to two
+theological professorships. One had been taken from them, and a law
+was passed that no religious order should have what these friars
+demanded. The Dominicans rebelled and the University passed
+sentences of expulsion. Innocent IV., wishing to become master of
+Italy, sided with the University, but the next month he was
+dead,--in answer to their prayers, said the Dominicans, but rumor
+hinted an even blacker cause. The thirty-one years of the struggle
+dragged wearily on, disturbed by papal bulls, appeals, pamphlets
+and university slogans. At last Alexander IV., in 1255, decided
+that the Dominicans might have the second professorship and also
+any other they thought proper. The noise of conflict now grew
+louder and boded ill for the peace of the church. The pulpits
+flashed forth fiery utterances. The monks were assailed in every
+quarter. William of Amour published his essay on "The Perils of the
+Last Times," in which he claimed that the perilous times predicted
+by the Apostle Paul were now fulfilled by these begging friars. He
+exposed their iniquities and bitterly <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page251"></a>[pg 251]</span> complained of their
+arrogance and vice. His book was burned and its author banished.
+Although meaning to be a friend of Rome, he unconsciously
+contributed his share to the coming reform. In 1259, Rome thundered
+so loud that all Europe was terrified and the University was awed
+into submission.</p>
+<p>Another interesting feature in the history of their educational
+enterprises is the entrance of the Mendicants into England, where
+they acted a leading part in the educational and political history
+of the country. The Dominicans settled first at Oxford, in 1221.
+The Franciscans, after a short stay at Canterbury, went to Oxford
+in 1224. The story of how the two Gray friars journeyed from
+Canterbury to Oxford runs as follows: "These two forerunners of a
+famous brotherhood, being not far from Oxford, lost their way and
+came to a farmhouse of the Benedictines. It was nearly night and
+raining. They gently knocked, and asked admittance for God's sake.
+The porter gazed on their patched robes and beggarly aspect and
+supposed them to be mimics or despised persons. The prior, pleased
+with the tidings, invited them in. But instead of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page252"></a>[pg 252]</span> sportively
+performing, these two friars insisted, with sedate countenances,
+that they were men of God. Whereat the Benedictines in jealousy,
+and displeased to be cheated out of their expected fun, kicked and
+buffeted the two poor monks and turned them out of doors. One young
+monk pitied them and smuggled them into a hay-loft where we trust
+they slept soundly and safe from the cold and rain." The two friars
+finally reached Oxford and were well received by their Dominican
+brothers. Such was the simple beginning of a brilliant career that
+was profoundly to affect the course of English history. Both at
+Cambridge and Oxford the monastic orders exercised a remarkable
+influence. Traces of their labors and power may still be seen in
+the names of the colleges, and in the religious portions of the
+university discipline. They built fine edifices and manned their
+schools with the best teachers, so that they became great rivals of
+the regular colleges which did not have the funds necessary to
+compete with these wealthy beggars. Another cause of their rapid
+progress was the exodus of students from Paris to England. During
+the quarrel at Paris, Henry III. of England offered many
+inducements to the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page253"></a>[pg
+253]</span> students, who left for England in large numbers. Many
+of them were prejudiced in favor of the friars, and they naturally
+drifted to the monastic college. The secular clergy charged the
+friars with inducing the college students to enter the monasteries
+or to turn begging monks. The pope, the king, and the parliament
+became involved in the struggle, which grew more bitter as the
+years passed. After a while Wyclif appeared, and when he began his
+mighty attack upon the friars the joy with which the professors
+viewed the struggle can be appreciated.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Decline_of_the_Mendicants"></a>The Decline of
+the Mendicants</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The Mendicant friars won their fame by faithful and earnest
+labors. Men admired them because they identified themselves with
+the lowest of mankind and heroically devoted themselves to the poor
+and sick. These "sturdy beggars," as Francis called his companions,
+were contrasted with the lazy, rich, and, too often, licentious
+monks of the other orders. Everywhere the friars were received with
+veneration and joy. The people sought burial in <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page254"></a>[pg 254]</span> their rags,
+believing that, clothed in the garments of these holy beggars, they
+would enter paradise more speedily.</p>
+<p>Instead of seeking the seclusion of the convent to save his own
+soul, the friar displayed remarkable zeal trying to save mankind.
+He became the arbiter in the quarrels of princes, the prime mover
+in treaties between nations, and the indispensable counselor in
+political complications. The pope employed him as his authorized
+agent in the most difficult matters touching the welfare of the
+church. His influence upon the common people is thus described by
+the historian Green: "The theory of government wrought out in the
+cell and lecture-room was carried over the length and breadth of
+the land by the Mendicant brother begging his way from town to
+town, chatting with the farmer or housewife at the cottage door and
+setting up his portable pulpit in village green or market-place.
+The rudest countryman learned the tale of a king's oppression or a
+patriot's hope as he listened to the rambling, passionate, humorous
+discourse of the beggar friar."</p>
+<p>By these methods the Mendicants were enabled <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page255"></a>[pg 255]</span> to render most
+efficient service to their patrons at Rome in their efforts to
+establish their temporal power. They were, in fact, before the
+Reformation, just what the Jesuits afterwards became, "the very
+soul of the hierarchy." Yes, they were immensely, prodigiously
+successful. The popes hastened to do them honor. Because the friars
+were such enthusiastic supporters of the church, the popes poured
+gold and privileges into their capacious coffers. Thankful peasants
+threw in their mites and the admiring noble bestowed his
+estates.</p>
+<p>The secular clergy, with envy and chagrin, awoke to the alarming
+fact that the beggars had won the hearts of the people; their
+hatred was increased by the fact that when the Roman pontiffs
+enriched these indefatigable toilers and valiant foes of heresy,
+they did so at the expense of the bishops and clergy, which,
+perhaps, was robbing Paul to pay Peter.</p>
+<p>Baluzii says: "No religious order had the distribution of so
+many and such ample indulgences as the Franciscans. In place of
+fixed revenues, lucrative indulgences were placed in their hands."
+So ill-judged was the distribution of these favors that discipline
+was overturned. Many churchmen, feeling <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page256"></a>[pg 256]</span> that their rights
+were being encroached upon, complained bitterly, and resolved on
+retaliation. It is just here that a potent cause of the Mendicant's
+fall is to be found. He helped to dig his own grave.</p>
+<p>Having elevated monasticism to the zenith of its power, the
+Mendicant orders, like all the other monastic brotherhoods, entered
+upon their shameful decline. The unexampled prosperity, so
+inconsistent with the original intentions of the founders of the
+orders, was attended by corruptions and excesses. The decrees of
+councils, the denunciations of popes and high ecclesiastical
+dignitaries, the satires of literature, the testimony of
+chroniclers and the formation of reformatory orders, constitute a
+body of irrefragable evidence proving that the lowest level of
+sensuality, superstition and ignorance had been reached. The monks
+and friars lost whatever vigor and piety they ever possessed.</p>
+<p>It is again evident that a monk cannot serve God and mammon.
+Success ruins him. Wealth and popular favor change his character.
+The people slowly realize the fact that the fat and lazy medieval
+monk is not dead, after all, but <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page257"></a>[pg 257]</span> has simply changed his name to that
+of Begging Friar. As Allen neatly observes: "Their gray gown and
+knotted cord wrapped a spiritual pride and capacity of bigotry,
+fully equal to the rest."</p>
+<p>Here, then, are the "sturdy beggars" of Francis, dwelling in
+palatial convents, arrogant and proud, trampling their ideal into
+the dust. Thus it came to pass in accordance with the principle
+stated at the beginning of this chapter, that when the ideal became
+a cloak to cover up sham, decay had set in, and ruin, even though
+delayed for years, was sure to come. The poor, sad-faced, honest,
+faithful friar everybody praised, loved and reverenced. The
+insolent, contemptuous, rich monk all men loathed. So a change of
+character in the friar transformed the songs of praise into shouts
+of condemnation. Those golden rays from the morning sun of the
+Reformation are ascending toward the highest heaven, and daybreak
+is near.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page258"></a>[pg 258]</span>
+<h2><a name="VI"></a>VI</h2>
+<h2><i><a name="THE_SOCIETY_OF_JESUS"></a>THE SOCIETY OF
+JESUS</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>In many respects it would be perfectly proper to consider the
+Mendicant orders as the last stage in the evolution of the monastic
+institution. Although the Jesuitical system rests upon the three
+vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience, yet the ascetic principle
+is reduced to a minimum in that society. Father Thomas E. Sherman,
+the son of the famous general, and a Jesuit of distinguished
+ability, has declared: "We are not, as some seem to think, a
+semi-military band of men, like the Templars of the Middle Ages. We
+are not a monastic order, seeking happiness in lonely withdrawal
+from our fellows. Our enemies within and without the church would
+like to make us monks, for then we would be comparatively useless,
+since that is not our end or aim.... We are regulars in the army of
+Christ; <span class="pagenum"><a name="page259"></a>[pg 259]</span>
+that is, men vowed to poverty, chastity and obedience; we are a
+collegiate body with the right to teach granted by the Catholic
+church[<a href="#NOTE_G"></a>G]."</p>
+<p>The early religious orders were based upon the idea of
+retirement from the world for the purpose of acquiring holiness.
+But as has already been shown, the constant tendency of the
+religious communities was toward participation in the world's
+affairs. This tendency became very marked among the friars, who
+traveled from place to place, and occupied important university
+positions, and it reaches its culmination in the Society of Jesus.
+Retirement among the Jesuits is employed merely as a preparation
+for active life. Constant intercourse with society was provided for
+in the constitution of the order. Bishop John J. Keane, a Roman
+Catholic authority, says: "The clerks regular, instituted
+principally since the sixteenth century, were neither monks nor
+friars, but priests living in common and busied with the work of
+the ministry. The Society of Jesus is one of the orders of clerks
+regular."</p>
+<p>Other differences between the monastic communities <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page260"></a>[pg 260]</span> and the Jesuits are
+to be observed. The Jesuit discards the monastic gown, and is
+decidedly averse to the old monastic asceticism, with its rigorous
+and painful treatment of the body. While the older religious
+societies were essentially democratic in spirit and government, the
+monks sharing in the control of the monastic property and
+participating in the election of superiors, the Jesuitical system
+is intensely monarchical, a despotism pure and simple. In the older
+orders, the welfare of the individual was jealously guarded and his
+sanctification was sought. Among the Jesuits the individual is
+nothing, the corporate body everything. Admission to the monastic
+orders was encouraged and easily obtained. The novitiate of the
+Jesuits is long and difficult. Access to the highest grades of the
+order is granted only to those who have served the society many
+weary years.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image263.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image263.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image263.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Ignatius de Loyola.</b><br>
+<br>
+After Greatbach's Engraving From The Wierz Print<br>
+Trenton: Albert Brandt, Publisher, 1900</p>
+<p>But in spite of such variations from the old monastic type, the
+Society of Jesus would doubtless never have appeared, had not the
+way for its existence been paved by previous monastic societies.
+Its aims and its methods were the natural sequence of monastic
+history. They were merely a development <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page261"></a>[pg 261]</span> of past
+experiences, for the objects of the society were practically the
+objects of the Mendicants; the vows were the same with a change of
+emphasis. The abandonment of austerities as a means of salvation or
+spiritual power was the natural fruit of past experiments that had
+proved the uselessness of asceticism merely for the sake of
+acquiring a spirit of self-denial. The extirpation of heresy
+undertaken by Ignatius had already been attempted by the friars,
+while the education of the young had long been carried on with
+considerable success by the Benedictine and Dominican monks. The
+spirit of its founder, however, gave the Society of Jesus a unique
+character, and monasticism now passed out from the cell forever.
+The Jesuit may fairly be regarded as a monk, unlike any of his
+predecessors but nevertheless the legitimate fruit of centuries of
+monastic experience.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Ignatius_de_Loyola"></a>Ignatius de Loyola,
+1491-1556 A.D.</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Inigo Lopez de Recalde, or Loyola, as he is commonly known, was
+born at Guipuzcoa, in Spain, in 1491. He was educated as a page in
+the court <span class="pagenum"><a name="page262"></a>[pg
+262]</span> of Ferdinand the Catholic. He afterwards became a
+soldier and led a very wild life until his twenty-ninth year.
+During the siege of Pamplona, in 1521, he was severely wounded, and
+while convalescing he was given lives of Christ and of the saints
+to read. His perusal of these stories of spiritual combat inspired
+a determination to imitate the glorious achievements of the saints.
+For a while the thirst for military renown and an attraction toward
+a lady of the court, restrained his spiritual impulses. But
+overcoming these obstacles, he resolutely entered upon his new
+career.</p>
+<p>Sometime after he visited the sanctuary of Montserrat, where he
+hung his shield and sword upon the altar of the Virgin Mary and
+gave his oath of fealty to the service of God. A tablet, erected by
+the abbot of the monastery in commemoration of this event, reads as
+follows: "Here, blessed Ignatius of Loyola, with many prayers and
+tears, devoted himself to God and the Virgin. Here, as with
+spiritual arms, he fortified himself in sackcloth, and spent the
+vigil of the night. Hence he went forth to found the Society of
+Jesus, in the year MDXXII."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page263"></a>[pg 263]</span>
+<p>After spending ten months in Manresa, Loyola went on a
+pilgrimage to the Holy Land, intending to remain there, but he was
+sent home by the Eastern monks, and reached Italy in 1524.</p>
+<p>Now began his struggle for an education. At the age of
+thirty-three he took his seat on the school-bench at Barcelona. In
+1526 he entered the University at Alcala. He was here looked upon
+as a dangerous innovator, and was imprisoned six weeks, by order of
+the Inquisition, for preaching without authority, since he was not
+in holy orders. After his release he attended the University of
+Salamanca, but he finally took his degree of Master of Arts at the
+University of Paris, in 1533.</p>
+<p>During this period he was several times imprisoned as a
+dangerous fanatic, but each time he succeeded in securing a verdict
+in his favor. The hostility to Ignatius and his work forms a
+strange parallel to the bitter antagonism which his society has
+always encountered.</p>
+<p>Nine men, among whom was Francis Xavier, afterwards widely
+renowned, had been chosen with great care, as the companions of
+Ignatius. He called them together in July, 1534, and on August
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page264"></a>[pg 264]</span> 15th of
+the same year he selected six of them and bade them follow him to
+the Church of the Blessed Virgin, at Montmartre, in Paris. There
+and then they bound themselves to renounce all their goods, and to
+make a voyage to Jerusalem, in order to convert the Eastern
+infidels; if that scheme proved impracticable, they agreed to offer
+themselves to the sovereign pontiff for any service he might
+require of them. War prevented the journey to the Holy Land, and
+so, after passing through a variety of experiences, Ignatius and
+his companions met at Rome, to secure the sanction of Pope Paul
+III. for the new society. After a year and a half of deliberation
+and discussion a favorable decision was reached, which was, no
+doubt, partly facilitated by the growth of the Reformation. The new
+society was chartered on September 27, 1540, for the "defence and
+advance of the faith."</p>
+<p>Ignatius was elected as the general of the order and entered
+upon his duties, April 17, 1541. He soon prepared a constitution
+which was not adopted until after his death, and then in an amended
+form. Loyola ended his remarkable and stormy career, July 31,
+1556.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page265"></a>[pg 265]</span>
+<h2><i><a name=
+"Constitution_and_Polity_of_the_Order"></a>Constitution and Polity
+of the Order</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The <i>Institutum</i>, which contains the governing laws of the
+society, is a complex document consisting of papal bulls and
+decrees, a list of the privileges which have been granted to the
+order, ten chapters of rules, decrees of the general congregations,
+the plan of studies (<i>ratio studiorum</i>), and three ascetic
+writings, of which the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius constitute
+the chief part.</p>
+<p>The society is distributed into six grades: novices,
+scholastics, temporal coadjutors, spiritual coadjutors, professed
+of the three vows, and professed of the four vows.</p>
+<p>The professed form only a small percentage of the entire body,
+and constitute a sort of religious aristocracy, from which the
+officers of the society are selected. Only the professed of the
+fourth vow, who add to the three vows a pledge of unconditional
+obedience to the pope, possess the full rights of membership. This
+final grade cannot be reached until the age of forty-five, so that
+if the candidate enters the order at the earliest age <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page266"></a>[pg 266]</span> permissible,
+fourteen, he has been on probation thirty-one years when he reaches
+the final grade.</p>
+<p>The society is ruled by a general, to whom unconditional
+obedience is required. The provinces, into which the order is
+divided, are governed by provincials, who must report monthly to
+the general. The heads of all houses and colleges must report
+weekly to their provincials. An elaborate system of checks and
+espionage is employed to ensure the perfect working of this complex
+ecclesiastical machinery. Fraud or evasion is carefully guarded
+against, and every possible means is employed to enable the general
+to keep himself fully informed concerning the minutest details of
+the society's affairs.</p>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Vow_of_Obedience"></a>The Vow of
+Obedience</i></h2>
+<p>That which has imparted a peculiar character to the Jesuit and
+contributed more than any other force to his success, is the
+insistence upon unquestioning submission to the will of the
+superior. This emphasis on the vow of obedience deserves,
+therefore, special consideration. Loyola, in his <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page267"></a>[pg 267]</span> "Spiritual
+Exercises," commanded the novice to preserve his freedom of mind,
+but it is difficult for the fairest critic to conceive of such a
+possibility in the light of Loyola's rule of obedience, which
+reads: "I ought not to be my own, but His who created me, and his
+too by whose means God governs me, yielding myself to be moulded in
+his hands like so much wax.... I ought to be like a corpse, which
+has neither will nor understanding, or like a small crucifix, which
+is turned about at the will of him who holds it, or like a staff in
+the hands of an old man, who uses it as may best assist or please
+him."</p>
+<p>As an example of the kind of obedience demanded of the Jesuit,
+Loyola cited the obedience of Abraham, who, when he believed that
+Jehovah commanded him to commit the crime of infanticide, was ready
+to obey. The thirteenth of the rules appended to the Spiritual
+Exercises says: "If the Church shall have defined that to be black
+which to our eyes appears white, we ought to pronounce the thing in
+question black."</p>
+<p>Loyola is reported as having said to his secretary that "in
+those who offer themselves he looked less <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page268"></a>[pg 268]</span> to purely natural
+goodness than to firmness of character and ability for business."
+But that he did not mean <i>independent</i> firmness of character
+is clearly seen in the obvious attempt of the order to destroy that
+noble and true independence which is the crowning glory of a lofty
+character. The discipline is marvelously contrived to "scoop the
+will" out of the individual. Count Paul von Hoensbroech, who
+recently seceded from the society, has set forth his reasons for so
+doing in two articles which appeared in the "Preussische
+Jahrb&uuml;cher." A most interesting discussion of these articles,
+in the "New World," for December, 1894, places the opinions of the
+Count at our disposal. It is quite evident that he is no
+passionate, blind foe of the society. His tone is temperate and his
+praises cordially given. While recognizing the genius shown in the
+machinery of the society and the nobility of the real aims of the
+Jesuitical discipline, and while protesting against the unfounded
+charges of impurity, and other gross calumnies against the order,
+Count Paul nevertheless maintains that it "rests on so unworthy a
+depreciation of individuality, and so exaggerated an apprehension
+of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page269"></a>[pg 269]</span>
+virtue of obedience, as to render it unfit for its higher ends."
+The uniform of the Jesuit is not an external garb, but such freedom
+is insignificant in the light of the "veritable strait-jacket,"
+which is placed upon the inward man. The unformed and pliable
+novice, usually between the ages of sixteen and twenty, is
+subjected to "a skillful, energetic and unremitting assault upon
+personal independence." Every device that a shrewd and powerful
+intellect could conceive of is employed to break up the personal
+will. "The Jesuit scheme prescribes the gait, the way to hold the
+hands, to incline the head, to direct the eyes, to hold and move
+the person."</p>
+<p>Every novice must go through the "Spiritual Exercises" in
+complete solitude, twice in his life. They occupy thirty days. The
+"Account of the Conscience" is of the very essence of Jesuitism.
+The ordinary confession, familiar to every Catholic, is as nothing
+compared with this marvelous inquiry into the secrets of the human
+heart and mind. Every fault, sin, virtue, wish, design, act and
+thought,--good, bad or indifferent,--must be disclosed, and this
+revelation of the inner life may be used against him who makes it,
+"for the good of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page270"></a>[pg
+270]</span> the order." Thus, after fifteen years of such ingenious
+and detailed discipline, the young man's intellectual and moral
+faculties are moulded into Jesuitical forms. He is no longer his
+own. He is a pliable and obedient, even though it may be a virtuous
+and brilliant, tool of a spiritual master-mechanic who will use him
+according to his own purposes, in the interest of the society.</p>
+<p>The Jesuits have signally failed to convince the world that the
+type of character produced by their system is worthy of admiration.
+The "sacrifice of the intellect"--a familiar watchword of the
+Jesuit--is far too high a price to pay for whatever benefits the
+discipline may confer. It is contrary to human nature, and hence to
+the divine intention, to keep a human soul in a state of
+subordination to another human will. As Von Hoensbroech says of the
+society: "Who gave it a right to break down that most precious
+possession of the individual being, which God gave, and which man
+has no authority to take away?"</p>
+<p>It is true that no human organization has so magnificently
+brought to perfection a unity of purpose and oneness of will. It is
+also true that a <span class="pagenum"><a name="page271"></a>[pg
+271]</span> spirit of defiance toward human authority is often
+accompanied by a disobedience of divine law. But the remedy for the
+abuses of human freedom is neither in the annihilation of the will
+itself, nor in its mere subjection to some other will irrespective
+of its moral character. Carlyle may have been too vehement in some
+of his censures of Jesuitism, but he certainly exposed the
+fallaciousness of Loyola's views concerning the value of mere
+obedience, at the same time justly rebuking the too ardent admirers
+of the perverted principle: "I hear much also of 'obedience,' how
+that and kindred virtues are prescribed and exemplified by
+Jesuitism; the truth of which, and the merit of which, far be it
+from me to deny.... Obedience is good and indispensable: but if it
+be obedience to what is wrong and false, good heavens, there is no
+name for such a depth of human cowardice and calamity, spurned
+everlastingly by the gods. Loyalty? Will you be loyal to Beelzebub?
+Will you 'make a covenant with Death and Hell'? I will not be loyal
+to Beelzebub; I will become a nomadic Choctaw rather, ... anything
+and everything is venial to that."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page272"></a>[pg 272]</span>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Casuistry_of_the_Jesuits"></a>The Casuistry of
+the Jesuits</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>It is often asserted, even by authoritative writers, that a
+Jesuit is bound by his vows to commit either venial or mortal sin
+at the command of his superior; and that the maxim, "The end
+justifies the means," has not only been the principle upon which
+the society has prosecuted its work but is also explicitly taught
+in the rules of the order. There is nothing in the constitution of
+the society to justify these two serious charges, which are not to
+be regarded as malicious calumnies, however, because the slovenly
+Latin in one of the rules on obedience has misled such competent
+scholars as John Addington Symonds and the historian Ranke.
+Furthermore, judging from the doctrines of the society as set forth
+by many of their theologians and the political conduct of its
+representatives, the conclusion seems inevitable that while the
+society may not teach in its rules that its members are bound to
+obedience even to the point of sin, yet practically many of its
+leaders have so held and its emissaries have rendered that kind of
+obedience.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page273"></a>[pg 273]</span>
+<p>Bishop Keane admits that one of the causes for the decline and
+overthrow of the society was its marked tendency toward lax moral
+teaching. There can be but little doubt that the Jesuits have ever
+been indulgent toward many forms of sin and even crime, when
+committed under certain circumstances and for the good of the order
+or "the greater glory of God."</p>
+<p>To enable the reader to form some sort of an independent
+judgment on this question, it is necessary to say a few words on
+the subject of casuistry and the doctrine of probabilism.</p>
+<p>Casuistry is the application of general moral rules to given
+cases, especially to doubtful ones. The medieval churchmen were
+much given to inventing fanciful moral distinctions and to
+prescribing rules to govern supposable problems of conscience. They
+were not willing to trust the individual conscience or to encourage
+personal responsibility. The individual was taught to lean his
+whole weight on his spiritual adviser, in other words, to make the
+conscience of the church his own. As a result there grew up a
+confused mass of precepts to guide the perplexed conscience. The
+Jesuits carried this <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page274"></a>[pg 274]</span> system to its farthest extreme. As
+Charles C. Starbuck says: "They have heaped possibility upon
+possibility in their endeavors to make out how far there can be
+subjective innocence in objective error, until they have, in more
+than one fundamental point, hopelessly confused their own
+perceptions of both[<a href="#NOTE_H">H</a>]."</p>
+<p>The doctrine of probabilism is founded upon the distinctions
+between opinions that are sure, less sure, or more sure. There are
+several schools of probabilists, but the doctrine itself
+practically amounts to this: Since uncertainty attaches to many of
+our decisions in moral affairs, one must follow the more probable
+rule, but not always, cases often arising when it is permissible to
+follow a rule contrary to the more probable one. Furthermore, as
+the Jesuits made war upon individual authority, which was the
+key-note of the Reformation, and contended for the authority of the
+church, the teaching naturally followed, that the opinion of "a
+grave doctor" may be looked upon "as possessing a fair amount of
+probability, and may, therefore, be safely followed, even though
+one's conscience insist <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page275"></a>[pg 275]</span> upon the opposite course." It is easy
+to see that this opens a convenient door to those who are seeking
+justification for conduct which their consciences condemn. No doubt
+one can find plausible excuses for the basest crimes, if he stills
+the voice of conscience and trusts himself to confusing sophistry.
+The glory of God, the gravity of circumstances, necessity, the good
+of the church or of the order, and numerous other practical reasons
+can be urged to remove scruples and make a bad act seem to be a
+good one. But crime, even "for the glory of God," is crime
+still.</p>
+<p>This disagreeable subject will not be pursued further. To say
+less than has been said would be to ignore one of the most
+prominent causes of the Jesuits' ruin. To say more than this, even
+though the facts might warrant it, would incur the liability of
+being classed among those malicious fomentors of religious strife,
+for whom the writer has mingled feelings of pity and contempt. The
+Society of Jesus is not the Roman Catholic Church, which has
+suffered much from the burden of Jesuitism--wounds that are
+scarcely atoned for by the meritorious and self-sacrificing
+services on her behalf in <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page276"></a>[pg 276]</span> other directions. The Protestant foes
+have never equaled the Catholic opponents of Jesuitism, either in
+their fierce hatred of the system or in their ability to expose its
+essential weakness. A writer in the "Quarterly Review," September,
+1848, says: "Admiration and detestation of the Jesuits divide, as
+far as feeling is concerned, the Roman Catholic world, with a
+schism deeper and more implacable than any which arrays Protestant
+against Protestant."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Mission_of_the_Jesuits"></a>The Mission of the
+Jesuits</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The Society of Jesus has been described as "a naked sword, whose
+hilt is at Rome, and whose point is everywhere." It is an
+undisputed historical fact that Loyola's consuming passion was to
+accomplish the ruin of Protestantism, which had twenty years the
+start of him and was threatening the very existence of the Roman
+hierarchy. It has already been shown that the destruction of heresy
+was the chief aim of the Dominicans. What the friars failed to
+attain, Loyola attempted. The principal object of the Jesuits was
+the maintenance of papal authority. Even to-day the Jesuit does
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page277"></a>[pg 277]</span> not
+hesitate to declare that his mission is to overthrow Protestantism.
+The Reformation was inspired by a new conception of individual
+freedom. The authority of tradition and of the church was set at
+naught. Loyola planted his system upon the doctrine of absolute
+submission to authority. The partial success of the Jesuits, for
+they did beat back the Reformation, is no doubt attributable to
+their fidelity, virtue and learning. Their devotion to the cause
+they loved, their willingness to sacrifice life itself, their
+marvelous and instantaneous obedience to the slightest command of
+their leaders, made them a compact and powerful papal army. Their
+methods, in many particulars, were not beyond question, and,
+whatever their character, the order certainly incurred the fiercest
+hostility of every nation in Europe, and even of the church
+itself.</p>
+<p>Professor Anton Gindely, in his "History of the Thirty Years'
+War," shows that Maximilian, of Bavaria, and Ferdinand, of Austria,
+the leaders on the Catholic side, were educated by Jesuits. He also
+fixes the responsibility for that war partly upon them in the
+plainest terms: "In a word, they had the consciences of Roman
+Catholic sovereigns and <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page278"></a>[pg 278]</span> their ministers in their hands as
+educators, and in their keeping as confessors. They led them in the
+direction of war, so that it was at the time, and has since been
+called the Jesuits' War."</p>
+<p>The strictures of Carlyle, Macaulay, Thackeray, and Lytton have
+been repeatedly denounced by the Jesuits, but even their shrewd,
+sophistical defences of their order afford ample justification for
+the attitude of their foes. For example, in a masterful oration,
+previously quoted from, in which the virtues of the Jesuits are
+extolled and defended, Father Sherman says: "We are expelled and
+driven from pillar to post because we teach men to love God." He
+describes Loyola as "the knightly, the loyal, the true, the father
+of heroes, and the maker of saints, the lover of the all-good and
+the all-beautiful, crowned with the honor of sainthood, the
+best-loved and the best-hated man in all the world, save only his
+Master and ours." "'Twas he that conceived the daring plan of
+forging the weapon to beat back the Reformation." No one but a
+Jesuit could reconcile the aim of "preaching the love of God" with
+"beating back the Reformation," especially in view of the methods
+employed.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page279"></a>[pg 279]</span>
+<p>Numerous gross calumnies have been circulated against the
+Society of Jesus. The dread of a return to that deplorable
+intellectual and moral slavery of the pre-Reformation days is so
+intense, that a calm, dispassionate consideration of Jesuit history
+is almost impossible. But after all just concessions have been
+made, two indisputable facts confront the student: first, the
+universal antagonism to the order, of the church that gave birth to
+it, as well as of the states that have suffered from its meddling
+in political affairs; and second, the complete failure of the
+order's most cherished schemes. France, Germany, Switzerland,
+Spain, Great Britain and other nations, have been compelled in
+sheer self-defence to expel it from their territories. Such a
+significant fact needs some other explanation than that the Jesuit
+has incurred the enmity of the world merely for preaching the love
+of God.</p>
+<p>Clement XIV., when solemnly pronouncing the dissolution of the
+order, at the time his celebrated bull, entitled "<i>Dominus ac
+Redemptor Noster</i>" which was signed July 21, 1773, was made
+public, justified his action in the following terms: "Recognizing
+that the members of this society have not a <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page280"></a>[pg 280]</span> little troubled the
+Christian commonwealth, and that for the welfare of Christendom it
+were better that the order should disappear," etc. When Rome thus
+delivers her <i>ex cathedra</i> opinion concerning her own order,
+an institution which she knows better than any one else, one cannot
+fairly be charged with prejudice and sectarianism in speaking evil
+of it.</p>
+<p>But while there is much to be detested in the methods of the
+order, history does not furnish another example of such
+self-abnegation and intense zeal as the Jesuits have shown in the
+prosecution of their aims. They planted missions in Japan, China,
+Africa, Ceylon, Madagascar, North and South America.</p>
+<p>In Europe the Mendicant friars by their coarseness had disgusted
+the upper classes; the affable and cultured Jesuit won their
+hearts. The Jesuits became chaplains in noble families, learned the
+secrets of every government in Europe, and became the best
+schoolmasters in the age. They were to be found in various
+disguises in every castle of note and in every palace. "There was
+no region of the globe," says Macaulay, "no walk of speculative or
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page281"></a>[pg 281]</span> active
+life in which Jesuits were not to be found." That they were devoted
+to their cause no one can deny. They were careless of life and, as
+one facetiously adds, of truth also. They educated, heard
+confessions, plotted crimes and revolutions, and published whole
+libraries. Worn out by fatigue, the Jesuits still toiled on with
+marvelous zeal. Though hated and opposed, they wore serene and
+cheerful countenances. In a word, they had learned to control every
+faculty and every passion, and to merge every human aspiration and
+personal ambition into the one supreme purpose of conquering an
+opposing faith and exalting the power of priestly authority. They
+hold up before the subjects of the King of Heaven a wonderful
+example of loving and untiring service, which should be emulated by
+every servant of Christ who too often yields an indifferent
+obedience to Him whom he professes to love and to serve.</p>
+<p>Francis Parkman, in his brilliant narrative of "The Jesuits in
+North America," presents the following interesting contrast between
+the Puritan and the Jesuit: "To the mind of the Puritan, heaven was
+God's throne; but no less was the earth His <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page282"></a>[pg 282]</span> footstool; and each
+in its degree and its kind had its demands on man. He held it a
+duty to labor and to multiply; and, building on the Old Testament
+quite as much as on the New, thought that a reward on earth as well
+as in heaven awaited those who were faithful to the law. Doubtless,
+such a belief is widely open to abuse, and it would be folly to
+pretend that it escaped abuse in New England; but there was in it
+an element manly, healthful and invigorating. On the other hand,
+those who shaped the character, and in a great measure the destiny,
+of New France had always on their lips the nothingness and the
+vanity of life. For them, time was nothing but a preparation for
+eternity, and the highest virtue consisted in a renunciation of all
+the cares, toils and interests of earth. That such a doctrine has
+often been joined to an intense worldliness, all history proclaims;
+but with this we have at present nothing to do. If all mankind
+acted on it in good faith, the world would sink into decrepitude.
+It is the monastic idea carried into the wide field of active life,
+and is like the error of those who, in their zeal to cultivate
+their higher nature, suffer the neglected body to dwindle and pine,
+till <span class="pagenum"><a name="page283"></a>[pg 283]</span>
+body and mind alike lapse into feebleness and disease."</p>
+<p>Notwithstanding the success of the Jesuits in stopping the
+progress of the Reformation, it may be truthfully said that they
+have failed. The principles of the Reformation dominate the world
+and are slowly modifying the Roman church in America. "In truth,"
+says Macaulay, "if society continued to hold together, if life and
+property enjoyed any security, it was because common sense and
+common humanity restrained men from doing what the order of Jesus
+assured them they might with a safe conscience do." Our hope for
+the future progress of society lies in the guiding power of this
+same common sense and common humanity.</p>
+<p>The restoration of the order by Pius VII., August 7th, 1814,
+while it renewed the papal favor, did not allay the hostility of
+the civil powers. Various states have expelled them since that
+time, and wherever they labor, they are still the objects of open
+attack or ill-disguised suspicion. Although the order still shows
+"some quivering in fingers and toes," as Carlyle expresses it, the
+principles of the Reformation are too widely believed, and its
+benefits <span class="pagenum"><a name="page284"></a>[pg
+284]</span> too deeply appreciated, to justify any hope or fear of
+the ultimate triumph of Jesuitism.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Retrospect"></a>Retrospect</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>So the Christian monk has greatly changed since he first
+appeared in the deserts of Nitria, in Egypt. He has come from his
+den in the mountains to take his seat in parliaments, and find his
+home in palaces. He is no longer filthy in appearance, but elegant
+in dress and courtly in manner. He has exchanged his rags for
+jewels and silks. He is no longer the recluse of the lonely cliffs,
+chatting with the animals and gazing at the stars. He is a man of
+the world, with schemes of conquest filling his brain and a love of
+dominion ruling his heart. He is no longer a ditch-digger and a
+ploughman, but the proud master of councils or the cultured
+professor of the university. He still swears to the three vows of
+celibacy, poverty and obedience, but they do not mean the same
+thing to him that they did to the more ignorant, less cultured, but
+more genuinely frank monk of the desert. Yes, he has all but
+completely lost sight of his ancient monastic ideal. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page285"></a>[pg 285]</span> He professes the
+poverty of Christ, but he cannot follow even so simple a man as his
+Saint Francis.</p>
+<p>It is a long way from Jerome to Ignatius, but the end of the
+journey is nigh. Loyola is the last type of monastic life, or
+changing the figure, the last great leader in the conquered
+monastic army. The good within the system will survive, its truest
+exponents will still fire the courage and win the sympathy of the
+devout, but best of all, man will recover from its poison.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page286"></a>[pg 286]</span>
+<h2><a name="VII"></a>VII</h2>
+<h2><i><a name="THE_FALL_OF_THE_MONASTERIES"></a>THE FALL OF THE
+MONASTERIES</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The rise of Protestantism accelerated the decline and final ruin
+of the monasteries. The enthusiasm of the Mendicants and the
+culture of the Jesuits failed to convince the governments of Europe
+that monasticism was worthy to survive the destruction awaiting so
+many medieval institutions. The spread of reformatory opinions
+resulted in a determined and largely successful attack upon the
+monasteries, which were rightly believed to constitute the bulwark
+of papal power. So imperative were the popular demands for a
+change, that popes and councils hastened to urge the members of
+religious orders to abolish existing abuses by enforcing primitive
+rules. But while Rome practically failed in her attempted
+reformations, the Protestant reformers in church and state were
+widely successful in either <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page287"></a>[pg 287]</span> curtailing the privileges and
+revenues of the monks or in annihilating the monasteries.</p>
+<p>Since the sixteenth century the leading governments of Europe,
+even including those in Catholic countries, have given tangible
+expression to popular and political antagonism to monasticism, by
+the abolition of convents, or the withdrawal of immunities and
+favors, for a long time a source of monastic revenue and power. The
+results of this hostility have been so disastrous, that monasticism
+has never regained its former prestige and influence. Several of
+the older orders have risen from the ruins, and a few new
+communities have appeared, some of which are distinguished by their
+most laudable ministrations to the poor and the sick, or by their
+educational services. Yet notwithstanding the modifications of the
+system to suit the exigencies of modern times, it seems altogether
+improbable that the monks will ever again wield the power they
+possessed before the Reformation,</p>
+<p>In the present chapter attention will be confined to the
+dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII., in England. The
+suppression in that country was occasioned partly by peculiar,
+local conditions, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page288"></a>[pg
+288]</span> and was more radical and permanent than the reforms in
+other lands, yet it is entirely consistent with our general purpose
+to restrict this narrative to English history. Penetrating beneath
+the varying externalities attending the ruin of the monasteries in
+Germany, Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, and other countries, it
+will be found that the underlying cause of the destruction of the
+monasteries was that the monastic ideal conflicted with the spirit
+of the modern era. A conspicuous and dramatic example of this
+struggle between medievalism, as embodied in the monastic
+institution, and modern political, social and religious ideals, is
+to be found in the dissolution of the English monasteries. The
+narrative of the suppression in England also conveys some idea of
+the struggle that was carried on throughout Europe, with varying
+intensity and results.</p>
+<p>There is no more striking illustration of the power of the
+personal equation in the interpretation of history than that
+afforded by the conflicting opinions respecting the overthrow of
+monasticism in England. Those who mourn the loss of the monasteries
+cannot find words strong enough with which to condemn Henry VIII.,
+whom they regard <span class="pagenum"><a name="page289"></a>[pg
+289]</span> as "unquestionably the most unconstitutional, the most
+vicious king that ever wore the English crown." Forgetting the
+inevitable cost of human freedom, and lightly passing over the
+iniquities of the monastic system, they fondly dwell upon the
+departed glory of the ancient abbeys. They recall with sadness the
+days when the monks chanted their songs of praise in the chapels,
+or reverently bent over their books of parchment, bound in purple
+and gold, not that they might "winnow the treasures of knowledge,
+but that they might elicit love, compunction and devotion." The
+charming simplicity and loving service of the cloister life, in the
+days of its unbroken vows, appeal to such defenders of the monks
+with singular potency.</p>
+<p>Truly, the fair-minded should attempt to appreciate the sorrow,
+the indignation and the love of these friends of a ruined
+institution. Passionless logic will never enable one to do justice
+to the sentiments of those who cannot restrain their tears as they
+stand uncovered before the majestic remains of a Melrose Abbey, or
+properly to estimate the motives and methods of those who laid the
+mighty monastic institution in the dust.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page290"></a>[pg 290]</span>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Character_of_Henry_VIII"></a>The Character of
+Henry VIII</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Before considering the actual work of suppression, it may be
+interesting to glance at the royal destroyer and his times. The
+character of Henry VIII. is utterly inexplicable to many persons,
+chiefly because they do not reflect that even the inconsistencies
+of a great man may be understood when seen in the light of his
+times. A masterly and comprehensive summary of the virtues and
+vices of the Tudor monarch, who has been described as "the king,
+the whole king, and nothing but the king," may be found in "A
+History of Crime in England," by Luke Owen Pike. The distinguished
+author shows that in his brutality, his love of letters, his
+opposition to Luther, his vacillation in religious opinions, King
+Henry reflects with remarkable fidelity the age in which he lived,
+both in its contrasts and its inconsistencies. "It is only the
+previous history of England which can explain all the
+contradictions exhibited in his conduct,--which can explain how he
+could be rapacious yet sometimes generous, the Defender of the
+Faith yet <span class="pagenum"><a name="page291"></a>[pg
+291]</span> under sentence of excommunication, a burner of heretics
+yet a heretic himself, the pope's advocate yet the pope's greatest
+enemy, a bloodthirsty tyrant yet the best friend to liberty of
+thought in religion, an enthusiast yet a turncoat, a libertine and
+yet all but a Puritan. He was sensual because his forefathers had
+been sensual from time immemorial, rough in speech and action
+because there had been but few men in Britain who had been
+otherwise since the Romans abandoned the island. He was
+superstitious and credulous because few were philosophical or
+gifted with intellectual courage. Yet he had, what was possessed by
+his contemporaries, a faint and intermittent thirst for knowledge,
+of which he himself hardly knew the meaning." Henry was shrewd,
+tenacious of purpose, capricious and versatile. In spite of his
+unrestrained indulgences and his monstrous claims of power, which,
+be it remembered, he was able to enforce, and notwithstanding any
+other vices or faults that may be truthfully charged against him,
+he was, on the whole, a popular king. Few monarchs have ever had to
+bear such a strain as was placed upon his abilities and character.
+Rare have been the periods that have <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page292"></a>[pg 292]</span> witnessed such confusion of
+principles, social, political and religious. Those were the days
+when liberty was at work, "but in a hundred fantastical and
+repulsive shapes, confused and convulsive, multiform, deformed."
+Blind violence and half-way reforms characterized the age because
+the principles that were to govern modern times were not yet
+formulated.</p>
+<p>Judged apart from his times Henry appears as an arrogant, cruel
+and fickle ruler, whose virtues fail to atone for his vices. But
+still, with all his faults, he compares favorably with preceding
+monarchs and even with his contemporaries. If he had possessed less
+intelligence, courage and ambition, he would not now be so
+conspicuous for his vices, but the history of human liberty and
+free institutions, especially in England, would have been vastly
+different. His praiseworthy traits were not sufficiently strong to
+enable him to control his inherited passions, but they were too
+regnant to permit him to submit without a struggle to the hierarchy
+which had dominated his country so many centuries. Such was</p>
+<blockquote>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "the
+majestic lord,<br>
+That broke the bonds of Rome."</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page293"></a>[pg 293]</span>
+<h2><i><a name="Events_Preceding_the_Suppression"></a>Events
+Preceding the Suppression</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Many causes and incidents contributed to the progress of the
+reformation in England, and to the demolition of the monasteries.
+Only a few of them can be given here, and they must be stated with
+a brevity that conveys no adequate conception of their profound
+significance.</p>
+<p>Henry VIII. ascended the throne, in the year 1509, when eighteen
+years of age. In 1517, Luther took his stand against Rome. Four
+years later Henry wrote a treatise in defence of the Seven
+Sacraments and in opposition to the German reformer. For this
+princely service to the church the king received the title
+"Defender of the Faith" from Pope Leo X.</p>
+<p>About 1527 it became known that Henry was questioning the
+validity of his marriage with Catharine of Aragon, whom he had
+married when he was twelve years old. She was the widow of his
+brother Arthur. The king professed conscientious scruples about his
+marriage, but undoubtedly his desire for male offspring, and later,
+his passion <span class="pagenum"><a name="page294"></a>[pg
+294]</span> for Anne Boleyn, prompted him to seek release from his
+queen. In 1529, Henry and Catharine stood before a papal tribunal,
+presided over by Cardinal Wolsey, the king's prime minister, and
+Cardinal Campeggio, from Rome, for the purpose of determining the
+validity of the royal marriage. The trial was a farce. The enraged
+king laid the blame upon Wolsey, and retired him from office. The
+great cardinal was afterwards charged with treason, but died
+broken-hearted, on his way to the Tower, November 29, 1530.</p>
+<p>The breach between Henry and Rome, complicated by numerous
+international intrigues, widened rapidly. Henry began to assume an
+attitude of bold defiance toward the pope, which aroused the
+animosity of the Catholic princes of Europe.</p>
+<p>Notwithstanding the desire of a large body of the English people
+to remain faithful to Rome, the dangers which menaced their country
+from abroad and the ecclesiastical abuses at home, which had been a
+fruitful cause for complaint for many years, tended to lessen the
+ancient horror of heresy and schism, and inclined them to support
+their king. Another factor that assisted in preparing the English
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page295"></a>[pg 295]</span> people
+for the destruction of the monasteries was Lollardism. As an
+organized sect, the Lollards had ceased to exist, but the spirit
+and the doctrines of Wyclif did not die. A real and a vital
+connection existed between the Lollards of the fourteenth, and the
+reformers of the sixteenth, centuries. In Henry's time, many
+Englishmen held practically the same views of Rome and of the monks
+that had been taught by Wyclif[<a href="#NOTE_I">I</a>].</p>
+<p>A considerable number of Henry's subjects, however, while
+ostensibly loyal to him, were inwardly full of hot rebellion. The
+king was surrounded with perils. The princes of the Continent were
+eagerly awaiting the bull for his excommunication. Henry's throne
+and his kingdom might at any moment be given over by the pope to
+invasion by the continental sovereigns.</p>
+<p>Reginald Pole, afterwards cardinal, a cousin of the king, and a
+strong Catholic, stood ready to betray the interests of his country
+to Rome. Writing to the king, he said: "Man is against you; God is
+against you; the universe is against you; what can you look for but
+destruction?" "Dream not, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page296"></a>[pg 296]</span> Caesar," he encouragingly declared to
+Emperor Charles V., "that all generous hearts are quenched in
+England; that faith and piety are dead. In you is their trust, in
+your noble nature, and in your zeal for God--they hold their land
+till you shall come." Thus, on the testimony of a Roman Catholic,
+there were traitors in England waiting only for the call of Charles
+V., "To arms!" Pole was in full sympathy with all the factions
+opposed to the king, and stood ready to aid them in their
+resistance. He publicly denounced the king in several continental
+countries.</p>
+<p>The monks were especially enraged against Henry. They did all
+they could to inflame the people by preaching against him and the
+reformers. Friar Peyto, preaching before the king, had the
+assurance to say to him: "Many lying prophets have deceived you,
+but I, as a true Micah, warn you that the dogs will lick your blood
+as they did Ahab's." While the courage of this friar is
+unquestioned, his defiant attitude illustrates the position
+occupied by the monks toward those who favored separation from
+Rome. The whole country was at white heat. The friends of Rome
+looked upon <span class="pagenum"><a name="page297"></a>[pg
+297]</span> Henry as an incarnate fiend, a servant of the devil and
+an enemy of all religion. Many of them opposed him with the purest
+and best motives, believing that the king was really undermining
+the church of God and throwing society into chaos.</p>
+<p>In 1531, the English clergy were coerced into declaring that
+Henry was "the protector and the supreme head of the church and of
+the clergy of England," which absurd claim was slightly modified by
+the words, "in so far as is permitted by the law of Christ."
+Chapuys, in one of his despatches informing Charles V. of this
+action of convocation, said that it practically declared Henry the
+Pope of England. "It is true," he wrote, "that the clergy have
+added to the declaration that they did so only so far as permitted
+by the law of God. But that is all the same, as far as the king is
+concerned, as if they had made no reservation, for no one will now
+be so bold as to contest with his lord the importance of the
+reservation." Later on, Chapuys says that the king told the pope's
+nuncio that "if the pope would not show him more consideration, he
+would show the world that the pope had no greater authority than
+Moses, and that every claim <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page298"></a>[pg 298]</span> not grounded on Scripture was mere
+usurpation; that the great concourse of people present had come
+solely and exclusively to request him to bastinado the clergy, who
+were hated by both nobles and the people." ("Spanish Despatches,"
+number 460.)</p>
+<p>Parliament, in 1534, conferred on Henry the title "Supreme Head
+of the Church of England," and empowered him "to visit, and
+repress, redress, reform, order, correct, restrain, or amend all
+errors, heresies, abuses, offences, contempts, and enormities,
+which fell under any spiritual authority or jurisdiction." The "Act
+of Succession" was also passed by Parliament, cutting off Princess
+Mary and requiring all subjects to take an oath of allegiance to
+Elizabeth.</p>
+<p>It was now an act of treason to deny the king's supremacy. All
+persons suspected of disloyalty were required to sign an oath of
+allegiance to Henry, and to Elizabeth as his successor, and to
+acknowledge the supremacy of the king in church and state. This
+resulted in the death of some prominent men in the realm, among
+them Sir Thomas More. In the preamble of the oath prescribed by
+law, the legality of the king's marriage <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page299"></a>[pg 299]</span> with Anne was
+asserted, thus implying that his former marriage with Catharine was
+unlawful. More was willing to declare his allegiance to the infant
+Elizabeth, as the king's successor, but his conscience would not
+permit him to affirm that Catharine's marriage was unlawful.</p>
+<p>The life of the brilliant and lovable More is another
+illustration of the mental confusions and inconsistencies of that
+age. As an apostle of culture he favored the new learning, and yet
+he viewed the gathering momentum of reformatory principles with
+alarm, and cast in his lot with the ultra-conservatives. Four years
+of his young manhood were spent in a monastery. He devoted his
+splendid talents to a criticism of English society, and recommended
+freedom of conscience, yet he became an ardent foe of reform and
+even a persecutor of heretics, of whom he said: "I do so detest
+that class of men that, unless they repent, I am the worst enemy
+they have." When a man, whom even Protestant historians hasten to
+pronounce "the glory of his age," so magnificent were his talents
+and so blameless his character, was tainted with superstition, and
+sanctioned the persecution of liberal thinkers, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page300"></a>[pg 300]</span> is it remarkable
+that inferior intellects should have been swayed by the brutality
+and tyranny of the times?</p>
+<p>The unparalleled claims of Henry and his attitude toward the
+pope made the breach between England and Rome complete, but many
+years of painful internal strife and bloodshed were to elapse
+before the whole nation submitted to the new order of things, and
+before that subjective freedom from fear and superstition without
+which formal freedom has little value, was secured.</p>
+<p>The breach with Rome was essential to the attainment of that
+religious and political freedom that England now enjoys. But the
+first step toward making that separation an accomplished fact,
+acquiesced in by the people as a whole, was to break the power of
+the monastic orders. It may possibly be true that the same ends
+would have been eventually attained by trusting to the slower
+processes of social evolution, but the history of the Latin nations
+of Europe would seem to prove the contrary. As the facts stand it
+would appear that peace and progress were impossible with thousands
+of monks sowing seeds of discord, and employing every measure, fair
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page301"></a>[pg 301]</span> or
+foul, to win the country back to Rome. Gairdner and others argue
+that Henry was far too powerful a king to have been successfully
+resisted by the pope, unless the pope was backed by a union of the
+Christian princes, which was then impracticable. That fact may make
+the execution of More, Fisher and the Charterhouse monks
+inexcusable, but it by no means proves that Henry would have been
+strong enough to maintain his position if the monasteries had been
+permitted to exist as centers of organized opposition to his will.
+Many of the monks, when pressed by the king's agents, took the oath
+of allegiance. Threats, bribes and violence were used to overcome
+the opposition of the unwilling.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Monks_and_the_Oath_of_Supremacy"></a>The Monks
+and the Oath of Supremacy</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>It is quite evident that the king's purpose to destroy the whole
+monastic institution was partly the result of the determined
+resistance which the monks offered to his authority. The contest
+between the king and the monks was exceedingly fierce and bloody.
+Many good men lost their lives and many innocent persons suffered
+grievously. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page302"></a>[pg
+302]</span> Perhaps the most pathetic incident in the sanguinary
+struggle between the king and the monks was the tragic fall of the
+Charterhouse of London. The facts are given at length by Froude, in
+his "History of England," who bases his account on the narrative of
+Maurice Channey, one of the monks who escaped death by yielding to
+the king. The unhappy monk confesses that he was a Judas among the
+apostles, and in a touching account of the ruin that came upon his
+monastic retreat he praises the boldness and fidelity of his
+companions, who preferred death to what seemed to them
+dishonor.</p>
+<p>The pages of Channey are filled with the most improbable stories
+of miracles, but his charming picture of the cloister life of the
+Carthusians is doubtless true to reality. The Carthusian fathers
+were the best fruit of monasticism in England. To a higher degree
+than any of the other monastic orders they maintained a good
+discipline and preserved the spirit of their founders. "A thousand
+years of the world's history had rolled by," says Froude, "and
+these lonely islands of prayer had remained still anchored in the
+stream; the strands of the ropes which held them, wearing now to a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page303"></a>[pg 303]</span> thread,
+and very near their last parting, but still unbroken." In view of
+the undisputed purity and fearlessness of these noble monks, a
+recital of their woes will place the case for the monastic
+institution in the most favorable light.</p>
+<p>Channey says the year 1533 was ushered in with signs,--the end
+of the world was nigh. Yes, the monk's world was drawing to a
+close; the moon, for him, was turning into blood, and the stars
+falling from heaven.</p>
+<p>More and Fisher were in the Tower. The former's splendid talents
+and noble character still swayed the people. It was no time for
+trifling; the Carthusian fathers must take the oath of allegiance
+or perish. So one morning the royal commissioners appeared before
+the monastery door of the Charterhouse to demand submission. Prior
+Houghton answered them: "I know nothing of the matter mentioned; I
+am unacquainted with the world without; my office is to minister to
+God, and to save poor souls from Satan." He was committed to the
+Tower for one month. Then Dr. Bonner persuaded the prior to sign
+with "certain reservations." He was released and went back to his
+cloister-cell to weep. <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page304"></a>[pg 304]</span> Calling his monks together he said he
+was sorry; it looked like deceit, but he desired to save his
+brethren and their order. The commissioners returned; the monks
+were under suspicion; the reservations were disliked, and they must
+sign without conditions. In great consternation the prior assembled
+the monks. All present cried out: "Let us die together in our
+integrity, and heaven and earth shall witness for us how unjustly
+we are cut off." Prior Houghton conceived a generous idea. "If it
+depends on me alone; if my oath will suffice for the house, I will
+throw myself on the mercy of God; I will make myself anathema, and
+to preserve you from these dangers, I will consent to the king's
+will." Thus did the noble old man consent to go into heaven with a
+lie on his conscience, hoping to escape by the mercy of God,
+because he sought to save the lives of his brethren. But all this
+was of no avail; Cromwell had determined that this monastery must
+fall, and fall it did. The monks prepared for their end calmly and
+nobly; beginning with the oldest brother, they knelt before each
+other and begged forgiveness for all unkindness and offence. "Not
+less deserving," says Froude, "the everlasting remembrances
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page305"></a>[pg 305]</span> of
+mankind, than those three hundred, who, in the summer morning, sate
+combing their golden hair in the passes of Thermopyl&aelig;." But
+rebellion was blazing in Ireland, and the enemies of the king were
+praying and plotting for his ruin. These monks, with More and
+Fisher, were an inspiration to the enemies of liberty and the
+kingdom. Catholic Europe crouched like a tiger ready to spring on
+her prostrate foe. It is sad, but these recluses, praying for the
+pope, instilling a love for the papacy in the confessional, these
+honest and conscientious but dangerous men must be shorn of their
+power to encourage rebels. There was a farce of a trial. Houghton
+was brought to the scaffold and died protesting his innocence. His
+arm was cut off and hung over the archway of the Charterhouse, as
+other arms and heads were hideously hanging over many a monastic
+gate in Merry England. Nine of the monks died of prison fever, and
+others were banished. The king's court went into mourning, and
+Henry knotted his beard and henceforth would be no more
+shaven--eloquent evidence to the world that whatever motive
+dominated the king's heart, these bloody deeds were unpleasantly
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page306"></a>[pg 306]</span>
+disturbing. Certainly such a spectacle as that of a monk's arm
+nailed to a monastery was never seen by Englishmen before.</p>
+<p>The Charterhouse fell, let it be carefully noted, because the
+monks could not and would not acknowledge the king's supremacy, and
+not because the monks were immoral. Some spies in Cromwell's
+service offered to, bring in evidence against six of these monks of
+"laziness and immorality." Cromwell indignantly refused the
+proposal, saying, "He would not hear the accusation; that it was
+false, wilfully so."</p>
+<p>The news of these proceedings, and of the beheading of More and
+Fisher, awakened the most violent rage throughout Catholic Europe.
+Henry was denounced as the Nero of his times. Paul III. immediately
+excommunicated the king, dissolved all leagues between Henry and
+the Catholic princes, and gave his kingdom to any invader. All
+Catholic subjects were ordered to take up arms against him.
+Although these censures were passed, the pope decided to defer
+their publication, hoping for a peaceful settlement. But Henry
+knew, and the Catholic princes of Europe <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page307"></a>[pg 307]</span> knew, that the blow
+might fall at any time. He had to make up his mind to go further or
+to yield unconditionally to the pope. The world soon discovered the
+temper of the enraged and stubborn monarch. He might vacillate on
+speculative questions, but there were no tokens of feeble hesitancy
+in his dealings with Rome. The hour of doom for the monasteries had
+struck.</p>
+<p>Having thus glanced at the character of Henry VIII., the prime
+mover in the attack upon the monasteries, and having surveyed some
+of the events leading up to their fall, we are now prepared to
+consider the actual work of suppression, which will be described
+under the following heads: First, The royal commissioners and their
+methods of investigation; Second, The commissioners' report on the
+condition of affairs; Third, The action of Parliament; Fourth, The
+effect of the suppression upon the people; and Fifth, The use Henry
+made of the monastic possessions. These matters having been set
+forth, it will then be in order to inquire into the justification,
+real or alleged, of the suppression.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page308"></a>[pg 308]</span>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Royal_Commissioners"></a>The Royal
+Commissioners and Their Methods of Investigation</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The fall of Sir Thomas More left Thomas Cromwell the chief power
+under the king, and for seven years he devoted his great
+administrative abilities to making his royal patron absolute ruler
+in church and state.</p>
+<p>Cromwell, Earl of Essex, was of lowly origin, but his energy and
+shrewdness, together with the experience acquired by extensive
+travels, commanded the attention of Cardinal Wolsey, who took him
+into his service. He was successively merchant, scrivener,
+money-lender, lawyer, member of parliament, master of jewels,
+chancellor, master of rolls, secretary of state, vicar-general in
+ecclesiastical affairs, lord privy seal, dean of Wells and high
+chamberlain.</p>
+<p>Close intimacy with Wolsey enabled Cromwell to grasp the full
+significance of Henry's ambition, and his desire to please his
+royal master, coupled with his own love of power, prompted him to
+throw himself with characteristic energy into the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page309"></a>[pg 309]</span> work of
+centralizing all authority in the hands of the king and of his
+prime minister. In secular affairs, this had already been
+accomplished. The task before him was to subdue the church to the
+throne, to execute which he became the protector of Protestantism
+and the foe of Rome. Green says: "He had an absolute faith in the
+end he was pursuing, and he simply hews his way to it, as a woodman
+hews his way through the forest, axe in hand." Froude says: "To him
+ever belonged the rare privilege of genius to see what other men
+could not see, and therefore he was condemned to rule a generation
+which hated him, to do the will of God and to perish in his
+success. He pursued an object, the excellence of which, as his mind
+saw it, transcended all other considerations, the freedom of
+England and the destruction of idolatry, and those who, from any
+motive, noble or base, pious or impious, crossed his path, he
+crushed and passed on over their bodies."</p>
+<p>There seems to be a general agreement that Cromwell was not a
+Protestant. His struggle against the temporal power of the pope
+fostered <span class="pagenum"><a name="page310"></a>[pg
+310]</span> the reformatory movement, but that did not make
+Cromwell a Protestant any more than it did his master, Henry VIII.
+Foxe describes Cromwell "as a valiant soldier and captain of
+Christ," but Maitland retorts "that Foxe forgot, if he ever knew,
+who was the father of lies."</p>
+<p>Without doubt Cromwell ruled with an iron hand. He was guilty of
+accepting bribes, and, as some maintain, "was the great patron of
+ribaldry, and the protector of the low jester and the filthy." But,
+sadly enough, that is no serious charge against one in his times.
+It is said that Henry used to say, when a knave was dealt to him in
+a game of cards, "Ah, I have a Cromwell!" Francis Aidan Gasquet, a
+Benedictine monk, in his valuable work on "Henry VIII. and the
+English Monasteries," says of Cromwell: "No single minister in
+England ever exercised such extensive authority, none ever rose so
+rapidly, and no one has ever left behind him a name covered with
+greater infamy and disgrace."</p>
+<p>In 1535, Henry, as supreme head of the church, appointed
+Cromwell as his "Vicegerent, Vicar-General and Principal Commissary
+in causes <span class="pagenum"><a name="page311"></a>[pg
+311]</span> ecclesiastical." His immediate duty was to enforce
+recognition of the king's supremacy. The monks and the clergy were
+now to be coerced into submission. A royal commission, consisting
+of Legh, Layton, Ap Rice, London and various subordinates, was
+appointed to visit the monasteries and to report on their
+condition.</p>
+<p>Henry Griffin says in his chronicle: "I was well acquainted with
+all the commissioners; indeed I knew them well; they were very
+smart men, who understood the value of money, for they had tasted
+of adversity. I think the priests were the worst of the whole
+party, although they had a good reputation at the time, but they
+were wicked, deceitful men. I am sorry to speak thus of my own
+order, but I speak God's truth." "It is a dreadful undertaking,"
+said Lord Clinton. "Ah! but I have great faith in the tact and
+judgment of the men I am about to select," retorted Cromwell.</p>
+<p>Dr. John London was a base tool of Cromwell, and a miserable
+exponent of the reform movement. He joined Gardiner in burning
+heretics, was convicted of adultery at Oxford, was pilloried for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page312"></a>[pg 312]</span> perjury
+and died in jail. The other royal agents were also questionable
+characters. Dean Layton wrote the most disgusting letters to
+Cromwell. Once he informed his patron that he prayed regularly for
+him, prefacing this information with the remark, "I will now tell
+you something to make you laugh."</p>
+<p>Father Gasquet sums up his view of the commissioners in the
+words of Edmund Burke: "It is not with much credulity that I listen
+to any when they speak ill of those whom they are going to plunder.
+I rather suspect that vices are feigned, or exaggerated, when
+profit is looked for in the punishment--an enemy is a bad witness;
+a robber worse." Burke indignantly declares: "The inquiry into the
+moral character of the religious houses was a mere pretext, a
+complete delusion, an insidious and predetermined foray of
+wholesale and heartless plunder."</p>
+<p>Such are the protests from the defenders of the monasteries even
+before a hearing is granted. "What," say they, "believe such
+perjurers, adulterers and gamblers; men forsworn to bring in a bad
+report; men who were selected because they <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page313"></a>[pg 313]</span> were worthless
+characters who could be relied on to return false charges against
+an institution loved by the people?"</p>
+<p>The commissioners began their work at Oxford, in September,
+1535. The work was vigorously pushed. On reaching the door of a
+monastery, they demanded admittance; if it was not granted, they
+entered by breaking down the gate with an axe. They then summoned
+the monks before them, and plied them with questions. An inventory
+was taken of everything; nothing escaped their searching eyes. When
+the king decided to suppress the lesser monasteries, and ordered a
+new visitation of the larger ones, they seized and sold all they
+could lay their hands on; "stained glass, ironwork, bells,
+altar-cloths, candles, books, beads, images, capes, brewing-tubs,
+brass bolts, spits for cooking, kitchen utensils, plates, basins,
+all were turned into money." Many valuable books were destroyed;
+jewels and gold and silver clasps were torn from old volumes, and
+the paper sold as waste; parchment manuscripts were used to scour
+tubs and grease boots. Out of the wreck about a hundred and thirty
+thousand manuscripts <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page314"></a>[pg 314]</span> have been saved. It must be admitted
+that the commissioners were not delicate in their labors; that they
+insulted many nuns, robbed the monks, violated the laws of decency
+and humanity, and needlessly excited the rage of the people and
+outraged the religious sentiments of the Catholics. They even used
+sacred altar-cloths for blankets on their horses, and rode across
+the country decorated in priestly and monkish garments. There seems
+to be some ground for the statement that Henry was ignorant, or at
+least not fully informed, of their unwarranted violence and gross
+sacrilege. The abbey of Glastonbury was one of the oldest and
+finest cloisters in England. It was a majestic pile of buildings in
+the midst of gardens and groves covering sixty acres; its aisles
+were vocal with the chanting of monks, who marched in gorgeous
+processions among the tall, gray pillars. The exterior of the
+buildings was profusely decorated with sculpture; monarchs, temple
+knights, mitered abbots, martyrs and apostles stood for centuries
+in their niches of stone while princes came and passed away, while
+kingdoms rose and fell. The nobles and bishops of the realm were
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page315"></a>[pg 315]</span> laid to
+rest beneath the altars around which many generations of monks had
+assembled to praise and to pray. The royal commissioners one day
+appeared before the walls. The abbot, Richard Whiting, who was then
+eighty-four years of age, was at Sharphorn, another residence of
+the community. He was brought back and questioned. At night when he
+was in bed, they searched his study for letters and books, and they
+claimed to have found a manuscript of Whiting's arguments against
+the divorce of the king and Queen Catharine; it had never been
+published; they did not know whether the venerable abbot had such
+intent or not. Stephen declares the spies themselves brought the
+book into the library. However, the abbot was chained to a cart and
+taken to London. The abbey had immense wealth; every Wednesday and
+Friday it fed and lodged three hundred boys; it was esteemed very
+highly in the neighborhood and received large donations from the
+knights in the vicinity. The abbot was accused of treason for
+concealing the sacred vessels; he was old, deaf, and sick, but was
+allowed no counsel. He asked permission to <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page316"></a>[pg 316]</span> take leave of his
+monks, and many little orphans; Russell and Layton only laughed.
+The people heard of his captivity and determined "to deliver or
+avenge" their favorite, but Russell hanged half a dozen of them and
+declared that "law, order and loyalty were vindicated." Whiting's
+body was quartered, and the pieces sent to Wells, Bath, Chester and
+Bridgewater, while his head, adorned with his gray hairs clotted by
+blood, was hung over the abbey gate.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Report_of_the_Commissioners"></a>The Report of
+the Commissioners</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The original report of the commissioners does not exist. Burnet
+declares that he saw an extract from it, concerning one hundred and
+forty-four houses, which contained the most revolting revelations.
+Many of the commissioners' letters and various documents touching
+the suppression have been collected and published by the Camden
+Society. Waiving, for the present, the inquiry into the truth of
+the report, it was in substance as follows:</p>
+<p>The commissioners reported about one-third of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page317"></a>[pg 317]</span> the houses to be
+fairly well conducted, some of them models of excellent management
+and pure living; but the other two-thirds were charged with
+looseness beyond description. The number of inmates in some
+cloisters was kept below the required number, that there might be
+more money to divide among the monks. The number of servants
+sometimes exceeded that of the monks. Abbots bought and sold land
+in a fraudulent manner; gifts for hospitality were misapplied;
+licentiousness, gaming and drinking prevailed extensively. Crime
+and absolution for gold went hand in hand. One friar was said to
+have been the proud father of an illegitimate family of children,
+but he had in his possession a forged license from the pope, who
+permitted his wandering, "considering his frailty." Froude, in
+commenting upon the report, says: "If I were to tell the truth, I
+should have first to warn all modest eyes to close the book and
+read no farther."</p>
+<p>All sorts of pious frauds were revealed. At Hales the monks
+claimed to have the blood of Christ brought from Jerusalem, and not
+visible to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page318"></a>[pg
+318]</span> anyone in mortal sin until he had performed good works,
+or, in other words, paid enough for his absolution. Two monks took
+the blood of a duck, which they renewed every week; this they put
+into a phial, one side of which consisted of a thin, transparent
+crystal; the other thick and opaque; the dark side was shown until
+the sinner's gold was exhausted, when, presto! change, the blood
+appeared by turning the other side of the phial. Innumerable
+toe-parings, bones, pieces of skin, three heads of St. Ursula, and
+other anatomical relics of departed saints, were said to cure every
+disease known to man. They had relics that could drive away
+plagues, give rain, hinder weeds, and in fact, render the natural
+world the plaything of decaying bones and shreds of dried skin. The
+monks of Reading had an angel with one wing, who had preserved the
+spear with which our Lord was pierced. Abbots were found to have
+concubines in or near the monasteries; midnight revels and drunken
+feasts were pleasant pastimes for monks weary with prayers and
+fasting. While it would be unjust to argue that the existence of
+"pious frauds" affords a justification for the suppression of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page319"></a>[pg 319]</span>
+monasteries, it must be remembered that they constituted one
+element in that condition of ecclesiastical life that was becoming
+repugnant to the English people. For several generations there had
+been a marked growth in the hostility toward various forms of
+superstition. True, neither Henry nor Cromwell can be accredited
+with the lofty intention of exterminating superstition, but the
+attitude of many people toward "pious frauds" helped to reconcile
+them to the destruction of the monasteries.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Action_of_Parliament"></a>The Action of
+Parliament</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The report of the commissioners was laid before Parliament in
+1536. As it declared that the smaller monasteries were more corrupt
+than the larger ones, Parliament ordered the suppression of all
+those houses whose revenues were less than two hundred pounds per
+annum. By this act, three hundred and seventy-six houses were
+suppressed, whose aggregate revenue was thirty-two thousand pounds
+yearly. Movable property valued at about one hundred thousand
+pounds was also handed over to the "Court of Augmentations
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page320"></a>[pg 320]</span> of the
+King's Revenue," which was established to take care of the estates,
+revenues and other possessions of the monasteries. It is claimed
+that ten thousand monks and nuns were turned out into the world, to
+find bed and board as best they could. In 1538, two years later,
+the greater monasteries met a similar fate, which was no doubt
+hastened by the rebellions that followed the abolition of the
+smaller houses. Many of the abbots and monks were suspected of
+aiding in the rebellion against the king's authority by inciting
+the people to take up arms against him. Apprehending the coming
+doom, many abbots resigned; others were overcome by threats and
+yielded without a struggle. In many instances such monks received
+pensions varying from fifty-three shillings and four pence to four
+pounds a year. The investigations were constantly carried on, and
+all the foul stories that could be gathered were given to the
+people, to secure their approval of the king's action. With
+remorseless zeal the king and his commissioners, supported by
+various acts of parliament, persevered in their work of
+destruction, until even the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page321"></a>[pg 321]</span> monastic hospitals, chantries, free
+chapels and collegiate churches, fell into the king's hands. By the
+year 1545, the ruin was complete. The monastic institution of
+England was no more. The total number of monasteries suppressed is
+variously estimated, but the following figures are approximately
+correct: monasteries, 616; colleges, 90; free chapels, 2,374; and
+hospitals, 110. The annual income was about one hundred and fifty
+thousand pounds, which was a smaller sum than was then believed to
+be in the control of the monks. Nearly fifty thousand persons were
+driven from the houses, to foment the discontent and to arouse the
+pity of the people. Such, in brief, was the extent of the
+suppression, but a little reflection will show that these
+statements of cold facts convey no conception of the confusion and
+sorrow that must have accompanied this terrific and wholesale
+assault upon an institution that had been accumulating its
+possessions for eight hundred years. At this distance from those
+tragic events, it is impossible to realize the dismay of those who
+stood aghast at this ruthless destruction of such venerable
+establishments.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page322"></a>[pg 322]</span>
+<h2><i><a name=
+"The_Effect_of_the_Suppression_Upon_the_People"></a>The Effect of
+the Suppression Upon the People</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>For months the country had seen what was coming; letters from
+abbots and priors poured in upon the king and parliament, begging
+them to spare the ancient strongholds of religion. The churchmen
+argued: "If he plunders the monasteries, will not his next step be
+to plunder the churches?" They recalled what Sir Thomas More had
+said of their sovereign: "It is true, his majesty is very gracious
+with me, but if only my head would give him another castle in
+France, it would not be long before it disappeared." Sympathy for
+the monks, an inborn conservatism, a natural love for ancient
+institutions, a religious dread of trampling upon that which was
+held sacred by the church, a secret antipathy to reform, all these
+and other forces were against the suppression. But the report of
+the visitors was appalling, and the fear of the king's displeasure
+was widespread; so the bill was passed amid mingled feelings of
+joy, sympathy, hatred, fear, anxiety and uncertainty. The bishops
+were sullen; <span class="pagenum"><a name="page323"></a>[pg
+323]</span> Latimer was disappointed, for he wanted the church to
+have the proceeds.</p>
+<p>Outside of Parliament there was much discontent among the nobles
+and gentry of Roman tendencies. Even the indifferent felt bitter
+against the king, because it seemed unjust that the monks, who had
+been sheltered, honored and enriched by the people, should be so
+rudely and so suddenly turned out of their possessions. A
+dangerously large portion of the people felt themselves insulted
+and outraged. At first, however, there were few who dared to voice
+their protests. "As the royal policy disclosed itself," says Green,
+"as the monarchy trampled under foot the tradition and reverence of
+ages gone by, as its figure rose, bare and terrible, out of the
+wreck of old institutions, England simply held her breath. It is
+only through the stray depositions of royal spies that we catch a
+glimpse of the wrath and hate which lay seething under the silence
+of the people." That silence was a silence of terror. To use the
+figure by which Erasmus describes the time, men felt "as if a
+scorpion lay sleeping under every stone." They stopped writing,
+gossiping, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page324"></a>[pg
+324]</span> going to confession, and sending presents for the most
+thoughtless word or deed might be tortured into treason against the
+king by the command of Cromwell.</p>
+<p>The rebellion which followed the first attack upon the
+monasteries was not caused wholly by religious sentiments. The
+nobles regarded Cromwell as a base-born usurper and yearned for his
+fall, while the clergy felt outraged by his monstrous claims of
+authority in ecclesiastical affairs. In a sense the conflict that
+ensued was but a continuation of the long-standing struggle between
+the king, the barons, and the clergy for the supreme power. From
+the reign of Edward I., the people had commenced to assert their
+rights and the struggle had become a four-sided one.</p>
+<p>These four factions were constantly shifting their allegiance,
+according to the varying conditions, and guided by their changing
+interests. At this time, the clergy, the nobles and the people in
+northern England, particularly, combined against the king, although
+the alliance was not formidable enough to overcome the forces
+supporting the king.</p>
+<p>The secular clergy felt that they were disgraced <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page325"></a>[pg 325]</span> and coerced into
+submission. They felt their revenues, their honors, their powers,
+their glory, slipping away from them; they joined their mutterings
+and discontent with that of the monks, and then the fires of the
+rebellion blazed forth in the north, where the monasteries were
+more popular than in any other part of England.</p>
+<p>The first outbreak occurred in Lincolnshire, in the autumn of
+1536. It was easily and quickly suppressed. But another uprising in
+Yorkshire, in northern England, followed immediately, and for a
+time threatened serious consequences. Some of the best families in
+that part of the country joined the revolt, although it is
+noteworthy that these same families were afterwards Protestant and
+Puritan; the rebel army numbered about forty thousand men, well
+equipped for service. Many prominent abbots and sixteen hundred
+monks were in the ranks. The masses were bound by oath "to stand
+together for the love which they bore to Almighty God, His faith,
+the Holy Church, and the maintenance thereof; to the preservation
+of the king's person and his issue; to the purifying of the
+nobility, and to expel <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page326"></a>[pg 326]</span> all villein blood and evil
+counsellors from the king's presence; not from any private profit,
+nor to do his pleasure to any private person, nor to slay or murder
+through envy, but for the restitution of the Church, and the
+suppression of heretics and their opinions." It is clear, from the
+language of the oath, that the rebels aimed their blows at
+Cromwell. The secular clergy hated him because he had shorn them of
+their power; the monks hated him because he had turned them out of
+their cloisters, and clergy and people loathed him as a maintainer
+of heresy, a low-born foe of the Church. The insurgents carried
+banners on which was printed a crucifix, a chalice and host, and
+the five wounds, hence they called themselves "Pilgrims of Grace."
+The revolt was headed by Robert Aske, a barrister.</p>
+<p>Cromwell acted most cautiously; he selected the strongest men to
+take the field. Richard Cromwell said of one of them, Sir John
+Russell, "for my lord admiral, he is so earnest in the matter that
+I dare say he could eat the Pilgrims without salt." The Duke of
+Norfolk was entrusted with the command of the king's forces.</p>
+<p>Henry preferred negotiation to battle, in accepting <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page327"></a>[pg 327]</span> which the rebels
+were doomed. To wait was to fail. Their demands reduced to paper
+were: 1. The religious houses should be restored. 2. England should
+be reunited with Rome. 3. The first fruits and tenths should not be
+paid to the crown. 4. Heretics, meaning Cranmer, Latimer and
+others, should cease to be bishops. 5. Catharine's daughter Mary
+should be restored as heiress to the crown. These and other
+demands, the granting of which would have meant the death of the
+Reformation, were firmly refused by the king, who marveled that
+ignorant churls, "brutes and inexpert folk" should talk of
+theological and political subjects to him and to his council.</p>
+<p>After several ineffectual attempts to meet the royal army in
+battle, partly due to storms and lack of subsistence, the rebels
+were induced to disperse and a general amnesty was declared. But
+new insurrections broke out in various quarters, and the enraged
+king determined to stamp out the smoldering fires of sedition.
+About seventy-five persons were hanged, and many prominent men were
+imprisoned and afterwards executed. This effectually suppressed the
+rebellion.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page328"></a>[pg 328]</span>
+<p>The revolt showed the strength of the opponents to the king's
+will, but it also proved conclusively that the monarchy was the
+strongest power in the realm; that the star of ecclesiastical
+domination had set forever in England; that henceforth English
+kings and not Italian popes were to govern the English people.
+True, the king was carrying things with a high hand, but one reform
+at a time; the yoke of papal power must first be lifted, even if at
+the same time the king becomes despotic in the exercise of his
+increased power. Once free from Rome, constitutional rights may be
+asserted and the power of an absolute monarchy judiciously
+restricted.</p>
+<p>Following the Pilgrimage of Grace came the complete overthrow of
+the monastic system by the dissolution of the larger
+monasteries.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Henry's_Disposal_of_Monastic_Revenues"></a>Henry's
+Disposal of Monastic Revenues</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>What use did Henry make of the revenues that fell into his
+hands? As soon as the vast estates of the monks were under the
+king's control, he was besieged by nobles, "praying for an estate."
+They <span class="pagenum"><a name="page329"></a>[pg 329]</span>
+kneeled before him and specified what lands they wanted. They
+bribed Cromwell, who sold many of the estates at the rate of a
+twenty years' purchase, and in some instances presented valuable
+possessions to the king's followers. Many families, powerful in
+England at the present time, date the beginning of their wealth and
+position to the day when their ancestors received their share of
+the king's plunder.</p>
+<p>The following interesting passage from Sir Edward Coke's
+Institutes, shows that Henry sought to quiet the fears of the
+people by making the most captivating promises concerning the
+decrease of taxes, and other magnificent schemes for the general
+welfare: "On the king's behalf, the members of both houses were
+informed in Parliament that no king or kingdom was safe but where
+the king had three abilities: 1. To live of his own and able to
+defend his kingdom upon any sudden invasion or insurrection. 2. To
+aid his confederates, otherwise they would never assist him. 3. To
+reward his well-deserving servants. Now the project was, that if
+Parliament would give unto him all the abbeys, priories, friaries,
+nunneries, and other <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page330"></a>[pg 330]</span> monasteries, that forever in time
+then to come he would take order that the same should not be
+converted to private uses, but first, that his exchequer, for the
+purpose aforesaid, should be enriched; secondly, the kingdom should
+be strengthened by a continual maintenance of forty thousand
+well-trained soldiers; thirdly, for the benefit and ease of the
+subject, who never afterwards (as was projected), in any time to
+come, should be charged with subsidies, fifteenths, loans or other
+common aids; fourthly, lest the honor of the realm should receive
+any diminution of honor by the dissolution of the said monasteries,
+there being twenty-nine lords of Parliament of the abbots and
+priors, ... that the king would create a number of nobles."</p>
+<p>The king was granted the revenues of the monasteries. About half
+the money was expended in coast defences and a new navy; and much
+of it was lavished upon his courtiers. With the exception of small
+pensions to the monks and the establishment of a few benefices,
+very little of the splendid revenue was ever devoted to religious
+or educational purposes. Small sums were set apart for Cambridge,
+Oxford and new grammar schools. Not-withstanding <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page331"></a>[pg 331]</span> the pensions, there
+was much suffering; it is said many of the outcast monks and nuns
+starved and froze to death by the roadside. Latimer and others
+wanted the king to employ the revenues for religious purposes, but
+Henry evidently thought the church had enough and refused. He did,
+however, intend to allot eighteen thousand pounds a year for
+eighteen new bishoprics, but once the gold was in his possession,
+his pious intentions suffered a decline, and he established only
+six, with inferior endowments, five of which exist to-day.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Was_the_Suppression_Justifiable?"></a>Was the
+Suppression Justifiable?</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>It is quite common to restrict this inquiry to a consideration
+of the report made by the commissioners against the monks, and to
+the methods employed by them in their investigations. The
+implication is that if the accusations against the monasteries can
+be discredited, or if it can be shown that the motives of the
+destroyers were selfish and their methods cruel, then it follows
+that the overthrow of the monasteries was a most iniquitous and
+unwarrantable proceeding. Reflection will show <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page332"></a>[pg 332]</span> that the question
+cannot be so restricted. It may be found that the monastic
+institution should have been destroyed, even though the charges
+against the monks were grossly exaggerated, the motives of the king
+unworthy, and the means he employed despicable.</p>
+<p>At the outset a few facts deserve mention. It is usual for
+Protestants to recall with pride the glorious heroism of Protestant
+martyrs, but it should be remembered that Roman Catholicism also
+has had its martyrs. Protestant powers have not been free from
+tyranny and bloodshed. That noble spirit of self-sacrifice which
+has glorified many a character in history is not to be despised in
+one who dies for what we may pronounce to be false.</p>
+<p>It must also be granted that the action of the king was not
+dictated by a pure passion for religious reform. Indeed it is a
+fair question whether Henry may be claimed by the Protestants at
+all. Aside from his rejection of the pope's authority, he was
+thoroughly Catholic in conviction and in practice. His impatience
+with the pope's position respecting his divorce, his need of money,
+his love of power, and many other personal considerations
+determined his attitude toward the papacy.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page333"></a>[pg 333]</span>
+<p>It should also be freely conceded that the royal commissioners
+were far from exemplary characters, and that they were often
+insolent and cruel in the prosecution of their work.</p>
+<p>"Our posterity," says John Bale, "may well curse this wicked
+fact of our age; this unreasonable spoil of England's most noble
+antiquities." "On the whole," says Blunt, "it may be said that we
+must ever look back on that destruction as a series of transactions
+in which the sorrow, the waste, the impiety that were wrought, were
+enough to make the angels weep. It may be true that the monastic
+system had worn itself out for practical good; or at least, that it
+was unfitted for those coming ages which were to be so different
+from the ages that were past. But slaughter, desecration and wanton
+destruction, were no remedies for its sins, or its failings; nor
+was covetous rapacity the spirit of reformation."</p>
+<p>Hume observes that "during times of faction, especially of a
+religious kind, no equity is to be expected from adversaries; and
+as it was known that the king's intention in this visitation was to
+find a pretext for abolishing the monasteries, we <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page334"></a>[pg 334]</span> may naturally
+conclude that the reports of the commissioners are very little to
+be relied upon." Hallam declares that "it is impossible to feel too
+much indignation at the spirit in which the proceedings were
+conducted."</p>
+<p>But these and other just and honorable concessions in the
+interests of truth, which are to be found on the pages of eminent
+Protestant historians, are made to prove too much. It must be said
+that writers favorable to monasticism take an unfair advantage of
+these admissions, which simply testify to a spirit of candor and a
+love of truth, but do not contain the final conclusions of these
+historians. Employing these witnesses to confirm their opinions,
+the defenders of monasticism proceed with fervid, glowing rhetoric,
+breathing devotion and love on every page, to paint the sorrows and
+ruin of the Carthusian Fathers, and the abbots of Glastonbury and
+Reading. They ask, "Is this your boasted freedom, to slay these men
+in cold blood, not for immorality, but because they honestly did
+not acknowledge what no Protestant of to-day admits, viz.: that
+King Henry was the Supreme Head of the Church?" Having pointed out
+the exaggerations <span class="pagenum"><a name="page335"></a>[pg
+335]</span> in the charges against the monks and having made us
+weep for the aged fathers of the Charterhouse, they skillfully lead
+the unwary to the conclusion that the suppression should never have
+taken place. This conclusion is illogical. The case is still
+open.</p>
+<p>Furthermore, if one cared to indulge in historical
+reminiscences, he might justly express astonishment that Rome
+should object to an investigation conducted by men whose minds were
+already made up, or that she should complain because force was
+employed to carry out a needed reform. Did the commissioners take a
+few altar-cloths and decorate their horses? Did Rome never adorn
+men in garments of shame and parade them through streets to be
+mocked by the populace, and finally burned at the stake? Were the
+altar-cloths dear to Catholic hearts? Were not the Bibles burned in
+France, in Germany, in Spain, in Holland, in England, dear to the
+hearts of the reformers? But however justifiable such a line of
+argument may be, there is little to be gained by charging the sins
+of the past against the men of to-day. Nevertheless, if these facts
+and many like them were remembered, less would <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page336"></a>[pg 336]</span> be said about the
+cruelties that accompanied the suppression of the monasteries.</p>
+<p>Were the charges against the monks true? It seems impossible to
+doubt that in the main they were, although it should be admitted
+that many monasteries were beyond reproach. Eliminating gross
+exaggerations, lies and calumnies, there still remains a body of
+evidence that compels the verdict of guilt. The legislation of the
+church councils, the decrees of popes, the records of the courts,
+the reports of investigating committees appointed by various popes,
+the testimony of the orders against each other, the chronicles,
+letters and other extant literature, abound in such detailed,
+specific charges of monastic corruption that it is simply
+preposterous to reject the testimony. All the efforts at
+reformation, and they were many, had failed. Many bishops confessed
+their inability to cope with the growing disorders. It is beyond
+question that lay robbers were encouraged to perpetrate acts of
+sacrilege because the monks were frequently guilty of forgery and
+violence. Commenting upon the impression which monkish lawlessness
+must have made upon the minds of such men as Wyclif, Pike says:
+"They <span class="pagenum"><a name="page337"></a>[pg 337]</span>
+saw with their own eyes those wild and lawless scenes, the faint
+reflection of which in contemporaneous documents may excite the
+wonder of modern lawyers and modern moralists." The legislation of
+church and state for a century before Henry VIII. shows that the
+monks were guilty of brawling, frequenting taverns, indulging in
+licentious pleasures and upholding unlawful games.</p>
+<p>Bonaventura, the General of the Franciscan Order in its earliest
+days, and its palmiest, for the first years of a monastic order
+were always its best years--this mendicant, their pride and their
+glory, tells us that within fifty years of the death of its founder
+there were many mendicants roaming around in disorderly fashion,
+brazen and shameless beggars of scandalous fame. This unenviable
+record was kept up down to the days of Wyclif, who charged the
+begging friars with representing themselves as holy and needy,
+while they were robust of body, rich in possessions, and dwelt in
+splendid houses, where they gave sumptuous banquets. What shall one
+say of the hysterical ravings against Henry of the "Holy Maid of
+Kent," whose fits and predictions were palmed off by five
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page338"></a>[pg 338]</span>
+ecclesiastics, high in authority, as supernatural manifestations?
+What must have been the state of monasteries in which such
+meretricious schemes were hatched, to deceive silly people, thwart
+the king and stop the movements for reform?</p>
+<p>Moreover, the various attempts to reform or to suppress the
+monasteries prior to Henry's time show he was simply carrying out
+what, in a small way, had been attempted before. King John, Edward
+I. and Edward III., had confiscated "alien priories." Richard II.
+and Henry IV. had made similar raids. In 1410, the House of Commons
+proposed the confiscation of all the temporalities held by bishops,
+abbots and priors, that the money might be used for a standing
+army, and to increase the income of the nobles and secular clergy.
+It was not done, but the attempt shows the trend of public opinion
+on the question of abolishing the monasteries. In 1416, Parliament
+dissolved the alien priories and vested their estates in the crown.
+There is extant a letter of Cardinal Morton, Legate of the
+Apostolic See, and Archbishop of Canterbury, to the abbot of St.
+Albans, one of the mightiest abbeys in all England. It was written
+as the result <span class="pagenum"><a name="page339"></a>[pg
+339]</span> of an investigation started by Innocent VIII., in 1489.
+In this communication the abbot and his monks were charged with the
+grossest licentiousness, waste and thieving. Lina Eckenstein, in
+her interesting work on "Woman Under Monasticism," says: "It were
+idle to deny that the state of discipline in many houses was bad,
+but the circumstances under which Morton's letter was penned argue
+that the charges made in it should be accepted with some
+reservation." In 1523, Cardinal Wolsey obtained bulls from the pope
+authorizing the suppression of forty small monasteries, and the
+application of their revenues to educational institutions, on the
+ground that the houses were homes neither of religion nor of
+learning.</p>
+<p>What Henry did, every country in Europe has felt called upon to
+do in one way or another. Germany, Italy, Spain, France have all
+suppressed monasteries, and despite the suffering which attended
+the dissolution in England, the step was taken with less loss of
+life and less injury to the industrial welfare of the people than
+anywhere else in Europe[<a href="#NOTE_J">J</a>]. Hooper, who was
+made a bishop in the reign of <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page340"></a>[pg 340]</span> Edward VI., expressed the Protestant
+view of Henry's reforms in a letter written about the year 1546.
+"Our king," he says, "has destroyed the pope, but not popery....
+The impious mass, the most shameful celibacy of the clergy, the
+invocation of saints, auricular confession, superstitious
+abstinence from meats, and purgatory, were never before held by the
+people in greater esteem than at the present moment." In other
+words, the independence of the Church of England was secured by
+those who, if they were not Roman Catholics, were certainly closer
+in faith to Rome than they were to Protestantism. The Protestant
+doctrines did not become the doctrines of the Church of England
+until the reign of Edward VI., and it was many years after that
+before the separation from Rome was complete in doctrine as well as
+respects the authority of the pope.</p>
+<p>These facts indicate that there must have been other causes for
+the success of the English Reformation than the greed or ambition
+of the monarch. Those causes are easily discovered. One of them was
+the hostility of the people to the alien priories. The origin of
+the alien priories dates back to the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page341"></a>[pg 341]</span> Norman conquest. The Normans shared
+the spoils of their victory with their continental friends. English
+monasteries and churches were given to foreigners, who collected
+the rents and other kinds of income. These foreign prelates had no
+other interest in England than to derive all the profit they could
+from their possessions. They appointed whom they pleased to live in
+their houses, and the monks, being far away from their superiors,
+became a source of constant annoyance to the English people. The
+struggle against these alien priories had been carried on for many
+years, and so many of them had been abolished that the people
+became accustomed to the seizure of monasteries.</p>
+<p>Large sums of money were annually paid to the pope, and the
+English people were loudly complaining of the constant drain on
+their resources. It was a common saying in the reign of Henry III.,
+that "England is the pope's farm." The "Good Parliament," in 1376,
+affirmed "that the taxes paid to the church of Rome amounted to
+five times as much as those levied for the king; ... that the
+brokers of the sinful city of Rome promoted for money unlearned and
+unworthy caitiffs to benefices <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page342"></a>[pg 342]</span> of the value of a thousand marks,
+while the poor and learned hardly obtain one of twenty." Various
+laws, heartily supported by the clergy as well as by the civil
+authorities, were enacted from time to time, aimed at the abuses of
+papal power. So steadfast and strong was the opposition to the
+interference of foreigners in English affairs, it would be possible
+to show that there was an evolution in the struggle against Rome
+that was certain to culminate in the separation, whether Henry had
+accomplished it or not. What might have occurred if the monks had
+reformed and the pope withdrawn his claims it is impossible to
+know. The fact is that the monks grew worse instead of better, and
+the arrogance of foreigners became more unendurable. "The
+corruption of the church establishment, in fact," says Lea, "had
+reached a point which the dawning enlightenment of the age could
+not much longer endure.... Intoxicated with centuries of
+domination, the muttered thunders of growing popular discontent
+were unheeded, and its claims to spiritual and temporal authority
+were asserted with increasing vehemence, while its corruptions were
+daily displayed before the people with more careless <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page343"></a>[pg 343]</span> cynicism." In view
+of this condition of affairs, the existence of which even the
+adherents of modern Rome must acknowledge, one cannot but wonder
+that the ruin of the monasteries should be attributed to Henry's
+desire "to overthrow the rights of women, to degrade matrimony and
+to practice concubinage." Such an explanation is too superficial;
+it ignores a multitude of historical facts.</p>
+<p>The monasteries had to fall if England was to be saved from the
+horrors of civil war, if the hand of the pope was to remain
+uplifted from her, if the insecure gains of the Reformation were to
+become established and glorious achievements; if, in fact, all
+those benefits accompanying human progress were to become the
+heritage of succeeding ages.</p>
+<p>Whatever benefits the monks had conferred upon mankind, and
+these were neither few nor slight, they had become fetters on the
+advancement of freedom, education and true religion. They were the
+standing army of the pope, occupying the last and strongest
+citadel. They were the unyielding advocates of an ideal that was
+passing away. It was sad to see the Carthusian house fall, but in
+spite of the high character of its inmates, it was a part of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page344"></a>[pg 344]</span> an
+institution that stood for the right of foreigners to rule England.
+It was unfortunate they had thrown themselves down before the car
+of progress but there they were; they would not get up; the car
+must roll on, for so God himself had decreed, and hence they were
+crushed in its advance. Their martyrdom was truly a poor return for
+their virtues, but there never has been a moral or political
+revolution that has furthered the general well-being of humanity,
+in which just and good men have not suffered. It would be
+delightful if freedom and progress could be secured, and effete
+institutions destroyed or reformed, without the accompaniment of
+disaster and death, but it is not so.</p>
+<p>The monks stood for opposition to reform, and therefore came
+into direct conflict with the king, who was blindly groping his way
+toward the future, and who was, in fact, the unconscious agent of
+many reform forces that concentrated in him. He did not comprehend
+the significance of his proceedings. He did not take up the cause
+of the English people with the pure and intelligent motive of
+encouraging free thought and free religion. He did not realize that
+he was leading the mighty army of Protestant <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page345"></a>[pg 345]</span> reformers. He
+little dreamed that the people whose cause he championed would in
+turn assert their rights and make it impossible for an English
+sovereign to enjoy the absolute authority which he wielded. Truly
+"there is a power, not ourselves," making for freedom, progress and
+truth.</p>
+<p>Thus a number of causes brought on the ruin of the monasteries.
+Henry's need of money; the refusal of the monks to sign the acts of
+supremacy and succession; the general drift of reform, and the
+iniquity of the monks. They fell from natural causes and through
+the operation of laws which God alone controls. As Hill neatly puts
+it, "Monasticism was healthy, active and vigorous; it became idle,
+listless and extravagant; it engendered its own corruption, and out
+of that corruption came death."</p>
+<p>Richard Bagot, a Catholic, in a recent article on the question,
+"Will England become Catholic?" which was published in the "Nuova
+Antologia," says: "Though it is impossible not to blame the
+so-called Reformers for the acts of sacrilege and barbarism through
+which they obtained the religious and political liberty so
+necessary to the intellectual and social progress of the race, it
+cannot be denied <span class="pagenum"><a name="page346"></a>[pg
+346]</span> that no sooner had the power of the papacy come to an
+end in England than the English nation entered upon that free
+development which has at last brought it to its present position
+among the other nations of the world." Mr. Bagot also admits that
+"the political intrigues and insatiable ambition of the papacy
+during the succeeding centuries constituted a perpetual menace to
+England."</p>
+<p>The true view, therefore, is that two types of religious and
+political life, two epochs of human history, met in Henry's reign.
+The king and the pope were the exponents of conflicting ideals. The
+fall of the monasteries was an incident in the struggle. "The
+Catholics," says Froude, "had chosen the alternative, either to
+crush the free thought which was bursting from the soil, or to be
+crushed by it; and the future of the world could not be sacrificed
+to preserve the exotic graces of medieval saints."</p>
+<p>The problem is reduced to this, Was the Reformation desirable?
+Is Protestantism a curse or a blessing? Would England and the world
+be better off under the sway of medieval religion than under the
+influence of modern Protestantism? If <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page347"></a>[pg 347]</span> monasticisrn were a
+fetter on human liberty and industry, if the monasteries were "so
+many seminaries of superstition and of folly," there was but one
+thing to do--to break the fetters and to destroy the monasteries.
+To have succeeded in so radical a reform as that begun by King
+Henry, with forty thousand monks preaching treason, would have been
+an impossibility. Henry cannot be blamed because the monks chose to
+entangle themselves with politics and to side with Rome as against
+the English nation.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Results_of_the_Dissolution"></a>Results of the
+Dissolution</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Many important results followed the fall of the monasteries. The
+majority of the House of Lords was now transferred from the abbots
+to the lay peers. The secular clergy, who had been fighting the
+monks for centuries, were at last accorded their proper standing in
+the church. Numerous unjust ecclesiastical privileges were swept
+aside, and in many respects the whole church was strengthened and
+purified. Credulity and superstition began to decline.
+Ecclesiastical criminals were no longer able <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page348"></a>[pg 348]</span> to escape the just
+penalty for their crimes. Naturally all these beneficent ends were
+not attained immediately. For a while there was great disorder and
+distress. Society was disturbed not only by the stoppage of
+monastic alms-giving, but the wandering monks, unaccustomed to toil
+and without a trade, increased the confusion.</p>
+<p>In this connection it is well to point out that some writers
+make very much of the poverty relieved by the monks, and claim that
+the nobles, into whose hands the monastic lands fell, did almost
+nothing to mitigate the distresses of the unfortunate. But they
+ignore the fact that a blind and undiscriminating charity was the
+cause, and not the cure, of much of the miserable wretchedness of
+the poor. Modern society has learned that the monastic method is
+wholly wrong; that fraud and laziness are fostered by a wholesale
+distribution of doles. The true way to help the poor is to enable
+the poor to assist themselves; to teach them trades and give them
+work. The sociological methods of to-day are thoroughly
+anti-monastic.</p>
+<p>On the other hand, the infidel Zosimus, quoted by Gibbon, was
+not far wrong when he said "the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page349"></a>[pg 349]</span> monks robbed an empire to help a few
+beggars." The fact that the religious houses did distribute alms
+and entertain strangers is not disputed; indeed it is pleasant to
+reflect upon this noble charity of the monks; it is a bright spot
+in their history. But it is in no sense true that they deserve all
+the credit for relieving distress. They received the money for alms
+in the shape of rents, gifts and other kinds of income. Hallam
+says, "There can be no doubt that many of the impotent poor derived
+support from their charity. But the blind eleemosynary spirit
+inculcated by the Romish church is notoriously the cause, not the
+cure, of beggary and wickedness. The monastic foundations,
+scattered in different countries, could never answer the ends of
+local and limited succor. Their gates might, indeed, be open to
+those who knocked at them for alms.... Nothing could have a
+stronger tendency to promote that vagabond mendicity which severe
+statutes were enacted to repress."</p>
+<p>It seems almost ungracious to quote such an observation, because
+it may be distorted into a criticism of charity itself, or made to
+serve the purposes of certain anti-Romanists who cannot even spare
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page350"></a>[pg 350]</span> those
+noble women who minister to the sick in the home or hospital from
+their bigoted criticisms. Small indeed must be the soul of that man
+who permits his religious opinions to blind his eyes to the
+inestimable services of those heroic and self-sacrificing women.
+But even Roman Catholic students of social problems must recognize
+the folly of indiscriminate alms-giving. "In proportion as justice
+between man and man has declined, that form of charity which
+consists in giving money has been more quickened." The promotion of
+industry, the repression of injustice, the encouragement of
+self-reliance and thrift, are needed far more than the temporary
+relief of those who suffer from oppression or from their own
+wrong-doing.</p>
+<p>Some of those who deplore the fall of the monasteries make much
+of the fact that the modern world is menaced by materialism. "With
+very rare exceptions," cries Maitre, a French Catholic, "the most
+undisguised materialism has everywhere replaced the lessons and
+recollections of the spiritual life. The shrill voice of machinery,
+the grinding of the saw or the monotonous clank of the piston, is
+heard now, where once were heard chants and <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page351"></a>[pg 351]</span> prayers and
+confessions. Once the monk freely undid the door to let the
+stranger in, and now we see a sign, 'no admittance,' lest a greedy
+rival purloin the tricks of trade." Montalembert, referring to the
+ruin of the cloisters in France, grieves thus: "Sometimes the
+spinning-wheel is installed under the ancient sanctuary. Instead of
+echoing night and day the praises of God, these dishonored arches
+too often repeat only the blasphemies of obscene cries." The
+element of truth in these laments gives them their sting, but one
+should beware of the fervid rhetoric of the worshipers of
+medievalism. This century is nobler, purer, truer, manlier, and
+more humane than any of the centuries that saw the greatest
+triumphs of the monks. They, too, had their blasphemies, often
+under the cloak of piety; they, too, had their obscene cries. Their
+superstitions and frauds concealed beneath those "dishonored
+arches" were infinitely worse than the noise of machinery weaving
+garments for the poor, or producing household comforts to increase
+the happiness of the humblest man.</p>
+<p>There is much that is out of joint, much to justify doleful
+prophecies, in the social and religious <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page352"></a>[pg 352]</span> conditions of the
+present age, but the signs of the times are not all ominous. At all
+events, nothing would be gained by a return to the monkish ideals
+of the past. The hope of the world lies in the further development
+and completer realization of those great principles of human
+freedom that distinguish this century from the past. The history of
+monasticism clearly shows that the monasteries could not minister
+to that development of liberty, truth and justice, which constitute
+the indispensable condition of human happiness and human progress.
+Unable to adjust themselves to the new age, unwilling to welcome
+the new light, rejecting the doctrine of individual freedom, the
+monks were forced to retire from the field.</p>
+<p>So fell in England that institution which, for twelve centuries,
+had exercised marvelous dominion over the spiritual and temporal
+interests of the continent, and for eight hundred years had
+suffered or thrived on English soil. "The day came, and that a
+drear winter day, when its last mass was sung, its last censer
+waved, its last congregation bent in rapt and lovely adoration
+before the altar." Its <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page353"></a>[pg 353]</span> majestic and solemn ruins proclaim
+its departed grandeur. Its deeds of mercy, its conflicts with kings
+and bishops, its prayers and chants and penances, its virtues and
+its vices, its trials and its victories, its wealth and its
+poverty, all are gone. Silence and death keep united watch over
+cloister and tomb. We should be ungrateful if we forgot its
+blessings; we should be untrue if, ignoring its evils, we sought to
+bring back to life that which God has laid in the sepulcher of the
+dead.</p>
+<blockquote>"Where pleasant was the spot for men to dwell,<br>
+Amid its fair broad lands the abbey lay,<br>
+Sheltering dark orgies that were shame to tell,<br>
+And cowled and barefoot beggars swarmed the way,<br>
+All in their convent weeds of black, and white, and gray.<br>
+<br>
+From many a proud monastic pile, o'erthrown,<br>
+Fear-struck, the brooded inmates rushed and fled;<br>
+The web, that for a thousand years had grown<br>
+O'er prostrate Europe, in that day of dread<br>
+Crumbled and fell, as fire dissolves the flaxen thread."<br>
+<br>
+--<i>Bryant</i>.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page354"></a>[pg 354]</span>
+<h2><a name="VIII"></a>VIII</h2>
+<h2><i><a name="CAUSES_AND_IDEALS_OF_MONASTICISM"></a>CAUSES AND
+IDEALS OF MONASTICISM</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>All forms of religious character and conduct are grounded in
+certain cravings of the soul, which, in seeking satisfaction, are
+influenced by theoretical opinions. The longings of the human heart
+constitute the impulse, or the energy, of religion. The
+intellectual convictions act as guiding forces. As a religious
+type, therefore, the monk was produced by the action of certain
+desires, influenced by specific opinions respecting God, the soul,
+the body, the world and their relations.</p>
+<p>The existence of monasticism in non-Christian religions implies
+that whatever impetus the ascetic impulses in human nature received
+from Christian teaching, there is some broader basis for monastic
+life than the tenets of any creed. Biblical history and Christian
+theology furnish some explanation <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page355"></a>[pg 355]</span> of the rise of Christian monasticism,
+but they do not account for the monks of ancient India. The
+teachings of Jesus exerted a profound influence upon the Christian
+monks, but they cannot explain the Oriental asceticism that
+flourished before the Christ of the New Testament was born. There
+must have been some motive, or motives, operating on human nature
+as such, a knowledge of which will help to account for the monks of
+Indian antiquity as well as the begging friars of modern times. It
+will therefore be in order to begin the present inquiry by seeking
+those causes which gave rise to monasticism in general.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Causative_Motives_of_Monasticism"></a>Causative
+Motives of Monasticism</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Whatever the origin of religion itself, it is certain that it is
+man's inalienable concern. He is, as Sabatier says, "incurably
+religious." Of all the motives ministering to this ruling passion,
+the longing for righteousness and for the favor of God is supreme.
+The savage only partially grasps the significance of his spiritual
+aspirations, and dimly understands the nature of the God he adores
+or fears. His worship <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page356"></a>[pg 356]</span> may be confined to frantic efforts to
+ward off the vengeful assaults of an angry deity, but however gross
+his religious conceptions, there is at the heart of his religion a
+desire to live in peaceful relations with the Supreme Being.</p>
+<p>As religion advances, the ethical character of God and the
+nature of true righteousness are more clearly apprehended. But the
+idea that moral purity and fellowship with God are in some way
+associated with self-denial has always been held by the religious
+world. But what does such a conception involve? What must one do to
+deny self? The answer to that question will vastly influence the
+form of religious conduct. Thus while all religious men may unite
+in a craving for holiness by a participation in the Divine nature,
+they will differ widely in their opinions as to the nature of this
+desirable righteousness and as to the means by which it may be
+attained. Roman Catholicism, by the voice of the monk, whom it
+regards as the highest type of Christian living, gives one answer
+to these questions; Protestantism, protesting against asceticism,
+gives a different reply.</p>
+<p>The desire for salvation was, therefore, the primary
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page357"></a>[pg 357]</span> cause
+of all monasticism. Many quotations might be given from the sacred
+writings of India, establishing beyond dispute, that underlying the
+confusing variety of philosophical ideas and ascetic practices of
+the non-Christian monks, was a consuming desire for the redemption
+of the soul from sin. Buddha said on seeing a mendicant, "The life
+of a devotee has always been praised by the wise. It will be my
+refuge and the refuge of other creatures, it will lead us to a real
+life, to happiness and immortality."</p>
+<p>Dharmapala, in expounding the teachings of the Buddha, at the
+World's Parliament of Religions, in Chicago, clearly showed that
+the aim of the Buddhist is "the entire obliteration of all that is
+evil," and "the complete purification of the mind." That this is
+the purpose of the asceticism of India is seen by the following
+quotation from Dharmapala's address: "The advanced student of the
+religion of Buddha when he has faith in him thinks: 'Full of
+hindrances is household life, a path defiled by passions; free as
+the air is the life of him who has renounced all worldly things.
+How difficult is it for the man who dwells at home to live the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page358"></a>[pg 358]</span> higher
+life in all its fullness, in all its purity, in all its perfection!
+Let me then cut off my hair and beard, let me clothe myself in
+orange-colored robes and let me go forth from a household life into
+the homeless state!'"</p>
+<p>In the same parliament, Mozoomdar, the brilliant and attractive
+representative of the Brahmo Somaj, in describing "Asia's Service
+to Religion," thus stated the motives and spirit of Oriental
+asceticism: "What lesson do the hermitages, the monasteries, the
+cave temples, the discipline and austerities of the religious East
+teach the world? Renunciation. The Asiatic apostle will ever remain
+an ascetic, a celibate, a homeless Akinchana, a Fakeer. We
+Orientals are all the descendants of John the Baptist. Any one who
+has taken pains at spiritual culture must admit that the great
+enemy to a devout concentration of mind is the force of bodily and
+worldly desire. Communion with God is impossible, so long as the
+flesh and its lusts are not subdued.... It is not mere temperance,
+but positive asceticism; not mere self-restraint, but
+self-mortification; not mere self-sacrifice, but self-extinction;
+not mere morality, but absolute holiness." And <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page359"></a>[pg 359]</span> further on in his
+address, Mozoomdar claimed that this asceticism is practically the
+essential principle in Christianity and the meaning of the cross of
+Christ: "This great law of self-effacement, poverty, suffering,
+death, is symbolized in the mystic cross so dear to you and dear to
+me. Christians, will you ever repudiate Calvary? Oneness of will
+and character is the sublimest and most difficult unity with God."
+The chief value of these quotations from Mozoomdar lies in the fact
+that they show forth the underlying motive of all asceticism. It
+would be unjust to the distinguished scholar to imply that he
+defends those extreme forms of monasticism which have appeared in
+India or in Christian countries. On the contrary, while he
+maintains, in his charming work, "The Oriental Christ," that "the
+height of self-denial may fitly be called asceticism," he is at the
+same time fully alive to its dangerous exaggerations. "Pride," he
+says, "creeps into the holiest and humblest exercises of
+self-discipline. It is the supremest natures only that escape. The
+practice of asceticism therefore is always attended with great
+danger." The language of Mozoomdar, however, like that of many
+Christian monastic writers, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page360"></a>[pg 360]</span> opens the door to many grave
+excesses. It is another evidence of the necessity for defining what
+one means by "self-mortification" and "self-extinction."</p>
+<p>Turning now to Christian monasticism, it will be found that, as
+in the case of Oriental monasticism the yearning for victory over
+self was uppermost in the minds of the best Christian monks. A few
+words from a letter written by Jerome to Rusticus, a young monk,
+illustrates the truth of this observation: "Let your garments be
+squalid," he says, "to show that your mind is white, and your tunic
+coarse, to show that you despise the world. But give not way to
+pride, lest your dress and your language be found at variance.
+Baths stimulate the senses, and are therefore to be avoided."</p>
+<p>To keep the mind white, to despise the world, to overcome pride,
+to stop the craving of the senses for gratification,--these were
+the objects of the monks, in order to accomplish which they
+macerated and starved their bodies, avoided baths, wore rags,
+affected humble language and fled from the scenes of pleasure. The
+goal was highly commendable, even if the means employed were
+inadequate to produce the desired results.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page361"></a>[pg 361]</span>
+<p>All down through the Middle Ages, the idea continued to prevail
+that the monastic life was the highest and purest expression of the
+Christian religion, and that the monks' chances of heaven were much
+better than those of any other class of men. The laity believed
+them to be a little nearer God than even the clergy, and so they
+paid them gold for their prayers. It will readily be understood
+that in degenerate times, so profitable a doctrine would be
+earnestly encouraged by the monks. The knight, whose conscience
+revolted against his conduct but who could not bring himself to a
+complete renunciation of the world, believed that heaven would
+condone his faults or crimes if in some way he could make friends
+with the dwellers in the cloister. To this end, he founded abbeys
+and sustained monasteries by liberal gifts of gold and land. Such a
+donation was made in the following language: "I, Gervais, who
+belong to the chivalry of the age, caring for the salvation of my
+soul, and considering that I shall never reach God by my own
+prayers and fastings, have resolved to recommend myself in some
+other way to those who, night and day, serve God by these
+practices, so that, thanks <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page362"></a>[pg 362]</span> to their intercession, I may be able
+to obtain that salvation which I of myself am unable to merit."
+Another endowment was made by Peter, Knight of Maull, in these
+quaint terms: "I, Peter, profiting by this lesson, and desirous,
+though a sinner and unworthy, to provide for my future destiny, I
+have desired that the bees of God may come to gather their honey in
+my orchards, so that when their fair hives shall be full of rich
+combs, they may be able to remember him by whom the hive was
+given."</p>
+<p>The people believed that the prayers of the monks lifted their
+souls into heaven; that their curses doomed them to the bottomless
+pit. A monastery was the safe and sure road to heaven. The
+observation of Gibbon respecting the early monks is applicable to
+all of them: "Each proselyte who entered the gates of a monastery
+was persuaded that he trod the steep and thorny path of eternal
+happiness."</p>
+<p>The second cause for monasticism in general was a natural love
+of solitude, which became almost irresistible when reinforced by a
+despair of the world's redemption. The poet voiced the feelings of
+almost every soul, at some period in life, when he wrote:</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page363"></a>[pg 363]</span>
+<blockquote>"O for a lodge in some vast wilderness,<br>
+Some boundless contiguity of shade,<br>
+Where rumor of oppression or deceit,<br>
+Of unsuccessful or successful war,<br>
+Might never reach me more."</blockquote>
+<p>The longing for solitude accompanied the desire for salvation.
+An unconquerable weariness of the world, with its strife and
+passion, overcame the seeker after God. A yearning to escape the
+duties of social life, which were believed to interfere with one's
+duty to God, possessed his soul. The flight from the world was
+merely the method adopted to satisfy his soul-longings. If such
+times of degeneracy and rampant iniquity ever return, if humanity
+is again compelled to stagger under the moral burdens that crushed
+the Roman Empire, without doubt the love of solitude, which is now
+held in check by the satisfactions of a comparatively pure and
+peaceful social life, will again arise in its old-time strength and
+impel men to seek in waste and lonely places the virtues they
+cannot acquire in a decaying civilization.</p>
+<p>Even amid the delights of human fellowship, and surrounded by so
+much that ministers to restfulness of soul, it is often hard to
+repress a longing to <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page364"></a>[pg 364]</span> shatter the fetters of custom, to
+flee from the noise and confusion of this hurrying, fretful world,
+and to pass one's days in a coveted retirement, far from the
+maddening strife and tumult. Montalembert's profound appreciation
+of monastic life was never more aptly illustrated than in the
+following declaration: "In the depths of human nature there exists
+without doubt, a tendency instinctive, though confused and
+evanescent, toward retirement and solitude. What man, unless
+completely depraved by vice or weighed down by care and cupidity,
+has not experienced once, at least, before his death, the
+attraction of solitude?"</p>
+<p>While the motives just described were unquestionably preeminent
+among the causative factors in monasticism, it should not be taken
+for granted that there were no others, or that either or both of
+these motives controlled every monk. The personal considerations
+tending to keep up the flight from the world were numerous and
+active. It would be a mistake to credit all the monks, and at some
+periods even a majority of them, with pure and lofty purposes.
+Oftentimes criminals were pardoned <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page365"></a>[pg 365]</span> through the intercession of abbots on
+condition that they would retire to a monastery. The jilted lover
+and the commercial bankrupt, the deserted or bereaved wife, the
+pauper and the invalid, the social outcast and the shirker of civic
+duties, the lazy and the fickle were all to be found in the ranks
+of the monastic orders. Ceasing to feel any interest in the joys of
+society, they had turned to the cloister as a welcome asylum in the
+hour of their sorrow or disappointment. To some it was an easy way
+out of the struggle for existence, to others it meant an end to
+taxes and to military service, to still others it was a haven of
+rest for a weary body or a disappointed spirit. Thus many specific,
+individual considerations acted with the general desires for
+salvation and solitude to strengthen and to perpetuate the
+institution.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name=
+"Beliefs_Affecting_the_Causative_Motives"></a>Beliefs Affecting the
+Causative Motives</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>In the first chapter it was shown that a variety of views
+respecting the relation of the body and the soul influenced the
+origin and development of Christian monasticism. It will not now be
+necessary <span class="pagenum"><a name="page366"></a>[pg
+366]</span> to repeat what was there said. The essential teaching
+of all these false opinions was that the body was in itself evil,
+that the gratification of natural appetites was inherently wrong,
+and that true holiness consisted in the complete subjection of the
+body by self-denial and torture. Jerome distinctly taught that what
+was natural was opposed to God. The Gnostics and many of the early
+Christians believed that this world was ruled by the devil. The
+Gnostics held that this opposition of the kingdom of matter to God
+was fundamental and eternal. The Christians, however, maintained
+that the antagonism was temporary, the Lord having given the world
+over to evil spirits for a time. The prevailing opinion among
+almost all schools was that a union with God was only possible to
+those who had extinguished bodily desires.</p>
+<p>The ascetic theory undoubtedly derived much support from the
+views held concerning the teachings of the Bible. The Oriental
+monks frequently quoted from their sacred books to justify their
+habits and ideals. In like manner, the Christian monks believed
+that they, and they alone, were literally obeying the commands of
+Christ and his <span class="pagenum"><a name="page367"></a>[pg
+367]</span> apostles. This phase of the subject will receive
+attention when the three vows of monasticism are considered.</p>
+<p>In the West, two conditions, one political and social, the other
+religious, set in motion all these spiritual desires and ascetic
+beliefs tending toward monasticism. One was the corrupted state, of
+Roman society and the approaching overthrow of the Roman Empire.
+The other was the secularization of the church.</p>
+<p>Men naturally cling to society as long as there exists any
+well-founded hope for its regeneration, but when every expectation
+for the survival of righteousness yields to a conviction that doom
+is inevitable, then the flight from the world begins. This was
+precisely the situation in the declining days of Rome and
+Alexandria, when Christian monasticism came into being. The monks
+believed that the end of the world was nigh, that all things
+temporal and earthly were doomed, and that God's hand was against
+the empire. "That they were correct in their judgment of the world
+about them," says Kingsley, "contemporary history proves
+abundantly. That they were correct, likewise, in believing that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page368"></a>[pg 368]</span> some
+fearful judgment was about to fall on man, is proved by the fact
+that it did fall."</p>
+<p>So they fled to escape being caught in the ruins of society's
+tottering structure,--fled to make friends with the angels and with
+God. If one cannot live purely in the midst of corruption, by all
+means let him live purely away from corruption, but let him never
+forget that his piety is of a lower order than that which abides
+uncorrupted in the midst of degenerate society. There is much truth
+in the observation of Charles Reade in "The Cloister and the
+Hearth": "So long as Satan walks the whole earth, tempting men, and
+so long as the sons of Belial do never lock themselves in caves but
+run like ants, to and fro corrupting others, the good man that
+sulks apart, plays the Devil's game, or at least gives him the
+odds."</p>
+<p>But the early Christian monks believed that their safety was
+only in flight. It was not altogether an unworthy motive; at least
+it is easy to sympathize with these men struggling against odds, of
+the magnitude of which the modern Christian has only the faintest
+conception.</p>
+<p>The conviction that the only true and certain <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page369"></a>[pg 369]</span> way to secure
+salvation is by flight from the world, continued to prevail during
+the succeeding centuries of monastic history, and it can hardly be
+said to have entirely disappeared even at the present time. Anselm
+of Canterbury, in the twelfth century, wrote to a young friend
+reminding him that the glory of this world was perishing. True, not
+monks only are saved, "but," says he, "who attains to salvation in
+the most certain, who in the most noble way, the man who seeks to
+love God alone, or he who seeks to unite the love of God with the
+love of the world?... Is it rational when danger is on every side,
+to remain where it is the greatest?"</p>
+<p>The Christian church set up an ideal of life which it was
+impossible to realize within her borders, and one which differed in
+many respects from the teachings of Jesus. Her demands involved a
+renunciation of the world, a superiority to all the enticements of
+bodily appetites, a lofty scorn of secular bonds and social
+concerns. A vigorous religious faith had conquered a mighty empire,
+but corruption attended its victory. The standard of Christian
+morals was lowered, or had at least degenerated <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page370"></a>[pg 370]</span> into a cold, formal
+ideal that no one was expected to realize; hence none strove to
+attain it but the monks. When Roman society with its selfishness,
+lust and worldliness, swept in through the open doors of the church
+and took possession of the sanctuary, those who had cherished the
+ascetic ideal gave up the fight against the world, and the flight
+from the world-church began. They could not tolerate this union of
+the church with a pagan state and an effete civilization. In some
+respects, as a few writers maintain, many of these hermits were
+like the old Jewish prophets, fighting single-handed against
+corruption in church and state, refusing to yield themselves as
+slaves to the authority of institutions that had forsaken the
+ideals of the past.</p>
+<p>Thus the conviction that the end of human society was nigh, and
+that the church could no longer serve as an asylum for the lovers
+of righteousness, with certain philosophical ideas respecting the
+body, the world and God, united to produce the assumption that
+salvation was more readily attainable in the deserts; and Christian
+monasticism, in its hermit form, began its long and eventful
+history.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page371"></a>[pg 371]</span>
+<h2><i><a name="Causes_of_Variations_in_Monasticism"></a>Causes of
+Variations in Monasticism</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Prominent among the causes producing variations in the monastic
+type was the influence of climatic conditions and race
+characteristics.</p>
+<p>The monasticism as well as the religion of the East has always
+differed from the monasticism and the religion of the West. The
+Eastern mind is mystical, dreamy, contemplative; the Western mind
+loves activity, is intensely practical. Representatives of the
+Eastern faiths in the recent Parliament of Religions accused the
+West of materialism, of loving the body more than the soul. They
+affected to despise all material prosperity, and gloried in their
+assumed superiority, on account of their love for religious
+contemplation. This radical difference between the races of the
+East and West is clearly seen in the monastic institution. Benedict
+embodied in his rules the spirit and active life of the West, and
+hence, the monastic system, then in danger of dying, or stagnating,
+revived and spread all over Europe. Again, the hermit life was
+ill-adapted to the West. Men could not live out of doors in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page372"></a>[pg 372]</span> Europe
+and subsist on small quantities of food as in Egypt. The rigors of
+the climate in Europe demanded an adaptation to new conditions.</p>
+<p>But aside from the differences between Eastern and Western
+monasticism, the Christian institution passed through a variety of
+changes. The growth of monasticism from the hermit stage to the
+cloistral life has already been described. To what shall the
+development of the community system be attributed? No religious
+institution can remain stationary, unaffected by the changing
+conditions of the society in which it exists. The progress of the
+intellect, and the development of social, political and industrial
+conditions, effect great transformations in religious
+organizations.</p>
+<p>The monastic institution grew up amid the radical changes of
+European society. In its early days it witnessed the invasion of
+the barbarians, which swept away old political divisions and
+destroyed many of the heritages of an ancient civilization. Then
+the process of reconstruction slowly began. New states were
+forming; nations were crystallizing. The barbarian was to lay the
+foundations of great cities and organize powerful <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page373"></a>[pg 373]</span> commonwealths out
+of wild but victorious tribes. The monk could not remain in hiding.
+He was brother to the roving warrior. The blood in his veins was
+too active to permit him to stand still amid the mighty whirl of
+events. Without entirely abandoning his cloistral life, he became a
+zealous missionary of the church among the barbarians, a patron of
+letters and of agriculture, in short a stirring participant in the
+work of civilization.</p>
+<p>Next came the crusades. Jerusalem was to be captured for Christ
+and the church. The monk then appeared as a crusade-preacher, a
+warrior on the battle-field, or a nurse in the military
+hospital.</p>
+<p>The rise of feudalism likewise wrought a change in the spirit
+and position of the monks. The feudal lord was master of his
+vassals. "The genius of feudalism," says Allen, "was a spirit of
+uncontrolled independence." So the abbot became a feudal lord with
+immense possessions and powers. He was no longer the obscure,
+spiritual father of a little family of monks, but a temporal lord
+also, an aristocrat, ruling wide territories, and dwelling in a
+monastery little different from the castle of the knight and often
+exceeding it in splendor. With <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page374"></a>[pg 374]</span> wealth came ease, and hard upon the
+heels of ease came laziness, arrogance, corruption.</p>
+<p>Then followed the marvelous intellectual awakening, the moral
+revival, the discoveries and inventions of the fifteenth and
+sixteenth centuries. The human mind at last had aroused itself from
+a long repose, or turned from a profitless activity into broad and
+fruitful fields. The corruption of the monasteries meant the laxity
+of vows, the cessation of ministration to the poor and the sick.
+Then arose the tender and loving Francis, with his call to poverty
+and to service. The independent exercise of the intellect gave
+birth to heresies, but the Dominicans appeared to preach them
+down.</p>
+<p>The growth of the secular spirit and the progress of the new
+learning were too much for the old monasticism. The monk had to
+adapt himself to a new age, an age that is impatient of mere
+contemplation, that spurns the rags of the begging friar and rebels
+against the fierce intolerance of the Dominican preaching. So,
+lastly, came the suave, determined, practical, cultured Jesuit,
+ready to comply, at least outwardly, with all the requirements of
+modern times. Does the new age reject monastic <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page375"></a>[pg 375]</span> seclusion? Very
+well, the Jesuit throws off his monastic garb and forsakes his
+cloister, to take his place among men. Are the ignorance and the
+filth of the begging friars offensive? The Jesuit is cultured,
+affable and spotlessly clean. Does the new age demand liberty?
+"Liberty," cries the Jesuit, "is the divine prerogative, colossal
+in proportion, springing straight from the broad basin of the
+soul's essence!"</p>
+<p>Such in its merest outlines is the story of the development of
+the monastic type and its causes.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Fundamental_Monastic_Vows"></a>The Fundamental
+Monastic Vows</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The ultimate monastic ideal was the purification of the soul,
+but when translated into definite, concrete terms, the immediate
+aim of the monk was to live a life of poverty, celibacy and
+obedience. Riches, marriage and self-will were regarded as forms of
+sinful gratification, which every holy man should abandon. The true
+Christian, according to monasticism, is poor, celibate and
+obedient. The three fundamental monastic vows should therefore
+receive special consideration.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page376"></a>[pg 376]</span>
+<p>1. The Vow of Poverty. The monks of all countries held the
+possession of riches to be a barrier to high spiritual attainments.
+In view of the fact that an inordinate love of wealth has proved
+disastrous to many nations, and that it is extremely difficult for
+a rich man to escape the hardening, enervating and corrupting
+influences of affluence, the position of the monks on this question
+is easily understood. The Christian monks based their vow of
+poverty upon the Bible, and especially upon the teachings of
+Christ, who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor. He
+said to the rich young man, "Sell all that thou hast and give to
+the poor." In commissioning the disciples to preach the gospel He
+said: "Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses;
+nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, nor shoes." In the
+discourse on counting the cost of discipleship, He said: "So
+therefore, whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he
+hath, he cannot be my disciple." He promised rewards to "every one
+that left houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or
+children, or lands for my name's sake." "It is easier," He once
+said, "for a <span class="pagenum"><a name="page377"></a>[pg
+377]</span> camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man
+to enter the kingdom of heaven." He portrayed the pauper Lazarus as
+participating in the joys of heaven, while the rich Dives endured
+the torments of the lost. As reported in Luke, He said, "Blessed
+are ye poor." He Himself was without a place to lay His head, a
+houseless wanderer upon the earth.</p>
+<p>The apostle James cries to the men of wealth: "Go to now, ye
+rich men, weep and howl, for your miseries that shall come upon
+you." John said: "Love not the world, neither the things that are
+in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is
+not in him."</p>
+<p>Whatever these passages, and many others of like import, may
+signify, it is not at all strange that Christians, living in times
+when wealth was abused, and when critical Biblical scholarship was
+unknown, should have understood Christ to command a life of poverty
+as an indispensable condition of true holiness.</p>
+<p>There are three ways of interpreting Christ's doctrine of
+wealth. First, it may be held that Jesus intended His teachings to
+be literally obeyed, not <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page378"></a>[pg 378]</span> only by His first disciples but by
+all His followers in subsequent years, and that such literal
+obedience is practicable, reasonable and conducive to the highest
+well-being of society. Secondly, it has been said that Jesus was a
+gentle and honest visionary, who erroneously believed that the
+possession of riches rendered religious progress impossible, but
+that strict compliance with His commands would be destructive of
+civilization. Laveleye declares that "if Christianity were taught
+and understood conformably to the spirit of its Founder, the
+existing social organism could not last a day." Thirdly, neither of
+these views seems to do justice to the spirit of Christ, for they
+fail to give proper recognition to many other injunctions of the
+Master and to many significant incidents in his public ministry.
+Exhaustive treatment of this subject is, of course, impossible
+here. Briefly it may be remarked, that Jesus looked upon wealth as
+tending oftentimes to foster an unsocial spirit. Rich men are
+liable to become enemies of the brotherhood Jesus sought to
+establish, by reason of their covetousness and contracted
+sympathies. The rich man is in danger of erecting false standards
+of manhood, of ignoring the highest <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page379"></a>[pg 379]</span> interests of the soul by an undue
+emphasis on the material. Wealth, in itself, is not an evil, but it
+is only a good when it is used to advance the real welfare of
+humanity. Jesus was not intent upon teaching economics. His purpose
+was to develop the man. It was the moral value and spiritual
+influence of material things that concerned him. Professor Shailer
+Mathews admirably states the true attitude of Jesus towards rich
+men: "Jesus was a friend neither of the working man nor the rich
+man as such. He calls the poor man to sacrifice as well as the rich
+man. He was the Son of Man, not the son of a class of men. But His
+denunciation is unsparing of those men who make wealth at the
+expense of souls; who find in capital no incentive to further
+fraternity; who endeavor so to use wealth as to make themselves
+independent of social obligations, and to grow fat with that which
+should be shared with society;--for those men who are gaining the
+world but are letting their neighbors fall among thieves and
+Lazarus rot among their dogs."</p>
+<p>Jesus was therefore not a foe to rich men as such, but to that
+antisocial, abnormal regard for wealth and its procurements, which
+leads to the creation <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page380"></a>[pg 380]</span> of class distinctions and impedes the
+full and free development of our common humanity along the lines of
+brotherly love and co&ouml;peration. A Christian may consistently
+be a rich man, provided he uses his wealth in furthering the true
+interests of society, and realizes, as respects his own person,
+that "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things
+which he possesseth." The error of monasticism consists in making
+poverty a virtue and an essential condition of the highest
+holiness. It is true that some callings preclude the prospect of
+fortune. The average clergyman cannot hope to amass wealth. The
+resident of a social settlement may possess capacities that would
+win success in business, but he must forego financial prospects if
+he expects to live and labor among the poor. In so far as the monks
+deliberately turned their backs on the material rewards of human
+endeavors that they might be free to devote themselves to the
+service of humanity, their vow of poverty was creditable and
+reasonable. But they erred when they exalted poverty as of itself
+commending them in a peculiar degree to the mercy of God.</p>
+<p>2. The Vow of Celibacy. "The moral merit <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page381"></a>[pg 381]</span> of celibacy," says
+Allen, "was harder to make out of the Scripture, doubtless, since
+family life is both at the foundation of civil society and the
+source of all the common virtues." The monks held that Christ and
+Paul both taught and practiced celibacy. In the early and middle
+ages celibacy was looked upon by all churchmen as in itself a
+virtue. The prevailing modern idea is that marriage is a holy
+institution, in no sense inferior in sacredness to any
+ecclesiastical order of life. He who antagonizes it plays into the
+hands of the foes to social purity and individual virtue.</p>
+<p>The ideas of Jerome, Ambrose, and all the early Fathers,
+respecting marriage, are still held by many ecclesiastics. One of
+them, in defending the celibacy of existing religious orders, says:
+"Celibacy is enjoined on these religious orders as a means to
+greater sanctification, greater usefulness, greater absorption in
+things spiritual, and to facilitate readier withdrawal from things
+earthly." He gives two reasons for the celibacy of the priesthood,
+which are all the more interesting because they substantially
+represent the opinions held by the Christian monks in all ages:
+First, "That the service of the priest <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page382"></a>[pg 382]</span> to God may be
+undivided and unrestrained." In support of this, he quotes I. Cor.,
+7: 32, 33, which reads: "But I would have you free from cares. He
+that is unmarried is careful for the things of the Lord, how he may
+please the Lord: but he that is married is careful for the things
+of the world, how he may please his wife." And secondly,
+"Celibacy," according to Trent, "is more blessed than marriage." He
+also quotes the words of Christ that there are "eunuchs for the
+kingdom of heaven's sake." He then adds: "It is desirable that
+those called to the ministry of the altar espouse a life of
+continence because holier and more angelic."</p>
+<p>It is generally admitted that the vow of celibacy was not
+demanded of the clergy in primitive Christian times. It was only
+after many years of bitter debate and in response to the growing
+influence of the monastic ideal, that celibacy finally came to be
+looked upon as the highest form of Christian virtue, and was
+enforced upon the clergy. As in the case of the vow of poverty,
+there certainly can be no reasonable objection to the individual
+adoption of celibacy, if one is either disinclined to marriage or
+feels that he can do better work unmarried. But <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page383"></a>[pg 383]</span> neither Scripture
+nor reason justifies the imposition of celibacy upon any man, nor
+the view that a life of continence is holier than marriage. It may
+be reverently said that God would be making an unreasonable demand
+upon mankind, if the holiness He requires conflicted with the
+proper satisfaction of those impulses He himself has deeply
+implanted in human nature.</p>
+<p>3. The Vow of Obedience. The monks were required to render
+absolute obedience to the will of their superiors, as the
+representatives of God. Dom Guigo, in his rules for the Carthusian
+Order, declares: "Moreover, if the Prior commands one of his
+religious to take more food, or to sleep for a longer time, in
+fact, whatever command may be given us by our Superior, we are not
+allowed to disobey, lest we should disobey God also, who commands
+us by the mouth of our Superior. All our practices of mortification
+and devotion would be fruitless and of no value, without this one
+virtue of obedience, which alone can make them acceptable to
+God."</p>
+<p>Thus a strict and uncomplaining obedience, not to the laws of
+God as interpreted by the individual <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page384"></a>[pg 384]</span> conscience, but to the judgment and
+will of a brother man, was demanded of the monks.</p>
+<blockquote>"Theirs not to reason why,<br>
+Theirs not to make reply,<br>
+Theirs but to do and die."</blockquote>
+<p>They were often severely beaten or imprisoned and sometimes
+mutilated for acts of disobedience. While the monks, especially the
+Friars and Jesuits, carried this principle of obedience to great
+extremes, yet in the barbarous ages its enforcement was sadly
+needed. Law and order were words which the untamed Goth could not
+comprehend. He had to be taught habits of obedience, a respect for
+the rights of others, and a proper appreciation of his duty to
+society for the common good. But while, at the beginning, the
+monastic vow of obedience helped to inculcate these desirable
+lessons, and vastly modified the ferocity of unchecked
+individualism, it tended, in the course of time, to generate a
+servile humility fatal to the largest and freest personal
+development. In the interests of passive obedience, it suppressed
+freedom of thought and action. Obedience became mechanical and
+unreasoning. The consequence was that the passion for individual
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page385"></a>[pg 385]</span> liberty
+was unduly restrained, and the extravagant claims of political and
+ecclesiastical tyrants were greatly strengthened.</p>
+<p>Such was the monastic ideal and such were some of the means
+employed to realize it. The ascetic spirit manifests itself in a
+great variety of ways, but all these visible and changing externals
+have one common source. "To cherish the religious principle," says
+William E. Channing," some have warred against their social
+affections, and have led solitary lives; some against their senses,
+and have abjured all pleasure in asceticism; some against reason,
+and have superstitiously feared to think; some against imagination,
+and have foolishly dreaded to read poetry or books of fiction; some
+against the political and patriotic principles, and have shrunk
+from public affairs,--all apprehending that if they were to give
+free range to their natural emotions their religious life would be
+chilled or extinguished."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page386"></a>[pg 386]</span>
+<h2><a name="IX"></a>IX</h2>
+<h2><i><a name="THE_EFFECTS_OF_MONASTICISM"></a>THE EFFECTS OF
+MONASTICISM</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>"We read history," said Wendell Phillips, "not through our eyes
+but through our prejudices." Yet if it were possible entirely to
+lay aside one's prepossessions respecting monastic history, it
+would still be no easy task to estimate the influences of the monks
+upon human life.</p>
+<p>In every field of thought and activity monasticism wrought good
+and evil. Education, industry, government and religion have been
+both furthered and hindered by the monks. What Francis Parkman said
+of the Roman Catholic Church is true of the monastic institution:
+"Clearly she is of earth, not of heaven; and her transcendently
+dramatic life is a type of the good and ill, the baseness and
+nobleness, the foulness and purity, the love and hate, the pride,
+passion, truth, falsehood, fierceness, and <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page387"></a>[pg 387]</span> tenderness, that
+battle in the restless heart of man."</p>
+<p>A careful and sympathetic survey of monastic history compels the
+conclusion that monasticism, while not uniformly a blessing to the
+world, was not an unmitigated evil. The system presents one long
+series of perplexities and contradictions. One historian shuts his
+eyes to its pernicious effects, or at least pardons its
+transgressions, on the ground that perfection in man or in
+institutions is unattainable. Another condemns the whole system,
+believing that the sum of its evils far outweighs whatever benefits
+it may have conferred upon mankind. Schaff cuts the Gordian knot,
+maintaining that the contradiction is easily solved on the theory
+that it was not monasticism, as such, which has proved a blessing
+to the Church and the world. "It was Christianity in monasticism,"
+he says, "which has done all the good, and used this abnormal mode
+of life as a means of carrying forward its mission of love and
+peace."</p>
+<p>To illustrate the diversities of opinion on this subject, and
+incidentally to show how difficult it is to present a
+well-balanced, symmetrically fair and just estimate of the monastic
+institution as a whole, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page388"></a>[pg 388]</span> contrast the opinions of four
+celebrated men. Pius IX. refers to the, monks as "those chosen
+phalanxes of the army of Christ which have always been the bulwark
+and ornament of the Christian republic as well as of civil
+society." But then he was the Pope of Rome, the Arch-prelate of the
+Church. "Monk," fiercely demands Voltaire, "Monk, what is that
+profession of thine? It is that of having none, of engaging one's
+self by an inviolable oath to be a fool and a slave, and to live at
+the expense of others." But he was the philosophical skeptic of
+Paris. "Where is the town," cries Montalembert, "which has not been
+founded or enriched or protected by some religious community? Where
+is the church which owes not to them a patron, a relic, a pious and
+popular tradition? Wherever there is a luxuriant forest, a pure
+stream, a majestic hill, we may be sure that religion has left
+there her stamp by the hand of the monk." But this was
+Montalembert, the Roman Catholic historian, and the avowed champion
+of the monks. "A cruel, unfeeling temper," writes Gibbon, "has
+distinguished the monks of every age and country; their stern
+indifference, which is seldom mollified by personal <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page389"></a>[pg 389]</span> friendship, is
+inflamed by religious hatred; and their merciless zeal has
+strenuously administered the holy office of the Inquisition." But
+this was Gibbon, the hater of everything monastic. Between these
+extreme views lies a wide field upon which many a deathless duel
+has been fought by the writers of monastic history.</p>
+<p>The variety of judgments respecting the nature and effects of
+monasticism is partly due to the diversity in the facts of its
+history. Monasticism was the friend and the foe of true religion.
+It was the inspiration of virtue and the encouragement of vice. It
+was the patron of industry and the promoter of idleness. It was a
+pioneer in education and the teacher of superstition. It was the
+disburser of alms and a many-handed robber. It was the friend of
+human liberty and the abettor of tyranny. It was the champion of
+the common people and the defender of class privileges. It was, in
+short, everything that man was and is, so varied were its
+operations, so complex was its influence, so comprehensive was its
+life.</p>
+<p>Of some things we may be certain. Any religious institution or
+ideal of life that has survived the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page390"></a>[pg 390]</span> changes of twelve centuries, and that
+has enlisted the enthusiastic services and warmest sympathies of
+numerous men and women who have been honorably distinguished for
+their intellectual attainments and moral character, must have
+possessed elements of truth and moral worth. A contemptuous
+treatment of monasticism implies either an ignorance of its real
+history or a wilful disregard of the deep significance of its
+commendable features.</p>
+<p>It is also certain that while the methods of monasticism, judged
+by their effects upon the individual and upon society, may be
+justly censured, it is beyond question that many monks, groping
+their way toward the light in an age of ignorance and superstition,
+were inspired by the purest motives. "Conscience," observes
+Waddington, "however misguided, cannot be despised by a reflecting
+mind. When it leads one to self-sacrifice and moral fortitude we
+cannot but admire his spirit, while we condemn his sagacity and
+method."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name=
+"The_Effects_of_Self-Sacrifice_Upon_the_Individual"></a>The Effects
+of Self-Sacrifice Upon the Individual</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Christianity requires some sort of self-denial as the condition
+of true Christian discipleship. Self-love <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page391"></a>[pg 391]</span> is to yield to a
+love of others. In some sense, the Christian is to become dead to
+the world and its demoralizing pleasures. But this primal demand
+upon the soul needs to be interpreted. What is it to love the
+world? What is it to keep the body in subjection? What are harmful
+indulgences? To give wrong answers to these questions is to set up
+a false ideal; the more strenuously such false ideal is followed,
+the more disastrous are the consequences. One's struggle for moral
+purity may end in failure, and one's efficiency for good may be
+seriously impaired by a perversion of the principle of
+self-abnegation. Unnatural severity and excessive abstinence often
+produce the opposite effect from that intended. Instead of a
+peaceful mind there is delirium, and instead of freedom from
+temptation there are a thousand horrible fiends hovering in the air
+and ready, at any moment, to pounce upon their prey. "The history
+of ascetics," says Martensen, "teaches us that by such overdone
+fasting the fancy is often excited to an amazing degree, and in its
+airy domain affords the very things that one thought to have
+buried, by means of mortification, a magical resurrection." In
+attempting to subdue the body, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page392"></a>[pg 392]</span> many necessary requirements of the
+physical organism were totally ignored. The body rebelled against
+such unnatural treatment, and the mind, so closely related to it,
+in its distraction, gave birth to the wildest fancies. Men, who
+would have possessed an ordinarily pure mind in some useful
+occupation of life, became the prey of the most lewd and obnoxious
+imaginations. Then they fancied themselves vile above their
+fellows, and laid on more stripes, put more thorns upon their
+pillows, and fasted more hours, only to find that instead of
+fleeing, the devils became blacker and more numerous.</p>
+<p>Self-forgetfulness is the key to happiness. The monk thought
+otherwise, and slew himself in his vain attempt to fight against
+nature. He never lifted his eyes from his own soul. He was always
+feeling his spiritual pulse, staring at his lean spiritual visage,
+and tearfully watching his growth in grace. An interest in others
+and a strong mind in a strong body are the best antidotes to
+religious despair and the temptations of the soul. Life in the
+monastery was generally less severe than in the desert's solitude.
+There was more and better food, shelter, and comfort, but there
+were many unnecessary and unnatural <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page393"></a>[pg 393]</span> restrictions, even in the best days
+of monasticism. There were too many hours of prayer, too many
+needless regulations for silence, fasting and penance, to produce a
+healthy, vigorous type of religious life.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name=
+"The_Effects_of_Solitude_Upon_the_Individual"></a>The Effects of
+Solitude Upon the Individual</i>.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>It has already been shown that some solitude is essential to our
+richest culture. Our higher nature demands time for reflection and
+meditation. But the monks carried this principle to an extreme, and
+they overestimated its benefits. "Ambition, avarice, irresolution,
+fear, and inordinate desires," says Montaigne, "do not leave us
+because we forsake our native country, they often follow us even to
+cloisters and philosophical schools; nor deserts, nor caves, nor
+hair shirts, nor fasts, can disengage us from them."</p>
+<p>Besides these passions, which the monks carried with them, their
+solitary life tended to foster spiritual pride, contract sympathy,
+and engender an inhumane spirit. True, there were exceptions; but
+the sublime characters which survive in monastic history are by no
+means typical of its usual <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page394"></a>[pg 394]</span> effects. Seclusion did not benefit
+the average monk. Indeed there is something wanting in even the
+loftiest monastic characters. "The heroes of monasticism," says
+Allen, "are not the heroes of modern life. All put together, they
+would not furnish out one such soul as William of Orange, or
+Gustavus, or Milton. Independence of thought and liberty of
+conscience, they renounced once for all, in taking upon them the
+monastic vow. All the larger enterprises, all the broad humanities,
+which to our mind make a greater career, were rigidly shut off by a
+barrier that could not be crossed. All the warmth and wealth of
+social and domestic life was a field of forbidden fruit, to be
+entered only through the gate of unpardonable sin."</p>
+<p>Thus self-excluded from a normal life in society, often the
+subject of self-inflicted pain, it is no wonder that the monk
+impaired all the nobler and manlier feelings of the soul, that he
+became strangely indifferent to human affection, that bigotry and
+pride often sat as joint rulers on the throne of his heart. He who
+had trampled on all filial relations would scarcely recognize the
+bonds of human brotherhood. He who heard not the prayer of his own
+mother <span class="pagenum"><a name="page395"></a>[pg 395]</span>
+would not be likely to listen to the cry of the tortured heretic
+for mercy. Man as man was not reverenced. It was the monk in man
+who was esteemed. As Milman puts it, "Bigotry has always found its
+readiest and sternest executioners among those who have never known
+the charities of life."</p>
+<p>Nor is it a matter of surprise that the monk was spiritually
+proud. He was supposed to stand in the inner circle, a little
+nearer the throne of God than his fellow-mortals. When dead, he was
+worshiped as a saint and regarded as an intercessor between God and
+his lower fellow-creatures. His hatred of the base world easily
+passed over into a sense of superiority and ignoble pride.</p>
+<p>"True social life," says Martensen, "leads to solitude." This
+truth the monks emphasized to the exclusion of the converse, "true
+life in solitude leads back to society." John Tauler, the mystic
+monk, realized this truth when he said: "If God calls me to a sick
+person, or to the service of preaching, or to any other service of
+love, I must follow, although I am in the state of highest
+contemplation." The hermits of the desert, and too often the monks
+of the cloister, escaped from all such services, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page396"></a>[pg 396]</span> and selfishly gave
+themselves up to saving their own souls by contemplation and
+prayer. Ministration to the needy is the external side of the inner
+religious life. It is the fruit of faith and prayer. The monk
+sought solitude, not for the purpose of fitting himself for a place
+in society, but for selfish, personal ends. Saint Bruno, in a
+letter to his friend Ralph le Verd, eulogizes the solitude of the
+monastic cell, and among other sentiments he gives expression to
+the following: "I am speaking here of the contemplative life; and
+although its sons are less numerous than those of active life, yet,
+like Joseph and Benjamin, they are infinitely dearer to their
+Father.... O my brother, fear not then to fly from the turmoil and
+the misery of the world; leave the storms that rage without, to
+shelter yourself in this safe haven."</p>
+<p>Thus sinful and sorrowing humanity, needing the guidance and
+comfort that holy men can furnish, was forgotten in the desire for
+personal peace and future salvation.</p>
+<p>Another baneful result of isolation was the strangulation of
+filial love. When the monk abandoned the softening, refining
+influence of women and children, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page397"></a>[pg 397]</span> one side of his nature suffered a
+serious contraction. An Egyptian mother stood at the hut of two
+hermits, her sons. Weeping bitterly, she begged to see their faces.
+To her piteous entreaties, they said: "Why do you, who are already
+stricken with age, pour forth such cries and lamentations?" "It is
+because I long to see you," she replied. "Am I not your mother? I
+am now an old and wrinkled woman, and my heart is troubled at the
+sound of your voices." But even a mother's love could not cope with
+their fearful fanaticism., and she went away with their cold
+promise that they would meet in heaven. St. John of Calama visited
+his sister in disguise, and a chronicler, telling the story
+afterwards, said, "By the mercy of Jesus Christ he had not been
+recognized, and they never met again." Many hermits received their
+parents or brothers and sisters with their eyes shut. When the
+father of Simeon Stylites died, his widowed mother prayed for
+entrance into her son's cell. For three days and nights she stood
+without, and then the blessed Simeon prayed the Lord for her, and
+she immediately gave up the ghost.</p>
+<p>These as well as numerous other stories of a similar
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page398"></a>[pg 398]</span>
+character that might be quoted illustrate the hardening influence
+of solitude. Instead of cherishing a love of kindred, as a gift of
+heaven and a spring of virtue, the monk spurned it and trampled it
+beneath his feet as an obstacle to his spiritual progress. "The
+monks," says Milman, "seem almost unconscious of the softening,
+humanizing effect of the natural affections, the beauty of parental
+tenderness and filial love."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Monks_as_Missionaries"></a>The Monks as
+Missionaries</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The conversion of the barbarians was an indispensable condition
+of modern civilization. Every step forward had to be taken in the
+face of barbaric ignorance and cruelty. In this stupendous
+undertaking the monks led the way, displaying in their labors
+remarkable generalship and undaunted courage. Whatever may be
+thought of later monasticism, the Benedictine monks are entitled to
+the lasting gratitude of mankind for their splendid services in
+reducing barbaric Europe to some sort of order and civilization.
+But again the mixture of good and evil is strangely illustrated. It
+seems <span class="pagenum"><a name="page399"></a>[pg 399]</span>
+impossible to accord the monks unqualified praise. The potency of
+the evil tendencies within their system vitiated every noble
+achievement. Their methods and practical ideals were so at variance
+with the true order of nature that every commendable victory
+involved a corresponding obstacle to real social and religious
+progress. The justice of these observations will be more apparent
+as this inquiry proceeds.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Monasticism_and_Civic_Duties"></a>Monasticism and
+Civic Duties</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The withdrawal of a considerable number of men of character and
+talent from the exercise of civic duties is injurious to the state.
+The burdens upon those who remain become heavier, while society is
+deprived of the moral influence of those who forsake their civic
+responsibilities. When the monk, from the outside as it were,
+attempted to exert an influence for good, he largely failed. His
+ideals of life were not formulated in a real world, but in an
+artificial, antisocial environment. He was unable to appreciate the
+political needs of men. He could not enter sympathetically into
+their serious employments <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page400"></a>[pg 400]</span> or innocent delights. Controlled by
+superstition, and exalting a servile obedience to human authority,
+he became a very unsafe guide in political affairs. He could not
+consistently labor for secular progress, because he had forsaken a
+world in which secular interests were prominent.</p>
+<p>It may be true that in the early days of monasticism the monks
+pursued the proper course in refusing to become Roman patriots. No
+human power could have averted the ruin which overtook that corrupt
+world. Perhaps their non-combatant attitude gave them more
+influence with the conquerors of Rome, who were to become the
+founders of modern nations.</p>
+<p>In later years, the abbots of the principal monasteries occupied
+seats in the legislative assemblies of Germany, Hungary, Spain,
+England, Italy, and France. In many instances they stood between
+the violence of the nobles and the unprotected vassal. Political
+monks, inspired by a natural breadth of vision and a love of
+humanity, secured the passage of wise and humane regulations.
+Palgrave says: "The mitre has resisted many blows which would have
+broken the helmet, and the crosier has kept <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page401"></a>[pg 401]</span> more foes in awe
+than the lance. It is, then, to these prelates that we chiefly owe
+the maintenance of the form and spirit of free government, secured
+to us, not by force, but by law; and the altar has thus been the
+corner-stone of our ancient constitution."</p>
+<p>Although there is much truth in the foregoing observation, yet
+on the other hand, when the influence of the monastic ideal upon
+civilization is studied in its deeper aspects, it cannot be justly
+maintained that the final effects of monasticism minister to the
+development of a normal civilization. Industrial, mental and moral
+progress depend upon a certain breadth of mind and energy of soul.
+Asceticism saps the vitality of human nature and confines the
+activity of the mind within artificial limits. "Hence the dreary,
+sterile torpor," says Lecky, "that characterized those ages in
+which the ascetic principle has been supreme, while the
+civilizations which have attained the highest perfection have been
+those of ancient Greece and modern Europe, which were most opposed
+to it."</p>
+<p>The monks did not hesitate to become embroiled in military
+quarrels, or to incite the fiercer passions of men when it suited
+their purpose. Their opposition <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page402"></a>[pg 402]</span> to kings and princes was often not
+based on a love of popular freedom, but on an indisposition to
+share power with secular rulers. The legislative enactments against
+heretics, many of which they inspired, clearly show that they
+neither desired nor tolerated liberty of speech or conduct. They
+were the Almighty's vicars on earth, before whom it was the duty of
+king and subject to bow down. Vaughan writes of the period just
+prior to the Reformation: "The great want was freedom from
+ecclesiastical domination; and from the feeling of the hour,
+scarcely any price would be deemed too great to be paid for that
+object." The history of modern Jesuitism, against which the
+legislation of almost every civilized nation has been directed,
+affords abundant testimony to the inherent hostility of the
+monastic system, even in its modified modern form, to every species
+of government which in any way guarantees freedom of thought to its
+people. This stern fact confronts the student, however much he may
+be inclined to yield homage to the early monks. It must be held in
+mind when one reads this pleasing sentence from Macaulay: "Surely a
+system which, however deformed by superstition, introduced strong
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page403"></a>[pg 403]</span> moral
+restraints into communities previously governed only by vigor of
+muscle and by audacity of spirit, a system which taught the
+fiercest and mightiest ruler that he was, like his meanest bondman,
+a responsible being, might have seemed to deserve a more respectful
+mention from philosophers and philanthropists."</p>
+<p>The general effect of monasticism on the state is, therefore,
+not to be determined by fixing the gaze on any one century of its
+history, or by holding up some humane and patriotic monk as a
+representative product of the system.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Agricultural_Services_of_the_Monks"></a>The
+Agricultural Services of the Monks</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Europe must ever be indebted to Benedict and his immediate
+followers for their services in reclaiming waste lands, and in
+removing the stigma which a corrupt civilization had placed upon
+labor. Benedict came before the world saying: "No person is ever
+more usefully employed than when working with his hands or
+following the plough, providing food for the use of man." Care was
+taken that councils should not be called when ploughing was to be
+done <span class="pagenum"><a name="page404"></a>[pg 404]</span> or
+wheat to be threshed. Benedict bent himself to the task of teaching
+the rich and the proud, the poor and the lazy the alphabet of
+prosperity and happiness. Agriculture was at its lowest ebb.
+Marshes covered once fertile fields, and the men who should have
+tilled the land spurned the plough as degrading, or were too
+indolent to undertake the tasks of the farm. The monks left their
+cells and their prayers to dig ditches and plough fields. The
+effect was magical. Men once more turned back to a noble but
+despised industry. Peace and plenty supplanted war and poverty.
+"The Benedictines," says Guizot, "have been the great clearers of
+land in Europe. A colony, a little swarm of monks, settled in
+places nearly uncultivated, often in the midst of a pagan
+population--in Germany, for example, or in Brittany; there, at once
+missionaries and laborers, they accomplish their double service,
+through peril and fatigue."</p>
+<p>It is to be regretted that history throws a shadow across this
+pleasing scene. When labor came to be recognized as honorable and
+useful, along came the begging friars, creating, both by precept
+and example, a prejudice against labor and wealth. Rags and
+laziness <span class="pagenum"><a name="page405"></a>[pg
+405]</span> came to be associated with holiness, and a beggar monk
+was held up as an ideal and sacred personage. "The spirit that
+makes men devote themselves in vast numbers," says Lecky, "to a
+monotonous life of asceticism and poverty is so essentially opposed
+to the spirit that creates the energy and enthusiasm of industry,
+that their continued coexistence may be regarded as impossible."
+But such a fatal mistake could not long captivate the mind, or
+cause men to forget Benedict and his industrial ideal. The
+blessings of wealth rightly administered, and the dignity of labor
+without which wealth is impossible, came to be recognized as
+necessary factors in the true progress of man.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Monks_and_Secular_Learning"></a>The Monks and
+Secular Learning</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>For many centuries, as has been previously shown, the monks were
+the schoolmasters of Europe. They also preserved the manuscripts of
+the classics, produced numerous theological works, transmitted many
+pious traditions, and wrote some interesting and some worthless
+chronicles. They laid the foundations of several great
+universities, including those <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page406"></a>[pg 406]</span> of Paris, Oxford and Cambridge. For
+these, and other valuable services, the monks merit the praise of
+posterity. It is, however, too much to affirm, as Montalembert
+does, that "without the monks, we should have been as ignorant of
+our history as children." It is altogether improbable that the
+human mind would have been unproductive in the field of historical
+writing had monasticism not existed during the middle ages. While,
+also, the monks should be thanked for preserving the classics, it
+should not be supposed that all knowledge of Latin and Greek
+literature would have perished but for them.</p>
+<p>It is surprising that the literary men of the medieval period
+should have written so little of interest to the modern mind, or
+that helps us to an understanding of the momentous events amid
+which they lived. Unfortunately the monkish mind was concentrated
+upon a theology, the premises of which have been largely set aside
+by modern science. Their writings are so permeated by grotesque
+superstitions that they are practically worthless to-day. Their
+hostility to secular affairs blinded them to the tremendous
+significance of the mighty political and social movements of the
+age.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page407"></a>[pg 407]</span>
+<p>It is undeniable that the monks never encouraged a love of
+secular learning. They did not try to impart a love of the classics
+which they preserved. The spirit of monasticism was ever at war
+with true intellectual progress. The monks imprisoned Roger Bacon
+fourteen years, and tried to blast his fair name by calling him a
+magician, merely because he stepped beyond the narrow limits of
+monkish inquiry. Many suffered indignities, privations or death for
+questioning tradition or for conducting scientific researches.</p>
+<p>So while it is true that the monks rendered many services to the
+cause of education, it is also true that their monastic theories
+tended to narrow the scope of intellectual activity. "This," says
+Guizot, "is the foundation of their instruction; all was turned
+into commentary of the Scriptures, historical, philosophical,
+allegorical, moral commentary. They desired only to form priests;
+all studies, whatsoever their nature, were directed to this
+result." There was no disinterested love of learning; no desire to
+become acquainted with God's world. In fact, the old hostility to
+everything natural characterizes all monastic history. Europe did
+not enter upon that broad and noble intellectual development
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page408"></a>[pg 408]</span> which
+is the glory of our era, until the right arm of monasticism was
+struck down, the dread of heresy banished from the human mind, and
+secular learning welcomed as a legitimate and elevated field for
+mental activity.</p>
+<p>Hamilton W. Mabie, in his delightful essay on "Some Old
+Scholars," describes this step from the gloom of the cloister to
+the light of God's world: "Petrarch really escaped from a sepulcher
+when he stepped out of the cloister of medievalism, with its
+crucifix, its pictures of unhealthy saints, its cords of
+self-flagellation, and found the heavens clear, beautiful, and well
+worth living under, and the world full of good things which one
+might desire and yet not be given over to evil. He ventured to look
+at life for himself and found it full of wonderful dignity and
+power. He opened his Virgil, brushed aside the cobwebs which
+monkish brains had spun over the beautiful lines, and met the old
+poet as one man meets another; and lo! there arose before him a
+new, untrodden and wholly human world, free from priestcraft and
+pedantry, near to nature and unspeakably alluring and
+satisfying."</p>
+<p>The Dominicans and Jesuits set their faces like <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page409"></a>[pg 409]</span> flint against all
+education tending to liberalize the mind. Here is a passage from a
+document published by the Jesuits at their first centenary: "It is
+undeniable that we have undertaken a great and uninterrupted war in
+the interests of the Catholic church against heresy. Heresy need
+never hope that the society will make terms with it, or remain
+quiescent ... No peace need be expected, for the seed of hatred is
+born within us. What Hamilcar was to Hannibal, Ignatius is to us.
+At his instigation, we have sworn upon the altars eternal war."
+When this proclamation is read in the light of history, its meaning
+stands forth with startling clearness. Almost every truth in
+science and philosophy, no matter how valuable it was destined to
+become as an agent in enhancing the well-being of the race, has had
+to wear the stigma of heresy.</p>
+<p>It is an interesting speculation to imagine what the
+intellectual development of Europe would have been, had secular
+learning been commended by the monks, and the common people
+encouraged to exercise their minds without fear of excommunication
+or death. It is sad to reflect how many great thoughts must have
+perished still-born in the student's cloister <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page410"></a>[pg 410]</span> cell, and to
+picture the silent grief with which many a brilliant soul must have
+repressed his eager imagination.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Charity_of_the_Monks"></a>The Charity of the
+Monks</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>In the eleventh century, a monk named Thieffroy wrote the
+following: "It matters little that our churches rise to heaven,
+that the capitals of their pillars are sculptured and gilded, that
+our parchment is tinted purple, that gold is melted to form the
+letters of our manuscripts, and that their bindings are set with
+precious stones, if we have little or no care for the members of
+Christ, and if Christ himself lies naked and dying before our
+doors." This spirit, so charmingly expressed, was never quite
+absent from the monkish orders. The monasteries were asylums for
+the hungry during famines, and the sick during plagues. They served
+as hotels where the traveler found a cordial welcome, comfortable
+shelter and plain food. If he needed medical aid, his wants were
+supplied. During the black plague, while many monks fled with the
+multitude, others stayed at their posts and were to be found
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page411"></a>[pg 411]</span> daily
+in the homes of the stricken, ministering to their bodily and
+spiritual needs. Many of them perished in their heroic and
+self-sacrificing labors.</p>
+<p>Alms-giving was universally enjoined as a sure passport to
+heaven. The most glittering rewards were held out to those who
+enriched the monks with legacies to be used in relief of the poor.
+It was, no doubt, the unselfish activities of the monks that caused
+them to be held in such high esteem; the result was their coffers
+were filled with more gold than they could easily give away. Thus
+abuses grew up. Bernard said: "Piety gave birth to wealth, and the
+daughter devoured the mother." Jacob of Vitry complained that
+money, "by various and deceptive tricks," was exacted from the
+people by the monks, most of which adhered "to their unfaithful
+fingers." While Lecky eloquently praises the monks for their
+beautiful deeds of charity, "following all the windings of the poor
+man's grief," still he condones in the strongest terms the action
+of Henry VIII. in transferring the monastic funds to his own
+treasury: "No misapplication of this property by private persons
+could produce as much evil as an unrestrained monasticism."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page412"></a>[pg 412]</span>
+<p>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.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Monasticism_and_Religion"></a>Monasticism and
+Religion</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>The effect of the monastic ideal was to emphasize <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page413"></a>[pg 413]</span> 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."</p>
+<p>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
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page414"></a>[pg 414]</span> 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.</p>
+<p>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 <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page415"></a>[pg 415]</span> 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.</p>
+<p>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."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page416"></a>[pg 416]</span>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>The influence of monasticism upon the doctrine <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page417"></a>[pg 417]</span> 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.</p>
+<p>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[<a href="#NOTE_K">K</a>]."</p>
+<p>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,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page418"></a>[pg 418]</span> 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."</p>
+<p>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 <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page419"></a>[pg 419]</span> 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.</p>
+<p>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 <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page420"></a>[pg 420]</span> 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.</p>
+<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="page421"></a>[pg
+421]</span> the recluse, who scorns the world of secular
+affairs.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<blockquote>"God is in all that liberates and lifts,<br>
+In all that humbles, sweetens, and consoles."</blockquote>
+<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page422"></a>[pg 422]</span> its hold upon the modern man because
+the ancient ideas of God and his world, upon which it thrived, have
+passed away.</p>
+<p>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 <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page423"></a>[pg 423]</span> heroic struggle
+with inveterate ignorance and sin, the history of which flashes
+many a welcome light upon the problems of modern democracy and
+religion.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page424"></a>[pg 424]</span><br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page425"></a>[pg 425]</span>
+<h2><a name="APPENDIX"></a>APPENDIX</h2>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_A"></a>NOTE A</h3>
+<br>
+<p>The derivation and meaning of a few monastic terms may be of
+interest to the reader.</p>
+<p>Abbot, from [Greek: abba], literally, father. A title originally
+given to any monk, but afterwards restricted to the head or
+superior of a monastery.</p>
+<p>Anchoret, anchorite, from the Greek, [Greek:
+anachor&ecirc;t&ecirc;s], 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.</p>
+<p>Ascetic, [Greek: ask&ecirc;t&ecirc;s], 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.</p>
+<p>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: kan&ocirc;n], 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).</p>
+<p>Cenobite, from the Greek, [Greek: koinos], common, and [Greek:
+bios], life; applied to those living in monasteries.</p>
+<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="page426"></a>[pg 426]</span>
+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.</p>
+<p>Cloister, from the Latin, <i>Claustra</i>, that which closes or
+shuts, an inclosure; hence, a place of religious retirement, a
+monastery.</p>
+<p>Hermit, or eremite, from the Greek, [Greek: her&ecirc;mos],
+desolate, solitary. One who dwells alone apart from society, or
+with but few companions. Not used of those who dwell in
+cloisters.</p>
+<p>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, <i>convenire</i>, to meet together.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>Nun, from <i>nouna</i>, i.e., chaste, holy. "The word is
+probably of Coptic origin, and occurs as early as in Jerome."
+(Schaff).</p>
+<p>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 <i>religiosi</i> or <i>regulares</i>. Afterwards a
+distinction was made between parish priests, or secular clergy, and
+the monks, or regular clergy.</p>
+<p>For more detailed information on these and other monastic words,
+see The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, and McClintock and
+Strong's Encyclopedia.</p>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_B"></a>NOTE B</h3>
+<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="page427"></a>[pg
+427]</span> meeting-houses were everywhere sacked and burned. As a
+philosophical school Pythagoreanism became extinct about the middle
+of the fourth century.</p>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_C"></a>NOTE C</h3>
+<p>The Encyclop&aelig;dia Brittanica divides the monastic
+institutions into five classes:</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>There were really four distinct stages in the development of the
+monastic institution:</p>
+<p>1. Asceticism. Clergy and laymen practiced various forms of
+self-denial without becoming actual monks.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>3. Coenobitism, or monastic life proper, consisting of
+associations of monks under one roof, and ruled by an abbot.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="page428"></a>[pg
+428]</span> cloister to become teachers, preachers or missionary
+workers in various fields.</p>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_D"></a>NOTE D</h3>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>Lauds, a religious service in connection with matins; so called
+from the reiterated ascriptions of praise to God in the psalms.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>Tierce, terce. The third hour; half-way between sunrise and
+noon.</p>
+<p>Sext. The sixth hour, originally and properly said at
+midday.</p>
+<p>None, noon. The ninth hour from sunrise, or the middle hour
+between midday and sunset--that is, about 3 o'clock.</p>
+<p>Vespers, the next to the last of the canonical hours--the
+even-song.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>B.V.M.--Blessed Virgin Mary.</p>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_E"></a>NOTE E</h3>
+<p>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.</p>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_F"></a>NOTE F</h3>
+<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="page429"></a>[pg
+429]</span> 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.</p>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_G"></a>NOTE G</h3>
+<p>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.</p>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_H"></a>NOTE H</h3>
+<p>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
+"<i>Theologia Moralis</i>," and Gury's "<i>Compendium Theologioe
+Moralis</i>" and "<i>Casus Conscienti&aelig;</i>." 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 "<i>Dictionnaire de cas de
+Conscience</i>."</p>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_I"></a>NOTE I</h3>
+<p>The student may profitably study the life and teachings of
+Wyclif in their bearing upon the destruction of the monasteries.
+Wyclif was <span class="pagenum"><a name="page430"></a>[pg
+430]</span> 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.</p>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_J"></a>NOTE J</h3>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page431"></a>[pg 431]</span>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>No European country had so many religious houses in proportion
+to its population and area as Portugal. In 1834 the number
+suppressed exceeded 500.</p>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_K"></a>NOTE K</h3>
+<p>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: <i>Charity in the heart, truth on the lips, and purity
+of life</i>; if we are wanting in these, we are unworthy of the
+name of Christian."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>THE END</h2>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page432"></a>[pg 432]</span><br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page433"></a>[pg 433]</span>
+<h2><a name="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2>
+<div class="indx">
+<div class="letter">
+<p>A</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Abbey, <i>see</i> <a href="#Monastery">Monastery.</a></p>
+<p>Abbot, meaning of word, <a href='#page425'>425</a>; as father of
+family of monks, <a href='#page143'>143</a>; election of, <a href=
+'#page144'>144</a>; description of installation of, <a href=
+'#page145'>145</a>; wealth and political influence of, <a href=
+'#page147'>147</a>; disorders among lay, <a href=
+'#page179'>179</a>; as a feudal lord, <a href='#page373'>373</a>;
+in legislative assemblies, <a href='#page400'>400</a>.</p>
+<p>Abelard opposed by Bernard, <a href='#page196'>196</a>.</p>
+<p>Abraham, St., the hermit, <a href='#page50'>50</a>; quoted,
+<a href='#page60'>60</a>.</p>
+<p>Abstinence, no virtue in false, <a href='#page419'>419</a>.</p>
+<p>Accountability, personal, sense of maintained by monks, <a href=
+'#page414'>414</a>.</p>
+<p>Act of Succession, <a href='#page298'>298</a>.</p>
+<p>Agriculture, monasteries centers of, <a href='#page155'>155</a>;
+and the Cistercian monks, <a href='#page192'>192</a>; fostered by
+monks, <a href='#page403'>403</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Benedict">Benedict</a>, Order of St.</p>
+<p>Alaric the Goth sacks Rome, <a href='#page103'>103</a>.</p>
+<p>Albans, St., Abbey of, Morton on its vices, <a href=
+'#page338'>338</a>.</p>
+<p>Albertus Magnus, a Dominican, <a href='#page242'>242</a>.</p>
+<p>Albigensians, Hallam on doctrines of, <a href=
+'#page232'>232</a>; Hardwick on same, <a href='#page233'>233</a>;
+Dominic preaches against, <a href='#page234'>234</a>; Dominic's
+part in crusade against, <a href='#page235'>235</a>.</p>
+<p>Alcuin, on corruptions of monks, <a href='#page173'>173</a>;
+education and, <a href='#page167'>167</a>.</p>
+<p>Alexander IV., Pope, on the stigmata of St. Francis, <a href=
+'#page221'>221</a>; and the University of Paris quarrel, <a href=
+'#page250'>250</a>.</p>
+<p>Alfred, King, the Great, complains of monks, <a href=
+'#page173'>173</a>; his reformatory measures, <a href=
+'#page181'>181</a>.</p>
+<p>Alien Priories, confiscated, <a href='#page338'>338</a>; origin
+of, <a href='#page340'>340</a>.</p>
+<p>Allen, on the fate of the Templars, <a href='#page202'>202</a>;
+on Dominic and the Albigensian crusade, <a href='#page238'>238</a>;
+on spiritual pride of the Mendicants, <a href='#page257'>257</a>;
+on the genius of feudalism, <a href='#page373'>373</a>; on the
+deficiencies of monastic characters, <a href=
+'#page394'>394</a>.</p>
+<p>Alms-giving, <i>see</i> <a href="#Charity">Charity.</a></p>
+<p>Alverno, Mount, and the stigmata of St. Francis, <a href=
+'#page219'>219</a>.</p>
+<p>Ambrose, embraces ascetic Christianity, <a href=
+'#page84'>84</a>; Theodosius on, <a href='#page115'>115</a>; saying
+of Gibbon applied to, <a href='#page116'>116</a>; describes
+Capraria, <a href='#page126'>126</a>; his influence on Milanese
+women, <a href='#page126'>126</a>.</p>
+<p>Ammonius, the hermit, visits Rome, <a href='#page72'>72</a>.</p>
+<p>Anglicans, claims of, respecting the early British Church,
+<a href='#page162'>162</a>.</p>
+<p>Anglo-Saxons and British Christianity, <a href=
+'#page164'>164</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Anglo-Saxon_Church"></a>Anglo-Saxon Church, effect of
+Danish invasion on, <a href='#page181'>181</a>; <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page434"></a>[pg 434]</span> effect of Dunstan's
+work on, <a href='#page187'>187</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Britain">Britain.</a></p>
+<p>Anslem, of Canterbury, on flight from the world, <a href=
+'#page369'>369</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Anthony"></a>Anthony, St., visits Paul of Thebes,
+<a href='#page37'>37</a>; his strange experiences, <a href=
+'#page38'>38</a>; buries Paul, <a href='#page41'>41</a>; birth and
+early life of, <a href='#page43'>43</a>; his austerities, <a href=
+'#page44'>44</a>, <a href='#page45'>45</a>; miracles of, <a href=
+'#page46'>46</a>; his fame and influence, <a href='#page47'>47</a>;
+his death, <a href='#page48'>48</a>; Taylor on biography of,
+<a href='#page48'>48</a>.</p>
+<p>Ap Rice, a Royal Commissioner, <a href='#page311'>311</a>.</p>
+<p>Aquinas, Thomas, a Dominican, <a href='#page242'>242</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Ascetic"></a>Ascetic, The, his morbid introspection,
+<a href='#page392'>392</a>; meaning of word, <a href=
+'#page425'>425</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Monks">Monks</a> and
+<a href="#Hermits">Hermits.</a></p>
+<p><a name="Asceticism"></a>Asceticism, in India, <a href=
+'#page18'>18</a>-20, <a href='#page357'>357</a>; among Chaldeans,
+<a href='#page20'>20</a>; in China, <a href='#page20'>20</a>; among
+the Greeks, <a href='#page21'>21</a>, <a href='#page22'>22</a>; the
+Essenes, <a href='#page23'>23</a>; in apostolic times, <a href=
+'#page27'>27</a>; the Gnostics, <a href='#page27'>27</a>; and the
+Bible, <a href='#page30'>30</a>, <a href='#page366'>366</a>; in
+post-apostolic times, <a href='#page31'>31</a>; modifications of,
+under Basil, <a href='#page64'>64</a>; protests against, in early
+Rome, <a href='#page124'>124</a>; various forms of, <a href=
+'#page385'>385</a>; effects of, <a href='#page391'>391</a>,
+<a href='#page401'>401</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Monasticism">Monasticism.</a></p>
+<p>Aske, Robert, heads revolt against Henry VIII., <a href=
+'#page326'>326</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Athanasius"></a>Athanasius, St., visits hermits,
+<a href='#page35'>35</a>; his life of Anthony, <a href=
+'#page42'>42</a>; influence of same on Rome, <a href=
+'#page80'>80</a>, <a href='#page83'>83</a>; spreads Pachomian rule,
+<a href='#page63'>63</a>; visits Rome, <a href='#page71'>71</a>,
+and effect of, <a href='#page80'>80</a>; visits Gaul, <a href=
+'#page119'>119</a>; his saying on fasting, <a href=
+'#page121'>121</a>.</p>
+<p>Atonement, for sin, the monk's influence on doctrine of,
+<a href='#page417'>417</a>.</p>
+<p>Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, his life, and services to
+monasticism, <a href='#page117'>117</a>, <a href=
+'#page119'>119</a>; influenced by biography of Anthony, <a href=
+'#page43'>43</a>; on marriage and celibacy, <a href=
+'#page112'>112</a>; charges monks with fraud, <a href=
+'#page128'>128</a>.</p>
+<p>Augustine, Rule of, adopted by Dominic, <a href=
+'#page232'>232</a>, <a href='#page241'>241</a>.</p>
+<p>Augustine, the monk, his mission to England, <a href=
+'#page161'>161</a>.</p>
+<p>Augustinians, <a href='#page246'>246</a>.</p>
+<p>Aurelius, Emperor, Christianity during reign of, <a href=
+'#page124'>124</a>.</p>
+<p>Austerities, Robertson on, <a href='#page94'>94</a>. <i>See</i>
+<a href="#Asceticism">Asceticism</a> and <a href=
+"#Self-denial">Self-denial</a></p>
+<p>Austin Canons, <a href='#page118'>118</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>B</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Bacon, Roger, a Franciscan, <a href='#page228'>228</a>;
+imprisonment of, <a href='#page407'>407</a>.</p>
+<p>Bagot, Richard, on the English reformation, <a href=
+'#page345'>345</a>.</p>
+<p>Bale, John, on the fall of the monasteries, <a href=
+'#page333'>333</a>.</p>
+<p>Baluzii, on the prosperity of the Franciscans, <a href=
+'#page255'>255</a>.</p>
+<p>Bangor, Monastery of, founded, <a href='#page123'>123</a>;
+slaughter of its monks, <a href='#page165'>165</a>.</p>
+<p>Barbarians, the struggle of the monks with, <a href=
+'#page148'>148</a>, <a href='#page149'>149</a>, <a href=
+'#page170'>170</a>; conversion of, <a href='#page398'>398</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Basil"></a>Basil the Great, <a href='#page63'>63</a>;
+revolts against excessive austerities, <a href='#page64'>64</a>;
+founder of Greek monasticism, <a href='#page64'>64</a>, <a href=
+'#page65'>65</a>; his rules, <a href='#page65'>65</a>; adopts
+irrevocable vows, <a href='#page65'>65</a>; on marriage, <a href=
+'#page66'>66</a>; enforces strict obedience, <a href=
+'#page66'>66</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page435"></a>[pg 435]</span>
+<p>Bede, The Venerable, on the British Church, <a href=
+'#page123'>123</a>; on monks and animals, <a href=
+'#page156'>156</a>.</p>
+<p>Begging Friars, <i>see</i> <a href="#Mendicant">Mendicants</a>,
+<a href="#Franciscans">Franciscans</a> and <a href=
+"#Dominicans">Dominicans</a>.</p>
+<p>Benedict, Pope, XI., <a href='#page221'>221</a>; XII.,
+consecrates Monte Cassino, <a href='#page135'>135</a>; on the
+stigmata of St. Francis, <a href='#page221'>221</a>.</p>
+<p>Benedict of Aniane, his attempted reform, <a href=
+'#page176'>176</a>.</p>
+<p>Benedict, of Nursia, birth and early life, <a href=
+'#page131'>131</a>; his trials, <a href='#page132'>132</a>; his
+fame attracts followers, <a href='#page133'>133</a>; his strictness
+provokes opposition, <a href='#page133'>133</a>; retires to Monte
+Cassino, <a href='#page134'>134</a>; conquers Paganism, <a href=
+'#page135'>135</a>; his miracles and power over barbarians,
+<a href='#page137'>137</a>; his last days, <a href=
+'#page138'>138</a>; his rules, <a href='#page138'>138</a>; Schaff
+on same, <a href='#page148'>148</a>; Cardinal Newman on mission of,
+<a href='#page149'>149</a>; saying of, on manual labor, <a href=
+'#page403'>403</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Benedict"></a>Benedict, Order of St., <a href=
+'#page131'>131</a>; rules of, <a href='#page138'>138</a>; the
+novitiate, <a href='#page140'>140</a>; daily life of monks,
+<a href='#page140'>140</a>; meaning of term "order," <a href=
+'#page143'>143</a>; abbots of, <a href='#page144'>144</a>; manual
+labor, <a href='#page147'>147</a>, <a href='#page403'>403</a>;
+Schaff on rules of, <a href='#page148'>148</a>; its dealings with
+barbarians, <a href='#page148'>148</a>, <a href='#page398'>398</a>;
+its literary and educational services, <a href='#page151'>151</a>;
+its agricultural work, <a href='#page155'>155</a>, <a href=
+'#page404'>404</a>; spread of, <a href='#page158'>158</a>; its
+followers among the royalty, <a href='#page159'>159</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Bernard"></a>Bernard, of Clairvaux, his birth and
+monastic services, <a href='#page193'>193</a>; character of his
+monastery, <a href='#page192'>192</a>; on drugs and doctors,
+<a href='#page194'>194</a>; his reforms, <a href=
+'#page195'>195</a>; Vaughan on, <a href='#page195'>195</a>; Storrs
+on, <a href='#page197'>197</a>; the Crusades, <a href=
+'#page197'>197</a>; on the abuses of charity, <a href=
+'#page411'>411</a>.</p>
+<p>Bernardone, Peter, father of Francis, <a href=
+'#page208'>208</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Francis">Francis.</a></p>
+<p>Bethlehem, Jerome's monasteries at, <a href='#page85'>85</a>,
+<a href='#page88'>88</a>; Paula establishes monasteries at,
+<a href='#page100'>100</a>.</p>
+<p>Bible, The, and monasticism, <a href='#page30'>30</a>, <a href=
+'#page376'>376</a>.</p>
+<p>Bigotry, of monks, <a href='#page394'>394</a>.</p>
+<p>Biography, monastic history centers in, <a href=
+'#page84'>84</a>.</p>
+<p>Bj&ouml;rnstrom, on the stigmata, <a href=
+'#page223'>223</a>.</p>
+<p>Bl&aelig;silla, murmurs against monks at her funeral, <a href=
+'#page125'>125</a>.</p>
+<p>Blunt, on the: fall of the monasteries, <a href=
+'#page333'>333</a>.</p>
+<p>Boccaccio, comments on his visit to Monte Cassino, <a href=
+'#page136'>136</a>.</p>
+<p>Boleyn, Anne, and Henry VIII., <a href='#page294'>294</a>.</p>
+<p>Bollandists, Catholic, on Dominic and the Inquisition, <a href=
+'#page238'>238</a>.</p>
+<p>Bonaventura, on the stigmata of Francis, <a href=
+'#page220'>220</a>; a Franciscan, <a href='#page228'>228</a>; on
+vices of the monks, <a href='#page337'>337</a>.</p>
+<p>Boniface, the apostle to the Germans, <a href=
+'#page167'>167</a>.</p>
+<p>Bonner, Bishop, persuades Prior Houghton to sign oath of
+supremacy, <a href='#page303'>303</a>.</p>
+<p>Brahminism, asceticism under, <a href='#page19'>19</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Britain"></a>Britain, Tertullian, Origen, and Bede, on
+Christianity in, <a href='#page123'>123</a>;. relation of early
+church in, to Rome, <a href='#page162'>162</a>; monasticism in,
+<a href='#page162'>162</a>, <a href='#page168'>168</a>.</p>
+<p>Brotherhood of Penitence, <a href='#page229'>229</a>.</p>
+<p>Bruno, the abbot of Cluny, <a href='#page177'>177</a>.</p>
+<p>Bruno, founder of Carthusian order, <a href='#page188'>188</a>;
+Ruskin on the order, <a href='#page189'>189</a>; <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page436"></a>[pg 436]</span> the monastery of
+the Chartreuse, <a href='#page189'>189</a>; his eulogy of solitude,
+<a href='#page396'>396</a>.</p>
+<p>Bryant, poem of, on fall of monasteries, <a href=
+'#page353'>353</a>.</p>
+<p>Buddha, on the ascetic life, <a href='#page357'>357</a>.</p>
+<p>Buddhism, asceticism under, <a href='#page19'>19</a>.</p>
+<p>Burke, Edmund, quoted by Gasquet on fall of monasteries,
+<a href='#page312'>312</a>.</p>
+<p>Burnet, on report of Royal Commissioners, <a href=
+'#page316'>316</a>.</p>
+<p>Bury, Father, on Chinese monks, <a href='#page20'>20</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>C</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Cambridge, University of, the friars at, <a href=
+'#page252'>252</a>, <a href='#page405'>405</a>.</p>
+<p>Campeggio, Cardinal, the divorce proceedings of Henry VIII. and,
+<a href='#page294'>294</a>.</p>
+<p>Capraria, Rutilius and Ambrose on island of, <a href=
+'#page126'>126</a>.</p>
+<p>Capuchins, <a href='#page246'>246</a>.</p>
+<p>Carlyle, Thomas, on Mahomet, <a href='#page33'>33</a>; quotes
+Jocelin on Abbot Samson's election, <a href='#page145'>145</a>; on
+the twelfth century, <a href='#page157'>157</a>; on the monastic
+ideal, <a href='#page174'>174</a>; on Jesuitical obedience,
+<a href='#page271'>271</a>; views of, criticised, <a href=
+'#page278'>278</a>.</p>
+<p>Carmelites, <a href='#page246'>246</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Carthusians"></a>Carthusians, The, establishment of,
+<a href='#page188'>188</a>; famous monastery of, <a href=
+'#page189'>189</a>; rules of, <a href='#page189'>189</a>; in
+England, <a href='#page191'>191</a>, <a href='#page334'>334</a>.
+<i>See</i> <a href="#Charterhouse">Charterhouse.</a></p>
+<p>Cassiodorus, the literary labors of, <a href=
+'#page152'>152</a>.</p>
+<p>Casuistry, of the Jesuits, <a href='#page272'>272</a>; <a href=
+'#page429'>429</a>.</p>
+<p>Catacombs, visited by Jerome, <a href='#page87'>87</a>.</p>
+<p>Catharine, of Aragon, Henry's divorce from, <a href=
+'#page293'>293</a>.</p>
+<p>Catholic, Roman, <i>see</i> <a href="#Rome,_Church_of">Rome,
+Church of.</a></p>
+<p><a name="Celibacy"></a>Celibacy, praised by Jerome and
+Augustine, <a href='#page112'>112</a>; views of Helvidius on,
+opposed by Jerome, <a href='#page113'>113</a>; the struggle to
+establish sacerdotal, <a href='#page183'>183</a>; Lingard on,
+<a href='#page183'>183</a>; Lea on, <a href='#page184'>184</a>; vow
+of, <a href='#page380'>380</a>; and Scripture teaching, <a href=
+'#page381'>381</a>; early Fathers on, <a href='#page381'>381</a>; a
+modern ecclesiastic's reasons for, <a href='#page381'>381</a>; how
+vow of, came to be imposed, <a href='#page382'>382</a>; no special
+virtue in, <a href='#page419'>419</a>.</p>
+<p>Cellani, Peter, Dominic retires to house of, <a href=
+'#page238'>238</a>;</p>
+<p>Celtic Church, <i>see</i> <a href="#Britain">Britain.</a></p>
+<p>Cenobites, meaning of term, <a href='#page425'>425</a>; origin
+of, in the East, <a href='#page57'>57</a>; habits of early,
+<a href='#page58'>58</a>; aims of, <a href='#page60'>60</a>.</p>
+<p>Chalcis, desert of, <a href='#page87'>87</a>.</p>
+<p>Chaldea, asceticism in, <a href='#page20'>20</a>.</p>
+<p>Chalippe, Father Candide, on miracles of saints, <a href=
+'#page224'>224</a>.</p>
+<p>Channey, Maurice, on fall of the Charterhouse, <a href=
+'#page302'>302</a>.</p>
+<p>Channing, William E., on various manifestations of the ascetic
+spirit, <a href='#page385'>385</a>; on exaggerations of
+monasticism, <a href='#page415'>415</a>.</p>
+<p>Chapter, The, defined, <a href='#page144'>144</a>; of Mats,
+<a href='#page228'>228</a>.</p>
+<p>Chapuys, despatches of, to Charles V., <a href=
+'#page297'>297</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Charity"></a>Charity, of monks, <a href=
+'#page348'>348</a>, <a href='#page410'>410</a>; true and false,
+<a href='#page348'>348</a>, <a href='#page412'>412</a>; Bernard,
+Jacob of Vitry and Lecky on abuses of, <a href='#page411'>411</a>;
+as a passport to Heaven, <a href='#page411'>411</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page437"></a>[pg 437]</span>
+<p>Charlemagne, <a href='#page118'>118</a>.</p>
+<p>Charles V., Emperor, Pole writes to, <a href='#page296'>296</a>;
+Chapuy's despatches to, <a href='#page297'>297</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Charterhouse"></a>Charterhouse, of London, <a href=
+'#page191'>191</a>; execution of monks of, <a href=
+'#page301'>301</a>, <a href='#page334'>334</a>; and the progress of
+England, <a href='#page343'>343</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Carthusians">Carthusians.</a></p>
+<p>Chartreuse, Grand, monastery, <a href='#page189'>189</a>.</p>
+<p>Chastity, vow of, in Pachomian rule, <a href='#page61'>61</a>.
+<i>See</i> <a href="#Celibacy">Celibacy.</a></p>
+<p>China, asceticism in, <a href='#page20'>20</a>.</p>
+<p>Chinese monks, Father Bury on, <a href='#page20'>20</a>.</p>
+<p>Christ, <i>see</i> <a href="#Jesus_Christ">Jesus Christ.</a></p>
+<p>Christian clergy, character of, in the fourth century, <a href=
+'#page77'>77</a>.</p>
+<p>Christian ideal, tending toward fanaticism, <a href=
+'#page129'>129</a>.</p>
+<p>Christian discipleship, nature of true, <a href=
+'#page390'>390</a>.</p>
+<p>Christianity, asceticism and apostolic, <a href=
+'#page27'>27</a>, <a href='#page28'>28</a>, <a href=
+'#page31'>31</a>; conquers Roman empire, <a href='#page71'>71</a>,
+<a href='#page76'>76</a>; endangered by success, <a href=
+'#page77'>77</a>; in Rome in the fourth century, <a href=
+'#page79'>79</a>; Lord on same, <a href='#page80'>80</a>; is
+opposed to fanaticism, <a href='#page94'>94</a>; in ancient
+Britain, <a href='#page123'>123</a>, <a href='#page161'>161</a>,
+<a href='#page162'>162</a>; Clarke on, <a href='#page171'>171</a>;
+Mozoomdar on essential principle of, <a href='#page359'>359</a>;
+requires some sort of self-denial, <a href='#page390'>390</a>,
+<a href='#page418'>418</a>, <a href='#page419'>419</a>; monasticism
+and, compared, <a href='#page420'>420</a>; monasticism furnishes
+example of, <a href='#page422'>422</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Britain">Britain</a> and <a href="#Church">Church.</a></p>
+<p>Chrysostom, becomes an ascetic, <a href='#page84'>84</a>; brief
+account of life of, <a href='#page116'>116</a>; monastic cause
+furthered by, <a href='#page117'>117</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Church"></a>Church, Christian, the triumphant, compared
+with church in age of persecution, <a href='#page109'>109</a>;
+ideal of, furthers monasticism, <a href='#page129'>129</a>; and the
+barbarians, <a href='#page149'>149</a>; of the thirteenth century,
+<a href='#page206'>206</a>; its life-ideal, <a href=
+'#page369'>369</a>; its union with paganism, <a href=
+'#page370'>370</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Anglo-Saxon_Church">Anglo-Saxon Church</a>, <a href=
+"#Britain">Britain</a>, and <a href="#England,_Church_of">England,
+Church of.</a></p>
+<p>Cistercian Order, the monks and rule of, <a href=
+'#page192'>192</a>; decline of, <a href='#page193'>193</a>.</p>
+<p>Citeaux, Monastery at, <a href='#page192'>192</a>.</p>
+<p>Civic duties and monasticism, <a href='#page399'>399</a>.
+<i>See</i> <a href="#Monasticism">Monasticism.</a></p>
+<p>Clairvaux, Bernard of, <i>see</i> <a href=
+"#Bernard">Bernard</a>; Monastery of, <a href=
+'#page193'>193</a>.</p>
+<p>Clara, St., Nuns of, founded, <a href='#page228'>228</a>.</p>
+<p>Clarke, William Newton, on Christianity of first and second
+centuries, <a href='#page171'>171</a>.</p>
+<p>Clarke, James Freeman, on Brahmin ascetics, <a href=
+'#page20'>20</a>.</p>
+<p>Classics, Jerome's fondness for the, <a href='#page95'>95</a>;
+the monks and the, <a href='#page405'>405</a>.</p>
+<p>Clement XIV., Pope, dissolves the Society of Jesus, <a href=
+'#page279'>279</a>.</p>
+<p>Clergy of the Christian Church, <a href='#page77'>77</a>.</p>
+<p>Clinton, Lord, on the work of suppression, <a href=
+'#page311'>311</a>.</p>
+<p>Cloister, <a href='#page426'>426</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Monastery">Monastery.</a></p>
+<p>Cluny, Monastery at, <a href='#page177'>177</a>; the
+congregation of, <a href='#page178'>178</a>.</p>
+<p>Coke, Sir Edward, quoted, <a href='#page329'>329</a>.</p>
+<p>Columba, St., his church relations, <a href=
+'#page162'>162</a>.</p>
+<p>Commissioners, The Royal, appointed to visit monasteries of
+England, their methods, <a href='#page308'>308</a>, <a href=
+'#page333'>333</a>; character of, <a href='#page311'>311</a>; begin
+their work, <a href='#page313'>313</a>; their report, <a href=
+'#page316'>316</a>; <span class="pagenum"><a name="page438"></a>[pg
+438]</span> Parliament acts on same, <a href=
+'#page319'>319</a>.</p>
+<p>Confession, among the Jesuits, <a href='#page269'>269</a>.</p>
+<p>Conscience, liberty of, renounced by monks, <a href=
+'#page394'>394</a>.</p>
+<p>Constantine the Great, <a href='#page71'>71</a>.</p>
+<p>Contemplation, John Tauler on, <a href='#page395'>395</a>; Bruno
+on, <a href='#page396'>396</a>.</p>
+Convents. <i>See</i> <a href="#Monasteries">Monasteries.</a>
+<p>Copyright, first instance of quarrel for, <a href=
+'#page170'>170</a>.</p>
+<p>Council, of Saragossa, <a href='#page122'>122</a>; of Trent,
+<a href='#page382'>382</a>; Lateran, <a href=
+'#page242'>242</a>.</p>
+<p>Court of Augmentation, <a href='#page319'>319</a>.</p>
+<p>Crocella, Santa, chapel of, <a href='#page131'>131</a>; Romanus
+the monk, <a href='#page131'>131</a>.</p>
+<p>Cromwell, Richard, on Sir John Russell, <a href=
+'#page326'>326</a>.</p>
+<p>Cromwell, Thomas, his life and aims, <a href='#page308'>308</a>;
+Green and Froude on, <a href='#page309'>309</a>; his religious
+views, <a href='#page309'>309</a>; Foxe and Gasquet on character
+of, <a href='#page310'>310</a>; becomes Vicegerent, <a href=
+'#page310'>310</a>; inspires terror and hatred, <a href=
+'#page324'>324</a>; his removal demanded, <a href=
+'#page326'>326</a>; overcomes the Pilgrims of Grace, <a href=
+'#page326'>326</a>; bribed for estates, <a href=
+'#page329'>329</a>.</p>
+<p>Cross, loyalty to the, fostered by monks, <a href=
+'#page414'>414</a>; power of the doctrine of, <a href=
+'#page418'>418</a>.</p>
+<p>Crusades, effect of, on monastic types, <a href=
+'#page373'>373</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Military-religious_orders">Military Orders</a> and <a href=
+"#Bernard">Bernard.</a></p>
+<p>Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, <a href='#page61'>61</a>; and
+murder of Hypatia, <a href='#page68'>68</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>D</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Damian, Church of St., repaired by Francis, <a href=
+'#page211'>211</a>, <a href='#page214'>214</a>.</p>
+<p>Danish invasion of England, its consequences, <a href=
+'#page180'>180</a>.</p>
+<p>Dante, on Francis and poverty, <a href='#page215'>215</a>.</p>
+<p>Democracy, Christian, and monasticism, <a href=
+'#page422'>422</a>.</p>
+<p>Desert, Jerome on attractions of, <a href='#page89'>89</a>.</p>
+<p>De Tocqueville, on self-subjection, <a href=
+'#page143'>143</a>.</p>
+<p>Dhaquit, the Chaldean, quoted, <a href='#page20'>20</a>.</p>
+<p>Dharmapala, on the ascetic ideal in India, <a href=
+'#page357'>357</a>.</p>
+<p>Dill, Samuel, on Rome's fall and the Christian Church, <a href=
+'#page74'>74</a>, <a href='#page79'>79</a>, <a href=
+'#page108'>108</a>, <a href='#page109'>109</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Domestic_life"></a>Domestic life, a field of forbidden
+fruit, <a href='#page394'>394</a>, <a href='#page398'>398</a>.
+<i>See</i> <a href="#Family-ideal">Family-ideal</a> and <a href=
+"#Jerome">Jerome.</a></p>
+<p><a name="Dominic"></a>Dominic, St., Innocent III. dreams of,
+<a href='#page216'>216</a>; early life of, <a href=
+'#page230'>230</a>; his mother's dream, <a href='#page231'>231</a>;
+visits Languedoc, <a href='#page232'>232</a>; rebukes papal
+legates, <a href='#page234'>234</a>; his crusade against
+Albigensians, <a href='#page234'>234</a>; his relation to the Holy
+Inquisition, <a href='#page235'>235</a>; establishes his order,
+<a href='#page239'>239</a>; at Rome, <a href='#page239'>239</a>;
+his self-denial and death, <a href='#page240'>240</a>; canonized,
+<a href='#page241'>241</a>.</p>
+<p>Dominic, St., Nuns of, <a href='#page242'>242</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Dominicans"></a>Dominicans, The, the Inquisition and,
+<a href='#page238'>238</a>; order of, founded, <a href=
+'#page239'>239</a>; constitution of the order of, <a href=
+'#page241'>241</a>; spread of, <a href='#page241'>241</a>; eminent
+members, <a href='#page242'>242</a>; three classes of, <a href=
+'#page242'>242</a>; the preaching of, <a href='#page249'>249</a>;
+quarrel with the Franciscans, <a href='#page249'>249</a>; enter
+England, <a href='#page251'>251</a>; fatal success and decline of,
+<a href='#page253'>253</a>, <a href='#page256'>256</a>;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page439"></a>[pg 439]</span> on the
+stigmata of Francis, <a href='#page221'>221</a>; liberal education
+and, <a href='#page408'>408</a>.</p>
+<p>Ducis, on the Hermits, <a href='#page32'>32</a>.</p>
+<p>Duns Scotus, a Franciscan, <a href='#page228'>228</a>.</p>
+<p>Dunstan, reforms of, <a href='#page182'>182</a>; his character
+and life-work, <a href='#page186'>186</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>E</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>East, monasticism in the, <i>see</i> <a href=
+"#Monasticism">Monasticism</a> and <a href="#Monks">Monks.</a></p>
+<p>Echard, a Dominican, <a href='#page242'>242</a>.</p>
+<p>Eckenstein, Lina, on Morton's letter, <a href=
+'#page339'>339</a>.</p>
+<p>Edersheim, on the Essenes, <a href='#page24'>24</a>.</p>
+<p>Edgar, King, aids Dunstan in reform, <a href=
+'#page186'>186</a>.</p>
+<p>Education, The Mendicants and, <a href='#page248'>248</a>; the
+monks further, in England, <a href='#page253'>253</a>; the effect
+of monasticism on, <a href='#page407'>407</a>.</p>
+<p>Edward I. and III., confiscate alien priories, <a href=
+'#page338'>338</a>.</p>
+<p>Egypt, The hermits of, <a href='#page33'>33</a>; Kingsley and
+Waddington on same, <a href='#page34'>34</a>.</p>
+<p>Elijah, and asceticism, <a href='#page30'>30</a>.</p>
+<p>Elizabeth, Princess, and the Act of Succession, <a href=
+'#page298'>298</a>.</p>
+<p>Endowments of monasteries, abolished by first Mendicants,
+<a href='#page244'>244</a>; reason for some, <a href=
+'#page361'>361</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="England,_Church_of"></a>England, Church of, separates
+from Rome, <a href='#page328'>328</a>; causes of, and by whom
+separation secured, <a href='#page340'>340</a>, <a href=
+'#page342'>342</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Britain">Britain.</a></p>
+<p>Essenes, asceticism of, <a href='#page23'>23</a>.</p>
+<p>Ethelwold, aids Dunstan, <a href='#page186'>186</a>.</p>
+<p>Eudoxia, Empress, banishes Chrysostom, <a href=
+'#page117'>117</a>.</p>
+<p>Eustochium, <i>see</i> <a href="#Paula">Paula.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>F</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Fabiola, St., Lecky on her charities, <a href=
+'#page105'>105</a>; her care for sick, <a href='#page105'>105</a>;
+her death, <a href='#page105'>105</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Family-ideal"></a>Family-ideal, of monastery, Taunton
+on, <a href='#page143'>143</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Domestic_life">Domestic Life.</a></p>
+<p>Fanaticism, Christianity hostile to, <a href='#page94'>94</a>;
+tendency toward, among early Christians, <a href=
+'#page129'>129</a>.</p>
+<p>Farrar, on the luxury of Rome, <a href='#page75'>75</a>.</p>
+<p>Fasting, amusing instance of rebellion of monks against,
+<a href='#page120'>120</a>; Athanasius on, <a href=
+'#page121'>121</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Self-denial">Self-denial</a>, <a href="#Ascetic">Ascetic</a> and
+<a href="#Asceticism">Asceticism.</a></p>
+<p>Ferdinand, of Austria, educated by Jesuits, <a href=
+'#page277'>277</a>.</p>
+<p>Feudalism, monasticism affected by, <a href=
+'#page373'>373</a>.</p>
+<p>Finnian, the monk, quarrels with Columba, <a href=
+'#page170'>170</a>.</p>
+<p>Fisher, G.P., on the stigmata of Francis, <a href=
+'#page223'>223</a>.</p>
+<p>Fisher, execution of, by Henry VIII., <a href=
+'#page301'>301</a>, <a href='#page306'>306</a>.</p>
+<p>Filial love, strangulation of, by monks, <a href=
+'#page397'>397</a>.</p>
+<p>Forsyth, on St. Francis, <a href='#page225'>225</a>.</p>
+<p>Foxe, on Thomas Cromwell, <a href='#page310'>310</a>.</p>
+<p>France, New, and the Jesuits, <a href='#page282'>282</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Francis"></a>Francis, St., his birth and early years,
+<a href='#page208'>208</a>; his dreams and sickness, <a href=
+'#page209'>209</a>; visits Rome, <a href='#page210'>210</a>;
+seeking light on his duty, <a href='#page210'>210</a>, <a href=
+'#page211'>211</a>; sells his father's merchandise and keeps
+proceeds, <a href='#page211'>211</a>; renounces his father,
+<a href='#page212'>212</a>; assumes monkish habit, <a href=
+'#page213'>213</a>; repairs Church of St. Damian, <a href=
+'#page214'>214</a>; Dante on poverty and, <a href=
+'#page215'>215</a>; <span class="pagenum"><a name="page440"></a>[pg
+440]</span> visits Innocent III., <a href='#page216'>216</a>;
+visits Mohammedans, <a href='#page217'>217</a>; a lover of birds,
+<a href='#page217'>217</a>; Longfellow's poem on a homily of,
+<a href='#page218'>218</a>; his temptations, <a href=
+'#page218'>218</a>; the stigmata, <a href='#page219'>219</a>; death
+of, <a href='#page224'>224</a>; his character, <a href=
+'#page225'>225</a>; his rule, <a href='#page226'>226</a>; on prayer
+and preaching, <a href='#page249'>249</a>; method of, forsaken,
+<a href='#page421'>421</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Franciscans"></a>Franciscans, The, first year of,
+<a href='#page215'>215</a>; order of, sanctioned, <a href=
+'#page216'>216</a>, <a href='#page217'>217</a>; three classes of,
+<a href='#page226'>226</a>; the rule of, <a href=
+'#page226'>226</a>; Sabatier on rule of, <a href=
+'#page227'>227</a>; the title "Friars Minor," <a href=
+'#page227'>227</a>; number of, <a href='#page228'>228</a>; St. Clara
+and, <a href='#page228'>228</a>; The Third Order of, <a href=
+'#page229'>229</a>; quarrel over the vow of poverty, <a href=
+'#page246'>246</a>; prosperity of, <a href='#page246'>246</a>;
+educational work of, <a href='#page248'>248</a>; quarrel with
+Dominicans, <a href='#page249'>249</a>; settle in England, <a href=
+'#page251'>251</a>; Baluzii on success of, <a href=
+'#page255'>255</a>; fatal success of, <a href=
+'#page253'>253</a>.</p>
+<p>Fratricelli, sketch of the, <a href='#page247'>247</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Freedom"></a>Freedom, religious, want of, <a href=
+'#page402'>402</a>.</p>
+<p>Friars, Begging, <i>see</i> <a href=
+"#Franciscans">Franciscans</a>, <a href=
+"#Dominicans">Dominicans</a> and <a href=
+"#Mendicant">Mendicants</a>.</p>
+<p>Friars Minor, <a href='#page227'>227</a>.</p>
+<p>Froude, on the Charterhouse monks, <a href='#page302'>302</a>,
+<a href='#page304'>304</a>; on Thomas Cromwell, <a href=
+'#page309'>309</a>; on the report of the Royal Commissioners,
+<a href='#page317'>317</a>; on the Catholics and the Reformation,
+<a href='#page346'>346</a>.</p>
+<p>Future punishment, the monks and the doctrine of, <a href=
+'#page417'>417</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>G</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Gairdner, on Henry's breach with Rome, <a href=
+'#page301'>301</a>.</p>
+<p>Galea, the Goth, awed by St. Benedict, <a href=
+'#page137'>137</a>.</p>
+<p>Gardiner, burns heretics, <a href='#page311'>311</a>.</p>
+<p>Gasquet, on Thomas Cromwell, <a href='#page310'>310</a>; quotes
+Burke on the suppression, <a href='#page312'>312</a>.</p>
+<p>Gauls, monastic, complain to St. Martin, <a href=
+'#page120'>120</a>.</p>
+<p>Germany, monasticism enters, <a href='#page122'>122</a>.</p>
+<p>Gervais, reason for his donations, <a href=
+'#page361'>361</a>.</p>
+<p>Gibbon, on bones of Simeon, <a href='#page57'>57</a>; on
+Egyptian monks, <a href='#page62'>62</a>; on Roman marriages,
+<a href='#page110'>110</a>; saying of, applied to Ambrose, <a href=
+'#page116'>116</a>; on military orders, <a href='#page199'>199</a>;
+quotes Zosimus, <a href='#page348'>348</a>; on the monastic aim,
+<a href='#page362'>362</a>; on the character of the monks, <a href=
+'#page388'>388</a>.</p>
+<p>Gindeley, on the Jesuits and the Thirty Years' War, <a href=
+'#page277'>277</a>.</p>
+<p>Giovanni di San Paolo, on gospel perfection, <a href=
+'#page226'>226</a>.</p>
+<p>Glastonbury, fall of Abbey of, <a href='#page314'>314</a>.</p>
+<p>Gnostics, and asceticism, <a href='#page27'>27</a>, <a href=
+'#page366'>366</a>.</p>
+<p>Godfrey de Bouillon, endows Hospital of St. John, <a href=
+'#page201'>201</a>.</p>
+<p>Godric, his unique austerities, <a href='#page132'>132</a>.</p>
+<p>Goldsmith, on the English character, <a href=
+'#page166'>166</a>.</p>
+<p>Grand Chartreuse, monastery, <a href='#page189'>189</a>.</p>
+<p>Greece, asceticism in, <a href='#page20'>20</a>.</p>
+<p>Greeks, ancient, asceticism among the, <a href=
+'#page21'>21</a>.</p>
+<p>Greek Church, monasticism of the, <a href='#page64'>64</a>,
+<a href='#page67'>67</a>.</p>
+<p>Green, J.R., on the preaching friars, <a href=
+'#page254'>254</a>; on Thomas Cromwell, <a href='#page309'>309</a>;
+on the suppression, <a href='#page323'>323</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page441"></a>[pg 441]</span>
+<p>Gregory of Nazianza, on ascetic moderation, <a href=
+'#page65'>65</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Gregory"></a>Gregory, Pope, I., <a href=
+'#page138'>138</a>; II., <a href='#page135'>135</a>; VII., <a href=
+'#page160'>160</a>, <a href='#page178'>178</a>; IX., <a href=
+'#page241'>241</a>; X., <a href='#page245'>245</a>.</p>
+<p>Gregory, St., Monastery of, rules of, <a href=
+'#page141'>141</a>.</p>
+<p>Griffin, Henry, on the Royal Commissioners, <a href=
+'#page311'>311</a>.</p>
+<p>Grimke, on historic movements, <a href='#page84'>84</a>.</p>
+<p>Guigo, rules of, <a href='#page190'>190</a>; on vow of
+obedience, <a href='#page383'>383</a>.</p>
+<p>Guizot, on state of early Europe, <a href='#page149'>149</a>; on
+the Benedictines, <a href='#page404'>404</a>; on monastic
+education, <a href='#page407'>407</a>.</p>
+<p>Gustavus, contrasted to monks, <a href='#page394'>394</a>.</p>
+<p>Guzman, <i>see</i> <a href="#Dominic">Dominic.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>H</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Hallam, on the Albigensians, <a href='#page233'>233</a>,
+<a href='#page235'>235</a>; on the suppression, <a href=
+'#page334'>334</a>; on charity of the monks, <a href=
+'#page349'>349</a>.</p>
+<p>Happiness, the key to, <a href='#page392'>392</a>.</p>
+<p>Hardwick, on the Albigensian doctrines, <a href=
+'#page233'>233</a>.</p>
+<p>Harnack, on early ascetics, <a href='#page28'>28</a>; on nominal
+Christianity of Rome, <a href='#page77'>77</a>; on life-ideal in
+the early church, <a href='#page129'>129</a>; on monasticism and
+the church, <a href='#page414'>414</a>.</p>
+<p>Hell, the monks' teachings about, <a href=
+'#page417'>417</a>.</p>
+<p>Helvidius, on celibacy, <a href='#page113'>113</a>.</p>
+<p>Henry, King, II., and the British church, <a href=
+'#page165'>165</a>; III., invites students to England, <a href=
+'#page252'>252</a>; IV., confiscates alien priories, <a href=
+'#page338'>338</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Henry_VIII."></a>Henry VIII., and the independence of
+English church, <a href='#page163'>163</a>; and the fall of the
+monasteries, <a href='#page286'>286</a>; opinions respecting his
+character, <a href='#page288'>288</a>, <a href='#page290'>290</a>;
+inconsistencies of, <a href='#page291'>291</a>; "Defender of the
+Faith," <a href='#page293'>293</a>; his divorce from Catharine,
+<a href='#page293'>293</a>; breach with Rome, <a href=
+'#page294'>294</a>, <a href='#page300'>300</a>; dangers to his
+throne, <a href='#page295'>295</a>; monks enraged at, <a href=
+'#page296'>296</a>; as "Head of the Church," <a href=
+'#page297'>297</a>, <a href='#page298'>298</a>; Act of Succession,
+<a href='#page298'>298</a>; Oath of Supremacy, <a href=
+'#page298'>298</a>, <a href='#page301'>301</a>; excommunicated,
+<a href='#page306'>306</a>; the struggle for power, <a href=
+'#page324'>324</a>; suppresses "Pilgrims of Grace," <a href=
+'#page326'>326</a>; his use of monastic revenues, <a href=
+'#page328'>328</a>, <a href='#page330'>330</a>; Coke on his
+promises to Parliament, <a href='#page329'>329</a>; his motives for
+the suppression, <a href='#page332'>332</a>; Hooper on reforms of,
+<a href='#page339'>339</a>; an unconscious agent of new forces,
+<a href='#page344'>344</a>; two epochs met in reign of, <a href=
+'#page346'>346</a>; Lecky on his use of monastic funds, <a href=
+'#page411'>411</a>.</p>
+<p>Heresy, growth of, in thirteenth century, <a href=
+'#page206'>206</a>; monks attempt extirpation of, <a href=
+'#page261'>261</a>, <a href='#page402'>402</a>; Jesuits and,
+<a href='#page276'>276</a>, <a href='#page409'>409</a>.</p>
+<p>Heretical sects, attack vices of monks, <a href=
+'#page245'>245</a>.</p>
+<p>Hermit life, founder of, <a href='#page35'>35</a>; unsuited to
+women, <a href='#page107'>107</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Hermits"></a>Hermits, The, of India, <a href=
+'#page20'>20</a>; of Egypt, <a href='#page33'>33</a>; their mode of
+life, <a href='#page49'>49</a>; visit Rome, <a href=
+'#page71'>71</a>; effect of story of, in Rome, <a href=
+'#page71'>71</a>, <a href='#page80'>80</a>, <a href=
+'#page84'>84</a>; of Augustine, <a href='#page246'>246</a>.</p>
+<p>Hilarion, the hermit, <a href='#page49'>49</a>.</p>
+<p>Hildebrand, <i>see</i> <a href="#Gregory">Gregory VII.</a></p>
+<p>Hill, on manual labor, <a href='#page142'>142</a>; on fall of
+monasticism, <a href='#page345'>345</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page442"></a>[pg 442]</span>
+<p>History, monastic contributions to, <a href=
+'#page406'>406</a>.</p>
+<p>Hoensbroech, Count Paul von, on Jesuitical discipline, <a href=
+'#page268'>268</a>.</p>
+<p>Holiness, false views of, <a href='#page421'>421</a>. <i>See</i>
+<a href="#Soul-purity">Soul-purity</a> and <a href=
+"#Salvation">Salvation.</a></p>
+<p>Holy Land, motives for exodus to, <a href='#page97'>97</a>.</p>
+<p>Holy Maid of Kent, <a href='#page337'>337</a>.</p>
+<p>Home-life, not to be despised, <a href='#page420'>420</a>.</p>
+<p>Honorius, III., Pope, sanctions Franciscan Order, <a href=
+'#page217'>217</a>; confirms Dominican Order, <a href=
+'#page239'>239</a>.</p>
+<p>Hooper, Bishop, on Henry's reforms, <a href=
+'#page339'>339</a>.</p>
+<p>Hospital, Knights of, <i>see</i> <a href=
+"#Knights">Knights.</a></p>
+<p>Hospitals, founded by Fabiola, <a href='#page105'>105</a>; Lecky
+on, <a href='#page105'>105</a>; result of woman's sympathy,
+<a href='#page111'>111</a>.</p>
+<p>Houghton, Prior, <i>see</i> <a href=
+"#Charterhouse">Charterhouse.</a></p>
+<p>Household duties, Jerome on, <a href='#page114'>114</a>.
+<i>See</i> <a href="#Domestic_life">Domestic Life.</a></p>
+<p>House of Lords, majority in the, changed, <a href=
+'#page347'>347</a>.</p>
+<p>Houses, Religious, <i>see</i> <a href=
+"#Monasteries">Monasteries.</a></p>
+<p>Hugh, St., of Lincoln, and the swan, <a href='#page157'>157</a>;
+Ruskin on, <a href='#page189'>189</a>.</p>
+<p>Human affection, monks indifferent to, <a href=
+'#page394'>394</a>, <a href='#page397'>397</a>.</p>
+<p>Hume, on the suppression, <a href='#page333'>333</a>.</p>
+<p>Hypatia, Kingsley's, quoted, <a href='#page61'>61</a>; death of,
+<a href='#page48'>48</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>I</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Ideal, monastie, <a href='#page354'>354</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Monasticism">Monasticism.</a></p>
+<p>Ignatius, St., <i>see</i> <a href="#Loyola">Loyola.</a></p>
+<p><a name="Independence"></a>Independence, Jesuitism and personal,
+<a href='#page270'>270</a>; of thought, renounced by monks,
+<a href='#page394'>394</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Freedom">Freedom</a>, <a href="#Liberty">Liberty.</a></p>
+<p>India, asceticism in, <a href='#page18'>18</a>, <a href=
+'#page357'>357</a>.</p>
+<p>India, monasticism in, <a href='#page18'>18</a>, <a href=
+'#page357'>357</a>, <a href='#page358'>358</a>; causes of same,
+<a href='#page355'>355</a>.</p>
+<p>Individual, influence of the, <a href='#page91'>91</a>; effect
+of self-sacrifice upon the, <a href='#page390'>390</a>; effect of
+solitude upon the, <a href='#page393'>393</a>.</p>
+<p>Industry, modern, not to be despised, <a href=
+'#page420'>420</a>.</p>
+<p>Innocent, Pope, III., <a href='#page216'>216</a>, <a href=
+'#page234'>234</a>, <a href='#page239'>239</a>, <a href=
+'#page242'>242</a>; IV., <a href='#page250'>250</a>; VIII.,
+<a href='#page339'>339</a>.</p>
+<p>Inquisition, The Holy, the Albigensian crusade and, <a href=
+'#page233'>233</a>; relation of Dominicans toward, <a href=
+'#page235'>235</a>; its establishment and management, <a href=
+'#page238'>238</a>.</p>
+<p>Intellectual progress, monasticism opposed to true, <a href=
+'#page407'>407</a>; in Europe, <a href='#page409'>409</a>.</p>
+<p>Introspection, evil effects of morbid, <a href=
+'#page392'>392</a>.</p>
+<p>Iona, Monastery of, <a href='#page168'>168</a>.</p>
+<p>Ireland, St. Patrick labors in, <a href='#page123'>123</a>;
+monasteries of, as centers of culture, <a href=
+'#page169'>169</a>.</p>
+<p>Isidore, the hermit, visits Rome, <a href='#page72'>72</a>.</p>
+<p>Itineracy, substituted for seclusion in cloister, <a href=
+'#page244'>244</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>J</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Jacob of Vitry, on abuses of charity, <a href=
+'#page411'>411</a>.</p>
+<p>James, the Apostle, quoted on rich men, <a href=
+'#page377'>377</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Jerome"></a>Jerome, St., his life of Paul of Thebes,
+<a href='#page35'>35</a>; on Pachomian monks, <a href=
+'#page59'>59</a>; his letter to Rusticus, <a href='#page59'>59</a>;
+on solitude, <a href='#page61'>61</a>; <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page443"></a>[pg 443]</span> on number of
+Egyptian monks, <a href='#page63'>63</a>; on clergy of the fourth
+and fifth centuries, <a href='#page77'>77</a>; in his cell,
+<a href='#page85'>85</a>; Schaff on, <a href='#page86'>86</a>; his
+birth and early life, <a href='#page86'>86</a>; his travels, and
+austerities, <a href='#page87'>87</a>, <a href='#page92'>92</a>;
+organizes monastic brotherhood, <a href='#page88'>88</a>; his
+literary labors, <a href='#page88'>88</a>; glorifies desert life,
+<a href='#page89'>89</a>; influences Rome, <a href=
+'#page91'>91</a>; his temptations, <a href='#page93'>93</a>; his
+fondness for the classics, <a href='#page95'>95</a>; his
+biographies of Roman nuns, <a href='#page96'>96</a>; his life of
+St. Paula, <a href='#page97'>97</a>, and of Marcella, <a href=
+'#page102'>102</a>; on folly of Roman women, <a href=
+'#page108'>108</a>; on marriage and celibacy, <a href=
+'#page112'>112</a>; on household duties, <a href=
+'#page113'>113</a>; attacks the foes of monks, <a href=
+'#page127'>127</a>; on vices of monks, <a href='#page128'>128</a>;
+on monastic aim, <a href='#page360'>360</a>; on the natural,
+<a href='#page366'>366</a>.</p>
+<p>Jesuits, <i>see</i> <a href="#Jesus,_The_Society_of">Jesus, The
+Society of.</a></p>
+<p>Jesuits, The Pagan, <a href='#page22'>22</a>, <a href=
+'#page426'>426</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Jesus_Christ"></a>Jesus Christ, the Essenes and,
+<a href='#page26'>26</a>; quoted by early ascetics, <a href=
+'#page31'>31</a>, and by Jerome, <a href='#page92'>92</a>;
+teachings of, used by monks, <a href='#page366'>366</a>, <a href=
+'#page376'>376</a>; his doctrine of wealth, <a href=
+'#page377'>377</a>; his attitude toward rich men, <a href=
+'#page379'>379</a>; the doctrine of the cross and, <a href=
+'#page418'>418</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Jesus,_The_Society_of"></a>Jesus, The Society of,
+Sherman on nature of, <a href='#page258'>258</a>; rejects
+seclusion, <a href='#page258'>258</a>; Bishop Keane on, <a href=
+'#page259'>259</a>, <a href='#page273'>273</a>; how differs from
+other monastic communities, <a href='#page259'>259</a>; founded by
+Loyola, <a href='#page264'>264</a>; constitution and polity of,
+<a href='#page265'>265</a>; grades of members of, <a href=
+'#page265'>265</a>; vow of obedience in, <a href=
+'#page266'>266</a>; von Hoensbroech on, <a href='#page268'>268</a>;
+confession in, <a href='#page269'>269</a>; Carlyle on obedience in,
+<a href='#page271'>271</a>; casuistry of, <a href=
+'#page272'>272</a>, <a href='#page429'>429</a>; its doctrine of
+probabilism, <a href='#page274'>274</a>; the Roman Church and,
+<a href='#page275'>275</a>; Roman foes of, <a href=
+'#page276'>276</a>; mission of, <a href='#page276'>276</a>; its
+attitude toward Reformation, <a href='#page277'>277</a>; the Thirty
+Years' War and, <a href='#page277'>277</a>; calumnies against,
+<a href='#page279'>279</a>; Clement XIV. dissolves, <a href=
+'#page279'>279</a>; expulsion of, from Europe, <a href=
+'#page279'>279</a>; missionary labors of, <a href=
+'#page280'>280</a>; Parkman contrasts, with Puritans, <a href=
+'#page281'>281</a>; failure of, <a href='#page283'>283</a>;
+restoration of, <a href='#page283'>283</a>; causes for rise of,
+<a href='#page374'>374</a>; hostility of, to free government,
+<a href='#page402'>402</a>; liberal education opposed by, <a href=
+'#page409'>409</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Loyola">Loyola.</a></p>
+<p>Jewish asceticism, <a href='#page23'>23</a>.</p>
+<p>Jocelin, quoted by Carlyle, <a href='#page145'>145</a>.</p>
+<p>John, King, confiscates alien priories, <a href=
+'#page338'>338</a>.</p>
+<p>John, St., Knights of, <i>see</i> <a href=
+"#Knights">Knights.</a></p>
+<p>John, St., of Calama, visits his sister in disguise, <a href=
+'#page397'>397</a>.</p>
+<p>John, the Apostle, on love of the world, <a href=
+'#page377'>377</a>.</p>
+<p>John the Baptist, and asceticism, 30.</p>
+<p>Johnson, on Monastery of Iona, 168.</p>
+<p>Joseph, St., Church of, in England, 163.</p>
+<p>Josephus on the Essenes, <a href='#page23'>23</a>.</p>
+<p>Jovinian, hostility of, toward monks, <a href=
+'#page127'>127</a>; compared by Neander to Luther, <a href=
+'#page127'>127</a>.</p>
+<p>Julian, Emperor, the exodus of monks and the, <a href=
+'#page127'>127</a>.</p>
+<p>Juvenal, satire of, on Roman women, <a href=
+'#page82'>82</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page444"></a>[pg
+444]</span>
+<p>K</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Keane, Bishop, on the Jesuits, <a href='#page259'>259</a>,
+<a href='#page273'>273</a>.</p>
+<p>Kennaquhair, installation of abbot of, <a href=
+'#page145'>145</a>.</p>
+<p>King, on Hildebrand, <a href='#page178'>178</a>.</p>
+<p>Kingsley, on Egypt and the hermits, <a href='#page34'>34</a>; on
+Roman women, <a href='#page82'>82</a>, <a href='#page106'>106</a>;
+on fall of Rome, <a href='#page78'>78</a>, <a href=
+'#page367'>367</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Knights"></a>Knights of St. John, their origin and
+mission, <a href='#page200'>200</a>.</p>
+<p>Knights of the Hospital, sketch of the, <a href=
+'#page198'>198</a>.</p>
+<p>Knights Templars, rule of the, <a href='#page197'>197</a>; rise
+and fall of, <a href='#page202'>202</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>L</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Labor, manual, Jerome on, <a href='#page59'>59</a>; in Pachomian
+rule, <a href='#page60'>60</a>; Hill on benefits of, <a href=
+'#page142'>142</a>; among the Benedictines, <a href=
+'#page147'>147</a>, <a href='#page404'>404</a>; Benedict on,
+<a href='#page403'>403</a>; effect of Mendicants on, <a href=
+'#page404'>404</a>; not to be despised, <a href=
+'#page420'>420</a>.</p>
+<p>Lama, Grand, in India, <a href='#page21'>21</a>.</p>
+<p>Lateran Council, <a href='#page242'>242</a>.</p>
+<p>Latimer, Bishop, and the monastic funds, <a href=
+'#page323'>323</a>.</p>
+<p>Laumer, St., and wild animals, <a href='#page156'>156</a>.</p>
+<p>Laveleye on Christianity, <a href='#page378'>378</a>.</p>
+<p>Lay abbots, disorders among the, <a href='#page179'>179</a>.</p>
+<p>Layton, a Royal Commissioner, <a href='#page311'>311</a>,
+<a href='#page312'>312</a>.</p>
+<p>Lea, on celibacy, <a href='#page184'>184</a>; on the
+Reformation, <a href='#page342'>342</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Learning"></a>Learning, influence of Alcuin and Wilfred
+on, <a href='#page167'>167</a>; Irish monasteries as centers of,
+<a href='#page169'>169</a>; monks further, in England, <a href=
+'#page252'>252</a>; the monks and secular, <a href=
+'#page406'>406</a>; effects of monasticism on the course of,
+<a href='#page407'>407</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Literary_services">Literary services.</a></p>
+<p>Lecky, on Fabiola's hospitals, <a href='#page105'>105</a>; on
+asceticism and civilization, <a href='#page401'>401</a>; on
+industry and the monastic ideal, <a href='#page405'>405</a>; on
+abuses of alms-giving, <a href='#page411'>411</a>; on the monastic
+doctrines of hell, <a href='#page418'>418</a>.</p>
+<p>Legh, a Royal Commissioner, <a href='#page311'>311</a>.</p>
+<p>Leo X., Pope, <a href='#page293'>293</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Liberty"></a>Liberty, the Jesuits on, <a href=
+'#page375'>375</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Freedom">Freedom</a> and
+<a href="#Independence">Independence.</a></p>
+<p>Libraries, monastic, <a href='#page152'>152</a>.</p>
+<p>Lincoln, Abraham, quoted, <a href='#page205'>205</a>.</p>
+<p>Lingard, on Bede and the conversion of King Lucius, <a href=
+'#page124'>124</a>; on the Anglo-Saxon Church, <a href=
+'#page181'>181</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Literary_services"></a>Literary services of monks,
+<a href='#page153'>153</a>, <a href='#page406'>406</a>. <i>See</i>
+<a href="#Learning">Learning.</a></p>
+<p>Lollardism, way paved for destruction of cloisters by, <a href=
+'#page294'>294</a>. <i>See</i> <a href='#page429'>429</a>.</p>
+<p>Lombards destroy Monte Cassino, <a href='#page135'>135</a>.</p>
+<p>London, John, a Royal Commissioner, <a href=
+'#page311'>311</a>.</p>
+<p>Longfellow, poem of, on Francis, <a href='#page218'>218</a>; on
+Monte Cassino, <a href='#page135'>135</a></p>
+<p>Lord, John, on needed religious reforms, <a href=
+'#page80'>80</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Loyola"></a>Loyola, St. Ignatius, his birth, <a href=
+'#page261'>261</a>; enters upon religious work, <a href=
+'#page262'>262</a>; his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, <a href=
+'#page263'>263</a>; his education, <a href='#page263'>263</a>;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page445"></a>[pg 445]</span>
+imprisonments, <a href='#page263'>263</a>; founds Society of Jesus,
+<a href='#page264'>264</a>; his "Spiritual Exercises," <a href=
+'#page265'>265</a>, <a href='#page267'>267</a>; on obedience,
+<a href='#page267'>267</a>; his mission, <a href=
+'#page276'>276</a>; Sherman on, <a href='#page278'>278</a>;
+compared with Hamilcar, <a href='#page409'>409</a>. <i>See</i>
+<a href="#Jesus,_The_Society_of">Society of Jesus.</a></p>
+<p>Lucius, a British king, embraces Christianity, <a href=
+'#page124'>124</a>.</p>
+<p>Luther, influence of, in history, <a href='#page92'>92</a>; an
+Augustinian monk, <a href='#page118'>118</a>; Henry VIII. attacks,
+<a href='#page293'>293</a>.</p>
+<p>Lytton, his views of Jesuits denounced, <a href=
+'#page278'>278</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>M</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Macarius, the hermit, <a href='#page49'>49</a>.</p>
+<p>Macaulay, his views of Jesuits opposed, <a href=
+'#page278'>278</a>; on the aims of Jesuits, <a href=
+'#page283'>283</a>; on the Roman Church, <a href=
+'#page402'>402</a>.</p>
+Mabie, H.W., on the monks and the classics, <a href=
+'#page408'>408</a>.
+<p>Mahomet, Carlyle on, <a href='#page33'>33</a>.</p>
+<p>Maitland, on Benedictine monasteries, <a href=
+'#page155'>155</a>.</p>
+<p>Maitre, on desecration of cloisters, <a href=
+'#page350'>350</a>.</p>
+<p>Malmesbury, his charges against the monks, <a href=
+'#page173'>173</a>.</p>
+<p>Manicheism, relation of, to Albigensians, <a href=
+'#page233'>233</a>.</p>
+<p>Marcella, St., Jerome on life of, <a href='#page102'>102</a>;
+her austerities and charity, <a href='#page103'>103</a>.</p>
+<p>Maria dei Angeli, Sta., Francis hears call in church of,
+<a href='#page214'>214</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Marriage"></a>Marriage, Basil on, <a href=
+'#page66'>66</a>; how esteemed in Rome, <a href='#page110'>110</a>;
+Gibbon on, in Rome, <a href='#page110'>110</a>; Jerome and
+Augustine on, <a href='#page112'>112</a>; vow of celibacy and,
+<a href='#page381'>381</a>.</p>
+<p>Married life in Rome, Jerome on, <a href='#page114'>114</a>.</p>
+<p>Martensen, on ascetics, <a href='#page391'>391</a>; on solitude
+and society, <a href='#page395'>395</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Martin,_St."></a>Martin, St., of Tours, credibility of
+biography of, <a href='#page119'>119</a>; sketch of his life,
+<a href='#page120'>120</a>; his death, <a href='#page122'>122</a>;
+churches and shrines in honor of, <a href='#page122'>122</a>.</p>
+<p>Martinmas, <a href='#page122'>122</a>.</p>
+<p>Materialism, monasticism and, <a href='#page350'>350</a>,
+<a href='#page413'>413</a>; of the West, <a href=
+'#page371'>371</a>.</p>
+<p>Mathews, Shailer, on Christ and riches, <a href=
+'#page379'>379</a>.</p>
+<p>Matthew of Paris, on prosperity of friars, <a href=
+'#page246'>246</a>.</p>
+<p>Maur, St., walks on water, <a href='#page137'>137</a>.</p>
+<p>Maximilian, of Bavaria, educated by Jesuits, <a href=
+'#page277'>277</a>.</p>
+<p>Melrose Abbey, <a href='#page289'>289</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Mendicant"></a>Mendicant Friars, The, <a href=
+'#page205'>205</a>; success of, <a href='#page242'>242</a>,
+<a href='#page255'>255</a>; their value to Rome, <a href=
+'#page243'>243</a>; confined to four societies, <a href=
+'#page246'>246</a>; quarrels among, <a href='#page246'>246</a>;
+their educational work, <a href='#page248'>248</a>; in England,
+<a href='#page251'>251</a>; decline of, <a href='#page253'>253</a>;
+as preachers, <a href='#page244'>244</a>; <a href=
+'#page254'>254</a>; effects of prosperity on, <a href=
+'#page256'>256</a>.</p>
+<p>Mendicity of monks, <a href='#page245'>245</a>.</p>
+<p>Milan, church of, Emperor refused entrance to the, <a href=
+'#page115'>115</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Military-religious_orders"></a>Military-religious
+orders, their origin, labors and decline, <a href=
+'#page197'>197</a>.</p>
+<p>Militia of Jesus Christ, <a href='#page242'>242</a>.</p>
+<p>Mill, John Stuart, on preaching friars, <a href=
+'#page244'>244</a>.</p>
+<p>Milman, on the early church leaders, <a href='#page129'>129</a>;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page446"></a>[pg 446]</span> on
+dream of Dominic's mother, <a href='#page231'>231</a>; on bigotry
+of monks, <a href='#page395'>395</a>; on monks and natural
+affections, <a href='#page398'>398</a>.</p>
+<p>Milton, contrasted to monks, <a href='#page394'>394</a>.</p>
+<p>Miracles, <a href='#page224'>224</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Anthony">Anthony</a>, Stylites, <a href="#Martin,_St.">St.
+Martin</a>, etc.</p>
+<p>Missionary labors, of monks, <a href='#page148'>148</a>,
+<a href='#page171'>171</a>, <a href='#page398'>398</a>; of the
+Jesuits, <a href='#page280'>280</a>, <a href=
+'#page281'>281</a>.</p>
+<p>Modern life and thought, monasticism rejected by, <a href=
+'#page421'>421</a>.</p>
+<p>Mohammedans, mission of Francis to, <a href=
+'#page217'>217</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Monastery"></a>Monastery, of Pachomius, <a href=
+'#page58'>58</a>; Monte Cassino, <a href='#page134'>134</a>; St.
+Gregory's, rules of, <a href='#page141'>141</a>; Kennaquhair,
+<a href='#page145'>145</a>; Vivaria, <a href='#page152'>152</a>;
+Bangor, <a href='#page165'>165</a>; Iona, <a href=
+'#page168'>168</a>; Cluny, <a href='#page177'>177</a>; Grand
+Chartreuse, <a href='#page189'>189</a>; Charterhouse, <a href=
+'#page191'>191</a>, <a href='#page301'>301</a>, <a href=
+'#page334'>334</a>, <a href='#page343'>343</a>; Citeaux, <a href=
+'#page192'>192</a>; Clairvaux, <a href='#page193'>193</a>; St.
+Nicholas, <a href='#page240'>240</a>; Melrose, <a href=
+'#page289'>289</a>; Glastonbury, <a href='#page314'>314</a>.</p>
+<p>Monasteries, in Egypt, <a href='#page44'>44</a>; of Jerome,
+<a href='#page88'>88</a>; of Paula, <a href='#page100'>100</a>; in
+early Britain, <a href='#page123'>123</a>; as literary centers,
+<a href='#page151'>151</a>; decline of, in Middle Ages, <a href=
+'#page173'>173</a>; destruction of, by Danes, <a href=
+'#page180'>180</a>; corruptions of, in Dunstan's time, <a href=
+'#page185'>185</a>; abandonment of endowments, <a href=
+'#page244'>244</a>; fall of, in England, <a href=
+'#page286'>286</a>; fall of, in various countries, <a href=
+'#page288'>288</a>, <a href='#page430'>430</a>; obstacles to
+progress, <a href='#page343'>343</a>; new uses of, <a href=
+'#page350'>350</a>; life in, <a href='#page392'>392</a>; charity
+of, <a href='#page410'>410</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Monasteries"></a>Monasteries, The Fall of, in England,
+<a href='#page286'>286</a>; various views of, <a href=
+'#page288'>288</a>; necessity for dispassionate judgment, <a href=
+'#page289'>289</a>; events preceding, <a href='#page293'>293</a>;
+progress and, <a href='#page300'>300</a>; the Charterhouse,
+<a href='#page302'>302</a>; the Royal Commissioners and their
+methods, <a href='#page308'>308</a>, <a href='#page313'>313</a>;
+Glastonbury, <a href='#page314'>314</a>; report of commissioners,
+<a href='#page313'>313</a>, <a href='#page314'>314</a>; action of
+Parliament, <a href='#page319'>319</a>; the lesser houses, <a href=
+'#page319'>319</a>; the larger houses, <a href='#page320'>320</a>;
+total number and the revenues of, <a href='#page321'>321</a>;
+effect of, upon the people, <a href='#page322'>322</a>; Green on
+same, <a href='#page323'>323</a>; uprisings and rebellions,
+<a href='#page325'>325</a>; use of funds, <a href=
+'#page328'>328</a>; justification for, <a href='#page331'>331</a>;
+Bale, Blunt and Hume on justification for, <a href=
+'#page333'>333</a>; Hallam on, <a href='#page334'>334</a>; charges
+against monks true, <a href='#page336'>336</a>; Bonaventura and
+Wyclif on vices of monks, <a href='#page337'>337</a>; confiscation
+of alien priories, <a href='#page338'>338</a>; compared with
+suppression in other countries, <a href='#page339'>339</a>,
+<a href='#page430'>430</a>; alienation of England from Rome,
+<a href='#page342'>342</a>; superficial explanation of, <a href=
+'#page343'>343</a>; true view of, <a href='#page344'>344</a>; monks
+and reform, <a href='#page344'>344</a>; causes of, enumerated,
+<a href='#page345'>345</a>; results of, <a href='#page345'>345</a>,
+<a href='#page347'>347</a>; general review of, <a href=
+'#page352'>352</a>; Bryant on, <a href='#page353'>353</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Monasticism"></a>Monasticism, Eastern, origin of,
+<a href='#page17'>17</a>, <a href='#page29'>29</a>; philosophy and,
+<a href='#page18'>18</a>; Christian, <a href='#page29'>29</a>; the
+Scriptures and, <a href='#page30'>30</a>; in Egypt, <a href=
+'#page33'>33</a>; virtual founder of, <a href='#page42'>42</a>;
+under Pachomius, <a href='#page58'>58</a>, <a href=
+'#page63'>63</a>; under Basil, <a href='#page63'>63</a>; character
+of, in Greek church, <a href='#page67'>67</a>; perplexing character
+of, <a href='#page69'>69</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Jerome">Jerome</a>, <a href="#Basil">Basil</a> and <a href=
+"#Athanasius">Athanasius.</a></p>
+<p>Monasticism, Western, <a href='#page71'>71</a>; introduction in
+Rome, <a href='#page71'>71</a>; <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page447"></a>[pg 447]</span> effect upon Rome, <a href=
+'#page80'>80</a>; women and, <a href='#page96'>96</a>, <a href=
+'#page106'>106</a>; Gregory the Great and, <a href=
+'#page160'>160</a>; in England, <a href='#page162'>162</a>; spread
+of, <a href='#page115'>115</a>; in Germany, <a href=
+'#page122'>122</a>; in Spain, <a href='#page122'>122</a>; in early
+Britain, <a href='#page123'>123</a>, <a href='#page168'>168</a>;
+disorders and oppositions, <a href='#page124'>124</a>; enemies of,
+<a href='#page127'>127</a>; its eclipse, <a href=
+'#page130'>130</a>; code of, <a href='#page139'>139</a>; reforms
+of, and military types, <a href='#page173'>173</a>, <a href=
+'#page197'>197</a>; decline of, in the Middle Ages, <a href=
+'#page173'>173</a>, <a href='#page179'>179</a>; Benedict of Aniane
+tries to reform, <a href='#page176'>176</a>; in England, in Middle
+Ages, <a href='#page180'>180</a>; failure of reforms, <a href=
+'#page196'>196</a>, <a href='#page207'>207</a>; its moral dualism,
+<a href='#page205'>205</a>; its recuperative power, <a href=
+'#page205'>205</a>; in the thirteenth century, <a href=
+'#page206'>206</a>; new features of, <a href='#page244'>244</a>;
+popes demand reforms in, <a href='#page286'>286</a>; attacked by
+governments, <a href='#page287'>287</a>; Hill on fall of, in
+England, <a href='#page345'>345</a>; a fetter on progress, <a href=
+'#page347'>347</a>; alms-giving and, <a href='#page348'>348</a>;
+age of, compared to modern times, <a href='#page351'>351</a>.</p>
+<p>Monasticism, Causes and Ideals of, <a href='#page354'>354</a>;
+causative motives, <a href='#page355'>355</a>; the desire for
+salvation, <a href='#page356'>356</a>; quotations on the ideal,
+<a href='#page129'>129</a>, <a href='#page173'>173</a>, <a href=
+'#page174'>174</a>, <a href='#page357'>357</a>, <a href=
+'#page358'>358</a>, <a href='#page360'>360</a>; nothing gained by
+return to ideal, <a href='#page352'>352</a>; motive for endowments,
+<a href='#page361'>361</a>; the love of solitude, <a href=
+'#page362'>362</a>; various motives, <a href='#page364'>364</a>;
+beliefs affecting the causative motives, <a href=
+'#page365'>365</a>; Gnostic teachings, <a href='#page366'>366</a>;
+effect of the social condition of Roman Empire, <a href=
+'#page367'>367</a>; the flight from the world, <a href=
+'#page368'>368</a>; causes of variations in types, <a href=
+'#page371'>371</a>; East and West compared, <a href=
+'#page371'>371</a>; effect of political changes, <a href=
+'#page372'>372</a>; the Crusades, <a href='#page373'>373</a>;
+effect of feudalism, <a href='#page373'>373</a>; effect of the
+intellectual awakening, <a href='#page374'>374</a>; the Modern Age
+and the Jesuits, <a href='#page374'>374</a>; the fundamental vows,
+<a href='#page375'>375</a>.</p>
+<p>Monasticism, Effects of, <a href='#page386'>386</a>; the good
+and evil of, <a href='#page387'>387</a>; variety of opinions
+respecting, <a href='#page387'>387</a>; the diversity of facts,
+<a href='#page389'>389</a>; elements of truth and worth, <a href=
+'#page390'>390</a>; effects of self-sacrifice, <a href=
+'#page390'>390</a>, of solitude, <a href='#page393'>393</a>; the
+monks as missionaries, <a href='#page398'>398</a>; civic duties,
+<a href='#page399'>399</a>; upon civilization, <a href=
+'#page401'>401</a>; upon agriculture, <a href='#page403'>403</a>;
+upon secular learning, <a href='#page405'>405</a>; the charity of
+monks, <a href='#page410'>410</a>; upon religion, <a href=
+'#page412'>412</a>, <a href='#page413'>413</a>; the sense of sin,
+<a href='#page414'>414</a>; the atonement for sin, <a href=
+'#page417'>417</a>; the distinction between the secular and the
+religious, <a href='#page418'>418</a>; monasticism and
+Christianity, <a href='#page420'>420</a>; old monastic methods
+forsaken, <a href='#page421'>421</a>; summary of effects, <a href=
+'#page423'>423</a>.</p>
+<p>Monastic Orders, the usual history of, <a href=
+'#page174'>174</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Benedict">Benedict</a>,
+Order of St., <a href="#Franciscans">Franciscans</a>, etc.</p>
+<p><a name="Monks"></a>Monks, not peculiar to Christianity,
+<a href='#page17'>17</a>; Jerome on habits of, <a href=
+'#page36'>36</a>; in Egypt, <a href='#page44'>44</a>; Pachomian,
+<a href='#page58'>58</a>; number of Eastern, <a href=
+'#page63'>63</a>; under Basil, <a href='#page63'>63</a>; character
+of Eastern, <a href='#page67'>67</a>, <a href='#page69'>69</a>; as
+theological fighters, <a href='#page68'>68</a>; Hypatia and the,
+<a href='#page68'>68</a>; in the desert of Chalcis, <a href=
+'#page87'>87</a>; in early Rome, <a href='#page96'>96</a>; motives
+of early, <a href='#page106'>106</a>, <a href='#page128'>128</a>;
+of Augustine, <a href='#page118'>118</a>; <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page448"></a>[pg 448]</span> under Martin of
+Tours, <a href='#page120'>120</a>; opposition to Roman, <a href=
+'#page125'>125</a>, <a href='#page147'>147</a>; disorders among the
+early, <a href='#page128'>128</a>, <a href='#page150'>150</a>;
+literary services of, <a href='#page151'>151</a>, <a href=
+'#page153'>153</a>, <a href='#page167'>167</a>, <a href=
+'#page169'>169</a>, <a href='#page248'>248</a>, <a href=
+'#page253'>253</a>, <a href='#page405'>405</a>, <a href=
+'#page406'>406</a>; agricultural services of, <a href=
+'#page155'>155</a>, <a href='#page192'>192</a>, <a href=
+'#page403'>403</a>; wild animals and the, <a href=
+'#page156'>156</a>; early British, <a href='#page162'>162</a>,
+<a href='#page168'>168</a>; influence of the, in England, <a href=
+'#page166'>166</a>; the barbarians and the, <a href=
+'#page148'>148</a>, <a href='#page171'>171</a>, <a href=
+'#page398'>398</a>; military, <a href='#page173'>173</a>, <a href=
+'#page197'>197</a>; corruptions of, <a href='#page124'>124</a>,
+<a href='#page173'>173</a>, <a href='#page175'>175</a>, <a href=
+'#page179'>179</a>, <a href='#page196'>196</a>, <a href=
+'#page206'>206</a>, <a href='#page336'>336</a>; the celibacy of,
+<a href='#page183'>183</a>; changes in the character of, <a href=
+'#page284'>284</a>; rebel against Henry VIII., <a href=
+'#page296'>296</a>; as obstacles to progress, <a href=
+'#page300'>300</a>, <a href='#page343'>343</a>; required to take
+the Oath of Supremacy, <a href='#page301'>301</a>; pious frauds of,
+in England, <a href='#page318'>318</a>; receive pensions, <a href=
+'#page320'>320</a>; oppose reforms in England, <a href=
+'#page344'>344</a>; privileges and powers of the, affected by the
+suppression, <a href='#page347'>347</a>; charity of the, <a href=
+'#page348'>348</a>, <a href='#page410'>410</a>, <a href=
+'#page411'>411</a>; objects of the, <a href='#page360'>360</a>;
+once held in high esteem, <a href='#page361'>361</a>; their flight
+from Rome, <a href='#page368'>368</a>; diversity of opinions
+respecting the, <a href='#page388'>388</a>; effect of austerities
+on the, <a href='#page390'>390</a>; effect of solitude on the,
+<a href='#page393'>393</a>; deficiencies in the best, <a href=
+'#page394'>394</a>; as missionaries, <a href='#page398'>398</a>;
+civic duties and the, <a href='#page399'>399</a>; military quarrels
+incited by the, <a href='#page401'>401</a>; enthusiasm for religion
+kept alive by the, <a href='#page413'>413</a>; their sense of sin,
+exaggeration in their views and methods, <a href=
+'#page413'>413</a>; their doctrine of hell, <a href=
+'#page417'>417</a>; the doctrine of the cross and the, <a href=
+'#page418'>418</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Mendicant">Mendicants</a>,
+<a href="#Benedict">Benedict</a>, Order of St., etc.</p>
+<p>Montaigne, on the temptations of solitude, <a href=
+'#page393'>393</a>.</p>
+<p>Montalembert, on Eastern monachism, <a href='#page67'>67</a>; on
+Benedict, <a href='#page130'>130</a>; on the ruin of French
+cloisters, <a href='#page351'>351</a>; on the attractions of
+solitude, <a href='#page364'>364</a>; on the value of the monks,
+<a href='#page388'>388</a>, <a href='#page406'>406</a>.</p>
+<p>Montanists, The, and asceticism, <a href='#page27'>27</a>.</p>
+<p>Monte Cassino, Monastery at, Montalembert on, <a href=
+'#page134'>134</a>; sketch of its history, <a href=
+'#page134'>134</a>.</p>
+<p>Montserrat, tablet on Ignatius in church at, <a href=
+'#page262'>262</a>.</p>
+<p>More, Sir Thomas, causes of his death, <a href=
+'#page298'>298</a>; his character, <a href='#page299'>299</a>;
+influence of, in prison, <a href='#page303'>303</a>, <a href=
+'#page305'>305</a>; on Henry's ambition, <a href=
+'#page322'>322</a>.</p>
+<p>Morton, Cardinal, on the vices of the monks, <a href=
+'#page338'>338</a>.</p>
+<p>Mosheim, on Francis, <a href='#page225'>225</a>; on the quarrel
+of the Franciscans, <a href='#page247'>247</a>.</p>
+<p>Mozoomdar, on the motives and spirit of Oriental asceticism,
+<a href='#page358'>358</a>.</p>
+<p>Mutius, taught renunciation, <a href='#page62'>62</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>N</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Neander, compares Jovinian to Luther, <a href=
+'#page127'>127</a>; on the dreams of Francis, <a href=
+'#page209'>209</a>.</p>
+<p>Newman, Cardinal, on Benedict's mission, <a href=
+'#page149'>149</a>.</p>
+<p>Nicholas, St., Monastery of, <a href='#page240'>240</a>.</p>
+<p>Normans, The, and the alien priories, <a href=
+'#page341'>341</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page449"></a>[pg 449]</span>
+<p>Novitiate, Benedictine, extended by Gregory, <a href=
+'#page160'>160</a>; of the Jesuits, <a href='#page260'>260</a>,
+<a href='#page269'>269</a>. <i>See</i> various orders.</p>
+<p>Nun, <i>see</i> <a href="#Women">Women.</a></p>
+<p>Nunneries, origin of, <a href='#page106'>106</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>O</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p><a name="Obedience"></a>Obedience, vow of, in Pachomian rule,
+<a href='#page61'>61</a>; enforced by Basil, <a href=
+'#page66'>66</a>; among the Jesuits, <a href='#page266'>266</a>;
+Loyola on, <a href='#page267'>267</a>; Dom Guigo on, <a href=
+'#page383'>383</a>; its value and its abuses, <a href=
+'#page384'>384</a>.</p>
+<p>Observantines, <a href='#page246'>246</a>.</p>
+<p>Oliphant, Mrs., on the temptations of Francis, <a href=
+'#page218'>218</a>; on the stigmata, <a href=
+'#page222'>222</a>.</p>
+<p>Origen, on Christianity in Britain, <a href=
+'#page123'>123</a>.</p>
+<p>Oswald, aids Dunstan in reforms, <a href='#page186'>186</a>.</p>
+<p>Oxford University, friars enter, <a href='#page251'>251</a>;
+founded by monks, <a href='#page406'>406</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>P</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Pachomius, St., <a href='#page32'>32</a>; birth and early life
+of, <a href='#page58'>58</a>.</p>
+<p>Pachomian Monks, rules of, <a href='#page58'>58</a>; vows,
+<a href='#page61'>61</a>; their number and spread, <a href=
+'#page63'>63</a>.</p>
+<p>Pagan philosophy powerless to save Rome, <a href=
+'#page76'>76</a>.</p>
+<p>Palgrave on the miter, <a href='#page400'>400</a>.</p>
+<p>Pamplona, Ignatius wounded at siege of, <a href=
+'#page262'>262</a>.</p>
+<p>Parkman, Francis, on the Puritans and the Jesuits, <a href=
+'#page281'>281</a>; on the Roman Church, <a href=
+'#page386'>386</a>.</p>
+<p>Parliament of Religions, World's Fair, views of asceticism at
+the, <a href='#page357'>357</a>, <a href='#page358'>358</a>.</p>
+<p>Paris, University of, <a href='#page249'>249</a>, <a href=
+'#page406'>406</a>.</p>
+<p>Paschal II., Pope, the gift of Cluny, <a href=
+'#page178'>178</a>.</p>
+<p>Patrick, St., <a href='#page122'>122</a>; labors in Ireland,
+<a href='#page123'>123</a>; was he a Romanist? <a href=
+'#page162'>162</a>.</p>
+<p>Paul, The Apostle, on asceticism, <a href='#page27'>27</a>.</p>
+<p>Paul III., Pope, excommunicates Henry VIII., <a href=
+'#page306'>306</a>.</p>
+<p>Paul of Thebes, Jerome's life of, <a href='#page35'>35</a>; his
+early life, <a href='#page36'>36</a>; visited by Anthony, <a href=
+'#page37'>37</a>; his death, <a href='#page40'>40</a>; effect of
+his biography on the times, <a href='#page42'>42</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Paula"></a>Paula, St., Jerome on death of, <a href=
+'#page98'>98</a>, <a href='#page101'>101</a>; her austerities and
+charities, <a href='#page98'>98</a>, <a href='#page100'>100</a>;
+separates from her children, <a href='#page98'>98</a>; her
+monasteries at Bethlehem, <a href='#page100'>100</a>; inscription
+on her tombstone, <a href='#page102'>102</a>; faints at her
+daughter's funeral, <a href='#page125'>125</a>.</p>
+<p>Paulinus, embraces ascetic Christianity, <a href=
+'#page84'>84</a>.</p>
+<p>Peter, The Apostle, marriage of, <a href='#page115'>115</a>.</p>
+<p>Peter the Venerable, <a href='#page178'>178</a>.</p>
+<p>Petrarch, Mabie on, and the classics, <a href=
+'#page408'>408</a>.</p>
+<p>Peyto, Friar, denounces Henry VIII., <a href=
+'#page296'>296</a>:</p>
+<p>Philanthropy, spirit of, kept alive by monks, <a href=
+'#page412'>412</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Charity">Charity.</a></p>
+<p>Philip IV., King, of France, his charges against the Knights,
+<a href='#page202'>202</a>.</p>
+<p>Phillips, Wendell, on the reading of history, <a href=
+'#page386'>386</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page450"></a>[pg 450]</span>
+<p>Philo, on the Essenes, <a href='#page23'>23</a>; on the
+Therapeut&aelig;, <a href='#page27'>27</a>.</p>
+<p>Philosophy, ascetic influence of Greek, <a href=
+'#page21'>21</a>; Gnostic, <a href='#page27'>27</a>; Pagan, and
+fall of Rome, <a href='#page76'>76</a>.</p>
+<p>Pike, Luke Owen, on the character of Henry VIII., <a href=
+'#page290'>290</a>; on the lawlessness of monks, <a href=
+'#page336'>336</a>.</p>
+<p>Pilgrims of Grace, <a href='#page326'>326</a>; their demands and
+overthrowal, <a href='#page327'>327</a>.</p>
+<p>Pillar Saints, <a href='#page51'>51</a>.</p>
+<p>Plague, Black, and the monks, <a href='#page410'>410</a>.</p>
+<p>Plato, ascetic teachings of, <a href='#page22'>22</a>.</p>
+<p>Pliny, on the Essenes, <a href='#page25'>25</a>.</p>
+<p>Pole, Reginald, on Henry VIII. and Rome, <a href=
+'#page295'>295</a>.</p>
+<p>Politics, not to be despised, <a href='#page420'>420</a>.</p>
+<p>Portus, inn at, <a href='#page105'>105</a>.</p>
+<p>Potitianus, affected by Anthony's biography, <a href=
+'#page83'>83</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Poverty"></a>Poverty, vow of, in Pachomian rule,
+<a href='#page61'>61</a>; Franciscans quarrel over, <a href=
+'#page246'>246</a>; and the Scriptures, <a href=
+'#page376'>376</a>.</p>
+<p>Preaching Friars, <i>see</i> <a href=
+"#Dominicans">Dominicans</a>, <a href=
+"#Franciscans">Franciscans</a> and <a href=
+"#Mendicant">Mendicants</a>.</p>
+<p>Pride, spiritual, of monks, <a href='#page395'>395</a>.</p>
+<p>Probabilism, doctrine of, <a href='#page274'>274</a>.</p>
+<p>Protestantism, effect of, upon monasticism, <a href=
+'#page286'>286</a>; guilty of persecution, <a href=
+'#page332'>332</a>; and the Church of England, <a href=
+'#page340'>340</a>; its real value to England, <a href=
+'#page346'>346</a>; its religious ideal, <a href=
+'#page356'>356</a>.</p>
+<p>Putnam, on the rule of St. Benedict, <a href='#page139'>139</a>;
+on Cassiodorus, <a href='#page153'>153</a>; on the first quarrel
+over copyright, <a href='#page170'>170</a>.</p>
+<p>Pythagoras, asceticism of, <a href='#page21'>21</a>, <a href=
+'#page426'>426</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>R</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Reade, Charles, on the monk's flight from the world, <a href=
+'#page368'>368</a>.</p>
+<p>Reading, the monks of, their pious frauds, <a href=
+'#page318'>318</a>.</p>
+<p>Recluses, <i>see</i> <a href="#Hermits">Hermits.</a></p>
+<p>Reformed Orders, <a href='#page173'>173</a>.</p>
+<p>Reform, monastic, <a href='#page173'>173</a>, <a href=
+'#page205'>205</a>; fails to stop decline of monasteries, <a href=
+'#page196'>196</a>, <a href='#page207'>207</a>, <a href=
+'#page286'>286</a>; demanded by popes, <a href='#page286'>286</a>;
+failure of, <a href='#page336'>336</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Monasticism">Monasticism.</a></p>
+<p>Reformation, The Protestant, furthered by certain Franciscans,
+<a href='#page247'>247</a>; relation of Mendicants to, <a href=
+'#page248'>248</a>; the Jesuits and, <a href='#page277'>277</a>;
+<a href='#page278'>278</a>, <a href='#page283'>283</a>; in England,
+its character, and results, <a href='#page345'>345</a>, <a href=
+'#page346'>346</a>; and the monastic life, <a href=
+'#page374'>374</a>.</p>
+<p>Relics, fraudulent, <a href='#page128'>128</a>, <a href=
+'#page318'>318</a>.</p>
+<p>Religion, monasticism and, <a href='#page18'>18</a>, <a href=
+'#page412'>412</a>; influence of feelings and opinions, <a href=
+'#page354'>354</a>; enthusiasm for, fostered by monks, <a href=
+'#page413'>413</a>; the sense of sin, <a href='#page414'>414</a>;
+salvation, <a href='#page417'>417</a>; the distinction between the
+secular and the religious, <a href='#page418'>418</a>, <a href=
+'#page420'>420</a>; the doctrine of the cross, <a href=
+'#page418'>418</a>; essence of, <a href='#page419'>419</a>; true,
+possible outside of convents, <a href='#page421'>421</a>.</p>
+<p>Religious houses, <i>see</i> <a href=
+"#Monasteries">Monasteries.</a></p>
+<p>Renunciation of the world, <a href='#page358'>358</a>, <a href=
+'#page369'>369</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Self-denial">Self-denial.</a></p>
+<p>Rice, Ap, a Royal Commissioner, <a href='#page311'>311</a>.</p>
+<p>Riches, <i>see</i> <a href="#Wealth">Wealth.</a></p>
+<p>Richard II., confiscates alien priories, <a href=
+'#page338'>338</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page451"></a>[pg 451]</span>
+<p>Robertson, F.W., on excessive austerities, <a href=
+'#page94'>94</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Rome,_Church_of"></a>Rome, Church of, her claims
+respecting the early British Church, <a href='#page162'>162</a>;
+writers of, on the stigmata, <a href='#page223'>223</a>; her
+relation to the Jesuits, <a href='#page275'>275</a>, and the
+English people, <a href='#page294'>294</a>, <a href=
+'#page341'>341</a>; martyrs of, <a href='#page332'>332</a>; writers
+of, on the fall of monasteries, <a href='#page334'>334</a>,
+<a href='#page335'>335</a>; England separates from, <a href=
+'#page342'>342</a>; her religious ideal, <a href=
+'#page356'>356</a>; Parkman on, <a href='#page386'>386</a>;
+Macaulay on, <a href='#page403'>403</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Henry_VIII.">Henry VIII.</a></p>
+<p>Rome, Monasticism introduced in, <a href='#page71'>71</a>;
+social and religious state of, in the fourth century, <a href=
+'#page72'>72</a>, <a href='#page74'>74</a>; Dill on causes of the
+fall of, <a href='#page74'>74</a>; classes of society in, <a href=
+'#page75'>75</a>; Farrar on luxury of, <a href='#page75'>75</a>;
+epigram of Silvianus, <a href='#page76'>76</a>; Kingsley on ruin
+of, <a href='#page78'>78</a>; Jerome on sack of, by Alaric,
+<a href='#page103'>103</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Jerome">Jerome.</a></p>
+<p>Roman Empire, nominally Christian, <a href='#page73'>73</a>;.
+its impending doom, <a href='#page73'>73</a>, <a href=
+'#page367'>367</a>.</p>
+<p>Romanus, a monk, <a href='#page131'>131</a>.</p>
+<p>Royalty, affected by monasticism, <a href=
+'#page179'>179</a>.</p>
+<p>Rules, monastic, the first, <a href='#page58'>58</a>; before
+Benedict, <a href='#page107'>107</a>; of Augustine, <a href=
+'#page118'>118</a>; of St. Benedict, <a href='#page138'>138</a>,
+<a href='#page139'>139</a>, <a href='#page147'>147</a>, <a href=
+'#page151'>151</a>, <a href='#page158'>158</a>; of Dom Guigo,
+<a href='#page189'>189</a>; of St. Francis, <a href=
+'#page226'>226</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Celibacy">Celibacy</a>,
+<a href="#Poverty">Poverty</a>, <a href=
+"#Obedience">Obedience.</a></p>
+<p>Ruskin, on St. Hugh of Lincoln, <a href='#page189'>189</a>.</p>
+<p>Rusticus, a monk, <a href='#page59'>59</a>.</p>
+<p>Rutilius, on the monks, <a href='#page126'>126</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>S</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Sabatier, on rule of St. Francis, <a href=
+'#page227'>227</a>.</p>
+<p>Saint, Paul of Thebes, <a href='#page35'>35</a>; Anthony,
+<a href='#page37'>37</a>; Athanasius, <a href='#page42'>42</a>;
+Abraham, <a href='#page50'>50</a>, <a href='#page60'>60</a>;
+Macarius, <a href='#page49'>49</a>; Hilarion, <a href=
+'#page49'>49</a>; Simeon Stylites, <a href='#page51'>51</a>;
+Pachomius, <a href='#page58'>58</a>; Basil, <a href=
+'#page63'>63</a>; Gregory of Nazianza, <a href='#page65'>65</a>;
+Jerome, <a href='#page85'>85</a>; Paula, <a href='#page97'>97</a>;
+Marcella, <a href='#page102'>102</a>; Fabiola, <a href=
+'#page105'>105</a>; Ambrose, <a href='#page115'>115</a>;
+Chrysostom, <a href='#page116'>116</a>; Augustine, <a href=
+'#page117'>117</a>; Martin of Tours, <a href='#page119'>119</a>;
+Maur, <a href='#page137'>137</a>; Patrick, <a href=
+'#page123'>123</a>, <a href='#page162'>162</a>; Benedict of Nursia,
+<a href='#page131'>131</a>; Hugh of Lincoln, <a href=
+'#page157'>157</a>, <a href='#page189'>189</a>; Gregory the Great,
+<a href='#page159'>159</a>; Columba, <a href='#page162'>162</a>,
+<a href='#page168'>168</a>, <a href='#page170'>170</a>; Boniface,
+<a href='#page167'>167</a>; Wilfred, <a href='#page167'>167</a>;
+Benedict of Aniane, <a href='#page176'>176</a>; Dunstan, <a href=
+'#page182'>182</a>; Bruno, <a href='#page188'>188</a>; Bernard,
+<a href='#page192'>192</a>; Francis, <a href='#page208'>208</a>;
+Clara, <a href='#page228'>228</a>; Dominic, <a href=
+'#page230'>230</a>; Loyola, <a href='#page261'>261</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Salvation"></a>Salvation, the desire for, <a href=
+'#page70'>70</a>, <a href='#page111'>111</a>, <a href=
+'#page355'>355</a>, <a href='#page396'>396</a>; the struggle for,
+<a href='#page95'>95</a>; monastic views of, <a href=
+'#page417'>417</a>.</p>
+<p>Samson, Abbot, election of, <a href='#page145'>145</a>.</p>
+<p>Santa Crocella, chapel of, <a href='#page131'>131</a>.</p>
+<p>Saracens burn Monte Cassino monastery, <a href=
+'#page135'>135</a>.</p>
+<p>Saragossa, Council of, forbids priests to assume monks' robes,
+<a href='#page122'>122</a>.</p>
+<p>Savonarola, a Dominican, <a href='#page242'>242</a>.</p>
+<p>Saxons invade England, <a href='#page180'>180</a>.</p>
+<p>Schaff, Philip, on origin of monasticism, <a href=
+'#page18'>18</a>; on Montanists, <a href='#page28'>28</a>;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page452"></a>[pg 452]</span> on the
+biography of the hermit Paul, <a href='#page35'>35</a>; on St.
+Jerome, <a href='#page86'>86</a>; on Augustine, <a href=
+'#page117'>117</a>; on Benedictine rule, <a href=
+'#page148'>148</a>; on monasteries as centers of learning, <a href=
+'#page153'>153</a>; on effects of monasticism, <a href=
+'#page387'>387</a>.</p>
+<p>Scholastica, story about, <a href='#page138'>138</a>.</p>
+<p>Schools, monastic, <a href='#page154'>154</a>, <a href=
+'#page167'>167</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Learning">Learning.</a></p>
+<p>Scott, Walter, on installation of an abbot, <a href=
+'#page145'>145</a>; on the crusaders, <a href=
+'#page199'>199</a>.</p>
+<p>Seclusion, <a href='#page244'>244</a>, <a href=
+'#page259'>259</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Solitude">Solitude.</a></p>
+<p>Secular life, duties of, <a href='#page113'>113</a>; the monks
+and, <a href='#page399'>399</a>; distinction between religion and
+the, <a href='#page418'>418</a>; true view of, <a href=
+'#page420'>420</a>.</p>
+<p>Self-crucifixion, <a href='#page418'>418</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Self-denial"></a>Self-denial, its nature, <a href=
+'#page356'>356</a>; Mozoomdar on, <a href='#page358'>358</a>.</p>
+<p>Selfishness, engendered by monasticism, <a href=
+'#page396'>396</a>.</p>
+<p>Self-forgetfulness, the key to happiness, <a href=
+'#page392'>392</a>.</p>
+<p>Self-mastery, the craving for, <a href='#page70'>70</a>.</p>
+<p>Self-sacrifice, effect of, upon the individual, <a href=
+'#page390'>390</a>; meaning of true, <a href='#page419'>419</a>.
+<i>See</i> <a href="#Asceticism">Asceticism.</a></p>
+<p>Serapion, monks of, <a href='#page63'>63</a>.</p>
+<p>Severus, his life of St. Martin, <a href='#page119'>119</a>.</p>
+<p>Sherman, Father Thomas E., on the Society of Jesus, <a href=
+'#page258'>258</a>; on Loyola, <a href='#page278'>278</a>.</p>
+<p>Sick, ministered to by women, <a href='#page350'>350</a>.
+<i>See</i> <a href="#Charity">Charity.</a></p>
+<p>Silvianus, epigram of, on dying Rome, <a href=
+'#page76'>76</a>.</p>
+<p>Simon de Montfort, <a href='#page237'>237</a>.</p>
+<p>Simeon Stylites, birth and early life of, <a href=
+'#page51'>51</a>; austerities of, <a href='#page52'>52</a>; his
+fame, <a href='#page52'>52</a>; lives on a pillar, <a href=
+'#page53'>53</a>; Tennyson on, <a href='#page54'>54</a>; death of,
+<a href='#page56'>56</a>; refuses to see his mother, <a href=
+'#page397'>397</a>; method of, forsaken, <a href=
+'#page421'>421</a>.</p>
+<p>Sin, monastic confessions of, <a href='#page413'>413</a>;
+consciousness of, preserved by monks, <a href='#page414'>414</a>;
+exaggerated views of, <a href='#page415'>415</a>; false methods to
+get rid of, <a href='#page416'>416</a>; monastic influence on
+doctrine of atonement for, <a href='#page417'>417</a>.</p>
+<p>Sisterhoods, <i>see</i> <a href="#Women">Women.</a></p>
+<p>Sixtus IV. and V., Popes, on the stigmata, <a href=
+'#page221'>221</a>.</p>
+<p>Social service, spirit of, <a href='#page419'>419</a>, <a href=
+'#page423'>423</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Solitude"></a>Solitude, of Egypt, <a href=
+'#page33'>33</a>; provided for in Pachomian rules, <a href=
+'#page60'>60</a>; Jerome on, <a href='#page61'>61</a>; the love of,
+as a cause of monasticism, <a href='#page362'>362</a>, <a href=
+'#page363'>363</a>; effects of, upon the individual, <a href=
+'#page393'>393</a>; Montaigne on temptations of, <a href=
+'#page393'>393</a>; society and, <a href='#page395'>395</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Soul-purity"></a>Soul-purity, struggles for, <a href=
+'#page95'>95</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Salvation">Salvation.</a></p>
+<p>Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius, <a href='#page265'>265</a>.</p>
+<p>Spain, monasticism enters, <a href='#page122'>122</a>.</p>
+<p>Starbuck, Charles C., on the casuistry of the Jesuits, <a href=
+'#page274'>274</a>.</p>
+<p>Stigmata, of St. Francis, <a href='#page219'>219</a>.</p>
+<p>Storrs, on Bernard, <a href='#page197'>197</a>.</p>
+<p>Subiaco, desert of, <a href='#page131'>131</a>.</p>
+<p>Superstitions, monastic, when revolt against is justifiable,
+<a href='#page423'>423</a>.</p>
+<p>Suppression of monasteries, <i>see</i> <a href=
+"#Monasteries">Monasteries</a>, The Fall of.</p>
+<p>Supremacy, the monks required to take the oath of, <a href=
+'#page301'>301</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page453"></a>[pg
+453]</span>
+<p>T</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Tabenna, Monastery at, <a href='#page32'>32</a>, <a href=
+'#page58'>58</a>.</p>
+<p>Tauler, John, a Dominican, <a href='#page242'>242</a>; on
+service and contemplation, <a href='#page395'>395</a>.</p>
+<p>Taunton, E.L., on the family-idea of monasteries, <a href=
+'#page143'>143</a>; on Augustine and British monks, <a href=
+'#page165'>165</a>.</p>
+<p>Taylor, Isaac, on the biography of Anthony, <a href=
+'#page48'>48</a>.</p>
+<p>Templars, <i>see</i> <a href="#Knights">Knights.</a></p>
+<p>Tennyson, on Stylites, <a href='#page54'>54</a>.</p>
+<p>Tertullian, on Christianity in Britain, <a href=
+'#page123'>123</a>.</p>
+<p>Thackeray, views of, on Jesuits opposed, <a href=
+'#page278'>278</a>.</p>
+<p>Theodoret, on Stylites, <a href='#page51'>51</a>, <a href=
+'#page53'>53</a>.</p>
+<p>Theodosius, Abbot, <a href='#page50'>50</a>.</p>
+<p>Theology, the monks and, <a href='#page406'>406</a>; White on
+same, <a href='#page416'>416</a>.</p>
+<p>Theophilus, joins Eudoxia against Chrysostom, <a href=
+'#page117'>117</a>.</p>
+<p>Therapeut&aelig;, Philo on the, <a href='#page27'>27</a>.</p>
+<p>Thieffroy, on charity of monks, <a href='#page410'>410</a>.</p>
+<p>Third Order, <i>see</i> <a href="#Franciscans">Franciscans</a>
+and <a href="#Dominicans">Dominicans.</a></p>
+<p>Thirty Years' War, the Jesuits and the, <a href=
+'#page277'>277</a>.</p>
+<p>Trench, on monastic history, <a href='#page175'>175</a>; on
+genius in creation, <a href='#page207'>207</a>; on the stigmata,
+<a href='#page223'>223</a>.</p>
+<p>Trent, Council of, restricts Mendicants, <a href=
+'#page246'>246</a>; on marriage, <a href='#page382'>382</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>U</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Universities, foundations of, laid by monks, <a href=
+'#page405'>405</a>.</p>
+<p>Urban II., Pope, the gift of Cluny monastery, <a href=
+'#page178'>178</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>V</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Valens, Emperor, fails to stop flight from Rome, <a href=
+'#page127'>127</a>.</p>
+<p>Vaughan, on Bernard's reforms, <a href='#page195'>195</a>; on
+the need of reformation, <a href='#page402'>402</a>.</p>
+<p>Virgins, <i>see</i> <a href="#Marriage">Marriage.</a></p>
+<p>Virgil, Jerome's fondness for, <a href='#page95'>95</a>; Mabie
+on reading of, <a href='#page408'>408</a>.</p>
+<p>Vivaria, literary work in monastery at, <a href=
+'#page152'>152</a>.</p>
+<p>Voltaire, on the monks, <a href='#page388'>388</a>.</p>
+<p>Vows, monastic, <a href='#page61'>61</a>; irrevocable, <a href=
+'#page66'>66</a>, <a href='#page112'>112</a>; usual history of,
+<a href='#page174'>174</a>; of the military orders, <a href=
+'#page198'>198</a>; the fundamental, <a href='#page375'>375</a>;
+the passing away of, <a href='#page423'>423</a>. <i>See</i>
+<a href="#Poverty">Poverty</a>, <a href="#Celibacy">Celibacy</a>
+and <a href="#Obedience">Obedience.</a></p>
+<p>Vulgate, Jerome, <a href='#page85'>85</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>W</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Waddington, on the hermits, <a href='#page34'>34</a>; on
+conscience and method of monks, <a href='#page390'>390</a>.</p>
+<p>War, monks incite to, <a href='#page401'>401</a>.</p>
+<p>Watch-dogs of the Church, a term applied to the Dominicans,
+<a href='#page249'>249</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Wealth"></a>Wealth, Christ's doctrine of, <a href=
+'#page377'>377</a>; not in itself an evil, <a href=
+'#page379'>379</a>; its true value, <a href='#page405'>405</a>;
+compatible with Christianity, <a href='#page420'>420</a>.</p>
+<p>White, on the theology of the monks, <a href=
+'#page416'>416</a>.</p>
+<p>Whiting, Richard, Abbot of Glastonbury, <a href=
+'#page315'>315</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page454"></a>[pg 454]</span>
+<p>Widows, <i>see</i> <a href="#Women">Women</a> and <a href=
+"#Marriage">Marriage.</a></p>
+<p>Wilfred, St., his monastic labors, <a href=
+'#page167'>167</a>.</p>
+<p>William of Aquitaine, <a href='#page177'>177</a>.</p>
+<p>William of Amour, <a href='#page250'>250</a>.</p>
+<p>William of Orange, <a href='#page394'>394</a>.</p>
+<p>Wolsey, Cardinal, <a href='#page294'>294</a>, <a href=
+'#page308'>308</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Women"></a>Women, welcome call of monks, <a href=
+'#page81'>81</a>; Kingsley on same, <a href='#page82'>82</a>;
+Juvenal on Roman women, <a href='#page82'>82</a>; Jerome's
+influence on, <a href='#page86'>86</a>, <a href='#page96'>96</a>;
+monasticism and, <a href='#page106'>106</a>; hermit life unsuited
+to, <a href='#page107'>107</a>; effect of corrupt society on,
+<a href='#page107'>107</a>, no; distinguished by mercy, in,
+<a href='#page350'>350</a>; compared with monks, <a href=
+'#page111'>111</a>; married life of, in Rome, <a href=
+'#page112'>112</a>; influence of Ambrose upon, <a href=
+'#page126'>126</a>; regulation of Guigo concerning monks and,
+<a href='#page190'>190</a>.</p>
+<p>Wyclif, attacks the friars, <a href='#page253'>253</a>, <a href=
+'#page337'>337</a>; spirit of, affects monasticism, <a href=
+'#page295'>295</a>, <a href='#page429'>429</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>X</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Ximenes, Cardinal, a Franciscan, <a href='#page228'>228</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Z</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Zosimus, on charity of monks, <a href='#page348'>348</a>.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p><i>Printed at</i> THE BRANDT PRESS, <i>Trenton, N.J.,
+U.S.A</i>.</p>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13206 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
+
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+
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+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #13206 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13206)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Short History of Monks and Monasteries
+by Alfred Wesley Wishart
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Short History of Monks and Monasteries
+
+Author: Alfred Wesley Wishart
+
+Release Date: August 17, 2004 [EBook #13206]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF MONKS AND MONASTERIES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Christine Gehring, Charlie Kirschner and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+A SHORT HISTORY OF
+
+MONKS
+
+AND MONASTERIES
+
+
+_By_ ALFRED WESLEY WISHART
+
+Sometime _Fellow_ in _Church History_ in _The University of Chicago_
+
+ALBERT BRANDT, PUBLISHER
+TRENTON, NEW JERSEY
+MDCCCC
+
+1900
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The aim of this volume is to sketch the history of the monastic
+institution from its origin to its overthrow in the Reformation period,
+for although the institution is by no means now extinct, its power was
+practically broken in the sixteenth century, and no new orders of
+importance or new types have arisen since that time.
+
+A little reflection will enable one to understand the great difficulties
+in the execution of so broad a purpose. It was impracticable in the
+majority of instances to consult original sources, although intermediate
+authorities have been studied as widely as possible and the greatest
+caution has been exercised to avoid those errors which naturally arise
+from the use of such avenues of information. It was also deemed
+unadvisable to burden the work with numerous notes and citations. Such
+notes as were necessary to a true unfolding of the subject will be found
+in the appendix.
+
+A presentation of the salient features of the whole history was
+essential to a proper conception of the orderly development of the
+ascetic ideal. To understand the monastic institution one must not only
+study the isolated anchorite seeking a victory over a sinful self in the
+Egyptian desert or the monk in the secluded cloister, but he must also
+trace the fortunes of ascetic organizations, involving multitudes of
+men, vast aggregations of wealth, and surviving the rise and fall of
+empires. Almost every phase of human life is encountered in such an
+undertaking. Attention is divided between hermits, beggars,
+diplomatists, statesmen, professors, missionaries and pontiffs. It is
+hoped the critical or literary student will appreciate the immense
+difficulties of an attempt to paint so vast a scene on so small a
+canvas. No other claim is made upon his benevolence.
+
+There is a process of writing history which Trench describes as "a moral
+whitewashing of such things as in men's sight were as blackamoors
+before." Religious or temperamental prejudice often obscures the vision
+and warps the judgment of even the most scholarly minds. Conscious of
+this infirmity in the ablest writers of history it would be absurd to
+claim complete exemption from the power of personal bias. It is
+sincerely hoped, however, that the strongest passion in the preparation
+of this work has been that commendable predilection for truth and
+justice which should characterize every historical narrative, and that,
+whatever other shortcomings may be found herein, there is an absence of
+that unreasonable suspicion, not to say hatred, of everything monastic,
+which mars many otherwise valuable contributions to monastic history.
+
+The author's grateful acknowledgment is made, for kindly services and
+critical suggestions, to Eri Baker Hulbert, D.D., LL.D., Dean of the
+Divinity School, and Professor and Head of the Department of Church
+History; Franklin Johnson, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Church History and
+Homiletics; Benjamin S. Terry, Ph.D., Professor of Medieval and English
+History; and Ralph C.H. Catterall, Instructor in Modern History; all of
+The University of Chicago. Also to James M. Whiton, Ph.D., of the
+Editorial Staff of "The Outlook"; Ephraim Emerton, Ph.D., Winn Professor
+of Ecclesiastical History in Harvard University; S. Giffard Nelson,
+L.H.D., of Brooklyn, New York; A.H. Newman, D.D., LL.D., Professor of
+Church History in McMaster University of Toronto, Ontario; and Paul Van
+Dyke, D.D., Professor of History in Princeton University.
+
+A.W.W.
+Trenton, March, 1900.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                                        Page
+PREFACE,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .      5
+BIBLIOGRAPHY,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     13
+
+                   I
+
+MONASTICISM IN THE EAST, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     17
+  The Hermits of Egypt,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     33
+  The Pillar Saint,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     51
+  The Cenobites of the East,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     57
+
+                   II
+
+MONASTICISM IN THE WEST: ANTE-BENEDICTINE MONKS,
+    340-480 A.D.,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     71
+  Monasticism and Women, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    106
+  The Spread of Monasticism in Europe,  .  .  .  .  .    115
+  Disorders and Oppositions,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    124
+
+                   III
+
+THE BENEDICTINES,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    131
+  The Rules of Benedict, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    138
+  The Struggle Against Barbarism, .  .  .  .  .  .  .    148
+  The Spread of the Benedictine Rule,   .  .  .  .  .    158
+
+                   IV
+
+REFORMED AND MILITARY ORDERS,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    173
+  The Military Religious Orders,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    197
+
+                   V
+
+THE MENDICANT FRIARS, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    205
+  Francis Bernardone, 1182-1226 A.D.,   .  .  .  .  .    208
+  The Franciscan Orders, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    226
+  Dominic de Guzman, 1170--1221 A.D.,   .  .  .  .  .    230
+  The Dominican Orders,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    241
+  The Success of the Mendicant Orders,  .  .  .  .  .    242
+  The Decline of the Mendicants,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    253
+
+                  VI
+
+THE SOCIETY OF JESUS, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    258
+  Ignatius de Loyola, 1491-1556 A.D.,   .  .  .  .  .    261
+  Constitution and Polity of the Order, .  .  .  .  .    265
+  The Vow of Obedience,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    266
+  The Casuistry of the Jesuits,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .    272
+  The Mission of the Jesuits,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    276
+  Retrospect,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    284
+
+                  VII
+
+THE FALL OF THE MONASTERIES,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    286
+  The Character of Henry VIII.,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .    290
+  Events Preceding the Suppression,  .  .  .  .  .  .    293
+  The Monks and the Oath of Supremacy,  .  .  .  .  .    301
+  The Royal Commissioners and their Methods of
+    Investigation, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    308
+  The Report of the Commissioners,   .  .  .  .  .  .    316
+  The Action of Parliament, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    319
+  The Effect of the Suppression Upon the People, .  .    322
+  Henry's Disposal of Monastic Revenues,   .  .  .  .    328
+  Was the Suppression Justifiable?   .  .  .  .  .  .    331
+  Results of the Dissolution,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    347
+
+                   VIII
+
+CAUSES AND IDEALS OF MONASTICISM, .  .  .  .  .  .  .    354
+  Causative Motives of Monasticism,  .  .  .  .  .  .    355
+  Beliefs Affecting the Causative Motives, .  .  .  .    365
+  Causes of Variations in Monasticism,  .  .  .  .  .    371
+  The Fundamental Monastic Vows,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    375
+
+                    IX
+
+THE EFFECTS OF MONASTICISM, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    386
+  The Effects of Self-Sacrifice Upon the Individual,     390
+  The Effects of Solitude Upon the Individual,   .  .    393
+  The Monks as Missionaries,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    398
+  Monasticism and Civic Duties,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .    399
+  The Agricultural Services of the Monks,  .  .  .  .    403
+  The Monks and Secular Learning, .  .  .  .  .  .  .    405
+  The Charity of the Monks, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    410
+  Monasticism and Religion, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    412
+
+APPENDIX, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    425
+INDEX, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    433
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LIST OF PORTRAITS
+
+SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI, DYING, is CONVEYED TO THE
+CHURCH OF SAINTE MARIE DE PORTIUNCULE,  .  .  .  .  _facing title_.
+
+After the painting by J.J. Weerts. Originally published by
+Goupil & Co. of Paris, and here reproduced by their permission.
+
+     [Jean Joseph Weerts was born at Roubaix (Nord), on May 1,
+     1847. He was a pupil of Cabanel, Mils and Pils. He was
+     awarded the second-class medal in 1875, was made Chevalier of
+     the Legion of Honor in 1884, received the silver medal at the
+     Universal Exposition of 1889, and was created an Officer of
+     the Legion of Honor in 1897. He is a member of the "Société
+     des Artistes Français," and is _hors concours_.]
+
+SAINT BERNARD, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    192
+
+After an engraving by Ambroise Tardieu, from a painting on glass
+in the Convent of the R.P. Minimes, at Rheims.
+
+     [Ambroise Tardieu was born in Paris, in 1790, and died in
+     1837. He was an engraver of portraits, landscapes and
+     architecture, and a clever manipulator of the burin. For a
+     time he held the position of "Geographical Engraver" to the
+     Departments of Marine, Fortifications and Forests. He was a
+     member of the French Geographical and Mathematical
+     Societies.]--_Nagler_.
+
+SAINT DOMINIC, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    230
+
+From a photograph of Bozzani's painting, preserved in his cell at
+Santa Sabina, Rome. Here reproduced from Augusta T. Drane's
+"History of St. Dominic," by courtesy of the author and the publishers,
+Longmans, Green & Co., of London and New York.
+
+     ["Although several so-called portraits (of St. Dominic) are
+     preserved, yet none of them can be regarded as the _vera
+     effigies_ of the saint, though that preserved at Santa Sabina
+     probably presents us with a kind of traditionary
+     likeness."]--_History of St. Dominic_.
+
+     [In the "History of St. Dominic," on page 226, the author
+     credits the portrait shown to "Bozzani." We are unable to
+     find any record of a painter by that name. Nagler, however,
+     tells of a painter of portraits and historical subjects,
+     Carlo Bozzoni by name, who was born in 1607 and died in 1657.
+     He was a son of Luciano Bozzoni, a Genoese painter and
+     engraver. He is said to have done good work, but no other
+     mention is made of him.]
+
+IGNATIUS DE LOYOLA,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    261
+
+After the engraving by Greatbach, "from a scarce print by H.
+Wierz." Originally published by Richard Bentley, London, in 1842.
+
+     [W. Greatbach was a London engraver in the first half of the
+     nineteenth century. He worked chiefly for the "calendars" and
+     "annuals" of his time, and did notable work for the general
+     book trade of the better class.]
+
+     [A search of the authorities does not reveal an engraver
+     named "H. Wierz." This is probably intended for Hieronymus
+     Wierex (or Wierix, according to Bryant), a famous engraver,
+     born in 1552, and who is credited by Nagler, in his
+     "Künstler-Lexikon," with having produced "a beautiful and
+     rare plate" of "St. Ignaz von Loyola." The error, if such it
+     be, is easily explained by the fact that portrait engravers
+     seldom cut the lettering of a plate themselves, but have it
+     engraved by others, who have a special aptitude for making
+     shapely letters.]
+
+
+
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+  Empire.
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+  of Europe.
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+GNEIST, RUDOLPH: The English Parliament.
+GREEN, JOHN RICHARD: History of the English People.
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+  Church.
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+LORD, JOHN: The Old Roman World.
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+MACKINTOSH, JAMES: History of England.
+MAITLAND, SAMUEL R.: The Dark Ages.
+MAITLAND, SAMUEL R.: Essays on the Reformation.
+MATHEWS, SHAILER: Social Teachings of Jesus.
+MILMAN, HENRY H.: The History of Latin Christianity.
+MILMAN, HENRY H.: The History of Christianity.
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+  and Church.
+OLIPHANT, MARY O.W.: Life of St. Francis of Assisi.
+PARKMAN, FRANCIS: The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth
+  Century.
+PIKE, LUKE OWEN: A History of Crime in England.
+PUTNAM, G.H.: Books and Their Makers in the Middle Ages.
+READE, CHARLES: The Cloister and the Hearth.
+RUFFNER, H.: The Fathers of the Desert.
+SABATIER, PAUL: Life of St. Francis of Assisi.
+SCHAFF, PHILIP: History of the Christian Church.
+SCHAFF, PHILIP, and WACE, HENRY, (Editors): The Nicene and
+  Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church. (Lives and
+  writings of Jerome, Athanasius, Cassian, St. Martin of Tours,
+  and other early supporters of the monastic movement).
+SCOTT, WALTER: The Monastery.
+SCOTT, WALTER: The Abbot.
+SIENKIEWICZ, HENRY K.: The Knights of the Cross.
+SMITH, PHILIP: Student's Ecclesiastical History.
+SMITH, R.F.: St. Basil.
+STANLEY, ARTHUR P.: History of the Eastern Church.
+STILLÉ, CHARLES J.: Studies in Medieval History.
+STORRS, RICHARD S.: Bernard of Clairvaux.
+STRYPE, J.: Annals of the Reformation.
+STUBBS, WILLIAM: Lectures on the Study of Medieval History.
+TAUNTON, ETHELRED L.: The English Black Monks of St. Benedict.
+THOMPSON, R.W.: The Footprints of the Jesuits.
+THURSTON, H.: The Life of St. Hugh of Lincoln.
+TRAILL, H.D.: Social England.
+TRENCH, RICHARD C.: Lectures on Medieval Church History.
+TREVELYAN, GEORGE M.: England in the Age of Wycliffe.
+VAUGHAN, ROBERT: Revolutions in English History.
+VAUGHAN, ROBERT: Hours with the Mystics.
+WADDINGTON, GEORGE: History of the Church.
+WATERMAN, LUCIUS: The Post-Apostolic Age.
+WHITE, A.D.: A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology.
+WHITE, JAMES: The Eighteen Christian Centuries.
+WOODHOUSE, FREDERICK C.: The Military Religious Orders of
+  the Middle Ages.
+
+ENCYCLOPÆDIAS: McClintock and Strong, Schaff-Herzog, Brittanica,
+  English, and Johnson. (Articles on "Monasticism,"
+  "Benedict," "Francis," "Dominic," "Loyola," etc.)
+
+Many other authorities were consulted by the author, but only
+those works that are easily accessible and likely to prove of direct value
+to the student are cited above.
+
+
+
+MONKS
+
+AND MONASTERIES
+
+I
+
+_MONASTICISM IN THE EAST_
+
+The monk is a type of religious character by no means peculiar to
+Christianity. Every great religion in ancient and modern times has
+expressed itself in some form of monastic life.
+
+The origin of the institution is lost in antiquity. Its genesis and
+gradual progress through the centuries are like the movement of a mighty
+river springing from obscure sources, but gathering volume by the
+contributions of a multitude of springs, brooks, and lesser rivers,
+entering the main stream at various stages in its progress. While the
+mysterious source of the monastic stream may not be found, it is easy to
+discover many different influences and causes that tended to keep the
+mighty current flowing majestically on. It is not so easy to determine
+which of these forces was the greatest.
+
+"Monasticism," says Schaff, "proceeds from religious seriousness,
+enthusiasm and ambition; from a sense of the vanity of the world, and an
+inclination of noble souls toward solitude, contemplation, and freedom
+from the bonds of the flesh and the temptations of the world." A strong
+ascetic tendency in human nature, particularly active in the Orient,
+undoubtedly explains in a general way the origin and growth of the
+institution. Various forms of philosophy and religious belief fostered
+this monastic inclination from time to time by imparting fresh impetus
+to the desire for soul-purity or by deepening the sense of disgust with
+the world.
+
+India is thought by some to have been the birthplace of the institution.
+In the sacred writings of the venerable Hindûs, portions of which have
+been dated as far back as 2400 B.C., there are numerous legends about
+holy monks and many ascetic rules. Although based on opposite
+philosophical principles, the earlier Brahminism and the later system,
+Buddhism, each tended toward ascetic practices, and they each boast
+to-day of long lines of monks and nuns.
+
+The Hindoo (Brahmin) ascetic, or naked philosopher, as the Greeks called
+him, exhausted his imagination in devising schemes of self-torture. He
+buried himself with his nose just above the ground, or wore an iron
+collar, or suspended weights from his body. He clenched his fists until
+the nails grew into his palms, or kept his head turned in one direction
+until he was unable to turn it back. He was a miracle-worker, an oracle
+of wisdom, and an honored saint. He was bold, spiritually proud, capable
+of almost superhuman endurance. We will meet him again in the person of
+his Christian descendant on the banks of the Nile.
+
+The Buddhist ascetic was, perhaps, less severe with himself, but the
+general spirit and form of the institution was and is the same as among
+the Brahmins. In each religion we observe the same selfish
+individualism,--a desire to save one's own soul by slavish obedience to
+ascetic rules,--the extinction of natural desires by self-punishment.
+"A Brahmin who wishes to become an ascetic," says Clarke, "must abandon
+his home and family and go live in the forest. His food must be roots
+and fruit, his clothing a bark garment or a skin, he must bathe morning
+and evening, and suffer his hair to grow."
+
+The fact to be remembered, however, is that in India, centuries before
+the Christian Era, there existed both phases of Christian monasticism,
+the hermit[A] and the crowded convent.
+
+[Footnote A: Appendix, Note A.]
+
+Dhaquit, a Chaldean ascetic, who is said to have lived about 2000 B.C.,
+is reported to have earnestly rebuked those who tried to preserve the
+body from decay by artificial resources. "Not by natural means," he
+said, "can man preserve his body from corruption and dissolution after
+death, but only through good deeds, religious exercises and offering of
+sacrifices,--by invoking the gods by their great and beautiful names, by
+prayers during the night, and fasts during the day."
+
+When Father Bury, a Portuguese missionary, first saw the Chinese bonzes,
+tonsured and using their rosaries, he cried out, "There is not a single
+article of dress, or a sacerdotal function, or a single ceremony of the
+Romish church, which the Devil has not imitated in this country." I have
+not the courage to follow this streamlet back into the devil's heart.
+The attempt would be too daring. Who invented shaved heads and monkish
+gowns and habits, we cannot tell, but this we know: long before Father
+Bury saw and described those things in China, there existed in India the
+Grand Lama or head monk, with monasteries under him, filled with monks
+who kept the three vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. They had
+their routine of prayers, of fasts and of labors, like the Christian
+monks of the middle ages.
+
+Among the Greeks there were many philosophers who taught ascetic
+principles. Pythagoras, born about 580 B.C., established a religious
+brotherhood in which he sought to realize a high ideal of friendship.
+His whole plan singularly suggests monasticism. His rules provided for a
+rigid self-examination and unquestioning submission to a master. Many
+authorities claim that the influence of the Pythagorean philosophy was
+strongly felt in Egypt and Palestine, after the time of Christ. "Certain
+it is that more than two thousand years before Ignatius Loyola assembled
+the nucleus of his great society in his subterranean chapel in the city
+of Paris, there was founded at Crotona, in Greece, an order of monks
+whose principles, constitution, aims, method and final end entitle them
+to be called 'The Pagan Jesuits[B].'"
+
+[Footnote B: Appendix, Note B.]
+
+The teachings of Plato, no doubt, had a powerful monastic influence,
+under certain social conditions, upon later thinkers and upon those who
+yearned for victory over the flesh. Plato strongly insisted on an ideal
+life in which higher pleasures are preferred to lower. Earthly thoughts
+and ambitions are to yield before a holy communion with the Divine. Some
+of his views "might seem like broken visions of the future, when we
+think of the first disciples who had all things in common, and, in later
+days, of the celibate clergy, and the cloisteral life of the religious
+orders." The effect of such philosophy in times of general corruption
+upon those who wished to acquire exceptional moral and intellectual
+power, and who felt unable to cope with the temptations of social life,
+may be easily imagined. It meant, in many cases, a retreat from the
+world to a life of meditation and soul-conflict. In later times it
+exercised a marked influence upon ascetic literature.
+
+Coming closer to Christianity in time and in teaching, we find a Jewish
+sect, called Essenes, living in the region of the Dead Sea, which bore
+remarkable resemblances to Christian monasticism. The origin and
+development of this band, which numbered four thousand about the time of
+Christ, are unknown. Even the derivation of the name is in doubt, there
+being at least twenty proposed explanations. The sect is described by
+Philo, an Alexandrian-Jewish philosopher, who was born about 25 B.C.,
+and by Josephus, the Jewish historian, who was born at Jerusalem A.D.
+37. These writers evidently took pains to secure the facts, and from
+their accounts, upon which modern discussions of the subject are largely
+based, the following facts are gleaned.
+
+The Essenes were a sect outside the Jewish ecclesiastical body, bound by
+strict vows and professing an extraordinary purity. While there were no
+vows of extreme penance, they avoided cities as centers of immorality,
+and, with some exceptions, eschewed marriage. They held aloof from
+traffic, oaths, slave-holding, and weapons of offence. They were strict
+Sabbath observers, wore a uniform robe, possessed all things in common,
+engaged in manual labor, abstained from forbidden food, and probably
+rejected the bloody sacrifices of the Temple, although continuing to
+send their thank-offerings. Novitiates were kept on probation three
+years. The strictest discipline was maintained, excommunication
+following detection in heinous sins. Evidently the standard of character
+was pure and lofty, since their emphasis on self-mastery did not end in
+absurd extravagances. Their frugal food, simple habits, and love of
+cleanliness; combined with a regard for ethical principles, conduced to
+a high type of life. Edersheim remarks, "We can scarcely wonder that
+such Jews as Josephus and Philo, and such heathens as Pliny, were
+attracted by such an unworldly and lofty sect."
+
+Some writers maintain that they were also worshipers of the sun, and
+hence that their origin is to be traced to Persian sources. Even if so,
+they seemed to have escaped that confused and mystical philosophy which
+has robbed Oriental thought of much power in the realm of practical
+life. Philo says, "Of philosophy, the dialectical department, as being
+in no wise necessary for the acquisition of virtue, they abandon to the
+word-catchers; and the part which treats of the nature of things, as
+being beyond human nature, they leave to speculative air-gazers, with
+the exception of that part of it which deals with the subsistance of God
+and the genesis of all things; but the ethical they right well
+work out."
+
+Pliny the elder, who lived A.D. 23-79, made the following reference to
+the Essenes, which is especially interesting because of the tone of
+sadness and weariness with the world suggested in its praise of this
+Jewish sect. "On the western shore (of the Dead Sea) but distant from
+the sea far enough to escape from its noxious breezes, dwelt the
+Essenes. They are an eremite clan, one marvelous beyond all others in
+the whole world; without any women, with sexual intercourse entirely
+given up, without money, and the associates of palm trees. Daily is the
+throng of those that crowd about them renewed, men resorting to them in
+numbers, driven through weariness of existence, and the surges of
+ill-fortune, to their manner of life. Thus it is that through thousands
+of ages--incredible to relate!--their society, in which no one is born,
+lives on perennial. So fruitful to them is the irksomeness of life
+experienced by other men."
+
+Admission to the order was granted only to adults, yet children were
+sometimes adopted for training in the principles of the sect. Some
+believed in marriage as a means of perpetuating the order.
+
+Since it would not throw light on our present inquiry, the mooted
+question as to the connection of Essenism and the teachings of Jesus may
+be passed by. The differences are as great as the resemblances and the
+weight of opinion is against any vital relation.
+
+The character of this sect conclusively shows that some of the elements
+of Christian monasticism existed in the time of Jesus, not only in
+Palestine but in other countries. In an account of the Therapeutæ, or
+true devotees, an ascetic body similar to the Essenes, Philo says,
+"There are many parts of the world in which this class may be found....
+They are, however, in greatest abundance in Egypt."
+
+During Apostolic times various teachings and practices were current that
+may be characterized as ascetic. The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the
+Colossians, doubtless had in mind a sect or school which despised the
+body and abstained from meats and wine. A false asceticism, gathering
+inspiration from pagan philosophy, was rapidly spreading among
+Christians even at that early day. The teachings of the Gnostics, a
+speculative sect of many schools, became prominent in the closing days
+of the Apostolic age or very soon thereafter. Many of these schools
+claimed a place in the church, and professed a higher life and knowledge
+than ordinary Christians possessed. The Gnostics believed in the
+complete subjugation of the body by austere treatment.
+
+The Montanists, so called after Montanus, their famous leader, arose in
+Asia Minor during the second century, when Marcus Aurelius was emperor.
+Schaff describes the movement as "a morbid exaggeration of Christian
+ideas and demands." It was a powerful and frantic protest against the
+growing laxity of the church. It despised ornamental dress and
+prescribed numerous fasts and severities.
+
+These facts and many others that might be mentioned throw light on our
+inquiry in several ways. They show that asceticism was in the air. The
+literature, philosophy and religion of the day drifted toward an ascetic
+scheme of life and stimulated the tendency to acquire holiness, even at
+the cost of innocent joys and natural gratifications. They show that
+worldliness was advancing in the church, which called for rebuke and a
+return to Apostolic Christianity; that the church was failing to satisfy
+the highest cravings of the soul. True, it was well-nigh impossible for
+the church, in the midst of such a powerful and corrupt heathen
+environment, to keep itself up to its standards.
+
+It is a common tradition that in the first three centuries the practices
+and spirit of the church were comparatively pure and elevated. Harnack
+says, "This tradition is false. The church was already secularized to a
+great extent in the middle of the third century." She was "no longer in
+a position to give peace to all sorts and conditions of men." It was
+then that the great exodus of Christians from the villages and cities to
+mountains and deserts began. Although from the time of Christ on there
+were always some who understood Christianity to demand complete
+separation from all earthly pleasures, yet it was three hundred years
+and more before large numbers began to adopt a hermit's life as the only
+method of attaining salvation. "They fled not only from the world, but
+from the world within the church. Nevertheless, they did not flee out of
+the church."
+
+We can now see why no definite cause for the monastic institution can be
+given and no date assigned for its origin. It did not commence at any
+fixed time and definite place. Various philosophies and religious
+customs traveled for centuries from country to country, resulting in
+singular resemblances and differences between different ascetic or
+monastic sects. Christian monasticism was slowly evolved, and gradually
+assumed definite organization as a product of a curious medley of
+Heathen-Jewish-Christian influences.
+
+A few words should be said here concerning the influence of the Bible
+upon monasticism. Naturally the Christian hermits and early fathers
+appealed to the Bible in support of their teachings and practices. It is
+not necessary, at this point, to discuss the correctness of their
+interpretations. The simple fact is that many passages of scripture were
+considered as commands to attain perfection by extraordinary sacrifices,
+and certain Biblical characters were reverenced as shining monastic
+models. In the light of the difficulties of Biblical criticism it is
+easy to forgive them if they were mistaken, a question to be discussed
+farther on. They read of those Jewish prophets described in Hebrews:
+"They went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; ... wandering in deserts
+and mountains and caves, and the holes of the earth." They pointed to
+Elijah and his school of prophets; to John the Baptist, with his raiment
+of camel's hair and a leathern girdle about his loins, whose meat was
+locusts and wild honey. They recalled the commandment of Jesus to the
+rich young man to sell all his possessions and give to the poor. They
+quoted the words, "Take no thought for the morrow what ye shall eat and
+what ye shall drink or wherewithal ye shall be clothed." They construed
+following Christ to mean in His own words, "forsaking father, mother,
+brethren, wife, children, houses and lands." They pointed triumphantly
+to the Master himself, unmarried and poor, who had not "where to lay his
+head." They appealed to Paul's doctrine of marriage. They remembered
+that the Church at Jerusalem was composed of those who sold their
+possessions and had all things in common. Whatever these and numerous
+other passages may truly mean, they interpreted them in favor of a
+monastic mode of life; they understood them to teach isolation,
+fastings, severities, and other forms of rigorous self-denial. Accepting
+Scripture in this sense, they trampled upon human affection and gave
+away their property, that they might please God and save their souls.
+
+Between the time of Christ and Paul of Thebes, who died in the first
+half of the fourth century, and who is usually recognized as the founder
+of monasticism, many Christian disciples voluntarily abandoned their
+wealth, renounced marriage and adopted an ascetic mode of life, while
+still living in or near the villages or cities. As the corruption of
+society and the despair of men became more widespread, these anxious
+Christians wandered farther and farther away from fixed habitations
+until, in an excess of spiritual fervor, they found themselves in the
+caves of the mountains, desolate and dreary, where no sound of human
+voice broke in upon the silence. The companions of wild beasts, they
+lived in rapt contemplation on the eternal mysteries of this most
+strange world.
+
+My task now is to describe some of those recluses who still live in the
+biographies of the saints and the traditions of the church. Ducis, while
+reading of these hermits, wrote to a friend as follows: "I am now
+reading the lives of the Fathers of the Desert. I am dwelling with St.
+Pachomius, the founder of the monastery at Tabenna. Truly there is a
+charm in transporting one's self to that land of the angels--one could
+not wish ever to come out of it." Whether the reader will call these
+strange characters angels, and will wish he could have shared their beds
+of stone and midnight vigils, I will not venture to say, but at all
+events his visit will be made as pleasant as possible.
+
+In writing the life of Mahomet, Carlyle said, "As there is no danger of
+our becoming, any of us, Mahometans, I mean to say all the good of
+Mahomet I justly can." So, without distorting the picture that has come
+down to us, I mean to say all the good of these Egyptian hermits that
+the facts will justify.
+
+
+
+_The Hermits of Egypt_
+
+Egypt was the mother of Christian monasticism, as she has been of many
+other wonders.
+
+Vast solitudes; lonely mountains, honey-combed with dens and caves; arid
+valleys and barren hills; dreary deserts that glistened under the
+blinding glare of the sun that poured its heat upon them steadily all
+the year; strange, grotesque rocks and peaks that assumed all sorts of
+fantastic shapes to the overwrought fancy; in many places no water, no
+verdure, and scarcely a thing in motion; the crocodile and the bird
+lazily seeking their necessary food and stirring only as compelled;
+unbounded expanse in the wide star-lit heavens; unbroken quiet on the
+lonely mountains--a fit home for the hermit, a paradise to the lover of
+solitude and peace.
+
+Of life under such conditions Kingsley has said: "They enjoyed nature,
+not so much for her beauty as for her perfect peace. Day by day the
+rocks remained the same. Silently out of the Eastern desert, day by day,
+the rising sun threw aloft those arrows of light which the old Greeks
+had named 'the rosy fingers of the dawn.' Silently he passed in full
+blaze above their heads throughout the day, and silently he dipped
+behind the Western desert in a glory of crimson and orange, green and
+purple.... Day after day, night after night, that gorgeous pageant
+passed over the poor hermit's head without a sound, and though sun, moon
+and planet might change their places as the years rolled round, the
+earth beneath his feet seemed not to change." As for the companionless
+men, who gazed for years upon this glorious scene, they too were of
+unusual character, Waddington finely says: "The serious enthusiasm of
+the natives of Egypt and Asia, that combination of indolence and energy,
+of the calmest languor with the fiercest passions, ... disposed them to
+embrace with eagerness the tranquil but exciting duties of religious
+seclusion." Yes, here are the angels of Ducis in real flesh and blood.
+They revel in the wildest eccentricities with none to molest or make
+afraid, always excepting the black demons from the spiritual world. One
+dwells in a cave in the bowels of the earth; one lies on the sand
+beneath a blazing sun; one has shut himself forever from the sight of
+man in a miserable hut among the bleak rocks of yonder projecting peak;
+one rests with joy in the marshes, breathing with gratitude the
+pestilential vapors.
+
+Some of these saints became famous for piety and miraculous power.
+Athanasius, fleeing from persecution, visited them, and Jerome sought
+them out to learn from their own lips the stories of their lives. To
+these men and to others we are indebted for much of our knowledge
+concerning this chapter of man's history. Less than fifty years after
+Paul of Thebes died, or about 375 A.D., Jerome wrote the story of his
+life, which Schaff justly characterizes as "a pious romance." From
+Jerome we gather the following account: Paul was the real founder of the
+hermit life, although not the first to bear the name. During the Decian
+persecution, when churches were laid waste and Christians were slain
+with barbarous cruelty, Paul and his sister were bereaved of both their
+parents. He was then a lad of sixteen, an inheritor of wealth and
+skilled for one of his years in Greek and Egyptian learning. He was of a
+gentle and loving disposition. On account of his riches he was denounced
+as a Christian by an envious brother-in-law and compelled to flee to the
+mountains in order to save his life. He took up his abode in a cave
+shaded by a palm that afforded him food and clothing. "And that no one
+may deem this impossible," affirms Jerome, "I call to witness Jesus and
+his holy angels that I have seen and still see in that part of the
+desert which lies between Syria and the Saracens' country, monks of whom
+one was shut up for thirty years and lived on barley bread and muddy
+water, while another in an old cistern kept himself alive on five dried
+figs a day."
+
+It is impossible to determine how much of the story which follows is
+historically true. Undoubtedly, it contains little worthy of belief, but
+it gives us some faint idea of how these hermits lived. Its chief value
+consists in the fact that it preserves a fragment of the monastic
+literature of the times--a story which was once accepted as a credible
+narrative. Imagine the influence of such a tale, when believed to be
+true, upon a mind inclined to embrace the doctrines of asceticism. Its
+power at that time is not to be measured by its reliability now. Jerome
+himself declares in the prologue that many incredible things were
+related of Paul which he will not repeat. After reading the following
+story, the reader may well inquire what more fanciful tale could be
+produced even by a writer of fiction.
+
+The blessed Paul was now one hundred and thirteen years old, and
+Anthony, who dwelt in another place of solitude, was at the age of
+ninety. In the stillness of the night it was revealed to Anthony that
+deeper in the desert there was a better man than he, and that he ought
+to see him. So, at the break of day, the venerable old man, supporting
+and guiding his weak limbs with a staff, started out, whither he knew
+not. At scorching noontide he beholds a fellow-creature, half man, half
+horse, called by the poets Hippo-centaur. After gnashing outlandish
+utterances, this monster, in words broken, rather than spoken, through
+his bristling lips, points out the way with his right hand and swiftly
+vanishes from the hermit's sight. Anthony, amazed, proceeds thoughtfully
+on his way when a mannikin, with hooked snout, horned forehead and
+goat's feet, stands before him and offers him food. Anthony asks who he
+is. The beast thus replies: "I am a mortal being, and one of those
+inhabitants of the desert, whom the Gentiles deluded by various forms of
+error worship, under the name of Fauns and Satyrs." As he utters these
+and other words, tears stream down the aged traveler's face! He rejoices
+over the glory of God and the destruction of Satan. Striking the ground
+with his staff, he exclaims, "Woe to thee, Alexandria, who, instead of
+God, worshipest monsters! Woe to thee, harlot city, into which have
+flowed together the demons of the world! What will you say now? Beasts
+speak of Christ, and you, instead of God, worship monsters." "Let none
+scruple to believe this incident," says the chronicler, "for a man of
+this kind was brought alive to Alexandria and the people saw him; when
+he died his body was preserved in salt and brought to Antioch that the
+Emperor might view him."
+
+Anthony continues to traverse the wild region into which he had entered.
+There is no trace of human beings. The darkness of the second night
+wears away in prayer. At day-break he beholds far away a she-wolf
+gasping with parched thirst and creeping into a cave. He draws near and
+peers within. All is dark, but perfect love casteth out fear. With
+halting step and bated breath, he enters. After a while a light gleams
+in the distant midnight darkness. With eagerness he presses forward, but
+his foot strikes against a stone and arouses the echoes; whereupon the
+blessed Paul closes the door and makes it fast. For hours Anthony lay at
+the door craving admission. "I know I am not worthy," he humbly cries,
+"yet unless I see you I will not turn away. You welcome beasts, why not
+a man? If I fail, I will die here on your threshold."
+
+     "Such was his constant cry; unmoved he stood,
+      To whom the hero thus brief answer made."
+
+"Prayers like these do not mean threats, there is no trickery in tears."
+So, with smiles, Paul gives him entrance and the two aged hermits fall
+into each other's embrace. Together they converse of things human and
+divine, Paul, close to the dust of the grave, asks, Are new houses
+springing up in ancient cities? What government directs the world?
+Little did this recluse know of his fellow-beings and how fared it with
+the children of men who dwelt in those great cities around the blue
+Mediterranean. He was dead to the world and knew it no more.
+
+A raven brought the aged brothers bread to eat and the hours glided
+swiftly away. Anthony returned to get a cloak which Athanasius had given
+him in which to wrap the body of Paul. So eager was he to behold again
+his newly-found friend that he set out without even a morsel of bread,
+thirsting to see him. But when yet three days' journey from the cave he
+saw Paul on high among the angels. Weeping, he trudged on his way. On
+entering the cave he saw the lifeless body kneeling, with head erect and
+hands uplifted. He tenderly wrapped the body in the cloak and began to
+lament that he had no implements to dig a grave. But Providence sent two
+lions from the recesses of the mountain that came rushing with flying
+manes. Roaring, as if they too mourned, they pawed the earth and thus
+the grave was dug. Anthony, bending his aged shoulders beneath the
+burden of the saint's body, laid it lovingly in the grave and departed.
+
+Jerome closes this account by challenging those who do not know the
+extent of their possessions,--who adorn their homes with marble and who
+string house to house,--to say what this old man in his nakedness ever
+lacked. "Your drinking vessels are of precious stones; he satisfied his
+thirst with the hollow of his hand. Your tunics are wrought of gold; he
+had not the raiment of your meanest slave. But on the other hand, poor
+as he was, Paradise is open to him; you, with all your gold, will be
+received into Gehenna. He, though naked, yet kept the robe of Christ;
+you, clad in your silks, have lost the vesture of Christ. Paul lies
+covered with worthless dust, but will rise again to glory; over you are
+raised costly tombs, but both you and your wealth are doomed to burning.
+I beseech you, reader, whoever you may be, to remember Jerome the
+sinner. He, if God would give him his choice, would sooner take Paul's
+tunics with his merits, than the purple of kings with their punishment."
+
+Such was the story circulated among rich and poor, appealing with
+wondrous force to the hearts of men in those wretched years.
+
+What was the effect upon the mind of the thoughtful? If he believed such
+teaching, weary of the wickedness of the age, and moved by his noblest
+sentiments, he sold his tunics wrought of gold and fled from his palaces
+of marble to the desert solitudes.
+
+But the monastic story that most strongly impressed the age now under
+consideration, was the biography of Anthony, "the patriarch of monks"
+and virtual founder of Christian monasticism. It was said to have been
+written by Athanasius, the famous defender of orthodoxy and Archbishop
+of Alexandria; yet some authorities reject his authorship. It exerted a
+power over the minds of men beyond all human estimate. It scattered the
+seeds of asceticism wherever it was read. Traces of its influence are
+found all over the Roman empire, in Egypt, Asia Minor, Palestine, Italy
+and Gaul. Knowing the character of Athanasius, we may rest assured that
+he sincerely believed all he really recorded (it is much interpolated)
+of the strange life of Anthony, and, true or false, thousands of others
+believed in him and in his story. Augustine, the great theologian of
+immortal fame, acknowledged that this book was one of the influences
+that led to his conversion, and Jerome, whose life I will review later,
+was mightily swayed by it.
+
+Anthony was born about 251 A.D., in Upper Egypt, of wealthy and noble
+parentage. He was a pious child, an obedient son, and a lover of
+solitude and books. His parents died when he was about twenty years old,
+leaving to his care their home and his little sister. One day, as he
+entered the church, meditating on the poverty of Christ, a theme much
+reflected upon in those days, he heard these words read from the pulpit,
+"If thou wouldst be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast, and give to
+the poor, and come, follow me." As if the call came straight from heaven
+to his own soul, he left the church at once and made over his farm to
+the people of the village. He sold his personal possessions for a large
+sum, and distributed the proceeds among the poor, reserving a little for
+his sister. Still he was unsatisfied. Entering the church on another
+occasion, he heard our Lord saying in the gospel, "Take no thought for
+the morrow." The clouds cleared away. His anxious search for truth and
+duty was at an end. He went out and gave away the remnant of his
+belongings. Placing his sister in a convent, the existence of which is
+to be noted, he fled to the desert. Then follows a striking statement,
+"For monasteries were not common in Egypt, nor had any monk at all known
+the great desert; but every one who wished to devote himself to his own
+spiritual welfare performed his exercise alone, not far from
+the village."
+
+Laboring with his hands, recalling texts of Scripture, praying whole
+sleepless nights, fasting for several days at a time, visiting his
+fellow saints, fighting demons, so passed the long years away. He slept
+on a small rush mat, more often on the bare ground. Forgetting past
+austerities, he was ever on the search for some new torture and pressing
+forward to new and strange experiences. He changed his habitation from
+time to time. Now he lived in a tomb, in company with the silent dead;
+then for twenty years in a deserted castle, full of reptiles, never
+going out and rarely seeing any one. From each saint he learned some
+fresh mode of spiritual training, observing his practice for future
+imitation and studying the charms of his Christian character that he
+might reproduce them in his own life; thus he would return richly laden
+to his cell.
+
+But in all these struggles Anthony had one foe--the arch-enemy of all
+good. He suggests impure thoughts, but the saint repels them by prayer;
+he incites to passion, but the hero resists the fiend with fastings and
+faith. Once the dragon, foiled in his attempt to overcome Anthony,
+gnashed his teeth, and coming out of his body, lay at his feet in the
+shape of a little black boy. But the hermit was not beguiled into
+carelessness by this victory. He resolved to chastise himself more
+severely. So he retired to the tombs of the dead. One dark night a crowd
+of demons flogged the saint until he fell to the ground speechless with
+torture. Some friends found him the next day, and thinking that he was
+dead, carried him to the village, where his kinsfolk gathered to mourn
+over his remains. But at midnight he came to himself, and, seeing but
+one acquaintance awake, he begged that he would carry him back to the
+tombs, which was done. Unable to move, he prayed prostrate and sang, "If
+an host be laid against me, yet shall not my heart be afraid." The
+enraged devils made at him again. There was a terrible crash; through
+the walls the fiends came in shapes like beasts and reptiles. In a
+moment the place was filled with lions roaring at him, bulls thrusting
+at him with their horns, creeping serpents unable to reach him, wolves
+held back in the act of springing. There, too, were bears and asps and
+scorpions. Mid the frightful clamor of roars, growls and hisses, rose
+the clear voice of the saint, as he triumphantly mocked the demons in
+their rage. Suddenly the awful tumult ceased; the wretched beings became
+invisible and a ray of light pierced the roof to cheer the prostrate
+hero. His pains ceased. A voice came to him saying, "Thou hast withstood
+and not yielded. I will always be thy helper, and will make thy name
+famous everywhere." Hearing this he rose up and prayed, and was stronger
+in body than ever before.
+
+This is but one of numerous stories chronicling Anthony's struggles with
+the devil. Like conflicts were going on at that hour in many another
+cave in those great and silent mountains.
+
+There are also wondrous tales of his miraculous power. He often
+predicted the coming of sufferers and healed them when they came. His
+fame for curing diseases and casting out devils became so extensive that
+Egypt marveled at his gifts, and saints came even from Rome to see his
+face and to hear his words. His freedom from pride and arrogance was as
+marked as his fame was great. He yielded joyful obedience to presbyters
+and bishops. His countenance was so full of divine grace and heavenly
+beauty as to render him easily distinguishable in a crowd of monks.
+Letters poured in upon him from every part of the empire. Kings wrote
+for his advice, but it neither amazed him nor filled his heart with
+pride. "Wonder not," said he, "if a king writes to us, for he is but a
+man, but wonder rather that God has written His law to man and spoken to
+us by His Son." At his command princes laid aside their crowns, judges
+their magisterial robes, while criminals forsook their lives of crime
+and embraced with joy the life of the desert.
+
+Once, at the earnest entreaty of some magistrates, he came down from the
+mountain that they might see him. Urged to prolong his stay he refused,
+saying, "Fishes, if they lie long on the dry land, die; so monks who
+stay with you lose their strength. As the fishes, then, hasten to the
+sea, so must we to the mountains."
+
+At last the shadows lengthened and waning strength proclaimed that his
+departure was nigh. Bidding farewell to his monks, he retired to an
+inner mountain and laid himself down to die. His countenance brightened
+as if he saw his friends coming to see him, and thus his soul was
+gathered to his fathers. He is said to have been mourned by fifteen
+thousand disciples.
+
+This is the story which moved a dying empire. "Anthony," says
+Athanasius, "became known not by worldly wisdom, nor by any art, but
+solely by piety, and that this was the gift of God who can deny?" The
+purpose of such a life was, so his biographer thought, to light up the
+moral path for men, that they might imbibe a zeal for virtue.
+
+The "Life of St. Anthony" is even more remarkable for its omissions than
+for its incredible tales. While I reserve a more detailed criticism of
+its Christian ideals until a subsequent chapter, it may be well to quote
+here a few words from Isaac Taylor. After pointing out some of its
+defects he continues: there is "not a word of justification by faith;
+not a word of the gracious influence of the Spirit in renewing and
+cleansing the heart; not a word responding to any of those signal
+passages of Scripture which make the Gospel 'Glad Tidings' to guilty
+men." This I must confess to be true, even though I may and do heartily
+esteem the saint's enthusiasm for righteousness.
+
+So far I have described chiefly the spiritual experiences of these men,
+but the details of their physical life are hardly less interesting.
+There was a holy rivalry among them to excel in self-torture. Their
+imaginations were constantly employed in devising unique tests of
+holiness and courage. They lived in holes in the ground or in dried up
+wells; they slept in thorn bushes or passed days and weeks without
+sleep; they courted the company of the wildest beasts and exposed their
+naked bodies to the broiling sun. Macarius became angry because an
+insect bit him and in penitence flung himself into a marsh where he
+lived for weeks. He was so badly stung by gnats and flies that his
+friends hardly knew him. Hilarion, at twenty years of age, was more like
+a spectre than a living man. His cell was only five feet high, a little
+lower than his stature. Some carried weights equal to eighty or one
+hundred and fifty pounds suspended from their bodies. Others slept
+standing against the rocks. For three years, as it is recorded, one of
+them never reclined. In their zeal to obey the Scriptures, they
+overlooked the fact that cleanliness is akin to godliness. It was their
+boast that they never washed. One saint would not even use water to
+drink, but quenched his thirst with the dew that fell on the grass. St.
+Abraham never washed his face for fifty years. His biographer, not in
+the least disturbed by the disagreeable suggestions of this
+circumstance, proudly says, "His face reflected the purity of his soul."
+If so, one is moved to think that the inward light must indeed have been
+powerfully piercing, if it could brighten a countenance unwashed for
+half a century. There is a story about Abbot Theodosius who prayed for
+water that his monks might drink. In response to his petition a stream
+burst from the rocks, but the foolish monks, overcome by a pitiful
+weakness for cleanliness, persuaded the abbot to erect a bath, when lo,
+the stream dried. Supplications and repentance availed nothing. After a
+year had passed, the monks, promising never again to insult Heaven by
+wishing for a bath, were granted a second Mosaic miracle.
+
+Thus, unwashed, clothed in rags, their hair uncut, their faces unshaven,
+they lived for years. No wonder that to their disordered fancy the
+desert was filled with devils, the animals spake and Heaven sent angels
+to minister unto them.
+
+
+
+_The Pillar Saint_
+
+But the strangest of all strange narratives yet remains. We turn from
+Egypt to Asia Minor to make the acquaintance of that saint whom Tennyson
+has immortalized,--the idol of monarchs and the pride of the
+East,--Saint Simeon Stylites. Stories grow rank around him like the
+luxuriant products of a tropical soil. How shall I briefly tell of this
+man, whom Theodoret, in his zeal, declares all who obey the Roman rule
+know--the man who may be compared with Moses the Legislator, David the
+King and Micah the Prophet? He lived between the years 390 and 459 A.D.
+He was a shepherd's son, but at an early age entered a monastery. Here
+he soon distinguished himself by his excessive austerities. One day he
+went to the well, removed the rope from the bucket and bound it tightly
+around his body underneath his clothes. A few weeks later, the abbot,
+being angry with him because of his extreme self-torture, bade his
+companions strip him. What was his astonishment to find the rope from
+the well sunk deeply into his flesh. "Whence," he cried, "has this man
+come to us, wanting to destroy the rule of this monastery? I pray thee
+depart hence."
+
+With great trouble they unwound the rope and the flesh with it, and
+taking care of him until he was well, they sent him forth to commence a
+life of austerities that was to render him famous. He adopted various
+styles of existence, but his miracles and piety attracted such crowds
+that he determined to invent a mode of life which would deliver him from
+the pressing multitudes. It is curious that he did not hide himself
+altogether if he really wished to escape notoriety; but, no, he would
+still be within the gaze of admiring throngs. His holy and fanciful
+genius hit upon a scheme that gave him his peculiar name. He took up his
+abode on the top of a column which was at first about twelve feet high,
+but was gradually elevated until it measured sixty-four feet. Hence, he
+is called Simeon Stylites, or Simeon the Pillar Saint.
+
+On this lofty column, betwixt earth and heaven, the hermit braved the
+heat and cold of thirty years. At its base, from morning to night,
+prayed the admiring worshipers. Kings kneeled in crowds of peasants to
+do him homage and ask his blessing. Theodoret says, "The Ishmaelites,
+coming by tribes of two hundred and three hundred at a time, and
+sometimes even a thousand, deny, with shouts, the error of their
+fathers, and breaking in pieces before that great illuminator, the
+images which they had worshiped, and renouncing the orgies of Venus,
+they received the Divine sacrament." Rude barbarians confessed their
+sins in tears. Persians, Greeks, Romans and Saracens, forgetting their
+mutual hatred, united in praise and prayer at the feet of this strange
+character.
+
+Once a week the hero partook of food. Many times a day he bowed his head
+to his feet; one man counted twelve hundred and forty-four times and
+then stopped in sheer weariness from gazing at the miracle of endurance
+aloft. Again, from the setting of the sun to its appearance in the East,
+he would stand unsoothed by sleep with his arms outstretched like
+a cross.
+
+If genius can understand such a life as that and fancy the thoughts of
+such a soul, Tennyson seems not only to have comprehended the
+consciousness of the Pillar Saint, but also to have succeeded in giving
+expression to his insight. He has laid bare the soul of Simeon in its
+commingling of spiritual pride with affected humility, and of a
+consciousness of meritorious sacrifice with a sense of sin. The Saint
+spurns notoriety and the homage of men, yet exults in his control over
+the multitudes.
+
+The poet thus imagines Simeon to speak as the Saint is praying God to
+take away his sin:
+
+     "But yet
+     Bethink thee, Lord, while thou and all the saints
+     Enjoy themselves in heaven, and men on earth
+     House in the shade of comfortable roofs,
+     Sit with their wives by fires, eat wholesome food,
+     And wear warm clothes, and even beasts have stalls,
+     I, 'tween the spring and downfall of the light,
+     Bow down one thousand and two hundred times,
+     To Christ, the Virgin Mother, and the Saints;
+     Or in the night, after a little sleep,
+     I wake: the chill stars sparkle; I am wet
+     With drenching dews, or stiff with crackling frost.
+     I wear an undress'd goatskin on my back;
+     A grazing iron collar grinds my neck;
+     And in my weak, lean arms I lift the cross,
+     And strive and wrestle with thee till I die:
+     O mercy, mercy! wash away my sin.
+
+     O Lord, thou knowest what a man I am;
+     A sinful man, conceived and born in sin:
+     'Tis their own doing; this is none of mine;
+     Lay it not to me. Am I to blame for this,
+     That here come those that worship me? Ha! ha!
+     They think that I am somewhat. What am I?
+     The silly people take me for a saint,
+     And bring me offerings of fruit and flowers:
+     And I, in truth (thou wilt bear witness here)
+     Have all in all endured as much, and more
+     Than many just and holy men, whose names
+     Are register'd and calendared for saints.
+
+     Good people, you do ill to kneel to me.
+     What is it I can have done to merit this?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Yet do not rise; for you may look on me,
+     And in your looking you may kneel to God.
+     Speak! is there any of you halt or maim'd?
+     I think you know I have some power with Heaven
+     From my long penance: let him speak his wish.
+
+     Yes, I can heal him. Power goes forth from me.
+     They say that they are heal'd. Ah, hark! they shout
+     'St. Simeon Stylites.' Why, if so,
+     God reaps a harvest in me. O my soul,
+     God reaps a harvest in thee.  If this be,
+     Can I work miracles and not be saved?"
+
+Once, the devil, in shape like an angel, riding in a chariot of fire,
+came to carry Simeon to the skies. He whispered to the weary Saint,
+"Simeon, hear my words, which the Lord hath commanded thee. He has sent
+me, his angel, that I may carry thee away as I carried Elijah." Simeon
+was deceived, and lifted his foot to step out into the chariot, when the
+angel vanished, and in punishment for his presumption an ulcer appeared
+upon his thigh.
+
+But time plays havoc with saints as well as sinners, and death slays the
+strongest. Bowed in prayer, his weary heart ceased to beat and the eyes
+that gazed aloft were closed forever. Anthony, his beloved disciple,
+ascending the column, found that his master was no more. Yet, it seemed
+as if Simeon was loath to leave the spot, for his spirit appeared to his
+weeping follower and said, "I will not leave this column, and this
+blessed mountain. For I have gone to rest, as the Lord willed, but do
+thou not cease to minister in this place and the Lord will repay thee
+in heaven."
+
+His body was carried down the mountain to Antioch. Heading the solemn
+procession were the patriarch, six bishops, twenty-one counts and six
+thousand soldiers, "and Antioch," says Gibbon, "revered his bones as
+her glorious ornament and impregnable defence."
+
+
+
+_The Cenobites of the East_
+
+We cannot linger with these hermits. I pass now to the cenobitic[C]
+life. We go back in years and return to Egypt. Man is a social animal,
+and the social instinct is so strong that even hermits are swayed by its
+power and get tired of living apart from one another. When Anthony died
+the deserts were studded with hermitages, and those of exceptional fame
+were surrounded by little clusters of huts and dens. Into these cells
+crowded the hermits who wished to be near their master.
+
+[Footnote C: Appendix, Note C.]
+
+Thus, step by step, organized or cenobitic monasticism easily and
+naturally came into existence. The anchorites crawled from their dens
+every day to hear the words of their chief saint,--a practice giving
+rise to stated meetings, with rules for worship. Regulations as to
+meals, occupations, dress, penances, and prayers naturally follow.
+
+The author of the first monastic rules is said to have been Pachomius,
+who was born in Egypt about the year 292 A.D. He was brought up in
+paganism but was converted in early life while in the army. On his
+discharge he retired with a hermit to Tabenna, an island in the Nile. It
+is said he never ate a full meal after his conversion, and for fifteen
+years slept sitting on a stone. Natural gifts fitted him to become a
+leader, and it was not long before he was surrounded by a congregation
+of monks for whom he made his rules.
+
+The monks of Pachomius were divided into bands of tens and hundreds,
+each tenth man being an under officer in turn subject to the hundredth,
+and all subject to the superior or abbot of the mother house. They lived
+three in a cell, and a congregation of cells constituted a laura or
+monastery. There was a common room for meals and worship. Each monk wore
+a close fitting tunic and a white goatskin upper garment which was never
+laid aside at meals or in bed, but only at the Eucharist. Their food
+usually consisted of bread and water, but occasionally they enjoyed such
+luxuries as oil, salt, fruits and vegetables. They ate in silence, which
+was sometimes broken by the solemn voice of a reader.
+
+"No man," says Jerome, "dares look at his neighbor or clear his throat.
+Silent tears roll down their cheeks, but not a sob escapes their lips."
+Their labors consisted of some light handiwork or tilling the fields.
+They grafted trees, made beehives, twisted fish-lines, wove baskets and
+copied manuscripts. It was early apparent that as man could not live
+alone so he could not live without labor. We shall see this principle
+emphasized more clearly by Benedict, but it is well to notice that at
+this remote day provision was made for secular employments. Jerome
+enjoins Rusticus, a young monk, always to have some work on hand that
+the devil may find him busy. "Hoe your ground," says he, "set out
+cabbages; convey water to them in conduits, that you may see with your
+own eyes the lovely vision of the poet,--
+
+     "Art draws fresh water from the hilltop near,
+     Till the stream, flashing down among the rocks,
+     Cools the parched meadows and allays their thirst."
+
+There were individual cases of excessive self-torture even among these
+congregations of monks but we may say that ordinarily, organized
+monasticism was altogether less severe upon the individual than
+anchoretic life. The fact that the monk was seeking human fellowship is
+evidence that he was becoming more humane, and this softening of his
+spirit betrayed itself in his treatment of himself. The aspect of life
+became a little brighter and happier.
+
+Four objects were comprehended in these monastic roles,--solitude,
+manual labor, fasting and prayer. We need not pity these dwellers far
+from walled cities and the marts of trade. Indeed, they claim no
+sympathy. Religious ideals can make strange transformations in man's
+disposition and tastes. They loved their hard lives.
+
+The hermit Abraham said to John Cassian, "We know that in these, our
+regions, there are some secret and pleasant places, where fruits are
+abundant and the beauty and fertility of the gardens would supply our
+necessities with the slightest toil. We prefer the wilderness of this
+desolation before all that is fair and attractive, admitting no
+comparison between the luxuriance of the most exuberant soil and the
+bitterness of these sands." Jerome himself exclaimed, "Others may think
+what they like and follow each his own bent. But to me a town is a
+prison and solitude paradise."
+
+The three vows of chastity, poverty and obedience were adopted and
+became the foundation stones of the monastic institution, to be found in
+every monastic order. There is a typical illustration in Kingsley's
+Hypatia of what they meant by obedience. Philammon, a young monk, was
+consigned to the care of Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria, and a
+factious, cruel man, with an imperious will. The bishop received and
+read his letter of introduction and thus addressed its bearer,
+"Philammon, a Greek. You are said to have learned to obey. If so, you
+have also learned to rule. Your father-abbot has transferred you to my
+tutelage. You are now to obey me." "And I will," was the quick response.
+"Well said. Go to that window and leap forth into the court." Philammon
+walked to it and opened it. The pavement was fully twenty feet below,
+but his business was to obey and not to take measurements. There was a
+flower in a vase upon the sill. He quietly removed it, and in an instant
+would have leaped for life or death, when Cyril's voice
+thundered, "Stop!"
+
+The Pachomian monks despised possessions of every kind. The following
+pathetic incident shows the frightful extent to which they carried this
+principle, and also illustrates the character of that submission to
+which the novitiate voluntarily assented: Cassian described how Mutius
+sold his possessions and with his little child of eight asked admission
+to a monastery. The monks received but disciplined him. "He had already
+forgotten that he was rich, he must forget that he was a father." His
+child was taken, clothed in rags, beaten and spurned. Obedience
+compelled the father to look upon his child wasting with pain and grief,
+but such was his love for Christ, says the narrator, that his heart was
+rigid and immovable. He was then told to throw the boy into the river,
+but was stopped in the act of obeying.
+
+Yet men, women, and even children, coveted this life of unnatural
+deprivations. "Posterity," says Gibbon, "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." Though
+the hermit did not claim to be a god, yet there were more monks in many
+monasteries than inhabitants in the neighboring villages. Pachomius had
+fourteen hundred monks in his own monastery and seven thousand under his
+rule. Jerome says fifty thousand monks were sometimes assembled at
+Easter in the deserts of Nitria. It was not uncommon for an abbot to
+command five thousand monks. St. Serapion boasted of ten thousand.
+Altogether, so we are told, there were in the fifth century more than
+one hundred thousand persons in the monasteries, three-fourths of
+whom were men.
+
+The rule of Pachomius spread over Egypt into Syria and Palestine. It was
+carried by Athanasius into Italy and Gaul. It existed in various
+modified forms until it was supplanted by the Benedictine rule.
+
+Leaving Egypt, again we cross the Mediterranean into Asia Minor. Near
+the Black Sea, in a wild forest abounding in savage rocks and gloomy
+ravines, there dwelt a young man of twenty-six. He had traveled in
+Egypt, Syria and Palestine. He had visited the hermits of the desert and
+studied philosophy and eloquence in cultured Athens. In virtue eminent,
+in learning profound, this poetic soul sought to realize its ideal in a
+lonely and cherished retreat--in a solitude of Pontus.
+
+The young monk is the illustrious saint and genius,--Basil the
+Great,--the Bishop of Cæsarea, and the virtual founder of the monastic
+institution in the Greek church. The forest and glens around his hut
+belonged to him, and on the other bank of the river Iris his mother and
+sister were leading similar lives, having abandoned earthly honors in
+pursuit of heaven. Hard crusts of bread appeased his hunger. No fires,
+except those which burned within his soul, protected him from the wintry
+blast. His years were few but well spent. After a while his powerful
+intellect asserted itself and he was led into a clearer view of the true
+spiritual life. His practical mind revolted against the gross ignorance
+and meaningless asceticism of Egypt. He determined to form an order that
+would conform to the inner meaning of the Bible and to a more sensible
+conception of the religious life. For his time he was a wise legislator,
+a cunning workman and a daring thinker. The modification of his ascetic
+ideal was attended by painful struggles. Many an hour he spent with his
+bosom friend, Gregory of Nazianza, discussing the subject. The middle
+course which they finally adopted is thus neatly described by Gregory:
+
+     "Long was the inward strife, till ended thus:
+     I saw, when men lived in the fretful world,
+     They vantaged other men, but missed the while
+     The calmness, and the pureness of their hearts.
+     They who retired held an uprighter post,
+     And raised their eyes with quiet strength toward heaven;
+     Yet served self only, unfraternally.
+     And so, 'twixt these and those, I struck my path,
+     To meditate with the free solitary,
+     Yet to live secular, and serve mankind."
+
+Monks in large numbers flocked to this mountain retreat of Basil's.
+These he banded together in an organization, the remains of which still
+live in the Greek church. So great is the influence of his life and
+teachings, "that it is common though erroneous to call all Oriental
+monks Basilians." His rules are drawn up in the form of answers to two
+hundred and three questions. He added to the three monastic vows a
+fourth, which many authorities claim now appeared for the first
+time,--namely, that of irrevocable vows--once a monk, always a monk.
+
+Basil did not condemn marriage, but he believed that it was incompatible
+with the highest spiritual attainments. For the Kingdom of God's sake it
+was necessary to forsake all. "Love not the world, neither the things of
+the world," embraced to his mind the married state. By avoiding the
+cares of marriage a man was sure to escape, so he thought, the gross
+sensuality of the age. He struck at the dangers which attend the
+possession of riches, by enforcing poverty. An abbot was appointed over
+his cloisters to whom absolute obedience was demanded. Everywhere men
+needed this lesson of obedience. The discipline of the armies was
+relaxed. The authority of religion was set at naught; laxity and
+disorder prevailed even among the monks. They went roaming over the
+country controlled only by their whims. Insubordination had to be
+checked or the monastic institution was doomed. Hence, Basil was
+particular to enforce a respect for law and order.
+
+Altogether this was an honest and serious attempt to introduce fresh
+power into a corrupt age and to faithfully observe the Biblical commands
+as Basil understood them. The floods of iniquity were engulfing even the
+church. A new standard had to be raised and an inner circle of pious and
+zealous believers gathered from the multitude of half-pagan Christians,
+or all was lost.
+
+The subsequent history of Greek monachism has little interest. In
+Russia, at a late date, the Greek monks served some purpose in keeping
+alive the national spirit under the Tartar yoke, but the practical
+benefits to the East were few, in comparison with the vigorous life of
+the Western monasticism.
+
+Montalembert, the brilliant champion of Christian monasticism, becomes
+an adverse critic of the system in the East, although it is noteworthy
+he now speaks of monasticism as it appears in the Greek church, which he
+holds to be heretical; yet his indictment is quite true: "They yielded
+to all the deleterious impulses of that declining society. They have
+saved nothing, regenerated nothing, elevated nothing."
+
+We have visited the hermit in the desert and in the monastery governed
+by its abbot and its rules. We must view the monk in one other aspect,
+that of theological champion. Here the hermit and the monk of the
+monastery meet on common ground. They were fighters, not debaters;
+fighters, not disciplined soldiers; fighters, not persuading Christians.
+They swarmed down from the mountains like hungry wolves. They fought
+heretics, they fought bishops, they fought Roman authorities, they
+fought soldiers, and fought one another. Ignorant, fanatical and cruel,
+they incited riots, disturbed the public peace and shed the blood
+of foes.
+
+Theological discord was made a thousand times more bitter by their
+participation in the controversies of the time. Furious monks became the
+armed champions of Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria. They insulted the
+prefect, drove out the Jews and, to the everlasting disgrace of the
+monks, Cyril and the church, they dragged the lovely Hypatia from her
+lecture hall and slew her with all the cruelty satanic ingenuity could
+devise. Against a background of black and angry sky she stands forth, as
+a soul through whose reason God made himself manifest. Her unblemished
+character, her learning and her grace forever cry aloud against an
+orthodoxy bereft alike of reason and of the spirit of the Nazarene.
+
+The fighting monks crowded councils and forced decisions. They deposed
+hostile bishops or kept their favorites in power by murder and violence.
+Two black-cowled armies met in Constantinople, and amid curses fought
+with sticks and stones a battle of creeds. Cries of "Holy! Holy! Holy!"
+mingled with, "It's the day of martyrdom! Down with the tyrant!" The
+whole East was kept in a feverish state. The Imperial soldiers confessed
+their justifiable fears when they said, "We would rather fight with
+barbarians than with these monks."
+
+No wonder our perplexity increases and it seems impossible to determine
+what these men really did for the cause of truth. We have been unable to
+distinguish the hermit from the beasts of the fields. We hear his
+groans, see his tears, and watch him struggle with demons. We are
+disgusted with his filth, amused at his fancies, grieved at his
+superstition. We pity his agony and admire his courage. We watch the
+progress of order and rule out of chaos. We see monasteries grow up
+around damp caves and dismal huts. We behold Simeon praying among the
+birds of heaven, and look into the face of the young and handsome Basil,
+in whom the monastic institution of the East reaches the zenith of
+its power.
+
+I am free to confess a profound reverence for many of these men
+determined at all hazards to keep their souls unspotted from the world.
+I bow before a passion for righteousness ready to part with life itself
+if necessary. Yet the gross extravagances, the almost incredible
+absurdities of their unnatural lives compel us to withhold our judgment.
+
+One thing is certain, the strange life of those far-off years is an
+eloquent testimony to the indestructible craving of the human soul for
+self-mastery and soul-purity.
+
+
+
+II
+
+_MONASTICISM IN THE WEST: ANTE-BENEDICTINE MONKS 340-480 A.D._
+
+We are now to follow the fortunes of the monastic system from its
+introduction in Rome to the time of Benedict of Nursia, the founder of
+the first great monastic order.
+
+Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, who made
+Christianity the predominant religion in the Roman Empire, died in 337
+A.D. Three years later Rome heard, probably for the first time, an
+authentic account of the Egyptian hermits. The story was carried to the
+Eternal City by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, one of the most
+remarkable characters in the early church, a man of surpassing courage
+and perseverance, an intrepid foe of heresy, "heroic and invincible," as
+Milton styled him. Twenty of the forty-six years of his official life
+were spent in banishment.
+
+Athanasius was an intimate friend of the hermit Anthony and a persistent
+advocate of the ascetic ideal. When he fled to Rome, in 340, to escape
+the persecutions of the Arians, he took with him two specimens of
+monastic virtue--Ammonius and Isidore. These hermits, so filthy and
+savage in appearance, albeit, as I trust, clean in heart, excited
+general disgust, and their story of the tortures and holiness of their
+Egyptian brethren was received with derision. But men who had faced and
+conquered the terrors of the desert were not to be so easily repulsed.
+Aided by other ascetic travelers from the East they persisted in their
+propaganda until contempt yielded to admiration. The enthusiasm of the
+uncouth hermits became contagious. The Christians in Rome now welcomed
+the story of the recluses as a Divine call to abandon a dissolute
+society for the peace and joy of a desert life.
+
+But before this transformation of public opinion can be appreciated, it
+is needful to know something of the social and religious condition of
+Rome in the days when Athanasius and his hermits walked her streets.
+
+After suffering frightful persecutions for three centuries, the Church
+had at last nominally conquered the Roman Empire; nominally, because
+although Christianity was to live, the Empire had to die. "No medicine
+could have prevented the diseased old body from dying. The time had
+come. When the wretched inebriate embraces a spiritual religion with one
+foot in the grave, with a constitution completely undermined, and the
+seeds of death planted, then no repentance or lofty aspiration can
+prevent physical death. It was so in Rome." The death-throes were long
+and lingering, as befits the end of a mighty giant, but death was
+certain. There are many facts which explain the inability of a
+conquering faith to save a tottering empire, but it is impracticable for
+us to enter upon that wide field. Some help may be gained from that
+which follows.
+
+Of morals, Rome was destitute. She possessed the material remains and
+superficial acquirements of a proud civilization, such as great public
+highways, marble palaces, public baths, temples and libraries. Elegance
+of manners and acquisitions of wealth indicate specious outward
+refinement. But these things are not sufficient to guarantee the
+permanence of institutions or the moral welfare of a nation. In the
+souls of men there was a fatal degeneracy. There was outward prosperity
+but inward corruption.
+
+Professor Samuel Dill, in his highly instructive work on "Roman Society
+in the Last Century of the Western Empire," points out the fact that
+Rome's fall was due to economic and political causes as well as to the
+deterioration of her morals. A close study of these causes, however,
+will reveal the presence of moral influences. Professor Dill says: "The
+general tendency of modern inquiry has to discover in the fall of that
+august and magnificent organization, not a cataclysm, precipitated by
+the impact of barbarous forces, but a process slowly prepared and
+evolved by internal and economic causes." Two of these causes were the
+dying out of municipal liberty and self-government, and the separation
+of the upper class from the masses by sharp distributions of wealth and
+privilege. It is indeed true that these causes contributed to Rome's
+ruin; that the central government was weak; that the civil service was
+oppressive and corrupt; that the aristocratic class was selfish; and
+that the small landed proprietors were steadily growing poorer and
+fewer, while, on the contrary, the upper or senatorial class was
+increasing in wealth and power. But after due emphasis has been accorded
+to these destructive factors, it yet remains true that the want of
+public spirit and the prevailing cultivated selfishness may be traced to
+a decline of faith in those religious ideals that serve to stimulate the
+moral life and thus preserve the national integrity.
+
+Society was divided into three classes. It is computed that one-half the
+population were slaves. A large majority of the remainder were paupers,
+living on public charity, and constituting a festering sore that
+threatened the life of the social organism. The rich, who were
+relatively few, squandered princely incomes in a single night, and
+exhausted their imaginations devising new and expensive forms of
+sensuous pleasure. The profligacy of the nobles almost surpasses
+credibility, so that trustworthy descriptions read like works of
+fiction. Farrar says: "A whole population might be trembling lest they
+should be starved by the delay of an Alexandrian corn ship, while the
+upper classes were squandering a fortune at a single banquet, drinking
+out of myrrhine and jeweled vases worth hundreds of pounds, and feasting
+on the brains of peacocks and the tongues of nightingales." The
+frivolity of the social and political leaders of Rome, the insane thirst
+for lust and luxury, the absence of seriousness in the face of
+frightful, impending ruin, almost justify the epigram of Silvianus,
+"Rome was laughing when she died."
+
+     "On that hard pagan world disgust
+     And secret loathing fell;
+     Deep weariness and sated lust
+     Made human life a hell.
+     In his cool hall, with haggard eyes,
+     The Roman noble lay;
+     He drove abroad in furious guise
+     Along the Appian Way;
+     He made a feast, drank fierce and fast,
+     And crowned his hair with flowers
+     No easier nor no guicker past
+     The impracticable hours."
+
+Pagan mythology and Pagan philosophy were powerless to resist this
+downward tendency. Although Christianity had become the state religion,
+it was itself in great danger of yielding to the decay that prevailed.
+The Empire was, in fact, but nominally Christian. Thousands of
+ecclesiastical adherents were half pagan in their spirit and practice.
+Harnack declares, "They were too deeply affected by Christianity to
+abandon it, but too little to be Christians. Pure religious enthusiasm
+waned, ideals received a new form, and the dependence and responsibility
+of individuals became weaker." Even ordinary courage had everywhere
+declined and the pleasures of the senses controlled the heart of
+Christian society.
+
+Many of the men who should have resisted this gross secularization of
+the church, who ought to have set their faces against the departure from
+apostolic ideals by exalting the standards of the earlier Christianity;
+these men, the clergy of the Christian church, had deserted their post
+of duty and surrendered to the prevailing worldliness.
+
+Jerome describes, with justifiable sarcasm, these moral weaklings,
+charged with the solemn responsibility of preaching a pure gospel to a
+dying empire. "Such men think of nothing but their dress; they use
+perfumes freely, and see that there are no creases in their leather
+shoes. Their curling hair shows traces of the tongs; their fingers
+glisten with rings; they walk on tiptoe across a damp road, not to
+splash their feet. When you see men acting that way, think of them
+rather as bridegrooms than as clergymen. If he sees a pillow that takes
+his fancy, or an elegant table-cover, or, indeed, any article of
+furniture, he praises it, looks admiringly at it, takes it into his
+hand, and, complaining that he has nothing of the kind, begs or rather
+extorts it from its owner." Such trifling folly was fatal. The times
+demanded men of vigorous spirit, who dared to face the general decline,
+and cry out in strong tones against it. The age needed moral warriors,
+with the old Roman courage and love of sacrifice; martyrs willing to rot
+in prison or shed their blood in the street, not effeminate men, toying
+with fancy table-covers and tiptoeing across a sprinkled road. "And as a
+background," says Kingsley, "to all this seething heap of corruption,
+misrule and misery, hung the black cloud of the barbarians, the Teutonic
+tribes from whom we derive our best blood, ever coming nearer and
+nearer, waxing stronger and stronger, to be soon the conquerors of the
+Cæsars and the masters of the world."
+
+But there were many pure and sincere Christians--a saving remnant. The
+joyous alacrity with which men and women responded to the monastic call,
+and entered upon careers of self-torture for the sake of deliverance
+from moral corruption, shows that the spirit of true faith was not
+extinct. These seekers after righteousness may be described as "a dismal
+and fanatical set of men, overlooking the practical aims of life," but
+it is a fair question to ask, "if they had not abandoned the world to
+its fate would they not have shared that fate?" "The glory of that age,"
+says Professor Dill, "is the number of those who were capable of such
+self-surrender; and an age should be judged by its ideals, not by the
+mediocrity of conventional religion masking worldly self-indulgence.
+This we have always with us; the other we have not always."
+
+Yet the sad fact remains that the transforming power of Christianity was
+practically helpless before the surging floods of vice and superstition.
+The noble struggles of a few saints were as straws in a hurricane. The
+church had all she could do to save herself.
+
+"When Christianity itself was in such need of reform," says Lord, "when
+Christians could scarcely be distinguished from pagans in love of
+display, and in egotistical ends, how could it reform the world? When it
+was a pageant, a ritualism, an arm of the state, a vain philosophy, a
+superstition, a formula, how could it save, if ever so dominant? The
+corruptions of the church in the fourth century are as well
+authenticated as the purity and moral elevation of Christians in the
+second century." Even in the early days of Christianity the ruin of Rome
+was impending, but, at that time, the adherents of the Christian
+religion were few and poor. They did not possess enough power and
+influence to save the state. When monasticism came to Rome, the lords of
+the church were getting ready to sit upon the thrones of princes, but
+the dazzling victory of the church was not a spiritual conquest of sin,
+so the last ray of hope for the Empire was extinguished. Her fall was
+inevitable.
+
+With this outlined picture in mind, fancy Athanasius and his monks at
+Rome. These men despise luxury and contemn riches. They have come to
+make Rome ring with the old war cries,--although they wrestled not
+against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in high
+places. Terror and despair are on every side, but they are not afraid.
+They know what it means to face the demons of the desert, to lie down at
+night with wild beasts for companions. They have not yielded to the
+depravity of the human heart and the temptations of a licentious age.
+They have conquered sinful appetites by self-abnegation and fasting.
+They come to a distracted society with a message of peace--a peace won
+by courageous self-sacrifice. They call men to save their perishing
+souls by surrendering their wills to God and enlisting in a campaign
+against the powers of darkness. They appeal to the ancient spirit of
+courage and love of hardship. They arouse the dormant moral energies of
+the profligate nobles, proud of the past and sick of the present. The
+story of Anthony admonished Rome that a life of sensuous gratification
+was inglorious, unworthy of the true Roman, and that the flesh could be
+mastered by heroic endeavor.
+
+Women, who spent their hours in frivolous amusements, welcomed with
+gratitude the discovery that they could be happy without degradation,
+and joyfully responded to the call of righteousness. "Despising
+themselves," says Kingsley, "despising their husbands to whom they had
+been wedded in loveless wedlock, they too fled from a world which had
+sated and sickened them."
+
+Woman's natural craving for lofty friendships and pure aspirations found
+satisfaction in the monastic ideal. She fled from the incessant broils
+of a corrupt court, from the courtesans that usurped the place of the
+wife, from the insolence and selfishness of men who scorned even the
+appearance of virtue and did not hesitate to degrade even their wives
+and sisters. She would disprove the biting sarcasm of Juvenal,--
+
+     "Women, in judgment weak, in feeling strong,
+     By every gust of passion borne along.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     A woman stops at nothing, when she wears
+     Rich emeralds round her neck, and in her ears
+     Pearls of enormous size; these justify
+     Her faults, and make all lawful in her eye."
+
+Therefore did the women hear with tremulous eagerness the story of the
+saintly inhabitants of the desert, and flinging away their trinkets,
+they hastened to the solitude of the cell, there to mourn their folly
+and seek pardon and peace at the feet of the Most High.
+
+Likewise, the men, born to nobler tasks than fawning upon princes and
+squandering life and fortune in gluttony and debauchery, blushed for
+shame, and abandoned forever the company of sensualists and parasites.
+Potitianus, a young officer of rank, read the life of Anthony, and cried
+to his fellow-soldier: "Tell me, I pray thee, whither all our labors
+tend? What do we seek? For whom do we carry arms? What can be our
+greatest hope in the palace but to be friend to the Emperor? And how
+frail is that fortune! What perils! When shall this be?" Inspired by the
+monastic story he exchanged the friendship of the Emperor for the
+friendship of God, and the military life lost all its attractiveness.
+
+A philosopher and teacher hears the same narrative, and his countenance
+becomes grave; he seizes the arm of Alypius, his friend, and earnestly
+asks: "What, then, are we doing? How is this? What hast thou been
+hearing? These ignorant men rise; they take Heaven by force, and we,
+with our heartless sciences, behold us wallowing in the flesh and in
+our blood! Is it shameful to follow them, and are we not rather
+disgraced by not following them?" So, disgusted with his self-seeking
+career, his round of empty pleasures, he, too, is moved by this higher
+call to abandon his wickedness and devote his genius to the cause of
+righteousness.
+
+Ambrose, Paulinus, Chrysostom, Basil, Gregory, and many others, holding
+important official posts or candidates for the highest honors, abandoned
+all their chances of political preferment in order to preach the gospel
+of ascetic Christianity.
+
+Yes, for good or evil, Rome is profoundly stirred. The pale monk, in all
+his filth and poverty, is the master of the best hearts in the capital.
+Every one in whom aspiration is still alive, who longs for some new
+light, and all who vaguely grope after a higher life, hear his voice and
+become pliant to his will.
+
+"Great historic movements," says Grimke, "are born not in whirlwinds, in
+earthquakes, and pomps of human splendor and power, but in the agonies
+and enthusiasms of grand, heroic spirits." Monastic history, like
+secular, centers in the biographies of such great men as Anthony, Basil,
+Jerome, Benedict, Francis, Dominic and Loyola. To understand the
+character of the powerful forces set in motion by the coming of the
+monks to Rome, it is necessary to know the leading spirits whose
+preeminent abilities and lofty personalities made Western monasticism
+what it was.
+
+The time is about 418 A.D.; the place, a monastery in Bethlehem, near
+the cave of the Nativity. In a lonely cell, within these monastic walls,
+we shall find the man we seek. He is so old and feeble that he has to be
+raised in his bed by means of a cord affixed to the ceiling. He spends
+his time chiefly in reciting prayers. His voice, once clear and
+resonant, sinks now to a whisper. His failing vision no longer follows
+the classic pages of Virgil or dwells fondly on the Hebrew of the Old
+Testament. This is Saint Jerome, the champion of asceticism, the
+biographer of hermits, the lion of Christian polemics, the translator of
+the Bible, and the worthy, brilliant, determined foe of a dissolute
+society and a worldly church. Although he spent thirty-four years of his
+life in Palestine, I shall consider Jerome in connection with the
+monasticism of the West, for it was in Rome that he exercised his
+greatest influence. His translation of the Scriptures is the Vulgate of
+the Roman church, and his name is enrolled in the calendar of her
+saints. "He is," observes Schaff "the connecting link between the
+Eastern and Western learning and religion."
+
+By charming speech and eloquent tongue Jerome won over the men, but
+principally the women, of Rome to the monastic life. So powerful was his
+message when addressed to the feminine heart, that mothers are said to
+have locked their daughters in their rooms lest they should fall under
+the influence of his magnetic voice. It was largely owing to his own
+labors that he could write in after years: "Formerly, according to the
+testimony of the apostles, there were few rich, few noble, few powerful
+among the Christians. Now, it is no longer so. Not only among the
+Christians, but among the monks are to be found a multitude of the wise,
+the noble and the rich."
+
+Near to the very year that Athanasius came to Rome, or about 340 A.D.,
+Jerome was born at Stridon, in Dalmatia, in what is now called the
+Austro-Hungarian monarchy. His parents were modestly wealthy and were
+slaveholders. His student days were spent in Rome, where he divided his
+time between the study of books and the revels of the streets. One day
+some young Christians induced him to visit the catacombs with them.
+Here, before the graves of Christian martyrs, a quiet and holy influence
+stole into his heart, that finally led to his conversion and baptism.
+Embracing the monastic ideal, he gathered around him a few congenial
+friends, who joined him in a covenant of rigid abstinence and ascetic
+discipline. Then followed a year of travel with these companions,
+through Asia Minor, ending disastrously at Antioch. One of his friends
+returned home, two of them died, and he himself became so sick with
+fever that his life was despaired of. Undismayed by these evils, brought
+on by excessive austerities, he determined to retire to a life
+of solitude.
+
+About fifty miles southeast from Antioch was a barren waste of nature
+but a paradise for monks--the Desert of Chalcis. On its western border
+were several monasteries. All about for miles, the dreary solitudes were
+peopled with shaggy hermits. They saw visions and dreamed dreams in
+caves infested by serpents and wild beasts. They lay upon the sands,
+scorched in summer by the blazing sun, and chilled in winter by the
+winds that blew from snowcapped mountains. For five years, Jerome dwelt
+among these demon-fighting recluses. Clad in sackcloth stained by
+penitential tears, he toiled for his daily bread, and struggled against
+visions of Roman dancing girls. He was a most industrious reader of
+books and a great lover of debate. Monks from far and near visited him,
+and together they discussed questions of theology and philosophy.
+
+But we may not follow this varied and eventful life in all its details.
+After a year or two spent at Constantinople, and three years at Rome, he
+returned to the East, visiting the hermits of Egypt on his way, and
+finally settled at Bethlehem. His fame soon drew around him a great
+company of monks. These he organized into monasteries. He built a
+hospital, and established an inn for travelers. Lacking the necessary
+funds to carry out his projects, he dispatched his brother to the West
+with instructions to sell what was left of his property, and the
+proceeds of this sale he devoted to the cause. While in Bethlehem he
+wrote defences of orthodoxy, eulogies of the dead, lives of saints and
+commentaries on the Bible. He also completed his translation of the
+Scriptures, and wrote numerous letters to persons dwelling in various
+parts of the empire.
+
+Jerome rendered great service to monasticism by his literary labors. He
+invested the dullest of lives with a halo of glory; under the magic
+touch of his rhetoric the wilderness became a gladsome place and the
+desert blossomed as the rose. His glowing language transfigured the pale
+face and sunken eyes of the starved hermit into features positively
+beautiful, while the rags that hung loosely upon his emaciated frame
+became garments of lustrous white. "Oh, that I could behold the desert,"
+he cries, "lovelier than any city! Oh, that I could see those lonely
+spots made into a paradise by the saints that throng them!" Without
+detracting from the bitterness of the prospect, he glorifies the courage
+that can face the horrors of the desert, and the heart that can rejoice
+midst the solitude of the seas. Hear him describe the home of Bonosus, a
+hermit on an isle in the Adriatic:
+
+"Bonosus, your friend, is now climbing the ladder foreshown in Jacob's
+dream. He is bearing his cross, neither taking thought for the morrow,
+nor looking back at what he has left. Here you have a youth, educated
+with us in the refining accomplishments of the world, with abundance of
+wealth and in rank inferior to none of his associates; yet he forsakes
+his mother, his sister, and his dearly loved brother, and settles like a
+new tiller of Eden on a dangerous island, with the sea roaring round its
+reefs, while its rough crags, bare rocks and desolate aspect make it
+more terrible still.... He sees the glory of God which even the apostles
+saw not, save in the desert. He beholds, it is true, no embattled towns,
+but he has enrolled his name in the new city. Garments of sackcloth
+disfigure his limbs, yet so he will the sooner be caught up to meet
+Christ in the clouds. Round the entire island roars the frenzied sea,
+while the beetling crags along its winding shores resound as the billows
+beat against them. Precipitous cliffs surround his dreadful abode as if
+it were a prison. He is careless, fearless, armed from head to foot in
+the apostles' armor."
+
+Listen to these trumpet tones as Jerome calls to a companion of his
+youth in Rome: "O desert, enamelled with the flowers of Christ! O
+retreat, which rejoicest in the friendship of God! What dost thou in the
+world, my brother, with thy soul greater than the world? How long wilt
+thou remain in the shadow of roofs, and in the smoky dungeons of cities?
+Believe me, I see here more light."
+
+To pass hastily over such appeals, coming from distant lands across the
+sea to stir the minds of the thoughtful in Rome, is to ignore one of the
+causes which produced the great exodus that followed. He made men see
+that they were living in a moral Sodom, and that if they would save
+their souls they must escape to the desert. The power of personal
+influence, of inspiring private letters, can hardly be overemphasized in
+studying the remarkable progress of asceticism. Great awakenings in the
+moral, as in the political or the social world, may be traced to the
+profound influence of individuals, whose prophetic insight and moral
+enthusiasm unfold the germ of the larger movements. There may be
+widespread unrest, the ground may be prepared for the seed, but the
+immediate cause of universal uprisings is the clarion call of genius.
+Thus Luther's was the voice that cried in the wilderness, inciting a
+vast host for whom centuries had been preparing.
+
+But Jerome's fame as a man of learning, possessing a critical taste and
+a classic style of rare beauty and simplicity, must not blind us to the
+crowning glory of his brilliant career. He was above all a spiritual
+force. His chief appeal was to the conscience. He warmed the most torpid
+hearts by the fervor of his love, and encouraged the most hopeless by
+his fiery zeal and heroic faith. As a promoter of monasticism, he
+clashed with the interests of an enfeebled clergy and a corrupt laity.
+Nothing could swerve him from his course. False monks might draw
+terrible rebukes from him, but the conviction that the soul could be
+delivered from captivity to the body only by mortification remained
+unshaken. He induced men to break the fetters of society that they
+might, under the more favorable circumstances of solitude, wage war
+against their unruly passions.
+
+When parents objected to his monastic views, Jerome quoted the saying of
+Jesus respecting the renunciation of father and mother, and then said:
+"Though thy mother with flowing hair and rent garments, should show thee
+the breasts which have nourished thee; though thy father should lie upon
+the threshold; yet depart thou, treading over thy father, and fly with
+dry eyes to the standard of the cross. The love of God and the fear of
+hell easily rend the bonds of the household asunder. The Holy Scripture
+indeed enjoins obedience, but he who loves them more than Christ loses
+his soul."
+
+Jerome vividly portrays his own spiritual conflicts. The deserts were
+crowded with saintly soldiers battling against similar temptations, the
+nature of which is suggested by the following excerpt from Jerome's
+writings: "How often," he says, "when I was living in the desert, in the
+vast solitude which gives to hermits a savage dwelling-place, parched by
+a burning sun, how often did I fancy myself among the pleasures of Rome!
+I used to sit alone because I was filled with bitterness. Sack-cloth
+disfigured my unshapely limbs and my skin from long neglect had become
+black as an Ethiopian's. Tears and groans were every day my portion; and
+if drowsiness chanced to overcome my struggles against it, my bare
+bones, which hardly held together, clashed against the ground. Now
+although in my fear of hell I had consigned myself to this prison where
+I had no companions but scorpions and wild beasts, I often found myself
+amid bevies of girls. Helpless, I cast myself at the feet of Jesus, I
+watered them with my tears, and I subdued my rebellious body with weeks
+of abstinence. I remember how I often cried aloud all night till the
+break of day. I used to dread my cell as if it knew my thoughts, and
+stern and angry with myself, I used to make my way alone into the
+desert. Wherever I saw hollow valleys, craggy mountains, steep cliffs,
+there I made my oratory; there the house of correction for my unhappy
+flesh. There, also, when I had shed copious tears and had strained my
+eyes to heaven, I sometimes felt myself among angelic hosts and sang for
+joy and gladness."
+
+No doubt these men were warring against nature. Their yielding to the
+temptation to obtain spiritual dominance by self-flagellation and
+fasting may be criticized in the light of modern Christianity.
+"Fanaticism defies nature," says F.W. Robertson, "Christianity refines
+it and respects it. Christianity does not denaturalize, but only
+sanctifies and refines according to the laws of nature. Christianity
+does not destroy our natural instincts, but gives them a higher and
+nobler direction." To all this I must assent, but, at the same time, I
+cannot but reverence that pure passion for holiness which led men,
+despairing of acquiring virtue in a degenerate age, to flee from the
+world and undergo such torments to attain their soul's ideal. The form,
+the method of their conflict was transient, the spirit and purpose
+eternal. All honor to them for their magnificent and terrible struggle,
+which has forever exalted the spiritual ideal, and commanded men
+everywhere to seek first "the Kingdom of God and its righteousness."
+
+Jerome was always fond of the classics, although pagan writers were not
+in favor with the early Christians. One night he dreamed he was called
+to the skies where he was soundly flogged for reading certain pagan
+authors. This vision interrupted his classical studies for a time. In
+later years he resumed his beloved Virgil; and he vigorously defended
+himself against those who charged him with being a Pagan and an
+apostate on account of his love for Greek and Roman literature. If his
+admiration for Virgil was the Devil's work, I but give the Devil his due
+when I declare that much of the charm of Jerome's literary productions
+is owing to the inspiration of classic models.
+
+Our attention must now be transferred from Jerome to the high-born Roman
+matrons, who laid off their silks that they might clothe themselves in
+the humble garb of the nun. As the narrative proceeds I shall let Jerome
+speak as often as possible, that the reader may become acquainted with
+the style of those biographies and eulogies which were the talk of Rome,
+and which have been admired so highly by succeeding generations.
+
+Those who embraced monasticism in Rome did so in one of two ways. Some
+sold their possessions, adopted coarse garments, and subsisted on the
+plainest food, but they did not leave the city and were still to be seen
+upon the streets. Jerome writes to Pammachius: "Who would have believed
+that a last descendant of the consuls, an ornament of the race of
+Camillus, could make up his mind to traverse the city in the black robe
+of a monk, and should not blush to appear thus clad in the midst of
+senators." Some of those who remained at Rome established a sort of
+retreat for their ascetic friends.
+
+But another class left Rome altogether. Some took up their abode on the
+rugged isles of the Adriatic or the Mediterranean. Large numbers of them
+went to the East, principally to Palestine. Jerome was practically the
+abbot of a Roman colony of monks and nuns. Two motives, beside the
+general ruling desire to achieve holiness, produced this exodus to the
+Holy Land, which culminated centuries later in the crusades. One was a
+desire to see the deserts and caves, the abode of hermits famous for
+piety and miracles. Jerome, as I have shown, invested these lonely
+retreats and strange characters with a sort of holy romance, and hence,
+faith, mingled with curiosity, led men to the East. Another motive was
+the desire to visit the land of the Saviour, to tread the soil
+consecrated by his labors of love, to live a life of poverty in the land
+where He had no home He could call his own.
+
+St. Paula was one of the women who left Rome and went to Palestine. The
+story of her life is told in a letter designed to comfort her daughter
+Eustochium at the time of Paula's death. The epistle begins: "If all the
+members of my body were to be converted into tongues, and if each of my
+limbs were to be gifted with a human voice, I could still do no justice
+to the virtues of the holy and venerable Paula. Of the stock of the
+Gracchi, descended from the Scipios, she yet preferred Bethlehem to
+Rome, and left her palace glittering with gold to dwell in a mud cabin."
+Her husband was of royal blood and had died leaving her five children.
+At his death, she gave herself to works of charity. The poor and sick
+she wrapped in her own blankets. She began to tire of the receptions and
+other social duties which her position entailed upon her. While in this
+frame of mind, two Eastern bishops were entertained at her home during a
+gathering of ecclesiastics. They seem to have imparted the monastic
+impulse, perhaps by the rehearsal of monastic tales, for we are informed
+that at this time she determined to leave servants, property and
+children, in order to embrace the monastic life.
+
+Let us stand with her children and kinsfolk on the shore of the sea as
+they take their final farewell of Paula. "The sails were set and the
+strokes of the rowers carried the vessel into the deep. On the shore
+little Toxotius stretched forth his hands in entreaty, while Rufina, now
+grown up, with silent sobs besought her mother to wait until she should
+be married. But still Paula's eyes were dry as she turned them
+heavenwards, and she overcame her love for her children by her love for
+God. She knew herself no more as a mother that she might approve herself
+a handmaid of Christ. Yet her heart was rent within her, and she
+wrestled with her grief as though she were being forcibly separated from
+parts of herself. The greatness of the affection she had to overcome
+made all admire her victory the more. Though it is against the laws of
+nature, she endured this trial with unabated faith."
+
+So the vessel ploughed onward, carrying the mother who thought she was
+honoring God and attaining the true end of being through ruthless
+strangling of maternal love. She visited Syria and Egypt and the islands
+of Ponta and Cyprus. At the feet of the hermit fathers she begged their
+blessing and tried to emulate the virtues she believed they possessed.
+At Jerusalem she fell upon her face and kissed the stone before the
+sepulcher. "What tears, she shed, what groans she uttered, what grief
+she poured out all Jerusalem knows!"
+
+She established two monasteries at Bethlehem, one of which was for
+women. Here, with her daughter, she lived a life of rigid abstinence.
+Her nuns had nothing they could call their own. If they paid too much
+attention to dress Paula said, "A clean body and a clean dress mean an
+unclean soul." To her credit, she was more lenient with others than with
+herself. Jerome admits she went to excess, and prudently observes:
+"Difficult as it is to avoid extremes, the philosophers are quite right
+in their opinion that virtue is a mean and vice an excess, or, as we may
+express it in one short sentence, in nothing too much." Paula swept
+floors and toiled in the kitchen. She slept on the ground, covered by a
+mat of goat's hair. Her weeping was incessant. As she meditated over the
+Scriptures, her tears fell so profusely that her sight was endangered.
+Jerome warned her to spare her eyes, but she said: "I must disfigure
+that face which, contrary to God's commandment, I have painted with
+rouge, white lead and antimony." If this be a sin against the Almighty,
+bear witness, O ye daughters of Eve! Her love for the poor continued to
+be the motive of her great liberality. In fact, her giving knew no
+bounds. Fuller wisely remarks that "liberality must have banks as well
+as a stream;" but Paula said: "My prayer is that I may die a beggar,
+leaving not a penny to my daughter and indebted to strangers for my
+winding sheet." Her petition was literally granted, for she died leaving
+her daughter not only without a penny but overwhelmed in a mass
+of debts.
+
+As Jerome approaches the description of Paula's death, he says:
+"Hitherto the wind has all been in my favor and my keel has smoothly
+ploughed through the heaving sea. But now my bark is running upon the
+rocks, the billows are mountain high, and imminent shipwreck awaits me."
+Yet Paula, like David, must go the way of all the earth. Surrounded by
+her followers chanting psalms, she breathed her last. An immense
+concourse of people attended her funeral. Not a single monk lingered in
+his cell. Thus, the twenty hard years of self-torture for this Roman
+lady of culture ended in the rest of the grave.
+
+Upon her tombstone was placed this significant inscription:
+
+     "Within this tomb a child of Scipio lies,
+     A daughter of the far-famed Pauline house,
+     A scion of the Gracchi, of the stock
+     Of Agamemnon's self, illustrious:
+     Here rests the lady Paula, well beloved
+     Of both her parents, with Eustochium
+     For daughter; she the first of Roman dames
+     Who hardship chose and Bethlehem for Christ."
+
+Another interesting character of that period was Marcella, a beautiful
+woman of illustrious lineage, a descendant of consuls and prefects.
+After a married life of seven years her husband died. She determined not
+to embark on the matrimonial seas a second time, but to devote herself
+to works of charity. Cerealis, an old man, but of consular rank, offered
+her his fortune that he might consider her less his wife than his
+daughter. "Had I a wish to marry," was her noble reply, "I should look
+for a husband and not for an inheritance." Disdaining all enticements to
+remain in society, she began her monastic career with joy and turned
+her home into a retreat for women who, like herself, wished to retire
+from the world. It is not known just what rules governed their
+relations, but they employed the time in moderate fasting, prayers and
+alms-giving.
+
+Marcella lavished her wealth upon the poor. Jerome praises her
+philanthropic labors thus: "Our widow's clothing was meant to keep out
+the cold and not to show her figure. She stored her money in the
+stomachs of the poor rather than to keep it at her own disposal." Seldom
+seen upon the streets, she remained at home, surrounded by virgins and
+widows, obedient and loving to her mother. Among the high-born women it
+was regarded as degrading to assume the costume of the nun, but she bore
+the scorn of her social equals with humility and grace.
+
+This quiet and useful life was rudely and abruptly ended by a dreadful
+catastrophe. Alaric the Goth had seized and sacked Rome. The world stood
+aghast. The sad news reached Jerome in his cell at Bethlehem, who
+expressed his sorrow in forceful language: "My voice sticks in my
+throat; and as I dictate, sobs choke my utterance. The city which has
+taken the whole world is itself taken." Rude barbarians invaded the
+sanctity of Marcella's retreat. They demanded her gold, but she pointed
+to the coarse dress she wore to show them she had no buried treasures.
+They did not believe her, and cruelly beat her with cudgels. A few days
+after the saintly heroine of righteousness went to her long home to
+enjoy richly-merited rest and peace.
+
+     "Who can describe the carnage of that night?
+     What tears are equal to its agony?
+     Of ancient date a sovran city falls;
+     And lifeless in its streets and houses lie
+     Unnumbered bodies of its citizens.
+     In many a ghastly shape doth death appear."
+
+Marcella and her monastic home fell in the general ruin, but in the
+words of Horace, she left "a monument more enduring than brass." Her
+noble life, so full of kind words and loving deeds, still stirs the
+hearts of her sisters who, while they may reject her ascetic ideal,
+will, nevertheless, try to emulate her noble spirit. As Jerome said of
+Paula: "By shunning glory she earned glory; for glory follows virtue as
+its shadow; and deserting those who seek it, it seeks those who
+despise it."
+
+Still another woman claims our attention,--Fabiola, the founder of the
+first hospital. Lecky declares that "the first public hospital and the
+charity planted by that woman's hand overspread the world, and will
+alleviate to the end of time the darkest anguish of humanity." She, too,
+was a widow who refused to marry again, but broke up her home, sold her
+possessions, and with the proceeds founded a hospital into which were
+gathered the sick from the streets. She nursed the sufferers and washed
+their ulcers and wounds. No task was beneath her, no sacrifice of
+personal comfort too great for her love. Many helped her with their
+gold, but she gave herself. She also aided in establishing a home for
+strangers at Portus, which became one of the most famous inns of the
+time. Travelers from all parts of the world found a welcome and a
+shelter on landing at this port. When she died the roofs of Rome were
+crowded with those who watched the funeral procession. Psalms were
+chanted, and the gilded ceilings of the churches resounded to the music
+in commendation of her loving life and labors.
+
+These and other characters of like zeal and fortitude exemplify the
+spirit of the men and women who interested the West in monasticism. Much
+as their errors and extravagances may be deplored, there is no question
+that some of them were types of the loftiest Christian virtues, inspired
+by the most laudable motives.
+
+Noble and true are Kingsley's words: "We may blame those ladies, if we
+will, for neglecting their duties. We may sneer, if we will, at their
+weaknesses, the aristocratic pride, the spiritual vanity, we fancy we
+discover. We must confess that in these women the spirit of the old
+Roman matrons, which seemed to have been dead so long, flashed up for
+one splendid moment ere it sank into the darkness of the middle ages."
+
+
+
+_Monasticism and Women_
+
+The origin of nunneries was coeval with that of monasteries, and the
+history of female recluses runs parallel to that of the men. Almost
+every male order had its counterpart in some sort of a sisterhood. The
+general moral character of these female associations was higher than
+that of the male organizations. I have confined my treatment in this
+work to the monks, but a few words may be said at this point concerning
+female ascetics.
+
+Hermit life was unsuited to women, but we know that at a very early date
+many of them retired to the seclusion of convent life. It will be
+recalled that in the biography of St. Anthony, before going into the
+desert he placed his sister in the care of some virgins who were living
+a life of abstinence, apart from society. It is very doubtful if any
+uniform rule governed these first religious houses, or if definitely
+organized societies appear much before the time of Benedict. The
+variations in the monastic order among the men were accompanied by
+similar changes in the associations of women.
+
+The history of these sisterhoods discloses three interesting and
+noteworthy facts that merit brief mention:
+
+First, the effect of a corrupt society upon women. As in the case of
+men, women were moved to forsake their social duties because they were
+weary of the sensual and aimless life of Rome. Those were the days of
+elaborate toilettes, painted faces and blackened eyelids, of intrigues
+and foolish babbling. Venial faults--it may be thought--innocent
+displays of tender frailty; but woman's nature demands loftier
+employments. A great soul craves occupations and recognizes obligations
+more in harmony with the true nobility of human nature. Rome had no
+monitor of the higher life until the monks came with their stories of
+heroic self-abnegation and unselfish toil. The women felt the force and
+truth of Jerome's criticism of their trifling follies when he said: "Do
+not seek to appear over-eloquent, nor trifle with verse, nor make
+yourself gay with lyric songs. And do not, out of affectation, follow
+the sickly taste of married ladies, who now pressing their teeth
+together, now keeping their lips wide apart, speak with a lisp, and
+purposely clip their words, because they fancy that to pronounce them
+naturally is a mark of country breeding."
+
+Professor Dill is inclined to discount the testimony of Jerome
+respecting the morals of Roman society. He thinks Jerome exaggerated the
+perils surrounding women. He says: "The truth is Jerome is not only a
+monk but an artist in words; and his horror of evil, his vivid
+imagination, and his passion for literary effect, occasionally carry him
+beyond the region of sober fact. There was much to amend in the morals
+of the Roman world. But we must not take the leader of a great moral
+reformation as a cool and dispassionate observer." But this observation
+amounts to nothing more than a cautionary word against mistaking evils
+common to all times for special symptoms of excessive immorality.
+Professor Dill practically concedes the truthfulness of contemporary
+witnesses, including Jerome, when he says: "Yet, after all allowances,
+the picture is not a pleasant one. We feel that we are far away from the
+simple, unworldly devotion of the freedmen and obscure toilers whose
+existence was hardly known to the great world before the age of the
+Antonines, and who lived in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount and in
+constant expectation of the coming of their Lord. The triumphant Church,
+which has brought Paganism to its knees, is very different from the
+Church of the catacombs and the persecutions." The picture which Jerome
+draws of the Roman women is indeed repulsive, and Professor Dill would
+gladly believe it to be exaggerated, but, nevertheless, he thinks that
+"if the priesthood, with its enormous influence, was so corrupt, it is
+only probable that it debased the sex which is always most under
+clerical influence."
+
+But far graver charges cling to the memories of the Roman women. Crime
+darkened every household. The Roman lady was cruel and impure. She
+delighted in the blood of gladiators and in illicit love. Roman law at
+this time permitted women to hold and to control large estates, and it
+became a fad for these patrician ladies to marry poor men, so that they
+might have their husbands within their power. All sorts of alliances
+could then be formed, and if their husbands remonstrated, they, holding
+the purse strings, were able to say: "If you don't like it you can
+leave." A profligate himself, the husband usually kept his counsel, and
+as a reward, dwelt in a palace. "When the Roman matrons became the equal
+and voluntary companions of their lords," says Gibbon, "a new
+jurisprudence was introduced, that marriage, like other partnerships,
+might be dissolved by the abdication of one of the associates." I have
+but touched the fringe of a veil I will not lift; but it is easy to
+understand why those women who cherished noble sentiments welcomed the
+monastic life as a pathway of escape from scenes and customs from which
+their better natures recoiled in horror.
+
+Secondly, the fine quality of mercy that distinguishes woman's character
+deserves recognition. Even though she retired to a convent, she could
+not become so forgetful of her fellow creatures as her male companions.
+From the very beginning we observe that she was more unselfish in her
+asceticism than they. It is true the monk forsook all, and to that
+extent was self-sacrificing, but in his desire for his own salvation, he
+was prone to neglect every one else. The monk's ministrations were too
+often confined to those who came to him, but the nun went forth to heal
+the diseased and to bind up the broken-hearted. As soon as she embraced
+the monastic life we read of hospitals. The desire for salvation drove
+man into the desert; a Christ-like mercy and divine sympathy kept his
+sister by the couch of pain.
+
+Lastly, a word remains to be said touching the question of marriage. At
+first, the nun sometimes entered the marriage state, and, of course,
+left the convent; but, beginning with Basil, this practice was
+condemned, and irrevocable vows were exacted. In 407, Innocent I. closed
+even the door of penitence and forgiveness to those who broke their vows
+and married.
+
+Widows and virgins alike assumed the veil. Marriage itself was not
+despised, because the monastic life was only for those who sought a
+higher type of piety than, it was supposed, could be attained amid the
+ordinary conditions of life. But marriage, as well as other so-called
+secular relations, was eschewed by those who wished to make their
+salvation sure. Jerome says: "I praise wedlock, I praise marriage, but
+it is because they give me virgins; I gather the rose from the thorns,
+the gold from the earth, the pearl from the shell." He therefore
+tolerated marriage among people contented with ordinary religious
+attainments, but he thought it incompatible with true holiness.
+Augustine admitted that the mother and her daughter may be both in
+heaven, but one a bright and the other a dim star. Some writers, as
+Helvidius, opposed this view and maintained that there was no special
+virtue in an unmarried life; that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was also
+the mother of other children, and as such was an example of Christian
+virtue. Jerome brought out his guns and poured hot shot into the
+enemies' camp. In the course of his answer, which contained many
+intolerant and acrimonious statements, he drew a comparison between the
+married and the unmarried state. It is interesting because it reflects
+the opinions of those who disparaged marriage, and reveals the character
+of the principles which the early Fathers advocated. It is very evident
+from this letter against Helvidius that Jerome regarded all secular
+duties as interfering with the pursuit of the highest virtue.
+
+"Do you think," he says, "there is no difference between one who spends
+her time in prayer and fasting, and one who must, at her husband's
+approach, make up her countenance, walk with a mincing gait, and feign a
+show of endearment? The virgin aims to appear less comely; she will
+wrong herself so as to hide her natural attractions. The married woman
+has the paint laid on before her mirror, and, to the insult of her
+Maker, strives to acquire something more than her natural beauty. Then
+come the prattling of infants, the noisy household, children watching
+for her word and waiting for her kiss, the reckoning up of expenses, the
+preparation to meet the outlay. On one side you will see a company of
+cooks, girded for the onslaught and attacking the meat; there you may
+hear the hum of a multitude of weavers. Meanwhile a message is delivered
+that her husband and his friends have arrived. The wife, like a swallow,
+flies all over the house. She has to see to everything. Is the sofa
+smooth? Is the pavement swept? Are the flowers in the cup? Is dinner
+ready? Tell me, pray, amid all this, is there room for the thought
+of God?"
+
+Such was Roman married life as it appeared to Jerome. The very duties
+and blessings that we consider the glory of the family he despised. I
+will return to his views later, but it is interesting to note the
+absence at this period, of the modern and true idea that God may be
+served in the performance of household and other secular duties. Women
+fled from such occupations in those days that they might be religious.
+The disagreeable fact of Peter's marriage was overcome by the assertion
+that he must have washed away the stain of his married life by the blood
+of his martyrdom. Such extreme views arose partly as a reaction from and
+a protest against the dominant corruption, a state of affairs in which
+happy and holy marriages were rare.
+
+
+
+_The Spread of Monasticism in Europe_
+
+Much more might be said of monastic life in Rome, were it not now
+necessary to treat of the spread of monasticism in Europe. There are
+many noble characters whom we ought to know, such as Ambrose, one of
+Christendom's greatest bishops, who led a life of poverty and strict
+abstinence, like his sister Marcella, whom we have met. He it was, of
+whom the Emperor Theodosius said: "I have met a man who has told me the
+truth." Well might he so declare, for Ambrose refused him admission to
+the church at Milan, because his hands were red with the blood of the
+murdered, and succeeded in persuading him to submit to discipline. To
+Ambrose may be applied the words which Gibbon wrote of Gregory
+Nazianzen: "The title of Saint has been added to his name, but the
+tenderness of his heart and the elegance of his genius reflect a more
+pleasing luster on his memory."
+
+The story of John, surnamed Chrysostom, who was born at Antioch, in 347,
+is exceedingly interesting. He was a young lawyer, who entered the
+priesthood after his baptism. He at once set his heart on the monastic
+life, but his mother took him to her chamber, and, by the bed where she
+had given him birth, besought him in fear, not to forsake her. "My son,"
+she said in substance, "my only comfort in the midst of the miseries of
+this earthly life is to see thee constantly, and to behold in thy traits
+the faithful image of my beloved husband, who is no more. When you have
+buried me and joined my ashes with those of your father, nothing will
+then prevent you from retiring into the monastic life. But so long as I
+breathe, support me by your presence, and do not draw down upon you the
+wrath of God by bringing such evils upon me who have given you no
+offence." This singularly tender petition was granted, but Chrysostom
+turned his home into a monastery, slept on the bare floor, ate little
+and seldom, and prayed much by day and by night.
+
+After his mother's death Chrysostom enjoyed the seclusion of a monastic
+solitude for six years, but impairing his health by excessive
+self-mortification he returned to Antioch in 380. He rapidly rose to a
+position of commanding influence in the church. His peerless oratorical
+and literary gifts were employed in elevating the ascetic ideal and in
+unsparing denunciations of the worldly religion of the imperial court.
+He incurred the furious hatred of the young and beautiful Empress
+Eudoxia, who united her influence with that of the ambitious Theophilus,
+patriarch of Alexandria, and Chrysostom was banished from
+Constantinople, but died on his way to the remote desert of Pityus. His
+powerful sermons and valuable writings contributed in no small degree to
+the spread of monasticism among the Christians of his time.
+
+Then there was Augustine, the greatest thinker since Plato. "We shall
+meet him," says Schaff, "alike on the broad highways and the narrow
+foot-paths, on the giddy Alpine heights and in the awful depths of
+speculation, wherever philosophical thinkers before him or after him
+have trod." He, too, like all the other leaders of thought in his time,
+was ascetic in his habits. Although he lived and labored for
+thirty-eight years at Hippo, a Numidian city about two hundred miles
+west of Carthage, in Africa, Augustine was regarded as the intellectual
+head not only of North Africa but of Western Christianity. He gathered
+his clergy into a college of priests, with a community of goods, thus
+approaching as closely to the regular monastic life as was possible to
+secular clergymen. He established religious houses and wrote a set of
+rules, consisting of twenty-four articles, for the government of
+monasteries. These rules were superseded by those of Benedict, but they
+were resuscitated under Charlemagne and reappeared in the famous Austin
+Canons of the eleventh century. Little did Augustine think that a
+thousand years later an Augustinian monk--Luther--would abandon his
+order to become the founder of modern Protestantism.
+
+Augustine published a celebrated essay,--"On the Labor of Monks,"--in
+which he pointed out the dangers of monachism, condemned its abuses, and
+ended by sighing for the quiet life of the monk who divided his day
+between labor, reading and prayer, whilst he himself spent his years
+amid the noisy throng and the perplexities of his episcopate.
+
+These men, and many others, did much to further monasticism. But we must
+now leave sunny Africa and journey northward through Gaul into the land
+of the hardy Britons and Scots.
+
+Athanasius, the same weary exile whom we have encountered in Egypt and
+in Rome, had been banished by Constantine to Treves, in 336. In 346 and
+349 he again visited Gaul. He told the same story of Anthony and the
+Egyptian hermits with similar results.
+
+The most renowned ecclesiastic of the Gallican church, whose name is
+most intimately associated with the spread of monasticism in Western
+Europe, before the days of Benedict, was Saint Martin of Tours. He lived
+about the years 316-396 A.D. The chronicle of his life is by no means
+trustworthy, but that is essential neither to popularity nor saintship.
+Only let a Severus describe his life and miracles in glowing rhetoric
+and fantastic legend and the people will believe it, pronouncing him
+greatest among the great, the mightiest miracle-worker of that
+miracle-working age.
+
+Martin was a soldier three years, against his will, under Constantine.
+One bleak winter day he cut his white military coat in two with his
+sword and clothed a beggar with half of it. That night he heard Jesus
+address the angels: "Martin, as yet only a catechumen has clothed me
+with his garment." After leaving the army he became a hermit, and,
+subsequently, bishop of Tours. He lived for years just outside of Tours
+in a cell made of interlaced branches. His monks dwelt around him in
+caves cut out of scarped rocks, overlooking a beautiful stream. They
+were clad in camel's hair and lived on a diet of brown bread, sleeping
+on a straw couch.
+
+But Martin's monks did not take altogether kindly to their mode of life.
+Severus records an amusing story of their rebellion against the meager
+allowance of food. The Egyptian could exist on a few figs a day. But
+these rude Gauls, just emerging out of barbarism, were accustomed to
+devour great slices of roasted meat and to drink deep draughts of beer.
+Such sturdy children of the northern forests naturally disdained dainty
+morsels of barley bread and small potations of wine. True, Athanasius
+had said, "Fasting is the food of angels," but these ascetic novices, in
+their perplexity, could only say: "We are accused of gluttony; but we
+are Gauls; it is ridiculous and cruel to make us live like angels; we
+are not angels; once more, we are only Gauls." Their complaint comes
+down to us as a pathetic but humorous protest of common sense against
+ascetic fanaticism; or, regarded in another light, it may be considered
+as additional evidence of the depravity of the natural man.
+
+In spite of all complaints, however, Martin did not abate the severity
+of his discipline. As a bishop he pushed his monastic system into all
+the surrounding country. His zeal knew no bounds, and his strength
+seemed inexhaustible. "No one ever saw him either gloomy or merry,"
+remarks his biographer. Amid many embarrassments and difficulties he was
+ever the same, with a countenance full of heavenly serenity. He was a
+great miracle-worker--that is, if everything recorded of him is true. He
+cast out demons, and healed the sick; he had strange visions of angels
+and demons, and, wonderful to relate, thrice he raised bodies from
+the dead.
+
+But all conquerors are at last vanquished by the angel of death, and
+Martin passed into the company of the heavenly host and the category of
+saints. Two thousand monks attended his funeral. His fame spread all
+over Europe. Tradition tells us he was the uncle of Saint Patrick of
+Ireland. Churches were dedicated to him in France, Germany, Scotland and
+England. The festival of his birth is celebrated on the eleventh of
+November. In Scotland this day still marks the winter term, which is
+called Martinmas. Saint Martin's shrine was one of the most famous of
+the middle ages, and was noted for its wonderful cures. No saint is
+held, even now, in higher veneration by the French Catholic.
+
+It is not known when the institution was planted in Spain, but in 380
+the council of Saragossa forbade priests to assume monkish habits.
+Germany received the institution some time in the fifth century. The
+introduction of Christianity as well as of monasticism into the British
+Isles is shrouded in darkness. A few jewels of fact may be gathered from
+the legendary rubbish. It is probable that before the days of Benedict,
+Saint Patrick, independently of Rome, established monasteries in Ireland
+and preached the gospel there; and, without doubt, before the birth of
+Benedict of Nursia, there were monks and monasteries in Great Britain.
+The monastery of Bangor is said to have been founded about 450 A.D.
+
+It is probable that Christianity was introduced into Britain before the
+close of the second century, and that monasticism arose some time in the
+fifth century. Tertullian, about the beginning of the third century,
+boasts that Christianity had conquered places in Britain where the Roman
+arms could not penetrate. Origen claimed that the power of the Savior
+was manifest in Britain as well as in Muritania. The earliest notice we
+have of a British church occurs in the writings of the Venerable Bede
+(673-735 A.D.), a monk whose numerous and valuable works on English
+history entitle him to the praise of being "the greatest literary
+benefactor this or any other nation has produced." He informs us that a
+British king--Lucius--embraced Christianity during the reign of the
+Emperor Aurelius, and that missionaries were sent from Rome to Britain
+about that time. Lingard says the story is suspicious, since "we know
+not from what source Bede, at the distance of five centuries, derived
+his information." It seems quite likely that there must have been some
+Christians among the Roman soldiers or civil officials who lived in
+Britain during the Roman occupation of the country. The whole problem
+has been the theme of so much controversy, however, that a fuller
+discussion is reserved for the next chapter.
+
+
+
+_Disorders and Oppositions_
+
+But was there no protest against the progress of these ascetic
+teachings? Did the monastic institution command the unanimous approval
+of the church from the outset? There were many and strong outcries
+against the monks, but they were quickly silenced by the counter-shouts
+of praise. Even when rebellion against the system seemed formidable, it
+was popular nevertheless. The lifted hand was quickly struck down, and
+voices of opposition suddenly hushed. Like a mighty flood the movement
+swept on,--kings, when so inclined, being powerless to stop it. As Paula
+was carried fainting from the funeral procession of Blæsilla, her
+daughter, whispers such as these were audible in the crowd: "Is not this
+what we have often said? She weeps for her daughter, killed with
+fasting. How long must we refrain from driving these detestable monks
+out of Rome? Why do we not stone them or hurl them into the Tiber? They
+have misled this unhappy mother; that she is not a nun from choice is
+clear. No heathen mother ever wept for her children as she does for
+Blæsilla." And this is Paula, who, choked with grief, refused to weep
+when she sailed from her children for the far East!
+
+Unhappily, history is often too dignified to retail the conversations of
+the dinner-table and the gossip of private life. But this narrative
+indicates that in many a Roman family the monk was feared, despised and
+hated. Sometimes everyday murmurs found their way into literature and so
+passed to posterity. Rutilius, the Pagan poet, as he sails before a
+hermit isle in the Mediterranean, exclaims: "Behold, Capraria rises
+before us; that isle is full of wretches, enemies of light. I detest
+these rocks scene of a recent shipwreck." He then goes on to declare
+that a young and rich friend, impelled by the furies, had fled from men
+and gods to a living tomb, and was now decaying in that foul retreat.
+This was no uncommon opinion. But contrast it with what Ambrose said of
+those same isles: "It is there in these isles, thrown down by God like a
+collar of pearls upon the sea, that those who would escape from the
+charms of dissipation find refuge. Nothing here disturbs their peace,
+all access is closed to the wild passions of the world. The mysterious
+sound of waves mingles with the chant of hymns; and, while the waters
+break upon the shores of these happy isles with a gentle murmur, the
+peaceful accents of the choir of the elect ascend toward Heaven from
+their bosom." No wonder the Milanese ladies guarded their daughters
+against this theological poet.
+
+Even among the Christians there were hostile as well as friendly critics
+of monasticism; Jovinian, whom Neander compares to Luther, is a type of
+the former. Although a monk himself, he disputed the thesis that any
+merit lay in celibacy, fasting or poverty. He opposed the worship of
+saints and relics, and believed that one might retain possession of his
+property and make good use of it. He assailed the dissolute monks and
+claimed that many of Rome's noblest young men and women were withdrawn
+from a life of usefulness into the desert. He held that there was really
+but one class of Christians, namely, those who had faith in Christ, and
+that a monk could be no more. But Jovinian was far in advance of his
+age, and it was many years before the truth of his view gained any
+considerable recognition. He was severely attacked by Jerome, who called
+him a Christian Epicurean, and was condemned as a heretic by a synod at
+Milan, in 390. Thus the reformers were crushed for centuries. The Pagan
+Emperor, Julian, and the Christian, Valens, alike tried in vain to
+resist the emigration into the desert. Thousands fled, in times of peril
+to the state, from their civil and military duties, but the emperors
+were powerless to prevent the exodus.
+
+That there were grounds for complaint against the monks we may know from
+the charges made even by those who favored the system. Jerome Ambrose,
+Augustine, and in fact almost every one of the Fathers tried to correct
+the growing disorders. We learn from them that many fled from society,
+not to become holy, but to escape slavery and famine; and that many were
+lazy and immoral. Their "shaven heads lied to God." Avarice, ambition,
+or cowardice ruled hearts that should have been actuated by a love of
+poverty, self-sacrifice or courage. "Quite recently," says Jerome, "we
+have seen to our sorrow a fortune worthy of Croesus brought to light by
+a monk's death, and a city's alms collected for the poor, left by will
+to his sons and successors."
+
+Many monks traveled from place to place selling sham relics. Augustine
+wrote against "those hypocrites who, in the dress of monks, wander about
+the provinces carrying pretended relics, amulets, preservatives, and
+expecting alms to feed their lucrative poverty and recompense their
+pretended virtue." It is to the credit of the Fathers of the church
+that they boldly and earnestly rebuked the vices of the monks and tried
+to purge the monastic system of its impurities.
+
+But the church sanctioned the monastic movement. She could not have done
+anything else. "It is one of the most striking occurrences in history,"
+says Harnack, "that the church, exactly at the time when she was
+developing more and more into a legal institution and a sacramental
+establishment, outlined a Christian life-ideal which was incapable of
+realization within her bounds, but only alongside of her. The more she
+affiliated herself with the world, the higher and more superhuman did
+she make her ideal."
+
+It is also noteworthy that this "life-ideal" seems to have led,
+inevitably, to fanaticism and other excesses, so that even at this early
+date there was much occasion for alarm. Gross immorality was disclosed
+as well as luminous purity; indolence and laziness as well as the love
+of sacrifice and toil. So we shall find it down through the centuries.
+"The East had few great men," says Milman, "many madmen; the West,
+madmen enough, but still very many, many great men." We have met some
+madmen and some great men. We shall meet more of each type.
+
+After 450 A.D., monasticism suffered an eclipse for over half a century.
+It seemed as if the Western institution was destined to end in that
+imbecility and failure which overtook the Eastern system. But there came
+a man who infused new life into the monastic body. He systematized its
+scattered principles and concentrated the energies of the wandering and
+unorganized monks.
+
+Our next visit will be to the mountain home of this renowned character,
+fifty miles to the west of Rome. "A single monk," says Montalembert, "is
+about to form there a center of spiritual virtue, and to light it up
+with a splendor destined to shine over regenerated Europe for ten
+centuries to come."
+
+
+
+III
+
+_THE BENEDICTINES_
+
+Saint Benedict, the founder of the famous monastic order that bears his
+name, was born at Nursia, about 480 A.D. His parents, who were wealthy,
+intended to give him a liberal education; but their plans were defeated,
+for at fifteen years of age Benedict renounced his family and fortune,
+and fled from his school life in Rome. The vice of the city shocked and
+disgusted him. He would rather be ignorant and holy, than educated and
+wicked. On his way into the mountains, he met a monk named Romanus,--the
+spot is marked by the chapel of Santa Crocella,--who gave him a
+haircloth shirt and a monastic dress of skins. Continuing his journey
+with Romanus, the youthful ascetic discovered a sunless cave in the
+desert of Subiaco, about forty miles from Rome. Into this cell he
+climbed, and in it he lived three years. It was so inaccessible that
+Romanus had to lower his food to him by a rope, to which was attached a
+bell to call him from his devotions. Once the Devil threw a stone at the
+rope and broke it.
+
+But Benedict's bodily escape from the wickedness of Rome did not secure
+his spiritual freedom. "There was a certain lady of thin, airy shape,
+who was very active in this solemnity; her name was Fancy." Time and
+again, he revisited his old haunts, borne on the wings of his
+imagination. The face of a beautiful young girl of previous acquaintance
+constantly appeared before him. He was about to yield to the temptation
+and to return, when, summoning all his strength, he made one mighty
+effort to dispel the illusion forever. Divesting himself of his clothes,
+he rolled his naked body among the thorn-bushes near his cave. It was
+drastic treatment, but it seems to have rid his mind effectually of
+disturbing fancies. This singular self-punishment was used by Godric,
+the Welsh saint, in the twelfth century. "Failing to subdue his
+rebellious flesh by this method, he buried a cask in the earthen floor
+of his cell, filled it with water and fitted it with a cover, and in
+this receptacle he shut himself up whenever he felt the titillations of
+desire. In this manner, varied by occasionally passing the night up to
+his chin in a river, of which he had broken the ice, he finally
+succeeded in mastering his fiery nature."
+
+One day some peasants discovered Benedict at the entrance of his cave.
+Deceived by his savage appearance, they mistook him for a wild beast,
+but the supposed wolf proving to be a saint, they fell down and
+reverenced him.
+
+The fame of the young ascetic attracted throngs of hermits, who took up
+their abodes near his cell. After a time monasteries were established,
+and Benedict was persuaded to become an abbot in one of them. His
+strictness provoked much opposition among the monks, resulting in
+carefully-laid plots to compass the moral ruin of their spiritual guide.
+An attempt to poison him was defeated by a miraculous interposition, and
+Benedict escaped to a solitary retreat.
+
+Again the moral hero became an abbot, and again the severity of his
+discipline was resented. This time a wicked and jealous priest sought to
+entrap the saint by turning into a garden in which he was accustomed to
+walk seven young girls of exquisite physical charms. When Benedict
+encountered this temptation, he fled from the scene and retired to a
+picturesque mountain--the renowned Monte Cassino. Let Montalembert
+describe this celebrated spot among the western Apennines: "At the foot
+of this rock Benedict found an amphitheatre of the time of the Cæsars,
+amidst the ruins of the town of Casinum, which the most learned and
+pious of Romans, Varro, that pagan Benedictine, whose memory and
+knowledge the sons of Benedict took pleasure in honoring, had rendered
+illustrious. From the summit the prospect extended on one side towards
+Arpinum, where the prince of Roman orators was born, and on the other
+towards Aquinum, already celebrated as the birthplace of Juvenal.... It
+was amidst those noble recollections, this solemn nature, and upon that
+predestinated height, that the patriarch of the monks of the West
+founded the capital of the monastic order."
+
+In the year 529 a great stronghold of Paganism in these wild regions
+gave way to Benedict's faith. Upon the ruins of a temple to Apollo, and
+in a grove sacred to Venus, arose the model of Western monasticism,--the
+cloister of Monte Cassino, which was to shine resplendent for a thousand
+years. The limitations of my purpose will prevent me from following in
+detail the fortunes of this renowned retreat, but it may not be out of
+place to glance at its subsequent history.
+
+Monte Cassino is located three and a half miles to the northeast of the
+town of Cassino, midway between Rome and Naples. About 589 A.D. the
+Lombards destroyed the buildings, but the monks escaped to Rome, in
+fulfilment, so it is claimed, of a prophecy uttered by Benedict. It lay
+in ruins until restored by Gregory II. in 719, only to be burned in 884
+by the Saracens; seventy years later it was again rebuilt. It afterwards
+passed through a variety of calamities, and was consecrated, for the
+third time, by Benedict XII., in 1729. Longfellow quotes a writer for
+the _London Daily News_ as saying: "There is scarcely a pope or emperor
+of importance who has not been personally connected with its history.
+From its mountain crag it has seen Goths, Lombards, Saracens, Normans,
+Frenchmen, Spaniards, Germans, scour and devastate the land which,
+through all modern history, has attracted every invader."
+
+It was enriched by popes, emperors and princes. In its palmy days the
+abbot was the first baron in the realm, and commanded over four hundred
+towns and villages. In 1866, it shared the fate of all the monasteries
+of Italy. It still stands upon the summit of the mountain, and can be
+seen by the traveler from the railway in the valley. At present it
+serves as a Catholic seminary with about two hundred students. It
+contains a spacious church, richly ornamented with marble, mosaics and
+paintings. It has also a famous library which, in spite of bad usage, is
+still immensely valuable. Boccaccio made a visit to the place, and when
+he saw the precious books so vilely mutilated, he departed in tears,
+exclaiming: "Now, therefore, O scholar, rack thy brains in the making of
+books!" The library contains about twenty thousand volumes, and about
+thirty-five thousand popes' bulls, diplomas and charters. There are also
+about a thousand manuscripts, some of which are of priceless value, as
+they date from the sixth century downward, and consist of ancient
+Bibles and important medieval literature.
+
+Benedict survived the founding of this monastery fourteen years. His
+time was occupied in establishing other cloisters, perfecting his rule,
+and preaching. Many stories are related of his power over the hearts of
+the untamed barbarians. Galea the Goth, out on a marauding expedition,
+demanded a peasant to give him his treasures. The peasant, thinking to
+escape, said he had committed them to the keeping of Benedict. Galea
+immediately ordered him to be bound on a horse and conducted to the
+saint. Benedict was seated at the gateway reading when Galea and his
+prisoner arrived. Looking up from his book he fastened his eyes upon the
+poor peasant, who was immediately loosed from his bonds. The astonished
+Galea, awed by this miracle, fell at the feet of the abbot, and, instead
+of demanding gold, supplicated his blessing. Once a boy was drowning,
+and, at the command of Benedict, St. Maur, a wealthy young Roman, who
+had turned monk, walked safely out upon the water and rescued the lad.
+Gregory also tells us many stories of miraculous healing, and of one
+resurrection from the dead.
+
+Benedict's last days were linked with a touching incident. His sister,
+Scholastica, presided over a convent near his own. They met once a year.
+On his last visit to her, Scholastica begged him to remain and "speak of
+the joys of Heaven till the morning." But Benedict would not listen; he
+must return. His sister then buried her face in her hands weeping and
+praying. Suddenly the sky was overcast with clouds, and a terrific storm
+burst upon the mountains, which prevented her brother's return. Three
+days later Benedict saw the soul of his sister entering heaven. On March
+21, 543, a short time after his sister's death, two monks beheld a
+shining pathway of stars over which the soul of Benedict passed from
+Monte Cassino to heaven. Such, in brief, is the story preserved for us
+in his biography by the celebrated patron of monasticism, Pope
+Gregory I.
+
+
+
+_The Rules of Benedict_
+
+The rules, _regulae_, of St. Benedict, are worthy of special
+consideration, since they constitute the real foundation of his success
+and of his fame. His order was by far the most important monastic
+brotherhood until the thirteenth century. Nearly all the other orders
+which sprang up during this interval were based upon Benedictine rules,
+and were really attempts to reform the monastic system on the basis of
+Benedict's original practice. Other monks lived austere lives and worked
+miracles, and some of them formulated rules, but it is to Benedict and
+his rules that we must look for the code of Western monachism. "By a
+strange parallelism," says Putnam, "almost in the very year in which the
+great Emperor Justinian was codifying the results of seven centuries of
+Roman secular legislation for the benefit of the judges and the
+statesmen of the new Europe, Benedict, on his lonely mountain-top, was
+composing his code for the regulation of the daily life of the great
+civilizers of Europe for seven centuries to come."
+
+The rules consist of a preface and seventy-three chapters. The prologue
+defines the classes of monks, and explains the aim of the "school of
+divine servitude," as Benedict described his monastery. The following is
+a partial list of the subjects considered: The character of an abbot,
+silence, maxims for good works, humility, directions as to divine
+service, rules for dormitories, penalties, duties of various monastic
+officers, poverty, care of the sick daily rations of food and drink,
+hours for meals, fasting, entertainment of guests, and dress. They close
+with the statement that the Benedictine rule is not offered as an ideal
+of perfection, or even as equal to the teaching of Cassian or Basil, but
+for mere beginners in the spiritual life, who may thence
+proceed further.
+
+The Benedictine novitiate extended over one year, but was subsequently
+increased to three. At the close of this period the novice was given the
+opportunity to go back into the world. If he still persisted in his
+choice, he swore before the bones of the saints to remain forever cut
+off from the rest of his fellow beings. If a monk left the monastery, or
+was expelled, he could return twice, but if, after the third admission,
+he severed his connection, the door was shut forever.
+
+The monk passed his time in manual labor, copying manuscripts, reading,
+fasting and prayer. He was forbidden to receive letters, tokens or
+gifts, even from his nearest-relatives, without permission from the
+abbot. His daily food allowance was usually a pound of bread, a pint of
+wine, cider or ale, and sometimes fish, eggs, fruit or cheese. He was
+dressed in a black cowl. His clothing was to be suitable to the climate
+and to consist of two sets. He was also furnished with a straw mattress,
+blanket, quilt, pillow, knife, pen, needle, handkerchief and tablets. He
+was, in all things, to submit patiently to his superior, to keep
+silence, and to serve his turn in the kitchen. In the older days the
+monks changed their clothes on the occasion of a bath, which used to be
+taken four times a year. Later, bathing was allowed only twice a year,
+and the monks changed their clothes when they wished.
+
+Various punishments were employed to correct faults. Sometimes the
+offender was whipped on the bare shoulders with a thick rod; others had
+to lie prostrate in the doorway of the church at each hour, so that the
+monks passed over his body on entering or going out.
+
+The monks formerly rose at two o'clock, and spent the day in various
+occupations until eight at night, when they retired. The following rules
+once governed St. Gregory's Monastery in England: "3:45 A.M. Rise. 4
+A.M. Matins and lauds, recited; half-hour mental prayer; prime _sung_;
+prime B.V.M. recited. 6:30 A.M. Private study; masses; breakfast for
+those who had permission. 8 A.M. Lectures and disputations. 10 A.M.
+Little hours B.V.M., recited; tierce, mass, sext, _sung_. 11:30 A.M.
+Dinner. 12 noon. None _sung_; vespers and compline B.V.M., recited.
+12:30 P.M. Siesta, 1 P.M. Hebrew or Greek lecture. 2 P.M. Vespers
+_sung_. 2:30 P.M. Lectures and disputations. 4 P.M. Private study. 6
+P.M. Supper. 6:30 P.M. Recreation. 7:30 P.M. Public spiritual reading;
+compline _sung_; matins and lauds B.V.M., recited; half-hour mental
+prayer. 8:45 P.M. Retire[D]."
+
+[Footnote D: Appendix, Note D.]
+
+Such a routine suggests a dreary life, but that would depend upon the
+monk's temperament. Regularity of employment kept him healthy, and if he
+did not take his sins too much to heart, he was free from gloom. Hill
+very justly observes: "Whenever men obey that injunction of labor, no
+matter what their station, there is in the act the element of happiness,
+and whoever avoids that injunction, there is always the shadow of the
+unfulfilled curse darkening their path." Thus, their ideal was "to
+subdue one's self and then to devote one's self," which De Tocqueville
+pronounces "the secret of strength." How well they succeeded in
+realizing their ideal by the methods employed we shall see later.
+
+The term "order," as applied to the Benedictines, is used in a different
+sense from that which it has when used of later monastic bodies. Each
+Benedictine house was practically independent of every other, while the
+houses of the Dominicans, Franciscans or Jesuits were bound together
+under one head. The family idea was peculiar to the Benedictines. The
+abbot was the father, and the monastery was the home where the
+Benedictine was content to dwell all his life. In the later monastic
+societies the monks were constantly traveling from place to place.
+Taunton says: "As God made society to rest on the basis of the family,
+so St. Benedict saw that the spiritual family is the surest basis for
+the sanctification of the souls of his monks. The monastery therefore is
+to him what the 'home' is to lay-folk.... From this family idea comes
+another result: the very fact that St. Benedict did not found an Order
+but only gave a Rule, cuts away all possibility of that narrowing
+_esprit de corps_ which comes so easily to a widespread and
+highly-organized body."
+
+In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, however, it became necessary
+for the general good of each family to secure some kind of union. The
+Chapter then came into existence, which was a representative body,
+composed of the heads of the different houses and ordinary monks
+regularly appointed as delegates. To the Chapter were committed various
+matters of jurisdiction, and also the power of sending visitors to the
+different abbeys in the pope's name.
+
+Each society was ruled by an abbot, who governed in Christ's stead.
+Sometimes the members of the monastery were consulted, the older ones
+ordinarily, the whole congregation; in important matters. But implicit
+obedience to the abbot, as the representative of God, was demanded
+by the vows.
+
+The abbot was to be elected by the monks. At various periods popes and
+princes usurped this power, but the monks always claimed the right as an
+original privilege. Carlyle quotes Jocelin on Abbot Samson, who says
+that the monks of St. Edmundsbury were compelled to submit their choice
+to Henry II., who, looking at the committee of monks somewhat sternly,
+said: "You present to me Samson; I do not know him; had it been your
+prior, whom I do know, I should have accepted him; however, I will now
+do as you wish. But have a care of yourselves. By the true eyes of God,
+if you manage badly, I will be upon you."
+
+In Walter Scott's novel, "The Abbot," there is an interesting contrast
+drawn between the ceremonies attending an abbot's installation, when the
+monasteries were in their glory, and the pitiable scenes in the days of
+their decline, when Mary Stuart was a prisoner in Lochleven. In the
+monastery of Kennaquhair, which had been despoiled by the fury of the
+times, a few monks were left to mourn the mutilated statues and weep
+over the fragments of richly-carved Gothic pillars. Having secretly
+elected an abbot, they assembled in fear and trembling to invest him
+with the honors of his office. "In former times," says Scott, "this was
+one of the most splendid of the many pageants which the hierarchy of
+Rome had devised to attract the veneration of the faithful. When the
+folding doors on such solemn occasions were thrown open, and the new
+abbot appeared on the threshold in full-blown dignity, with ring and
+mitre and dalmatique and crosier, his hoary standard-bearers and
+juvenile dispensers of incense preceding him, and the venerable train of
+monks behind him, his appearance was the signal for the magnificent
+jubilate to rise from the organ and the music-loft and to be joined by
+the corresponding bursts of 'Alleluiah' from the whole assembled
+congregation.
+
+"Now all was changed. Father Ambrose stood on the broken steps of the
+high altar, barefooted, as was the rule, and holding in his hand his
+pastoral staff, for the gemmed ring and jewelled mitre had become
+secular spoils. No obedient vassals came, man after man, to make their
+homage and to offer the tribute which should provide their spiritual
+superior with palfrey and trappings. No bishop assisted at the solemnity
+to receive into the higher ranks of the church nobility a dignitary
+whose voice in the legislature was as potent as his own."
+
+We are enabled by this partially-quoted description to imagine the
+importance attached to the election of an abbot. He became, in feudal
+times, a lord of the land, the richest man in the community, and a
+tremendous power in political councils and parliaments. A Benedictine
+abbot once confessed: "My vow of poverty has given me a hundred thousand
+crowns a year; my vow of obedience has raised me to the rank of a
+sovereign prince."
+
+No new principle seems to be disclosed by the Benedictine rules. The
+command to labor had been emphasized even in the monasteries of Egypt.
+The Basilian code contained a provision enforcing manual labor, but the
+work was light and insufficient to keep the mind from brooding. The
+monastery that was to succeed in the West must provide for men who not
+only could toil hard, but who must do so if they were to be kept pure
+and true; it must welcome men accustomed to the dangerous adventures of
+pioneer life in the vast forests of the North. The Benedictine system
+met these conditions by a unique combination and application of
+well-known monastic principles; by a judicious subordination of minor
+matters to essential discipline; by bringing into greater prominence
+the doctrine of labor; by tempering the austerities of the cell to meet
+the necessities of a severe climate; and lastly, by devising a scheme of
+life equally adaptable to the monk of sunny Italy and the rude Goth of
+the northern forests.
+
+It was the splendid fruition of many years of experiment amid varying
+results. "It shows," says Schaff, "a true knowledge of human nature, the
+practical wisdom of Rome and adaptation to Western customs; it combines
+simplicity with completeness, strictness with gentleness, humility with
+courage and gives the whole cloister life a fixed unity and compact
+organization, which, like the episcopate, possessed an unlimited
+versatility and power of expansion."
+
+
+
+_The Struggle against Barbarism_
+
+No institution has contributed as much to the amelioration of human
+misery or struggled as patiently and persistently to influence society
+for good as the Christian church. In spite of all that may be said
+against the followers of the Cross, it still remains true, that they
+have ever been foremost in the establishment of peace and justice
+among men.
+
+The problem that confronted the church when Benedict began his labors,
+was no less than that of reducing a demoralized and brutal society to
+law and order. Chaos reigned, selfishness and lust ruled the hearts of
+Rome's conquerors. The West was desolated by barbarians; the East
+dismembered and worn out by theological controversy. War had ruined the
+commerce of the cities and laid waste the rural districts. Vast swamps
+and tracts of brush covered fields once beautiful with the products of
+agricultural labor. The minds of men were distracted by apprehensions of
+some frightful, impending calamity. The cultured Roman, the untutored
+Goth and the corrupted Christian were locked in the deadly embrace of
+despair. "Constantly did society attempt to form itself," says Guizot,
+"constantly was it destroyed by the act of man, by the absence of the
+moral conditions under which alone it can exist."
+
+But notwithstanding failures and discouragements, the work of
+reconstructing society moved painfully on, and among the brave master
+builders was Benedict of Nursia. "He found the world, physical and
+social, in ruins," says Cardinal Newman, "and his mission was to restore
+it in the way,--not of science, but of nature; not as if setting about
+to do it; not professing to do it by any set time, or by any series of
+strokes; but so quietly, patiently, gradually, that often till the work
+was done, it was not known to be doing. It was a restoration rather than
+a visitation, correction or conversion. The new world he helped to
+create was a growth rather than a structure."
+
+But the chaos created by the irruption of the barbarous nations at this
+period seriously affected the moral character and influence of the
+clergy and the monks. The church seemed unequal to the stupendous
+undertaking of converting the barbarians. The monks, as a class, were
+lawless and vicious. Benedict himself testifies against them, and
+declares that they were "always wandering and never stable; that they
+obey their own appetites, whereunto they are enslaved." Unable to
+control their own desires by any law whatsoever, they were unfitted to
+the task before them. It was imperative, then, that unity and order
+should be introduced among the monasteries; that some sort of a uniform
+rule, adapted to the existing conditions, should be adopted, not only
+for the preservation of the monastic institution, but for the
+preparation of the monks for their work. Therefore, although the
+Christianity of that time was far from ideal, it was, nevertheless, a
+religion within the grasp of the reckless barbarians; and subsequent
+events prove that it possessed a moral power capable of humanizing
+manners, elevating the intellect, and checking the violent temper of
+the age.
+
+Excepting always the religious services of the Benedictine monks, their
+greatest contribution to civilization was literary and educational[E].
+The rules of Benedict provided for two hours a day of reading, and it
+was doubtless this wise regulation that stimulated literary tastes, and
+resulted in the collecting of books and the reproduction of manuscripts.
+"Wherever a Benedictine house arose, or a monastery of any one of the
+Orders, which were but offshoots from the Benedictine tree, books were
+multiplied and a library came into existence, small indeed at first, but
+increasing year by year, till the wealthier houses had gathered together
+collections of books that would do credit to a modern university."
+There was great danger that the remains of classic literature might be
+destroyed in the general devastation of Italy. The monasteries rescued
+the literary fragments that escaped, and preserved them. "For a period
+of more than six centuries the safety of the literary heritage of
+Europe,--one may say of the world,--depended upon the scribes of a few
+dozen scattered monasteries."
+
+[Footnote E: Appendix, Note E.]
+
+The literary services of the earlier monks did not consist in original
+production, but in the reproduction and preservation of the classics.
+This work was first begun as a part of the prescribed routine of
+European monastic life in the monastery at Vivaria, or Viviers, France,
+which was founded by Cassiodorus about 539. The rules of this cloister
+were based on those of Cassian, who died in the early part of the fifth
+century. Benedict, at Monte Cassino, followed the example of
+Cassiodorus, and the Benedictine Order carried the work on for the seven
+succeeding centuries.
+
+Cassiodorus was a statesman of no mean ability, and for over forty years
+was active in the political circles of his time, holding high official
+positions under five different Roman rulers. He was also an exceptional
+scholar, devoting much of his energy to the preservation of classic
+literature. His magnificent collection of manuscripts, rescued from the
+ruins of Italian libraries, "supplied material for the pens of thousands
+of monastic scribes." If we leave out Jerome, it is to Cassiodorus that
+the honor is due for joining learning and monasticism.
+
+"Thus," remarks Schaff, "that very mode of life, which, in its founder,
+Anthony, despised all learning, became in the course of its development
+an asylum of culture in the rough and stormy times of the migration and
+the crusades, and a conservator of the literary treasures of antiquity
+for the use of modern times."
+
+Cassiodorus, with a noble enthusiasm, inspired his monks to their task.
+He even provided lamps of ingenious construction, that seem to have been
+self-trimming, to aid them in their work. He himself set an example of
+literary diligence, astonishing in one of his age.
+
+Putnam is justified in his praises of this remarkable character when he
+declares: "It is not too much to say that the continuity of thought and
+civilization of the ancient world with that of the middle ages was due,
+more than to any other one man, to the life and labors of Cassiodorus."
+
+But the monk was more than a scribe and a collector of books, he became
+the chronicler and the school-teacher. "The records that have come down
+to us of several centuries of medieval European history are due almost
+exclusively to the labors of the monastic chroniclers." A vast fund of
+information, the value of which is impaired, it is true, by much useless
+stuff, concerning medieval customs, laws and events, was collected by
+these unscientific historians and is now accessible to the student.
+
+At the end of the ninth century nearly all the monasteries of Europe
+conducted schools open to the children of the neighborhood. The
+character of the educational training of the times is not to be judged
+by modern standards. A beginning had to be made, and that too at a time
+"when neither local nor national governments had assumed any
+responsibilities in connection with elementary education, and when the
+municipalities were too ignorant, and in many cases too poor, to make
+provision for the education of the children." It is therefore to the
+lasting credit of Benedict, inspired no doubt by the example of
+Cassiodorus, that he commanded his monks to read, encouraged literary
+work, and made provision for the education of the young.
+
+The Benedictines rendered a great social service in reclaiming deserted
+regions and in clearing forests. "The monasteries," says Maitland,
+"were, in those days of misrule and turbulence, beyond all price, not
+only as places where (it may be imperfectly, but better than elsewhere)
+God was worshipped,... but as central points whence agriculture was to
+spread over bleak hills and barren downs and marshy plains, and deal its
+bread to millions perishing with hunger and its pestilential train."
+Roman taxation and barbarian invasions had ruined the farmers, who left
+their lands and fled to swell the numbers of the homeless. The monk
+repeopled these abandoned but once fertile fields, and carried
+civilization still deeper into the forests. Many a monastery with its
+surrounding buildings became the nucleus of a modern city. The more
+awful the darkness of the forest solitudes, the more the monks loved
+it. They cut down trees in the heart of the wilderness, and transformed
+a soil bristling with woods and thickets into rich pastures and ploughed
+fields. They stimulated the peasantry to labor, and taught them many
+useful lessons in agriculture. Thus, they became an industrial, as well
+as a spiritual, agency for good.
+
+The habits of the monks brought them into close contact with nature.
+Even the animals became their friends. Numerous stories have been
+related of their wonderful power over wild beasts and their
+conversations with the birds. "It is wonderful," says Bede, "that he who
+faithfully and loyally obeys the Creator of the universe, should, in his
+turn, see all the creatures obedient to his orders and his wishes." They
+lived, so we are told, in the most intimate relations with the animal
+creation. Squirrels leaped to their hands or hid in the folds of their
+cowls. Stags came out of the forests in Ireland and offered themselves
+to some monks who were ploughing, to replace the oxen carried off by the
+hunters. Wild animals stopped in their pursuit of game at the command of
+St. Laumer. Birds ceased singing at the request of some monks until
+they had chanted their evening prayer, and at their word the feathered
+songsters resumed their music. A swan was the daily companion of St.
+Hugh of Lincoln, and manifested its miraculous knowledge of his
+approaching death by the most profound melancholy. While all the details
+of such stories are not to be accepted as literally true, no doubt some
+of this poetry of monastic history rests upon interesting and
+charming facts.
+
+A fuller discussion of the permanent contributions which the monk made
+to civilization is reserved for the last chapter. I have somewhat
+anticipated a closer scrutiny of his achievements in order to present a
+clearer view of his life and labors. His religious duties were, perhaps,
+wearisome enough. We might tire of his monotonous chanting and incessant
+vigils, but it is gratifying to know that he also engaged in practical
+and useful employments. The convent became the house of industry as well
+as the temple of prayer. The forest glades echoed to the stroke of the
+axe as well as to hymns of praise. Yes, as Carlyle writes of the twelfth
+century, "these years were no chimerical vacuity and dreamland peopled
+with mere vaporous phantasms, but a green solid place, that grew corn
+and several other things. The sun shone on it, the vicissitudes of
+seasons and human fortunes. Cloth was woven and worn; ditches were dug,
+furrowed fields ploughed and houses built."
+
+
+
+_The Spread of the Benedictine Rule_
+
+It is generally held that Benedict had no presentiment of the vast
+historical importance of his system; and that he aspired to nothing
+beyond the salvation of his own soul and those of his brethren.
+
+But the rule spread with wonderful rapidity. In every rich valley arose
+a Benedictine abbey. Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, France and Spain
+adopted his rule. Princes, moved by various motives, hastened to bestow
+grants of land on the indefatigable missionary who, undeterred by the
+wildness of the forest and the fierceness of the barbarian, settled in
+the remotest regions. In the various societies of the Benedictines there
+have been thirty-seven thousand monasteries and one hundred and fifty
+thousand abbots. For the space of two hundred and thirty-nine years the
+Benedictines governed the church by forty-eight popes chosen from their
+order. They boast of two hundred cardinals, seven thousand archbishops,
+fifteen thousand bishops and four thousand saints. The astonishing
+assertion is also made that no less than twenty emperors and forty-seven
+kings resigned their crowns to become Benedictine monks. Their convents
+claim ten empresses and fifty queens. Many of these earthly rulers
+retired to the seclusion of the monastery because their hopes had been
+crushed by political defeat, or their consciences smitten by reason of
+crime or other sins. Some were powerfully attracted by the heroic
+element of monastic life, and these therefore spurned the luxuries and
+emoluments of royalty, in order by personal sacrifice to achieve
+spiritual domination in this life, and to render their future salvation
+certain. But whatever the motive that drew queens and princes to the
+monastic order, the retirement of such large numbers of the nobility
+indicates the influence of a religious system which could cope so
+successfully with the attractions of the palace and the natural passion
+for political dominion.
+
+Saint Gregory the Great, the biographer of Benedict, who was born at
+Rome in 540 A.D. and so was nearly contemporaneous with Benedict was a
+zealous promoter of the monastic ideal, and did as much as any one to
+advance its ecclesiastical position and influence. He founded seven
+monasteries with his paternal inheritance, and became the abbot of one
+of them. He often expressed a desire to escape the clamor of the world
+by retirement to a lonely cell. Inspired by the loftiest estimates of
+his holy office, he sought to reform the church in its spirit and life.
+Many of his innovations in the church service bordered upon a dangerous
+and glittering pomp; but the musical world will always revere his memory
+for the famous chants that bear his name.
+
+Gregory surrounded himself with monks, and did everything in his power
+to promote their interests. He increased the novitiate to two years, and
+exempted certain monasteries from the control of the bishops. Other
+popes added to these exemptions, and thus widened the breach which
+already existed between the secular clergy and the monks. He also fixed
+a penalty of lifelong imprisonment for abandonment of the
+monastic life.
+
+Under Gregory's direction many missionary enterprises were carried on,
+notably that of Augustine to England. The story runs that one day
+Gregory saw some men and beautiful children from Britain put up for sale
+in the market-place. Deeply sighing, he exclaimed: "Alas for grief! That
+the author of darkness possesses men of so bright countenance, and that
+so great grace of aspect bears a mind void of inward grace!" He then
+asked the children the name of their nation. "Angles," was the reply.
+"It is well," he said, "for they have _angelic_ faces. What is the name
+of your province?" It was answered, "Deira." "Truly," he said,
+"_De-ira-ns,_ drawn from anger, and called to the mercy of Christ. How
+is your king called?" They answered, "Ælla, or Ella." Then he cried
+"_Alleluia!_ it behooves that the praise of God the Creator should be
+sung in those parts." While it is hard to accept this evidently fanciful
+story in its details, it seems quite probable that the sale of some
+English slaves in a Roman market drew the attention of Gregory to the
+needs of Britain.
+
+Some years afterwards, in 596, Gregory commissioned Augustine, prior of
+the monastery of St. Andrew's on the Celian Hill, at Rome, with forty
+companions, to preach the gospel in Britain. When this celebrated
+missionary landed on the island of Thanet, he found monasticism had
+preceded him. But what was the nature of this British monasticism? On
+that question Rome and England are divided.
+
+The Romanist declares that no country received the Christian faith more
+directly from the Church of Rome than did England; that the most careful
+study of authentic records reveals no doctrinal strife, no diversity of
+belief between the early British monks and the Pope of Rome; that St.
+Patrick, of Ireland, and St. Columba, of Scotland, were loyal sons of
+their Roman mother.
+
+The Anglican, on the other hand, believes that Christianity was
+introduced into Britain independently of Rome. As to the precise means
+employed, he has his choice of ten legends. He may hold with Lane that
+it is reasonable to suppose one of Paul's ardent converts, burning with
+fervent zeal, led the Britons to the cross. Or he may argue with others:
+"What is more natural than to imagine that Joseph of Arimathea, driven
+from Palestine, sailed away to Britain." In proof of this assumption, we
+are shown the chapel of St. Joseph, the remains of the oldest Christian
+church, where the holy-thorn blossoms earlier than in any other part of
+England. Many Anglicans wisely regard all this as legendary. It is also
+held that St. Patrick and St. Columba were not Romanists, but
+represented a type of British Christianity, which, although temporarily
+subjected to Rome, yet finally threw off the yoke under Henry VIII. and
+reasserted its ancient independence. Still others declare that when
+Augustine was made archbishop, the seat of ecclesiastical authority was
+transferred from Rome to Canterbury, and the English church became an
+independent branch of the universal church. It was Catholic, but
+not Roman.
+
+The difficulty of ascertaining when and by whom Christianity was
+originally introduced into southern Britain must be apparent to every
+student. But some things may be regarded as historically certain. The
+whole country had been desolated by war when Augustine arrived. For a
+hundred and fifty years the brutality and ignorance of the barbarians
+had reigned supreme. All traces of Roman civilization had nearly
+disappeared with the conquest of the heathen Anglo-Saxons. Whatever may
+be thought about the subsequent effects of the triumph of Roman
+Christianity, it is due to Rome to recognize the fact that with the
+coming of the Roman missionaries religion and knowledge began a
+new life.
+
+The Anglo-Saxons had destroyed the Christian churches and monasteries,
+whose origin, as we have seen, is unknown. They drove away or massacred
+the priests and monks. Christianity was practically extirpated in those
+districts subject to the Germanic yoke. But when Augustine landed
+British monks were still to be found in various obscure parts of the
+country, principally in Ireland and Wales. Judging from what is known of
+these monks, it is safe to say that their habits and teachings were
+based on the traditions of an earlier Christianity, and that originally
+British Christianity was independent of Rome.
+
+The monks in Britain at the time when Augustine landed differed from the
+Roman monks in their tonsures, their liturgy, and the observance of
+Easter, although no material difference in doctrine can be established.
+The clergy did not always observe the law of celibacy nor perhaps the
+Roman rules of baptism. It is also admitted, even by Catholic
+historians, that the British monks refused to acknowledge Augustine
+their archbishop; that this question divided the royal family; and that
+the old British church was not completely subdued until Henry II.
+conquered Ireland and Wales. These statements are practically supported
+by Ethelred L. Taunton, an authoritative writer, whose sympathy with
+Roman monasticism is very strong. He thinks that a few of the British
+monks submitted to Augustine, but of the rest he says: "They would not
+heed the call of Augustine, and on frivolous pretexts refused to
+acknowledge him." A large body of British monks retired to the monastery
+of Bangor, and when King Ethelfrid invaded the district of Wales, he
+slew twelve hundred of them in the open field as they were upon their
+knees praying for the success of the Britons. It was then that the power
+of the last remnants of Celtic or British Christianity was practically
+broken, and the Roman type henceforth gradually acquired the mastery.
+
+Montalembert says: "In no other country has Catholicism been persecuted
+with more sanguinary zeal; and, at the same time, none has greater need
+of her care." While the latter observation is open to dispute, it is
+certainly true that England has never remained quiet under the dominion
+of Rome. Goldsmith's tribute to the English character suggests a
+reasonable explanation of this historic fact:
+
+     "Stern o'er each bosom reason holds her state,
+     Fierce in their native hardiness of soul,
+     True to imagined right, above control,
+     While even the peasant boasts those rights to scan,
+     And learns to venerate himself as man."
+
+The fact to be remembered, as we emerge from these ecclesiastical
+quarrels and the confusions of this perplexing history, is that the
+monks were the intellectual and religious leaders of those days. They
+exercised a profound influence upon English society, and had much to do
+with the establishment of English institutions.
+
+But, on the other hand, the continent is indebted to England for the
+gift of many noble monks who served France and Germany as intellectual
+and moral guides, at a time when these countries were in a state of
+extreme degradation. Boniface, the Apostle to the Germans, who is
+regarded by Neander as the Father of the German church and the real
+founder of the Christian civilization of Germany, was the gift of the
+English cloisters, and a native of Devonshire. Alcuin, the
+ecclesiastical prime minister of Charlemagne and the greatest educator
+of his time, was born and trained in England. Nearly all the leading
+schools of France were founded or improved by this celebrated monk. It
+was largely due to Alcuin's unrivaled energy and splendid talents that
+Charlemagne was able to make so many and so glorious educational
+improvements in his empire.
+
+Notable among the men who introduced the Benedictine rule into England
+was St. Wilfred (634-709 A.D.), who had traveled extensively in France
+and Italy, and on his return carried the monastic rule into northern
+Britain. He also is credited with establishing a course of musical
+training in the English monasteries. He was the most active prelate of
+his age in the founding of churches and monasteries, and in securing
+uniformity of discipline and harmony with the Church of Rome.
+
+One of the most famous monastic retreats of those days was the wild and
+lonely isle of Iona, the Mecca of monks and the monastic capital of
+Scotland. It is a small island, three miles long and one broad, lying
+west of Scotland. Many kings of Scotland were crowned here on a stone
+which now forms a part of the British coronation chair. Its great
+monastery enjoyed the distinction from the sixth to the eighth century
+of being second to none in its widespread influence in behalf of the
+intellectual life of Europe.
+
+This monastery was originally founded in the middle of the sixth century
+by Columba, the Apostle to Caledonia, an Irish saint actively associated
+with a wonderful intellectual awakening. The rule of the monastery is
+unknown, but it is probable that it could not have been, at the first,
+of the Benedictine type. Columba's followers traveled as missionaries
+and teachers to all parts of Europe, and it is said, they dared to sail
+in their small boats even as far as Iceland.
+
+Dr. Johnson says in his "Tour to the Hebrides": "We are now treading
+that illustrious island which was once the luminary of the Caledonian
+regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits
+of knowledge and the blessing of religion. That man is little to be
+envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon,
+or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona." The
+monastery which Columba founded here was doubtless of the same character
+as the establishments in Ireland. Many of these Celtic buildings were
+made of the branches of trees and supported by wooden props. It was some
+time before properly-constructed wooden churches or monasteries became
+general in these wild regions. In such rude huts small libraries were
+collected and the monks trained to preach. Ireland was then the center
+of knowledge in the North. Greek, Latin, music and such science as the
+monks possessed were taught to eager pupils. Copies of their manuscripts
+are still to be found all over Europe. Their schools were open to the
+rich and poor alike. The monks went from house to house teaching and
+distributing literature. As late as the sixteenth century, students from
+various parts of the Continent were to be found in these Irish schools.
+
+There is an interesting story related of Columba's literary activities.
+It is said that on one occasion while visiting his master, Finnian, he
+undertook to make a clandestine copy of the abbot's Psalter. When the
+master learned of the fact, he indignantly charged Columba with theft,
+and demanded the copy which he had made, on the ground that a copy made
+without permission of the author was the property of the original owner,
+because a transcript is the offspring of the original work. Putnam, to
+whom I am indebted for this story, says: "As far as I have been able to
+ascertain, this is the first instance which occurs in the history of
+European literature of a contention for a copyright." The conflict for
+this copyright afterwards developed into a civil war. The copy of the
+Latin Psalter "was enshrined in the base of a portable altar as the
+national relic of the O'Donnell clan," and was preserved by that family
+for thirteen hundred years. It was placed on exhibition as late as 1867,
+in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy.
+
+Enough has now been said to enable the reader to understand something of
+the spirit and labors of the monks in an age characteristically
+barbaric. For five centuries, from the fifth to the tenth, the
+condition of Europe was deplorable. "It may be doubted," says an old
+writer, "whether the worst of the Cæsars exceeded in dark malignity, or
+in capriciousness of vengeance, the long-haired kings of France." The
+moral sense of even the most saintly churchmen seems to have been
+blunted by familiarity with atrocities and crimes. Brute force was the
+common method of exercising control and administering justice. The
+barbarians were bold and independent, but cruel and superstitious. Their
+furious natures needed taming and their rude minds tutoring. Even though
+during this period churches and monasteries were raised in amazing
+numbers, yet the spirit of barbarism was so strong that the Christians
+could scarcely escape its influence. The power of Christianity was
+modified by the nature of the people, whose characters it aimed to
+transform. The remarks of William Newton Clarke respecting the
+Christians of the first and second centuries are also appropriate to the
+period under review: "The people were changed by the new faith, but the
+new faith was changed by the people." Christianity "made a new people,
+better than it found them, but they in turn made a new Christianity,
+with its strong points illustrated and confirmed in their experience,
+but with weakness brought in from their defects."
+
+Yes, the work of civilizing the Germanic nations was a task of herculean
+proportions and of tremendous significance. Out of these tribes were to
+be constructed the nations of modern Europe. To this important mission
+the monks addressed themselves with such courage, patience, faith and
+zeal, as to entitle them to the veneration of posterity. With singular
+wisdom and unflinching bravery they carried on their missionary and
+educational enterprises, in the face of discouragements and obstacles
+sufficient to dismay the bravest souls. The tenacious strength of those
+wild forces that clashed with the tenderer influences of the cloister
+should soften our criticism of the inconsistencies which detract from
+the glory of those early ministers of righteousness and exemplars of
+gentleness and peace.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+_REFORMED AND MILITARY ORDERS_
+
+The monastic institution was never entirely good or entirely bad. In
+periods of general degradation there were beautiful exceptions in
+monasteries ruled by pure and powerful abbots. From the beginning
+various monasteries soon departed from their discipline by sheltering
+iniquity and laziness, while other establishments faithfully observed
+the rules. But during the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries there was a
+widespread decline in the spirit of devotion and a shameful relaxation
+of monastic discipline. Malmesbury, King Alfred, Alcuin, in England, and
+many continental writers, sorrowfully testified against the monks
+because of their vices, their revelings, their vain and gorgeous
+ornaments of dress and their waning zeal for virtue. The priests hunted
+and fought, prayed, preached, swore and drank as they pleased. "We
+cannot wonder," says an anonymous historian, "that they should commit
+the more reasonable offence of taking wives." Disorders were common
+everywhere; the monastic vows were sadly neglected. Political and
+religious ideals were lost sight of amid the prevailing confusion and
+wild commotion of those dark days. "It is true," says Carlyle, "all
+things have two faces, a light one and a dark. It is true in three
+centuries much imperfection accumulates; many an ideal, monastic or
+otherwise, shooting forth into practice as it can, grows to a strange
+reality; and we have to ask with amazement, Is this your ideal? For alas
+the ideal has to grow into the real, and to seek out its bed and board
+there, often in a sorry way."
+
+This, then, may be accepted as the usual history of a monastery or a
+monastic order. First, vows of poverty, obedience and chastity zealously
+cherished and observed; as a result of loyalty to this ideal, a spirit
+of devotion to righteousness is created, and a pure, lofty type of
+Christian life is formed, which, if not the highest and truest, is
+sufficiently exalted to win the reverence of worldly men and an
+extra-ordinary power over their lives and affections. There naturally
+follow numerous and valuable gifts of land and gold. The monks become
+rich as well as powerful. Then the decline begins. Vast riches have
+always been a menace to true spirituality. Perhaps they always will be.
+The wealthy monk falls a prey to pride and arrogance; he becomes
+luxurious in his habits, and lazy in the performance of duty. Vice
+creeps in and his moral ruin is complete. The transformation in the
+character of the monk is accompanied by a change in public opinion. The
+monk is now an eyesore; his splendid buildings are viewed with envy by
+some, with shame by others. Then arise the vehement cries for the
+destruction of his palatial cloister, and the heroic efforts of the
+remnant that abide faithful to reform the institution. This has been the
+pathway over which every monastic order has traveled. As long as there
+was sufficient vitality to give birth to reformatory movements, new
+societies sprang up as off-shoots of the older orders, some of which
+adopted the original rules, while others altered them to suit the views
+of the reforming founder. "For indeed," says Trench, "those orders,
+wonderful at their beginning, and girt up so as to take heaven by storm,
+seemed destined to travel in a mournful circle from which there was no
+escape." These facts partly explain the reformatory movements which
+appear from the ninth century on.
+
+The first great saint to enter the lists against monastic corruption was
+Benedict of Aniane (750-821 A.D.), a member of a distinguished family in
+southern France. The Benedictine rule in his opinion was formed for
+novices and invalids. He attributed the prevailing laxity among the
+monks to the mild discipline. As abbot of a monastery he undertook to
+reform its affairs by adopting a system based on Basil of Asia Minor and
+Pachomius of Egypt. But he leaned too far back for human nature in the
+West, and the conclusion was forced upon him that Benedict of Nursia had
+formulated a set of rules as strict as could be enforced among the
+Western monks. Accordingly he directed his efforts to secure a faithful
+observance of the original Benedictine rules, adding, however, a number
+of rigid and burdensome regulations. Although at first the monks doubted
+his sanity, kicked him and spat on him, yet he afterwards succeeded in
+gathering about three hundred of them under his rule. Several colonies
+were sent out from his monastery, which was built on his patrimonial
+estate near Montpellier. His last establishment, which was located near
+Aix-la-Chapelle, became famous as a center of learning and sanctity.
+
+One of the most celebrated reform monasteries was the convent of Cluny,
+or Clugny, in Burgundy, about fifteen miles from Lyons, which was
+founded by Duke William of Aquitaine in 910. It was governed by a code
+based on the rule of St. Benedict. The monastery began with twelve monks
+under Bruno, but became so illustrious that under Hugo there were ten
+thousand monks in the various convents under its rule. It was made
+immediately subject to the pope,--that is, exempt from the jurisdiction
+of the bishop. Some idea of its splendid equipment may be formed from
+the fact that it is said, that in 1245, after the council of Lyons, it
+entertained Innocent IV., two patriarchs, twelve cardinals, three
+archbishops, fifteen bishops, many abbots, St. Louis, King of France,
+several princes and princesses, each with a considerable retinue, yet
+the monks were not incommoded. It gave to the church three
+popes,--Gregory VII., Urban II. and Paschal II.
+
+From his cell at Cluny, Hildebrand, who became the famous Gregory VII.,
+looked out upon a world distracted by war and sunk in vice. "In
+Hildebrand's time, while he was studying those annals in Cluny," says
+Thomas Starr King, "a boy pope, twelve years old, was master of the
+spiritual scepter, and was beginning to lead a life so shameful, foul
+and execrable that a subsequent pope said, 'he shuddered to
+describe it.'"
+
+Connected with the monastery was the largest church in the world,
+surpassed only a little, in later years, by St. Peter's at Rome. Its
+construction was begun in 1089 by the abbot Hugo, and it was consecrated
+in 1131, under the administration of Peter the Venerable. It boasted of
+twenty-five altars and many costly works of art.
+
+So great was the fame and influence of this establishment that numerous
+convents in France and Italy placed themselves under its control, thus
+forming "The Congregation of Cluny."
+
+After the administration of Peter the Venerable (1122-1156), this
+illustrious house began to succumb to the intoxication of success, and
+it steadily declined in character and influence until its property was
+confiscated by the Constituent Assembly, in 1799, and the church sold
+for one hundred thousand francs. It is now in ruin.
+
+But in spite of every attempt at reform during the ninth and tenth
+centuries the decline of the continental monasteries continued. Many
+persons of royal blood, accustomed to the license of palaces, entered
+the cloister and increased the disorders. The monks naturally respected
+their blood and relaxed the discipline in their favor. The result was
+costly robes, instead of the simple, monastic garb, riotous living, and
+a general indifference to spirituality. Spurious monasteries sprang up
+with rich lay-abbots at their head, who made the office hereditary in
+their families. Laymen were appointed to rich benefices simply that they
+might enjoy the revenues. These lay-abbots even went so far as to live
+with their families in their monasteries, and rollicking midnight
+banquets were substituted for the asceticism demanded by the vows. They
+traveled extensively attended by splendid retinues. Some of the monks
+seemed intent on nothing but obtaining charters of privileges and
+exemptions from civil and military duties.
+
+In England the state of affairs was even more distressing than on the
+Continent. The evil effects of the Saxon invasion, the demoralization
+that accompanied the influx of paganism, and the almost complete
+destruction of the religious institutions of British Christianity have
+already been noted. About the year 700, the island was divided among
+fifteen petty chiefs, who waged war against one another almost
+incessantly. Christianity, as introduced by Augustine, had somewhat
+mitigated the ferocity of war, and England had begun to make some
+approach toward a respect for law and a veneration for the Christian
+religion, when the Danes came, and with them another period of
+disgraceful atrocities and blighting heathenism. The Danish invasion had
+almost extirpated the monastic institution in the northern districts.
+Carnage and devastation reigned everywhere. Celebrated monasteries fell
+in ruins and the monks were slain or driven into exile. Hordes of
+barbaric warriors roamed the country, burning and plundering.
+
+"At the close of this calamitous period," says Lingard, in his "History
+and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church," "the Anglo-Saxon church
+presented a melancholy spectacle to the friends of religion: 1. The
+laity had resumed the ferocious manners of their pagan forefathers. 2.
+The clergy had grown indolent, dissolute and illiterate. 3. The monastic
+order had been apparently annihilated. It devolved on King Alfred,
+victorious over his enemies, to devise and apply the remedies for these
+evils." The good king endeavored to restore the monastic institution,
+but, owing to the lack of candidates for the monastic habit, he was
+compelled to import a colony of monks from Gaul.
+
+The moral results of Alfred's reformatory measures, as well as those of
+his immediate successors, were far from satisfactory, although he did
+vastly stimulate the educational work of the monastic schools. He
+devoted himself so faithfully to the gathering of traditions, that he is
+said to be the father of English history. The tide of immorality,
+however, was too strong to be stemmed in a generation or two. It was a
+century and a half before there was even an approach to substantial
+victory over the disgraceful abuses among the clergy and the monks.
+
+The churchman who is credited with doing most to distinguish the monks
+as a zealous and faithful body was Dunstan (924-988 A.D.), first Abbot
+of Glastonbury, then Bishop of Winchester, and finally Archbishop of
+Canterbury. He is the most conspicuous ecclesiastical personage in the
+history of those dark days, but his character and labors have given rise
+to bitter and extensive controversy.
+
+It was Dunstan's chief aim to subjugate the Anglo-Saxon church to the
+power of Rome, and to correct existing abuses by compelling the clergy
+and the monks to obey the rule of celibacy. He was a fervent believer in
+the efficacy of the Benedictine vows, and in the value of clerical
+celibacy as a remedy for clerical licentiousness. Naturally, Protestant
+writers, who hold that papal supremacy never was a blessing in any
+country or in any age, and who think that clerical celibacy has always
+been a fruitful source of crime and sin, condemn the reforms of Dunstan
+in the most unqualified terms. A statement of a few of the many and
+perplexing facts may assist us to form a fairly just judgment of the
+man and his work.
+
+The principle of sacerdotal celibacy appeared early in the history of
+Christianity, and for many centuries it was the subject of sharp
+contention. Roman Catholics themselves have been divided upon it. In
+every Christian country, from the Apostolic period onward, there were
+priests and teachers who opposed the imposition of this rule upon the
+clergy, and, on the other hand, there were those who practiced and
+advocated celibacy as the indispensable guarantee of spiritual power
+and purity.
+
+What the rule of celibacy was at this period, in England, seems
+uncertain. Lingard maintains that marriage was always permitted to the
+clergy in minor orders, who were employed in various subordinate
+positions, but that those in higher orders, whose office it was to
+minister at the altar and to offer the sacrifice, were expressly bound
+to a life of the strictest continence. During the invasion of the Danes,
+when confusion reigned, many priests in the higher orders had not only
+forsaken their vows of chastity, but had plunged into frightful
+immoralities; and married clerks of inferior orders were raised to the
+priesthood to fill the ranks depleted by war. These promoted clerks were
+previously required to separate from their wives, but apparently many of
+them did not do so. Consequently, from several causes, the married
+priests became a numerous body, and since the common opinion seems to
+have been that a married priest was disgracing his office, this body was
+regarded as a menace to the welfare of the church and the state.
+
+Lea, in his elaborate "History of Sacerdotal Celibacy," holds that the
+rule of celibacy was only binding on the regulars, or monks, and that
+the secular priesthood was at liberty to marry. But from several other
+passages in his work it seems that he also recognizes the fact that,
+while marriage was common, it was in defiance of an ancient canon. "It
+is evident," he says, "that the memory of the ancient canons was not
+forgotten, and that their observance was still urged by some ardent
+churchmen, but that the customs of the period had rendered them
+virtually obsolete, and that no sufficient means existed of enforcing
+obedience. If open scandals and shameless bigamy and concubinage could
+be restrained, the ecclesiastical authorities were evidently content.
+Celibacy could not be enjoined as a law, but was rendered attractive by
+surrounding it with privileges and immunities denied to him who yielded
+to the temptations of the flesh."
+
+Throughout Western Christendom the law of celibacy was openly and
+shamefully trampled upon, and every reformer seemed to think that the
+very first step toward any improvement in clerical morals was to be
+taken by enforcing this rule.
+
+When Dunstan commenced his reforms, the clergy were guilty of graver
+sins than that of living in marriage relations. Adultery, bigamy,
+swearing, fighting and drinking were the order of the day. The
+monasteries were occupied by secular priests with wives or concubines.
+All the chroniclers of this period agree in charging the monks and
+clergy with a variety of dissipations and disorders.
+
+It is quite clear, therefore, that in Dunstan's view he was doing the
+only right thing in trying to correct the existing abuses by compelling
+the priests to adopt that celibate life without which it was popularly
+believed the highest holiness and the largest usefulness could not be
+attained. In the light of this purpose and this common opinion of his
+time, Dunstan and his mission should be judged.
+
+Dunstan was aided in his work by King Edgar the Pacific, who, by the
+way, was himself compelled to go without his crown seven years for
+violating the chastity of a nun. Oswald, the Bishop of Worcester, and
+Ethelwold, the Bishop of Winchester, were also zealously engaged in the
+task of reform.
+
+A law was enacted providing that priests, deacons and sub-deacons should
+live chastely or resign. As a result of this law, many priests were
+ejected from the monasteries and from their official positions. Strict
+monks were put in their places. A strong opposition party was created,
+and the ejected clergy aroused such discontent that a civil war was
+barely averted. This state of things continued until the Norman
+invasion, when the monks and secular clergy joined forces in the common
+defence of their property and ecclesiastical rights.
+
+It would seem that many writers, misled by legends for which Dunstan
+must not be held responsible, and blinded by religious prejudice, have
+unjustly charged him with hypocrisy and even crime. All his methods may
+not be defensible when estimated in the light of modern knowledge, and
+even his ideal may be rejected when judged by modern standards of
+Christian character, but he must be considered with the moral and
+intellectual life of his times in full view. He was a champion of the
+oppressed, a friend of the poor, an unflinching foe of sinful men in the
+pulpit or on the throne. His will was inflexible, his independence noble
+and his energy untiring. In trying to bring the Anglo-Saxon church into
+conformity to Rome he was actuated by a higher motive than the merely
+selfish desire for ecclesiastical authority. He regarded this harmony as
+the only remedy for the prevailing disorders. He believed, like many
+other churchmen of unquestioned purity and honesty, that it was
+necessary to compel temporal authorities to recognize the power of the
+church in order to overcome that defiance of moral law which was the
+chief characteristic of the kings and princes in that turbulent period.
+
+What the Anglo-Saxon church might have been if the rule of celibacy had
+not been forced upon her, and if she had not submitted to Roman
+authority in other matters, is a theme for speculation only. The fact
+is that Dunstan found a church corrupt to the core and left it, as a
+result of his purifying efforts, with some semblance, to say the least,
+of moral influence and spiritual purity. Some other kind of
+ecclesiastical polity than that advocated by Dunstan might have achieved
+the same results as his, but the simple fact is that none did. In so far
+as Dunstan succeeded in his monastic measures, he laid the foundations
+of an ecclesiastical power which afterwards became a serious menace to
+the political freedom of the Anglo-Saxon race. The battle begun by him
+raged fiercely between the popes, efficiently supported by the monks,
+and the kings of England, with varying fortunes, for many centuries. But
+perhaps, under the plans of that benign Providence who presides over the
+destiny of nations, it was essentially in the interests of civilization,
+that the lawlessness of rulers and the vices of the people should be
+restrained by that ecclesiastical power, which, in after years, and at
+the proper time, should be forced to recede to its legitimate sphere and
+functions.
+
+Another celebrated reformatory movement was begun by St. Bruno, who
+founded the Carthusian Order about the year 1086. Ruskin says: "In
+their strength, from the foundation of the order at the close of the
+eleventh century to the beginning of the fourteenth, they reared in
+their mountain fastnesses and sent out to minister to the world a
+succession of men of immense mental grasp and serenely authoritative
+innocence, among whom our own Hugh of Lincoln, in his relations with
+Henry II. and Coeur de Lion, is to my mind the most beautiful sacerdotal
+figure known to me in history."
+
+Bruno, with six companions, established the famous Grand Chartreuse in a
+rocky wilderness, near Grenoble, in France, separated from the rest of
+the world by a chain of wild mountains, which are covered with ice and
+snow for two-thirds of the year.
+
+Until the time of Guigo (1137), the Grand Chartreuse was governed by
+unwritten rules. Thirteen monks only were permitted to live together,
+and sixteen converts in the huts at the foot of the hill. The policy of
+this monastery was at first opposed to all connection with other
+monasteries. But applications for admission were so numerous that
+colonies were sent out in various directions, all subject to the mother
+house. The Carthusians differed in many respects from other orders. The
+rules of Dom Guigo indicate that the chief aim was to preclude the monks
+from intercourse with the world, and largely with each other, for each
+monk had separate apartments, cooked his own food, and so rarely met
+with his brethren, that he was practically a hermit. The clothing
+consisted of a rough hair shirt, worn next the skin, a white cassock
+over it, and, when they went out, a black robe. Fasting was observed at
+least three days a week, and meat was strictly forbidden. Respecting
+contact with women Dom Guigo says: "Under no circumstances whatever do
+we allow women to set foot within our precincts, knowing as we do that
+neither wise man, nor prophet, nor judge, nor the entertainer of God,
+nor the sons of God, nor the first created of mankind, fashioned by
+God's own hands, could escape the wiles and deceits of women."
+
+Blistering and bleeding, as well as fasting, were employed to control
+evil impulses. On the whole, the austerities were as severe as human
+nature in that wild and cold region could endure. Yet the prosperity
+that rewarded the piety and labors of the Carthusian monks proved more
+than a match for their rigorous discipline, and in the middle of the
+thirteenth century we read charges of laxity and disorder.
+
+The Carthusians settled in England in the twelfth century, and had a
+famous monastery in London, since called the Charterhouse. The order was
+in many respects the most successful attempt at reform, but as has been
+said, "the whole order, and each individual member, is like a
+petrifaction from the Middle Ages." Owing to its extremely solitary
+ideal and its severe discipline, it was unfitted to secure extensive
+control, or to gain a permanent influence upon the rapidly-developing
+European nations. Its chief contributions to modern civilization were
+made by the gift of noble men who passed from the seclusion of the cell
+into the active life of the world, thus practically proving that the
+monks' greatest usefulness was attained when loyalty to their vows
+yielded to a broader ideal of Christian character and service.
+
+Thus the months passed into years and the years into centuries. Man was
+slowly working out his salvation. Painfully, laboriously he emerged out
+of barbarism into the lower forms of civilization; wearily he trudged
+on his way toward the universal kingdom of righteousness and peace.
+
+There were many other attempts at reform which may not even be
+mentioned, but one character deserves brief consideration,--Bernard of
+Clairvaux,--the fairest flower of those corrupt days. The order to which
+he belonged was the Cistercians, so named because their mother house was
+at Citeaux (Latin, _Cistercium_), in France. Its members are sometimes
+called the "White Monks," because of their white tunics. Their
+buildings, with their bare walls and low rafters, were a rebuke to the
+splendid edifices of the richer orders. Austere simplicity characterized
+their churches, liturgy and habits. Gorgeousness in decoration and
+ostentation in public services were carefully avoided. They used no
+pictures, stained glass or images. Once a week they flogged their sinful
+bodies. Only four hours' sleep was allowed. Seeking out the wildest
+spots and most rugged peaks they built their retreats, beautiful in
+their simplicity and furnishing some of the finest examples of monastic
+architecture. The order spread into England, where the first
+Cistercians were characterized by devoutness and poverty. After a while
+the hand of fate wrote of them as it had of so many, "none were more
+greedy in adding farm to farm; none less scrupulous in obtaining grants
+of land from wealthy patrons." In general, the order was no better and
+no worse than the rest, but its chief glory is derived from the luster
+that was shed upon it by Bernard.
+
+[Illustration: SAINT BERNARD]
+
+This illustrious counselor of kings and Catholic saint was born in
+Burgundy in 1091. When about twenty years of age he entered the
+monastery at Citeaux with five of his brothers. His genius might have
+secured ecclesiastical preferment, but he chose to dig ditches, plant
+fields and govern a monastery. He entered the cloister at Citeaux
+because the monks were few and poor, and when it became crowded because
+of his fame, and its rule became lax because of the crowds, he left the
+cloister to found a home of his own. The abbot selected twelve monks,
+following the number of apostles, and at their head placed young
+Bernard. He led the twelve to the valley of Wormwood, and there, in a
+cheerless forest, he established the monastery of Clairvaux, or Clear
+Valley. His rule was fiercely severe because he himself loved hardships
+and rough fare. "It in no way befits religion," he writes, "to seek
+remedies for the body, nor is it good for health either. You may now and
+then take some cheap herb,--such as poor men may,--and this is done
+sometimes. But to buy drugs, to hunt up doctors, to take doses, is
+unbecoming to religion and hostile to purity." His success in winning
+men to the monastic life was almost phenomenal. It was said that
+"mothers hid their sons, wives their husbands, and companions their
+friends, lest they be persuaded by his eloquent message to enter the
+cloister." "He was avoided like a plague," says one.
+
+Bernard's monks changed the whole face of the country by felling trees
+and tilling the ground. Their spiritual power rid the valley of Wormwood
+of its robbers, and the district grew rich and prosperous. Thus Bernard
+became the most famous man of his time. He was the arbiter in papal
+elections, the judge in temporal quarrels, the healer of schisms and a
+powerful preacher of the crusades. He was the embodiment of all that was
+best in the thought of his age. His weaknesses and faults may largely be
+explained by the fact that no man can rise entirely above the spirit of
+his times and absolutely free himself from all pernicious tendencies.
+"As an advocate for the rights of the church, for the immunities of the
+clergy, no less than for the great interests of morality, he was fierce,
+intractable, unforgiving, haughty and tyrannical." There was, however,
+no note of insincerity in his work or writings, and no tinge of
+hypocrisy in fervent zeal. He was brave, honest and pure; controlled
+always by a consuming passion for the moral welfare of the people.
+
+Our chief interest in Bernard relates to his monastic work which shed
+undying luster on his name. Vaughan, in his "Hours with the Mystics,"
+says of him: "His incessant cry for Europe is, Better monasteries, and
+more of them. Let these ecclesiastical castles multiply; let them cover
+and command the land, well garrisoned with men of God, and then, despite
+all heresy and schism, theocracy will flourish, the earth shall yield
+her increase, and all people praise the Lord.... Bernard had the
+satisfaction of improving and extending monasticism to the utmost; of
+sewing together, with tolerable success, the rended vesture of the
+papacy; of suppressing a more popular and more scriptural Christianity
+for the benefit of his despotic order; of quenching for a time, by the
+extinction of Abelard, the spirit of free inquiry, and of seeing his
+ascetic and superhuman ideal of religion everywhere accepted as the
+genuine type of Christianity."
+
+But in spite of Dunstans, Brunos and Bernards, the monastic institution
+keeps on crumbling. The edifice will not stand much more propping and
+tinkering. While we admire this display of moral force, this commendable
+struggle of fresh courage and new hope against disintegrating forces,
+the conviction gains ground that something is radically wrong with the
+institution. There is something in it which fosters greed and desperate
+ambition. "Is it not a shame," we feel compelled to ask, "that so much
+splendid, chivalrous courage and magnificent energy should be expended
+in trying to prevent a structure from falling, which, it seems, could
+not possibly have been saved?" But while the decay could not be stayed,
+we must admire the noble aims and pious enthusiasm of the reformers who
+sought to preserve an institution which to them seemed the only hope of
+a sinful world.
+
+Dr. Storrs, in his life of Bernard, says: "His soon-canonized name has
+shone starlike in history ever since he was buried; and it will not
+hereafter decline from its height or lose its luster, while men continue
+to recognize with honor the temper of devoted Christian consecration, a
+character compact of noble forces, and infused with self-forgetful love
+for God and man."
+
+
+
+_The Military Religious Orders_
+
+The life of Bernard forms an appropriate introduction to a consideration
+of the Military Religious Orders. Although weary with labor and the
+weight of years, he traveled over Europe preaching the second crusade.
+"To kill or to be killed for Christ's sake is alike righteous and alike
+safe," this was his message to the world. In spite of the opposition of
+court advisers, Bernard induced Louis VII. and Conrad of Germany to take
+the crusader's vow. He gave the Knights Templars a new rule and kindled
+afresh a zeal for the knighthood. Although the members of the Military
+Orders were not monks in the strict sense of the word, yet they were
+soldier-monks, and as such deserve to be mentioned here.
+
+At the basis of all monastic orders, as has been pointed out, were the
+three vows of obedience, celibacy and poverty. Certain orders, by adding
+to these rules other obligations, or by laying special stress on one of
+the three ancient vows, produced new and distinct types of monastic
+character and life.
+
+The Knights of the Hospital assumed as their peculiar work the care of
+the sick. The Begging Friars, as will be seen later, were distinguished
+by the importance which they attached to the rule of poverty; the
+Jesuits, by exalting the law of unquestioning obedience. In view of the
+warlike character of the Middle Ages it is strange the soldier-monk did
+not appear earlier than he did. The abbots, in many cases, were feudal
+lords with immense possessions which needed protection like secular
+property, but as this could not be secured by the arts of peace, we find
+traces of the union of the soldier and the monk before the distinct
+orders professing that character. The immediate cause of such
+organizations was the crusades. There were numerous societies of this
+character, some of them so far removed from the monastic type as
+scarcely to be ranked with monastic institutions. One list mentions two
+hundred and seven of these Orders of Knighthood, comprising many
+varieties in theory and practice. The most important were three,--the
+Knights of the Hospital, or the Knights of St. John; the Knights
+Templars; and the Teutonic Knights. The Hospitallers wore black mantles
+with white crosses, the Templars white mantles with red crosses, and the
+Teutonic Knights white mantles with black crosses. The mantles were in
+fact the robe of the monk adorned with a cross. The whole system was
+really a marriage of monasticism and chivalry, as Gibbon says: "The
+firmest bulwark of Jerusalem was founded in the Knights of the Hospital
+and of the Temple, that strange association of monastic and military
+life. The flower of the nobility of Europe aspired to wear the cross and
+profess the vows of these orders; their spirit and discipline were
+immortal."
+
+A passage in the Alexiad quoted in Walter Scott's "Robert of Paris"
+reads: "As for the multitude of those who advanced toward the great city
+let it be enough to say, that they were as the stars in the heaven or
+as the sand of the seashore. They were in the words of Homer, as many as
+the leaves and flowers of spring." This figurative description is almost
+literally true. Europe poured her men and her wealth into the East. No
+one but an eye-witness can conceive of the vast amount of suffering
+endured by those fanatical multitudes as they roamed the streets of
+Jerusalem looking for shelter, or lay starving by the roadside on a
+bed of grass.
+
+The term Hospitallers was applied to certain brotherhoods of monks and
+laymen. While professing some monastic rule, the members of these
+societies devoted themselves solely to caring for the sick and the poor,
+the hospitals in those days being connected with the monasteries.
+
+About the year 1050 some Italian merchants secured permission to build a
+convent in Jerusalem to shelter Latin pilgrims. The hotels which sprang
+up after this were gradually transformed into hospitals for the care of
+the sick and presided over by Benedictine monks. The sick were carefully
+nursed and shelter granted to as many as could be accommodated. Nobles
+abandoned the profession of arms and, becoming monks, devoted
+themselves to caring for the unfortunate crusaders in these inns. The
+work rapidly increased in extent and importance. In the year 1099,
+Godfrey de Bouillon endowed the original hospital, which had been
+dedicated to St. John. He also established many other monasteries on
+this holy soil. The monks, most of whom were also knights, formed an
+organization which received confirmation from Rome, as "The Knights of
+St. John of Jerusalem." The order rapidly assumed a distinctly military
+character, for, to do its work completely, it must not only care for the
+sick in Jerusalem, but defend the pilgrim on his way to the Holy City.
+This ended in an undertaking to defend Christendom against Mohammedan
+invasion and in fighting for the recovery of the Holy Sepulcher.
+
+After visiting some of these Palestinian monasteries, a king of Hungary
+thus describes his impressions: "Lodging in their houses, I have seen
+them feed every day innumerable multitudes of poor, the sick laid on
+good beds and treated with great care. In a word, the Knights of St.
+John are employed sometimes like Martha, in action, and sometimes like
+Mary, in contemplation, and this noble militia consecrate their days
+either in their infirmaries or else in engagements against the enemies
+of the cross."
+
+The Knights Templars were far more militant than the Knights of St.
+John, but they also were actuated by the monastic spirit. Bernard tried
+to inspire this order with a strong Christian zeal so that, as he said,
+"War should become something of which God could approve." The success
+which attended its operations led as usual to its corruption and
+decline. Beginning with a few crusaders leagued together for service and
+living on the site of the ancient Temple at Jerusalem, it soon widened
+the scope of its services and became a powerful branch of the crusading
+army. It was charged by Philip IV. of France, in 1307, with the most
+fearful crimes, to sustain or to deny which accusations many volumes
+have been composed. Five years later the order was suppressed and its
+vast accumulations transferred to the Knights of St. John. "The horrible
+fate of the Templars," says Allen, "was taken by many as a beginning and
+omen of the destruction that would soon pass upon all the hated
+religious orders. And so this final burst of enthusiasm and splendor in
+the religious life was among the prognostics of a state of things in
+which monasticism must fade quite away."
+
+Wondrous changes have taken place in those dark and troubled years since
+Benedict began his labors at Monte Cassino, in 529. The monk has prayed
+alone in the mountains, and converted the barbarian in the forest. He
+has preached the crusades in magnificent cathedrals, and crossed stormy
+seas in his frail bark. He has made the schools famous by his literary
+achievements, and taught children the alphabet in the woodland cell. He
+has been good and bad, proud and humble, rich and poor, arrogant and
+gentle. He has met the shock of lances on his prancing steed, and
+trudged barefoot from town to town. He has copied manuscripts in the
+lonely Scottish isle, and bathed the fevered brow of the pilgrim in the
+hospital at Jerusalem. He has dug ditches, and governed the world as the
+pope of the Church. He has held the plow in the furrow, and thwarted the
+devices of the king. He has befriended the poor, and imposed penance
+upon princes. He has imitated the poverty and purity of Jesus, and aped
+the pomp and vice of kings. He has dwelt solitary on cold mountains,
+subsisting on bread, roots and water, and he has surrounded himself with
+menials ready to gratify every luxurious wish, amid the splendor of
+palatial cloisters. Still there are new types and phases of monasticism
+yet to appear. The monk has other tasks to undertake, for the world is
+not yet sufficiently wearied of his presence to destroy his cloister and
+banish him from the land.
+
+
+
+V
+
+_THE MENDICANT FRIARS_
+
+Abraham Lincoln only applied a general principle to a specific case when
+he said, "This nation cannot long endure half slave and half free."
+Glaring inconsistencies between faith and practice will eventually
+destroy any institution, however lofty its ideal or noble its
+foundation. God suffers long and is kind, but His forbearance is not
+limitless. Monasticism, as has been shown, was never free from serious
+inconsistency, from moral dualism. But the power of reform prolonged its
+existence. It was constantly producing fresh models of its ancient
+ideals. It had a hidden reserve-force from which it supplied shining
+examples of a living faith and a self-denying love, just at the time
+when it seemed as if the system was about to perish forever. When these
+fresh exhibitions of monastic fidelity likewise became tarnished, when
+men had tired of them and predicted the speedy collapse of the
+institution, forth from the cloister came another body of monkish
+recruits, to convince the world that monasticism was not dead; that it
+did not intend to die; that it was mightier than all its enemies. The
+day came, however, when the world lost its confidence in an institution
+which required such constant reforming to keep it pure, which demanded
+so much cleansing to keep it clean. Ideals that could so quickly lose
+their influence for good came to be looked upon with suspicion.
+
+At the beginning of the thirteenth century we are confronted by the
+anomaly of a church grossly corrupt but widely obeyed. She is nearing
+the pinnacle of her power and the zenith of her glory, although the
+parochial clergy have sunk into vice and incapacity, and the monks, as a
+class, are lazy, ignorant and notoriously corrupt. Two things,
+especially, command the attention,--first, the immorality and laxity of
+the monks; and second, the growth of heresies and the tendency toward
+open schism. The necessity of reform was clearly apprehended by the
+church as well as by the heretical parties, but, since the church had
+such a hold upon society, those who sought to reform the monasteries by
+returning to old beliefs and ancient customs were much more in favor
+than those who left the church and opposed her from the outside. The
+impossibility of substantial, internal reform had not yet come to be
+generally recognized. As time passed the conviction that it was of no
+use to attempt reforms from the inside gained ground; then the
+separatists multiplied, and the shedding of blood commenced. The world
+had to learn anew that it was futile to put new wine into old bottles or
+to patch new cloth on an old garment.
+
+"It is the privilege of genius," says Trench, "to evoke a new creation,
+where to common eyes all appears barren and worn out." Francis and
+Dominic evoked this new creation; but although the monk now will appear
+in a new garb, he will prove himself to be about the same old character
+whom the world has known a great many years; when this discovery is made
+monasticism is doomed. Perplexed Europe will anxiously seek some means
+of destruction, but God will have Luther ready to aid in the solution of
+the problem.
+
+
+
+_Francis Bernardone_, 1182-1226 _A.D._.
+
+Saint Francis, the founder of the Franciscan Order, was born at Assisi,
+a walled town of Umbria, in Italy. His father, Peter Bernardone, or
+Bernardo, was in France on business when his son was born and named. On
+his return, or, as some say, at a later time, he changed his son's name
+from John to Francis. His wealth enabled him to supply Francis with the
+funds necessary to maintain his leadership among gay companions.
+Catholic writers are fond of describing the early years of their saints
+as marked by vice in order to portray them as miracles of grace. It is
+therefore uncertain whether Francis was anything worse than a happy,
+joyous lad, who loved fine clothes, midnight songs and parties of
+pleasure. He was certainly a very popular and courteous lad, very much
+in love with the world. During a short service in the army he was taken
+prisoner. After his release he fell sick, and experienced a temporary
+disgust with his past life. With his renewed health his love of
+festivities and dress returned.
+
+Walking out one day, dressed in a handsome new suit, he met a poor and
+ill-clad soldier; moved to pity, he exchanged his fine clothes for the
+rags of the stranger. That night Francis dreamed of a splendid castle,
+with gorgeous banners flying from its ramparts, and suits of armor
+adorned with the cross. "These," said a voice, "are for you and for your
+soldiers." We are told that this was intended to be taken spiritually
+and was prophetic of the Begging Friars, but Francis misunderstood the
+dream, taking it as a token of military achievements. The next day he
+set off mounted on a fine horse, saying as he left, "I shall be a great
+prince." But his weak frame could not endure such rough usage and he was
+taken sick at Spoleto. Again he dreamed. This time the vision revealed
+his misinterpretation of the former message, and so, on his recovery, he
+returned somewhat crestfallen to Assisi, where he gave his friends a
+farewell feast. Thus at the threshold of his career we note two
+important facts,--disease and dreams. All through his life he had these
+fits of sickness, attended by dreams; and throughout his life he was
+guided by these visions. Neander remarks: "It would be a matter of some
+importance if we could be more exactly informed with regard to the
+nature of his disease and the way in which it affected his physical and
+mental constitution. Perhaps it might assist us to a more satisfactory
+explanation of the eccentric vein in his life, that singular mixture of
+religious enthusiasm bordering insanity; but we are left wholly in
+the dark."
+
+Francis now devoted himself to his father's business, but dreams and
+visions continued to distress him. His spiritual fervor increased daily.
+He grieved for the poor and gave himself to the care of the sick,
+especially the lepers. During a visit to Rome he became so sad at the
+sight of desperate poverty that he impetuously flung his bag of gold
+upon the altar with such force as to startle the worshipers. He went out
+from the church, exchanged his clothes for a beggar's rags, and stood
+for hours asking alms among a crowd of filthy beggars.
+
+But though Francis longed to associate himself in some way with the
+lowest classes, he could obtain no certain light upon his duty. While
+prostrated before the crucifix, in the dilapidated church of St.
+Damian, in Assisi, he heard a voice saying, "Francis, seest thou not
+that my house is in ruins? Go and restore it for me." Again it is said
+that this pointed to his great life-work of restoring spiritual power to
+the church, but he again accepted the message in a literal sense.
+Delighted to receive a command so specific, the kneeling Francis
+fervently responded, "With good will, Lord," and gladly entered upon the
+task of repairing the church of St. Damian. "Having fortified himself by
+the sign of the cross," he took a horse and a valuable bundle of goods
+belonging to his father and sold both at Falingo. Instead of turning the
+proceeds over to his father, Francis offered them to the priest of St.
+Damian, who, fearing the father's displeasure, refused to accept the
+stolen funds. The young zealot, "who had utter contempt for money,"
+threw the gold on one of the windows of the church. Such is the story as
+gleaned from Catholic sources. The heretics, who have criticised Francis
+for this conduct, are answered by the following ingenious but dangerous
+sophistry: "It is certainly quite contrary to the ordinary law of
+justice for one man to take for himself the property of another; but if
+Almighty God, to whom all things belong, and for whom we are only
+stewards, is pleased to dispense with this His own law in a particular
+case, and to bestow what He has hitherto given to one upon another, He
+confers at the same time a valid title to the gift, and it is no robbery
+in him who has received it to act upon that title."
+
+Fearing his father's wrath, Francis hid himself in the priest's room,
+and contemporary authors assure us that when the irate parent entered,
+Francis was miraculously let into the wall. Wading (1731 A.D.) says the
+hollow place may still be seen in the wall.
+
+After a month, the young hero, confident of his courage to face his
+father, came forth pale and weak, only to be stoned as a madman by the
+people. His father locked him up in the house, but the tenderer
+compassion of his mother released him from his bonds, and he found
+refuge with the priest. When his father demanded his return, Francis
+tore off his clothes and, as he flung the last rag at the feet of his
+astounded parent, he exclaimed: "Peter Bernardone was my father; I have
+but one father, He that is in Heaven." The crowd was deeply moved,
+especially when they saw before them the hair shirt which Francis had
+secretly worn under his garments. Gathering up all that was left to him
+of his son, the father sadly departed, leaving the young enthusiast to
+fight his own way through the world. Many times after that, the parents,
+who tenderly watched over the lad in sickness and prayed for his
+recovery, saw their beloved son leading his barefooted beggars through
+the streets of his native town. But he will never more sing his gay
+songs underneath their roof or sally forth with his merry companions in
+search of pleasure. Francis was given a laborer's cloak, upon which he
+made the sign of a cross with some mortar, "thus manifesting what he
+wished to be, a half-naked poor one, and a crucified man." Such was the
+saint, in 1206, in his twenty-fifth year.
+
+Francis now went forth, singing sacred songs, begging his food, and
+helping the sick and the poor. He was employed "in the vilest affairs of
+the scullery" in a neighboring monastery. At this time he clothed
+himself in the monk's dress, a short tunic, a leathern girdle, shoes and
+a staff. He waited upon lepers and kissed their disgusting ulcers. Yet
+more, he instantly cured a dreadfully cancerous face by kissing it. He
+ate the most revolting messes, reproaching himself for recoiling in
+nausea. Thus the pauper of Jesus Christ conquered his pride and
+luxurious tastes.
+
+Francis finally returned to repair the church of St. Damian. The people
+derided, even stoned him, but he had learned to rejoice in abuse. They
+did not know of what stern stuff their fellow-townsman was made. He bore
+all their insults meekly, and persevered in his work, carrying stones
+with his own hands and promising the blessing of God on all who helped
+him in his joyful task. His kindness and smiles melted hatred; derision
+turned to admiration. "Many were moved to tears," says his biographers,
+"while Francis worked on with cheerful simplicity, begging his
+materials, stone by stone, and singing psalms about the streets."
+
+Two years after his conversion, or in 1208, while kneeling in the church
+of Sta. Maria dei Angeli, he heard the words of Christ: "Provide neither
+gold nor silver nor brass in your purses, neither two coats nor shoes
+nor staff, but go and preach." Afterwards, when the meaning of these
+words was explained to him, he exclaimed: "This is what I seek for!" He
+threw away his wallet, took off his shoes, and replaced his leather
+girdle by a cord. His hermit's tunic appearing too delicate, he put on a
+coarse, gray robe, reaching to his feet, with sleeves that came down
+over his fingers; to this he added a hood, covering his head and face.
+Clothing of this character he wore to the end of his life. This was in
+1208, which is regarded as the first year of the Order of St. Francis.
+The next year Francis gave this habit to those who had joined him.
+
+So the first and chief of Franciscan friars, unattended by mortal
+companions, went humbly forth to proclaim the grandeur and goodness of a
+God, who, according to monastic teaching, demands penance and poverty of
+his creatures as the price of his highest favor and richest blessings.
+Nearly seven hundred long years have passed since that eventful day, but
+the begging Brothers of Francis still traverse those Italian highways
+over which the saint now journeyed with meek and joyous spirit.
+
+     "He was not yet far distant from his rising
+     Before he had begun to make the earth
+     Some comfort from his mighty virtue feel.
+     For he in youth his father's wrath incurred
+     For certain Dame, to whom, as unto death,
+     The gate of pleasure no one doth unlock;
+     And was before his spiritual court
+     _Et coram patre_ unto her united;
+     Then day by day more fervently he loved her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     But that too darkly I may not proceed,
+     Francis and Poverty for these two lovers
+     Take thou henceforward in my speech diffuse."
+
+     --_Dante_.
+
+In 1210, with eleven companions, his entire band, Francis went to Rome
+to secure papal sanction. Pope Innocent III. was walking in a garden of
+the Lateran Palace when a beggar, dusty and pale, confronted him.
+Provoked at being disturbed in his thoughts, he drove him away. That
+night it was the pope's turn to dream. He saw a falling church supported
+by a poor and miserable man. Of course, that man was Francis. Four or
+five years later the pope will dream the same thing again. Then the poor
+man will be Dominic. In the morning he sent for the monk whom he had
+driven from him as a madman the day before. Standing before his holiness
+and the college of cardinals, Francis pleaded his cause in a touching
+and eloquent parable. His quiet, earnest manner and clear blue eyes
+impressed every one. The pope did not give him formal sanction
+however--this was left for Honorius III., November 29, 1223--but he
+verbally permitted him to establish his order and to continue his
+preaching.
+
+Several times Francis set out to preach to the Mohammedans, but failed
+to reach his destination. He finally visited Egypt during the siege of
+Damietta, and at the risk of his life he went forth to preach to the
+sultan encamped on the Nile. He is described by an eye-witness "as an
+ignorant and simple man, beloved of God and men." His courage and
+personal magnetism won the Mohammedan's sympathy but not his soul.
+Although Francis courted martyrdom, and offered to walk through fire to
+prove the truth of his message, the Oriental took it all too
+good-naturedly to put him to the test, and dismissed him with kindness.
+
+Francis was a great lover of birds. The swallows he called his sisters.
+A bird in the cage excited his deepest sympathy. It is said he sometimes
+preached to the feathered songsters. Longfellow has cast one of these
+homilies into poetic form:
+
+     "O brother birds, St. Francis said,
+     Ye come to me and ask for bread,
+     But not with bread alone to-day
+     Shall ye be fed and sent away.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Oh, doubly are ye bound to praise
+     The great Creator in your lays;
+     He giveth you your plumes of down,
+     Your crimson hoods, your cloaks of brown.
+
+     He giveth you your wings to fly
+     And breathe a purer air on high,
+     And careth for you everywhere,
+     Who for yourselves so little care."
+
+Like all ascetics, Francis was tempted in visions. One cold night he
+fancied he was in a home of his own, with his wife and children around
+him. Rushing out of his cell he heaped up seven hills of snow to
+represent a wife, four sons and daughters, and two servants. "Make
+haste," he cried, "provide clothing for them lest they perish with the
+cold," and falling upon the imaginary group, he dispelled the vision of
+domestic bliss in the cold embrace of the winter's snow. Mrs. Oliphant
+points out the fact that, unlike most of the hermits and monks, Francis
+dreams not of dancing girls, but of the pure love of a wife and the
+modest joys of a home and children. She beautifully says: "Had he, for
+one sweet, miserable moment, gone back to some old imagination and seen
+the unborn faces shine beside the never-lighted fire? But Francis does
+not say a word of any such trial going on in his heart. He dissipates
+the dream by the chill touch of the snow, by still nature hushing the
+fiery thoughts, by sudden action, so violent as to stir the blood in his
+veins; and then the curtain of prayer and silence falls over him, and
+the convent walls close black around."
+
+The experience of the saint on Mount Alverno deserves special
+consideration, not merely on account of its singularity, but also
+because it affords a striking illustration of the difficulties one
+encounters in trying to get at the truth in monastic narratives. Francis
+had retired to Mount Alverno, a wild and rugged solitude, to meditate
+upon the Lord's passion. For days he had been almost distracted with
+grief and holy sympathy. Suddenly a seraph with six wings stood before
+him. When the heavenly being departed, the marks of the Crucified One
+appeared upon the saint's body. St. Bonaventure says: "His feet and
+hands were seen to be perforated by nails in their middle; the heads of
+the nails, round and black, were on the inside of the hands, and on the
+upper parts of the feet; the points, which were rather long, and which
+came out on the opposite sides, were turned and raised above the flesh,
+from which they came out." There also appeared on his right side a red
+wound, which often oozed a sacred blood that stained his tunic.
+
+This remarkable story has provoked considerable discussion. One's
+conclusions respecting its credibility will quite likely be determined
+by his general view of numerous similar narratives, and by the degree of
+his confidence in the value of human testimony touching such matters.
+The incongruities and palpable impostures that seriously impair the
+general reliability of monkish historians render it difficult to
+distinguish between the truths and errors in their writings.
+
+Some authorities hold that the marks did not appear on St. Francis, and
+that the story is without foundation. But Roman writers bring forward
+the three early biographers of Francis who claim that the marks did
+appear. Pope Alexander IV. publicly averred that he saw the wounds, and
+pronounced it heresy to doubt the report. Popes Benedict XI., Sixtus
+IV., and Sixtus V. consecrated and canonized the impressions by
+instituting a particular festival in their honor. Numerous persons are
+said to have seen the marks and to have kissed the nails, after the
+death of the saint. Singularly enough, the Dominicans were inclined to
+regard the story as a piece of imposture designed to exalt Francis
+above Dominic.
+
+But, if it be admitted that the marks did appear, as it is not
+improbable, how shall the phenomenon be explained? At least four
+theories are held: 1. Fraud; 2. The irresponsible self-infliction of the
+wounds; 3. Physical effects due to mental suggestion or some other
+psychic cause; 4. Miracle.
+
+1. The temptation is strong to claim a fraud, especially because the
+same witnesses who testify to the truth of the tale, also relate such
+monstrous, incredible stories, that one is almost forced to doubt
+either their integrity or their sanity. But there is no evidence in
+support of so serious an indictment. After showing that signs and
+portents attend every crisis in history, Mrs. Oliphant says: "Every
+great spiritual awakening has been accompanied by phenomena quite
+incomprehensible, which none but the vulgar mind can attribute to
+trickery and imposture;" but still she herself remains in doubt about
+the whole story.
+
+2. Although Mosheim uses the term "fraud," it would seem that he means
+rather the irresponsible self-infliction of the wounds. He says: "As he
+[Francis] was a most superstitious and fanatical mortal, it is
+undoubtedly evident that he imprinted on himself the holy wounds. Paul's
+words, 'I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus,' may have
+suggested the idea of the fraud." The notion certainly prevailed that
+Francis was a sort of second Christ, and a book was circulated showing
+how he might be compared to Christ in forty particulars. There are many
+things in his biography which, if true, indicate that Francis yearned to
+imitate literally the experiences of his Lord.
+
+3. Numerous experiments, conducted by scientific men, have established
+the fact that red marks, swellings, blisters, bleeding and wounds have
+been produced by mental suggestion. Björnstrom, in his work on
+"Hypnotism," after recounting various experiments showing the effect of
+the imagination on the body, says, respecting the _stigmata_ of the
+Middle Ages: "Such marks can be produced by hypnotism without deceit and
+without the miracles of the higher powers." Prof. Fisher declares:
+"There is no room for the suspicion of deceit. The idea of a strange
+physical effect of an abnormal state is more plausible." Trench thinks
+this is a reasonable view in the case of a man like Francis, "with a
+temperament so irrepressible, of an organization so delicate, permeated
+through and through with the anguish of the Lord's sufferings,
+passionately and continually dwelling on the one circumstance of his
+crucifixion." But others, despairing of any rational solution, cut the
+Gordian knot and declare that "the kindest thing to think about Francis
+is that he was crazy."
+
+4. Roman Catholics naturally reject all explanations that exclude the
+supernatural, for, as Father Candide Chalippe affirms: "Catholics ought
+to be cautious in adopting anything coming from heretics; their opinions
+are almost always contagious." He therefore holds fast to the miracles
+in the lives of the saints, not only because he accepts the evidence,
+but because he believes these wonderful stories "add great resplendency
+to the merits of the saints, and, consequently, give great weight to the
+example they afford us."
+
+It is altogether probable that each one will continue to view the whole
+affair as his predispositions and religious convictions direct; some
+unconvinced by traditionary evidence and undismayed by charges of
+heresy; others devoutly accepting every monkish miracle and marveling at
+the obstinacy of unbelief.
+
+Two years after the event just described Francis was carried on a cot
+outside the walls of Assisi, where, lifting his hands he blessed his
+native city. Some few days later, on October 4, 1226, he passed away,
+exclaiming, "Welcome, Sister Death!"
+
+Whatever we may think of the legends that cluster about his life,
+Francis himself must not be held responsible for all that has been
+written about him. He himself was no phantom or mythical being, but a
+real, earnest man who, according to his light, tried to serve his
+generation. As he himself said: "A man is just so much and no more as he
+is in the sight of God." "Francis appears to me," says Forsyth, "a
+genuine, original hero, independent, magnanimous, incorruptible. His
+powers seemed designed to regenerate society; but taking a wrong
+direction, they sank men into beggars." Through the mist of tradition
+the holy beggar and saintly hero shines forth as a loving, gentle soul,
+unkind to none but himself. However his biography may be regarded, his
+life illustrates the beauty and power of voluntary renunciation,--the
+fountain not only of religion but of all true nobility of character. He
+may have been ignorant, perhaps grossly so, as Mosheim thinks, but
+nevertheless he merits our highest praise for striving honestly to keep
+his vow of poverty in the days when worldly monks disgraced their sacred
+profession by greed, ambition, and lustful indulgence.
+
+
+
+_The Franciscan Orders_
+
+
+
+The orders which Francis founded were of three classes:
+
+1. Franciscan Friars or Order of Friars Minor, called also Gray or
+Begging Friars. The year in which Francis took the habit, 1208, is
+reckoned the first year of the order, but the Rule was not given
+until 1210.
+
+This Rule, which has not been preserved, was very simple, and doubtless
+consisted of a group of gospel passages, bearing on the vow of poverty,
+together with a few precepts about the occupations of the brethren. The
+pope was not asked to sanction the Rule but only to give his approbation
+to the missions of the little band. Some of the cardinals expressed
+their doubts about the mode of life provided for in the rules. "But,"
+replied Giovanni di San Paolo, "if we hold that to observe gospel
+perfection and make profession of it is an irrational and impossible
+innovation, are we not convicted of blasphemy against Christ, the Author
+of the Gospel?"
+
+There was also the Rule of 1221, which makes an intermediate stage
+between the first Rule and that which was approved by the pope November
+29, 1223. The Rule of 1210 was thoroughly Franciscan. It was the
+expression of the passionate, fervent soul of Francis. It was the cry of
+the human heart for God and purity. The Rule of 1223 shows that the
+church had begun to direct the movement. Sabatier says of these two
+rules: "At the bottom of it all is the antinome of law and love. Under
+the reign of law we are the mercenaries of God, bound down to an irksome
+task, but paid a hundred-fold, and with an indisputable right to our
+wages." Such was the conception underlying the Rule of 1223. That of
+1210 is thus described: "Under the rule of love we are the sons of God,
+and co-workers with Him; we give ourselves to Him without bargaining and
+without expectation; we follow Jesus, not because this is well, but
+because we cannot do otherwise, because we feel that He has loved us and
+we love Him in our turn."
+
+Francis would not allow his monks to be called Friars; he preferred
+Friars Minor or Little Brothers as a more humble designation[F].
+
+[Footnote F: Appendix, Note F.]
+
+Ten years after the founding of the order, it is claimed, over five
+thousand friars assembled in Rome for the general chapter. The monks
+lodged in huts made of matting and hence this convention has been called
+the "Chapter of Mats." The order was strongest numerically about fifty
+years after the death of Francis, when it numbered eight thousand
+convents and two hundred thousand monks. Many of its members were highly
+distinguished, such as St. Bonaventura, Duns Scotus, Roger Bacon and
+Cardinal Ximenes.
+
+2. Nuns of St. Clara or Poor Claras, dates from 1212, but it did not
+receive its rule from Francis until 1224. The order was founded in the
+following manner: Clara, a daughter of a noble family, was distinguished
+for her beauty and by her love for the poor. Francis often met her, and,
+in the language of his biographer, "exhorted her to a contempt of the
+world and poured into her ears the sweetness of Christ." Guided, no
+doubt, by his counsel, she stole one night from her home to a
+neighboring church where Francis and his beggars were assembled. Her
+long and beautiful hair was cut off, while a coarse woolen gown was
+substituted for her own rich garments. Standing in the midst of the
+ragged monks, she renounced the dregs of Babylon and a wicked world,
+pledging her future to the monastic institution. Out from this little
+church into the darkness of the night, Francis led this beautiful girl
+of seventeen years and committed her to a Benedictine nunnery. Later on
+Clara became the abbess of a Franciscan convent at St. Damian, and the
+Sisterhood of St. Clara was established. It was an order of sadness and
+penitential tears. It is said that Clara never but once (when she
+received the blessing of the pope) lifted her eyelids so that the color
+of her eyes might be discerned.
+
+3. The Third Order, called also "Brotherhood of Penitence," was composed
+of lay men and women. So many husbands and wives were desirous of
+leaving their homes in order to enter the monastic state, that Francis,
+not wishing to break up happy marriages, so it is said, was compelled to
+give these enthusiasts some sort of a rule by which they might
+compromise between their established life and the monastic career. This
+state of things led to the formation, in 1221, of the Third Order of
+St. Francis, or the Order of Tertiaries, in relation to the Friars Minor
+and the Poor Claras. Sabatier says this generally-accepted date is
+wrong; that it is impossible to fix any date, for that which came to be
+known as the Third Order was born of the enthusiasm excited by the
+preaching of Francis soon after his return from Rome in 1210. Candidates
+for admission into this order were required to make profession of all
+the orthodox truths, special care being employed to guard against the
+intrusion of heretics. Days of fasting and abstinence were enjoined, and
+members were urged to avoid profanity, the theater, dancing and
+law-suits. The order met with astonishing success, cardinals, bishops,
+emperors, empresses, kings and queens, gladly enrolling themselves among
+the followers of St. Francis.
+
+_Dominic de Guzman, 1170-1221 A.D._
+
+Half-way between Osma and Aranda in Old Castile, Spain, is a little
+village known as "the fortunate Calahorra." Here was the castle of the
+Guzmans, where Dominic was born. His family was of high rank and
+character, a noble house of warriors, statesmen and saints. If we accept
+the legends, his greatness was foreshadowed. Before his birth, his
+mother dreamed she saw her son under the figure of a black-and-white
+dog, with a torch in his mouth. "A true dream," says Milman, "for he
+will scent out heresy and apply the torch to the faggots;" but, as will
+be seen later, this observation does not rest on undisputed evidence.
+
+[Illustration: PHOTOGRAVURE--RINGLER CO
+
+SAINT DOMINIC
+
+FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE PAINTING PRESERVED IN HIS CELL IN THE CONVENT
+OF SANTA SABINA, AT ROME
+
+TRENTON: ALBERT BRANDT, PUBLISHER, 1900]
+
+In the year 1191, when Spain was desolated by a terrible famine, Dominic
+was just finishing his theological studies. He gave away his money and
+sold his clothes, his furniture and even his precious manuscripts, that
+he might relieve distress. When his companions expressed astonishment
+that he should sell his books, Dominic replied: "Would you have me study
+off these dead skins, when men are dying of hunger?" This noble
+utterance is cherished by his admirers as the first saying from his lips
+that has passed to posterity.
+
+Dominic was educated in the schools of Palencia, afterwards a
+university, where he devoted six years to the arts and four to theology.
+In 1194, when twenty-five years of age, Dominic became a canon regular,
+at Osma, under the rule of St. Augustine. Nine years after he
+accompanied his bishop, Don Diego, on an embassy for the king of
+Castile. When they crossed the Pyrenees they found themselves in an
+atmosphere of heresy. The country was filled with preachers of strange
+doctrines, who had little respect for Dominic, his bishop, or their
+Roman pontiff. The experiences of this journey inspired in Dominic a
+desire to aid in the extermination of heresy. He was also deeply
+impressed by an important and significant observation. Many of these
+heretical preachers were not ignorant fanatics, but well-trained and
+cultured men. Entire communities seemed to be possessed by a desire for
+knowledge and for righteousness. Dominic clearly perceived that only
+preachers of a high order, capable of advancing reasonable argument,
+could overthrow the Albigensian heresy.
+
+It would be impossible, in a few words, to tell the whole story of this
+Albigensian movement. Undoubtedly the term stood for a variety of
+theological opinions, all of which were in opposition to the teachings
+of Rome. "From the very invectives of their enemies," says Hallam, "and
+the acts of the Inquisition, it is manifest that almost every shade of
+heterodoxy was found among these dissidents, till it vanished in a
+simple protestation against the wealth and tyranny of the clergy." Many
+of the tenets of these enthusiasts were undoubtedly borrowed from the
+ancient Manicheism, and would be pronounced heretical by every modern
+evangelical denomination. But associated with those holding such
+doctrines were numerous reformers, whose chief offense consisted in
+their incipient Protestantism. However heretical any of these sects may
+have been, it is impossible to make them out enemies to the social
+order, except as all opponents of established religious traditions
+create disturbance. "What these bodies held in common," says Hardwick,
+"and what made them equally the prey of the inquisitor, was their
+unwavering belief in the corruption of the medieval church, especially
+as governed by the Roman pontiffs."
+
+In 1208 Dominic visited Languedoc a second time, and on his way he
+encountered the papal legates returning in pomp to Rome, foiled in their
+attempt to crush this growing schism. To them he administered his famous
+rebuke: "It is not the display of power and pomp, cavalcades of
+retainers, and richly-houseled palfreys, or by gorgeous apparel, that
+the heretics win proselytes; it is by zealous preaching, by apostolic
+humility, by austerity, by seeming, it is true, but by seeming holiness.
+Zeal must be met by zeal, humility by humility, false sanctity by real
+sanctity, preaching falsehood by preaching truth." It is extremely
+unfortunate for the reputation of Dominic that he ever departed from the
+spirit of these noble words, which so clearly state the conditions of
+true religious progress.
+
+Dominic now gathered about him a few men of like spirit and began his
+task of preaching down heresy. But "the enticing words of man's wisdom"
+failed to win the Albigensians from what they believed to be the words
+of God. So, unmindful of his admonition to the papal legates, Dominic
+obtained permission of Innocent III. to hold courts, before which he
+might summon all persons suspected of heresy. When eloquence and courts
+failed, the pope let loose the "dogs of war." Then followed twenty years
+of frightful carnage, during which hundreds of thousands of heretics
+were slain, and many cities were laid waste by fire and sword. "This was
+to punish a fanaticism," says Hallam, "ten thousand times more innocent
+than their own, and errors which, according to the worst imputations,
+left the laws of humanity and the peace of social life unimpaired."
+Peace was concluded in 1229, but the persecution of heretics went on.
+
+What part Dominic personally had in these bloody proceedings is
+litigated history. His admirers strive to rescue his memory from the
+charge that he was "a cruel and bloody man." It is argued that while the
+pope and temporal princes carried on the sanguinary war against the
+heretics, Dominic confined himself to pleading with them in a spirit of
+true Christian love. He was a minister of mercy, not an avenging angel,
+sword in hand. It has to be conceded that the constant tradition of the
+Dominican order that Dominic was the first Inquisitor, whether he bore
+the title or not, rests upon good authority. But what was the nature of
+the office as held by the saint? As far as Dominic was concerned, it is
+argued by his friends that the office "was limited to the
+_reconciliation_ of heretics and had nothing to do with their
+_punishment_." It is also claimed that while Dominic did impose
+penances, in some cases public flagellation, no evidence can be produced
+showing that he ever delivered one heretic to the flames. Those who were
+burned were condemned by secular courts, and on the ground that they
+were not only heretics but enemies of the public peace and perpetrators
+of enormous crimes.
+
+But while it may not be proved that Dominic himself passed the sentence
+of death or applied the torch to the faggots with his own hand, he is by
+no means absolved from all complicity in those frightful slaughters, or
+from all responsibility for the subsequent establishment of the Holy
+Inquisition. The principles governing the Inquisition were practically
+those upon which Dominic proceeded; the germs of the later atrocities
+are to be found in his aims and methods. By what a narrow margin does
+Dominic escape the charge of cruelty when it is boasted "that he
+resolutely insisted on no sentence being carried out until all means had
+been tried by which the conversion of a prisoner could be effected."
+Another statement also contains an inkling of a significant fact,
+namely, that secular judges and princes were constantly under the
+influence of the monks and other ecclesiastical persons, who incited
+them to wage war, and to massacre, in the Albigensian war as in other
+crusades against heresy. No word from Dominic can be produced indicating
+that he remonstrated with the pope, or that he tried to stop the
+crusade. In a few instances he seems to have interceded with the crazed
+soldiery for the lives of women and children. But he did not oppose the
+bloody crusade itself. He was constantly either with the army or
+following in its wake. He often sat on the bench at the trial of
+dissenters. He remained the life-long friend of Simon de Montfort, the
+cruel agent of the papacy, and he blessed the marriage of his sons and
+baptized his daughter. Special courts for trying heretics were
+established, previous to the more complete organization of the
+Inquisition, and in these he held a commission.
+
+The Holy Office of the Inquisition was made a permanent tribunal by
+Gregory IX., in 1233, twelve years after the death of Dominic, and
+curiously enough, in the same year in which he was canonized. The
+Catholic Bollandists claim that although the _title_ of Inquisitor was
+of later date than Dominic, yet the _office_ was in existence, and that
+the splendor of the Holy Inquisition owes its beginning to that saint.
+Certain it is that the administration of the Inquisition was mainly in
+the hands of Dominican monks.
+
+In view of all these facts, Professor Allen is justified in his
+conclusions respecting Dominic and his share in the persecution of
+heretics: "Whatever his own sweet and heavenly spirit according to
+Catholic eulogists, his name is a synonym of bleak and intolerant
+fanaticism. It is fatally associated with the blackest horrors of the
+crusade against the Albigenses, as well as with the infernal skill and
+deadly machinery of the Inquisition."
+
+In 1214, Dominic established himself, with six followers, in the house
+of Peter Cellani, a rich resident of Toulouse. Eleven years of active
+and public life had passed since the Subprior of Osma had forsaken the
+quietude of the monastery. He now resumed his life of retirement and
+subjected himself and his companions to the monastic rules of prayer and
+penance. But the restless spirit of the man could not long remain
+content with the seclusion and inactivity of a monk's life. The scheme
+of establishing an order of Preaching Friars began to assume definite
+shape in his mind. He dreamed of seven stars enlightening the world,
+which represented himself and his six friends. The final result of his
+deliberations was the organization of his order, and the appearance of
+Dominic in the city of Rome, in 1215, to secure the approval of the
+pope, Innocent III. Although some describe his reception as "most
+cordial and flattering," yet it required supernatural interference to
+induce the pope to grant even his approval of the new order. It was not
+formally confirmed until 1216 by Honorius III.
+
+Dominic now made his headquarters at Rome, although he traveled
+extensively in the interests of his growing brotherhood of monks. He was
+made Master of the Sacred Palace, an important official post, including
+among its functions the censorship of the press. It has ever since been
+occupied by members of the Dominican order.
+
+Throughout his life Dominic is said to have zealously practiced rigorous
+self-denial. He wore a hair shirt, and an iron chain around his loins,
+which he never laid aside, even in sleep. He abstained from meat and
+observed stated fasts and periods of silence. He selected the worst
+accommodations and the meanest clothes, and never allowed himself the
+luxury of a bed. When traveling, he beguiled the journey with spiritual
+instruction and prayers. As soon as he passed the limits of towns and
+villages, he took off his shoes, and, however sharp the stones or
+thorns, he trudged on his way barefooted. Rain and other discomforts
+elicited from his lips nothing but praises to God.
+
+Death came at the age of fifty-one and found him exhausted with the
+austerities and labors of his eventful career. He had reached the
+convent of St. Nicholas, at Bologna, weary and sick with a fever. He
+refused the repose of a bed and bade the monks lay him on some sacking
+stretched upon the ground. The brief time that remained to him was
+spent in exhorting his followers to have charity, to guard their
+humility, and to make their treasure out of poverty. Lying in ashes upon
+the floor he passed away at noon, on the sixth of August, 1221. He was
+canonized by Gregory IX., in 1234.
+
+
+
+_The Dominican Orders_
+
+The origin of the Order of the Preaching Friars has already been
+described. It is not necessary to dwell upon the constitution of this
+order, because in all essential respects it was like that of the
+Franciscans. The order is ruled by a general and is divided into
+provinces, governed by provincials. The head of each house is called a
+prior. Dominic adopted the rules laid down by St. Augustine, because the
+pope ordered him to follow some one of the older monastic codes, but he
+also added regulations of his own.
+
+Soon after the founding of the order, bands of monks were sent out to
+Paris, to Rome, to Spain and to England, for the purpose of planting
+colonies in the chief seats of learning. The order produced many
+eminent scholars, some of whom were Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus,
+Echard, Tauler and Savonarola.
+
+As among the Franciscans, there was also an Order of Nuns, founded in
+1206, and a Third Order, called the Militia of Jesus Christ, which was
+organized in 1218.
+
+
+
+_The Success of the Mendicant Orders_
+
+In 1215, Innocent III. being pope, the Lateran council passed the
+following law: "Whereas the excessive diversity of these [monastic]
+institutions begets confusion, no new foundations of this sort must be
+formed for the future; but whoever wishes to become a monk must attach
+himself to some of the already existing rules." This same pope approved
+the two Mendicant orders, urging them, it is true, to unite themselves
+to one of the older orders; but, nevertheless, they became distinct
+organizations, eclipsing all previous societies in their achievements.
+The reason for this disregard of the Lateran decree is doubtless to be
+found in the alarming condition of religious affairs at that time, and
+in the hope held out to Rome by the Mendicants, of reforming the
+monasteries and crushing the heretics.
+
+The failure of the numerous and varied efforts to reform the monastic
+institution and the danger to the church arising from the unwonted
+stress laid upon poverty by different schismatic religious societies,
+necessitated the adoption of radical measures by the church to preserve
+its influence. At this juncture the Mendicant friars appeared. The
+conditions demanded a modification of the monastic principle which had
+hitherto exalted a life of retirement. Seclusion in the cloister was no
+longer possible in the view of the remarkable changes in religious
+thought and practice.
+
+Innocent III. was wise enough to perceive the immediate utility of the
+new societies based upon claims to extraordinary humility and poverty.
+The Mendicant orders were, in themselves, not only a rebuke to the
+luxurious indolence and shameful laxity of the older orders, but when
+sanctioned by the church, the existence of the new societies attested
+Rome's desire to maintain the highest and the purest standards of
+monastic life. Hence, the Preaching Friars were permitted to reproach
+the clergy and the monks for their vices and corruptions.
+
+"The effect of such a band of missionaries," says John Stuart Mill,
+"must have been great in rousing and feeding dormant devotional
+feelings. They were not less influential in regulating those feelings,
+and turning into the established Catholic channels those vagaries of
+private enthusiasm which might well endanger the church, since they
+already threatened society itself."
+
+Two novel monastic features, therefore, now appear for the first time:
+1. The substitution of itineracy for the seclusion of the cloister; and
+2. The abolition of endowments.
+
+1. The older orders had their traveling missionaries, but the general
+practice was to remain shut up within the monastic walls. The Mendicants
+at the start had no particular abiding place, but were bound to travel
+everywhere, preaching and teaching. It was distinctly the mission of
+these monks to visit the camps, the towns, cities and villages, the
+market places, the universities, the homes and the churches, to preach
+and to minister to the sick and the poor. They neither loved the
+seclusion of the cell nor sought it. Theirs to tramp the dusty roads,
+with their capacious bags, begging and teaching. Only by this itinerant
+method could the people be reached and the preachers of heresy be
+encountered.
+
+2. One of the chief sources of strength in the heretical sects was the
+justness of their attack upon the Catholic monastic orders, whose
+immense riches belied their vows of poverty. The heretics practiced
+austerities and adopted a simplicity of life that won the hearts of the
+people, by reason of its contrast to the loose habits of the monks and
+clergy. Since it was impossible to reform the older orders, it became
+absolutely essential to the success of the Mendicants that they should
+rigorously respect the neglected discipline. As the abuse of the vow of
+poverty was particularly common, the Mendicants naturally
+emphasized this vow.
+
+While it is true that a begging monk was by no means unknown, yet now,
+for the first time, was the practice of mendicity formally adopted by
+entire orders. Owing to the excessive multiplication of mendicant
+societies, Pope Gregory X., at a general council held at Lyons in 1272,
+attempted to check the growing evil. The number of Mendicant orders was
+confined to four, viz., the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Carmelites
+and the Augustinians or Hermits of Augustine. The Council of Trent
+confined mendicity to the Observantines and Capuchins, since the other
+societies had practically abandoned their original interpretation of
+their vow of poverty and had acquired permanent property.
+
+When Francis tried to enforce the rule of poverty, his rigor gave rise
+to most serious dissensions, which began in his own lifetime and ended
+after his death in open schism. Some of his followers were not pleased
+with his views on that subject. They resisted his extreme strictness,
+and after his death they continued to advocate the holding of property.
+The popes tried to settle the quarrel, but ever and anon it broke out
+afresh with volcanic fierceness. They finally interpreted the rule of
+poverty to mean that the friars could not hold property in their own
+names, but they might enjoy its use. Under this interpretation of the
+rule, the beggars soon became very rich. Matthew of Paris said: "The
+friars who have been founded hardly forty years have built even in the
+present day in England residences as lofty as the palaces of our kings."
+But the better element among the Franciscans refused to consent to such
+a palpable evasion of the rule. A portion of this class separated
+themselves from the Franciscans, rejected their authority, and formed a
+new sect called the _Fratricelli_, or Little Brothers. It is very
+important to keep the history of this name clearly in mind, for it
+frequently appears in the Reformation period and has been the cause of
+much misunderstanding. The word "Fratricelli" came to be a term of
+derision applied to any one affecting the dress or the habits of the
+monks. When heretical sects arose, it was applied to them as a stigma,
+but it was used first by a sect of rigid Franciscans who deserted their
+order, adopted this name as their own, and exulted in its use. The
+quarrel among the monks led to a variety of complications and is
+intricately interwoven with the political and religious history of the
+thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. "These rebellious
+Franciscans," says Mosheim, "though fanatical and superstitious in some
+respects, deserve an eminent rank among those who prepared the way for
+the Reformation in Europe, and who excited in the minds of the people a
+just aversion to Rome."
+
+The Mendicants were especially active in educational work. This is to be
+attributed to several causes. Unquestionably the general and increasing
+interest in theological doctrines and the craving for knowledge affected
+the monastic orders. Europe was just arousing from her medieval
+slumbers. The faint rays of the Reformation dawn were streaking the
+horizon. The intellect as well as the conscience was touched by the
+Spirit of God. The revolt against moral iniquity was often accompanied
+by skepticism concerning the authority and dogmas of the church.
+Questions were being asked that ignorant monks could not answer. Too
+long had the church ignored these symptoms of the approach of a new
+order of things. The church was forced to meet the heretics on their own
+ground, to offset the example of their simplicity and purity of life by
+exalting the neglected standards of self-denial, and to silence them, if
+possible, by exposing their errors. Then came the Franciscans, with
+their austere simplicity and their insistence upon poverty. Then also
+appeared the Dominicans, or as they were called, "The Watch-dogs of the
+Church," who not only barked the church awake, but tried to devour
+the heretics.
+
+Francis halted for some time before giving encouragement to educational
+enterprises. A life of devotion and prayer attracted him, because, as he
+said, "Prayer purifies the affections, strengthens us in virtue, and
+unites us to the sovereign good." But, he went on, "Preaching renders
+the feet of the spiritual man dusty; it is an employment which
+dissipates and distracts, and which causes regular discipline to be
+relaxed." After consulting Brother Sylvester and Sister Clara, he
+decided to adopt their counsel and entered upon a ministry of preaching.
+The example and success of the Dominicans probably inspired the
+Franciscans to give themselves more and more to intellectual work.
+
+Both orders received appointments in all the leading universities, but
+they did not gain this ascendency without a severe conflict. The regular
+professors and the clergy were jealous of them for various causes, and
+resisted them at every point. The quarrel between the Dominicans and the
+University of Paris is the most famous of these struggles. It began in
+1228 and did not end until 1259. The Dominicans claimed the right to two
+theological professorships. One had been taken from them, and a law was
+passed that no religious order should have what these friars demanded.
+The Dominicans rebelled and the University passed sentences of
+expulsion. Innocent IV., wishing to become master of Italy, sided with
+the University, but the next month he was dead,--in answer to their
+prayers, said the Dominicans, but rumor hinted an even blacker cause.
+The thirty-one years of the struggle dragged wearily on, disturbed by
+papal bulls, appeals, pamphlets and university slogans. At last
+Alexander IV., in 1255, decided that the Dominicans might have the
+second professorship and also any other they thought proper. The noise
+of conflict now grew louder and boded ill for the peace of the church.
+The pulpits flashed forth fiery utterances. The monks were assailed in
+every quarter. William of Amour published his essay on "The Perils of
+the Last Times," in which he claimed that the perilous times predicted
+by the Apostle Paul were now fulfilled by these begging friars. He
+exposed their iniquities and bitterly complained of their arrogance and
+vice. His book was burned and its author banished. Although meaning to
+be a friend of Rome, he unconsciously contributed his share to the
+coming reform. In 1259, Rome thundered so loud that all Europe was
+terrified and the University was awed into submission.
+
+Another interesting feature in the history of their educational
+enterprises is the entrance of the Mendicants into England, where they
+acted a leading part in the educational and political history of the
+country. The Dominicans settled first at Oxford, in 1221. The
+Franciscans, after a short stay at Canterbury, went to Oxford in 1224.
+The story of how the two Gray friars journeyed from Canterbury to Oxford
+runs as follows: "These two forerunners of a famous brotherhood, being
+not far from Oxford, lost their way and came to a farmhouse of the
+Benedictines. It was nearly night and raining. They gently knocked, and
+asked admittance for God's sake. The porter gazed on their patched robes
+and beggarly aspect and supposed them to be mimics or despised persons.
+The prior, pleased with the tidings, invited them in. But instead of
+sportively performing, these two friars insisted, with sedate
+countenances, that they were men of God. Whereat the Benedictines in
+jealousy, and displeased to be cheated out of their expected fun, kicked
+and buffeted the two poor monks and turned them out of doors. One young
+monk pitied them and smuggled them into a hay-loft where we trust they
+slept soundly and safe from the cold and rain." The two friars finally
+reached Oxford and were well received by their Dominican brothers. Such
+was the simple beginning of a brilliant career that was profoundly to
+affect the course of English history. Both at Cambridge and Oxford the
+monastic orders exercised a remarkable influence. Traces of their labors
+and power may still be seen in the names of the colleges, and in the
+religious portions of the university discipline. They built fine
+edifices and manned their schools with the best teachers, so that they
+became great rivals of the regular colleges which did not have the funds
+necessary to compete with these wealthy beggars. Another cause of their
+rapid progress was the exodus of students from Paris to England. During
+the quarrel at Paris, Henry III. of England offered many inducements to
+the students, who left for England in large numbers. Many of them were
+prejudiced in favor of the friars, and they naturally drifted to the
+monastic college. The secular clergy charged the friars with inducing
+the college students to enter the monasteries or to turn begging monks.
+The pope, the king, and the parliament became involved in the struggle,
+which grew more bitter as the years passed. After a while Wyclif
+appeared, and when he began his mighty attack upon the friars the joy
+with which the professors viewed the struggle can be appreciated.
+
+
+
+_The Decline of the Mendicants_
+
+The Mendicant friars won their fame by faithful and earnest labors. Men
+admired them because they identified themselves with the lowest of
+mankind and heroically devoted themselves to the poor and sick. These
+"sturdy beggars," as Francis called his companions, were contrasted with
+the lazy, rich, and, too often, licentious monks of the other orders.
+Everywhere the friars were received with veneration and joy. The people
+sought burial in their rags, believing that, clothed in the garments of
+these holy beggars, they would enter paradise more speedily.
+
+Instead of seeking the seclusion of the convent to save his own soul,
+the friar displayed remarkable zeal trying to save mankind. He became
+the arbiter in the quarrels of princes, the prime mover in treaties
+between nations, and the indispensable counselor in political
+complications. The pope employed him as his authorized agent in the most
+difficult matters touching the welfare of the church. His influence upon
+the common people is thus described by the historian Green: "The theory
+of government wrought out in the cell and lecture-room was carried over
+the length and breadth of the land by the Mendicant brother begging his
+way from town to town, chatting with the farmer or housewife at the
+cottage door and setting up his portable pulpit in village green or
+market-place. The rudest countryman learned the tale of a king's
+oppression or a patriot's hope as he listened to the rambling,
+passionate, humorous discourse of the beggar friar."
+
+By these methods the Mendicants were enabled to render most efficient
+service to their patrons at Rome in their efforts to establish their
+temporal power. They were, in fact, before the Reformation, just what
+the Jesuits afterwards became, "the very soul of the hierarchy." Yes,
+they were immensely, prodigiously successful. The popes hastened to do
+them honor. Because the friars were such enthusiastic supporters of the
+church, the popes poured gold and privileges into their capacious
+coffers. Thankful peasants threw in their mites and the admiring noble
+bestowed his estates.
+
+The secular clergy, with envy and chagrin, awoke to the alarming fact
+that the beggars had won the hearts of the people; their hatred was
+increased by the fact that when the Roman pontiffs enriched these
+indefatigable toilers and valiant foes of heresy, they did so at the
+expense of the bishops and clergy, which, perhaps, was robbing Paul to
+pay Peter.
+
+Baluzii says: "No religious order had the distribution of so many and
+such ample indulgences as the Franciscans. In place of fixed revenues,
+lucrative indulgences were placed in their hands." So ill-judged was the
+distribution of these favors that discipline was overturned. Many
+churchmen, feeling that their rights were being encroached upon,
+complained bitterly, and resolved on retaliation. It is just here that a
+potent cause of the Mendicant's fall is to be found. He helped to dig
+his own grave.
+
+Having elevated monasticism to the zenith of its power, the Mendicant
+orders, like all the other monastic brotherhoods, entered upon their
+shameful decline. The unexampled prosperity, so inconsistent with the
+original intentions of the founders of the orders, was attended by
+corruptions and excesses. The decrees of councils, the denunciations of
+popes and high ecclesiastical dignitaries, the satires of literature,
+the testimony of chroniclers and the formation of reformatory orders,
+constitute a body of irrefragable evidence proving that the lowest level
+of sensuality, superstition and ignorance had been reached. The monks
+and friars lost whatever vigor and piety they ever possessed.
+
+It is again evident that a monk cannot serve God and mammon. Success
+ruins him. Wealth and popular favor change his character. The people
+slowly realize the fact that the fat and lazy medieval monk is not dead,
+after all, but has simply changed his name to that of Begging Friar. As
+Allen neatly observes: "Their gray gown and knotted cord wrapped a
+spiritual pride and capacity of bigotry, fully equal to the rest."
+
+Here, then, are the "sturdy beggars" of Francis, dwelling in palatial
+convents, arrogant and proud, trampling their ideal into the dust. Thus
+it came to pass in accordance with the principle stated at the beginning
+of this chapter, that when the ideal became a cloak to cover up sham,
+decay had set in, and ruin, even though delayed for years, was sure to
+come. The poor, sad-faced, honest, faithful friar everybody praised,
+loved and reverenced. The insolent, contemptuous, rich monk all men
+loathed. So a change of character in the friar transformed the songs of
+praise into shouts of condemnation. Those golden rays from the morning
+sun of the Reformation are ascending toward the highest heaven, and
+daybreak is near.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+_THE SOCIETY OF JESUS_
+
+In many respects it would be perfectly proper to consider the Mendicant
+orders as the last stage in the evolution of the monastic institution.
+Although the Jesuitical system rests upon the three vows of poverty,
+celibacy and obedience, yet the ascetic principle is reduced to a
+minimum in that society. Father Thomas E. Sherman, the son of the famous
+general, and a Jesuit of distinguished ability, has declared: "We are
+not, as some seem to think, a semi-military band of men, like the
+Templars of the Middle Ages. We are not a monastic order, seeking
+happiness in lonely withdrawal from our fellows. Our enemies within and
+without the church would like to make us monks, for then we would be
+comparatively useless, since that is not our end or aim.... We are
+regulars in the army of Christ; that is, men vowed to poverty, chastity
+and obedience; we are a collegiate body with the right to teach granted
+by the Catholic church[G]."
+
+[Footnote G: Appendix, Note G.]
+
+The early religious orders were based upon the idea of retirement from
+the world for the purpose of acquiring holiness. But as has already been
+shown, the constant tendency of the religious communities was toward
+participation in the world's affairs. This tendency became very marked
+among the friars, who traveled from place to place, and occupied
+important university positions, and it reaches its culmination in the
+Society of Jesus. Retirement among the Jesuits is employed merely as a
+preparation for active life. Constant intercourse with society was
+provided for in the constitution of the order. Bishop John J. Keane, a
+Roman Catholic authority, says: "The clerks regular, instituted
+principally since the sixteenth century, were neither monks nor friars,
+but priests living in common and busied with the work of the ministry.
+The Society of Jesus is one of the orders of clerks regular."
+
+Other differences between the monastic communities and the Jesuits are
+to be observed. The Jesuit discards the monastic gown, and is decidedly
+averse to the old monastic asceticism, with its rigorous and painful
+treatment of the body. While the older religious societies were
+essentially democratic in spirit and government, the monks sharing in
+the control of the monastic property and participating in the election
+of superiors, the Jesuitical system is intensely monarchical, a
+despotism pure and simple. In the older orders, the welfare of the
+individual was jealously guarded and his sanctification was sought.
+Among the Jesuits the individual is nothing, the corporate body
+everything. Admission to the monastic orders was encouraged and easily
+obtained. The novitiate of the Jesuits is long and difficult. Access to
+the highest grades of the order is granted only to those who have served
+the society many weary years.
+
+[Illustration: IGNATIUS DE LOYOLA
+
+AFTER GREATBACH'S ENGRAVING FROM THE WIERZ PRINT
+
+BENTON: ALBERT BRANDT, PUBLISHER, 1900]
+
+But in spite of such variations from the old monastic type, the Society
+of Jesus would doubtless never have appeared, had not the way for its
+existence been paved by previous monastic societies. Its aims and its
+methods were the natural sequence of monastic history. They were merely
+a development of past experiences, for the objects of the society were
+practically the objects of the Mendicants; the vows were the same with a
+change of emphasis. The abandonment of austerities as a means of
+salvation or spiritual power was the natural fruit of past experiments
+that had proved the uselessness of asceticism merely for the sake of
+acquiring a spirit of self-denial. The extirpation of heresy undertaken
+by Ignatius had already been attempted by the friars, while the
+education of the young had long been carried on with considerable
+success by the Benedictine and Dominican monks. The spirit of its
+founder, however, gave the Society of Jesus a unique character, and
+monasticism now passed out from the cell forever. The Jesuit may fairly
+be regarded as a monk, unlike any of his predecessors but nevertheless
+the legitimate fruit of centuries of monastic experience.
+
+
+
+_Ignatius de Loyola, 1491-1556 A.D._
+
+Inigo Lopez de Recalde, or Loyola, as he is commonly known, was born at
+Guipuzcoa, in Spain, in 1491. He was educated as a page in the court of
+Ferdinand the Catholic. He afterwards became a soldier and led a very
+wild life until his twenty-ninth year. During the siege of Pamplona, in
+1521, he was severely wounded, and while convalescing he was given lives
+of Christ and of the saints to read. His perusal of these stories of
+spiritual combat inspired a determination to imitate the glorious
+achievements of the saints. For a while the thirst for military renown
+and an attraction toward a lady of the court, restrained his spiritual
+impulses. But overcoming these obstacles, he resolutely entered upon his
+new career.
+
+Sometime after he visited the sanctuary of Montserrat, where he hung his
+shield and sword upon the altar of the Virgin Mary and gave his oath of
+fealty to the service of God. A tablet, erected by the abbot of the
+monastery in commemoration of this event, reads as follows: "Here,
+blessed Ignatius of Loyola, with many prayers and tears, devoted himself
+to God and the Virgin. Here, as with spiritual arms, he fortified
+himself in sackcloth, and spent the vigil of the night. Hence he went
+forth to found the Society of Jesus, in the year MDXXII."
+
+After spending ten months in Manresa, Loyola went on a pilgrimage to the
+Holy Land, intending to remain there, but he was sent home by the
+Eastern monks, and reached Italy in 1524.
+
+Now began his struggle for an education. At the age of thirty-three he
+took his seat on the school-bench at Barcelona. In 1526 he entered the
+University at Alcala. He was here looked upon as a dangerous innovator,
+and was imprisoned six weeks, by order of the Inquisition, for preaching
+without authority, since he was not in holy orders. After his release he
+attended the University of Salamanca, but he finally took his degree of
+Master of Arts at the University of Paris, in 1533.
+
+During this period he was several times imprisoned as a dangerous
+fanatic, but each time he succeeded in securing a verdict in his favor.
+The hostility to Ignatius and his work forms a strange parallel to the
+bitter antagonism which his society has always encountered.
+
+Nine men, among whom was Francis Xavier, afterwards widely renowned, had
+been chosen with great care, as the companions of Ignatius. He called
+them together in July, 1534, and on August 15th of the same year he
+selected six of them and bade them follow him to the Church of the
+Blessed Virgin, at Montmartre, in Paris. There and then they bound
+themselves to renounce all their goods, and to make a voyage to
+Jerusalem, in order to convert the Eastern infidels; if that scheme
+proved impracticable, they agreed to offer themselves to the sovereign
+pontiff for any service he might require of them. War prevented the
+journey to the Holy Land, and so, after passing through a variety of
+experiences, Ignatius and his companions met at Rome, to secure the
+sanction of Pope Paul III. for the new society. After a year and a half
+of deliberation and discussion a favorable decision was reached, which
+was, no doubt, partly facilitated by the growth of the Reformation. The
+new society was chartered on September 27, 1540, for the "defence and
+advance of the faith."
+
+Ignatius was elected as the general of the order and entered upon his
+duties, April 17, 1541. He soon prepared a constitution which was not
+adopted until after his death, and then in an amended form. Loyola ended
+his remarkable and stormy career, July 31, 1556.
+
+
+
+_Constitution and Polity of the Order_
+
+The _Institutum_, which contains the governing laws of the society, is a
+complex document consisting of papal bulls and decrees, a list of the
+privileges which have been granted to the order, ten chapters of rules,
+decrees of the general congregations, the plan of studies (_ratio
+studiorum_), and three ascetic writings, of which the Spiritual
+Exercises of Ignatius constitute the chief part.
+
+The society is distributed into six grades: novices, scholastics,
+temporal coadjutors, spiritual coadjutors, professed of the three vows,
+and professed of the four vows.
+
+The professed form only a small percentage of the entire body, and
+constitute a sort of religious aristocracy, from which the officers of
+the society are selected. Only the professed of the fourth vow, who add
+to the three vows a pledge of unconditional obedience to the pope,
+possess the full rights of membership. This final grade cannot be
+reached until the age of forty-five, so that if the candidate enters the
+order at the earliest age permissible, fourteen, he has been on
+probation thirty-one years when he reaches the final grade.
+
+The society is ruled by a general, to whom unconditional obedience is
+required. The provinces, into which the order is divided, are governed
+by provincials, who must report monthly to the general. The heads of all
+houses and colleges must report weekly to their provincials. An
+elaborate system of checks and espionage is employed to ensure the
+perfect working of this complex ecclesiastical machinery. Fraud or
+evasion is carefully guarded against, and every possible means is
+employed to enable the general to keep himself fully informed concerning
+the minutest details of the society's affairs.
+
+_The Vow of Obedience_
+
+That which has imparted a peculiar character to the Jesuit and
+contributed more than any other force to his success, is the insistence
+upon unquestioning submission to the will of the superior. This emphasis
+on the vow of obedience deserves, therefore, special consideration.
+Loyola, in his "Spiritual Exercises," commanded the novice to preserve
+his freedom of mind, but it is difficult for the fairest critic to
+conceive of such a possibility in the light of Loyola's rule of
+obedience, which reads: "I ought not to be my own, but His who created
+me, and his too by whose means God governs me, yielding myself to be
+moulded in his hands like so much wax.... I ought to be like a corpse,
+which has neither will nor understanding, or like a small crucifix,
+which is turned about at the will of him who holds it, or like a staff
+in the hands of an old man, who uses it as may best assist or
+please him."
+
+As an example of the kind of obedience demanded of the Jesuit, Loyola
+cited the obedience of Abraham, who, when he believed that Jehovah
+commanded him to commit the crime of infanticide, was ready to obey. The
+thirteenth of the rules appended to the Spiritual Exercises says: "If
+the Church shall have defined that to be black which to our eyes appears
+white, we ought to pronounce the thing in question black."
+
+Loyola is reported as having said to his secretary that "in those who
+offer themselves he looked less to purely natural goodness than to
+firmness of character and ability for business." But that he did not
+mean _independent_ firmness of character is clearly seen in the obvious
+attempt of the order to destroy that noble and true independence which
+is the crowning glory of a lofty character. The discipline is
+marvelously contrived to "scoop the will" out of the individual. Count
+Paul von Hoensbroech, who recently seceded from the society, has set
+forth his reasons for so doing in two articles which appeared in the
+"Preussische Jahrbücher." A most interesting discussion of these
+articles, in the "New World," for December, 1894, places the opinions of
+the Count at our disposal. It is quite evident that he is no passionate,
+blind foe of the society. His tone is temperate and his praises
+cordially given. While recognizing the genius shown in the machinery of
+the society and the nobility of the real aims of the Jesuitical
+discipline, and while protesting against the unfounded charges of
+impurity, and other gross calumnies against the order, Count Paul
+nevertheless maintains that it "rests on so unworthy a depreciation of
+individuality, and so exaggerated an apprehension of the virtue of
+obedience, as to render it unfit for its higher ends." The uniform of
+the Jesuit is not an external garb, but such freedom is insignificant in
+the light of the "veritable strait-jacket," which is placed upon the
+inward man. The unformed and pliable novice, usually between the ages of
+sixteen and twenty, is subjected to "a skillful, energetic and
+unremitting assault upon personal independence." Every device that a
+shrewd and powerful intellect could conceive of is employed to break up
+the personal will. "The Jesuit scheme prescribes the gait, the way to
+hold the hands, to incline the head, to direct the eyes, to hold and
+move the person."
+
+Every novice must go through the "Spiritual Exercises" in complete
+solitude, twice in his life. They occupy thirty days. The "Account of
+the Conscience" is of the very essence of Jesuitism. The ordinary
+confession, familiar to every Catholic, is as nothing compared with this
+marvelous inquiry into the secrets of the human heart and mind. Every
+fault, sin, virtue, wish, design, act and thought,--good, bad or
+indifferent,--must be disclosed, and this revelation of the inner life
+may be used against him who makes it, "for the good of the order."
+Thus, after fifteen years of such ingenious and detailed discipline, the
+young man's intellectual and moral faculties are moulded into Jesuitical
+forms. He is no longer his own. He is a pliable and obedient, even
+though it may be a virtuous and brilliant, tool of a spiritual
+master-mechanic who will use him according to his own purposes, in the
+interest of the society.
+
+The Jesuits have signally failed to convince the world that the type of
+character produced by their system is worthy of admiration. The
+"sacrifice of the intellect"--a familiar watchword of the Jesuit--is far
+too high a price to pay for whatever benefits the discipline may confer.
+It is contrary to human nature, and hence to the divine intention, to
+keep a human soul in a state of subordination to another human will. As
+Von Hoensbroech says of the society: "Who gave it a right to break down
+that most precious possession of the individual being, which God gave,
+and which man has no authority to take away?"
+
+It is true that no human organization has so magnificently brought to
+perfection a unity of purpose and oneness of will. It is also true that
+a spirit of defiance toward human authority is often accompanied by a
+disobedience of divine law. But the remedy for the abuses of human
+freedom is neither in the annihilation of the will itself, nor in its
+mere subjection to some other will irrespective of its moral character.
+Carlyle may have been too vehement in some of his censures of Jesuitism,
+but he certainly exposed the fallaciousness of Loyola's views concerning
+the value of mere obedience, at the same time justly rebuking the too
+ardent admirers of the perverted principle: "I hear much also of
+'obedience,' how that and kindred virtues are prescribed and exemplified
+by Jesuitism; the truth of which, and the merit of which, far be it from
+me to deny.... Obedience is good and indispensable: but if it be
+obedience to what is wrong and false, good heavens, there is no name for
+such a depth of human cowardice and calamity, spurned everlastingly by
+the gods. Loyalty? Will you be loyal to Beelzebub? Will you 'make a
+covenant with Death and Hell'? I will not be loyal to Beelzebub; I will
+become a nomadic Choctaw rather, ... anything and everything is
+venial to that."
+
+
+
+_The Casuistry of the Jesuits_
+
+It is often asserted, even by authoritative writers, that a Jesuit is
+bound by his vows to commit either venial or mortal sin at the command
+of his superior; and that the maxim, "The end justifies the means," has
+not only been the principle upon which the society has prosecuted its
+work but is also explicitly taught in the rules of the order. There is
+nothing in the constitution of the society to justify these two serious
+charges, which are not to be regarded as malicious calumnies, however,
+because the slovenly Latin in one of the rules on obedience has misled
+such competent scholars as John Addington Symonds and the historian
+Ranke. Furthermore, judging from the doctrines of the society as set
+forth by many of their theologians and the political conduct of its
+representatives, the conclusion seems inevitable that while the society
+may not teach in its rules that its members are bound to obedience even
+to the point of sin, yet practically many of its leaders have so held
+and its emissaries have rendered that kind of obedience.
+
+Bishop Keane admits that one of the causes for the decline and overthrow
+of the society was its marked tendency toward lax moral teaching. There
+can be but little doubt that the Jesuits have ever been indulgent toward
+many forms of sin and even crime, when committed under certain
+circumstances and for the good of the order or "the greater glory
+of God."
+
+To enable the reader to form some sort of an independent judgment on
+this question, it is necessary to say a few words on the subject of
+casuistry and the doctrine of probabilism.
+
+Casuistry is the application of general moral rules to given cases,
+especially to doubtful ones. The medieval churchmen were much given to
+inventing fanciful moral distinctions and to prescribing rules to govern
+supposable problems of conscience. They were not willing to trust the
+individual conscience or to encourage personal responsibility. The
+individual was taught to lean his whole weight on his spiritual adviser,
+in other words, to make the conscience of the church his own. As a
+result there grew up a confused mass of precepts to guide the perplexed
+conscience. The Jesuits carried this system to its farthest extreme. As
+Charles C. Starbuck says: "They have heaped possibility upon possibility
+in their endeavors to make out how far there can be subjective innocence
+in objective error, until they have, in more than one fundamental point,
+hopelessly confused their own perceptions of both[H]."
+
+[Footnote H: Appendix, Note H.]
+
+The doctrine of probabilism is founded upon the distinctions between
+opinions that are sure, less sure, or more sure. There are several
+schools of probabilists, but the doctrine itself practically amounts to
+this: Since uncertainty attaches to many of our decisions in moral
+affairs, one must follow the more probable rule, but not always, cases
+often arising when it is permissible to follow a rule contrary to the
+more probable one. Furthermore, as the Jesuits made war upon individual
+authority, which was the key-note of the Reformation, and contended for
+the authority of the church, the teaching naturally followed, that the
+opinion of "a grave doctor" may be looked upon "as possessing a fair
+amount of probability, and may, therefore, be safely followed, even
+though one's conscience insist upon the opposite course." It is easy to
+see that this opens a convenient door to those who are seeking
+justification for conduct which their consciences condemn. No doubt one
+can find plausible excuses for the basest crimes, if he stills the voice
+of conscience and trusts himself to confusing sophistry. The glory of
+God, the gravity of circumstances, necessity, the good of the church or
+of the order, and numerous other practical reasons can be urged to
+remove scruples and make a bad act seem to be a good one. But crime,
+even "for the glory of God," is crime still.
+
+This disagreeable subject will not be pursued further. To say less than
+has been said would be to ignore one of the most prominent causes of the
+Jesuits' ruin. To say more than this, even though the facts might
+warrant it, would incur the liability of being classed among those
+malicious fomentors of religious strife, for whom the writer has mingled
+feelings of pity and contempt. The Society of Jesus is not the Roman
+Catholic Church, which has suffered much from the burden of
+Jesuitism--wounds that are scarcely atoned for by the meritorious and
+self-sacrificing services on her behalf in other directions. The
+Protestant foes have never equaled the Catholic opponents of Jesuitism,
+either in their fierce hatred of the system or in their ability to
+expose its essential weakness. A writer in the "Quarterly Review,"
+September, 1848, says: "Admiration and detestation of the Jesuits
+divide, as far as feeling is concerned, the Roman Catholic world, with a
+schism deeper and more implacable than any which arrays Protestant
+against Protestant."
+
+
+
+_The Mission of the Jesuits_
+
+The Society of Jesus has been described as "a naked sword, whose hilt is
+at Rome, and whose point is everywhere." It is an undisputed historical
+fact that Loyola's consuming passion was to accomplish the ruin of
+Protestantism, which had twenty years the start of him and was
+threatening the very existence of the Roman hierarchy. It has already
+been shown that the destruction of heresy was the chief aim of the
+Dominicans. What the friars failed to attain, Loyola attempted. The
+principal object of the Jesuits was the maintenance of papal authority.
+Even to-day the Jesuit does not hesitate to declare that his mission is
+to overthrow Protestantism. The Reformation was inspired by a new
+conception of individual freedom. The authority of tradition and of the
+church was set at naught. Loyola planted his system upon the doctrine of
+absolute submission to authority. The partial success of the Jesuits,
+for they did beat back the Reformation, is no doubt attributable to
+their fidelity, virtue and learning. Their devotion to the cause they
+loved, their willingness to sacrifice life itself, their marvelous and
+instantaneous obedience to the slightest command of their leaders, made
+them a compact and powerful papal army. Their methods, in many
+particulars, were not beyond question, and, whatever their character,
+the order certainly incurred the fiercest hostility of every nation in
+Europe, and even of the church itself.
+
+Professor Anton Gindely, in his "History of the Thirty Years' War,"
+shows that Maximilian, of Bavaria, and Ferdinand, of Austria, the
+leaders on the Catholic side, were educated by Jesuits. He also fixes
+the responsibility for that war partly upon them in the plainest terms:
+"In a word, they had the consciences of Roman Catholic sovereigns and
+their ministers in their hands as educators, and in their keeping as
+confessors. They led them in the direction of war, so that it was at the
+time, and has since been called the Jesuits' War."
+
+The strictures of Carlyle, Macaulay, Thackeray, and Lytton have been
+repeatedly denounced by the Jesuits, but even their shrewd, sophistical
+defences of their order afford ample justification for the attitude of
+their foes. For example, in a masterful oration, previously quoted from,
+in which the virtues of the Jesuits are extolled and defended, Father
+Sherman says: "We are expelled and driven from pillar to post because we
+teach men to love God." He describes Loyola as "the knightly, the loyal,
+the true, the father of heroes, and the maker of saints, the lover of
+the all-good and the all-beautiful, crowned with the honor of sainthood,
+the best-loved and the best-hated man in all the world, save only his
+Master and ours." "'Twas he that conceived the daring plan of forging
+the weapon to beat back the Reformation." No one but a Jesuit could
+reconcile the aim of "preaching the love of God" with "beating back the
+Reformation," especially in view of the methods employed.
+
+Numerous gross calumnies have been circulated against the Society of
+Jesus. The dread of a return to that deplorable intellectual and moral
+slavery of the pre-Reformation days is so intense, that a calm,
+dispassionate consideration of Jesuit history is almost impossible. But
+after all just concessions have been made, two indisputable facts
+confront the student: first, the universal antagonism to the order, of
+the church that gave birth to it, as well as of the states that have
+suffered from its meddling in political affairs; and second, the
+complete failure of the order's most cherished schemes. France, Germany,
+Switzerland, Spain, Great Britain and other nations, have been compelled
+in sheer self-defence to expel it from their territories. Such a
+significant fact needs some other explanation than that the Jesuit has
+incurred the enmity of the world merely for preaching the love of God.
+
+Clement XIV., when solemnly pronouncing the dissolution of the order, at
+the time his celebrated bull, entitled "_Dominus ac Redemptor Noster_"
+which was signed July 21, 1773, was made public, justified his action in
+the following terms: "Recognizing that the members of this society have
+not a little troubled the Christian commonwealth, and that for the
+welfare of Christendom it were better that the order should disappear,"
+etc. When Rome thus delivers her _ex cathedra_ opinion concerning her
+own order, an institution which she knows better than any one else, one
+cannot fairly be charged with prejudice and sectarianism in speaking
+evil of it.
+
+But while there is much to be detested in the methods of the order,
+history does not furnish another example of such self-abnegation and
+intense zeal as the Jesuits have shown in the prosecution of their aims.
+They planted missions in Japan, China, Africa, Ceylon, Madagascar, North
+and South America.
+
+In Europe the Mendicant friars by their coarseness had disgusted the
+upper classes; the affable and cultured Jesuit won their hearts. The
+Jesuits became chaplains in noble families, learned the secrets of every
+government in Europe, and became the best schoolmasters in the age. They
+were to be found in various disguises in every castle of note and in
+every palace. "There was no region of the globe," says Macaulay, "no
+walk of speculative or active life in which Jesuits were not to be
+found." That they were devoted to their cause no one can deny. They were
+careless of life and, as one facetiously adds, of truth also. They
+educated, heard confessions, plotted crimes and revolutions, and
+published whole libraries. Worn out by fatigue, the Jesuits still toiled
+on with marvelous zeal. Though hated and opposed, they wore serene and
+cheerful countenances. In a word, they had learned to control every
+faculty and every passion, and to merge every human aspiration and
+personal ambition into the one supreme purpose of conquering an opposing
+faith and exalting the power of priestly authority. They hold up before
+the subjects of the King of Heaven a wonderful example of loving and
+untiring service, which should be emulated by every servant of Christ
+who too often yields an indifferent obedience to Him whom he professes
+to love and to serve.
+
+Francis Parkman, in his brilliant narrative of "The Jesuits in North
+America," presents the following interesting contrast between the
+Puritan and the Jesuit: "To the mind of the Puritan, heaven was God's
+throne; but no less was the earth His footstool; and each in its degree
+and its kind had its demands on man. He held it a duty to labor and to
+multiply; and, building on the Old Testament quite as much as on the
+New, thought that a reward on earth as well as in heaven awaited those
+who were faithful to the law. Doubtless, such a belief is widely open to
+abuse, and it would be folly to pretend that it escaped abuse in New
+England; but there was in it an element manly, healthful and
+invigorating. On the other hand, those who shaped the character, and in
+a great measure the destiny, of New France had always on their lips the
+nothingness and the vanity of life. For them, time was nothing but a
+preparation for eternity, and the highest virtue consisted in a
+renunciation of all the cares, toils and interests of earth. That such a
+doctrine has often been joined to an intense worldliness, all history
+proclaims; but with this we have at present nothing to do. If all
+mankind acted on it in good faith, the world would sink into
+decrepitude. It is the monastic idea carried into the wide field of
+active life, and is like the error of those who, in their zeal to
+cultivate their higher nature, suffer the neglected body to dwindle and
+pine, till body and mind alike lapse into feebleness and disease."
+
+Notwithstanding the success of the Jesuits in stopping the progress of
+the Reformation, it may be truthfully said that they have failed. The
+principles of the Reformation dominate the world and are slowly
+modifying the Roman church in America. "In truth," says Macaulay, "if
+society continued to hold together, if life and property enjoyed any
+security, it was because common sense and common humanity restrained men
+from doing what the order of Jesus assured them they might with a safe
+conscience do." Our hope for the future progress of society lies in the
+guiding power of this same common sense and common humanity.
+
+The restoration of the order by Pius VII., August 7th, 1814, while it
+renewed the papal favor, did not allay the hostility of the civil
+powers. Various states have expelled them since that time, and wherever
+they labor, they are still the objects of open attack or ill-disguised
+suspicion. Although the order still shows "some quivering in fingers and
+toes," as Carlyle expresses it, the principles of the Reformation are
+too widely believed, and its benefits too deeply appreciated, to
+justify any hope or fear of the ultimate triumph of Jesuitism.
+
+
+
+_Retrospect_
+
+So the Christian monk has greatly changed since he first appeared in the
+deserts of Nitria, in Egypt. He has come from his den in the mountains
+to take his seat in parliaments, and find his home in palaces. He is no
+longer filthy in appearance, but elegant in dress and courtly in manner.
+He has exchanged his rags for jewels and silks. He is no longer the
+recluse of the lonely cliffs, chatting with the animals and gazing at
+the stars. He is a man of the world, with schemes of conquest filling
+his brain and a love of dominion ruling his heart. He is no longer a
+ditch-digger and a ploughman, but the proud master of councils or the
+cultured professor of the university. He still swears to the three vows
+of celibacy, poverty and obedience, but they do not mean the same thing
+to him that they did to the more ignorant, less cultured, but more
+genuinely frank monk of the desert. Yes, he has all but completely lost
+sight of his ancient monastic ideal. He professes the poverty of
+Christ, but he cannot follow even so simple a man as his Saint Francis.
+
+It is a long way from Jerome to Ignatius, but the end of the journey is
+nigh. Loyola is the last type of monastic life, or changing the figure,
+the last great leader in the conquered monastic army. The good within
+the system will survive, its truest exponents will still fire the
+courage and win the sympathy of the devout, but best of all, man will
+recover from its poison.
+
+
+
+VII
+
+_THE FALL OF THE MONASTERIES_
+
+The rise of Protestantism accelerated the decline and final ruin of the
+monasteries. The enthusiasm of the Mendicants and the culture of the
+Jesuits failed to convince the governments of Europe that monasticism
+was worthy to survive the destruction awaiting so many medieval
+institutions. The spread of reformatory opinions resulted in a
+determined and largely successful attack upon the monasteries, which
+were rightly believed to constitute the bulwark of papal power. So
+imperative were the popular demands for a change, that popes and
+councils hastened to urge the members of religious orders to abolish
+existing abuses by enforcing primitive rules. But while Rome practically
+failed in her attempted reformations, the Protestant reformers in church
+and state were widely successful in either curtailing the privileges
+and revenues of the monks or in annihilating the monasteries.
+
+Since the sixteenth century the leading governments of Europe, even
+including those in Catholic countries, have given tangible expression to
+popular and political antagonism to monasticism, by the abolition of
+convents, or the withdrawal of immunities and favors, for a long time a
+source of monastic revenue and power. The results of this hostility have
+been so disastrous, that monasticism has never regained its former
+prestige and influence. Several of the older orders have risen from the
+ruins, and a few new communities have appeared, some of which are
+distinguished by their most laudable ministrations to the poor and the
+sick, or by their educational services. Yet notwithstanding the
+modifications of the system to suit the exigencies of modern times, it
+seems altogether improbable that the monks will ever again wield the
+power they possessed before the Reformation,
+
+In the present chapter attention will be confined to the dissolution of
+the monasteries under Henry VIII., in England. The suppression in that
+country was occasioned partly by peculiar, local conditions, and was
+more radical and permanent than the reforms in other lands, yet it is
+entirely consistent with our general purpose to restrict this narrative
+to English history. Penetrating beneath the varying externalities
+attending the ruin of the monasteries in Germany, Spain, France,
+Switzerland, Italy, and other countries, it will be found that the
+underlying cause of the destruction of the monasteries was that the
+monastic ideal conflicted with the spirit of the modern era. A
+conspicuous and dramatic example of this struggle between medievalism,
+as embodied in the monastic institution, and modern political, social
+and religious ideals, is to be found in the dissolution of the English
+monasteries. The narrative of the suppression in England also conveys
+some idea of the struggle that was carried on throughout Europe, with
+varying intensity and results.
+
+There is no more striking illustration of the power of the personal
+equation in the interpretation of history than that afforded by the
+conflicting opinions respecting the overthrow of monasticism in England.
+Those who mourn the loss of the monasteries cannot find words strong
+enough with which to condemn Henry VIII., whom they regard as
+"unquestionably the most unconstitutional, the most vicious king that
+ever wore the English crown." Forgetting the inevitable cost of human
+freedom, and lightly passing over the iniquities of the monastic system,
+they fondly dwell upon the departed glory of the ancient abbeys. They
+recall with sadness the days when the monks chanted their songs of
+praise in the chapels, or reverently bent over their books of parchment,
+bound in purple and gold, not that they might "winnow the treasures of
+knowledge, but that they might elicit love, compunction and devotion."
+The charming simplicity and loving service of the cloister life, in the
+days of its unbroken vows, appeal to such defenders of the monks with
+singular potency.
+
+Truly, the fair-minded should attempt to appreciate the sorrow, the
+indignation and the love of these friends of a ruined institution.
+Passionless logic will never enable one to do justice to the sentiments
+of those who cannot restrain their tears as they stand uncovered before
+the majestic remains of a Melrose Abbey, or properly to estimate the
+motives and methods of those who laid the mighty monastic institution
+in the dust.
+
+
+
+_The Character of Henry VIII_
+
+Before considering the actual work of suppression, it may be interesting
+to glance at the royal destroyer and his times. The character of Henry
+VIII. is utterly inexplicable to many persons, chiefly because they do
+not reflect that even the inconsistencies of a great man may be
+understood when seen in the light of his times. A masterly and
+comprehensive summary of the virtues and vices of the Tudor monarch, who
+has been described as "the king, the whole king, and nothing but the
+king," may be found in "A History of Crime in England," by Luke Owen
+Pike. The distinguished author shows that in his brutality, his love of
+letters, his opposition to Luther, his vacillation in religious
+opinions, King Henry reflects with remarkable fidelity the age in which
+he lived, both in its contrasts and its inconsistencies. "It is only the
+previous history of England which can explain all the contradictions
+exhibited in his conduct,--which can explain how he could be rapacious
+yet sometimes generous, the Defender of the Faith yet under sentence of
+excommunication, a burner of heretics yet a heretic himself, the pope's
+advocate yet the pope's greatest enemy, a bloodthirsty tyrant yet the
+best friend to liberty of thought in religion, an enthusiast yet a
+turncoat, a libertine and yet all but a Puritan. He was sensual because
+his forefathers had been sensual from time immemorial, rough in speech
+and action because there had been but few men in Britain who had been
+otherwise since the Romans abandoned the island. He was superstitious
+and credulous because few were philosophical or gifted with intellectual
+courage. Yet he had, what was possessed by his contemporaries, a faint
+and intermittent thirst for knowledge, of which he himself hardly knew
+the meaning." Henry was shrewd, tenacious of purpose, capricious and
+versatile. In spite of his unrestrained indulgences and his monstrous
+claims of power, which, be it remembered, he was able to enforce, and
+notwithstanding any other vices or faults that may be truthfully charged
+against him, he was, on the whole, a popular king. Few monarchs have
+ever had to bear such a strain as was placed upon his abilities and
+character. Rare have been the periods that have witnessed such
+confusion of principles, social, political and religious. Those were the
+days when liberty was at work, "but in a hundred fantastical and
+repulsive shapes, confused and convulsive, multiform, deformed." Blind
+violence and half-way reforms characterized the age because the
+principles that were to govern modern times were not yet formulated.
+
+Judged apart from his times Henry appears as an arrogant, cruel and
+fickle ruler, whose virtues fail to atone for his vices. But still, with
+all his faults, he compares favorably with preceding monarchs and even
+with his contemporaries. If he had possessed less intelligence, courage
+and ambition, he would not now be so conspicuous for his vices, but the
+history of human liberty and free institutions, especially in England,
+would have been vastly different. His praiseworthy traits were not
+sufficiently strong to enable him to control his inherited passions, but
+they were too regnant to permit him to submit without a struggle to the
+hierarchy which had dominated his country so many centuries. Such was
+
+                "the majestic lord,
+     That broke the bonds of Rome."
+
+
+
+_Events Preceding the Suppression_
+
+Many causes and incidents contributed to the progress of the reformation
+in England, and to the demolition of the monasteries. Only a few of them
+can be given here, and they must be stated with a brevity that conveys
+no adequate conception of their profound significance.
+
+Henry VIII. ascended the throne, in the year 1509, when eighteen years
+of age. In 1517, Luther took his stand against Rome. Four years later
+Henry wrote a treatise in defence of the Seven Sacraments and in
+opposition to the German reformer. For this princely service to the
+church the king received the title "Defender of the Faith" from Pope
+Leo X.
+
+About 1527 it became known that Henry was questioning the validity of
+his marriage with Catharine of Aragon, whom he had married when he was
+twelve years old. She was the widow of his brother Arthur. The king
+professed conscientious scruples about his marriage, but undoubtedly his
+desire for male offspring, and later, his passion for Anne Boleyn,
+prompted him to seek release from his queen. In 1529, Henry and
+Catharine stood before a papal tribunal, presided over by Cardinal
+Wolsey, the king's prime minister, and Cardinal Campeggio, from Rome,
+for the purpose of determining the validity of the royal marriage. The
+trial was a farce. The enraged king laid the blame upon Wolsey, and
+retired him from office. The great cardinal was afterwards charged with
+treason, but died broken-hearted, on his way to the Tower, November
+29, 1530.
+
+The breach between Henry and Rome, complicated by numerous international
+intrigues, widened rapidly. Henry began to assume an attitude of bold
+defiance toward the pope, which aroused the animosity of the Catholic
+princes of Europe.
+
+Notwithstanding the desire of a large body of the English people to
+remain faithful to Rome, the dangers which menaced their country from
+abroad and the ecclesiastical abuses at home, which had been a fruitful
+cause for complaint for many years, tended to lessen the ancient horror
+of heresy and schism, and inclined them to support their king. Another
+factor that assisted in preparing the English people for the
+destruction of the monasteries was Lollardism. As an organized sect, the
+Lollards had ceased to exist, but the spirit and the doctrines of Wyclif
+did not die. A real and a vital connection existed between the Lollards
+of the fourteenth, and the reformers of the sixteenth, centuries. In
+Henry's time, many Englishmen held practically the same views of Rome
+and of the monks that had been taught by Wyclif[I].
+
+[Footnote I: Appendix, Note I.]
+
+A considerable number of Henry's subjects, however, while ostensibly
+loyal to him, were inwardly full of hot rebellion. The king was
+surrounded with perils. The princes of the Continent were eagerly
+awaiting the bull for his excommunication. Henry's throne and his
+kingdom might at any moment be given over by the pope to invasion by the
+continental sovereigns.
+
+Reginald Pole, afterwards cardinal, a cousin of the king, and a strong
+Catholic, stood ready to betray the interests of his country to Rome.
+Writing to the king, he said: "Man is against you; God is against you;
+the universe is against you; what can you look for but destruction?"
+"Dream not, Caesar," he encouragingly declared to Emperor Charles V.,
+"that all generous hearts are quenched in England; that faith and piety
+are dead. In you is their trust, in your noble nature, and in your zeal
+for God--they hold their land till you shall come." Thus, on the
+testimony of a Roman Catholic, there were traitors in England waiting
+only for the call of Charles V., "To arms!" Pole was in full sympathy
+with all the factions opposed to the king, and stood ready to aid them
+in their resistance. He publicly denounced the king in several
+continental countries.
+
+The monks were especially enraged against Henry. They did all they could
+to inflame the people by preaching against him and the reformers. Friar
+Peyto, preaching before the king, had the assurance to say to him: "Many
+lying prophets have deceived you, but I, as a true Micah, warn you that
+the dogs will lick your blood as they did Ahab's." While the courage of
+this friar is unquestioned, his defiant attitude illustrates the
+position occupied by the monks toward those who favored separation from
+Rome. The whole country was at white heat. The friends of Rome looked
+upon Henry as an incarnate fiend, a servant of the devil and an enemy
+of all religion. Many of them opposed him with the purest and best
+motives, believing that the king was really undermining the church of
+God and throwing society into chaos.
+
+In 1531, the English clergy were coerced into declaring that Henry was
+"the protector and the supreme head of the church and of the clergy of
+England," which absurd claim was slightly modified by the words, "in so
+far as is permitted by the law of Christ." Chapuys, in one of his
+despatches informing Charles V. of this action of convocation, said that
+it practically declared Henry the Pope of England. "It is true," he
+wrote, "that the clergy have added to the declaration that they did so
+only so far as permitted by the law of God. But that is all the same, as
+far as the king is concerned, as if they had made no reservation, for no
+one will now be so bold as to contest with his lord the importance of
+the reservation." Later on, Chapuys says that the king told the pope's
+nuncio that "if the pope would not show him more consideration, he would
+show the world that the pope had no greater authority than Moses, and
+that every claim not grounded on Scripture was mere usurpation; that
+the great concourse of people present had come solely and exclusively to
+request him to bastinado the clergy, who were hated by both nobles and
+the people." ("Spanish Despatches," number 460.)
+
+Parliament, in 1534, conferred on Henry the title "Supreme Head of the
+Church of England," and empowered him "to visit, and repress, redress,
+reform, order, correct, restrain, or amend all errors, heresies, abuses,
+offences, contempts, and enormities, which fell under any spiritual
+authority or jurisdiction." The "Act of Succession" was also passed by
+Parliament, cutting off Princess Mary and requiring all subjects to take
+an oath of allegiance to Elizabeth.
+
+It was now an act of treason to deny the king's supremacy. All persons
+suspected of disloyalty were required to sign an oath of allegiance to
+Henry, and to Elizabeth as his successor, and to acknowledge the
+supremacy of the king in church and state. This resulted in the death of
+some prominent men in the realm, among them Sir Thomas More. In the
+preamble of the oath prescribed by law, the legality of the king's
+marriage with Anne was asserted, thus implying that his former marriage
+with Catharine was unlawful. More was willing to declare his allegiance
+to the infant Elizabeth, as the king's successor, but his conscience
+would not permit him to affirm that Catharine's marriage was unlawful.
+
+The life of the brilliant and lovable More is another illustration of
+the mental confusions and inconsistencies of that age. As an apostle of
+culture he favored the new learning, and yet he viewed the gathering
+momentum of reformatory principles with alarm, and cast in his lot with
+the ultra-conservatives. Four years of his young manhood were spent in a
+monastery. He devoted his splendid talents to a criticism of English
+society, and recommended freedom of conscience, yet he became an ardent
+foe of reform and even a persecutor of heretics, of whom he said: "I do
+so detest that class of men that, unless they repent, I am the worst
+enemy they have." When a man, whom even Protestant historians hasten to
+pronounce "the glory of his age," so magnificent were his talents and so
+blameless his character, was tainted with superstition, and sanctioned
+the persecution of liberal thinkers, is it remarkable that inferior
+intellects should have been swayed by the brutality and tyranny of
+the times?
+
+The unparalleled claims of Henry and his attitude toward the pope made
+the breach between England and Rome complete, but many years of painful
+internal strife and bloodshed were to elapse before the whole nation
+submitted to the new order of things, and before that subjective freedom
+from fear and superstition without which formal freedom has little
+value, was secured.
+
+The breach with Rome was essential to the attainment of that religious
+and political freedom that England now enjoys. But the first step toward
+making that separation an accomplished fact, acquiesced in by the people
+as a whole, was to break the power of the monastic orders. It may
+possibly be true that the same ends would have been eventually attained
+by trusting to the slower processes of social evolution, but the history
+of the Latin nations of Europe would seem to prove the contrary. As the
+facts stand it would appear that peace and progress were impossible with
+thousands of monks sowing seeds of discord, and employing every measure,
+fair or foul, to win the country back to Rome. Gairdner and others
+argue that Henry was far too powerful a king to have been successfully
+resisted by the pope, unless the pope was backed by a union of the
+Christian princes, which was then impracticable. That fact may make the
+execution of More, Fisher and the Charterhouse monks inexcusable, but it
+by no means proves that Henry would have been strong enough to maintain
+his position if the monasteries had been permitted to exist as centers
+of organized opposition to his will. Many of the monks, when pressed by
+the king's agents, took the oath of allegiance. Threats, bribes and
+violence were used to overcome the opposition of the unwilling.
+
+
+
+_The Monks and the Oath of Supremacy_
+
+It is quite evident that the king's purpose to destroy the whole
+monastic institution was partly the result of the determined resistance
+which the monks offered to his authority. The contest between the king
+and the monks was exceedingly fierce and bloody. Many good men lost
+their lives and many innocent persons suffered grievously. Perhaps the
+most pathetic incident in the sanguinary struggle between the king and
+the monks was the tragic fall of the Charterhouse of London. The facts
+are given at length by Froude, in his "History of England," who bases
+his account on the narrative of Maurice Channey, one of the monks who
+escaped death by yielding to the king. The unhappy monk confesses that
+he was a Judas among the apostles, and in a touching account of the ruin
+that came upon his monastic retreat he praises the boldness and fidelity
+of his companions, who preferred death to what seemed to them dishonor.
+
+The pages of Channey are filled with the most improbable stories of
+miracles, but his charming picture of the cloister life of the
+Carthusians is doubtless true to reality. The Carthusian fathers were
+the best fruit of monasticism in England. To a higher degree than any of
+the other monastic orders they maintained a good discipline and
+preserved the spirit of their founders. "A thousand years of the world's
+history had rolled by," says Froude, "and these lonely islands of prayer
+had remained still anchored in the stream; the strands of the ropes
+which held them, wearing now to a thread, and very near their last
+parting, but still unbroken." In view of the undisputed purity and
+fearlessness of these noble monks, a recital of their woes will place
+the case for the monastic institution in the most favorable light.
+
+Channey says the year 1533 was ushered in with signs,--the end of the
+world was nigh. Yes, the monk's world was drawing to a close; the moon,
+for him, was turning into blood, and the stars falling from heaven.
+
+More and Fisher were in the Tower. The former's splendid talents and
+noble character still swayed the people. It was no time for trifling;
+the Carthusian fathers must take the oath of allegiance or perish. So
+one morning the royal commissioners appeared before the monastery door
+of the Charterhouse to demand submission. Prior Houghton answered them:
+"I know nothing of the matter mentioned; I am unacquainted with the
+world without; my office is to minister to God, and to save poor souls
+from Satan." He was committed to the Tower for one month. Then Dr.
+Bonner persuaded the prior to sign with "certain reservations." He was
+released and went back to his cloister-cell to weep. Calling his monks
+together he said he was sorry; it looked like deceit, but he desired to
+save his brethren and their order. The commissioners returned; the monks
+were under suspicion; the reservations were disliked, and they must sign
+without conditions. In great consternation the prior assembled the
+monks. All present cried out: "Let us die together in our integrity, and
+heaven and earth shall witness for us how unjustly we are cut off."
+Prior Houghton conceived a generous idea. "If it depends on me alone; if
+my oath will suffice for the house, I will throw myself on the mercy of
+God; I will make myself anathema, and to preserve you from these
+dangers, I will consent to the king's will." Thus did the noble old man
+consent to go into heaven with a lie on his conscience, hoping to escape
+by the mercy of God, because he sought to save the lives of his
+brethren. But all this was of no avail; Cromwell had determined that
+this monastery must fall, and fall it did. The monks prepared for their
+end calmly and nobly; beginning with the oldest brother, they knelt
+before each other and begged forgiveness for all unkindness and offence.
+"Not less deserving," says Froude, "the everlasting remembrances of
+mankind, than those three hundred, who, in the summer morning, sate
+combing their golden hair in the passes of Thermopylæ." But rebellion
+was blazing in Ireland, and the enemies of the king were praying and
+plotting for his ruin. These monks, with More and Fisher, were an
+inspiration to the enemies of liberty and the kingdom. Catholic Europe
+crouched like a tiger ready to spring on her prostrate foe. It is sad,
+but these recluses, praying for the pope, instilling a love for the
+papacy in the confessional, these honest and conscientious but dangerous
+men must be shorn of their power to encourage rebels. There was a farce
+of a trial. Houghton was brought to the scaffold and died protesting his
+innocence. His arm was cut off and hung over the archway of the
+Charterhouse, as other arms and heads were hideously hanging over many a
+monastic gate in Merry England. Nine of the monks died of prison fever,
+and others were banished. The king's court went into mourning, and Henry
+knotted his beard and henceforth would be no more shaven--eloquent
+evidence to the world that whatever motive dominated the king's heart,
+these bloody deeds were unpleasantly disturbing. Certainly such a
+spectacle as that of a monk's arm nailed to a monastery was never seen
+by Englishmen before.
+
+The Charterhouse fell, let it be carefully noted, because the monks
+could not and would not acknowledge the king's supremacy, and not
+because the monks were immoral. Some spies in Cromwell's service offered
+to, bring in evidence against six of these monks of "laziness and
+immorality." Cromwell indignantly refused the proposal, saying, "He
+would not hear the accusation; that it was false, wilfully so."
+
+The news of these proceedings, and of the beheading of More and Fisher,
+awakened the most violent rage throughout Catholic Europe. Henry was
+denounced as the Nero of his times. Paul III. immediately excommunicated
+the king, dissolved all leagues between Henry and the Catholic princes,
+and gave his kingdom to any invader. All Catholic subjects were ordered
+to take up arms against him. Although these censures were passed, the
+pope decided to defer their publication, hoping for a peaceful
+settlement. But Henry knew, and the Catholic princes of Europe knew,
+that the blow might fall at any time. He had to make up his mind to go
+further or to yield unconditionally to the pope. The world soon
+discovered the temper of the enraged and stubborn monarch. He might
+vacillate on speculative questions, but there were no tokens of feeble
+hesitancy in his dealings with Rome. The hour of doom for the
+monasteries had struck.
+
+Having thus glanced at the character of Henry VIII., the prime mover in
+the attack upon the monasteries, and having surveyed some of the events
+leading up to their fall, we are now prepared to consider the actual
+work of suppression, which will be described under the following heads:
+First, The royal commissioners and their methods of investigation;
+Second, The commissioners' report on the condition of affairs; Third,
+The action of Parliament; Fourth, The effect of the suppression upon the
+people; and Fifth, The use Henry made of the monastic possessions. These
+matters having been set forth, it will then be in order to inquire into
+the justification, real or alleged, of the suppression.
+
+
+
+_The Royal Commissioners and Their Methods of Investigation_
+
+The fall of Sir Thomas More left Thomas Cromwell the chief power under
+the king, and for seven years he devoted his great administrative
+abilities to making his royal patron absolute ruler in church and state.
+
+Cromwell, Earl of Essex, was of lowly origin, but his energy and
+shrewdness, together with the experience acquired by extensive travels,
+commanded the attention of Cardinal Wolsey, who took him into his
+service. He was successively merchant, scrivener, money-lender, lawyer,
+member of parliament, master of jewels, chancellor, master of rolls,
+secretary of state, vicar-general in ecclesiastical affairs, lord privy
+seal, dean of Wells and high chamberlain.
+
+Close intimacy with Wolsey enabled Cromwell to grasp the full
+significance of Henry's ambition, and his desire to please his royal
+master, coupled with his own love of power, prompted him to throw
+himself with characteristic energy into the work of centralizing all
+authority in the hands of the king and of his prime minister. In secular
+affairs, this had already been accomplished. The task before him was to
+subdue the church to the throne, to execute which he became the
+protector of Protestantism and the foe of Rome. Green says: "He had an
+absolute faith in the end he was pursuing, and he simply hews his way to
+it, as a woodman hews his way through the forest, axe in hand." Froude
+says: "To him ever belonged the rare privilege of genius to see what
+other men could not see, and therefore he was condemned to rule a
+generation which hated him, to do the will of God and to perish in his
+success. He pursued an object, the excellence of which, as his mind saw
+it, transcended all other considerations, the freedom of England and the
+destruction of idolatry, and those who, from any motive, noble or base,
+pious or impious, crossed his path, he crushed and passed on over
+their bodies."
+
+There seems to be a general agreement that Cromwell was not a
+Protestant. His struggle against the temporal power of the pope fostered
+the reformatory movement, but that did not make Cromwell a Protestant
+any more than it did his master, Henry VIII. Foxe describes Cromwell "as
+a valiant soldier and captain of Christ," but Maitland retorts "that
+Foxe forgot, if he ever knew, who was the father of lies."
+
+Without doubt Cromwell ruled with an iron hand. He was guilty of
+accepting bribes, and, as some maintain, "was the great patron of
+ribaldry, and the protector of the low jester and the filthy." But,
+sadly enough, that is no serious charge against one in his times. It is
+said that Henry used to say, when a knave was dealt to him in a game of
+cards, "Ah, I have a Cromwell!" Francis Aidan Gasquet, a Benedictine
+monk, in his valuable work on "Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries,"
+says of Cromwell: "No single minister in England ever exercised such
+extensive authority, none ever rose so rapidly, and no one has ever left
+behind him a name covered with greater infamy and disgrace."
+
+In 1535, Henry, as supreme head of the church, appointed Cromwell as his
+"Vicegerent, Vicar-General and Principal Commissary in causes
+ecclesiastical." His immediate duty was to enforce recognition of the
+king's supremacy. The monks and the clergy were now to be coerced into
+submission. A royal commission, consisting of Legh, Layton, Ap Rice,
+London and various subordinates, was appointed to visit the monasteries
+and to report on their condition.
+
+Henry Griffin says in his chronicle: "I was well acquainted with all the
+commissioners; indeed I knew them well; they were very smart men, who
+understood the value of money, for they had tasted of adversity. I think
+the priests were the worst of the whole party, although they had a good
+reputation at the time, but they were wicked, deceitful men. I am sorry
+to speak thus of my own order, but I speak God's truth." "It is a
+dreadful undertaking," said Lord Clinton. "Ah! but I have great faith in
+the tact and judgment of the men I am about to select,"
+retorted Cromwell.
+
+Dr. John London was a base tool of Cromwell, and a miserable exponent of
+the reform movement. He joined Gardiner in burning heretics, was
+convicted of adultery at Oxford, was pilloried for perjury and died in
+jail. The other royal agents were also questionable characters. Dean
+Layton wrote the most disgusting letters to Cromwell. Once he informed
+his patron that he prayed regularly for him, prefacing this information
+with the remark, "I will now tell you something to make you laugh."
+
+Father Gasquet sums up his view of the commissioners in the words of
+Edmund Burke: "It is not with much credulity that I listen to any when
+they speak ill of those whom they are going to plunder. I rather suspect
+that vices are feigned, or exaggerated, when profit is looked for in the
+punishment--an enemy is a bad witness; a robber worse." Burke
+indignantly declares: "The inquiry into the moral character of the
+religious houses was a mere pretext, a complete delusion, an insidious
+and predetermined foray of wholesale and heartless plunder."
+
+Such are the protests from the defenders of the monasteries even before
+a hearing is granted. "What," say they, "believe such perjurers,
+adulterers and gamblers; men forsworn to bring in a bad report; men who
+were selected because they were worthless characters who could be
+relied on to return false charges against an institution loved by
+the people?"
+
+The commissioners began their work at Oxford, in September, 1535. The
+work was vigorously pushed. On reaching the door of a monastery, they
+demanded admittance; if it was not granted, they entered by breaking
+down the gate with an axe. They then summoned the monks before them, and
+plied them with questions. An inventory was taken of everything; nothing
+escaped their searching eyes. When the king decided to suppress the
+lesser monasteries, and ordered a new visitation of the larger ones,
+they seized and sold all they could lay their hands on; "stained glass,
+ironwork, bells, altar-cloths, candles, books, beads, images, capes,
+brewing-tubs, brass bolts, spits for cooking, kitchen utensils, plates,
+basins, all were turned into money." Many valuable books were destroyed;
+jewels and gold and silver clasps were torn from old volumes, and the
+paper sold as waste; parchment manuscripts were used to scour tubs and
+grease boots. Out of the wreck about a hundred and thirty thousand
+manuscripts have been saved. It must be admitted that the commissioners
+were not delicate in their labors; that they insulted many nuns, robbed
+the monks, violated the laws of decency and humanity, and needlessly
+excited the rage of the people and outraged the religious sentiments of
+the Catholics. They even used sacred altar-cloths for blankets on their
+horses, and rode across the country decorated in priestly and monkish
+garments. There seems to be some ground for the statement that Henry was
+ignorant, or at least not fully informed, of their unwarranted violence
+and gross sacrilege. The abbey of Glastonbury was one of the oldest and
+finest cloisters in England. It was a majestic pile of buildings in the
+midst of gardens and groves covering sixty acres; its aisles were vocal
+with the chanting of monks, who marched in gorgeous processions among
+the tall, gray pillars. The exterior of the buildings was profusely
+decorated with sculpture; monarchs, temple knights, mitered abbots,
+martyrs and apostles stood for centuries in their niches of stone while
+princes came and passed away, while kingdoms rose and fell. The nobles
+and bishops of the realm were laid to rest beneath the altars around
+which many generations of monks had assembled to praise and to pray. The
+royal commissioners one day appeared before the walls. The abbot,
+Richard Whiting, who was then eighty-four years of age, was at
+Sharphorn, another residence of the community. He was brought back and
+questioned. At night when he was in bed, they searched his study for
+letters and books, and they claimed to have found a manuscript of
+Whiting's arguments against the divorce of the king and Queen Catharine;
+it had never been published; they did not know whether the venerable
+abbot had such intent or not. Stephen declares the spies themselves
+brought the book into the library. However, the abbot was chained to a
+cart and taken to London. The abbey had immense wealth; every Wednesday
+and Friday it fed and lodged three hundred boys; it was esteemed very
+highly in the neighborhood and received large donations from the knights
+in the vicinity. The abbot was accused of treason for concealing the
+sacred vessels; he was old, deaf, and sick, but was allowed no counsel.
+He asked permission to take leave of his monks, and many little
+orphans; Russell and Layton only laughed. The people heard of his
+captivity and determined "to deliver or avenge" their favorite, but
+Russell hanged half a dozen of them and declared that "law, order and
+loyalty were vindicated." Whiting's body was quartered, and the pieces
+sent to Wells, Bath, Chester and Bridgewater, while his head, adorned
+with his gray hairs clotted by blood, was hung over the abbey gate.
+
+
+
+_The Report of the Commissioners_
+
+The original report of the commissioners does not exist. Burnet declares
+that he saw an extract from it, concerning one hundred and forty-four
+houses, which contained the most revolting revelations. Many of the
+commissioners' letters and various documents touching the suppression
+have been collected and published by the Camden Society. Waiving, for
+the present, the inquiry into the truth of the report, it was in
+substance as follows:
+
+The commissioners reported about one-third of the houses to be fairly
+well conducted, some of them models of excellent management and pure
+living; but the other two-thirds were charged with looseness beyond
+description. The number of inmates in some cloisters was kept below the
+required number, that there might be more money to divide among the
+monks. The number of servants sometimes exceeded that of the monks.
+Abbots bought and sold land in a fraudulent manner; gifts for
+hospitality were misapplied; licentiousness, gaming and drinking
+prevailed extensively. Crime and absolution for gold went hand in hand.
+One friar was said to have been the proud father of an illegitimate
+family of children, but he had in his possession a forged license from
+the pope, who permitted his wandering, "considering his frailty."
+Froude, in commenting upon the report, says: "If I were to tell the
+truth, I should have first to warn all modest eyes to close the book and
+read no farther."
+
+All sorts of pious frauds were revealed. At Hales the monks claimed to
+have the blood of Christ brought from Jerusalem, and not visible to
+anyone in mortal sin until he had performed good works, or, in other
+words, paid enough for his absolution. Two monks took the blood of a
+duck, which they renewed every week; this they put into a phial, one
+side of which consisted of a thin, transparent crystal; the other thick
+and opaque; the dark side was shown until the sinner's gold was
+exhausted, when, presto! change, the blood appeared by turning the other
+side of the phial. Innumerable toe-parings, bones, pieces of skin, three
+heads of St. Ursula, and other anatomical relics of departed saints,
+were said to cure every disease known to man. They had relics that could
+drive away plagues, give rain, hinder weeds, and in fact, render the
+natural world the plaything of decaying bones and shreds of dried skin.
+The monks of Reading had an angel with one wing, who had preserved the
+spear with which our Lord was pierced. Abbots were found to have
+concubines in or near the monasteries; midnight revels and drunken
+feasts were pleasant pastimes for monks weary with prayers and fasting.
+While it would be unjust to argue that the existence of "pious frauds"
+affords a justification for the suppression of the monasteries, it must
+be remembered that they constituted one element in that condition of
+ecclesiastical life that was becoming repugnant to the English people.
+For several generations there had been a marked growth in the hostility
+toward various forms of superstition. True, neither Henry nor Cromwell
+can be accredited with the lofty intention of exterminating
+superstition, but the attitude of many people toward "pious frauds"
+helped to reconcile them to the destruction of the monasteries.
+
+
+
+_The Action of Parliament_
+
+The report of the commissioners was laid before Parliament in 1536. As
+it declared that the smaller monasteries were more corrupt than the
+larger ones, Parliament ordered the suppression of all those houses
+whose revenues were less than two hundred pounds per annum. By this act,
+three hundred and seventy-six houses were suppressed, whose aggregate
+revenue was thirty-two thousand pounds yearly. Movable property valued
+at about one hundred thousand pounds was also handed over to the "Court
+of Augmentations of the King's Revenue," which was established to take
+care of the estates, revenues and other possessions of the monasteries.
+It is claimed that ten thousand monks and nuns were turned out into the
+world, to find bed and board as best they could. In 1538, two years
+later, the greater monasteries met a similar fate, which was no doubt
+hastened by the rebellions that followed the abolition of the smaller
+houses. Many of the abbots and monks were suspected of aiding in the
+rebellion against the king's authority by inciting the people to take up
+arms against him. Apprehending the coming doom, many abbots resigned;
+others were overcome by threats and yielded without a struggle. In many
+instances such monks received pensions varying from fifty-three
+shillings and four pence to four pounds a year. The investigations were
+constantly carried on, and all the foul stories that could be gathered
+were given to the people, to secure their approval of the king's action.
+With remorseless zeal the king and his commissioners, supported by
+various acts of parliament, persevered in their work of destruction,
+until even the monastic hospitals, chantries, free chapels and
+collegiate churches, fell into the king's hands. By the year 1545, the
+ruin was complete. The monastic institution of England was no more. The
+total number of monasteries suppressed is variously estimated, but the
+following figures are approximately correct: monasteries, 616; colleges,
+90; free chapels, 2,374; and hospitals, 110. The annual income was about
+one hundred and fifty thousand pounds, which was a smaller sum than was
+then believed to be in the control of the monks. Nearly fifty thousand
+persons were driven from the houses, to foment the discontent and to
+arouse the pity of the people. Such, in brief, was the extent of the
+suppression, but a little reflection will show that these statements of
+cold facts convey no conception of the confusion and sorrow that must
+have accompanied this terrific and wholesale assault upon an institution
+that had been accumulating its possessions for eight hundred years. At
+this distance from those tragic events, it is impossible to realize the
+dismay of those who stood aghast at this ruthless destruction of such
+venerable establishments.
+
+
+
+_The Effect of the Suppression Upon the People_
+
+For months the country had seen what was coming; letters from abbots and
+priors poured in upon the king and parliament, begging them to spare the
+ancient strongholds of religion. The churchmen argued: "If he plunders
+the monasteries, will not his next step be to plunder the churches?"
+They recalled what Sir Thomas More had said of their sovereign: "It is
+true, his majesty is very gracious with me, but if only my head would
+give him another castle in France, it would not be long before it
+disappeared." Sympathy for the monks, an inborn conservatism, a natural
+love for ancient institutions, a religious dread of trampling upon that
+which was held sacred by the church, a secret antipathy to reform, all
+these and other forces were against the suppression. But the report of
+the visitors was appalling, and the fear of the king's displeasure was
+widespread; so the bill was passed amid mingled feelings of joy,
+sympathy, hatred, fear, anxiety and uncertainty. The bishops were
+sullen; Latimer was disappointed, for he wanted the church to have
+the proceeds.
+
+Outside of Parliament there was much discontent among the nobles and
+gentry of Roman tendencies. Even the indifferent felt bitter against the
+king, because it seemed unjust that the monks, who had been sheltered,
+honored and enriched by the people, should be so rudely and so suddenly
+turned out of their possessions. A dangerously large portion of the
+people felt themselves insulted and outraged. At first, however, there
+were few who dared to voice their protests. "As the royal policy
+disclosed itself," says Green, "as the monarchy trampled under foot the
+tradition and reverence of ages gone by, as its figure rose, bare and
+terrible, out of the wreck of old institutions, England simply held her
+breath. It is only through the stray depositions of royal spies that we
+catch a glimpse of the wrath and hate which lay seething under the
+silence of the people." That silence was a silence of terror. To use the
+figure by which Erasmus describes the time, men felt "as if a scorpion
+lay sleeping under every stone." They stopped writing, gossiping, going
+to confession, and sending presents for the most thoughtless word or
+deed might be tortured into treason against the king by the command
+of Cromwell.
+
+The rebellion which followed the first attack upon the monasteries was
+not caused wholly by religious sentiments. The nobles regarded Cromwell
+as a base-born usurper and yearned for his fall, while the clergy felt
+outraged by his monstrous claims of authority in ecclesiastical affairs.
+In a sense the conflict that ensued was but a continuation of the
+long-standing struggle between the king, the barons, and the clergy for
+the supreme power. From the reign of Edward I., the people had commenced
+to assert their rights and the struggle had become a four-sided one.
+
+These four factions were constantly shifting their allegiance, according
+to the varying conditions, and guided by their changing interests. At
+this time, the clergy, the nobles and the people in northern England,
+particularly, combined against the king, although the alliance was not
+formidable enough to overcome the forces supporting the king.
+
+The secular clergy felt that they were disgraced and coerced into
+submission. They felt their revenues, their honors, their powers, their
+glory, slipping away from them; they joined their mutterings and
+discontent with that of the monks, and then the fires of the rebellion
+blazed forth in the north, where the monasteries were more popular than
+in any other part of England.
+
+The first outbreak occurred in Lincolnshire, in the autumn of 1536. It
+was easily and quickly suppressed. But another uprising in Yorkshire, in
+northern England, followed immediately, and for a time threatened
+serious consequences. Some of the best families in that part of the
+country joined the revolt, although it is noteworthy that these same
+families were afterwards Protestant and Puritan; the rebel army numbered
+about forty thousand men, well equipped for service. Many prominent
+abbots and sixteen hundred monks were in the ranks. The masses were
+bound by oath "to stand together for the love which they bore to
+Almighty God, His faith, the Holy Church, and the maintenance thereof;
+to the preservation of the king's person and his issue; to the purifying
+of the nobility, and to expel all villein blood and evil counsellors
+from the king's presence; not from any private profit, nor to do his
+pleasure to any private person, nor to slay or murder through envy, but
+for the restitution of the Church, and the suppression of heretics and
+their opinions." It is clear, from the language of the oath, that the
+rebels aimed their blows at Cromwell. The secular clergy hated him
+because he had shorn them of their power; the monks hated him because he
+had turned them out of their cloisters, and clergy and people loathed
+him as a maintainer of heresy, a low-born foe of the Church. The
+insurgents carried banners on which was printed a crucifix, a chalice
+and host, and the five wounds, hence they called themselves "Pilgrims of
+Grace." The revolt was headed by Robert Aske, a barrister.
+
+Cromwell acted most cautiously; he selected the strongest men to take
+the field. Richard Cromwell said of one of them, Sir John Russell, "for
+my lord admiral, he is so earnest in the matter that I dare say he could
+eat the Pilgrims without salt." The Duke of Norfolk was entrusted with
+the command of the king's forces.
+
+Henry preferred negotiation to battle, in accepting which the rebels
+were doomed. To wait was to fail. Their demands reduced to paper were:
+1. The religious houses should be restored. 2. England should be
+reunited with Rome. 3. The first fruits and tenths should not be paid to
+the crown. 4. Heretics, meaning Cranmer, Latimer and others, should
+cease to be bishops. 5. Catharine's daughter Mary should be restored as
+heiress to the crown. These and other demands, the granting of which
+would have meant the death of the Reformation, were firmly refused by
+the king, who marveled that ignorant churls, "brutes and inexpert folk"
+should talk of theological and political subjects to him and to
+his council.
+
+After several ineffectual attempts to meet the royal army in battle,
+partly due to storms and lack of subsistence, the rebels were induced to
+disperse and a general amnesty was declared. But new insurrections broke
+out in various quarters, and the enraged king determined to stamp out
+the smoldering fires of sedition. About seventy-five persons were
+hanged, and many prominent men were imprisoned and afterwards executed.
+This effectually suppressed the rebellion.
+
+The revolt showed the strength of the opponents to the king's will, but
+it also proved conclusively that the monarchy was the strongest power in
+the realm; that the star of ecclesiastical domination had set forever in
+England; that henceforth English kings and not Italian popes were to
+govern the English people. True, the king was carrying things with a
+high hand, but one reform at a time; the yoke of papal power must first
+be lifted, even if at the same time the king becomes despotic in the
+exercise of his increased power. Once free from Rome, constitutional
+rights may be asserted and the power of an absolute monarchy judiciously
+restricted.
+
+Following the Pilgrimage of Grace came the complete overthrow of the
+monastic system by the dissolution of the larger monasteries.
+
+
+
+_Henry's Disposal of Monastic Revenues_
+
+What use did Henry make of the revenues that fell into his hands? As
+soon as the vast estates of the monks were under the king's control, he
+was besieged by nobles, "praying for an estate." They kneeled before
+him and specified what lands they wanted. They bribed Cromwell, who sold
+many of the estates at the rate of a twenty years' purchase, and in some
+instances presented valuable possessions to the king's followers. Many
+families, powerful in England at the present time, date the beginning of
+their wealth and position to the day when their ancestors received their
+share of the king's plunder.
+
+The following interesting passage from Sir Edward Coke's Institutes,
+shows that Henry sought to quiet the fears of the people by making the
+most captivating promises concerning the decrease of taxes, and other
+magnificent schemes for the general welfare: "On the king's behalf, the
+members of both houses were informed in Parliament that no king or
+kingdom was safe but where the king had three abilities: 1. To live of
+his own and able to defend his kingdom upon any sudden invasion or
+insurrection. 2. To aid his confederates, otherwise they would never
+assist him. 3. To reward his well-deserving servants. Now the project
+was, that if Parliament would give unto him all the abbeys, priories,
+friaries, nunneries, and other monasteries, that forever in time then
+to come he would take order that the same should not be converted to
+private uses, but first, that his exchequer, for the purpose aforesaid,
+should be enriched; secondly, the kingdom should be strengthened by a
+continual maintenance of forty thousand well-trained soldiers; thirdly,
+for the benefit and ease of the subject, who never afterwards (as was
+projected), in any time to come, should be charged with subsidies,
+fifteenths, loans or other common aids; fourthly, lest the honor of the
+realm should receive any diminution of honor by the dissolution of the
+said monasteries, there being twenty-nine lords of Parliament of the
+abbots and priors, ... that the king would create a number of nobles."
+
+The king was granted the revenues of the monasteries. About half the
+money was expended in coast defences and a new navy; and much of it was
+lavished upon his courtiers. With the exception of small pensions to the
+monks and the establishment of a few benefices, very little of the
+splendid revenue was ever devoted to religious or educational purposes.
+Small sums were set apart for Cambridge, Oxford and new grammar schools.
+Not-withstanding the pensions, there was much suffering; it is said
+many of the outcast monks and nuns starved and froze to death by the
+roadside. Latimer and others wanted the king to employ the revenues for
+religious purposes, but Henry evidently thought the church had enough
+and refused. He did, however, intend to allot eighteen thousand pounds a
+year for eighteen new bishoprics, but once the gold was in his
+possession, his pious intentions suffered a decline, and he established
+only six, with inferior endowments, five of which exist to-day.
+
+
+
+_Was the Suppression Justifiable?_
+
+It is quite common to restrict this inquiry to a consideration of the
+report made by the commissioners against the monks, and to the methods
+employed by them in their investigations. The implication is that if the
+accusations against the monasteries can be discredited, or if it can be
+shown that the motives of the destroyers were selfish and their methods
+cruel, then it follows that the overthrow of the monasteries was a most
+iniquitous and unwarrantable proceeding. Reflection will show that the
+question cannot be so restricted. It may be found that the monastic
+institution should have been destroyed, even though the charges against
+the monks were grossly exaggerated, the motives of the king unworthy,
+and the means he employed despicable.
+
+At the outset a few facts deserve mention. It is usual for Protestants
+to recall with pride the glorious heroism of Protestant martyrs, but it
+should be remembered that Roman Catholicism also has had its martyrs.
+Protestant powers have not been free from tyranny and bloodshed. That
+noble spirit of self-sacrifice which has glorified many a character in
+history is not to be despised in one who dies for what we may pronounce
+to be false.
+
+It must also be granted that the action of the king was not dictated by
+a pure passion for religious reform. Indeed it is a fair question
+whether Henry may be claimed by the Protestants at all. Aside from his
+rejection of the pope's authority, he was thoroughly Catholic in
+conviction and in practice. His impatience with the pope's position
+respecting his divorce, his need of money, his love of power, and many
+other personal considerations determined his attitude toward
+the papacy.
+
+It should also be freely conceded that the royal commissioners were far
+from exemplary characters, and that they were often insolent and cruel
+in the prosecution of their work.
+
+"Our posterity," says John Bale, "may well curse this wicked fact of our
+age; this unreasonable spoil of England's most noble antiquities." "On
+the whole," says Blunt, "it may be said that we must ever look back on
+that destruction as a series of transactions in which the sorrow, the
+waste, the impiety that were wrought, were enough to make the angels
+weep. It may be true that the monastic system had worn itself out for
+practical good; or at least, that it was unfitted for those coming ages
+which were to be so different from the ages that were past. But
+slaughter, desecration and wanton destruction, were no remedies for its
+sins, or its failings; nor was covetous rapacity the spirit of
+reformation."
+
+Hume observes that "during times of faction, especially of a religious
+kind, no equity is to be expected from adversaries; and as it was known
+that the king's intention in this visitation was to find a pretext for
+abolishing the monasteries, we may naturally conclude that the reports
+of the commissioners are very little to be relied upon." Hallam declares
+that "it is impossible to feel too much indignation at the spirit in
+which the proceedings were conducted."
+
+But these and other just and honorable concessions in the interests of
+truth, which are to be found on the pages of eminent Protestant
+historians, are made to prove too much. It must be said that writers
+favorable to monasticism take an unfair advantage of these admissions,
+which simply testify to a spirit of candor and a love of truth, but do
+not contain the final conclusions of these historians. Employing these
+witnesses to confirm their opinions, the defenders of monasticism
+proceed with fervid, glowing rhetoric, breathing devotion and love on
+every page, to paint the sorrows and ruin of the Carthusian Fathers, and
+the abbots of Glastonbury and Reading. They ask, "Is this your boasted
+freedom, to slay these men in cold blood, not for immorality, but
+because they honestly did not acknowledge what no Protestant of to-day
+admits, viz.: that King Henry was the Supreme Head of the Church?"
+Having pointed out the exaggerations in the charges against the monks
+and having made us weep for the aged fathers of the Charterhouse, they
+skillfully lead the unwary to the conclusion that the suppression should
+never have taken place. This conclusion is illogical. The case is
+still open.
+
+Furthermore, if one cared to indulge in historical reminiscences, he
+might justly express astonishment that Rome should object to an
+investigation conducted by men whose minds were already made up, or that
+she should complain because force was employed to carry out a needed
+reform. Did the commissioners take a few altar-cloths and decorate their
+horses? Did Rome never adorn men in garments of shame and parade them
+through streets to be mocked by the populace, and finally burned at the
+stake? Were the altar-cloths dear to Catholic hearts? Were not the
+Bibles burned in France, in Germany, in Spain, in Holland, in England,
+dear to the hearts of the reformers? But however justifiable such a line
+of argument may be, there is little to be gained by charging the sins of
+the past against the men of to-day. Nevertheless, if these facts and
+many like them were remembered, less would be said about the cruelties
+that accompanied the suppression of the monasteries.
+
+Were the charges against the monks true? It seems impossible to doubt
+that in the main they were, although it should be admitted that many
+monasteries were beyond reproach. Eliminating gross exaggerations, lies
+and calumnies, there still remains a body of evidence that compels the
+verdict of guilt. The legislation of the church councils, the decrees of
+popes, the records of the courts, the reports of investigating
+committees appointed by various popes, the testimony of the orders
+against each other, the chronicles, letters and other extant literature,
+abound in such detailed, specific charges of monastic corruption that it
+is simply preposterous to reject the testimony. All the efforts at
+reformation, and they were many, had failed. Many bishops confessed
+their inability to cope with the growing disorders. It is beyond
+question that lay robbers were encouraged to perpetrate acts of
+sacrilege because the monks were frequently guilty of forgery and
+violence. Commenting upon the impression which monkish lawlessness must
+have made upon the minds of such men as Wyclif, Pike says: "They saw
+with their own eyes those wild and lawless scenes, the faint reflection
+of which in contemporaneous documents may excite the wonder of modern
+lawyers and modern moralists." The legislation of church and state for a
+century before Henry VIII. shows that the monks were guilty of brawling,
+frequenting taverns, indulging in licentious pleasures and upholding
+unlawful games.
+
+Bonaventura, the General of the Franciscan Order in its earliest days,
+and its palmiest, for the first years of a monastic order were always
+its best years--this mendicant, their pride and their glory, tells us
+that within fifty years of the death of its founder there were many
+mendicants roaming around in disorderly fashion, brazen and shameless
+beggars of scandalous fame. This unenviable record was kept up down to
+the days of Wyclif, who charged the begging friars with representing
+themselves as holy and needy, while they were robust of body, rich in
+possessions, and dwelt in splendid houses, where they gave sumptuous
+banquets. What shall one say of the hysterical ravings against Henry of
+the "Holy Maid of Kent," whose fits and predictions were palmed off by
+five ecclesiastics, high in authority, as supernatural manifestations?
+What must have been the state of monasteries in which such meretricious
+schemes were hatched, to deceive silly people, thwart the king and stop
+the movements for reform?
+
+Moreover, the various attempts to reform or to suppress the monasteries
+prior to Henry's time show he was simply carrying out what, in a small
+way, had been attempted before. King John, Edward I. and Edward III.,
+had confiscated "alien priories." Richard II. and Henry IV. had made
+similar raids. In 1410, the House of Commons proposed the confiscation
+of all the temporalities held by bishops, abbots and priors, that the
+money might be used for a standing army, and to increase the income of
+the nobles and secular clergy. It was not done, but the attempt shows
+the trend of public opinion on the question of abolishing the
+monasteries. In 1416, Parliament dissolved the alien priories and vested
+their estates in the crown. There is extant a letter of Cardinal Morton,
+Legate of the Apostolic See, and Archbishop of Canterbury, to the abbot
+of St. Albans, one of the mightiest abbeys in all England. It was
+written as the result of an investigation started by Innocent VIII., in
+1489. In this communication the abbot and his monks were charged with
+the grossest licentiousness, waste and thieving. Lina Eckenstein, in her
+interesting work on "Woman Under Monasticism," says: "It were idle to
+deny that the state of discipline in many houses was bad, but the
+circumstances under which Morton's letter was penned argue that the
+charges made in it should be accepted with some reservation." In 1523,
+Cardinal Wolsey obtained bulls from the pope authorizing the suppression
+of forty small monasteries, and the application of their revenues to
+educational institutions, on the ground that the houses were homes
+neither of religion nor of learning.
+
+What Henry did, every country in Europe has felt called upon to do in
+one way or another. Germany, Italy, Spain, France have all suppressed
+monasteries, and despite the suffering which attended the dissolution in
+England, the step was taken with less loss of life and less injury to
+the industrial welfare of the people than anywhere else in Europe[J].
+
+[Footnote J: Appendix, Note J.]
+
+Hooper, who was made a bishop in the reign of Edward VI., expressed the
+Protestant view of Henry's reforms in a letter written about the year
+1546. "Our king," he says, "has destroyed the pope, but not popery....
+The impious mass, the most shameful celibacy of the clergy, the
+invocation of saints, auricular confession, superstitious abstinence
+from meats, and purgatory, were never before held by the people in
+greater esteem than at the present moment." In other words, the
+independence of the Church of England was secured by those who, if they
+were not Roman Catholics, were certainly closer in faith to Rome than
+they were to Protestantism. The Protestant doctrines did not become the
+doctrines of the Church of England until the reign of Edward VI., and it
+was many years after that before the separation from Rome was complete
+in doctrine as well as respects the authority of the pope.
+
+These facts indicate that there must have been other causes for the
+success of the English Reformation than the greed or ambition of the
+monarch. Those causes are easily discovered. One of them was the
+hostility of the people to the alien priories. The origin of the alien
+priories dates back to the Norman conquest. The Normans shared the
+spoils of their victory with their continental friends. English
+monasteries and churches were given to foreigners, who collected the
+rents and other kinds of income. These foreign prelates had no other
+interest in England than to derive all the profit they could from their
+possessions. They appointed whom they pleased to live in their houses,
+and the monks, being far away from their superiors, became a source of
+constant annoyance to the English people. The struggle against these
+alien priories had been carried on for many years, and so many of them
+had been abolished that the people became accustomed to the seizure of
+monasteries.
+
+Large sums of money were annually paid to the pope, and the English
+people were loudly complaining of the constant drain on their resources.
+It was a common saying in the reign of Henry III., that "England is the
+pope's farm." The "Good Parliament," in 1376, affirmed "that the taxes
+paid to the church of Rome amounted to five times as much as those
+levied for the king; ... that the brokers of the sinful city of Rome
+promoted for money unlearned and unworthy caitiffs to benefices of the
+value of a thousand marks, while the poor and learned hardly obtain one
+of twenty." Various laws, heartily supported by the clergy as well as by
+the civil authorities, were enacted from time to time, aimed at the
+abuses of papal power. So steadfast and strong was the opposition to the
+interference of foreigners in English affairs, it would be possible to
+show that there was an evolution in the struggle against Rome that was
+certain to culminate in the separation, whether Henry had accomplished
+it or not. What might have occurred if the monks had reformed and the
+pope withdrawn his claims it is impossible to know. The fact is that the
+monks grew worse instead of better, and the arrogance of foreigners
+became more unendurable. "The corruption of the church establishment, in
+fact," says Lea, "had reached a point which the dawning enlightenment of
+the age could not much longer endure.... Intoxicated with centuries of
+domination, the muttered thunders of growing popular discontent were
+unheeded, and its claims to spiritual and temporal authority were
+asserted with increasing vehemence, while its corruptions were daily
+displayed before the people with more careless cynicism." In view of
+this condition of affairs, the existence of which even the adherents of
+modern Rome must acknowledge, one cannot but wonder that the ruin of the
+monasteries should be attributed to Henry's desire "to overthrow the
+rights of women, to degrade matrimony and to practice concubinage." Such
+an explanation is too superficial; it ignores a multitude of
+historical facts.
+
+The monasteries had to fall if England was to be saved from the horrors
+of civil war, if the hand of the pope was to remain uplifted from her,
+if the insecure gains of the Reformation were to become established and
+glorious achievements; if, in fact, all those benefits accompanying
+human progress were to become the heritage of succeeding ages.
+
+Whatever benefits the monks had conferred upon mankind, and these were
+neither few nor slight, they had become fetters on the advancement of
+freedom, education and true religion. They were the standing army of the
+pope, occupying the last and strongest citadel. They were the unyielding
+advocates of an ideal that was passing away. It was sad to see the
+Carthusian house fall, but in spite of the high character of its
+inmates, it was a part of an institution that stood for the right of
+foreigners to rule England. It was unfortunate they had thrown
+themselves down before the car of progress but there they were; they
+would not get up; the car must roll on, for so God himself had decreed,
+and hence they were crushed in its advance. Their martyrdom was truly a
+poor return for their virtues, but there never has been a moral or
+political revolution that has furthered the general well-being of
+humanity, in which just and good men have not suffered. It would be
+delightful if freedom and progress could be secured, and effete
+institutions destroyed or reformed, without the accompaniment of
+disaster and death, but it is not so.
+
+The monks stood for opposition to reform, and therefore came into direct
+conflict with the king, who was blindly groping his way toward the
+future, and who was, in fact, the unconscious agent of many reform
+forces that concentrated in him. He did not comprehend the significance
+of his proceedings. He did not take up the cause of the English people
+with the pure and intelligent motive of encouraging free thought and
+free religion. He did not realize that he was leading the mighty army of
+Protestant reformers. He little dreamed that the people whose cause he
+championed would in turn assert their rights and make it impossible for
+an English sovereign to enjoy the absolute authority which he wielded.
+Truly "there is a power, not ourselves," making for freedom, progress
+and truth.
+
+Thus a number of causes brought on the ruin of the monasteries. Henry's
+need of money; the refusal of the monks to sign the acts of supremacy
+and succession; the general drift of reform, and the iniquity of the
+monks. They fell from natural causes and through the operation of laws
+which God alone controls. As Hill neatly puts it, "Monasticism was
+healthy, active and vigorous; it became idle, listless and extravagant;
+it engendered its own corruption, and out of that corruption
+came death."
+
+Richard Bagot, a Catholic, in a recent article on the question, "Will
+England become Catholic?" which was published in the "Nuova Antologia,"
+says: "Though it is impossible not to blame the so-called Reformers for
+the acts of sacrilege and barbarism through which they obtained the
+religious and political liberty so necessary to the intellectual and
+social progress of the race, it cannot be denied that no sooner had the
+power of the papacy come to an end in England than the English nation
+entered upon that free development which has at last brought it to its
+present position among the other nations of the world." Mr. Bagot also
+admits that "the political intrigues and insatiable ambition of the
+papacy during the succeeding centuries constituted a perpetual menace
+to England."
+
+The true view, therefore, is that two types of religious and political
+life, two epochs of human history, met in Henry's reign. The king and
+the pope were the exponents of conflicting ideals. The fall of the
+monasteries was an incident in the struggle. "The Catholics," says
+Froude, "had chosen the alternative, either to crush the free thought
+which was bursting from the soil, or to be crushed by it; and the future
+of the world could not be sacrificed to preserve the exotic graces of
+medieval saints."
+
+The problem is reduced to this, Was the Reformation desirable? Is
+Protestantism a curse or a blessing? Would England and the world be
+better off under the sway of medieval religion than under the influence
+of modern Protestantism? If monasticism were a fetter on human liberty
+and industry, if the monasteries were "so many seminaries of
+superstition and of folly," there was but one thing to do--to break the
+fetters and to destroy the monasteries. To have succeeded in so radical
+a reform as that begun by King Henry, with forty thousand monks
+preaching treason, would have been an impossibility. Henry cannot be
+blamed because the monks chose to entangle themselves with politics and
+to side with Rome as against the English nation.
+
+
+
+_Results of the Dissolution_
+
+Many important results followed the fall of the monasteries. The
+majority of the House of Lords was now transferred from the abbots to
+the lay peers. The secular clergy, who had been fighting the monks for
+centuries, were at last accorded their proper standing in the church.
+Numerous unjust ecclesiastical privileges were swept aside, and in many
+respects the whole church was strengthened and purified. Credulity and
+superstition began to decline. Ecclesiastical criminals were no longer
+able to escape the just penalty for their crimes. Naturally all these
+beneficent ends were not attained immediately. For a while there was
+great disorder and distress. Society was disturbed not only by the
+stoppage of monastic alms-giving, but the wandering monks, unaccustomed
+to toil and without a trade, increased the confusion.
+
+In this connection it is well to point out that some writers make very
+much of the poverty relieved by the monks, and claim that the nobles,
+into whose hands the monastic lands fell, did almost nothing to mitigate
+the distresses of the unfortunate. But they ignore the fact that a blind
+and undiscriminating charity was the cause, and not the cure, of much of
+the miserable wretchedness of the poor. Modern society has learned that
+the monastic method is wholly wrong; that fraud and laziness are
+fostered by a wholesale distribution of doles. The true way to help the
+poor is to enable the poor to assist themselves; to teach them trades
+and give them work. The sociological methods of to-day are thoroughly
+anti-monastic.
+
+On the other hand, the infidel Zosimus, quoted by Gibbon, was not far
+wrong when he said "the monks robbed an empire to help a few beggars."
+The fact that the religious houses did distribute alms and entertain
+strangers is not disputed; indeed it is pleasant to reflect upon this
+noble charity of the monks; it is a bright spot in their history. But it
+is in no sense true that they deserve all the credit for relieving
+distress. They received the money for alms in the shape of rents, gifts
+and other kinds of income. Hallam says, "There can be no doubt that many
+of the impotent poor derived support from their charity. But the blind
+eleemosynary spirit inculcated by the Romish church is notoriously the
+cause, not the cure, of beggary and wickedness. The monastic
+foundations, scattered in different countries, could never answer the
+ends of local and limited succor. Their gates might, indeed, be open to
+those who knocked at them for alms.... Nothing could have a stronger
+tendency to promote that vagabond mendicity which severe statutes were
+enacted to repress."
+
+It seems almost ungracious to quote such an observation, because it may
+be distorted into a criticism of charity itself, or made to serve the
+purposes of certain anti-Romanists who cannot even spare those noble
+women who minister to the sick in the home or hospital from their
+bigoted criticisms. Small indeed must be the soul of that man who
+permits his religious opinions to blind his eyes to the inestimable
+services of those heroic and self-sacrificing women. But even Roman
+Catholic students of social problems must recognize the folly of
+indiscriminate alms-giving. "In proportion as justice between man and
+man has declined, that form of charity which consists in giving money
+has been more quickened." The promotion of industry, the repression of
+injustice, the encouragement of self-reliance and thrift, are needed far
+more than the temporary relief of those who suffer from oppression or
+from their own wrong-doing.
+
+Some of those who deplore the fall of the monasteries make much of the
+fact that the modern world is menaced by materialism. "With very rare
+exceptions," cries Maitre, a French Catholic, "the most undisguised
+materialism has everywhere replaced the lessons and recollections of the
+spiritual life. The shrill voice of machinery, the grinding of the saw
+or the monotonous clank of the piston, is heard now, where once were
+heard chants and prayers and confessions. Once the monk freely undid
+the door to let the stranger in, and now we see a sign, 'no admittance,'
+lest a greedy rival purloin the tricks of trade." Montalembert,
+referring to the ruin of the cloisters in France, grieves thus:
+"Sometimes the spinning-wheel is installed under the ancient sanctuary.
+Instead of echoing night and day the praises of God, these dishonored
+arches too often repeat only the blasphemies of obscene cries." The
+element of truth in these laments gives them their sting, but one should
+beware of the fervid rhetoric of the worshipers of medievalism. This
+century is nobler, purer, truer, manlier, and more humane than any of
+the centuries that saw the greatest triumphs of the monks. They, too,
+had their blasphemies, often under the cloak of piety; they, too, had
+their obscene cries. Their superstitions and frauds concealed beneath
+those "dishonored arches" were infinitely worse than the noise of
+machinery weaving garments for the poor, or producing household comforts
+to increase the happiness of the humblest man.
+
+There is much that is out of joint, much to justify doleful prophecies,
+in the social and religious conditions of the present age, but the
+signs of the times are not all ominous. At all events, nothing would be
+gained by a return to the monkish ideals of the past. The hope of the
+world lies in the further development and completer realization of those
+great principles of human freedom that distinguish this century from the
+past. The history of monasticism clearly shows that the monasteries
+could not minister to that development of liberty, truth and justice,
+which constitute the indispensable condition of human happiness and
+human progress. Unable to adjust themselves to the new age, unwilling to
+welcome the new light, rejecting the doctrine of individual freedom, the
+monks were forced to retire from the field.
+
+So fell in England that institution which, for twelve centuries, had
+exercised marvelous dominion over the spiritual and temporal interests
+of the continent, and for eight hundred years had suffered or thrived on
+English soil. "The day came, and that a drear winter day, when its last
+mass was sung, its last censer waved, its last congregation bent in rapt
+and lovely adoration before the altar." Its majestic and solemn ruins
+proclaim its departed grandeur. Its deeds of mercy, its conflicts with
+kings and bishops, its prayers and chants and penances, its virtues and
+its vices, its trials and its victories, its wealth and its poverty, all
+are gone. Silence and death keep united watch over cloister and tomb. We
+should be ungrateful if we forgot its blessings; we should be untrue if,
+ignoring its evils, we sought to bring back to life that which God has
+laid in the sepulcher of the dead.
+
+     "Where pleasant was the spot for men to dwell,
+     Amid its fair broad lands the abbey lay,
+     Sheltering dark orgies that were shame to tell,
+     And cowled and barefoot beggars swarmed the way,
+     All in their convent weeds of black, and white, and gray.
+
+     From many a proud monastic pile, o'erthrown,
+     Fear-struck, the brooded inmates rushed and fled;
+     The web, that for a thousand years had grown
+     O'er prostrate Europe, in that day of dread
+     Crumbled and fell, as fire dissolves the flaxen thread."
+
+     --_Bryant_.
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+_CAUSES AND IDEALS OF MONASTICISM_
+
+All forms of religious character and conduct are grounded in certain
+cravings of the soul, which, in seeking satisfaction, are influenced by
+theoretical opinions. The longings of the human heart constitute the
+impulse, or the energy, of religion. The intellectual convictions act as
+guiding forces. As a religious type, therefore, the monk was produced by
+the action of certain desires, influenced by specific opinions
+respecting God, the soul, the body, the world and their relations.
+
+The existence of monasticism in non-Christian religions implies that
+whatever impetus the ascetic impulses in human nature received from
+Christian teaching, there is some broader basis for monastic life than
+the tenets of any creed. Biblical history and Christian theology furnish
+some explanation of the rise of Christian monasticism, but they do not
+account for the monks of ancient India. The teachings of Jesus exerted a
+profound influence upon the Christian monks, but they cannot explain the
+Oriental asceticism that flourished before the Christ of the New
+Testament was born. There must have been some motive, or motives,
+operating on human nature as such, a knowledge of which will help to
+account for the monks of Indian antiquity as well as the begging friars
+of modern times. It will therefore be in order to begin the present
+inquiry by seeking those causes which gave rise to monasticism
+in general.
+
+
+
+_Causative Motives of Monasticism_
+
+Whatever the origin of religion itself, it is certain that it is man's
+inalienable concern. He is, as Sabatier says, "incurably religious." Of
+all the motives ministering to this ruling passion, the longing for
+righteousness and for the favor of God is supreme. The savage only
+partially grasps the significance of his spiritual aspirations, and
+dimly understands the nature of the God he adores or fears. His worship
+may be confined to frantic efforts to ward off the vengeful assaults of
+an angry deity, but however gross his religious conceptions, there is at
+the heart of his religion a desire to live in peaceful relations with
+the Supreme Being.
+
+As religion advances, the ethical character of God and the nature of
+true righteousness are more clearly apprehended. But the idea that moral
+purity and fellowship with God are in some way associated with
+self-denial has always been held by the religious world. But what does
+such a conception involve? What must one do to deny self? The answer to
+that question will vastly influence the form of religious conduct. Thus
+while all religious men may unite in a craving for holiness by a
+participation in the Divine nature, they will differ widely in their
+opinions as to the nature of this desirable righteousness and as to the
+means by which it may be attained. Roman Catholicism, by the voice of
+the monk, whom it regards as the highest type of Christian living, gives
+one answer to these questions; Protestantism, protesting against
+asceticism, gives a different reply.
+
+The desire for salvation was, therefore, the primary cause of all
+monasticism. Many quotations might be given from the sacred writings of
+India, establishing beyond dispute, that underlying the confusing
+variety of philosophical ideas and ascetic practices of the
+non-Christian monks, was a consuming desire for the redemption of the
+soul from sin. Buddha said on seeing a mendicant, "The life of a devotee
+has always been praised by the wise. It will be my refuge and the refuge
+of other creatures, it will lead us to a real life, to happiness and
+immortality."
+
+Dharmapala, in expounding the teachings of the Buddha, at the World's
+Parliament of Religions, in Chicago, clearly showed that the aim of the
+Buddhist is "the entire obliteration of all that is evil," and "the
+complete purification of the mind." That this is the purpose of the
+asceticism of India is seen by the following quotation from Dharmapala's
+address: "The advanced student of the religion of Buddha when he has
+faith in him thinks: 'Full of hindrances is household life, a path
+defiled by passions; free as the air is the life of him who has
+renounced all worldly things. How difficult is it for the man who dwells
+at home to live the higher life in all its fullness, in all its purity,
+in all its perfection! Let me then cut off my hair and beard, let me
+clothe myself in orange-colored robes and let me go forth from a
+household life into the homeless state!'"
+
+In the same parliament, Mozoomdar, the brilliant and attractive
+representative of the Brahmo Somaj, in describing "Asia's Service to
+Religion," thus stated the motives and spirit of Oriental asceticism:
+"What lesson do the hermitages, the monasteries, the cave temples, the
+discipline and austerities of the religious East teach the world?
+Renunciation. The Asiatic apostle will ever remain an ascetic, a
+celibate, a homeless Akinchana, a Fakeer. We Orientals are all the
+descendants of John the Baptist. Any one who has taken pains at
+spiritual culture must admit that the great enemy to a devout
+concentration of mind is the force of bodily and worldly desire.
+Communion with God is impossible, so long as the flesh and its lusts are
+not subdued.... It is not mere temperance, but positive asceticism; not
+mere self-restraint, but self-mortification; not mere self-sacrifice,
+but self-extinction; not mere morality, but absolute holiness." And
+further on in his address, Mozoomdar claimed that this asceticism is
+practically the essential principle in Christianity and the meaning of
+the cross of Christ: "This great law of self-effacement, poverty,
+suffering, death, is symbolized in the mystic cross so dear to you and
+dear to me. Christians, will you ever repudiate Calvary? Oneness of will
+and character is the sublimest and most difficult unity with God." The
+chief value of these quotations from Mozoomdar lies in the fact that
+they show forth the underlying motive of all asceticism. It would be
+unjust to the distinguished scholar to imply that he defends those
+extreme forms of monasticism which have appeared in India or in
+Christian countries. On the contrary, while he maintains, in his
+charming work, "The Oriental Christ," that "the height of self-denial
+may fitly be called asceticism," he is at the same time fully alive to
+its dangerous exaggerations. "Pride," he says, "creeps into the holiest
+and humblest exercises of self-discipline. It is the supremest natures
+only that escape. The practice of asceticism therefore is always
+attended with great danger." The language of Mozoomdar, however, like
+that of many Christian monastic writers, opens the door to many grave
+excesses. It is another evidence of the necessity for defining what one
+means by "self-mortification" and "self-extinction."
+
+Turning now to Christian monasticism, it will be found that, as in the
+case of Oriental monasticism the yearning for victory over self was
+uppermost in the minds of the best Christian monks. A few words from a
+letter written by Jerome to Rusticus, a young monk, illustrates the
+truth of this observation: "Let your garments be squalid," he says, "to
+show that your mind is white, and your tunic coarse, to show that you
+despise the world. But give not way to pride, lest your dress and your
+language be found at variance. Baths stimulate the senses, and are
+therefore to be avoided."
+
+To keep the mind white, to despise the world, to overcome pride, to stop
+the craving of the senses for gratification,--these were the objects of
+the monks, in order to accomplish which they macerated and starved their
+bodies, avoided baths, wore rags, affected humble language and fled from
+the scenes of pleasure. The goal was highly commendable, even if the
+means employed were inadequate to produce the desired results.
+
+All down through the Middle Ages, the idea continued to prevail that the
+monastic life was the highest and purest expression of the Christian
+religion, and that the monks' chances of heaven were much better than
+those of any other class of men. The laity believed them to be a little
+nearer God than even the clergy, and so they paid them gold for their
+prayers. It will readily be understood that in degenerate times, so
+profitable a doctrine would be earnestly encouraged by the monks. The
+knight, whose conscience revolted against his conduct but who could not
+bring himself to a complete renunciation of the world, believed that
+heaven would condone his faults or crimes if in some way he could make
+friends with the dwellers in the cloister. To this end, he founded
+abbeys and sustained monasteries by liberal gifts of gold and land. Such
+a donation was made in the following language: "I, Gervais, who belong
+to the chivalry of the age, caring for the salvation of my soul, and
+considering that I shall never reach God by my own prayers and fastings,
+have resolved to recommend myself in some other way to those who, night
+and day, serve God by these practices, so that, thanks to their
+intercession, I may be able to obtain that salvation which I of myself
+am unable to merit." Another endowment was made by Peter, Knight of
+Maull, in these quaint terms: "I, Peter, profiting by this lesson, and
+desirous, though a sinner and unworthy, to provide for my future
+destiny, I have desired that the bees of God may come to gather their
+honey in my orchards, so that when their fair hives shall be full of
+rich combs, they may be able to remember him by whom the hive
+was given."
+
+The people believed that the prayers of the monks lifted their souls
+into heaven; that their curses doomed them to the bottomless pit. A
+monastery was the safe and sure road to heaven. The observation of
+Gibbon respecting the early monks is applicable to all of them: "Each
+proselyte who entered the gates of a monastery was persuaded that he
+trod the steep and thorny path of eternal happiness."
+
+The second cause for monasticism in general was a natural love of
+solitude, which became almost irresistible when reinforced by a despair
+of the world's redemption. The poet voiced the feelings of almost every
+soul, at some period in life, when he wrote:
+
+     "O for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
+     Some boundless contiguity of shade,
+     Where rumor of oppression or deceit,
+     Of unsuccessful or successful war,
+     Might never reach me more."
+
+The longing for solitude accompanied the desire for salvation. An
+unconquerable weariness of the world, with its strife and passion,
+overcame the seeker after God. A yearning to escape the duties of social
+life, which were believed to interfere with one's duty to God, possessed
+his soul. The flight from the world was merely the method adopted to
+satisfy his soul-longings. If such times of degeneracy and rampant
+iniquity ever return, if humanity is again compelled to stagger under
+the moral burdens that crushed the Roman Empire, without doubt the love
+of solitude, which is now held in check by the satisfactions of a
+comparatively pure and peaceful social life, will again arise in its
+old-time strength and impel men to seek in waste and lonely places the
+virtues they cannot acquire in a decaying civilization.
+
+Even amid the delights of human fellowship, and surrounded by so much
+that ministers to restfulness of soul, it is often hard to repress a
+longing to shatter the fetters of custom, to flee from the noise and
+confusion of this hurrying, fretful world, and to pass one's days in a
+coveted retirement, far from the maddening strife and tumult.
+Montalembert's profound appreciation of monastic life was never more
+aptly illustrated than in the following declaration: "In the depths of
+human nature there exists without doubt, a tendency instinctive, though
+confused and evanescent, toward retirement and solitude. What man,
+unless completely depraved by vice or weighed down by care and cupidity,
+has not experienced once, at least, before his death, the attraction of
+solitude?"
+
+While the motives just described were unquestionably preeminent among
+the causative factors in monasticism, it should not be taken for granted
+that there were no others, or that either or both of these motives
+controlled every monk. The personal considerations tending to keep up
+the flight from the world were numerous and active. It would be a
+mistake to credit all the monks, and at some periods even a majority of
+them, with pure and lofty purposes. Oftentimes criminals were pardoned
+through the intercession of abbots on condition that they would retire
+to a monastery. The jilted lover and the commercial bankrupt, the
+deserted or bereaved wife, the pauper and the invalid, the social
+outcast and the shirker of civic duties, the lazy and the fickle were
+all to be found in the ranks of the monastic orders. Ceasing to feel any
+interest in the joys of society, they had turned to the cloister as a
+welcome asylum in the hour of their sorrow or disappointment. To some it
+was an easy way out of the struggle for existence, to others it meant an
+end to taxes and to military service, to still others it was a haven of
+rest for a weary body or a disappointed spirit. Thus many specific,
+individual considerations acted with the general desires for salvation
+and solitude to strengthen and to perpetuate the institution.
+
+
+
+_Beliefs Affecting the Causative Motives_
+
+In the first chapter it was shown that a variety of views respecting the
+relation of the body and the soul influenced the origin and development
+of Christian monasticism. It will not now be necessary to repeat what
+was there said. The essential teaching of all these false opinions was
+that the body was in itself evil, that the gratification of natural
+appetites was inherently wrong, and that true holiness consisted in the
+complete subjection of the body by self-denial and torture. Jerome
+distinctly taught that what was natural was opposed to God. The Gnostics
+and many of the early Christians believed that this world was ruled by
+the devil. The Gnostics held that this opposition of the kingdom of
+matter to God was fundamental and eternal. The Christians, however,
+maintained that the antagonism was temporary, the Lord having given the
+world over to evil spirits for a time. The prevailing opinion among
+almost all schools was that a union with God was only possible to those
+who had extinguished bodily desires.
+
+The ascetic theory undoubtedly derived much support from the views held
+concerning the teachings of the Bible. The Oriental monks frequently
+quoted from their sacred books to justify their habits and ideals. In
+like manner, the Christian monks believed that they, and they alone,
+were literally obeying the commands of Christ and his apostles. This
+phase of the subject will receive attention when the three vows of
+monasticism are considered.
+
+In the West, two conditions, one political and social, the other
+religious, set in motion all these spiritual desires and ascetic beliefs
+tending toward monasticism. One was the corrupted state, of Roman
+society and the approaching overthrow of the Roman Empire. The other was
+the secularization of the church.
+
+Men naturally cling to society as long as there exists any well-founded
+hope for its regeneration, but when every expectation for the survival
+of righteousness yields to a conviction that doom is inevitable, then
+the flight from the world begins. This was precisely the situation in
+the declining days of Rome and Alexandria, when Christian monasticism
+came into being. The monks believed that the end of the world was nigh,
+that all things temporal and earthly were doomed, and that God's hand
+was against the empire. "That they were correct in their judgment of the
+world about them," says Kingsley, "contemporary history proves
+abundantly. That they were correct, likewise, in believing that some
+fearful judgment was about to fall on man, is proved by the fact that it
+did fall."
+
+So they fled to escape being caught in the ruins of society's tottering
+structure,--fled to make friends with the angels and with God. If one
+cannot live purely in the midst of corruption, by all means let him live
+purely away from corruption, but let him never forget that his piety is
+of a lower order than that which abides uncorrupted in the midst of
+degenerate society. There is much truth in the observation of Charles
+Reade in "The Cloister and the Hearth": "So long as Satan walks the
+whole earth, tempting men, and so long as the sons of Belial do never
+lock themselves in caves but run like ants, to and fro corrupting
+others, the good man that sulks apart, plays the Devil's game, or at
+least gives him the odds."
+
+But the early Christian monks believed that their safety was only in
+flight. It was not altogether an unworthy motive; at least it is easy to
+sympathize with these men struggling against odds, of the magnitude of
+which the modern Christian has only the faintest conception.
+
+The conviction that the only true and certain way to secure salvation
+is by flight from the world, continued to prevail during the succeeding
+centuries of monastic history, and it can hardly be said to have
+entirely disappeared even at the present time. Anselm of Canterbury, in
+the twelfth century, wrote to a young friend reminding him that the
+glory of this world was perishing. True, not monks only are saved,
+"but," says he, "who attains to salvation in the most certain, who in
+the most noble way, the man who seeks to love God alone, or he who seeks
+to unite the love of God with the love of the world?... Is it rational
+when danger is on every side, to remain where it is the greatest?"
+
+The Christian church set up an ideal of life which it was impossible to
+realize within her borders, and one which differed in many respects from
+the teachings of Jesus. Her demands involved a renunciation of the
+world, a superiority to all the enticements of bodily appetites, a lofty
+scorn of secular bonds and social concerns. A vigorous religious faith
+had conquered a mighty empire, but corruption attended its victory. The
+standard of Christian morals was lowered, or had at least degenerated
+into a cold, formal ideal that no one was expected to realize; hence
+none strove to attain it but the monks. When Roman society with its
+selfishness, lust and worldliness, swept in through the open doors of
+the church and took possession of the sanctuary, those who had cherished
+the ascetic ideal gave up the fight against the world, and the flight
+from the world-church began. They could not tolerate this union of the
+church with a pagan state and an effete civilization. In some respects,
+as a few writers maintain, many of these hermits were like the old
+Jewish prophets, fighting single-handed against corruption in church and
+state, refusing to yield themselves as slaves to the authority of
+institutions that had forsaken the ideals of the past.
+
+Thus the conviction that the end of human society was nigh, and that the
+church could no longer serve as an asylum for the lovers of
+righteousness, with certain philosophical ideas respecting the body, the
+world and God, united to produce the assumption that salvation was more
+readily attainable in the deserts; and Christian monasticism, in its
+hermit form, began its long and eventful history.
+
+
+
+_Causes of Variations in Monasticism_
+
+Prominent among the causes producing variations in the monastic type was
+the influence of climatic conditions and race characteristics.
+
+The monasticism as well as the religion of the East has always differed
+from the monasticism and the religion of the West. The Eastern mind is
+mystical, dreamy, contemplative; the Western mind loves activity, is
+intensely practical. Representatives of the Eastern faiths in the recent
+Parliament of Religions accused the West of materialism, of loving the
+body more than the soul. They affected to despise all material
+prosperity, and gloried in their assumed superiority, on account of
+their love for religious contemplation. This radical difference between
+the races of the East and West is clearly seen in the monastic
+institution. Benedict embodied in his rules the spirit and active life
+of the West, and hence, the monastic system, then in danger of dying, or
+stagnating, revived and spread all over Europe. Again, the hermit life
+was ill-adapted to the West. Men could not live out of doors in Europe
+and subsist on small quantities of food as in Egypt. The rigors of the
+climate in Europe demanded an adaptation to new conditions.
+
+But aside from the differences between Eastern and Western monasticism,
+the Christian institution passed through a variety of changes. The
+growth of monasticism from the hermit stage to the cloistral life has
+already been described. To what shall the development of the community
+system be attributed? No religious institution can remain stationary,
+unaffected by the changing conditions of the society in which it exists.
+The progress of the intellect, and the development of social, political
+and industrial conditions, effect great transformations in religious
+organizations.
+
+The monastic institution grew up amid the radical changes of European
+society. In its early days it witnessed the invasion of the barbarians,
+which swept away old political divisions and destroyed many of the
+heritages of an ancient civilization. Then the process of reconstruction
+slowly began. New states were forming; nations were crystallizing. The
+barbarian was to lay the foundations of great cities and organize
+powerful commonwealths out of wild but victorious tribes. The monk
+could not remain in hiding. He was brother to the roving warrior. The
+blood in his veins was too active to permit him to stand still amid the
+mighty whirl of events. Without entirely abandoning his cloistral life,
+he became a zealous missionary of the church among the barbarians, a
+patron of letters and of agriculture, in short a stirring participant in
+the work of civilization.
+
+Next came the crusades. Jerusalem was to be captured for Christ and the
+church. The monk then appeared as a crusade-preacher, a warrior on the
+battle-field, or a nurse in the military hospital.
+
+The rise of feudalism likewise wrought a change in the spirit and
+position of the monks. The feudal lord was master of his vassals. "The
+genius of feudalism," says Allen, "was a spirit of uncontrolled
+independence." So the abbot became a feudal lord with immense
+possessions and powers. He was no longer the obscure, spiritual father
+of a little family of monks, but a temporal lord also, an aristocrat,
+ruling wide territories, and dwelling in a monastery little different
+from the castle of the knight and often exceeding it in splendor. With
+wealth came ease, and hard upon the heels of ease came laziness,
+arrogance, corruption.
+
+Then followed the marvelous intellectual awakening, the moral revival,
+the discoveries and inventions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
+The human mind at last had aroused itself from a long repose, or turned
+from a profitless activity into broad and fruitful fields. The
+corruption of the monasteries meant the laxity of vows, the cessation of
+ministration to the poor and the sick. Then arose the tender and loving
+Francis, with his call to poverty and to service. The independent
+exercise of the intellect gave birth to heresies, but the Dominicans
+appeared to preach them down.
+
+The growth of the secular spirit and the progress of the new learning
+were too much for the old monasticism. The monk had to adapt himself to
+a new age, an age that is impatient of mere contemplation, that spurns
+the rags of the begging friar and rebels against the fierce intolerance
+of the Dominican preaching. So, lastly, came the suave, determined,
+practical, cultured Jesuit, ready to comply, at least outwardly, with
+all the requirements of modern times. Does the new age reject monastic
+seclusion? Very well, the Jesuit throws off his monastic garb and
+forsakes his cloister, to take his place among men. Are the ignorance
+and the filth of the begging friars offensive? The Jesuit is cultured,
+affable and spotlessly clean. Does the new age demand liberty?
+"Liberty," cries the Jesuit, "is the divine prerogative, colossal in
+proportion, springing straight from the broad basin of the
+soul's essence!"
+
+Such in its merest outlines is the story of the development of the
+monastic type and its causes.
+
+
+
+_The Fundamental Monastic Vows_
+
+The ultimate monastic ideal was the purification of the soul, but when
+translated into definite, concrete terms, the immediate aim of the monk
+was to live a life of poverty, celibacy and obedience. Riches, marriage
+and self-will were regarded as forms of sinful gratification, which
+every holy man should abandon. The true Christian, according to
+monasticism, is poor, celibate and obedient. The three fundamental
+monastic vows should therefore receive special consideration.
+
+1. The Vow of Poverty. The monks of all countries held the possession of
+riches to be a barrier to high spiritual attainments. In view of the
+fact that an inordinate love of wealth has proved disastrous to many
+nations, and that it is extremely difficult for a rich man to escape the
+hardening, enervating and corrupting influences of affluence, the
+position of the monks on this question is easily understood. The
+Christian monks based their vow of poverty upon the Bible, and
+especially upon the teachings of Christ, who, though he was rich, yet
+for our sakes became poor. He said to the rich young man, "Sell all that
+thou hast and give to the poor." In commissioning the disciples to
+preach the gospel He said: "Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass
+in your purses; nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, nor
+shoes." In the discourse on counting the cost of discipleship, He said:
+"So therefore, whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he
+hath, he cannot be my disciple." He promised rewards to "every one that
+left houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children,
+or lands for my name's sake." "It is easier," He once said, "for a
+camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter the
+kingdom of heaven." He portrayed the pauper Lazarus as participating in
+the joys of heaven, while the rich Dives endured the torments of the
+lost. As reported in Luke, He said, "Blessed are ye poor." He Himself
+was without a place to lay His head, a houseless wanderer upon
+the earth.
+
+The apostle James cries to the men of wealth: "Go to now, ye rich men,
+weep and howl, for your miseries that shall come upon you." John said:
+"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any
+man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
+
+Whatever these passages, and many others of like import, may signify, it
+is not at all strange that Christians, living in times when wealth was
+abused, and when critical Biblical scholarship was unknown, should have
+understood Christ to command a life of poverty as an indispensable
+condition of true holiness.
+
+There are three ways of interpreting Christ's doctrine of wealth. First,
+it may be held that Jesus intended His teachings to be literally obeyed,
+not only by His first disciples but by all His followers in subsequent
+years, and that such literal obedience is practicable, reasonable and
+conducive to the highest well-being of society. Secondly, it has been
+said that Jesus was a gentle and honest visionary, who erroneously
+believed that the possession of riches rendered religious progress
+impossible, but that strict compliance with His commands would be
+destructive of civilization. Laveleye declares that "if Christianity
+were taught and understood conformably to the spirit of its Founder, the
+existing social organism could not last a day." Thirdly, neither of
+these views seems to do justice to the spirit of Christ, for they fail
+to give proper recognition to many other injunctions of the Master and
+to many significant incidents in his public ministry. Exhaustive
+treatment of this subject is, of course, impossible here. Briefly it may
+be remarked, that Jesus looked upon wealth as tending oftentimes to
+foster an unsocial spirit. Rich men are liable to become enemies of the
+brotherhood Jesus sought to establish, by reason of their covetousness
+and contracted sympathies. The rich man is in danger of erecting false
+standards of manhood, of ignoring the highest interests of the soul by
+an undue emphasis on the material. Wealth, in itself, is not an evil,
+but it is only a good when it is used to advance the real welfare of
+humanity. Jesus was not intent upon teaching economics. His purpose was
+to develop the man. It was the moral value and spiritual influence of
+material things that concerned him. Professor Shailer Mathews admirably
+states the true attitude of Jesus towards rich men: "Jesus was a friend
+neither of the working man nor the rich man as such. He calls the poor
+man to sacrifice as well as the rich man. He was the Son of Man, not the
+son of a class of men. But His denunciation is unsparing of those men
+who make wealth at the expense of souls; who find in capital no
+incentive to further fraternity; who endeavor so to use wealth as to
+make themselves independent of social obligations, and to grow fat with
+that which should be shared with society;--for those men who are gaining
+the world but are letting their neighbors fall among thieves and Lazarus
+rot among their dogs."
+
+Jesus was therefore not a foe to rich men as such, but to that
+antisocial, abnormal regard for wealth and its procurements, which leads
+to the creation of class distinctions and impedes the full and free
+development of our common humanity along the lines of brotherly love and
+coöperation. A Christian may consistently be a rich man, provided he
+uses his wealth in furthering the true interests of society, and
+realizes, as respects his own person, that "a man's life consisteth not
+in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." The error of
+monasticism consists in making poverty a virtue and an essential
+condition of the highest holiness. It is true that some callings
+preclude the prospect of fortune. The average clergyman cannot hope to
+amass wealth. The resident of a social settlement may possess capacities
+that would win success in business, but he must forego financial
+prospects if he expects to live and labor among the poor. In so far as
+the monks deliberately turned their backs on the material rewards of
+human endeavors that they might be free to devote themselves to the
+service of humanity, their vow of poverty was creditable and reasonable.
+But they erred when they exalted poverty as of itself commending them in
+a peculiar degree to the mercy of God.
+
+2. The Vow of Celibacy. "The moral merit of celibacy," says Allen, "was
+harder to make out of the Scripture, doubtless, since family life is
+both at the foundation of civil society and the source of all the common
+virtues." The monks held that Christ and Paul both taught and practiced
+celibacy. In the early and middle ages celibacy was looked upon by all
+churchmen as in itself a virtue. The prevailing modern idea is that
+marriage is a holy institution, in no sense inferior in sacredness to
+any ecclesiastical order of life. He who antagonizes it plays into the
+hands of the foes to social purity and individual virtue.
+
+The ideas of Jerome, Ambrose, and all the early Fathers, respecting
+marriage, are still held by many ecclesiastics. One of them, in
+defending the celibacy of existing religious orders, says: "Celibacy is
+enjoined on these religious orders as a means to greater sanctification,
+greater usefulness, greater absorption in things spiritual, and to
+facilitate readier withdrawal from things earthly." He gives two reasons
+for the celibacy of the priesthood, which are all the more interesting
+because they substantially represent the opinions held by the Christian
+monks in all ages: First, "That the service of the priest to God may be
+undivided and unrestrained." In support of this, he quotes I. Cor., 7:
+32, 33, which reads: "But I would have you free from cares. He that is
+unmarried is careful for the things of the Lord, how he may please the
+Lord: but he that is married is careful for the things of the world, how
+he may please his wife." And secondly, "Celibacy," according to Trent,
+"is more blessed than marriage." He also quotes the words of Christ that
+there are "eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake." He then adds: "It
+is desirable that those called to the ministry of the altar espouse a
+life of continence because holier and more angelic."
+
+It is generally admitted that the vow of celibacy was not demanded of
+the clergy in primitive Christian times. It was only after many years of
+bitter debate and in response to the growing influence of the monastic
+ideal, that celibacy finally came to be looked upon as the highest form
+of Christian virtue, and was enforced upon the clergy. As in the case of
+the vow of poverty, there certainly can be no reasonable objection to
+the individual adoption of celibacy, if one is either disinclined to
+marriage or feels that he can do better work unmarried. But neither
+Scripture nor reason justifies the imposition of celibacy upon any man,
+nor the view that a life of continence is holier than marriage. It may
+be reverently said that God would be making an unreasonable demand upon
+mankind, if the holiness He requires conflicted with the proper
+satisfaction of those impulses He himself has deeply implanted in
+human nature.
+
+3. The Vow of Obedience. The monks were required to render absolute
+obedience to the will of their superiors, as the representatives of God.
+Dom Guigo, in his rules for the Carthusian Order, declares: "Moreover,
+if the Prior commands one of his religious to take more food, or to
+sleep for a longer time, in fact, whatever command may be given us by
+our Superior, we are not allowed to disobey, lest we should disobey God
+also, who commands us by the mouth of our Superior. All our practices of
+mortification and devotion would be fruitless and of no value, without
+this one virtue of obedience, which alone can make them acceptable
+to God."
+
+Thus a strict and uncomplaining obedience, not to the laws of God as
+interpreted by the individual conscience, but to the judgment and will
+of a brother man, was demanded of the monks.
+
+     "Theirs not to reason why,
+     Theirs not to make reply,
+     Theirs but to do and die."
+
+They were often severely beaten or imprisoned and sometimes mutilated
+for acts of disobedience. While the monks, especially the Friars and
+Jesuits, carried this principle of obedience to great extremes, yet in
+the barbarous ages its enforcement was sadly needed. Law and order were
+words which the untamed Goth could not comprehend. He had to be taught
+habits of obedience, a respect for the rights of others, and a proper
+appreciation of his duty to society for the common good. But while, at
+the beginning, the monastic vow of obedience helped to inculcate these
+desirable lessons, and vastly modified the ferocity of unchecked
+individualism, it tended, in the course of time, to generate a servile
+humility fatal to the largest and freest personal development. In the
+interests of passive obedience, it suppressed freedom of thought and
+action. Obedience became mechanical and unreasoning. The consequence was
+that the passion for individual liberty was unduly restrained, and the
+extravagant claims of political and ecclesiastical tyrants were greatly
+strengthened.
+
+Such was the monastic ideal and such were some of the means employed to
+realize it. The ascetic spirit manifests itself in a great variety of
+ways, but all these visible and changing externals have one common
+source. "To cherish the religious principle," says William E. Channing,"
+some have warred against their social affections, and have led solitary
+lives; some against their senses, and have abjured all pleasure in
+asceticism; some against reason, and have superstitiously feared to
+think; some against imagination, and have foolishly dreaded to read
+poetry or books of fiction; some against the political and patriotic
+principles, and have shrunk from public affairs,--all apprehending that
+if they were to give free range to their natural emotions their
+religious life would be chilled or extinguished."
+
+
+
+IX
+
+_THE EFFECTS OF MONASTICISM_
+
+"We read history," said Wendell Phillips, "not through our eyes but
+through our prejudices." Yet if it were possible entirely to lay aside
+one's prepossessions respecting monastic history, it would still be no
+easy task to estimate the influences of the monks upon human life.
+
+In every field of thought and activity monasticism wrought good and
+evil. Education, industry, government and religion have been both
+furthered and hindered by the monks. What Francis Parkman said of the
+Roman Catholic Church is true of the monastic institution: "Clearly she
+is of earth, not of heaven; and her transcendently dramatic life is a
+type of the good and ill, the baseness and nobleness, the foulness and
+purity, the love and hate, the pride, passion, truth, falsehood,
+fierceness, and tenderness, that battle in the restless heart of man."
+
+A careful and sympathetic survey of monastic history compels the
+conclusion that monasticism, while not uniformly a blessing to the
+world, was not an unmitigated evil. The system presents one long series
+of perplexities and contradictions. One historian shuts his eyes to its
+pernicious effects, or at least pardons its transgressions, on the
+ground that perfection in man or in institutions is unattainable.
+Another condemns the whole system, believing that the sum of its evils
+far outweighs whatever benefits it may have conferred upon mankind.
+Schaff cuts the Gordian knot, maintaining that the contradiction is
+easily solved on the theory that it was not monasticism, as such, which
+has proved a blessing to the Church and the world. "It was Christianity
+in monasticism," he says, "which has done all the good, and used this
+abnormal mode of life as a means of carrying forward its mission of love
+and peace."
+
+To illustrate the diversities of opinion on this subject, and
+incidentally to show how difficult it is to present a well-balanced,
+symmetrically fair and just estimate of the monastic institution as a
+whole, contrast the opinions of four celebrated men. Pius IX. refers to
+the, monks as "those chosen phalanxes of the army of Christ which have
+always been the bulwark and ornament of the Christian republic as well
+as of civil society." But then he was the Pope of Rome, the Arch-prelate
+of the Church. "Monk," fiercely demands Voltaire, "Monk, what is that
+profession of thine? It is that of having none, of engaging one's self
+by an inviolable oath to be a fool and a slave, and to live at the
+expense of others." But he was the philosophical skeptic of Paris.
+"Where is the town," cries Montalembert, "which has not been founded or
+enriched or protected by some religious community? Where is the church
+which owes not to them a patron, a relic, a pious and popular tradition?
+Wherever there is a luxuriant forest, a pure stream, a majestic hill, we
+may be sure that religion has left there her stamp by the hand of the
+monk." But this was Montalembert, the Roman Catholic historian, and the
+avowed champion of the monks. "A cruel, unfeeling temper," writes
+Gibbon, "has distinguished the monks of every age and country; their
+stern indifference, which is seldom mollified by personal friendship,
+is inflamed by religious hatred; and their merciless zeal has
+strenuously administered the holy office of the Inquisition." But this
+was Gibbon, the hater of everything monastic. Between these extreme
+views lies a wide field upon which many a deathless duel has been fought
+by the writers of monastic history.
+
+The variety of judgments respecting the nature and effects of
+monasticism is partly due to the diversity in the facts of its history.
+Monasticism was the friend and the foe of true religion. It was the
+inspiration of virtue and the encouragement of vice. It was the patron
+of industry and the promoter of idleness. It was a pioneer in education
+and the teacher of superstition. It was the disburser of alms and a
+many-handed robber. It was the friend of human liberty and the abettor
+of tyranny. It was the champion of the common people and the defender of
+class privileges. It was, in short, everything that man was and is, so
+varied were its operations, so complex was its influence, so
+comprehensive was its life.
+
+Of some things we may be certain. Any religious institution or ideal of
+life that has survived the changes of twelve centuries, and that has
+enlisted the enthusiastic services and warmest sympathies of numerous
+men and women who have been honorably distinguished for their
+intellectual attainments and moral character, must have possessed
+elements of truth and moral worth. A contemptuous treatment of
+monasticism implies either an ignorance of its real history or a wilful
+disregard of the deep significance of its commendable features.
+
+It is also certain that while the methods of monasticism, judged by
+their effects upon the individual and upon society, may be justly
+censured, it is beyond question that many monks, groping their way
+toward the light in an age of ignorance and superstition, were inspired
+by the purest motives. "Conscience," observes Waddington, "however
+misguided, cannot be despised by a reflecting mind. When it leads one to
+self-sacrifice and moral fortitude we cannot but admire his spirit,
+while we condemn his sagacity and method."
+
+
+
+_The Effects of Self-Sacrifice Upon the Individual_
+
+Christianity requires some sort of self-denial as the condition of true
+Christian discipleship. Self-love is to yield to a love of others. In
+some sense, the Christian is to become dead to the world and its
+demoralizing pleasures. But this primal demand upon the soul needs to be
+interpreted. What is it to love the world? What is it to keep the body
+in subjection? What are harmful indulgences? To give wrong answers to
+these questions is to set up a false ideal; the more strenuously such
+false ideal is followed, the more disastrous are the consequences. One's
+struggle for moral purity may end in failure, and one's efficiency for
+good may be seriously impaired by a perversion of the principle of
+self-abnegation. Unnatural severity and excessive abstinence often
+produce the opposite effect from that intended. Instead of a peaceful
+mind there is delirium, and instead of freedom from temptation there are
+a thousand horrible fiends hovering in the air and ready, at any moment,
+to pounce upon their prey. "The history of ascetics," says Martensen,
+"teaches us that by such overdone fasting the fancy is often excited to
+an amazing degree, and in its airy domain affords the very things that
+one thought to have buried, by means of mortification, a magical
+resurrection." In attempting to subdue the body, many necessary
+requirements of the physical organism were totally ignored. The body
+rebelled against such unnatural treatment, and the mind, so closely
+related to it, in its distraction, gave birth to the wildest fancies.
+Men, who would have possessed an ordinarily pure mind in some useful
+occupation of life, became the prey of the most lewd and obnoxious
+imaginations. Then they fancied themselves vile above their fellows, and
+laid on more stripes, put more thorns upon their pillows, and fasted
+more hours, only to find that instead of fleeing, the devils became
+blacker and more numerous.
+
+Self-forgetfulness is the key to happiness. The monk thought otherwise,
+and slew himself in his vain attempt to fight against nature. He never
+lifted his eyes from his own soul. He was always feeling his spiritual
+pulse, staring at his lean spiritual visage, and tearfully watching his
+growth in grace. An interest in others and a strong mind in a strong
+body are the best antidotes to religious despair and the temptations of
+the soul. Life in the monastery was generally less severe than in the
+desert's solitude. There was more and better food, shelter, and comfort,
+but there were many unnecessary and unnatural restrictions, even in the
+best days of monasticism. There were too many hours of prayer, too many
+needless regulations for silence, fasting and penance, to produce a
+healthy, vigorous type of religious life.
+
+
+
+_The Effects of Solitude Upon the Individual_.
+
+It has already been shown that some solitude is essential to our richest
+culture. Our higher nature demands time for reflection and meditation.
+But the monks carried this principle to an extreme, and they
+overestimated its benefits. "Ambition, avarice, irresolution, fear, and
+inordinate desires," says Montaigne, "do not leave us because we forsake
+our native country, they often follow us even to cloisters and
+philosophical schools; nor deserts, nor caves, nor hair shirts, nor
+fasts, can disengage us from them."
+
+Besides these passions, which the monks carried with them, their
+solitary life tended to foster spiritual pride, contract sympathy, and
+engender an inhumane spirit. True, there were exceptions; but the
+sublime characters which survive in monastic history are by no means
+typical of its usual effects. Seclusion did not benefit the average
+monk. Indeed there is something wanting in even the loftiest monastic
+characters. "The heroes of monasticism," says Allen, "are not the heroes
+of modern life. All put together, they would not furnish out one such
+soul as William of Orange, or Gustavus, or Milton. Independence of
+thought and liberty of conscience, they renounced once for all, in
+taking upon them the monastic vow. All the larger enterprises, all the
+broad humanities, which to our mind make a greater career, were rigidly
+shut off by a barrier that could not be crossed. All the warmth and
+wealth of social and domestic life was a field of forbidden fruit, to be
+entered only through the gate of unpardonable sin."
+
+Thus self-excluded from a normal life in society, often the subject of
+self-inflicted pain, it is no wonder that the monk impaired all the
+nobler and manlier feelings of the soul, that he became strangely
+indifferent to human affection, that bigotry and pride often sat as
+joint rulers on the throne of his heart. He who had trampled on all
+filial relations would scarcely recognize the bonds of human
+brotherhood. He who heard not the prayer of his own mother would not be
+likely to listen to the cry of the tortured heretic for mercy. Man as
+man was not reverenced. It was the monk in man who was esteemed. As
+Milman puts it, "Bigotry has always found its readiest and sternest
+executioners among those who have never known the charities of life."
+
+Nor is it a matter of surprise that the monk was spiritually proud. He
+was supposed to stand in the inner circle, a little nearer the throne of
+God than his fellow-mortals. When dead, he was worshiped as a saint and
+regarded as an intercessor between God and his lower fellow-creatures.
+His hatred of the base world easily passed over into a sense of
+superiority and ignoble pride.
+
+"True social life," says Martensen, "leads to solitude." This truth the
+monks emphasized to the exclusion of the converse, "true life in
+solitude leads back to society." John Tauler, the mystic monk, realized
+this truth when he said: "If God calls me to a sick person, or to the
+service of preaching, or to any other service of love, I must follow,
+although I am in the state of highest contemplation." The hermits of the
+desert, and too often the monks of the cloister, escaped from all such
+services, and selfishly gave themselves up to saving their own souls by
+contemplation and prayer. Ministration to the needy is the external side
+of the inner religious life. It is the fruit of faith and prayer. The
+monk sought solitude, not for the purpose of fitting himself for a place
+in society, but for selfish, personal ends. Saint Bruno, in a letter to
+his friend Ralph le Verd, eulogizes the solitude of the monastic cell,
+and among other sentiments he gives expression to the following: "I am
+speaking here of the contemplative life; and although its sons are less
+numerous than those of active life, yet, like Joseph and Benjamin, they
+are infinitely dearer to their Father.... O my brother, fear not then to
+fly from the turmoil and the misery of the world; leave the storms that
+rage without, to shelter yourself in this safe haven."
+
+Thus sinful and sorrowing humanity, needing the guidance and comfort
+that holy men can furnish, was forgotten in the desire for personal
+peace and future salvation.
+
+Another baneful result of isolation was the strangulation of filial
+love. When the monk abandoned the softening, refining influence of women
+and children, one side of his nature suffered a serious contraction. An
+Egyptian mother stood at the hut of two hermits, her sons. Weeping
+bitterly, she begged to see their faces. To her piteous entreaties, they
+said: "Why do you, who are already stricken with age, pour forth such
+cries and lamentations?" "It is because I long to see you," she replied.
+"Am I not your mother? I am now an old and wrinkled woman, and my heart
+is troubled at the sound of your voices." But even a mother's love could
+not cope with their fearful fanaticism., and she went away with their
+cold promise that they would meet in heaven. St. John of Calama visited
+his sister in disguise, and a chronicler, telling the story afterwards,
+said, "By the mercy of Jesus Christ he had not been recognized, and they
+never met again." Many hermits received their parents or brothers and
+sisters with their eyes shut. When the father of Simeon Stylites died,
+his widowed mother prayed for entrance into her son's cell. For three
+days and nights she stood without, and then the blessed Simeon prayed
+the Lord for her, and she immediately gave up the ghost.
+
+These as well as numerous other stories of a similar character that
+might be quoted illustrate the hardening influence of solitude. Instead
+of cherishing a love of kindred, as a gift of heaven and a spring of
+virtue, the monk spurned it and trampled it beneath his feet as an
+obstacle to his spiritual progress. "The monks," says Milman, "seem
+almost unconscious of the softening, humanizing effect of the natural
+affections, the beauty of parental tenderness and filial love."
+
+
+
+_The Monks as Missionaries_
+
+The conversion of the barbarians was an indispensable condition of
+modern civilization. Every step forward had to be taken in the face of
+barbaric ignorance and cruelty. In this stupendous undertaking the monks
+led the way, displaying in their labors remarkable generalship and
+undaunted courage. Whatever may be thought of later monasticism, the
+Benedictine monks are entitled to the lasting gratitude of mankind for
+their splendid services in reducing barbaric Europe to some sort of
+order and civilization. But again the mixture of good and evil is
+strangely illustrated. It seems impossible to accord the monks
+unqualified praise. The potency of the evil tendencies within their
+system vitiated every noble achievement. Their methods and practical
+ideals were so at variance with the true order of nature that every
+commendable victory involved a corresponding obstacle to real social and
+religious progress. The justice of these observations will be more
+apparent as this inquiry proceeds.
+
+
+
+_Monasticism and Civic Duties_
+
+The withdrawal of a considerable number of men of character and talent
+from the exercise of civic duties is injurious to the state. The burdens
+upon those who remain become heavier, while society is deprived of the
+moral influence of those who forsake their civic responsibilities. When
+the monk, from the outside as it were, attempted to exert an influence
+for good, he largely failed. His ideals of life were not formulated in a
+real world, but in an artificial, antisocial environment. He was unable
+to appreciate the political needs of men. He could not enter
+sympathetically into their serious employments or innocent delights.
+Controlled by superstition, and exalting a servile obedience to human
+authority, he became a very unsafe guide in political affairs. He could
+not consistently labor for secular progress, because he had forsaken a
+world in which secular interests were prominent.
+
+It may be true that in the early days of monasticism the monks pursued
+the proper course in refusing to become Roman patriots. No human power
+could have averted the ruin which overtook that corrupt world. Perhaps
+their non-combatant attitude gave them more influence with the
+conquerors of Rome, who were to become the founders of modern nations.
+
+In later years, the abbots of the principal monasteries occupied seats
+in the legislative assemblies of Germany, Hungary, Spain, England,
+Italy, and France. In many instances they stood between the violence of
+the nobles and the unprotected vassal. Political monks, inspired by a
+natural breadth of vision and a love of humanity, secured the passage of
+wise and humane regulations. Palgrave says: "The mitre has resisted many
+blows which would have broken the helmet, and the crosier has kept more
+foes in awe than the lance. It is, then, to these prelates that we
+chiefly owe the maintenance of the form and spirit of free government,
+secured to us, not by force, but by law; and the altar has thus been the
+corner-stone of our ancient constitution."
+
+Although there is much truth in the foregoing observation, yet on the
+other hand, when the influence of the monastic ideal upon civilization
+is studied in its deeper aspects, it cannot be justly maintained that
+the final effects of monasticism minister to the development of a normal
+civilization. Industrial, mental and moral progress depend upon a
+certain breadth of mind and energy of soul. Asceticism saps the vitality
+of human nature and confines the activity of the mind within artificial
+limits. "Hence the dreary, sterile torpor," says Lecky, "that
+characterized those ages in which the ascetic principle has been
+supreme, while the civilizations which have attained the highest
+perfection have been those of ancient Greece and modern Europe, which
+were most opposed to it."
+
+The monks did not hesitate to become embroiled in military quarrels, or
+to incite the fiercer passions of men when it suited their purpose.
+Their opposition to kings and princes was often not based on a love of
+popular freedom, but on an indisposition to share power with secular
+rulers. The legislative enactments against heretics, many of which they
+inspired, clearly show that they neither desired nor tolerated liberty
+of speech or conduct. They were the Almighty's vicars on earth, before
+whom it was the duty of king and subject to bow down. Vaughan writes of
+the period just prior to the Reformation: "The great want was freedom
+from ecclesiastical domination; and from the feeling of the hour,
+scarcely any price would be deemed too great to be paid for that
+object." The history of modern Jesuitism, against which the legislation
+of almost every civilized nation has been directed, affords abundant
+testimony to the inherent hostility of the monastic system, even in its
+modified modern form, to every species of government which in any way
+guarantees freedom of thought to its people. This stern fact confronts
+the student, however much he may be inclined to yield homage to the
+early monks. It must be held in mind when one reads this pleasing
+sentence from Macaulay: "Surely a system which, however deformed by
+superstition, introduced strong moral restraints into communities
+previously governed only by vigor of muscle and by audacity of spirit, a
+system which taught the fiercest and mightiest ruler that he was, like
+his meanest bondman, a responsible being, might have seemed to deserve a
+more respectful mention from philosophers and philanthropists."
+
+The general effect of monasticism on the state is, therefore, not to be
+determined by fixing the gaze on any one century of its history, or by
+holding up some humane and patriotic monk as a representative product of
+the system.
+
+
+
+_The Agricultural Services of the Monks_
+
+Europe must ever be indebted to Benedict and his immediate followers for
+their services in reclaiming waste lands, and in removing the stigma
+which a corrupt civilization had placed upon labor. Benedict came before
+the world saying: "No person is ever more usefully employed than when
+working with his hands or following the plough, providing food for the
+use of man." Care was taken that councils should not be called when
+ploughing was to be done or wheat to be threshed. Benedict bent himself
+to the task of teaching the rich and the proud, the poor and the lazy
+the alphabet of prosperity and happiness. Agriculture was at its lowest
+ebb. Marshes covered once fertile fields, and the men who should have
+tilled the land spurned the plough as degrading, or were too indolent to
+undertake the tasks of the farm. The monks left their cells and their
+prayers to dig ditches and plough fields. The effect was magical. Men
+once more turned back to a noble but despised industry. Peace and plenty
+supplanted war and poverty. "The Benedictines," says Guizot, "have been
+the great clearers of land in Europe. A colony, a little swarm of monks,
+settled in places nearly uncultivated, often in the midst of a pagan
+population--in Germany, for example, or in Brittany; there, at once
+missionaries and laborers, they accomplish their double service, through
+peril and fatigue."
+
+It is to be regretted that history throws a shadow across this pleasing
+scene. When labor came to be recognized as honorable and useful, along
+came the begging friars, creating, both by precept and example, a
+prejudice against labor and wealth. Rags and laziness came to be
+associated with holiness, and a beggar monk was held up as an ideal and
+sacred personage. "The spirit that makes men devote themselves in vast
+numbers," says Lecky, "to a monotonous life of asceticism and poverty is
+so essentially opposed to the spirit that creates the energy and
+enthusiasm of industry, that their continued coexistence may be regarded
+as impossible." But such a fatal mistake could not long captivate the
+mind, or cause men to forget Benedict and his industrial ideal. The
+blessings of wealth rightly administered, and the dignity of labor
+without which wealth is impossible, came to be recognized as necessary
+factors in the true progress of man.
+
+
+
+_The Monks and Secular Learning_
+
+For many centuries, as has been previously shown, the monks were the
+schoolmasters of Europe. They also preserved the manuscripts of the
+classics, produced numerous theological works, transmitted many pious
+traditions, and wrote some interesting and some worthless chronicles.
+They laid the foundations of several great universities, including those
+of Paris, Oxford and Cambridge. For these, and other valuable services,
+the monks merit the praise of posterity. It is, however, too much to
+affirm, as Montalembert does, that "without the monks, we should have
+been as ignorant of our history as children." It is altogether
+improbable that the human mind would have been unproductive in the field
+of historical writing had monasticism not existed during the middle
+ages. While, also, the monks should be thanked for preserving the
+classics, it should not be supposed that all knowledge of Latin and
+Greek literature would have perished but for them.
+
+It is surprising that the literary men of the medieval period should
+have written so little of interest to the modern mind, or that helps us
+to an understanding of the momentous events amid which they lived.
+Unfortunately the monkish mind was concentrated upon a theology, the
+premises of which have been largely set aside by modern science. Their
+writings are so permeated by grotesque superstitions that they are
+practically worthless to-day. Their hostility to secular affairs blinded
+them to the tremendous significance of the mighty political and social
+movements of the age.
+
+It is undeniable that the monks never encouraged a love of secular
+learning. They did not try to impart a love of the classics which they
+preserved. The spirit of monasticism was ever at war with true
+intellectual progress. The monks imprisoned Roger Bacon fourteen years,
+and tried to blast his fair name by calling him a magician, merely
+because he stepped beyond the narrow limits of monkish inquiry. Many
+suffered indignities, privations or death for questioning tradition or
+for conducting scientific researches.
+
+So while it is true that the monks rendered many services to the cause
+of education, it is also true that their monastic theories tended to
+narrow the scope of intellectual activity. "This," says Guizot, "is the
+foundation of their instruction; all was turned into commentary of the
+Scriptures, historical, philosophical, allegorical, moral commentary.
+They desired only to form priests; all studies, whatsoever their nature,
+were directed to this result." There was no disinterested love of
+learning; no desire to become acquainted with God's world. In fact, the
+old hostility to everything natural characterizes all monastic history.
+Europe did not enter upon that broad and noble intellectual development
+which is the glory of our era, until the right arm of monasticism was
+struck down, the dread of heresy banished from the human mind, and
+secular learning welcomed as a legitimate and elevated field for
+mental activity.
+
+Hamilton W. Mabie, in his delightful essay on "Some Old Scholars,"
+describes this step from the gloom of the cloister to the light of God's
+world: "Petrarch really escaped from a sepulcher when he stepped out of
+the cloister of medievalism, with its crucifix, its pictures of
+unhealthy saints, its cords of self-flagellation, and found the heavens
+clear, beautiful, and well worth living under, and the world full of
+good things which one might desire and yet not be given over to evil. He
+ventured to look at life for himself and found it full of wonderful
+dignity and power. He opened his Virgil, brushed aside the cobwebs which
+monkish brains had spun over the beautiful lines, and met the old poet
+as one man meets another; and lo! there arose before him a new,
+untrodden and wholly human world, free from priestcraft and pedantry,
+near to nature and unspeakably alluring and satisfying."
+
+The Dominicans and Jesuits set their faces like flint against all
+education tending to liberalize the mind. Here is a passage from a
+document published by the Jesuits at their first centenary: "It is
+undeniable that we have undertaken a great and uninterrupted war in the
+interests of the Catholic church against heresy. Heresy need never hope
+that the society will make terms with it, or remain quiescent ... No
+peace need be expected, for the seed of hatred is born within us. What
+Hamilcar was to Hannibal, Ignatius is to us. At his instigation, we have
+sworn upon the altars eternal war." When this proclamation is read in
+the light of history, its meaning stands forth with startling clearness.
+Almost every truth in science and philosophy, no matter how valuable it
+was destined to become as an agent in enhancing the well-being of the
+race, has had to wear the stigma of heresy.
+
+It is an interesting speculation to imagine what the intellectual
+development of Europe would have been, had secular learning been
+commended by the monks, and the common people encouraged to exercise
+their minds without fear of excommunication or death. It is sad to
+reflect how many great thoughts must have perished still-born in the
+student's cloister cell, and to picture the silent grief with which
+many a brilliant soul must have repressed his eager imagination.
+
+
+
+_The Charity of the Monks_
+
+In the eleventh century, a monk named Thieffroy wrote the following: "It
+matters little that our churches rise to heaven, that the capitals of
+their pillars are sculptured and gilded, that our parchment is tinted
+purple, that gold is melted to form the letters of our manuscripts, and
+that their bindings are set with precious stones, if we have little or
+no care for the members of Christ, and if Christ himself lies naked and
+dying before our doors." This spirit, so charmingly expressed, was never
+quite absent from the monkish orders. The monasteries were asylums for
+the hungry during famines, and the sick during plagues. They served as
+hotels where the traveler found a cordial welcome, comfortable shelter
+and plain food. If he needed medical aid, his wants were supplied.
+During the black plague, while many monks fled with the multitude,
+others stayed at their posts and were to be found daily in the homes of
+the stricken, ministering to their bodily and spiritual needs. Many of
+them perished in their heroic and self-sacrificing labors.
+
+Alms-giving was universally enjoined as a sure passport to heaven. The
+most glittering rewards were held out to those who enriched the monks
+with legacies to be used in relief of the poor. It was, no doubt, the
+unselfish activities of the monks that caused them to be held in such
+high esteem; the result was their coffers were filled with more gold
+than they could easily give away. Thus abuses grew up. Bernard said:
+"Piety gave birth to wealth, and the daughter devoured the mother."
+Jacob of Vitry complained that money, "by various and deceptive tricks,"
+was exacted from the people by the monks, most of which adhered "to
+their unfaithful fingers." While Lecky eloquently praises the monks for
+their beautiful deeds of charity, "following all the windings of the
+poor man's grief," still he condones in the strongest terms the action
+of Henry VIII. in transferring the monastic funds to his own treasury:
+"No misapplication of this property by private persons could produce as
+much evil as an unrestrained monasticism."
+
+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: anachorêtês], 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: askêtês], 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: kanôn], 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: herêmos], 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 Encyclopædia 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 Conscientiæ_." 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."
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+A
+
+Abbey, _see_ Monastery.
+Abbot, meaning of word, 425;
+  as father of family of monks, 143;
+  election of, 144;
+  description of installation of, 145;
+  wealth and political influence of, 147;
+  disorders among lay, 179;
+  as a feudal lord, 373;
+  in legislative assemblies, 400.
+Abelard opposed by Bernard, 196.
+Abraham, St., the hermit, 50;
+  quoted, 60.
+Abstinence, no virtue in false, 419.
+Accountability, personal, sense of maintained by monks, 414.
+Act of Succession, 298.
+Agriculture, monasteries centers of, 155;
+  and the Cistercian monks, 192;
+  fostered by monks, 403.
+  _See_ Benedict, Order of St.
+Alaric the Goth sacks Rome, 103.
+Albans, St., Abbey of, Morton on its vices, 338.
+Albertus Magnus, a Dominican, 242.
+Albigensians, Hallam on doctrines of, 232;
+  Hardwick on same, 233;
+  Dominic preaches against, 234;
+  Dominic's part in crusade against, 235.
+Alcuin, on corruptions of monks, 173;
+  education and, 167.
+Alexander IV., Pope, on the stigmata of St. Francis, 221;
+  and the University of Paris quarrel, 250.
+Alfred, King, the Great, complains of monks, 173;
+  his reformatory measures, 181.
+Alien Priories, confiscated, 338;
+  origin of, 340.
+Allen, on the fate of the Templars, 202;
+  on Dominic and the Albigensian crusade, 238;
+  on spiritual pride of the Mendicants, 257;
+  on the genius of feudalism, 373;
+  on the deficiencies of monastic characters, 394.
+Alms-giving, _see_ Charity.
+Alverno, Mount, and the stigmata of St. Francis, 219.
+Ambrose, embraces ascetic Christianity, 84;
+  Theodosius on, 115;
+  saying of Gibbon applied to, 116;
+  describes Capraria, 126;
+  his influence on Milanese women, 126.
+Ammonius, the hermit, visits Rome, 72.
+Anglicans, claims of, respecting the early British Church, 162.
+Anglo-Saxons and British Christianity, 164.
+Anglo-Saxon Church, effect of Danish invasion on, 181;
+  effect of Dunstan's work on, 187.
+  _See_ Britain.
+Anslem, of Canterbury, on flight from the world, 369.
+Anthony, St.,
+  visits Paul of Thebes, 37;
+  his strange experiences, 38;
+  buries Paul, 41;
+  birth and early life of, 43;
+  his austerities, 44, 45;
+  miracles of, 46;
+  his fame and influence, 47;
+  his death, 48;
+  Taylor on biography of, 48.
+Ap Rice, a Royal Commissioner, 311.
+Aquinas, Thomas, a Dominican, 242.
+Ascetic, The, his morbid introspection, 392;
+  meaning of word, 425.
+  _See_ Monks and Hermits.
+Asceticism, in India, 18-20, 357;
+  among Chaldeans, 20;
+  in China, 20;
+  among the Greeks, 21, 22;
+  the Essenes, 23;
+  in apostolic times, 27;
+  the Gnostics, 27;
+  and the Bible, 30, 366;
+  in post-apostolic times, 31;
+  modifications of, under Basil, 64;
+  protests against, in early Rome, 124;
+  various forms of, 385;
+  effects of, 391, 401.
+  _See_ Monasticism.
+Aske, Robert, heads revolt against Henry VIII., 326.
+Athanasius, St., visits hermits, 35;
+  his life of Anthony, 42;
+  influence of same on Rome, 80, 83;
+  spreads Pachomian rule, 63;
+  visits Rome, 71,
+    and effect of, 80;
+  visits Gaul, 119;
+  his saying on fasting, 121.
+Atonement, for sin, the monk's influence on doctrine of, 417.
+Augustine, Bishop of Hippo,  his life, and services to monasticism,
+     117, 119;
+  influenced by biography of Anthony, 43;
+  on marriage and celibacy, 112;
+  charges monks with fraud, 128.
+Augustine, Rule of, adopted by Dominic, 232, 241.
+Augustine, the monk, his mission to England, 161.
+Augustinians, 246.
+Aurelius, Emperor, Christianity during reign of, 124.
+Austerities, Robertson on, 94.
+  _See_ Asceticism and Self-denial
+Austin Canons, 118.
+
+
+B
+
+Bacon, Roger, a Franciscan, 228;
+  imprisonment of, 407.
+Bagot, Richard, on the English reformation, 345.
+Bale, John, on the fall of the monasteries, 333.
+Baluzii, on the prosperity of the Franciscans, 255.
+Bangor, Monastery of, founded, 123;
+  slaughter of its monks, 165.
+Barbarians, the struggle of the monks with, 148, 149, 170;
+  conversion of, 398.
+Basil the Great, 63;
+  revolts against excessive  austerities, 64;
+  founder of Greek monasticism, 64, 65;
+  his rules, 65;
+  adopts irrevocable vows, 65;
+  on marriage, 66;
+  enforces strict obedience, 66.
+Bede, The Venerable, on the British
+  Church, 123; on monks and
+  animals, 156.
+Begging Friars, _see_ Mendicants,
+  Franciscans and Dominicans.
+Benedict, Pope, XI., 221; XII.,
+  consecrates Monte Cassino,
+  135; on the stigmata of St.
+  Francis, 221.
+Benedict of Aniane, his attempted
+  reform, 176.
+Benedict, of Nursia, birth and
+  early life, 131; his trials, 132;
+  his fame attracts followers, 133;
+  his strictness provokes opposition,
+  133; retires to Monte Cassino,
+  134; conquers Paganism,
+  135; his miracles and power
+  over barbarians, 137; his last
+  days, 13 8; his rules, 138; Schaff
+  on same, 148; Cardinal Newman
+  on mission of, 149; saying
+  of, on manual labor, 403.
+Benedict, Order of St., 131; rules
+  of, 138; the novitiate, 140;
+  daily life of monks, 140; meaning
+  of term "order," 143;
+  abbots of, 144; manual labor,
+  147, 403; Schaff on rules of,
+  148; its dealings with barbarians,
+  148, 398; its literary and
+  educational services, 151; its
+  agricultural work, 155, 404;
+  spread of, 158; its followers
+  among the royalty, 159.
+Bernard, of Clairvaux, his birth
+  and monastic services, 193;
+  character of his monastery,
+  192; on drugs and doctors,
+  194; his reforms, 195; Vaughan
+  on, 195; Storrs on, 197; the
+  Crusades, 197; on the abuses
+  of charity, 411.
+Bernardone, Peter, father of Francis,
+  208. _See_ Francis.
+Bethlehem, Jerome's monasteries
+  at, 85, 88; Paula establishes
+  monasteries at, 100.
+Bible, The, and monasticism, 30,
+  376.
+Bigotry, of monks, 394.
+Biography, monastic history centers
+  in, 84.
+Björnstrom, on the stigmata, 223.
+Blæsilla, murmurs against monks
+  at her funeral, 125.
+Blunt, on the: fall of the monasteries,
+  333.
+Boccaccio, comments on his visit
+  to Monte Cassino, 136.
+Boleyn, Anne, and Henry VIII.,
+  294.
+Bollandists, Catholic, on Dominic
+  and the Inquisition, 238.
+Bonaventura, on the stigmata of
+  Francis, 220; a Franciscan, 228;
+  on vices of the monks, 337.
+Boniface, the apostle to the Germans,
+  167.
+Bonner, Bishop, persuades Prior
+  Houghton to sign oath of
+  supremacy, 303.
+Brahminism, asceticism under, 19.
+Britain, Tertullian, Origen, and
+  Bede, on Christianity in, 123;.
+  relation of early church in, to
+  Rome, 162; monasticism in,
+  162, 168.
+Brotherhood of Penitence, 229.
+Bruno, the abbot of Cluny, 177.
+Bruno, founder of Carthusian order,
+  188; Ruskin on the order, 189;
+  the monastery of the Chartreuse, 189;
+  his eulogy of solitude, 396.
+Bryant, poem of, on fall of monasteries, 353.
+Buddha, on the ascetic life, 357.
+Buddhism, asceticism under, 19.
+Burke, Edmund, quoted by Gasquet on fall of monasteries, 312.
+Burnet, on report of Royal Commissioners, 316.
+Bury, Father, on Chinese monks, 20.
+
+
+C
+
+Cambridge, University of, the friars at, 252, 405.
+Campeggio, Cardinal, the divorce proceedings of Henry VIII. and, 294.
+Capraria, Rutilius and Ambrose on island of, 126.
+Capuchins, 246.
+Carlyle, Thomas, on Mahomet, 33;
+  quotes Jocelin on Abbot Samson's election, 145;
+  on the twelfth century, 157;
+  on the monastic ideal, 174;
+  on Jesuitical obedience, 271;
+  views of, criticised, 278.
+Carmelites, 246.
+Carthusians, The, establishment of, 188;
+  famous monastery of, 189;
+  rules of, 189;
+  in England, 191, 334.
+  _See_ Charterhouse.
+Cassiodorus, the literary labors of, 152.
+Casuistry, of the Jesuits, 272; 429.
+Catacombs, visited by Jerome, 87.
+Catharine, of Aragon, Henry's divorce from, 293.
+Catholic, Roman, _see_ Rome, Church of.
+Celibacy, praised by Jerome and Augustine, 112;
+  views of Helvidius on, opposed by Jerome, 113;
+  the struggle to establish sacerdotal, 183;
+  Lingard on, 183;
+  Lea on, 184;
+  vow of, 380;
+  and Scripture teaching, 381;
+  early Fathers on, 381;
+  a modern ecclesiastic's reasons for, 381;
+  how vow of, came to be imposed, 382;
+  no special virtue in, 419.
+Cellani, Peter, Dominic retires to house of, 238;
+Celtic Church, _see_ Britain.
+Cenobites, meaning of term, 425;
+  origin of, in the East, 57;
+  habits of early, 58;
+  aims of, 60.
+Chalcis, desert of, 87.
+Chaldea, asceticism in, 20.
+Chalippe, Father Candide, on miracles of saints, 224.
+Channey, Maurice, on fall of the Charterhouse, 302.
+Channing, William E., on various manifestations of the ascetic
+     spirit, 385;
+  on exaggerations of monasticism, 415.
+Chapter, The,
+  defined, 144;
+  of Mats, 228.
+Chapuys, despatches of, to Charles V., 297.
+Charity, of monks, 348, 410;
+  true and false, 348, 412;
+  Bernard, Jacob of Vitry and Lecky on abuses of, 411;
+  as a passport to Heaven, 411.
+Charlemagne, 118.
+Charles V., Emperor, Pole writes to, 296;
+  Chapuy's despatches to, 297.
+Charterhouse, of London, 191;
+  execution of monks of, 301, 334;
+  and the progress of England, 343.
+  _See_ Carthusians.
+Chartreuse, Grand, monastery, 189.
+Chastity, vow of, in Pachomian rule, 61.
+  _See_ Celibacy.
+China, asceticism in, 20.
+Chinese monks, Father Bury on, 20.
+Christ, _see_ Jesus Christ.
+Christian clergy, character of, in the fourth century, 77.
+Christian ideal, tending toward fanaticism, 129.
+Christian discipleship, nature of true, 390.
+Christianity, asceticism and apostolic, 27, 28, 31;
+  conquers Roman empire, 71, 76;
+  endangered by success, 77;
+  in Rome in the fourth century, 79;
+  Lord on same, 80;
+  is opposed to fanaticism, 94;
+  in ancient Britain, 123, 161, 162;
+  Clarke on, 171;
+  Mozoomdar on essential principle of, 359;
+  requires some sort of self-denial, 390, 418, 419;
+  monasticism and, compared, 420;
+  monasticism furnishes example of, 422.
+  _See_ Britain and Church.
+Chrysostom, becomes an ascetic, 84;
+  brief account of life of, 116;
+  monastic cause furthered by, 117.
+Church, Christian, the triumphant, compared with church in age of
+     persecution, 109;
+  ideal of, furthers monasticism, 129;
+  and the barbarians, 149;
+  of the thirteenth century, 206;
+  its life-ideal, 369;
+  its union with paganism, 370.
+  _See_ Anglo-Saxon Church, Britain, and England, Church of.
+Cistercian Order, the monks and rule of, 192;
+  decline of, 193.
+Citeaux, Monastery at, 192.
+Civic duties and monasticism, 399.
+  _See_ Monasticism.
+Clairvaux, Bernard of, _see_ Bernard;
+  Monastery of, 193.
+Clara, St., Nuns of, founded, 228.
+Clarke, William Newton, on Christianity of first and second
+     centuries, 171.
+Clarke, James Freeman, on Brahmin ascetics, 20.
+Classics, Jerome's fondness for the, 95;
+  the monks and the, 405.
+Clement XIV., Pope, dissolves the Society of Jesus, 279.
+Clergy of the Christian Church, 77.
+Clinton, Lord, on the work of suppression, 311.
+Cloister, 426.
+  _See_ Monastery.
+Cluny, Monastery at, 177;
+  the congregation of, 178.
+Coke, Sir Edward, quoted, 329.
+Columba, St., his church relations, 162.
+Commissioners, The Royal, appointed to visit monasteries of England,
+     their methods, 308, 333;
+  character of, 311;
+  begin their work, 313;
+  their report, 316;
+  Parliament acts on same, 319.
+Confession, among the Jesuits, 269.
+Conscience, liberty of, renounced by monks, 394.
+Constantine the Great, 71.
+Contemplation, John Tauler on, 395;
+  Bruno on, 396.
+Convents. _See_ Monasteries.
+Copyright, first instance of quarrel for, 170.
+Council, of Saragossa, 122;
+  of Trent, 382;
+  Lateran, 242.
+Court of Augmentation, 319.
+Crocella, Santa, chapel of, 131;
+  Romanus the monk, 131.
+Cromwell, Richard, on Sir John Russell, 326.
+Cromwell, Thomas, his life and aims, 308;
+  Green and Froude on, 309;
+  his religious views, 309;
+  Foxe and Gasquet on character of, 310;
+  becomes Vicegerent, 310;
+  inspires terror and hatred, 324;
+  his removal demanded, 326;
+  overcomes the Pilgrims of Grace, 326;
+  bribed for estates, 329.
+Cross, loyalty to the, fostered by monks, 414;
+  power of the doctrine of, 418.
+Crusades, effect of, on monastic types, 373.
+  _See_ Military Orders and Bernard.
+Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, 61;
+  and murder of Hypatia, 68.
+
+
+D
+
+Damian, Church of St., repaired by Francis, 211, 214.
+Danish invasion of England, its consequences, 180.
+Dante, on Francis and poverty, 215.
+Democracy, Christian, and monasticism, 422.
+Desert, Jerome on attractions of, 89.
+De Tocqueville, on self-subjection, 143.
+Dhaquit, the Chaldean, quoted, 20.
+Dharmapala, on the ascetic ideal in India, 357.
+Dill, Samuel, on Rome's fall and the Christian Church, 74, 79, 108,
+     109.
+Domestic life, a field of forbidden fruit, 394, 398.
+  _See_ Family-ideal and Jerome.
+Dominic, St., Innocent III. dreams of, 216;
+  early life of, 230;
+  his mother's dream, 231;
+  visits Languedoc, 232;
+  rebukes papal legates, 234;
+  his crusade against Albigensians, 234;
+  his relation to the Holy Inquisition, 235;
+  establishes his order, 239;
+  at Rome, 239;
+  his self-denial and death, 240;
+  canonized, 241.
+Dominic, St., Nuns of, 242.
+Dominicans, The, the Inquisition and, 238;
+  order of, founded, 239;
+  constitution of the order of, 241;
+  spread of, 241;
+  eminent members, 242;
+  three classes of, 242;
+  the preaching of, 249;
+  quarrel with the Franciscans, 249;
+  enter England, 251;
+  fatal success and decline of, 253, 256;
+  on the stigmata of Francis, 221;
+  liberal education and, 408.
+Ducis, on the Hermits, 32.
+Duns Scotus, a Franciscan, 228.
+Dunstan, reforms of, 182;
+  his character and life-work, 186.
+
+
+E
+
+East, monasticism in the, _see_ Monasticism and Monks.
+Echard, a Dominican, 242.
+Eckenstein, Lina, on Morton's letter, 339.
+Edersheim, on the Essenes, 24.
+Edgar, King, aids Dunstan in reform, 186.
+Education, The Mendicants and, 248;
+  the monks further, in England, 253;
+  the effect of monasticism on, 407.
+Edward I. and III., confiscate alien priories, 338.
+Egypt, The hermits of, 33;
+  Kingsley and Waddington on same, 34.
+Elijah, and asceticism, 30.
+Elizabeth, Princess, and the Act of Succession, 298.
+Endowments of monasteries, abolished by first Mendicants, 244;
+  reason for some, 361.
+England, Church of, separates from Rome, 328;
+  causes of, and by whom separation secured, 340, 342.
+  _See_ Britain.
+Essenes, asceticism of, 23.
+Ethelwold, aids Dunstan, 186.
+Eudoxia, Empress, banishes Chrysostom, 117.
+Eustochium, _see_ Paula.
+
+
+F
+
+Fabiola, St., Lecky on her charities, 105;
+  her care for sick, 105;
+  her death, 105.
+Family-ideal, of monastery, Taunton on, 143.
+  _See_ Domestic Life.
+Fanaticism, Christianity hostile to, 94;
+  tendency toward, among early Christians, 129.
+Farrar, on the luxury of Rome, 75.
+Fasting, amusing instance of rebellion of monks against, 120;
+  Athanasius on, 121.
+  _See_ Self-denial, Ascetic and Asceticism.
+Ferdinand, of Austria, educated by Jesuits, 277.
+Feudalism, monasticism affected by, 373.
+Finnian, the monk, quarrels with Columba, 170.
+Fisher, G.P., on the stigmata of Francis, 223.
+Fisher, execution of, by Henry VIII., 301, 306.
+Filial love, strangulation of, by monks, 397.
+Forsyth, on St. Francis, 225.
+Foxe, on Thomas Cromwell, 310.
+France, New, and the Jesuits, 282.
+Francis, St., his birth and early years, 208;
+  his dreams and sickness, 209;
+  visits Rome, 210;
+  seeking light on his duty, 210, 211;
+  sells his father's merchandise and keeps proceeds, 211;
+  renounces his father, 212;
+  assumes monkish habit, 213;
+  repairs Church of St. Damian, 214;
+  Dante on poverty and, 215;
+  visits Innocent III., 216;
+  visits Mohammedans, 217; a
+  lover of birds, 217;
+  Longfellow's poem on a homily of, 218;
+  his temptations, 218;
+  the stigmata, 219;
+  death of, 224;
+  his character, 225;
+  his rule, 226;
+  on prayer and preaching, 249;
+  method of, forsaken, 421.
+Franciscans, The, first year of, 215;
+  order of, sanctioned, 216, 217;
+  three classes of, 226;
+  the rule of, 226;
+  Sabatier on rule of, 227;
+  the title "Friars Minor," 227;
+  number of, 228;
+  St. Clara and, 228;
+  The Third Order of, 229;
+  quarrel over the vow of poverty, 246;
+  prosperity of, 246;
+  educational work of, 248;
+  quarrel with Dominicans, 249;
+  settle in England, 251;
+  Baluzii on success of, 255;
+  fatal success of, 253.
+Fratricelli, sketch of the, 247.
+Freedom, religious, want of, 402.
+Friars, Begging, _see_ Franciscans, Dominicans and Mendicants.
+Friars Minor, 227.
+Froude, on the Charterhouse monks, 302, 304;
+  on Thomas Cromwell, 309;
+  on the report of the Royal Commissioners, 317;
+  on the Catholics and the Reformation, 346.
+Future punishment, the monks and the doctrine of, 417.
+
+
+G
+
+Gairdner, on Henry's breach with Rome, 301.
+Galea, the Goth, awed by St. Benedict, 137.
+Gardiner, burns heretics, 311.
+Gasquet, on Thomas Cromwell, 310;
+  quotes Burke on the suppression, 312.
+Gauls, monastic, complain to St. Martin, 120.
+Germany, monasticism enters, 122.
+Gervais, reason for his donations, 361.
+Gibbon, on bones of Simeon, 57;
+  on Egyptian monks, 62;
+  on Roman marriages, 110;
+  saying of, applied to Ambrose, 116;
+  on military orders, 199;
+  quotes Zosimus, 348;
+  on the monastic aim, 362;
+  on the character of the monks, 388.
+Gindeley, on the Jesuits and the Thirty Years' War, 277.
+Giovanni di San Paolo, on gospel perfection, 226.
+Glastonbury, fall of Abbey of, 314.
+Gnostics, and asceticism, 27, 366.
+Godfrey de Bouillon, endows Hospital of St. John, 201.
+Godric, his unique austerities, 132.
+Goldsmith, on the English character, 166.
+Grand Chartreuse, monastery, 189.
+Greece, asceticism in, 20.
+Greeks, ancient, asceticism among the, 21.
+Greek Church, monasticism of the, 64, 67.
+Green, J.R., on the preaching friars, 254;
+  on Thomas Cromwell, 309;
+  on the suppression, 323.
+Gregory of Nazianza, on ascetic moderation, 65.
+Gregory, Pope, I., 138;
+  II., 135;
+  VII., 160, 178;
+  IX., 241;
+  X., 245.
+Gregory, St., Monastery of, rules of, 141.
+Griffin, Henry, on the Royal Commissioners, 311.
+Grimke, on historic movements, 84.
+Guigo, rules of, 190;
+  on vow of obedience, 383.
+Guizot, on state of early Europe, 149;
+  on the Benedictines, 404;
+  on monastic education, 407.
+Gustavus, contrasted to monks, 394.
+Guzman, _see_ Dominic.
+
+
+H
+
+Hallam, on the Albigensians, 233, 235;
+  on the suppression, 334;
+  on charity of the monks, 349.
+Happiness, the key to, 392.
+Hardwick, on the Albigensian doctrines, 233.
+Harnack, on early ascetics, 28;
+  on nominal Christianity of Rome, 77;
+  on life-ideal in the early church, 129;
+  on monasticism and the church, 414.
+Hell, the monks' teachings about, 417.
+Helvidius, on celibacy, 113.
+Henry, King, II., and the British church, 165;
+  III., invites students to England, 252;
+  IV., confiscates alien priories, 338.
+Henry VIII., and the independence of English church, 163;
+  and the fall of the monasteries, 286;
+  opinions respecting his character, 288, 290;
+  inconsistencies of, 291;
+  "Defender of the Faith," 293;
+  his divorce from Catharine, 293;
+  breach with Rome, 294, 300;
+  dangers to his throne, 295;
+  monks enraged at, 296;
+  as "Head of the Church," 297, 298;
+  Act of Succession, 298;
+  Oath of Supremacy, 298, 301;
+  excommunicated, 306;
+  the struggle for power, 324;
+  suppresses "Pilgrims of Grace," 326;
+  his use of monastic revenues, 328, 330;
+  Coke on his promises to Parliament, 329;
+  his motives for the suppression, 332;
+  Hooper on reforms of, 339;
+  an unconscious agent of new forces, 344;
+  two epochs met in reign of, 346;
+  Lecky on his use of monastic funds, 411.
+Heresy, growth of, in thirteenth century, 206;
+  monks attempt extirpation of, 261, 402;
+  Jesuits and, 276, 409.
+Heretical sects, attack vices of monks, 245.
+Hermit life, founder of, 35;
+  unsuited to women, 107.
+Hermits, The, of India, 20;
+  of Egypt, 33;
+  their mode of life, 49;
+  visit Rome, 71;
+  effect of story of, in Rome, 71, 80, 84;
+  of Augustine, 246.
+Hilarion, the hermit, 49.
+Hildebrand, _see_ Gregory VII.
+Hill, on manual labor, 142;
+  on fall of monasticism, 345.
+History, monastic contributions to, 406.
+Hoensbroech, Count Paul von, on Jesuitical discipline, 268.
+Holiness, false views of, 421.
+  _See_ Soul-purity and Salvation.
+Holy Land, motives for exodus to, 97.
+Holy Maid of Kent, 337.
+Home-life, not to be despised, 420.
+Honorius, III., Pope, sanctions Franciscan Order, 217;
+  confirms Dominican Order, 239.
+Hooper, Bishop, on Henry's reforms, 339.
+Hospital, Knights of, _see_ Knights.
+Hospitals, founded by Fabiola, 105;
+  Lecky on, 105;
+  result of woman's sympathy, 111.
+Houghton, Prior, _see_ Charterhouse.
+Household duties, Jerome on, 114.
+  _See_ Domestic Life.
+House of Lords, majority in the, changed, 347.
+Houses, Religious, _see_ Monasteries.
+Hugh, St., of Lincoln, and the swan, 157;
+  Ruskin on, 189.
+Human affection, monks indifferent to, 394, 397.
+Hume, on the suppression, 333.
+Hypatia, Kingsley's, quoted, 61;
+  death of, 48.
+
+
+I
+
+Ideal, monastie, 354. _See_ Monasticism.
+Ignatius, St., _see_ Loyola.
+Independence, Jesuitism and personal, 270;
+  of thought, renounced  by monks, 394.
+  _See_ Freedom, Liberty.
+India, asceticism in, 18, 357.
+India, monasticism in, 18, 357, 358;
+  causes of same, 355.
+Individual, influence of the, 91;
+  effect of self-sacrifice upon the, 390;
+  effect of solitude upon the, 393.
+Industry, modern, not to be despised, 420.
+Innocent, Pope, III., 216, 234, 239, 242;
+  IV., 250;
+  VIII., 339.
+Inquisition, The Holy, the Albigensian crusade and, 233;
+  relation of Dominicans toward, 235;
+  its establishment and management, 238.
+Intellectual progress, monasticism opposed to true, 407;
+  in Europe, 409.
+Introspection, evil effects of morbid, 392.
+Iona, Monastery of, 168.
+Ireland, St. Patrick labors in, 123;
+  monasteries of, as centers of culture, 169.
+Isidore, the hermit, visits Rome, 72.
+Itineracy, substituted for seclusion in cloister, 244.
+
+
+J
+
+Jacob of Vitry, on abuses of charity, 411.
+James, the Apostle, quoted on rich men, 377.
+Jerome, St., his life of Paul of Thebes, 35;
+  on Pachomian monks, 59;
+  his letter to Rusticus, 59;
+  on solitude, 61;
+on number of Egyptian monks,
+  63; on clergy of the fourth and
+  fifth centuries, 77; in his cell,
+  85; Schaff on, 86; his birth
+  and early life, 86; his travels,
+  and austerities, 87, 92; organizes
+  monastic brotherhood,
+  88; his literary labors, 88;
+  glorifies desert life, 89; influences
+  Rome, 91; his temptations,
+  93; his fondness for the
+  classics, 95; his biographies of
+  Roman nuns, 96; his life of
+  St. Paula, 97, and of Marcella,
+  102; on folly of Roman women,
+  108; on marriage and celibacy,
+  112; on household duties, 113;
+  attacks the foes of monks, 127;
+  on vices of monks, 128; on
+  monastic aim, 360; on the
+  natural, 366.
+Jesuits, _see_ Jesus, The Society of.
+Jesuits, The Pagan, 22, 426.
+Jesus Christ, the Essenes and, 26;
+  quoted by early ascetics, 31,
+  and by Jerome, 92; teachings
+  of, used by monks, 366, 376;
+  his doctrine of wealth, 377;
+  his attitude toward rich men,
+  379; the doctrine of the cross
+  and, 418.
+Jesus, The Society of, Sherman on
+  nature of, 258; rejects seclusion,
+  258; Bishop Keane on,
+  259, 273; how differs from
+  other monastic communities,
+  259; founded by Loyola, 264;
+  constitution and polity of, 265;
+  grades of members of, 265;
+  vow of obedience in, 266; von
+  Hoensbroech on, 268; confession
+  in, 269; Carlyle on
+  obedience in, 271; casuistry of,
+  272, 429; its doctrine of probabilism,
+  274; the Roman
+  Church and, 275; Roman foes
+  of, 276; mission of, 276; its attitude
+  toward Reformation, 277;
+  the Thirty Years' War and, 277;
+  calumnies against, 279; Clement
+  XIV. dissolves, 279; expulsion
+  of, from Europe, 279;
+  missionary labors of, 280; Parkman
+  contrasts, with Puritans,
+  281; failure of, 283; restoration
+  of, 283; causes for rise of,
+  374; hostility of, to free government,
+  402; liberal education
+  opposed by, 409. _See_ Loyola.
+Jewish asceticism, 23.
+Jocelin, quoted by Carlyle, 145.
+John,  King, confiscates alien
+  priories, 338.
+John, St., Knights of, _see_ Knights.
+John, St., of Calama, visits his
+  sister in disguise, 397.
+John, the Apostle, on love of the
+  world, 377.
+John the Baptist, and asceticism,
+  30.
+Johnson, on Monastery of Iona,
+  168.
+Joseph, St., Church of, in England,
+  163.
+Josephus on the Essenes, 23.
+Jovinian, hostility of, toward
+  monks, 127; compared by
+  Neander to Luther, 127.
+Julian, Emperor, the exodus of
+  monks and the, 127.
+Juvenal, satire of, on Roman
+  women, 82.
+
+
+K
+
+Keane, Bishop, on the Jesuits,
+  259, 273.
+Kennaquhair, installation of abbot
+  of, 145.
+King, on Hildebrand, 178.
+Kingsley, on Egypt and the hermits,
+  34; on Roman women,
+  82, 106; on fall of Rome, 78,
+  367.
+Knights of St. John, their origin
+  and mission, 200.
+Knights of the Hospital, sketch
+  of the, 198.
+Knights Templars, rule of the,
+  197; rise and fall of, 202.
+
+
+L
+
+Labor, manual, Jerome on, 59;
+  in Pachomian rule, 60; Hill on
+  benefits of, 142; among the
+  Benedictines, 147, 404; Benedict
+  on, 403; effect of Mendicants
+  on, 404; not to be despised,
+  420.
+Lama, Grand, in India, 21.
+Lateran Council, 242.
+Latimer, Bishop, and the monastic
+  funds, 323.
+Laumer, St., and wild animals,
+  156.
+Laveleye on Christianity, 378.
+Lay abbots, disorders among the,
+  179.
+Layton, a Royal Commissioner,
+  311. 312.
+Lea, on celibacy, 184; on the
+  Reformation, 342.
+Learning, influence of Alcuin
+  and Wilfred on, 167; Irish
+  monasteries as centers of, 169;
+  monks further, in England,
+  252; the monks and secular,
+  406; effects of monasticism on
+  the course of, 407. _See_ Literary
+  services.
+Lecky, on Fabiola's hospitals, 105;
+  on asceticism and civilization,
+  401; on industry and the monastic
+  ideal, 405; on abuses of
+  alms-giving, 411; on the monastic
+  doctrines of hell, 418.
+Legh, a Royal Commissioner, 311.
+Leo X., Pope, 293.
+Liberty, the Jesuits on, 375. _See_
+  Freedom and Independence.
+Libraries, monastic, 152.
+Lincoln, Abraham, quoted, 205.
+Lingard, on Bede and the conversion
+  of King Lucius, 124;
+ on the Anglo-Saxon Church,
+  181.
+Literary services of monks, 153,
+  406. _See_ Learning.
+Lollardism, way paved for destruction
+  of cloisters by, 294.
+  _See_ 429.
+Lombards destroy Monte Cassino,
+  135.
+London, John, a Royal Commissioner,
+  311.
+Longfellow, poem of, on Francis,
+  218; on Monte Cassino, 135-
+Lord, John, on needed religious
+  reforms, 80.
+Loyola, St. Ignatius, his birth,
+  261; enters upon religious work,
+  262; his pilgrimage to the Holy
+  Land, 263; his education, 263;
+imprisonments, 263; founds Society
+  of Jesus, 264; his "Spiritual
+  Exercises," 265, 267; on
+  obedience, 267; his mission,
+  276; Sherman on, 278; compared
+  with Hamilcar, 409. _See_
+  Society of Jesus.
+Lucius, a British king, embraces
+  Christianity, 124.
+Luther, influence of, in history, 92;
+  an Augustinian monk, 118;
+  Henry VIII. attacks, 293.
+Lytton, his views of Jesuits denounced,
+  278.
+
+
+M
+
+Macarius, the hermit, 49.
+Macaulay, his views of Jesuits
+  opposed, 278; on the aims of
+  Jesuits, 283; on the Roman
+  Church, 402.
+Mabie, H.W., on the monks
+  and the classics, 408.
+Mahomet, Carlyle on, 33.
+Maitland, on Benedictine monasteries,
+  155.
+Maitre, on desecration of cloisters,
+  350.
+Malmesbury, his charges against
+  the monks, 173.
+Manicheism, relation of, to Albigensians,
+  233.
+Marcella, St., Jerome on life of,
+  102; her austerities and charity,
+  103.
+Maria dei Angeli, Sta., Francis
+  hears call in church of, 214.
+Marriage, Basil on, 66; how
+  esteemed in Rome, 110; Gibbon
+  on, in Rome, 110; Jerome
+  and Augustine on, 112;
+  vow of celibacy and, 381.
+Married life in Rome, Jerome on,
+  114.
+Martensen, on ascetics, 391; on
+  solitude and society, 395.
+Martin, St., of Tours, credibility
+  of biography of, 119; sketch
+  of his life, 120; his death, 122;
+  churches and shrines in honor
+  of, 122.
+Martinmas, 122.
+Materialism, monasticism and, 350,
+  413; of the West, 371.
+Mathews, Shailer, on Christ and
+  riches, 379.
+Matthew of Paris, on prosperity
+  of friars, 246.
+Maur, St., walks on water, 137.
+Maximilian, of Bavaria, educated
+  by Jesuits, 277.
+Melrose Abbey, 289.
+Mendicant Friars, The, 205; success
+  of, 242, 255; their value
+  to Rome, 243; confined to four
+  societies, 246; quarrels among,
+  246; their educational work,
+  248; in England, 251; decline
+  of, 253; as preachers, 244;
+  254; effects of prosperity on,
+  256.
+Mendicity of monks, 245.
+Milan, church of, Emperor refused
+  entrance to the, 115.
+Military-religious orders, their origin,
+  labors and decline, 197.
+Militia of Jesus Christ, 242.
+Mill, John Stuart, on preaching
+  friars, 244.
+Milman, on the early church leaders,
+  129; on dream of Dominic's mother, 231;
+on bigotry of monks, 395;
+  on monks and natural affections, 398.
+Milton, contrasted to monks, 394.
+Miracles, 224.
+  _See_ Anthony, Stylites, St. Martin, etc.
+Missionary labors, of monks, 148, 171, 398;
+  of the Jesuits, 280, 281.
+Modern life and thought, monasticism rejected by, 421.
+Mohammedans, mission of Francis to, 217.
+Monastery, of Pachomius, 58;
+  Monte Cassino, 134;
+  St. Gregory's, rules of, 141;
+  Kennaquhair, 145;
+  Vivaria, 152;
+  Bangor, 165;
+  Iona, 168;
+  Cluny, 177;
+  Grand Chartreuse, 189;
+  Charterhouse, 191, 301, 334, 343;
+  Citeaux, 192;
+  Clairvaux, 193;
+  St. Nicholas, 240;
+  Melrose, 289;
+  Glastonbury, 314.
+Monasteries, in Egypt, 44;
+  of Jerome, 88;
+  of Paula, 100;
+  in early Britain, 123;
+  as literary centers, 151;
+  decline of, in Middle Ages, 173;
+  destruction of, by Danes, 180;
+  corruptions of, in Dunstan's time, 185;
+  abandonment of endowments, 244;
+  fall of, in England, 286;
+  fall of, in various countries, 288, 430;
+  obstacles to progress, 343;
+  new uses of, 350;
+  life in, 392;
+  charity of, 410.
+Monasteries, The Fall of, in England, 286;
+  various views of, 288;
+  necessity for dispassionate judgment, 289;
+  events preceding, 293;
+  progress and, 300;
+  the Charterhouse, 302;
+  the Royal Commissioners and their methods, 308, 313;
+  Glastonbury, 314;
+  report of commissioners, 313, 314;
+  action of Parliament, 319;
+  the lesser houses, 319;
+  the larger houses, 320;
+  total number and the revenues of, 321;
+  effect of, upon the people, 322;
+  Green on same, 323;
+  uprisings and rebellions, 325;
+  use of funds, 328;
+  justification for, 331;
+  Bale, Blunt and Hume on justification for, 333;
+  Hallam on, 334;
+  charges against monks true, 336;
+  Bonaventura and Wyclif on vices of monks, 337;
+  confiscation of alien priories, 338;
+  compared with suppression in other countries, 339, 430;
+  alienation of England from Rome, 342;
+  superficial explanation of, 343;
+  true view of, 344;
+  monks and reform, 344;
+  causes of, enumerated, 345;
+  results of, 345, 347;
+  general review of, 352;
+  Bryant on, 353.
+Monasticism, Eastern, origin of, 17, 29;
+  philosophy and, 18;
+  Christian, 29;
+  the Scriptures and, 30;
+  in Egypt, 33;
+  virtual founder of, 42;
+  under Pachomius, 58, 63;
+  under Basil, 63;
+  character of, in Greek church, 67;
+  perplexing character of, 69.
+  _See_ Jerome, Basil and Athanasius.
+Monasticism, Western, 71;
+  introduction in Rome, 71;
+  effect upon Rome, 80;
+women and, 96, 106;
+  Gregory the Great and, 160;
+  in England, 162; spread of, 115;
+  in Germany, 122;
+  in Spain, 122;
+  in early Britain, 123, 168;
+  disorders and oppositions, 124;
+  enemies of, 127;
+  its eclipse, 130;
+  code of, 139;
+  reforms of, and military types, 173, 197;
+  decline of, in the Middle Ages, 173, 179;
+  Benedict of Aniane tries to reform, 176;
+  in England, in Middle Ages, 180;
+  failure of reforms, 196, 207;
+  its moral dualism, 205;
+  its recuperative power, 205;
+  in the thirteenth century, 206;
+  new features of, 244;
+  popes demand reforms in, 286;
+  attacked by governments, 287;
+  Hill on fall of, in England, 345;
+  a fetter on progress, 347;
+  alms-giving and, 348;
+  age of, compared to modern times, 351.
+Monasticism, Causes and Ideals of, 354;
+  causative motives, 355;
+  the desire for salvation, 356;
+  quotations on the ideal, 129, 173, 174, 357, 358, 360;
+  nothing gained by return to ideal, 352;
+  motive for endowments, 361;
+  the love of solitude, 362;
+  various motives, 364;
+  beliefs affecting the causative motives, 365;
+  Gnostic teachings, 366;
+  effect of the social condition of Roman Empire, 367;
+  the flight from the world, 368;
+  causes of variations in types, 371;
+  East and West compared, 371;
+  effect of political changes, 372;
+  the Crusades, 373;
+  effect of feudalism, 373;
+  effect of the intellectual awakening, 374;
+  the Modern Age and the Jesuits, 374;
+  the fundamental vows, 375.
+Monasticism, Effects of, 386;
+  the good and evil of, 387;
+  variety of opinions respecting, 387;
+  the diversity of facts, 389;
+  elements of truth and worth, 390;
+  effects of self-sacrifice, 390, of solitude, 393;
+  the monks as missionaries, 398;
+  civic duties, 399;
+  upon civilization, 401;
+  upon agriculture, 403;
+  upon secular learning, 405;
+  the charity of monks, 410;
+  upon religion, 412, 413;
+  the sense of sin, 414;
+  the atonement for sin, 417;
+  the distinction between the secular and the religious, 418;
+  monasticism and Christianity, 420;
+  old monastic methods forsaken, 421;
+  summary of effects, 423.
+Monastic Orders, the usual history of, 174.
+  _See_ Benedict, Order of St., Franciscans, etc.
+Monks, not peculiar to Christianity, 17;
+  Jerome on habits of, 36;
+  in Egypt, 44;
+  Pachomian, 58;
+  number of Eastern, 63;
+  under Basil, 63;
+  character of Eastern, 67, 69;
+  as theological fighters, 68;
+  Hypatia and the, 68;
+  in the desert of Chalcis, 87;
+  in early Rome, 96;
+  motives of early, 106, 128;
+  of Augustine, 118; under
+Martin of Tours, 120;
+  opposition to Roman, 125, 147;
+  disorders among the early, 128, 150;
+  literary services of, 151, 153, 167, 169, 248, 253, 405, 406;
+  agricultural services of, 155, 192, 403;
+  wild animals and the, 156;
+  early British, 162, 168;
+  influence of the, in England, 166;
+  the barbarians and the, 148, 171, 398;
+  military, 173, 197;
+  corruptions of, 124, 173, 175, 179, 196, 206, 336;
+  the celibacy of, 183;
+  changes in the character of, 284;
+  rebel against Henry VIII., 296;
+  as obstacles to progress, 300, 343;
+  required to take the Oath of Supremacy, 301;
+  pious frauds of, in England, 318;
+  receive pensions, 320;
+  oppose reforms in England, 344;
+  privileges and powers of the, affected by the suppression, 347;
+  charity of the, 348, 410, 411;
+  objects of the, 360;
+  once held in high esteem, 361;
+  their flight from Rome, 368;
+  diversity of opinions respecting the, 388;
+  effect of austerities on the, 390;
+  effect of solitude on the, 393;
+  deficiencies in the best, 394;
+  as missionaries, 398;
+  civic duties and the, 399;
+  military quarrels incited by the, 401;
+  enthusiasm for religion kept alive by the, 413;
+  their sense of sin, exaggeration in their views and methods, 413;
+  their doctrine of hell, 417;
+  the doctrine of the cross and the, 418.
+  _See_ Mendicants, Benedict, Order of St., etc.
+Montaigne, on the temptations of solitude, 393.
+Montalembert, on Eastern monachism, 67;
+  on Benedict, 130;
+  on the ruin of French cloisters, 351;
+  on the attractions of solitude, 364;
+  on the value of the monks, 388, 406.
+Montanists, The, and asceticism, 27.
+Monte Cassino, Monastery at, Montalembert on, 134;
+  sketch of its history, 134.
+Montserrat, tablet on Ignatius in church at, 262.
+More, Sir Thomas, causes of his death, 298;
+  his character, 299;
+  influence of, in prison, 303, 305;
+  on Henry's ambition, 322.
+Morton, Cardinal, on the vices of the monks, 338.
+Mosheim, on Francis, 225;
+  on the quarrel of the Franciscans, 247.
+Mozoomdar, on the motives and spirit of Oriental asceticism, 358.
+Mutius, taught renunciation, 62.
+
+
+N
+
+Neander, compares Jovinian to Luther, 127;
+  on the dreams of Francis, 209.
+Newman, Cardinal, on Benedict's mission, 149.
+Nicholas, St., Monastery of, 240.
+Normans, The, and the alien priories, 341.
+Novitiate, Benedictine, extended by Gregory, 160;
+  of the Jesuits, 260, 269.
+  _See_ various orders.
+Nun, _see_ Women.
+Nunneries, origin of, 106.
+
+
+O
+
+Obedience, vow of, in Pachomian rule, 61;
+  enforced by Basil, 66;
+  among the Jesuits, 266;
+  Loyola on, 267;
+  Dom Guigo on, 383;
+  its value and its abuses, 384.
+Observantines, 246.
+Oliphant, Mrs., on the temptations of Francis, 218;
+  on the stigmata, 222.
+Origen, on Christianity in Britain, 123.
+Oswald, aids Dunstan in reforms, 186.
+Oxford University, friars enter, 251;
+  founded by monks, 406.
+
+
+P
+
+Pachomius, St., 32;
+  birth and early life of, 58.
+Pachomian Monks, rules of, 58;
+  vows, 61;
+  their number and spread, 63.
+Pagan philosophy powerless to save Rome, 76.
+Palgrave on the miter, 400.
+Pamplona, Ignatius wounded at siege of, 262.
+Parkman, Francis, on the Puritans and the Jesuits, 281;
+  on the Roman Church, 386.
+Parliament of Religions, World's Fair, views of asceticism at the,
+  357, 358.
+Paris, University of, 249, 406.
+Paschal II., Pope, the gift of Cluny, 178.
+Patrick, St., 122;
+  labors in Ireland, 123;
+  was he a Romanist? 162.
+Paul, The Apostle, on asceticism, 27.
+Paul III., Pope, excommunicates Henry VIII., 306.
+Paul of Thebes, Jerome's life of, 35;
+  his early life, 36;
+  visited by Anthony, 37;
+  his death, 40;
+  effect of his biography on the times, 42.
+Paula, St., Jerome on death of, 98, 101;
+  her austerities and charities, 98, 100;
+  separates from her children, 98;
+  her monasteries at Bethlehem, 100;
+  inscription on her tombstone, 102;
+  faints at her daughter's funeral, 125.
+Paulinus, embraces ascetic Christianity, 84.
+Peter, The Apostle, marriage of, 115.
+Peter the Venerable, 178.
+Petrarch, Mabie on, and the classics, 408.
+Peyto, Friar, denounces Henry VIII., 296:
+Philanthropy, spirit of, kept alive by monks, 412.
+  _See_ Charity.
+Philip IV., King, of France, his charges against the Knights, 202.
+Phillips, Wendell, on the reading of history, 386.
+Philo, on the Essenes, 23;
+  on the Therapeutæ, 27.
+Philosophy, ascetic influence of Greek, 21;
+  Gnostic, 27;
+  Pagan, and fall of Rome, 76.
+Pike, Luke Owen, on the character of Henry VIII., 290;
+  on the lawlessness of monks, 336.
+Pilgrims of Grace, 326;
+  their demands and overthrowal, 327.
+Pillar Saints, 51.
+Plague, Black, and the monks, 410.
+Plato, ascetic teachings of, 22.
+Pliny, on the Essenes, 25.
+Pole, Reginald, on Henry VIII. and Rome, 295.
+Politics, not to be despised, 420.
+Portus, inn at, 105.
+Potitianus, affected by Anthony's biography, 83.
+Poverty, vow of, in Pachomian rule, 61;
+  Franciscans quarrel over, 246;
+  and the Scriptures, 376.
+Preaching Friars, _see_ Dominicans, Franciscans and Mendicants.
+Pride, spiritual, of monks, 395.
+Probabilism, doctrine of, 274.
+Protestantism, effect of, upon monasticism, 286;
+  guilty of persecution, 332;
+  and the Church of England, 340;
+  its real value to England, 346;
+  its religious ideal, 356.
+Putnam, on the rule of St. Benedict, 139;
+  on Cassiodorus, 153;
+  on the first quarrel over copyright, 170.
+Pythagoras, asceticism of, 21, 426.
+
+
+R
+
+Reade, Charles, on the monk's flight from the world, 368.
+Reading, the monks of, their pious frauds, 318.
+Recluses, _see_ Hermits.
+Reformed Orders, 173.
+Reform, monastic, 173, 205;
+  fails to stop decline of monasteries, 196, 207, 286;
+  demanded by popes, 286;
+  failure of, 336.
+  _See_ Monasticism.
+Reformation, The Protestant, furthered by certain Franciscans, 247;
+  relation of Mendicants to, 248;
+  the Jesuits and, 277; 278, 283;
+  in England, its character, and results, 345,346;
+  and the monastic life, 374.
+Relics, fraudulent, 128, 318.
+Religion, monasticism and, 18, 412;
+  influence of feelings and opinions, 354;
+  enthusiasm for, fostered by monks, 413;
+  the sense of sin, 414;
+  salvation, 417;
+  the distinction between the secular and the religious, 418, 420;
+  the doctrine of the cross, 418;
+  essence of, 419;
+  true, possible outside of convents, 421.
+Religious houses, _see_ Monasteries.
+Renunciation of the world, 358, 369.
+  _See_ Self-denial.
+Rice, Ap, a Royal Commissioner, 311.
+Riches, _see_ Wealth.
+Richard II., confiscates alien priories, 338.
+Robertson, F. W., on excessive
+  austerities, 94.
+Rome, Church of, her claims
+  respecting the early British
+  Church, 162; writers of, on
+  the stigmata, 223; her relation
+  to the Jesuits, 275, and the
+  English people, 294, 341;
+  martyrs of, 332; writers of, on
+  the fall of monasteries, 334,
+  335; England separates from,
+  342; her religious ideal, 356;
+  Parkman on, 386; Macaulay
+  on, 403. _See_ Henry VIII.
+Rome, Monasticism introduced in,
+  71; social and religious state
+  of, in the fourth century, 72,
+  74; Dill on causes of the
+  fall of, 74; classes of society
+  in, 75; Farrar on luxury of,
+  75; epigram of Silvianus, 76;
+  Kingsley on ruin of, 78; Jerome
+  on sack of, by Alaric, 103.
+  _See_ Jerome.
+Roman Empire, nominally Christian,
+  73;. its impending doom,
+  73, 367.
+Romanus, a monk, 131.
+Royalty, affected by monasticism,
+  179.
+Rules, monastic, the first, 58;
+  before Benedict, 107; of Augustine,
+  118; of St. Benedict,
+  138, 139, 147, 151, 158; of
+  Dom Guigo, 189; of St. Francis,
+  226. _See_ Celibacy, Poverty,
+  Obedience.
+Ruskin, on St. Hugh of Lincoln,
+  189.
+Rusticus, a monk, 59.
+Rutilius, on the monks, 126.
+
+
+S
+
+Sabatier, on rule of St. Francis,
+  227.
+Saint, Paul of Thebes, 35; Anthony,
+  37; Athanasius, 42; Abraham,
+  50, 60; Macarius, 49;
+  Hilarion, 49; Simeon Stylites,
+  51; Pachomius, 58; Basil,
+  63; Gregory of Nazianza, 65;
+  Jerome, 85; Paula, 97; Marcella,
+  102; Fabiola, 105; Ambrose,
+  115; Chrysostom, 116;
+  Augustine, 117; Martin of
+  Tours, 119; Maur, 137; Patrick,
+  123, 162; Benedict of
+  Nursia, 131; Hugh of Lincoln,
+  157, 189; Gregory the Great,
+  159; Columba, 162, 168, 170;
+  Boniface, 167; Wilfred, 167;
+  Benedict of Aniane, 176;
+  Dunstan, 182; Bruno, 188;
+  Bernard, 192; Francis, 208;
+  Clara, 228; Dominic, 230;
+  Loyola, 261.
+Salvation, the desire for, 70, 111,
+  355, 396; the struggle for,
+  95; monastic views of, 417.
+Samson, Abbot, election of, 145.
+Santa Crocella, chapel of, 131.
+Saracens burn Monte Cassino
+  monastery, 135.
+Saragossa, Council of, forbids
+  priests to assume monks' robes,
+  122.
+Savonarola, a Dominican, 242.
+Saxons invade England, 180.
+Schaff, Philip, on origin of monasticism,
+  18; on Montanists,
+  28; on the biography of the
+hermit Paul, 35;
+  on St. Jerome, 86;
+  on Augustine, 117;
+  on Benedictine rule, 148;
+  on monasteries as centers of learning, 153;
+  on effects of monasticism, 387.
+Scholastica, story about, 138.
+Schools, monastic, 154, 167.
+  _See _ Learning.
+Scott, Walter, on installation of an abbot, 145;
+  on the crusaders, 199.
+Seclusion, 244, 259.
+  _See_ Solitude.
+Secular life, duties of, 113;
+  the monks and, 399;
+  distinction between religion and the, 418;
+  true view of, 420.
+Self-crucifixion, 418.
+Self-denial, its nature, 356;
+  Mozoomdar on, 358.
+Selfishness, engendered by monasticism, 396.
+Self-forgetfulness, the key to happiness, 392.
+Self-mastery, the craving for, 70.
+Self-sacrifice, effect of, upon the individual, 390;
+  meaning of true, 419.
+  _See_ Asceticism.
+Serapion, monks of, 63.
+Severus, his life of St. Martin, 119.
+Sherman, Father Thomas E., on the Society of Jesus, 258;
+  on Loyola, 278.
+Sick, ministered to by women, 350.
+  _See_ Charity.
+Silvianus, epigram of, on dying Rome, 76.
+Simon de Montfort, 237.
+Simeon Stylites, birth and early life of, 51;
+  austerities of, 52;
+  his fame, 52;
+  lives on a pillar, 53;
+  Tennyson on, 54;
+  death of, 56;
+  refuses to see his mother, 397;
+  method of, forsaken, 421.
+Sin, monastic confessions of, 413;
+  consciousness of, preserved by monks, 414;
+  exaggerated views of, 415;
+  false methods to get rid of, 416;
+  monastic influence on doctrine of atonement for, 417.
+Sisterhoods, _see_ Women.
+Sixtus IV. and V., Popes, on the stigmata, 221.
+Social service, spirit of, 419, 423.
+Solitude, of Egypt, 33;
+  provided for in Pachomian rules, 60;
+  Jerome on, 61;
+  the love of, as a cause of monasticism, 362, 363;
+  effects of, upon the individual, 393;
+  Montaigne on temptations of, 393;
+  society and, 395.
+Soul-purity, struggles for, 95.
+  _See_ Salvation.
+Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius, 265.
+Spain, monasticism enters, 122.
+Starbuck, Charles C., on the casuistry of the Jesuits, 274.
+Stigmata, of St. Francis, 219.
+Storrs, on Bernard, 197.
+Subiaco, desert of, 131.
+Superstitions, monastic, when revolt against is justifiable, 423.
+Suppression of monasteries,
+  _see_ Monasteries, The Fall of.
+Supremacy, the monks required to take the oath of, 301.
+
+
+T
+
+Tabenna, Monastery at, 32, 58.
+Tauler, John, a Dominican, 242;
+  on service and contemplation,
+  395.
+
+Taunton, E.L., on the family-idea
+  of monasteries, 143; on Augustine
+  and British monks, 165.
+Taylor, Isaac, on the biography
+  of Anthony, 48.
+Templars, _see_ Knights.
+Tennyson, on Stylites, 54.
+Tertullian, on Christianity in
+  Britain, 123.
+Thackeray, views of, on Jesuits
+  opposed, 278.
+Theodoret, on Stylites, 51, 53.
+Theodosius, Abbot, 50.
+Theology, the monks and, 406;
+  White on same, 416.
+Theophilus, joins Eudoxia against
+  Chrysostom, 117.
+Therapeutæ, Philo on the, 27.
+Thieffroy, on charity of monks,
+  410.
+Third Order, _see_ Franciscans and
+  Dominicans.
+Thirty Years' War, the Jesuits
+  and the, 277.
+Trench, on monastic history, 175;
+  on genius in creation, 207;
+  on the stigmata, 223.
+Trent, Council of, restricts Mendicants,
+  246; on marriage, 382.
+
+
+U
+
+Universities, foundations of, laid
+  by monks, 405.
+Urban II., Pope, the gift of
+  Cluny monastery, 178.
+
+
+V
+
+Valens, Emperor, fails to stop
+  flight from Rome, 127.
+Vaughan, on Bernard's reforms,
+  195; on the need of reformation,
+  402.
+Virgins, _see_ Marriage.
+Virgil, Jerome's fondness for, 95;
+  Mabie on reading of, 408.
+Vivaria, literary work in monastery
+  at, 152.
+Voltaire, on the monks, 388.
+Vows, monastic, 61; irrevocable,
+  66, 112; usual history of,
+  174; of the military orders,
+  198; the fundamental, 375;
+  the passing away of, 423. _See_
+  Poverty, Celibacy and Obedience.
+Vulgate, Jerome, 85.
+
+
+W
+
+Waddington, on the hermits, 34;
+  on conscience and method of
+  monks, 390.
+War, monks incite to, 401.
+Watch-dogs of the Church, a term
+  applied to the Dominicans, 249.
+Wealth, Christ's doctrine of, 377;
+  not in itself an evil, 379; its
+  true value, 405; compatible
+  with Christianity, 420.
+White, on the theology of the
+  monks, 416.
+Whiting, Richard, Abbot of
+  Glastonbury, 315.
+Widows, _see_ Women and Marriage.
+Wilfred, St., his monastic labors, 167.
+William of Aquitaine, 177.
+William of Amour, 250.
+William of Orange, 394.
+Wolsey, Cardinal, 294, 308.
+Women, welcome call of monks, 81;
+  Kingsley on same, 82;
+  Juvenal on Roman women, 82;
+  Jerome's influence on, 86, 96;
+  monasticism and, 106;
+  hermit life unsuited to, 107;
+  effect of corrupt society on, 107,
+  no; distinguished by mercy, in, 350;
+  compared with monks, 111;
+  married life of, in Rome, 112;
+  influence of Ambrose upon, 126;
+  regulation of Guigo concerning monks and, 190.
+Wyclif, attacks the friars, 253, 337;
+  spirit of, affects monasticism, 295, 429.
+
+
+X
+
+Ximenes, Cardinal, a Franciscan, 228.
+
+
+Z
+
+Zosimus, on charity of monks, 348.
+
+
+_Printed at_ THE BRANDT PRESS, _Trenton, N.J., U.S.A_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+Monasteries, by Alfred Wesley Wishart.</title>
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Short History of Monks and Monasteries
+by Alfred Wesley Wishart
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Short History of Monks and Monasteries
+
+Author: Alfred Wesley Wishart
+
+Release Date: August 17, 2004 [EBook #13206]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF MONKS AND MONASTERIES ***
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+Produced by Christine Gehring, Charlie Kirschner and the Online
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+</pre>
+
+<h2>A SHORT HISTORY OF</h2>
+<h1>MONKS</h1>
+<h2>AND MONASTERIES</h2>
+<br>
+<h3><i>By</i> ALFRED WESLEY WISHART</h3>
+<h4>Sometime <i>Fellow</i> in <i>Church History</i> in <i>The
+University of Chicago</i></h4>
+<h5>ALBERT BRANDT, PUBLISHER<br>
+TRENTON, NEW JERSEY MDCCCC</h5>
+<h4>1900</h4>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page5"></a>[pg 5]</span>
+<h2><a name="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The aim of this volume is to sketch the history of the monastic
+institution from its origin to its overthrow in the Reformation
+period, for although the institution is by no means now extinct,
+its power was practically broken in the sixteenth century, and no
+new orders of importance or new types have arisen since that
+time.</p>
+<p>A little reflection will enable one to understand the great
+difficulties in the execution of so broad a purpose. It was
+impracticable in the majority of instances to consult original
+sources, although intermediate authorities have been studied as
+widely as possible and the greatest caution has been exercised to
+avoid those errors which naturally arise from the use of such
+avenues of information. It was also deemed unadvisable to burden
+the work with numerous notes and citations. Such notes as were
+necessary to a true unfolding of the subject will be found in the
+appendix.</p>
+<p>A presentation of the salient features of the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page6"></a>[pg 6]</span> whole history was
+essential to a proper conception of the orderly development of the
+ascetic ideal. To understand the monastic institution one must not
+only study the isolated anchorite seeking a victory over a sinful
+self in the Egyptian desert or the monk in the secluded cloister,
+but he must also trace the fortunes of ascetic organizations,
+involving multitudes of men, vast aggregations of wealth, and
+surviving the rise and fall of empires. Almost every phase of human
+life is encountered in such an undertaking. Attention is divided
+between hermits, beggars, diplomatists, statesmen, professors,
+missionaries and pontiffs. It is hoped the critical or literary
+student will appreciate the immense difficulties of an attempt to
+paint so vast a scene on so small a canvas. No other claim is made
+upon his benevolence.</p>
+<p>There is a process of writing history which Trench describes as
+"a moral whitewashing of such things as in men's sight were as
+blackamoors before." Religious or temperamental prejudice often
+obscures the vision and warps the judgment of even the most
+scholarly minds. Conscious of this infirmity in the ablest writers
+of history it <span class="pagenum"><a name="page7"></a>[pg
+7]</span> would be absurd to claim complete exemption from the
+power of personal bias. It is sincerely hoped, however, that the
+strongest passion in the preparation of this work has been that
+commendable predilection for truth and justice which should
+characterize every historical narrative, and that, whatever other
+shortcomings may be found herein, there is an absence of that
+unreasonable suspicion, not to say hatred, of everything monastic,
+which mars many otherwise valuable contributions to monastic
+history.</p>
+<p>The author's grateful acknowledgment is made, for kindly
+services and critical suggestions, to Eri Baker Hulbert, D.D.,
+LL.D., Dean of the Divinity School, and Professor and Head of the
+Department of Church History; Franklin Johnson, D.D., LL.D.,
+Professor of Church History and Homiletics; Benjamin S. Terry,
+Ph.D., Professor of Medieval and English History; and Ralph C.H.
+Catterall, Instructor in Modern History; all of The University of
+Chicago. Also to James M. Whiton, Ph.D., of the Editorial Staff of
+"The Outlook"; Ephraim Emerton, Ph.D., Winn Professor of
+Ecclesiastical History in <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page8"></a>[pg 8]</span> Harvard University; S. Giffard Nelson,
+L.H.D., of Brooklyn, New York; A.H. Newman, D.D., LL.D., Professor
+of Church History in McMaster University of Toronto, Ontario; and
+Paul Van Dyke, D.D., Professor of History in Princeton
+University.</p>
+<blockquote>A.W.W.<br>
+Trenton, March, 1900.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page9"></a>[pg 9]</span>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<div class="indx">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p><a href="#PREFACE">PREFACE.</a></p>
+<p><a href="#BIBLIOGRAPHY">BIBLIOGRAPHY.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p class="i5"><a href="#I">I</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p><a href="#MONASTICISM_IN_THE_EAST">MONASTICISM IN THE
+EAST.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Hermits_of_Egypt">The Hermits of
+Egypt.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Pillar_Saint">The Pillar Saint.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Cenobites_of_the_East">The Cenobites of
+the East.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p class="i5"><a href="#II">II</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p><a href="#MONASTICISM_IN_THE_WEST">MONASTICISM IN THE WEST:
+ANTE-BENEDICTINE MONKS</a> 340-480 A.D.</p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Monasticism_and_Women">Monasticism and
+Women.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Spread_of_Monasticism_in_Europe">The
+Spread of Monasticism in Europe.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Disorders_and_Oppositions">Disorders and
+Oppositions.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p class="i5"><a href="#III">III</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p><a href="#THE_BENEDICTINES">THE BENEDICTINES.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Rules_of_Benedict">The Rules of
+Benedict.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Struggle_against_Barbarism">The
+Struggle Against Barbarism.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Spread_of_the_Benedictine_Rule">The
+Spread of the Benedictine Rule.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p class="i5"><a href="#IV">IV</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p><a href="#REFORMED_AND_MILITARY_ORDERS">REFORMED AND MILITARY
+ORDERS.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Military_Religious_Orders">The Military
+Religious Orders.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p class="i5"><a href="#V">V</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p><a href="#THE_MENDICANT_FRIARS">THE MENDICANT FRIARS</a>.</p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Francis_Bernardone">Francis Bernardone</a>,
+1182-1226 A.D.</p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Franciscan_Orders">The Franciscan
+Orders.</a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page10"></a>[pg 10]</span>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Dominic_de_Guzman">Dominic de
+Guzman.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Dominican_Orders">The Dominican
+Orders.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Success_of_the_Mendicant_Orders">The
+Success of the Mendicant Orders.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Decline_of_the_Mendicants">The Decline
+of the Mendicants.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p class="i5"><a href="#VI">VI</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p><a href="#THE_SOCIETY_OF_JESUS">THE SOCIETY OF JESUS.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Ignatius_de_Loyola">Ignatius de Loyola</a>,
+1491-1556 A.D.</p>
+<p class="i1"><a href=
+"#Constitution_and_Polity_of_the_Order">Constitution and Polity of
+the Order.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Vow_of_Obedience">The Vow of
+Obedience.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Casuistry_of_the_Jesuits">The Casuistry
+of the Jesuits.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Mission_of_the_Jesuits">The Mission of
+the Jesuits.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Retrospect">Retrospect.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p class="i5"><a href="#VII">VII</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p><a href="#THE_FALL_OF_THE_MONASTERIES">THE FALL OF THE
+MONASTERIES.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Character_of_Henry_VIII">The Character
+of Henry VIII.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Events_Preceding_the_Suppression">Events
+Preceding the Suppression.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Monks_and_the_Oath_of_Supremacy">The
+Monks and the Oath of Supremacy.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Royal_Commissioners">The Royal
+Commissioners and their Methods of Investigation.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Report_of_the_Commissioners">The Report
+of the Commissioners.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Action_of_Parliament">The Action of
+Parliament.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href=
+"#The_Effect_of_the_Suppression_Upon_the_People">The Effect of the
+Suppression Upon the People.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href=
+"#Henry's_Disposal_of_Monastic_Revenues">Henry's Disposal of
+Monastic Revenues.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Was_the_Suppression_Justifiable?">Was the
+Suppression Justifiable?</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Results_of_the_Dissolution">Results of the
+Dissolution.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p class="i5"><a href="#VIII">VIII</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p><a href="#CAUSES_AND_IDEALS_OF_MONASTICISM">CAUSES AND IDEALS OF
+MONASTICISM.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Causative_Motives_of_Monasticism">Causative
+Motives of Monasticism.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href=
+"#Beliefs_Affecting_the_Causative_Motives">Beliefs Affecting the
+Causative Motives.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Causes_of_Variations_in_Monasticism">Causes
+of Variations in Monasticism.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Fundamental_Monastic_Vows">The
+Fundamental Monastic Vows.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p class="i5"><a href="#IX">IX</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page11"></a>[pg
+11]</span>
+<p><a href="#THE_EFFECTS_OF_MONASTICISM">THE EFFECTS OF
+MONASTICISM.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href=
+"#The_Effects_of_Self-Sacrifice_Upon_the_Individual">The Effects of
+Self-Sacrifice Upon the Individual.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href=
+"#The_Effects_of_Solitude_Upon_the_Individual">The Effects of
+Solitude Upon the Individual.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Monks_as_Missionaries">The Monks as
+Missionaries.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Monasticism_and_Civic_Duties">Monasticism
+and Civic Duties.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Agricultural_Services_of_the_Monks">The
+Agricultural Services of the Monks.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Monks_and_Secular_Learning">The Monks
+and Secular Learning.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#The_Charity_of_the_Monks">The Charity of
+the Monks.</a></p>
+<p class="i1"><a href="#Monasticism_and_Religion">Monasticism and
+Religion.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p><a href="#APPENDIX">APPENDIX.</a></p>
+<p><a href="#INDEX">INDEX.</a></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<h2>LIST OF PORTRAITS</h2>
+<blockquote>SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI, DYING, is CONVEYED TO THE<br>
+CHURCH OF SAINTE MARIE DE PORTIUNCULE, . . . . <i>facing
+title</i>.<br>
+<br>
+After the painting by J.J. Weerts. Originally published by<br>
+Goupil &amp; Co. of Paris, and here reproduced by their
+permission.<br>
+<br>
+[Jean Joseph Weerts was born at Roubaix (Nord), on May 1, 1847. He
+was a pupil of<br>
+Cabanel, Mils and Pils. He was awarded the second-class medal in
+1875, was made<br>
+Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1884, received the silver medal
+at the Universal<br>
+Exposition of 1889, and was created an Officer of the Legion of
+Honor in 1897. He is a<br>
+member of the "Soci&eacute;t&eacute; des Artistes Fran&ccedil;ais,"
+and is <i>hors concours</i>.]<br>
+<br>
+<a href="#image193.jpg">SAINT BERNARD</a><br>
+<br>
+After an engraving by Ambroise Tardieu, from a painting on
+glass<br>
+in the Convent of the R.P. Minimes, at Rheims.<br>
+<br>
+[Ambroise Tardieu was born in Paris, in 1790, and died in 1837. He
+was an engraver<br>
+of portraits, landscapes and architecture, and a clever manipulator
+of the burin. For a<br>
+time he held the position of "Geographical Engraver" to the
+Departments of Marine,<br>
+Fortifications and Forests. He was a member of the French
+Geographical and Mathematical<br>
+Societies.]--<i>Nagler</i>.<br>
+<br>
+<a href="#image232.jpg">SAINT DOMINIC</a><br>
+<br>
+From a photograph of Bozzani's painting, preserved in his cell
+at<br>
+Santa Sabina, Rome. Here reproduced from Augusta T. Drane's<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page12"></a>[pg 12]</span> "History
+of St. Dominic," by courtesy of the author and the publishers,<br>
+Longmans, Green &amp; Co., of London and New York.<br>
+<br>
+["Although several so-called portraits (of St. Dominic) are
+preserved, yet none of them<br>
+can be regarded as the <i>vera effigies</i> of the saint, though
+that preserved at Santa Sabina<br>
+probably presents us with a kind of traditionary
+likeness."]--<i>History of St. Dominic</i>.<br>
+<br>
+[In the "History of St. Dominic," on page 226, the author credits
+the portrait shown<br>
+to "Bozzani." We are unable to find any record of a painter by that
+name. Nagler,<br>
+however, tells of a painter of portraits and historical subjects,
+Carlo Bozzoni by name,<br>
+who was born in 1607 and died in 1657. He was a son of Luciano
+Bozzoni, a Genoese<br>
+painter and engraver. He is said to have done good work, but no
+other mention is made<br>
+of him.]<br>
+<br>
+<a href="#image263.jpg">IGNATIUS DE LOYOLA</a><br>
+<br>
+After the engraving by Greatbach, "from a scarce print by H.<br>
+Wierz." Originally published by Richard Bentley, London, in
+1842.<br>
+<br>
+[W. Greatbach was a London engraver in the first half of the
+nineteenth century. He<br>
+worked chiefly for the "calendars" and "annuals" of his time, and
+did notable work<br>
+for the general book trade of the better class.]<br>
+<br>
+[A search of the authorities does not reveal an engraver named "H.
+Wierz." This<br>
+is probably intended for Hieronymus Wierex (or Wierix, according to
+Bryant), a famous<br>
+engraver, born in 1552, and who is credited by Nagler, in his
+"K&uuml;nstler-Lexikon,"<br>
+with having produced "a beautiful and rare plate" of "St. Ignaz von
+Loyola." The<br>
+error, if such it be, is easily explained by the fact that portrait
+engravers seldom cut the<br>
+lettering of a plate themselves, but have it engraved by others,
+who have a special aptitude<br>
+for making shapely letters.]</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page13"></a>[pg 13]</span>
+<h2><a name="BIBLIOGRAPHY"></a>BIBLIOGRAPHY</h2>
+<blockquote>ADAMS, G.B.: Civilization during the Middle Ages.<br>
+ARCHER, T.A., and KINGSFORD, CHARLES L.: The Crusaders.<br>
+BARROWS, JOHN H., (Editor): The World's Parliment of Religions.<br>
+BLUNT, I.J.: Sketches of the Reformation in England.<br>
+BLUNT, JOHN HENRY: The Reformation of the Church of England, its
+History, Principles and Results.<br>
+BREWER, JOHN SHERREN: The Reign of Henry VIII.<br>
+BRYCE, JAMES: The Holy Roman Empire.<br>
+BURNET, GILBERT: History of the Reformation of the Church of
+England.<br>
+BUTLER, ALBAN: Lives of the Saints.<br>
+CARLYLE, THOMAS: Past and Present: The Ancient Monk. Miscellaneous
+Papers: Jesuitism.<br>
+CAZENOVE, JOHN G.: St. Hilary of Poitiers and St. Martin of
+Tours.<br>
+CHALIPPE, CANDIDE: The Life of St. Francis of Assisi.<br>
+CHILD, GILBERT W.: Church and State Under the Tudors.<br>
+CHURCH, R.W.: The Beginning of the Middle Ages.<br>
+CLARK, WILLIAM: The Anglican Reformation.<br>
+CLARKE, STEPHEN REYNOLDS: Vestigia Anglicana.<br>
+CLARKE, JAMES FREEMAN: Events and Epochs in Religious History.<br>
+COOK, KENINGALE: The Fathers of Jesus.<br>
+COX, G.W.: The Crusaders.<br>
+CUTTS, EDWARD LEWES: St. Jerome and St. Augustine.<br>
+DILL, SAMUEL: Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western
+Empire.<br>
+DRAPER, JOHN WILLIAM: History of the Intellectual Development of
+Europe.<br>
+DRAKE, AUGUSTA T.: The History of St. Dominic.<br>
+DUGDALE, Sir WILLIAM: Monasticum Anglicanum.<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page14"></a>[pg 14]</span> DURUY,
+VICTOR: History of Rome.<br>
+ECKENSTEIN, LINA: Woman Under Monasticism.<br>
+EDERSHEIM, ALFRED: The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.<br>
+ELIOT, SAMUEL: History of Liberty.<br>
+FARRAR, FREDERICK W.: The Early Days of Christianity.<br>
+FOSBROKE, J.D.: British Monachism.<br>
+FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY: History of England.<br>
+FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY: Short Studies.<br>
+GAIRDNER, JAMES, and SPEDDING, JAMES: Studies in English
+History.<br>
+GASQUET, FRANCIS A.: Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries.<br>
+GASQUET, FRANCIS A.: The Eve of the Reformation.<br>
+GIBBON, EDWARD: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.<br>
+GIESELER, J.K.L.: Manual of Church History.<br>
+GNEIST, RUDOLPH: History of the English Constitution.<br>
+GNEIST, RUDOLPH: The English Parliament.<br>
+GREEN, JOHN RICHARD: History of the English People.<br>
+GU&Eacute;RANGER, PROSPER: Life of St. Cecilia.<br>
+GUIZOT, F.P.G.: The History of France.<br>
+GUIZOT, F.P.G.: The History of Civilization in Europe.<br>
+HALLAM, HENRY: Europe During the Middle Ages.<br>
+HALLAM, HENRY: Constitutional History of England.<br>
+HALLAM, HENRY: Introduction to the Literature of Europe.<br>
+HARDY, R. SPENCER: Eastern Monasticism.<br>
+HARDWICK, CHARLES: History of the Christian Church in the Middle
+Ages.<br>
+HARNACK, ADOLF: Monasticism: Its Ideals and Its History:
+<i>Christian Literature Magazine</i>, 1894-95.<br>
+HILL, O'DELL T.: English Monasticism: Its Rise and Influence.<br>
+HUGHES, T.: Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits.<br>
+HUME, DAVID: The History of England.<br>
+JAMESON, ANNA: Legends of the Monastic Orders.<br>
+JESSOPP, AUGUSTUS: The Coming of the Friars.<br>
+KINGSLEY, CHARLES: The Hermits.<br>
+KINGSLEY, CHARLES: Hypatia.<br>
+KINGSLEY, CHARLES: The Roman and the Teuton.<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page15"></a>[pg 15]</span>
+LAPPENBERG, J.M.: A History of England Under the Anglo-Saxon
+Kings.<br>
+LARNED, J.N.: History for Ready Reference and Topical Reading.<br>
+LEA HENRY C.: History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages.<br>
+LEA, HENRY C.: Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church.<br>
+LECKY, WILLIAM E.H.: History of Rationalism in Europe.<br>
+LECKY, WILLIAM E.H.: History of European Morals.<br>
+LEE F.G.: The Life of Cardinal Pole.<br>
+LINGARD, JOHN: History of England.<br>
+LINGARD, JOHN: History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon
+Church.<br>
+LORD, JOHN: Beacon-Lights of History.<br>
+LORD, JOHN: The Old Roman World.<br>
+LUDLOW, JAMES M.: The Age of the Crusades.<br>
+MACKINTOSH, JAMES: History of England.<br>
+MAITLAND, SAMUEL R.: The Dark Ages.<br>
+MAITLAND, SAMUEL R.: Essays on the Reformation.<br>
+MATHEWS, SHAILER: Social Teachings of Jesus.<br>
+MILMAN, HENRY H.: The History of Latin Christianity.<br>
+MILMAN, HENRY H.: The History of Christianity.<br>
+MONTALEMBERT, C.F.R.: Monks of the West.<br>
+MOSHIEM, J.L. VON: Institutes of Ecclesiastical History.<br>
+NEANDER, AUGUSTUS: General History of the Christian Religion and
+Church.<br>
+OLIPHANT, MARY O.W.: Life of St. Francis of Assisi.<br>
+PARKMAN, FRANCIS: The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth
+Century.<br>
+PIKE, LUKE OWEN: A History of Crime in England.<br>
+PUTNAM, G.H.: Books and Their Makers in the Middle Ages.<br>
+READE, CHARLES: The Cloister and the Hearth.<br>
+RUFFNER, H.: The Fathers of the Desert.<br>
+SABATIER, PAUL: Life of St. Francis of Assisi.<br>
+SCHAFF, PHILIP: History of the Christian Church.<br>
+SCHAFF, PHILIP, and WACE, HENRY, (Editors): The Nicene and<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church.
+(Lives and<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page16"></a>[pg 16]</span>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;writings of Jerome, Athanasius, Cassian, St.
+Martin of Tours,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;and other early supporters of the monastic
+movement).<br>
+SCOTT, WALTER: The Monastery.<br>
+SCOTT, WALTER: The Abbot.<br>
+SIENKIEWICZ, HENRY K.: The Knights of the Cross.<br>
+SMITH, PHILIP: Student's Ecclesiastical History.<br>
+SMITH, R.F.: St. Basil.<br>
+STANLEY, ARTHUR P.: History of the Eastern Church.<br>
+STILL&Eacute;, CHARLES J.: Studies in Medieval History.<br>
+STORRS, RICHARD S.: Bernard of Clairvaux.<br>
+STRYPE, J.: Annals of the Reformation.<br>
+STUBBS, WILLIAM: Lectures on the Study of Medieval History.<br>
+TAUNTON, ETHELRED L.: The English Black Monks of St. Benedict.<br>
+THOMPSON, R.W.: The Footprints of the Jesuits.<br>
+THURSTON, H.: The Life of St. Hugh of Lincoln.<br>
+TRAILL, H.D.: Social England.<br>
+TRENCH, RICHARD C.: Lectures on Medieval Church History.<br>
+TREVELYAN, GEORGE M.: England in the Age of Wycliffe.<br>
+VAUGHAN, ROBERT: Revolutions in English History.<br>
+VAUGHAN, ROBERT: Hours with the Mystics.<br>
+WADDINGTON, GEORGE: History of the Church.<br>
+WATERMAN, LUCIUS: The Post-Apostolic Age.<br>
+WHITE, A.D.: A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology.<br>
+WHITE, JAMES: The Eighteen Christian Centuries.<br>
+WOODHOUSE, FREDERICK C.: The Military Religious Orders of the
+Middle Ages.<br>
+<br>
+ENCYCLOP&AElig;DIAS: McClintock and Strong, Schaff-Herzog,
+Brittanica,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;English, and Johnson. (Articles on
+"Monasticism,"<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Benedict," "Francis," "Dominic," "Loyola,"
+etc.)<br>
+<br>
+Many other authorities were consulted by the author, but only<br>
+those works that are easily accessible and likely to prove of
+direct value<br>
+to the student are cited above.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page17"></a>[pg 17]</span>
+<h2>MONKS</h2>
+<h2>AND MONASTERIES</h2>
+<h2><a name="I"></a>I</h2>
+<h2><i><a name="MONASTICISM_IN_THE_EAST"></a>MONASTICISM IN THE
+EAST</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The monk is a type of religious character by no means peculiar
+to Christianity. Every great religion in ancient and modern times
+has expressed itself in some form of monastic life.</p>
+<p>The origin of the institution is lost in antiquity. Its genesis
+and gradual progress through the centuries are like the movement of
+a mighty river springing from obscure sources, but gathering volume
+by the contributions of a multitude of springs, brooks, and lesser
+rivers, entering the main stream at various stages in its progress.
+While the mysterious source of the monastic stream may not be
+found, it is easy to discover many different <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page18"></a>[pg 18]</span> influences and causes
+that tended to keep the mighty current flowing majestically on. It
+is not so easy to determine which of these forces was the
+greatest.</p>
+<p>"Monasticism," says Schaff, "proceeds from religious
+seriousness, enthusiasm and ambition; from a sense of the vanity of
+the world, and an inclination of noble souls toward solitude,
+contemplation, and freedom from the bonds of the flesh and the
+temptations of the world." A strong ascetic tendency in human
+nature, particularly active in the Orient, undoubtedly explains in
+a general way the origin and growth of the institution. Various
+forms of philosophy and religious belief fostered this monastic
+inclination from time to time by imparting fresh impetus to the
+desire for soul-purity or by deepening the sense of disgust with
+the world.</p>
+<p>India is thought by some to have been the birthplace of the
+institution. In the sacred writings of the venerable Hind&ucirc;s,
+portions of which have been dated as far back as 2400 B.C., there
+are numerous legends about holy monks and many ascetic rules.
+Although based on opposite philosophical <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page19"></a>[pg 19]</span> principles, the
+earlier Brahminism and the later system, Buddhism, each tended
+toward ascetic practices, and they each boast to-day of long lines
+of monks and nuns.</p>
+<p>The Hindoo (Brahmin) ascetic, or naked philosopher, as the
+Greeks called him, exhausted his imagination in devising schemes of
+self-torture. He buried himself with his nose just above the
+ground, or wore an iron collar, or suspended weights from his body.
+He clenched his fists until the nails grew into his palms, or kept
+his head turned in one direction until he was unable to turn it
+back. He was a miracle-worker, an oracle of wisdom, and an honored
+saint. He was bold, spiritually proud, capable of almost superhuman
+endurance. We will meet him again in the person of his Christian
+descendant on the banks of the Nile.</p>
+<p>The Buddhist ascetic was, perhaps, less severe with himself, but
+the general spirit and form of the institution was and is the same
+as among the Brahmins. In each religion we observe the same selfish
+individualism,--a desire to save one's own soul by slavish
+obedience to ascetic rules,--the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page20"></a>[pg 20]</span> extinction of natural desires by
+self-punishment. "A Brahmin who wishes to become an ascetic," says
+Clarke, "must abandon his home and family and go live in the
+forest. His food must be roots and fruit, his clothing a bark
+garment or a skin, he must bathe morning and evening, and suffer
+his hair to grow."</p>
+<p>The fact to be remembered, however, is that in India, centuries
+before the Christian Era, there existed both phases of Christian
+monasticism, the hermit[<a href="#NOTE_A">A</a>] and the crowded
+convent.</p>
+<p>Dhaquit, a Chaldean ascetic, who is said to have lived about
+2000 B.C., is reported to have earnestly rebuked those who tried to
+preserve the body from decay by artificial resources. "Not by
+natural means," he said, "can man preserve his body from corruption
+and dissolution after death, but only through good deeds, religious
+exercises and offering of sacrifices,--by invoking the gods by
+their great and beautiful names, by prayers during the night, and
+fasts during the day."</p>
+<p>When Father Bury, a Portuguese missionary, first saw the Chinese
+bonzes, tonsured and using <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page21"></a>[pg 21]</span> their rosaries, he cried out, "There is
+not a single article of dress, or a sacerdotal function, or a
+single ceremony of the Romish church, which the Devil has not
+imitated in this country." I have not the courage to follow this
+streamlet back into the devil's heart. The attempt would be too
+daring. Who invented shaved heads and monkish gowns and habits, we
+cannot tell, but this we know: long before Father Bury saw and
+described those things in China, there existed in India the Grand
+Lama or head monk, with monasteries under him, filled with monks
+who kept the three vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. They
+had their routine of prayers, of fasts and of labors, like the
+Christian monks of the middle ages.</p>
+<p>Among the Greeks there were many philosophers who taught ascetic
+principles. Pythagoras, born about 580 B.C., established a
+religious brotherhood in which he sought to realize a high ideal of
+friendship. His whole plan singularly suggests monasticism. His
+rules provided for a rigid self-examination and unquestioning
+submission to a master. Many authorities claim that the influence
+of the Pythagorean philosophy was <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page22"></a>[pg 22]</span> strongly felt in Egypt and Palestine,
+after the time of Christ. "Certain it is that more than two
+thousand years before Ignatius Loyola assembled the nucleus of his
+great society in his subterranean chapel in the city of Paris,
+there was founded at Crotona, in Greece, an order of monks whose
+principles, constitution, aims, method and final end entitle them
+to be called 'The Pagan Jesuits[<a href="#NOTE_B">B</a>].'"</p>
+<p>The teachings of Plato, no doubt, had a powerful monastic
+influence, under certain social conditions, upon later thinkers and
+upon those who yearned for victory over the flesh. Plato strongly
+insisted on an ideal life in which higher pleasures are preferred
+to lower. Earthly thoughts and ambitions are to yield before a holy
+communion with the Divine. Some of his views "might seem like
+broken visions of the future, when we think of the first disciples
+who had all things in common, and, in later days, of the celibate
+clergy, and the cloisteral life of the religious orders." The
+effect of such philosophy in times of general corruption upon those
+who wished to acquire exceptional moral <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page23"></a>[pg 23]</span> and intellectual
+power, and who felt unable to cope with the temptations of social
+life, may be easily imagined. It meant, in many cases, a retreat
+from the world to a life of meditation and soul-conflict. In later
+times it exercised a marked influence upon ascetic literature.</p>
+<p>Coming closer to Christianity in time and in teaching, we find a
+Jewish sect, called Essenes, living in the region of the Dead Sea,
+which bore remarkable resemblances to Christian monasticism. The
+origin and development of this band, which numbered four thousand
+about the time of Christ, are unknown. Even the derivation of the
+name is in doubt, there being at least twenty proposed
+explanations. The sect is described by Philo, an Alexandrian-Jewish
+philosopher, who was born about 25 B.C., and by Josephus, the
+Jewish historian, who was born at Jerusalem A.D. 37. These writers
+evidently took pains to secure the facts, and from their accounts,
+upon which modern discussions of the subject are largely based, the
+following facts are gleaned.</p>
+<p>The Essenes were a sect outside the Jewish ecclesiastical body,
+bound by strict vows and <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page24"></a>[pg 24]</span> professing an extraordinary purity.
+While there were no vows of extreme penance, they avoided cities as
+centers of immorality, and, with some exceptions, eschewed
+marriage. They held aloof from traffic, oaths, slave-holding, and
+weapons of offence. They were strict Sabbath observers, wore a
+uniform robe, possessed all things in common, engaged in manual
+labor, abstained from forbidden food, and probably rejected the
+bloody sacrifices of the Temple, although continuing to send their
+thank-offerings. Novitiates were kept on probation three years. The
+strictest discipline was maintained, excommunication following
+detection in heinous sins. Evidently the standard of character was
+pure and lofty, since their emphasis on self-mastery did not end in
+absurd extravagances. Their frugal food, simple habits, and love of
+cleanliness; combined with a regard for ethical principles,
+conduced to a high type of life. Edersheim remarks, "We can
+scarcely wonder that such Jews as Josephus and Philo, and such
+heathens as Pliny, were attracted by such an unworldly and lofty
+sect."</p>
+<p>Some writers maintain that they were also worshipers
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page25"></a>[pg 25]</span> of the
+sun, and hence that their origin is to be traced to Persian
+sources. Even if so, they seemed to have escaped that confused and
+mystical philosophy which has robbed Oriental thought of much power
+in the realm of practical life. Philo says, "Of philosophy, the
+dialectical department, as being in no wise necessary for the
+acquisition of virtue, they abandon to the word-catchers; and the
+part which treats of the nature of things, as being beyond human
+nature, they leave to speculative air-gazers, with the exception of
+that part of it which deals with the subsistance of God and the
+genesis of all things; but the ethical they right well work
+out."</p>
+<p>Pliny the elder, who lived A.D. 23-79, made the following
+reference to the Essenes, which is especially interesting because
+of the tone of sadness and weariness with the world suggested in
+its praise of this Jewish sect. "On the western shore (of the Dead
+Sea) but distant from the sea far enough to escape from its noxious
+breezes, dwelt the Essenes. They are an eremite clan, one marvelous
+beyond all others in the whole world; without any women, with
+sexual intercourse entirely given up, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page26"></a>[pg 26]</span> without money, and
+the associates of palm trees. Daily is the throng of those that
+crowd about them renewed, men resorting to them in numbers, driven
+through weariness of existence, and the surges of ill-fortune, to
+their manner of life. Thus it is that through thousands of
+ages--incredible to relate!--their society, in which no one is
+born, lives on perennial. So fruitful to them is the irksomeness of
+life experienced by other men."</p>
+<p>Admission to the order was granted only to adults, yet children
+were sometimes adopted for training in the principles of the sect.
+Some believed in marriage as a means of perpetuating the order.</p>
+<p>Since it would not throw light on our present inquiry, the
+mooted question as to the connection of Essenism and the teachings
+of Jesus may be passed by. The differences are as great as the
+resemblances and the weight of opinion is against any vital
+relation.</p>
+<p>The character of this sect conclusively shows that some of the
+elements of Christian monasticism existed in the time of Jesus, not
+only in Palestine but in other countries. In an account of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page27"></a>[pg 27]</span>
+Therapeut&aelig;, or true devotees, an ascetic body similar to the
+Essenes, Philo says, "There are many parts of the world in which
+this class may be found.... They are, however, in greatest
+abundance in Egypt."</p>
+<p>During Apostolic times various teachings and practices were
+current that may be characterized as ascetic. The Apostle Paul, in
+his letter to the Colossians, doubtless had in mind a sect or
+school which despised the body and abstained from meats and wine. A
+false asceticism, gathering inspiration from pagan philosophy, was
+rapidly spreading among Christians even at that early day. The
+teachings of the Gnostics, a speculative sect of many schools,
+became prominent in the closing days of the Apostolic age or very
+soon thereafter. Many of these schools claimed a place in the
+church, and professed a higher life and knowledge than ordinary
+Christians possessed. The Gnostics believed in the complete
+subjugation of the body by austere treatment.</p>
+<p>The Montanists, so called after Montanus, their famous leader,
+arose in Asia Minor during the second century, when Marcus Aurelius
+was emperor. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page28"></a>[pg
+28]</span> Schaff describes the movement as "a morbid exaggeration
+of Christian ideas and demands." It was a powerful and frantic
+protest against the growing laxity of the church. It despised
+ornamental dress and prescribed numerous fasts and severities.</p>
+<p>These facts and many others that might be mentioned throw light
+on our inquiry in several ways. They show that asceticism was in
+the air. The literature, philosophy and religion of the day drifted
+toward an ascetic scheme of life and stimulated the tendency to
+acquire holiness, even at the cost of innocent joys and natural
+gratifications. They show that worldliness was advancing in the
+church, which called for rebuke and a return to Apostolic
+Christianity; that the church was failing to satisfy the highest
+cravings of the soul. True, it was well-nigh impossible for the
+church, in the midst of such a powerful and corrupt heathen
+environment, to keep itself up to its standards.</p>
+<p>It is a common tradition that in the first three centuries the
+practices and spirit of the church were comparatively pure and
+elevated. Harnack says, "This tradition is false. The church was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page29"></a>[pg 29]</span> already
+secularized to a great extent in the middle of the third century."
+She was "no longer in a position to give peace to all sorts and
+conditions of men." It was then that the great exodus of Christians
+from the villages and cities to mountains and deserts began.
+Although from the time of Christ on there were always some who
+understood Christianity to demand complete separation from all
+earthly pleasures, yet it was three hundred years and more before
+large numbers began to adopt a hermit's life as the only method of
+attaining salvation. "They fled not only from the world, but from
+the world within the church. Nevertheless, they did not flee out of
+the church."</p>
+<p>We can now see why no definite cause for the monastic
+institution can be given and no date assigned for its origin. It
+did not commence at any fixed time and definite place. Various
+philosophies and religious customs traveled for centuries from
+country to country, resulting in singular resemblances and
+differences between different ascetic or monastic sects. Christian
+monasticism was slowly evolved, and gradually assumed definite
+organization <span class="pagenum"><a name="page30"></a>[pg
+30]</span> as a product of a curious medley of
+Heathen-Jewish-Christian influences.</p>
+<p>A few words should be said here concerning the influence of the
+Bible upon monasticism. Naturally the Christian hermits and early
+fathers appealed to the Bible in support of their teachings and
+practices. It is not necessary, at this point, to discuss the
+correctness of their interpretations. The simple fact is that many
+passages of scripture were considered as commands to attain
+perfection by extraordinary sacrifices, and certain Biblical
+characters were reverenced as shining monastic models. In the light
+of the difficulties of Biblical criticism it is easy to forgive
+them if they were mistaken, a question to be discussed farther on.
+They read of those Jewish prophets described in Hebrews: "They went
+about in sheepskins, in goatskins; ... wandering in deserts and
+mountains and caves, and the holes of the earth." They pointed to
+Elijah and his school of prophets; to John the Baptist, with his
+raiment of camel's hair and a leathern girdle about his loins,
+whose meat was locusts and wild honey. They recalled the
+commandment of Jesus to the rich <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page31"></a>[pg 31]</span> young man to sell all his possessions
+and give to the poor. They quoted the words, "Take no thought for
+the morrow what ye shall eat and what ye shall drink or wherewithal
+ye shall be clothed." They construed following Christ to mean in
+His own words, "forsaking father, mother, brethren, wife, children,
+houses and lands." They pointed triumphantly to the Master himself,
+unmarried and poor, who had not "where to lay his head." They
+appealed to Paul's doctrine of marriage. They remembered that the
+Church at Jerusalem was composed of those who sold their
+possessions and had all things in common. Whatever these and
+numerous other passages may truly mean, they interpreted them in
+favor of a monastic mode of life; they understood them to teach
+isolation, fastings, severities, and other forms of rigorous
+self-denial. Accepting Scripture in this sense, they trampled upon
+human affection and gave away their property, that they might
+please God and save their souls.</p>
+<p>Between the time of Christ and Paul of Thebes, who died in the
+first half of the fourth century, and who is usually recognized as
+the founder of monasticism, many Christian disciples voluntarily
+abandoned <span class="pagenum"><a name="page32"></a>[pg 32]</span>
+their wealth, renounced marriage and adopted an ascetic mode of
+life, while still living in or near the villages or cities. As the
+corruption of society and the despair of men became more
+widespread, these anxious Christians wandered farther and farther
+away from fixed habitations until, in an excess of spiritual
+fervor, they found themselves in the caves of the mountains,
+desolate and dreary, where no sound of human voice broke in upon
+the silence. The companions of wild beasts, they lived in rapt
+contemplation on the eternal mysteries of this most strange
+world.</p>
+<p>My task now is to describe some of those recluses who still live
+in the biographies of the saints and the traditions of the church.
+Ducis, while reading of these hermits, wrote to a friend as
+follows: "I am now reading the lives of the Fathers of the Desert.
+I am dwelling with St. Pachomius, the founder of the monastery at
+Tabenna. Truly there is a charm in transporting one's self to that
+land of the angels--one could not wish ever to come out of it."
+Whether the reader will call these strange characters angels, and
+will wish he could have shared their beds of stone and midnight
+vigils, I will not <span class="pagenum"><a name="page33"></a>[pg
+33]</span> venture to say, but at all events his visit will be made
+as pleasant as possible.</p>
+<p>In writing the life of Mahomet, Carlyle said, "As there is no
+danger of our becoming, any of us, Mahometans, I mean to say all
+the good of Mahomet I justly can." So, without distorting the
+picture that has come down to us, I mean to say all the good of
+these Egyptian hermits that the facts will justify.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Hermits_of_Egypt"></a>The Hermits of
+Egypt</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Egypt was the mother of Christian monasticism, as she has been
+of many other wonders.</p>
+<p>Vast solitudes; lonely mountains, honey-combed with dens and
+caves; arid valleys and barren hills; dreary deserts that glistened
+under the blinding glare of the sun that poured its heat upon them
+steadily all the year; strange, grotesque rocks and peaks that
+assumed all sorts of fantastic shapes to the overwrought fancy; in
+many places no water, no verdure, and scarcely a thing in motion;
+the crocodile and the bird lazily seeking their necessary food and
+stirring only as compelled; unbounded expanse <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page34"></a>[pg 34]</span> in the wide star-lit
+heavens; unbroken quiet on the lonely mountains--a fit home for the
+hermit, a paradise to the lover of solitude and peace.</p>
+<p>Of life under such conditions Kingsley has said: "They enjoyed
+nature, not so much for her beauty as for her perfect peace. Day by
+day the rocks remained the same. Silently out of the Eastern
+desert, day by day, the rising sun threw aloft those arrows of
+light which the old Greeks had named 'the rosy fingers of the
+dawn.' Silently he passed in full blaze above their heads
+throughout the day, and silently he dipped behind the Western
+desert in a glory of crimson and orange, green and purple.... Day
+after day, night after night, that gorgeous pageant passed over the
+poor hermit's head without a sound, and though sun, moon and planet
+might change their places as the years rolled round, the earth
+beneath his feet seemed not to change." As for the companionless
+men, who gazed for years upon this glorious scene, they too were of
+unusual character, Waddington finely says: "The serious enthusiasm
+of the natives of Egypt and Asia, that combination of indolence and
+energy, of the calmest languor with the fiercest passions,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page35"></a>[pg 35]</span> ...
+disposed them to embrace with eagerness the tranquil but exciting
+duties of religious seclusion." Yes, here are the angels of Ducis
+in real flesh and blood. They revel in the wildest eccentricities
+with none to molest or make afraid, always excepting the black
+demons from the spiritual world. One dwells in a cave in the bowels
+of the earth; one lies on the sand beneath a blazing sun; one has
+shut himself forever from the sight of man in a miserable hut among
+the bleak rocks of yonder projecting peak; one rests with joy in
+the marshes, breathing with gratitude the pestilential vapors.</p>
+<p>Some of these saints became famous for piety and miraculous
+power. Athanasius, fleeing from persecution, visited them, and
+Jerome sought them out to learn from their own lips the stories of
+their lives. To these men and to others we are indebted for much of
+our knowledge concerning this chapter of man's history. Less than
+fifty years after Paul of Thebes died, or about 375 A.D., Jerome
+wrote the story of his life, which Schaff justly characterizes as
+"a pious romance." From Jerome we gather the following account:
+Paul was the real founder of the hermit life, although not the
+first to bear the name. <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page36"></a>[pg 36]</span> During the Decian persecution, when
+churches were laid waste and Christians were slain with barbarous
+cruelty, Paul and his sister were bereaved of both their parents.
+He was then a lad of sixteen, an inheritor of wealth and skilled
+for one of his years in Greek and Egyptian learning. He was of a
+gentle and loving disposition. On account of his riches he was
+denounced as a Christian by an envious brother-in-law and compelled
+to flee to the mountains in order to save his life. He took up his
+abode in a cave shaded by a palm that afforded him food and
+clothing. "And that no one may deem this impossible," affirms
+Jerome, "I call to witness Jesus and his holy angels that I have
+seen and still see in that part of the desert which lies between
+Syria and the Saracens' country, monks of whom one was shut up for
+thirty years and lived on barley bread and muddy water, while
+another in an old cistern kept himself alive on five dried figs a
+day."</p>
+<p>It is impossible to determine how much of the story which
+follows is historically true. Undoubtedly, it contains little
+worthy of belief, but it gives us some faint idea of how these
+hermits lived. Its chief value consists in the fact that it
+preserves a <span class="pagenum"><a name="page37"></a>[pg
+37]</span> fragment of the monastic literature of the times--a
+story which was once accepted as a credible narrative. Imagine the
+influence of such a tale, when believed to be true, upon a mind
+inclined to embrace the doctrines of asceticism. Its power at that
+time is not to be measured by its reliability now. Jerome himself
+declares in the prologue that many incredible things were related
+of Paul which he will not repeat. After reading the following
+story, the reader may well inquire what more fanciful tale could be
+produced even by a writer of fiction.</p>
+<p>The blessed Paul was now one hundred and thirteen years old, and
+Anthony, who dwelt in another place of solitude, was at the age of
+ninety. In the stillness of the night it was revealed to Anthony
+that deeper in the desert there was a better man than he, and that
+he ought to see him. So, at the break of day, the venerable old
+man, supporting and guiding his weak limbs with a staff, started
+out, whither he knew not. At scorching noontide he beholds a
+fellow-creature, half man, half horse, called by the poets
+Hippo-centaur. After gnashing outlandish utterances, this monster,
+in words broken, rather than spoken, through his bristling
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page38"></a>[pg 38]</span> lips,
+points out the way with his right hand and swiftly vanishes from
+the hermit's sight. Anthony, amazed, proceeds thoughtfully on his
+way when a mannikin, with hooked snout, horned forehead and goat's
+feet, stands before him and offers him food. Anthony asks who he
+is. The beast thus replies: "I am a mortal being, and one of those
+inhabitants of the desert, whom the Gentiles deluded by various
+forms of error worship, under the name of Fauns and Satyrs." As he
+utters these and other words, tears stream down the aged traveler's
+face! He rejoices over the glory of God and the destruction of
+Satan. Striking the ground with his staff, he exclaims, "Woe to
+thee, Alexandria, who, instead of God, worshipest monsters! Woe to
+thee, harlot city, into which have flowed together the demons of
+the world! What will you say now? Beasts speak of Christ, and you,
+instead of God, worship monsters." "Let none scruple to believe
+this incident," says the chronicler, "for a man of this kind was
+brought alive to Alexandria and the people saw him; when he died
+his body was preserved in salt and brought to Antioch that the
+Emperor might view him."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page39"></a>[pg 39]</span>
+<p>Anthony continues to traverse the wild region into which he had
+entered. There is no trace of human beings. The darkness of the
+second night wears away in prayer. At day-break he beholds far away
+a she-wolf gasping with parched thirst and creeping into a cave. He
+draws near and peers within. All is dark, but perfect love casteth
+out fear. With halting step and bated breath, he enters. After a
+while a light gleams in the distant midnight darkness. With
+eagerness he presses forward, but his foot strikes against a stone
+and arouses the echoes; whereupon the blessed Paul closes the door
+and makes it fast. For hours Anthony lay at the door craving
+admission. "I know I am not worthy," he humbly cries, "yet unless I
+see you I will not turn away. You welcome beasts, why not a man? If
+I fail, I will die here on your threshold."</p>
+<blockquote>"Such was his constant cry; unmoved he stood,<br>
+To whom the hero thus brief answer made."</blockquote>
+<p>"Prayers like these do not mean threats, there is no trickery in
+tears." So, with smiles, Paul gives him entrance and the two aged
+hermits fall into each <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page40"></a>[pg 40]</span> other's embrace. Together they converse
+of things human and divine, Paul, close to the dust of the grave,
+asks, Are new houses springing up in ancient cities? What
+government directs the world? Little did this recluse know of his
+fellow-beings and how fared it with the children of men who dwelt
+in those great cities around the blue Mediterranean. He was dead to
+the world and knew it no more.</p>
+<p>A raven brought the aged brothers bread to eat and the hours
+glided swiftly away. Anthony returned to get a cloak which
+Athanasius had given him in which to wrap the body of Paul. So
+eager was he to behold again his newly-found friend that he set out
+without even a morsel of bread, thirsting to see him. But when yet
+three days' journey from the cave he saw Paul on high among the
+angels. Weeping, he trudged on his way. On entering the cave he saw
+the lifeless body kneeling, with head erect and hands uplifted. He
+tenderly wrapped the body in the cloak and began to lament that he
+had no implements to dig a grave. But Providence sent two lions
+from the recesses of the mountain that came rushing with flying
+manes. Roaring, as if they too mourned, they pawed the earth and
+thus <span class="pagenum"><a name="page41"></a>[pg 41]</span> the
+grave was dug. Anthony, bending his aged shoulders beneath the
+burden of the saint's body, laid it lovingly in the grave and
+departed.</p>
+<p>Jerome closes this account by challenging those who do not know
+the extent of their possessions,--who adorn their homes with marble
+and who string house to house,--to say what this old man in his
+nakedness ever lacked. "Your drinking vessels are of precious
+stones; he satisfied his thirst with the hollow of his hand. Your
+tunics are wrought of gold; he had not the raiment of your meanest
+slave. But on the other hand, poor as he was, Paradise is open to
+him; you, with all your gold, will be received into Gehenna. He,
+though naked, yet kept the robe of Christ; you, clad in your silks,
+have lost the vesture of Christ. Paul lies covered with worthless
+dust, but will rise again to glory; over you are raised costly
+tombs, but both you and your wealth are doomed to burning. I
+beseech you, reader, whoever you may be, to remember Jerome the
+sinner. He, if God would give him his choice, would sooner take
+Paul's tunics with his merits, than the purple of kings with their
+punishment."</p>
+<p>Such was the story circulated among rich and <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page42"></a>[pg 42]</span> poor, appealing with
+wondrous force to the hearts of men in those wretched years.</p>
+<p>What was the effect upon the mind of the thoughtful? If he
+believed such teaching, weary of the wickedness of the age, and
+moved by his noblest sentiments, he sold his tunics wrought of gold
+and fled from his palaces of marble to the desert solitudes.</p>
+<p>But the monastic story that most strongly impressed the age now
+under consideration, was the biography of Anthony, "the patriarch
+of monks" and virtual founder of Christian monasticism. It was said
+to have been written by Athanasius, the famous defender of
+orthodoxy and Archbishop of Alexandria; yet some authorities reject
+his authorship. It exerted a power over the minds of men beyond all
+human estimate. It scattered the seeds of asceticism wherever it
+was read. Traces of its influence are found all over the Roman
+empire, in Egypt, Asia Minor, Palestine, Italy and Gaul. Knowing
+the character of Athanasius, we may rest assured that he sincerely
+believed all he really recorded (it is much interpolated) of the
+strange life of Anthony, and, true or false, thousands of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page43"></a>[pg 43]</span> others
+believed in him and in his story. Augustine, the great theologian
+of immortal fame, acknowledged that this book was one of the
+influences that led to his conversion, and Jerome, whose life I
+will review later, was mightily swayed by it.</p>
+<p>Anthony was born about 251 A.D., in Upper Egypt, of wealthy and
+noble parentage. He was a pious child, an obedient son, and a lover
+of solitude and books. His parents died when he was about twenty
+years old, leaving to his care their home and his little sister.
+One day, as he entered the church, meditating on the poverty of
+Christ, a theme much reflected upon in those days, he heard these
+words read from the pulpit, "If thou wouldst be perfect, go and
+sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and come, follow
+me." As if the call came straight from heaven to his own soul, he
+left the church at once and made over his farm to the people of the
+village. He sold his personal possessions for a large sum, and
+distributed the proceeds among the poor, reserving a little for his
+sister. Still he was unsatisfied. Entering the church on another
+occasion, he heard our Lord saying in the gospel, "Take no thought
+for the morrow." The clouds <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page44"></a>[pg 44]</span> cleared away. His anxious search for
+truth and duty was at an end. He went out and gave away the remnant
+of his belongings. Placing his sister in a convent, the existence
+of which is to be noted, he fled to the desert. Then follows a
+striking statement, "For monasteries were not common in Egypt, nor
+had any monk at all known the great desert; but every one who
+wished to devote himself to his own spiritual welfare performed his
+exercise alone, not far from the village."</p>
+<p>Laboring with his hands, recalling texts of Scripture, praying
+whole sleepless nights, fasting for several days at a time,
+visiting his fellow saints, fighting demons, so passed the long
+years away. He slept on a small rush mat, more often on the bare
+ground. Forgetting past austerities, he was ever on the search for
+some new torture and pressing forward to new and strange
+experiences. He changed his habitation from time to time. Now he
+lived in a tomb, in company with the silent dead; then for twenty
+years in a deserted castle, full of reptiles, never going out and
+rarely seeing any one. From each saint he learned some fresh mode
+of spiritual training, observing his practice for future imitation
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page45"></a>[pg 45]</span> and
+studying the charms of his Christian character that he might
+reproduce them in his own life; thus he would return richly laden
+to his cell.</p>
+<p>But in all these struggles Anthony had one foe--the arch-enemy
+of all good. He suggests impure thoughts, but the saint repels them
+by prayer; he incites to passion, but the hero resists the fiend
+with fastings and faith. Once the dragon, foiled in his attempt to
+overcome Anthony, gnashed his teeth, and coming out of his body,
+lay at his feet in the shape of a little black boy. But the hermit
+was not beguiled into carelessness by this victory. He resolved to
+chastise himself more severely. So he retired to the tombs of the
+dead. One dark night a crowd of demons flogged the saint until he
+fell to the ground speechless with torture. Some friends found him
+the next day, and thinking that he was dead, carried him to the
+village, where his kinsfolk gathered to mourn over his remains. But
+at midnight he came to himself, and, seeing but one acquaintance
+awake, he begged that he would carry him back to the tombs, which
+was done. Unable to move, he prayed prostrate and sang, "If an host
+be laid against me, yet shall not my heart be afraid." <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page46"></a>[pg 46]</span> The enraged devils
+made at him again. There was a terrible crash; through the walls
+the fiends came in shapes like beasts and reptiles. In a moment the
+place was filled with lions roaring at him, bulls thrusting at him
+with their horns, creeping serpents unable to reach him, wolves
+held back in the act of springing. There, too, were bears and asps
+and scorpions. Mid the frightful clamor of roars, growls and
+hisses, rose the clear voice of the saint, as he triumphantly
+mocked the demons in their rage. Suddenly the awful tumult ceased;
+the wretched beings became invisible and a ray of light pierced the
+roof to cheer the prostrate hero. His pains ceased. A voice came to
+him saying, "Thou hast withstood and not yielded. I will always be
+thy helper, and will make thy name famous everywhere." Hearing this
+he rose up and prayed, and was stronger in body than ever
+before.</p>
+<p>This is but one of numerous stories chronicling Anthony's
+struggles with the devil. Like conflicts were going on at that hour
+in many another cave in those great and silent mountains.</p>
+<p>There are also wondrous tales of his miraculous power. He often
+predicted the coming of sufferers <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page47"></a>[pg 47]</span> and healed them when they came. His
+fame for curing diseases and casting out devils became so extensive
+that Egypt marveled at his gifts, and saints came even from Rome to
+see his face and to hear his words. His freedom from pride and
+arrogance was as marked as his fame was great. He yielded joyful
+obedience to presbyters and bishops. His countenance was so full of
+divine grace and heavenly beauty as to render him easily
+distinguishable in a crowd of monks. Letters poured in upon him
+from every part of the empire. Kings wrote for his advice, but it
+neither amazed him nor filled his heart with pride. "Wonder not,"
+said he, "if a king writes to us, for he is but a man, but wonder
+rather that God has written His law to man and spoken to us by His
+Son." At his command princes laid aside their crowns, judges their
+magisterial robes, while criminals forsook their lives of crime and
+embraced with joy the life of the desert.</p>
+<p>Once, at the earnest entreaty of some magistrates, he came down
+from the mountain that they might see him. Urged to prolong his
+stay he refused, saying, "Fishes, if they lie long on the dry land,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page48"></a>[pg 48]</span> die; so
+monks who stay with you lose their strength. As the fishes, then,
+hasten to the sea, so must we to the mountains."</p>
+<p>At last the shadows lengthened and waning strength proclaimed
+that his departure was nigh. Bidding farewell to his monks, he
+retired to an inner mountain and laid himself down to die. His
+countenance brightened as if he saw his friends coming to see him,
+and thus his soul was gathered to his fathers. He is said to have
+been mourned by fifteen thousand disciples.</p>
+<p>This is the story which moved a dying empire. "Anthony," says
+Athanasius, "became known not by worldly wisdom, nor by any art, but
+solely by piety, and that this was the gift of God who can deny?"
+The purpose of such a life was, so his biographer thought, to light
+up the moral path for men, that they might imbibe a zeal for
+virtue.</p>
+<p>The "Life of St. Anthony" is even more remarkable for its
+omissions than for its incredible tales. While I reserve a more
+detailed criticism of its Christian ideals until a subsequent
+chapter, it may be well to quote here a few words from Isaac
+Taylor. After pointing out some of its defects he <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page49"></a>[pg 49]</span> continues: there is
+"not a word of justification by faith; not a word of the gracious
+influence of the Spirit in renewing and cleansing the heart; not a
+word responding to any of those signal passages of Scripture which
+make the Gospel 'Glad Tidings' to guilty men." This I must confess
+to be true, even though I may and do heartily esteem the saint's
+enthusiasm for righteousness.</p>
+<p>So far I have described chiefly the spiritual experiences of
+these men, but the details of their physical life are hardly less
+interesting. There was a holy rivalry among them to excel in
+self-torture. Their imaginations were constantly employed in
+devising unique tests of holiness and courage. They lived in holes
+in the ground or in dried up wells; they slept in thorn bushes or
+passed days and weeks without sleep; they courted the company of
+the wildest beasts and exposed their naked bodies to the broiling
+sun. Macarius became angry because an insect bit him and in
+penitence flung himself into a marsh where he lived for weeks. He
+was so badly stung by gnats and flies that his friends hardly knew
+him. Hilarion, at twenty years of age, was more like a spectre than
+a living man. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page50"></a>[pg
+50]</span> His cell was only five feet high, a little lower than
+his stature. Some carried weights equal to eighty or one hundred
+and fifty pounds suspended from their bodies. Others slept standing
+against the rocks. For three years, as it is recorded, one of them
+never reclined. In their zeal to obey the Scriptures, they
+overlooked the fact that cleanliness is akin to godliness. It was
+their boast that they never washed. One saint would not even use
+water to drink, but quenched his thirst with the dew that fell on
+the grass. St. Abraham never washed his face for fifty years. His
+biographer, not in the least disturbed by the disagreeable
+suggestions of this circumstance, proudly says, "His face reflected
+the purity of his soul." If so, one is moved to think that the
+inward light must indeed have been powerfully piercing, if it could
+brighten a countenance unwashed for half a century. There is a
+story about Abbot Theodosius who prayed for water that his monks
+might drink. In response to his petition a stream burst from the
+rocks, but the foolish monks, overcome by a pitiful weakness for
+cleanliness, persuaded the abbot to erect a bath, when lo, the
+stream dried. Supplications and repentance availed nothing.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page51"></a>[pg 51]</span> After a
+year had passed, the monks, promising never again to insult Heaven
+by wishing for a bath, were granted a second Mosaic miracle.</p>
+<p>Thus, unwashed, clothed in rags, their hair uncut, their faces
+unshaven, they lived for years. No wonder that to their disordered
+fancy the desert was filled with devils, the animals spake and
+Heaven sent angels to minister unto them.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Pillar_Saint"></a>The Pillar Saint</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>But the strangest of all strange narratives yet remains. We turn
+from Egypt to Asia Minor to make the acquaintance of that saint
+whom Tennyson has immortalized,--the idol of monarchs and the pride
+of the East,--Saint Simeon Stylites. Stories grow rank around him
+like the luxuriant products of a tropical soil. How shall I briefly
+tell of this man, whom Theodoret, in his zeal, declares all who
+obey the Roman rule know--the man who may be compared with Moses
+the Legislator, David the King and Micah the Prophet? He lived
+between the years 390 and 459 A.D. He was a shepherd's son, but at
+an early age entered a monastery. Here <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page52"></a>[pg 52]</span> he soon distinguished
+himself by his excessive austerities. One day he went to the well,
+removed the rope from the bucket and bound it tightly around his
+body underneath his clothes. A few weeks later, the abbot, being
+angry with him because of his extreme self-torture, bade his
+companions strip him. What was his astonishment to find the rope
+from the well sunk deeply into his flesh. "Whence," he cried, "has
+this man come to us, wanting to destroy the rule of this monastery?
+I pray thee depart hence."</p>
+<p>With great trouble they unwound the rope and the flesh with it,
+and taking care of him until he was well, they sent him forth to
+commence a life of austerities that was to render him famous. He
+adopted various styles of existence, but his miracles and piety
+attracted such crowds that he determined to invent a mode of life
+which would deliver him from the pressing multitudes. It is curious
+that he did not hide himself altogether if he really wished to
+escape notoriety; but, no, he would still be within the gaze of
+admiring throngs. His holy and fanciful genius hit upon a scheme
+that gave him his peculiar name. He took up his abode on the top
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page53"></a>[pg 53]</span> of a
+column which was at first about twelve feet high, but was gradually
+elevated until it measured sixty-four feet. Hence, he is called
+Simeon Stylites, or Simeon the Pillar Saint.</p>
+<p>On this lofty column, betwixt earth and heaven, the hermit
+braved the heat and cold of thirty years. At its base, from morning
+to night, prayed the admiring worshipers. Kings kneeled in crowds
+of peasants to do him homage and ask his blessing. Theodoret says,
+"The Ishmaelites, coming by tribes of two hundred and three hundred
+at a time, and sometimes even a thousand, deny, with shouts, the
+error of their fathers, and breaking in pieces before that great
+illuminator, the images which they had worshiped, and renouncing
+the orgies of Venus, they received the Divine sacrament." Rude
+barbarians confessed their sins in tears. Persians, Greeks, Romans
+and Saracens, forgetting their mutual hatred, united in praise and
+prayer at the feet of this strange character.</p>
+<p>Once a week the hero partook of food. Many times a day he bowed
+his head to his feet; one man counted twelve hundred and forty-four
+times and then stopped in sheer weariness from gazing at the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page54"></a>[pg 54]</span> miracle
+of endurance aloft. Again, from the setting of the sun to its
+appearance in the East, he would stand unsoothed by sleep with his
+arms outstretched like a cross.</p>
+<p>If genius can understand such a life as that and fancy the
+thoughts of such a soul, Tennyson seems not only to have
+comprehended the consciousness of the Pillar Saint, but also to
+have succeeded in giving expression to his insight. He has laid
+bare the soul of Simeon in its commingling of spiritual pride with
+affected humility, and of a consciousness of meritorious sacrifice
+with a sense of sin. The Saint spurns notoriety and the homage of
+men, yet exults in his control over the multitudes.</p>
+<p>The poet thus imagines Simeon to speak as the Saint is praying
+God to take away his sin:</p>
+<blockquote>"But yet<br>
+Bethink thee, Lord, while thou and all the saints<br>
+Enjoy themselves in heaven, and men on earth<br>
+House in the shade of comfortable roofs,<br>
+Sit with their wives by fires, eat wholesome food,<br>
+And wear warm clothes, and even beasts have stalls,<br>
+I, 'tween the spring and downfall of the light,<br>
+Bow down one thousand and two hundred times,<br>
+To Christ, the Virgin Mother, and the Saints;<br>
+Or in the night, after a little sleep,<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page55"></a>[pg 55]</span> I wake:
+the chill stars sparkle; I am wet<br>
+With drenching dews, or stiff with crackling frost.<br>
+I wear an undress'd goatskin on my back;<br>
+A grazing iron collar grinds my neck;<br>
+And in my weak, lean arms I lift the cross,<br>
+And strive and wrestle with thee till I die:<br>
+O mercy, mercy! wash away my sin.<br>
+<br>
+O Lord, thou knowest what a man I am;<br>
+A sinful man, conceived and born in sin:<br>
+'Tis their own doing; this is none of mine;<br>
+Lay it not to me. Am I to blame for this,<br>
+That here come those that worship me? Ha! ha!<br>
+They think that I am somewhat. What am I?<br>
+The silly people take me for a saint,<br>
+And bring me offerings of fruit and flowers:<br>
+And I, in truth (thou wilt bear witness here)<br>
+Have all in all endured as much, and more<br>
+Than many just and holy men, whose names<br>
+Are register'd and calendared for saints.<br>
+<br>
+Good people, you do ill to kneel to me.<br>
+What is it I can have done to merit this?<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+Yet do not rise; for you may look on me,<br>
+And in your looking you may kneel to God.<br>
+Speak! is there any of you halt or maim'd?<br>
+I think you know I have some power with Heaven<br>
+From my long penance: let him speak his wish.<br>
+<br>
+Yes, I can heal him. Power goes forth from me.<br>
+They say that they are heal'd. Ah, hark! they shout<br>
+'St. Simeon Stylites.' Why, if so,<br>
+God reaps a harvest in me. O my soul,<br>
+God reaps a harvest in thee.&nbsp;&nbsp;If this be,<br>
+Can I work miracles and not be saved?"</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page56"></a>[pg 56]</span>
+<p>Once, the devil, in shape like an angel, riding in a chariot of
+fire, came to carry Simeon to the skies. He whispered to the weary
+Saint, "Simeon, hear my words, which the Lord hath commanded thee.
+He has sent me, his angel, that I may carry thee away as I carried
+Elijah." Simeon was deceived, and lifted his foot to step out into
+the chariot, when the angel vanished, and in punishment for his
+presumption an ulcer appeared upon his thigh.</p>
+<p>But time plays havoc with saints as well as sinners, and death
+slays the strongest. Bowed in prayer, his weary heart ceased to
+beat and the eyes that gazed aloft were closed forever. Anthony,
+his beloved disciple, ascending the column, found that his master
+was no more. Yet, it seemed as if Simeon was loath to leave the
+spot, for his spirit appeared to his weeping follower and said, "I
+will not leave this column, and this blessed mountain. For I have
+gone to rest, as the Lord willed, but do thou not cease to minister
+in this place and the Lord will repay thee in heaven."</p>
+<p>His body was carried down the mountain to Antioch. Heading the
+solemn procession were the patriarch, six bishops, twenty-one
+counts and six <span class="pagenum"><a name="page57"></a>[pg
+57]</span> thousand soldiers, "and Antioch," says Gibbon, "revered
+his bones as her glorious ornament and impregnable defence."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Cenobites_of_the_East"></a>The Cenobites of the
+East</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>We cannot linger with these hermits. I pass now to the
+cenobitic[<a href="#NOTE_C">C</a>] life. We go back in years and
+return to Egypt. Man is a social animal, and the social instinct is
+so strong that even hermits are swayed by its power and get tired
+of living apart from one another. When Anthony died the deserts
+were studded with hermitages, and those of exceptional fame were
+surrounded by little clusters of huts and dens. Into these cells
+crowded the hermits who wished to be near their master.</p>
+<p>Thus, step by step, organized or cenobitic monasticism easily
+and naturally came into existence. The anchorites crawled from
+their dens every day to hear the words of their chief saint,--a
+practice giving rise to stated meetings, with rules for worship.
+Regulations as to meals, occupations, dress, penances, and prayers
+naturally follow.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page58"></a>[pg 58]</span>
+<p>The author of the first monastic rules is said to have been
+Pachomius, who was born in Egypt about the year 292 A.D. He was
+brought up in paganism but was converted in early life while in the
+army. On his discharge he retired with a hermit to Tabenna, an
+island in the Nile. It is said he never ate a full meal after his
+conversion, and for fifteen years slept sitting on a stone. Natural
+gifts fitted him to become a leader, and it was not long before he
+was surrounded by a congregation of monks for whom he made his
+rules.</p>
+<p>The monks of Pachomius were divided into bands of tens and
+hundreds, each tenth man being an under officer in turn subject to
+the hundredth, and all subject to the superior or abbot of the
+mother house. They lived three in a cell, and a congregation of
+cells constituted a laura or monastery. There was a common room for
+meals and worship. Each monk wore a close fitting tunic and a white
+goatskin upper garment which was never laid aside at meals or in
+bed, but only at the Eucharist. Their food usually consisted of
+bread and water, but occasionally they enjoyed such luxuries as
+oil, salt, fruits and vegetables. They ate in silence, which
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page59"></a>[pg 59]</span> was
+sometimes broken by the solemn voice of a reader.</p>
+<p>"No man," says Jerome, "dares look at his neighbor or clear his
+throat. Silent tears roll down their cheeks, but not a sob escapes
+their lips." Their labors consisted of some light handiwork or
+tilling the fields. They grafted trees, made beehives, twisted
+fish-lines, wove baskets and copied manuscripts. It was early
+apparent that as man could not live alone so he could not live
+without labor. We shall see this principle emphasized more clearly
+by Benedict, but it is well to notice that at this remote day
+provision was made for secular employments. Jerome enjoins
+Rusticus, a young monk, always to have some work on hand that the
+devil may find him busy. "Hoe your ground," says he, "set out
+cabbages; convey water to them in conduits, that you may see with
+your own eyes the lovely vision of the poet,--</p>
+<blockquote>"Art draws fresh water from the hilltop near,<br>
+Till the stream, flashing down among the rocks,<br>
+Cools the parched meadows and allays their thirst."</blockquote>
+<p>There were individual cases of excessive self-torture
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page60"></a>[pg 60]</span> even
+among these congregations of monks but we may say that ordinarily,
+organized monasticism was altogether less severe upon the
+individual than anchoretic life. The fact that the monk was seeking
+human fellowship is evidence that he was becoming more humane, and
+this softening of his spirit betrayed itself in his treatment of
+himself. The aspect of life became a little brighter and
+happier.</p>
+<p>Four objects were comprehended in these monastic
+roles,--solitude, manual labor, fasting and prayer. We need not
+pity these dwellers far from walled cities and the marts of trade.
+Indeed, they claim no sympathy. Religious ideals can make strange
+transformations in man's disposition and tastes. They loved their
+hard lives.</p>
+<p>The hermit Abraham said to John Cassian, "We know that in these,
+our regions, there are some secret and pleasant places, where
+fruits are abundant and the beauty and fertility of the gardens
+would supply our necessities with the slightest toil. We prefer the
+wilderness of this desolation before all that is fair and
+attractive, admitting no comparison between the luxuriance of the
+most exuberant <span class="pagenum"><a name="page61"></a>[pg
+61]</span> soil and the bitterness of these sands." Jerome himself
+exclaimed, "Others may think what they like and follow each his own
+bent. But to me a town is a prison and solitude paradise."</p>
+<p>The three vows of chastity, poverty and obedience were adopted
+and became the foundation stones of the monastic institution, to be
+found in every monastic order. There is a typical illustration in
+Kingsley's Hypatia of what they meant by obedience. Philammon, a
+young monk, was consigned to the care of Cyril, the Bishop of
+Alexandria, and a factious, cruel man, with an imperious will. The
+bishop received and read his letter of introduction and thus
+addressed its bearer, "Philammon, a Greek. You are said to have
+learned to obey. If so, you have also learned to rule. Your
+father-abbot has transferred you to my tutelage. You are now to
+obey me." "And I will," was the quick response. "Well said. Go to
+that window and leap forth into the court." Philammon walked to it
+and opened it. The pavement was fully twenty feet below, but his
+business was to obey and not to take measurements. There was a
+flower in a vase upon the sill. He quietly removed it, and in an
+instant would have <span class="pagenum"><a name="page62"></a>[pg
+62]</span> leaped for life or death, when Cyril's voice thundered,
+"Stop!"</p>
+<p>The Pachomian monks despised possessions of every kind. The
+following pathetic incident shows the frightful extent to which
+they carried this principle, and also illustrates the character of
+that submission to which the novitiate voluntarily assented:
+Cassian described how Mutius sold his possessions and with his
+little child of eight asked admission to a monastery. The monks
+received but disciplined him. "He had already forgotten that he was
+rich, he must forget that he was a father." His child was taken,
+clothed in rags, beaten and spurned. Obedience compelled the father
+to look upon his child wasting with pain and grief, but such was
+his love for Christ, says the narrator, that his heart was rigid
+and immovable. He was then told to throw the boy into the river,
+but was stopped in the act of obeying.</p>
+<p>Yet men, women, and even children, coveted this life of
+unnatural deprivations. "Posterity," says Gibbon, "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 <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page63"></a>[pg 63]</span> find a god than a
+man." Though the hermit did not claim to be a god, yet there were
+more monks in many monasteries than inhabitants in the neighboring
+villages. Pachomius had fourteen hundred monks in his own monastery
+and seven thousand under his rule. Jerome says fifty thousand monks
+were sometimes assembled at Easter in the deserts of Nitria. It was
+not uncommon for an abbot to command five thousand monks. St.
+Serapion boasted of ten thousand. Altogether, so we are told, there
+were in the fifth century more than one hundred thousand persons in
+the monasteries, three-fourths of whom were men.</p>
+<p>The rule of Pachomius spread over Egypt into Syria and
+Palestine. It was carried by Athanasius into Italy and Gaul. It
+existed in various modified forms until it was supplanted by the
+Benedictine rule.</p>
+<p>Leaving Egypt, again we cross the Mediterranean into Asia Minor.
+Near the Black Sea, in a wild forest abounding in savage rocks and
+gloomy ravines, there dwelt a young man of twenty-six. He had
+traveled in Egypt, Syria and Palestine. He had visited the hermits
+of the desert and studied <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page64"></a>[pg 64]</span> philosophy and eloquence in cultured
+Athens. In virtue eminent, in learning profound, this poetic soul
+sought to realize its ideal in a lonely and cherished retreat--in a
+solitude of Pontus.</p>
+<p>The young monk is the illustrious saint and genius,--Basil the
+Great,--the Bishop of C&aelig;sarea, and the virtual founder of the
+monastic institution in the Greek church. The forest and glens
+around his hut belonged to him, and on the other bank of the river
+Iris his mother and sister were leading similar lives, having
+abandoned earthly honors in pursuit of heaven. Hard crusts of bread
+appeased his hunger. No fires, except those which burned within his
+soul, protected him from the wintry blast. His years were few but
+well spent. After a while his powerful intellect asserted itself
+and he was led into a clearer view of the true spiritual life. His
+practical mind revolted against the gross ignorance and meaningless
+asceticism of Egypt. He determined to form an order that would
+conform to the inner meaning of the Bible and to a more sensible
+conception of the religious life. For his time he was a wise
+legislator, a cunning workman and a daring thinker. The
+modification of his ascetic <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page65"></a>[pg 65]</span> ideal was attended by painful
+struggles. Many an hour he spent with his bosom friend, Gregory of
+Nazianza, discussing the subject. The middle course which they
+finally adopted is thus neatly described by Gregory:</p>
+<blockquote>"Long was the inward strife, till ended thus:<br>
+I saw, when men lived in the fretful world,<br>
+They vantaged other men, but missed the while<br>
+The calmness, and the pureness of their hearts.<br>
+They who retired held an uprighter post,<br>
+And raised their eyes with quiet strength toward heaven;<br>
+Yet served self only, unfraternally.<br>
+And so, 'twixt these and those, I struck my path,<br>
+To meditate with the free solitary,<br>
+Yet to live secular, and serve mankind."</blockquote>
+<p>Monks in large numbers flocked to this mountain retreat of
+Basil's. These he banded together in an organization, the remains
+of which still live in the Greek church. So great is the influence
+of his life and teachings, "that it is common though erroneous to
+call all Oriental monks Basilians." His rules are drawn up in the
+form of answers to two hundred and three questions. He added to the
+three monastic vows a fourth, which many authorities claim now
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page66"></a>[pg 66]</span> appeared
+for the first time,--namely, that of irrevocable vows--once a monk,
+always a monk.</p>
+<p>Basil did not condemn marriage, but he believed that it was
+incompatible with the highest spiritual attainments. For the
+Kingdom of God's sake it was necessary to forsake all. "Love not
+the world, neither the things of the world," embraced to his mind
+the married state. By avoiding the cares of marriage a man was sure
+to escape, so he thought, the gross sensuality of the age. He
+struck at the dangers which attend the possession of riches, by
+enforcing poverty. An abbot was appointed over his cloisters to
+whom absolute obedience was demanded. Everywhere men needed this
+lesson of obedience. The discipline of the armies was relaxed. The
+authority of religion was set at naught; laxity and disorder
+prevailed even among the monks. They went roaming over the country
+controlled only by their whims. Insubordination had to be checked
+or the monastic institution was doomed. Hence, Basil was particular
+to enforce a respect for law and order.</p>
+<p>Altogether this was an honest and serious attempt <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page67"></a>[pg 67]</span> to introduce fresh
+power into a corrupt age and to faithfully observe the Biblical
+commands as Basil understood them. The floods of iniquity were
+engulfing even the church. A new standard had to be raised and an
+inner circle of pious and zealous believers gathered from the
+multitude of half-pagan Christians, or all was lost.</p>
+<p>The subsequent history of Greek monachism has little interest.
+In Russia, at a late date, the Greek monks served some purpose in
+keeping alive the national spirit under the Tartar yoke, but the
+practical benefits to the East were few, in comparison with the
+vigorous life of the Western monasticism.</p>
+<p>Montalembert, the brilliant champion of Christian monasticism,
+becomes an adverse critic of the system in the East, although it is
+noteworthy he now speaks of monasticism as it appears in the Greek
+church, which he holds to be heretical; yet his indictment is quite
+true: "They yielded to all the deleterious impulses of that
+declining society. They have saved nothing, regenerated nothing,
+elevated nothing."</p>
+<p>We have visited the hermit in the desert and in <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page68"></a>[pg 68]</span> the monastery
+governed by its abbot and its rules. We must view the monk in one
+other aspect, that of theological champion. Here the hermit and the
+monk of the monastery meet on common ground. They were fighters,
+not debaters; fighters, not disciplined soldiers; fighters, not
+persuading Christians. They swarmed down from the mountains like
+hungry wolves. They fought heretics, they fought bishops, they
+fought Roman authorities, they fought soldiers, and fought one
+another. Ignorant, fanatical and cruel, they incited riots,
+disturbed the public peace and shed the blood of foes.</p>
+<p>Theological discord was made a thousand times more bitter by
+their participation in the controversies of the time. Furious monks
+became the armed champions of Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria. They
+insulted the prefect, drove out the Jews and, to the everlasting
+disgrace of the monks, Cyril and the church, they dragged the
+lovely Hypatia from her lecture hall and slew her with all the
+cruelty satanic ingenuity could devise. Against a background of
+black and angry sky she stands forth, as a soul through whose
+reason God made himself manifest. Her unblemished character, her
+learning <span class="pagenum"><a name="page69"></a>[pg 69]</span>
+and her grace forever cry aloud against an orthodoxy bereft alike
+of reason and of the spirit of the Nazarene.</p>
+<p>The fighting monks crowded councils and forced decisions. They
+deposed hostile bishops or kept their favorites in power by murder
+and violence. Two black-cowled armies met in Constantinople, and
+amid curses fought with sticks and stones a battle of creeds. Cries
+of "Holy! Holy! Holy!" mingled with, "It's the day of martyrdom!
+Down with the tyrant!" The whole East was kept in a feverish state.
+The Imperial soldiers confessed their justifiable fears when they
+said, "We would rather fight with barbarians than with these
+monks."</p>
+<p>No wonder our perplexity increases and it seems impossible to
+determine what these men really did for the cause of truth. We have
+been unable to distinguish the hermit from the beasts of the
+fields. We hear his groans, see his tears, and watch him struggle
+with demons. We are disgusted with his filth, amused at his
+fancies, grieved at his superstition. We pity his agony and admire
+his courage. We watch the progress of order and rule out of chaos.
+We see monasteries grow up around damp <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page70"></a>[pg 70]</span> caves and dismal
+huts. We behold Simeon praying among the birds of heaven, and look
+into the face of the young and handsome Basil, in whom the monastic
+institution of the East reaches the zenith of its power.</p>
+<p>I am free to confess a profound reverence for many of these men
+determined at all hazards to keep their souls unspotted from the
+world. I bow before a passion for righteousness ready to part with
+life itself if necessary. Yet the gross extravagances, the almost
+incredible absurdities of their unnatural lives compel us to
+withhold our judgment.</p>
+<p>One thing is certain, the strange life of those far-off years is
+an eloquent testimony to the indestructible craving of the human
+soul for self-mastery and soul-purity.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page71"></a>[pg 71]</span>
+<h2><a name="II"></a>II</h2>
+<h3><i><a name="MONASTICISM_IN_THE_WEST"></a>MONASTICISM IN THE
+WEST: ANTE-BENEDICTINE MONKS 340-480 A.D.</i></h3>
+<br>
+<p>We are now to follow the fortunes of the monastic system from
+its introduction in Rome to the time of Benedict of Nursia, the
+founder of the first great monastic order.</p>
+<p>Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, who made
+Christianity the predominant religion in the Roman Empire, died in
+337 A.D. Three years later Rome heard, probably for the first time,
+an authentic account of the Egyptian hermits. The story was carried
+to the Eternal City by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, one of the
+most remarkable characters in the early church, a man of surpassing
+courage and perseverance, an intrepid foe of heresy, "heroic and
+invincible," as Milton styled him. Twenty of the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page72"></a>[pg 72]</span> forty-six years of
+his official life were spent in banishment.</p>
+<p>Athanasius was an intimate friend of the hermit Anthony and a
+persistent advocate of the ascetic ideal. When he fled to Rome, in
+340, to escape the persecutions of the Arians, he took with him two
+specimens of monastic virtue--Ammonius and Isidore. These hermits,
+so filthy and savage in appearance, albeit, as I trust, clean in
+heart, excited general disgust, and their story of the tortures and
+holiness of their Egyptian brethren was received with derision. But
+men who had faced and conquered the terrors of the desert were not
+to be so easily repulsed. Aided by other ascetic travelers from the
+East they persisted in their propaganda until contempt yielded to
+admiration. The enthusiasm of the uncouth hermits became
+contagious. The Christians in Rome now welcomed the story of the
+recluses as a Divine call to abandon a dissolute society for the
+peace and joy of a desert life.</p>
+<p>But before this transformation of public opinion can be
+appreciated, it is needful to know something of the social and
+religious condition of Rome in <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page73"></a>[pg 73]</span> the days when Athanasius and his
+hermits walked her streets.</p>
+<p>After suffering frightful persecutions for three centuries, the
+Church had at last nominally conquered the Roman Empire; nominally,
+because although Christianity was to live, the Empire had to die.
+"No medicine could have prevented the diseased old body from dying.
+The time had come. When the wretched inebriate embraces a spiritual
+religion with one foot in the grave, with a constitution completely
+undermined, and the seeds of death planted, then no repentance or
+lofty aspiration can prevent physical death. It was so in Rome."
+The death-throes were long and lingering, as befits the end of a
+mighty giant, but death was certain. There are many facts which
+explain the inability of a conquering faith to save a tottering
+empire, but it is impracticable for us to enter upon that wide
+field. Some help may be gained from that which follows.</p>
+<p>Of morals, Rome was destitute. She possessed the material
+remains and superficial acquirements of a proud civilization, such
+as great public highways, marble palaces, public baths, temples and
+libraries. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page74"></a>[pg
+74]</span> Elegance of manners and acquisitions of wealth indicate
+specious outward refinement. But these things are not sufficient to
+guarantee the permanence of institutions or the moral welfare of a
+nation. In the souls of men there was a fatal degeneracy. There was
+outward prosperity but inward corruption.</p>
+<p>Professor Samuel Dill, in his highly instructive work on "Roman
+Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire," points out the
+fact that Rome's fall was due to economic and political causes as
+well as to the deterioration of her morals. A close study of these
+causes, however, will reveal the presence of moral influences.
+Professor Dill says: "The general tendency of modern inquiry has to
+discover in the fall of that august and magnificent organization,
+not a cataclysm, precipitated by the impact of barbarous forces,
+but a process slowly prepared and evolved by internal and economic
+causes." Two of these causes were the dying out of municipal
+liberty and self-government, and the separation of the upper class
+from the masses by sharp distributions of wealth and privilege. It
+is indeed true that these causes contributed to Rome's ruin;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page75"></a>[pg 75]</span> that the
+central government was weak; that the civil service was oppressive
+and corrupt; that the aristocratic class was selfish; and that the
+small landed proprietors were steadily growing poorer and fewer,
+while, on the contrary, the upper or senatorial class was
+increasing in wealth and power. But after due emphasis has been
+accorded to these destructive factors, it yet remains true that the
+want of public spirit and the prevailing cultivated selfishness may
+be traced to a decline of faith in those religious ideals that
+serve to stimulate the moral life and thus preserve the national
+integrity.</p>
+<p>Society was divided into three classes. It is computed that
+one-half the population were slaves. A large majority of the
+remainder were paupers, living on public charity, and constituting
+a festering sore that threatened the life of the social organism.
+The rich, who were relatively few, squandered princely incomes in a
+single night, and exhausted their imaginations devising new and
+expensive forms of sensuous pleasure. The profligacy of the nobles
+almost surpasses credibility, so that trustworthy descriptions read
+like works of fiction. Farrar says: "A whole population might be
+trembling lest they <span class="pagenum"><a name="page76"></a>[pg
+76]</span> should be starved by the delay of an Alexandrian corn
+ship, while the upper classes were squandering a fortune at a
+single banquet, drinking out of myrrhine and jeweled vases worth
+hundreds of pounds, and feasting on the brains of peacocks and the
+tongues of nightingales." The frivolity of the social and political
+leaders of Rome, the insane thirst for lust and luxury, the absence
+of seriousness in the face of frightful, impending ruin, almost
+justify the epigram of Silvianus, "Rome was laughing when she
+died."</p>
+<blockquote>"On that hard pagan world disgust<br>
+And secret loathing fell;<br>
+Deep weariness and sated lust<br>
+Made human life a hell.<br>
+In his cool hall, with haggard eyes,<br>
+The Roman noble lay;<br>
+He drove abroad in furious guise<br>
+Along the Appian Way;<br>
+He made a feast, drank fierce and fast,<br>
+And crowned his hair with flowers<br>
+No easier nor no guicker past<br>
+The impracticable hours."</blockquote>
+<p>Pagan mythology and Pagan philosophy were powerless to resist
+this downward tendency. Although Christianity had become the state
+religion, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page77"></a>[pg 77]</span>
+it was itself in great danger of yielding to the decay that
+prevailed. The Empire was, in fact, but nominally Christian.
+Thousands of ecclesiastical adherents were half pagan in their
+spirit and practice. Harnack declares, "They were too deeply
+affected by Christianity to abandon it, but too little to be
+Christians. Pure religious enthusiasm waned, ideals received a new
+form, and the dependence and responsibility of individuals became
+weaker." Even ordinary courage had everywhere declined and the
+pleasures of the senses controlled the heart of Christian
+society.</p>
+<p>Many of the men who should have resisted this gross
+secularization of the church, who ought to have set their faces
+against the departure from apostolic ideals by exalting the
+standards of the earlier Christianity; these men, the clergy of the
+Christian church, had deserted their post of duty and surrendered
+to the prevailing worldliness.</p>
+<p>Jerome describes, with justifiable sarcasm, these moral
+weaklings, charged with the solemn responsibility of preaching a
+pure gospel to a dying empire. "Such men think of nothing but their
+dress; they use perfumes freely, and see that there <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page78"></a>[pg 78]</span> are no creases in
+their leather shoes. Their curling hair shows traces of the tongs;
+their fingers glisten with rings; they walk on tiptoe across a damp
+road, not to splash their feet. When you see men acting that way,
+think of them rather as bridegrooms than as clergymen. If he sees a
+pillow that takes his fancy, or an elegant table-cover, or, indeed,
+any article of furniture, he praises it, looks admiringly at it,
+takes it into his hand, and, complaining that he has nothing of the
+kind, begs or rather extorts it from its owner." Such trifling
+folly was fatal. The times demanded men of vigorous spirit, who
+dared to face the general decline, and cry out in strong tones
+against it. The age needed moral warriors, with the old Roman
+courage and love of sacrifice; martyrs willing to rot in prison or
+shed their blood in the street, not effeminate men, toying with
+fancy table-covers and tiptoeing across a sprinkled road. "And as a
+background," says Kingsley, "to all this seething heap of
+corruption, misrule and misery, hung the black cloud of the
+barbarians, the Teutonic tribes from whom we derive our best blood,
+ever coming nearer and nearer, waxing stronger and stronger, to be
+soon the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page79"></a>[pg 79]</span>
+conquerors of the C&aelig;sars and the masters of the world." But
+there were many pure and sincere Christians--a saving remnant. The
+joyous alacrity with which men and women responded to the monastic
+call, and entered upon careers of self-torture for the sake of
+deliverance from moral corruption, shows that the spirit of true
+faith was not extinct. These seekers after righteousness may be
+described as "a dismal and fanatical set of men, overlooking the
+practical aims of life," but it is a fair question to ask, "if they
+had not abandoned the world to its fate would they not have shared
+that fate?" "The glory of that age," says Professor Dill, "is the
+number of those who were capable of such self-surrender; and an age
+should be judged by its ideals, not by the mediocrity of
+conventional religion masking worldly self-indulgence. This we have
+always with us; the other we have not always."</p>
+<p>Yet the sad fact remains that the transforming power of
+Christianity was practically helpless before the surging floods of
+vice and superstition. The noble struggles of a few saints were as
+straws in a hurricane. The church had all she could do to save
+herself.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page80"></a>[pg 80]</span>
+<p>"When Christianity itself was in such need of reform," says
+Lord, "when Christians could scarcely be distinguished from pagans
+in love of display, and in egotistical ends, how could it reform
+the world? When it was a pageant, a ritualism, an arm of the state,
+a vain philosophy, a superstition, a formula, how could it save, if
+ever so dominant? The corruptions of the church in the fourth
+century are as well authenticated as the purity and moral elevation
+of Christians in the second century." Even in the early days of
+Christianity the ruin of Rome was impending, but, at that time, the
+adherents of the Christian religion were few and poor. They did not
+possess enough power and influence to save the state. When
+monasticism came to Rome, the lords of the church were getting
+ready to sit upon the thrones of princes, but the dazzling victory
+of the church was not a spiritual conquest of sin, so the last ray
+of hope for the Empire was extinguished. Her fall was
+inevitable.</p>
+<p>With this outlined picture in mind, fancy Athanasius and his
+monks at Rome. These men despise luxury and contemn riches. They
+have come to make Rome ring with the old war cries,--although
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page81"></a>[pg 81]</span> they
+wrestled not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual
+wickedness in high places. Terror and despair are on every side,
+but they are not afraid. They know what it means to face the demons
+of the desert, to lie down at night with wild beasts for
+companions. They have not yielded to the depravity of the human
+heart and the temptations of a licentious age. They have conquered
+sinful appetites by self-abnegation and fasting. They come to a
+distracted society with a message of peace--a peace won by
+courageous self-sacrifice. They call men to save their perishing
+souls by surrendering their wills to God and enlisting in a
+campaign against the powers of darkness. They appeal to the ancient
+spirit of courage and love of hardship. They arouse the dormant
+moral energies of the profligate nobles, proud of the past and sick
+of the present. The story of Anthony admonished Rome that a life of
+sensuous gratification was inglorious, unworthy of the true Roman,
+and that the flesh could be mastered by heroic endeavor.</p>
+<p>Women, who spent their hours in frivolous amusements, welcomed
+with gratitude the discovery that they could be happy without
+degradation, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page82"></a>[pg
+82]</span> joyfully responded to the call of righteousness.
+"Despising themselves," says Kingsley, "despising their husbands to
+whom they had been wedded in loveless wedlock, they too fled from a
+world which had sated and sickened them."</p>
+<p>Woman's natural craving for lofty friendships and pure
+aspirations found satisfaction in the monastic ideal. She fled from
+the incessant broils of a corrupt court, from the courtesans that
+usurped the place of the wife, from the insolence and selfishness
+of men who scorned even the appearance of virtue and did not
+hesitate to degrade even their wives and sisters. She would
+disprove the biting sarcasm of Juvenal,--</p>
+<blockquote>"Women, in judgment weak, in feeling strong,<br>
+By every gust of passion borne along.<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+A woman stops at nothing, when she wears<br>
+Rich emeralds round her neck, and in her ears<br>
+Pearls of enormous size; these justify<br>
+Her faults, and make all lawful in her eye."</blockquote>
+<p>Therefore did the women hear with tremulous eagerness the story
+of the saintly inhabitants of the desert, and flinging away their
+trinkets, they hastened to the solitude of the cell, there to mourn
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page83"></a>[pg 83]</span> their
+folly and seek pardon and peace at the feet of the Most High.</p>
+<p>Likewise, the men, born to nobler tasks than fawning upon
+princes and squandering life and fortune in gluttony and
+debauchery, blushed for shame, and abandoned forever the company of
+sensualists and parasites. Potitianus, a young officer of rank,
+read the life of Anthony, and cried to his fellow-soldier: "Tell
+me, I pray thee, whither all our labors tend? What do we seek? For
+whom do we carry arms? What can be our greatest hope in the palace
+but to be friend to the Emperor? And how frail is that fortune!
+What perils! When shall this be?" Inspired by the monastic story he
+exchanged the friendship of the Emperor for the friendship of God,
+and the military life lost all its attractiveness.</p>
+<p>A philosopher and teacher hears the same narrative, and his
+countenance becomes grave; he seizes the arm of Alypius, his
+friend, and earnestly asks: "What, then, are we doing? How is this?
+What hast thou been hearing? These ignorant men rise; they take
+Heaven by force, and we, with our heartless sciences, behold us
+wallowing in the flesh and <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page84"></a>[pg 84]</span> in our blood! Is it shameful to follow
+them, and are we not rather disgraced by not following them?" So,
+disgusted with his self-seeking career, his round of empty
+pleasures, he, too, is moved by this higher call to abandon his
+wickedness and devote his genius to the cause of righteousness.</p>
+<p>Ambrose, Paulinus, Chrysostom, Basil, Gregory, and many others,
+holding important official posts or candidates for the highest
+honors, abandoned all their chances of political preferment in
+order to preach the gospel of ascetic Christianity.</p>
+<p>Yes, for good or evil, Rome is profoundly stirred. The pale
+monk, in all his filth and poverty, is the master of the best
+hearts in the capital. Every one in whom aspiration is still alive,
+who longs for some new light, and all who vaguely grope after a
+higher life, hear his voice and become pliant to his will.</p>
+<p>"Great historic movements," says Grimke, "are born not in
+whirlwinds, in earthquakes, and pomps of human splendor and power,
+but in the agonies and enthusiasms of grand, heroic spirits."
+Monastic history, like secular, centers in the biographies of such
+great men as Anthony, Basil, Jerome, Benedict, Francis, Dominic and
+Loyola. To understand the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page85"></a>[pg 85]</span> character of the powerful forces set in
+motion by the coming of the monks to Rome, it is necessary to know
+the leading spirits whose preeminent abilities and lofty
+personalities made Western monasticism what it was.</p>
+<p>The time is about 418 A.D.; the place, a monastery in Bethlehem,
+near the cave of the Nativity. In a lonely cell, within these
+monastic walls, we shall find the man we seek. He is so old and
+feeble that he has to be raised in his bed by means of a cord
+affixed to the ceiling. He spends his time chiefly in reciting
+prayers. His voice, once clear and resonant, sinks now to a
+whisper. His failing vision no longer follows the classic pages of
+Virgil or dwells fondly on the Hebrew of the Old Testament. This is
+Saint Jerome, the champion of asceticism, the biographer of
+hermits, the lion of Christian polemics, the translator of the
+Bible, and the worthy, brilliant, determined foe of a dissolute
+society and a worldly church. Although he spent thirty-four years
+of his life in Palestine, I shall consider Jerome in connection
+with the monasticism of the West, for it was in Rome that he
+exercised his greatest influence. His translation of the Scriptures
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page86"></a>[pg 86]</span> is the
+Vulgate of the Roman church, and his name is enrolled in the
+calendar of her saints. "He is," observes Schaff "the connecting
+link between the Eastern and Western learning and religion."</p>
+<p>By charming speech and eloquent tongue Jerome won over the men,
+but principally the women, of Rome to the monastic life. So
+powerful was his message when addressed to the feminine heart, that
+mothers are said to have locked their daughters in their rooms lest
+they should fall under the influence of his magnetic voice. It was
+largely owing to his own labors that he could write in after years:
+"Formerly, according to the testimony of the apostles, there were
+few rich, few noble, few powerful among the Christians. Now, it is
+no longer so. Not only among the Christians, but among the monks
+are to be found a multitude of the wise, the noble and the
+rich."</p>
+<p>Near to the very year that Athanasius came to Rome, or about 340
+A.D., Jerome was born at Stridon, in Dalmatia, in what is now
+called the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. His parents were modestly
+wealthy and were slaveholders. His student days were spent in Rome,
+where he divided <span class="pagenum"><a name="page87"></a>[pg
+87]</span> his time between the study of books and the revels of
+the streets. One day some young Christians induced him to visit the
+catacombs with them. Here, before the graves of Christian martyrs,
+a quiet and holy influence stole into his heart, that finally led
+to his conversion and baptism. Embracing the monastic ideal, he
+gathered around him a few congenial friends, who joined him in a
+covenant of rigid abstinence and ascetic discipline. Then followed
+a year of travel with these companions, through Asia Minor, ending
+disastrously at Antioch. One of his friends returned home, two of
+them died, and he himself became so sick with fever that his life
+was despaired of. Undismayed by these evils, brought on by
+excessive austerities, he determined to retire to a life of
+solitude.</p>
+<p>About fifty miles southeast from Antioch was a barren waste of
+nature but a paradise for monks--the Desert of Chalcis. On its
+western border were several monasteries. All about for miles, the
+dreary solitudes were peopled with shaggy hermits. They saw visions
+and dreamed dreams in caves infested by serpents and wild beasts.
+They lay upon the sands, scorched in summer by the blazing sun, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page88"></a>[pg 88]</span> chilled
+in winter by the winds that blew from snowcapped mountains. For
+five years, Jerome dwelt among these demon-fighting recluses. Clad
+in sackcloth stained by penitential tears, he toiled for his daily
+bread, and struggled against visions of Roman dancing girls. He was
+a most industrious reader of books and a great lover of debate.
+Monks from far and near visited him, and together they discussed
+questions of theology and philosophy.</p>
+<p>But we may not follow this varied and eventful life in all its
+details. After a year or two spent at Constantinople, and three
+years at Rome, he returned to the East, visiting the hermits of
+Egypt on his way, and finally settled at Bethlehem. His fame soon
+drew around him a great company of monks. These he organized into
+monasteries. He built a hospital, and established an inn for
+travelers. Lacking the necessary funds to carry out his projects,
+he dispatched his brother to the West with instructions to sell
+what was left of his property, and the proceeds of this sale he
+devoted to the cause. While in Bethlehem he wrote defences of
+orthodoxy, eulogies of the dead, lives of saints and commentaries
+on the Bible. He also completed his <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page89"></a>[pg 89]</span> translation of the Scriptures, and
+wrote numerous letters to persons dwelling in various parts of the
+empire.</p>
+<p>Jerome rendered great service to monasticism by his literary
+labors. He invested the dullest of lives with a halo of glory;
+under the magic touch of his rhetoric the wilderness became a
+gladsome place and the desert blossomed as the rose. His glowing
+language transfigured the pale face and sunken eyes of the starved
+hermit into features positively beautiful, while the rags that hung
+loosely upon his emaciated frame became garments of lustrous white.
+"Oh, that I could behold the desert," he cries, "lovelier than any
+city! Oh, that I could see those lonely spots made into a paradise
+by the saints that throng them!" Without detracting from the
+bitterness of the prospect, he glorifies the courage that can face
+the horrors of the desert, and the heart that can rejoice midst the
+solitude of the seas. Hear him describe the home of Bonosus, a
+hermit on an isle in the Adriatic:</p>
+<p>"Bonosus, your friend, is now climbing the ladder foreshown in
+Jacob's dream. He is bearing his cross, neither taking thought for
+the morrow, nor <span class="pagenum"><a name="page90"></a>[pg
+90]</span> looking back at what he has left. Here you have a youth,
+educated with us in the refining accomplishments of the world, with
+abundance of wealth and in rank inferior to none of his associates;
+yet he forsakes his mother, his sister, and his dearly loved
+brother, and settles like a new tiller of Eden on a dangerous
+island, with the sea roaring round its reefs, while its rough
+crags, bare rocks and desolate aspect make it more terrible
+still.... He sees the glory of God which even the apostles saw not,
+save in the desert. He beholds, it is true, no embattled towns, but
+he has enrolled his name in the new city. Garments of sackcloth
+disfigure his limbs, yet so he will the sooner be caught up to meet
+Christ in the clouds. Round the entire island roars the frenzied
+sea, while the beetling crags along its winding shores resound as
+the billows beat against them. Precipitous cliffs surround his
+dreadful abode as if it were a prison. He is careless, fearless,
+armed from head to foot in the apostles' armor."</p>
+<p>Listen to these trumpet tones as Jerome calls to a companion of
+his youth in Rome: "O desert, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page91"></a>[pg 91]</span> enamelled with the flowers of Christ! O
+retreat, which rejoicest in the friendship of God! What dost thou
+in the world, my brother, with thy soul greater than the world? How
+long wilt thou remain in the shadow of roofs, and in the smoky
+dungeons of cities? Believe me, I see here more light."</p>
+<p>To pass hastily over such appeals, coming from distant lands
+across the sea to stir the minds of the thoughtful in Rome, is to
+ignore one of the causes which produced the great exodus that
+followed. He made men see that they were living in a moral Sodom,
+and that if they would save their souls they must escape to the
+desert. The power of personal influence, of inspiring private
+letters, can hardly be overemphasized in studying the remarkable
+progress of asceticism. Great awakenings in the moral, as in the
+political or the social world, may be traced to the profound
+influence of individuals, whose prophetic insight and moral
+enthusiasm unfold the germ of the larger movements. There may be
+widespread unrest, the ground may be prepared for the seed, but the
+immediate cause of universal uprisings is the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page92"></a>[pg 92]</span> clarion call of
+genius. Thus Luther's was the voice that cried in the wilderness,
+inciting a vast host for whom centuries had been preparing.</p>
+<p>But Jerome's fame as a man of learning, possessing a critical
+taste and a classic style of rare beauty and simplicity, must not
+blind us to the crowning glory of his brilliant career. He was
+above all a spiritual force. His chief appeal was to the
+conscience. He warmed the most torpid hearts by the fervor of his
+love, and encouraged the most hopeless by his fiery zeal and heroic
+faith. As a promoter of monasticism, he clashed with the interests
+of an enfeebled clergy and a corrupt laity. Nothing could swerve
+him from his course. False monks might draw terrible rebukes from
+him, but the conviction that the soul could be delivered from
+captivity to the body only by mortification remained unshaken. He
+induced men to break the fetters of society that they might, under
+the more favorable circumstances of solitude, wage war against
+their unruly passions.</p>
+<p>When parents objected to his monastic views, Jerome quoted the
+saying of Jesus respecting the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page93"></a>[pg 93]</span> renunciation of father and mother, and
+then said: "Though thy mother with flowing hair and rent garments,
+should show thee the breasts which have nourished thee; though thy
+father should lie upon the threshold; yet depart thou, treading
+over thy father, and fly with dry eyes to the standard of the
+cross. The love of God and the fear of hell easily rend the bonds
+of the household asunder. The Holy Scripture indeed enjoins
+obedience, but he who loves them more than Christ loses his
+soul."</p>
+<p>Jerome vividly portrays his own spiritual conflicts. The deserts
+were crowded with saintly soldiers battling against similar
+temptations, the nature of which is suggested by the following
+excerpt from Jerome's writings: "How often," he says, "when I was
+living in the desert, in the vast solitude which gives to hermits a
+savage dwelling-place, parched by a burning sun, how often did I
+fancy myself among the pleasures of Rome! I used to sit alone
+because I was filled with bitterness. Sack-cloth disfigured my
+unshapely limbs and my skin from long neglect had become black as
+an Ethiopian's. Tears and groans were every day my portion; and if
+drowsiness chanced to overcome <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page94"></a>[pg 94]</span> my struggles against it, my bare bones,
+which hardly held together, clashed against the ground. Now
+although in my fear of hell I had consigned myself to this prison
+where I had no companions but scorpions and wild beasts, I often
+found myself amid bevies of girls. Helpless, I cast myself at the
+feet of Jesus, I watered them with my tears, and I subdued my
+rebellious body with weeks of abstinence. I remember how I often
+cried aloud all night till the break of day. I used to dread my
+cell as if it knew my thoughts, and stern and angry with myself, I
+used to make my way alone into the desert. Wherever I saw hollow
+valleys, craggy mountains, steep cliffs, there I made my oratory;
+there the house of correction for my unhappy flesh. There, also,
+when I had shed copious tears and had strained my eyes to heaven, I
+sometimes felt myself among angelic hosts and sang for joy and
+gladness."</p>
+<p>No doubt these men were warring against nature. Their yielding
+to the temptation to obtain spiritual dominance by
+self-flagellation and fasting may be criticized in the light of
+modern Christianity. "Fanaticism defies nature," says F.W.
+Robertson, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page95"></a>[pg
+95]</span> "Christianity refines it and respects it. Christianity
+does not denaturalize, but only sanctifies and refines according to
+the laws of nature. Christianity does not destroy our natural
+instincts, but gives them a higher and nobler direction." To all
+this I must assent, but, at the same time, I cannot but reverence
+that pure passion for holiness which led men, despairing of
+acquiring virtue in a degenerate age, to flee from the world and
+undergo such torments to attain their soul's ideal. The form, the
+method of their conflict was transient, the spirit and purpose
+eternal. All honor to them for their magnificent and terrible
+struggle, which has forever exalted the spiritual ideal, and
+commanded men everywhere to seek first "the Kingdom of God and its
+righteousness."</p>
+<p>Jerome was always fond of the classics, although pagan writers
+were not in favor with the early Christians. One night he dreamed
+he was called to the skies where he was soundly flogged for reading
+certain pagan authors. This vision interrupted his classical
+studies for a time. In later years he resumed his beloved Virgil;
+and he vigorously defended himself against those who charged him
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page96"></a>[pg 96]</span> with
+being a Pagan and an apostate on account of his love for Greek and
+Roman literature. If his admiration for Virgil was the Devil's
+work, I but give the Devil his due when I declare that much of the
+charm of Jerome's literary productions is owing to the inspiration
+of classic models.</p>
+<p>Our attention must now be transferred from Jerome to the
+high-born Roman matrons, who laid off their silks that they might
+clothe themselves in the humble garb of the nun. As the narrative
+proceeds I shall let Jerome speak as often as possible, that the
+reader may become acquainted with the style of those biographies
+and eulogies which were the talk of Rome, and which have been
+admired so highly by succeeding generations.</p>
+<p>Those who embraced monasticism in Rome did so in one of two
+ways. Some sold their possessions, adopted coarse garments, and
+subsisted on the plainest food, but they did not leave the city and
+were still to be seen upon the streets. Jerome writes to
+Pammachius: "Who would have believed that a last descendant of the
+consuls, an ornament of the race of Camillus, could make up his
+mind to traverse the city in the black robe of a monk, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page97"></a>[pg 97]</span> and should not blush
+to appear thus clad in the midst of senators." Some of those who
+remained at Rome established a sort of retreat for their ascetic
+friends.</p>
+<p>But another class left Rome altogether. Some took up their abode
+on the rugged isles of the Adriatic or the Mediterranean. Large
+numbers of them went to the East, principally to Palestine. Jerome
+was practically the abbot of a Roman colony of monks and nuns. Two
+motives, beside the general ruling desire to achieve holiness,
+produced this exodus to the Holy Land, which culminated centuries
+later in the crusades. One was a desire to see the deserts and
+caves, the abode of hermits famous for piety and miracles. Jerome,
+as I have shown, invested these lonely retreats and strange
+characters with a sort of holy romance, and hence, faith, mingled
+with curiosity, led men to the East. Another motive was the desire
+to visit the land of the Saviour, to tread the soil consecrated by
+his labors of love, to live a life of poverty in the land where He
+had no home He could call his own.</p>
+<p>St. Paula was one of the women who left Rome and went to
+Palestine. The story of her life is <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page98"></a>[pg 98]</span> told in a letter designed to comfort
+her daughter Eustochium at the time of Paula's death. The epistle
+begins: "If all the members of my body were to be converted into
+tongues, and if each of my limbs were to be gifted with a human
+voice, I could still do no justice to the virtues of the holy and
+venerable Paula. Of the stock of the Gracchi, descended from the
+Scipios, she yet preferred Bethlehem to Rome, and left her palace
+glittering with gold to dwell in a mud cabin." Her husband was of
+royal blood and had died leaving her five children. At his death,
+she gave herself to works of charity. The poor and sick she wrapped
+in her own blankets. She began to tire of the receptions and other
+social duties which her position entailed upon her. While in this
+frame of mind, two Eastern bishops were entertained at her home
+during a gathering of ecclesiastics. They seem to have imparted the
+monastic impulse, perhaps by the rehearsal of monastic tales, for
+we are informed that at this time she determined to leave servants,
+property and children, in order to embrace the monastic life.</p>
+<p>Let us stand with her children and kinsfolk on the shore of the
+sea as they take their final farewell <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page99"></a>[pg 99]</span> of Paula. "The sails
+were set and the strokes of the rowers carried the vessel into the
+deep. On the shore little Toxotius stretched forth his hands in
+entreaty, while Rufina, now grown up, with silent sobs besought her
+mother to wait until she should be married. But still Paula's eyes
+were dry as she turned them heavenwards, and she overcame her love
+for her children by her love for God. She knew herself no more as a
+mother that she might approve herself a handmaid of Christ. Yet her
+heart was rent within her, and she wrestled with her grief as
+though she were being forcibly separated from parts of herself. The
+greatness of the affection she had to overcome made all admire her
+victory the more. Though it is against the laws of nature, she
+endured this trial with unabated faith."</p>
+<p>So the vessel ploughed onward, carrying the mother who thought
+she was honoring God and attaining the true end of being through
+ruthless strangling of maternal love. She visited Syria and Egypt
+and the islands of Ponta and Cyprus. At the feet of the hermit
+fathers she begged their blessing and tried to emulate the virtues
+she <span class="pagenum"><a name="page100"></a>[pg 100]</span>
+believed they possessed. At Jerusalem she fell upon her face and
+kissed the stone before the sepulcher. "What tears, she shed, what
+groans she uttered, what grief she poured out all Jerusalem
+knows!"</p>
+<p>She established two monasteries at Bethlehem, one of which was
+for women. Here, with her daughter, she lived a life of rigid
+abstinence. Her nuns had nothing they could call their own. If they
+paid too much attention to dress Paula said, "A clean body and a
+clean dress mean an unclean soul." To her credit, she was more
+lenient with others than with herself. Jerome admits she went to
+excess, and prudently observes: "Difficult as it is to avoid
+extremes, the philosophers are quite right in their opinion that
+virtue is a mean and vice an excess, or, as we may express it in
+one short sentence, in nothing too much." Paula swept floors and
+toiled in the kitchen. She slept on the ground, covered by a mat of
+goat's hair. Her weeping was incessant. As she meditated over the
+Scriptures, her tears fell so profusely that her sight was
+endangered. Jerome warned her to spare her eyes, but she said: "I
+must disfigure that face <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page101"></a>[pg 101]</span> which, contrary to God's commandment,
+I have painted with rouge, white lead and antimony." If this be a
+sin against the Almighty, bear witness, O ye daughters of Eve! Her
+love for the poor continued to be the motive of her great
+liberality. In fact, her giving knew no bounds. Fuller wisely
+remarks that "liberality must have banks as well as a stream;" but
+Paula said: "My prayer is that I may die a beggar, leaving not a
+penny to my daughter and indebted to strangers for my winding
+sheet." Her petition was literally granted, for she died leaving
+her daughter not only without a penny but overwhelmed in a mass of
+debts.</p>
+<p>As Jerome approaches the description of Paula's death, he says:
+"Hitherto the wind has all been in my favor and my keel has
+smoothly ploughed through the heaving sea. But now my bark is
+running upon the rocks, the billows are mountain high, and imminent
+shipwreck awaits me." Yet Paula, like David, must go the way of all
+the earth. Surrounded by her followers chanting psalms, she
+breathed her last. An immense concourse of people attended her
+funeral. Not a single monk lingered in his cell. Thus, the twenty
+hard years <span class="pagenum"><a name="page102"></a>[pg
+102]</span> of self-torture for this Roman lady of culture ended in
+the rest of the grave.</p>
+<p>Upon her tombstone was placed this significant inscription:</p>
+<blockquote>"Within this tomb a child of Scipio lies,<br>
+A daughter of the far-famed Pauline house,<br>
+A scion of the Gracchi, of the stock<br>
+Of Agamemnon's self, illustrious:<br>
+Here rests the lady Paula, well beloved<br>
+Of both her parents, with Eustochium<br>
+For daughter; she the first of Roman dames<br>
+Who hardship chose and Bethlehem for Christ."</blockquote>
+<p>Another interesting character of that period was Marcella, a
+beautiful woman of illustrious lineage, a descendant of consuls and
+prefects. After a married life of seven years her husband died. She
+determined not to embark on the matrimonial seas a second time, but
+to devote herself to works of charity. Cerealis, an old man, but of
+consular rank, offered her his fortune that he might consider her
+less his wife than his daughter. "Had I a wish to marry," was her
+noble reply, "I should look for a husband and not for an
+inheritance." Disdaining all enticements to remain in society, she
+began her <span class="pagenum"><a name="page103"></a>[pg
+103]</span> monastic career with joy and turned her home into a
+retreat for women who, like herself, wished to retire from the
+world. It is not known just what rules governed their relations,
+but they employed the time in moderate fasting, prayers and
+alms-giving.</p>
+<p>Marcella lavished her wealth upon the poor. Jerome praises her
+philanthropic labors thus: "Our widow's clothing was meant to keep
+out the cold and not to show her figure. She stored her money in
+the stomachs of the poor rather than to keep it at her own
+disposal." Seldom seen upon the streets, she remained at home,
+surrounded by virgins and widows, obedient and loving to her
+mother. Among the high-born women it was regarded as degrading to
+assume the costume of the nun, but she bore the scorn of her social
+equals with humility and grace.</p>
+<p>This quiet and useful life was rudely and abruptly ended by a
+dreadful catastrophe. Alaric the Goth had seized and sacked Rome.
+The world stood aghast. The sad news reached Jerome in his cell at
+Bethlehem, who expressed his sorrow in forceful language: "My voice
+sticks in my throat; and as <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page104"></a>[pg 104]</span> I dictate, sobs choke my utterance.
+The city which has taken the whole world is itself taken." Rude
+barbarians invaded the sanctity of Marcella's retreat. They
+demanded her gold, but she pointed to the coarse dress she wore to
+show them she had no buried treasures. They did not believe her,
+and cruelly beat her with cudgels. A few days after the saintly
+heroine of righteousness went to her long home to enjoy
+richly-merited rest and peace.</p>
+<blockquote>"Who can describe the carnage of that night?<br>
+What tears are equal to its agony?<br>
+Of ancient date a sovran city falls;<br>
+And lifeless in its streets and houses lie<br>
+Unnumbered bodies of its citizens.<br>
+In many a ghastly shape doth death appear."</blockquote>
+<p>Marcella and her monastic home fell in the general ruin, but in
+the words of Horace, she left "a monument more enduring than
+brass." Her noble life, so full of kind words and loving deeds,
+still stirs the hearts of her sisters who, while they may reject
+her ascetic ideal, will, nevertheless, try to emulate her noble
+spirit. As Jerome said of Paula: "By shunning glory she earned
+glory; for glory follows virtue as its shadow; and deserting
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page105"></a>[pg 105]</span> those
+who seek it, it seeks those who despise it."</p>
+<p>Still another woman claims our attention,--Fabiola, the founder
+of the first hospital. Lecky declares that "the first public
+hospital and the charity planted by that woman's hand overspread
+the world, and will alleviate to the end of time the darkest
+anguish of humanity." She, too, was a widow who refused to marry
+again, but broke up her home, sold her possessions, and with the
+proceeds founded a hospital into which were gathered the sick from
+the streets. She nursed the sufferers and washed their ulcers and
+wounds. No task was beneath her, no sacrifice of personal comfort
+too great for her love. Many helped her with their gold, but she
+gave herself. She also aided in establishing a home for strangers
+at Portus, which became one of the most famous inns of the time.
+Travelers from all parts of the world found a welcome and a shelter
+on landing at this port. When she died the roofs of Rome were
+crowded with those who watched the funeral procession. Psalms were
+chanted, and the gilded ceilings of the churches resounded to the
+music in commendation of her loving life and labors.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page106"></a>[pg 106]</span>
+<p>These and other characters of like zeal and fortitude exemplify
+the spirit of the men and women who interested the West in
+monasticism. Much as their errors and extravagances may be
+deplored, there is no question that some of them were types of the
+loftiest Christian virtues, inspired by the most laudable
+motives.</p>
+<p>Noble and true are Kingsley's words: "We may blame those ladies,
+if we will, for neglecting their duties. We may sneer, if we will,
+at their weaknesses, the aristocratic pride, the spiritual vanity,
+we fancy we discover. We must confess that in these women the
+spirit of the old Roman matrons, which seemed to have been dead so
+long, flashed up for one splendid moment ere it sank into the
+darkness of the middle ages."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Monasticism_and_Women"></a>Monasticism and
+Women</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The origin of nunneries was coeval with that of monasteries, and
+the history of female recluses runs parallel to that of the men.
+Almost every male order had its counterpart in some sort of a
+sisterhood. The general moral character of these female
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page107"></a>[pg 107]</span>
+associations was higher than that of the male organizations. I have
+confined my treatment in this work to the monks, but a few words
+may be said at this point concerning female ascetics.</p>
+<p>Hermit life was unsuited to women, but we know that at a very
+early date many of them retired to the seclusion of convent life.
+It will be recalled that in the biography of St. Anthony, before
+going into the desert he placed his sister in the care of some
+virgins who were living a life of abstinence, apart from society.
+It is very doubtful if any uniform rule governed these first
+religious houses, or if definitely organized societies appear much
+before the time of Benedict. The variations in the monastic order
+among the men were accompanied by similar changes in the
+associations of women.</p>
+<p>The history of these sisterhoods discloses three interesting and
+noteworthy facts that merit brief mention:</p>
+<p>First, the effect of a corrupt society upon women. As in the
+case of men, women were moved to forsake their social duties
+because they were weary of the sensual and aimless life of Rome.
+Those <span class="pagenum"><a name="page108"></a>[pg 108]</span>
+were the days of elaborate toilettes, painted faces and blackened
+eyelids, of intrigues and foolish babbling. Venial faults--it may
+be thought--innocent displays of tender frailty; but woman's nature
+demands loftier employments. A great soul craves occupations and
+recognizes obligations more in harmony with the true nobility of
+human nature. Rome had no monitor of the higher life until the
+monks came with their stories of heroic self-abnegation and
+unselfish toil. The women felt the force and truth of Jerome's
+criticism of their trifling follies when he said: "Do not seek to
+appear over-eloquent, nor trifle with verse, nor make yourself gay
+with lyric songs. And do not, out of affectation, follow the sickly
+taste of married ladies, who now pressing their teeth together, now
+keeping their lips wide apart, speak with a lisp, and purposely
+clip their words, because they fancy that to pronounce them
+naturally is a mark of country breeding."</p>
+<p>Professor Dill is inclined to discount the testimony of Jerome
+respecting the morals of Roman society. He thinks Jerome
+exaggerated the perils surrounding women. He says: "The truth is
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page109"></a>[pg 109]</span> Jerome
+is not only a monk but an artist in words; and his horror of evil,
+his vivid imagination, and his passion for literary effect,
+occasionally carry him beyond the region of sober fact. There was
+much to amend in the morals of the Roman world. But we must not
+take the leader of a great moral reformation as a cool and
+dispassionate observer." But this observation amounts to nothing
+more than a cautionary word against mistaking evils common to all
+times for special symptoms of excessive immorality. Professor Dill
+practically concedes the truthfulness of contemporary witnesses,
+including Jerome, when he says: "Yet, after all allowances, the
+picture is not a pleasant one. We feel that we are far away from
+the simple, unworldly devotion of the freedmen and obscure toilers
+whose existence was hardly known to the great world before the age
+of the Antonines, and who lived in the spirit of the Sermon on the
+Mount and in constant expectation of the coming of their Lord. The
+triumphant Church, which has brought Paganism to its knees, is very
+different from the Church of the catacombs and the persecutions."
+The picture which Jerome draws of the Roman women <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page110"></a>[pg 110]</span> is indeed
+repulsive, and Professor Dill would gladly believe it to be
+exaggerated, but, nevertheless, he thinks that "if the priesthood,
+with its enormous influence, was so corrupt, it is only probable
+that it debased the sex which is always most under clerical
+influence."</p>
+<p>But far graver charges cling to the memories of the Roman women.
+Crime darkened every household. The Roman lady was cruel and
+impure. She delighted in the blood of gladiators and in illicit
+love. Roman law at this time permitted women to hold and to control
+large estates, and it became a fad for these patrician ladies to
+marry poor men, so that they might have their husbands within their
+power. All sorts of alliances could then be formed, and if their
+husbands remonstrated, they, holding the purse strings, were able
+to say: "If you don't like it you can leave." A profligate himself,
+the husband usually kept his counsel, and as a reward, dwelt in a
+palace. "When the Roman matrons became the equal and voluntary
+companions of their lords," says Gibbon, "a new jurisprudence was
+introduced, that marriage, like other partnerships, might be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page111"></a>[pg 111]</span>
+dissolved by the abdication of one of the associates." I have but
+touched the fringe of a veil I will not lift; but it is easy to
+understand why those women who cherished noble sentiments welcomed
+the monastic life as a pathway of escape from scenes and customs
+from which their better natures recoiled in horror.</p>
+<p>Secondly, the fine quality of mercy that distinguishes woman's
+character deserves recognition. Even though she retired to a
+convent, she could not become so forgetful of her fellow creatures
+as her male companions. From the very beginning we observe that she
+was more unselfish in her asceticism than they. It is true the monk
+forsook all, and to that extent was self-sacrificing, but in his
+desire for his own salvation, he was prone to neglect every one
+else. The monk's ministrations were too often confined to those who
+came to him, but the nun went forth to heal the diseased and to
+bind up the broken-hearted. As soon as she embraced the monastic
+life we read of hospitals. The desire for salvation drove man into
+the desert; a Christ-like mercy and divine sympathy kept his sister
+by the couch of pain.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page112"></a>[pg 112]</span>
+<p>Lastly, a word remains to be said touching the question of
+marriage. At first, the nun sometimes entered the marriage state,
+and, of course, left the convent; but, beginning with Basil, this
+practice was condemned, and irrevocable vows were exacted. In 407,
+Innocent I. closed even the door of penitence and forgiveness to
+those who broke their vows and married.</p>
+<p>Widows and virgins alike assumed the veil. Marriage itself was
+not despised, because the monastic life was only for those who
+sought a higher type of piety than, it was supposed, could be
+attained amid the ordinary conditions of life. But marriage, as
+well as other so-called secular relations, was eschewed by those
+who wished to make their salvation sure. Jerome says: "I praise
+wedlock, I praise marriage, but it is because they give me virgins;
+I gather the rose from the thorns, the gold from the earth, the
+pearl from the shell." He therefore tolerated marriage among people
+contented with ordinary religious attainments, but he thought it
+incompatible with true holiness. Augustine admitted that the mother
+and her daughter may be both in heaven, but one a bright
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page113"></a>[pg 113]</span> and the
+other a dim star. Some writers, as Helvidius, opposed this view and
+maintained that there was no special virtue in an unmarried life;
+that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was also the mother of other
+children, and as such was an example of Christian virtue. Jerome
+brought out his guns and poured hot shot into the enemies' camp. In
+the course of his answer, which contained many intolerant and
+acrimonious statements, he drew a comparison between the married
+and the unmarried state. It is interesting because it reflects the
+opinions of those who disparaged marriage, and reveals the
+character of the principles which the early Fathers advocated. It
+is very evident from this letter against Helvidius that Jerome
+regarded all secular duties as interfering with the pursuit of the
+highest virtue.</p>
+<p>"Do you think," he says, "there is no difference between one who
+spends her time in prayer and fasting, and one who must, at her
+husband's approach, make up her countenance, walk with a mincing
+gait, and feign a show of endearment? The virgin aims to appear
+less comely; she will wrong herself so as to hide her natural
+attractions. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page114"></a>[pg
+114]</span> The married woman has the paint laid on before her
+mirror, and, to the insult of her Maker, strives to acquire
+something more than her natural beauty. Then come the prattling of
+infants, the noisy household, children watching for her word and
+waiting for her kiss, the reckoning up of expenses, the preparation
+to meet the outlay. On one side you will see a company of cooks,
+girded for the onslaught and attacking the meat; there you may hear
+the hum of a multitude of weavers. Meanwhile a message is delivered
+that her husband and his friends have arrived. The wife, like a
+swallow, flies all over the house. She has to see to everything. Is
+the sofa smooth? Is the pavement swept? Are the flowers in the cup?
+Is dinner ready? Tell me, pray, amid all this, is there room for
+the thought of God?"</p>
+<p>Such was Roman married life as it appeared to Jerome. The very
+duties and blessings that we consider the glory of the family he
+despised. I will return to his views later, but it is interesting
+to note the absence at this period, of the modern and true idea
+that God may be served in the performance of household and other
+secular duties. Women fled <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page115"></a>[pg 115]</span> from such occupations in those days
+that they might be religious. The disagreeable fact of Peter's
+marriage was overcome by the assertion that he must have washed
+away the stain of his married life by the blood of his martyrdom.
+Such extreme views arose partly as a reaction from and a protest
+against the dominant corruption, a state of affairs in which happy
+and holy marriages were rare.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Spread_of_Monasticism_in_Europe"></a>The Spread
+of Monasticism in Europe</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Much more might be said of monastic life in Rome, were it not
+now necessary to treat of the spread of monasticism in Europe.
+There are many noble characters whom we ought to know, such as
+Ambrose, one of Christendom's greatest bishops, who led a life of
+poverty and strict abstinence, like his sister Marcella, whom we
+have met. He it was, of whom the Emperor Theodosius said: "I have
+met a man who has told me the truth." Well might he so declare, for
+Ambrose refused him admission to the church at Milan, because his
+hands were red with the blood of the murdered, and succeeded in
+persuading him to submit to <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page116"></a>[pg 116]</span> discipline. To Ambrose may be applied
+the words which Gibbon wrote of Gregory Nazianzen: "The title of
+Saint has been added to his name, but the tenderness of his heart
+and the elegance of his genius reflect a more pleasing luster on
+his memory."</p>
+<p>The story of John, surnamed Chrysostom, who was born at Antioch,
+in 347, is exceedingly interesting. He was a young lawyer, who
+entered the priesthood after his baptism. He at once set his heart
+on the monastic life, but his mother took him to her chamber, and,
+by the bed where she had given him birth, besought him in fear, not
+to forsake her. "My son," she said in substance, "my only comfort
+in the midst of the miseries of this earthly life is to see thee
+constantly, and to behold in thy traits the faithful image of my
+beloved husband, who is no more. When you have buried me and joined
+my ashes with those of your father, nothing will then prevent you
+from retiring into the monastic life. But so long as I breathe,
+support me by your presence, and do not draw down upon you the
+wrath of God by bringing such evils upon me who have given you no
+offence." This <span class="pagenum"><a name="page117"></a>[pg
+117]</span> singularly tender petition was granted, but Chrysostom
+turned his home into a monastery, slept on the bare floor, ate
+little and seldom, and prayed much by day and by night.</p>
+<p>After his mother's death Chrysostom enjoyed the seclusion of a
+monastic solitude for six years, but impairing his health by
+excessive self-mortification he returned to Antioch in 380. He
+rapidly rose to a position of commanding influence in the church.
+His peerless oratorical and literary gifts were employed in
+elevating the ascetic ideal and in unsparing denunciations of the
+worldly religion of the imperial court. He incurred the furious
+hatred of the young and beautiful Empress Eudoxia, who united her
+influence with that of the ambitious Theophilus, patriarch of
+Alexandria, and Chrysostom was banished from Constantinople, but
+died on his way to the remote desert of Pityus. His powerful
+sermons and valuable writings contributed in no small degree to the
+spread of monasticism among the Christians of his time.</p>
+<p>Then there was Augustine, the greatest thinker since Plato. "We
+shall meet him," says Schaff, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page118"></a>[pg 118]</span> "alike on the broad highways and the
+narrow foot-paths, on the giddy Alpine heights and in the awful
+depths of speculation, wherever philosophical thinkers before him
+or after him have trod." He, too, like all the other leaders of
+thought in his time, was ascetic in his habits. Although he lived
+and labored for thirty-eight years at Hippo, a Numidian city about
+two hundred miles west of Carthage, in Africa, Augustine was
+regarded as the intellectual head not only of North Africa but of
+Western Christianity. He gathered his clergy into a college of
+priests, with a community of goods, thus approaching as closely to
+the regular monastic life as was possible to secular clergymen. He
+established religious houses and wrote a set of rules, consisting
+of twenty-four articles, for the government of monasteries. These
+rules were superseded by those of Benedict, but they were
+resuscitated under Charlemagne and reappeared in the famous Austin
+Canons of the eleventh century. Little did Augustine think that a
+thousand years later an Augustinian monk--Luther--would abandon his
+order to become the founder of modern Protestantism.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page119"></a>[pg 119]</span>
+<p>Augustine published a celebrated essay,--"On the Labor of
+Monks,"--in which he pointed out the dangers of monachism,
+condemned its abuses, and ended by sighing for the quiet life of
+the monk who divided his day between labor, reading and prayer,
+whilst he himself spent his years amid the noisy throng and the
+perplexities of his episcopate.</p>
+<p>These men, and many others, did much to further monasticism. But
+we must now leave sunny Africa and journey northward through Gaul
+into the land of the hardy Britons and Scots.</p>
+<p>Athanasius, the same weary exile whom we have encountered in
+Egypt and in Rome, had been banished by Constantine to Treves, in
+336. In 346 and 349 he again visited Gaul. He told the same story
+of Anthony and the Egyptian hermits with similar results.</p>
+<p>The most renowned ecclesiastic of the Gallican church, whose
+name is most intimately associated with the spread of monasticism
+in Western Europe, before the days of Benedict, was Saint Martin of
+Tours. He lived about the years 316-396 A.D. The chronicle of his
+life is by no means trustworthy, but that is essential neither to
+popularity <span class="pagenum"><a name="page120"></a>[pg
+120]</span> nor saintship. Only let a Severus describe his life and
+miracles in glowing rhetoric and fantastic legend and the people
+will believe it, pronouncing him greatest among the great, the
+mightiest miracle-worker of that miracle-working age.</p>
+<p>Martin was a soldier three years, against his will, under
+Constantine. One bleak winter day he cut his white military coat in
+two with his sword and clothed a beggar with half of it. That night
+he heard Jesus address the angels: "Martin, as yet only a
+catechumen has clothed me with his garment." After leaving the army
+he became a hermit, and, subsequently, bishop of Tours. He lived
+for years just outside of Tours in a cell made of interlaced
+branches. His monks dwelt around him in caves cut out of scarped
+rocks, overlooking a beautiful stream. They were clad in camel's
+hair and lived on a diet of brown bread, sleeping on a straw
+couch.</p>
+<p>But Martin's monks did not take altogether kindly to their mode
+of life. Severus records an amusing story of their rebellion
+against the meager allowance of food. The Egyptian could exist on a
+few figs a day. But these rude Gauls, just emerging <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page121"></a>[pg 121]</span> out of barbarism,
+were accustomed to devour great slices of roasted meat and to drink
+deep draughts of beer. Such sturdy children of the northern forests
+naturally disdained dainty morsels of barley bread and small
+potations of wine. True, Athanasius had said, "Fasting is the food
+of angels," but these ascetic novices, in their perplexity, could
+only say: "We are accused of gluttony; but we are Gauls; it is
+ridiculous and cruel to make us live like angels; we are not
+angels; once more, we are only Gauls." Their complaint comes down
+to us as a pathetic but humorous protest of common sense against
+ascetic fanaticism; or, regarded in another light, it may be
+considered as additional evidence of the depravity of the natural
+man.</p>
+<p>In spite of all complaints, however, Martin did not abate the
+severity of his discipline. As a bishop he pushed his monastic
+system into all the surrounding country. His zeal knew no bounds,
+and his strength seemed inexhaustible. "No one ever saw him either
+gloomy or merry," remarks his biographer. Amid many embarrassments
+and difficulties he was ever the same, with a countenance
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page122"></a>[pg 122]</span> full of
+heavenly serenity. He was a great miracle-worker--that is, if
+everything recorded of him is true. He cast out demons, and healed
+the sick; he had strange visions of angels and demons, and,
+wonderful to relate, thrice he raised bodies from the dead.</p>
+<p>But all conquerors are at last vanquished by the angel of death,
+and Martin passed into the company of the heavenly host and the
+category of saints. Two thousand monks attended his funeral. His
+fame spread all over Europe. Tradition tells us he was the uncle of
+Saint Patrick of Ireland. Churches were dedicated to him in France,
+Germany, Scotland and England. The festival of his birth is
+celebrated on the eleventh of November. In Scotland this day still
+marks the winter term, which is called Martinmas. Saint Martin's
+shrine was one of the most famous of the middle ages, and was noted
+for its wonderful cures. No saint is held, even now, in higher
+veneration by the French Catholic.</p>
+<p>It is not known when the institution was planted in Spain, but
+in 380 the council of Saragossa forbade priests to assume monkish
+habits. Germany <span class="pagenum"><a name="page123"></a>[pg
+123]</span> received the institution some time in the fifth
+century. The introduction of Christianity as well as of monasticism
+into the British Isles is shrouded in darkness. A few jewels of
+fact may be gathered from the legendary rubbish. It is probable
+that before the days of Benedict, Saint Patrick, independently of
+Rome, established monasteries in Ireland and preached the gospel
+there; and, without doubt, before the birth of Benedict of Nursia,
+there were monks and monasteries in Great Britain. The monastery of
+Bangor is said to have been founded about 450 A.D.</p>
+<p>It is probable that Christianity was introduced into Britain
+before the close of the second century, and that monasticism arose
+some time in the fifth century. Tertullian, about the beginning of
+the third century, boasts that Christianity had conquered places in
+Britain where the Roman arms could not penetrate. Origen claimed
+that the power of the Savior was manifest in Britain as well as in
+Muritania. The earliest notice we have of a British church occurs
+in the writings of the Venerable Bede (673-735 A.D.), a monk whose
+numerous and valuable works on English history <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page124"></a>[pg 124]</span> entitle him to the
+praise of being "the greatest literary benefactor this or any other
+nation has produced." He informs us that a British
+king--Lucius--embraced Christianity during the reign of the Emperor
+Aurelius, and that missionaries were sent from Rome to Britain
+about that time. Lingard says the story is suspicious, since "we
+know not from what source Bede, at the distance of five centuries,
+derived his information." It seems quite likely that there must
+have been some Christians among the Roman soldiers or civil
+officials who lived in Britain during the Roman occupation of the
+country. The whole problem has been the theme of so much
+controversy, however, that a fuller discussion is reserved for the
+next chapter.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Disorders_and_Oppositions"></a>Disorders and
+Oppositions</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>But was there no protest against the progress of these ascetic
+teachings? Did the monastic institution command the unanimous
+approval of the church from the outset? There were many and strong
+outcries against the monks, but they were <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page125"></a>[pg 125]</span> quickly silenced by
+the counter-shouts of praise. Even when rebellion against the
+system seemed formidable, it was popular nevertheless. The lifted
+hand was quickly struck down, and voices of opposition suddenly
+hushed. Like a mighty flood the movement swept on,--kings, when so
+inclined, being powerless to stop it. As Paula was carried fainting
+from the funeral procession of Bl&aelig;silla, her daughter,
+whispers such as these were audible in the crowd: "Is not this what
+we have often said? She weeps for her daughter, killed with
+fasting. How long must we refrain from driving these detestable
+monks out of Rome? Why do we not stone them or hurl them into the
+Tiber? They have misled this unhappy mother; that she is not a nun
+from choice is clear. No heathen mother ever wept for her children
+as she does for Bl&aelig;silla." And this is Paula, who, choked
+with grief, refused to weep when she sailed from her children for
+the far East!</p>
+<p>Unhappily, history is often too dignified to retail the
+conversations of the dinner-table and the gossip of private life.
+But this narrative indicates that in many a Roman family the monk
+was feared, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page126"></a>[pg
+126]</span> despised and hated. Sometimes everyday murmurs found
+their way into literature and so passed to posterity. Rutilius, the
+Pagan poet, as he sails before a hermit isle in the Mediterranean,
+exclaims: "Behold, Capraria rises before us; that isle is full of
+wretches, enemies of light. I detest these rocks scene of a recent
+shipwreck." He then goes on to declare that a young and rich
+friend, impelled by the furies, had fled from men and gods to a
+living tomb, and was now decaying in that foul retreat. This was no
+uncommon opinion. But contrast it with what Ambrose said of those
+same isles: "It is there in these isles, thrown down by God like a
+collar of pearls upon the sea, that those who would escape from the
+charms of dissipation find refuge. Nothing here disturbs their
+peace, all access is closed to the wild passions of the world. The
+mysterious sound of waves mingles with the chant of hymns; and,
+while the waters break upon the shores of these happy isles with a
+gentle murmur, the peaceful accents of the choir of the elect
+ascend toward Heaven from their bosom." No wonder the Milanese
+ladies guarded their daughters against this theological poet.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page127"></a>[pg 127]</span>
+<p>Even among the Christians there were hostile as well as friendly
+critics of monasticism; Jovinian, whom Neander compares to Luther,
+is a type of the former. Although a monk himself, he disputed the
+thesis that any merit lay in celibacy, fasting or poverty. He
+opposed the worship of saints and relics, and believed that one
+might retain possession of his property and make good use of it. He
+assailed the dissolute monks and claimed that many of Rome's
+noblest young men and women were withdrawn from a life of
+usefulness into the desert. He held that there was really but one
+class of Christians, namely, those who had faith in Christ, and
+that a monk could be no more. But Jovinian was far in advance of
+his age, and it was many years before the truth of his view gained
+any considerable recognition. He was severely attacked by Jerome,
+who called him a Christian Epicurean, and was condemned as a
+heretic by a synod at Milan, in 390. Thus the reformers were
+crushed for centuries. The Pagan Emperor, Julian, and the
+Christian, Valens, alike tried in vain to resist the emigration
+into the desert. Thousands fled, in times of peril to the state,
+from <span class="pagenum"><a name="page128"></a>[pg 128]</span>
+their civil and military duties, but the emperors were powerless to
+prevent the exodus.</p>
+<p>That there were grounds for complaint against the monks we may
+know from the charges made even by those who favored the system.
+Jerome Ambrose, Augustine, and in fact almost every one of the
+Fathers tried to correct the growing disorders. We learn from them
+that many fled from society, not to become holy, but to escape
+slavery and famine; and that many were lazy and immoral. Their
+"shaven heads lied to God." Avarice, ambition, or cowardice ruled
+hearts that should have been actuated by a love of poverty,
+self-sacrifice or courage. "Quite recently," says Jerome, "we have
+seen to our sorrow a fortune worthy of Croesus brought to light by
+a monk's death, and a city's alms collected for the poor, left by
+will to his sons and successors."</p>
+<p>Many monks traveled from place to place selling sham relics.
+Augustine wrote against "those hypocrites who, in the dress of
+monks, wander about the provinces carrying pretended relics,
+amulets, preservatives, and expecting alms to feed their lucrative
+poverty and recompense their <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page129"></a>[pg 129]</span> pretended virtue." It is to the
+credit of the Fathers of the church that they boldly and earnestly
+rebuked the vices of the monks and tried to purge the monastic
+system of its impurities.</p>
+<p>But the church sanctioned the monastic movement. She could not
+have done anything else. "It is one of the most striking
+occurrences in history," says Harnack, "that the church, exactly at
+the time when she was developing more and more into a legal
+institution and a sacramental establishment, outlined a Christian
+life-ideal which was incapable of realization within her bounds,
+but only alongside of her. The more she affiliated herself with the
+world, the higher and more superhuman did she make her ideal."</p>
+<p>It is also noteworthy that this "life-ideal" seems to have led,
+inevitably, to fanaticism and other excesses, so that even at this
+early date there was much occasion for alarm. Gross immorality was
+disclosed as well as luminous purity; indolence and laziness as
+well as the love of sacrifice and toil. So we shall find it down
+through the centuries. "The East had few great men," says Milman,
+"many madmen; the West, madmen <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page130"></a>[pg 130]</span> enough, but still very many, many
+great men." We have met some madmen and some great men. We shall
+meet more of each type.</p>
+<p>After 450 A.D., monasticism suffered an eclipse for over half a
+century. It seemed as if the Western institution was destined to
+end in that imbecility and failure which overtook the Eastern
+system. But there came a man who infused new life into the monastic
+body. He systematized its scattered principles and concentrated the
+energies of the wandering and unorganized monks.</p>
+<p>Our next visit will be to the mountain home of this renowned
+character, fifty miles to the west of Rome. "A single monk," says
+Montalembert, "is about to form there a center of spiritual virtue,
+and to light it up with a splendor destined to shine over
+regenerated Europe for ten centuries to come."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page131"></a>[pg 131]</span>
+<h2><a name="III"></a>III</h2>
+<h2><i><a name="THE_BENEDICTINES"></a>THE BENEDICTINES</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Saint Benedict, the founder of the famous monastic order that
+bears his name, was born at Nursia, about 480 A.D. His parents, who
+were wealthy, intended to give him a liberal education; but their
+plans were defeated, for at fifteen years of age Benedict renounced
+his family and fortune, and fled from his school life in Rome. The
+vice of the city shocked and disgusted him. He would rather be
+ignorant and holy, than educated and wicked. On his way into the
+mountains, he met a monk named Romanus,--the spot is marked by the
+chapel of Santa Crocella,--who gave him a haircloth shirt and a
+monastic dress of skins. Continuing his journey with Romanus, the
+youthful ascetic discovered a sunless cave in the desert of
+Subiaco, about forty miles from Rome. Into this <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page132"></a>[pg 132]</span> cell he climbed,
+and in it he lived three years. It was so inaccessible that Romanus
+had to lower his food to him by a rope, to which was attached a
+bell to call him from his devotions. Once the Devil threw a stone
+at the rope and broke it.</p>
+<p>But Benedict's bodily escape from the wickedness of Rome did not
+secure his spiritual freedom. "There was a certain lady of thin,
+airy shape, who was very active in this solemnity; her name was
+Fancy." Time and again, he revisited his old haunts, borne on the
+wings of his imagination. The face of a beautiful young girl of
+previous acquaintance constantly appeared before him. He was about
+to yield to the temptation and to return, when, summoning all his
+strength, he made one mighty effort to dispel the illusion forever.
+Divesting himself of his clothes, he rolled his naked body among
+the thorn-bushes near his cave. It was drastic treatment, but it
+seems to have rid his mind effectually of disturbing fancies. This
+singular self-punishment was used by Godric, the Welsh saint, in
+the twelfth century. "Failing to subdue his rebellious flesh by
+this method, he buried a cask in the earthen floor of his cell,
+filled it with water <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page133"></a>[pg 133]</span> and fitted it with a cover, and in
+this receptacle he shut himself up whenever he felt the
+titillations of desire. In this manner, varied by occasionally
+passing the night up to his chin in a river, of which he had broken
+the ice, he finally succeeded in mastering his fiery nature."</p>
+<p>One day some peasants discovered Benedict at the entrance of his
+cave. Deceived by his savage appearance, they mistook him for a
+wild beast, but the supposed wolf proving to be a saint, they fell
+down and reverenced him.</p>
+<p>The fame of the young ascetic attracted throngs of hermits, who
+took up their abodes near his cell. After a time monasteries were
+established, and Benedict was persuaded to become an abbot in one
+of them. His strictness provoked much opposition among the monks,
+resulting in carefully-laid plots to compass the moral ruin of
+their spiritual guide. An attempt to poison him was defeated by a
+miraculous interposition, and Benedict escaped to a solitary
+retreat.</p>
+<p>Again the moral hero became an abbot, and again the severity of
+his discipline was resented. This time a wicked and jealous priest
+sought to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page134"></a>[pg
+134]</span> entrap the saint by turning into a garden in which he
+was accustomed to walk seven young girls of exquisite physical
+charms. When Benedict encountered this temptation, he fled from the
+scene and retired to a picturesque mountain--the renowned Monte
+Cassino. Let Montalembert describe this celebrated spot among the
+western Apennines: "At the foot of this rock Benedict found an
+amphitheatre of the time of the C&aelig;sars, amidst the ruins of
+the town of Casinum, which the most learned and pious of Romans,
+Varro, that pagan Benedictine, whose memory and knowledge the sons
+of Benedict took pleasure in honoring, had rendered illustrious.
+From the summit the prospect extended on one side towards Arpinum,
+where the prince of Roman orators was born, and on the other
+towards Aquinum, already celebrated as the birthplace of
+Juvenal.... It was amidst those noble recollections, this solemn
+nature, and upon that predestinated height, that the patriarch of
+the monks of the West founded the capital of the monastic
+order."</p>
+<p>In the year 529 a great stronghold of Paganism in these wild
+regions gave way to Benedict's faith. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page135"></a>[pg 135]</span> Upon the ruins of a
+temple to Apollo, and in a grove sacred to Venus, arose the model
+of Western monasticism,--the cloister of Monte Cassino, which was
+to shine resplendent for a thousand years. The limitations of my
+purpose will prevent me from following in detail the fortunes of
+this renowned retreat, but it may not be out of place to glance at
+its subsequent history.</p>
+<p>Monte Cassino is located three and a half miles to the northeast
+of the town of Cassino, midway between Rome and Naples. About 589
+A.D. the Lombards destroyed the buildings, but the monks escaped to
+Rome, in fulfilment, so it is claimed, of a prophecy uttered by
+Benedict. It lay in ruins until restored by Gregory II. in 719,
+only to be burned in 884 by the Saracens; seventy years later it
+was again rebuilt. It afterwards passed through a variety of
+calamities, and was consecrated, for the third time, by Benedict
+XII., in 1729. Longfellow quotes a writer for the <i>London Daily
+News</i> as saying: "There is scarcely a pope or emperor of
+importance who has not been personally connected with its history.
+From its mountain crag it has seen Goths, Lombards, Saracens,
+Normans, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page136"></a>[pg
+136]</span> Frenchmen, Spaniards, Germans, scour and devastate the
+land which, through all modern history, has attracted every
+invader."</p>
+<p>It was enriched by popes, emperors and princes. In its palmy
+days the abbot was the first baron in the realm, and commanded over
+four hundred towns and villages. In 1866, it shared the fate of all
+the monasteries of Italy. It still stands upon the summit of the
+mountain, and can be seen by the traveler from the railway in the
+valley. At present it serves as a Catholic seminary with about two
+hundred students. It contains a spacious church, richly ornamented
+with marble, mosaics and paintings. It has also a famous library
+which, in spite of bad usage, is still immensely valuable.
+Boccaccio made a visit to the place, and when he saw the precious
+books so vilely mutilated, he departed in tears, exclaiming: "Now,
+therefore, O scholar, rack thy brains in the making of books!" The
+library contains about twenty thousand volumes, and about
+thirty-five thousand popes' bulls, diplomas and charters. There are
+also about a thousand manuscripts, some of which are of priceless
+value, as they date from the sixth century downward, and consist
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page137"></a>[pg 137]</span> of
+ancient Bibles and important medieval literature.</p>
+<p>Benedict survived the founding of this monastery fourteen years.
+His time was occupied in establishing other cloisters, perfecting
+his rule, and preaching. Many stories are related of his power over
+the hearts of the untamed barbarians. Galea the Goth, out on a
+marauding expedition, demanded a peasant to give him his treasures.
+The peasant, thinking to escape, said he had committed them to the
+keeping of Benedict. Galea immediately ordered him to be bound on a
+horse and conducted to the saint. Benedict was seated at the
+gateway reading when Galea and his prisoner arrived. Looking up
+from his book he fastened his eyes upon the poor peasant, who was
+immediately loosed from his bonds. The astonished Galea, awed by
+this miracle, fell at the feet of the abbot, and, instead of
+demanding gold, supplicated his blessing. Once a boy was drowning,
+and, at the command of Benedict, St. Maur, a wealthy young Roman,
+who had turned monk, walked safely out upon the water and rescued
+the lad. Gregory also tells us many stories of miraculous healing,
+and of one resurrection from the dead.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page138"></a>[pg 138]</span>
+<p>Benedict's last days were linked with a touching incident. His
+sister, Scholastica, presided over a convent near his own. They met
+once a year. On his last visit to her, Scholastica begged him to
+remain and "speak of the joys of Heaven till the morning." But
+Benedict would not listen; he must return. His sister then buried
+her face in her hands weeping and praying. Suddenly the sky was
+overcast with clouds, and a terrific storm burst upon the
+mountains, which prevented her brother's return. Three days later
+Benedict saw the soul of his sister entering heaven. On March 21,
+543, a short time after his sister's death, two monks beheld a
+shining pathway of stars over which the soul of Benedict passed
+from Monte Cassino to heaven. Such, in brief, is the story
+preserved for us in his biography by the celebrated patron of
+monasticism, Pope Gregory I.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Rules_of_Benedict"></a>The Rules of
+Benedict</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The rules, <i>regulae</i>, of St. Benedict, are worthy of
+special consideration, since they constitute the real foundation of
+his success and of his fame. <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page139"></a>[pg 139]</span> His order was by far the most
+important monastic brotherhood until the thirteenth century. Nearly
+all the other orders which sprang up during this interval were
+based upon Benedictine rules, and were really attempts to reform
+the monastic system on the basis of Benedict's original practice.
+Other monks lived austere lives and worked miracles, and some of
+them formulated rules, but it is to Benedict and his rules that we
+must look for the code of Western monachism. "By a strange
+parallelism," says Putnam, "almost in the very year in which the
+great Emperor Justinian was codifying the results of seven
+centuries of Roman secular legislation for the benefit of the
+judges and the statesmen of the new Europe, Benedict, on his lonely
+mountain-top, was composing his code for the regulation of the
+daily life of the great civilizers of Europe for seven centuries to
+come."</p>
+<p>The rules consist of a preface and seventy-three chapters. The
+prologue defines the classes of monks, and explains the aim of the
+"school of divine servitude," as Benedict described his monastery.
+The following is a partial list of the subjects considered: The
+character of an abbot, silence, maxims <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page140"></a>[pg 140]</span> for good works,
+humility, directions as to divine service, rules for dormitories,
+penalties, duties of various monastic officers, poverty, care of
+the sick daily rations of food and drink, hours for meals, fasting,
+entertainment of guests, and dress. They close with the statement
+that the Benedictine rule is not offered as an ideal of perfection,
+or even as equal to the teaching of Cassian or Basil, but for mere
+beginners in the spiritual life, who may thence proceed
+further.</p>
+<p>The Benedictine novitiate extended over one year, but was
+subsequently increased to three. At the close of this period the
+novice was given the opportunity to go back into the world. If he
+still persisted in his choice, he swore before the bones of the
+saints to remain forever cut off from the rest of his fellow
+beings. If a monk left the monastery, or was expelled, he could
+return twice, but if, after the third admission, he severed his
+connection, the door was shut forever.</p>
+<p>The monk passed his time in manual labor, copying manuscripts,
+reading, fasting and prayer. He was forbidden to receive letters,
+tokens or gifts, even from his nearest-relatives, without
+permission <span class="pagenum"><a name="page141"></a>[pg
+141]</span> from the abbot. His daily food allowance was usually a
+pound of bread, a pint of wine, cider or ale, and sometimes fish,
+eggs, fruit or cheese. He was dressed in a black cowl. His clothing
+was to be suitable to the climate and to consist of two sets. He
+was also furnished with a straw mattress, blanket, quilt, pillow,
+knife, pen, needle, handkerchief and tablets. He was, in all
+things, to submit patiently to his superior, to keep silence, and
+to serve his turn in the kitchen. In the older days the monks
+changed their clothes on the occasion of a bath, which used to be
+taken four times a year. Later, bathing was allowed only twice a
+year, and the monks changed their clothes when they wished.</p>
+<p>Various punishments were employed to correct faults. Sometimes
+the offender was whipped on the bare shoulders with a thick rod;
+others had to lie prostrate in the doorway of the church at each
+hour, so that the monks passed over his body on entering or going
+out.</p>
+<p>The monks formerly rose at two o'clock, and spent the day in
+various occupations until eight at night, when they retired. The
+following rules once governed St. Gregory's Monastery in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page142"></a>[pg 142]</span>
+England: "3:45 A.M. Rise. 4 A.M. Matins and lauds, recited;
+half-hour mental prayer; prime <i>sung</i>; prime B.V.M. recited.
+6:30 A.M. Private study; masses; breakfast for those who had
+permission. 8 A.M. Lectures and disputations. 10 A.M. Little hours
+B.V.M., recited; tierce, mass, sext, <i>sung</i>. 11:30 A.M.
+Dinner. 12 noon. None <i>sung</i>; vespers and compline B.V.M.,
+recited. 12:30 P.M. Siesta, 1 P.M. Hebrew or Greek lecture. 2 P.M.
+Vespers <i>sung</i>. 2:30 P.M. Lectures and disputations. 4 P.M.
+Private study. 6 P.M. Supper. 6:30 P.M. Recreation. 7:30 P.M.
+Public spiritual reading; compline <i>sung</i>; matins and lauds
+B.V.M., recited; half-hour mental prayer. 8:45 P.M. Retire[<a href=
+"#NOTE_D">D</a>]."</p>
+<p>Such a routine suggests a dreary life, but that would depend
+upon the monk's temperament. Regularity of employment kept him
+healthy, and if he did not take his sins too much to heart, he was
+free from gloom. Hill very justly observes: "Whenever men obey that
+injunction of labor, no matter what their station, there is in the
+act the element of happiness, and whoever avoids that <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page143"></a>[pg 143]</span> injunction, there
+is always the shadow of the unfulfilled curse darkening their
+path." Thus, their ideal was "to subdue one's self and then to
+devote one's self," which De Tocqueville pronounces "the secret of
+strength." How well they succeeded in realizing their ideal by the
+methods employed we shall see later.</p>
+<p>The term "order," as applied to the Benedictines, is used in a
+different sense from that which it has when used of later monastic
+bodies. Each Benedictine house was practically independent of every
+other, while the houses of the Dominicans, Franciscans or Jesuits
+were bound together under one head. The family idea was peculiar to
+the Benedictines. The abbot was the father, and the monastery was
+the home where the Benedictine was content to dwell all his life.
+In the later monastic societies the monks were constantly traveling
+from place to place. Taunton says: "As God made society to rest on
+the basis of the family, so St. Benedict saw that the spiritual
+family is the surest basis for the sanctification of the souls of
+his monks. The monastery therefore is to him what the 'home' is to
+lay-folk.... From this <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page144"></a>[pg 144]</span> family idea comes another result: the
+very fact that St. Benedict did not found an Order but only gave a
+Rule, cuts away all possibility of that narrowing <i>esprit de
+corps</i> which comes so easily to a widespread and
+highly-organized body."</p>
+<p>In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, however, it became
+necessary for the general good of each family to secure some kind
+of union. The Chapter then came into existence, which was a
+representative body, composed of the heads of the different houses
+and ordinary monks regularly appointed as delegates. To the Chapter
+were committed various matters of jurisdiction, and also the power
+of sending visitors to the different abbeys in the pope's name.</p>
+<p>Each society was ruled by an abbot, who governed in Christ's
+stead. Sometimes the members of the monastery were consulted, the
+older ones ordinarily, the whole congregation; in important
+matters. But implicit obedience to the abbot, as the representative
+of God, was demanded by the vows.</p>
+<p>The abbot was to be elected by the monks. At various periods
+popes and princes usurped this power, but the monks always claimed
+the right as an <span class="pagenum"><a name="page145"></a>[pg
+145]</span> original privilege. Carlyle quotes Jocelin on Abbot
+Samson, who says that the monks of St. Edmundsbury were compelled
+to submit their choice to Henry II., who, looking at the committee
+of monks somewhat sternly, said: "You present to me Samson; I do
+not know him; had it been your prior, whom I do know, I should have
+accepted him; however, I will now do as you wish. But have a care
+of yourselves. By the true eyes of God, if you manage badly, I will
+be upon you."</p>
+<p>In Walter Scott's novel, "The Abbot," there is an interesting
+contrast drawn between the ceremonies attending an abbot's
+installation, when the monasteries were in their glory, and the
+pitiable scenes in the days of their decline, when Mary Stuart was
+a prisoner in Lochleven. In the monastery of Kennaquhair, which had
+been despoiled by the fury of the times, a few monks were left to
+mourn the mutilated statues and weep over the fragments of
+richly-carved Gothic pillars. Having secretly elected an abbot,
+they assembled in fear and trembling to invest him with the honors
+of his office. "In former times," says Scott, "this was one of the
+most splendid of the many pageants which the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page146"></a>[pg 146]</span> hierarchy of Rome
+had devised to attract the veneration of the faithful. When the
+folding doors on such solemn occasions were thrown open, and the
+new abbot appeared on the threshold in full-blown dignity, with
+ring and mitre and dalmatique and crosier, his hoary
+standard-bearers and juvenile dispensers of incense preceding him,
+and the venerable train of monks behind him, his appearance was the
+signal for the magnificent jubilate to rise from the organ and the
+music-loft and to be joined by the corresponding bursts of
+'Alleluiah' from the whole assembled congregation.</p>
+<p>"Now all was changed. Father Ambrose stood on the broken steps
+of the high altar, barefooted, as was the rule, and holding in his
+hand his pastoral staff, for the gemmed ring and jewelled mitre had
+become secular spoils. No obedient vassals came, man after man, to
+make their homage and to offer the tribute which should provide
+their spiritual superior with palfrey and trappings. No bishop
+assisted at the solemnity to receive into the higher ranks of the
+church nobility a dignitary whose voice in the legislature was as
+potent as his own."</p>
+<p>We are enabled by this partially-quoted description <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page147"></a>[pg 147]</span> to imagine the
+importance attached to the election of an abbot. He became, in
+feudal times, a lord of the land, the richest man in the community,
+and a tremendous power in political councils and parliaments. A
+Benedictine abbot once confessed: "My vow of poverty has given me a
+hundred thousand crowns a year; my vow of obedience has raised me
+to the rank of a sovereign prince."</p>
+<p>No new principle seems to be disclosed by the Benedictine rules.
+The command to labor had been emphasized even in the monasteries of
+Egypt. The Basilian code contained a provision enforcing manual
+labor, but the work was light and insufficient to keep the mind
+from brooding. The monastery that was to succeed in the West must
+provide for men who not only could toil hard, but who must do so if
+they were to be kept pure and true; it must welcome men accustomed
+to the dangerous adventures of pioneer life in the vast forests of
+the North. The Benedictine system met these conditions by a unique
+combination and application of well-known monastic principles; by a
+judicious subordination of minor matters to essential discipline;
+by bringing into <span class="pagenum"><a name="page148"></a>[pg
+148]</span> greater prominence the doctrine of labor; by tempering
+the austerities of the cell to meet the necessities of a severe
+climate; and lastly, by devising a scheme of life equally adaptable
+to the monk of sunny Italy and the rude Goth of the northern
+forests.</p>
+<p>It was the splendid fruition of many years of experiment amid
+varying results. "It shows," says Schaff, "a true knowledge of
+human nature, the practical wisdom of Rome and adaptation to
+Western customs; it combines simplicity with completeness,
+strictness with gentleness, humility with courage and gives the
+whole cloister life a fixed unity and compact organization, which,
+like the episcopate, possessed an unlimited versatility and power
+of expansion."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Struggle_against_Barbarism"></a>The Struggle
+against Barbarism</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>No institution has contributed as much to the amelioration of
+human misery or struggled as patiently and persistently to
+influence society for good as the Christian church. In spite of all
+that may be said against the followers of the Cross, it still
+remains true, that they have ever been foremost <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page149"></a>[pg 149]</span> in the
+establishment of peace and justice among men.</p>
+<p>The problem that confronted the church when Benedict began his
+labors, was no less than that of reducing a demoralized and brutal
+society to law and order. Chaos reigned, selfishness and lust ruled
+the hearts of Rome's conquerors. The West was desolated by
+barbarians; the East dismembered and worn out by theological
+controversy. War had ruined the commerce of the cities and laid
+waste the rural districts. Vast swamps and tracts of brush covered
+fields once beautiful with the products of agricultural labor. The
+minds of men were distracted by apprehensions of some frightful,
+impending calamity. The cultured Roman, the untutored Goth and the
+corrupted Christian were locked in the deadly embrace of despair.
+"Constantly did society attempt to form itself," says Guizot,
+"constantly was it destroyed by the act of man, by the absence of
+the moral conditions under which alone it can exist."</p>
+<p>But notwithstanding failures and discouragements, the work of
+reconstructing society moved painfully on, and among the brave
+master builders was Benedict of Nursia. "He found the world,
+physical <span class="pagenum"><a name="page150"></a>[pg
+150]</span> and social, in ruins," says Cardinal Newman, "and his
+mission was to restore it in the way,--not of science, but of
+nature; not as if setting about to do it; not professing to do it
+by any set time, or by any series of strokes; but so quietly,
+patiently, gradually, that often till the work was done, it was not
+known to be doing. It was a restoration rather than a visitation,
+correction or conversion. The new world he helped to create was a
+growth rather than a structure."</p>
+<p>But the chaos created by the irruption of the barbarous nations
+at this period seriously affected the moral character and influence
+of the clergy and the monks. The church seemed unequal to the
+stupendous undertaking of converting the barbarians. The monks, as
+a class, were lawless and vicious. Benedict himself testifies
+against them, and declares that they were "always wandering and
+never stable; that they obey their own appetites, whereunto they
+are enslaved." Unable to control their own desires by any law
+whatsoever, they were unfitted to the task before them. It was
+imperative, then, that unity and order should be introduced among
+the monasteries; that some sort of a uniform <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page151"></a>[pg 151]</span> rule, adapted to
+the existing conditions, should be adopted, not only for the
+preservation of the monastic institution, but for the preparation
+of the monks for their work. Therefore, although the Christianity
+of that time was far from ideal, it was, nevertheless, a religion
+within the grasp of the reckless barbarians; and subsequent events
+prove that it possessed a moral power capable of humanizing
+manners, elevating the intellect, and checking the violent temper
+of the age.</p>
+<p>Excepting always the religious services of the Benedictine
+monks, their greatest contribution to civilization was literary and
+educational[<a href="#NOTE_E">E</a>]. The rules of Benedict
+provided for two hours a day of reading, and it was doubtless this
+wise regulation that stimulated literary tastes, and resulted in
+the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page152"></a>[pg 152]</span>
+collecting of books and the reproduction of manuscripts. "Wherever
+a Benedictine house arose, or a monastery of any one of the Orders,
+which were but offshoots from the Benedictine tree, books were
+multiplied and a library came into existence, small indeed at
+first, but increasing year by year, till the wealthier houses had
+gathered together collections of books that would do credit to a
+modern university." There was great danger that the remains of
+classic literature might be destroyed in the general devastation of
+Italy. The monasteries rescued the literary fragments that escaped,
+and preserved them. "For a period of more than six centuries the
+safety of the literary heritage of Europe,--one may say of the
+world,--depended upon the scribes of a few dozen scattered
+monasteries."</p>
+<p>The literary services of the earlier monks did not consist in
+original production, but in the reproduction and preservation of
+the classics. This work was first begun as a part of the prescribed
+routine of European monastic life in the monastery at Vivaria, or
+Viviers, France, which was founded by Cassiodorus about 539. The
+rules of this cloister were based on those of Cassian, who died in
+the early part of the fifth century. Benedict, at Monte Cassino,
+followed the example of Cassiodorus, and the Benedictine Order
+carried the work on for the seven succeeding centuries.</p>
+<p>Cassiodorus was a statesman of no mean ability, and for over
+forty years was active in the political <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page153"></a>[pg 153]</span> circles of his
+time, holding high official positions under five different Roman
+rulers. He was also an exceptional scholar, devoting much of his
+energy to the preservation of classic literature. His magnificent
+collection of manuscripts, rescued from the ruins of Italian
+libraries, "supplied material for the pens of thousands of monastic
+scribes." If we leave out Jerome, it is to Cassiodorus that the
+honor is due for joining learning and monasticism.</p>
+<p>"Thus," remarks Schaff, "that very mode of life, which, in its
+founder, Anthony, despised all learning, became in the course of
+its development an asylum of culture in the rough and stormy times
+of the migration and the crusades, and a conservator of the
+literary treasures of antiquity for the use of modern times."</p>
+<p>Cassiodorus, with a noble enthusiasm, inspired his monks to
+their task. He even provided lamps of ingenious construction, that
+seem to have been self-trimming, to aid them in their work. He
+himself set an example of literary diligence, astonishing in one of
+his age.</p>
+<p>Putnam is justified in his praises of this remarkable character
+when he declares: "It is not too <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page154"></a>[pg 154]</span> much to say that the continuity of
+thought and civilization of the ancient world with that of the
+middle ages was due, more than to any other one man, to the life
+and labors of Cassiodorus."</p>
+<p>But the monk was more than a scribe and a collector of books, he
+became the chronicler and the school-teacher. "The records that
+have come down to us of several centuries of medieval European
+history are due almost exclusively to the labors of the monastic
+chroniclers." A vast fund of information, the value of which is
+impaired, it is true, by much useless stuff, concerning medieval
+customs, laws and events, was collected by these unscientific
+historians and is now accessible to the student.</p>
+<p>At the end of the ninth century nearly all the monasteries of
+Europe conducted schools open to the children of the neighborhood.
+The character of the educational training of the times is not to be
+judged by modern standards. A beginning had to be made, and that
+too at a time "when neither local nor national governments had
+assumed any responsibilities in connection with elementary
+education, and when the municipalities were too ignorant, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page155"></a>[pg 155]</span> in many
+cases too poor, to make provision for the education of the
+children." It is therefore to the lasting credit of Benedict,
+inspired no doubt by the example of Cassiodorus, that he commanded
+his monks to read, encouraged literary work, and made provision for
+the education of the young.</p>
+<p>The Benedictines rendered a great social service in reclaiming
+deserted regions and in clearing forests. "The monasteries," says
+Maitland, "were, in those days of misrule and turbulence, beyond
+all price, not only as places where (it may be imperfectly, but
+better than elsewhere) God was worshipped,... but as central points
+whence agriculture was to spread over bleak hills and barren downs
+and marshy plains, and deal its bread to millions perishing with
+hunger and its pestilential train." Roman taxation and barbarian
+invasions had ruined the farmers, who left their lands and fled to
+swell the numbers of the homeless. The monk repeopled these
+abandoned but once fertile fields, and carried civilization still
+deeper into the forests. Many a monastery with its surrounding
+buildings became the nucleus of a modern city. The more awful the
+darkness of the forest solitudes, the more the monks <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page156"></a>[pg 156]</span> loved it. They cut
+down trees in the heart of the wilderness, and transformed a soil
+bristling with woods and thickets into rich pastures and ploughed
+fields. They stimulated the peasantry to labor, and taught them
+many useful lessons in agriculture. Thus, they became an
+industrial, as well as a spiritual, agency for good.</p>
+<p>The habits of the monks brought them into close contact with
+nature. Even the animals became their friends. Numerous stories
+have been related of their wonderful power over wild beasts and
+their conversations with the birds. "It is wonderful," says Bede,
+"that he who faithfully and loyally obeys the Creator of the
+universe, should, in his turn, see all the creatures obedient to
+his orders and his wishes." They lived, so we are told, in the most
+intimate relations with the animal creation. Squirrels leaped to
+their hands or hid in the folds of their cowls. Stags came out of
+the forests in Ireland and offered themselves to some monks who
+were ploughing, to replace the oxen carried off by the hunters.
+Wild animals stopped in their pursuit of game at the command of St.
+Laumer. Birds ceased singing at the request of some monks
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page157"></a>[pg 157]</span> until
+they had chanted their evening prayer, and at their word the
+feathered songsters resumed their music. A swan was the daily
+companion of St. Hugh of Lincoln, and manifested its miraculous
+knowledge of his approaching death by the most profound melancholy.
+While all the details of such stories are not to be accepted as
+literally true, no doubt some of this poetry of monastic history
+rests upon interesting and charming facts.</p>
+<p>A fuller discussion of the permanent contributions which the
+monk made to civilization is reserved for the last chapter. I have
+somewhat anticipated a closer scrutiny of his achievements in order
+to present a clearer view of his life and labors. His religious
+duties were, perhaps, wearisome enough. We might tire of his
+monotonous chanting and incessant vigils, but it is gratifying to
+know that he also engaged in practical and useful employments. The
+convent became the house of industry as well as the temple of
+prayer. The forest glades echoed to the stroke of the axe as well
+as to hymns of praise. Yes, as Carlyle writes of the twelfth
+century, "these years were no chimerical vacuity and dreamland
+peopled with mere vaporous phantasms, but a <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page158"></a>[pg 158]</span> green solid place,
+that grew corn and several other things. The sun shone on it, the
+vicissitudes of seasons and human fortunes. Cloth was woven and
+worn; ditches were dug, furrowed fields ploughed and houses
+built."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Spread_of_the_Benedictine_Rule"></a>The Spread
+of the Benedictine Rule</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>It is generally held that Benedict had no presentiment of the
+vast historical importance of his system; and that he aspired to
+nothing beyond the salvation of his own soul and those of his
+brethren.</p>
+<p>But the rule spread with wonderful rapidity. In every rich
+valley arose a Benedictine abbey. Britain, Germany, Scandinavia,
+France and Spain adopted his rule. Princes, moved by various
+motives, hastened to bestow grants of land on the indefatigable
+missionary who, undeterred by the wildness of the forest and the
+fierceness of the barbarian, settled in the remotest regions. In
+the various societies of the Benedictines there have been
+thirty-seven thousand monasteries and one hundred and fifty
+thousand abbots. For the space of two <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page159"></a>[pg 159]</span> hundred and
+thirty-nine years the Benedictines governed the church by
+forty-eight popes chosen from their order. They boast of two
+hundred cardinals, seven thousand archbishops, fifteen thousand
+bishops and four thousand saints. The astonishing assertion is also
+made that no less than twenty emperors and forty-seven kings
+resigned their crowns to become Benedictine monks. Their convents
+claim ten empresses and fifty queens. Many of these earthly rulers
+retired to the seclusion of the monastery because their hopes had
+been crushed by political defeat, or their consciences smitten by
+reason of crime or other sins. Some were powerfully attracted by
+the heroic element of monastic life, and these therefore spurned
+the luxuries and emoluments of royalty, in order by personal
+sacrifice to achieve spiritual domination in this life, and to
+render their future salvation certain. But whatever the motive that
+drew queens and princes to the monastic order, the retirement of
+such large numbers of the nobility indicates the influence of a
+religious system which could cope so successfully with the
+attractions of the palace and the natural passion for political
+dominion.</p>
+<p>Saint Gregory the Great, the biographer of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page160"></a>[pg 160]</span> Benedict, who was
+born at Rome in 540 A.D. and so was nearly contemporaneous with
+Benedict was a zealous promoter of the monastic ideal, and did as
+much as any one to advance its ecclesiastical position and
+influence. He founded seven monasteries with his paternal
+inheritance, and became the abbot of one of them. He often
+expressed a desire to escape the clamor of the world by retirement
+to a lonely cell. Inspired by the loftiest estimates of his holy
+office, he sought to reform the church in its spirit and life. Many
+of his innovations in the church service bordered upon a dangerous
+and glittering pomp; but the musical world will always revere his
+memory for the famous chants that bear his name.</p>
+<p>Gregory surrounded himself with monks, and did everything in his
+power to promote their interests. He increased the novitiate to two
+years, and exempted certain monasteries from the control of the
+bishops. Other popes added to these exemptions, and thus widened
+the breach which already existed between the secular clergy and the
+monks. He also fixed a penalty of lifelong imprisonment for
+abandonment of the monastic life.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page161"></a>[pg 161]</span>
+<p>Under Gregory's direction many missionary enterprises were
+carried on, notably that of Augustine to England. The story runs
+that one day Gregory saw some men and beautiful children from
+Britain put up for sale in the market-place. Deeply sighing, he
+exclaimed: "Alas for grief! That the author of darkness possesses
+men of so bright countenance, and that so great grace of aspect
+bears a mind void of inward grace!" He then asked the children the
+name of their nation. "Angles," was the reply. "It is well," he
+said, "for they have <i>angelic</i> faces. What is the name of your
+province?" It was answered, "Deira." "Truly," he said,
+"<i>De-ira-ns,</i> drawn from anger, and called to the mercy of
+Christ. How is your king called?" They answered, "&AElig;lla, or
+Ella." Then he cried "<i>Alleluia!</i> it behooves that the praise
+of God the Creator should be sung in those parts." While it is hard
+to accept this evidently fanciful story in its details, it seems
+quite probable that the sale of some English slaves in a Roman
+market drew the attention of Gregory to the needs of Britain.</p>
+<p>Some years afterwards, in 596, Gregory commissioned <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page162"></a>[pg 162]</span> Augustine, prior of
+the monastery of St. Andrew's on the Celian Hill, at Rome, with
+forty companions, to preach the gospel in Britain. When this
+celebrated missionary landed on the island of Thanet, he found
+monasticism had preceded him. But what was the nature of this
+British monasticism? On that question Rome and England are
+divided.</p>
+<p>The Romanist declares that no country received the Christian
+faith more directly from the Church of Rome than did England; that
+the most careful study of authentic records reveals no doctrinal
+strife, no diversity of belief between the early British monks and
+the Pope of Rome; that St. Patrick, of Ireland, and St. Columba, of
+Scotland, were loyal sons of their Roman mother.</p>
+<p>The Anglican, on the other hand, believes that Christianity was
+introduced into Britain independently of Rome. As to the precise
+means employed, he has his choice of ten legends. He may hold with
+Lane that it is reasonable to suppose one of Paul's ardent
+converts, burning with fervent zeal, led the Britons to the cross.
+Or he may argue with others: "What is more natural than to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page163"></a>[pg 163]</span> imagine
+that Joseph of Arimathea, driven from Palestine, sailed away to
+Britain." In proof of this assumption, we are shown the chapel of
+St. Joseph, the remains of the oldest Christian church, where the
+holy-thorn blossoms earlier than in any other part of England. Many
+Anglicans wisely regard all this as legendary. It is also held that
+St. Patrick and St. Columba were not Romanists, but represented a
+type of British Christianity, which, although temporarily subjected
+to Rome, yet finally threw off the yoke under Henry VIII. and
+reasserted its ancient independence. Still others declare that when
+Augustine was made archbishop, the seat of ecclesiastical authority
+was transferred from Rome to Canterbury, and the English church
+became an independent branch of the universal church. It was
+Catholic, but not Roman.</p>
+<p>The difficulty of ascertaining when and by whom Christianity was
+originally introduced into southern Britain must be apparent to
+every student. But some things may be regarded as historically
+certain. The whole country had been desolated by war when Augustine
+arrived. For a hundred and fifty years the brutality and ignorance
+of the barbarians had <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page164"></a>[pg 164]</span> reigned supreme. All traces of Roman
+civilization had nearly disappeared with the conquest of the
+heathen Anglo-Saxons. Whatever may be thought about the subsequent
+effects of the triumph of Roman Christianity, it is due to Rome to
+recognize the fact that with the coming of the Roman missionaries
+religion and knowledge began a new life.</p>
+<p>The Anglo-Saxons had destroyed the Christian churches and
+monasteries, whose origin, as we have seen, is unknown. They drove
+away or massacred the priests and monks. Christianity was
+practically extirpated in those districts subject to the Germanic
+yoke. But when Augustine landed British monks were still to be
+found in various obscure parts of the country, principally in
+Ireland and Wales. Judging from what is known of these monks, it is
+safe to say that their habits and teachings were based on the
+traditions of an earlier Christianity, and that originally British
+Christianity was independent of Rome.</p>
+<p>The monks in Britain at the time when Augustine landed differed
+from the Roman monks in their tonsures, their liturgy, and the
+observance of Easter, although no material difference in doctrine
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page165"></a>[pg 165]</span> can be
+established. The clergy did not always observe the law of celibacy
+nor perhaps the Roman rules of baptism. It is also admitted, even
+by Catholic historians, that the British monks refused to
+acknowledge Augustine their archbishop; that this question divided
+the royal family; and that the old British church was not
+completely subdued until Henry II. conquered Ireland and Wales.
+These statements are practically supported by Ethelred L. Taunton,
+an authoritative writer, whose sympathy with Roman monasticism is
+very strong. He thinks that a few of the British monks submitted to
+Augustine, but of the rest he says: "They would not heed the call
+of Augustine, and on frivolous pretexts refused to acknowledge
+him." A large body of British monks retired to the monastery of
+Bangor, and when King Ethelfrid invaded the district of Wales, he
+slew twelve hundred of them in the open field as they were upon
+their knees praying for the success of the Britons. It was then
+that the power of the last remnants of Celtic or British
+Christianity was practically broken, and the Roman type henceforth
+gradually acquired the mastery.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page166"></a>[pg 166]</span>
+<p>Montalembert says: "In no other country has Catholicism been
+persecuted with more sanguinary zeal; and, at the same time, none
+has greater need of her care." While the latter observation is open
+to dispute, it is certainly true that England has never remained
+quiet under the dominion of Rome. Goldsmith's tribute to the
+English character suggests a reasonable explanation of this
+historic fact:</p>
+<blockquote>"Stern o'er each bosom reason holds her state,<br>
+Fierce in their native hardiness of soul,<br>
+True to imagined right, above control,<br>
+While even the peasant boasts those rights to scan,<br>
+And learns to venerate himself as man."</blockquote>
+<p>The fact to be remembered, as we emerge from these
+ecclesiastical quarrels and the confusions of this perplexing
+history, is that the monks were the intellectual and religious
+leaders of those days. They exercised a profound influence upon
+English society, and had much to do with the establishment of
+English institutions.</p>
+<p>But, on the other hand, the continent is indebted to England for
+the gift of many noble monks who served France and Germany as
+intellectual and moral guides, at a time when these countries were
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page167"></a>[pg 167]</span> in a
+state of extreme degradation. Boniface, the Apostle to the Germans,
+who is regarded by Neander as the Father of the German church and
+the real founder of the Christian civilization of Germany, was the
+gift of the English cloisters, and a native of Devonshire. Alcuin,
+the ecclesiastical prime minister of Charlemagne and the greatest
+educator of his time, was born and trained in England. Nearly all
+the leading schools of France were founded or improved by this
+celebrated monk. It was largely due to Alcuin's unrivaled energy
+and splendid talents that Charlemagne was able to make so many and
+so glorious educational improvements in his empire.</p>
+<p>Notable among the men who introduced the Benedictine rule into
+England was St. Wilfred (634-709 A.D.), who had traveled
+extensively in France and Italy, and on his return carried the
+monastic rule into northern Britain. He also is credited with
+establishing a course of musical training in the English
+monasteries. He was the most active prelate of his age in the
+founding of churches and monasteries, and in securing uniformity of
+discipline and harmony with the Church of Rome.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page168"></a>[pg 168]</span>
+<p>One of the most famous monastic retreats of those days was the
+wild and lonely isle of Iona, the Mecca of monks and the monastic
+capital of Scotland. It is a small island, three miles long and one
+broad, lying west of Scotland. Many kings of Scotland were crowned
+here on a stone which now forms a part of the British coronation
+chair. Its great monastery enjoyed the distinction from the sixth
+to the eighth century of being second to none in its widespread
+influence in behalf of the intellectual life of Europe.</p>
+<p>This monastery was originally founded in the middle of the sixth
+century by Columba, the Apostle to Caledonia, an Irish saint
+actively associated with a wonderful intellectual awakening. The
+rule of the monastery is unknown, but it is probable that it could
+not have been, at the first, of the Benedictine type. Columba's
+followers traveled as missionaries and teachers to all parts of
+Europe, and it is said, they dared to sail in their small boats
+even as far as Iceland.</p>
+<p>Dr. Johnson says in his "Tour to the Hebrides": "We are now
+treading that illustrious island which was once the luminary of the
+Caledonian regions, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page169"></a>[pg
+169]</span> whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the
+benefits of knowledge and the blessing of religion. That man is
+little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the
+plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the
+ruins of Iona." The monastery which Columba founded here was
+doubtless of the same character as the establishments in Ireland.
+Many of these Celtic buildings were made of the branches of trees
+and supported by wooden props. It was some time before
+properly-constructed wooden churches or monasteries became general
+in these wild regions. In such rude huts small libraries were
+collected and the monks trained to preach. Ireland was then the
+center of knowledge in the North. Greek, Latin, music and such
+science as the monks possessed were taught to eager pupils. Copies
+of their manuscripts are still to be found all over Europe. Their
+schools were open to the rich and poor alike. The monks went from
+house to house teaching and distributing literature. As late as the
+sixteenth century, students from various parts of the Continent
+were to be found in these Irish schools.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page170"></a>[pg 170]</span>
+<p>There is an interesting story related of Columba's literary
+activities. It is said that on one occasion while visiting his
+master, Finnian, he undertook to make a clandestine copy of the
+abbot's Psalter. When the master learned of the fact, he
+indignantly charged Columba with theft, and demanded the copy which
+he had made, on the ground that a copy made without permission of
+the author was the property of the original owner, because a
+transcript is the offspring of the original work. Putnam, to whom I
+am indebted for this story, says: "As far as I have been able to
+ascertain, this is the first instance which occurs in the history
+of European literature of a contention for a copyright." The
+conflict for this copyright afterwards developed into a civil war.
+The copy of the Latin Psalter "was enshrined in the base of a
+portable altar as the national relic of the O'Donnell clan," and
+was preserved by that family for thirteen hundred years. It was
+placed on exhibition as late as 1867, in the museum of the Royal
+Irish Academy.</p>
+<p>Enough has now been said to enable the reader to understand
+something of the spirit and labors of the monks in an age
+characteristically <span class="pagenum"><a name="page171"></a>[pg
+171]</span> barbaric. For five centuries, from the fifth to the
+tenth, the condition of Europe was deplorable. "It may be doubted,"
+says an old writer, "whether the worst of the C&aelig;sars exceeded
+in dark malignity, or in capriciousness of vengeance, the
+long-haired kings of France." The moral sense of even the most
+saintly churchmen seems to have been blunted by familiarity with
+atrocities and crimes. Brute force was the common method of
+exercising control and administering justice. The barbarians were
+bold and independent, but cruel and superstitious. Their furious
+natures needed taming and their rude minds tutoring. Even though
+during this period churches and monasteries were raised in amazing
+numbers, yet the spirit of barbarism was so strong that the
+Christians could scarcely escape its influence. The power of
+Christianity was modified by the nature of the people, whose
+characters it aimed to transform. The remarks of William Newton
+Clarke respecting the Christians of the first and second centuries
+are also appropriate to the period under review: "The people were
+changed by the new faith, but the new faith was changed by the
+people." Christianity "made a new people, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page172"></a>[pg 172]</span> better than it
+found them, but they in turn made a new Christianity, with its
+strong points illustrated and confirmed in their experience, but
+with weakness brought in from their defects."</p>
+<p>Yes, the work of civilizing the Germanic nations was a task of
+herculean proportions and of tremendous significance. Out of these
+tribes were to be constructed the nations of modern Europe. To this
+important mission the monks addressed themselves with such courage,
+patience, faith and zeal, as to entitle them to the veneration of
+posterity. With singular wisdom and unflinching bravery they
+carried on their missionary and educational enterprises, in the
+face of discouragements and obstacles sufficient to dismay the
+bravest souls. The tenacious strength of those wild forces that
+clashed with the tenderer influences of the cloister should soften
+our criticism of the inconsistencies which detract from the glory
+of those early ministers of righteousness and exemplars of
+gentleness and peace.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page173"></a>[pg 173]</span>
+<h2><a name="IV"></a>IV</h2>
+<h2><i><a name="REFORMED_AND_MILITARY_ORDERS"></a>REFORMED AND
+MILITARY ORDERS</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The monastic institution was never entirely good or entirely
+bad. In periods of general degradation there were beautiful
+exceptions in monasteries ruled by pure and powerful abbots. From
+the beginning various monasteries soon departed from their
+discipline by sheltering iniquity and laziness, while other
+establishments faithfully observed the rules. But during the
+eighth, ninth and tenth centuries there was a widespread decline in
+the spirit of devotion and a shameful relaxation of monastic
+discipline. Malmesbury, King Alfred, Alcuin, in England, and many
+continental writers, sorrowfully testified against the monks
+because of their vices, their revelings, their vain and gorgeous
+ornaments of dress and their waning zeal for virtue. The priests
+hunted and fought, prayed, preached, swore <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page174"></a>[pg 174]</span> and drank as they
+pleased. "We cannot wonder," says an anonymous historian, "that
+they should commit the more reasonable offence of taking wives."
+Disorders were common everywhere; the monastic vows were sadly
+neglected. Political and religious ideals were lost sight of amid
+the prevailing confusion and wild commotion of those dark days. "It
+is true," says Carlyle, "all things have two faces, a light one and
+a dark. It is true in three centuries much imperfection
+accumulates; many an ideal, monastic or otherwise, shooting forth
+into practice as it can, grows to a strange reality; and we have to
+ask with amazement, Is this your ideal? For alas the ideal has to
+grow into the real, and to seek out its bed and board there, often
+in a sorry way."</p>
+<p>This, then, may be accepted as the usual history of a monastery
+or a monastic order. First, vows of poverty, obedience and chastity
+zealously cherished and observed; as a result of loyalty to this
+ideal, a spirit of devotion to righteousness is created, and a
+pure, lofty type of Christian life is formed, which, if not the
+highest and truest, is sufficiently exalted to win the reverence of
+worldly men and an extra-ordinary <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page175"></a>[pg 175]</span> power over their lives and
+affections. There naturally follow numerous and valuable gifts of
+land and gold. The monks become rich as well as powerful. Then the
+decline begins. Vast riches have always been a menace to true
+spirituality. Perhaps they always will be. The wealthy monk falls a
+prey to pride and arrogance; he becomes luxurious in his habits,
+and lazy in the performance of duty. Vice creeps in and his moral
+ruin is complete. The transformation in the character of the monk
+is accompanied by a change in public opinion. The monk is now an
+eyesore; his splendid buildings are viewed with envy by some, with
+shame by others. Then arise the vehement cries for the destruction
+of his palatial cloister, and the heroic efforts of the remnant
+that abide faithful to reform the institution. This has been the
+pathway over which every monastic order has traveled. As long as
+there was sufficient vitality to give birth to reformatory
+movements, new societies sprang up as off-shoots of the older
+orders, some of which adopted the original rules, while others
+altered them to suit the views of the reforming founder. "For
+indeed," says <span class="pagenum"><a name="page176"></a>[pg
+176]</span> Trench, "those orders, wonderful at their beginning,
+and girt up so as to take heaven by storm, seemed destined to
+travel in a mournful circle from which there was no escape." These
+facts partly explain the reformatory movements which appear from
+the ninth century on.</p>
+<p>The first great saint to enter the lists against monastic
+corruption was Benedict of Aniane (750-821 A.D.), a member of a
+distinguished family in southern France. The Benedictine rule in
+his opinion was formed for novices and invalids. He attributed the
+prevailing laxity among the monks to the mild discipline. As abbot
+of a monastery he undertook to reform its affairs by adopting a
+system based on Basil of Asia Minor and Pachomius of Egypt. But he
+leaned too far back for human nature in the West, and the
+conclusion was forced upon him that Benedict of Nursia had
+formulated a set of rules as strict as could be enforced among the
+Western monks. Accordingly he directed his efforts to secure a
+faithful observance of the original Benedictine rules, adding,
+however, a number of rigid and burdensome regulations. Although at
+first the monks doubted his sanity, kicked him <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page177"></a>[pg 177]</span> and spat on him,
+yet he afterwards succeeded in gathering about three hundred of
+them under his rule. Several colonies were sent out from his
+monastery, which was built on his patrimonial estate near
+Montpellier. His last establishment, which was located near
+Aix-la-Chapelle, became famous as a center of learning and
+sanctity.</p>
+<p>One of the most celebrated reform monasteries was the convent of
+Cluny, or Clugny, in Burgundy, about fifteen miles from Lyons,
+which was founded by Duke William of Aquitaine in 910. It was
+governed by a code based on the rule of St. Benedict. The monastery
+began with twelve monks under Bruno, but became so illustrious that
+under Hugo there were ten thousand monks in the various convents
+under its rule. It was made immediately subject to the pope,--that
+is, exempt from the jurisdiction of the bishop. Some idea of its
+splendid equipment may be formed from the fact that it is said,
+that in 1245, after the council of Lyons, it entertained Innocent
+IV., two patriarchs, twelve cardinals, three archbishops, fifteen
+bishops, many abbots, St. Louis, King of France, several princes
+and princesses, each with a considerable <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page178"></a>[pg 178]</span> retinue, yet the
+monks were not incommoded. It gave to the church three
+popes,--Gregory VII., Urban II. and Paschal II.</p>
+<p>From his cell at Cluny, Hildebrand, who became the famous
+Gregory VII., looked out upon a world distracted by war and sunk in
+vice. "In Hildebrand's time, while he was studying those annals in
+Cluny," says Thomas Starr King, "a boy pope, twelve years old, was
+master of the spiritual scepter, and was beginning to lead a life
+so shameful, foul and execrable that a subsequent pope said, 'he
+shuddered to describe it.'"</p>
+<p>Connected with the monastery was the largest church in the
+world, surpassed only a little, in later years, by St. Peter's at
+Rome. Its construction was begun in 1089 by the abbot Hugo, and it
+was consecrated in 1131, under the administration of Peter the
+Venerable. It boasted of twenty-five altars and many costly works
+of art.</p>
+<p>So great was the fame and influence of this establishment that
+numerous convents in France and Italy placed themselves under its
+control, thus forming "The Congregation of Cluny."</p>
+<p>After the administration of Peter the Venerable <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page179"></a>[pg 179]</span> (1122-1156), this
+illustrious house began to succumb to the intoxication of success,
+and it steadily declined in character and influence until its
+property was confiscated by the Constituent Assembly, in 1799, and
+the church sold for one hundred thousand francs. It is now in
+ruin.</p>
+<p>But in spite of every attempt at reform during the ninth and
+tenth centuries the decline of the continental monasteries
+continued. Many persons of royal blood, accustomed to the license
+of palaces, entered the cloister and increased the disorders. The
+monks naturally respected their blood and relaxed the discipline in
+their favor. The result was costly robes, instead of the simple,
+monastic garb, riotous living, and a general indifference to
+spirituality. Spurious monasteries sprang up with rich lay-abbots
+at their head, who made the office hereditary in their families.
+Laymen were appointed to rich benefices simply that they might
+enjoy the revenues. These lay-abbots even went so far as to live
+with their families in their monasteries, and rollicking midnight
+banquets were substituted for the asceticism demanded by the vows.
+They traveled extensively attended by <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page180"></a>[pg 180]</span> splendid retinues.
+Some of the monks seemed intent on nothing but obtaining charters
+of privileges and exemptions from civil and military duties.</p>
+<p>In England the state of affairs was even more distressing than
+on the Continent. The evil effects of the Saxon invasion, the
+demoralization that accompanied the influx of paganism, and the
+almost complete destruction of the religious institutions of
+British Christianity have already been noted. About the year 700,
+the island was divided among fifteen petty chiefs, who waged war
+against one another almost incessantly. Christianity, as introduced
+by Augustine, had somewhat mitigated the ferocity of war, and
+England had begun to make some approach toward a respect for law
+and a veneration for the Christian religion, when the Danes came,
+and with them another period of disgraceful atrocities and
+blighting heathenism. The Danish invasion had almost extirpated the
+monastic institution in the northern districts. Carnage and
+devastation reigned everywhere. Celebrated monasteries fell in
+ruins and the monks were slain or driven into exile. Hordes of
+barbaric warriors roamed the country, burning and plundering.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page181"></a>[pg 181]</span>
+<p>"At the close of this calamitous period," says Lingard, in his
+"History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church," "the
+Anglo-Saxon church presented a melancholy spectacle to the friends
+of religion: 1. The laity had resumed the ferocious manners of
+their pagan forefathers. 2. The clergy had grown indolent,
+dissolute and illiterate. 3. The monastic order had been apparently
+annihilated. It devolved on King Alfred, victorious over his
+enemies, to devise and apply the remedies for these evils." The
+good king endeavored to restore the monastic institution, but,
+owing to the lack of candidates for the monastic habit, he was
+compelled to import a colony of monks from Gaul.</p>
+<p>The moral results of Alfred's reformatory measures, as well as
+those of his immediate successors, were far from satisfactory,
+although he did vastly stimulate the educational work of the
+monastic schools. He devoted himself so faithfully to the gathering
+of traditions, that he is said to be the father of English history.
+The tide of immorality, however, was too strong to be stemmed in a
+generation or two. It was a century and a half <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page182"></a>[pg 182]</span> before there was
+even an approach to substantial victory over the disgraceful abuses
+among the clergy and the monks.</p>
+<p>The churchman who is credited with doing most to distinguish the
+monks as a zealous and faithful body was Dunstan (924-988 A.D.),
+first Abbot of Glastonbury, then Bishop of Winchester, and finally
+Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the most conspicuous ecclesiastical
+personage in the history of those dark days, but his character and
+labors have given rise to bitter and extensive controversy.</p>
+<p>It was Dunstan's chief aim to subjugate the Anglo-Saxon church
+to the power of Rome, and to correct existing abuses by compelling
+the clergy and the monks to obey the rule of celibacy. He was a
+fervent believer in the efficacy of the Benedictine vows, and in
+the value of clerical celibacy as a remedy for clerical
+licentiousness. Naturally, Protestant writers, who hold that papal
+supremacy never was a blessing in any country or in any age, and
+who think that clerical celibacy has always been a fruitful source
+of crime and sin, condemn the reforms of Dunstan in the most
+unqualified terms. A statement of a few of the many and perplexing
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page183"></a>[pg 183]</span> facts
+may assist us to form a fairly just judgment of the man and his
+work.</p>
+<p>The principle of sacerdotal celibacy appeared early in the
+history of Christianity, and for many centuries it was the subject
+of sharp contention. Roman Catholics themselves have been divided
+upon it. In every Christian country, from the Apostolic period
+onward, there were priests and teachers who opposed the imposition
+of this rule upon the clergy, and, on the other hand, there were
+those who practiced and advocated celibacy as the indispensable
+guarantee of spiritual power and purity.</p>
+<p>What the rule of celibacy was at this period, in England, seems
+uncertain. Lingard maintains that marriage was always permitted to
+the clergy in minor orders, who were employed in various
+subordinate positions, but that those in higher orders, whose
+office it was to minister at the altar and to offer the sacrifice,
+were expressly bound to a life of the strictest continence. During
+the invasion of the Danes, when confusion reigned, many priests in
+the higher orders had not only forsaken their vows of chastity, but
+had plunged into frightful immoralities; and <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page184"></a>[pg 184]</span> married clerks of
+inferior orders were raised to the priesthood to fill the ranks
+depleted by war. These promoted clerks were previously required to
+separate from their wives, but apparently many of them did not do
+so. Consequently, from several causes, the married priests became a
+numerous body, and since the common opinion seems to have been that
+a married priest was disgracing his office, this body was regarded
+as a menace to the welfare of the church and the state.</p>
+<p>Lea, in his elaborate "History of Sacerdotal Celibacy," holds
+that the rule of celibacy was only binding on the regulars, or
+monks, and that the secular priesthood was at liberty to marry. But
+from several other passages in his work it seems that he also
+recognizes the fact that, while marriage was common, it was in
+defiance of an ancient canon. "It is evident," he says, "that the
+memory of the ancient canons was not forgotten, and that their
+observance was still urged by some ardent churchmen, but that the
+customs of the period had rendered them virtually obsolete, and
+that no sufficient means existed of enforcing obedience. If open
+scandals and shameless bigamy <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page185"></a>[pg 185]</span> and concubinage could be restrained,
+the ecclesiastical authorities were evidently content. Celibacy
+could not be enjoined as a law, but was rendered attractive by
+surrounding it with privileges and immunities denied to him who
+yielded to the temptations of the flesh."</p>
+<p>Throughout Western Christendom the law of celibacy was openly
+and shamefully trampled upon, and every reformer seemed to think
+that the very first step toward any improvement in clerical morals
+was to be taken by enforcing this rule.</p>
+<p>When Dunstan commenced his reforms, the clergy were guilty of
+graver sins than that of living in marriage relations. Adultery,
+bigamy, swearing, fighting and drinking were the order of the day.
+The monasteries were occupied by secular priests with wives or
+concubines. All the chroniclers of this period agree in charging
+the monks and clergy with a variety of dissipations and
+disorders.</p>
+<p>It is quite clear, therefore, that in Dunstan's view he was
+doing the only right thing in trying to correct the existing abuses
+by compelling the priests to adopt that celibate life without which
+it was popularly believed the highest holiness and the largest
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page186"></a>[pg 186]</span>
+usefulness could not be attained. In the light of this purpose and
+this common opinion of his time, Dunstan and his mission should be
+judged.</p>
+<p>Dunstan was aided in his work by King Edgar the Pacific, who, by
+the way, was himself compelled to go without his crown seven years
+for violating the chastity of a nun. Oswald, the Bishop of
+Worcester, and Ethelwold, the Bishop of Winchester, were also
+zealously engaged in the task of reform.</p>
+<p>A law was enacted providing that priests, deacons and
+sub-deacons should live chastely or resign. As a result of this
+law, many priests were ejected from the monasteries and from their
+official positions. Strict monks were put in their places. A strong
+opposition party was created, and the ejected clergy aroused such
+discontent that a civil war was barely averted. This state of
+things continued until the Norman invasion, when the monks and
+secular clergy joined forces in the common defence of their
+property and ecclesiastical rights.</p>
+<p>It would seem that many writers, misled by legends for which
+Dunstan must not be held responsible, and blinded by religious
+prejudice, have unjustly charged him with hypocrisy and even crime.
+All his methods <span class="pagenum"><a name="page187"></a>[pg
+187]</span> may not be defensible when estimated in the light of
+modern knowledge, and even his ideal may be rejected when judged by
+modern standards of Christian character, but he must be considered
+with the moral and intellectual life of his times in full view. He
+was a champion of the oppressed, a friend of the poor, an
+unflinching foe of sinful men in the pulpit or on the throne. His
+will was inflexible, his independence noble and his energy
+untiring. In trying to bring the Anglo-Saxon church into conformity
+to Rome he was actuated by a higher motive than the merely selfish
+desire for ecclesiastical authority. He regarded this harmony as
+the only remedy for the prevailing disorders. He believed, like
+many other churchmen of unquestioned purity and honesty, that it
+was necessary to compel temporal authorities to recognize the power
+of the church in order to overcome that defiance of moral law which
+was the chief characteristic of the kings and princes in that
+turbulent period.</p>
+<p>What the Anglo-Saxon church might have been if the rule of
+celibacy had not been forced upon her, and if she had not submitted
+to Roman authority in other matters, is a theme for speculation
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page188"></a>[pg 188]</span> only.
+The fact is that Dunstan found a church corrupt to the core and
+left it, as a result of his purifying efforts, with some semblance,
+to say the least, of moral influence and spiritual purity. Some
+other kind of ecclesiastical polity than that advocated by Dunstan
+might have achieved the same results as his, but the simple fact is
+that none did. In so far as Dunstan succeeded in his monastic
+measures, he laid the foundations of an ecclesiastical power which
+afterwards became a serious menace to the political freedom of the
+Anglo-Saxon race. The battle begun by him raged fiercely between
+the popes, efficiently supported by the monks, and the kings of
+England, with varying fortunes, for many centuries. But perhaps,
+under the plans of that benign Providence who presides over the
+destiny of nations, it was essentially in the interests of
+civilization, that the lawlessness of rulers and the vices of the
+people should be restrained by that ecclesiastical power, which, in
+after years, and at the proper time, should be forced to recede to
+its legitimate sphere and functions.</p>
+<p>Another celebrated reformatory movement was begun by St. Bruno,
+who founded the Carthusian <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page189"></a>[pg 189]</span> Order about the year 1086. Ruskin
+says: "In their strength, from the foundation of the order at the
+close of the eleventh century to the beginning of the fourteenth,
+they reared in their mountain fastnesses and sent out to minister
+to the world a succession of men of immense mental grasp and
+serenely authoritative innocence, among whom our own Hugh of
+Lincoln, in his relations with Henry II. and Coeur de Lion, is to
+my mind the most beautiful sacerdotal figure known to me in
+history."</p>
+<p>Bruno, with six companions, established the famous Grand
+Chartreuse in a rocky wilderness, near Grenoble, in France,
+separated from the rest of the world by a chain of wild mountains,
+which are covered with ice and snow for two-thirds of the year.</p>
+<p>Until the time of Guigo (1137), the Grand Chartreuse was
+governed by unwritten rules. Thirteen monks only were permitted to
+live together, and sixteen converts in the huts at the foot of the
+hill. The policy of this monastery was at first opposed to all
+connection with other monasteries. But applications for admission
+were so numerous that colonies were sent out in various directions,
+all <span class="pagenum"><a name="page190"></a>[pg 190]</span>
+subject to the mother house. The Carthusians differed in many
+respects from other orders. The rules of Dom Guigo indicate that
+the chief aim was to preclude the monks from intercourse with the
+world, and largely with each other, for each monk had separate
+apartments, cooked his own food, and so rarely met with his
+brethren, that he was practically a hermit. The clothing consisted
+of a rough hair shirt, worn next the skin, a white cassock over it,
+and, when they went out, a black robe. Fasting was observed at
+least three days a week, and meat was strictly forbidden.
+Respecting contact with women Dom Guigo says: "Under no
+circumstances whatever do we allow women to set foot within our
+precincts, knowing as we do that neither wise man, nor prophet, nor
+judge, nor the entertainer of God, nor the sons of God, nor the
+first created of mankind, fashioned by God's own hands, could
+escape the wiles and deceits of women."</p>
+<p>Blistering and bleeding, as well as fasting, were employed to
+control evil impulses. On the whole, the austerities were as severe
+as human nature in that wild and cold region could endure. Yet the
+prosperity that rewarded the piety and labors of the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page191"></a>[pg 191]</span> Carthusian monks
+proved more than a match for their rigorous discipline, and in the
+middle of the thirteenth century we read charges of laxity and
+disorder.</p>
+<p>The Carthusians settled in England in the twelfth century, and
+had a famous monastery in London, since called the Charterhouse.
+The order was in many respects the most successful attempt at
+reform, but as has been said, "the whole order, and each individual
+member, is like a petrifaction from the Middle Ages." Owing to its
+extremely solitary ideal and its severe discipline, it was unfitted
+to secure extensive control, or to gain a permanent influence upon
+the rapidly-developing European nations. Its chief contributions to
+modern civilization were made by the gift of noble men who passed
+from the seclusion of the cell into the active life of the world,
+thus practically proving that the monks' greatest usefulness was
+attained when loyalty to their vows yielded to a broader ideal of
+Christian character and service.</p>
+<p>Thus the months passed into years and the years into centuries.
+Man was slowly working out his salvation. Painfully, laboriously he
+emerged out <span class="pagenum"><a name="page192"></a>[pg
+192]</span> of barbarism into the lower forms of civilization;
+wearily he trudged on his way toward the universal kingdom of
+righteousness and peace.</p>
+<p>There were many other attempts at reform which may not even be
+mentioned, but one character deserves brief consideration,--Bernard
+of Clairvaux,--the fairest flower of those corrupt days. The order
+to which he belonged was the Cistercians, so named because their
+mother house was at Citeaux (Latin, <i>Cistercium</i>), in France.
+Its members are sometimes called the "White Monks," because of
+their white tunics. Their buildings, with their bare walls and low
+rafters, were a rebuke to the splendid edifices of the richer
+orders. Austere simplicity characterized their churches, liturgy
+and habits. Gorgeousness in decoration and ostentation in public
+services were carefully avoided. They used no pictures, stained
+glass or images. Once a week they flogged their sinful bodies. Only
+four hours' sleep was allowed. Seeking out the wildest spots and
+most rugged peaks they built their retreats, beautiful in their
+simplicity and furnishing some of the finest examples of monastic
+architecture. The order spread into England, where the first
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page193"></a>[pg 193]</span>
+Cistercians were characterized by devoutness and poverty. After a
+while the hand of fate wrote of them as it had of so many, "none
+were more greedy in adding farm to farm; none less scrupulous in
+obtaining grants of land from wealthy patrons." In general, the
+order was no better and no worse than the rest, but its chief glory
+is derived from the luster that was shed upon it by Bernard.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image193.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image193.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image193.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Saint Bernard.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>This illustrious counselor of kings and Catholic saint was born
+in Burgundy in 1091. When about twenty years of age he entered the
+monastery at Citeaux with five of his brothers. His genius might
+have secured ecclesiastical preferment, but he chose to dig
+ditches, plant fields and govern a monastery. He entered the
+cloister at Citeaux because the monks were few and poor, and when
+it became crowded because of his fame, and its rule became lax
+because of the crowds, he left the cloister to found a home of his
+own. The abbot selected twelve monks, following the number of
+apostles, and at their head placed young Bernard. He led the twelve
+to the valley of Wormwood, and there, in a cheerless forest, he
+established the monastery of Clairvaux, or Clear Valley. His rule
+was fiercely <span class="pagenum"><a name="page194"></a>[pg
+194]</span> severe because he himself loved hardships and rough
+fare. "It in no way befits religion," he writes, "to seek remedies
+for the body, nor is it good for health either. You may now and
+then take some cheap herb,--such as poor men may,--and this is done
+sometimes. But to buy drugs, to hunt up doctors, to take doses, is
+unbecoming to religion and hostile to purity." His success in
+winning men to the monastic life was almost phenomenal. It was said
+that "mothers hid their sons, wives their husbands, and companions
+their friends, lest they be persuaded by his eloquent message to
+enter the cloister." "He was avoided like a plague," says one.</p>
+<p>Bernard's monks changed the whole face of the country by felling
+trees and tilling the ground. Their spiritual power rid the valley
+of Wormwood of its robbers, and the district grew rich and
+prosperous. Thus Bernard became the most famous man of his time. He
+was the arbiter in papal elections, the judge in temporal quarrels,
+the healer of schisms and a powerful preacher of the crusades. He
+was the embodiment of all that was best in the thought of his age.
+His weaknesses and faults may largely be explained by the fact that
+no man can rise <span class="pagenum"><a name="page195"></a>[pg
+195]</span> entirely above the spirit of his times and absolutely
+free himself from all pernicious tendencies. "As an advocate for
+the rights of the church, for the immunities of the clergy, no less
+than for the great interests of morality, he was fierce,
+intractable, unforgiving, haughty and tyrannical." There was,
+however, no note of insincerity in his work or writings, and no
+tinge of hypocrisy in fervent zeal. He was brave, honest and pure;
+controlled always by a consuming passion for the moral welfare of
+the people.</p>
+<p>Our chief interest in Bernard relates to his monastic work which
+shed undying luster on his name. Vaughan, in his "Hours with the
+Mystics," says of him: "His incessant cry for Europe is, Better
+monasteries, and more of them. Let these ecclesiastical castles
+multiply; let them cover and command the land, well garrisoned with
+men of God, and then, despite all heresy and schism, theocracy will
+flourish, the earth shall yield her increase, and all people praise
+the Lord.... Bernard had the satisfaction of improving and
+extending monasticism to the utmost; of sewing together, with
+tolerable success, the rended vesture of the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page196"></a>[pg 196]</span> papacy; of
+suppressing a more popular and more scriptural Christianity for the
+benefit of his despotic order; of quenching for a time, by the
+extinction of Abelard, the spirit of free inquiry, and of seeing
+his ascetic and superhuman ideal of religion everywhere accepted as
+the genuine type of Christianity."</p>
+<p>But in spite of Dunstans, Brunos and Bernards, the monastic
+institution keeps on crumbling. The edifice will not stand much
+more propping and tinkering. While we admire this display of moral
+force, this commendable struggle of fresh courage and new hope
+against disintegrating forces, the conviction gains ground that
+something is radically wrong with the institution. There is
+something in it which fosters greed and desperate ambition. "Is it
+not a shame," we feel compelled to ask, "that so much splendid,
+chivalrous courage and magnificent energy should be expended in
+trying to prevent a structure from falling, which, it seems, could
+not possibly have been saved?" But while the decay could not be
+stayed, we must admire the noble aims and pious enthusiasm of the
+reformers who sought to preserve an institution which to them
+seemed the only hope of a sinful world.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page197"></a>[pg 197]</span>
+<p>Dr. Storrs, in his life of Bernard, says: "His soon-canonized
+name has shone starlike in history ever since he was buried; and it
+will not hereafter decline from its height or lose its luster,
+while men continue to recognize with honor the temper of devoted
+Christian consecration, a character compact of noble forces, and
+infused with self-forgetful love for God and man."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Military_Religious_Orders"></a>The Military
+Religious Orders</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The life of Bernard forms an appropriate introduction to a
+consideration of the Military Religious Orders. Although weary with
+labor and the weight of years, he traveled over Europe preaching
+the second crusade. "To kill or to be killed for Christ's sake is
+alike righteous and alike safe," this was his message to the world.
+In spite of the opposition of court advisers, Bernard induced Louis
+VII. and Conrad of Germany to take the crusader's vow. He gave the
+Knights Templars a new rule and kindled afresh a zeal for the
+knighthood. Although the members of the Military Orders were not
+monks in the strict sense of the word, yet they <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page198"></a>[pg 198]</span> were soldier-monks,
+and as such deserve to be mentioned here.</p>
+<p>At the basis of all monastic orders, as has been pointed out,
+were the three vows of obedience, celibacy and poverty. Certain
+orders, by adding to these rules other obligations, or by laying
+special stress on one of the three ancient vows, produced new and
+distinct types of monastic character and life.</p>
+<p>The Knights of the Hospital assumed as their peculiar work the
+care of the sick. The Begging Friars, as will be seen later, were
+distinguished by the importance which they attached to the rule of
+poverty; the Jesuits, by exalting the law of unquestioning
+obedience. In view of the warlike character of the Middle Ages it
+is strange the soldier-monk did not appear earlier than he did. The
+abbots, in many cases, were feudal lords with immense possessions
+which needed protection like secular property, but as this could
+not be secured by the arts of peace, we find traces of the union of
+the soldier and the monk before the distinct orders professing that
+character. The immediate cause of such organizations was the
+crusades. There were numerous <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page199"></a>[pg 199]</span> societies of this character, some of
+them so far removed from the monastic type as scarcely to be ranked
+with monastic institutions. One list mentions two hundred and seven
+of these Orders of Knighthood, comprising many varieties in theory
+and practice. The most important were three,--the Knights of the
+Hospital, or the Knights of St. John; the Knights Templars; and the
+Teutonic Knights. The Hospitallers wore black mantles with white
+crosses, the Templars white mantles with red crosses, and the
+Teutonic Knights white mantles with black crosses. The mantles were
+in fact the robe of the monk adorned with a cross. The whole system
+was really a marriage of monasticism and chivalry, as Gibbon says:
+"The firmest bulwark of Jerusalem was founded in the Knights of the
+Hospital and of the Temple, that strange association of monastic
+and military life. The flower of the nobility of Europe aspired to
+wear the cross and profess the vows of these orders; their spirit
+and discipline were immortal."</p>
+<p>A passage in the Alexiad quoted in Walter Scott's "Robert of
+Paris" reads: "As for the multitude of those who advanced toward
+the great city let it <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page200"></a>[pg 200]</span> be enough to say, that they were as
+the stars in the heaven or as the sand of the seashore. They were
+in the words of Homer, as many as the leaves and flowers of
+spring." This figurative description is almost literally true.
+Europe poured her men and her wealth into the East. No one but an
+eye-witness can conceive of the vast amount of suffering endured by
+those fanatical multitudes as they roamed the streets of Jerusalem
+looking for shelter, or lay starving by the roadside on a bed of
+grass.</p>
+<p>The term Hospitallers was applied to certain brotherhoods of
+monks and laymen. While professing some monastic rule, the members
+of these societies devoted themselves solely to caring for the sick
+and the poor, the hospitals in those days being connected with the
+monasteries.</p>
+<p>About the year 1050 some Italian merchants secured permission to
+build a convent in Jerusalem to shelter Latin pilgrims. The hotels
+which sprang up after this were gradually transformed into
+hospitals for the care of the sick and presided over by Benedictine
+monks. The sick were carefully nursed and shelter granted to as
+many as could be accommodated. Nobles abandoned the profession of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page201"></a>[pg 201]</span> arms
+and, becoming monks, devoted themselves to caring for the
+unfortunate crusaders in these inns. The work rapidly increased in
+extent and importance. In the year 1099, Godfrey de Bouillon
+endowed the original hospital, which had been dedicated to St.
+John. He also established many other monasteries on this holy soil.
+The monks, most of whom were also knights, formed an organization
+which received confirmation from Rome, as "The Knights of St. John
+of Jerusalem." The order rapidly assumed a distinctly military
+character, for, to do its work completely, it must not only care
+for the sick in Jerusalem, but defend the pilgrim on his way to the
+Holy City. This ended in an undertaking to defend Christendom
+against Mohammedan invasion and in fighting for the recovery of the
+Holy Sepulcher.</p>
+<p>After visiting some of these Palestinian monasteries, a king of
+Hungary thus describes his impressions: "Lodging in their houses, I
+have seen them feed every day innumerable multitudes of poor, the
+sick laid on good beds and treated with great care. In a word, the
+Knights of St. John are employed sometimes like Martha, in action,
+and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page202"></a>[pg 202]</span>
+sometimes like Mary, in contemplation, and this noble militia
+consecrate their days either in their infirmaries or else in
+engagements against the enemies of the cross."</p>
+<p>The Knights Templars were far more militant than the Knights of
+St. John, but they also were actuated by the monastic spirit.
+Bernard tried to inspire this order with a strong Christian zeal so
+that, as he said, "War should become something of which God could
+approve." The success which attended its operations led as usual to
+its corruption and decline. Beginning with a few crusaders leagued
+together for service and living on the site of the ancient Temple
+at Jerusalem, it soon widened the scope of its services and became
+a powerful branch of the crusading army. It was charged by Philip
+IV. of France, in 1307, with the most fearful crimes, to sustain or
+to deny which accusations many volumes have been composed. Five
+years later the order was suppressed and its vast accumulations
+transferred to the Knights of St. John. "The horrible fate of the
+Templars," says Allen, "was taken by many as a beginning and omen
+of the destruction that would soon pass upon <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page203"></a>[pg 203]</span> all the hated
+religious orders. And so this final burst of enthusiasm and
+splendor in the religious life was among the prognostics of a state
+of things in which monasticism must fade quite away."</p>
+<p>Wondrous changes have taken place in those dark and troubled
+years since Benedict began his labors at Monte Cassino, in 529. The
+monk has prayed alone in the mountains, and converted the barbarian
+in the forest. He has preached the crusades in magnificent
+cathedrals, and crossed stormy seas in his frail bark. He has made
+the schools famous by his literary achievements, and taught
+children the alphabet in the woodland cell. He has been good and
+bad, proud and humble, rich and poor, arrogant and gentle. He has
+met the shock of lances on his prancing steed, and trudged barefoot
+from town to town. He has copied manuscripts in the lonely Scottish
+isle, and bathed the fevered brow of the pilgrim in the hospital at
+Jerusalem. He has dug ditches, and governed the world as the pope
+of the Church. He has held the plow in the furrow, and thwarted the
+devices of the king. He has befriended the poor, and imposed
+penance upon princes. He has imitated the poverty and purity of
+Jesus, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page204"></a>[pg
+204]</span> aped the pomp and vice of kings. He has dwelt solitary
+on cold mountains, subsisting on bread, roots and water, and he has
+surrounded himself with menials ready to gratify every luxurious
+wish, amid the splendor of palatial cloisters. Still there are new
+types and phases of monasticism yet to appear. The monk has other
+tasks to undertake, for the world is not yet sufficiently wearied
+of his presence to destroy his cloister and banish him from the
+land.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page205"></a>[pg 205]</span>
+<h2><a name="V"></a>V</h2>
+<h2><i><a name="THE_MENDICANT_FRIARS"></a>THE MENDICANT
+FRIARS</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Abraham Lincoln only applied a general principle to a specific
+case when he said, "This nation cannot long endure half slave and
+half free." Glaring inconsistencies between faith and practice will
+eventually destroy any institution, however lofty its ideal or
+noble its foundation. God suffers long and is kind, but His
+forbearance is not limitless. Monasticism, as has been shown, was
+never free from serious inconsistency, from moral dualism. But the
+power of reform prolonged its existence. It was constantly
+producing fresh models of its ancient ideals. It had a hidden
+reserve-force from which it supplied shining examples of a living
+faith and a self-denying love, just at the time when it seemed as
+if the system was about to perish forever. When these fresh
+exhibitions of monastic fidelity likewise <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page206"></a>[pg 206]</span> became tarnished,
+when men had tired of them and predicted the speedy collapse of the
+institution, forth from the cloister came another body of monkish
+recruits, to convince the world that monasticism was not dead; that
+it did not intend to die; that it was mightier than all its
+enemies. The day came, however, when the world lost its confidence
+in an institution which required such constant reforming to keep it
+pure, which demanded so much cleansing to keep it clean. Ideals
+that could so quickly lose their influence for good came to be
+looked upon with suspicion.</p>
+<p>At the beginning of the thirteenth century we are confronted by
+the anomaly of a church grossly corrupt but widely obeyed. She is
+nearing the pinnacle of her power and the zenith of her glory,
+although the parochial clergy have sunk into vice and incapacity,
+and the monks, as a class, are lazy, ignorant and notoriously
+corrupt. Two things, especially, command the attention,--first, the
+immorality and laxity of the monks; and second, the growth of
+heresies and the tendency toward open schism. The necessity of
+reform was clearly apprehended by the church as well as by the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page207"></a>[pg 207]</span>
+heretical parties, but, since the church had such a hold upon
+society, those who sought to reform the monasteries by returning to
+old beliefs and ancient customs were much more in favor than those
+who left the church and opposed her from the outside. The
+impossibility of substantial, internal reform had not yet come to
+be generally recognized. As time passed the conviction that it was
+of no use to attempt reforms from the inside gained ground; then
+the separatists multiplied, and the shedding of blood commenced.
+The world had to learn anew that it was futile to put new wine into
+old bottles or to patch new cloth on an old garment.</p>
+<p>"It is the privilege of genius," says Trench, "to evoke a new
+creation, where to common eyes all appears barren and worn out."
+Francis and Dominic evoked this new creation; but although the monk
+now will appear in a new garb, he will prove himself to be about
+the same old character whom the world has known a great many years;
+when this discovery is made monasticism is doomed. Perplexed Europe
+will anxiously seek some means of destruction, but God will have
+Luther ready to aid in the solution of the problem.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page208"></a>[pg 208]</span>
+<h2><i><a name="Francis_Bernardone"></a>Francis Bernardone</i>,
+1182-1226 <i>A.D.</i>.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Saint Francis, the founder of the Franciscan Order, was born at
+Assisi, a walled town of Umbria, in Italy. His father, Peter
+Bernardone, or Bernardo, was in France on business when his son was
+born and named. On his return, or, as some say, at a later time, he
+changed his son's name from John to Francis. His wealth enabled him
+to supply Francis with the funds necessary to maintain his
+leadership among gay companions. Catholic writers are fond of
+describing the early years of their saints as marked by vice in
+order to portray them as miracles of grace. It is therefore
+uncertain whether Francis was anything worse than a happy, joyous
+lad, who loved fine clothes, midnight songs and parties of
+pleasure. He was certainly a very popular and courteous lad, very
+much in love with the world. During a short service in the army he
+was taken prisoner. After his release he fell sick, and experienced
+a temporary disgust with his past life. With his renewed health his
+love of festivities and dress returned.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page209"></a>[pg 209]</span>
+<p>Walking out one day, dressed in a handsome new suit, he met a
+poor and ill-clad soldier; moved to pity, he exchanged his fine
+clothes for the rags of the stranger. That night Francis dreamed of
+a splendid castle, with gorgeous banners flying from its ramparts,
+and suits of armor adorned with the cross. "These," said a voice,
+"are for you and for your soldiers." We are told that this was
+intended to be taken spiritually and was prophetic of the Begging
+Friars, but Francis misunderstood the dream, taking it as a token
+of military achievements. The next day he set off mounted on a fine
+horse, saying as he left, "I shall be a great prince." But his weak
+frame could not endure such rough usage and he was taken sick at
+Spoleto. Again he dreamed. This time the vision revealed his
+misinterpretation of the former message, and so, on his recovery,
+he returned somewhat crestfallen to Assisi, where he gave his
+friends a farewell feast. Thus at the threshold of his career we
+note two important facts,--disease and dreams. All through his life
+he had these fits of sickness, attended by dreams; and throughout
+his life he was guided by these visions. Neander remarks: "It would
+be a <span class="pagenum"><a name="page210"></a>[pg 210]</span>
+matter of some importance if we could be more exactly informed with
+regard to the nature of his disease and the way in which it
+affected his physical and mental constitution. Perhaps it might
+assist us to a more satisfactory explanation of the eccentric vein
+in his life, that singular mixture of religious enthusiasm
+bordering insanity; but we are left wholly in the dark."</p>
+<p>Francis now devoted himself to his father's business, but dreams
+and visions continued to distress him. His spiritual fervor
+increased daily. He grieved for the poor and gave himself to the
+care of the sick, especially the lepers. During a visit to Rome he
+became so sad at the sight of desperate poverty that he impetuously
+flung his bag of gold upon the altar with such force as to startle
+the worshipers. He went out from the church, exchanged his clothes
+for a beggar's rags, and stood for hours asking alms among a crowd
+of filthy beggars.</p>
+<p>But though Francis longed to associate himself in some way with
+the lowest classes, he could obtain no certain light upon his duty.
+While prostrated before the crucifix, in the dilapidated church of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page211"></a>[pg 211]</span> St.
+Damian, in Assisi, he heard a voice saying, "Francis, seest thou
+not that my house is in ruins? Go and restore it for me." Again it
+is said that this pointed to his great life-work of restoring
+spiritual power to the church, but he again accepted the message in
+a literal sense. Delighted to receive a command so specific, the
+kneeling Francis fervently responded, "With good will, Lord," and
+gladly entered upon the task of repairing the church of St. Damian.
+"Having fortified himself by the sign of the cross," he took a
+horse and a valuable bundle of goods belonging to his father and
+sold both at Falingo. Instead of turning the proceeds over to his
+father, Francis offered them to the priest of St. Damian, who,
+fearing the father's displeasure, refused to accept the stolen
+funds. The young zealot, "who had utter contempt for money," threw
+the gold on one of the windows of the church. Such is the story as
+gleaned from Catholic sources. The heretics, who have criticised
+Francis for this conduct, are answered by the following ingenious
+but dangerous sophistry: "It is certainly quite contrary to the
+ordinary law of justice for one man to take for himself the
+property of another; but if <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page212"></a>[pg 212]</span> Almighty God, to whom all things
+belong, and for whom we are only stewards, is pleased to dispense
+with this His own law in a particular case, and to bestow what He
+has hitherto given to one upon another, He confers at the same time
+a valid title to the gift, and it is no robbery in him who has
+received it to act upon that title."</p>
+<p>Fearing his father's wrath, Francis hid himself in the priest's
+room, and contemporary authors assure us that when the irate parent
+entered, Francis was miraculously let into the wall. Wading (1731
+A.D.) says the hollow place may still be seen in the wall.</p>
+<p>After a month, the young hero, confident of his courage to face
+his father, came forth pale and weak, only to be stoned as a madman
+by the people. His father locked him up in the house, but the
+tenderer compassion of his mother released him from his bonds, and
+he found refuge with the priest. When his father demanded his
+return, Francis tore off his clothes and, as he flung the last rag
+at the feet of his astounded parent, he exclaimed: "Peter
+Bernardone was my father; I have but one father, He that is in
+Heaven." The crowd was deeply <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page213"></a>[pg 213]</span> moved, especially when they saw
+before them the hair shirt which Francis had secretly worn under
+his garments. Gathering up all that was left to him of his son, the
+father sadly departed, leaving the young enthusiast to fight his
+own way through the world. Many times after that, the parents, who
+tenderly watched over the lad in sickness and prayed for his
+recovery, saw their beloved son leading his barefooted beggars
+through the streets of his native town. But he will never more sing
+his gay songs underneath their roof or sally forth with his merry
+companions in search of pleasure. Francis was given a laborer's
+cloak, upon which he made the sign of a cross with some mortar,
+"thus manifesting what he wished to be, a half-naked poor one, and
+a crucified man." Such was the saint, in 1206, in his twenty-fifth
+year.</p>
+<p>Francis now went forth, singing sacred songs, begging his food,
+and helping the sick and the poor. He was employed "in the vilest
+affairs of the scullery" in a neighboring monastery. At this time
+he clothed himself in the monk's dress, a short tunic, a leathern
+girdle, shoes and a staff. He waited upon lepers and kissed their
+disgusting <span class="pagenum"><a name="page214"></a>[pg
+214]</span> ulcers. Yet more, he instantly cured a dreadfully
+cancerous face by kissing it. He ate the most revolting messes,
+reproaching himself for recoiling in nausea. Thus the pauper of
+Jesus Christ conquered his pride and luxurious tastes.</p>
+<p>Francis finally returned to repair the church of St. Damian. The
+people derided, even stoned him, but he had learned to rejoice in
+abuse. They did not know of what stern stuff their fellow-townsman
+was made. He bore all their insults meekly, and persevered in his
+work, carrying stones with his own hands and promising the blessing
+of God on all who helped him in his joyful task. His kindness and
+smiles melted hatred; derision turned to admiration. "Many were
+moved to tears," says his biographers, "while Francis worked on
+with cheerful simplicity, begging his materials, stone by stone,
+and singing psalms about the streets."</p>
+<p>Two years after his conversion, or in 1208, while kneeling in
+the church of Sta. Maria dei Angeli, he heard the words of Christ:
+"Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses, neither
+two coats nor shoes nor staff, but go and preach." Afterwards, when
+the meaning of these words was <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page215"></a>[pg 215]</span> explained to him, he exclaimed: "This
+is what I seek for!" He threw away his wallet, took off his shoes,
+and replaced his leather girdle by a cord. His hermit's tunic
+appearing too delicate, he put on a coarse, gray robe, reaching to
+his feet, with sleeves that came down over his fingers; to this he
+added a hood, covering his head and face. Clothing of this
+character he wore to the end of his life. This was in 1208, which
+is regarded as the first year of the Order of St. Francis. The next
+year Francis gave this habit to those who had joined him.</p>
+<p>So the first and chief of Franciscan friars, unattended by
+mortal companions, went humbly forth to proclaim the grandeur and
+goodness of a God, who, according to monastic teaching, demands
+penance and poverty of his creatures as the price of his highest
+favor and richest blessings. Nearly seven hundred long years have
+passed since that eventful day, but the begging Brothers of Francis
+still traverse those Italian highways over which the saint now
+journeyed with meek and joyous spirit.</p>
+<blockquote>"He was not yet far distant from his rising<br>
+Before he had begun to make the earth<br>
+Some comfort from his mighty virtue feel.<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page216"></a>[pg 216]</span> For he
+in youth his father's wrath incurred<br>
+For certain Dame, to whom, as unto death,<br>
+The gate of pleasure no one doth unlock;<br>
+And was before his spiritual court<br>
+<i>Et coram patre</i> unto her united;<br>
+Then day by day more fervently he loved her.<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+But that too darkly I may not proceed,<br>
+Francis and Poverty for these two lovers<br>
+Take thou henceforward in my speech diffuse."<br>
+<br>
+--<i>Dante</i>.</blockquote>
+<p>In 1210, with eleven companions, his entire band, Francis went
+to Rome to secure papal sanction. Pope Innocent III. was walking in
+a garden of the Lateran Palace when a beggar, dusty and pale,
+confronted him. Provoked at being disturbed in his thoughts, he
+drove him away. That night it was the pope's turn to dream. He saw
+a falling church supported by a poor and miserable man. Of course,
+that man was Francis. Four or five years later the pope will dream
+the same thing again. Then the poor man will be Dominic. In the
+morning he sent for the monk whom he had driven from him as a
+madman the day before. Standing before his holiness and the college
+of cardinals, Francis pleaded his cause in a touching and eloquent
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page217"></a>[pg 217]</span>
+parable. His quiet, earnest manner and clear blue eyes impressed
+every one. The pope did not give him formal sanction however--this
+was left for Honorius III., November 29, 1223--but he verbally
+permitted him to establish his order and to continue his
+preaching.</p>
+<p>Several times Francis set out to preach to the Mohammedans, but
+failed to reach his destination. He finally visited Egypt during
+the siege of Damietta, and at the risk of his life he went forth to
+preach to the sultan encamped on the Nile. He is described by an
+eye-witness "as an ignorant and simple man, beloved of God and
+men." His courage and personal magnetism won the Mohammedan's
+sympathy but not his soul. Although Francis courted martyrdom, and
+offered to walk through fire to prove the truth of his message, the
+Oriental took it all too good-naturedly to put him to the test, and
+dismissed him with kindness.</p>
+<p>Francis was a great lover of birds. The swallows he called his
+sisters. A bird in the cage excited his deepest sympathy. It is
+said he sometimes preached to the feathered songsters. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page218"></a>[pg 218]</span> Longfellow has cast
+one of these homilies into poetic form:</p>
+<blockquote>"O brother birds, St. Francis said,<br>
+Ye come to me and ask for bread,<br>
+But not with bread alone to-day<br>
+Shall ye be fed and sent away.<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+Oh, doubly are ye bound to praise<br>
+The great Creator in your lays;<br>
+He giveth you your plumes of down,<br>
+Your crimson hoods, your cloaks of brown.<br>
+<br>
+He giveth you your wings to fly<br>
+And breathe a purer air on high,<br>
+And careth for you everywhere,<br>
+Who for yourselves so little care."</blockquote>
+<p>Like all ascetics, Francis was tempted in visions. One cold
+night he fancied he was in a home of his own, with his wife and
+children around him. Rushing out of his cell he heaped up seven
+hills of snow to represent a wife, four sons and daughters, and two
+servants. "Make haste," he cried, "provide clothing for them lest
+they perish with the cold," and falling upon the imaginary group,
+he dispelled the vision of domestic bliss in the cold embrace of
+the winter's snow. Mrs. Oliphant points out the fact that,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page219"></a>[pg 219]</span> unlike
+most of the hermits and monks, Francis dreams not of dancing girls,
+but of the pure love of a wife and the modest joys of a home and
+children. She beautifully says: "Had he, for one sweet, miserable
+moment, gone back to some old imagination and seen the unborn faces
+shine beside the never-lighted fire? But Francis does not say a
+word of any such trial going on in his heart. He dissipates the
+dream by the chill touch of the snow, by still nature hushing the
+fiery thoughts, by sudden action, so violent as to stir the blood
+in his veins; and then the curtain of prayer and silence falls over
+him, and the convent walls close black around."</p>
+<p>The experience of the saint on Mount Alverno deserves special
+consideration, not merely on account of its singularity, but also
+because it affords a striking illustration of the difficulties one
+encounters in trying to get at the truth in monastic narratives.
+Francis had retired to Mount Alverno, a wild and rugged solitude,
+to meditate upon the Lord's passion. For days he had been almost
+distracted with grief and holy sympathy. Suddenly a seraph with six
+wings stood before <span class="pagenum"><a name="page220"></a>[pg
+220]</span> him. When the heavenly being departed, the marks of the
+Crucified One appeared upon the saint's body. St. Bonaventure says:
+"His feet and hands were seen to be perforated by nails in their
+middle; the heads of the nails, round and black, were on the inside
+of the hands, and on the upper parts of the feet; the points, which
+were rather long, and which came out on the opposite sides, were
+turned and raised above the flesh, from which they came out." There
+also appeared on his right side a red wound, which often oozed a
+sacred blood that stained his tunic.</p>
+<p>This remarkable story has provoked considerable discussion.
+One's conclusions respecting its credibility will quite likely be
+determined by his general view of numerous similar narratives, and
+by the degree of his confidence in the value of human testimony
+touching such matters. The incongruities and palpable impostures
+that seriously impair the general reliability of monkish historians
+render it difficult to distinguish between the truths and errors in
+their writings.</p>
+<p>Some authorities hold that the marks did not appear on St.
+Francis, and that the story is without <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page221"></a>[pg 221]</span> foundation. But
+Roman writers bring forward the three early biographers of Francis
+who claim that the marks did appear. Pope Alexander IV. publicly
+averred that he saw the wounds, and pronounced it heresy to doubt
+the report. Popes Benedict XI., Sixtus IV., and Sixtus V.
+consecrated and canonized the impressions by instituting a
+particular festival in their honor. Numerous persons are said to
+have seen the marks and to have kissed the nails, after the death
+of the saint. Singularly enough, the Dominicans were inclined to
+regard the story as a piece of imposture designed to exalt Francis
+above Dominic.</p>
+<p>But, if it be admitted that the marks did appear, as it is not
+improbable, how shall the phenomenon be explained? At least four
+theories are held: 1. Fraud; 2. The irresponsible self-infliction
+of the wounds; 3. Physical effects due to mental suggestion or some
+other psychic cause; 4. Miracle.</p>
+<p>1. The temptation is strong to claim a fraud, especially because
+the same witnesses who testify to the truth of the tale, also
+relate such monstrous, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page222"></a>[pg 222]</span> incredible stories, that one is
+almost forced to doubt either their integrity or their sanity. But
+there is no evidence in support of so serious an indictment. After
+showing that signs and portents attend every crisis in history,
+Mrs. Oliphant says: "Every great spiritual awakening has been
+accompanied by phenomena quite incomprehensible, which none but the
+vulgar mind can attribute to trickery and imposture;" but still she
+herself remains in doubt about the whole story.</p>
+<p>2. Although Mosheim uses the term "fraud," it would seem that he
+means rather the irresponsible self-infliction of the wounds. He
+says: "As he [Francis] was a most superstitious and fanatical
+mortal, it is undoubtedly evident that he imprinted on himself the
+holy wounds. Paul's words, 'I bear in my body the marks of the Lord
+Jesus,' may have suggested the idea of the fraud." The notion
+certainly prevailed that Francis was a sort of second Christ, and a
+book was circulated showing how he might be compared to Christ in
+forty particulars. There are many things in his biography which, if
+true, indicate that Francis yearned to imitate literally the
+experiences of his Lord.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page223"></a>[pg 223]</span>
+<p>3. Numerous experiments, conducted by scientific men, have
+established the fact that red marks, swellings, blisters, bleeding
+and wounds have been produced by mental suggestion.
+Bj&ouml;rnstrom, in his work on "Hypnotism," after recounting
+various experiments showing the effect of the imagination on the
+body, says, respecting the <i>stigmata</i> of the Middle Ages:
+"Such marks can be produced by hypnotism without deceit and without
+the miracles of the higher powers." Prof. Fisher declares: "There
+is no room for the suspicion of deceit. The idea of a strange
+physical effect of an abnormal state is more plausible." Trench
+thinks this is a reasonable view in the case of a man like Francis,
+"with a temperament so irrepressible, of an organization so
+delicate, permeated through and through with the anguish of the
+Lord's sufferings, passionately and continually dwelling on the one
+circumstance of his crucifixion." But others, despairing of any
+rational solution, cut the Gordian knot and declare that "the
+kindest thing to think about Francis is that he was crazy."</p>
+<p>4. Roman Catholics naturally reject all explanations
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page224"></a>[pg 224]</span> that
+exclude the supernatural, for, as Father Candide Chalippe affirms:
+"Catholics ought to be cautious in adopting anything coming from
+heretics; their opinions are almost always contagious." He
+therefore holds fast to the miracles in the lives of the saints,
+not only because he accepts the evidence, but because he believes
+these wonderful stories "add great resplendency to the merits of
+the saints, and, consequently, give great weight to the example
+they afford us."</p>
+<p>It is altogether probable that each one will continue to view
+the whole affair as his predispositions and religious convictions
+direct; some unconvinced by traditionary evidence and undismayed by
+charges of heresy; others devoutly accepting every monkish miracle
+and marveling at the obstinacy of unbelief.</p>
+<p>Two years after the event just described Francis was carried on
+a cot outside the walls of Assisi, where, lifting his hands he
+blessed his native city. Some few days later, on October 4, 1226,
+he passed away, exclaiming, "Welcome, Sister Death!"</p>
+<p>Whatever we may think of the legends that <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page225"></a>[pg 225]</span> cluster about his
+life, Francis himself must not be held responsible for all that has
+been written about him. He himself was no phantom or mythical
+being, but a real, earnest man who, according to his light, tried
+to serve his generation. As he himself said: "A man is just so much
+and no more as he is in the sight of God." "Francis appears to me,"
+says Forsyth, "a genuine, original hero, independent, magnanimous,
+incorruptible. His powers seemed designed to regenerate society;
+but taking a wrong direction, they sank men into beggars." Through
+the mist of tradition the holy beggar and saintly hero shines forth
+as a loving, gentle soul, unkind to none but himself. However his
+biography may be regarded, his life illustrates the beauty and
+power of voluntary renunciation,--the fountain not only of religion
+but of all true nobility of character. He may have been ignorant,
+perhaps grossly so, as Mosheim thinks, but nevertheless he merits
+our highest praise for striving honestly to keep his vow of poverty
+in the days when worldly monks disgraced their sacred profession by
+greed, ambition, and lustful indulgence.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page226"></a>[pg 226]</span>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Franciscan_Orders"></a>The Franciscan
+Orders</i></h2>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p>The orders which Francis founded were of three classes:</p>
+<p>1. Franciscan Friars or Order of Friars Minor, called also Gray
+or Begging Friars. The year in which Francis took the habit, 1208,
+is reckoned the first year of the order, but the Rule was not given
+until 1210.</p>
+<p>This Rule, which has not been preserved, was very simple, and
+doubtless consisted of a group of gospel passages, bearing on the
+vow of poverty, together with a few precepts about the occupations
+of the brethren. The pope was not asked to sanction the Rule but
+only to give his approbation to the missions of the little band.
+Some of the cardinals expressed their doubts about the mode of life
+provided for in the rules. "But," replied Giovanni di San Paolo,
+"if we hold that to observe gospel perfection and make profession
+of it is an irrational and impossible innovation, are we not
+convicted of blasphemy against Christ, the Author of the
+Gospel?"</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page227"></a>[pg 227]</span>
+<p>There was also the Rule of 1221, which makes an intermediate
+stage between the first Rule and that which was approved by the
+pope November 29, 1223. The Rule of 1210 was thoroughly Franciscan.
+It was the expression of the passionate, fervent soul of Francis.
+It was the cry of the human heart for God and purity. The Rule of
+1223 shows that the church had begun to direct the movement.
+Sabatier says of these two rules: "At the bottom of it all is the
+antinome of law and love. Under the reign of law we are the
+mercenaries of God, bound down to an irksome task, but paid a
+hundred-fold, and with an indisputable right to our wages." Such
+was the conception underlying the Rule of 1223. That of 1210 is
+thus described: "Under the rule of love we are the sons of God, and
+co-workers with Him; we give ourselves to Him without bargaining
+and without expectation; we follow Jesus, not because this is well,
+but because we cannot do otherwise, because we feel that He has
+loved us and we love Him in our turn."</p>
+<p>Francis would not allow his monks to be called Friars; he
+preferred Friars Minor or Little Brothers as a more humble
+designation[<a href="#NOTE_F">F</a>].</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page228"></a>[pg 228]</span>
+<p>Ten years after the founding of the order, it is claimed, over
+five thousand friars assembled in Rome for the general chapter. The
+monks lodged in huts made of matting and hence this convention has
+been called the "Chapter of Mats." The order was strongest
+numerically about fifty years after the death of Francis, when it
+numbered eight thousand convents and two hundred thousand monks.
+Many of its members were highly distinguished, such as St.
+Bonaventura, Duns Scotus, Roger Bacon and Cardinal Ximenes.</p>
+<p>2. Nuns of St. Clara or Poor Claras, dates from 1212, but it did
+not receive its rule from Francis until 1224. The order was founded
+in the following manner: Clara, a daughter of a noble family, was
+distinguished for her beauty and by her love for the poor. Francis
+often met her, and, in the language of his biographer, "exhorted
+her to a contempt of the world and poured into her ears the
+sweetness of Christ." Guided, no doubt, by his counsel, she stole
+one night from her home to a neighboring church where Francis and
+his beggars were assembled. Her long and beautiful hair was cut
+off, while a coarse woolen gown was <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page229"></a>[pg 229]</span> substituted for her own rich
+garments. Standing in the midst of the ragged monks, she renounced
+the dregs of Babylon and a wicked world, pledging her future to the
+monastic institution. Out from this little church into the darkness
+of the night, Francis led this beautiful girl of seventeen years
+and committed her to a Benedictine nunnery. Later on Clara became
+the abbess of a Franciscan convent at St. Damian, and the
+Sisterhood of St. Clara was established. It was an order of sadness
+and penitential tears. It is said that Clara never but once (when
+she received the blessing of the pope) lifted her eyelids so that
+the color of her eyes might be discerned.</p>
+<p>3. The Third Order, called also "Brotherhood of Penitence," was
+composed of lay men and women. So many husbands and wives were
+desirous of leaving their homes in order to enter the monastic
+state, that Francis, not wishing to break up happy marriages, so it
+is said, was compelled to give these enthusiasts some sort of a
+rule by which they might compromise between their established life
+and the monastic career. This state of things led to the formation,
+in <span class="pagenum"><a name="page230"></a>[pg 230]</span>
+1221, of the Third Order of St. Francis, or the Order of
+Tertiaries, in relation to the Friars Minor and the Poor Claras.
+Sabatier says this generally-accepted date is wrong; that it is
+impossible to fix any date, for that which came to be known as the
+Third Order was born of the enthusiasm excited by the preaching of
+Francis soon after his return from Rome in 1210. Candidates for
+admission into this order were required to make profession of all
+the orthodox truths, special care being employed to guard against
+the intrusion of heretics. Days of fasting and abstinence were
+enjoined, and members were urged to avoid profanity, the theater,
+dancing and law-suits. The order met with astonishing success,
+cardinals, bishops, emperors, empresses, kings and queens, gladly
+enrolling themselves among the followers of St. Francis.</p>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Dominic_de_Guzman"></a>Dominic de Guzman, 1170-1221
+A.D.</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Half-way between Osma and Aranda in Old Castile, Spain, is a
+little village known as "the fortunate Calahorra." Here was the
+castle of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page231"></a>[pg
+231]</span> Guzmans, where Dominic was born. His family was of high
+rank and character, a noble house of warriors, statesmen and
+saints. If we accept the legends, his greatness was foreshadowed.
+Before his birth, his mother dreamed she saw her son under the
+figure of a black-and-white dog, with a torch in his mouth. "A true
+dream," says Milman, "for he will scent out heresy and apply the
+torch to the faggots;" but, as will be seen later, this observation
+does not rest on undisputed evidence.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image232.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image232.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image232.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Saint Dominic.</b><br>
+From a photograph of the painting preserved<br>
+in his cell in the convent of Santa Sabina, at Rome<br>
+Trenton: Albert Brandt, Publisher, 1900]</p>
+<br>
+<p>In the year 1191, when Spain was desolated by a terrible famine,
+Dominic was just finishing his theological studies. He gave away
+his money and sold his clothes, his furniture and even his precious
+manuscripts, that he might relieve distress. When his companions
+expressed astonishment that he should sell his books, Dominic
+replied: "Would you have me study off these dead skins, when men
+are dying of hunger?" This noble utterance is cherished by his
+admirers as the first saying from his lips that has passed to
+posterity.</p>
+<p>Dominic was educated in the schools of Palencia, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page232"></a>[pg 232]</span> afterwards a
+university, where he devoted six years to the arts and four to
+theology. In 1194, when twenty-five years of age, Dominic became a
+canon regular, at Osma, under the rule of St. Augustine. Nine years
+after he accompanied his bishop, Don Diego, on an embassy for the
+king of Castile. When they crossed the Pyrenees they found
+themselves in an atmosphere of heresy. The country was filled with
+preachers of strange doctrines, who had little respect for Dominic,
+his bishop, or their Roman pontiff. The experiences of this journey
+inspired in Dominic a desire to aid in the extermination of heresy.
+He was also deeply impressed by an important and significant
+observation. Many of these heretical preachers were not ignorant
+fanatics, but well-trained and cultured men. Entire communities
+seemed to be possessed by a desire for knowledge and for
+righteousness. Dominic clearly perceived that only preachers of a
+high order, capable of advancing reasonable argument, could
+overthrow the Albigensian heresy.</p>
+<p>It would be impossible, in a few words, to tell the whole story
+of this Albigensian movement. <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page233"></a>[pg 233]</span> Undoubtedly the term stood for a
+variety of theological opinions, all of which were in opposition to
+the teachings of Rome. "From the very invectives of their enemies,"
+says Hallam, "and the acts of the Inquisition, it is manifest that
+almost every shade of heterodoxy was found among these dissidents,
+till it vanished in a simple protestation against the wealth and
+tyranny of the clergy." Many of the tenets of these enthusiasts
+were undoubtedly borrowed from the ancient Manicheism, and would be
+pronounced heretical by every modern evangelical denomination. But
+associated with those holding such doctrines were numerous
+reformers, whose chief offense consisted in their incipient
+Protestantism. However heretical any of these sects may have been,
+it is impossible to make them out enemies to the social order,
+except as all opponents of established religious traditions create
+disturbance. "What these bodies held in common," says Hardwick,
+"and what made them equally the prey of the inquisitor, was their
+unwavering belief in the corruption of the medieval church,
+especially as governed by the Roman pontiffs."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page234"></a>[pg 234]</span>
+<p>In 1208 Dominic visited Languedoc a second time, and on his way
+he encountered the papal legates returning in pomp to Rome, foiled
+in their attempt to crush this growing schism. To them he
+administered his famous rebuke: "It is not the display of power and
+pomp, cavalcades of retainers, and richly-houseled palfreys, or by
+gorgeous apparel, that the heretics win proselytes; it is by
+zealous preaching, by apostolic humility, by austerity, by seeming,
+it is true, but by seeming holiness. Zeal must be met by zeal,
+humility by humility, false sanctity by real sanctity, preaching
+falsehood by preaching truth." It is extremely unfortunate for the
+reputation of Dominic that he ever departed from the spirit of
+these noble words, which so clearly state the conditions of true
+religious progress.</p>
+<p>Dominic now gathered about him a few men of like spirit and
+began his task of preaching down heresy. But "the enticing words of
+man's wisdom" failed to win the Albigensians from what they
+believed to be the words of God. So, unmindful of his admonition to
+the papal legates, Dominic obtained permission of Innocent III. to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page235"></a>[pg 235]</span> hold
+courts, before which he might summon all persons suspected of
+heresy. When eloquence and courts failed, the pope let loose the
+"dogs of war." Then followed twenty years of frightful carnage,
+during which hundreds of thousands of heretics were slain, and many
+cities were laid waste by fire and sword. "This was to punish a
+fanaticism," says Hallam, "ten thousand times more innocent than
+their own, and errors which, according to the worst imputations,
+left the laws of humanity and the peace of social life unimpaired."
+Peace was concluded in 1229, but the persecution of heretics went
+on.</p>
+<p>What part Dominic personally had in these bloody proceedings is
+litigated history. His admirers strive to rescue his memory from
+the charge that he was "a cruel and bloody man." It is argued that
+while the pope and temporal princes carried on the sanguinary war
+against the heretics, Dominic confined himself to pleading with
+them in a spirit of true Christian love. He was a minister of
+mercy, not an avenging angel, sword in hand. It has to be conceded
+that the constant tradition of the Dominican <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page236"></a>[pg 236]</span> order that Dominic
+was the first Inquisitor, whether he bore the title or not, rests
+upon good authority. But what was the nature of the office as held
+by the saint? As far as Dominic was concerned, it is argued by his
+friends that the office "was limited to the <i>reconciliation</i>
+of heretics and had nothing to do with their <i>punishment</i>." It
+is also claimed that while Dominic did impose penances, in some
+cases public flagellation, no evidence can be produced showing that
+he ever delivered one heretic to the flames. Those who were burned
+were condemned by secular courts, and on the ground that they were
+not only heretics but enemies of the public peace and perpetrators
+of enormous crimes.</p>
+<p>But while it may not be proved that Dominic himself passed the
+sentence of death or applied the torch to the faggots with his own
+hand, he is by no means absolved from all complicity in those
+frightful slaughters, or from all responsibility for the subsequent
+establishment of the Holy Inquisition. The principles governing the
+Inquisition were practically those upon which Dominic proceeded;
+the germs of the later atrocities are <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page237"></a>[pg 237]</span> to be found in his
+aims and methods. By what a narrow margin does Dominic escape the
+charge of cruelty when it is boasted "that he resolutely insisted
+on no sentence being carried out until all means had been tried by
+which the conversion of a prisoner could be effected." Another
+statement also contains an inkling of a significant fact, namely,
+that secular judges and princes were constantly under the influence
+of the monks and other ecclesiastical persons, who incited them to
+wage war, and to massacre, in the Albigensian war as in other
+crusades against heresy. No word from Dominic can be produced
+indicating that he remonstrated with the pope, or that he tried to
+stop the crusade. In a few instances he seems to have interceded
+with the crazed soldiery for the lives of women and children. But
+he did not oppose the bloody crusade itself. He was constantly
+either with the army or following in its wake. He often sat on the
+bench at the trial of dissenters. He remained the life-long friend
+of Simon de Montfort, the cruel agent of the papacy, and he blessed
+the marriage of his sons and baptized his daughter. Special courts
+for trying heretics were established, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page238"></a>[pg 238]</span> previous to the
+more complete organization of the Inquisition, and in these he held
+a commission.</p>
+<p>The Holy Office of the Inquisition was made a permanent tribunal
+by Gregory IX., in 1233, twelve years after the death of Dominic,
+and curiously enough, in the same year in which he was canonized.
+The Catholic Bollandists claim that although the <i>title</i> of
+Inquisitor was of later date than Dominic, yet the <i>office</i>
+was in existence, and that the splendor of the Holy Inquisition
+owes its beginning to that saint. Certain it is that the
+administration of the Inquisition was mainly in the hands of
+Dominican monks.</p>
+<p>In view of all these facts, Professor Allen is justified in his
+conclusions respecting Dominic and his share in the persecution of
+heretics: "Whatever his own sweet and heavenly spirit according to
+Catholic eulogists, his name is a synonym of bleak and intolerant
+fanaticism. It is fatally associated with the blackest horrors of
+the crusade against the Albigenses, as well as with the infernal
+skill and deadly machinery of the Inquisition."</p>
+<p>In 1214, Dominic established himself, with six followers, in the
+house of Peter Cellani, a rich <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page239"></a>[pg 239]</span> resident of Toulouse. Eleven years of
+active and public life had passed since the Subprior of Osma had
+forsaken the quietude of the monastery. He now resumed his life of
+retirement and subjected himself and his companions to the monastic
+rules of prayer and penance. But the restless spirit of the man
+could not long remain content with the seclusion and inactivity of
+a monk's life. The scheme of establishing an order of Preaching
+Friars began to assume definite shape in his mind. He dreamed of
+seven stars enlightening the world, which represented himself and
+his six friends. The final result of his deliberations was the
+organization of his order, and the appearance of Dominic in the
+city of Rome, in 1215, to secure the approval of the pope, Innocent
+III. Although some describe his reception as "most cordial and
+flattering," yet it required supernatural interference to induce
+the pope to grant even his approval of the new order. It was not
+formally confirmed until 1216 by Honorius III.</p>
+<p>Dominic now made his headquarters at Rome, although he traveled
+extensively in the interests of his growing brotherhood of monks.
+He was made <span class="pagenum"><a name="page240"></a>[pg
+240]</span> Master of the Sacred Palace, an important official
+post, including among its functions the censorship of the press. It
+has ever since been occupied by members of the Dominican order.</p>
+<p>Throughout his life Dominic is said to have zealously practiced
+rigorous self-denial. He wore a hair shirt, and an iron chain
+around his loins, which he never laid aside, even in sleep. He
+abstained from meat and observed stated fasts and periods of
+silence. He selected the worst accommodations and the meanest
+clothes, and never allowed himself the luxury of a bed. When
+traveling, he beguiled the journey with spiritual instruction and
+prayers. As soon as he passed the limits of towns and villages, he
+took off his shoes, and, however sharp the stones or thorns, he
+trudged on his way barefooted. Rain and other discomforts elicited
+from his lips nothing but praises to God.</p>
+<p>Death came at the age of fifty-one and found him exhausted with
+the austerities and labors of his eventful career. He had reached
+the convent of St. Nicholas, at Bologna, weary and sick with a
+fever. He refused the repose of a bed and bade the monks lay him on
+some sacking stretched upon <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page241"></a>[pg 241]</span> the ground. The brief time that
+remained to him was spent in exhorting his followers to have
+charity, to guard their humility, and to make their treasure out of
+poverty. Lying in ashes upon the floor he passed away at noon, on
+the sixth of August, 1221. He was canonized by Gregory IX., in
+1234.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Dominican_Orders"></a>The Dominican
+Orders</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The origin of the Order of the Preaching Friars has already been
+described. It is not necessary to dwell upon the constitution of
+this order, because in all essential respects it was like that of
+the Franciscans. The order is ruled by a general and is divided
+into provinces, governed by provincials. The head of each house is
+called a prior. Dominic adopted the rules laid down by St.
+Augustine, because the pope ordered him to follow some one of the
+older monastic codes, but he also added regulations of his own.</p>
+<p>Soon after the founding of the order, bands of monks were sent
+out to Paris, to Rome, to Spain and to England, for the purpose of
+planting colonies in the chief seats of learning. The order
+produced <span class="pagenum"><a name="page242"></a>[pg
+242]</span> many eminent scholars, some of whom were Thomas
+Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, Echard, Tauler and Savonarola.</p>
+<p>As among the Franciscans, there was also an Order of Nuns,
+founded in 1206, and a Third Order, called the Militia of Jesus
+Christ, which was organized in 1218.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Success_of_the_Mendicant_Orders"></a>The
+Success of the Mendicant Orders</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>In 1215, Innocent III. being pope, the Lateran council passed
+the following law: "Whereas the excessive diversity of these
+[monastic] institutions begets confusion, no new foundations of
+this sort must be formed for the future; but whoever wishes to
+become a monk must attach himself to some of the already existing
+rules." This same pope approved the two Mendicant orders, urging
+them, it is true, to unite themselves to one of the older orders;
+but, nevertheless, they became distinct organizations, eclipsing
+all previous societies in their achievements. The reason for this
+disregard of the Lateran decree is doubtless to be found in the
+alarming condition of religious affairs at that time, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page243"></a>[pg 243]</span> and in the hope
+held out to Rome by the Mendicants, of reforming the monasteries
+and crushing the heretics.</p>
+<p>The failure of the numerous and varied efforts to reform the
+monastic institution and the danger to the church arising from the
+unwonted stress laid upon poverty by different schismatic religious
+societies, necessitated the adoption of radical measures by the
+church to preserve its influence. At this juncture the Mendicant
+friars appeared. The conditions demanded a modification of the
+monastic principle which had hitherto exalted a life of retirement.
+Seclusion in the cloister was no longer possible in the view of the
+remarkable changes in religious thought and practice.</p>
+<p>Innocent III. was wise enough to perceive the immediate utility
+of the new societies based upon claims to extraordinary humility
+and poverty. The Mendicant orders were, in themselves, not only a
+rebuke to the luxurious indolence and shameful laxity of the older
+orders, but when sanctioned by the church, the existence of the new
+societies attested Rome's desire to maintain the highest and the
+purest standards of monastic life. Hence, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page244"></a>[pg 244]</span> the Preaching
+Friars were permitted to reproach the clergy and the monks for
+their vices and corruptions.</p>
+<p>"The effect of such a band of missionaries," says John Stuart
+Mill, "must have been great in rousing and feeding dormant
+devotional feelings. They were not less influential in regulating
+those feelings, and turning into the established Catholic channels
+those vagaries of private enthusiasm which might well endanger the
+church, since they already threatened society itself."</p>
+<p>Two novel monastic features, therefore, now appear for the first
+time: 1. The substitution of itineracy for the seclusion of the
+cloister; and 2. The abolition of endowments.</p>
+<p>1. The older orders had their traveling missionaries, but the
+general practice was to remain shut up within the monastic walls.
+The Mendicants at the start had no particular abiding place, but
+were bound to travel everywhere, preaching and teaching. It was
+distinctly the mission of these monks to visit the camps, the
+towns, cities and villages, the market places, the universities,
+the homes and the churches, to preach and to minister to the sick
+and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page245"></a>[pg 245]</span> the
+poor. They neither loved the seclusion of the cell nor sought it.
+Theirs to tramp the dusty roads, with their capacious bags, begging
+and teaching. Only by this itinerant method could the people be
+reached and the preachers of heresy be encountered.</p>
+<p>2. One of the chief sources of strength in the heretical sects
+was the justness of their attack upon the Catholic monastic orders,
+whose immense riches belied their vows of poverty. The heretics
+practiced austerities and adopted a simplicity of life that won the
+hearts of the people, by reason of its contrast to the loose habits
+of the monks and clergy. Since it was impossible to reform the
+older orders, it became absolutely essential to the success of the
+Mendicants that they should rigorously respect the neglected
+discipline. As the abuse of the vow of poverty was particularly
+common, the Mendicants naturally emphasized this vow.</p>
+<p>While it is true that a begging monk was by no means unknown,
+yet now, for the first time, was the practice of mendicity formally
+adopted by entire orders. Owing to the excessive multiplication of
+mendicant societies, Pope Gregory X., at a general <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page246"></a>[pg 246]</span> council held at
+Lyons in 1272, attempted to check the growing evil. The number of
+Mendicant orders was confined to four, viz., the Dominicans, the
+Franciscans, the Carmelites and the Augustinians or Hermits of
+Augustine. The Council of Trent confined mendicity to the
+Observantines and Capuchins, since the other societies had
+practically abandoned their original interpretation of their vow of
+poverty and had acquired permanent property.</p>
+<p>When Francis tried to enforce the rule of poverty, his rigor
+gave rise to most serious dissensions, which began in his own
+lifetime and ended after his death in open schism. Some of his
+followers were not pleased with his views on that subject. They
+resisted his extreme strictness, and after his death they continued
+to advocate the holding of property. The popes tried to settle the
+quarrel, but ever and anon it broke out afresh with volcanic
+fierceness. They finally interpreted the rule of poverty to mean
+that the friars could not hold property in their own names, but
+they might enjoy its use. Under this interpretation of the rule,
+the beggars soon became very rich. Matthew of Paris said: "The
+friars who have been founded hardly forty years have built even
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page247"></a>[pg 247]</span> in the
+present day in England residences as lofty as the palaces of our
+kings." But the better element among the Franciscans refused to
+consent to such a palpable evasion of the rule. A portion of this
+class separated themselves from the Franciscans, rejected their
+authority, and formed a new sect called the <i>Fratricelli</i>, or
+Little Brothers. It is very important to keep the history of this
+name clearly in mind, for it frequently appears in the Reformation
+period and has been the cause of much misunderstanding. The word
+"Fratricelli" came to be a term of derision applied to any one
+affecting the dress or the habits of the monks. When heretical
+sects arose, it was applied to them as a stigma, but it was used
+first by a sect of rigid Franciscans who deserted their order,
+adopted this name as their own, and exulted in its use. The quarrel
+among the monks led to a variety of complications and is
+intricately interwoven with the political and religious history of
+the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. "These
+rebellious Franciscans," says Mosheim, "though fanatical and
+superstitious in some respects, deserve an eminent rank among those
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page248"></a>[pg 248]</span> who
+prepared the way for the Reformation in Europe, and who excited in
+the minds of the people a just aversion to Rome."</p>
+<p>The Mendicants were especially active in educational work. This
+is to be attributed to several causes. Unquestionably the general
+and increasing interest in theological doctrines and the craving
+for knowledge affected the monastic orders. Europe was just
+arousing from her medieval slumbers. The faint rays of the
+Reformation dawn were streaking the horizon. The intellect as well
+as the conscience was touched by the Spirit of God. The revolt
+against moral iniquity was often accompanied by skepticism
+concerning the authority and dogmas of the church. Questions were
+being asked that ignorant monks could not answer. Too long had the
+church ignored these symptoms of the approach of a new order of
+things. The church was forced to meet the heretics on their own
+ground, to offset the example of their simplicity and purity of
+life by exalting the neglected standards of self-denial, and to
+silence them, if possible, by exposing their errors. Then came the
+Franciscans, with their austere simplicity and their insistence
+upon poverty. Then also appeared the Dominicans, or as they were
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page249"></a>[pg 249]</span> called,
+"The Watch-dogs of the Church," who not only barked the church
+awake, but tried to devour the heretics.</p>
+<p>Francis halted for some time before giving encouragement to
+educational enterprises. A life of devotion and prayer attracted
+him, because, as he said, "Prayer purifies the affections,
+strengthens us in virtue, and unites us to the sovereign good."
+But, he went on, "Preaching renders the feet of the spiritual man
+dusty; it is an employment which dissipates and distracts, and
+which causes regular discipline to be relaxed." After consulting
+Brother Sylvester and Sister Clara, he decided to adopt their
+counsel and entered upon a ministry of preaching. The example and
+success of the Dominicans probably inspired the Franciscans to give
+themselves more and more to intellectual work.</p>
+<p>Both orders received appointments in all the leading
+universities, but they did not gain this ascendency without a
+severe conflict. The regular professors and the clergy were jealous
+of them for various causes, and resisted them at every point. The
+quarrel between the Dominicans and the University of Paris is the
+most famous of these <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page250"></a>[pg 250]</span> struggles. It began in 1228 and did
+not end until 1259. The Dominicans claimed the right to two
+theological professorships. One had been taken from them, and a law
+was passed that no religious order should have what these friars
+demanded. The Dominicans rebelled and the University passed
+sentences of expulsion. Innocent IV., wishing to become master of
+Italy, sided with the University, but the next month he was
+dead,--in answer to their prayers, said the Dominicans, but rumor
+hinted an even blacker cause. The thirty-one years of the struggle
+dragged wearily on, disturbed by papal bulls, appeals, pamphlets
+and university slogans. At last Alexander IV., in 1255, decided
+that the Dominicans might have the second professorship and also
+any other they thought proper. The noise of conflict now grew
+louder and boded ill for the peace of the church. The pulpits
+flashed forth fiery utterances. The monks were assailed in every
+quarter. William of Amour published his essay on "The Perils of the
+Last Times," in which he claimed that the perilous times predicted
+by the Apostle Paul were now fulfilled by these begging friars. He
+exposed their iniquities and bitterly <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page251"></a>[pg 251]</span> complained of their
+arrogance and vice. His book was burned and its author banished.
+Although meaning to be a friend of Rome, he unconsciously
+contributed his share to the coming reform. In 1259, Rome thundered
+so loud that all Europe was terrified and the University was awed
+into submission.</p>
+<p>Another interesting feature in the history of their educational
+enterprises is the entrance of the Mendicants into England, where
+they acted a leading part in the educational and political history
+of the country. The Dominicans settled first at Oxford, in 1221.
+The Franciscans, after a short stay at Canterbury, went to Oxford
+in 1224. The story of how the two Gray friars journeyed from
+Canterbury to Oxford runs as follows: "These two forerunners of a
+famous brotherhood, being not far from Oxford, lost their way and
+came to a farmhouse of the Benedictines. It was nearly night and
+raining. They gently knocked, and asked admittance for God's sake.
+The porter gazed on their patched robes and beggarly aspect and
+supposed them to be mimics or despised persons. The prior, pleased
+with the tidings, invited them in. But instead of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page252"></a>[pg 252]</span> sportively
+performing, these two friars insisted, with sedate countenances,
+that they were men of God. Whereat the Benedictines in jealousy,
+and displeased to be cheated out of their expected fun, kicked and
+buffeted the two poor monks and turned them out of doors. One young
+monk pitied them and smuggled them into a hay-loft where we trust
+they slept soundly and safe from the cold and rain." The two friars
+finally reached Oxford and were well received by their Dominican
+brothers. Such was the simple beginning of a brilliant career that
+was profoundly to affect the course of English history. Both at
+Cambridge and Oxford the monastic orders exercised a remarkable
+influence. Traces of their labors and power may still be seen in
+the names of the colleges, and in the religious portions of the
+university discipline. They built fine edifices and manned their
+schools with the best teachers, so that they became great rivals of
+the regular colleges which did not have the funds necessary to
+compete with these wealthy beggars. Another cause of their rapid
+progress was the exodus of students from Paris to England. During
+the quarrel at Paris, Henry III. of England offered many
+inducements to the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page253"></a>[pg
+253]</span> students, who left for England in large numbers. Many
+of them were prejudiced in favor of the friars, and they naturally
+drifted to the monastic college. The secular clergy charged the
+friars with inducing the college students to enter the monasteries
+or to turn begging monks. The pope, the king, and the parliament
+became involved in the struggle, which grew more bitter as the
+years passed. After a while Wyclif appeared, and when he began his
+mighty attack upon the friars the joy with which the professors
+viewed the struggle can be appreciated.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Decline_of_the_Mendicants"></a>The Decline of
+the Mendicants</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The Mendicant friars won their fame by faithful and earnest
+labors. Men admired them because they identified themselves with
+the lowest of mankind and heroically devoted themselves to the poor
+and sick. These "sturdy beggars," as Francis called his companions,
+were contrasted with the lazy, rich, and, too often, licentious
+monks of the other orders. Everywhere the friars were received with
+veneration and joy. The people sought burial in <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page254"></a>[pg 254]</span> their rags,
+believing that, clothed in the garments of these holy beggars, they
+would enter paradise more speedily.</p>
+<p>Instead of seeking the seclusion of the convent to save his own
+soul, the friar displayed remarkable zeal trying to save mankind.
+He became the arbiter in the quarrels of princes, the prime mover
+in treaties between nations, and the indispensable counselor in
+political complications. The pope employed him as his authorized
+agent in the most difficult matters touching the welfare of the
+church. His influence upon the common people is thus described by
+the historian Green: "The theory of government wrought out in the
+cell and lecture-room was carried over the length and breadth of
+the land by the Mendicant brother begging his way from town to
+town, chatting with the farmer or housewife at the cottage door and
+setting up his portable pulpit in village green or market-place.
+The rudest countryman learned the tale of a king's oppression or a
+patriot's hope as he listened to the rambling, passionate, humorous
+discourse of the beggar friar."</p>
+<p>By these methods the Mendicants were enabled <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page255"></a>[pg 255]</span> to render most
+efficient service to their patrons at Rome in their efforts to
+establish their temporal power. They were, in fact, before the
+Reformation, just what the Jesuits afterwards became, "the very
+soul of the hierarchy." Yes, they were immensely, prodigiously
+successful. The popes hastened to do them honor. Because the friars
+were such enthusiastic supporters of the church, the popes poured
+gold and privileges into their capacious coffers. Thankful peasants
+threw in their mites and the admiring noble bestowed his
+estates.</p>
+<p>The secular clergy, with envy and chagrin, awoke to the alarming
+fact that the beggars had won the hearts of the people; their
+hatred was increased by the fact that when the Roman pontiffs
+enriched these indefatigable toilers and valiant foes of heresy,
+they did so at the expense of the bishops and clergy, which,
+perhaps, was robbing Paul to pay Peter.</p>
+<p>Baluzii says: "No religious order had the distribution of so
+many and such ample indulgences as the Franciscans. In place of
+fixed revenues, lucrative indulgences were placed in their hands."
+So ill-judged was the distribution of these favors that discipline
+was overturned. Many churchmen, feeling <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page256"></a>[pg 256]</span> that their rights
+were being encroached upon, complained bitterly, and resolved on
+retaliation. It is just here that a potent cause of the Mendicant's
+fall is to be found. He helped to dig his own grave.</p>
+<p>Having elevated monasticism to the zenith of its power, the
+Mendicant orders, like all the other monastic brotherhoods, entered
+upon their shameful decline. The unexampled prosperity, so
+inconsistent with the original intentions of the founders of the
+orders, was attended by corruptions and excesses. The decrees of
+councils, the denunciations of popes and high ecclesiastical
+dignitaries, the satires of literature, the testimony of
+chroniclers and the formation of reformatory orders, constitute a
+body of irrefragable evidence proving that the lowest level of
+sensuality, superstition and ignorance had been reached. The monks
+and friars lost whatever vigor and piety they ever possessed.</p>
+<p>It is again evident that a monk cannot serve God and mammon.
+Success ruins him. Wealth and popular favor change his character.
+The people slowly realize the fact that the fat and lazy medieval
+monk is not dead, after all, but <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page257"></a>[pg 257]</span> has simply changed his name to that
+of Begging Friar. As Allen neatly observes: "Their gray gown and
+knotted cord wrapped a spiritual pride and capacity of bigotry,
+fully equal to the rest."</p>
+<p>Here, then, are the "sturdy beggars" of Francis, dwelling in
+palatial convents, arrogant and proud, trampling their ideal into
+the dust. Thus it came to pass in accordance with the principle
+stated at the beginning of this chapter, that when the ideal became
+a cloak to cover up sham, decay had set in, and ruin, even though
+delayed for years, was sure to come. The poor, sad-faced, honest,
+faithful friar everybody praised, loved and reverenced. The
+insolent, contemptuous, rich monk all men loathed. So a change of
+character in the friar transformed the songs of praise into shouts
+of condemnation. Those golden rays from the morning sun of the
+Reformation are ascending toward the highest heaven, and daybreak
+is near.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page258"></a>[pg 258]</span>
+<h2><a name="VI"></a>VI</h2>
+<h2><i><a name="THE_SOCIETY_OF_JESUS"></a>THE SOCIETY OF
+JESUS</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>In many respects it would be perfectly proper to consider the
+Mendicant orders as the last stage in the evolution of the monastic
+institution. Although the Jesuitical system rests upon the three
+vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience, yet the ascetic principle
+is reduced to a minimum in that society. Father Thomas E. Sherman,
+the son of the famous general, and a Jesuit of distinguished
+ability, has declared: "We are not, as some seem to think, a
+semi-military band of men, like the Templars of the Middle Ages. We
+are not a monastic order, seeking happiness in lonely withdrawal
+from our fellows. Our enemies within and without the church would
+like to make us monks, for then we would be comparatively useless,
+since that is not our end or aim.... We are regulars in the army of
+Christ; <span class="pagenum"><a name="page259"></a>[pg 259]</span>
+that is, men vowed to poverty, chastity and obedience; we are a
+collegiate body with the right to teach granted by the Catholic
+church[<a href="#NOTE_G"></a>G]."</p>
+<p>The early religious orders were based upon the idea of
+retirement from the world for the purpose of acquiring holiness.
+But as has already been shown, the constant tendency of the
+religious communities was toward participation in the world's
+affairs. This tendency became very marked among the friars, who
+traveled from place to place, and occupied important university
+positions, and it reaches its culmination in the Society of Jesus.
+Retirement among the Jesuits is employed merely as a preparation
+for active life. Constant intercourse with society was provided for
+in the constitution of the order. Bishop John J. Keane, a Roman
+Catholic authority, says: "The clerks regular, instituted
+principally since the sixteenth century, were neither monks nor
+friars, but priests living in common and busied with the work of
+the ministry. The Society of Jesus is one of the orders of clerks
+regular."</p>
+<p>Other differences between the monastic communities <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page260"></a>[pg 260]</span> and the Jesuits are
+to be observed. The Jesuit discards the monastic gown, and is
+decidedly averse to the old monastic asceticism, with its rigorous
+and painful treatment of the body. While the older religious
+societies were essentially democratic in spirit and government, the
+monks sharing in the control of the monastic property and
+participating in the election of superiors, the Jesuitical system
+is intensely monarchical, a despotism pure and simple. In the older
+orders, the welfare of the individual was jealously guarded and his
+sanctification was sought. Among the Jesuits the individual is
+nothing, the corporate body everything. Admission to the monastic
+orders was encouraged and easily obtained. The novitiate of the
+Jesuits is long and difficult. Access to the highest grades of the
+order is granted only to those who have served the society many
+weary years.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image263.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image263.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image263.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Ignatius de Loyola.</b><br>
+<br>
+After Greatbach's Engraving From The Wierz Print<br>
+Trenton: Albert Brandt, Publisher, 1900</p>
+<p>But in spite of such variations from the old monastic type, the
+Society of Jesus would doubtless never have appeared, had not the
+way for its existence been paved by previous monastic societies.
+Its aims and its methods were the natural sequence of monastic
+history. They were merely a development <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page261"></a>[pg 261]</span> of past
+experiences, for the objects of the society were practically the
+objects of the Mendicants; the vows were the same with a change of
+emphasis. The abandonment of austerities as a means of salvation or
+spiritual power was the natural fruit of past experiments that had
+proved the uselessness of asceticism merely for the sake of
+acquiring a spirit of self-denial. The extirpation of heresy
+undertaken by Ignatius had already been attempted by the friars,
+while the education of the young had long been carried on with
+considerable success by the Benedictine and Dominican monks. The
+spirit of its founder, however, gave the Society of Jesus a unique
+character, and monasticism now passed out from the cell forever.
+The Jesuit may fairly be regarded as a monk, unlike any of his
+predecessors but nevertheless the legitimate fruit of centuries of
+monastic experience.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Ignatius_de_Loyola"></a>Ignatius de Loyola,
+1491-1556 A.D.</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Inigo Lopez de Recalde, or Loyola, as he is commonly known, was
+born at Guipuzcoa, in Spain, in 1491. He was educated as a page in
+the court <span class="pagenum"><a name="page262"></a>[pg
+262]</span> of Ferdinand the Catholic. He afterwards became a
+soldier and led a very wild life until his twenty-ninth year.
+During the siege of Pamplona, in 1521, he was severely wounded, and
+while convalescing he was given lives of Christ and of the saints
+to read. His perusal of these stories of spiritual combat inspired
+a determination to imitate the glorious achievements of the saints.
+For a while the thirst for military renown and an attraction toward
+a lady of the court, restrained his spiritual impulses. But
+overcoming these obstacles, he resolutely entered upon his new
+career.</p>
+<p>Sometime after he visited the sanctuary of Montserrat, where he
+hung his shield and sword upon the altar of the Virgin Mary and
+gave his oath of fealty to the service of God. A tablet, erected by
+the abbot of the monastery in commemoration of this event, reads as
+follows: "Here, blessed Ignatius of Loyola, with many prayers and
+tears, devoted himself to God and the Virgin. Here, as with
+spiritual arms, he fortified himself in sackcloth, and spent the
+vigil of the night. Hence he went forth to found the Society of
+Jesus, in the year MDXXII."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page263"></a>[pg 263]</span>
+<p>After spending ten months in Manresa, Loyola went on a
+pilgrimage to the Holy Land, intending to remain there, but he was
+sent home by the Eastern monks, and reached Italy in 1524.</p>
+<p>Now began his struggle for an education. At the age of
+thirty-three he took his seat on the school-bench at Barcelona. In
+1526 he entered the University at Alcala. He was here looked upon
+as a dangerous innovator, and was imprisoned six weeks, by order of
+the Inquisition, for preaching without authority, since he was not
+in holy orders. After his release he attended the University of
+Salamanca, but he finally took his degree of Master of Arts at the
+University of Paris, in 1533.</p>
+<p>During this period he was several times imprisoned as a
+dangerous fanatic, but each time he succeeded in securing a verdict
+in his favor. The hostility to Ignatius and his work forms a
+strange parallel to the bitter antagonism which his society has
+always encountered.</p>
+<p>Nine men, among whom was Francis Xavier, afterwards widely
+renowned, had been chosen with great care, as the companions of
+Ignatius. He called them together in July, 1534, and on August
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page264"></a>[pg 264]</span> 15th of
+the same year he selected six of them and bade them follow him to
+the Church of the Blessed Virgin, at Montmartre, in Paris. There
+and then they bound themselves to renounce all their goods, and to
+make a voyage to Jerusalem, in order to convert the Eastern
+infidels; if that scheme proved impracticable, they agreed to offer
+themselves to the sovereign pontiff for any service he might
+require of them. War prevented the journey to the Holy Land, and
+so, after passing through a variety of experiences, Ignatius and
+his companions met at Rome, to secure the sanction of Pope Paul
+III. for the new society. After a year and a half of deliberation
+and discussion a favorable decision was reached, which was, no
+doubt, partly facilitated by the growth of the Reformation. The new
+society was chartered on September 27, 1540, for the "defence and
+advance of the faith."</p>
+<p>Ignatius was elected as the general of the order and entered
+upon his duties, April 17, 1541. He soon prepared a constitution
+which was not adopted until after his death, and then in an amended
+form. Loyola ended his remarkable and stormy career, July 31,
+1556.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page265"></a>[pg 265]</span>
+<h2><i><a name=
+"Constitution_and_Polity_of_the_Order"></a>Constitution and Polity
+of the Order</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The <i>Institutum</i>, which contains the governing laws of the
+society, is a complex document consisting of papal bulls and
+decrees, a list of the privileges which have been granted to the
+order, ten chapters of rules, decrees of the general congregations,
+the plan of studies (<i>ratio studiorum</i>), and three ascetic
+writings, of which the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius constitute
+the chief part.</p>
+<p>The society is distributed into six grades: novices,
+scholastics, temporal coadjutors, spiritual coadjutors, professed
+of the three vows, and professed of the four vows.</p>
+<p>The professed form only a small percentage of the entire body,
+and constitute a sort of religious aristocracy, from which the
+officers of the society are selected. Only the professed of the
+fourth vow, who add to the three vows a pledge of unconditional
+obedience to the pope, possess the full rights of membership. This
+final grade cannot be reached until the age of forty-five, so that
+if the candidate enters the order at the earliest age <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page266"></a>[pg 266]</span> permissible,
+fourteen, he has been on probation thirty-one years when he reaches
+the final grade.</p>
+<p>The society is ruled by a general, to whom unconditional
+obedience is required. The provinces, into which the order is
+divided, are governed by provincials, who must report monthly to
+the general. The heads of all houses and colleges must report
+weekly to their provincials. An elaborate system of checks and
+espionage is employed to ensure the perfect working of this complex
+ecclesiastical machinery. Fraud or evasion is carefully guarded
+against, and every possible means is employed to enable the general
+to keep himself fully informed concerning the minutest details of
+the society's affairs.</p>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Vow_of_Obedience"></a>The Vow of
+Obedience</i></h2>
+<p>That which has imparted a peculiar character to the Jesuit and
+contributed more than any other force to his success, is the
+insistence upon unquestioning submission to the will of the
+superior. This emphasis on the vow of obedience deserves,
+therefore, special consideration. Loyola, in his <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page267"></a>[pg 267]</span> "Spiritual
+Exercises," commanded the novice to preserve his freedom of mind,
+but it is difficult for the fairest critic to conceive of such a
+possibility in the light of Loyola's rule of obedience, which
+reads: "I ought not to be my own, but His who created me, and his
+too by whose means God governs me, yielding myself to be moulded in
+his hands like so much wax.... I ought to be like a corpse, which
+has neither will nor understanding, or like a small crucifix, which
+is turned about at the will of him who holds it, or like a staff in
+the hands of an old man, who uses it as may best assist or please
+him."</p>
+<p>As an example of the kind of obedience demanded of the Jesuit,
+Loyola cited the obedience of Abraham, who, when he believed that
+Jehovah commanded him to commit the crime of infanticide, was ready
+to obey. The thirteenth of the rules appended to the Spiritual
+Exercises says: "If the Church shall have defined that to be black
+which to our eyes appears white, we ought to pronounce the thing in
+question black."</p>
+<p>Loyola is reported as having said to his secretary that "in
+those who offer themselves he looked less <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page268"></a>[pg 268]</span> to purely natural
+goodness than to firmness of character and ability for business."
+But that he did not mean <i>independent</i> firmness of character
+is clearly seen in the obvious attempt of the order to destroy that
+noble and true independence which is the crowning glory of a lofty
+character. The discipline is marvelously contrived to "scoop the
+will" out of the individual. Count Paul von Hoensbroech, who
+recently seceded from the society, has set forth his reasons for so
+doing in two articles which appeared in the "Preussische
+Jahrb&uuml;cher." A most interesting discussion of these articles,
+in the "New World," for December, 1894, places the opinions of the
+Count at our disposal. It is quite evident that he is no
+passionate, blind foe of the society. His tone is temperate and his
+praises cordially given. While recognizing the genius shown in the
+machinery of the society and the nobility of the real aims of the
+Jesuitical discipline, and while protesting against the unfounded
+charges of impurity, and other gross calumnies against the order,
+Count Paul nevertheless maintains that it "rests on so unworthy a
+depreciation of individuality, and so exaggerated an apprehension
+of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page269"></a>[pg 269]</span>
+virtue of obedience, as to render it unfit for its higher ends."
+The uniform of the Jesuit is not an external garb, but such freedom
+is insignificant in the light of the "veritable strait-jacket,"
+which is placed upon the inward man. The unformed and pliable
+novice, usually between the ages of sixteen and twenty, is
+subjected to "a skillful, energetic and unremitting assault upon
+personal independence." Every device that a shrewd and powerful
+intellect could conceive of is employed to break up the personal
+will. "The Jesuit scheme prescribes the gait, the way to hold the
+hands, to incline the head, to direct the eyes, to hold and move
+the person."</p>
+<p>Every novice must go through the "Spiritual Exercises" in
+complete solitude, twice in his life. They occupy thirty days. The
+"Account of the Conscience" is of the very essence of Jesuitism.
+The ordinary confession, familiar to every Catholic, is as nothing
+compared with this marvelous inquiry into the secrets of the human
+heart and mind. Every fault, sin, virtue, wish, design, act and
+thought,--good, bad or indifferent,--must be disclosed, and this
+revelation of the inner life may be used against him who makes it,
+"for the good of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page270"></a>[pg
+270]</span> the order." Thus, after fifteen years of such ingenious
+and detailed discipline, the young man's intellectual and moral
+faculties are moulded into Jesuitical forms. He is no longer his
+own. He is a pliable and obedient, even though it may be a virtuous
+and brilliant, tool of a spiritual master-mechanic who will use him
+according to his own purposes, in the interest of the society.</p>
+<p>The Jesuits have signally failed to convince the world that the
+type of character produced by their system is worthy of admiration.
+The "sacrifice of the intellect"--a familiar watchword of the
+Jesuit--is far too high a price to pay for whatever benefits the
+discipline may confer. It is contrary to human nature, and hence to
+the divine intention, to keep a human soul in a state of
+subordination to another human will. As Von Hoensbroech says of the
+society: "Who gave it a right to break down that most precious
+possession of the individual being, which God gave, and which man
+has no authority to take away?"</p>
+<p>It is true that no human organization has so magnificently
+brought to perfection a unity of purpose and oneness of will. It is
+also true that a <span class="pagenum"><a name="page271"></a>[pg
+271]</span> spirit of defiance toward human authority is often
+accompanied by a disobedience of divine law. But the remedy for the
+abuses of human freedom is neither in the annihilation of the will
+itself, nor in its mere subjection to some other will irrespective
+of its moral character. Carlyle may have been too vehement in some
+of his censures of Jesuitism, but he certainly exposed the
+fallaciousness of Loyola's views concerning the value of mere
+obedience, at the same time justly rebuking the too ardent admirers
+of the perverted principle: "I hear much also of 'obedience,' how
+that and kindred virtues are prescribed and exemplified by
+Jesuitism; the truth of which, and the merit of which, far be it
+from me to deny.... Obedience is good and indispensable: but if it
+be obedience to what is wrong and false, good heavens, there is no
+name for such a depth of human cowardice and calamity, spurned
+everlastingly by the gods. Loyalty? Will you be loyal to Beelzebub?
+Will you 'make a covenant with Death and Hell'? I will not be loyal
+to Beelzebub; I will become a nomadic Choctaw rather, ... anything
+and everything is venial to that."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page272"></a>[pg 272]</span>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Casuistry_of_the_Jesuits"></a>The Casuistry of
+the Jesuits</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>It is often asserted, even by authoritative writers, that a
+Jesuit is bound by his vows to commit either venial or mortal sin
+at the command of his superior; and that the maxim, "The end
+justifies the means," has not only been the principle upon which
+the society has prosecuted its work but is also explicitly taught
+in the rules of the order. There is nothing in the constitution of
+the society to justify these two serious charges, which are not to
+be regarded as malicious calumnies, however, because the slovenly
+Latin in one of the rules on obedience has misled such competent
+scholars as John Addington Symonds and the historian Ranke.
+Furthermore, judging from the doctrines of the society as set forth
+by many of their theologians and the political conduct of its
+representatives, the conclusion seems inevitable that while the
+society may not teach in its rules that its members are bound to
+obedience even to the point of sin, yet practically many of its
+leaders have so held and its emissaries have rendered that kind of
+obedience.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page273"></a>[pg 273]</span>
+<p>Bishop Keane admits that one of the causes for the decline and
+overthrow of the society was its marked tendency toward lax moral
+teaching. There can be but little doubt that the Jesuits have ever
+been indulgent toward many forms of sin and even crime, when
+committed under certain circumstances and for the good of the order
+or "the greater glory of God."</p>
+<p>To enable the reader to form some sort of an independent
+judgment on this question, it is necessary to say a few words on
+the subject of casuistry and the doctrine of probabilism.</p>
+<p>Casuistry is the application of general moral rules to given
+cases, especially to doubtful ones. The medieval churchmen were
+much given to inventing fanciful moral distinctions and to
+prescribing rules to govern supposable problems of conscience. They
+were not willing to trust the individual conscience or to encourage
+personal responsibility. The individual was taught to lean his
+whole weight on his spiritual adviser, in other words, to make the
+conscience of the church his own. As a result there grew up a
+confused mass of precepts to guide the perplexed conscience. The
+Jesuits carried this <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page274"></a>[pg 274]</span> system to its farthest extreme. As
+Charles C. Starbuck says: "They have heaped possibility upon
+possibility in their endeavors to make out how far there can be
+subjective innocence in objective error, until they have, in more
+than one fundamental point, hopelessly confused their own
+perceptions of both[<a href="#NOTE_H">H</a>]."</p>
+<p>The doctrine of probabilism is founded upon the distinctions
+between opinions that are sure, less sure, or more sure. There are
+several schools of probabilists, but the doctrine itself
+practically amounts to this: Since uncertainty attaches to many of
+our decisions in moral affairs, one must follow the more probable
+rule, but not always, cases often arising when it is permissible to
+follow a rule contrary to the more probable one. Furthermore, as
+the Jesuits made war upon individual authority, which was the
+key-note of the Reformation, and contended for the authority of the
+church, the teaching naturally followed, that the opinion of "a
+grave doctor" may be looked upon "as possessing a fair amount of
+probability, and may, therefore, be safely followed, even though
+one's conscience insist <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page275"></a>[pg 275]</span> upon the opposite course." It is easy
+to see that this opens a convenient door to those who are seeking
+justification for conduct which their consciences condemn. No doubt
+one can find plausible excuses for the basest crimes, if he stills
+the voice of conscience and trusts himself to confusing sophistry.
+The glory of God, the gravity of circumstances, necessity, the good
+of the church or of the order, and numerous other practical reasons
+can be urged to remove scruples and make a bad act seem to be a
+good one. But crime, even "for the glory of God," is crime
+still.</p>
+<p>This disagreeable subject will not be pursued further. To say
+less than has been said would be to ignore one of the most
+prominent causes of the Jesuits' ruin. To say more than this, even
+though the facts might warrant it, would incur the liability of
+being classed among those malicious fomentors of religious strife,
+for whom the writer has mingled feelings of pity and contempt. The
+Society of Jesus is not the Roman Catholic Church, which has
+suffered much from the burden of Jesuitism--wounds that are
+scarcely atoned for by the meritorious and self-sacrificing
+services on her behalf in <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page276"></a>[pg 276]</span> other directions. The Protestant foes
+have never equaled the Catholic opponents of Jesuitism, either in
+their fierce hatred of the system or in their ability to expose its
+essential weakness. A writer in the "Quarterly Review," September,
+1848, says: "Admiration and detestation of the Jesuits divide, as
+far as feeling is concerned, the Roman Catholic world, with a
+schism deeper and more implacable than any which arrays Protestant
+against Protestant."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Mission_of_the_Jesuits"></a>The Mission of the
+Jesuits</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The Society of Jesus has been described as "a naked sword, whose
+hilt is at Rome, and whose point is everywhere." It is an
+undisputed historical fact that Loyola's consuming passion was to
+accomplish the ruin of Protestantism, which had twenty years the
+start of him and was threatening the very existence of the Roman
+hierarchy. It has already been shown that the destruction of heresy
+was the chief aim of the Dominicans. What the friars failed to
+attain, Loyola attempted. The principal object of the Jesuits was
+the maintenance of papal authority. Even to-day the Jesuit does
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page277"></a>[pg 277]</span> not
+hesitate to declare that his mission is to overthrow Protestantism.
+The Reformation was inspired by a new conception of individual
+freedom. The authority of tradition and of the church was set at
+naught. Loyola planted his system upon the doctrine of absolute
+submission to authority. The partial success of the Jesuits, for
+they did beat back the Reformation, is no doubt attributable to
+their fidelity, virtue and learning. Their devotion to the cause
+they loved, their willingness to sacrifice life itself, their
+marvelous and instantaneous obedience to the slightest command of
+their leaders, made them a compact and powerful papal army. Their
+methods, in many particulars, were not beyond question, and,
+whatever their character, the order certainly incurred the fiercest
+hostility of every nation in Europe, and even of the church
+itself.</p>
+<p>Professor Anton Gindely, in his "History of the Thirty Years'
+War," shows that Maximilian, of Bavaria, and Ferdinand, of Austria,
+the leaders on the Catholic side, were educated by Jesuits. He also
+fixes the responsibility for that war partly upon them in the
+plainest terms: "In a word, they had the consciences of Roman
+Catholic sovereigns and <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page278"></a>[pg 278]</span> their ministers in their hands as
+educators, and in their keeping as confessors. They led them in the
+direction of war, so that it was at the time, and has since been
+called the Jesuits' War."</p>
+<p>The strictures of Carlyle, Macaulay, Thackeray, and Lytton have
+been repeatedly denounced by the Jesuits, but even their shrewd,
+sophistical defences of their order afford ample justification for
+the attitude of their foes. For example, in a masterful oration,
+previously quoted from, in which the virtues of the Jesuits are
+extolled and defended, Father Sherman says: "We are expelled and
+driven from pillar to post because we teach men to love God." He
+describes Loyola as "the knightly, the loyal, the true, the father
+of heroes, and the maker of saints, the lover of the all-good and
+the all-beautiful, crowned with the honor of sainthood, the
+best-loved and the best-hated man in all the world, save only his
+Master and ours." "'Twas he that conceived the daring plan of
+forging the weapon to beat back the Reformation." No one but a
+Jesuit could reconcile the aim of "preaching the love of God" with
+"beating back the Reformation," especially in view of the methods
+employed.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page279"></a>[pg 279]</span>
+<p>Numerous gross calumnies have been circulated against the
+Society of Jesus. The dread of a return to that deplorable
+intellectual and moral slavery of the pre-Reformation days is so
+intense, that a calm, dispassionate consideration of Jesuit history
+is almost impossible. But after all just concessions have been
+made, two indisputable facts confront the student: first, the
+universal antagonism to the order, of the church that gave birth to
+it, as well as of the states that have suffered from its meddling
+in political affairs; and second, the complete failure of the
+order's most cherished schemes. France, Germany, Switzerland,
+Spain, Great Britain and other nations, have been compelled in
+sheer self-defence to expel it from their territories. Such a
+significant fact needs some other explanation than that the Jesuit
+has incurred the enmity of the world merely for preaching the love
+of God.</p>
+<p>Clement XIV., when solemnly pronouncing the dissolution of the
+order, at the time his celebrated bull, entitled "<i>Dominus ac
+Redemptor Noster</i>" which was signed July 21, 1773, was made
+public, justified his action in the following terms: "Recognizing
+that the members of this society have not a <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page280"></a>[pg 280]</span> little troubled the
+Christian commonwealth, and that for the welfare of Christendom it
+were better that the order should disappear," etc. When Rome thus
+delivers her <i>ex cathedra</i> opinion concerning her own order,
+an institution which she knows better than any one else, one cannot
+fairly be charged with prejudice and sectarianism in speaking evil
+of it.</p>
+<p>But while there is much to be detested in the methods of the
+order, history does not furnish another example of such
+self-abnegation and intense zeal as the Jesuits have shown in the
+prosecution of their aims. They planted missions in Japan, China,
+Africa, Ceylon, Madagascar, North and South America.</p>
+<p>In Europe the Mendicant friars by their coarseness had disgusted
+the upper classes; the affable and cultured Jesuit won their
+hearts. The Jesuits became chaplains in noble families, learned the
+secrets of every government in Europe, and became the best
+schoolmasters in the age. They were to be found in various
+disguises in every castle of note and in every palace. "There was
+no region of the globe," says Macaulay, "no walk of speculative or
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page281"></a>[pg 281]</span> active
+life in which Jesuits were not to be found." That they were devoted
+to their cause no one can deny. They were careless of life and, as
+one facetiously adds, of truth also. They educated, heard
+confessions, plotted crimes and revolutions, and published whole
+libraries. Worn out by fatigue, the Jesuits still toiled on with
+marvelous zeal. Though hated and opposed, they wore serene and
+cheerful countenances. In a word, they had learned to control every
+faculty and every passion, and to merge every human aspiration and
+personal ambition into the one supreme purpose of conquering an
+opposing faith and exalting the power of priestly authority. They
+hold up before the subjects of the King of Heaven a wonderful
+example of loving and untiring service, which should be emulated by
+every servant of Christ who too often yields an indifferent
+obedience to Him whom he professes to love and to serve.</p>
+<p>Francis Parkman, in his brilliant narrative of "The Jesuits in
+North America," presents the following interesting contrast between
+the Puritan and the Jesuit: "To the mind of the Puritan, heaven was
+God's throne; but no less was the earth His <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page282"></a>[pg 282]</span> footstool; and each
+in its degree and its kind had its demands on man. He held it a
+duty to labor and to multiply; and, building on the Old Testament
+quite as much as on the New, thought that a reward on earth as well
+as in heaven awaited those who were faithful to the law. Doubtless,
+such a belief is widely open to abuse, and it would be folly to
+pretend that it escaped abuse in New England; but there was in it
+an element manly, healthful and invigorating. On the other hand,
+those who shaped the character, and in a great measure the destiny,
+of New France had always on their lips the nothingness and the
+vanity of life. For them, time was nothing but a preparation for
+eternity, and the highest virtue consisted in a renunciation of all
+the cares, toils and interests of earth. That such a doctrine has
+often been joined to an intense worldliness, all history proclaims;
+but with this we have at present nothing to do. If all mankind
+acted on it in good faith, the world would sink into decrepitude.
+It is the monastic idea carried into the wide field of active life,
+and is like the error of those who, in their zeal to cultivate
+their higher nature, suffer the neglected body to dwindle and pine,
+till <span class="pagenum"><a name="page283"></a>[pg 283]</span>
+body and mind alike lapse into feebleness and disease."</p>
+<p>Notwithstanding the success of the Jesuits in stopping the
+progress of the Reformation, it may be truthfully said that they
+have failed. The principles of the Reformation dominate the world
+and are slowly modifying the Roman church in America. "In truth,"
+says Macaulay, "if society continued to hold together, if life and
+property enjoyed any security, it was because common sense and
+common humanity restrained men from doing what the order of Jesus
+assured them they might with a safe conscience do." Our hope for
+the future progress of society lies in the guiding power of this
+same common sense and common humanity.</p>
+<p>The restoration of the order by Pius VII., August 7th, 1814,
+while it renewed the papal favor, did not allay the hostility of
+the civil powers. Various states have expelled them since that
+time, and wherever they labor, they are still the objects of open
+attack or ill-disguised suspicion. Although the order still shows
+"some quivering in fingers and toes," as Carlyle expresses it, the
+principles of the Reformation are too widely believed, and its
+benefits <span class="pagenum"><a name="page284"></a>[pg
+284]</span> too deeply appreciated, to justify any hope or fear of
+the ultimate triumph of Jesuitism.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Retrospect"></a>Retrospect</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>So the Christian monk has greatly changed since he first
+appeared in the deserts of Nitria, in Egypt. He has come from his
+den in the mountains to take his seat in parliaments, and find his
+home in palaces. He is no longer filthy in appearance, but elegant
+in dress and courtly in manner. He has exchanged his rags for
+jewels and silks. He is no longer the recluse of the lonely cliffs,
+chatting with the animals and gazing at the stars. He is a man of
+the world, with schemes of conquest filling his brain and a love of
+dominion ruling his heart. He is no longer a ditch-digger and a
+ploughman, but the proud master of councils or the cultured
+professor of the university. He still swears to the three vows of
+celibacy, poverty and obedience, but they do not mean the same
+thing to him that they did to the more ignorant, less cultured, but
+more genuinely frank monk of the desert. Yes, he has all but
+completely lost sight of his ancient monastic ideal. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page285"></a>[pg 285]</span> He professes the
+poverty of Christ, but he cannot follow even so simple a man as his
+Saint Francis.</p>
+<p>It is a long way from Jerome to Ignatius, but the end of the
+journey is nigh. Loyola is the last type of monastic life, or
+changing the figure, the last great leader in the conquered
+monastic army. The good within the system will survive, its truest
+exponents will still fire the courage and win the sympathy of the
+devout, but best of all, man will recover from its poison.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page286"></a>[pg 286]</span>
+<h2><a name="VII"></a>VII</h2>
+<h2><i><a name="THE_FALL_OF_THE_MONASTERIES"></a>THE FALL OF THE
+MONASTERIES</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The rise of Protestantism accelerated the decline and final ruin
+of the monasteries. The enthusiasm of the Mendicants and the
+culture of the Jesuits failed to convince the governments of Europe
+that monasticism was worthy to survive the destruction awaiting so
+many medieval institutions. The spread of reformatory opinions
+resulted in a determined and largely successful attack upon the
+monasteries, which were rightly believed to constitute the bulwark
+of papal power. So imperative were the popular demands for a
+change, that popes and councils hastened to urge the members of
+religious orders to abolish existing abuses by enforcing primitive
+rules. But while Rome practically failed in her attempted
+reformations, the Protestant reformers in church and state were
+widely successful in either <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page287"></a>[pg 287]</span> curtailing the privileges and
+revenues of the monks or in annihilating the monasteries.</p>
+<p>Since the sixteenth century the leading governments of Europe,
+even including those in Catholic countries, have given tangible
+expression to popular and political antagonism to monasticism, by
+the abolition of convents, or the withdrawal of immunities and
+favors, for a long time a source of monastic revenue and power. The
+results of this hostility have been so disastrous, that monasticism
+has never regained its former prestige and influence. Several of
+the older orders have risen from the ruins, and a few new
+communities have appeared, some of which are distinguished by their
+most laudable ministrations to the poor and the sick, or by their
+educational services. Yet notwithstanding the modifications of the
+system to suit the exigencies of modern times, it seems altogether
+improbable that the monks will ever again wield the power they
+possessed before the Reformation,</p>
+<p>In the present chapter attention will be confined to the
+dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII., in England. The
+suppression in that country was occasioned partly by peculiar,
+local conditions, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page288"></a>[pg
+288]</span> and was more radical and permanent than the reforms in
+other lands, yet it is entirely consistent with our general purpose
+to restrict this narrative to English history. Penetrating beneath
+the varying externalities attending the ruin of the monasteries in
+Germany, Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, and other countries, it
+will be found that the underlying cause of the destruction of the
+monasteries was that the monastic ideal conflicted with the spirit
+of the modern era. A conspicuous and dramatic example of this
+struggle between medievalism, as embodied in the monastic
+institution, and modern political, social and religious ideals, is
+to be found in the dissolution of the English monasteries. The
+narrative of the suppression in England also conveys some idea of
+the struggle that was carried on throughout Europe, with varying
+intensity and results.</p>
+<p>There is no more striking illustration of the power of the
+personal equation in the interpretation of history than that
+afforded by the conflicting opinions respecting the overthrow of
+monasticism in England. Those who mourn the loss of the monasteries
+cannot find words strong enough with which to condemn Henry VIII.,
+whom they regard <span class="pagenum"><a name="page289"></a>[pg
+289]</span> as "unquestionably the most unconstitutional, the most
+vicious king that ever wore the English crown." Forgetting the
+inevitable cost of human freedom, and lightly passing over the
+iniquities of the monastic system, they fondly dwell upon the
+departed glory of the ancient abbeys. They recall with sadness the
+days when the monks chanted their songs of praise in the chapels,
+or reverently bent over their books of parchment, bound in purple
+and gold, not that they might "winnow the treasures of knowledge,
+but that they might elicit love, compunction and devotion." The
+charming simplicity and loving service of the cloister life, in the
+days of its unbroken vows, appeal to such defenders of the monks
+with singular potency.</p>
+<p>Truly, the fair-minded should attempt to appreciate the sorrow,
+the indignation and the love of these friends of a ruined
+institution. Passionless logic will never enable one to do justice
+to the sentiments of those who cannot restrain their tears as they
+stand uncovered before the majestic remains of a Melrose Abbey, or
+properly to estimate the motives and methods of those who laid the
+mighty monastic institution in the dust.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page290"></a>[pg 290]</span>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Character_of_Henry_VIII"></a>The Character of
+Henry VIII</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Before considering the actual work of suppression, it may be
+interesting to glance at the royal destroyer and his times. The
+character of Henry VIII. is utterly inexplicable to many persons,
+chiefly because they do not reflect that even the inconsistencies
+of a great man may be understood when seen in the light of his
+times. A masterly and comprehensive summary of the virtues and
+vices of the Tudor monarch, who has been described as "the king,
+the whole king, and nothing but the king," may be found in "A
+History of Crime in England," by Luke Owen Pike. The distinguished
+author shows that in his brutality, his love of letters, his
+opposition to Luther, his vacillation in religious opinions, King
+Henry reflects with remarkable fidelity the age in which he lived,
+both in its contrasts and its inconsistencies. "It is only the
+previous history of England which can explain all the
+contradictions exhibited in his conduct,--which can explain how he
+could be rapacious yet sometimes generous, the Defender of the
+Faith yet <span class="pagenum"><a name="page291"></a>[pg
+291]</span> under sentence of excommunication, a burner of heretics
+yet a heretic himself, the pope's advocate yet the pope's greatest
+enemy, a bloodthirsty tyrant yet the best friend to liberty of
+thought in religion, an enthusiast yet a turncoat, a libertine and
+yet all but a Puritan. He was sensual because his forefathers had
+been sensual from time immemorial, rough in speech and action
+because there had been but few men in Britain who had been
+otherwise since the Romans abandoned the island. He was
+superstitious and credulous because few were philosophical or
+gifted with intellectual courage. Yet he had, what was possessed by
+his contemporaries, a faint and intermittent thirst for knowledge,
+of which he himself hardly knew the meaning." Henry was shrewd,
+tenacious of purpose, capricious and versatile. In spite of his
+unrestrained indulgences and his monstrous claims of power, which,
+be it remembered, he was able to enforce, and notwithstanding any
+other vices or faults that may be truthfully charged against him,
+he was, on the whole, a popular king. Few monarchs have ever had to
+bear such a strain as was placed upon his abilities and character.
+Rare have been the periods that have <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page292"></a>[pg 292]</span> witnessed such confusion of
+principles, social, political and religious. Those were the days
+when liberty was at work, "but in a hundred fantastical and
+repulsive shapes, confused and convulsive, multiform, deformed."
+Blind violence and half-way reforms characterized the age because
+the principles that were to govern modern times were not yet
+formulated.</p>
+<p>Judged apart from his times Henry appears as an arrogant, cruel
+and fickle ruler, whose virtues fail to atone for his vices. But
+still, with all his faults, he compares favorably with preceding
+monarchs and even with his contemporaries. If he had possessed less
+intelligence, courage and ambition, he would not now be so
+conspicuous for his vices, but the history of human liberty and
+free institutions, especially in England, would have been vastly
+different. His praiseworthy traits were not sufficiently strong to
+enable him to control his inherited passions, but they were too
+regnant to permit him to submit without a struggle to the hierarchy
+which had dominated his country so many centuries. Such was</p>
+<blockquote>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "the
+majestic lord,<br>
+That broke the bonds of Rome."</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page293"></a>[pg 293]</span>
+<h2><i><a name="Events_Preceding_the_Suppression"></a>Events
+Preceding the Suppression</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Many causes and incidents contributed to the progress of the
+reformation in England, and to the demolition of the monasteries.
+Only a few of them can be given here, and they must be stated with
+a brevity that conveys no adequate conception of their profound
+significance.</p>
+<p>Henry VIII. ascended the throne, in the year 1509, when eighteen
+years of age. In 1517, Luther took his stand against Rome. Four
+years later Henry wrote a treatise in defence of the Seven
+Sacraments and in opposition to the German reformer. For this
+princely service to the church the king received the title
+"Defender of the Faith" from Pope Leo X.</p>
+<p>About 1527 it became known that Henry was questioning the
+validity of his marriage with Catharine of Aragon, whom he had
+married when he was twelve years old. She was the widow of his
+brother Arthur. The king professed conscientious scruples about his
+marriage, but undoubtedly his desire for male offspring, and later,
+his passion <span class="pagenum"><a name="page294"></a>[pg
+294]</span> for Anne Boleyn, prompted him to seek release from his
+queen. In 1529, Henry and Catharine stood before a papal tribunal,
+presided over by Cardinal Wolsey, the king's prime minister, and
+Cardinal Campeggio, from Rome, for the purpose of determining the
+validity of the royal marriage. The trial was a farce. The enraged
+king laid the blame upon Wolsey, and retired him from office. The
+great cardinal was afterwards charged with treason, but died
+broken-hearted, on his way to the Tower, November 29, 1530.</p>
+<p>The breach between Henry and Rome, complicated by numerous
+international intrigues, widened rapidly. Henry began to assume an
+attitude of bold defiance toward the pope, which aroused the
+animosity of the Catholic princes of Europe.</p>
+<p>Notwithstanding the desire of a large body of the English people
+to remain faithful to Rome, the dangers which menaced their country
+from abroad and the ecclesiastical abuses at home, which had been a
+fruitful cause for complaint for many years, tended to lessen the
+ancient horror of heresy and schism, and inclined them to support
+their king. Another factor that assisted in preparing the English
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page295"></a>[pg 295]</span> people
+for the destruction of the monasteries was Lollardism. As an
+organized sect, the Lollards had ceased to exist, but the spirit
+and the doctrines of Wyclif did not die. A real and a vital
+connection existed between the Lollards of the fourteenth, and the
+reformers of the sixteenth, centuries. In Henry's time, many
+Englishmen held practically the same views of Rome and of the monks
+that had been taught by Wyclif[<a href="#NOTE_I">I</a>].</p>
+<p>A considerable number of Henry's subjects, however, while
+ostensibly loyal to him, were inwardly full of hot rebellion. The
+king was surrounded with perils. The princes of the Continent were
+eagerly awaiting the bull for his excommunication. Henry's throne
+and his kingdom might at any moment be given over by the pope to
+invasion by the continental sovereigns.</p>
+<p>Reginald Pole, afterwards cardinal, a cousin of the king, and a
+strong Catholic, stood ready to betray the interests of his country
+to Rome. Writing to the king, he said: "Man is against you; God is
+against you; the universe is against you; what can you look for but
+destruction?" "Dream not, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page296"></a>[pg 296]</span> Caesar," he encouragingly declared to
+Emperor Charles V., "that all generous hearts are quenched in
+England; that faith and piety are dead. In you is their trust, in
+your noble nature, and in your zeal for God--they hold their land
+till you shall come." Thus, on the testimony of a Roman Catholic,
+there were traitors in England waiting only for the call of Charles
+V., "To arms!" Pole was in full sympathy with all the factions
+opposed to the king, and stood ready to aid them in their
+resistance. He publicly denounced the king in several continental
+countries.</p>
+<p>The monks were especially enraged against Henry. They did all
+they could to inflame the people by preaching against him and the
+reformers. Friar Peyto, preaching before the king, had the
+assurance to say to him: "Many lying prophets have deceived you,
+but I, as a true Micah, warn you that the dogs will lick your blood
+as they did Ahab's." While the courage of this friar is
+unquestioned, his defiant attitude illustrates the position
+occupied by the monks toward those who favored separation from
+Rome. The whole country was at white heat. The friends of Rome
+looked upon <span class="pagenum"><a name="page297"></a>[pg
+297]</span> Henry as an incarnate fiend, a servant of the devil and
+an enemy of all religion. Many of them opposed him with the purest
+and best motives, believing that the king was really undermining
+the church of God and throwing society into chaos.</p>
+<p>In 1531, the English clergy were coerced into declaring that
+Henry was "the protector and the supreme head of the church and of
+the clergy of England," which absurd claim was slightly modified by
+the words, "in so far as is permitted by the law of Christ."
+Chapuys, in one of his despatches informing Charles V. of this
+action of convocation, said that it practically declared Henry the
+Pope of England. "It is true," he wrote, "that the clergy have
+added to the declaration that they did so only so far as permitted
+by the law of God. But that is all the same, as far as the king is
+concerned, as if they had made no reservation, for no one will now
+be so bold as to contest with his lord the importance of the
+reservation." Later on, Chapuys says that the king told the pope's
+nuncio that "if the pope would not show him more consideration, he
+would show the world that the pope had no greater authority than
+Moses, and that every claim <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page298"></a>[pg 298]</span> not grounded on Scripture was mere
+usurpation; that the great concourse of people present had come
+solely and exclusively to request him to bastinado the clergy, who
+were hated by both nobles and the people." ("Spanish Despatches,"
+number 460.)</p>
+<p>Parliament, in 1534, conferred on Henry the title "Supreme Head
+of the Church of England," and empowered him "to visit, and
+repress, redress, reform, order, correct, restrain, or amend all
+errors, heresies, abuses, offences, contempts, and enormities,
+which fell under any spiritual authority or jurisdiction." The "Act
+of Succession" was also passed by Parliament, cutting off Princess
+Mary and requiring all subjects to take an oath of allegiance to
+Elizabeth.</p>
+<p>It was now an act of treason to deny the king's supremacy. All
+persons suspected of disloyalty were required to sign an oath of
+allegiance to Henry, and to Elizabeth as his successor, and to
+acknowledge the supremacy of the king in church and state. This
+resulted in the death of some prominent men in the realm, among
+them Sir Thomas More. In the preamble of the oath prescribed by
+law, the legality of the king's marriage <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page299"></a>[pg 299]</span> with Anne was
+asserted, thus implying that his former marriage with Catharine was
+unlawful. More was willing to declare his allegiance to the infant
+Elizabeth, as the king's successor, but his conscience would not
+permit him to affirm that Catharine's marriage was unlawful.</p>
+<p>The life of the brilliant and lovable More is another
+illustration of the mental confusions and inconsistencies of that
+age. As an apostle of culture he favored the new learning, and yet
+he viewed the gathering momentum of reformatory principles with
+alarm, and cast in his lot with the ultra-conservatives. Four years
+of his young manhood were spent in a monastery. He devoted his
+splendid talents to a criticism of English society, and recommended
+freedom of conscience, yet he became an ardent foe of reform and
+even a persecutor of heretics, of whom he said: "I do so detest
+that class of men that, unless they repent, I am the worst enemy
+they have." When a man, whom even Protestant historians hasten to
+pronounce "the glory of his age," so magnificent were his talents
+and so blameless his character, was tainted with superstition, and
+sanctioned the persecution of liberal thinkers, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page300"></a>[pg 300]</span> is it remarkable
+that inferior intellects should have been swayed by the brutality
+and tyranny of the times?</p>
+<p>The unparalleled claims of Henry and his attitude toward the
+pope made the breach between England and Rome complete, but many
+years of painful internal strife and bloodshed were to elapse
+before the whole nation submitted to the new order of things, and
+before that subjective freedom from fear and superstition without
+which formal freedom has little value, was secured.</p>
+<p>The breach with Rome was essential to the attainment of that
+religious and political freedom that England now enjoys. But the
+first step toward making that separation an accomplished fact,
+acquiesced in by the people as a whole, was to break the power of
+the monastic orders. It may possibly be true that the same ends
+would have been eventually attained by trusting to the slower
+processes of social evolution, but the history of the Latin nations
+of Europe would seem to prove the contrary. As the facts stand it
+would appear that peace and progress were impossible with thousands
+of monks sowing seeds of discord, and employing every measure, fair
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page301"></a>[pg 301]</span> or
+foul, to win the country back to Rome. Gairdner and others argue
+that Henry was far too powerful a king to have been successfully
+resisted by the pope, unless the pope was backed by a union of the
+Christian princes, which was then impracticable. That fact may make
+the execution of More, Fisher and the Charterhouse monks
+inexcusable, but it by no means proves that Henry would have been
+strong enough to maintain his position if the monasteries had been
+permitted to exist as centers of organized opposition to his will.
+Many of the monks, when pressed by the king's agents, took the oath
+of allegiance. Threats, bribes and violence were used to overcome
+the opposition of the unwilling.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Monks_and_the_Oath_of_Supremacy"></a>The Monks
+and the Oath of Supremacy</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>It is quite evident that the king's purpose to destroy the whole
+monastic institution was partly the result of the determined
+resistance which the monks offered to his authority. The contest
+between the king and the monks was exceedingly fierce and bloody.
+Many good men lost their lives and many innocent persons suffered
+grievously. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page302"></a>[pg
+302]</span> Perhaps the most pathetic incident in the sanguinary
+struggle between the king and the monks was the tragic fall of the
+Charterhouse of London. The facts are given at length by Froude, in
+his "History of England," who bases his account on the narrative of
+Maurice Channey, one of the monks who escaped death by yielding to
+the king. The unhappy monk confesses that he was a Judas among the
+apostles, and in a touching account of the ruin that came upon his
+monastic retreat he praises the boldness and fidelity of his
+companions, who preferred death to what seemed to them
+dishonor.</p>
+<p>The pages of Channey are filled with the most improbable stories
+of miracles, but his charming picture of the cloister life of the
+Carthusians is doubtless true to reality. The Carthusian fathers
+were the best fruit of monasticism in England. To a higher degree
+than any of the other monastic orders they maintained a good
+discipline and preserved the spirit of their founders. "A thousand
+years of the world's history had rolled by," says Froude, "and
+these lonely islands of prayer had remained still anchored in the
+stream; the strands of the ropes which held them, wearing now to a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page303"></a>[pg 303]</span> thread,
+and very near their last parting, but still unbroken." In view of
+the undisputed purity and fearlessness of these noble monks, a
+recital of their woes will place the case for the monastic
+institution in the most favorable light.</p>
+<p>Channey says the year 1533 was ushered in with signs,--the end
+of the world was nigh. Yes, the monk's world was drawing to a
+close; the moon, for him, was turning into blood, and the stars
+falling from heaven.</p>
+<p>More and Fisher were in the Tower. The former's splendid talents
+and noble character still swayed the people. It was no time for
+trifling; the Carthusian fathers must take the oath of allegiance
+or perish. So one morning the royal commissioners appeared before
+the monastery door of the Charterhouse to demand submission. Prior
+Houghton answered them: "I know nothing of the matter mentioned; I
+am unacquainted with the world without; my office is to minister to
+God, and to save poor souls from Satan." He was committed to the
+Tower for one month. Then Dr. Bonner persuaded the prior to sign
+with "certain reservations." He was released and went back to his
+cloister-cell to weep. <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page304"></a>[pg 304]</span> Calling his monks together he said he
+was sorry; it looked like deceit, but he desired to save his
+brethren and their order. The commissioners returned; the monks
+were under suspicion; the reservations were disliked, and they must
+sign without conditions. In great consternation the prior assembled
+the monks. All present cried out: "Let us die together in our
+integrity, and heaven and earth shall witness for us how unjustly
+we are cut off." Prior Houghton conceived a generous idea. "If it
+depends on me alone; if my oath will suffice for the house, I will
+throw myself on the mercy of God; I will make myself anathema, and
+to preserve you from these dangers, I will consent to the king's
+will." Thus did the noble old man consent to go into heaven with a
+lie on his conscience, hoping to escape by the mercy of God,
+because he sought to save the lives of his brethren. But all this
+was of no avail; Cromwell had determined that this monastery must
+fall, and fall it did. The monks prepared for their end calmly and
+nobly; beginning with the oldest brother, they knelt before each
+other and begged forgiveness for all unkindness and offence. "Not
+less deserving," says Froude, "the everlasting remembrances
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page305"></a>[pg 305]</span> of
+mankind, than those three hundred, who, in the summer morning, sate
+combing their golden hair in the passes of Thermopyl&aelig;." But
+rebellion was blazing in Ireland, and the enemies of the king were
+praying and plotting for his ruin. These monks, with More and
+Fisher, were an inspiration to the enemies of liberty and the
+kingdom. Catholic Europe crouched like a tiger ready to spring on
+her prostrate foe. It is sad, but these recluses, praying for the
+pope, instilling a love for the papacy in the confessional, these
+honest and conscientious but dangerous men must be shorn of their
+power to encourage rebels. There was a farce of a trial. Houghton
+was brought to the scaffold and died protesting his innocence. His
+arm was cut off and hung over the archway of the Charterhouse, as
+other arms and heads were hideously hanging over many a monastic
+gate in Merry England. Nine of the monks died of prison fever, and
+others were banished. The king's court went into mourning, and
+Henry knotted his beard and henceforth would be no more
+shaven--eloquent evidence to the world that whatever motive
+dominated the king's heart, these bloody deeds were unpleasantly
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page306"></a>[pg 306]</span>
+disturbing. Certainly such a spectacle as that of a monk's arm
+nailed to a monastery was never seen by Englishmen before.</p>
+<p>The Charterhouse fell, let it be carefully noted, because the
+monks could not and would not acknowledge the king's supremacy, and
+not because the monks were immoral. Some spies in Cromwell's
+service offered to, bring in evidence against six of these monks of
+"laziness and immorality." Cromwell indignantly refused the
+proposal, saying, "He would not hear the accusation; that it was
+false, wilfully so."</p>
+<p>The news of these proceedings, and of the beheading of More and
+Fisher, awakened the most violent rage throughout Catholic Europe.
+Henry was denounced as the Nero of his times. Paul III. immediately
+excommunicated the king, dissolved all leagues between Henry and
+the Catholic princes, and gave his kingdom to any invader. All
+Catholic subjects were ordered to take up arms against him.
+Although these censures were passed, the pope decided to defer
+their publication, hoping for a peaceful settlement. But Henry
+knew, and the Catholic princes of Europe <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page307"></a>[pg 307]</span> knew, that the blow
+might fall at any time. He had to make up his mind to go further or
+to yield unconditionally to the pope. The world soon discovered the
+temper of the enraged and stubborn monarch. He might vacillate on
+speculative questions, but there were no tokens of feeble hesitancy
+in his dealings with Rome. The hour of doom for the monasteries had
+struck.</p>
+<p>Having thus glanced at the character of Henry VIII., the prime
+mover in the attack upon the monasteries, and having surveyed some
+of the events leading up to their fall, we are now prepared to
+consider the actual work of suppression, which will be described
+under the following heads: First, The royal commissioners and their
+methods of investigation; Second, The commissioners' report on the
+condition of affairs; Third, The action of Parliament; Fourth, The
+effect of the suppression upon the people; and Fifth, The use Henry
+made of the monastic possessions. These matters having been set
+forth, it will then be in order to inquire into the justification,
+real or alleged, of the suppression.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page308"></a>[pg 308]</span>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Royal_Commissioners"></a>The Royal
+Commissioners and Their Methods of Investigation</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The fall of Sir Thomas More left Thomas Cromwell the chief power
+under the king, and for seven years he devoted his great
+administrative abilities to making his royal patron absolute ruler
+in church and state.</p>
+<p>Cromwell, Earl of Essex, was of lowly origin, but his energy and
+shrewdness, together with the experience acquired by extensive
+travels, commanded the attention of Cardinal Wolsey, who took him
+into his service. He was successively merchant, scrivener,
+money-lender, lawyer, member of parliament, master of jewels,
+chancellor, master of rolls, secretary of state, vicar-general in
+ecclesiastical affairs, lord privy seal, dean of Wells and high
+chamberlain.</p>
+<p>Close intimacy with Wolsey enabled Cromwell to grasp the full
+significance of Henry's ambition, and his desire to please his
+royal master, coupled with his own love of power, prompted him to
+throw himself with characteristic energy into the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page309"></a>[pg 309]</span> work of
+centralizing all authority in the hands of the king and of his
+prime minister. In secular affairs, this had already been
+accomplished. The task before him was to subdue the church to the
+throne, to execute which he became the protector of Protestantism
+and the foe of Rome. Green says: "He had an absolute faith in the
+end he was pursuing, and he simply hews his way to it, as a woodman
+hews his way through the forest, axe in hand." Froude says: "To him
+ever belonged the rare privilege of genius to see what other men
+could not see, and therefore he was condemned to rule a generation
+which hated him, to do the will of God and to perish in his
+success. He pursued an object, the excellence of which, as his mind
+saw it, transcended all other considerations, the freedom of
+England and the destruction of idolatry, and those who, from any
+motive, noble or base, pious or impious, crossed his path, he
+crushed and passed on over their bodies."</p>
+<p>There seems to be a general agreement that Cromwell was not a
+Protestant. His struggle against the temporal power of the pope
+fostered <span class="pagenum"><a name="page310"></a>[pg
+310]</span> the reformatory movement, but that did not make
+Cromwell a Protestant any more than it did his master, Henry VIII.
+Foxe describes Cromwell "as a valiant soldier and captain of
+Christ," but Maitland retorts "that Foxe forgot, if he ever knew,
+who was the father of lies."</p>
+<p>Without doubt Cromwell ruled with an iron hand. He was guilty of
+accepting bribes, and, as some maintain, "was the great patron of
+ribaldry, and the protector of the low jester and the filthy." But,
+sadly enough, that is no serious charge against one in his times.
+It is said that Henry used to say, when a knave was dealt to him in
+a game of cards, "Ah, I have a Cromwell!" Francis Aidan Gasquet, a
+Benedictine monk, in his valuable work on "Henry VIII. and the
+English Monasteries," says of Cromwell: "No single minister in
+England ever exercised such extensive authority, none ever rose so
+rapidly, and no one has ever left behind him a name covered with
+greater infamy and disgrace."</p>
+<p>In 1535, Henry, as supreme head of the church, appointed
+Cromwell as his "Vicegerent, Vicar-General and Principal Commissary
+in causes <span class="pagenum"><a name="page311"></a>[pg
+311]</span> ecclesiastical." His immediate duty was to enforce
+recognition of the king's supremacy. The monks and the clergy were
+now to be coerced into submission. A royal commission, consisting
+of Legh, Layton, Ap Rice, London and various subordinates, was
+appointed to visit the monasteries and to report on their
+condition.</p>
+<p>Henry Griffin says in his chronicle: "I was well acquainted with
+all the commissioners; indeed I knew them well; they were very
+smart men, who understood the value of money, for they had tasted
+of adversity. I think the priests were the worst of the whole
+party, although they had a good reputation at the time, but they
+were wicked, deceitful men. I am sorry to speak thus of my own
+order, but I speak God's truth." "It is a dreadful undertaking,"
+said Lord Clinton. "Ah! but I have great faith in the tact and
+judgment of the men I am about to select," retorted Cromwell.</p>
+<p>Dr. John London was a base tool of Cromwell, and a miserable
+exponent of the reform movement. He joined Gardiner in burning
+heretics, was convicted of adultery at Oxford, was pilloried for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page312"></a>[pg 312]</span> perjury
+and died in jail. The other royal agents were also questionable
+characters. Dean Layton wrote the most disgusting letters to
+Cromwell. Once he informed his patron that he prayed regularly for
+him, prefacing this information with the remark, "I will now tell
+you something to make you laugh."</p>
+<p>Father Gasquet sums up his view of the commissioners in the
+words of Edmund Burke: "It is not with much credulity that I listen
+to any when they speak ill of those whom they are going to plunder.
+I rather suspect that vices are feigned, or exaggerated, when
+profit is looked for in the punishment--an enemy is a bad witness;
+a robber worse." Burke indignantly declares: "The inquiry into the
+moral character of the religious houses was a mere pretext, a
+complete delusion, an insidious and predetermined foray of
+wholesale and heartless plunder."</p>
+<p>Such are the protests from the defenders of the monasteries even
+before a hearing is granted. "What," say they, "believe such
+perjurers, adulterers and gamblers; men forsworn to bring in a bad
+report; men who were selected because they <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page313"></a>[pg 313]</span> were worthless
+characters who could be relied on to return false charges against
+an institution loved by the people?"</p>
+<p>The commissioners began their work at Oxford, in September,
+1535. The work was vigorously pushed. On reaching the door of a
+monastery, they demanded admittance; if it was not granted, they
+entered by breaking down the gate with an axe. They then summoned
+the monks before them, and plied them with questions. An inventory
+was taken of everything; nothing escaped their searching eyes. When
+the king decided to suppress the lesser monasteries, and ordered a
+new visitation of the larger ones, they seized and sold all they
+could lay their hands on; "stained glass, ironwork, bells,
+altar-cloths, candles, books, beads, images, capes, brewing-tubs,
+brass bolts, spits for cooking, kitchen utensils, plates, basins,
+all were turned into money." Many valuable books were destroyed;
+jewels and gold and silver clasps were torn from old volumes, and
+the paper sold as waste; parchment manuscripts were used to scour
+tubs and grease boots. Out of the wreck about a hundred and thirty
+thousand manuscripts <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page314"></a>[pg 314]</span> have been saved. It must be admitted
+that the commissioners were not delicate in their labors; that they
+insulted many nuns, robbed the monks, violated the laws of decency
+and humanity, and needlessly excited the rage of the people and
+outraged the religious sentiments of the Catholics. They even used
+sacred altar-cloths for blankets on their horses, and rode across
+the country decorated in priestly and monkish garments. There seems
+to be some ground for the statement that Henry was ignorant, or at
+least not fully informed, of their unwarranted violence and gross
+sacrilege. The abbey of Glastonbury was one of the oldest and
+finest cloisters in England. It was a majestic pile of buildings in
+the midst of gardens and groves covering sixty acres; its aisles
+were vocal with the chanting of monks, who marched in gorgeous
+processions among the tall, gray pillars. The exterior of the
+buildings was profusely decorated with sculpture; monarchs, temple
+knights, mitered abbots, martyrs and apostles stood for centuries
+in their niches of stone while princes came and passed away, while
+kingdoms rose and fell. The nobles and bishops of the realm were
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page315"></a>[pg 315]</span> laid to
+rest beneath the altars around which many generations of monks had
+assembled to praise and to pray. The royal commissioners one day
+appeared before the walls. The abbot, Richard Whiting, who was then
+eighty-four years of age, was at Sharphorn, another residence of
+the community. He was brought back and questioned. At night when he
+was in bed, they searched his study for letters and books, and they
+claimed to have found a manuscript of Whiting's arguments against
+the divorce of the king and Queen Catharine; it had never been
+published; they did not know whether the venerable abbot had such
+intent or not. Stephen declares the spies themselves brought the
+book into the library. However, the abbot was chained to a cart and
+taken to London. The abbey had immense wealth; every Wednesday and
+Friday it fed and lodged three hundred boys; it was esteemed very
+highly in the neighborhood and received large donations from the
+knights in the vicinity. The abbot was accused of treason for
+concealing the sacred vessels; he was old, deaf, and sick, but was
+allowed no counsel. He asked permission to <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page316"></a>[pg 316]</span> take leave of his
+monks, and many little orphans; Russell and Layton only laughed.
+The people heard of his captivity and determined "to deliver or
+avenge" their favorite, but Russell hanged half a dozen of them and
+declared that "law, order and loyalty were vindicated." Whiting's
+body was quartered, and the pieces sent to Wells, Bath, Chester and
+Bridgewater, while his head, adorned with his gray hairs clotted by
+blood, was hung over the abbey gate.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Report_of_the_Commissioners"></a>The Report of
+the Commissioners</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The original report of the commissioners does not exist. Burnet
+declares that he saw an extract from it, concerning one hundred and
+forty-four houses, which contained the most revolting revelations.
+Many of the commissioners' letters and various documents touching
+the suppression have been collected and published by the Camden
+Society. Waiving, for the present, the inquiry into the truth of
+the report, it was in substance as follows:</p>
+<p>The commissioners reported about one-third of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page317"></a>[pg 317]</span> the houses to be
+fairly well conducted, some of them models of excellent management
+and pure living; but the other two-thirds were charged with
+looseness beyond description. The number of inmates in some
+cloisters was kept below the required number, that there might be
+more money to divide among the monks. The number of servants
+sometimes exceeded that of the monks. Abbots bought and sold land
+in a fraudulent manner; gifts for hospitality were misapplied;
+licentiousness, gaming and drinking prevailed extensively. Crime
+and absolution for gold went hand in hand. One friar was said to
+have been the proud father of an illegitimate family of children,
+but he had in his possession a forged license from the pope, who
+permitted his wandering, "considering his frailty." Froude, in
+commenting upon the report, says: "If I were to tell the truth, I
+should have first to warn all modest eyes to close the book and
+read no farther."</p>
+<p>All sorts of pious frauds were revealed. At Hales the monks
+claimed to have the blood of Christ brought from Jerusalem, and not
+visible to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page318"></a>[pg
+318]</span> anyone in mortal sin until he had performed good works,
+or, in other words, paid enough for his absolution. Two monks took
+the blood of a duck, which they renewed every week; this they put
+into a phial, one side of which consisted of a thin, transparent
+crystal; the other thick and opaque; the dark side was shown until
+the sinner's gold was exhausted, when, presto! change, the blood
+appeared by turning the other side of the phial. Innumerable
+toe-parings, bones, pieces of skin, three heads of St. Ursula, and
+other anatomical relics of departed saints, were said to cure every
+disease known to man. They had relics that could drive away
+plagues, give rain, hinder weeds, and in fact, render the natural
+world the plaything of decaying bones and shreds of dried skin. The
+monks of Reading had an angel with one wing, who had preserved the
+spear with which our Lord was pierced. Abbots were found to have
+concubines in or near the monasteries; midnight revels and drunken
+feasts were pleasant pastimes for monks weary with prayers and
+fasting. While it would be unjust to argue that the existence of
+"pious frauds" affords a justification for the suppression of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page319"></a>[pg 319]</span>
+monasteries, it must be remembered that they constituted one
+element in that condition of ecclesiastical life that was becoming
+repugnant to the English people. For several generations there had
+been a marked growth in the hostility toward various forms of
+superstition. True, neither Henry nor Cromwell can be accredited
+with the lofty intention of exterminating superstition, but the
+attitude of many people toward "pious frauds" helped to reconcile
+them to the destruction of the monasteries.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Action_of_Parliament"></a>The Action of
+Parliament</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The report of the commissioners was laid before Parliament in
+1536. As it declared that the smaller monasteries were more corrupt
+than the larger ones, Parliament ordered the suppression of all
+those houses whose revenues were less than two hundred pounds per
+annum. By this act, three hundred and seventy-six houses were
+suppressed, whose aggregate revenue was thirty-two thousand pounds
+yearly. Movable property valued at about one hundred thousand
+pounds was also handed over to the "Court of Augmentations
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page320"></a>[pg 320]</span> of the
+King's Revenue," which was established to take care of the estates,
+revenues and other possessions of the monasteries. It is claimed
+that ten thousand monks and nuns were turned out into the world, to
+find bed and board as best they could. In 1538, two years later,
+the greater monasteries met a similar fate, which was no doubt
+hastened by the rebellions that followed the abolition of the
+smaller houses. Many of the abbots and monks were suspected of
+aiding in the rebellion against the king's authority by inciting
+the people to take up arms against him. Apprehending the coming
+doom, many abbots resigned; others were overcome by threats and
+yielded without a struggle. In many instances such monks received
+pensions varying from fifty-three shillings and four pence to four
+pounds a year. The investigations were constantly carried on, and
+all the foul stories that could be gathered were given to the
+people, to secure their approval of the king's action. With
+remorseless zeal the king and his commissioners, supported by
+various acts of parliament, persevered in their work of
+destruction, until even the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page321"></a>[pg 321]</span> monastic hospitals, chantries, free
+chapels and collegiate churches, fell into the king's hands. By the
+year 1545, the ruin was complete. The monastic institution of
+England was no more. The total number of monasteries suppressed is
+variously estimated, but the following figures are approximately
+correct: monasteries, 616; colleges, 90; free chapels, 2,374; and
+hospitals, 110. The annual income was about one hundred and fifty
+thousand pounds, which was a smaller sum than was then believed to
+be in the control of the monks. Nearly fifty thousand persons were
+driven from the houses, to foment the discontent and to arouse the
+pity of the people. Such, in brief, was the extent of the
+suppression, but a little reflection will show that these
+statements of cold facts convey no conception of the confusion and
+sorrow that must have accompanied this terrific and wholesale
+assault upon an institution that had been accumulating its
+possessions for eight hundred years. At this distance from those
+tragic events, it is impossible to realize the dismay of those who
+stood aghast at this ruthless destruction of such venerable
+establishments.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page322"></a>[pg 322]</span>
+<h2><i><a name=
+"The_Effect_of_the_Suppression_Upon_the_People"></a>The Effect of
+the Suppression Upon the People</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>For months the country had seen what was coming; letters from
+abbots and priors poured in upon the king and parliament, begging
+them to spare the ancient strongholds of religion. The churchmen
+argued: "If he plunders the monasteries, will not his next step be
+to plunder the churches?" They recalled what Sir Thomas More had
+said of their sovereign: "It is true, his majesty is very gracious
+with me, but if only my head would give him another castle in
+France, it would not be long before it disappeared." Sympathy for
+the monks, an inborn conservatism, a natural love for ancient
+institutions, a religious dread of trampling upon that which was
+held sacred by the church, a secret antipathy to reform, all these
+and other forces were against the suppression. But the report of
+the visitors was appalling, and the fear of the king's displeasure
+was widespread; so the bill was passed amid mingled feelings of
+joy, sympathy, hatred, fear, anxiety and uncertainty. The bishops
+were sullen; <span class="pagenum"><a name="page323"></a>[pg
+323]</span> Latimer was disappointed, for he wanted the church to
+have the proceeds.</p>
+<p>Outside of Parliament there was much discontent among the nobles
+and gentry of Roman tendencies. Even the indifferent felt bitter
+against the king, because it seemed unjust that the monks, who had
+been sheltered, honored and enriched by the people, should be so
+rudely and so suddenly turned out of their possessions. A
+dangerously large portion of the people felt themselves insulted
+and outraged. At first, however, there were few who dared to voice
+their protests. "As the royal policy disclosed itself," says Green,
+"as the monarchy trampled under foot the tradition and reverence of
+ages gone by, as its figure rose, bare and terrible, out of the
+wreck of old institutions, England simply held her breath. It is
+only through the stray depositions of royal spies that we catch a
+glimpse of the wrath and hate which lay seething under the silence
+of the people." That silence was a silence of terror. To use the
+figure by which Erasmus describes the time, men felt "as if a
+scorpion lay sleeping under every stone." They stopped writing,
+gossiping, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page324"></a>[pg
+324]</span> going to confession, and sending presents for the most
+thoughtless word or deed might be tortured into treason against the
+king by the command of Cromwell.</p>
+<p>The rebellion which followed the first attack upon the
+monasteries was not caused wholly by religious sentiments. The
+nobles regarded Cromwell as a base-born usurper and yearned for his
+fall, while the clergy felt outraged by his monstrous claims of
+authority in ecclesiastical affairs. In a sense the conflict that
+ensued was but a continuation of the long-standing struggle between
+the king, the barons, and the clergy for the supreme power. From
+the reign of Edward I., the people had commenced to assert their
+rights and the struggle had become a four-sided one.</p>
+<p>These four factions were constantly shifting their allegiance,
+according to the varying conditions, and guided by their changing
+interests. At this time, the clergy, the nobles and the people in
+northern England, particularly, combined against the king, although
+the alliance was not formidable enough to overcome the forces
+supporting the king.</p>
+<p>The secular clergy felt that they were disgraced <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page325"></a>[pg 325]</span> and coerced into
+submission. They felt their revenues, their honors, their powers,
+their glory, slipping away from them; they joined their mutterings
+and discontent with that of the monks, and then the fires of the
+rebellion blazed forth in the north, where the monasteries were
+more popular than in any other part of England.</p>
+<p>The first outbreak occurred in Lincolnshire, in the autumn of
+1536. It was easily and quickly suppressed. But another uprising in
+Yorkshire, in northern England, followed immediately, and for a
+time threatened serious consequences. Some of the best families in
+that part of the country joined the revolt, although it is
+noteworthy that these same families were afterwards Protestant and
+Puritan; the rebel army numbered about forty thousand men, well
+equipped for service. Many prominent abbots and sixteen hundred
+monks were in the ranks. The masses were bound by oath "to stand
+together for the love which they bore to Almighty God, His faith,
+the Holy Church, and the maintenance thereof; to the preservation
+of the king's person and his issue; to the purifying of the
+nobility, and to expel <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page326"></a>[pg 326]</span> all villein blood and evil
+counsellors from the king's presence; not from any private profit,
+nor to do his pleasure to any private person, nor to slay or murder
+through envy, but for the restitution of the Church, and the
+suppression of heretics and their opinions." It is clear, from the
+language of the oath, that the rebels aimed their blows at
+Cromwell. The secular clergy hated him because he had shorn them of
+their power; the monks hated him because he had turned them out of
+their cloisters, and clergy and people loathed him as a maintainer
+of heresy, a low-born foe of the Church. The insurgents carried
+banners on which was printed a crucifix, a chalice and host, and
+the five wounds, hence they called themselves "Pilgrims of Grace."
+The revolt was headed by Robert Aske, a barrister.</p>
+<p>Cromwell acted most cautiously; he selected the strongest men to
+take the field. Richard Cromwell said of one of them, Sir John
+Russell, "for my lord admiral, he is so earnest in the matter that
+I dare say he could eat the Pilgrims without salt." The Duke of
+Norfolk was entrusted with the command of the king's forces.</p>
+<p>Henry preferred negotiation to battle, in accepting <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page327"></a>[pg 327]</span> which the rebels
+were doomed. To wait was to fail. Their demands reduced to paper
+were: 1. The religious houses should be restored. 2. England should
+be reunited with Rome. 3. The first fruits and tenths should not be
+paid to the crown. 4. Heretics, meaning Cranmer, Latimer and
+others, should cease to be bishops. 5. Catharine's daughter Mary
+should be restored as heiress to the crown. These and other
+demands, the granting of which would have meant the death of the
+Reformation, were firmly refused by the king, who marveled that
+ignorant churls, "brutes and inexpert folk" should talk of
+theological and political subjects to him and to his council.</p>
+<p>After several ineffectual attempts to meet the royal army in
+battle, partly due to storms and lack of subsistence, the rebels
+were induced to disperse and a general amnesty was declared. But
+new insurrections broke out in various quarters, and the enraged
+king determined to stamp out the smoldering fires of sedition.
+About seventy-five persons were hanged, and many prominent men were
+imprisoned and afterwards executed. This effectually suppressed the
+rebellion.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page328"></a>[pg 328]</span>
+<p>The revolt showed the strength of the opponents to the king's
+will, but it also proved conclusively that the monarchy was the
+strongest power in the realm; that the star of ecclesiastical
+domination had set forever in England; that henceforth English
+kings and not Italian popes were to govern the English people.
+True, the king was carrying things with a high hand, but one reform
+at a time; the yoke of papal power must first be lifted, even if at
+the same time the king becomes despotic in the exercise of his
+increased power. Once free from Rome, constitutional rights may be
+asserted and the power of an absolute monarchy judiciously
+restricted.</p>
+<p>Following the Pilgrimage of Grace came the complete overthrow of
+the monastic system by the dissolution of the larger
+monasteries.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Henry's_Disposal_of_Monastic_Revenues"></a>Henry's
+Disposal of Monastic Revenues</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>What use did Henry make of the revenues that fell into his
+hands? As soon as the vast estates of the monks were under the
+king's control, he was besieged by nobles, "praying for an estate."
+They <span class="pagenum"><a name="page329"></a>[pg 329]</span>
+kneeled before him and specified what lands they wanted. They
+bribed Cromwell, who sold many of the estates at the rate of a
+twenty years' purchase, and in some instances presented valuable
+possessions to the king's followers. Many families, powerful in
+England at the present time, date the beginning of their wealth and
+position to the day when their ancestors received their share of
+the king's plunder.</p>
+<p>The following interesting passage from Sir Edward Coke's
+Institutes, shows that Henry sought to quiet the fears of the
+people by making the most captivating promises concerning the
+decrease of taxes, and other magnificent schemes for the general
+welfare: "On the king's behalf, the members of both houses were
+informed in Parliament that no king or kingdom was safe but where
+the king had three abilities: 1. To live of his own and able to
+defend his kingdom upon any sudden invasion or insurrection. 2. To
+aid his confederates, otherwise they would never assist him. 3. To
+reward his well-deserving servants. Now the project was, that if
+Parliament would give unto him all the abbeys, priories, friaries,
+nunneries, and other <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page330"></a>[pg 330]</span> monasteries, that forever in time
+then to come he would take order that the same should not be
+converted to private uses, but first, that his exchequer, for the
+purpose aforesaid, should be enriched; secondly, the kingdom should
+be strengthened by a continual maintenance of forty thousand
+well-trained soldiers; thirdly, for the benefit and ease of the
+subject, who never afterwards (as was projected), in any time to
+come, should be charged with subsidies, fifteenths, loans or other
+common aids; fourthly, lest the honor of the realm should receive
+any diminution of honor by the dissolution of the said monasteries,
+there being twenty-nine lords of Parliament of the abbots and
+priors, ... that the king would create a number of nobles."</p>
+<p>The king was granted the revenues of the monasteries. About half
+the money was expended in coast defences and a new navy; and much
+of it was lavished upon his courtiers. With the exception of small
+pensions to the monks and the establishment of a few benefices,
+very little of the splendid revenue was ever devoted to religious
+or educational purposes. Small sums were set apart for Cambridge,
+Oxford and new grammar schools. Not-withstanding <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page331"></a>[pg 331]</span> the pensions, there
+was much suffering; it is said many of the outcast monks and nuns
+starved and froze to death by the roadside. Latimer and others
+wanted the king to employ the revenues for religious purposes, but
+Henry evidently thought the church had enough and refused. He did,
+however, intend to allot eighteen thousand pounds a year for
+eighteen new bishoprics, but once the gold was in his possession,
+his pious intentions suffered a decline, and he established only
+six, with inferior endowments, five of which exist to-day.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Was_the_Suppression_Justifiable?"></a>Was the
+Suppression Justifiable?</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>It is quite common to restrict this inquiry to a consideration
+of the report made by the commissioners against the monks, and to
+the methods employed by them in their investigations. The
+implication is that if the accusations against the monasteries can
+be discredited, or if it can be shown that the motives of the
+destroyers were selfish and their methods cruel, then it follows
+that the overthrow of the monasteries was a most iniquitous and
+unwarrantable proceeding. Reflection will show <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page332"></a>[pg 332]</span> that the question
+cannot be so restricted. It may be found that the monastic
+institution should have been destroyed, even though the charges
+against the monks were grossly exaggerated, the motives of the king
+unworthy, and the means he employed despicable.</p>
+<p>At the outset a few facts deserve mention. It is usual for
+Protestants to recall with pride the glorious heroism of Protestant
+martyrs, but it should be remembered that Roman Catholicism also
+has had its martyrs. Protestant powers have not been free from
+tyranny and bloodshed. That noble spirit of self-sacrifice which
+has glorified many a character in history is not to be despised in
+one who dies for what we may pronounce to be false.</p>
+<p>It must also be granted that the action of the king was not
+dictated by a pure passion for religious reform. Indeed it is a
+fair question whether Henry may be claimed by the Protestants at
+all. Aside from his rejection of the pope's authority, he was
+thoroughly Catholic in conviction and in practice. His impatience
+with the pope's position respecting his divorce, his need of money,
+his love of power, and many other personal considerations
+determined his attitude toward the papacy.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page333"></a>[pg 333]</span>
+<p>It should also be freely conceded that the royal commissioners
+were far from exemplary characters, and that they were often
+insolent and cruel in the prosecution of their work.</p>
+<p>"Our posterity," says John Bale, "may well curse this wicked
+fact of our age; this unreasonable spoil of England's most noble
+antiquities." "On the whole," says Blunt, "it may be said that we
+must ever look back on that destruction as a series of transactions
+in which the sorrow, the waste, the impiety that were wrought, were
+enough to make the angels weep. It may be true that the monastic
+system had worn itself out for practical good; or at least, that it
+was unfitted for those coming ages which were to be so different
+from the ages that were past. But slaughter, desecration and wanton
+destruction, were no remedies for its sins, or its failings; nor
+was covetous rapacity the spirit of reformation."</p>
+<p>Hume observes that "during times of faction, especially of a
+religious kind, no equity is to be expected from adversaries; and
+as it was known that the king's intention in this visitation was to
+find a pretext for abolishing the monasteries, we <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page334"></a>[pg 334]</span> may naturally
+conclude that the reports of the commissioners are very little to
+be relied upon." Hallam declares that "it is impossible to feel too
+much indignation at the spirit in which the proceedings were
+conducted."</p>
+<p>But these and other just and honorable concessions in the
+interests of truth, which are to be found on the pages of eminent
+Protestant historians, are made to prove too much. It must be said
+that writers favorable to monasticism take an unfair advantage of
+these admissions, which simply testify to a spirit of candor and a
+love of truth, but do not contain the final conclusions of these
+historians. Employing these witnesses to confirm their opinions,
+the defenders of monasticism proceed with fervid, glowing rhetoric,
+breathing devotion and love on every page, to paint the sorrows and
+ruin of the Carthusian Fathers, and the abbots of Glastonbury and
+Reading. They ask, "Is this your boasted freedom, to slay these men
+in cold blood, not for immorality, but because they honestly did
+not acknowledge what no Protestant of to-day admits, viz.: that
+King Henry was the Supreme Head of the Church?" Having pointed out
+the exaggerations <span class="pagenum"><a name="page335"></a>[pg
+335]</span> in the charges against the monks and having made us
+weep for the aged fathers of the Charterhouse, they skillfully lead
+the unwary to the conclusion that the suppression should never have
+taken place. This conclusion is illogical. The case is still
+open.</p>
+<p>Furthermore, if one cared to indulge in historical
+reminiscences, he might justly express astonishment that Rome
+should object to an investigation conducted by men whose minds were
+already made up, or that she should complain because force was
+employed to carry out a needed reform. Did the commissioners take a
+few altar-cloths and decorate their horses? Did Rome never adorn
+men in garments of shame and parade them through streets to be
+mocked by the populace, and finally burned at the stake? Were the
+altar-cloths dear to Catholic hearts? Were not the Bibles burned in
+France, in Germany, in Spain, in Holland, in England, dear to the
+hearts of the reformers? But however justifiable such a line of
+argument may be, there is little to be gained by charging the sins
+of the past against the men of to-day. Nevertheless, if these facts
+and many like them were remembered, less would <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page336"></a>[pg 336]</span> be said about the
+cruelties that accompanied the suppression of the monasteries.</p>
+<p>Were the charges against the monks true? It seems impossible to
+doubt that in the main they were, although it should be admitted
+that many monasteries were beyond reproach. Eliminating gross
+exaggerations, lies and calumnies, there still remains a body of
+evidence that compels the verdict of guilt. The legislation of the
+church councils, the decrees of popes, the records of the courts,
+the reports of investigating committees appointed by various popes,
+the testimony of the orders against each other, the chronicles,
+letters and other extant literature, abound in such detailed,
+specific charges of monastic corruption that it is simply
+preposterous to reject the testimony. All the efforts at
+reformation, and they were many, had failed. Many bishops confessed
+their inability to cope with the growing disorders. It is beyond
+question that lay robbers were encouraged to perpetrate acts of
+sacrilege because the monks were frequently guilty of forgery and
+violence. Commenting upon the impression which monkish lawlessness
+must have made upon the minds of such men as Wyclif, Pike says:
+"They <span class="pagenum"><a name="page337"></a>[pg 337]</span>
+saw with their own eyes those wild and lawless scenes, the faint
+reflection of which in contemporaneous documents may excite the
+wonder of modern lawyers and modern moralists." The legislation of
+church and state for a century before Henry VIII. shows that the
+monks were guilty of brawling, frequenting taverns, indulging in
+licentious pleasures and upholding unlawful games.</p>
+<p>Bonaventura, the General of the Franciscan Order in its earliest
+days, and its palmiest, for the first years of a monastic order
+were always its best years--this mendicant, their pride and their
+glory, tells us that within fifty years of the death of its founder
+there were many mendicants roaming around in disorderly fashion,
+brazen and shameless beggars of scandalous fame. This unenviable
+record was kept up down to the days of Wyclif, who charged the
+begging friars with representing themselves as holy and needy,
+while they were robust of body, rich in possessions, and dwelt in
+splendid houses, where they gave sumptuous banquets. What shall one
+say of the hysterical ravings against Henry of the "Holy Maid of
+Kent," whose fits and predictions were palmed off by five
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page338"></a>[pg 338]</span>
+ecclesiastics, high in authority, as supernatural manifestations?
+What must have been the state of monasteries in which such
+meretricious schemes were hatched, to deceive silly people, thwart
+the king and stop the movements for reform?</p>
+<p>Moreover, the various attempts to reform or to suppress the
+monasteries prior to Henry's time show he was simply carrying out
+what, in a small way, had been attempted before. King John, Edward
+I. and Edward III., had confiscated "alien priories." Richard II.
+and Henry IV. had made similar raids. In 1410, the House of Commons
+proposed the confiscation of all the temporalities held by bishops,
+abbots and priors, that the money might be used for a standing
+army, and to increase the income of the nobles and secular clergy.
+It was not done, but the attempt shows the trend of public opinion
+on the question of abolishing the monasteries. In 1416, Parliament
+dissolved the alien priories and vested their estates in the crown.
+There is extant a letter of Cardinal Morton, Legate of the
+Apostolic See, and Archbishop of Canterbury, to the abbot of St.
+Albans, one of the mightiest abbeys in all England. It was written
+as the result <span class="pagenum"><a name="page339"></a>[pg
+339]</span> of an investigation started by Innocent VIII., in 1489.
+In this communication the abbot and his monks were charged with the
+grossest licentiousness, waste and thieving. Lina Eckenstein, in
+her interesting work on "Woman Under Monasticism," says: "It were
+idle to deny that the state of discipline in many houses was bad,
+but the circumstances under which Morton's letter was penned argue
+that the charges made in it should be accepted with some
+reservation." In 1523, Cardinal Wolsey obtained bulls from the pope
+authorizing the suppression of forty small monasteries, and the
+application of their revenues to educational institutions, on the
+ground that the houses were homes neither of religion nor of
+learning.</p>
+<p>What Henry did, every country in Europe has felt called upon to
+do in one way or another. Germany, Italy, Spain, France have all
+suppressed monasteries, and despite the suffering which attended
+the dissolution in England, the step was taken with less loss of
+life and less injury to the industrial welfare of the people than
+anywhere else in Europe[<a href="#NOTE_J">J</a>]. Hooper, who was
+made a bishop in the reign of <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page340"></a>[pg 340]</span> Edward VI., expressed the Protestant
+view of Henry's reforms in a letter written about the year 1546.
+"Our king," he says, "has destroyed the pope, but not popery....
+The impious mass, the most shameful celibacy of the clergy, the
+invocation of saints, auricular confession, superstitious
+abstinence from meats, and purgatory, were never before held by the
+people in greater esteem than at the present moment." In other
+words, the independence of the Church of England was secured by
+those who, if they were not Roman Catholics, were certainly closer
+in faith to Rome than they were to Protestantism. The Protestant
+doctrines did not become the doctrines of the Church of England
+until the reign of Edward VI., and it was many years after that
+before the separation from Rome was complete in doctrine as well as
+respects the authority of the pope.</p>
+<p>These facts indicate that there must have been other causes for
+the success of the English Reformation than the greed or ambition
+of the monarch. Those causes are easily discovered. One of them was
+the hostility of the people to the alien priories. The origin of
+the alien priories dates back to the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page341"></a>[pg 341]</span> Norman conquest. The Normans shared
+the spoils of their victory with their continental friends. English
+monasteries and churches were given to foreigners, who collected
+the rents and other kinds of income. These foreign prelates had no
+other interest in England than to derive all the profit they could
+from their possessions. They appointed whom they pleased to live in
+their houses, and the monks, being far away from their superiors,
+became a source of constant annoyance to the English people. The
+struggle against these alien priories had been carried on for many
+years, and so many of them had been abolished that the people
+became accustomed to the seizure of monasteries.</p>
+<p>Large sums of money were annually paid to the pope, and the
+English people were loudly complaining of the constant drain on
+their resources. It was a common saying in the reign of Henry III.,
+that "England is the pope's farm." The "Good Parliament," in 1376,
+affirmed "that the taxes paid to the church of Rome amounted to
+five times as much as those levied for the king; ... that the
+brokers of the sinful city of Rome promoted for money unlearned and
+unworthy caitiffs to benefices <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page342"></a>[pg 342]</span> of the value of a thousand marks,
+while the poor and learned hardly obtain one of twenty." Various
+laws, heartily supported by the clergy as well as by the civil
+authorities, were enacted from time to time, aimed at the abuses of
+papal power. So steadfast and strong was the opposition to the
+interference of foreigners in English affairs, it would be possible
+to show that there was an evolution in the struggle against Rome
+that was certain to culminate in the separation, whether Henry had
+accomplished it or not. What might have occurred if the monks had
+reformed and the pope withdrawn his claims it is impossible to
+know. The fact is that the monks grew worse instead of better, and
+the arrogance of foreigners became more unendurable. "The
+corruption of the church establishment, in fact," says Lea, "had
+reached a point which the dawning enlightenment of the age could
+not much longer endure.... Intoxicated with centuries of
+domination, the muttered thunders of growing popular discontent
+were unheeded, and its claims to spiritual and temporal authority
+were asserted with increasing vehemence, while its corruptions were
+daily displayed before the people with more careless <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page343"></a>[pg 343]</span> cynicism." In view
+of this condition of affairs, the existence of which even the
+adherents of modern Rome must acknowledge, one cannot but wonder
+that the ruin of the monasteries should be attributed to Henry's
+desire "to overthrow the rights of women, to degrade matrimony and
+to practice concubinage." Such an explanation is too superficial;
+it ignores a multitude of historical facts.</p>
+<p>The monasteries had to fall if England was to be saved from the
+horrors of civil war, if the hand of the pope was to remain
+uplifted from her, if the insecure gains of the Reformation were to
+become established and glorious achievements; if, in fact, all
+those benefits accompanying human progress were to become the
+heritage of succeeding ages.</p>
+<p>Whatever benefits the monks had conferred upon mankind, and
+these were neither few nor slight, they had become fetters on the
+advancement of freedom, education and true religion. They were the
+standing army of the pope, occupying the last and strongest
+citadel. They were the unyielding advocates of an ideal that was
+passing away. It was sad to see the Carthusian house fall, but in
+spite of the high character of its inmates, it was a part of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page344"></a>[pg 344]</span> an
+institution that stood for the right of foreigners to rule England.
+It was unfortunate they had thrown themselves down before the car
+of progress but there they were; they would not get up; the car
+must roll on, for so God himself had decreed, and hence they were
+crushed in its advance. Their martyrdom was truly a poor return for
+their virtues, but there never has been a moral or political
+revolution that has furthered the general well-being of humanity,
+in which just and good men have not suffered. It would be
+delightful if freedom and progress could be secured, and effete
+institutions destroyed or reformed, without the accompaniment of
+disaster and death, but it is not so.</p>
+<p>The monks stood for opposition to reform, and therefore came
+into direct conflict with the king, who was blindly groping his way
+toward the future, and who was, in fact, the unconscious agent of
+many reform forces that concentrated in him. He did not comprehend
+the significance of his proceedings. He did not take up the cause
+of the English people with the pure and intelligent motive of
+encouraging free thought and free religion. He did not realize that
+he was leading the mighty army of Protestant <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page345"></a>[pg 345]</span> reformers. He
+little dreamed that the people whose cause he championed would in
+turn assert their rights and make it impossible for an English
+sovereign to enjoy the absolute authority which he wielded. Truly
+"there is a power, not ourselves," making for freedom, progress and
+truth.</p>
+<p>Thus a number of causes brought on the ruin of the monasteries.
+Henry's need of money; the refusal of the monks to sign the acts of
+supremacy and succession; the general drift of reform, and the
+iniquity of the monks. They fell from natural causes and through
+the operation of laws which God alone controls. As Hill neatly puts
+it, "Monasticism was healthy, active and vigorous; it became idle,
+listless and extravagant; it engendered its own corruption, and out
+of that corruption came death."</p>
+<p>Richard Bagot, a Catholic, in a recent article on the question,
+"Will England become Catholic?" which was published in the "Nuova
+Antologia," says: "Though it is impossible not to blame the
+so-called Reformers for the acts of sacrilege and barbarism through
+which they obtained the religious and political liberty so
+necessary to the intellectual and social progress of the race, it
+cannot be denied <span class="pagenum"><a name="page346"></a>[pg
+346]</span> that no sooner had the power of the papacy come to an
+end in England than the English nation entered upon that free
+development which has at last brought it to its present position
+among the other nations of the world." Mr. Bagot also admits that
+"the political intrigues and insatiable ambition of the papacy
+during the succeeding centuries constituted a perpetual menace to
+England."</p>
+<p>The true view, therefore, is that two types of religious and
+political life, two epochs of human history, met in Henry's reign.
+The king and the pope were the exponents of conflicting ideals. The
+fall of the monasteries was an incident in the struggle. "The
+Catholics," says Froude, "had chosen the alternative, either to
+crush the free thought which was bursting from the soil, or to be
+crushed by it; and the future of the world could not be sacrificed
+to preserve the exotic graces of medieval saints."</p>
+<p>The problem is reduced to this, Was the Reformation desirable?
+Is Protestantism a curse or a blessing? Would England and the world
+be better off under the sway of medieval religion than under the
+influence of modern Protestantism? If <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page347"></a>[pg 347]</span> monasticisrn were a
+fetter on human liberty and industry, if the monasteries were "so
+many seminaries of superstition and of folly," there was but one
+thing to do--to break the fetters and to destroy the monasteries.
+To have succeeded in so radical a reform as that begun by King
+Henry, with forty thousand monks preaching treason, would have been
+an impossibility. Henry cannot be blamed because the monks chose to
+entangle themselves with politics and to side with Rome as against
+the English nation.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Results_of_the_Dissolution"></a>Results of the
+Dissolution</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Many important results followed the fall of the monasteries. The
+majority of the House of Lords was now transferred from the abbots
+to the lay peers. The secular clergy, who had been fighting the
+monks for centuries, were at last accorded their proper standing in
+the church. Numerous unjust ecclesiastical privileges were swept
+aside, and in many respects the whole church was strengthened and
+purified. Credulity and superstition began to decline.
+Ecclesiastical criminals were no longer able <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page348"></a>[pg 348]</span> to escape the just
+penalty for their crimes. Naturally all these beneficent ends were
+not attained immediately. For a while there was great disorder and
+distress. Society was disturbed not only by the stoppage of
+monastic alms-giving, but the wandering monks, unaccustomed to toil
+and without a trade, increased the confusion.</p>
+<p>In this connection it is well to point out that some writers
+make very much of the poverty relieved by the monks, and claim that
+the nobles, into whose hands the monastic lands fell, did almost
+nothing to mitigate the distresses of the unfortunate. But they
+ignore the fact that a blind and undiscriminating charity was the
+cause, and not the cure, of much of the miserable wretchedness of
+the poor. Modern society has learned that the monastic method is
+wholly wrong; that fraud and laziness are fostered by a wholesale
+distribution of doles. The true way to help the poor is to enable
+the poor to assist themselves; to teach them trades and give them
+work. The sociological methods of to-day are thoroughly
+anti-monastic.</p>
+<p>On the other hand, the infidel Zosimus, quoted by Gibbon, was
+not far wrong when he said "the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page349"></a>[pg 349]</span> monks robbed an empire to help a few
+beggars." The fact that the religious houses did distribute alms
+and entertain strangers is not disputed; indeed it is pleasant to
+reflect upon this noble charity of the monks; it is a bright spot
+in their history. But it is in no sense true that they deserve all
+the credit for relieving distress. They received the money for alms
+in the shape of rents, gifts and other kinds of income. Hallam
+says, "There can be no doubt that many of the impotent poor derived
+support from their charity. But the blind eleemosynary spirit
+inculcated by the Romish church is notoriously the cause, not the
+cure, of beggary and wickedness. The monastic foundations,
+scattered in different countries, could never answer the ends of
+local and limited succor. Their gates might, indeed, be open to
+those who knocked at them for alms.... Nothing could have a
+stronger tendency to promote that vagabond mendicity which severe
+statutes were enacted to repress."</p>
+<p>It seems almost ungracious to quote such an observation, because
+it may be distorted into a criticism of charity itself, or made to
+serve the purposes of certain anti-Romanists who cannot even spare
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page350"></a>[pg 350]</span> those
+noble women who minister to the sick in the home or hospital from
+their bigoted criticisms. Small indeed must be the soul of that man
+who permits his religious opinions to blind his eyes to the
+inestimable services of those heroic and self-sacrificing women.
+But even Roman Catholic students of social problems must recognize
+the folly of indiscriminate alms-giving. "In proportion as justice
+between man and man has declined, that form of charity which
+consists in giving money has been more quickened." The promotion of
+industry, the repression of injustice, the encouragement of
+self-reliance and thrift, are needed far more than the temporary
+relief of those who suffer from oppression or from their own
+wrong-doing.</p>
+<p>Some of those who deplore the fall of the monasteries make much
+of the fact that the modern world is menaced by materialism. "With
+very rare exceptions," cries Maitre, a French Catholic, "the most
+undisguised materialism has everywhere replaced the lessons and
+recollections of the spiritual life. The shrill voice of machinery,
+the grinding of the saw or the monotonous clank of the piston, is
+heard now, where once were heard chants and <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page351"></a>[pg 351]</span> prayers and
+confessions. Once the monk freely undid the door to let the
+stranger in, and now we see a sign, 'no admittance,' lest a greedy
+rival purloin the tricks of trade." Montalembert, referring to the
+ruin of the cloisters in France, grieves thus: "Sometimes the
+spinning-wheel is installed under the ancient sanctuary. Instead of
+echoing night and day the praises of God, these dishonored arches
+too often repeat only the blasphemies of obscene cries." The
+element of truth in these laments gives them their sting, but one
+should beware of the fervid rhetoric of the worshipers of
+medievalism. This century is nobler, purer, truer, manlier, and
+more humane than any of the centuries that saw the greatest
+triumphs of the monks. They, too, had their blasphemies, often
+under the cloak of piety; they, too, had their obscene cries. Their
+superstitions and frauds concealed beneath those "dishonored
+arches" were infinitely worse than the noise of machinery weaving
+garments for the poor, or producing household comforts to increase
+the happiness of the humblest man.</p>
+<p>There is much that is out of joint, much to justify doleful
+prophecies, in the social and religious <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page352"></a>[pg 352]</span> conditions of the
+present age, but the signs of the times are not all ominous. At all
+events, nothing would be gained by a return to the monkish ideals
+of the past. The hope of the world lies in the further development
+and completer realization of those great principles of human
+freedom that distinguish this century from the past. The history of
+monasticism clearly shows that the monasteries could not minister
+to that development of liberty, truth and justice, which constitute
+the indispensable condition of human happiness and human progress.
+Unable to adjust themselves to the new age, unwilling to welcome
+the new light, rejecting the doctrine of individual freedom, the
+monks were forced to retire from the field.</p>
+<p>So fell in England that institution which, for twelve centuries,
+had exercised marvelous dominion over the spiritual and temporal
+interests of the continent, and for eight hundred years had
+suffered or thrived on English soil. "The day came, and that a
+drear winter day, when its last mass was sung, its last censer
+waved, its last congregation bent in rapt and lovely adoration
+before the altar." Its <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page353"></a>[pg 353]</span> majestic and solemn ruins proclaim
+its departed grandeur. Its deeds of mercy, its conflicts with kings
+and bishops, its prayers and chants and penances, its virtues and
+its vices, its trials and its victories, its wealth and its
+poverty, all are gone. Silence and death keep united watch over
+cloister and tomb. We should be ungrateful if we forgot its
+blessings; we should be untrue if, ignoring its evils, we sought to
+bring back to life that which God has laid in the sepulcher of the
+dead.</p>
+<blockquote>"Where pleasant was the spot for men to dwell,<br>
+Amid its fair broad lands the abbey lay,<br>
+Sheltering dark orgies that were shame to tell,<br>
+And cowled and barefoot beggars swarmed the way,<br>
+All in their convent weeds of black, and white, and gray.<br>
+<br>
+From many a proud monastic pile, o'erthrown,<br>
+Fear-struck, the brooded inmates rushed and fled;<br>
+The web, that for a thousand years had grown<br>
+O'er prostrate Europe, in that day of dread<br>
+Crumbled and fell, as fire dissolves the flaxen thread."<br>
+<br>
+--<i>Bryant</i>.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page354"></a>[pg 354]</span>
+<h2><a name="VIII"></a>VIII</h2>
+<h2><i><a name="CAUSES_AND_IDEALS_OF_MONASTICISM"></a>CAUSES AND
+IDEALS OF MONASTICISM</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>All forms of religious character and conduct are grounded in
+certain cravings of the soul, which, in seeking satisfaction, are
+influenced by theoretical opinions. The longings of the human heart
+constitute the impulse, or the energy, of religion. The
+intellectual convictions act as guiding forces. As a religious
+type, therefore, the monk was produced by the action of certain
+desires, influenced by specific opinions respecting God, the soul,
+the body, the world and their relations.</p>
+<p>The existence of monasticism in non-Christian religions implies
+that whatever impetus the ascetic impulses in human nature received
+from Christian teaching, there is some broader basis for monastic
+life than the tenets of any creed. Biblical history and Christian
+theology furnish some explanation <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page355"></a>[pg 355]</span> of the rise of Christian monasticism,
+but they do not account for the monks of ancient India. The
+teachings of Jesus exerted a profound influence upon the Christian
+monks, but they cannot explain the Oriental asceticism that
+flourished before the Christ of the New Testament was born. There
+must have been some motive, or motives, operating on human nature
+as such, a knowledge of which will help to account for the monks of
+Indian antiquity as well as the begging friars of modern times. It
+will therefore be in order to begin the present inquiry by seeking
+those causes which gave rise to monasticism in general.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Causative_Motives_of_Monasticism"></a>Causative
+Motives of Monasticism</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Whatever the origin of religion itself, it is certain that it is
+man's inalienable concern. He is, as Sabatier says, "incurably
+religious." Of all the motives ministering to this ruling passion,
+the longing for righteousness and for the favor of God is supreme.
+The savage only partially grasps the significance of his spiritual
+aspirations, and dimly understands the nature of the God he adores
+or fears. His worship <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page356"></a>[pg 356]</span> may be confined to frantic efforts to
+ward off the vengeful assaults of an angry deity, but however gross
+his religious conceptions, there is at the heart of his religion a
+desire to live in peaceful relations with the Supreme Being.</p>
+<p>As religion advances, the ethical character of God and the
+nature of true righteousness are more clearly apprehended. But the
+idea that moral purity and fellowship with God are in some way
+associated with self-denial has always been held by the religious
+world. But what does such a conception involve? What must one do to
+deny self? The answer to that question will vastly influence the
+form of religious conduct. Thus while all religious men may unite
+in a craving for holiness by a participation in the Divine nature,
+they will differ widely in their opinions as to the nature of this
+desirable righteousness and as to the means by which it may be
+attained. Roman Catholicism, by the voice of the monk, whom it
+regards as the highest type of Christian living, gives one answer
+to these questions; Protestantism, protesting against asceticism,
+gives a different reply.</p>
+<p>The desire for salvation was, therefore, the primary
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page357"></a>[pg 357]</span> cause
+of all monasticism. Many quotations might be given from the sacred
+writings of India, establishing beyond dispute, that underlying the
+confusing variety of philosophical ideas and ascetic practices of
+the non-Christian monks, was a consuming desire for the redemption
+of the soul from sin. Buddha said on seeing a mendicant, "The life
+of a devotee has always been praised by the wise. It will be my
+refuge and the refuge of other creatures, it will lead us to a real
+life, to happiness and immortality."</p>
+<p>Dharmapala, in expounding the teachings of the Buddha, at the
+World's Parliament of Religions, in Chicago, clearly showed that
+the aim of the Buddhist is "the entire obliteration of all that is
+evil," and "the complete purification of the mind." That this is
+the purpose of the asceticism of India is seen by the following
+quotation from Dharmapala's address: "The advanced student of the
+religion of Buddha when he has faith in him thinks: 'Full of
+hindrances is household life, a path defiled by passions; free as
+the air is the life of him who has renounced all worldly things.
+How difficult is it for the man who dwells at home to live the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page358"></a>[pg 358]</span> higher
+life in all its fullness, in all its purity, in all its perfection!
+Let me then cut off my hair and beard, let me clothe myself in
+orange-colored robes and let me go forth from a household life into
+the homeless state!'"</p>
+<p>In the same parliament, Mozoomdar, the brilliant and attractive
+representative of the Brahmo Somaj, in describing "Asia's Service
+to Religion," thus stated the motives and spirit of Oriental
+asceticism: "What lesson do the hermitages, the monasteries, the
+cave temples, the discipline and austerities of the religious East
+teach the world? Renunciation. The Asiatic apostle will ever remain
+an ascetic, a celibate, a homeless Akinchana, a Fakeer. We
+Orientals are all the descendants of John the Baptist. Any one who
+has taken pains at spiritual culture must admit that the great
+enemy to a devout concentration of mind is the force of bodily and
+worldly desire. Communion with God is impossible, so long as the
+flesh and its lusts are not subdued.... It is not mere temperance,
+but positive asceticism; not mere self-restraint, but
+self-mortification; not mere self-sacrifice, but self-extinction;
+not mere morality, but absolute holiness." And <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page359"></a>[pg 359]</span> further on in his
+address, Mozoomdar claimed that this asceticism is practically the
+essential principle in Christianity and the meaning of the cross of
+Christ: "This great law of self-effacement, poverty, suffering,
+death, is symbolized in the mystic cross so dear to you and dear to
+me. Christians, will you ever repudiate Calvary? Oneness of will
+and character is the sublimest and most difficult unity with God."
+The chief value of these quotations from Mozoomdar lies in the fact
+that they show forth the underlying motive of all asceticism. It
+would be unjust to the distinguished scholar to imply that he
+defends those extreme forms of monasticism which have appeared in
+India or in Christian countries. On the contrary, while he
+maintains, in his charming work, "The Oriental Christ," that "the
+height of self-denial may fitly be called asceticism," he is at the
+same time fully alive to its dangerous exaggerations. "Pride," he
+says, "creeps into the holiest and humblest exercises of
+self-discipline. It is the supremest natures only that escape. The
+practice of asceticism therefore is always attended with great
+danger." The language of Mozoomdar, however, like that of many
+Christian monastic writers, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page360"></a>[pg 360]</span> opens the door to many grave
+excesses. It is another evidence of the necessity for defining what
+one means by "self-mortification" and "self-extinction."</p>
+<p>Turning now to Christian monasticism, it will be found that, as
+in the case of Oriental monasticism the yearning for victory over
+self was uppermost in the minds of the best Christian monks. A few
+words from a letter written by Jerome to Rusticus, a young monk,
+illustrates the truth of this observation: "Let your garments be
+squalid," he says, "to show that your mind is white, and your tunic
+coarse, to show that you despise the world. But give not way to
+pride, lest your dress and your language be found at variance.
+Baths stimulate the senses, and are therefore to be avoided."</p>
+<p>To keep the mind white, to despise the world, to overcome pride,
+to stop the craving of the senses for gratification,--these were
+the objects of the monks, in order to accomplish which they
+macerated and starved their bodies, avoided baths, wore rags,
+affected humble language and fled from the scenes of pleasure. The
+goal was highly commendable, even if the means employed were
+inadequate to produce the desired results.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page361"></a>[pg 361]</span>
+<p>All down through the Middle Ages, the idea continued to prevail
+that the monastic life was the highest and purest expression of the
+Christian religion, and that the monks' chances of heaven were much
+better than those of any other class of men. The laity believed
+them to be a little nearer God than even the clergy, and so they
+paid them gold for their prayers. It will readily be understood
+that in degenerate times, so profitable a doctrine would be
+earnestly encouraged by the monks. The knight, whose conscience
+revolted against his conduct but who could not bring himself to a
+complete renunciation of the world, believed that heaven would
+condone his faults or crimes if in some way he could make friends
+with the dwellers in the cloister. To this end, he founded abbeys
+and sustained monasteries by liberal gifts of gold and land. Such a
+donation was made in the following language: "I, Gervais, who
+belong to the chivalry of the age, caring for the salvation of my
+soul, and considering that I shall never reach God by my own
+prayers and fastings, have resolved to recommend myself in some
+other way to those who, night and day, serve God by these
+practices, so that, thanks <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page362"></a>[pg 362]</span> to their intercession, I may be able
+to obtain that salvation which I of myself am unable to merit."
+Another endowment was made by Peter, Knight of Maull, in these
+quaint terms: "I, Peter, profiting by this lesson, and desirous,
+though a sinner and unworthy, to provide for my future destiny, I
+have desired that the bees of God may come to gather their honey in
+my orchards, so that when their fair hives shall be full of rich
+combs, they may be able to remember him by whom the hive was
+given."</p>
+<p>The people believed that the prayers of the monks lifted their
+souls into heaven; that their curses doomed them to the bottomless
+pit. A monastery was the safe and sure road to heaven. The
+observation of Gibbon respecting the early monks is applicable to
+all of them: "Each proselyte who entered the gates of a monastery
+was persuaded that he trod the steep and thorny path of eternal
+happiness."</p>
+<p>The second cause for monasticism in general was a natural love
+of solitude, which became almost irresistible when reinforced by a
+despair of the world's redemption. The poet voiced the feelings of
+almost every soul, at some period in life, when he wrote:</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page363"></a>[pg 363]</span>
+<blockquote>"O for a lodge in some vast wilderness,<br>
+Some boundless contiguity of shade,<br>
+Where rumor of oppression or deceit,<br>
+Of unsuccessful or successful war,<br>
+Might never reach me more."</blockquote>
+<p>The longing for solitude accompanied the desire for salvation.
+An unconquerable weariness of the world, with its strife and
+passion, overcame the seeker after God. A yearning to escape the
+duties of social life, which were believed to interfere with one's
+duty to God, possessed his soul. The flight from the world was
+merely the method adopted to satisfy his soul-longings. If such
+times of degeneracy and rampant iniquity ever return, if humanity
+is again compelled to stagger under the moral burdens that crushed
+the Roman Empire, without doubt the love of solitude, which is now
+held in check by the satisfactions of a comparatively pure and
+peaceful social life, will again arise in its old-time strength and
+impel men to seek in waste and lonely places the virtues they
+cannot acquire in a decaying civilization.</p>
+<p>Even amid the delights of human fellowship, and surrounded by so
+much that ministers to restfulness of soul, it is often hard to
+repress a longing to <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page364"></a>[pg 364]</span> shatter the fetters of custom, to
+flee from the noise and confusion of this hurrying, fretful world,
+and to pass one's days in a coveted retirement, far from the
+maddening strife and tumult. Montalembert's profound appreciation
+of monastic life was never more aptly illustrated than in the
+following declaration: "In the depths of human nature there exists
+without doubt, a tendency instinctive, though confused and
+evanescent, toward retirement and solitude. What man, unless
+completely depraved by vice or weighed down by care and cupidity,
+has not experienced once, at least, before his death, the
+attraction of solitude?"</p>
+<p>While the motives just described were unquestionably preeminent
+among the causative factors in monasticism, it should not be taken
+for granted that there were no others, or that either or both of
+these motives controlled every monk. The personal considerations
+tending to keep up the flight from the world were numerous and
+active. It would be a mistake to credit all the monks, and at some
+periods even a majority of them, with pure and lofty purposes.
+Oftentimes criminals were pardoned <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page365"></a>[pg 365]</span> through the intercession of abbots on
+condition that they would retire to a monastery. The jilted lover
+and the commercial bankrupt, the deserted or bereaved wife, the
+pauper and the invalid, the social outcast and the shirker of civic
+duties, the lazy and the fickle were all to be found in the ranks
+of the monastic orders. Ceasing to feel any interest in the joys of
+society, they had turned to the cloister as a welcome asylum in the
+hour of their sorrow or disappointment. To some it was an easy way
+out of the struggle for existence, to others it meant an end to
+taxes and to military service, to still others it was a haven of
+rest for a weary body or a disappointed spirit. Thus many specific,
+individual considerations acted with the general desires for
+salvation and solitude to strengthen and to perpetuate the
+institution.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name=
+"Beliefs_Affecting_the_Causative_Motives"></a>Beliefs Affecting the
+Causative Motives</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>In the first chapter it was shown that a variety of views
+respecting the relation of the body and the soul influenced the
+origin and development of Christian monasticism. It will not now be
+necessary <span class="pagenum"><a name="page366"></a>[pg
+366]</span> to repeat what was there said. The essential teaching
+of all these false opinions was that the body was in itself evil,
+that the gratification of natural appetites was inherently wrong,
+and that true holiness consisted in the complete subjection of the
+body by self-denial and torture. Jerome distinctly taught that what
+was natural was opposed to God. The Gnostics and many of the early
+Christians believed that this world was ruled by the devil. The
+Gnostics held that this opposition of the kingdom of matter to God
+was fundamental and eternal. The Christians, however, maintained
+that the antagonism was temporary, the Lord having given the world
+over to evil spirits for a time. The prevailing opinion among
+almost all schools was that a union with God was only possible to
+those who had extinguished bodily desires.</p>
+<p>The ascetic theory undoubtedly derived much support from the
+views held concerning the teachings of the Bible. The Oriental
+monks frequently quoted from their sacred books to justify their
+habits and ideals. In like manner, the Christian monks believed
+that they, and they alone, were literally obeying the commands of
+Christ and his <span class="pagenum"><a name="page367"></a>[pg
+367]</span> apostles. This phase of the subject will receive
+attention when the three vows of monasticism are considered.</p>
+<p>In the West, two conditions, one political and social, the other
+religious, set in motion all these spiritual desires and ascetic
+beliefs tending toward monasticism. One was the corrupted state, of
+Roman society and the approaching overthrow of the Roman Empire.
+The other was the secularization of the church.</p>
+<p>Men naturally cling to society as long as there exists any
+well-founded hope for its regeneration, but when every expectation
+for the survival of righteousness yields to a conviction that doom
+is inevitable, then the flight from the world begins. This was
+precisely the situation in the declining days of Rome and
+Alexandria, when Christian monasticism came into being. The monks
+believed that the end of the world was nigh, that all things
+temporal and earthly were doomed, and that God's hand was against
+the empire. "That they were correct in their judgment of the world
+about them," says Kingsley, "contemporary history proves
+abundantly. That they were correct, likewise, in believing that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page368"></a>[pg 368]</span> some
+fearful judgment was about to fall on man, is proved by the fact
+that it did fall."</p>
+<p>So they fled to escape being caught in the ruins of society's
+tottering structure,--fled to make friends with the angels and with
+God. If one cannot live purely in the midst of corruption, by all
+means let him live purely away from corruption, but let him never
+forget that his piety is of a lower order than that which abides
+uncorrupted in the midst of degenerate society. There is much truth
+in the observation of Charles Reade in "The Cloister and the
+Hearth": "So long as Satan walks the whole earth, tempting men, and
+so long as the sons of Belial do never lock themselves in caves but
+run like ants, to and fro corrupting others, the good man that
+sulks apart, plays the Devil's game, or at least gives him the
+odds."</p>
+<p>But the early Christian monks believed that their safety was
+only in flight. It was not altogether an unworthy motive; at least
+it is easy to sympathize with these men struggling against odds, of
+the magnitude of which the modern Christian has only the faintest
+conception.</p>
+<p>The conviction that the only true and certain <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page369"></a>[pg 369]</span> way to secure
+salvation is by flight from the world, continued to prevail during
+the succeeding centuries of monastic history, and it can hardly be
+said to have entirely disappeared even at the present time. Anselm
+of Canterbury, in the twelfth century, wrote to a young friend
+reminding him that the glory of this world was perishing. True, not
+monks only are saved, "but," says he, "who attains to salvation in
+the most certain, who in the most noble way, the man who seeks to
+love God alone, or he who seeks to unite the love of God with the
+love of the world?... Is it rational when danger is on every side,
+to remain where it is the greatest?"</p>
+<p>The Christian church set up an ideal of life which it was
+impossible to realize within her borders, and one which differed in
+many respects from the teachings of Jesus. Her demands involved a
+renunciation of the world, a superiority to all the enticements of
+bodily appetites, a lofty scorn of secular bonds and social
+concerns. A vigorous religious faith had conquered a mighty empire,
+but corruption attended its victory. The standard of Christian
+morals was lowered, or had at least degenerated <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page370"></a>[pg 370]</span> into a cold, formal
+ideal that no one was expected to realize; hence none strove to
+attain it but the monks. When Roman society with its selfishness,
+lust and worldliness, swept in through the open doors of the church
+and took possession of the sanctuary, those who had cherished the
+ascetic ideal gave up the fight against the world, and the flight
+from the world-church began. They could not tolerate this union of
+the church with a pagan state and an effete civilization. In some
+respects, as a few writers maintain, many of these hermits were
+like the old Jewish prophets, fighting single-handed against
+corruption in church and state, refusing to yield themselves as
+slaves to the authority of institutions that had forsaken the
+ideals of the past.</p>
+<p>Thus the conviction that the end of human society was nigh, and
+that the church could no longer serve as an asylum for the lovers
+of righteousness, with certain philosophical ideas respecting the
+body, the world and God, united to produce the assumption that
+salvation was more readily attainable in the deserts; and Christian
+monasticism, in its hermit form, began its long and eventful
+history.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page371"></a>[pg 371]</span>
+<h2><i><a name="Causes_of_Variations_in_Monasticism"></a>Causes of
+Variations in Monasticism</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Prominent among the causes producing variations in the monastic
+type was the influence of climatic conditions and race
+characteristics.</p>
+<p>The monasticism as well as the religion of the East has always
+differed from the monasticism and the religion of the West. The
+Eastern mind is mystical, dreamy, contemplative; the Western mind
+loves activity, is intensely practical. Representatives of the
+Eastern faiths in the recent Parliament of Religions accused the
+West of materialism, of loving the body more than the soul. They
+affected to despise all material prosperity, and gloried in their
+assumed superiority, on account of their love for religious
+contemplation. This radical difference between the races of the
+East and West is clearly seen in the monastic institution. Benedict
+embodied in his rules the spirit and active life of the West, and
+hence, the monastic system, then in danger of dying, or stagnating,
+revived and spread all over Europe. Again, the hermit life was
+ill-adapted to the West. Men could not live out of doors in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page372"></a>[pg 372]</span> Europe
+and subsist on small quantities of food as in Egypt. The rigors of
+the climate in Europe demanded an adaptation to new conditions.</p>
+<p>But aside from the differences between Eastern and Western
+monasticism, the Christian institution passed through a variety of
+changes. The growth of monasticism from the hermit stage to the
+cloistral life has already been described. To what shall the
+development of the community system be attributed? No religious
+institution can remain stationary, unaffected by the changing
+conditions of the society in which it exists. The progress of the
+intellect, and the development of social, political and industrial
+conditions, effect great transformations in religious
+organizations.</p>
+<p>The monastic institution grew up amid the radical changes of
+European society. In its early days it witnessed the invasion of
+the barbarians, which swept away old political divisions and
+destroyed many of the heritages of an ancient civilization. Then
+the process of reconstruction slowly began. New states were
+forming; nations were crystallizing. The barbarian was to lay the
+foundations of great cities and organize powerful <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page373"></a>[pg 373]</span> commonwealths out
+of wild but victorious tribes. The monk could not remain in hiding.
+He was brother to the roving warrior. The blood in his veins was
+too active to permit him to stand still amid the mighty whirl of
+events. Without entirely abandoning his cloistral life, he became a
+zealous missionary of the church among the barbarians, a patron of
+letters and of agriculture, in short a stirring participant in the
+work of civilization.</p>
+<p>Next came the crusades. Jerusalem was to be captured for Christ
+and the church. The monk then appeared as a crusade-preacher, a
+warrior on the battle-field, or a nurse in the military
+hospital.</p>
+<p>The rise of feudalism likewise wrought a change in the spirit
+and position of the monks. The feudal lord was master of his
+vassals. "The genius of feudalism," says Allen, "was a spirit of
+uncontrolled independence." So the abbot became a feudal lord with
+immense possessions and powers. He was no longer the obscure,
+spiritual father of a little family of monks, but a temporal lord
+also, an aristocrat, ruling wide territories, and dwelling in a
+monastery little different from the castle of the knight and often
+exceeding it in splendor. With <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page374"></a>[pg 374]</span> wealth came ease, and hard upon the
+heels of ease came laziness, arrogance, corruption.</p>
+<p>Then followed the marvelous intellectual awakening, the moral
+revival, the discoveries and inventions of the fifteenth and
+sixteenth centuries. The human mind at last had aroused itself from
+a long repose, or turned from a profitless activity into broad and
+fruitful fields. The corruption of the monasteries meant the laxity
+of vows, the cessation of ministration to the poor and the sick.
+Then arose the tender and loving Francis, with his call to poverty
+and to service. The independent exercise of the intellect gave
+birth to heresies, but the Dominicans appeared to preach them
+down.</p>
+<p>The growth of the secular spirit and the progress of the new
+learning were too much for the old monasticism. The monk had to
+adapt himself to a new age, an age that is impatient of mere
+contemplation, that spurns the rags of the begging friar and rebels
+against the fierce intolerance of the Dominican preaching. So,
+lastly, came the suave, determined, practical, cultured Jesuit,
+ready to comply, at least outwardly, with all the requirements of
+modern times. Does the new age reject monastic <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page375"></a>[pg 375]</span> seclusion? Very
+well, the Jesuit throws off his monastic garb and forsakes his
+cloister, to take his place among men. Are the ignorance and the
+filth of the begging friars offensive? The Jesuit is cultured,
+affable and spotlessly clean. Does the new age demand liberty?
+"Liberty," cries the Jesuit, "is the divine prerogative, colossal
+in proportion, springing straight from the broad basin of the
+soul's essence!"</p>
+<p>Such in its merest outlines is the story of the development of
+the monastic type and its causes.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Fundamental_Monastic_Vows"></a>The Fundamental
+Monastic Vows</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The ultimate monastic ideal was the purification of the soul,
+but when translated into definite, concrete terms, the immediate
+aim of the monk was to live a life of poverty, celibacy and
+obedience. Riches, marriage and self-will were regarded as forms of
+sinful gratification, which every holy man should abandon. The true
+Christian, according to monasticism, is poor, celibate and
+obedient. The three fundamental monastic vows should therefore
+receive special consideration.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page376"></a>[pg 376]</span>
+<p>1. The Vow of Poverty. The monks of all countries held the
+possession of riches to be a barrier to high spiritual attainments.
+In view of the fact that an inordinate love of wealth has proved
+disastrous to many nations, and that it is extremely difficult for
+a rich man to escape the hardening, enervating and corrupting
+influences of affluence, the position of the monks on this question
+is easily understood. The Christian monks based their vow of
+poverty upon the Bible, and especially upon the teachings of
+Christ, who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor. He
+said to the rich young man, "Sell all that thou hast and give to
+the poor." In commissioning the disciples to preach the gospel He
+said: "Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses;
+nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, nor shoes." In the
+discourse on counting the cost of discipleship, He said: "So
+therefore, whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he
+hath, he cannot be my disciple." He promised rewards to "every one
+that left houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or
+children, or lands for my name's sake." "It is easier," He once
+said, "for a <span class="pagenum"><a name="page377"></a>[pg
+377]</span> camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man
+to enter the kingdom of heaven." He portrayed the pauper Lazarus as
+participating in the joys of heaven, while the rich Dives endured
+the torments of the lost. As reported in Luke, He said, "Blessed
+are ye poor." He Himself was without a place to lay His head, a
+houseless wanderer upon the earth.</p>
+<p>The apostle James cries to the men of wealth: "Go to now, ye
+rich men, weep and howl, for your miseries that shall come upon
+you." John said: "Love not the world, neither the things that are
+in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is
+not in him."</p>
+<p>Whatever these passages, and many others of like import, may
+signify, it is not at all strange that Christians, living in times
+when wealth was abused, and when critical Biblical scholarship was
+unknown, should have understood Christ to command a life of poverty
+as an indispensable condition of true holiness.</p>
+<p>There are three ways of interpreting Christ's doctrine of
+wealth. First, it may be held that Jesus intended His teachings to
+be literally obeyed, not <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page378"></a>[pg 378]</span> only by His first disciples but by
+all His followers in subsequent years, and that such literal
+obedience is practicable, reasonable and conducive to the highest
+well-being of society. Secondly, it has been said that Jesus was a
+gentle and honest visionary, who erroneously believed that the
+possession of riches rendered religious progress impossible, but
+that strict compliance with His commands would be destructive of
+civilization. Laveleye declares that "if Christianity were taught
+and understood conformably to the spirit of its Founder, the
+existing social organism could not last a day." Thirdly, neither of
+these views seems to do justice to the spirit of Christ, for they
+fail to give proper recognition to many other injunctions of the
+Master and to many significant incidents in his public ministry.
+Exhaustive treatment of this subject is, of course, impossible
+here. Briefly it may be remarked, that Jesus looked upon wealth as
+tending oftentimes to foster an unsocial spirit. Rich men are
+liable to become enemies of the brotherhood Jesus sought to
+establish, by reason of their covetousness and contracted
+sympathies. The rich man is in danger of erecting false standards
+of manhood, of ignoring the highest <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page379"></a>[pg 379]</span> interests of the soul by an undue
+emphasis on the material. Wealth, in itself, is not an evil, but it
+is only a good when it is used to advance the real welfare of
+humanity. Jesus was not intent upon teaching economics. His purpose
+was to develop the man. It was the moral value and spiritual
+influence of material things that concerned him. Professor Shailer
+Mathews admirably states the true attitude of Jesus towards rich
+men: "Jesus was a friend neither of the working man nor the rich
+man as such. He calls the poor man to sacrifice as well as the rich
+man. He was the Son of Man, not the son of a class of men. But His
+denunciation is unsparing of those men who make wealth at the
+expense of souls; who find in capital no incentive to further
+fraternity; who endeavor so to use wealth as to make themselves
+independent of social obligations, and to grow fat with that which
+should be shared with society;--for those men who are gaining the
+world but are letting their neighbors fall among thieves and
+Lazarus rot among their dogs."</p>
+<p>Jesus was therefore not a foe to rich men as such, but to that
+antisocial, abnormal regard for wealth and its procurements, which
+leads to the creation <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page380"></a>[pg 380]</span> of class distinctions and impedes the
+full and free development of our common humanity along the lines of
+brotherly love and co&ouml;peration. A Christian may consistently
+be a rich man, provided he uses his wealth in furthering the true
+interests of society, and realizes, as respects his own person,
+that "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things
+which he possesseth." The error of monasticism consists in making
+poverty a virtue and an essential condition of the highest
+holiness. It is true that some callings preclude the prospect of
+fortune. The average clergyman cannot hope to amass wealth. The
+resident of a social settlement may possess capacities that would
+win success in business, but he must forego financial prospects if
+he expects to live and labor among the poor. In so far as the monks
+deliberately turned their backs on the material rewards of human
+endeavors that they might be free to devote themselves to the
+service of humanity, their vow of poverty was creditable and
+reasonable. But they erred when they exalted poverty as of itself
+commending them in a peculiar degree to the mercy of God.</p>
+<p>2. The Vow of Celibacy. "The moral merit <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page381"></a>[pg 381]</span> of celibacy," says
+Allen, "was harder to make out of the Scripture, doubtless, since
+family life is both at the foundation of civil society and the
+source of all the common virtues." The monks held that Christ and
+Paul both taught and practiced celibacy. In the early and middle
+ages celibacy was looked upon by all churchmen as in itself a
+virtue. The prevailing modern idea is that marriage is a holy
+institution, in no sense inferior in sacredness to any
+ecclesiastical order of life. He who antagonizes it plays into the
+hands of the foes to social purity and individual virtue.</p>
+<p>The ideas of Jerome, Ambrose, and all the early Fathers,
+respecting marriage, are still held by many ecclesiastics. One of
+them, in defending the celibacy of existing religious orders, says:
+"Celibacy is enjoined on these religious orders as a means to
+greater sanctification, greater usefulness, greater absorption in
+things spiritual, and to facilitate readier withdrawal from things
+earthly." He gives two reasons for the celibacy of the priesthood,
+which are all the more interesting because they substantially
+represent the opinions held by the Christian monks in all ages:
+First, "That the service of the priest <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page382"></a>[pg 382]</span> to God may be
+undivided and unrestrained." In support of this, he quotes I. Cor.,
+7: 32, 33, which reads: "But I would have you free from cares. He
+that is unmarried is careful for the things of the Lord, how he may
+please the Lord: but he that is married is careful for the things
+of the world, how he may please his wife." And secondly,
+"Celibacy," according to Trent, "is more blessed than marriage." He
+also quotes the words of Christ that there are "eunuchs for the
+kingdom of heaven's sake." He then adds: "It is desirable that
+those called to the ministry of the altar espouse a life of
+continence because holier and more angelic."</p>
+<p>It is generally admitted that the vow of celibacy was not
+demanded of the clergy in primitive Christian times. It was only
+after many years of bitter debate and in response to the growing
+influence of the monastic ideal, that celibacy finally came to be
+looked upon as the highest form of Christian virtue, and was
+enforced upon the clergy. As in the case of the vow of poverty,
+there certainly can be no reasonable objection to the individual
+adoption of celibacy, if one is either disinclined to marriage or
+feels that he can do better work unmarried. But <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page383"></a>[pg 383]</span> neither Scripture
+nor reason justifies the imposition of celibacy upon any man, nor
+the view that a life of continence is holier than marriage. It may
+be reverently said that God would be making an unreasonable demand
+upon mankind, if the holiness He requires conflicted with the
+proper satisfaction of those impulses He himself has deeply
+implanted in human nature.</p>
+<p>3. The Vow of Obedience. The monks were required to render
+absolute obedience to the will of their superiors, as the
+representatives of God. Dom Guigo, in his rules for the Carthusian
+Order, declares: "Moreover, if the Prior commands one of his
+religious to take more food, or to sleep for a longer time, in
+fact, whatever command may be given us by our Superior, we are not
+allowed to disobey, lest we should disobey God also, who commands
+us by the mouth of our Superior. All our practices of mortification
+and devotion would be fruitless and of no value, without this one
+virtue of obedience, which alone can make them acceptable to
+God."</p>
+<p>Thus a strict and uncomplaining obedience, not to the laws of
+God as interpreted by the individual <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page384"></a>[pg 384]</span> conscience, but to the judgment and
+will of a brother man, was demanded of the monks.</p>
+<blockquote>"Theirs not to reason why,<br>
+Theirs not to make reply,<br>
+Theirs but to do and die."</blockquote>
+<p>They were often severely beaten or imprisoned and sometimes
+mutilated for acts of disobedience. While the monks, especially the
+Friars and Jesuits, carried this principle of obedience to great
+extremes, yet in the barbarous ages its enforcement was sadly
+needed. Law and order were words which the untamed Goth could not
+comprehend. He had to be taught habits of obedience, a respect for
+the rights of others, and a proper appreciation of his duty to
+society for the common good. But while, at the beginning, the
+monastic vow of obedience helped to inculcate these desirable
+lessons, and vastly modified the ferocity of unchecked
+individualism, it tended, in the course of time, to generate a
+servile humility fatal to the largest and freest personal
+development. In the interests of passive obedience, it suppressed
+freedom of thought and action. Obedience became mechanical and
+unreasoning. The consequence was that the passion for individual
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page385"></a>[pg 385]</span> liberty
+was unduly restrained, and the extravagant claims of political and
+ecclesiastical tyrants were greatly strengthened.</p>
+<p>Such was the monastic ideal and such were some of the means
+employed to realize it. The ascetic spirit manifests itself in a
+great variety of ways, but all these visible and changing externals
+have one common source. "To cherish the religious principle," says
+William E. Channing," some have warred against their social
+affections, and have led solitary lives; some against their senses,
+and have abjured all pleasure in asceticism; some against reason,
+and have superstitiously feared to think; some against imagination,
+and have foolishly dreaded to read poetry or books of fiction; some
+against the political and patriotic principles, and have shrunk
+from public affairs,--all apprehending that if they were to give
+free range to their natural emotions their religious life would be
+chilled or extinguished."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page386"></a>[pg 386]</span>
+<h2><a name="IX"></a>IX</h2>
+<h2><i><a name="THE_EFFECTS_OF_MONASTICISM"></a>THE EFFECTS OF
+MONASTICISM</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>"We read history," said Wendell Phillips, "not through our eyes
+but through our prejudices." Yet if it were possible entirely to
+lay aside one's prepossessions respecting monastic history, it
+would still be no easy task to estimate the influences of the monks
+upon human life.</p>
+<p>In every field of thought and activity monasticism wrought good
+and evil. Education, industry, government and religion have been
+both furthered and hindered by the monks. What Francis Parkman said
+of the Roman Catholic Church is true of the monastic institution:
+"Clearly she is of earth, not of heaven; and her transcendently
+dramatic life is a type of the good and ill, the baseness and
+nobleness, the foulness and purity, the love and hate, the pride,
+passion, truth, falsehood, fierceness, and <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page387"></a>[pg 387]</span> tenderness, that
+battle in the restless heart of man."</p>
+<p>A careful and sympathetic survey of monastic history compels the
+conclusion that monasticism, while not uniformly a blessing to the
+world, was not an unmitigated evil. The system presents one long
+series of perplexities and contradictions. One historian shuts his
+eyes to its pernicious effects, or at least pardons its
+transgressions, on the ground that perfection in man or in
+institutions is unattainable. Another condemns the whole system,
+believing that the sum of its evils far outweighs whatever benefits
+it may have conferred upon mankind. Schaff cuts the Gordian knot,
+maintaining that the contradiction is easily solved on the theory
+that it was not monasticism, as such, which has proved a blessing
+to the Church and the world. "It was Christianity in monasticism,"
+he says, "which has done all the good, and used this abnormal mode
+of life as a means of carrying forward its mission of love and
+peace."</p>
+<p>To illustrate the diversities of opinion on this subject, and
+incidentally to show how difficult it is to present a
+well-balanced, symmetrically fair and just estimate of the monastic
+institution as a whole, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page388"></a>[pg 388]</span> contrast the opinions of four
+celebrated men. Pius IX. refers to the, monks as "those chosen
+phalanxes of the army of Christ which have always been the bulwark
+and ornament of the Christian republic as well as of civil
+society." But then he was the Pope of Rome, the Arch-prelate of the
+Church. "Monk," fiercely demands Voltaire, "Monk, what is that
+profession of thine? It is that of having none, of engaging one's
+self by an inviolable oath to be a fool and a slave, and to live at
+the expense of others." But he was the philosophical skeptic of
+Paris. "Where is the town," cries Montalembert, "which has not been
+founded or enriched or protected by some religious community? Where
+is the church which owes not to them a patron, a relic, a pious and
+popular tradition? Wherever there is a luxuriant forest, a pure
+stream, a majestic hill, we may be sure that religion has left
+there her stamp by the hand of the monk." But this was
+Montalembert, the Roman Catholic historian, and the avowed champion
+of the monks. "A cruel, unfeeling temper," writes Gibbon, "has
+distinguished the monks of every age and country; their stern
+indifference, which is seldom mollified by personal <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page389"></a>[pg 389]</span> friendship, is
+inflamed by religious hatred; and their merciless zeal has
+strenuously administered the holy office of the Inquisition." But
+this was Gibbon, the hater of everything monastic. Between these
+extreme views lies a wide field upon which many a deathless duel
+has been fought by the writers of monastic history.</p>
+<p>The variety of judgments respecting the nature and effects of
+monasticism is partly due to the diversity in the facts of its
+history. Monasticism was the friend and the foe of true religion.
+It was the inspiration of virtue and the encouragement of vice. It
+was the patron of industry and the promoter of idleness. It was a
+pioneer in education and the teacher of superstition. It was the
+disburser of alms and a many-handed robber. It was the friend of
+human liberty and the abettor of tyranny. It was the champion of
+the common people and the defender of class privileges. It was, in
+short, everything that man was and is, so varied were its
+operations, so complex was its influence, so comprehensive was its
+life.</p>
+<p>Of some things we may be certain. Any religious institution or
+ideal of life that has survived the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page390"></a>[pg 390]</span> changes of twelve centuries, and that
+has enlisted the enthusiastic services and warmest sympathies of
+numerous men and women who have been honorably distinguished for
+their intellectual attainments and moral character, must have
+possessed elements of truth and moral worth. A contemptuous
+treatment of monasticism implies either an ignorance of its real
+history or a wilful disregard of the deep significance of its
+commendable features.</p>
+<p>It is also certain that while the methods of monasticism, judged
+by their effects upon the individual and upon society, may be
+justly censured, it is beyond question that many monks, groping
+their way toward the light in an age of ignorance and superstition,
+were inspired by the purest motives. "Conscience," observes
+Waddington, "however misguided, cannot be despised by a reflecting
+mind. When it leads one to self-sacrifice and moral fortitude we
+cannot but admire his spirit, while we condemn his sagacity and
+method."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name=
+"The_Effects_of_Self-Sacrifice_Upon_the_Individual"></a>The Effects
+of Self-Sacrifice Upon the Individual</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Christianity requires some sort of self-denial as the condition
+of true Christian discipleship. Self-love <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page391"></a>[pg 391]</span> is to yield to a
+love of others. In some sense, the Christian is to become dead to
+the world and its demoralizing pleasures. But this primal demand
+upon the soul needs to be interpreted. What is it to love the
+world? What is it to keep the body in subjection? What are harmful
+indulgences? To give wrong answers to these questions is to set up
+a false ideal; the more strenuously such false ideal is followed,
+the more disastrous are the consequences. One's struggle for moral
+purity may end in failure, and one's efficiency for good may be
+seriously impaired by a perversion of the principle of
+self-abnegation. Unnatural severity and excessive abstinence often
+produce the opposite effect from that intended. Instead of a
+peaceful mind there is delirium, and instead of freedom from
+temptation there are a thousand horrible fiends hovering in the air
+and ready, at any moment, to pounce upon their prey. "The history
+of ascetics," says Martensen, "teaches us that by such overdone
+fasting the fancy is often excited to an amazing degree, and in its
+airy domain affords the very things that one thought to have
+buried, by means of mortification, a magical resurrection." In
+attempting to subdue the body, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page392"></a>[pg 392]</span> many necessary requirements of the
+physical organism were totally ignored. The body rebelled against
+such unnatural treatment, and the mind, so closely related to it,
+in its distraction, gave birth to the wildest fancies. Men, who
+would have possessed an ordinarily pure mind in some useful
+occupation of life, became the prey of the most lewd and obnoxious
+imaginations. Then they fancied themselves vile above their
+fellows, and laid on more stripes, put more thorns upon their
+pillows, and fasted more hours, only to find that instead of
+fleeing, the devils became blacker and more numerous.</p>
+<p>Self-forgetfulness is the key to happiness. The monk thought
+otherwise, and slew himself in his vain attempt to fight against
+nature. He never lifted his eyes from his own soul. He was always
+feeling his spiritual pulse, staring at his lean spiritual visage,
+and tearfully watching his growth in grace. An interest in others
+and a strong mind in a strong body are the best antidotes to
+religious despair and the temptations of the soul. Life in the
+monastery was generally less severe than in the desert's solitude.
+There was more and better food, shelter, and comfort, but there
+were many unnecessary and unnatural <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page393"></a>[pg 393]</span> restrictions, even in the best days
+of monasticism. There were too many hours of prayer, too many
+needless regulations for silence, fasting and penance, to produce a
+healthy, vigorous type of religious life.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name=
+"The_Effects_of_Solitude_Upon_the_Individual"></a>The Effects of
+Solitude Upon the Individual</i>.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>It has already been shown that some solitude is essential to our
+richest culture. Our higher nature demands time for reflection and
+meditation. But the monks carried this principle to an extreme, and
+they overestimated its benefits. "Ambition, avarice, irresolution,
+fear, and inordinate desires," says Montaigne, "do not leave us
+because we forsake our native country, they often follow us even to
+cloisters and philosophical schools; nor deserts, nor caves, nor
+hair shirts, nor fasts, can disengage us from them."</p>
+<p>Besides these passions, which the monks carried with them, their
+solitary life tended to foster spiritual pride, contract sympathy,
+and engender an inhumane spirit. True, there were exceptions; but
+the sublime characters which survive in monastic history are by no
+means typical of its usual <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page394"></a>[pg 394]</span> effects. Seclusion did not benefit
+the average monk. Indeed there is something wanting in even the
+loftiest monastic characters. "The heroes of monasticism," says
+Allen, "are not the heroes of modern life. All put together, they
+would not furnish out one such soul as William of Orange, or
+Gustavus, or Milton. Independence of thought and liberty of
+conscience, they renounced once for all, in taking upon them the
+monastic vow. All the larger enterprises, all the broad humanities,
+which to our mind make a greater career, were rigidly shut off by a
+barrier that could not be crossed. All the warmth and wealth of
+social and domestic life was a field of forbidden fruit, to be
+entered only through the gate of unpardonable sin."</p>
+<p>Thus self-excluded from a normal life in society, often the
+subject of self-inflicted pain, it is no wonder that the monk
+impaired all the nobler and manlier feelings of the soul, that he
+became strangely indifferent to human affection, that bigotry and
+pride often sat as joint rulers on the throne of his heart. He who
+had trampled on all filial relations would scarcely recognize the
+bonds of human brotherhood. He who heard not the prayer of his own
+mother <span class="pagenum"><a name="page395"></a>[pg 395]</span>
+would not be likely to listen to the cry of the tortured heretic
+for mercy. Man as man was not reverenced. It was the monk in man
+who was esteemed. As Milman puts it, "Bigotry has always found its
+readiest and sternest executioners among those who have never known
+the charities of life."</p>
+<p>Nor is it a matter of surprise that the monk was spiritually
+proud. He was supposed to stand in the inner circle, a little
+nearer the throne of God than his fellow-mortals. When dead, he was
+worshiped as a saint and regarded as an intercessor between God and
+his lower fellow-creatures. His hatred of the base world easily
+passed over into a sense of superiority and ignoble pride.</p>
+<p>"True social life," says Martensen, "leads to solitude." This
+truth the monks emphasized to the exclusion of the converse, "true
+life in solitude leads back to society." John Tauler, the mystic
+monk, realized this truth when he said: "If God calls me to a sick
+person, or to the service of preaching, or to any other service of
+love, I must follow, although I am in the state of highest
+contemplation." The hermits of the desert, and too often the monks
+of the cloister, escaped from all such services, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page396"></a>[pg 396]</span> and selfishly gave
+themselves up to saving their own souls by contemplation and
+prayer. Ministration to the needy is the external side of the inner
+religious life. It is the fruit of faith and prayer. The monk
+sought solitude, not for the purpose of fitting himself for a place
+in society, but for selfish, personal ends. Saint Bruno, in a
+letter to his friend Ralph le Verd, eulogizes the solitude of the
+monastic cell, and among other sentiments he gives expression to
+the following: "I am speaking here of the contemplative life; and
+although its sons are less numerous than those of active life, yet,
+like Joseph and Benjamin, they are infinitely dearer to their
+Father.... O my brother, fear not then to fly from the turmoil and
+the misery of the world; leave the storms that rage without, to
+shelter yourself in this safe haven."</p>
+<p>Thus sinful and sorrowing humanity, needing the guidance and
+comfort that holy men can furnish, was forgotten in the desire for
+personal peace and future salvation.</p>
+<p>Another baneful result of isolation was the strangulation of
+filial love. When the monk abandoned the softening, refining
+influence of women and children, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page397"></a>[pg 397]</span> one side of his nature suffered a
+serious contraction. An Egyptian mother stood at the hut of two
+hermits, her sons. Weeping bitterly, she begged to see their faces.
+To her piteous entreaties, they said: "Why do you, who are already
+stricken with age, pour forth such cries and lamentations?" "It is
+because I long to see you," she replied. "Am I not your mother? I
+am now an old and wrinkled woman, and my heart is troubled at the
+sound of your voices." But even a mother's love could not cope with
+their fearful fanaticism., and she went away with their cold
+promise that they would meet in heaven. St. John of Calama visited
+his sister in disguise, and a chronicler, telling the story
+afterwards, said, "By the mercy of Jesus Christ he had not been
+recognized, and they never met again." Many hermits received their
+parents or brothers and sisters with their eyes shut. When the
+father of Simeon Stylites died, his widowed mother prayed for
+entrance into her son's cell. For three days and nights she stood
+without, and then the blessed Simeon prayed the Lord for her, and
+she immediately gave up the ghost.</p>
+<p>These as well as numerous other stories of a similar
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page398"></a>[pg 398]</span>
+character that might be quoted illustrate the hardening influence
+of solitude. Instead of cherishing a love of kindred, as a gift of
+heaven and a spring of virtue, the monk spurned it and trampled it
+beneath his feet as an obstacle to his spiritual progress. "The
+monks," says Milman, "seem almost unconscious of the softening,
+humanizing effect of the natural affections, the beauty of parental
+tenderness and filial love."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Monks_as_Missionaries"></a>The Monks as
+Missionaries</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The conversion of the barbarians was an indispensable condition
+of modern civilization. Every step forward had to be taken in the
+face of barbaric ignorance and cruelty. In this stupendous
+undertaking the monks led the way, displaying in their labors
+remarkable generalship and undaunted courage. Whatever may be
+thought of later monasticism, the Benedictine monks are entitled to
+the lasting gratitude of mankind for their splendid services in
+reducing barbaric Europe to some sort of order and civilization.
+But again the mixture of good and evil is strangely illustrated. It
+seems <span class="pagenum"><a name="page399"></a>[pg 399]</span>
+impossible to accord the monks unqualified praise. The potency of
+the evil tendencies within their system vitiated every noble
+achievement. Their methods and practical ideals were so at variance
+with the true order of nature that every commendable victory
+involved a corresponding obstacle to real social and religious
+progress. The justice of these observations will be more apparent
+as this inquiry proceeds.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Monasticism_and_Civic_Duties"></a>Monasticism and
+Civic Duties</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>The withdrawal of a considerable number of men of character and
+talent from the exercise of civic duties is injurious to the state.
+The burdens upon those who remain become heavier, while society is
+deprived of the moral influence of those who forsake their civic
+responsibilities. When the monk, from the outside as it were,
+attempted to exert an influence for good, he largely failed. His
+ideals of life were not formulated in a real world, but in an
+artificial, antisocial environment. He was unable to appreciate the
+political needs of men. He could not enter sympathetically into
+their serious employments <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page400"></a>[pg 400]</span> or innocent delights. Controlled by
+superstition, and exalting a servile obedience to human authority,
+he became a very unsafe guide in political affairs. He could not
+consistently labor for secular progress, because he had forsaken a
+world in which secular interests were prominent.</p>
+<p>It may be true that in the early days of monasticism the monks
+pursued the proper course in refusing to become Roman patriots. No
+human power could have averted the ruin which overtook that corrupt
+world. Perhaps their non-combatant attitude gave them more
+influence with the conquerors of Rome, who were to become the
+founders of modern nations.</p>
+<p>In later years, the abbots of the principal monasteries occupied
+seats in the legislative assemblies of Germany, Hungary, Spain,
+England, Italy, and France. In many instances they stood between
+the violence of the nobles and the unprotected vassal. Political
+monks, inspired by a natural breadth of vision and a love of
+humanity, secured the passage of wise and humane regulations.
+Palgrave says: "The mitre has resisted many blows which would have
+broken the helmet, and the crosier has kept <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page401"></a>[pg 401]</span> more foes in awe
+than the lance. It is, then, to these prelates that we chiefly owe
+the maintenance of the form and spirit of free government, secured
+to us, not by force, but by law; and the altar has thus been the
+corner-stone of our ancient constitution."</p>
+<p>Although there is much truth in the foregoing observation, yet
+on the other hand, when the influence of the monastic ideal upon
+civilization is studied in its deeper aspects, it cannot be justly
+maintained that the final effects of monasticism minister to the
+development of a normal civilization. Industrial, mental and moral
+progress depend upon a certain breadth of mind and energy of soul.
+Asceticism saps the vitality of human nature and confines the
+activity of the mind within artificial limits. "Hence the dreary,
+sterile torpor," says Lecky, "that characterized those ages in
+which the ascetic principle has been supreme, while the
+civilizations which have attained the highest perfection have been
+those of ancient Greece and modern Europe, which were most opposed
+to it."</p>
+<p>The monks did not hesitate to become embroiled in military
+quarrels, or to incite the fiercer passions of men when it suited
+their purpose. Their opposition <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page402"></a>[pg 402]</span> to kings and princes was often not
+based on a love of popular freedom, but on an indisposition to
+share power with secular rulers. The legislative enactments against
+heretics, many of which they inspired, clearly show that they
+neither desired nor tolerated liberty of speech or conduct. They
+were the Almighty's vicars on earth, before whom it was the duty of
+king and subject to bow down. Vaughan writes of the period just
+prior to the Reformation: "The great want was freedom from
+ecclesiastical domination; and from the feeling of the hour,
+scarcely any price would be deemed too great to be paid for that
+object." The history of modern Jesuitism, against which the
+legislation of almost every civilized nation has been directed,
+affords abundant testimony to the inherent hostility of the
+monastic system, even in its modified modern form, to every species
+of government which in any way guarantees freedom of thought to its
+people. This stern fact confronts the student, however much he may
+be inclined to yield homage to the early monks. It must be held in
+mind when one reads this pleasing sentence from Macaulay: "Surely a
+system which, however deformed by superstition, introduced strong
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page403"></a>[pg 403]</span> moral
+restraints into communities previously governed only by vigor of
+muscle and by audacity of spirit, a system which taught the
+fiercest and mightiest ruler that he was, like his meanest bondman,
+a responsible being, might have seemed to deserve a more respectful
+mention from philosophers and philanthropists."</p>
+<p>The general effect of monasticism on the state is, therefore,
+not to be determined by fixing the gaze on any one century of its
+history, or by holding up some humane and patriotic monk as a
+representative product of the system.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Agricultural_Services_of_the_Monks"></a>The
+Agricultural Services of the Monks</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>Europe must ever be indebted to Benedict and his immediate
+followers for their services in reclaiming waste lands, and in
+removing the stigma which a corrupt civilization had placed upon
+labor. Benedict came before the world saying: "No person is ever
+more usefully employed than when working with his hands or
+following the plough, providing food for the use of man." Care was
+taken that councils should not be called when ploughing was to be
+done <span class="pagenum"><a name="page404"></a>[pg 404]</span> or
+wheat to be threshed. Benedict bent himself to the task of teaching
+the rich and the proud, the poor and the lazy the alphabet of
+prosperity and happiness. Agriculture was at its lowest ebb.
+Marshes covered once fertile fields, and the men who should have
+tilled the land spurned the plough as degrading, or were too
+indolent to undertake the tasks of the farm. The monks left their
+cells and their prayers to dig ditches and plough fields. The
+effect was magical. Men once more turned back to a noble but
+despised industry. Peace and plenty supplanted war and poverty.
+"The Benedictines," says Guizot, "have been the great clearers of
+land in Europe. A colony, a little swarm of monks, settled in
+places nearly uncultivated, often in the midst of a pagan
+population--in Germany, for example, or in Brittany; there, at once
+missionaries and laborers, they accomplish their double service,
+through peril and fatigue."</p>
+<p>It is to be regretted that history throws a shadow across this
+pleasing scene. When labor came to be recognized as honorable and
+useful, along came the begging friars, creating, both by precept
+and example, a prejudice against labor and wealth. Rags and
+laziness <span class="pagenum"><a name="page405"></a>[pg
+405]</span> came to be associated with holiness, and a beggar monk
+was held up as an ideal and sacred personage. "The spirit that
+makes men devote themselves in vast numbers," says Lecky, "to a
+monotonous life of asceticism and poverty is so essentially opposed
+to the spirit that creates the energy and enthusiasm of industry,
+that their continued coexistence may be regarded as impossible."
+But such a fatal mistake could not long captivate the mind, or
+cause men to forget Benedict and his industrial ideal. The
+blessings of wealth rightly administered, and the dignity of labor
+without which wealth is impossible, came to be recognized as
+necessary factors in the true progress of man.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Monks_and_Secular_Learning"></a>The Monks and
+Secular Learning</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>For many centuries, as has been previously shown, the monks were
+the schoolmasters of Europe. They also preserved the manuscripts of
+the classics, produced numerous theological works, transmitted many
+pious traditions, and wrote some interesting and some worthless
+chronicles. They laid the foundations of several great
+universities, including those <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page406"></a>[pg 406]</span> of Paris, Oxford and Cambridge. For
+these, and other valuable services, the monks merit the praise of
+posterity. It is, however, too much to affirm, as Montalembert
+does, that "without the monks, we should have been as ignorant of
+our history as children." It is altogether improbable that the
+human mind would have been unproductive in the field of historical
+writing had monasticism not existed during the middle ages. While,
+also, the monks should be thanked for preserving the classics, it
+should not be supposed that all knowledge of Latin and Greek
+literature would have perished but for them.</p>
+<p>It is surprising that the literary men of the medieval period
+should have written so little of interest to the modern mind, or
+that helps us to an understanding of the momentous events amid
+which they lived. Unfortunately the monkish mind was concentrated
+upon a theology, the premises of which have been largely set aside
+by modern science. Their writings are so permeated by grotesque
+superstitions that they are practically worthless to-day. Their
+hostility to secular affairs blinded them to the tremendous
+significance of the mighty political and social movements of the
+age.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page407"></a>[pg 407]</span>
+<p>It is undeniable that the monks never encouraged a love of
+secular learning. They did not try to impart a love of the classics
+which they preserved. The spirit of monasticism was ever at war
+with true intellectual progress. The monks imprisoned Roger Bacon
+fourteen years, and tried to blast his fair name by calling him a
+magician, merely because he stepped beyond the narrow limits of
+monkish inquiry. Many suffered indignities, privations or death for
+questioning tradition or for conducting scientific researches.</p>
+<p>So while it is true that the monks rendered many services to the
+cause of education, it is also true that their monastic theories
+tended to narrow the scope of intellectual activity. "This," says
+Guizot, "is the foundation of their instruction; all was turned
+into commentary of the Scriptures, historical, philosophical,
+allegorical, moral commentary. They desired only to form priests;
+all studies, whatsoever their nature, were directed to this
+result." There was no disinterested love of learning; no desire to
+become acquainted with God's world. In fact, the old hostility to
+everything natural characterizes all monastic history. Europe did
+not enter upon that broad and noble intellectual development
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page408"></a>[pg 408]</span> which
+is the glory of our era, until the right arm of monasticism was
+struck down, the dread of heresy banished from the human mind, and
+secular learning welcomed as a legitimate and elevated field for
+mental activity.</p>
+<p>Hamilton W. Mabie, in his delightful essay on "Some Old
+Scholars," describes this step from the gloom of the cloister to
+the light of God's world: "Petrarch really escaped from a sepulcher
+when he stepped out of the cloister of medievalism, with its
+crucifix, its pictures of unhealthy saints, its cords of
+self-flagellation, and found the heavens clear, beautiful, and well
+worth living under, and the world full of good things which one
+might desire and yet not be given over to evil. He ventured to look
+at life for himself and found it full of wonderful dignity and
+power. He opened his Virgil, brushed aside the cobwebs which
+monkish brains had spun over the beautiful lines, and met the old
+poet as one man meets another; and lo! there arose before him a
+new, untrodden and wholly human world, free from priestcraft and
+pedantry, near to nature and unspeakably alluring and
+satisfying."</p>
+<p>The Dominicans and Jesuits set their faces like <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page409"></a>[pg 409]</span> flint against all
+education tending to liberalize the mind. Here is a passage from a
+document published by the Jesuits at their first centenary: "It is
+undeniable that we have undertaken a great and uninterrupted war in
+the interests of the Catholic church against heresy. Heresy need
+never hope that the society will make terms with it, or remain
+quiescent ... No peace need be expected, for the seed of hatred is
+born within us. What Hamilcar was to Hannibal, Ignatius is to us.
+At his instigation, we have sworn upon the altars eternal war."
+When this proclamation is read in the light of history, its meaning
+stands forth with startling clearness. Almost every truth in
+science and philosophy, no matter how valuable it was destined to
+become as an agent in enhancing the well-being of the race, has had
+to wear the stigma of heresy.</p>
+<p>It is an interesting speculation to imagine what the
+intellectual development of Europe would have been, had secular
+learning been commended by the monks, and the common people
+encouraged to exercise their minds without fear of excommunication
+or death. It is sad to reflect how many great thoughts must have
+perished still-born in the student's cloister <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page410"></a>[pg 410]</span> cell, and to
+picture the silent grief with which many a brilliant soul must have
+repressed his eager imagination.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="The_Charity_of_the_Monks"></a>The Charity of the
+Monks</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>In the eleventh century, a monk named Thieffroy wrote the
+following: "It matters little that our churches rise to heaven,
+that the capitals of their pillars are sculptured and gilded, that
+our parchment is tinted purple, that gold is melted to form the
+letters of our manuscripts, and that their bindings are set with
+precious stones, if we have little or no care for the members of
+Christ, and if Christ himself lies naked and dying before our
+doors." This spirit, so charmingly expressed, was never quite
+absent from the monkish orders. The monasteries were asylums for
+the hungry during famines, and the sick during plagues. They served
+as hotels where the traveler found a cordial welcome, comfortable
+shelter and plain food. If he needed medical aid, his wants were
+supplied. During the black plague, while many monks fled with the
+multitude, others stayed at their posts and were to be found
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page411"></a>[pg 411]</span> daily
+in the homes of the stricken, ministering to their bodily and
+spiritual needs. Many of them perished in their heroic and
+self-sacrificing labors.</p>
+<p>Alms-giving was universally enjoined as a sure passport to
+heaven. The most glittering rewards were held out to those who
+enriched the monks with legacies to be used in relief of the poor.
+It was, no doubt, the unselfish activities of the monks that caused
+them to be held in such high esteem; the result was their coffers
+were filled with more gold than they could easily give away. Thus
+abuses grew up. Bernard said: "Piety gave birth to wealth, and the
+daughter devoured the mother." Jacob of Vitry complained that
+money, "by various and deceptive tricks," was exacted from the
+people by the monks, most of which adhered "to their unfaithful
+fingers." While Lecky eloquently praises the monks for their
+beautiful deeds of charity, "following all the windings of the poor
+man's grief," still he condones in the strongest terms the action
+of Henry VIII. in transferring the monastic funds to his own
+treasury: "No misapplication of this property by private persons
+could produce as much evil as an unrestrained monasticism."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page412"></a>[pg 412]</span>
+<p>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.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Monasticism_and_Religion"></a>Monasticism and
+Religion</i></h2>
+<br>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>The effect of the monastic ideal was to emphasize <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page413"></a>[pg 413]</span> 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."</p>
+<p>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
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page414"></a>[pg 414]</span> 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.</p>
+<p>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 <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page415"></a>[pg 415]</span> 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.</p>
+<p>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."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page416"></a>[pg 416]</span>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>The influence of monasticism upon the doctrine <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page417"></a>[pg 417]</span> 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.</p>
+<p>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[<a href="#NOTE_K">K</a>]."</p>
+<p>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,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page418"></a>[pg 418]</span> 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."</p>
+<p>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 <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page419"></a>[pg 419]</span> 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.</p>
+<p>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 <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page420"></a>[pg 420]</span> 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.</p>
+<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="page421"></a>[pg
+421]</span> the recluse, who scorns the world of secular
+affairs.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<blockquote>"God is in all that liberates and lifts,<br>
+In all that humbles, sweetens, and consoles."</blockquote>
+<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page422"></a>[pg 422]</span> its hold upon the modern man because
+the ancient ideas of God and his world, upon which it thrived, have
+passed away.</p>
+<p>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 <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page423"></a>[pg 423]</span> heroic struggle
+with inveterate ignorance and sin, the history of which flashes
+many a welcome light upon the problems of modern democracy and
+religion.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page424"></a>[pg 424]</span><br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page425"></a>[pg 425]</span>
+<h2><a name="APPENDIX"></a>APPENDIX</h2>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_A"></a>NOTE A</h3>
+<br>
+<p>The derivation and meaning of a few monastic terms may be of
+interest to the reader.</p>
+<p>Abbot, from [Greek: abba], literally, father. A title originally
+given to any monk, but afterwards restricted to the head or
+superior of a monastery.</p>
+<p>Anchoret, anchorite, from the Greek, [Greek:
+anachor&ecirc;t&ecirc;s], 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.</p>
+<p>Ascetic, [Greek: ask&ecirc;t&ecirc;s], 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.</p>
+<p>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: kan&ocirc;n], 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).</p>
+<p>Cenobite, from the Greek, [Greek: koinos], common, and [Greek:
+bios], life; applied to those living in monasteries.</p>
+<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="page426"></a>[pg 426]</span>
+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.</p>
+<p>Cloister, from the Latin, <i>Claustra</i>, that which closes or
+shuts, an inclosure; hence, a place of religious retirement, a
+monastery.</p>
+<p>Hermit, or eremite, from the Greek, [Greek: her&ecirc;mos],
+desolate, solitary. One who dwells alone apart from society, or
+with but few companions. Not used of those who dwell in
+cloisters.</p>
+<p>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, <i>convenire</i>, to meet together.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>Nun, from <i>nouna</i>, i.e., chaste, holy. "The word is
+probably of Coptic origin, and occurs as early as in Jerome."
+(Schaff).</p>
+<p>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 <i>religiosi</i> or <i>regulares</i>. Afterwards a
+distinction was made between parish priests, or secular clergy, and
+the monks, or regular clergy.</p>
+<p>For more detailed information on these and other monastic words,
+see The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, and McClintock and
+Strong's Encyclopedia.</p>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_B"></a>NOTE B</h3>
+<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="page427"></a>[pg
+427]</span> meeting-houses were everywhere sacked and burned. As a
+philosophical school Pythagoreanism became extinct about the middle
+of the fourth century.</p>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_C"></a>NOTE C</h3>
+<p>The Encyclop&aelig;dia Brittanica divides the monastic
+institutions into five classes:</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>There were really four distinct stages in the development of the
+monastic institution:</p>
+<p>1. Asceticism. Clergy and laymen practiced various forms of
+self-denial without becoming actual monks.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>3. Coenobitism, or monastic life proper, consisting of
+associations of monks under one roof, and ruled by an abbot.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="page428"></a>[pg
+428]</span> cloister to become teachers, preachers or missionary
+workers in various fields.</p>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_D"></a>NOTE D</h3>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>Lauds, a religious service in connection with matins; so called
+from the reiterated ascriptions of praise to God in the psalms.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>Tierce, terce. The third hour; half-way between sunrise and
+noon.</p>
+<p>Sext. The sixth hour, originally and properly said at
+midday.</p>
+<p>None, noon. The ninth hour from sunrise, or the middle hour
+between midday and sunset--that is, about 3 o'clock.</p>
+<p>Vespers, the next to the last of the canonical hours--the
+even-song.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>B.V.M.--Blessed Virgin Mary.</p>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_E"></a>NOTE E</h3>
+<p>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.</p>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_F"></a>NOTE F</h3>
+<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="page429"></a>[pg
+429]</span> 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.</p>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_G"></a>NOTE G</h3>
+<p>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.</p>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_H"></a>NOTE H</h3>
+<p>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
+"<i>Theologia Moralis</i>," and Gury's "<i>Compendium Theologioe
+Moralis</i>" and "<i>Casus Conscienti&aelig;</i>." 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 "<i>Dictionnaire de cas de
+Conscience</i>."</p>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_I"></a>NOTE I</h3>
+<p>The student may profitably study the life and teachings of
+Wyclif in their bearing upon the destruction of the monasteries.
+Wyclif was <span class="pagenum"><a name="page430"></a>[pg
+430]</span> 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.</p>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_J"></a>NOTE J</h3>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page431"></a>[pg 431]</span>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>No European country had so many religious houses in proportion
+to its population and area as Portugal. In 1834 the number
+suppressed exceeded 500.</p>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="NOTE_K"></a>NOTE K</h3>
+<p>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: <i>Charity in the heart, truth on the lips, and purity
+of life</i>; if we are wanting in these, we are unworthy of the
+name of Christian."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>THE END</h2>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page432"></a>[pg 432]</span><br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page433"></a>[pg 433]</span>
+<h2><a name="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2>
+<div class="indx">
+<div class="letter">
+<p>A</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Abbey, <i>see</i> <a href="#Monastery">Monastery.</a></p>
+<p>Abbot, meaning of word, <a href='#page425'>425</a>; as father of
+family of monks, <a href='#page143'>143</a>; election of, <a href=
+'#page144'>144</a>; description of installation of, <a href=
+'#page145'>145</a>; wealth and political influence of, <a href=
+'#page147'>147</a>; disorders among lay, <a href=
+'#page179'>179</a>; as a feudal lord, <a href='#page373'>373</a>;
+in legislative assemblies, <a href='#page400'>400</a>.</p>
+<p>Abelard opposed by Bernard, <a href='#page196'>196</a>.</p>
+<p>Abraham, St., the hermit, <a href='#page50'>50</a>; quoted,
+<a href='#page60'>60</a>.</p>
+<p>Abstinence, no virtue in false, <a href='#page419'>419</a>.</p>
+<p>Accountability, personal, sense of maintained by monks, <a href=
+'#page414'>414</a>.</p>
+<p>Act of Succession, <a href='#page298'>298</a>.</p>
+<p>Agriculture, monasteries centers of, <a href='#page155'>155</a>;
+and the Cistercian monks, <a href='#page192'>192</a>; fostered by
+monks, <a href='#page403'>403</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Benedict">Benedict</a>, Order of St.</p>
+<p>Alaric the Goth sacks Rome, <a href='#page103'>103</a>.</p>
+<p>Albans, St., Abbey of, Morton on its vices, <a href=
+'#page338'>338</a>.</p>
+<p>Albertus Magnus, a Dominican, <a href='#page242'>242</a>.</p>
+<p>Albigensians, Hallam on doctrines of, <a href=
+'#page232'>232</a>; Hardwick on same, <a href='#page233'>233</a>;
+Dominic preaches against, <a href='#page234'>234</a>; Dominic's
+part in crusade against, <a href='#page235'>235</a>.</p>
+<p>Alcuin, on corruptions of monks, <a href='#page173'>173</a>;
+education and, <a href='#page167'>167</a>.</p>
+<p>Alexander IV., Pope, on the stigmata of St. Francis, <a href=
+'#page221'>221</a>; and the University of Paris quarrel, <a href=
+'#page250'>250</a>.</p>
+<p>Alfred, King, the Great, complains of monks, <a href=
+'#page173'>173</a>; his reformatory measures, <a href=
+'#page181'>181</a>.</p>
+<p>Alien Priories, confiscated, <a href='#page338'>338</a>; origin
+of, <a href='#page340'>340</a>.</p>
+<p>Allen, on the fate of the Templars, <a href='#page202'>202</a>;
+on Dominic and the Albigensian crusade, <a href='#page238'>238</a>;
+on spiritual pride of the Mendicants, <a href='#page257'>257</a>;
+on the genius of feudalism, <a href='#page373'>373</a>; on the
+deficiencies of monastic characters, <a href=
+'#page394'>394</a>.</p>
+<p>Alms-giving, <i>see</i> <a href="#Charity">Charity.</a></p>
+<p>Alverno, Mount, and the stigmata of St. Francis, <a href=
+'#page219'>219</a>.</p>
+<p>Ambrose, embraces ascetic Christianity, <a href=
+'#page84'>84</a>; Theodosius on, <a href='#page115'>115</a>; saying
+of Gibbon applied to, <a href='#page116'>116</a>; describes
+Capraria, <a href='#page126'>126</a>; his influence on Milanese
+women, <a href='#page126'>126</a>.</p>
+<p>Ammonius, the hermit, visits Rome, <a href='#page72'>72</a>.</p>
+<p>Anglicans, claims of, respecting the early British Church,
+<a href='#page162'>162</a>.</p>
+<p>Anglo-Saxons and British Christianity, <a href=
+'#page164'>164</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Anglo-Saxon_Church"></a>Anglo-Saxon Church, effect of
+Danish invasion on, <a href='#page181'>181</a>; <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page434"></a>[pg 434]</span> effect of Dunstan's
+work on, <a href='#page187'>187</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Britain">Britain.</a></p>
+<p>Anslem, of Canterbury, on flight from the world, <a href=
+'#page369'>369</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Anthony"></a>Anthony, St., visits Paul of Thebes,
+<a href='#page37'>37</a>; his strange experiences, <a href=
+'#page38'>38</a>; buries Paul, <a href='#page41'>41</a>; birth and
+early life of, <a href='#page43'>43</a>; his austerities, <a href=
+'#page44'>44</a>, <a href='#page45'>45</a>; miracles of, <a href=
+'#page46'>46</a>; his fame and influence, <a href='#page47'>47</a>;
+his death, <a href='#page48'>48</a>; Taylor on biography of,
+<a href='#page48'>48</a>.</p>
+<p>Ap Rice, a Royal Commissioner, <a href='#page311'>311</a>.</p>
+<p>Aquinas, Thomas, a Dominican, <a href='#page242'>242</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Ascetic"></a>Ascetic, The, his morbid introspection,
+<a href='#page392'>392</a>; meaning of word, <a href=
+'#page425'>425</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Monks">Monks</a> and
+<a href="#Hermits">Hermits.</a></p>
+<p><a name="Asceticism"></a>Asceticism, in India, <a href=
+'#page18'>18</a>-20, <a href='#page357'>357</a>; among Chaldeans,
+<a href='#page20'>20</a>; in China, <a href='#page20'>20</a>; among
+the Greeks, <a href='#page21'>21</a>, <a href='#page22'>22</a>; the
+Essenes, <a href='#page23'>23</a>; in apostolic times, <a href=
+'#page27'>27</a>; the Gnostics, <a href='#page27'>27</a>; and the
+Bible, <a href='#page30'>30</a>, <a href='#page366'>366</a>; in
+post-apostolic times, <a href='#page31'>31</a>; modifications of,
+under Basil, <a href='#page64'>64</a>; protests against, in early
+Rome, <a href='#page124'>124</a>; various forms of, <a href=
+'#page385'>385</a>; effects of, <a href='#page391'>391</a>,
+<a href='#page401'>401</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Monasticism">Monasticism.</a></p>
+<p>Aske, Robert, heads revolt against Henry VIII., <a href=
+'#page326'>326</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Athanasius"></a>Athanasius, St., visits hermits,
+<a href='#page35'>35</a>; his life of Anthony, <a href=
+'#page42'>42</a>; influence of same on Rome, <a href=
+'#page80'>80</a>, <a href='#page83'>83</a>; spreads Pachomian rule,
+<a href='#page63'>63</a>; visits Rome, <a href='#page71'>71</a>,
+and effect of, <a href='#page80'>80</a>; visits Gaul, <a href=
+'#page119'>119</a>; his saying on fasting, <a href=
+'#page121'>121</a>.</p>
+<p>Atonement, for sin, the monk's influence on doctrine of,
+<a href='#page417'>417</a>.</p>
+<p>Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, his life, and services to
+monasticism, <a href='#page117'>117</a>, <a href=
+'#page119'>119</a>; influenced by biography of Anthony, <a href=
+'#page43'>43</a>; on marriage and celibacy, <a href=
+'#page112'>112</a>; charges monks with fraud, <a href=
+'#page128'>128</a>.</p>
+<p>Augustine, Rule of, adopted by Dominic, <a href=
+'#page232'>232</a>, <a href='#page241'>241</a>.</p>
+<p>Augustine, the monk, his mission to England, <a href=
+'#page161'>161</a>.</p>
+<p>Augustinians, <a href='#page246'>246</a>.</p>
+<p>Aurelius, Emperor, Christianity during reign of, <a href=
+'#page124'>124</a>.</p>
+<p>Austerities, Robertson on, <a href='#page94'>94</a>. <i>See</i>
+<a href="#Asceticism">Asceticism</a> and <a href=
+"#Self-denial">Self-denial</a></p>
+<p>Austin Canons, <a href='#page118'>118</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>B</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Bacon, Roger, a Franciscan, <a href='#page228'>228</a>;
+imprisonment of, <a href='#page407'>407</a>.</p>
+<p>Bagot, Richard, on the English reformation, <a href=
+'#page345'>345</a>.</p>
+<p>Bale, John, on the fall of the monasteries, <a href=
+'#page333'>333</a>.</p>
+<p>Baluzii, on the prosperity of the Franciscans, <a href=
+'#page255'>255</a>.</p>
+<p>Bangor, Monastery of, founded, <a href='#page123'>123</a>;
+slaughter of its monks, <a href='#page165'>165</a>.</p>
+<p>Barbarians, the struggle of the monks with, <a href=
+'#page148'>148</a>, <a href='#page149'>149</a>, <a href=
+'#page170'>170</a>; conversion of, <a href='#page398'>398</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Basil"></a>Basil the Great, <a href='#page63'>63</a>;
+revolts against excessive austerities, <a href='#page64'>64</a>;
+founder of Greek monasticism, <a href='#page64'>64</a>, <a href=
+'#page65'>65</a>; his rules, <a href='#page65'>65</a>; adopts
+irrevocable vows, <a href='#page65'>65</a>; on marriage, <a href=
+'#page66'>66</a>; enforces strict obedience, <a href=
+'#page66'>66</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page435"></a>[pg 435]</span>
+<p>Bede, The Venerable, on the British Church, <a href=
+'#page123'>123</a>; on monks and animals, <a href=
+'#page156'>156</a>.</p>
+<p>Begging Friars, <i>see</i> <a href="#Mendicant">Mendicants</a>,
+<a href="#Franciscans">Franciscans</a> and <a href=
+"#Dominicans">Dominicans</a>.</p>
+<p>Benedict, Pope, XI., <a href='#page221'>221</a>; XII.,
+consecrates Monte Cassino, <a href='#page135'>135</a>; on the
+stigmata of St. Francis, <a href='#page221'>221</a>.</p>
+<p>Benedict of Aniane, his attempted reform, <a href=
+'#page176'>176</a>.</p>
+<p>Benedict, of Nursia, birth and early life, <a href=
+'#page131'>131</a>; his trials, <a href='#page132'>132</a>; his
+fame attracts followers, <a href='#page133'>133</a>; his strictness
+provokes opposition, <a href='#page133'>133</a>; retires to Monte
+Cassino, <a href='#page134'>134</a>; conquers Paganism, <a href=
+'#page135'>135</a>; his miracles and power over barbarians,
+<a href='#page137'>137</a>; his last days, <a href=
+'#page138'>138</a>; his rules, <a href='#page138'>138</a>; Schaff
+on same, <a href='#page148'>148</a>; Cardinal Newman on mission of,
+<a href='#page149'>149</a>; saying of, on manual labor, <a href=
+'#page403'>403</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Benedict"></a>Benedict, Order of St., <a href=
+'#page131'>131</a>; rules of, <a href='#page138'>138</a>; the
+novitiate, <a href='#page140'>140</a>; daily life of monks,
+<a href='#page140'>140</a>; meaning of term "order," <a href=
+'#page143'>143</a>; abbots of, <a href='#page144'>144</a>; manual
+labor, <a href='#page147'>147</a>, <a href='#page403'>403</a>;
+Schaff on rules of, <a href='#page148'>148</a>; its dealings with
+barbarians, <a href='#page148'>148</a>, <a href='#page398'>398</a>;
+its literary and educational services, <a href='#page151'>151</a>;
+its agricultural work, <a href='#page155'>155</a>, <a href=
+'#page404'>404</a>; spread of, <a href='#page158'>158</a>; its
+followers among the royalty, <a href='#page159'>159</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Bernard"></a>Bernard, of Clairvaux, his birth and
+monastic services, <a href='#page193'>193</a>; character of his
+monastery, <a href='#page192'>192</a>; on drugs and doctors,
+<a href='#page194'>194</a>; his reforms, <a href=
+'#page195'>195</a>; Vaughan on, <a href='#page195'>195</a>; Storrs
+on, <a href='#page197'>197</a>; the Crusades, <a href=
+'#page197'>197</a>; on the abuses of charity, <a href=
+'#page411'>411</a>.</p>
+<p>Bernardone, Peter, father of Francis, <a href=
+'#page208'>208</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Francis">Francis.</a></p>
+<p>Bethlehem, Jerome's monasteries at, <a href='#page85'>85</a>,
+<a href='#page88'>88</a>; Paula establishes monasteries at,
+<a href='#page100'>100</a>.</p>
+<p>Bible, The, and monasticism, <a href='#page30'>30</a>, <a href=
+'#page376'>376</a>.</p>
+<p>Bigotry, of monks, <a href='#page394'>394</a>.</p>
+<p>Biography, monastic history centers in, <a href=
+'#page84'>84</a>.</p>
+<p>Bj&ouml;rnstrom, on the stigmata, <a href=
+'#page223'>223</a>.</p>
+<p>Bl&aelig;silla, murmurs against monks at her funeral, <a href=
+'#page125'>125</a>.</p>
+<p>Blunt, on the: fall of the monasteries, <a href=
+'#page333'>333</a>.</p>
+<p>Boccaccio, comments on his visit to Monte Cassino, <a href=
+'#page136'>136</a>.</p>
+<p>Boleyn, Anne, and Henry VIII., <a href='#page294'>294</a>.</p>
+<p>Bollandists, Catholic, on Dominic and the Inquisition, <a href=
+'#page238'>238</a>.</p>
+<p>Bonaventura, on the stigmata of Francis, <a href=
+'#page220'>220</a>; a Franciscan, <a href='#page228'>228</a>; on
+vices of the monks, <a href='#page337'>337</a>.</p>
+<p>Boniface, the apostle to the Germans, <a href=
+'#page167'>167</a>.</p>
+<p>Bonner, Bishop, persuades Prior Houghton to sign oath of
+supremacy, <a href='#page303'>303</a>.</p>
+<p>Brahminism, asceticism under, <a href='#page19'>19</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Britain"></a>Britain, Tertullian, Origen, and Bede, on
+Christianity in, <a href='#page123'>123</a>;. relation of early
+church in, to Rome, <a href='#page162'>162</a>; monasticism in,
+<a href='#page162'>162</a>, <a href='#page168'>168</a>.</p>
+<p>Brotherhood of Penitence, <a href='#page229'>229</a>.</p>
+<p>Bruno, the abbot of Cluny, <a href='#page177'>177</a>.</p>
+<p>Bruno, founder of Carthusian order, <a href='#page188'>188</a>;
+Ruskin on the order, <a href='#page189'>189</a>; <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page436"></a>[pg 436]</span> the monastery of
+the Chartreuse, <a href='#page189'>189</a>; his eulogy of solitude,
+<a href='#page396'>396</a>.</p>
+<p>Bryant, poem of, on fall of monasteries, <a href=
+'#page353'>353</a>.</p>
+<p>Buddha, on the ascetic life, <a href='#page357'>357</a>.</p>
+<p>Buddhism, asceticism under, <a href='#page19'>19</a>.</p>
+<p>Burke, Edmund, quoted by Gasquet on fall of monasteries,
+<a href='#page312'>312</a>.</p>
+<p>Burnet, on report of Royal Commissioners, <a href=
+'#page316'>316</a>.</p>
+<p>Bury, Father, on Chinese monks, <a href='#page20'>20</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>C</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Cambridge, University of, the friars at, <a href=
+'#page252'>252</a>, <a href='#page405'>405</a>.</p>
+<p>Campeggio, Cardinal, the divorce proceedings of Henry VIII. and,
+<a href='#page294'>294</a>.</p>
+<p>Capraria, Rutilius and Ambrose on island of, <a href=
+'#page126'>126</a>.</p>
+<p>Capuchins, <a href='#page246'>246</a>.</p>
+<p>Carlyle, Thomas, on Mahomet, <a href='#page33'>33</a>; quotes
+Jocelin on Abbot Samson's election, <a href='#page145'>145</a>; on
+the twelfth century, <a href='#page157'>157</a>; on the monastic
+ideal, <a href='#page174'>174</a>; on Jesuitical obedience,
+<a href='#page271'>271</a>; views of, criticised, <a href=
+'#page278'>278</a>.</p>
+<p>Carmelites, <a href='#page246'>246</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Carthusians"></a>Carthusians, The, establishment of,
+<a href='#page188'>188</a>; famous monastery of, <a href=
+'#page189'>189</a>; rules of, <a href='#page189'>189</a>; in
+England, <a href='#page191'>191</a>, <a href='#page334'>334</a>.
+<i>See</i> <a href="#Charterhouse">Charterhouse.</a></p>
+<p>Cassiodorus, the literary labors of, <a href=
+'#page152'>152</a>.</p>
+<p>Casuistry, of the Jesuits, <a href='#page272'>272</a>; <a href=
+'#page429'>429</a>.</p>
+<p>Catacombs, visited by Jerome, <a href='#page87'>87</a>.</p>
+<p>Catharine, of Aragon, Henry's divorce from, <a href=
+'#page293'>293</a>.</p>
+<p>Catholic, Roman, <i>see</i> <a href="#Rome,_Church_of">Rome,
+Church of.</a></p>
+<p><a name="Celibacy"></a>Celibacy, praised by Jerome and
+Augustine, <a href='#page112'>112</a>; views of Helvidius on,
+opposed by Jerome, <a href='#page113'>113</a>; the struggle to
+establish sacerdotal, <a href='#page183'>183</a>; Lingard on,
+<a href='#page183'>183</a>; Lea on, <a href='#page184'>184</a>; vow
+of, <a href='#page380'>380</a>; and Scripture teaching, <a href=
+'#page381'>381</a>; early Fathers on, <a href='#page381'>381</a>; a
+modern ecclesiastic's reasons for, <a href='#page381'>381</a>; how
+vow of, came to be imposed, <a href='#page382'>382</a>; no special
+virtue in, <a href='#page419'>419</a>.</p>
+<p>Cellani, Peter, Dominic retires to house of, <a href=
+'#page238'>238</a>;</p>
+<p>Celtic Church, <i>see</i> <a href="#Britain">Britain.</a></p>
+<p>Cenobites, meaning of term, <a href='#page425'>425</a>; origin
+of, in the East, <a href='#page57'>57</a>; habits of early,
+<a href='#page58'>58</a>; aims of, <a href='#page60'>60</a>.</p>
+<p>Chalcis, desert of, <a href='#page87'>87</a>.</p>
+<p>Chaldea, asceticism in, <a href='#page20'>20</a>.</p>
+<p>Chalippe, Father Candide, on miracles of saints, <a href=
+'#page224'>224</a>.</p>
+<p>Channey, Maurice, on fall of the Charterhouse, <a href=
+'#page302'>302</a>.</p>
+<p>Channing, William E., on various manifestations of the ascetic
+spirit, <a href='#page385'>385</a>; on exaggerations of
+monasticism, <a href='#page415'>415</a>.</p>
+<p>Chapter, The, defined, <a href='#page144'>144</a>; of Mats,
+<a href='#page228'>228</a>.</p>
+<p>Chapuys, despatches of, to Charles V., <a href=
+'#page297'>297</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Charity"></a>Charity, of monks, <a href=
+'#page348'>348</a>, <a href='#page410'>410</a>; true and false,
+<a href='#page348'>348</a>, <a href='#page412'>412</a>; Bernard,
+Jacob of Vitry and Lecky on abuses of, <a href='#page411'>411</a>;
+as a passport to Heaven, <a href='#page411'>411</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page437"></a>[pg 437]</span>
+<p>Charlemagne, <a href='#page118'>118</a>.</p>
+<p>Charles V., Emperor, Pole writes to, <a href='#page296'>296</a>;
+Chapuy's despatches to, <a href='#page297'>297</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Charterhouse"></a>Charterhouse, of London, <a href=
+'#page191'>191</a>; execution of monks of, <a href=
+'#page301'>301</a>, <a href='#page334'>334</a>; and the progress of
+England, <a href='#page343'>343</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Carthusians">Carthusians.</a></p>
+<p>Chartreuse, Grand, monastery, <a href='#page189'>189</a>.</p>
+<p>Chastity, vow of, in Pachomian rule, <a href='#page61'>61</a>.
+<i>See</i> <a href="#Celibacy">Celibacy.</a></p>
+<p>China, asceticism in, <a href='#page20'>20</a>.</p>
+<p>Chinese monks, Father Bury on, <a href='#page20'>20</a>.</p>
+<p>Christ, <i>see</i> <a href="#Jesus_Christ">Jesus Christ.</a></p>
+<p>Christian clergy, character of, in the fourth century, <a href=
+'#page77'>77</a>.</p>
+<p>Christian ideal, tending toward fanaticism, <a href=
+'#page129'>129</a>.</p>
+<p>Christian discipleship, nature of true, <a href=
+'#page390'>390</a>.</p>
+<p>Christianity, asceticism and apostolic, <a href=
+'#page27'>27</a>, <a href='#page28'>28</a>, <a href=
+'#page31'>31</a>; conquers Roman empire, <a href='#page71'>71</a>,
+<a href='#page76'>76</a>; endangered by success, <a href=
+'#page77'>77</a>; in Rome in the fourth century, <a href=
+'#page79'>79</a>; Lord on same, <a href='#page80'>80</a>; is
+opposed to fanaticism, <a href='#page94'>94</a>; in ancient
+Britain, <a href='#page123'>123</a>, <a href='#page161'>161</a>,
+<a href='#page162'>162</a>; Clarke on, <a href='#page171'>171</a>;
+Mozoomdar on essential principle of, <a href='#page359'>359</a>;
+requires some sort of self-denial, <a href='#page390'>390</a>,
+<a href='#page418'>418</a>, <a href='#page419'>419</a>; monasticism
+and, compared, <a href='#page420'>420</a>; monasticism furnishes
+example of, <a href='#page422'>422</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Britain">Britain</a> and <a href="#Church">Church.</a></p>
+<p>Chrysostom, becomes an ascetic, <a href='#page84'>84</a>; brief
+account of life of, <a href='#page116'>116</a>; monastic cause
+furthered by, <a href='#page117'>117</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Church"></a>Church, Christian, the triumphant, compared
+with church in age of persecution, <a href='#page109'>109</a>;
+ideal of, furthers monasticism, <a href='#page129'>129</a>; and the
+barbarians, <a href='#page149'>149</a>; of the thirteenth century,
+<a href='#page206'>206</a>; its life-ideal, <a href=
+'#page369'>369</a>; its union with paganism, <a href=
+'#page370'>370</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Anglo-Saxon_Church">Anglo-Saxon Church</a>, <a href=
+"#Britain">Britain</a>, and <a href="#England,_Church_of">England,
+Church of.</a></p>
+<p>Cistercian Order, the monks and rule of, <a href=
+'#page192'>192</a>; decline of, <a href='#page193'>193</a>.</p>
+<p>Citeaux, Monastery at, <a href='#page192'>192</a>.</p>
+<p>Civic duties and monasticism, <a href='#page399'>399</a>.
+<i>See</i> <a href="#Monasticism">Monasticism.</a></p>
+<p>Clairvaux, Bernard of, <i>see</i> <a href=
+"#Bernard">Bernard</a>; Monastery of, <a href=
+'#page193'>193</a>.</p>
+<p>Clara, St., Nuns of, founded, <a href='#page228'>228</a>.</p>
+<p>Clarke, William Newton, on Christianity of first and second
+centuries, <a href='#page171'>171</a>.</p>
+<p>Clarke, James Freeman, on Brahmin ascetics, <a href=
+'#page20'>20</a>.</p>
+<p>Classics, Jerome's fondness for the, <a href='#page95'>95</a>;
+the monks and the, <a href='#page405'>405</a>.</p>
+<p>Clement XIV., Pope, dissolves the Society of Jesus, <a href=
+'#page279'>279</a>.</p>
+<p>Clergy of the Christian Church, <a href='#page77'>77</a>.</p>
+<p>Clinton, Lord, on the work of suppression, <a href=
+'#page311'>311</a>.</p>
+<p>Cloister, <a href='#page426'>426</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Monastery">Monastery.</a></p>
+<p>Cluny, Monastery at, <a href='#page177'>177</a>; the
+congregation of, <a href='#page178'>178</a>.</p>
+<p>Coke, Sir Edward, quoted, <a href='#page329'>329</a>.</p>
+<p>Columba, St., his church relations, <a href=
+'#page162'>162</a>.</p>
+<p>Commissioners, The Royal, appointed to visit monasteries of
+England, their methods, <a href='#page308'>308</a>, <a href=
+'#page333'>333</a>; character of, <a href='#page311'>311</a>; begin
+their work, <a href='#page313'>313</a>; their report, <a href=
+'#page316'>316</a>; <span class="pagenum"><a name="page438"></a>[pg
+438]</span> Parliament acts on same, <a href=
+'#page319'>319</a>.</p>
+<p>Confession, among the Jesuits, <a href='#page269'>269</a>.</p>
+<p>Conscience, liberty of, renounced by monks, <a href=
+'#page394'>394</a>.</p>
+<p>Constantine the Great, <a href='#page71'>71</a>.</p>
+<p>Contemplation, John Tauler on, <a href='#page395'>395</a>; Bruno
+on, <a href='#page396'>396</a>.</p>
+Convents. <i>See</i> <a href="#Monasteries">Monasteries.</a>
+<p>Copyright, first instance of quarrel for, <a href=
+'#page170'>170</a>.</p>
+<p>Council, of Saragossa, <a href='#page122'>122</a>; of Trent,
+<a href='#page382'>382</a>; Lateran, <a href=
+'#page242'>242</a>.</p>
+<p>Court of Augmentation, <a href='#page319'>319</a>.</p>
+<p>Crocella, Santa, chapel of, <a href='#page131'>131</a>; Romanus
+the monk, <a href='#page131'>131</a>.</p>
+<p>Cromwell, Richard, on Sir John Russell, <a href=
+'#page326'>326</a>.</p>
+<p>Cromwell, Thomas, his life and aims, <a href='#page308'>308</a>;
+Green and Froude on, <a href='#page309'>309</a>; his religious
+views, <a href='#page309'>309</a>; Foxe and Gasquet on character
+of, <a href='#page310'>310</a>; becomes Vicegerent, <a href=
+'#page310'>310</a>; inspires terror and hatred, <a href=
+'#page324'>324</a>; his removal demanded, <a href=
+'#page326'>326</a>; overcomes the Pilgrims of Grace, <a href=
+'#page326'>326</a>; bribed for estates, <a href=
+'#page329'>329</a>.</p>
+<p>Cross, loyalty to the, fostered by monks, <a href=
+'#page414'>414</a>; power of the doctrine of, <a href=
+'#page418'>418</a>.</p>
+<p>Crusades, effect of, on monastic types, <a href=
+'#page373'>373</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Military-religious_orders">Military Orders</a> and <a href=
+"#Bernard">Bernard.</a></p>
+<p>Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, <a href='#page61'>61</a>; and
+murder of Hypatia, <a href='#page68'>68</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>D</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Damian, Church of St., repaired by Francis, <a href=
+'#page211'>211</a>, <a href='#page214'>214</a>.</p>
+<p>Danish invasion of England, its consequences, <a href=
+'#page180'>180</a>.</p>
+<p>Dante, on Francis and poverty, <a href='#page215'>215</a>.</p>
+<p>Democracy, Christian, and monasticism, <a href=
+'#page422'>422</a>.</p>
+<p>Desert, Jerome on attractions of, <a href='#page89'>89</a>.</p>
+<p>De Tocqueville, on self-subjection, <a href=
+'#page143'>143</a>.</p>
+<p>Dhaquit, the Chaldean, quoted, <a href='#page20'>20</a>.</p>
+<p>Dharmapala, on the ascetic ideal in India, <a href=
+'#page357'>357</a>.</p>
+<p>Dill, Samuel, on Rome's fall and the Christian Church, <a href=
+'#page74'>74</a>, <a href='#page79'>79</a>, <a href=
+'#page108'>108</a>, <a href='#page109'>109</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Domestic_life"></a>Domestic life, a field of forbidden
+fruit, <a href='#page394'>394</a>, <a href='#page398'>398</a>.
+<i>See</i> <a href="#Family-ideal">Family-ideal</a> and <a href=
+"#Jerome">Jerome.</a></p>
+<p><a name="Dominic"></a>Dominic, St., Innocent III. dreams of,
+<a href='#page216'>216</a>; early life of, <a href=
+'#page230'>230</a>; his mother's dream, <a href='#page231'>231</a>;
+visits Languedoc, <a href='#page232'>232</a>; rebukes papal
+legates, <a href='#page234'>234</a>; his crusade against
+Albigensians, <a href='#page234'>234</a>; his relation to the Holy
+Inquisition, <a href='#page235'>235</a>; establishes his order,
+<a href='#page239'>239</a>; at Rome, <a href='#page239'>239</a>;
+his self-denial and death, <a href='#page240'>240</a>; canonized,
+<a href='#page241'>241</a>.</p>
+<p>Dominic, St., Nuns of, <a href='#page242'>242</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Dominicans"></a>Dominicans, The, the Inquisition and,
+<a href='#page238'>238</a>; order of, founded, <a href=
+'#page239'>239</a>; constitution of the order of, <a href=
+'#page241'>241</a>; spread of, <a href='#page241'>241</a>; eminent
+members, <a href='#page242'>242</a>; three classes of, <a href=
+'#page242'>242</a>; the preaching of, <a href='#page249'>249</a>;
+quarrel with the Franciscans, <a href='#page249'>249</a>; enter
+England, <a href='#page251'>251</a>; fatal success and decline of,
+<a href='#page253'>253</a>, <a href='#page256'>256</a>;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page439"></a>[pg 439]</span> on the
+stigmata of Francis, <a href='#page221'>221</a>; liberal education
+and, <a href='#page408'>408</a>.</p>
+<p>Ducis, on the Hermits, <a href='#page32'>32</a>.</p>
+<p>Duns Scotus, a Franciscan, <a href='#page228'>228</a>.</p>
+<p>Dunstan, reforms of, <a href='#page182'>182</a>; his character
+and life-work, <a href='#page186'>186</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>E</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>East, monasticism in the, <i>see</i> <a href=
+"#Monasticism">Monasticism</a> and <a href="#Monks">Monks.</a></p>
+<p>Echard, a Dominican, <a href='#page242'>242</a>.</p>
+<p>Eckenstein, Lina, on Morton's letter, <a href=
+'#page339'>339</a>.</p>
+<p>Edersheim, on the Essenes, <a href='#page24'>24</a>.</p>
+<p>Edgar, King, aids Dunstan in reform, <a href=
+'#page186'>186</a>.</p>
+<p>Education, The Mendicants and, <a href='#page248'>248</a>; the
+monks further, in England, <a href='#page253'>253</a>; the effect
+of monasticism on, <a href='#page407'>407</a>.</p>
+<p>Edward I. and III., confiscate alien priories, <a href=
+'#page338'>338</a>.</p>
+<p>Egypt, The hermits of, <a href='#page33'>33</a>; Kingsley and
+Waddington on same, <a href='#page34'>34</a>.</p>
+<p>Elijah, and asceticism, <a href='#page30'>30</a>.</p>
+<p>Elizabeth, Princess, and the Act of Succession, <a href=
+'#page298'>298</a>.</p>
+<p>Endowments of monasteries, abolished by first Mendicants,
+<a href='#page244'>244</a>; reason for some, <a href=
+'#page361'>361</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="England,_Church_of"></a>England, Church of, separates
+from Rome, <a href='#page328'>328</a>; causes of, and by whom
+separation secured, <a href='#page340'>340</a>, <a href=
+'#page342'>342</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Britain">Britain.</a></p>
+<p>Essenes, asceticism of, <a href='#page23'>23</a>.</p>
+<p>Ethelwold, aids Dunstan, <a href='#page186'>186</a>.</p>
+<p>Eudoxia, Empress, banishes Chrysostom, <a href=
+'#page117'>117</a>.</p>
+<p>Eustochium, <i>see</i> <a href="#Paula">Paula.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>F</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Fabiola, St., Lecky on her charities, <a href=
+'#page105'>105</a>; her care for sick, <a href='#page105'>105</a>;
+her death, <a href='#page105'>105</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Family-ideal"></a>Family-ideal, of monastery, Taunton
+on, <a href='#page143'>143</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Domestic_life">Domestic Life.</a></p>
+<p>Fanaticism, Christianity hostile to, <a href='#page94'>94</a>;
+tendency toward, among early Christians, <a href=
+'#page129'>129</a>.</p>
+<p>Farrar, on the luxury of Rome, <a href='#page75'>75</a>.</p>
+<p>Fasting, amusing instance of rebellion of monks against,
+<a href='#page120'>120</a>; Athanasius on, <a href=
+'#page121'>121</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Self-denial">Self-denial</a>, <a href="#Ascetic">Ascetic</a> and
+<a href="#Asceticism">Asceticism.</a></p>
+<p>Ferdinand, of Austria, educated by Jesuits, <a href=
+'#page277'>277</a>.</p>
+<p>Feudalism, monasticism affected by, <a href=
+'#page373'>373</a>.</p>
+<p>Finnian, the monk, quarrels with Columba, <a href=
+'#page170'>170</a>.</p>
+<p>Fisher, G.P., on the stigmata of Francis, <a href=
+'#page223'>223</a>.</p>
+<p>Fisher, execution of, by Henry VIII., <a href=
+'#page301'>301</a>, <a href='#page306'>306</a>.</p>
+<p>Filial love, strangulation of, by monks, <a href=
+'#page397'>397</a>.</p>
+<p>Forsyth, on St. Francis, <a href='#page225'>225</a>.</p>
+<p>Foxe, on Thomas Cromwell, <a href='#page310'>310</a>.</p>
+<p>France, New, and the Jesuits, <a href='#page282'>282</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Francis"></a>Francis, St., his birth and early years,
+<a href='#page208'>208</a>; his dreams and sickness, <a href=
+'#page209'>209</a>; visits Rome, <a href='#page210'>210</a>;
+seeking light on his duty, <a href='#page210'>210</a>, <a href=
+'#page211'>211</a>; sells his father's merchandise and keeps
+proceeds, <a href='#page211'>211</a>; renounces his father,
+<a href='#page212'>212</a>; assumes monkish habit, <a href=
+'#page213'>213</a>; repairs Church of St. Damian, <a href=
+'#page214'>214</a>; Dante on poverty and, <a href=
+'#page215'>215</a>; <span class="pagenum"><a name="page440"></a>[pg
+440]</span> visits Innocent III., <a href='#page216'>216</a>;
+visits Mohammedans, <a href='#page217'>217</a>; a lover of birds,
+<a href='#page217'>217</a>; Longfellow's poem on a homily of,
+<a href='#page218'>218</a>; his temptations, <a href=
+'#page218'>218</a>; the stigmata, <a href='#page219'>219</a>; death
+of, <a href='#page224'>224</a>; his character, <a href=
+'#page225'>225</a>; his rule, <a href='#page226'>226</a>; on prayer
+and preaching, <a href='#page249'>249</a>; method of, forsaken,
+<a href='#page421'>421</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Franciscans"></a>Franciscans, The, first year of,
+<a href='#page215'>215</a>; order of, sanctioned, <a href=
+'#page216'>216</a>, <a href='#page217'>217</a>; three classes of,
+<a href='#page226'>226</a>; the rule of, <a href=
+'#page226'>226</a>; Sabatier on rule of, <a href=
+'#page227'>227</a>; the title "Friars Minor," <a href=
+'#page227'>227</a>; number of, <a href='#page228'>228</a>; St. Clara
+and, <a href='#page228'>228</a>; The Third Order of, <a href=
+'#page229'>229</a>; quarrel over the vow of poverty, <a href=
+'#page246'>246</a>; prosperity of, <a href='#page246'>246</a>;
+educational work of, <a href='#page248'>248</a>; quarrel with
+Dominicans, <a href='#page249'>249</a>; settle in England, <a href=
+'#page251'>251</a>; Baluzii on success of, <a href=
+'#page255'>255</a>; fatal success of, <a href=
+'#page253'>253</a>.</p>
+<p>Fratricelli, sketch of the, <a href='#page247'>247</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Freedom"></a>Freedom, religious, want of, <a href=
+'#page402'>402</a>.</p>
+<p>Friars, Begging, <i>see</i> <a href=
+"#Franciscans">Franciscans</a>, <a href=
+"#Dominicans">Dominicans</a> and <a href=
+"#Mendicant">Mendicants</a>.</p>
+<p>Friars Minor, <a href='#page227'>227</a>.</p>
+<p>Froude, on the Charterhouse monks, <a href='#page302'>302</a>,
+<a href='#page304'>304</a>; on Thomas Cromwell, <a href=
+'#page309'>309</a>; on the report of the Royal Commissioners,
+<a href='#page317'>317</a>; on the Catholics and the Reformation,
+<a href='#page346'>346</a>.</p>
+<p>Future punishment, the monks and the doctrine of, <a href=
+'#page417'>417</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>G</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Gairdner, on Henry's breach with Rome, <a href=
+'#page301'>301</a>.</p>
+<p>Galea, the Goth, awed by St. Benedict, <a href=
+'#page137'>137</a>.</p>
+<p>Gardiner, burns heretics, <a href='#page311'>311</a>.</p>
+<p>Gasquet, on Thomas Cromwell, <a href='#page310'>310</a>; quotes
+Burke on the suppression, <a href='#page312'>312</a>.</p>
+<p>Gauls, monastic, complain to St. Martin, <a href=
+'#page120'>120</a>.</p>
+<p>Germany, monasticism enters, <a href='#page122'>122</a>.</p>
+<p>Gervais, reason for his donations, <a href=
+'#page361'>361</a>.</p>
+<p>Gibbon, on bones of Simeon, <a href='#page57'>57</a>; on
+Egyptian monks, <a href='#page62'>62</a>; on Roman marriages,
+<a href='#page110'>110</a>; saying of, applied to Ambrose, <a href=
+'#page116'>116</a>; on military orders, <a href='#page199'>199</a>;
+quotes Zosimus, <a href='#page348'>348</a>; on the monastic aim,
+<a href='#page362'>362</a>; on the character of the monks, <a href=
+'#page388'>388</a>.</p>
+<p>Gindeley, on the Jesuits and the Thirty Years' War, <a href=
+'#page277'>277</a>.</p>
+<p>Giovanni di San Paolo, on gospel perfection, <a href=
+'#page226'>226</a>.</p>
+<p>Glastonbury, fall of Abbey of, <a href='#page314'>314</a>.</p>
+<p>Gnostics, and asceticism, <a href='#page27'>27</a>, <a href=
+'#page366'>366</a>.</p>
+<p>Godfrey de Bouillon, endows Hospital of St. John, <a href=
+'#page201'>201</a>.</p>
+<p>Godric, his unique austerities, <a href='#page132'>132</a>.</p>
+<p>Goldsmith, on the English character, <a href=
+'#page166'>166</a>.</p>
+<p>Grand Chartreuse, monastery, <a href='#page189'>189</a>.</p>
+<p>Greece, asceticism in, <a href='#page20'>20</a>.</p>
+<p>Greeks, ancient, asceticism among the, <a href=
+'#page21'>21</a>.</p>
+<p>Greek Church, monasticism of the, <a href='#page64'>64</a>,
+<a href='#page67'>67</a>.</p>
+<p>Green, J.R., on the preaching friars, <a href=
+'#page254'>254</a>; on Thomas Cromwell, <a href='#page309'>309</a>;
+on the suppression, <a href='#page323'>323</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page441"></a>[pg 441]</span>
+<p>Gregory of Nazianza, on ascetic moderation, <a href=
+'#page65'>65</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Gregory"></a>Gregory, Pope, I., <a href=
+'#page138'>138</a>; II., <a href='#page135'>135</a>; VII., <a href=
+'#page160'>160</a>, <a href='#page178'>178</a>; IX., <a href=
+'#page241'>241</a>; X., <a href='#page245'>245</a>.</p>
+<p>Gregory, St., Monastery of, rules of, <a href=
+'#page141'>141</a>.</p>
+<p>Griffin, Henry, on the Royal Commissioners, <a href=
+'#page311'>311</a>.</p>
+<p>Grimke, on historic movements, <a href='#page84'>84</a>.</p>
+<p>Guigo, rules of, <a href='#page190'>190</a>; on vow of
+obedience, <a href='#page383'>383</a>.</p>
+<p>Guizot, on state of early Europe, <a href='#page149'>149</a>; on
+the Benedictines, <a href='#page404'>404</a>; on monastic
+education, <a href='#page407'>407</a>.</p>
+<p>Gustavus, contrasted to monks, <a href='#page394'>394</a>.</p>
+<p>Guzman, <i>see</i> <a href="#Dominic">Dominic.</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>H</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Hallam, on the Albigensians, <a href='#page233'>233</a>,
+<a href='#page235'>235</a>; on the suppression, <a href=
+'#page334'>334</a>; on charity of the monks, <a href=
+'#page349'>349</a>.</p>
+<p>Happiness, the key to, <a href='#page392'>392</a>.</p>
+<p>Hardwick, on the Albigensian doctrines, <a href=
+'#page233'>233</a>.</p>
+<p>Harnack, on early ascetics, <a href='#page28'>28</a>; on nominal
+Christianity of Rome, <a href='#page77'>77</a>; on life-ideal in
+the early church, <a href='#page129'>129</a>; on monasticism and
+the church, <a href='#page414'>414</a>.</p>
+<p>Hell, the monks' teachings about, <a href=
+'#page417'>417</a>.</p>
+<p>Helvidius, on celibacy, <a href='#page113'>113</a>.</p>
+<p>Henry, King, II., and the British church, <a href=
+'#page165'>165</a>; III., invites students to England, <a href=
+'#page252'>252</a>; IV., confiscates alien priories, <a href=
+'#page338'>338</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Henry_VIII."></a>Henry VIII., and the independence of
+English church, <a href='#page163'>163</a>; and the fall of the
+monasteries, <a href='#page286'>286</a>; opinions respecting his
+character, <a href='#page288'>288</a>, <a href='#page290'>290</a>;
+inconsistencies of, <a href='#page291'>291</a>; "Defender of the
+Faith," <a href='#page293'>293</a>; his divorce from Catharine,
+<a href='#page293'>293</a>; breach with Rome, <a href=
+'#page294'>294</a>, <a href='#page300'>300</a>; dangers to his
+throne, <a href='#page295'>295</a>; monks enraged at, <a href=
+'#page296'>296</a>; as "Head of the Church," <a href=
+'#page297'>297</a>, <a href='#page298'>298</a>; Act of Succession,
+<a href='#page298'>298</a>; Oath of Supremacy, <a href=
+'#page298'>298</a>, <a href='#page301'>301</a>; excommunicated,
+<a href='#page306'>306</a>; the struggle for power, <a href=
+'#page324'>324</a>; suppresses "Pilgrims of Grace," <a href=
+'#page326'>326</a>; his use of monastic revenues, <a href=
+'#page328'>328</a>, <a href='#page330'>330</a>; Coke on his
+promises to Parliament, <a href='#page329'>329</a>; his motives for
+the suppression, <a href='#page332'>332</a>; Hooper on reforms of,
+<a href='#page339'>339</a>; an unconscious agent of new forces,
+<a href='#page344'>344</a>; two epochs met in reign of, <a href=
+'#page346'>346</a>; Lecky on his use of monastic funds, <a href=
+'#page411'>411</a>.</p>
+<p>Heresy, growth of, in thirteenth century, <a href=
+'#page206'>206</a>; monks attempt extirpation of, <a href=
+'#page261'>261</a>, <a href='#page402'>402</a>; Jesuits and,
+<a href='#page276'>276</a>, <a href='#page409'>409</a>.</p>
+<p>Heretical sects, attack vices of monks, <a href=
+'#page245'>245</a>.</p>
+<p>Hermit life, founder of, <a href='#page35'>35</a>; unsuited to
+women, <a href='#page107'>107</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Hermits"></a>Hermits, The, of India, <a href=
+'#page20'>20</a>; of Egypt, <a href='#page33'>33</a>; their mode of
+life, <a href='#page49'>49</a>; visit Rome, <a href=
+'#page71'>71</a>; effect of story of, in Rome, <a href=
+'#page71'>71</a>, <a href='#page80'>80</a>, <a href=
+'#page84'>84</a>; of Augustine, <a href='#page246'>246</a>.</p>
+<p>Hilarion, the hermit, <a href='#page49'>49</a>.</p>
+<p>Hildebrand, <i>see</i> <a href="#Gregory">Gregory VII.</a></p>
+<p>Hill, on manual labor, <a href='#page142'>142</a>; on fall of
+monasticism, <a href='#page345'>345</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page442"></a>[pg 442]</span>
+<p>History, monastic contributions to, <a href=
+'#page406'>406</a>.</p>
+<p>Hoensbroech, Count Paul von, on Jesuitical discipline, <a href=
+'#page268'>268</a>.</p>
+<p>Holiness, false views of, <a href='#page421'>421</a>. <i>See</i>
+<a href="#Soul-purity">Soul-purity</a> and <a href=
+"#Salvation">Salvation.</a></p>
+<p>Holy Land, motives for exodus to, <a href='#page97'>97</a>.</p>
+<p>Holy Maid of Kent, <a href='#page337'>337</a>.</p>
+<p>Home-life, not to be despised, <a href='#page420'>420</a>.</p>
+<p>Honorius, III., Pope, sanctions Franciscan Order, <a href=
+'#page217'>217</a>; confirms Dominican Order, <a href=
+'#page239'>239</a>.</p>
+<p>Hooper, Bishop, on Henry's reforms, <a href=
+'#page339'>339</a>.</p>
+<p>Hospital, Knights of, <i>see</i> <a href=
+"#Knights">Knights.</a></p>
+<p>Hospitals, founded by Fabiola, <a href='#page105'>105</a>; Lecky
+on, <a href='#page105'>105</a>; result of woman's sympathy,
+<a href='#page111'>111</a>.</p>
+<p>Houghton, Prior, <i>see</i> <a href=
+"#Charterhouse">Charterhouse.</a></p>
+<p>Household duties, Jerome on, <a href='#page114'>114</a>.
+<i>See</i> <a href="#Domestic_life">Domestic Life.</a></p>
+<p>House of Lords, majority in the, changed, <a href=
+'#page347'>347</a>.</p>
+<p>Houses, Religious, <i>see</i> <a href=
+"#Monasteries">Monasteries.</a></p>
+<p>Hugh, St., of Lincoln, and the swan, <a href='#page157'>157</a>;
+Ruskin on, <a href='#page189'>189</a>.</p>
+<p>Human affection, monks indifferent to, <a href=
+'#page394'>394</a>, <a href='#page397'>397</a>.</p>
+<p>Hume, on the suppression, <a href='#page333'>333</a>.</p>
+<p>Hypatia, Kingsley's, quoted, <a href='#page61'>61</a>; death of,
+<a href='#page48'>48</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>I</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Ideal, monastie, <a href='#page354'>354</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Monasticism">Monasticism.</a></p>
+<p>Ignatius, St., <i>see</i> <a href="#Loyola">Loyola.</a></p>
+<p><a name="Independence"></a>Independence, Jesuitism and personal,
+<a href='#page270'>270</a>; of thought, renounced by monks,
+<a href='#page394'>394</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Freedom">Freedom</a>, <a href="#Liberty">Liberty.</a></p>
+<p>India, asceticism in, <a href='#page18'>18</a>, <a href=
+'#page357'>357</a>.</p>
+<p>India, monasticism in, <a href='#page18'>18</a>, <a href=
+'#page357'>357</a>, <a href='#page358'>358</a>; causes of same,
+<a href='#page355'>355</a>.</p>
+<p>Individual, influence of the, <a href='#page91'>91</a>; effect
+of self-sacrifice upon the, <a href='#page390'>390</a>; effect of
+solitude upon the, <a href='#page393'>393</a>.</p>
+<p>Industry, modern, not to be despised, <a href=
+'#page420'>420</a>.</p>
+<p>Innocent, Pope, III., <a href='#page216'>216</a>, <a href=
+'#page234'>234</a>, <a href='#page239'>239</a>, <a href=
+'#page242'>242</a>; IV., <a href='#page250'>250</a>; VIII.,
+<a href='#page339'>339</a>.</p>
+<p>Inquisition, The Holy, the Albigensian crusade and, <a href=
+'#page233'>233</a>; relation of Dominicans toward, <a href=
+'#page235'>235</a>; its establishment and management, <a href=
+'#page238'>238</a>.</p>
+<p>Intellectual progress, monasticism opposed to true, <a href=
+'#page407'>407</a>; in Europe, <a href='#page409'>409</a>.</p>
+<p>Introspection, evil effects of morbid, <a href=
+'#page392'>392</a>.</p>
+<p>Iona, Monastery of, <a href='#page168'>168</a>.</p>
+<p>Ireland, St. Patrick labors in, <a href='#page123'>123</a>;
+monasteries of, as centers of culture, <a href=
+'#page169'>169</a>.</p>
+<p>Isidore, the hermit, visits Rome, <a href='#page72'>72</a>.</p>
+<p>Itineracy, substituted for seclusion in cloister, <a href=
+'#page244'>244</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>J</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Jacob of Vitry, on abuses of charity, <a href=
+'#page411'>411</a>.</p>
+<p>James, the Apostle, quoted on rich men, <a href=
+'#page377'>377</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Jerome"></a>Jerome, St., his life of Paul of Thebes,
+<a href='#page35'>35</a>; on Pachomian monks, <a href=
+'#page59'>59</a>; his letter to Rusticus, <a href='#page59'>59</a>;
+on solitude, <a href='#page61'>61</a>; <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page443"></a>[pg 443]</span> on number of
+Egyptian monks, <a href='#page63'>63</a>; on clergy of the fourth
+and fifth centuries, <a href='#page77'>77</a>; in his cell,
+<a href='#page85'>85</a>; Schaff on, <a href='#page86'>86</a>; his
+birth and early life, <a href='#page86'>86</a>; his travels, and
+austerities, <a href='#page87'>87</a>, <a href='#page92'>92</a>;
+organizes monastic brotherhood, <a href='#page88'>88</a>; his
+literary labors, <a href='#page88'>88</a>; glorifies desert life,
+<a href='#page89'>89</a>; influences Rome, <a href=
+'#page91'>91</a>; his temptations, <a href='#page93'>93</a>; his
+fondness for the classics, <a href='#page95'>95</a>; his
+biographies of Roman nuns, <a href='#page96'>96</a>; his life of
+St. Paula, <a href='#page97'>97</a>, and of Marcella, <a href=
+'#page102'>102</a>; on folly of Roman women, <a href=
+'#page108'>108</a>; on marriage and celibacy, <a href=
+'#page112'>112</a>; on household duties, <a href=
+'#page113'>113</a>; attacks the foes of monks, <a href=
+'#page127'>127</a>; on vices of monks, <a href='#page128'>128</a>;
+on monastic aim, <a href='#page360'>360</a>; on the natural,
+<a href='#page366'>366</a>.</p>
+<p>Jesuits, <i>see</i> <a href="#Jesus,_The_Society_of">Jesus, The
+Society of.</a></p>
+<p>Jesuits, The Pagan, <a href='#page22'>22</a>, <a href=
+'#page426'>426</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Jesus_Christ"></a>Jesus Christ, the Essenes and,
+<a href='#page26'>26</a>; quoted by early ascetics, <a href=
+'#page31'>31</a>, and by Jerome, <a href='#page92'>92</a>;
+teachings of, used by monks, <a href='#page366'>366</a>, <a href=
+'#page376'>376</a>; his doctrine of wealth, <a href=
+'#page377'>377</a>; his attitude toward rich men, <a href=
+'#page379'>379</a>; the doctrine of the cross and, <a href=
+'#page418'>418</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Jesus,_The_Society_of"></a>Jesus, The Society of,
+Sherman on nature of, <a href='#page258'>258</a>; rejects
+seclusion, <a href='#page258'>258</a>; Bishop Keane on, <a href=
+'#page259'>259</a>, <a href='#page273'>273</a>; how differs from
+other monastic communities, <a href='#page259'>259</a>; founded by
+Loyola, <a href='#page264'>264</a>; constitution and polity of,
+<a href='#page265'>265</a>; grades of members of, <a href=
+'#page265'>265</a>; vow of obedience in, <a href=
+'#page266'>266</a>; von Hoensbroech on, <a href='#page268'>268</a>;
+confession in, <a href='#page269'>269</a>; Carlyle on obedience in,
+<a href='#page271'>271</a>; casuistry of, <a href=
+'#page272'>272</a>, <a href='#page429'>429</a>; its doctrine of
+probabilism, <a href='#page274'>274</a>; the Roman Church and,
+<a href='#page275'>275</a>; Roman foes of, <a href=
+'#page276'>276</a>; mission of, <a href='#page276'>276</a>; its
+attitude toward Reformation, <a href='#page277'>277</a>; the Thirty
+Years' War and, <a href='#page277'>277</a>; calumnies against,
+<a href='#page279'>279</a>; Clement XIV. dissolves, <a href=
+'#page279'>279</a>; expulsion of, from Europe, <a href=
+'#page279'>279</a>; missionary labors of, <a href=
+'#page280'>280</a>; Parkman contrasts, with Puritans, <a href=
+'#page281'>281</a>; failure of, <a href='#page283'>283</a>;
+restoration of, <a href='#page283'>283</a>; causes for rise of,
+<a href='#page374'>374</a>; hostility of, to free government,
+<a href='#page402'>402</a>; liberal education opposed by, <a href=
+'#page409'>409</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Loyola">Loyola.</a></p>
+<p>Jewish asceticism, <a href='#page23'>23</a>.</p>
+<p>Jocelin, quoted by Carlyle, <a href='#page145'>145</a>.</p>
+<p>John, King, confiscates alien priories, <a href=
+'#page338'>338</a>.</p>
+<p>John, St., Knights of, <i>see</i> <a href=
+"#Knights">Knights.</a></p>
+<p>John, St., of Calama, visits his sister in disguise, <a href=
+'#page397'>397</a>.</p>
+<p>John, the Apostle, on love of the world, <a href=
+'#page377'>377</a>.</p>
+<p>John the Baptist, and asceticism, 30.</p>
+<p>Johnson, on Monastery of Iona, 168.</p>
+<p>Joseph, St., Church of, in England, 163.</p>
+<p>Josephus on the Essenes, <a href='#page23'>23</a>.</p>
+<p>Jovinian, hostility of, toward monks, <a href=
+'#page127'>127</a>; compared by Neander to Luther, <a href=
+'#page127'>127</a>.</p>
+<p>Julian, Emperor, the exodus of monks and the, <a href=
+'#page127'>127</a>.</p>
+<p>Juvenal, satire of, on Roman women, <a href=
+'#page82'>82</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page444"></a>[pg
+444]</span>
+<p>K</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Keane, Bishop, on the Jesuits, <a href='#page259'>259</a>,
+<a href='#page273'>273</a>.</p>
+<p>Kennaquhair, installation of abbot of, <a href=
+'#page145'>145</a>.</p>
+<p>King, on Hildebrand, <a href='#page178'>178</a>.</p>
+<p>Kingsley, on Egypt and the hermits, <a href='#page34'>34</a>; on
+Roman women, <a href='#page82'>82</a>, <a href='#page106'>106</a>;
+on fall of Rome, <a href='#page78'>78</a>, <a href=
+'#page367'>367</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Knights"></a>Knights of St. John, their origin and
+mission, <a href='#page200'>200</a>.</p>
+<p>Knights of the Hospital, sketch of the, <a href=
+'#page198'>198</a>.</p>
+<p>Knights Templars, rule of the, <a href='#page197'>197</a>; rise
+and fall of, <a href='#page202'>202</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>L</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Labor, manual, Jerome on, <a href='#page59'>59</a>; in Pachomian
+rule, <a href='#page60'>60</a>; Hill on benefits of, <a href=
+'#page142'>142</a>; among the Benedictines, <a href=
+'#page147'>147</a>, <a href='#page404'>404</a>; Benedict on,
+<a href='#page403'>403</a>; effect of Mendicants on, <a href=
+'#page404'>404</a>; not to be despised, <a href=
+'#page420'>420</a>.</p>
+<p>Lama, Grand, in India, <a href='#page21'>21</a>.</p>
+<p>Lateran Council, <a href='#page242'>242</a>.</p>
+<p>Latimer, Bishop, and the monastic funds, <a href=
+'#page323'>323</a>.</p>
+<p>Laumer, St., and wild animals, <a href='#page156'>156</a>.</p>
+<p>Laveleye on Christianity, <a href='#page378'>378</a>.</p>
+<p>Lay abbots, disorders among the, <a href='#page179'>179</a>.</p>
+<p>Layton, a Royal Commissioner, <a href='#page311'>311</a>,
+<a href='#page312'>312</a>.</p>
+<p>Lea, on celibacy, <a href='#page184'>184</a>; on the
+Reformation, <a href='#page342'>342</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Learning"></a>Learning, influence of Alcuin and Wilfred
+on, <a href='#page167'>167</a>; Irish monasteries as centers of,
+<a href='#page169'>169</a>; monks further, in England, <a href=
+'#page252'>252</a>; the monks and secular, <a href=
+'#page406'>406</a>; effects of monasticism on the course of,
+<a href='#page407'>407</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Literary_services">Literary services.</a></p>
+<p>Lecky, on Fabiola's hospitals, <a href='#page105'>105</a>; on
+asceticism and civilization, <a href='#page401'>401</a>; on
+industry and the monastic ideal, <a href='#page405'>405</a>; on
+abuses of alms-giving, <a href='#page411'>411</a>; on the monastic
+doctrines of hell, <a href='#page418'>418</a>.</p>
+<p>Legh, a Royal Commissioner, <a href='#page311'>311</a>.</p>
+<p>Leo X., Pope, <a href='#page293'>293</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Liberty"></a>Liberty, the Jesuits on, <a href=
+'#page375'>375</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Freedom">Freedom</a> and
+<a href="#Independence">Independence.</a></p>
+<p>Libraries, monastic, <a href='#page152'>152</a>.</p>
+<p>Lincoln, Abraham, quoted, <a href='#page205'>205</a>.</p>
+<p>Lingard, on Bede and the conversion of King Lucius, <a href=
+'#page124'>124</a>; on the Anglo-Saxon Church, <a href=
+'#page181'>181</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Literary_services"></a>Literary services of monks,
+<a href='#page153'>153</a>, <a href='#page406'>406</a>. <i>See</i>
+<a href="#Learning">Learning.</a></p>
+<p>Lollardism, way paved for destruction of cloisters by, <a href=
+'#page294'>294</a>. <i>See</i> <a href='#page429'>429</a>.</p>
+<p>Lombards destroy Monte Cassino, <a href='#page135'>135</a>.</p>
+<p>London, John, a Royal Commissioner, <a href=
+'#page311'>311</a>.</p>
+<p>Longfellow, poem of, on Francis, <a href='#page218'>218</a>; on
+Monte Cassino, <a href='#page135'>135</a></p>
+<p>Lord, John, on needed religious reforms, <a href=
+'#page80'>80</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Loyola"></a>Loyola, St. Ignatius, his birth, <a href=
+'#page261'>261</a>; enters upon religious work, <a href=
+'#page262'>262</a>; his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, <a href=
+'#page263'>263</a>; his education, <a href='#page263'>263</a>;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page445"></a>[pg 445]</span>
+imprisonments, <a href='#page263'>263</a>; founds Society of Jesus,
+<a href='#page264'>264</a>; his "Spiritual Exercises," <a href=
+'#page265'>265</a>, <a href='#page267'>267</a>; on obedience,
+<a href='#page267'>267</a>; his mission, <a href=
+'#page276'>276</a>; Sherman on, <a href='#page278'>278</a>;
+compared with Hamilcar, <a href='#page409'>409</a>. <i>See</i>
+<a href="#Jesus,_The_Society_of">Society of Jesus.</a></p>
+<p>Lucius, a British king, embraces Christianity, <a href=
+'#page124'>124</a>.</p>
+<p>Luther, influence of, in history, <a href='#page92'>92</a>; an
+Augustinian monk, <a href='#page118'>118</a>; Henry VIII. attacks,
+<a href='#page293'>293</a>.</p>
+<p>Lytton, his views of Jesuits denounced, <a href=
+'#page278'>278</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>M</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Macarius, the hermit, <a href='#page49'>49</a>.</p>
+<p>Macaulay, his views of Jesuits opposed, <a href=
+'#page278'>278</a>; on the aims of Jesuits, <a href=
+'#page283'>283</a>; on the Roman Church, <a href=
+'#page402'>402</a>.</p>
+Mabie, H.W., on the monks and the classics, <a href=
+'#page408'>408</a>.
+<p>Mahomet, Carlyle on, <a href='#page33'>33</a>.</p>
+<p>Maitland, on Benedictine monasteries, <a href=
+'#page155'>155</a>.</p>
+<p>Maitre, on desecration of cloisters, <a href=
+'#page350'>350</a>.</p>
+<p>Malmesbury, his charges against the monks, <a href=
+'#page173'>173</a>.</p>
+<p>Manicheism, relation of, to Albigensians, <a href=
+'#page233'>233</a>.</p>
+<p>Marcella, St., Jerome on life of, <a href='#page102'>102</a>;
+her austerities and charity, <a href='#page103'>103</a>.</p>
+<p>Maria dei Angeli, Sta., Francis hears call in church of,
+<a href='#page214'>214</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Marriage"></a>Marriage, Basil on, <a href=
+'#page66'>66</a>; how esteemed in Rome, <a href='#page110'>110</a>;
+Gibbon on, in Rome, <a href='#page110'>110</a>; Jerome and
+Augustine on, <a href='#page112'>112</a>; vow of celibacy and,
+<a href='#page381'>381</a>.</p>
+<p>Married life in Rome, Jerome on, <a href='#page114'>114</a>.</p>
+<p>Martensen, on ascetics, <a href='#page391'>391</a>; on solitude
+and society, <a href='#page395'>395</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Martin,_St."></a>Martin, St., of Tours, credibility of
+biography of, <a href='#page119'>119</a>; sketch of his life,
+<a href='#page120'>120</a>; his death, <a href='#page122'>122</a>;
+churches and shrines in honor of, <a href='#page122'>122</a>.</p>
+<p>Martinmas, <a href='#page122'>122</a>.</p>
+<p>Materialism, monasticism and, <a href='#page350'>350</a>,
+<a href='#page413'>413</a>; of the West, <a href=
+'#page371'>371</a>.</p>
+<p>Mathews, Shailer, on Christ and riches, <a href=
+'#page379'>379</a>.</p>
+<p>Matthew of Paris, on prosperity of friars, <a href=
+'#page246'>246</a>.</p>
+<p>Maur, St., walks on water, <a href='#page137'>137</a>.</p>
+<p>Maximilian, of Bavaria, educated by Jesuits, <a href=
+'#page277'>277</a>.</p>
+<p>Melrose Abbey, <a href='#page289'>289</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Mendicant"></a>Mendicant Friars, The, <a href=
+'#page205'>205</a>; success of, <a href='#page242'>242</a>,
+<a href='#page255'>255</a>; their value to Rome, <a href=
+'#page243'>243</a>; confined to four societies, <a href=
+'#page246'>246</a>; quarrels among, <a href='#page246'>246</a>;
+their educational work, <a href='#page248'>248</a>; in England,
+<a href='#page251'>251</a>; decline of, <a href='#page253'>253</a>;
+as preachers, <a href='#page244'>244</a>; <a href=
+'#page254'>254</a>; effects of prosperity on, <a href=
+'#page256'>256</a>.</p>
+<p>Mendicity of monks, <a href='#page245'>245</a>.</p>
+<p>Milan, church of, Emperor refused entrance to the, <a href=
+'#page115'>115</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Military-religious_orders"></a>Military-religious
+orders, their origin, labors and decline, <a href=
+'#page197'>197</a>.</p>
+<p>Militia of Jesus Christ, <a href='#page242'>242</a>.</p>
+<p>Mill, John Stuart, on preaching friars, <a href=
+'#page244'>244</a>.</p>
+<p>Milman, on the early church leaders, <a href='#page129'>129</a>;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page446"></a>[pg 446]</span> on
+dream of Dominic's mother, <a href='#page231'>231</a>; on bigotry
+of monks, <a href='#page395'>395</a>; on monks and natural
+affections, <a href='#page398'>398</a>.</p>
+<p>Milton, contrasted to monks, <a href='#page394'>394</a>.</p>
+<p>Miracles, <a href='#page224'>224</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Anthony">Anthony</a>, Stylites, <a href="#Martin,_St.">St.
+Martin</a>, etc.</p>
+<p>Missionary labors, of monks, <a href='#page148'>148</a>,
+<a href='#page171'>171</a>, <a href='#page398'>398</a>; of the
+Jesuits, <a href='#page280'>280</a>, <a href=
+'#page281'>281</a>.</p>
+<p>Modern life and thought, monasticism rejected by, <a href=
+'#page421'>421</a>.</p>
+<p>Mohammedans, mission of Francis to, <a href=
+'#page217'>217</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Monastery"></a>Monastery, of Pachomius, <a href=
+'#page58'>58</a>; Monte Cassino, <a href='#page134'>134</a>; St.
+Gregory's, rules of, <a href='#page141'>141</a>; Kennaquhair,
+<a href='#page145'>145</a>; Vivaria, <a href='#page152'>152</a>;
+Bangor, <a href='#page165'>165</a>; Iona, <a href=
+'#page168'>168</a>; Cluny, <a href='#page177'>177</a>; Grand
+Chartreuse, <a href='#page189'>189</a>; Charterhouse, <a href=
+'#page191'>191</a>, <a href='#page301'>301</a>, <a href=
+'#page334'>334</a>, <a href='#page343'>343</a>; Citeaux, <a href=
+'#page192'>192</a>; Clairvaux, <a href='#page193'>193</a>; St.
+Nicholas, <a href='#page240'>240</a>; Melrose, <a href=
+'#page289'>289</a>; Glastonbury, <a href='#page314'>314</a>.</p>
+<p>Monasteries, in Egypt, <a href='#page44'>44</a>; of Jerome,
+<a href='#page88'>88</a>; of Paula, <a href='#page100'>100</a>; in
+early Britain, <a href='#page123'>123</a>; as literary centers,
+<a href='#page151'>151</a>; decline of, in Middle Ages, <a href=
+'#page173'>173</a>; destruction of, by Danes, <a href=
+'#page180'>180</a>; corruptions of, in Dunstan's time, <a href=
+'#page185'>185</a>; abandonment of endowments, <a href=
+'#page244'>244</a>; fall of, in England, <a href=
+'#page286'>286</a>; fall of, in various countries, <a href=
+'#page288'>288</a>, <a href='#page430'>430</a>; obstacles to
+progress, <a href='#page343'>343</a>; new uses of, <a href=
+'#page350'>350</a>; life in, <a href='#page392'>392</a>; charity
+of, <a href='#page410'>410</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Monasteries"></a>Monasteries, The Fall of, in England,
+<a href='#page286'>286</a>; various views of, <a href=
+'#page288'>288</a>; necessity for dispassionate judgment, <a href=
+'#page289'>289</a>; events preceding, <a href='#page293'>293</a>;
+progress and, <a href='#page300'>300</a>; the Charterhouse,
+<a href='#page302'>302</a>; the Royal Commissioners and their
+methods, <a href='#page308'>308</a>, <a href='#page313'>313</a>;
+Glastonbury, <a href='#page314'>314</a>; report of commissioners,
+<a href='#page313'>313</a>, <a href='#page314'>314</a>; action of
+Parliament, <a href='#page319'>319</a>; the lesser houses, <a href=
+'#page319'>319</a>; the larger houses, <a href='#page320'>320</a>;
+total number and the revenues of, <a href='#page321'>321</a>;
+effect of, upon the people, <a href='#page322'>322</a>; Green on
+same, <a href='#page323'>323</a>; uprisings and rebellions,
+<a href='#page325'>325</a>; use of funds, <a href=
+'#page328'>328</a>; justification for, <a href='#page331'>331</a>;
+Bale, Blunt and Hume on justification for, <a href=
+'#page333'>333</a>; Hallam on, <a href='#page334'>334</a>; charges
+against monks true, <a href='#page336'>336</a>; Bonaventura and
+Wyclif on vices of monks, <a href='#page337'>337</a>; confiscation
+of alien priories, <a href='#page338'>338</a>; compared with
+suppression in other countries, <a href='#page339'>339</a>,
+<a href='#page430'>430</a>; alienation of England from Rome,
+<a href='#page342'>342</a>; superficial explanation of, <a href=
+'#page343'>343</a>; true view of, <a href='#page344'>344</a>; monks
+and reform, <a href='#page344'>344</a>; causes of, enumerated,
+<a href='#page345'>345</a>; results of, <a href='#page345'>345</a>,
+<a href='#page347'>347</a>; general review of, <a href=
+'#page352'>352</a>; Bryant on, <a href='#page353'>353</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Monasticism"></a>Monasticism, Eastern, origin of,
+<a href='#page17'>17</a>, <a href='#page29'>29</a>; philosophy and,
+<a href='#page18'>18</a>; Christian, <a href='#page29'>29</a>; the
+Scriptures and, <a href='#page30'>30</a>; in Egypt, <a href=
+'#page33'>33</a>; virtual founder of, <a href='#page42'>42</a>;
+under Pachomius, <a href='#page58'>58</a>, <a href=
+'#page63'>63</a>; under Basil, <a href='#page63'>63</a>; character
+of, in Greek church, <a href='#page67'>67</a>; perplexing character
+of, <a href='#page69'>69</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Jerome">Jerome</a>, <a href="#Basil">Basil</a> and <a href=
+"#Athanasius">Athanasius.</a></p>
+<p>Monasticism, Western, <a href='#page71'>71</a>; introduction in
+Rome, <a href='#page71'>71</a>; <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page447"></a>[pg 447]</span> effect upon Rome, <a href=
+'#page80'>80</a>; women and, <a href='#page96'>96</a>, <a href=
+'#page106'>106</a>; Gregory the Great and, <a href=
+'#page160'>160</a>; in England, <a href='#page162'>162</a>; spread
+of, <a href='#page115'>115</a>; in Germany, <a href=
+'#page122'>122</a>; in Spain, <a href='#page122'>122</a>; in early
+Britain, <a href='#page123'>123</a>, <a href='#page168'>168</a>;
+disorders and oppositions, <a href='#page124'>124</a>; enemies of,
+<a href='#page127'>127</a>; its eclipse, <a href=
+'#page130'>130</a>; code of, <a href='#page139'>139</a>; reforms
+of, and military types, <a href='#page173'>173</a>, <a href=
+'#page197'>197</a>; decline of, in the Middle Ages, <a href=
+'#page173'>173</a>, <a href='#page179'>179</a>; Benedict of Aniane
+tries to reform, <a href='#page176'>176</a>; in England, in Middle
+Ages, <a href='#page180'>180</a>; failure of reforms, <a href=
+'#page196'>196</a>, <a href='#page207'>207</a>; its moral dualism,
+<a href='#page205'>205</a>; its recuperative power, <a href=
+'#page205'>205</a>; in the thirteenth century, <a href=
+'#page206'>206</a>; new features of, <a href='#page244'>244</a>;
+popes demand reforms in, <a href='#page286'>286</a>; attacked by
+governments, <a href='#page287'>287</a>; Hill on fall of, in
+England, <a href='#page345'>345</a>; a fetter on progress, <a href=
+'#page347'>347</a>; alms-giving and, <a href='#page348'>348</a>;
+age of, compared to modern times, <a href='#page351'>351</a>.</p>
+<p>Monasticism, Causes and Ideals of, <a href='#page354'>354</a>;
+causative motives, <a href='#page355'>355</a>; the desire for
+salvation, <a href='#page356'>356</a>; quotations on the ideal,
+<a href='#page129'>129</a>, <a href='#page173'>173</a>, <a href=
+'#page174'>174</a>, <a href='#page357'>357</a>, <a href=
+'#page358'>358</a>, <a href='#page360'>360</a>; nothing gained by
+return to ideal, <a href='#page352'>352</a>; motive for endowments,
+<a href='#page361'>361</a>; the love of solitude, <a href=
+'#page362'>362</a>; various motives, <a href='#page364'>364</a>;
+beliefs affecting the causative motives, <a href=
+'#page365'>365</a>; Gnostic teachings, <a href='#page366'>366</a>;
+effect of the social condition of Roman Empire, <a href=
+'#page367'>367</a>; the flight from the world, <a href=
+'#page368'>368</a>; causes of variations in types, <a href=
+'#page371'>371</a>; East and West compared, <a href=
+'#page371'>371</a>; effect of political changes, <a href=
+'#page372'>372</a>; the Crusades, <a href='#page373'>373</a>;
+effect of feudalism, <a href='#page373'>373</a>; effect of the
+intellectual awakening, <a href='#page374'>374</a>; the Modern Age
+and the Jesuits, <a href='#page374'>374</a>; the fundamental vows,
+<a href='#page375'>375</a>.</p>
+<p>Monasticism, Effects of, <a href='#page386'>386</a>; the good
+and evil of, <a href='#page387'>387</a>; variety of opinions
+respecting, <a href='#page387'>387</a>; the diversity of facts,
+<a href='#page389'>389</a>; elements of truth and worth, <a href=
+'#page390'>390</a>; effects of self-sacrifice, <a href=
+'#page390'>390</a>, of solitude, <a href='#page393'>393</a>; the
+monks as missionaries, <a href='#page398'>398</a>; civic duties,
+<a href='#page399'>399</a>; upon civilization, <a href=
+'#page401'>401</a>; upon agriculture, <a href='#page403'>403</a>;
+upon secular learning, <a href='#page405'>405</a>; the charity of
+monks, <a href='#page410'>410</a>; upon religion, <a href=
+'#page412'>412</a>, <a href='#page413'>413</a>; the sense of sin,
+<a href='#page414'>414</a>; the atonement for sin, <a href=
+'#page417'>417</a>; the distinction between the secular and the
+religious, <a href='#page418'>418</a>; monasticism and
+Christianity, <a href='#page420'>420</a>; old monastic methods
+forsaken, <a href='#page421'>421</a>; summary of effects, <a href=
+'#page423'>423</a>.</p>
+<p>Monastic Orders, the usual history of, <a href=
+'#page174'>174</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Benedict">Benedict</a>,
+Order of St., <a href="#Franciscans">Franciscans</a>, etc.</p>
+<p><a name="Monks"></a>Monks, not peculiar to Christianity,
+<a href='#page17'>17</a>; Jerome on habits of, <a href=
+'#page36'>36</a>; in Egypt, <a href='#page44'>44</a>; Pachomian,
+<a href='#page58'>58</a>; number of Eastern, <a href=
+'#page63'>63</a>; under Basil, <a href='#page63'>63</a>; character
+of Eastern, <a href='#page67'>67</a>, <a href='#page69'>69</a>; as
+theological fighters, <a href='#page68'>68</a>; Hypatia and the,
+<a href='#page68'>68</a>; in the desert of Chalcis, <a href=
+'#page87'>87</a>; in early Rome, <a href='#page96'>96</a>; motives
+of early, <a href='#page106'>106</a>, <a href='#page128'>128</a>;
+of Augustine, <a href='#page118'>118</a>; <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page448"></a>[pg 448]</span> under Martin of
+Tours, <a href='#page120'>120</a>; opposition to Roman, <a href=
+'#page125'>125</a>, <a href='#page147'>147</a>; disorders among the
+early, <a href='#page128'>128</a>, <a href='#page150'>150</a>;
+literary services of, <a href='#page151'>151</a>, <a href=
+'#page153'>153</a>, <a href='#page167'>167</a>, <a href=
+'#page169'>169</a>, <a href='#page248'>248</a>, <a href=
+'#page253'>253</a>, <a href='#page405'>405</a>, <a href=
+'#page406'>406</a>; agricultural services of, <a href=
+'#page155'>155</a>, <a href='#page192'>192</a>, <a href=
+'#page403'>403</a>; wild animals and the, <a href=
+'#page156'>156</a>; early British, <a href='#page162'>162</a>,
+<a href='#page168'>168</a>; influence of the, in England, <a href=
+'#page166'>166</a>; the barbarians and the, <a href=
+'#page148'>148</a>, <a href='#page171'>171</a>, <a href=
+'#page398'>398</a>; military, <a href='#page173'>173</a>, <a href=
+'#page197'>197</a>; corruptions of, <a href='#page124'>124</a>,
+<a href='#page173'>173</a>, <a href='#page175'>175</a>, <a href=
+'#page179'>179</a>, <a href='#page196'>196</a>, <a href=
+'#page206'>206</a>, <a href='#page336'>336</a>; the celibacy of,
+<a href='#page183'>183</a>; changes in the character of, <a href=
+'#page284'>284</a>; rebel against Henry VIII., <a href=
+'#page296'>296</a>; as obstacles to progress, <a href=
+'#page300'>300</a>, <a href='#page343'>343</a>; required to take
+the Oath of Supremacy, <a href='#page301'>301</a>; pious frauds of,
+in England, <a href='#page318'>318</a>; receive pensions, <a href=
+'#page320'>320</a>; oppose reforms in England, <a href=
+'#page344'>344</a>; privileges and powers of the, affected by the
+suppression, <a href='#page347'>347</a>; charity of the, <a href=
+'#page348'>348</a>, <a href='#page410'>410</a>, <a href=
+'#page411'>411</a>; objects of the, <a href='#page360'>360</a>;
+once held in high esteem, <a href='#page361'>361</a>; their flight
+from Rome, <a href='#page368'>368</a>; diversity of opinions
+respecting the, <a href='#page388'>388</a>; effect of austerities
+on the, <a href='#page390'>390</a>; effect of solitude on the,
+<a href='#page393'>393</a>; deficiencies in the best, <a href=
+'#page394'>394</a>; as missionaries, <a href='#page398'>398</a>;
+civic duties and the, <a href='#page399'>399</a>; military quarrels
+incited by the, <a href='#page401'>401</a>; enthusiasm for religion
+kept alive by the, <a href='#page413'>413</a>; their sense of sin,
+exaggeration in their views and methods, <a href=
+'#page413'>413</a>; their doctrine of hell, <a href=
+'#page417'>417</a>; the doctrine of the cross and the, <a href=
+'#page418'>418</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Mendicant">Mendicants</a>,
+<a href="#Benedict">Benedict</a>, Order of St., etc.</p>
+<p>Montaigne, on the temptations of solitude, <a href=
+'#page393'>393</a>.</p>
+<p>Montalembert, on Eastern monachism, <a href='#page67'>67</a>; on
+Benedict, <a href='#page130'>130</a>; on the ruin of French
+cloisters, <a href='#page351'>351</a>; on the attractions of
+solitude, <a href='#page364'>364</a>; on the value of the monks,
+<a href='#page388'>388</a>, <a href='#page406'>406</a>.</p>
+<p>Montanists, The, and asceticism, <a href='#page27'>27</a>.</p>
+<p>Monte Cassino, Monastery at, Montalembert on, <a href=
+'#page134'>134</a>; sketch of its history, <a href=
+'#page134'>134</a>.</p>
+<p>Montserrat, tablet on Ignatius in church at, <a href=
+'#page262'>262</a>.</p>
+<p>More, Sir Thomas, causes of his death, <a href=
+'#page298'>298</a>; his character, <a href='#page299'>299</a>;
+influence of, in prison, <a href='#page303'>303</a>, <a href=
+'#page305'>305</a>; on Henry's ambition, <a href=
+'#page322'>322</a>.</p>
+<p>Morton, Cardinal, on the vices of the monks, <a href=
+'#page338'>338</a>.</p>
+<p>Mosheim, on Francis, <a href='#page225'>225</a>; on the quarrel
+of the Franciscans, <a href='#page247'>247</a>.</p>
+<p>Mozoomdar, on the motives and spirit of Oriental asceticism,
+<a href='#page358'>358</a>.</p>
+<p>Mutius, taught renunciation, <a href='#page62'>62</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>N</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Neander, compares Jovinian to Luther, <a href=
+'#page127'>127</a>; on the dreams of Francis, <a href=
+'#page209'>209</a>.</p>
+<p>Newman, Cardinal, on Benedict's mission, <a href=
+'#page149'>149</a>.</p>
+<p>Nicholas, St., Monastery of, <a href='#page240'>240</a>.</p>
+<p>Normans, The, and the alien priories, <a href=
+'#page341'>341</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page449"></a>[pg 449]</span>
+<p>Novitiate, Benedictine, extended by Gregory, <a href=
+'#page160'>160</a>; of the Jesuits, <a href='#page260'>260</a>,
+<a href='#page269'>269</a>. <i>See</i> various orders.</p>
+<p>Nun, <i>see</i> <a href="#Women">Women.</a></p>
+<p>Nunneries, origin of, <a href='#page106'>106</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>O</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p><a name="Obedience"></a>Obedience, vow of, in Pachomian rule,
+<a href='#page61'>61</a>; enforced by Basil, <a href=
+'#page66'>66</a>; among the Jesuits, <a href='#page266'>266</a>;
+Loyola on, <a href='#page267'>267</a>; Dom Guigo on, <a href=
+'#page383'>383</a>; its value and its abuses, <a href=
+'#page384'>384</a>.</p>
+<p>Observantines, <a href='#page246'>246</a>.</p>
+<p>Oliphant, Mrs., on the temptations of Francis, <a href=
+'#page218'>218</a>; on the stigmata, <a href=
+'#page222'>222</a>.</p>
+<p>Origen, on Christianity in Britain, <a href=
+'#page123'>123</a>.</p>
+<p>Oswald, aids Dunstan in reforms, <a href='#page186'>186</a>.</p>
+<p>Oxford University, friars enter, <a href='#page251'>251</a>;
+founded by monks, <a href='#page406'>406</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>P</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Pachomius, St., <a href='#page32'>32</a>; birth and early life
+of, <a href='#page58'>58</a>.</p>
+<p>Pachomian Monks, rules of, <a href='#page58'>58</a>; vows,
+<a href='#page61'>61</a>; their number and spread, <a href=
+'#page63'>63</a>.</p>
+<p>Pagan philosophy powerless to save Rome, <a href=
+'#page76'>76</a>.</p>
+<p>Palgrave on the miter, <a href='#page400'>400</a>.</p>
+<p>Pamplona, Ignatius wounded at siege of, <a href=
+'#page262'>262</a>.</p>
+<p>Parkman, Francis, on the Puritans and the Jesuits, <a href=
+'#page281'>281</a>; on the Roman Church, <a href=
+'#page386'>386</a>.</p>
+<p>Parliament of Religions, World's Fair, views of asceticism at
+the, <a href='#page357'>357</a>, <a href='#page358'>358</a>.</p>
+<p>Paris, University of, <a href='#page249'>249</a>, <a href=
+'#page406'>406</a>.</p>
+<p>Paschal II., Pope, the gift of Cluny, <a href=
+'#page178'>178</a>.</p>
+<p>Patrick, St., <a href='#page122'>122</a>; labors in Ireland,
+<a href='#page123'>123</a>; was he a Romanist? <a href=
+'#page162'>162</a>.</p>
+<p>Paul, The Apostle, on asceticism, <a href='#page27'>27</a>.</p>
+<p>Paul III., Pope, excommunicates Henry VIII., <a href=
+'#page306'>306</a>.</p>
+<p>Paul of Thebes, Jerome's life of, <a href='#page35'>35</a>; his
+early life, <a href='#page36'>36</a>; visited by Anthony, <a href=
+'#page37'>37</a>; his death, <a href='#page40'>40</a>; effect of
+his biography on the times, <a href='#page42'>42</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Paula"></a>Paula, St., Jerome on death of, <a href=
+'#page98'>98</a>, <a href='#page101'>101</a>; her austerities and
+charities, <a href='#page98'>98</a>, <a href='#page100'>100</a>;
+separates from her children, <a href='#page98'>98</a>; her
+monasteries at Bethlehem, <a href='#page100'>100</a>; inscription
+on her tombstone, <a href='#page102'>102</a>; faints at her
+daughter's funeral, <a href='#page125'>125</a>.</p>
+<p>Paulinus, embraces ascetic Christianity, <a href=
+'#page84'>84</a>.</p>
+<p>Peter, The Apostle, marriage of, <a href='#page115'>115</a>.</p>
+<p>Peter the Venerable, <a href='#page178'>178</a>.</p>
+<p>Petrarch, Mabie on, and the classics, <a href=
+'#page408'>408</a>.</p>
+<p>Peyto, Friar, denounces Henry VIII., <a href=
+'#page296'>296</a>:</p>
+<p>Philanthropy, spirit of, kept alive by monks, <a href=
+'#page412'>412</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Charity">Charity.</a></p>
+<p>Philip IV., King, of France, his charges against the Knights,
+<a href='#page202'>202</a>.</p>
+<p>Phillips, Wendell, on the reading of history, <a href=
+'#page386'>386</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page450"></a>[pg 450]</span>
+<p>Philo, on the Essenes, <a href='#page23'>23</a>; on the
+Therapeut&aelig;, <a href='#page27'>27</a>.</p>
+<p>Philosophy, ascetic influence of Greek, <a href=
+'#page21'>21</a>; Gnostic, <a href='#page27'>27</a>; Pagan, and
+fall of Rome, <a href='#page76'>76</a>.</p>
+<p>Pike, Luke Owen, on the character of Henry VIII., <a href=
+'#page290'>290</a>; on the lawlessness of monks, <a href=
+'#page336'>336</a>.</p>
+<p>Pilgrims of Grace, <a href='#page326'>326</a>; their demands and
+overthrowal, <a href='#page327'>327</a>.</p>
+<p>Pillar Saints, <a href='#page51'>51</a>.</p>
+<p>Plague, Black, and the monks, <a href='#page410'>410</a>.</p>
+<p>Plato, ascetic teachings of, <a href='#page22'>22</a>.</p>
+<p>Pliny, on the Essenes, <a href='#page25'>25</a>.</p>
+<p>Pole, Reginald, on Henry VIII. and Rome, <a href=
+'#page295'>295</a>.</p>
+<p>Politics, not to be despised, <a href='#page420'>420</a>.</p>
+<p>Portus, inn at, <a href='#page105'>105</a>.</p>
+<p>Potitianus, affected by Anthony's biography, <a href=
+'#page83'>83</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Poverty"></a>Poverty, vow of, in Pachomian rule,
+<a href='#page61'>61</a>; Franciscans quarrel over, <a href=
+'#page246'>246</a>; and the Scriptures, <a href=
+'#page376'>376</a>.</p>
+<p>Preaching Friars, <i>see</i> <a href=
+"#Dominicans">Dominicans</a>, <a href=
+"#Franciscans">Franciscans</a> and <a href=
+"#Mendicant">Mendicants</a>.</p>
+<p>Pride, spiritual, of monks, <a href='#page395'>395</a>.</p>
+<p>Probabilism, doctrine of, <a href='#page274'>274</a>.</p>
+<p>Protestantism, effect of, upon monasticism, <a href=
+'#page286'>286</a>; guilty of persecution, <a href=
+'#page332'>332</a>; and the Church of England, <a href=
+'#page340'>340</a>; its real value to England, <a href=
+'#page346'>346</a>; its religious ideal, <a href=
+'#page356'>356</a>.</p>
+<p>Putnam, on the rule of St. Benedict, <a href='#page139'>139</a>;
+on Cassiodorus, <a href='#page153'>153</a>; on the first quarrel
+over copyright, <a href='#page170'>170</a>.</p>
+<p>Pythagoras, asceticism of, <a href='#page21'>21</a>, <a href=
+'#page426'>426</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>R</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Reade, Charles, on the monk's flight from the world, <a href=
+'#page368'>368</a>.</p>
+<p>Reading, the monks of, their pious frauds, <a href=
+'#page318'>318</a>.</p>
+<p>Recluses, <i>see</i> <a href="#Hermits">Hermits.</a></p>
+<p>Reformed Orders, <a href='#page173'>173</a>.</p>
+<p>Reform, monastic, <a href='#page173'>173</a>, <a href=
+'#page205'>205</a>; fails to stop decline of monasteries, <a href=
+'#page196'>196</a>, <a href='#page207'>207</a>, <a href=
+'#page286'>286</a>; demanded by popes, <a href='#page286'>286</a>;
+failure of, <a href='#page336'>336</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Monasticism">Monasticism.</a></p>
+<p>Reformation, The Protestant, furthered by certain Franciscans,
+<a href='#page247'>247</a>; relation of Mendicants to, <a href=
+'#page248'>248</a>; the Jesuits and, <a href='#page277'>277</a>;
+<a href='#page278'>278</a>, <a href='#page283'>283</a>; in England,
+its character, and results, <a href='#page345'>345</a>, <a href=
+'#page346'>346</a>; and the monastic life, <a href=
+'#page374'>374</a>.</p>
+<p>Relics, fraudulent, <a href='#page128'>128</a>, <a href=
+'#page318'>318</a>.</p>
+<p>Religion, monasticism and, <a href='#page18'>18</a>, <a href=
+'#page412'>412</a>; influence of feelings and opinions, <a href=
+'#page354'>354</a>; enthusiasm for, fostered by monks, <a href=
+'#page413'>413</a>; the sense of sin, <a href='#page414'>414</a>;
+salvation, <a href='#page417'>417</a>; the distinction between the
+secular and the religious, <a href='#page418'>418</a>, <a href=
+'#page420'>420</a>; the doctrine of the cross, <a href=
+'#page418'>418</a>; essence of, <a href='#page419'>419</a>; true,
+possible outside of convents, <a href='#page421'>421</a>.</p>
+<p>Religious houses, <i>see</i> <a href=
+"#Monasteries">Monasteries.</a></p>
+<p>Renunciation of the world, <a href='#page358'>358</a>, <a href=
+'#page369'>369</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Self-denial">Self-denial.</a></p>
+<p>Rice, Ap, a Royal Commissioner, <a href='#page311'>311</a>.</p>
+<p>Riches, <i>see</i> <a href="#Wealth">Wealth.</a></p>
+<p>Richard II., confiscates alien priories, <a href=
+'#page338'>338</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page451"></a>[pg 451]</span>
+<p>Robertson, F.W., on excessive austerities, <a href=
+'#page94'>94</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Rome,_Church_of"></a>Rome, Church of, her claims
+respecting the early British Church, <a href='#page162'>162</a>;
+writers of, on the stigmata, <a href='#page223'>223</a>; her
+relation to the Jesuits, <a href='#page275'>275</a>, and the
+English people, <a href='#page294'>294</a>, <a href=
+'#page341'>341</a>; martyrs of, <a href='#page332'>332</a>; writers
+of, on the fall of monasteries, <a href='#page334'>334</a>,
+<a href='#page335'>335</a>; England separates from, <a href=
+'#page342'>342</a>; her religious ideal, <a href=
+'#page356'>356</a>; Parkman on, <a href='#page386'>386</a>;
+Macaulay on, <a href='#page403'>403</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Henry_VIII.">Henry VIII.</a></p>
+<p>Rome, Monasticism introduced in, <a href='#page71'>71</a>;
+social and religious state of, in the fourth century, <a href=
+'#page72'>72</a>, <a href='#page74'>74</a>; Dill on causes of the
+fall of, <a href='#page74'>74</a>; classes of society in, <a href=
+'#page75'>75</a>; Farrar on luxury of, <a href='#page75'>75</a>;
+epigram of Silvianus, <a href='#page76'>76</a>; Kingsley on ruin
+of, <a href='#page78'>78</a>; Jerome on sack of, by Alaric,
+<a href='#page103'>103</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Jerome">Jerome.</a></p>
+<p>Roman Empire, nominally Christian, <a href='#page73'>73</a>;.
+its impending doom, <a href='#page73'>73</a>, <a href=
+'#page367'>367</a>.</p>
+<p>Romanus, a monk, <a href='#page131'>131</a>.</p>
+<p>Royalty, affected by monasticism, <a href=
+'#page179'>179</a>.</p>
+<p>Rules, monastic, the first, <a href='#page58'>58</a>; before
+Benedict, <a href='#page107'>107</a>; of Augustine, <a href=
+'#page118'>118</a>; of St. Benedict, <a href='#page138'>138</a>,
+<a href='#page139'>139</a>, <a href='#page147'>147</a>, <a href=
+'#page151'>151</a>, <a href='#page158'>158</a>; of Dom Guigo,
+<a href='#page189'>189</a>; of St. Francis, <a href=
+'#page226'>226</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Celibacy">Celibacy</a>,
+<a href="#Poverty">Poverty</a>, <a href=
+"#Obedience">Obedience.</a></p>
+<p>Ruskin, on St. Hugh of Lincoln, <a href='#page189'>189</a>.</p>
+<p>Rusticus, a monk, <a href='#page59'>59</a>.</p>
+<p>Rutilius, on the monks, <a href='#page126'>126</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>S</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Sabatier, on rule of St. Francis, <a href=
+'#page227'>227</a>.</p>
+<p>Saint, Paul of Thebes, <a href='#page35'>35</a>; Anthony,
+<a href='#page37'>37</a>; Athanasius, <a href='#page42'>42</a>;
+Abraham, <a href='#page50'>50</a>, <a href='#page60'>60</a>;
+Macarius, <a href='#page49'>49</a>; Hilarion, <a href=
+'#page49'>49</a>; Simeon Stylites, <a href='#page51'>51</a>;
+Pachomius, <a href='#page58'>58</a>; Basil, <a href=
+'#page63'>63</a>; Gregory of Nazianza, <a href='#page65'>65</a>;
+Jerome, <a href='#page85'>85</a>; Paula, <a href='#page97'>97</a>;
+Marcella, <a href='#page102'>102</a>; Fabiola, <a href=
+'#page105'>105</a>; Ambrose, <a href='#page115'>115</a>;
+Chrysostom, <a href='#page116'>116</a>; Augustine, <a href=
+'#page117'>117</a>; Martin of Tours, <a href='#page119'>119</a>;
+Maur, <a href='#page137'>137</a>; Patrick, <a href=
+'#page123'>123</a>, <a href='#page162'>162</a>; Benedict of Nursia,
+<a href='#page131'>131</a>; Hugh of Lincoln, <a href=
+'#page157'>157</a>, <a href='#page189'>189</a>; Gregory the Great,
+<a href='#page159'>159</a>; Columba, <a href='#page162'>162</a>,
+<a href='#page168'>168</a>, <a href='#page170'>170</a>; Boniface,
+<a href='#page167'>167</a>; Wilfred, <a href='#page167'>167</a>;
+Benedict of Aniane, <a href='#page176'>176</a>; Dunstan, <a href=
+'#page182'>182</a>; Bruno, <a href='#page188'>188</a>; Bernard,
+<a href='#page192'>192</a>; Francis, <a href='#page208'>208</a>;
+Clara, <a href='#page228'>228</a>; Dominic, <a href=
+'#page230'>230</a>; Loyola, <a href='#page261'>261</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Salvation"></a>Salvation, the desire for, <a href=
+'#page70'>70</a>, <a href='#page111'>111</a>, <a href=
+'#page355'>355</a>, <a href='#page396'>396</a>; the struggle for,
+<a href='#page95'>95</a>; monastic views of, <a href=
+'#page417'>417</a>.</p>
+<p>Samson, Abbot, election of, <a href='#page145'>145</a>.</p>
+<p>Santa Crocella, chapel of, <a href='#page131'>131</a>.</p>
+<p>Saracens burn Monte Cassino monastery, <a href=
+'#page135'>135</a>.</p>
+<p>Saragossa, Council of, forbids priests to assume monks' robes,
+<a href='#page122'>122</a>.</p>
+<p>Savonarola, a Dominican, <a href='#page242'>242</a>.</p>
+<p>Saxons invade England, <a href='#page180'>180</a>.</p>
+<p>Schaff, Philip, on origin of monasticism, <a href=
+'#page18'>18</a>; on Montanists, <a href='#page28'>28</a>;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page452"></a>[pg 452]</span> on the
+biography of the hermit Paul, <a href='#page35'>35</a>; on St.
+Jerome, <a href='#page86'>86</a>; on Augustine, <a href=
+'#page117'>117</a>; on Benedictine rule, <a href=
+'#page148'>148</a>; on monasteries as centers of learning, <a href=
+'#page153'>153</a>; on effects of monasticism, <a href=
+'#page387'>387</a>.</p>
+<p>Scholastica, story about, <a href='#page138'>138</a>.</p>
+<p>Schools, monastic, <a href='#page154'>154</a>, <a href=
+'#page167'>167</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Learning">Learning.</a></p>
+<p>Scott, Walter, on installation of an abbot, <a href=
+'#page145'>145</a>; on the crusaders, <a href=
+'#page199'>199</a>.</p>
+<p>Seclusion, <a href='#page244'>244</a>, <a href=
+'#page259'>259</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Solitude">Solitude.</a></p>
+<p>Secular life, duties of, <a href='#page113'>113</a>; the monks
+and, <a href='#page399'>399</a>; distinction between religion and
+the, <a href='#page418'>418</a>; true view of, <a href=
+'#page420'>420</a>.</p>
+<p>Self-crucifixion, <a href='#page418'>418</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Self-denial"></a>Self-denial, its nature, <a href=
+'#page356'>356</a>; Mozoomdar on, <a href='#page358'>358</a>.</p>
+<p>Selfishness, engendered by monasticism, <a href=
+'#page396'>396</a>.</p>
+<p>Self-forgetfulness, the key to happiness, <a href=
+'#page392'>392</a>.</p>
+<p>Self-mastery, the craving for, <a href='#page70'>70</a>.</p>
+<p>Self-sacrifice, effect of, upon the individual, <a href=
+'#page390'>390</a>; meaning of true, <a href='#page419'>419</a>.
+<i>See</i> <a href="#Asceticism">Asceticism.</a></p>
+<p>Serapion, monks of, <a href='#page63'>63</a>.</p>
+<p>Severus, his life of St. Martin, <a href='#page119'>119</a>.</p>
+<p>Sherman, Father Thomas E., on the Society of Jesus, <a href=
+'#page258'>258</a>; on Loyola, <a href='#page278'>278</a>.</p>
+<p>Sick, ministered to by women, <a href='#page350'>350</a>.
+<i>See</i> <a href="#Charity">Charity.</a></p>
+<p>Silvianus, epigram of, on dying Rome, <a href=
+'#page76'>76</a>.</p>
+<p>Simon de Montfort, <a href='#page237'>237</a>.</p>
+<p>Simeon Stylites, birth and early life of, <a href=
+'#page51'>51</a>; austerities of, <a href='#page52'>52</a>; his
+fame, <a href='#page52'>52</a>; lives on a pillar, <a href=
+'#page53'>53</a>; Tennyson on, <a href='#page54'>54</a>; death of,
+<a href='#page56'>56</a>; refuses to see his mother, <a href=
+'#page397'>397</a>; method of, forsaken, <a href=
+'#page421'>421</a>.</p>
+<p>Sin, monastic confessions of, <a href='#page413'>413</a>;
+consciousness of, preserved by monks, <a href='#page414'>414</a>;
+exaggerated views of, <a href='#page415'>415</a>; false methods to
+get rid of, <a href='#page416'>416</a>; monastic influence on
+doctrine of atonement for, <a href='#page417'>417</a>.</p>
+<p>Sisterhoods, <i>see</i> <a href="#Women">Women.</a></p>
+<p>Sixtus IV. and V., Popes, on the stigmata, <a href=
+'#page221'>221</a>.</p>
+<p>Social service, spirit of, <a href='#page419'>419</a>, <a href=
+'#page423'>423</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Solitude"></a>Solitude, of Egypt, <a href=
+'#page33'>33</a>; provided for in Pachomian rules, <a href=
+'#page60'>60</a>; Jerome on, <a href='#page61'>61</a>; the love of,
+as a cause of monasticism, <a href='#page362'>362</a>, <a href=
+'#page363'>363</a>; effects of, upon the individual, <a href=
+'#page393'>393</a>; Montaigne on temptations of, <a href=
+'#page393'>393</a>; society and, <a href='#page395'>395</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Soul-purity"></a>Soul-purity, struggles for, <a href=
+'#page95'>95</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Salvation">Salvation.</a></p>
+<p>Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius, <a href='#page265'>265</a>.</p>
+<p>Spain, monasticism enters, <a href='#page122'>122</a>.</p>
+<p>Starbuck, Charles C., on the casuistry of the Jesuits, <a href=
+'#page274'>274</a>.</p>
+<p>Stigmata, of St. Francis, <a href='#page219'>219</a>.</p>
+<p>Storrs, on Bernard, <a href='#page197'>197</a>.</p>
+<p>Subiaco, desert of, <a href='#page131'>131</a>.</p>
+<p>Superstitions, monastic, when revolt against is justifiable,
+<a href='#page423'>423</a>.</p>
+<p>Suppression of monasteries, <i>see</i> <a href=
+"#Monasteries">Monasteries</a>, The Fall of.</p>
+<p>Supremacy, the monks required to take the oath of, <a href=
+'#page301'>301</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page453"></a>[pg
+453]</span>
+<p>T</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Tabenna, Monastery at, <a href='#page32'>32</a>, <a href=
+'#page58'>58</a>.</p>
+<p>Tauler, John, a Dominican, <a href='#page242'>242</a>; on
+service and contemplation, <a href='#page395'>395</a>.</p>
+<p>Taunton, E.L., on the family-idea of monasteries, <a href=
+'#page143'>143</a>; on Augustine and British monks, <a href=
+'#page165'>165</a>.</p>
+<p>Taylor, Isaac, on the biography of Anthony, <a href=
+'#page48'>48</a>.</p>
+<p>Templars, <i>see</i> <a href="#Knights">Knights.</a></p>
+<p>Tennyson, on Stylites, <a href='#page54'>54</a>.</p>
+<p>Tertullian, on Christianity in Britain, <a href=
+'#page123'>123</a>.</p>
+<p>Thackeray, views of, on Jesuits opposed, <a href=
+'#page278'>278</a>.</p>
+<p>Theodoret, on Stylites, <a href='#page51'>51</a>, <a href=
+'#page53'>53</a>.</p>
+<p>Theodosius, Abbot, <a href='#page50'>50</a>.</p>
+<p>Theology, the monks and, <a href='#page406'>406</a>; White on
+same, <a href='#page416'>416</a>.</p>
+<p>Theophilus, joins Eudoxia against Chrysostom, <a href=
+'#page117'>117</a>.</p>
+<p>Therapeut&aelig;, Philo on the, <a href='#page27'>27</a>.</p>
+<p>Thieffroy, on charity of monks, <a href='#page410'>410</a>.</p>
+<p>Third Order, <i>see</i> <a href="#Franciscans">Franciscans</a>
+and <a href="#Dominicans">Dominicans.</a></p>
+<p>Thirty Years' War, the Jesuits and the, <a href=
+'#page277'>277</a>.</p>
+<p>Trench, on monastic history, <a href='#page175'>175</a>; on
+genius in creation, <a href='#page207'>207</a>; on the stigmata,
+<a href='#page223'>223</a>.</p>
+<p>Trent, Council of, restricts Mendicants, <a href=
+'#page246'>246</a>; on marriage, <a href='#page382'>382</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>U</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Universities, foundations of, laid by monks, <a href=
+'#page405'>405</a>.</p>
+<p>Urban II., Pope, the gift of Cluny monastery, <a href=
+'#page178'>178</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>V</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Valens, Emperor, fails to stop flight from Rome, <a href=
+'#page127'>127</a>.</p>
+<p>Vaughan, on Bernard's reforms, <a href='#page195'>195</a>; on
+the need of reformation, <a href='#page402'>402</a>.</p>
+<p>Virgins, <i>see</i> <a href="#Marriage">Marriage.</a></p>
+<p>Virgil, Jerome's fondness for, <a href='#page95'>95</a>; Mabie
+on reading of, <a href='#page408'>408</a>.</p>
+<p>Vivaria, literary work in monastery at, <a href=
+'#page152'>152</a>.</p>
+<p>Voltaire, on the monks, <a href='#page388'>388</a>.</p>
+<p>Vows, monastic, <a href='#page61'>61</a>; irrevocable, <a href=
+'#page66'>66</a>, <a href='#page112'>112</a>; usual history of,
+<a href='#page174'>174</a>; of the military orders, <a href=
+'#page198'>198</a>; the fundamental, <a href='#page375'>375</a>;
+the passing away of, <a href='#page423'>423</a>. <i>See</i>
+<a href="#Poverty">Poverty</a>, <a href="#Celibacy">Celibacy</a>
+and <a href="#Obedience">Obedience.</a></p>
+<p>Vulgate, Jerome, <a href='#page85'>85</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>W</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Waddington, on the hermits, <a href='#page34'>34</a>; on
+conscience and method of monks, <a href='#page390'>390</a>.</p>
+<p>War, monks incite to, <a href='#page401'>401</a>.</p>
+<p>Watch-dogs of the Church, a term applied to the Dominicans,
+<a href='#page249'>249</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Wealth"></a>Wealth, Christ's doctrine of, <a href=
+'#page377'>377</a>; not in itself an evil, <a href=
+'#page379'>379</a>; its true value, <a href='#page405'>405</a>;
+compatible with Christianity, <a href='#page420'>420</a>.</p>
+<p>White, on the theology of the monks, <a href=
+'#page416'>416</a>.</p>
+<p>Whiting, Richard, Abbot of Glastonbury, <a href=
+'#page315'>315</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page454"></a>[pg 454]</span>
+<p>Widows, <i>see</i> <a href="#Women">Women</a> and <a href=
+"#Marriage">Marriage.</a></p>
+<p>Wilfred, St., his monastic labors, <a href=
+'#page167'>167</a>.</p>
+<p>William of Aquitaine, <a href='#page177'>177</a>.</p>
+<p>William of Amour, <a href='#page250'>250</a>.</p>
+<p>William of Orange, <a href='#page394'>394</a>.</p>
+<p>Wolsey, Cardinal, <a href='#page294'>294</a>, <a href=
+'#page308'>308</a>.</p>
+<p><a name="Women"></a>Women, welcome call of monks, <a href=
+'#page81'>81</a>; Kingsley on same, <a href='#page82'>82</a>;
+Juvenal on Roman women, <a href='#page82'>82</a>; Jerome's
+influence on, <a href='#page86'>86</a>, <a href='#page96'>96</a>;
+monasticism and, <a href='#page106'>106</a>; hermit life unsuited
+to, <a href='#page107'>107</a>; effect of corrupt society on,
+<a href='#page107'>107</a>, no; distinguished by mercy, in,
+<a href='#page350'>350</a>; compared with monks, <a href=
+'#page111'>111</a>; married life of, in Rome, <a href=
+'#page112'>112</a>; influence of Ambrose upon, <a href=
+'#page126'>126</a>; regulation of Guigo concerning monks and,
+<a href='#page190'>190</a>.</p>
+<p>Wyclif, attacks the friars, <a href='#page253'>253</a>, <a href=
+'#page337'>337</a>; spirit of, affects monasticism, <a href=
+'#page295'>295</a>, <a href='#page429'>429</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>X</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Ximenes, Cardinal, a Franciscan, <a href='#page228'>228</a>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"></div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Z</p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Zosimus, on charity of monks, <a href='#page348'>348</a>.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p><i>Printed at</i> THE BRANDT PRESS, <i>Trenton, N.J.,
+U.S.A</i>.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Short History of Monks and Monasteries
+by Alfred Wesley Wishart
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Short History of Monks and Monasteries
+
+Author: Alfred Wesley Wishart
+
+Release Date: August 17, 2004 [EBook #13206]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF MONKS AND MONASTERIES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Christine Gehring, Charlie Kirschner and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+A SHORT HISTORY OF
+
+MONKS
+
+AND MONASTERIES
+
+
+_By_ ALFRED WESLEY WISHART
+
+Sometime _Fellow_ in _Church History_ in _The University of Chicago_
+
+ALBERT BRANDT, PUBLISHER
+TRENTON, NEW JERSEY
+MDCCCC
+
+1900
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The aim of this volume is to sketch the history of the monastic
+institution from its origin to its overthrow in the Reformation period,
+for although the institution is by no means now extinct, its power was
+practically broken in the sixteenth century, and no new orders of
+importance or new types have arisen since that time.
+
+A little reflection will enable one to understand the great difficulties
+in the execution of so broad a purpose. It was impracticable in the
+majority of instances to consult original sources, although intermediate
+authorities have been studied as widely as possible and the greatest
+caution has been exercised to avoid those errors which naturally arise
+from the use of such avenues of information. It was also deemed
+unadvisable to burden the work with numerous notes and citations. Such
+notes as were necessary to a true unfolding of the subject will be found
+in the appendix.
+
+A presentation of the salient features of the whole history was
+essential to a proper conception of the orderly development of the
+ascetic ideal. To understand the monastic institution one must not only
+study the isolated anchorite seeking a victory over a sinful self in the
+Egyptian desert or the monk in the secluded cloister, but he must also
+trace the fortunes of ascetic organizations, involving multitudes of
+men, vast aggregations of wealth, and surviving the rise and fall of
+empires. Almost every phase of human life is encountered in such an
+undertaking. Attention is divided between hermits, beggars,
+diplomatists, statesmen, professors, missionaries and pontiffs. It is
+hoped the critical or literary student will appreciate the immense
+difficulties of an attempt to paint so vast a scene on so small a
+canvas. No other claim is made upon his benevolence.
+
+There is a process of writing history which Trench describes as "a moral
+whitewashing of such things as in men's sight were as blackamoors
+before." Religious or temperamental prejudice often obscures the vision
+and warps the judgment of even the most scholarly minds. Conscious of
+this infirmity in the ablest writers of history it would be absurd to
+claim complete exemption from the power of personal bias. It is
+sincerely hoped, however, that the strongest passion in the preparation
+of this work has been that commendable predilection for truth and
+justice which should characterize every historical narrative, and that,
+whatever other shortcomings may be found herein, there is an absence of
+that unreasonable suspicion, not to say hatred, of everything monastic,
+which mars many otherwise valuable contributions to monastic history.
+
+The author's grateful acknowledgment is made, for kindly services and
+critical suggestions, to Eri Baker Hulbert, D.D., LL.D., Dean of the
+Divinity School, and Professor and Head of the Department of Church
+History; Franklin Johnson, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Church History and
+Homiletics; Benjamin S. Terry, Ph.D., Professor of Medieval and English
+History; and Ralph C.H. Catterall, Instructor in Modern History; all of
+The University of Chicago. Also to James M. Whiton, Ph.D., of the
+Editorial Staff of "The Outlook"; Ephraim Emerton, Ph.D., Winn Professor
+of Ecclesiastical History in Harvard University; S. Giffard Nelson,
+L.H.D., of Brooklyn, New York; A.H. Newman, D.D., LL.D., Professor of
+Church History in McMaster University of Toronto, Ontario; and Paul Van
+Dyke, D.D., Professor of History in Princeton University.
+
+A.W.W.
+Trenton, March, 1900.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                                        Page
+PREFACE,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .      5
+BIBLIOGRAPHY,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     13
+
+                   I
+
+MONASTICISM IN THE EAST, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     17
+  The Hermits of Egypt,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     33
+  The Pillar Saint,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     51
+  The Cenobites of the East,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     57
+
+                   II
+
+MONASTICISM IN THE WEST: ANTE-BENEDICTINE MONKS,
+    340-480 A.D.,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     71
+  Monasticism and Women, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    106
+  The Spread of Monasticism in Europe,  .  .  .  .  .    115
+  Disorders and Oppositions,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    124
+
+                   III
+
+THE BENEDICTINES,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    131
+  The Rules of Benedict, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    138
+  The Struggle Against Barbarism, .  .  .  .  .  .  .    148
+  The Spread of the Benedictine Rule,   .  .  .  .  .    158
+
+                   IV
+
+REFORMED AND MILITARY ORDERS,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    173
+  The Military Religious Orders,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    197
+
+                   V
+
+THE MENDICANT FRIARS, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    205
+  Francis Bernardone, 1182-1226 A.D.,   .  .  .  .  .    208
+  The Franciscan Orders, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    226
+  Dominic de Guzman, 1170--1221 A.D.,   .  .  .  .  .    230
+  The Dominican Orders,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    241
+  The Success of the Mendicant Orders,  .  .  .  .  .    242
+  The Decline of the Mendicants,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    253
+
+                  VI
+
+THE SOCIETY OF JESUS, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    258
+  Ignatius de Loyola, 1491-1556 A.D.,   .  .  .  .  .    261
+  Constitution and Polity of the Order, .  .  .  .  .    265
+  The Vow of Obedience,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    266
+  The Casuistry of the Jesuits,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .    272
+  The Mission of the Jesuits,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    276
+  Retrospect,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    284
+
+                  VII
+
+THE FALL OF THE MONASTERIES,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    286
+  The Character of Henry VIII.,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .    290
+  Events Preceding the Suppression,  .  .  .  .  .  .    293
+  The Monks and the Oath of Supremacy,  .  .  .  .  .    301
+  The Royal Commissioners and their Methods of
+    Investigation, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    308
+  The Report of the Commissioners,   .  .  .  .  .  .    316
+  The Action of Parliament, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    319
+  The Effect of the Suppression Upon the People, .  .    322
+  Henry's Disposal of Monastic Revenues,   .  .  .  .    328
+  Was the Suppression Justifiable?   .  .  .  .  .  .    331
+  Results of the Dissolution,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    347
+
+                   VIII
+
+CAUSES AND IDEALS OF MONASTICISM, .  .  .  .  .  .  .    354
+  Causative Motives of Monasticism,  .  .  .  .  .  .    355
+  Beliefs Affecting the Causative Motives, .  .  .  .    365
+  Causes of Variations in Monasticism,  .  .  .  .  .    371
+  The Fundamental Monastic Vows,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    375
+
+                    IX
+
+THE EFFECTS OF MONASTICISM, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    386
+  The Effects of Self-Sacrifice Upon the Individual,     390
+  The Effects of Solitude Upon the Individual,   .  .    393
+  The Monks as Missionaries,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    398
+  Monasticism and Civic Duties,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .    399
+  The Agricultural Services of the Monks,  .  .  .  .    403
+  The Monks and Secular Learning, .  .  .  .  .  .  .    405
+  The Charity of the Monks, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    410
+  Monasticism and Religion, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    412
+
+APPENDIX, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    425
+INDEX, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    433
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LIST OF PORTRAITS
+
+SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI, DYING, is CONVEYED TO THE
+CHURCH OF SAINTE MARIE DE PORTIUNCULE,  .  .  .  .  _facing title_.
+
+After the painting by J.J. Weerts. Originally published by
+Goupil & Co. of Paris, and here reproduced by their permission.
+
+     [Jean Joseph Weerts was born at Roubaix (Nord), on May 1,
+     1847. He was a pupil of Cabanel, Mils and Pils. He was
+     awarded the second-class medal in 1875, was made Chevalier of
+     the Legion of Honor in 1884, received the silver medal at the
+     Universal Exposition of 1889, and was created an Officer of
+     the Legion of Honor in 1897. He is a member of the "Societe
+     des Artistes Francais," and is _hors concours_.]
+
+SAINT BERNARD, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    192
+
+After an engraving by Ambroise Tardieu, from a painting on glass
+in the Convent of the R.P. Minimes, at Rheims.
+
+     [Ambroise Tardieu was born in Paris, in 1790, and died in
+     1837. He was an engraver of portraits, landscapes and
+     architecture, and a clever manipulator of the burin. For a
+     time he held the position of "Geographical Engraver" to the
+     Departments of Marine, Fortifications and Forests. He was a
+     member of the French Geographical and Mathematical
+     Societies.]--_Nagler_.
+
+SAINT DOMINIC, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    230
+
+From a photograph of Bozzani's painting, preserved in his cell at
+Santa Sabina, Rome. Here reproduced from Augusta T. Drane's
+"History of St. Dominic," by courtesy of the author and the publishers,
+Longmans, Green & Co., of London and New York.
+
+     ["Although several so-called portraits (of St. Dominic) are
+     preserved, yet none of them can be regarded as the _vera
+     effigies_ of the saint, though that preserved at Santa Sabina
+     probably presents us with a kind of traditionary
+     likeness."]--_History of St. Dominic_.
+
+     [In the "History of St. Dominic," on page 226, the author
+     credits the portrait shown to "Bozzani." We are unable to
+     find any record of a painter by that name. Nagler, however,
+     tells of a painter of portraits and historical subjects,
+     Carlo Bozzoni by name, who was born in 1607 and died in 1657.
+     He was a son of Luciano Bozzoni, a Genoese painter and
+     engraver. He is said to have done good work, but no other
+     mention is made of him.]
+
+IGNATIUS DE LOYOLA,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    261
+
+After the engraving by Greatbach, "from a scarce print by H.
+Wierz." Originally published by Richard Bentley, London, in 1842.
+
+     [W. Greatbach was a London engraver in the first half of the
+     nineteenth century. He worked chiefly for the "calendars" and
+     "annuals" of his time, and did notable work for the general
+     book trade of the better class.]
+
+     [A search of the authorities does not reveal an engraver
+     named "H. Wierz." This is probably intended for Hieronymus
+     Wierex (or Wierix, according to Bryant), a famous engraver,
+     born in 1552, and who is credited by Nagler, in his
+     "Kuenstler-Lexikon," with having produced "a beautiful and
+     rare plate" of "St. Ignaz von Loyola." The error, if such it
+     be, is easily explained by the fact that portrait engravers
+     seldom cut the lettering of a plate themselves, but have it
+     engraved by others, who have a special aptitude for making
+     shapely letters.]
+
+
+
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+  Empire.
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+  of Europe.
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+ECKENSTEIN, LINA: Woman Under Monasticism.
+EDERSHEIM, ALFRED: The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.
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+  Ages.
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+  Literature Magazine_, 1894-95.
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+HUME, DAVID: The History of England.
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+  Church.
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+LUDLOW, JAMES M.: The Age of the Crusades.
+MACKINTOSH, JAMES: History of England.
+MAITLAND, SAMUEL R.: The Dark Ages.
+MAITLAND, SAMUEL R.: Essays on the Reformation.
+MATHEWS, SHAILER: Social Teachings of Jesus.
+MILMAN, HENRY H.: The History of Latin Christianity.
+MILMAN, HENRY H.: The History of Christianity.
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+MOSHIEM, J.L. VON: Institutes of Ecclesiastical History.
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+  and Church.
+OLIPHANT, MARY O.W.: Life of St. Francis of Assisi.
+PARKMAN, FRANCIS: The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth
+  Century.
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+PUTNAM, G.H.: Books and Their Makers in the Middle Ages.
+READE, CHARLES: The Cloister and the Hearth.
+RUFFNER, H.: The Fathers of the Desert.
+SABATIER, PAUL: Life of St. Francis of Assisi.
+SCHAFF, PHILIP: History of the Christian Church.
+SCHAFF, PHILIP, and WACE, HENRY, (Editors): The Nicene and
+  Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church. (Lives and
+  writings of Jerome, Athanasius, Cassian, St. Martin of Tours,
+  and other early supporters of the monastic movement).
+SCOTT, WALTER: The Monastery.
+SCOTT, WALTER: The Abbot.
+SIENKIEWICZ, HENRY K.: The Knights of the Cross.
+SMITH, PHILIP: Student's Ecclesiastical History.
+SMITH, R.F.: St. Basil.
+STANLEY, ARTHUR P.: History of the Eastern Church.
+STILLE, CHARLES J.: Studies in Medieval History.
+STORRS, RICHARD S.: Bernard of Clairvaux.
+STRYPE, J.: Annals of the Reformation.
+STUBBS, WILLIAM: Lectures on the Study of Medieval History.
+TAUNTON, ETHELRED L.: The English Black Monks of St. Benedict.
+THOMPSON, R.W.: The Footprints of the Jesuits.
+THURSTON, H.: The Life of St. Hugh of Lincoln.
+TRAILL, H.D.: Social England.
+TRENCH, RICHARD C.: Lectures on Medieval Church History.
+TREVELYAN, GEORGE M.: England in the Age of Wycliffe.
+VAUGHAN, ROBERT: Revolutions in English History.
+VAUGHAN, ROBERT: Hours with the Mystics.
+WADDINGTON, GEORGE: History of the Church.
+WATERMAN, LUCIUS: The Post-Apostolic Age.
+WHITE, A.D.: A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology.
+WHITE, JAMES: The Eighteen Christian Centuries.
+WOODHOUSE, FREDERICK C.: The Military Religious Orders of
+  the Middle Ages.
+
+ENCYCLOPAEDIAS: McClintock and Strong, Schaff-Herzog, Brittanica,
+  English, and Johnson. (Articles on "Monasticism,"
+  "Benedict," "Francis," "Dominic," "Loyola," etc.)
+
+Many other authorities were consulted by the author, but only
+those works that are easily accessible and likely to prove of direct value
+to the student are cited above.
+
+
+
+MONKS
+
+AND MONASTERIES
+
+I
+
+_MONASTICISM IN THE EAST_
+
+The monk is a type of religious character by no means peculiar to
+Christianity. Every great religion in ancient and modern times has
+expressed itself in some form of monastic life.
+
+The origin of the institution is lost in antiquity. Its genesis and
+gradual progress through the centuries are like the movement of a mighty
+river springing from obscure sources, but gathering volume by the
+contributions of a multitude of springs, brooks, and lesser rivers,
+entering the main stream at various stages in its progress. While the
+mysterious source of the monastic stream may not be found, it is easy to
+discover many different influences and causes that tended to keep the
+mighty current flowing majestically on. It is not so easy to determine
+which of these forces was the greatest.
+
+"Monasticism," says Schaff, "proceeds from religious seriousness,
+enthusiasm and ambition; from a sense of the vanity of the world, and an
+inclination of noble souls toward solitude, contemplation, and freedom
+from the bonds of the flesh and the temptations of the world." A strong
+ascetic tendency in human nature, particularly active in the Orient,
+undoubtedly explains in a general way the origin and growth of the
+institution. Various forms of philosophy and religious belief fostered
+this monastic inclination from time to time by imparting fresh impetus
+to the desire for soul-purity or by deepening the sense of disgust with
+the world.
+
+India is thought by some to have been the birthplace of the institution.
+In the sacred writings of the venerable Hindus, portions of which have
+been dated as far back as 2400 B.C., there are numerous legends about
+holy monks and many ascetic rules. Although based on opposite
+philosophical principles, the earlier Brahminism and the later system,
+Buddhism, each tended toward ascetic practices, and they each boast
+to-day of long lines of monks and nuns.
+
+The Hindoo (Brahmin) ascetic, or naked philosopher, as the Greeks called
+him, exhausted his imagination in devising schemes of self-torture. He
+buried himself with his nose just above the ground, or wore an iron
+collar, or suspended weights from his body. He clenched his fists until
+the nails grew into his palms, or kept his head turned in one direction
+until he was unable to turn it back. He was a miracle-worker, an oracle
+of wisdom, and an honored saint. He was bold, spiritually proud, capable
+of almost superhuman endurance. We will meet him again in the person of
+his Christian descendant on the banks of the Nile.
+
+The Buddhist ascetic was, perhaps, less severe with himself, but the
+general spirit and form of the institution was and is the same as among
+the Brahmins. In each religion we observe the same selfish
+individualism,--a desire to save one's own soul by slavish obedience to
+ascetic rules,--the extinction of natural desires by self-punishment.
+"A Brahmin who wishes to become an ascetic," says Clarke, "must abandon
+his home and family and go live in the forest. His food must be roots
+and fruit, his clothing a bark garment or a skin, he must bathe morning
+and evening, and suffer his hair to grow."
+
+The fact to be remembered, however, is that in India, centuries before
+the Christian Era, there existed both phases of Christian monasticism,
+the hermit[A] and the crowded convent.
+
+[Footnote A: Appendix, Note A.]
+
+Dhaquit, a Chaldean ascetic, who is said to have lived about 2000 B.C.,
+is reported to have earnestly rebuked those who tried to preserve the
+body from decay by artificial resources. "Not by natural means," he
+said, "can man preserve his body from corruption and dissolution after
+death, but only through good deeds, religious exercises and offering of
+sacrifices,--by invoking the gods by their great and beautiful names, by
+prayers during the night, and fasts during the day."
+
+When Father Bury, a Portuguese missionary, first saw the Chinese bonzes,
+tonsured and using their rosaries, he cried out, "There is not a single
+article of dress, or a sacerdotal function, or a single ceremony of the
+Romish church, which the Devil has not imitated in this country." I have
+not the courage to follow this streamlet back into the devil's heart.
+The attempt would be too daring. Who invented shaved heads and monkish
+gowns and habits, we cannot tell, but this we know: long before Father
+Bury saw and described those things in China, there existed in India the
+Grand Lama or head monk, with monasteries under him, filled with monks
+who kept the three vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. They had
+their routine of prayers, of fasts and of labors, like the Christian
+monks of the middle ages.
+
+Among the Greeks there were many philosophers who taught ascetic
+principles. Pythagoras, born about 580 B.C., established a religious
+brotherhood in which he sought to realize a high ideal of friendship.
+His whole plan singularly suggests monasticism. His rules provided for a
+rigid self-examination and unquestioning submission to a master. Many
+authorities claim that the influence of the Pythagorean philosophy was
+strongly felt in Egypt and Palestine, after the time of Christ. "Certain
+it is that more than two thousand years before Ignatius Loyola assembled
+the nucleus of his great society in his subterranean chapel in the city
+of Paris, there was founded at Crotona, in Greece, an order of monks
+whose principles, constitution, aims, method and final end entitle them
+to be called 'The Pagan Jesuits[B].'"
+
+[Footnote B: Appendix, Note B.]
+
+The teachings of Plato, no doubt, had a powerful monastic influence,
+under certain social conditions, upon later thinkers and upon those who
+yearned for victory over the flesh. Plato strongly insisted on an ideal
+life in which higher pleasures are preferred to lower. Earthly thoughts
+and ambitions are to yield before a holy communion with the Divine. Some
+of his views "might seem like broken visions of the future, when we
+think of the first disciples who had all things in common, and, in later
+days, of the celibate clergy, and the cloisteral life of the religious
+orders." The effect of such philosophy in times of general corruption
+upon those who wished to acquire exceptional moral and intellectual
+power, and who felt unable to cope with the temptations of social life,
+may be easily imagined. It meant, in many cases, a retreat from the
+world to a life of meditation and soul-conflict. In later times it
+exercised a marked influence upon ascetic literature.
+
+Coming closer to Christianity in time and in teaching, we find a Jewish
+sect, called Essenes, living in the region of the Dead Sea, which bore
+remarkable resemblances to Christian monasticism. The origin and
+development of this band, which numbered four thousand about the time of
+Christ, are unknown. Even the derivation of the name is in doubt, there
+being at least twenty proposed explanations. The sect is described by
+Philo, an Alexandrian-Jewish philosopher, who was born about 25 B.C.,
+and by Josephus, the Jewish historian, who was born at Jerusalem A.D.
+37. These writers evidently took pains to secure the facts, and from
+their accounts, upon which modern discussions of the subject are largely
+based, the following facts are gleaned.
+
+The Essenes were a sect outside the Jewish ecclesiastical body, bound by
+strict vows and professing an extraordinary purity. While there were no
+vows of extreme penance, they avoided cities as centers of immorality,
+and, with some exceptions, eschewed marriage. They held aloof from
+traffic, oaths, slave-holding, and weapons of offence. They were strict
+Sabbath observers, wore a uniform robe, possessed all things in common,
+engaged in manual labor, abstained from forbidden food, and probably
+rejected the bloody sacrifices of the Temple, although continuing to
+send their thank-offerings. Novitiates were kept on probation three
+years. The strictest discipline was maintained, excommunication
+following detection in heinous sins. Evidently the standard of character
+was pure and lofty, since their emphasis on self-mastery did not end in
+absurd extravagances. Their frugal food, simple habits, and love of
+cleanliness; combined with a regard for ethical principles, conduced to
+a high type of life. Edersheim remarks, "We can scarcely wonder that
+such Jews as Josephus and Philo, and such heathens as Pliny, were
+attracted by such an unworldly and lofty sect."
+
+Some writers maintain that they were also worshipers of the sun, and
+hence that their origin is to be traced to Persian sources. Even if so,
+they seemed to have escaped that confused and mystical philosophy which
+has robbed Oriental thought of much power in the realm of practical
+life. Philo says, "Of philosophy, the dialectical department, as being
+in no wise necessary for the acquisition of virtue, they abandon to the
+word-catchers; and the part which treats of the nature of things, as
+being beyond human nature, they leave to speculative air-gazers, with
+the exception of that part of it which deals with the subsistance of God
+and the genesis of all things; but the ethical they right well
+work out."
+
+Pliny the elder, who lived A.D. 23-79, made the following reference to
+the Essenes, which is especially interesting because of the tone of
+sadness and weariness with the world suggested in its praise of this
+Jewish sect. "On the western shore (of the Dead Sea) but distant from
+the sea far enough to escape from its noxious breezes, dwelt the
+Essenes. They are an eremite clan, one marvelous beyond all others in
+the whole world; without any women, with sexual intercourse entirely
+given up, without money, and the associates of palm trees. Daily is the
+throng of those that crowd about them renewed, men resorting to them in
+numbers, driven through weariness of existence, and the surges of
+ill-fortune, to their manner of life. Thus it is that through thousands
+of ages--incredible to relate!--their society, in which no one is born,
+lives on perennial. So fruitful to them is the irksomeness of life
+experienced by other men."
+
+Admission to the order was granted only to adults, yet children were
+sometimes adopted for training in the principles of the sect. Some
+believed in marriage as a means of perpetuating the order.
+
+Since it would not throw light on our present inquiry, the mooted
+question as to the connection of Essenism and the teachings of Jesus may
+be passed by. The differences are as great as the resemblances and the
+weight of opinion is against any vital relation.
+
+The character of this sect conclusively shows that some of the elements
+of Christian monasticism existed in the time of Jesus, not only in
+Palestine but in other countries. In an account of the Therapeutae, or
+true devotees, an ascetic body similar to the Essenes, Philo says,
+"There are many parts of the world in which this class may be found....
+They are, however, in greatest abundance in Egypt."
+
+During Apostolic times various teachings and practices were current that
+may be characterized as ascetic. The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the
+Colossians, doubtless had in mind a sect or school which despised the
+body and abstained from meats and wine. A false asceticism, gathering
+inspiration from pagan philosophy, was rapidly spreading among
+Christians even at that early day. The teachings of the Gnostics, a
+speculative sect of many schools, became prominent in the closing days
+of the Apostolic age or very soon thereafter. Many of these schools
+claimed a place in the church, and professed a higher life and knowledge
+than ordinary Christians possessed. The Gnostics believed in the
+complete subjugation of the body by austere treatment.
+
+The Montanists, so called after Montanus, their famous leader, arose in
+Asia Minor during the second century, when Marcus Aurelius was emperor.
+Schaff describes the movement as "a morbid exaggeration of Christian
+ideas and demands." It was a powerful and frantic protest against the
+growing laxity of the church. It despised ornamental dress and
+prescribed numerous fasts and severities.
+
+These facts and many others that might be mentioned throw light on our
+inquiry in several ways. They show that asceticism was in the air. The
+literature, philosophy and religion of the day drifted toward an ascetic
+scheme of life and stimulated the tendency to acquire holiness, even at
+the cost of innocent joys and natural gratifications. They show that
+worldliness was advancing in the church, which called for rebuke and a
+return to Apostolic Christianity; that the church was failing to satisfy
+the highest cravings of the soul. True, it was well-nigh impossible for
+the church, in the midst of such a powerful and corrupt heathen
+environment, to keep itself up to its standards.
+
+It is a common tradition that in the first three centuries the practices
+and spirit of the church were comparatively pure and elevated. Harnack
+says, "This tradition is false. The church was already secularized to a
+great extent in the middle of the third century." She was "no longer in
+a position to give peace to all sorts and conditions of men." It was
+then that the great exodus of Christians from the villages and cities to
+mountains and deserts began. Although from the time of Christ on there
+were always some who understood Christianity to demand complete
+separation from all earthly pleasures, yet it was three hundred years
+and more before large numbers began to adopt a hermit's life as the only
+method of attaining salvation. "They fled not only from the world, but
+from the world within the church. Nevertheless, they did not flee out of
+the church."
+
+We can now see why no definite cause for the monastic institution can be
+given and no date assigned for its origin. It did not commence at any
+fixed time and definite place. Various philosophies and religious
+customs traveled for centuries from country to country, resulting in
+singular resemblances and differences between different ascetic or
+monastic sects. Christian monasticism was slowly evolved, and gradually
+assumed definite organization as a product of a curious medley of
+Heathen-Jewish-Christian influences.
+
+A few words should be said here concerning the influence of the Bible
+upon monasticism. Naturally the Christian hermits and early fathers
+appealed to the Bible in support of their teachings and practices. It is
+not necessary, at this point, to discuss the correctness of their
+interpretations. The simple fact is that many passages of scripture were
+considered as commands to attain perfection by extraordinary sacrifices,
+and certain Biblical characters were reverenced as shining monastic
+models. In the light of the difficulties of Biblical criticism it is
+easy to forgive them if they were mistaken, a question to be discussed
+farther on. They read of those Jewish prophets described in Hebrews:
+"They went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; ... wandering in deserts
+and mountains and caves, and the holes of the earth." They pointed to
+Elijah and his school of prophets; to John the Baptist, with his raiment
+of camel's hair and a leathern girdle about his loins, whose meat was
+locusts and wild honey. They recalled the commandment of Jesus to the
+rich young man to sell all his possessions and give to the poor. They
+quoted the words, "Take no thought for the morrow what ye shall eat and
+what ye shall drink or wherewithal ye shall be clothed." They construed
+following Christ to mean in His own words, "forsaking father, mother,
+brethren, wife, children, houses and lands." They pointed triumphantly
+to the Master himself, unmarried and poor, who had not "where to lay his
+head." They appealed to Paul's doctrine of marriage. They remembered
+that the Church at Jerusalem was composed of those who sold their
+possessions and had all things in common. Whatever these and numerous
+other passages may truly mean, they interpreted them in favor of a
+monastic mode of life; they understood them to teach isolation,
+fastings, severities, and other forms of rigorous self-denial. Accepting
+Scripture in this sense, they trampled upon human affection and gave
+away their property, that they might please God and save their souls.
+
+Between the time of Christ and Paul of Thebes, who died in the first
+half of the fourth century, and who is usually recognized as the founder
+of monasticism, many Christian disciples voluntarily abandoned their
+wealth, renounced marriage and adopted an ascetic mode of life, while
+still living in or near the villages or cities. As the corruption of
+society and the despair of men became more widespread, these anxious
+Christians wandered farther and farther away from fixed habitations
+until, in an excess of spiritual fervor, they found themselves in the
+caves of the mountains, desolate and dreary, where no sound of human
+voice broke in upon the silence. The companions of wild beasts, they
+lived in rapt contemplation on the eternal mysteries of this most
+strange world.
+
+My task now is to describe some of those recluses who still live in the
+biographies of the saints and the traditions of the church. Ducis, while
+reading of these hermits, wrote to a friend as follows: "I am now
+reading the lives of the Fathers of the Desert. I am dwelling with St.
+Pachomius, the founder of the monastery at Tabenna. Truly there is a
+charm in transporting one's self to that land of the angels--one could
+not wish ever to come out of it." Whether the reader will call these
+strange characters angels, and will wish he could have shared their beds
+of stone and midnight vigils, I will not venture to say, but at all
+events his visit will be made as pleasant as possible.
+
+In writing the life of Mahomet, Carlyle said, "As there is no danger of
+our becoming, any of us, Mahometans, I mean to say all the good of
+Mahomet I justly can." So, without distorting the picture that has come
+down to us, I mean to say all the good of these Egyptian hermits that
+the facts will justify.
+
+
+
+_The Hermits of Egypt_
+
+Egypt was the mother of Christian monasticism, as she has been of many
+other wonders.
+
+Vast solitudes; lonely mountains, honey-combed with dens and caves; arid
+valleys and barren hills; dreary deserts that glistened under the
+blinding glare of the sun that poured its heat upon them steadily all
+the year; strange, grotesque rocks and peaks that assumed all sorts of
+fantastic shapes to the overwrought fancy; in many places no water, no
+verdure, and scarcely a thing in motion; the crocodile and the bird
+lazily seeking their necessary food and stirring only as compelled;
+unbounded expanse in the wide star-lit heavens; unbroken quiet on the
+lonely mountains--a fit home for the hermit, a paradise to the lover of
+solitude and peace.
+
+Of life under such conditions Kingsley has said: "They enjoyed nature,
+not so much for her beauty as for her perfect peace. Day by day the
+rocks remained the same. Silently out of the Eastern desert, day by day,
+the rising sun threw aloft those arrows of light which the old Greeks
+had named 'the rosy fingers of the dawn.' Silently he passed in full
+blaze above their heads throughout the day, and silently he dipped
+behind the Western desert in a glory of crimson and orange, green and
+purple.... Day after day, night after night, that gorgeous pageant
+passed over the poor hermit's head without a sound, and though sun, moon
+and planet might change their places as the years rolled round, the
+earth beneath his feet seemed not to change." As for the companionless
+men, who gazed for years upon this glorious scene, they too were of
+unusual character, Waddington finely says: "The serious enthusiasm of
+the natives of Egypt and Asia, that combination of indolence and energy,
+of the calmest languor with the fiercest passions, ... disposed them to
+embrace with eagerness the tranquil but exciting duties of religious
+seclusion." Yes, here are the angels of Ducis in real flesh and blood.
+They revel in the wildest eccentricities with none to molest or make
+afraid, always excepting the black demons from the spiritual world. One
+dwells in a cave in the bowels of the earth; one lies on the sand
+beneath a blazing sun; one has shut himself forever from the sight of
+man in a miserable hut among the bleak rocks of yonder projecting peak;
+one rests with joy in the marshes, breathing with gratitude the
+pestilential vapors.
+
+Some of these saints became famous for piety and miraculous power.
+Athanasius, fleeing from persecution, visited them, and Jerome sought
+them out to learn from their own lips the stories of their lives. To
+these men and to others we are indebted for much of our knowledge
+concerning this chapter of man's history. Less than fifty years after
+Paul of Thebes died, or about 375 A.D., Jerome wrote the story of his
+life, which Schaff justly characterizes as "a pious romance." From
+Jerome we gather the following account: Paul was the real founder of the
+hermit life, although not the first to bear the name. During the Decian
+persecution, when churches were laid waste and Christians were slain
+with barbarous cruelty, Paul and his sister were bereaved of both their
+parents. He was then a lad of sixteen, an inheritor of wealth and
+skilled for one of his years in Greek and Egyptian learning. He was of a
+gentle and loving disposition. On account of his riches he was denounced
+as a Christian by an envious brother-in-law and compelled to flee to the
+mountains in order to save his life. He took up his abode in a cave
+shaded by a palm that afforded him food and clothing. "And that no one
+may deem this impossible," affirms Jerome, "I call to witness Jesus and
+his holy angels that I have seen and still see in that part of the
+desert which lies between Syria and the Saracens' country, monks of whom
+one was shut up for thirty years and lived on barley bread and muddy
+water, while another in an old cistern kept himself alive on five dried
+figs a day."
+
+It is impossible to determine how much of the story which follows is
+historically true. Undoubtedly, it contains little worthy of belief, but
+it gives us some faint idea of how these hermits lived. Its chief value
+consists in the fact that it preserves a fragment of the monastic
+literature of the times--a story which was once accepted as a credible
+narrative. Imagine the influence of such a tale, when believed to be
+true, upon a mind inclined to embrace the doctrines of asceticism. Its
+power at that time is not to be measured by its reliability now. Jerome
+himself declares in the prologue that many incredible things were
+related of Paul which he will not repeat. After reading the following
+story, the reader may well inquire what more fanciful tale could be
+produced even by a writer of fiction.
+
+The blessed Paul was now one hundred and thirteen years old, and
+Anthony, who dwelt in another place of solitude, was at the age of
+ninety. In the stillness of the night it was revealed to Anthony that
+deeper in the desert there was a better man than he, and that he ought
+to see him. So, at the break of day, the venerable old man, supporting
+and guiding his weak limbs with a staff, started out, whither he knew
+not. At scorching noontide he beholds a fellow-creature, half man, half
+horse, called by the poets Hippo-centaur. After gnashing outlandish
+utterances, this monster, in words broken, rather than spoken, through
+his bristling lips, points out the way with his right hand and swiftly
+vanishes from the hermit's sight. Anthony, amazed, proceeds thoughtfully
+on his way when a mannikin, with hooked snout, horned forehead and
+goat's feet, stands before him and offers him food. Anthony asks who he
+is. The beast thus replies: "I am a mortal being, and one of those
+inhabitants of the desert, whom the Gentiles deluded by various forms of
+error worship, under the name of Fauns and Satyrs." As he utters these
+and other words, tears stream down the aged traveler's face! He rejoices
+over the glory of God and the destruction of Satan. Striking the ground
+with his staff, he exclaims, "Woe to thee, Alexandria, who, instead of
+God, worshipest monsters! Woe to thee, harlot city, into which have
+flowed together the demons of the world! What will you say now? Beasts
+speak of Christ, and you, instead of God, worship monsters." "Let none
+scruple to believe this incident," says the chronicler, "for a man of
+this kind was brought alive to Alexandria and the people saw him; when
+he died his body was preserved in salt and brought to Antioch that the
+Emperor might view him."
+
+Anthony continues to traverse the wild region into which he had entered.
+There is no trace of human beings. The darkness of the second night
+wears away in prayer. At day-break he beholds far away a she-wolf
+gasping with parched thirst and creeping into a cave. He draws near and
+peers within. All is dark, but perfect love casteth out fear. With
+halting step and bated breath, he enters. After a while a light gleams
+in the distant midnight darkness. With eagerness he presses forward, but
+his foot strikes against a stone and arouses the echoes; whereupon the
+blessed Paul closes the door and makes it fast. For hours Anthony lay at
+the door craving admission. "I know I am not worthy," he humbly cries,
+"yet unless I see you I will not turn away. You welcome beasts, why not
+a man? If I fail, I will die here on your threshold."
+
+     "Such was his constant cry; unmoved he stood,
+      To whom the hero thus brief answer made."
+
+"Prayers like these do not mean threats, there is no trickery in tears."
+So, with smiles, Paul gives him entrance and the two aged hermits fall
+into each other's embrace. Together they converse of things human and
+divine, Paul, close to the dust of the grave, asks, Are new houses
+springing up in ancient cities? What government directs the world?
+Little did this recluse know of his fellow-beings and how fared it with
+the children of men who dwelt in those great cities around the blue
+Mediterranean. He was dead to the world and knew it no more.
+
+A raven brought the aged brothers bread to eat and the hours glided
+swiftly away. Anthony returned to get a cloak which Athanasius had given
+him in which to wrap the body of Paul. So eager was he to behold again
+his newly-found friend that he set out without even a morsel of bread,
+thirsting to see him. But when yet three days' journey from the cave he
+saw Paul on high among the angels. Weeping, he trudged on his way. On
+entering the cave he saw the lifeless body kneeling, with head erect and
+hands uplifted. He tenderly wrapped the body in the cloak and began to
+lament that he had no implements to dig a grave. But Providence sent two
+lions from the recesses of the mountain that came rushing with flying
+manes. Roaring, as if they too mourned, they pawed the earth and thus
+the grave was dug. Anthony, bending his aged shoulders beneath the
+burden of the saint's body, laid it lovingly in the grave and departed.
+
+Jerome closes this account by challenging those who do not know the
+extent of their possessions,--who adorn their homes with marble and who
+string house to house,--to say what this old man in his nakedness ever
+lacked. "Your drinking vessels are of precious stones; he satisfied his
+thirst with the hollow of his hand. Your tunics are wrought of gold; he
+had not the raiment of your meanest slave. But on the other hand, poor
+as he was, Paradise is open to him; you, with all your gold, will be
+received into Gehenna. He, though naked, yet kept the robe of Christ;
+you, clad in your silks, have lost the vesture of Christ. Paul lies
+covered with worthless dust, but will rise again to glory; over you are
+raised costly tombs, but both you and your wealth are doomed to burning.
+I beseech you, reader, whoever you may be, to remember Jerome the
+sinner. He, if God would give him his choice, would sooner take Paul's
+tunics with his merits, than the purple of kings with their punishment."
+
+Such was the story circulated among rich and poor, appealing with
+wondrous force to the hearts of men in those wretched years.
+
+What was the effect upon the mind of the thoughtful? If he believed such
+teaching, weary of the wickedness of the age, and moved by his noblest
+sentiments, he sold his tunics wrought of gold and fled from his palaces
+of marble to the desert solitudes.
+
+But the monastic story that most strongly impressed the age now under
+consideration, was the biography of Anthony, "the patriarch of monks"
+and virtual founder of Christian monasticism. It was said to have been
+written by Athanasius, the famous defender of orthodoxy and Archbishop
+of Alexandria; yet some authorities reject his authorship. It exerted a
+power over the minds of men beyond all human estimate. It scattered the
+seeds of asceticism wherever it was read. Traces of its influence are
+found all over the Roman empire, in Egypt, Asia Minor, Palestine, Italy
+and Gaul. Knowing the character of Athanasius, we may rest assured that
+he sincerely believed all he really recorded (it is much interpolated)
+of the strange life of Anthony, and, true or false, thousands of others
+believed in him and in his story. Augustine, the great theologian of
+immortal fame, acknowledged that this book was one of the influences
+that led to his conversion, and Jerome, whose life I will review later,
+was mightily swayed by it.
+
+Anthony was born about 251 A.D., in Upper Egypt, of wealthy and noble
+parentage. He was a pious child, an obedient son, and a lover of
+solitude and books. His parents died when he was about twenty years old,
+leaving to his care their home and his little sister. One day, as he
+entered the church, meditating on the poverty of Christ, a theme much
+reflected upon in those days, he heard these words read from the pulpit,
+"If thou wouldst be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast, and give to
+the poor, and come, follow me." As if the call came straight from heaven
+to his own soul, he left the church at once and made over his farm to
+the people of the village. He sold his personal possessions for a large
+sum, and distributed the proceeds among the poor, reserving a little for
+his sister. Still he was unsatisfied. Entering the church on another
+occasion, he heard our Lord saying in the gospel, "Take no thought for
+the morrow." The clouds cleared away. His anxious search for truth and
+duty was at an end. He went out and gave away the remnant of his
+belongings. Placing his sister in a convent, the existence of which is
+to be noted, he fled to the desert. Then follows a striking statement,
+"For monasteries were not common in Egypt, nor had any monk at all known
+the great desert; but every one who wished to devote himself to his own
+spiritual welfare performed his exercise alone, not far from
+the village."
+
+Laboring with his hands, recalling texts of Scripture, praying whole
+sleepless nights, fasting for several days at a time, visiting his
+fellow saints, fighting demons, so passed the long years away. He slept
+on a small rush mat, more often on the bare ground. Forgetting past
+austerities, he was ever on the search for some new torture and pressing
+forward to new and strange experiences. He changed his habitation from
+time to time. Now he lived in a tomb, in company with the silent dead;
+then for twenty years in a deserted castle, full of reptiles, never
+going out and rarely seeing any one. From each saint he learned some
+fresh mode of spiritual training, observing his practice for future
+imitation and studying the charms of his Christian character that he
+might reproduce them in his own life; thus he would return richly laden
+to his cell.
+
+But in all these struggles Anthony had one foe--the arch-enemy of all
+good. He suggests impure thoughts, but the saint repels them by prayer;
+he incites to passion, but the hero resists the fiend with fastings and
+faith. Once the dragon, foiled in his attempt to overcome Anthony,
+gnashed his teeth, and coming out of his body, lay at his feet in the
+shape of a little black boy. But the hermit was not beguiled into
+carelessness by this victory. He resolved to chastise himself more
+severely. So he retired to the tombs of the dead. One dark night a crowd
+of demons flogged the saint until he fell to the ground speechless with
+torture. Some friends found him the next day, and thinking that he was
+dead, carried him to the village, where his kinsfolk gathered to mourn
+over his remains. But at midnight he came to himself, and, seeing but
+one acquaintance awake, he begged that he would carry him back to the
+tombs, which was done. Unable to move, he prayed prostrate and sang, "If
+an host be laid against me, yet shall not my heart be afraid." The
+enraged devils made at him again. There was a terrible crash; through
+the walls the fiends came in shapes like beasts and reptiles. In a
+moment the place was filled with lions roaring at him, bulls thrusting
+at him with their horns, creeping serpents unable to reach him, wolves
+held back in the act of springing. There, too, were bears and asps and
+scorpions. Mid the frightful clamor of roars, growls and hisses, rose
+the clear voice of the saint, as he triumphantly mocked the demons in
+their rage. Suddenly the awful tumult ceased; the wretched beings became
+invisible and a ray of light pierced the roof to cheer the prostrate
+hero. His pains ceased. A voice came to him saying, "Thou hast withstood
+and not yielded. I will always be thy helper, and will make thy name
+famous everywhere." Hearing this he rose up and prayed, and was stronger
+in body than ever before.
+
+This is but one of numerous stories chronicling Anthony's struggles with
+the devil. Like conflicts were going on at that hour in many another
+cave in those great and silent mountains.
+
+There are also wondrous tales of his miraculous power. He often
+predicted the coming of sufferers and healed them when they came. His
+fame for curing diseases and casting out devils became so extensive that
+Egypt marveled at his gifts, and saints came even from Rome to see his
+face and to hear his words. His freedom from pride and arrogance was as
+marked as his fame was great. He yielded joyful obedience to presbyters
+and bishops. His countenance was so full of divine grace and heavenly
+beauty as to render him easily distinguishable in a crowd of monks.
+Letters poured in upon him from every part of the empire. Kings wrote
+for his advice, but it neither amazed him nor filled his heart with
+pride. "Wonder not," said he, "if a king writes to us, for he is but a
+man, but wonder rather that God has written His law to man and spoken to
+us by His Son." At his command princes laid aside their crowns, judges
+their magisterial robes, while criminals forsook their lives of crime
+and embraced with joy the life of the desert.
+
+Once, at the earnest entreaty of some magistrates, he came down from the
+mountain that they might see him. Urged to prolong his stay he refused,
+saying, "Fishes, if they lie long on the dry land, die; so monks who
+stay with you lose their strength. As the fishes, then, hasten to the
+sea, so must we to the mountains."
+
+At last the shadows lengthened and waning strength proclaimed that his
+departure was nigh. Bidding farewell to his monks, he retired to an
+inner mountain and laid himself down to die. His countenance brightened
+as if he saw his friends coming to see him, and thus his soul was
+gathered to his fathers. He is said to have been mourned by fifteen
+thousand disciples.
+
+This is the story which moved a dying empire. "Anthony," says
+Athanasius, "became known not by worldly wisdom, nor by any art, but
+solely by piety, and that this was the gift of God who can deny?" The
+purpose of such a life was, so his biographer thought, to light up the
+moral path for men, that they might imbibe a zeal for virtue.
+
+The "Life of St. Anthony" is even more remarkable for its omissions than
+for its incredible tales. While I reserve a more detailed criticism of
+its Christian ideals until a subsequent chapter, it may be well to quote
+here a few words from Isaac Taylor. After pointing out some of its
+defects he continues: there is "not a word of justification by faith;
+not a word of the gracious influence of the Spirit in renewing and
+cleansing the heart; not a word responding to any of those signal
+passages of Scripture which make the Gospel 'Glad Tidings' to guilty
+men." This I must confess to be true, even though I may and do heartily
+esteem the saint's enthusiasm for righteousness.
+
+So far I have described chiefly the spiritual experiences of these men,
+but the details of their physical life are hardly less interesting.
+There was a holy rivalry among them to excel in self-torture. Their
+imaginations were constantly employed in devising unique tests of
+holiness and courage. They lived in holes in the ground or in dried up
+wells; they slept in thorn bushes or passed days and weeks without
+sleep; they courted the company of the wildest beasts and exposed their
+naked bodies to the broiling sun. Macarius became angry because an
+insect bit him and in penitence flung himself into a marsh where he
+lived for weeks. He was so badly stung by gnats and flies that his
+friends hardly knew him. Hilarion, at twenty years of age, was more like
+a spectre than a living man. His cell was only five feet high, a little
+lower than his stature. Some carried weights equal to eighty or one
+hundred and fifty pounds suspended from their bodies. Others slept
+standing against the rocks. For three years, as it is recorded, one of
+them never reclined. In their zeal to obey the Scriptures, they
+overlooked the fact that cleanliness is akin to godliness. It was their
+boast that they never washed. One saint would not even use water to
+drink, but quenched his thirst with the dew that fell on the grass. St.
+Abraham never washed his face for fifty years. His biographer, not in
+the least disturbed by the disagreeable suggestions of this
+circumstance, proudly says, "His face reflected the purity of his soul."
+If so, one is moved to think that the inward light must indeed have been
+powerfully piercing, if it could brighten a countenance unwashed for
+half a century. There is a story about Abbot Theodosius who prayed for
+water that his monks might drink. In response to his petition a stream
+burst from the rocks, but the foolish monks, overcome by a pitiful
+weakness for cleanliness, persuaded the abbot to erect a bath, when lo,
+the stream dried. Supplications and repentance availed nothing. After a
+year had passed, the monks, promising never again to insult Heaven by
+wishing for a bath, were granted a second Mosaic miracle.
+
+Thus, unwashed, clothed in rags, their hair uncut, their faces unshaven,
+they lived for years. No wonder that to their disordered fancy the
+desert was filled with devils, the animals spake and Heaven sent angels
+to minister unto them.
+
+
+
+_The Pillar Saint_
+
+But the strangest of all strange narratives yet remains. We turn from
+Egypt to Asia Minor to make the acquaintance of that saint whom Tennyson
+has immortalized,--the idol of monarchs and the pride of the
+East,--Saint Simeon Stylites. Stories grow rank around him like the
+luxuriant products of a tropical soil. How shall I briefly tell of this
+man, whom Theodoret, in his zeal, declares all who obey the Roman rule
+know--the man who may be compared with Moses the Legislator, David the
+King and Micah the Prophet? He lived between the years 390 and 459 A.D.
+He was a shepherd's son, but at an early age entered a monastery. Here
+he soon distinguished himself by his excessive austerities. One day he
+went to the well, removed the rope from the bucket and bound it tightly
+around his body underneath his clothes. A few weeks later, the abbot,
+being angry with him because of his extreme self-torture, bade his
+companions strip him. What was his astonishment to find the rope from
+the well sunk deeply into his flesh. "Whence," he cried, "has this man
+come to us, wanting to destroy the rule of this monastery? I pray thee
+depart hence."
+
+With great trouble they unwound the rope and the flesh with it, and
+taking care of him until he was well, they sent him forth to commence a
+life of austerities that was to render him famous. He adopted various
+styles of existence, but his miracles and piety attracted such crowds
+that he determined to invent a mode of life which would deliver him from
+the pressing multitudes. It is curious that he did not hide himself
+altogether if he really wished to escape notoriety; but, no, he would
+still be within the gaze of admiring throngs. His holy and fanciful
+genius hit upon a scheme that gave him his peculiar name. He took up his
+abode on the top of a column which was at first about twelve feet high,
+but was gradually elevated until it measured sixty-four feet. Hence, he
+is called Simeon Stylites, or Simeon the Pillar Saint.
+
+On this lofty column, betwixt earth and heaven, the hermit braved the
+heat and cold of thirty years. At its base, from morning to night,
+prayed the admiring worshipers. Kings kneeled in crowds of peasants to
+do him homage and ask his blessing. Theodoret says, "The Ishmaelites,
+coming by tribes of two hundred and three hundred at a time, and
+sometimes even a thousand, deny, with shouts, the error of their
+fathers, and breaking in pieces before that great illuminator, the
+images which they had worshiped, and renouncing the orgies of Venus,
+they received the Divine sacrament." Rude barbarians confessed their
+sins in tears. Persians, Greeks, Romans and Saracens, forgetting their
+mutual hatred, united in praise and prayer at the feet of this strange
+character.
+
+Once a week the hero partook of food. Many times a day he bowed his head
+to his feet; one man counted twelve hundred and forty-four times and
+then stopped in sheer weariness from gazing at the miracle of endurance
+aloft. Again, from the setting of the sun to its appearance in the East,
+he would stand unsoothed by sleep with his arms outstretched like
+a cross.
+
+If genius can understand such a life as that and fancy the thoughts of
+such a soul, Tennyson seems not only to have comprehended the
+consciousness of the Pillar Saint, but also to have succeeded in giving
+expression to his insight. He has laid bare the soul of Simeon in its
+commingling of spiritual pride with affected humility, and of a
+consciousness of meritorious sacrifice with a sense of sin. The Saint
+spurns notoriety and the homage of men, yet exults in his control over
+the multitudes.
+
+The poet thus imagines Simeon to speak as the Saint is praying God to
+take away his sin:
+
+     "But yet
+     Bethink thee, Lord, while thou and all the saints
+     Enjoy themselves in heaven, and men on earth
+     House in the shade of comfortable roofs,
+     Sit with their wives by fires, eat wholesome food,
+     And wear warm clothes, and even beasts have stalls,
+     I, 'tween the spring and downfall of the light,
+     Bow down one thousand and two hundred times,
+     To Christ, the Virgin Mother, and the Saints;
+     Or in the night, after a little sleep,
+     I wake: the chill stars sparkle; I am wet
+     With drenching dews, or stiff with crackling frost.
+     I wear an undress'd goatskin on my back;
+     A grazing iron collar grinds my neck;
+     And in my weak, lean arms I lift the cross,
+     And strive and wrestle with thee till I die:
+     O mercy, mercy! wash away my sin.
+
+     O Lord, thou knowest what a man I am;
+     A sinful man, conceived and born in sin:
+     'Tis their own doing; this is none of mine;
+     Lay it not to me. Am I to blame for this,
+     That here come those that worship me? Ha! ha!
+     They think that I am somewhat. What am I?
+     The silly people take me for a saint,
+     And bring me offerings of fruit and flowers:
+     And I, in truth (thou wilt bear witness here)
+     Have all in all endured as much, and more
+     Than many just and holy men, whose names
+     Are register'd and calendared for saints.
+
+     Good people, you do ill to kneel to me.
+     What is it I can have done to merit this?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Yet do not rise; for you may look on me,
+     And in your looking you may kneel to God.
+     Speak! is there any of you halt or maim'd?
+     I think you know I have some power with Heaven
+     From my long penance: let him speak his wish.
+
+     Yes, I can heal him. Power goes forth from me.
+     They say that they are heal'd. Ah, hark! they shout
+     'St. Simeon Stylites.' Why, if so,
+     God reaps a harvest in me. O my soul,
+     God reaps a harvest in thee.  If this be,
+     Can I work miracles and not be saved?"
+
+Once, the devil, in shape like an angel, riding in a chariot of fire,
+came to carry Simeon to the skies. He whispered to the weary Saint,
+"Simeon, hear my words, which the Lord hath commanded thee. He has sent
+me, his angel, that I may carry thee away as I carried Elijah." Simeon
+was deceived, and lifted his foot to step out into the chariot, when the
+angel vanished, and in punishment for his presumption an ulcer appeared
+upon his thigh.
+
+But time plays havoc with saints as well as sinners, and death slays the
+strongest. Bowed in prayer, his weary heart ceased to beat and the eyes
+that gazed aloft were closed forever. Anthony, his beloved disciple,
+ascending the column, found that his master was no more. Yet, it seemed
+as if Simeon was loath to leave the spot, for his spirit appeared to his
+weeping follower and said, "I will not leave this column, and this
+blessed mountain. For I have gone to rest, as the Lord willed, but do
+thou not cease to minister in this place and the Lord will repay thee
+in heaven."
+
+His body was carried down the mountain to Antioch. Heading the solemn
+procession were the patriarch, six bishops, twenty-one counts and six
+thousand soldiers, "and Antioch," says Gibbon, "revered his bones as
+her glorious ornament and impregnable defence."
+
+
+
+_The Cenobites of the East_
+
+We cannot linger with these hermits. I pass now to the cenobitic[C]
+life. We go back in years and return to Egypt. Man is a social animal,
+and the social instinct is so strong that even hermits are swayed by its
+power and get tired of living apart from one another. When Anthony died
+the deserts were studded with hermitages, and those of exceptional fame
+were surrounded by little clusters of huts and dens. Into these cells
+crowded the hermits who wished to be near their master.
+
+[Footnote C: Appendix, Note C.]
+
+Thus, step by step, organized or cenobitic monasticism easily and
+naturally came into existence. The anchorites crawled from their dens
+every day to hear the words of their chief saint,--a practice giving
+rise to stated meetings, with rules for worship. Regulations as to
+meals, occupations, dress, penances, and prayers naturally follow.
+
+The author of the first monastic rules is said to have been Pachomius,
+who was born in Egypt about the year 292 A.D. He was brought up in
+paganism but was converted in early life while in the army. On his
+discharge he retired with a hermit to Tabenna, an island in the Nile. It
+is said he never ate a full meal after his conversion, and for fifteen
+years slept sitting on a stone. Natural gifts fitted him to become a
+leader, and it was not long before he was surrounded by a congregation
+of monks for whom he made his rules.
+
+The monks of Pachomius were divided into bands of tens and hundreds,
+each tenth man being an under officer in turn subject to the hundredth,
+and all subject to the superior or abbot of the mother house. They lived
+three in a cell, and a congregation of cells constituted a laura or
+monastery. There was a common room for meals and worship. Each monk wore
+a close fitting tunic and a white goatskin upper garment which was never
+laid aside at meals or in bed, but only at the Eucharist. Their food
+usually consisted of bread and water, but occasionally they enjoyed such
+luxuries as oil, salt, fruits and vegetables. They ate in silence, which
+was sometimes broken by the solemn voice of a reader.
+
+"No man," says Jerome, "dares look at his neighbor or clear his throat.
+Silent tears roll down their cheeks, but not a sob escapes their lips."
+Their labors consisted of some light handiwork or tilling the fields.
+They grafted trees, made beehives, twisted fish-lines, wove baskets and
+copied manuscripts. It was early apparent that as man could not live
+alone so he could not live without labor. We shall see this principle
+emphasized more clearly by Benedict, but it is well to notice that at
+this remote day provision was made for secular employments. Jerome
+enjoins Rusticus, a young monk, always to have some work on hand that
+the devil may find him busy. "Hoe your ground," says he, "set out
+cabbages; convey water to them in conduits, that you may see with your
+own eyes the lovely vision of the poet,--
+
+     "Art draws fresh water from the hilltop near,
+     Till the stream, flashing down among the rocks,
+     Cools the parched meadows and allays their thirst."
+
+There were individual cases of excessive self-torture even among these
+congregations of monks but we may say that ordinarily, organized
+monasticism was altogether less severe upon the individual than
+anchoretic life. The fact that the monk was seeking human fellowship is
+evidence that he was becoming more humane, and this softening of his
+spirit betrayed itself in his treatment of himself. The aspect of life
+became a little brighter and happier.
+
+Four objects were comprehended in these monastic roles,--solitude,
+manual labor, fasting and prayer. We need not pity these dwellers far
+from walled cities and the marts of trade. Indeed, they claim no
+sympathy. Religious ideals can make strange transformations in man's
+disposition and tastes. They loved their hard lives.
+
+The hermit Abraham said to John Cassian, "We know that in these, our
+regions, there are some secret and pleasant places, where fruits are
+abundant and the beauty and fertility of the gardens would supply our
+necessities with the slightest toil. We prefer the wilderness of this
+desolation before all that is fair and attractive, admitting no
+comparison between the luxuriance of the most exuberant soil and the
+bitterness of these sands." Jerome himself exclaimed, "Others may think
+what they like and follow each his own bent. But to me a town is a
+prison and solitude paradise."
+
+The three vows of chastity, poverty and obedience were adopted and
+became the foundation stones of the monastic institution, to be found in
+every monastic order. There is a typical illustration in Kingsley's
+Hypatia of what they meant by obedience. Philammon, a young monk, was
+consigned to the care of Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria, and a
+factious, cruel man, with an imperious will. The bishop received and
+read his letter of introduction and thus addressed its bearer,
+"Philammon, a Greek. You are said to have learned to obey. If so, you
+have also learned to rule. Your father-abbot has transferred you to my
+tutelage. You are now to obey me." "And I will," was the quick response.
+"Well said. Go to that window and leap forth into the court." Philammon
+walked to it and opened it. The pavement was fully twenty feet below,
+but his business was to obey and not to take measurements. There was a
+flower in a vase upon the sill. He quietly removed it, and in an instant
+would have leaped for life or death, when Cyril's voice
+thundered, "Stop!"
+
+The Pachomian monks despised possessions of every kind. The following
+pathetic incident shows the frightful extent to which they carried this
+principle, and also illustrates the character of that submission to
+which the novitiate voluntarily assented: Cassian described how Mutius
+sold his possessions and with his little child of eight asked admission
+to a monastery. The monks received but disciplined him. "He had already
+forgotten that he was rich, he must forget that he was a father." His
+child was taken, clothed in rags, beaten and spurned. Obedience
+compelled the father to look upon his child wasting with pain and grief,
+but such was his love for Christ, says the narrator, that his heart was
+rigid and immovable. He was then told to throw the boy into the river,
+but was stopped in the act of obeying.
+
+Yet men, women, and even children, coveted this life of unnatural
+deprivations. "Posterity," says Gibbon, "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." Though
+the hermit did not claim to be a god, yet there were more monks in many
+monasteries than inhabitants in the neighboring villages. Pachomius had
+fourteen hundred monks in his own monastery and seven thousand under his
+rule. Jerome says fifty thousand monks were sometimes assembled at
+Easter in the deserts of Nitria. It was not uncommon for an abbot to
+command five thousand monks. St. Serapion boasted of ten thousand.
+Altogether, so we are told, there were in the fifth century more than
+one hundred thousand persons in the monasteries, three-fourths of
+whom were men.
+
+The rule of Pachomius spread over Egypt into Syria and Palestine. It was
+carried by Athanasius into Italy and Gaul. It existed in various
+modified forms until it was supplanted by the Benedictine rule.
+
+Leaving Egypt, again we cross the Mediterranean into Asia Minor. Near
+the Black Sea, in a wild forest abounding in savage rocks and gloomy
+ravines, there dwelt a young man of twenty-six. He had traveled in
+Egypt, Syria and Palestine. He had visited the hermits of the desert and
+studied philosophy and eloquence in cultured Athens. In virtue eminent,
+in learning profound, this poetic soul sought to realize its ideal in a
+lonely and cherished retreat--in a solitude of Pontus.
+
+The young monk is the illustrious saint and genius,--Basil the
+Great,--the Bishop of Caesarea, and the virtual founder of the monastic
+institution in the Greek church. The forest and glens around his hut
+belonged to him, and on the other bank of the river Iris his mother and
+sister were leading similar lives, having abandoned earthly honors in
+pursuit of heaven. Hard crusts of bread appeased his hunger. No fires,
+except those which burned within his soul, protected him from the wintry
+blast. His years were few but well spent. After a while his powerful
+intellect asserted itself and he was led into a clearer view of the true
+spiritual life. His practical mind revolted against the gross ignorance
+and meaningless asceticism of Egypt. He determined to form an order that
+would conform to the inner meaning of the Bible and to a more sensible
+conception of the religious life. For his time he was a wise legislator,
+a cunning workman and a daring thinker. The modification of his ascetic
+ideal was attended by painful struggles. Many an hour he spent with his
+bosom friend, Gregory of Nazianza, discussing the subject. The middle
+course which they finally adopted is thus neatly described by Gregory:
+
+     "Long was the inward strife, till ended thus:
+     I saw, when men lived in the fretful world,
+     They vantaged other men, but missed the while
+     The calmness, and the pureness of their hearts.
+     They who retired held an uprighter post,
+     And raised their eyes with quiet strength toward heaven;
+     Yet served self only, unfraternally.
+     And so, 'twixt these and those, I struck my path,
+     To meditate with the free solitary,
+     Yet to live secular, and serve mankind."
+
+Monks in large numbers flocked to this mountain retreat of Basil's.
+These he banded together in an organization, the remains of which still
+live in the Greek church. So great is the influence of his life and
+teachings, "that it is common though erroneous to call all Oriental
+monks Basilians." His rules are drawn up in the form of answers to two
+hundred and three questions. He added to the three monastic vows a
+fourth, which many authorities claim now appeared for the first
+time,--namely, that of irrevocable vows--once a monk, always a monk.
+
+Basil did not condemn marriage, but he believed that it was incompatible
+with the highest spiritual attainments. For the Kingdom of God's sake it
+was necessary to forsake all. "Love not the world, neither the things of
+the world," embraced to his mind the married state. By avoiding the
+cares of marriage a man was sure to escape, so he thought, the gross
+sensuality of the age. He struck at the dangers which attend the
+possession of riches, by enforcing poverty. An abbot was appointed over
+his cloisters to whom absolute obedience was demanded. Everywhere men
+needed this lesson of obedience. The discipline of the armies was
+relaxed. The authority of religion was set at naught; laxity and
+disorder prevailed even among the monks. They went roaming over the
+country controlled only by their whims. Insubordination had to be
+checked or the monastic institution was doomed. Hence, Basil was
+particular to enforce a respect for law and order.
+
+Altogether this was an honest and serious attempt to introduce fresh
+power into a corrupt age and to faithfully observe the Biblical commands
+as Basil understood them. The floods of iniquity were engulfing even the
+church. A new standard had to be raised and an inner circle of pious and
+zealous believers gathered from the multitude of half-pagan Christians,
+or all was lost.
+
+The subsequent history of Greek monachism has little interest. In
+Russia, at a late date, the Greek monks served some purpose in keeping
+alive the national spirit under the Tartar yoke, but the practical
+benefits to the East were few, in comparison with the vigorous life of
+the Western monasticism.
+
+Montalembert, the brilliant champion of Christian monasticism, becomes
+an adverse critic of the system in the East, although it is noteworthy
+he now speaks of monasticism as it appears in the Greek church, which he
+holds to be heretical; yet his indictment is quite true: "They yielded
+to all the deleterious impulses of that declining society. They have
+saved nothing, regenerated nothing, elevated nothing."
+
+We have visited the hermit in the desert and in the monastery governed
+by its abbot and its rules. We must view the monk in one other aspect,
+that of theological champion. Here the hermit and the monk of the
+monastery meet on common ground. They were fighters, not debaters;
+fighters, not disciplined soldiers; fighters, not persuading Christians.
+They swarmed down from the mountains like hungry wolves. They fought
+heretics, they fought bishops, they fought Roman authorities, they
+fought soldiers, and fought one another. Ignorant, fanatical and cruel,
+they incited riots, disturbed the public peace and shed the blood
+of foes.
+
+Theological discord was made a thousand times more bitter by their
+participation in the controversies of the time. Furious monks became the
+armed champions of Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria. They insulted the
+prefect, drove out the Jews and, to the everlasting disgrace of the
+monks, Cyril and the church, they dragged the lovely Hypatia from her
+lecture hall and slew her with all the cruelty satanic ingenuity could
+devise. Against a background of black and angry sky she stands forth, as
+a soul through whose reason God made himself manifest. Her unblemished
+character, her learning and her grace forever cry aloud against an
+orthodoxy bereft alike of reason and of the spirit of the Nazarene.
+
+The fighting monks crowded councils and forced decisions. They deposed
+hostile bishops or kept their favorites in power by murder and violence.
+Two black-cowled armies met in Constantinople, and amid curses fought
+with sticks and stones a battle of creeds. Cries of "Holy! Holy! Holy!"
+mingled with, "It's the day of martyrdom! Down with the tyrant!" The
+whole East was kept in a feverish state. The Imperial soldiers confessed
+their justifiable fears when they said, "We would rather fight with
+barbarians than with these monks."
+
+No wonder our perplexity increases and it seems impossible to determine
+what these men really did for the cause of truth. We have been unable to
+distinguish the hermit from the beasts of the fields. We hear his
+groans, see his tears, and watch him struggle with demons. We are
+disgusted with his filth, amused at his fancies, grieved at his
+superstition. We pity his agony and admire his courage. We watch the
+progress of order and rule out of chaos. We see monasteries grow up
+around damp caves and dismal huts. We behold Simeon praying among the
+birds of heaven, and look into the face of the young and handsome Basil,
+in whom the monastic institution of the East reaches the zenith of
+its power.
+
+I am free to confess a profound reverence for many of these men
+determined at all hazards to keep their souls unspotted from the world.
+I bow before a passion for righteousness ready to part with life itself
+if necessary. Yet the gross extravagances, the almost incredible
+absurdities of their unnatural lives compel us to withhold our judgment.
+
+One thing is certain, the strange life of those far-off years is an
+eloquent testimony to the indestructible craving of the human soul for
+self-mastery and soul-purity.
+
+
+
+II
+
+_MONASTICISM IN THE WEST: ANTE-BENEDICTINE MONKS 340-480 A.D._
+
+We are now to follow the fortunes of the monastic system from its
+introduction in Rome to the time of Benedict of Nursia, the founder of
+the first great monastic order.
+
+Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, who made
+Christianity the predominant religion in the Roman Empire, died in 337
+A.D. Three years later Rome heard, probably for the first time, an
+authentic account of the Egyptian hermits. The story was carried to the
+Eternal City by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, one of the most
+remarkable characters in the early church, a man of surpassing courage
+and perseverance, an intrepid foe of heresy, "heroic and invincible," as
+Milton styled him. Twenty of the forty-six years of his official life
+were spent in banishment.
+
+Athanasius was an intimate friend of the hermit Anthony and a persistent
+advocate of the ascetic ideal. When he fled to Rome, in 340, to escape
+the persecutions of the Arians, he took with him two specimens of
+monastic virtue--Ammonius and Isidore. These hermits, so filthy and
+savage in appearance, albeit, as I trust, clean in heart, excited
+general disgust, and their story of the tortures and holiness of their
+Egyptian brethren was received with derision. But men who had faced and
+conquered the terrors of the desert were not to be so easily repulsed.
+Aided by other ascetic travelers from the East they persisted in their
+propaganda until contempt yielded to admiration. The enthusiasm of the
+uncouth hermits became contagious. The Christians in Rome now welcomed
+the story of the recluses as a Divine call to abandon a dissolute
+society for the peace and joy of a desert life.
+
+But before this transformation of public opinion can be appreciated, it
+is needful to know something of the social and religious condition of
+Rome in the days when Athanasius and his hermits walked her streets.
+
+After suffering frightful persecutions for three centuries, the Church
+had at last nominally conquered the Roman Empire; nominally, because
+although Christianity was to live, the Empire had to die. "No medicine
+could have prevented the diseased old body from dying. The time had
+come. When the wretched inebriate embraces a spiritual religion with one
+foot in the grave, with a constitution completely undermined, and the
+seeds of death planted, then no repentance or lofty aspiration can
+prevent physical death. It was so in Rome." The death-throes were long
+and lingering, as befits the end of a mighty giant, but death was
+certain. There are many facts which explain the inability of a
+conquering faith to save a tottering empire, but it is impracticable for
+us to enter upon that wide field. Some help may be gained from that
+which follows.
+
+Of morals, Rome was destitute. She possessed the material remains and
+superficial acquirements of a proud civilization, such as great public
+highways, marble palaces, public baths, temples and libraries. Elegance
+of manners and acquisitions of wealth indicate specious outward
+refinement. But these things are not sufficient to guarantee the
+permanence of institutions or the moral welfare of a nation. In the
+souls of men there was a fatal degeneracy. There was outward prosperity
+but inward corruption.
+
+Professor Samuel Dill, in his highly instructive work on "Roman Society
+in the Last Century of the Western Empire," points out the fact that
+Rome's fall was due to economic and political causes as well as to the
+deterioration of her morals. A close study of these causes, however,
+will reveal the presence of moral influences. Professor Dill says: "The
+general tendency of modern inquiry has to discover in the fall of that
+august and magnificent organization, not a cataclysm, precipitated by
+the impact of barbarous forces, but a process slowly prepared and
+evolved by internal and economic causes." Two of these causes were the
+dying out of municipal liberty and self-government, and the separation
+of the upper class from the masses by sharp distributions of wealth and
+privilege. It is indeed true that these causes contributed to Rome's
+ruin; that the central government was weak; that the civil service was
+oppressive and corrupt; that the aristocratic class was selfish; and
+that the small landed proprietors were steadily growing poorer and
+fewer, while, on the contrary, the upper or senatorial class was
+increasing in wealth and power. But after due emphasis has been accorded
+to these destructive factors, it yet remains true that the want of
+public spirit and the prevailing cultivated selfishness may be traced to
+a decline of faith in those religious ideals that serve to stimulate the
+moral life and thus preserve the national integrity.
+
+Society was divided into three classes. It is computed that one-half the
+population were slaves. A large majority of the remainder were paupers,
+living on public charity, and constituting a festering sore that
+threatened the life of the social organism. The rich, who were
+relatively few, squandered princely incomes in a single night, and
+exhausted their imaginations devising new and expensive forms of
+sensuous pleasure. The profligacy of the nobles almost surpasses
+credibility, so that trustworthy descriptions read like works of
+fiction. Farrar says: "A whole population might be trembling lest they
+should be starved by the delay of an Alexandrian corn ship, while the
+upper classes were squandering a fortune at a single banquet, drinking
+out of myrrhine and jeweled vases worth hundreds of pounds, and feasting
+on the brains of peacocks and the tongues of nightingales." The
+frivolity of the social and political leaders of Rome, the insane thirst
+for lust and luxury, the absence of seriousness in the face of
+frightful, impending ruin, almost justify the epigram of Silvianus,
+"Rome was laughing when she died."
+
+     "On that hard pagan world disgust
+     And secret loathing fell;
+     Deep weariness and sated lust
+     Made human life a hell.
+     In his cool hall, with haggard eyes,
+     The Roman noble lay;
+     He drove abroad in furious guise
+     Along the Appian Way;
+     He made a feast, drank fierce and fast,
+     And crowned his hair with flowers
+     No easier nor no guicker past
+     The impracticable hours."
+
+Pagan mythology and Pagan philosophy were powerless to resist this
+downward tendency. Although Christianity had become the state religion,
+it was itself in great danger of yielding to the decay that prevailed.
+The Empire was, in fact, but nominally Christian. Thousands of
+ecclesiastical adherents were half pagan in their spirit and practice.
+Harnack declares, "They were too deeply affected by Christianity to
+abandon it, but too little to be Christians. Pure religious enthusiasm
+waned, ideals received a new form, and the dependence and responsibility
+of individuals became weaker." Even ordinary courage had everywhere
+declined and the pleasures of the senses controlled the heart of
+Christian society.
+
+Many of the men who should have resisted this gross secularization of
+the church, who ought to have set their faces against the departure from
+apostolic ideals by exalting the standards of the earlier Christianity;
+these men, the clergy of the Christian church, had deserted their post
+of duty and surrendered to the prevailing worldliness.
+
+Jerome describes, with justifiable sarcasm, these moral weaklings,
+charged with the solemn responsibility of preaching a pure gospel to a
+dying empire. "Such men think of nothing but their dress; they use
+perfumes freely, and see that there are no creases in their leather
+shoes. Their curling hair shows traces of the tongs; their fingers
+glisten with rings; they walk on tiptoe across a damp road, not to
+splash their feet. When you see men acting that way, think of them
+rather as bridegrooms than as clergymen. If he sees a pillow that takes
+his fancy, or an elegant table-cover, or, indeed, any article of
+furniture, he praises it, looks admiringly at it, takes it into his
+hand, and, complaining that he has nothing of the kind, begs or rather
+extorts it from its owner." Such trifling folly was fatal. The times
+demanded men of vigorous spirit, who dared to face the general decline,
+and cry out in strong tones against it. The age needed moral warriors,
+with the old Roman courage and love of sacrifice; martyrs willing to rot
+in prison or shed their blood in the street, not effeminate men, toying
+with fancy table-covers and tiptoeing across a sprinkled road. "And as a
+background," says Kingsley, "to all this seething heap of corruption,
+misrule and misery, hung the black cloud of the barbarians, the Teutonic
+tribes from whom we derive our best blood, ever coming nearer and
+nearer, waxing stronger and stronger, to be soon the conquerors of the
+Caesars and the masters of the world."
+
+But there were many pure and sincere Christians--a saving remnant. The
+joyous alacrity with which men and women responded to the monastic call,
+and entered upon careers of self-torture for the sake of deliverance
+from moral corruption, shows that the spirit of true faith was not
+extinct. These seekers after righteousness may be described as "a dismal
+and fanatical set of men, overlooking the practical aims of life," but
+it is a fair question to ask, "if they had not abandoned the world to
+its fate would they not have shared that fate?" "The glory of that age,"
+says Professor Dill, "is the number of those who were capable of such
+self-surrender; and an age should be judged by its ideals, not by the
+mediocrity of conventional religion masking worldly self-indulgence.
+This we have always with us; the other we have not always."
+
+Yet the sad fact remains that the transforming power of Christianity was
+practically helpless before the surging floods of vice and superstition.
+The noble struggles of a few saints were as straws in a hurricane. The
+church had all she could do to save herself.
+
+"When Christianity itself was in such need of reform," says Lord, "when
+Christians could scarcely be distinguished from pagans in love of
+display, and in egotistical ends, how could it reform the world? When it
+was a pageant, a ritualism, an arm of the state, a vain philosophy, a
+superstition, a formula, how could it save, if ever so dominant? The
+corruptions of the church in the fourth century are as well
+authenticated as the purity and moral elevation of Christians in the
+second century." Even in the early days of Christianity the ruin of Rome
+was impending, but, at that time, the adherents of the Christian
+religion were few and poor. They did not possess enough power and
+influence to save the state. When monasticism came to Rome, the lords of
+the church were getting ready to sit upon the thrones of princes, but
+the dazzling victory of the church was not a spiritual conquest of sin,
+so the last ray of hope for the Empire was extinguished. Her fall was
+inevitable.
+
+With this outlined picture in mind, fancy Athanasius and his monks at
+Rome. These men despise luxury and contemn riches. They have come to
+make Rome ring with the old war cries,--although they wrestled not
+against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in high
+places. Terror and despair are on every side, but they are not afraid.
+They know what it means to face the demons of the desert, to lie down at
+night with wild beasts for companions. They have not yielded to the
+depravity of the human heart and the temptations of a licentious age.
+They have conquered sinful appetites by self-abnegation and fasting.
+They come to a distracted society with a message of peace--a peace won
+by courageous self-sacrifice. They call men to save their perishing
+souls by surrendering their wills to God and enlisting in a campaign
+against the powers of darkness. They appeal to the ancient spirit of
+courage and love of hardship. They arouse the dormant moral energies of
+the profligate nobles, proud of the past and sick of the present. The
+story of Anthony admonished Rome that a life of sensuous gratification
+was inglorious, unworthy of the true Roman, and that the flesh could be
+mastered by heroic endeavor.
+
+Women, who spent their hours in frivolous amusements, welcomed with
+gratitude the discovery that they could be happy without degradation,
+and joyfully responded to the call of righteousness. "Despising
+themselves," says Kingsley, "despising their husbands to whom they had
+been wedded in loveless wedlock, they too fled from a world which had
+sated and sickened them."
+
+Woman's natural craving for lofty friendships and pure aspirations found
+satisfaction in the monastic ideal. She fled from the incessant broils
+of a corrupt court, from the courtesans that usurped the place of the
+wife, from the insolence and selfishness of men who scorned even the
+appearance of virtue and did not hesitate to degrade even their wives
+and sisters. She would disprove the biting sarcasm of Juvenal,--
+
+     "Women, in judgment weak, in feeling strong,
+     By every gust of passion borne along.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     A woman stops at nothing, when she wears
+     Rich emeralds round her neck, and in her ears
+     Pearls of enormous size; these justify
+     Her faults, and make all lawful in her eye."
+
+Therefore did the women hear with tremulous eagerness the story of the
+saintly inhabitants of the desert, and flinging away their trinkets,
+they hastened to the solitude of the cell, there to mourn their folly
+and seek pardon and peace at the feet of the Most High.
+
+Likewise, the men, born to nobler tasks than fawning upon princes and
+squandering life and fortune in gluttony and debauchery, blushed for
+shame, and abandoned forever the company of sensualists and parasites.
+Potitianus, a young officer of rank, read the life of Anthony, and cried
+to his fellow-soldier: "Tell me, I pray thee, whither all our labors
+tend? What do we seek? For whom do we carry arms? What can be our
+greatest hope in the palace but to be friend to the Emperor? And how
+frail is that fortune! What perils! When shall this be?" Inspired by the
+monastic story he exchanged the friendship of the Emperor for the
+friendship of God, and the military life lost all its attractiveness.
+
+A philosopher and teacher hears the same narrative, and his countenance
+becomes grave; he seizes the arm of Alypius, his friend, and earnestly
+asks: "What, then, are we doing? How is this? What hast thou been
+hearing? These ignorant men rise; they take Heaven by force, and we,
+with our heartless sciences, behold us wallowing in the flesh and in
+our blood! Is it shameful to follow them, and are we not rather
+disgraced by not following them?" So, disgusted with his self-seeking
+career, his round of empty pleasures, he, too, is moved by this higher
+call to abandon his wickedness and devote his genius to the cause of
+righteousness.
+
+Ambrose, Paulinus, Chrysostom, Basil, Gregory, and many others, holding
+important official posts or candidates for the highest honors, abandoned
+all their chances of political preferment in order to preach the gospel
+of ascetic Christianity.
+
+Yes, for good or evil, Rome is profoundly stirred. The pale monk, in all
+his filth and poverty, is the master of the best hearts in the capital.
+Every one in whom aspiration is still alive, who longs for some new
+light, and all who vaguely grope after a higher life, hear his voice and
+become pliant to his will.
+
+"Great historic movements," says Grimke, "are born not in whirlwinds, in
+earthquakes, and pomps of human splendor and power, but in the agonies
+and enthusiasms of grand, heroic spirits." Monastic history, like
+secular, centers in the biographies of such great men as Anthony, Basil,
+Jerome, Benedict, Francis, Dominic and Loyola. To understand the
+character of the powerful forces set in motion by the coming of the
+monks to Rome, it is necessary to know the leading spirits whose
+preeminent abilities and lofty personalities made Western monasticism
+what it was.
+
+The time is about 418 A.D.; the place, a monastery in Bethlehem, near
+the cave of the Nativity. In a lonely cell, within these monastic walls,
+we shall find the man we seek. He is so old and feeble that he has to be
+raised in his bed by means of a cord affixed to the ceiling. He spends
+his time chiefly in reciting prayers. His voice, once clear and
+resonant, sinks now to a whisper. His failing vision no longer follows
+the classic pages of Virgil or dwells fondly on the Hebrew of the Old
+Testament. This is Saint Jerome, the champion of asceticism, the
+biographer of hermits, the lion of Christian polemics, the translator of
+the Bible, and the worthy, brilliant, determined foe of a dissolute
+society and a worldly church. Although he spent thirty-four years of his
+life in Palestine, I shall consider Jerome in connection with the
+monasticism of the West, for it was in Rome that he exercised his
+greatest influence. His translation of the Scriptures is the Vulgate of
+the Roman church, and his name is enrolled in the calendar of her
+saints. "He is," observes Schaff "the connecting link between the
+Eastern and Western learning and religion."
+
+By charming speech and eloquent tongue Jerome won over the men, but
+principally the women, of Rome to the monastic life. So powerful was his
+message when addressed to the feminine heart, that mothers are said to
+have locked their daughters in their rooms lest they should fall under
+the influence of his magnetic voice. It was largely owing to his own
+labors that he could write in after years: "Formerly, according to the
+testimony of the apostles, there were few rich, few noble, few powerful
+among the Christians. Now, it is no longer so. Not only among the
+Christians, but among the monks are to be found a multitude of the wise,
+the noble and the rich."
+
+Near to the very year that Athanasius came to Rome, or about 340 A.D.,
+Jerome was born at Stridon, in Dalmatia, in what is now called the
+Austro-Hungarian monarchy. His parents were modestly wealthy and were
+slaveholders. His student days were spent in Rome, where he divided his
+time between the study of books and the revels of the streets. One day
+some young Christians induced him to visit the catacombs with them.
+Here, before the graves of Christian martyrs, a quiet and holy influence
+stole into his heart, that finally led to his conversion and baptism.
+Embracing the monastic ideal, he gathered around him a few congenial
+friends, who joined him in a covenant of rigid abstinence and ascetic
+discipline. Then followed a year of travel with these companions,
+through Asia Minor, ending disastrously at Antioch. One of his friends
+returned home, two of them died, and he himself became so sick with
+fever that his life was despaired of. Undismayed by these evils, brought
+on by excessive austerities, he determined to retire to a life
+of solitude.
+
+About fifty miles southeast from Antioch was a barren waste of nature
+but a paradise for monks--the Desert of Chalcis. On its western border
+were several monasteries. All about for miles, the dreary solitudes were
+peopled with shaggy hermits. They saw visions and dreamed dreams in
+caves infested by serpents and wild beasts. They lay upon the sands,
+scorched in summer by the blazing sun, and chilled in winter by the
+winds that blew from snowcapped mountains. For five years, Jerome dwelt
+among these demon-fighting recluses. Clad in sackcloth stained by
+penitential tears, he toiled for his daily bread, and struggled against
+visions of Roman dancing girls. He was a most industrious reader of
+books and a great lover of debate. Monks from far and near visited him,
+and together they discussed questions of theology and philosophy.
+
+But we may not follow this varied and eventful life in all its details.
+After a year or two spent at Constantinople, and three years at Rome, he
+returned to the East, visiting the hermits of Egypt on his way, and
+finally settled at Bethlehem. His fame soon drew around him a great
+company of monks. These he organized into monasteries. He built a
+hospital, and established an inn for travelers. Lacking the necessary
+funds to carry out his projects, he dispatched his brother to the West
+with instructions to sell what was left of his property, and the
+proceeds of this sale he devoted to the cause. While in Bethlehem he
+wrote defences of orthodoxy, eulogies of the dead, lives of saints and
+commentaries on the Bible. He also completed his translation of the
+Scriptures, and wrote numerous letters to persons dwelling in various
+parts of the empire.
+
+Jerome rendered great service to monasticism by his literary labors. He
+invested the dullest of lives with a halo of glory; under the magic
+touch of his rhetoric the wilderness became a gladsome place and the
+desert blossomed as the rose. His glowing language transfigured the pale
+face and sunken eyes of the starved hermit into features positively
+beautiful, while the rags that hung loosely upon his emaciated frame
+became garments of lustrous white. "Oh, that I could behold the desert,"
+he cries, "lovelier than any city! Oh, that I could see those lonely
+spots made into a paradise by the saints that throng them!" Without
+detracting from the bitterness of the prospect, he glorifies the courage
+that can face the horrors of the desert, and the heart that can rejoice
+midst the solitude of the seas. Hear him describe the home of Bonosus, a
+hermit on an isle in the Adriatic:
+
+"Bonosus, your friend, is now climbing the ladder foreshown in Jacob's
+dream. He is bearing his cross, neither taking thought for the morrow,
+nor looking back at what he has left. Here you have a youth, educated
+with us in the refining accomplishments of the world, with abundance of
+wealth and in rank inferior to none of his associates; yet he forsakes
+his mother, his sister, and his dearly loved brother, and settles like a
+new tiller of Eden on a dangerous island, with the sea roaring round its
+reefs, while its rough crags, bare rocks and desolate aspect make it
+more terrible still.... He sees the glory of God which even the apostles
+saw not, save in the desert. He beholds, it is true, no embattled towns,
+but he has enrolled his name in the new city. Garments of sackcloth
+disfigure his limbs, yet so he will the sooner be caught up to meet
+Christ in the clouds. Round the entire island roars the frenzied sea,
+while the beetling crags along its winding shores resound as the billows
+beat against them. Precipitous cliffs surround his dreadful abode as if
+it were a prison. He is careless, fearless, armed from head to foot in
+the apostles' armor."
+
+Listen to these trumpet tones as Jerome calls to a companion of his
+youth in Rome: "O desert, enamelled with the flowers of Christ! O
+retreat, which rejoicest in the friendship of God! What dost thou in the
+world, my brother, with thy soul greater than the world? How long wilt
+thou remain in the shadow of roofs, and in the smoky dungeons of cities?
+Believe me, I see here more light."
+
+To pass hastily over such appeals, coming from distant lands across the
+sea to stir the minds of the thoughtful in Rome, is to ignore one of the
+causes which produced the great exodus that followed. He made men see
+that they were living in a moral Sodom, and that if they would save
+their souls they must escape to the desert. The power of personal
+influence, of inspiring private letters, can hardly be overemphasized in
+studying the remarkable progress of asceticism. Great awakenings in the
+moral, as in the political or the social world, may be traced to the
+profound influence of individuals, whose prophetic insight and moral
+enthusiasm unfold the germ of the larger movements. There may be
+widespread unrest, the ground may be prepared for the seed, but the
+immediate cause of universal uprisings is the clarion call of genius.
+Thus Luther's was the voice that cried in the wilderness, inciting a
+vast host for whom centuries had been preparing.
+
+But Jerome's fame as a man of learning, possessing a critical taste and
+a classic style of rare beauty and simplicity, must not blind us to the
+crowning glory of his brilliant career. He was above all a spiritual
+force. His chief appeal was to the conscience. He warmed the most torpid
+hearts by the fervor of his love, and encouraged the most hopeless by
+his fiery zeal and heroic faith. As a promoter of monasticism, he
+clashed with the interests of an enfeebled clergy and a corrupt laity.
+Nothing could swerve him from his course. False monks might draw
+terrible rebukes from him, but the conviction that the soul could be
+delivered from captivity to the body only by mortification remained
+unshaken. He induced men to break the fetters of society that they
+might, under the more favorable circumstances of solitude, wage war
+against their unruly passions.
+
+When parents objected to his monastic views, Jerome quoted the saying of
+Jesus respecting the renunciation of father and mother, and then said:
+"Though thy mother with flowing hair and rent garments, should show thee
+the breasts which have nourished thee; though thy father should lie upon
+the threshold; yet depart thou, treading over thy father, and fly with
+dry eyes to the standard of the cross. The love of God and the fear of
+hell easily rend the bonds of the household asunder. The Holy Scripture
+indeed enjoins obedience, but he who loves them more than Christ loses
+his soul."
+
+Jerome vividly portrays his own spiritual conflicts. The deserts were
+crowded with saintly soldiers battling against similar temptations, the
+nature of which is suggested by the following excerpt from Jerome's
+writings: "How often," he says, "when I was living in the desert, in the
+vast solitude which gives to hermits a savage dwelling-place, parched by
+a burning sun, how often did I fancy myself among the pleasures of Rome!
+I used to sit alone because I was filled with bitterness. Sack-cloth
+disfigured my unshapely limbs and my skin from long neglect had become
+black as an Ethiopian's. Tears and groans were every day my portion; and
+if drowsiness chanced to overcome my struggles against it, my bare
+bones, which hardly held together, clashed against the ground. Now
+although in my fear of hell I had consigned myself to this prison where
+I had no companions but scorpions and wild beasts, I often found myself
+amid bevies of girls. Helpless, I cast myself at the feet of Jesus, I
+watered them with my tears, and I subdued my rebellious body with weeks
+of abstinence. I remember how I often cried aloud all night till the
+break of day. I used to dread my cell as if it knew my thoughts, and
+stern and angry with myself, I used to make my way alone into the
+desert. Wherever I saw hollow valleys, craggy mountains, steep cliffs,
+there I made my oratory; there the house of correction for my unhappy
+flesh. There, also, when I had shed copious tears and had strained my
+eyes to heaven, I sometimes felt myself among angelic hosts and sang for
+joy and gladness."
+
+No doubt these men were warring against nature. Their yielding to the
+temptation to obtain spiritual dominance by self-flagellation and
+fasting may be criticized in the light of modern Christianity.
+"Fanaticism defies nature," says F.W. Robertson, "Christianity refines
+it and respects it. Christianity does not denaturalize, but only
+sanctifies and refines according to the laws of nature. Christianity
+does not destroy our natural instincts, but gives them a higher and
+nobler direction." To all this I must assent, but, at the same time, I
+cannot but reverence that pure passion for holiness which led men,
+despairing of acquiring virtue in a degenerate age, to flee from the
+world and undergo such torments to attain their soul's ideal. The form,
+the method of their conflict was transient, the spirit and purpose
+eternal. All honor to them for their magnificent and terrible struggle,
+which has forever exalted the spiritual ideal, and commanded men
+everywhere to seek first "the Kingdom of God and its righteousness."
+
+Jerome was always fond of the classics, although pagan writers were not
+in favor with the early Christians. One night he dreamed he was called
+to the skies where he was soundly flogged for reading certain pagan
+authors. This vision interrupted his classical studies for a time. In
+later years he resumed his beloved Virgil; and he vigorously defended
+himself against those who charged him with being a Pagan and an
+apostate on account of his love for Greek and Roman literature. If his
+admiration for Virgil was the Devil's work, I but give the Devil his due
+when I declare that much of the charm of Jerome's literary productions
+is owing to the inspiration of classic models.
+
+Our attention must now be transferred from Jerome to the high-born Roman
+matrons, who laid off their silks that they might clothe themselves in
+the humble garb of the nun. As the narrative proceeds I shall let Jerome
+speak as often as possible, that the reader may become acquainted with
+the style of those biographies and eulogies which were the talk of Rome,
+and which have been admired so highly by succeeding generations.
+
+Those who embraced monasticism in Rome did so in one of two ways. Some
+sold their possessions, adopted coarse garments, and subsisted on the
+plainest food, but they did not leave the city and were still to be seen
+upon the streets. Jerome writes to Pammachius: "Who would have believed
+that a last descendant of the consuls, an ornament of the race of
+Camillus, could make up his mind to traverse the city in the black robe
+of a monk, and should not blush to appear thus clad in the midst of
+senators." Some of those who remained at Rome established a sort of
+retreat for their ascetic friends.
+
+But another class left Rome altogether. Some took up their abode on the
+rugged isles of the Adriatic or the Mediterranean. Large numbers of them
+went to the East, principally to Palestine. Jerome was practically the
+abbot of a Roman colony of monks and nuns. Two motives, beside the
+general ruling desire to achieve holiness, produced this exodus to the
+Holy Land, which culminated centuries later in the crusades. One was a
+desire to see the deserts and caves, the abode of hermits famous for
+piety and miracles. Jerome, as I have shown, invested these lonely
+retreats and strange characters with a sort of holy romance, and hence,
+faith, mingled with curiosity, led men to the East. Another motive was
+the desire to visit the land of the Saviour, to tread the soil
+consecrated by his labors of love, to live a life of poverty in the land
+where He had no home He could call his own.
+
+St. Paula was one of the women who left Rome and went to Palestine. The
+story of her life is told in a letter designed to comfort her daughter
+Eustochium at the time of Paula's death. The epistle begins: "If all the
+members of my body were to be converted into tongues, and if each of my
+limbs were to be gifted with a human voice, I could still do no justice
+to the virtues of the holy and venerable Paula. Of the stock of the
+Gracchi, descended from the Scipios, she yet preferred Bethlehem to
+Rome, and left her palace glittering with gold to dwell in a mud cabin."
+Her husband was of royal blood and had died leaving her five children.
+At his death, she gave herself to works of charity. The poor and sick
+she wrapped in her own blankets. She began to tire of the receptions and
+other social duties which her position entailed upon her. While in this
+frame of mind, two Eastern bishops were entertained at her home during a
+gathering of ecclesiastics. They seem to have imparted the monastic
+impulse, perhaps by the rehearsal of monastic tales, for we are informed
+that at this time she determined to leave servants, property and
+children, in order to embrace the monastic life.
+
+Let us stand with her children and kinsfolk on the shore of the sea as
+they take their final farewell of Paula. "The sails were set and the
+strokes of the rowers carried the vessel into the deep. On the shore
+little Toxotius stretched forth his hands in entreaty, while Rufina, now
+grown up, with silent sobs besought her mother to wait until she should
+be married. But still Paula's eyes were dry as she turned them
+heavenwards, and she overcame her love for her children by her love for
+God. She knew herself no more as a mother that she might approve herself
+a handmaid of Christ. Yet her heart was rent within her, and she
+wrestled with her grief as though she were being forcibly separated from
+parts of herself. The greatness of the affection she had to overcome
+made all admire her victory the more. Though it is against the laws of
+nature, she endured this trial with unabated faith."
+
+So the vessel ploughed onward, carrying the mother who thought she was
+honoring God and attaining the true end of being through ruthless
+strangling of maternal love. She visited Syria and Egypt and the islands
+of Ponta and Cyprus. At the feet of the hermit fathers she begged their
+blessing and tried to emulate the virtues she believed they possessed.
+At Jerusalem she fell upon her face and kissed the stone before the
+sepulcher. "What tears, she shed, what groans she uttered, what grief
+she poured out all Jerusalem knows!"
+
+She established two monasteries at Bethlehem, one of which was for
+women. Here, with her daughter, she lived a life of rigid abstinence.
+Her nuns had nothing they could call their own. If they paid too much
+attention to dress Paula said, "A clean body and a clean dress mean an
+unclean soul." To her credit, she was more lenient with others than with
+herself. Jerome admits she went to excess, and prudently observes:
+"Difficult as it is to avoid extremes, the philosophers are quite right
+in their opinion that virtue is a mean and vice an excess, or, as we may
+express it in one short sentence, in nothing too much." Paula swept
+floors and toiled in the kitchen. She slept on the ground, covered by a
+mat of goat's hair. Her weeping was incessant. As she meditated over the
+Scriptures, her tears fell so profusely that her sight was endangered.
+Jerome warned her to spare her eyes, but she said: "I must disfigure
+that face which, contrary to God's commandment, I have painted with
+rouge, white lead and antimony." If this be a sin against the Almighty,
+bear witness, O ye daughters of Eve! Her love for the poor continued to
+be the motive of her great liberality. In fact, her giving knew no
+bounds. Fuller wisely remarks that "liberality must have banks as well
+as a stream;" but Paula said: "My prayer is that I may die a beggar,
+leaving not a penny to my daughter and indebted to strangers for my
+winding sheet." Her petition was literally granted, for she died leaving
+her daughter not only without a penny but overwhelmed in a mass
+of debts.
+
+As Jerome approaches the description of Paula's death, he says:
+"Hitherto the wind has all been in my favor and my keel has smoothly
+ploughed through the heaving sea. But now my bark is running upon the
+rocks, the billows are mountain high, and imminent shipwreck awaits me."
+Yet Paula, like David, must go the way of all the earth. Surrounded by
+her followers chanting psalms, she breathed her last. An immense
+concourse of people attended her funeral. Not a single monk lingered in
+his cell. Thus, the twenty hard years of self-torture for this Roman
+lady of culture ended in the rest of the grave.
+
+Upon her tombstone was placed this significant inscription:
+
+     "Within this tomb a child of Scipio lies,
+     A daughter of the far-famed Pauline house,
+     A scion of the Gracchi, of the stock
+     Of Agamemnon's self, illustrious:
+     Here rests the lady Paula, well beloved
+     Of both her parents, with Eustochium
+     For daughter; she the first of Roman dames
+     Who hardship chose and Bethlehem for Christ."
+
+Another interesting character of that period was Marcella, a beautiful
+woman of illustrious lineage, a descendant of consuls and prefects.
+After a married life of seven years her husband died. She determined not
+to embark on the matrimonial seas a second time, but to devote herself
+to works of charity. Cerealis, an old man, but of consular rank, offered
+her his fortune that he might consider her less his wife than his
+daughter. "Had I a wish to marry," was her noble reply, "I should look
+for a husband and not for an inheritance." Disdaining all enticements to
+remain in society, she began her monastic career with joy and turned
+her home into a retreat for women who, like herself, wished to retire
+from the world. It is not known just what rules governed their
+relations, but they employed the time in moderate fasting, prayers and
+alms-giving.
+
+Marcella lavished her wealth upon the poor. Jerome praises her
+philanthropic labors thus: "Our widow's clothing was meant to keep out
+the cold and not to show her figure. She stored her money in the
+stomachs of the poor rather than to keep it at her own disposal." Seldom
+seen upon the streets, she remained at home, surrounded by virgins and
+widows, obedient and loving to her mother. Among the high-born women it
+was regarded as degrading to assume the costume of the nun, but she bore
+the scorn of her social equals with humility and grace.
+
+This quiet and useful life was rudely and abruptly ended by a dreadful
+catastrophe. Alaric the Goth had seized and sacked Rome. The world stood
+aghast. The sad news reached Jerome in his cell at Bethlehem, who
+expressed his sorrow in forceful language: "My voice sticks in my
+throat; and as I dictate, sobs choke my utterance. The city which has
+taken the whole world is itself taken." Rude barbarians invaded the
+sanctity of Marcella's retreat. They demanded her gold, but she pointed
+to the coarse dress she wore to show them she had no buried treasures.
+They did not believe her, and cruelly beat her with cudgels. A few days
+after the saintly heroine of righteousness went to her long home to
+enjoy richly-merited rest and peace.
+
+     "Who can describe the carnage of that night?
+     What tears are equal to its agony?
+     Of ancient date a sovran city falls;
+     And lifeless in its streets and houses lie
+     Unnumbered bodies of its citizens.
+     In many a ghastly shape doth death appear."
+
+Marcella and her monastic home fell in the general ruin, but in the
+words of Horace, she left "a monument more enduring than brass." Her
+noble life, so full of kind words and loving deeds, still stirs the
+hearts of her sisters who, while they may reject her ascetic ideal,
+will, nevertheless, try to emulate her noble spirit. As Jerome said of
+Paula: "By shunning glory she earned glory; for glory follows virtue as
+its shadow; and deserting those who seek it, it seeks those who
+despise it."
+
+Still another woman claims our attention,--Fabiola, the founder of the
+first hospital. Lecky declares that "the first public hospital and the
+charity planted by that woman's hand overspread the world, and will
+alleviate to the end of time the darkest anguish of humanity." She, too,
+was a widow who refused to marry again, but broke up her home, sold her
+possessions, and with the proceeds founded a hospital into which were
+gathered the sick from the streets. She nursed the sufferers and washed
+their ulcers and wounds. No task was beneath her, no sacrifice of
+personal comfort too great for her love. Many helped her with their
+gold, but she gave herself. She also aided in establishing a home for
+strangers at Portus, which became one of the most famous inns of the
+time. Travelers from all parts of the world found a welcome and a
+shelter on landing at this port. When she died the roofs of Rome were
+crowded with those who watched the funeral procession. Psalms were
+chanted, and the gilded ceilings of the churches resounded to the music
+in commendation of her loving life and labors.
+
+These and other characters of like zeal and fortitude exemplify the
+spirit of the men and women who interested the West in monasticism. Much
+as their errors and extravagances may be deplored, there is no question
+that some of them were types of the loftiest Christian virtues, inspired
+by the most laudable motives.
+
+Noble and true are Kingsley's words: "We may blame those ladies, if we
+will, for neglecting their duties. We may sneer, if we will, at their
+weaknesses, the aristocratic pride, the spiritual vanity, we fancy we
+discover. We must confess that in these women the spirit of the old
+Roman matrons, which seemed to have been dead so long, flashed up for
+one splendid moment ere it sank into the darkness of the middle ages."
+
+
+
+_Monasticism and Women_
+
+The origin of nunneries was coeval with that of monasteries, and the
+history of female recluses runs parallel to that of the men. Almost
+every male order had its counterpart in some sort of a sisterhood. The
+general moral character of these female associations was higher than
+that of the male organizations. I have confined my treatment in this
+work to the monks, but a few words may be said at this point concerning
+female ascetics.
+
+Hermit life was unsuited to women, but we know that at a very early date
+many of them retired to the seclusion of convent life. It will be
+recalled that in the biography of St. Anthony, before going into the
+desert he placed his sister in the care of some virgins who were living
+a life of abstinence, apart from society. It is very doubtful if any
+uniform rule governed these first religious houses, or if definitely
+organized societies appear much before the time of Benedict. The
+variations in the monastic order among the men were accompanied by
+similar changes in the associations of women.
+
+The history of these sisterhoods discloses three interesting and
+noteworthy facts that merit brief mention:
+
+First, the effect of a corrupt society upon women. As in the case of
+men, women were moved to forsake their social duties because they were
+weary of the sensual and aimless life of Rome. Those were the days of
+elaborate toilettes, painted faces and blackened eyelids, of intrigues
+and foolish babbling. Venial faults--it may be thought--innocent
+displays of tender frailty; but woman's nature demands loftier
+employments. A great soul craves occupations and recognizes obligations
+more in harmony with the true nobility of human nature. Rome had no
+monitor of the higher life until the monks came with their stories of
+heroic self-abnegation and unselfish toil. The women felt the force and
+truth of Jerome's criticism of their trifling follies when he said: "Do
+not seek to appear over-eloquent, nor trifle with verse, nor make
+yourself gay with lyric songs. And do not, out of affectation, follow
+the sickly taste of married ladies, who now pressing their teeth
+together, now keeping their lips wide apart, speak with a lisp, and
+purposely clip their words, because they fancy that to pronounce them
+naturally is a mark of country breeding."
+
+Professor Dill is inclined to discount the testimony of Jerome
+respecting the morals of Roman society. He thinks Jerome exaggerated the
+perils surrounding women. He says: "The truth is Jerome is not only a
+monk but an artist in words; and his horror of evil, his vivid
+imagination, and his passion for literary effect, occasionally carry him
+beyond the region of sober fact. There was much to amend in the morals
+of the Roman world. But we must not take the leader of a great moral
+reformation as a cool and dispassionate observer." But this observation
+amounts to nothing more than a cautionary word against mistaking evils
+common to all times for special symptoms of excessive immorality.
+Professor Dill practically concedes the truthfulness of contemporary
+witnesses, including Jerome, when he says: "Yet, after all allowances,
+the picture is not a pleasant one. We feel that we are far away from the
+simple, unworldly devotion of the freedmen and obscure toilers whose
+existence was hardly known to the great world before the age of the
+Antonines, and who lived in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount and in
+constant expectation of the coming of their Lord. The triumphant Church,
+which has brought Paganism to its knees, is very different from the
+Church of the catacombs and the persecutions." The picture which Jerome
+draws of the Roman women is indeed repulsive, and Professor Dill would
+gladly believe it to be exaggerated, but, nevertheless, he thinks that
+"if the priesthood, with its enormous influence, was so corrupt, it is
+only probable that it debased the sex which is always most under
+clerical influence."
+
+But far graver charges cling to the memories of the Roman women. Crime
+darkened every household. The Roman lady was cruel and impure. She
+delighted in the blood of gladiators and in illicit love. Roman law at
+this time permitted women to hold and to control large estates, and it
+became a fad for these patrician ladies to marry poor men, so that they
+might have their husbands within their power. All sorts of alliances
+could then be formed, and if their husbands remonstrated, they, holding
+the purse strings, were able to say: "If you don't like it you can
+leave." A profligate himself, the husband usually kept his counsel, and
+as a reward, dwelt in a palace. "When the Roman matrons became the equal
+and voluntary companions of their lords," says Gibbon, "a new
+jurisprudence was introduced, that marriage, like other partnerships,
+might be dissolved by the abdication of one of the associates." I have
+but touched the fringe of a veil I will not lift; but it is easy to
+understand why those women who cherished noble sentiments welcomed the
+monastic life as a pathway of escape from scenes and customs from which
+their better natures recoiled in horror.
+
+Secondly, the fine quality of mercy that distinguishes woman's character
+deserves recognition. Even though she retired to a convent, she could
+not become so forgetful of her fellow creatures as her male companions.
+From the very beginning we observe that she was more unselfish in her
+asceticism than they. It is true the monk forsook all, and to that
+extent was self-sacrificing, but in his desire for his own salvation, he
+was prone to neglect every one else. The monk's ministrations were too
+often confined to those who came to him, but the nun went forth to heal
+the diseased and to bind up the broken-hearted. As soon as she embraced
+the monastic life we read of hospitals. The desire for salvation drove
+man into the desert; a Christ-like mercy and divine sympathy kept his
+sister by the couch of pain.
+
+Lastly, a word remains to be said touching the question of marriage. At
+first, the nun sometimes entered the marriage state, and, of course,
+left the convent; but, beginning with Basil, this practice was
+condemned, and irrevocable vows were exacted. In 407, Innocent I. closed
+even the door of penitence and forgiveness to those who broke their vows
+and married.
+
+Widows and virgins alike assumed the veil. Marriage itself was not
+despised, because the monastic life was only for those who sought a
+higher type of piety than, it was supposed, could be attained amid the
+ordinary conditions of life. But marriage, as well as other so-called
+secular relations, was eschewed by those who wished to make their
+salvation sure. Jerome says: "I praise wedlock, I praise marriage, but
+it is because they give me virgins; I gather the rose from the thorns,
+the gold from the earth, the pearl from the shell." He therefore
+tolerated marriage among people contented with ordinary religious
+attainments, but he thought it incompatible with true holiness.
+Augustine admitted that the mother and her daughter may be both in
+heaven, but one a bright and the other a dim star. Some writers, as
+Helvidius, opposed this view and maintained that there was no special
+virtue in an unmarried life; that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was also
+the mother of other children, and as such was an example of Christian
+virtue. Jerome brought out his guns and poured hot shot into the
+enemies' camp. In the course of his answer, which contained many
+intolerant and acrimonious statements, he drew a comparison between the
+married and the unmarried state. It is interesting because it reflects
+the opinions of those who disparaged marriage, and reveals the character
+of the principles which the early Fathers advocated. It is very evident
+from this letter against Helvidius that Jerome regarded all secular
+duties as interfering with the pursuit of the highest virtue.
+
+"Do you think," he says, "there is no difference between one who spends
+her time in prayer and fasting, and one who must, at her husband's
+approach, make up her countenance, walk with a mincing gait, and feign a
+show of endearment? The virgin aims to appear less comely; she will
+wrong herself so as to hide her natural attractions. The married woman
+has the paint laid on before her mirror, and, to the insult of her
+Maker, strives to acquire something more than her natural beauty. Then
+come the prattling of infants, the noisy household, children watching
+for her word and waiting for her kiss, the reckoning up of expenses, the
+preparation to meet the outlay. On one side you will see a company of
+cooks, girded for the onslaught and attacking the meat; there you may
+hear the hum of a multitude of weavers. Meanwhile a message is delivered
+that her husband and his friends have arrived. The wife, like a swallow,
+flies all over the house. She has to see to everything. Is the sofa
+smooth? Is the pavement swept? Are the flowers in the cup? Is dinner
+ready? Tell me, pray, amid all this, is there room for the thought
+of God?"
+
+Such was Roman married life as it appeared to Jerome. The very duties
+and blessings that we consider the glory of the family he despised. I
+will return to his views later, but it is interesting to note the
+absence at this period, of the modern and true idea that God may be
+served in the performance of household and other secular duties. Women
+fled from such occupations in those days that they might be religious.
+The disagreeable fact of Peter's marriage was overcome by the assertion
+that he must have washed away the stain of his married life by the blood
+of his martyrdom. Such extreme views arose partly as a reaction from and
+a protest against the dominant corruption, a state of affairs in which
+happy and holy marriages were rare.
+
+
+
+_The Spread of Monasticism in Europe_
+
+Much more might be said of monastic life in Rome, were it not now
+necessary to treat of the spread of monasticism in Europe. There are
+many noble characters whom we ought to know, such as Ambrose, one of
+Christendom's greatest bishops, who led a life of poverty and strict
+abstinence, like his sister Marcella, whom we have met. He it was, of
+whom the Emperor Theodosius said: "I have met a man who has told me the
+truth." Well might he so declare, for Ambrose refused him admission to
+the church at Milan, because his hands were red with the blood of the
+murdered, and succeeded in persuading him to submit to discipline. To
+Ambrose may be applied the words which Gibbon wrote of Gregory
+Nazianzen: "The title of Saint has been added to his name, but the
+tenderness of his heart and the elegance of his genius reflect a more
+pleasing luster on his memory."
+
+The story of John, surnamed Chrysostom, who was born at Antioch, in 347,
+is exceedingly interesting. He was a young lawyer, who entered the
+priesthood after his baptism. He at once set his heart on the monastic
+life, but his mother took him to her chamber, and, by the bed where she
+had given him birth, besought him in fear, not to forsake her. "My son,"
+she said in substance, "my only comfort in the midst of the miseries of
+this earthly life is to see thee constantly, and to behold in thy traits
+the faithful image of my beloved husband, who is no more. When you have
+buried me and joined my ashes with those of your father, nothing will
+then prevent you from retiring into the monastic life. But so long as I
+breathe, support me by your presence, and do not draw down upon you the
+wrath of God by bringing such evils upon me who have given you no
+offence." This singularly tender petition was granted, but Chrysostom
+turned his home into a monastery, slept on the bare floor, ate little
+and seldom, and prayed much by day and by night.
+
+After his mother's death Chrysostom enjoyed the seclusion of a monastic
+solitude for six years, but impairing his health by excessive
+self-mortification he returned to Antioch in 380. He rapidly rose to a
+position of commanding influence in the church. His peerless oratorical
+and literary gifts were employed in elevating the ascetic ideal and in
+unsparing denunciations of the worldly religion of the imperial court.
+He incurred the furious hatred of the young and beautiful Empress
+Eudoxia, who united her influence with that of the ambitious Theophilus,
+patriarch of Alexandria, and Chrysostom was banished from
+Constantinople, but died on his way to the remote desert of Pityus. His
+powerful sermons and valuable writings contributed in no small degree to
+the spread of monasticism among the Christians of his time.
+
+Then there was Augustine, the greatest thinker since Plato. "We shall
+meet him," says Schaff, "alike on the broad highways and the narrow
+foot-paths, on the giddy Alpine heights and in the awful depths of
+speculation, wherever philosophical thinkers before him or after him
+have trod." He, too, like all the other leaders of thought in his time,
+was ascetic in his habits. Although he lived and labored for
+thirty-eight years at Hippo, a Numidian city about two hundred miles
+west of Carthage, in Africa, Augustine was regarded as the intellectual
+head not only of North Africa but of Western Christianity. He gathered
+his clergy into a college of priests, with a community of goods, thus
+approaching as closely to the regular monastic life as was possible to
+secular clergymen. He established religious houses and wrote a set of
+rules, consisting of twenty-four articles, for the government of
+monasteries. These rules were superseded by those of Benedict, but they
+were resuscitated under Charlemagne and reappeared in the famous Austin
+Canons of the eleventh century. Little did Augustine think that a
+thousand years later an Augustinian monk--Luther--would abandon his
+order to become the founder of modern Protestantism.
+
+Augustine published a celebrated essay,--"On the Labor of Monks,"--in
+which he pointed out the dangers of monachism, condemned its abuses, and
+ended by sighing for the quiet life of the monk who divided his day
+between labor, reading and prayer, whilst he himself spent his years
+amid the noisy throng and the perplexities of his episcopate.
+
+These men, and many others, did much to further monasticism. But we must
+now leave sunny Africa and journey northward through Gaul into the land
+of the hardy Britons and Scots.
+
+Athanasius, the same weary exile whom we have encountered in Egypt and
+in Rome, had been banished by Constantine to Treves, in 336. In 346 and
+349 he again visited Gaul. He told the same story of Anthony and the
+Egyptian hermits with similar results.
+
+The most renowned ecclesiastic of the Gallican church, whose name is
+most intimately associated with the spread of monasticism in Western
+Europe, before the days of Benedict, was Saint Martin of Tours. He lived
+about the years 316-396 A.D. The chronicle of his life is by no means
+trustworthy, but that is essential neither to popularity nor saintship.
+Only let a Severus describe his life and miracles in glowing rhetoric
+and fantastic legend and the people will believe it, pronouncing him
+greatest among the great, the mightiest miracle-worker of that
+miracle-working age.
+
+Martin was a soldier three years, against his will, under Constantine.
+One bleak winter day he cut his white military coat in two with his
+sword and clothed a beggar with half of it. That night he heard Jesus
+address the angels: "Martin, as yet only a catechumen has clothed me
+with his garment." After leaving the army he became a hermit, and,
+subsequently, bishop of Tours. He lived for years just outside of Tours
+in a cell made of interlaced branches. His monks dwelt around him in
+caves cut out of scarped rocks, overlooking a beautiful stream. They
+were clad in camel's hair and lived on a diet of brown bread, sleeping
+on a straw couch.
+
+But Martin's monks did not take altogether kindly to their mode of life.
+Severus records an amusing story of their rebellion against the meager
+allowance of food. The Egyptian could exist on a few figs a day. But
+these rude Gauls, just emerging out of barbarism, were accustomed to
+devour great slices of roasted meat and to drink deep draughts of beer.
+Such sturdy children of the northern forests naturally disdained dainty
+morsels of barley bread and small potations of wine. True, Athanasius
+had said, "Fasting is the food of angels," but these ascetic novices, in
+their perplexity, could only say: "We are accused of gluttony; but we
+are Gauls; it is ridiculous and cruel to make us live like angels; we
+are not angels; once more, we are only Gauls." Their complaint comes
+down to us as a pathetic but humorous protest of common sense against
+ascetic fanaticism; or, regarded in another light, it may be considered
+as additional evidence of the depravity of the natural man.
+
+In spite of all complaints, however, Martin did not abate the severity
+of his discipline. As a bishop he pushed his monastic system into all
+the surrounding country. His zeal knew no bounds, and his strength
+seemed inexhaustible. "No one ever saw him either gloomy or merry,"
+remarks his biographer. Amid many embarrassments and difficulties he was
+ever the same, with a countenance full of heavenly serenity. He was a
+great miracle-worker--that is, if everything recorded of him is true. He
+cast out demons, and healed the sick; he had strange visions of angels
+and demons, and, wonderful to relate, thrice he raised bodies from
+the dead.
+
+But all conquerors are at last vanquished by the angel of death, and
+Martin passed into the company of the heavenly host and the category of
+saints. Two thousand monks attended his funeral. His fame spread all
+over Europe. Tradition tells us he was the uncle of Saint Patrick of
+Ireland. Churches were dedicated to him in France, Germany, Scotland and
+England. The festival of his birth is celebrated on the eleventh of
+November. In Scotland this day still marks the winter term, which is
+called Martinmas. Saint Martin's shrine was one of the most famous of
+the middle ages, and was noted for its wonderful cures. No saint is
+held, even now, in higher veneration by the French Catholic.
+
+It is not known when the institution was planted in Spain, but in 380
+the council of Saragossa forbade priests to assume monkish habits.
+Germany received the institution some time in the fifth century. The
+introduction of Christianity as well as of monasticism into the British
+Isles is shrouded in darkness. A few jewels of fact may be gathered from
+the legendary rubbish. It is probable that before the days of Benedict,
+Saint Patrick, independently of Rome, established monasteries in Ireland
+and preached the gospel there; and, without doubt, before the birth of
+Benedict of Nursia, there were monks and monasteries in Great Britain.
+The monastery of Bangor is said to have been founded about 450 A.D.
+
+It is probable that Christianity was introduced into Britain before the
+close of the second century, and that monasticism arose some time in the
+fifth century. Tertullian, about the beginning of the third century,
+boasts that Christianity had conquered places in Britain where the Roman
+arms could not penetrate. Origen claimed that the power of the Savior
+was manifest in Britain as well as in Muritania. The earliest notice we
+have of a British church occurs in the writings of the Venerable Bede
+(673-735 A.D.), a monk whose numerous and valuable works on English
+history entitle him to the praise of being "the greatest literary
+benefactor this or any other nation has produced." He informs us that a
+British king--Lucius--embraced Christianity during the reign of the
+Emperor Aurelius, and that missionaries were sent from Rome to Britain
+about that time. Lingard says the story is suspicious, since "we know
+not from what source Bede, at the distance of five centuries, derived
+his information." It seems quite likely that there must have been some
+Christians among the Roman soldiers or civil officials who lived in
+Britain during the Roman occupation of the country. The whole problem
+has been the theme of so much controversy, however, that a fuller
+discussion is reserved for the next chapter.
+
+
+
+_Disorders and Oppositions_
+
+But was there no protest against the progress of these ascetic
+teachings? Did the monastic institution command the unanimous approval
+of the church from the outset? There were many and strong outcries
+against the monks, but they were quickly silenced by the counter-shouts
+of praise. Even when rebellion against the system seemed formidable, it
+was popular nevertheless. The lifted hand was quickly struck down, and
+voices of opposition suddenly hushed. Like a mighty flood the movement
+swept on,--kings, when so inclined, being powerless to stop it. As Paula
+was carried fainting from the funeral procession of Blaesilla, her
+daughter, whispers such as these were audible in the crowd: "Is not this
+what we have often said? She weeps for her daughter, killed with
+fasting. How long must we refrain from driving these detestable monks
+out of Rome? Why do we not stone them or hurl them into the Tiber? They
+have misled this unhappy mother; that she is not a nun from choice is
+clear. No heathen mother ever wept for her children as she does for
+Blaesilla." And this is Paula, who, choked with grief, refused to weep
+when she sailed from her children for the far East!
+
+Unhappily, history is often too dignified to retail the conversations of
+the dinner-table and the gossip of private life. But this narrative
+indicates that in many a Roman family the monk was feared, despised and
+hated. Sometimes everyday murmurs found their way into literature and so
+passed to posterity. Rutilius, the Pagan poet, as he sails before a
+hermit isle in the Mediterranean, exclaims: "Behold, Capraria rises
+before us; that isle is full of wretches, enemies of light. I detest
+these rocks scene of a recent shipwreck." He then goes on to declare
+that a young and rich friend, impelled by the furies, had fled from men
+and gods to a living tomb, and was now decaying in that foul retreat.
+This was no uncommon opinion. But contrast it with what Ambrose said of
+those same isles: "It is there in these isles, thrown down by God like a
+collar of pearls upon the sea, that those who would escape from the
+charms of dissipation find refuge. Nothing here disturbs their peace,
+all access is closed to the wild passions of the world. The mysterious
+sound of waves mingles with the chant of hymns; and, while the waters
+break upon the shores of these happy isles with a gentle murmur, the
+peaceful accents of the choir of the elect ascend toward Heaven from
+their bosom." No wonder the Milanese ladies guarded their daughters
+against this theological poet.
+
+Even among the Christians there were hostile as well as friendly critics
+of monasticism; Jovinian, whom Neander compares to Luther, is a type of
+the former. Although a monk himself, he disputed the thesis that any
+merit lay in celibacy, fasting or poverty. He opposed the worship of
+saints and relics, and believed that one might retain possession of his
+property and make good use of it. He assailed the dissolute monks and
+claimed that many of Rome's noblest young men and women were withdrawn
+from a life of usefulness into the desert. He held that there was really
+but one class of Christians, namely, those who had faith in Christ, and
+that a monk could be no more. But Jovinian was far in advance of his
+age, and it was many years before the truth of his view gained any
+considerable recognition. He was severely attacked by Jerome, who called
+him a Christian Epicurean, and was condemned as a heretic by a synod at
+Milan, in 390. Thus the reformers were crushed for centuries. The Pagan
+Emperor, Julian, and the Christian, Valens, alike tried in vain to
+resist the emigration into the desert. Thousands fled, in times of peril
+to the state, from their civil and military duties, but the emperors
+were powerless to prevent the exodus.
+
+That there were grounds for complaint against the monks we may know from
+the charges made even by those who favored the system. Jerome Ambrose,
+Augustine, and in fact almost every one of the Fathers tried to correct
+the growing disorders. We learn from them that many fled from society,
+not to become holy, but to escape slavery and famine; and that many were
+lazy and immoral. Their "shaven heads lied to God." Avarice, ambition,
+or cowardice ruled hearts that should have been actuated by a love of
+poverty, self-sacrifice or courage. "Quite recently," says Jerome, "we
+have seen to our sorrow a fortune worthy of Croesus brought to light by
+a monk's death, and a city's alms collected for the poor, left by will
+to his sons and successors."
+
+Many monks traveled from place to place selling sham relics. Augustine
+wrote against "those hypocrites who, in the dress of monks, wander about
+the provinces carrying pretended relics, amulets, preservatives, and
+expecting alms to feed their lucrative poverty and recompense their
+pretended virtue." It is to the credit of the Fathers of the church
+that they boldly and earnestly rebuked the vices of the monks and tried
+to purge the monastic system of its impurities.
+
+But the church sanctioned the monastic movement. She could not have done
+anything else. "It is one of the most striking occurrences in history,"
+says Harnack, "that the church, exactly at the time when she was
+developing more and more into a legal institution and a sacramental
+establishment, outlined a Christian life-ideal which was incapable of
+realization within her bounds, but only alongside of her. The more she
+affiliated herself with the world, the higher and more superhuman did
+she make her ideal."
+
+It is also noteworthy that this "life-ideal" seems to have led,
+inevitably, to fanaticism and other excesses, so that even at this early
+date there was much occasion for alarm. Gross immorality was disclosed
+as well as luminous purity; indolence and laziness as well as the love
+of sacrifice and toil. So we shall find it down through the centuries.
+"The East had few great men," says Milman, "many madmen; the West,
+madmen enough, but still very many, many great men." We have met some
+madmen and some great men. We shall meet more of each type.
+
+After 450 A.D., monasticism suffered an eclipse for over half a century.
+It seemed as if the Western institution was destined to end in that
+imbecility and failure which overtook the Eastern system. But there came
+a man who infused new life into the monastic body. He systematized its
+scattered principles and concentrated the energies of the wandering and
+unorganized monks.
+
+Our next visit will be to the mountain home of this renowned character,
+fifty miles to the west of Rome. "A single monk," says Montalembert, "is
+about to form there a center of spiritual virtue, and to light it up
+with a splendor destined to shine over regenerated Europe for ten
+centuries to come."
+
+
+
+III
+
+_THE BENEDICTINES_
+
+Saint Benedict, the founder of the famous monastic order that bears his
+name, was born at Nursia, about 480 A.D. His parents, who were wealthy,
+intended to give him a liberal education; but their plans were defeated,
+for at fifteen years of age Benedict renounced his family and fortune,
+and fled from his school life in Rome. The vice of the city shocked and
+disgusted him. He would rather be ignorant and holy, than educated and
+wicked. On his way into the mountains, he met a monk named Romanus,--the
+spot is marked by the chapel of Santa Crocella,--who gave him a
+haircloth shirt and a monastic dress of skins. Continuing his journey
+with Romanus, the youthful ascetic discovered a sunless cave in the
+desert of Subiaco, about forty miles from Rome. Into this cell he
+climbed, and in it he lived three years. It was so inaccessible that
+Romanus had to lower his food to him by a rope, to which was attached a
+bell to call him from his devotions. Once the Devil threw a stone at the
+rope and broke it.
+
+But Benedict's bodily escape from the wickedness of Rome did not secure
+his spiritual freedom. "There was a certain lady of thin, airy shape,
+who was very active in this solemnity; her name was Fancy." Time and
+again, he revisited his old haunts, borne on the wings of his
+imagination. The face of a beautiful young girl of previous acquaintance
+constantly appeared before him. He was about to yield to the temptation
+and to return, when, summoning all his strength, he made one mighty
+effort to dispel the illusion forever. Divesting himself of his clothes,
+he rolled his naked body among the thorn-bushes near his cave. It was
+drastic treatment, but it seems to have rid his mind effectually of
+disturbing fancies. This singular self-punishment was used by Godric,
+the Welsh saint, in the twelfth century. "Failing to subdue his
+rebellious flesh by this method, he buried a cask in the earthen floor
+of his cell, filled it with water and fitted it with a cover, and in
+this receptacle he shut himself up whenever he felt the titillations of
+desire. In this manner, varied by occasionally passing the night up to
+his chin in a river, of which he had broken the ice, he finally
+succeeded in mastering his fiery nature."
+
+One day some peasants discovered Benedict at the entrance of his cave.
+Deceived by his savage appearance, they mistook him for a wild beast,
+but the supposed wolf proving to be a saint, they fell down and
+reverenced him.
+
+The fame of the young ascetic attracted throngs of hermits, who took up
+their abodes near his cell. After a time monasteries were established,
+and Benedict was persuaded to become an abbot in one of them. His
+strictness provoked much opposition among the monks, resulting in
+carefully-laid plots to compass the moral ruin of their spiritual guide.
+An attempt to poison him was defeated by a miraculous interposition, and
+Benedict escaped to a solitary retreat.
+
+Again the moral hero became an abbot, and again the severity of his
+discipline was resented. This time a wicked and jealous priest sought to
+entrap the saint by turning into a garden in which he was accustomed to
+walk seven young girls of exquisite physical charms. When Benedict
+encountered this temptation, he fled from the scene and retired to a
+picturesque mountain--the renowned Monte Cassino. Let Montalembert
+describe this celebrated spot among the western Apennines: "At the foot
+of this rock Benedict found an amphitheatre of the time of the Caesars,
+amidst the ruins of the town of Casinum, which the most learned and
+pious of Romans, Varro, that pagan Benedictine, whose memory and
+knowledge the sons of Benedict took pleasure in honoring, had rendered
+illustrious. From the summit the prospect extended on one side towards
+Arpinum, where the prince of Roman orators was born, and on the other
+towards Aquinum, already celebrated as the birthplace of Juvenal.... It
+was amidst those noble recollections, this solemn nature, and upon that
+predestinated height, that the patriarch of the monks of the West
+founded the capital of the monastic order."
+
+In the year 529 a great stronghold of Paganism in these wild regions
+gave way to Benedict's faith. Upon the ruins of a temple to Apollo, and
+in a grove sacred to Venus, arose the model of Western monasticism,--the
+cloister of Monte Cassino, which was to shine resplendent for a thousand
+years. The limitations of my purpose will prevent me from following in
+detail the fortunes of this renowned retreat, but it may not be out of
+place to glance at its subsequent history.
+
+Monte Cassino is located three and a half miles to the northeast of the
+town of Cassino, midway between Rome and Naples. About 589 A.D. the
+Lombards destroyed the buildings, but the monks escaped to Rome, in
+fulfilment, so it is claimed, of a prophecy uttered by Benedict. It lay
+in ruins until restored by Gregory II. in 719, only to be burned in 884
+by the Saracens; seventy years later it was again rebuilt. It afterwards
+passed through a variety of calamities, and was consecrated, for the
+third time, by Benedict XII., in 1729. Longfellow quotes a writer for
+the _London Daily News_ as saying: "There is scarcely a pope or emperor
+of importance who has not been personally connected with its history.
+From its mountain crag it has seen Goths, Lombards, Saracens, Normans,
+Frenchmen, Spaniards, Germans, scour and devastate the land which,
+through all modern history, has attracted every invader."
+
+It was enriched by popes, emperors and princes. In its palmy days the
+abbot was the first baron in the realm, and commanded over four hundred
+towns and villages. In 1866, it shared the fate of all the monasteries
+of Italy. It still stands upon the summit of the mountain, and can be
+seen by the traveler from the railway in the valley. At present it
+serves as a Catholic seminary with about two hundred students. It
+contains a spacious church, richly ornamented with marble, mosaics and
+paintings. It has also a famous library which, in spite of bad usage, is
+still immensely valuable. Boccaccio made a visit to the place, and when
+he saw the precious books so vilely mutilated, he departed in tears,
+exclaiming: "Now, therefore, O scholar, rack thy brains in the making of
+books!" The library contains about twenty thousand volumes, and about
+thirty-five thousand popes' bulls, diplomas and charters. There are also
+about a thousand manuscripts, some of which are of priceless value, as
+they date from the sixth century downward, and consist of ancient
+Bibles and important medieval literature.
+
+Benedict survived the founding of this monastery fourteen years. His
+time was occupied in establishing other cloisters, perfecting his rule,
+and preaching. Many stories are related of his power over the hearts of
+the untamed barbarians. Galea the Goth, out on a marauding expedition,
+demanded a peasant to give him his treasures. The peasant, thinking to
+escape, said he had committed them to the keeping of Benedict. Galea
+immediately ordered him to be bound on a horse and conducted to the
+saint. Benedict was seated at the gateway reading when Galea and his
+prisoner arrived. Looking up from his book he fastened his eyes upon the
+poor peasant, who was immediately loosed from his bonds. The astonished
+Galea, awed by this miracle, fell at the feet of the abbot, and, instead
+of demanding gold, supplicated his blessing. Once a boy was drowning,
+and, at the command of Benedict, St. Maur, a wealthy young Roman, who
+had turned monk, walked safely out upon the water and rescued the lad.
+Gregory also tells us many stories of miraculous healing, and of one
+resurrection from the dead.
+
+Benedict's last days were linked with a touching incident. His sister,
+Scholastica, presided over a convent near his own. They met once a year.
+On his last visit to her, Scholastica begged him to remain and "speak of
+the joys of Heaven till the morning." But Benedict would not listen; he
+must return. His sister then buried her face in her hands weeping and
+praying. Suddenly the sky was overcast with clouds, and a terrific storm
+burst upon the mountains, which prevented her brother's return. Three
+days later Benedict saw the soul of his sister entering heaven. On March
+21, 543, a short time after his sister's death, two monks beheld a
+shining pathway of stars over which the soul of Benedict passed from
+Monte Cassino to heaven. Such, in brief, is the story preserved for us
+in his biography by the celebrated patron of monasticism, Pope
+Gregory I.
+
+
+
+_The Rules of Benedict_
+
+The rules, _regulae_, of St. Benedict, are worthy of special
+consideration, since they constitute the real foundation of his success
+and of his fame. His order was by far the most important monastic
+brotherhood until the thirteenth century. Nearly all the other orders
+which sprang up during this interval were based upon Benedictine rules,
+and were really attempts to reform the monastic system on the basis of
+Benedict's original practice. Other monks lived austere lives and worked
+miracles, and some of them formulated rules, but it is to Benedict and
+his rules that we must look for the code of Western monachism. "By a
+strange parallelism," says Putnam, "almost in the very year in which the
+great Emperor Justinian was codifying the results of seven centuries of
+Roman secular legislation for the benefit of the judges and the
+statesmen of the new Europe, Benedict, on his lonely mountain-top, was
+composing his code for the regulation of the daily life of the great
+civilizers of Europe for seven centuries to come."
+
+The rules consist of a preface and seventy-three chapters. The prologue
+defines the classes of monks, and explains the aim of the "school of
+divine servitude," as Benedict described his monastery. The following is
+a partial list of the subjects considered: The character of an abbot,
+silence, maxims for good works, humility, directions as to divine
+service, rules for dormitories, penalties, duties of various monastic
+officers, poverty, care of the sick daily rations of food and drink,
+hours for meals, fasting, entertainment of guests, and dress. They close
+with the statement that the Benedictine rule is not offered as an ideal
+of perfection, or even as equal to the teaching of Cassian or Basil, but
+for mere beginners in the spiritual life, who may thence
+proceed further.
+
+The Benedictine novitiate extended over one year, but was subsequently
+increased to three. At the close of this period the novice was given the
+opportunity to go back into the world. If he still persisted in his
+choice, he swore before the bones of the saints to remain forever cut
+off from the rest of his fellow beings. If a monk left the monastery, or
+was expelled, he could return twice, but if, after the third admission,
+he severed his connection, the door was shut forever.
+
+The monk passed his time in manual labor, copying manuscripts, reading,
+fasting and prayer. He was forbidden to receive letters, tokens or
+gifts, even from his nearest-relatives, without permission from the
+abbot. His daily food allowance was usually a pound of bread, a pint of
+wine, cider or ale, and sometimes fish, eggs, fruit or cheese. He was
+dressed in a black cowl. His clothing was to be suitable to the climate
+and to consist of two sets. He was also furnished with a straw mattress,
+blanket, quilt, pillow, knife, pen, needle, handkerchief and tablets. He
+was, in all things, to submit patiently to his superior, to keep
+silence, and to serve his turn in the kitchen. In the older days the
+monks changed their clothes on the occasion of a bath, which used to be
+taken four times a year. Later, bathing was allowed only twice a year,
+and the monks changed their clothes when they wished.
+
+Various punishments were employed to correct faults. Sometimes the
+offender was whipped on the bare shoulders with a thick rod; others had
+to lie prostrate in the doorway of the church at each hour, so that the
+monks passed over his body on entering or going out.
+
+The monks formerly rose at two o'clock, and spent the day in various
+occupations until eight at night, when they retired. The following rules
+once governed St. Gregory's Monastery in England: "3:45 A.M. Rise. 4
+A.M. Matins and lauds, recited; half-hour mental prayer; prime _sung_;
+prime B.V.M. recited. 6:30 A.M. Private study; masses; breakfast for
+those who had permission. 8 A.M. Lectures and disputations. 10 A.M.
+Little hours B.V.M., recited; tierce, mass, sext, _sung_. 11:30 A.M.
+Dinner. 12 noon. None _sung_; vespers and compline B.V.M., recited.
+12:30 P.M. Siesta, 1 P.M. Hebrew or Greek lecture. 2 P.M. Vespers
+_sung_. 2:30 P.M. Lectures and disputations. 4 P.M. Private study. 6
+P.M. Supper. 6:30 P.M. Recreation. 7:30 P.M. Public spiritual reading;
+compline _sung_; matins and lauds B.V.M., recited; half-hour mental
+prayer. 8:45 P.M. Retire[D]."
+
+[Footnote D: Appendix, Note D.]
+
+Such a routine suggests a dreary life, but that would depend upon the
+monk's temperament. Regularity of employment kept him healthy, and if he
+did not take his sins too much to heart, he was free from gloom. Hill
+very justly observes: "Whenever men obey that injunction of labor, no
+matter what their station, there is in the act the element of happiness,
+and whoever avoids that injunction, there is always the shadow of the
+unfulfilled curse darkening their path." Thus, their ideal was "to
+subdue one's self and then to devote one's self," which De Tocqueville
+pronounces "the secret of strength." How well they succeeded in
+realizing their ideal by the methods employed we shall see later.
+
+The term "order," as applied to the Benedictines, is used in a different
+sense from that which it has when used of later monastic bodies. Each
+Benedictine house was practically independent of every other, while the
+houses of the Dominicans, Franciscans or Jesuits were bound together
+under one head. The family idea was peculiar to the Benedictines. The
+abbot was the father, and the monastery was the home where the
+Benedictine was content to dwell all his life. In the later monastic
+societies the monks were constantly traveling from place to place.
+Taunton says: "As God made society to rest on the basis of the family,
+so St. Benedict saw that the spiritual family is the surest basis for
+the sanctification of the souls of his monks. The monastery therefore is
+to him what the 'home' is to lay-folk.... From this family idea comes
+another result: the very fact that St. Benedict did not found an Order
+but only gave a Rule, cuts away all possibility of that narrowing
+_esprit de corps_ which comes so easily to a widespread and
+highly-organized body."
+
+In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, however, it became necessary
+for the general good of each family to secure some kind of union. The
+Chapter then came into existence, which was a representative body,
+composed of the heads of the different houses and ordinary monks
+regularly appointed as delegates. To the Chapter were committed various
+matters of jurisdiction, and also the power of sending visitors to the
+different abbeys in the pope's name.
+
+Each society was ruled by an abbot, who governed in Christ's stead.
+Sometimes the members of the monastery were consulted, the older ones
+ordinarily, the whole congregation; in important matters. But implicit
+obedience to the abbot, as the representative of God, was demanded
+by the vows.
+
+The abbot was to be elected by the monks. At various periods popes and
+princes usurped this power, but the monks always claimed the right as an
+original privilege. Carlyle quotes Jocelin on Abbot Samson, who says
+that the monks of St. Edmundsbury were compelled to submit their choice
+to Henry II., who, looking at the committee of monks somewhat sternly,
+said: "You present to me Samson; I do not know him; had it been your
+prior, whom I do know, I should have accepted him; however, I will now
+do as you wish. But have a care of yourselves. By the true eyes of God,
+if you manage badly, I will be upon you."
+
+In Walter Scott's novel, "The Abbot," there is an interesting contrast
+drawn between the ceremonies attending an abbot's installation, when the
+monasteries were in their glory, and the pitiable scenes in the days of
+their decline, when Mary Stuart was a prisoner in Lochleven. In the
+monastery of Kennaquhair, which had been despoiled by the fury of the
+times, a few monks were left to mourn the mutilated statues and weep
+over the fragments of richly-carved Gothic pillars. Having secretly
+elected an abbot, they assembled in fear and trembling to invest him
+with the honors of his office. "In former times," says Scott, "this was
+one of the most splendid of the many pageants which the hierarchy of
+Rome had devised to attract the veneration of the faithful. When the
+folding doors on such solemn occasions were thrown open, and the new
+abbot appeared on the threshold in full-blown dignity, with ring and
+mitre and dalmatique and crosier, his hoary standard-bearers and
+juvenile dispensers of incense preceding him, and the venerable train of
+monks behind him, his appearance was the signal for the magnificent
+jubilate to rise from the organ and the music-loft and to be joined by
+the corresponding bursts of 'Alleluiah' from the whole assembled
+congregation.
+
+"Now all was changed. Father Ambrose stood on the broken steps of the
+high altar, barefooted, as was the rule, and holding in his hand his
+pastoral staff, for the gemmed ring and jewelled mitre had become
+secular spoils. No obedient vassals came, man after man, to make their
+homage and to offer the tribute which should provide their spiritual
+superior with palfrey and trappings. No bishop assisted at the solemnity
+to receive into the higher ranks of the church nobility a dignitary
+whose voice in the legislature was as potent as his own."
+
+We are enabled by this partially-quoted description to imagine the
+importance attached to the election of an abbot. He became, in feudal
+times, a lord of the land, the richest man in the community, and a
+tremendous power in political councils and parliaments. A Benedictine
+abbot once confessed: "My vow of poverty has given me a hundred thousand
+crowns a year; my vow of obedience has raised me to the rank of a
+sovereign prince."
+
+No new principle seems to be disclosed by the Benedictine rules. The
+command to labor had been emphasized even in the monasteries of Egypt.
+The Basilian code contained a provision enforcing manual labor, but the
+work was light and insufficient to keep the mind from brooding. The
+monastery that was to succeed in the West must provide for men who not
+only could toil hard, but who must do so if they were to be kept pure
+and true; it must welcome men accustomed to the dangerous adventures of
+pioneer life in the vast forests of the North. The Benedictine system
+met these conditions by a unique combination and application of
+well-known monastic principles; by a judicious subordination of minor
+matters to essential discipline; by bringing into greater prominence
+the doctrine of labor; by tempering the austerities of the cell to meet
+the necessities of a severe climate; and lastly, by devising a scheme of
+life equally adaptable to the monk of sunny Italy and the rude Goth of
+the northern forests.
+
+It was the splendid fruition of many years of experiment amid varying
+results. "It shows," says Schaff, "a true knowledge of human nature, the
+practical wisdom of Rome and adaptation to Western customs; it combines
+simplicity with completeness, strictness with gentleness, humility with
+courage and gives the whole cloister life a fixed unity and compact
+organization, which, like the episcopate, possessed an unlimited
+versatility and power of expansion."
+
+
+
+_The Struggle against Barbarism_
+
+No institution has contributed as much to the amelioration of human
+misery or struggled as patiently and persistently to influence society
+for good as the Christian church. In spite of all that may be said
+against the followers of the Cross, it still remains true, that they
+have ever been foremost in the establishment of peace and justice
+among men.
+
+The problem that confronted the church when Benedict began his labors,
+was no less than that of reducing a demoralized and brutal society to
+law and order. Chaos reigned, selfishness and lust ruled the hearts of
+Rome's conquerors. The West was desolated by barbarians; the East
+dismembered and worn out by theological controversy. War had ruined the
+commerce of the cities and laid waste the rural districts. Vast swamps
+and tracts of brush covered fields once beautiful with the products of
+agricultural labor. The minds of men were distracted by apprehensions of
+some frightful, impending calamity. The cultured Roman, the untutored
+Goth and the corrupted Christian were locked in the deadly embrace of
+despair. "Constantly did society attempt to form itself," says Guizot,
+"constantly was it destroyed by the act of man, by the absence of the
+moral conditions under which alone it can exist."
+
+But notwithstanding failures and discouragements, the work of
+reconstructing society moved painfully on, and among the brave master
+builders was Benedict of Nursia. "He found the world, physical and
+social, in ruins," says Cardinal Newman, "and his mission was to restore
+it in the way,--not of science, but of nature; not as if setting about
+to do it; not professing to do it by any set time, or by any series of
+strokes; but so quietly, patiently, gradually, that often till the work
+was done, it was not known to be doing. It was a restoration rather than
+a visitation, correction or conversion. The new world he helped to
+create was a growth rather than a structure."
+
+But the chaos created by the irruption of the barbarous nations at this
+period seriously affected the moral character and influence of the
+clergy and the monks. The church seemed unequal to the stupendous
+undertaking of converting the barbarians. The monks, as a class, were
+lawless and vicious. Benedict himself testifies against them, and
+declares that they were "always wandering and never stable; that they
+obey their own appetites, whereunto they are enslaved." Unable to
+control their own desires by any law whatsoever, they were unfitted to
+the task before them. It was imperative, then, that unity and order
+should be introduced among the monasteries; that some sort of a uniform
+rule, adapted to the existing conditions, should be adopted, not only
+for the preservation of the monastic institution, but for the
+preparation of the monks for their work. Therefore, although the
+Christianity of that time was far from ideal, it was, nevertheless, a
+religion within the grasp of the reckless barbarians; and subsequent
+events prove that it possessed a moral power capable of humanizing
+manners, elevating the intellect, and checking the violent temper of
+the age.
+
+Excepting always the religious services of the Benedictine monks, their
+greatest contribution to civilization was literary and educational[E].
+The rules of Benedict provided for two hours a day of reading, and it
+was doubtless this wise regulation that stimulated literary tastes, and
+resulted in the collecting of books and the reproduction of manuscripts.
+"Wherever a Benedictine house arose, or a monastery of any one of the
+Orders, which were but offshoots from the Benedictine tree, books were
+multiplied and a library came into existence, small indeed at first, but
+increasing year by year, till the wealthier houses had gathered together
+collections of books that would do credit to a modern university."
+There was great danger that the remains of classic literature might be
+destroyed in the general devastation of Italy. The monasteries rescued
+the literary fragments that escaped, and preserved them. "For a period
+of more than six centuries the safety of the literary heritage of
+Europe,--one may say of the world,--depended upon the scribes of a few
+dozen scattered monasteries."
+
+[Footnote E: Appendix, Note E.]
+
+The literary services of the earlier monks did not consist in original
+production, but in the reproduction and preservation of the classics.
+This work was first begun as a part of the prescribed routine of
+European monastic life in the monastery at Vivaria, or Viviers, France,
+which was founded by Cassiodorus about 539. The rules of this cloister
+were based on those of Cassian, who died in the early part of the fifth
+century. Benedict, at Monte Cassino, followed the example of
+Cassiodorus, and the Benedictine Order carried the work on for the seven
+succeeding centuries.
+
+Cassiodorus was a statesman of no mean ability, and for over forty years
+was active in the political circles of his time, holding high official
+positions under five different Roman rulers. He was also an exceptional
+scholar, devoting much of his energy to the preservation of classic
+literature. His magnificent collection of manuscripts, rescued from the
+ruins of Italian libraries, "supplied material for the pens of thousands
+of monastic scribes." If we leave out Jerome, it is to Cassiodorus that
+the honor is due for joining learning and monasticism.
+
+"Thus," remarks Schaff, "that very mode of life, which, in its founder,
+Anthony, despised all learning, became in the course of its development
+an asylum of culture in the rough and stormy times of the migration and
+the crusades, and a conservator of the literary treasures of antiquity
+for the use of modern times."
+
+Cassiodorus, with a noble enthusiasm, inspired his monks to their task.
+He even provided lamps of ingenious construction, that seem to have been
+self-trimming, to aid them in their work. He himself set an example of
+literary diligence, astonishing in one of his age.
+
+Putnam is justified in his praises of this remarkable character when he
+declares: "It is not too much to say that the continuity of thought and
+civilization of the ancient world with that of the middle ages was due,
+more than to any other one man, to the life and labors of Cassiodorus."
+
+But the monk was more than a scribe and a collector of books, he became
+the chronicler and the school-teacher. "The records that have come down
+to us of several centuries of medieval European history are due almost
+exclusively to the labors of the monastic chroniclers." A vast fund of
+information, the value of which is impaired, it is true, by much useless
+stuff, concerning medieval customs, laws and events, was collected by
+these unscientific historians and is now accessible to the student.
+
+At the end of the ninth century nearly all the monasteries of Europe
+conducted schools open to the children of the neighborhood. The
+character of the educational training of the times is not to be judged
+by modern standards. A beginning had to be made, and that too at a time
+"when neither local nor national governments had assumed any
+responsibilities in connection with elementary education, and when the
+municipalities were too ignorant, and in many cases too poor, to make
+provision for the education of the children." It is therefore to the
+lasting credit of Benedict, inspired no doubt by the example of
+Cassiodorus, that he commanded his monks to read, encouraged literary
+work, and made provision for the education of the young.
+
+The Benedictines rendered a great social service in reclaiming deserted
+regions and in clearing forests. "The monasteries," says Maitland,
+"were, in those days of misrule and turbulence, beyond all price, not
+only as places where (it may be imperfectly, but better than elsewhere)
+God was worshipped,... but as central points whence agriculture was to
+spread over bleak hills and barren downs and marshy plains, and deal its
+bread to millions perishing with hunger and its pestilential train."
+Roman taxation and barbarian invasions had ruined the farmers, who left
+their lands and fled to swell the numbers of the homeless. The monk
+repeopled these abandoned but once fertile fields, and carried
+civilization still deeper into the forests. Many a monastery with its
+surrounding buildings became the nucleus of a modern city. The more
+awful the darkness of the forest solitudes, the more the monks loved
+it. They cut down trees in the heart of the wilderness, and transformed
+a soil bristling with woods and thickets into rich pastures and ploughed
+fields. They stimulated the peasantry to labor, and taught them many
+useful lessons in agriculture. Thus, they became an industrial, as well
+as a spiritual, agency for good.
+
+The habits of the monks brought them into close contact with nature.
+Even the animals became their friends. Numerous stories have been
+related of their wonderful power over wild beasts and their
+conversations with the birds. "It is wonderful," says Bede, "that he who
+faithfully and loyally obeys the Creator of the universe, should, in his
+turn, see all the creatures obedient to his orders and his wishes." They
+lived, so we are told, in the most intimate relations with the animal
+creation. Squirrels leaped to their hands or hid in the folds of their
+cowls. Stags came out of the forests in Ireland and offered themselves
+to some monks who were ploughing, to replace the oxen carried off by the
+hunters. Wild animals stopped in their pursuit of game at the command of
+St. Laumer. Birds ceased singing at the request of some monks until
+they had chanted their evening prayer, and at their word the feathered
+songsters resumed their music. A swan was the daily companion of St.
+Hugh of Lincoln, and manifested its miraculous knowledge of his
+approaching death by the most profound melancholy. While all the details
+of such stories are not to be accepted as literally true, no doubt some
+of this poetry of monastic history rests upon interesting and
+charming facts.
+
+A fuller discussion of the permanent contributions which the monk made
+to civilization is reserved for the last chapter. I have somewhat
+anticipated a closer scrutiny of his achievements in order to present a
+clearer view of his life and labors. His religious duties were, perhaps,
+wearisome enough. We might tire of his monotonous chanting and incessant
+vigils, but it is gratifying to know that he also engaged in practical
+and useful employments. The convent became the house of industry as well
+as the temple of prayer. The forest glades echoed to the stroke of the
+axe as well as to hymns of praise. Yes, as Carlyle writes of the twelfth
+century, "these years were no chimerical vacuity and dreamland peopled
+with mere vaporous phantasms, but a green solid place, that grew corn
+and several other things. The sun shone on it, the vicissitudes of
+seasons and human fortunes. Cloth was woven and worn; ditches were dug,
+furrowed fields ploughed and houses built."
+
+
+
+_The Spread of the Benedictine Rule_
+
+It is generally held that Benedict had no presentiment of the vast
+historical importance of his system; and that he aspired to nothing
+beyond the salvation of his own soul and those of his brethren.
+
+But the rule spread with wonderful rapidity. In every rich valley arose
+a Benedictine abbey. Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, France and Spain
+adopted his rule. Princes, moved by various motives, hastened to bestow
+grants of land on the indefatigable missionary who, undeterred by the
+wildness of the forest and the fierceness of the barbarian, settled in
+the remotest regions. In the various societies of the Benedictines there
+have been thirty-seven thousand monasteries and one hundred and fifty
+thousand abbots. For the space of two hundred and thirty-nine years the
+Benedictines governed the church by forty-eight popes chosen from their
+order. They boast of two hundred cardinals, seven thousand archbishops,
+fifteen thousand bishops and four thousand saints. The astonishing
+assertion is also made that no less than twenty emperors and forty-seven
+kings resigned their crowns to become Benedictine monks. Their convents
+claim ten empresses and fifty queens. Many of these earthly rulers
+retired to the seclusion of the monastery because their hopes had been
+crushed by political defeat, or their consciences smitten by reason of
+crime or other sins. Some were powerfully attracted by the heroic
+element of monastic life, and these therefore spurned the luxuries and
+emoluments of royalty, in order by personal sacrifice to achieve
+spiritual domination in this life, and to render their future salvation
+certain. But whatever the motive that drew queens and princes to the
+monastic order, the retirement of such large numbers of the nobility
+indicates the influence of a religious system which could cope so
+successfully with the attractions of the palace and the natural passion
+for political dominion.
+
+Saint Gregory the Great, the biographer of Benedict, who was born at
+Rome in 540 A.D. and so was nearly contemporaneous with Benedict was a
+zealous promoter of the monastic ideal, and did as much as any one to
+advance its ecclesiastical position and influence. He founded seven
+monasteries with his paternal inheritance, and became the abbot of one
+of them. He often expressed a desire to escape the clamor of the world
+by retirement to a lonely cell. Inspired by the loftiest estimates of
+his holy office, he sought to reform the church in its spirit and life.
+Many of his innovations in the church service bordered upon a dangerous
+and glittering pomp; but the musical world will always revere his memory
+for the famous chants that bear his name.
+
+Gregory surrounded himself with monks, and did everything in his power
+to promote their interests. He increased the novitiate to two years, and
+exempted certain monasteries from the control of the bishops. Other
+popes added to these exemptions, and thus widened the breach which
+already existed between the secular clergy and the monks. He also fixed
+a penalty of lifelong imprisonment for abandonment of the
+monastic life.
+
+Under Gregory's direction many missionary enterprises were carried on,
+notably that of Augustine to England. The story runs that one day
+Gregory saw some men and beautiful children from Britain put up for sale
+in the market-place. Deeply sighing, he exclaimed: "Alas for grief! That
+the author of darkness possesses men of so bright countenance, and that
+so great grace of aspect bears a mind void of inward grace!" He then
+asked the children the name of their nation. "Angles," was the reply.
+"It is well," he said, "for they have _angelic_ faces. What is the name
+of your province?" It was answered, "Deira." "Truly," he said,
+"_De-ira-ns,_ drawn from anger, and called to the mercy of Christ. How
+is your king called?" They answered, "AElla, or Ella." Then he cried
+"_Alleluia!_ it behooves that the praise of God the Creator should be
+sung in those parts." While it is hard to accept this evidently fanciful
+story in its details, it seems quite probable that the sale of some
+English slaves in a Roman market drew the attention of Gregory to the
+needs of Britain.
+
+Some years afterwards, in 596, Gregory commissioned Augustine, prior of
+the monastery of St. Andrew's on the Celian Hill, at Rome, with forty
+companions, to preach the gospel in Britain. When this celebrated
+missionary landed on the island of Thanet, he found monasticism had
+preceded him. But what was the nature of this British monasticism? On
+that question Rome and England are divided.
+
+The Romanist declares that no country received the Christian faith more
+directly from the Church of Rome than did England; that the most careful
+study of authentic records reveals no doctrinal strife, no diversity of
+belief between the early British monks and the Pope of Rome; that St.
+Patrick, of Ireland, and St. Columba, of Scotland, were loyal sons of
+their Roman mother.
+
+The Anglican, on the other hand, believes that Christianity was
+introduced into Britain independently of Rome. As to the precise means
+employed, he has his choice of ten legends. He may hold with Lane that
+it is reasonable to suppose one of Paul's ardent converts, burning with
+fervent zeal, led the Britons to the cross. Or he may argue with others:
+"What is more natural than to imagine that Joseph of Arimathea, driven
+from Palestine, sailed away to Britain." In proof of this assumption, we
+are shown the chapel of St. Joseph, the remains of the oldest Christian
+church, where the holy-thorn blossoms earlier than in any other part of
+England. Many Anglicans wisely regard all this as legendary. It is also
+held that St. Patrick and St. Columba were not Romanists, but
+represented a type of British Christianity, which, although temporarily
+subjected to Rome, yet finally threw off the yoke under Henry VIII. and
+reasserted its ancient independence. Still others declare that when
+Augustine was made archbishop, the seat of ecclesiastical authority was
+transferred from Rome to Canterbury, and the English church became an
+independent branch of the universal church. It was Catholic, but
+not Roman.
+
+The difficulty of ascertaining when and by whom Christianity was
+originally introduced into southern Britain must be apparent to every
+student. But some things may be regarded as historically certain. The
+whole country had been desolated by war when Augustine arrived. For a
+hundred and fifty years the brutality and ignorance of the barbarians
+had reigned supreme. All traces of Roman civilization had nearly
+disappeared with the conquest of the heathen Anglo-Saxons. Whatever may
+be thought about the subsequent effects of the triumph of Roman
+Christianity, it is due to Rome to recognize the fact that with the
+coming of the Roman missionaries religion and knowledge began a
+new life.
+
+The Anglo-Saxons had destroyed the Christian churches and monasteries,
+whose origin, as we have seen, is unknown. They drove away or massacred
+the priests and monks. Christianity was practically extirpated in those
+districts subject to the Germanic yoke. But when Augustine landed
+British monks were still to be found in various obscure parts of the
+country, principally in Ireland and Wales. Judging from what is known of
+these monks, it is safe to say that their habits and teachings were
+based on the traditions of an earlier Christianity, and that originally
+British Christianity was independent of Rome.
+
+The monks in Britain at the time when Augustine landed differed from the
+Roman monks in their tonsures, their liturgy, and the observance of
+Easter, although no material difference in doctrine can be established.
+The clergy did not always observe the law of celibacy nor perhaps the
+Roman rules of baptism. It is also admitted, even by Catholic
+historians, that the British monks refused to acknowledge Augustine
+their archbishop; that this question divided the royal family; and that
+the old British church was not completely subdued until Henry II.
+conquered Ireland and Wales. These statements are practically supported
+by Ethelred L. Taunton, an authoritative writer, whose sympathy with
+Roman monasticism is very strong. He thinks that a few of the British
+monks submitted to Augustine, but of the rest he says: "They would not
+heed the call of Augustine, and on frivolous pretexts refused to
+acknowledge him." A large body of British monks retired to the monastery
+of Bangor, and when King Ethelfrid invaded the district of Wales, he
+slew twelve hundred of them in the open field as they were upon their
+knees praying for the success of the Britons. It was then that the power
+of the last remnants of Celtic or British Christianity was practically
+broken, and the Roman type henceforth gradually acquired the mastery.
+
+Montalembert says: "In no other country has Catholicism been persecuted
+with more sanguinary zeal; and, at the same time, none has greater need
+of her care." While the latter observation is open to dispute, it is
+certainly true that England has never remained quiet under the dominion
+of Rome. Goldsmith's tribute to the English character suggests a
+reasonable explanation of this historic fact:
+
+     "Stern o'er each bosom reason holds her state,
+     Fierce in their native hardiness of soul,
+     True to imagined right, above control,
+     While even the peasant boasts those rights to scan,
+     And learns to venerate himself as man."
+
+The fact to be remembered, as we emerge from these ecclesiastical
+quarrels and the confusions of this perplexing history, is that the
+monks were the intellectual and religious leaders of those days. They
+exercised a profound influence upon English society, and had much to do
+with the establishment of English institutions.
+
+But, on the other hand, the continent is indebted to England for the
+gift of many noble monks who served France and Germany as intellectual
+and moral guides, at a time when these countries were in a state of
+extreme degradation. Boniface, the Apostle to the Germans, who is
+regarded by Neander as the Father of the German church and the real
+founder of the Christian civilization of Germany, was the gift of the
+English cloisters, and a native of Devonshire. Alcuin, the
+ecclesiastical prime minister of Charlemagne and the greatest educator
+of his time, was born and trained in England. Nearly all the leading
+schools of France were founded or improved by this celebrated monk. It
+was largely due to Alcuin's unrivaled energy and splendid talents that
+Charlemagne was able to make so many and so glorious educational
+improvements in his empire.
+
+Notable among the men who introduced the Benedictine rule into England
+was St. Wilfred (634-709 A.D.), who had traveled extensively in France
+and Italy, and on his return carried the monastic rule into northern
+Britain. He also is credited with establishing a course of musical
+training in the English monasteries. He was the most active prelate of
+his age in the founding of churches and monasteries, and in securing
+uniformity of discipline and harmony with the Church of Rome.
+
+One of the most famous monastic retreats of those days was the wild and
+lonely isle of Iona, the Mecca of monks and the monastic capital of
+Scotland. It is a small island, three miles long and one broad, lying
+west of Scotland. Many kings of Scotland were crowned here on a stone
+which now forms a part of the British coronation chair. Its great
+monastery enjoyed the distinction from the sixth to the eighth century
+of being second to none in its widespread influence in behalf of the
+intellectual life of Europe.
+
+This monastery was originally founded in the middle of the sixth century
+by Columba, the Apostle to Caledonia, an Irish saint actively associated
+with a wonderful intellectual awakening. The rule of the monastery is
+unknown, but it is probable that it could not have been, at the first,
+of the Benedictine type. Columba's followers traveled as missionaries
+and teachers to all parts of Europe, and it is said, they dared to sail
+in their small boats even as far as Iceland.
+
+Dr. Johnson says in his "Tour to the Hebrides": "We are now treading
+that illustrious island which was once the luminary of the Caledonian
+regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits
+of knowledge and the blessing of religion. That man is little to be
+envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon,
+or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona." The
+monastery which Columba founded here was doubtless of the same character
+as the establishments in Ireland. Many of these Celtic buildings were
+made of the branches of trees and supported by wooden props. It was some
+time before properly-constructed wooden churches or monasteries became
+general in these wild regions. In such rude huts small libraries were
+collected and the monks trained to preach. Ireland was then the center
+of knowledge in the North. Greek, Latin, music and such science as the
+monks possessed were taught to eager pupils. Copies of their manuscripts
+are still to be found all over Europe. Their schools were open to the
+rich and poor alike. The monks went from house to house teaching and
+distributing literature. As late as the sixteenth century, students from
+various parts of the Continent were to be found in these Irish schools.
+
+There is an interesting story related of Columba's literary activities.
+It is said that on one occasion while visiting his master, Finnian, he
+undertook to make a clandestine copy of the abbot's Psalter. When the
+master learned of the fact, he indignantly charged Columba with theft,
+and demanded the copy which he had made, on the ground that a copy made
+without permission of the author was the property of the original owner,
+because a transcript is the offspring of the original work. Putnam, to
+whom I am indebted for this story, says: "As far as I have been able to
+ascertain, this is the first instance which occurs in the history of
+European literature of a contention for a copyright." The conflict for
+this copyright afterwards developed into a civil war. The copy of the
+Latin Psalter "was enshrined in the base of a portable altar as the
+national relic of the O'Donnell clan," and was preserved by that family
+for thirteen hundred years. It was placed on exhibition as late as 1867,
+in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy.
+
+Enough has now been said to enable the reader to understand something of
+the spirit and labors of the monks in an age characteristically
+barbaric. For five centuries, from the fifth to the tenth, the
+condition of Europe was deplorable. "It may be doubted," says an old
+writer, "whether the worst of the Caesars exceeded in dark malignity, or
+in capriciousness of vengeance, the long-haired kings of France." The
+moral sense of even the most saintly churchmen seems to have been
+blunted by familiarity with atrocities and crimes. Brute force was the
+common method of exercising control and administering justice. The
+barbarians were bold and independent, but cruel and superstitious. Their
+furious natures needed taming and their rude minds tutoring. Even though
+during this period churches and monasteries were raised in amazing
+numbers, yet the spirit of barbarism was so strong that the Christians
+could scarcely escape its influence. The power of Christianity was
+modified by the nature of the people, whose characters it aimed to
+transform. The remarks of William Newton Clarke respecting the
+Christians of the first and second centuries are also appropriate to the
+period under review: "The people were changed by the new faith, but the
+new faith was changed by the people." Christianity "made a new people,
+better than it found them, but they in turn made a new Christianity,
+with its strong points illustrated and confirmed in their experience,
+but with weakness brought in from their defects."
+
+Yes, the work of civilizing the Germanic nations was a task of herculean
+proportions and of tremendous significance. Out of these tribes were to
+be constructed the nations of modern Europe. To this important mission
+the monks addressed themselves with such courage, patience, faith and
+zeal, as to entitle them to the veneration of posterity. With singular
+wisdom and unflinching bravery they carried on their missionary and
+educational enterprises, in the face of discouragements and obstacles
+sufficient to dismay the bravest souls. The tenacious strength of those
+wild forces that clashed with the tenderer influences of the cloister
+should soften our criticism of the inconsistencies which detract from
+the glory of those early ministers of righteousness and exemplars of
+gentleness and peace.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+_REFORMED AND MILITARY ORDERS_
+
+The monastic institution was never entirely good or entirely bad. In
+periods of general degradation there were beautiful exceptions in
+monasteries ruled by pure and powerful abbots. From the beginning
+various monasteries soon departed from their discipline by sheltering
+iniquity and laziness, while other establishments faithfully observed
+the rules. But during the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries there was a
+widespread decline in the spirit of devotion and a shameful relaxation
+of monastic discipline. Malmesbury, King Alfred, Alcuin, in England, and
+many continental writers, sorrowfully testified against the monks
+because of their vices, their revelings, their vain and gorgeous
+ornaments of dress and their waning zeal for virtue. The priests hunted
+and fought, prayed, preached, swore and drank as they pleased. "We
+cannot wonder," says an anonymous historian, "that they should commit
+the more reasonable offence of taking wives." Disorders were common
+everywhere; the monastic vows were sadly neglected. Political and
+religious ideals were lost sight of amid the prevailing confusion and
+wild commotion of those dark days. "It is true," says Carlyle, "all
+things have two faces, a light one and a dark. It is true in three
+centuries much imperfection accumulates; many an ideal, monastic or
+otherwise, shooting forth into practice as it can, grows to a strange
+reality; and we have to ask with amazement, Is this your ideal? For alas
+the ideal has to grow into the real, and to seek out its bed and board
+there, often in a sorry way."
+
+This, then, may be accepted as the usual history of a monastery or a
+monastic order. First, vows of poverty, obedience and chastity zealously
+cherished and observed; as a result of loyalty to this ideal, a spirit
+of devotion to righteousness is created, and a pure, lofty type of
+Christian life is formed, which, if not the highest and truest, is
+sufficiently exalted to win the reverence of worldly men and an
+extra-ordinary power over their lives and affections. There naturally
+follow numerous and valuable gifts of land and gold. The monks become
+rich as well as powerful. Then the decline begins. Vast riches have
+always been a menace to true spirituality. Perhaps they always will be.
+The wealthy monk falls a prey to pride and arrogance; he becomes
+luxurious in his habits, and lazy in the performance of duty. Vice
+creeps in and his moral ruin is complete. The transformation in the
+character of the monk is accompanied by a change in public opinion. The
+monk is now an eyesore; his splendid buildings are viewed with envy by
+some, with shame by others. Then arise the vehement cries for the
+destruction of his palatial cloister, and the heroic efforts of the
+remnant that abide faithful to reform the institution. This has been the
+pathway over which every monastic order has traveled. As long as there
+was sufficient vitality to give birth to reformatory movements, new
+societies sprang up as off-shoots of the older orders, some of which
+adopted the original rules, while others altered them to suit the views
+of the reforming founder. "For indeed," says Trench, "those orders,
+wonderful at their beginning, and girt up so as to take heaven by storm,
+seemed destined to travel in a mournful circle from which there was no
+escape." These facts partly explain the reformatory movements which
+appear from the ninth century on.
+
+The first great saint to enter the lists against monastic corruption was
+Benedict of Aniane (750-821 A.D.), a member of a distinguished family in
+southern France. The Benedictine rule in his opinion was formed for
+novices and invalids. He attributed the prevailing laxity among the
+monks to the mild discipline. As abbot of a monastery he undertook to
+reform its affairs by adopting a system based on Basil of Asia Minor and
+Pachomius of Egypt. But he leaned too far back for human nature in the
+West, and the conclusion was forced upon him that Benedict of Nursia had
+formulated a set of rules as strict as could be enforced among the
+Western monks. Accordingly he directed his efforts to secure a faithful
+observance of the original Benedictine rules, adding, however, a number
+of rigid and burdensome regulations. Although at first the monks doubted
+his sanity, kicked him and spat on him, yet he afterwards succeeded in
+gathering about three hundred of them under his rule. Several colonies
+were sent out from his monastery, which was built on his patrimonial
+estate near Montpellier. His last establishment, which was located near
+Aix-la-Chapelle, became famous as a center of learning and sanctity.
+
+One of the most celebrated reform monasteries was the convent of Cluny,
+or Clugny, in Burgundy, about fifteen miles from Lyons, which was
+founded by Duke William of Aquitaine in 910. It was governed by a code
+based on the rule of St. Benedict. The monastery began with twelve monks
+under Bruno, but became so illustrious that under Hugo there were ten
+thousand monks in the various convents under its rule. It was made
+immediately subject to the pope,--that is, exempt from the jurisdiction
+of the bishop. Some idea of its splendid equipment may be formed from
+the fact that it is said, that in 1245, after the council of Lyons, it
+entertained Innocent IV., two patriarchs, twelve cardinals, three
+archbishops, fifteen bishops, many abbots, St. Louis, King of France,
+several princes and princesses, each with a considerable retinue, yet
+the monks were not incommoded. It gave to the church three
+popes,--Gregory VII., Urban II. and Paschal II.
+
+From his cell at Cluny, Hildebrand, who became the famous Gregory VII.,
+looked out upon a world distracted by war and sunk in vice. "In
+Hildebrand's time, while he was studying those annals in Cluny," says
+Thomas Starr King, "a boy pope, twelve years old, was master of the
+spiritual scepter, and was beginning to lead a life so shameful, foul
+and execrable that a subsequent pope said, 'he shuddered to
+describe it.'"
+
+Connected with the monastery was the largest church in the world,
+surpassed only a little, in later years, by St. Peter's at Rome. Its
+construction was begun in 1089 by the abbot Hugo, and it was consecrated
+in 1131, under the administration of Peter the Venerable. It boasted of
+twenty-five altars and many costly works of art.
+
+So great was the fame and influence of this establishment that numerous
+convents in France and Italy placed themselves under its control, thus
+forming "The Congregation of Cluny."
+
+After the administration of Peter the Venerable (1122-1156), this
+illustrious house began to succumb to the intoxication of success, and
+it steadily declined in character and influence until its property was
+confiscated by the Constituent Assembly, in 1799, and the church sold
+for one hundred thousand francs. It is now in ruin.
+
+But in spite of every attempt at reform during the ninth and tenth
+centuries the decline of the continental monasteries continued. Many
+persons of royal blood, accustomed to the license of palaces, entered
+the cloister and increased the disorders. The monks naturally respected
+their blood and relaxed the discipline in their favor. The result was
+costly robes, instead of the simple, monastic garb, riotous living, and
+a general indifference to spirituality. Spurious monasteries sprang up
+with rich lay-abbots at their head, who made the office hereditary in
+their families. Laymen were appointed to rich benefices simply that they
+might enjoy the revenues. These lay-abbots even went so far as to live
+with their families in their monasteries, and rollicking midnight
+banquets were substituted for the asceticism demanded by the vows. They
+traveled extensively attended by splendid retinues. Some of the monks
+seemed intent on nothing but obtaining charters of privileges and
+exemptions from civil and military duties.
+
+In England the state of affairs was even more distressing than on the
+Continent. The evil effects of the Saxon invasion, the demoralization
+that accompanied the influx of paganism, and the almost complete
+destruction of the religious institutions of British Christianity have
+already been noted. About the year 700, the island was divided among
+fifteen petty chiefs, who waged war against one another almost
+incessantly. Christianity, as introduced by Augustine, had somewhat
+mitigated the ferocity of war, and England had begun to make some
+approach toward a respect for law and a veneration for the Christian
+religion, when the Danes came, and with them another period of
+disgraceful atrocities and blighting heathenism. The Danish invasion had
+almost extirpated the monastic institution in the northern districts.
+Carnage and devastation reigned everywhere. Celebrated monasteries fell
+in ruins and the monks were slain or driven into exile. Hordes of
+barbaric warriors roamed the country, burning and plundering.
+
+"At the close of this calamitous period," says Lingard, in his "History
+and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church," "the Anglo-Saxon church
+presented a melancholy spectacle to the friends of religion: 1. The
+laity had resumed the ferocious manners of their pagan forefathers. 2.
+The clergy had grown indolent, dissolute and illiterate. 3. The monastic
+order had been apparently annihilated. It devolved on King Alfred,
+victorious over his enemies, to devise and apply the remedies for these
+evils." The good king endeavored to restore the monastic institution,
+but, owing to the lack of candidates for the monastic habit, he was
+compelled to import a colony of monks from Gaul.
+
+The moral results of Alfred's reformatory measures, as well as those of
+his immediate successors, were far from satisfactory, although he did
+vastly stimulate the educational work of the monastic schools. He
+devoted himself so faithfully to the gathering of traditions, that he is
+said to be the father of English history. The tide of immorality,
+however, was too strong to be stemmed in a generation or two. It was a
+century and a half before there was even an approach to substantial
+victory over the disgraceful abuses among the clergy and the monks.
+
+The churchman who is credited with doing most to distinguish the monks
+as a zealous and faithful body was Dunstan (924-988 A.D.), first Abbot
+of Glastonbury, then Bishop of Winchester, and finally Archbishop of
+Canterbury. He is the most conspicuous ecclesiastical personage in the
+history of those dark days, but his character and labors have given rise
+to bitter and extensive controversy.
+
+It was Dunstan's chief aim to subjugate the Anglo-Saxon church to the
+power of Rome, and to correct existing abuses by compelling the clergy
+and the monks to obey the rule of celibacy. He was a fervent believer in
+the efficacy of the Benedictine vows, and in the value of clerical
+celibacy as a remedy for clerical licentiousness. Naturally, Protestant
+writers, who hold that papal supremacy never was a blessing in any
+country or in any age, and who think that clerical celibacy has always
+been a fruitful source of crime and sin, condemn the reforms of Dunstan
+in the most unqualified terms. A statement of a few of the many and
+perplexing facts may assist us to form a fairly just judgment of the
+man and his work.
+
+The principle of sacerdotal celibacy appeared early in the history of
+Christianity, and for many centuries it was the subject of sharp
+contention. Roman Catholics themselves have been divided upon it. In
+every Christian country, from the Apostolic period onward, there were
+priests and teachers who opposed the imposition of this rule upon the
+clergy, and, on the other hand, there were those who practiced and
+advocated celibacy as the indispensable guarantee of spiritual power
+and purity.
+
+What the rule of celibacy was at this period, in England, seems
+uncertain. Lingard maintains that marriage was always permitted to the
+clergy in minor orders, who were employed in various subordinate
+positions, but that those in higher orders, whose office it was to
+minister at the altar and to offer the sacrifice, were expressly bound
+to a life of the strictest continence. During the invasion of the Danes,
+when confusion reigned, many priests in the higher orders had not only
+forsaken their vows of chastity, but had plunged into frightful
+immoralities; and married clerks of inferior orders were raised to the
+priesthood to fill the ranks depleted by war. These promoted clerks were
+previously required to separate from their wives, but apparently many of
+them did not do so. Consequently, from several causes, the married
+priests became a numerous body, and since the common opinion seems to
+have been that a married priest was disgracing his office, this body was
+regarded as a menace to the welfare of the church and the state.
+
+Lea, in his elaborate "History of Sacerdotal Celibacy," holds that the
+rule of celibacy was only binding on the regulars, or monks, and that
+the secular priesthood was at liberty to marry. But from several other
+passages in his work it seems that he also recognizes the fact that,
+while marriage was common, it was in defiance of an ancient canon. "It
+is evident," he says, "that the memory of the ancient canons was not
+forgotten, and that their observance was still urged by some ardent
+churchmen, but that the customs of the period had rendered them
+virtually obsolete, and that no sufficient means existed of enforcing
+obedience. If open scandals and shameless bigamy and concubinage could
+be restrained, the ecclesiastical authorities were evidently content.
+Celibacy could not be enjoined as a law, but was rendered attractive by
+surrounding it with privileges and immunities denied to him who yielded
+to the temptations of the flesh."
+
+Throughout Western Christendom the law of celibacy was openly and
+shamefully trampled upon, and every reformer seemed to think that the
+very first step toward any improvement in clerical morals was to be
+taken by enforcing this rule.
+
+When Dunstan commenced his reforms, the clergy were guilty of graver
+sins than that of living in marriage relations. Adultery, bigamy,
+swearing, fighting and drinking were the order of the day. The
+monasteries were occupied by secular priests with wives or concubines.
+All the chroniclers of this period agree in charging the monks and
+clergy with a variety of dissipations and disorders.
+
+It is quite clear, therefore, that in Dunstan's view he was doing the
+only right thing in trying to correct the existing abuses by compelling
+the priests to adopt that celibate life without which it was popularly
+believed the highest holiness and the largest usefulness could not be
+attained. In the light of this purpose and this common opinion of his
+time, Dunstan and his mission should be judged.
+
+Dunstan was aided in his work by King Edgar the Pacific, who, by the
+way, was himself compelled to go without his crown seven years for
+violating the chastity of a nun. Oswald, the Bishop of Worcester, and
+Ethelwold, the Bishop of Winchester, were also zealously engaged in the
+task of reform.
+
+A law was enacted providing that priests, deacons and sub-deacons should
+live chastely or resign. As a result of this law, many priests were
+ejected from the monasteries and from their official positions. Strict
+monks were put in their places. A strong opposition party was created,
+and the ejected clergy aroused such discontent that a civil war was
+barely averted. This state of things continued until the Norman
+invasion, when the monks and secular clergy joined forces in the common
+defence of their property and ecclesiastical rights.
+
+It would seem that many writers, misled by legends for which Dunstan
+must not be held responsible, and blinded by religious prejudice, have
+unjustly charged him with hypocrisy and even crime. All his methods may
+not be defensible when estimated in the light of modern knowledge, and
+even his ideal may be rejected when judged by modern standards of
+Christian character, but he must be considered with the moral and
+intellectual life of his times in full view. He was a champion of the
+oppressed, a friend of the poor, an unflinching foe of sinful men in the
+pulpit or on the throne. His will was inflexible, his independence noble
+and his energy untiring. In trying to bring the Anglo-Saxon church into
+conformity to Rome he was actuated by a higher motive than the merely
+selfish desire for ecclesiastical authority. He regarded this harmony as
+the only remedy for the prevailing disorders. He believed, like many
+other churchmen of unquestioned purity and honesty, that it was
+necessary to compel temporal authorities to recognize the power of the
+church in order to overcome that defiance of moral law which was the
+chief characteristic of the kings and princes in that turbulent period.
+
+What the Anglo-Saxon church might have been if the rule of celibacy had
+not been forced upon her, and if she had not submitted to Roman
+authority in other matters, is a theme for speculation only. The fact
+is that Dunstan found a church corrupt to the core and left it, as a
+result of his purifying efforts, with some semblance, to say the least,
+of moral influence and spiritual purity. Some other kind of
+ecclesiastical polity than that advocated by Dunstan might have achieved
+the same results as his, but the simple fact is that none did. In so far
+as Dunstan succeeded in his monastic measures, he laid the foundations
+of an ecclesiastical power which afterwards became a serious menace to
+the political freedom of the Anglo-Saxon race. The battle begun by him
+raged fiercely between the popes, efficiently supported by the monks,
+and the kings of England, with varying fortunes, for many centuries. But
+perhaps, under the plans of that benign Providence who presides over the
+destiny of nations, it was essentially in the interests of civilization,
+that the lawlessness of rulers and the vices of the people should be
+restrained by that ecclesiastical power, which, in after years, and at
+the proper time, should be forced to recede to its legitimate sphere and
+functions.
+
+Another celebrated reformatory movement was begun by St. Bruno, who
+founded the Carthusian Order about the year 1086. Ruskin says: "In
+their strength, from the foundation of the order at the close of the
+eleventh century to the beginning of the fourteenth, they reared in
+their mountain fastnesses and sent out to minister to the world a
+succession of men of immense mental grasp and serenely authoritative
+innocence, among whom our own Hugh of Lincoln, in his relations with
+Henry II. and Coeur de Lion, is to my mind the most beautiful sacerdotal
+figure known to me in history."
+
+Bruno, with six companions, established the famous Grand Chartreuse in a
+rocky wilderness, near Grenoble, in France, separated from the rest of
+the world by a chain of wild mountains, which are covered with ice and
+snow for two-thirds of the year.
+
+Until the time of Guigo (1137), the Grand Chartreuse was governed by
+unwritten rules. Thirteen monks only were permitted to live together,
+and sixteen converts in the huts at the foot of the hill. The policy of
+this monastery was at first opposed to all connection with other
+monasteries. But applications for admission were so numerous that
+colonies were sent out in various directions, all subject to the mother
+house. The Carthusians differed in many respects from other orders. The
+rules of Dom Guigo indicate that the chief aim was to preclude the monks
+from intercourse with the world, and largely with each other, for each
+monk had separate apartments, cooked his own food, and so rarely met
+with his brethren, that he was practically a hermit. The clothing
+consisted of a rough hair shirt, worn next the skin, a white cassock
+over it, and, when they went out, a black robe. Fasting was observed at
+least three days a week, and meat was strictly forbidden. Respecting
+contact with women Dom Guigo says: "Under no circumstances whatever do
+we allow women to set foot within our precincts, knowing as we do that
+neither wise man, nor prophet, nor judge, nor the entertainer of God,
+nor the sons of God, nor the first created of mankind, fashioned by
+God's own hands, could escape the wiles and deceits of women."
+
+Blistering and bleeding, as well as fasting, were employed to control
+evil impulses. On the whole, the austerities were as severe as human
+nature in that wild and cold region could endure. Yet the prosperity
+that rewarded the piety and labors of the Carthusian monks proved more
+than a match for their rigorous discipline, and in the middle of the
+thirteenth century we read charges of laxity and disorder.
+
+The Carthusians settled in England in the twelfth century, and had a
+famous monastery in London, since called the Charterhouse. The order was
+in many respects the most successful attempt at reform, but as has been
+said, "the whole order, and each individual member, is like a
+petrifaction from the Middle Ages." Owing to its extremely solitary
+ideal and its severe discipline, it was unfitted to secure extensive
+control, or to gain a permanent influence upon the rapidly-developing
+European nations. Its chief contributions to modern civilization were
+made by the gift of noble men who passed from the seclusion of the cell
+into the active life of the world, thus practically proving that the
+monks' greatest usefulness was attained when loyalty to their vows
+yielded to a broader ideal of Christian character and service.
+
+Thus the months passed into years and the years into centuries. Man was
+slowly working out his salvation. Painfully, laboriously he emerged out
+of barbarism into the lower forms of civilization; wearily he trudged
+on his way toward the universal kingdom of righteousness and peace.
+
+There were many other attempts at reform which may not even be
+mentioned, but one character deserves brief consideration,--Bernard of
+Clairvaux,--the fairest flower of those corrupt days. The order to which
+he belonged was the Cistercians, so named because their mother house was
+at Citeaux (Latin, _Cistercium_), in France. Its members are sometimes
+called the "White Monks," because of their white tunics. Their
+buildings, with their bare walls and low rafters, were a rebuke to the
+splendid edifices of the richer orders. Austere simplicity characterized
+their churches, liturgy and habits. Gorgeousness in decoration and
+ostentation in public services were carefully avoided. They used no
+pictures, stained glass or images. Once a week they flogged their sinful
+bodies. Only four hours' sleep was allowed. Seeking out the wildest
+spots and most rugged peaks they built their retreats, beautiful in
+their simplicity and furnishing some of the finest examples of monastic
+architecture. The order spread into England, where the first
+Cistercians were characterized by devoutness and poverty. After a while
+the hand of fate wrote of them as it had of so many, "none were more
+greedy in adding farm to farm; none less scrupulous in obtaining grants
+of land from wealthy patrons." In general, the order was no better and
+no worse than the rest, but its chief glory is derived from the luster
+that was shed upon it by Bernard.
+
+[Illustration: SAINT BERNARD]
+
+This illustrious counselor of kings and Catholic saint was born in
+Burgundy in 1091. When about twenty years of age he entered the
+monastery at Citeaux with five of his brothers. His genius might have
+secured ecclesiastical preferment, but he chose to dig ditches, plant
+fields and govern a monastery. He entered the cloister at Citeaux
+because the monks were few and poor, and when it became crowded because
+of his fame, and its rule became lax because of the crowds, he left the
+cloister to found a home of his own. The abbot selected twelve monks,
+following the number of apostles, and at their head placed young
+Bernard. He led the twelve to the valley of Wormwood, and there, in a
+cheerless forest, he established the monastery of Clairvaux, or Clear
+Valley. His rule was fiercely severe because he himself loved hardships
+and rough fare. "It in no way befits religion," he writes, "to seek
+remedies for the body, nor is it good for health either. You may now and
+then take some cheap herb,--such as poor men may,--and this is done
+sometimes. But to buy drugs, to hunt up doctors, to take doses, is
+unbecoming to religion and hostile to purity." His success in winning
+men to the monastic life was almost phenomenal. It was said that
+"mothers hid their sons, wives their husbands, and companions their
+friends, lest they be persuaded by his eloquent message to enter the
+cloister." "He was avoided like a plague," says one.
+
+Bernard's monks changed the whole face of the country by felling trees
+and tilling the ground. Their spiritual power rid the valley of Wormwood
+of its robbers, and the district grew rich and prosperous. Thus Bernard
+became the most famous man of his time. He was the arbiter in papal
+elections, the judge in temporal quarrels, the healer of schisms and a
+powerful preacher of the crusades. He was the embodiment of all that was
+best in the thought of his age. His weaknesses and faults may largely be
+explained by the fact that no man can rise entirely above the spirit of
+his times and absolutely free himself from all pernicious tendencies.
+"As an advocate for the rights of the church, for the immunities of the
+clergy, no less than for the great interests of morality, he was fierce,
+intractable, unforgiving, haughty and tyrannical." There was, however,
+no note of insincerity in his work or writings, and no tinge of
+hypocrisy in fervent zeal. He was brave, honest and pure; controlled
+always by a consuming passion for the moral welfare of the people.
+
+Our chief interest in Bernard relates to his monastic work which shed
+undying luster on his name. Vaughan, in his "Hours with the Mystics,"
+says of him: "His incessant cry for Europe is, Better monasteries, and
+more of them. Let these ecclesiastical castles multiply; let them cover
+and command the land, well garrisoned with men of God, and then, despite
+all heresy and schism, theocracy will flourish, the earth shall yield
+her increase, and all people praise the Lord.... Bernard had the
+satisfaction of improving and extending monasticism to the utmost; of
+sewing together, with tolerable success, the rended vesture of the
+papacy; of suppressing a more popular and more scriptural Christianity
+for the benefit of his despotic order; of quenching for a time, by the
+extinction of Abelard, the spirit of free inquiry, and of seeing his
+ascetic and superhuman ideal of religion everywhere accepted as the
+genuine type of Christianity."
+
+But in spite of Dunstans, Brunos and Bernards, the monastic institution
+keeps on crumbling. The edifice will not stand much more propping and
+tinkering. While we admire this display of moral force, this commendable
+struggle of fresh courage and new hope against disintegrating forces,
+the conviction gains ground that something is radically wrong with the
+institution. There is something in it which fosters greed and desperate
+ambition. "Is it not a shame," we feel compelled to ask, "that so much
+splendid, chivalrous courage and magnificent energy should be expended
+in trying to prevent a structure from falling, which, it seems, could
+not possibly have been saved?" But while the decay could not be stayed,
+we must admire the noble aims and pious enthusiasm of the reformers who
+sought to preserve an institution which to them seemed the only hope of
+a sinful world.
+
+Dr. Storrs, in his life of Bernard, says: "His soon-canonized name has
+shone starlike in history ever since he was buried; and it will not
+hereafter decline from its height or lose its luster, while men continue
+to recognize with honor the temper of devoted Christian consecration, a
+character compact of noble forces, and infused with self-forgetful love
+for God and man."
+
+
+
+_The Military Religious Orders_
+
+The life of Bernard forms an appropriate introduction to a consideration
+of the Military Religious Orders. Although weary with labor and the
+weight of years, he traveled over Europe preaching the second crusade.
+"To kill or to be killed for Christ's sake is alike righteous and alike
+safe," this was his message to the world. In spite of the opposition of
+court advisers, Bernard induced Louis VII. and Conrad of Germany to take
+the crusader's vow. He gave the Knights Templars a new rule and kindled
+afresh a zeal for the knighthood. Although the members of the Military
+Orders were not monks in the strict sense of the word, yet they were
+soldier-monks, and as such deserve to be mentioned here.
+
+At the basis of all monastic orders, as has been pointed out, were the
+three vows of obedience, celibacy and poverty. Certain orders, by adding
+to these rules other obligations, or by laying special stress on one of
+the three ancient vows, produced new and distinct types of monastic
+character and life.
+
+The Knights of the Hospital assumed as their peculiar work the care of
+the sick. The Begging Friars, as will be seen later, were distinguished
+by the importance which they attached to the rule of poverty; the
+Jesuits, by exalting the law of unquestioning obedience. In view of the
+warlike character of the Middle Ages it is strange the soldier-monk did
+not appear earlier than he did. The abbots, in many cases, were feudal
+lords with immense possessions which needed protection like secular
+property, but as this could not be secured by the arts of peace, we find
+traces of the union of the soldier and the monk before the distinct
+orders professing that character. The immediate cause of such
+organizations was the crusades. There were numerous societies of this
+character, some of them so far removed from the monastic type as
+scarcely to be ranked with monastic institutions. One list mentions two
+hundred and seven of these Orders of Knighthood, comprising many
+varieties in theory and practice. The most important were three,--the
+Knights of the Hospital, or the Knights of St. John; the Knights
+Templars; and the Teutonic Knights. The Hospitallers wore black mantles
+with white crosses, the Templars white mantles with red crosses, and the
+Teutonic Knights white mantles with black crosses. The mantles were in
+fact the robe of the monk adorned with a cross. The whole system was
+really a marriage of monasticism and chivalry, as Gibbon says: "The
+firmest bulwark of Jerusalem was founded in the Knights of the Hospital
+and of the Temple, that strange association of monastic and military
+life. The flower of the nobility of Europe aspired to wear the cross and
+profess the vows of these orders; their spirit and discipline were
+immortal."
+
+A passage in the Alexiad quoted in Walter Scott's "Robert of Paris"
+reads: "As for the multitude of those who advanced toward the great city
+let it be enough to say, that they were as the stars in the heaven or
+as the sand of the seashore. They were in the words of Homer, as many as
+the leaves and flowers of spring." This figurative description is almost
+literally true. Europe poured her men and her wealth into the East. No
+one but an eye-witness can conceive of the vast amount of suffering
+endured by those fanatical multitudes as they roamed the streets of
+Jerusalem looking for shelter, or lay starving by the roadside on a
+bed of grass.
+
+The term Hospitallers was applied to certain brotherhoods of monks and
+laymen. While professing some monastic rule, the members of these
+societies devoted themselves solely to caring for the sick and the poor,
+the hospitals in those days being connected with the monasteries.
+
+About the year 1050 some Italian merchants secured permission to build a
+convent in Jerusalem to shelter Latin pilgrims. The hotels which sprang
+up after this were gradually transformed into hospitals for the care of
+the sick and presided over by Benedictine monks. The sick were carefully
+nursed and shelter granted to as many as could be accommodated. Nobles
+abandoned the profession of arms and, becoming monks, devoted
+themselves to caring for the unfortunate crusaders in these inns. The
+work rapidly increased in extent and importance. In the year 1099,
+Godfrey de Bouillon endowed the original hospital, which had been
+dedicated to St. John. He also established many other monasteries on
+this holy soil. The monks, most of whom were also knights, formed an
+organization which received confirmation from Rome, as "The Knights of
+St. John of Jerusalem." The order rapidly assumed a distinctly military
+character, for, to do its work completely, it must not only care for the
+sick in Jerusalem, but defend the pilgrim on his way to the Holy City.
+This ended in an undertaking to defend Christendom against Mohammedan
+invasion and in fighting for the recovery of the Holy Sepulcher.
+
+After visiting some of these Palestinian monasteries, a king of Hungary
+thus describes his impressions: "Lodging in their houses, I have seen
+them feed every day innumerable multitudes of poor, the sick laid on
+good beds and treated with great care. In a word, the Knights of St.
+John are employed sometimes like Martha, in action, and sometimes like
+Mary, in contemplation, and this noble militia consecrate their days
+either in their infirmaries or else in engagements against the enemies
+of the cross."
+
+The Knights Templars were far more militant than the Knights of St.
+John, but they also were actuated by the monastic spirit. Bernard tried
+to inspire this order with a strong Christian zeal so that, as he said,
+"War should become something of which God could approve." The success
+which attended its operations led as usual to its corruption and
+decline. Beginning with a few crusaders leagued together for service and
+living on the site of the ancient Temple at Jerusalem, it soon widened
+the scope of its services and became a powerful branch of the crusading
+army. It was charged by Philip IV. of France, in 1307, with the most
+fearful crimes, to sustain or to deny which accusations many volumes
+have been composed. Five years later the order was suppressed and its
+vast accumulations transferred to the Knights of St. John. "The horrible
+fate of the Templars," says Allen, "was taken by many as a beginning and
+omen of the destruction that would soon pass upon all the hated
+religious orders. And so this final burst of enthusiasm and splendor in
+the religious life was among the prognostics of a state of things in
+which monasticism must fade quite away."
+
+Wondrous changes have taken place in those dark and troubled years since
+Benedict began his labors at Monte Cassino, in 529. The monk has prayed
+alone in the mountains, and converted the barbarian in the forest. He
+has preached the crusades in magnificent cathedrals, and crossed stormy
+seas in his frail bark. He has made the schools famous by his literary
+achievements, and taught children the alphabet in the woodland cell. He
+has been good and bad, proud and humble, rich and poor, arrogant and
+gentle. He has met the shock of lances on his prancing steed, and
+trudged barefoot from town to town. He has copied manuscripts in the
+lonely Scottish isle, and bathed the fevered brow of the pilgrim in the
+hospital at Jerusalem. He has dug ditches, and governed the world as the
+pope of the Church. He has held the plow in the furrow, and thwarted the
+devices of the king. He has befriended the poor, and imposed penance
+upon princes. He has imitated the poverty and purity of Jesus, and aped
+the pomp and vice of kings. He has dwelt solitary on cold mountains,
+subsisting on bread, roots and water, and he has surrounded himself with
+menials ready to gratify every luxurious wish, amid the splendor of
+palatial cloisters. Still there are new types and phases of monasticism
+yet to appear. The monk has other tasks to undertake, for the world is
+not yet sufficiently wearied of his presence to destroy his cloister and
+banish him from the land.
+
+
+
+V
+
+_THE MENDICANT FRIARS_
+
+Abraham Lincoln only applied a general principle to a specific case when
+he said, "This nation cannot long endure half slave and half free."
+Glaring inconsistencies between faith and practice will eventually
+destroy any institution, however lofty its ideal or noble its
+foundation. God suffers long and is kind, but His forbearance is not
+limitless. Monasticism, as has been shown, was never free from serious
+inconsistency, from moral dualism. But the power of reform prolonged its
+existence. It was constantly producing fresh models of its ancient
+ideals. It had a hidden reserve-force from which it supplied shining
+examples of a living faith and a self-denying love, just at the time
+when it seemed as if the system was about to perish forever. When these
+fresh exhibitions of monastic fidelity likewise became tarnished, when
+men had tired of them and predicted the speedy collapse of the
+institution, forth from the cloister came another body of monkish
+recruits, to convince the world that monasticism was not dead; that it
+did not intend to die; that it was mightier than all its enemies. The
+day came, however, when the world lost its confidence in an institution
+which required such constant reforming to keep it pure, which demanded
+so much cleansing to keep it clean. Ideals that could so quickly lose
+their influence for good came to be looked upon with suspicion.
+
+At the beginning of the thirteenth century we are confronted by the
+anomaly of a church grossly corrupt but widely obeyed. She is nearing
+the pinnacle of her power and the zenith of her glory, although the
+parochial clergy have sunk into vice and incapacity, and the monks, as a
+class, are lazy, ignorant and notoriously corrupt. Two things,
+especially, command the attention,--first, the immorality and laxity of
+the monks; and second, the growth of heresies and the tendency toward
+open schism. The necessity of reform was clearly apprehended by the
+church as well as by the heretical parties, but, since the church had
+such a hold upon society, those who sought to reform the monasteries by
+returning to old beliefs and ancient customs were much more in favor
+than those who left the church and opposed her from the outside. The
+impossibility of substantial, internal reform had not yet come to be
+generally recognized. As time passed the conviction that it was of no
+use to attempt reforms from the inside gained ground; then the
+separatists multiplied, and the shedding of blood commenced. The world
+had to learn anew that it was futile to put new wine into old bottles or
+to patch new cloth on an old garment.
+
+"It is the privilege of genius," says Trench, "to evoke a new creation,
+where to common eyes all appears barren and worn out." Francis and
+Dominic evoked this new creation; but although the monk now will appear
+in a new garb, he will prove himself to be about the same old character
+whom the world has known a great many years; when this discovery is made
+monasticism is doomed. Perplexed Europe will anxiously seek some means
+of destruction, but God will have Luther ready to aid in the solution of
+the problem.
+
+
+
+_Francis Bernardone_, 1182-1226 _A.D._.
+
+Saint Francis, the founder of the Franciscan Order, was born at Assisi,
+a walled town of Umbria, in Italy. His father, Peter Bernardone, or
+Bernardo, was in France on business when his son was born and named. On
+his return, or, as some say, at a later time, he changed his son's name
+from John to Francis. His wealth enabled him to supply Francis with the
+funds necessary to maintain his leadership among gay companions.
+Catholic writers are fond of describing the early years of their saints
+as marked by vice in order to portray them as miracles of grace. It is
+therefore uncertain whether Francis was anything worse than a happy,
+joyous lad, who loved fine clothes, midnight songs and parties of
+pleasure. He was certainly a very popular and courteous lad, very much
+in love with the world. During a short service in the army he was taken
+prisoner. After his release he fell sick, and experienced a temporary
+disgust with his past life. With his renewed health his love of
+festivities and dress returned.
+
+Walking out one day, dressed in a handsome new suit, he met a poor and
+ill-clad soldier; moved to pity, he exchanged his fine clothes for the
+rags of the stranger. That night Francis dreamed of a splendid castle,
+with gorgeous banners flying from its ramparts, and suits of armor
+adorned with the cross. "These," said a voice, "are for you and for your
+soldiers." We are told that this was intended to be taken spiritually
+and was prophetic of the Begging Friars, but Francis misunderstood the
+dream, taking it as a token of military achievements. The next day he
+set off mounted on a fine horse, saying as he left, "I shall be a great
+prince." But his weak frame could not endure such rough usage and he was
+taken sick at Spoleto. Again he dreamed. This time the vision revealed
+his misinterpretation of the former message, and so, on his recovery, he
+returned somewhat crestfallen to Assisi, where he gave his friends a
+farewell feast. Thus at the threshold of his career we note two
+important facts,--disease and dreams. All through his life he had these
+fits of sickness, attended by dreams; and throughout his life he was
+guided by these visions. Neander remarks: "It would be a matter of some
+importance if we could be more exactly informed with regard to the
+nature of his disease and the way in which it affected his physical and
+mental constitution. Perhaps it might assist us to a more satisfactory
+explanation of the eccentric vein in his life, that singular mixture of
+religious enthusiasm bordering insanity; but we are left wholly in
+the dark."
+
+Francis now devoted himself to his father's business, but dreams and
+visions continued to distress him. His spiritual fervor increased daily.
+He grieved for the poor and gave himself to the care of the sick,
+especially the lepers. During a visit to Rome he became so sad at the
+sight of desperate poverty that he impetuously flung his bag of gold
+upon the altar with such force as to startle the worshipers. He went out
+from the church, exchanged his clothes for a beggar's rags, and stood
+for hours asking alms among a crowd of filthy beggars.
+
+But though Francis longed to associate himself in some way with the
+lowest classes, he could obtain no certain light upon his duty. While
+prostrated before the crucifix, in the dilapidated church of St.
+Damian, in Assisi, he heard a voice saying, "Francis, seest thou not
+that my house is in ruins? Go and restore it for me." Again it is said
+that this pointed to his great life-work of restoring spiritual power to
+the church, but he again accepted the message in a literal sense.
+Delighted to receive a command so specific, the kneeling Francis
+fervently responded, "With good will, Lord," and gladly entered upon the
+task of repairing the church of St. Damian. "Having fortified himself by
+the sign of the cross," he took a horse and a valuable bundle of goods
+belonging to his father and sold both at Falingo. Instead of turning the
+proceeds over to his father, Francis offered them to the priest of St.
+Damian, who, fearing the father's displeasure, refused to accept the
+stolen funds. The young zealot, "who had utter contempt for money,"
+threw the gold on one of the windows of the church. Such is the story as
+gleaned from Catholic sources. The heretics, who have criticised Francis
+for this conduct, are answered by the following ingenious but dangerous
+sophistry: "It is certainly quite contrary to the ordinary law of
+justice for one man to take for himself the property of another; but if
+Almighty God, to whom all things belong, and for whom we are only
+stewards, is pleased to dispense with this His own law in a particular
+case, and to bestow what He has hitherto given to one upon another, He
+confers at the same time a valid title to the gift, and it is no robbery
+in him who has received it to act upon that title."
+
+Fearing his father's wrath, Francis hid himself in the priest's room,
+and contemporary authors assure us that when the irate parent entered,
+Francis was miraculously let into the wall. Wading (1731 A.D.) says the
+hollow place may still be seen in the wall.
+
+After a month, the young hero, confident of his courage to face his
+father, came forth pale and weak, only to be stoned as a madman by the
+people. His father locked him up in the house, but the tenderer
+compassion of his mother released him from his bonds, and he found
+refuge with the priest. When his father demanded his return, Francis
+tore off his clothes and, as he flung the last rag at the feet of his
+astounded parent, he exclaimed: "Peter Bernardone was my father; I have
+but one father, He that is in Heaven." The crowd was deeply moved,
+especially when they saw before them the hair shirt which Francis had
+secretly worn under his garments. Gathering up all that was left to him
+of his son, the father sadly departed, leaving the young enthusiast to
+fight his own way through the world. Many times after that, the parents,
+who tenderly watched over the lad in sickness and prayed for his
+recovery, saw their beloved son leading his barefooted beggars through
+the streets of his native town. But he will never more sing his gay
+songs underneath their roof or sally forth with his merry companions in
+search of pleasure. Francis was given a laborer's cloak, upon which he
+made the sign of a cross with some mortar, "thus manifesting what he
+wished to be, a half-naked poor one, and a crucified man." Such was the
+saint, in 1206, in his twenty-fifth year.
+
+Francis now went forth, singing sacred songs, begging his food, and
+helping the sick and the poor. He was employed "in the vilest affairs of
+the scullery" in a neighboring monastery. At this time he clothed
+himself in the monk's dress, a short tunic, a leathern girdle, shoes and
+a staff. He waited upon lepers and kissed their disgusting ulcers. Yet
+more, he instantly cured a dreadfully cancerous face by kissing it. He
+ate the most revolting messes, reproaching himself for recoiling in
+nausea. Thus the pauper of Jesus Christ conquered his pride and
+luxurious tastes.
+
+Francis finally returned to repair the church of St. Damian. The people
+derided, even stoned him, but he had learned to rejoice in abuse. They
+did not know of what stern stuff their fellow-townsman was made. He bore
+all their insults meekly, and persevered in his work, carrying stones
+with his own hands and promising the blessing of God on all who helped
+him in his joyful task. His kindness and smiles melted hatred; derision
+turned to admiration. "Many were moved to tears," says his biographers,
+"while Francis worked on with cheerful simplicity, begging his
+materials, stone by stone, and singing psalms about the streets."
+
+Two years after his conversion, or in 1208, while kneeling in the church
+of Sta. Maria dei Angeli, he heard the words of Christ: "Provide neither
+gold nor silver nor brass in your purses, neither two coats nor shoes
+nor staff, but go and preach." Afterwards, when the meaning of these
+words was explained to him, he exclaimed: "This is what I seek for!" He
+threw away his wallet, took off his shoes, and replaced his leather
+girdle by a cord. His hermit's tunic appearing too delicate, he put on a
+coarse, gray robe, reaching to his feet, with sleeves that came down
+over his fingers; to this he added a hood, covering his head and face.
+Clothing of this character he wore to the end of his life. This was in
+1208, which is regarded as the first year of the Order of St. Francis.
+The next year Francis gave this habit to those who had joined him.
+
+So the first and chief of Franciscan friars, unattended by mortal
+companions, went humbly forth to proclaim the grandeur and goodness of a
+God, who, according to monastic teaching, demands penance and poverty of
+his creatures as the price of his highest favor and richest blessings.
+Nearly seven hundred long years have passed since that eventful day, but
+the begging Brothers of Francis still traverse those Italian highways
+over which the saint now journeyed with meek and joyous spirit.
+
+     "He was not yet far distant from his rising
+     Before he had begun to make the earth
+     Some comfort from his mighty virtue feel.
+     For he in youth his father's wrath incurred
+     For certain Dame, to whom, as unto death,
+     The gate of pleasure no one doth unlock;
+     And was before his spiritual court
+     _Et coram patre_ unto her united;
+     Then day by day more fervently he loved her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     But that too darkly I may not proceed,
+     Francis and Poverty for these two lovers
+     Take thou henceforward in my speech diffuse."
+
+     --_Dante_.
+
+In 1210, with eleven companions, his entire band, Francis went to Rome
+to secure papal sanction. Pope Innocent III. was walking in a garden of
+the Lateran Palace when a beggar, dusty and pale, confronted him.
+Provoked at being disturbed in his thoughts, he drove him away. That
+night it was the pope's turn to dream. He saw a falling church supported
+by a poor and miserable man. Of course, that man was Francis. Four or
+five years later the pope will dream the same thing again. Then the poor
+man will be Dominic. In the morning he sent for the monk whom he had
+driven from him as a madman the day before. Standing before his holiness
+and the college of cardinals, Francis pleaded his cause in a touching
+and eloquent parable. His quiet, earnest manner and clear blue eyes
+impressed every one. The pope did not give him formal sanction
+however--this was left for Honorius III., November 29, 1223--but he
+verbally permitted him to establish his order and to continue his
+preaching.
+
+Several times Francis set out to preach to the Mohammedans, but failed
+to reach his destination. He finally visited Egypt during the siege of
+Damietta, and at the risk of his life he went forth to preach to the
+sultan encamped on the Nile. He is described by an eye-witness "as an
+ignorant and simple man, beloved of God and men." His courage and
+personal magnetism won the Mohammedan's sympathy but not his soul.
+Although Francis courted martyrdom, and offered to walk through fire to
+prove the truth of his message, the Oriental took it all too
+good-naturedly to put him to the test, and dismissed him with kindness.
+
+Francis was a great lover of birds. The swallows he called his sisters.
+A bird in the cage excited his deepest sympathy. It is said he sometimes
+preached to the feathered songsters. Longfellow has cast one of these
+homilies into poetic form:
+
+     "O brother birds, St. Francis said,
+     Ye come to me and ask for bread,
+     But not with bread alone to-day
+     Shall ye be fed and sent away.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Oh, doubly are ye bound to praise
+     The great Creator in your lays;
+     He giveth you your plumes of down,
+     Your crimson hoods, your cloaks of brown.
+
+     He giveth you your wings to fly
+     And breathe a purer air on high,
+     And careth for you everywhere,
+     Who for yourselves so little care."
+
+Like all ascetics, Francis was tempted in visions. One cold night he
+fancied he was in a home of his own, with his wife and children around
+him. Rushing out of his cell he heaped up seven hills of snow to
+represent a wife, four sons and daughters, and two servants. "Make
+haste," he cried, "provide clothing for them lest they perish with the
+cold," and falling upon the imaginary group, he dispelled the vision of
+domestic bliss in the cold embrace of the winter's snow. Mrs. Oliphant
+points out the fact that, unlike most of the hermits and monks, Francis
+dreams not of dancing girls, but of the pure love of a wife and the
+modest joys of a home and children. She beautifully says: "Had he, for
+one sweet, miserable moment, gone back to some old imagination and seen
+the unborn faces shine beside the never-lighted fire? But Francis does
+not say a word of any such trial going on in his heart. He dissipates
+the dream by the chill touch of the snow, by still nature hushing the
+fiery thoughts, by sudden action, so violent as to stir the blood in his
+veins; and then the curtain of prayer and silence falls over him, and
+the convent walls close black around."
+
+The experience of the saint on Mount Alverno deserves special
+consideration, not merely on account of its singularity, but also
+because it affords a striking illustration of the difficulties one
+encounters in trying to get at the truth in monastic narratives. Francis
+had retired to Mount Alverno, a wild and rugged solitude, to meditate
+upon the Lord's passion. For days he had been almost distracted with
+grief and holy sympathy. Suddenly a seraph with six wings stood before
+him. When the heavenly being departed, the marks of the Crucified One
+appeared upon the saint's body. St. Bonaventure says: "His feet and
+hands were seen to be perforated by nails in their middle; the heads of
+the nails, round and black, were on the inside of the hands, and on the
+upper parts of the feet; the points, which were rather long, and which
+came out on the opposite sides, were turned and raised above the flesh,
+from which they came out." There also appeared on his right side a red
+wound, which often oozed a sacred blood that stained his tunic.
+
+This remarkable story has provoked considerable discussion. One's
+conclusions respecting its credibility will quite likely be determined
+by his general view of numerous similar narratives, and by the degree of
+his confidence in the value of human testimony touching such matters.
+The incongruities and palpable impostures that seriously impair the
+general reliability of monkish historians render it difficult to
+distinguish between the truths and errors in their writings.
+
+Some authorities hold that the marks did not appear on St. Francis, and
+that the story is without foundation. But Roman writers bring forward
+the three early biographers of Francis who claim that the marks did
+appear. Pope Alexander IV. publicly averred that he saw the wounds, and
+pronounced it heresy to doubt the report. Popes Benedict XI., Sixtus
+IV., and Sixtus V. consecrated and canonized the impressions by
+instituting a particular festival in their honor. Numerous persons are
+said to have seen the marks and to have kissed the nails, after the
+death of the saint. Singularly enough, the Dominicans were inclined to
+regard the story as a piece of imposture designed to exalt Francis
+above Dominic.
+
+But, if it be admitted that the marks did appear, as it is not
+improbable, how shall the phenomenon be explained? At least four
+theories are held: 1. Fraud; 2. The irresponsible self-infliction of the
+wounds; 3. Physical effects due to mental suggestion or some other
+psychic cause; 4. Miracle.
+
+1. The temptation is strong to claim a fraud, especially because the
+same witnesses who testify to the truth of the tale, also relate such
+monstrous, incredible stories, that one is almost forced to doubt
+either their integrity or their sanity. But there is no evidence in
+support of so serious an indictment. After showing that signs and
+portents attend every crisis in history, Mrs. Oliphant says: "Every
+great spiritual awakening has been accompanied by phenomena quite
+incomprehensible, which none but the vulgar mind can attribute to
+trickery and imposture;" but still she herself remains in doubt about
+the whole story.
+
+2. Although Mosheim uses the term "fraud," it would seem that he means
+rather the irresponsible self-infliction of the wounds. He says: "As he
+[Francis] was a most superstitious and fanatical mortal, it is
+undoubtedly evident that he imprinted on himself the holy wounds. Paul's
+words, 'I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus,' may have
+suggested the idea of the fraud." The notion certainly prevailed that
+Francis was a sort of second Christ, and a book was circulated showing
+how he might be compared to Christ in forty particulars. There are many
+things in his biography which, if true, indicate that Francis yearned to
+imitate literally the experiences of his Lord.
+
+3. Numerous experiments, conducted by scientific men, have established
+the fact that red marks, swellings, blisters, bleeding and wounds have
+been produced by mental suggestion. Bjoernstrom, in his work on
+"Hypnotism," after recounting various experiments showing the effect of
+the imagination on the body, says, respecting the _stigmata_ of the
+Middle Ages: "Such marks can be produced by hypnotism without deceit and
+without the miracles of the higher powers." Prof. Fisher declares:
+"There is no room for the suspicion of deceit. The idea of a strange
+physical effect of an abnormal state is more plausible." Trench thinks
+this is a reasonable view in the case of a man like Francis, "with a
+temperament so irrepressible, of an organization so delicate, permeated
+through and through with the anguish of the Lord's sufferings,
+passionately and continually dwelling on the one circumstance of his
+crucifixion." But others, despairing of any rational solution, cut the
+Gordian knot and declare that "the kindest thing to think about Francis
+is that he was crazy."
+
+4. Roman Catholics naturally reject all explanations that exclude the
+supernatural, for, as Father Candide Chalippe affirms: "Catholics ought
+to be cautious in adopting anything coming from heretics; their opinions
+are almost always contagious." He therefore holds fast to the miracles
+in the lives of the saints, not only because he accepts the evidence,
+but because he believes these wonderful stories "add great resplendency
+to the merits of the saints, and, consequently, give great weight to the
+example they afford us."
+
+It is altogether probable that each one will continue to view the whole
+affair as his predispositions and religious convictions direct; some
+unconvinced by traditionary evidence and undismayed by charges of
+heresy; others devoutly accepting every monkish miracle and marveling at
+the obstinacy of unbelief.
+
+Two years after the event just described Francis was carried on a cot
+outside the walls of Assisi, where, lifting his hands he blessed his
+native city. Some few days later, on October 4, 1226, he passed away,
+exclaiming, "Welcome, Sister Death!"
+
+Whatever we may think of the legends that cluster about his life,
+Francis himself must not be held responsible for all that has been
+written about him. He himself was no phantom or mythical being, but a
+real, earnest man who, according to his light, tried to serve his
+generation. As he himself said: "A man is just so much and no more as he
+is in the sight of God." "Francis appears to me," says Forsyth, "a
+genuine, original hero, independent, magnanimous, incorruptible. His
+powers seemed designed to regenerate society; but taking a wrong
+direction, they sank men into beggars." Through the mist of tradition
+the holy beggar and saintly hero shines forth as a loving, gentle soul,
+unkind to none but himself. However his biography may be regarded, his
+life illustrates the beauty and power of voluntary renunciation,--the
+fountain not only of religion but of all true nobility of character. He
+may have been ignorant, perhaps grossly so, as Mosheim thinks, but
+nevertheless he merits our highest praise for striving honestly to keep
+his vow of poverty in the days when worldly monks disgraced their sacred
+profession by greed, ambition, and lustful indulgence.
+
+
+
+_The Franciscan Orders_
+
+
+
+The orders which Francis founded were of three classes:
+
+1. Franciscan Friars or Order of Friars Minor, called also Gray or
+Begging Friars. The year in which Francis took the habit, 1208, is
+reckoned the first year of the order, but the Rule was not given
+until 1210.
+
+This Rule, which has not been preserved, was very simple, and doubtless
+consisted of a group of gospel passages, bearing on the vow of poverty,
+together with a few precepts about the occupations of the brethren. The
+pope was not asked to sanction the Rule but only to give his approbation
+to the missions of the little band. Some of the cardinals expressed
+their doubts about the mode of life provided for in the rules. "But,"
+replied Giovanni di San Paolo, "if we hold that to observe gospel
+perfection and make profession of it is an irrational and impossible
+innovation, are we not convicted of blasphemy against Christ, the Author
+of the Gospel?"
+
+There was also the Rule of 1221, which makes an intermediate stage
+between the first Rule and that which was approved by the pope November
+29, 1223. The Rule of 1210 was thoroughly Franciscan. It was the
+expression of the passionate, fervent soul of Francis. It was the cry of
+the human heart for God and purity. The Rule of 1223 shows that the
+church had begun to direct the movement. Sabatier says of these two
+rules: "At the bottom of it all is the antinome of law and love. Under
+the reign of law we are the mercenaries of God, bound down to an irksome
+task, but paid a hundred-fold, and with an indisputable right to our
+wages." Such was the conception underlying the Rule of 1223. That of
+1210 is thus described: "Under the rule of love we are the sons of God,
+and co-workers with Him; we give ourselves to Him without bargaining and
+without expectation; we follow Jesus, not because this is well, but
+because we cannot do otherwise, because we feel that He has loved us and
+we love Him in our turn."
+
+Francis would not allow his monks to be called Friars; he preferred
+Friars Minor or Little Brothers as a more humble designation[F].
+
+[Footnote F: Appendix, Note F.]
+
+Ten years after the founding of the order, it is claimed, over five
+thousand friars assembled in Rome for the general chapter. The monks
+lodged in huts made of matting and hence this convention has been called
+the "Chapter of Mats." The order was strongest numerically about fifty
+years after the death of Francis, when it numbered eight thousand
+convents and two hundred thousand monks. Many of its members were highly
+distinguished, such as St. Bonaventura, Duns Scotus, Roger Bacon and
+Cardinal Ximenes.
+
+2. Nuns of St. Clara or Poor Claras, dates from 1212, but it did not
+receive its rule from Francis until 1224. The order was founded in the
+following manner: Clara, a daughter of a noble family, was distinguished
+for her beauty and by her love for the poor. Francis often met her, and,
+in the language of his biographer, "exhorted her to a contempt of the
+world and poured into her ears the sweetness of Christ." Guided, no
+doubt, by his counsel, she stole one night from her home to a
+neighboring church where Francis and his beggars were assembled. Her
+long and beautiful hair was cut off, while a coarse woolen gown was
+substituted for her own rich garments. Standing in the midst of the
+ragged monks, she renounced the dregs of Babylon and a wicked world,
+pledging her future to the monastic institution. Out from this little
+church into the darkness of the night, Francis led this beautiful girl
+of seventeen years and committed her to a Benedictine nunnery. Later on
+Clara became the abbess of a Franciscan convent at St. Damian, and the
+Sisterhood of St. Clara was established. It was an order of sadness and
+penitential tears. It is said that Clara never but once (when she
+received the blessing of the pope) lifted her eyelids so that the color
+of her eyes might be discerned.
+
+3. The Third Order, called also "Brotherhood of Penitence," was composed
+of lay men and women. So many husbands and wives were desirous of
+leaving their homes in order to enter the monastic state, that Francis,
+not wishing to break up happy marriages, so it is said, was compelled to
+give these enthusiasts some sort of a rule by which they might
+compromise between their established life and the monastic career. This
+state of things led to the formation, in 1221, of the Third Order of
+St. Francis, or the Order of Tertiaries, in relation to the Friars Minor
+and the Poor Claras. Sabatier says this generally-accepted date is
+wrong; that it is impossible to fix any date, for that which came to be
+known as the Third Order was born of the enthusiasm excited by the
+preaching of Francis soon after his return from Rome in 1210. Candidates
+for admission into this order were required to make profession of all
+the orthodox truths, special care being employed to guard against the
+intrusion of heretics. Days of fasting and abstinence were enjoined, and
+members were urged to avoid profanity, the theater, dancing and
+law-suits. The order met with astonishing success, cardinals, bishops,
+emperors, empresses, kings and queens, gladly enrolling themselves among
+the followers of St. Francis.
+
+_Dominic de Guzman, 1170-1221 A.D._
+
+Half-way between Osma and Aranda in Old Castile, Spain, is a little
+village known as "the fortunate Calahorra." Here was the castle of the
+Guzmans, where Dominic was born. His family was of high rank and
+character, a noble house of warriors, statesmen and saints. If we accept
+the legends, his greatness was foreshadowed. Before his birth, his
+mother dreamed she saw her son under the figure of a black-and-white
+dog, with a torch in his mouth. "A true dream," says Milman, "for he
+will scent out heresy and apply the torch to the faggots;" but, as will
+be seen later, this observation does not rest on undisputed evidence.
+
+[Illustration: PHOTOGRAVURE--RINGLER CO
+
+SAINT DOMINIC
+
+FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE PAINTING PRESERVED IN HIS CELL IN THE CONVENT
+OF SANTA SABINA, AT ROME
+
+TRENTON: ALBERT BRANDT, PUBLISHER, 1900]
+
+In the year 1191, when Spain was desolated by a terrible famine, Dominic
+was just finishing his theological studies. He gave away his money and
+sold his clothes, his furniture and even his precious manuscripts, that
+he might relieve distress. When his companions expressed astonishment
+that he should sell his books, Dominic replied: "Would you have me study
+off these dead skins, when men are dying of hunger?" This noble
+utterance is cherished by his admirers as the first saying from his lips
+that has passed to posterity.
+
+Dominic was educated in the schools of Palencia, afterwards a
+university, where he devoted six years to the arts and four to theology.
+In 1194, when twenty-five years of age, Dominic became a canon regular,
+at Osma, under the rule of St. Augustine. Nine years after he
+accompanied his bishop, Don Diego, on an embassy for the king of
+Castile. When they crossed the Pyrenees they found themselves in an
+atmosphere of heresy. The country was filled with preachers of strange
+doctrines, who had little respect for Dominic, his bishop, or their
+Roman pontiff. The experiences of this journey inspired in Dominic a
+desire to aid in the extermination of heresy. He was also deeply
+impressed by an important and significant observation. Many of these
+heretical preachers were not ignorant fanatics, but well-trained and
+cultured men. Entire communities seemed to be possessed by a desire for
+knowledge and for righteousness. Dominic clearly perceived that only
+preachers of a high order, capable of advancing reasonable argument,
+could overthrow the Albigensian heresy.
+
+It would be impossible, in a few words, to tell the whole story of this
+Albigensian movement. Undoubtedly the term stood for a variety of
+theological opinions, all of which were in opposition to the teachings
+of Rome. "From the very invectives of their enemies," says Hallam, "and
+the acts of the Inquisition, it is manifest that almost every shade of
+heterodoxy was found among these dissidents, till it vanished in a
+simple protestation against the wealth and tyranny of the clergy." Many
+of the tenets of these enthusiasts were undoubtedly borrowed from the
+ancient Manicheism, and would be pronounced heretical by every modern
+evangelical denomination. But associated with those holding such
+doctrines were numerous reformers, whose chief offense consisted in
+their incipient Protestantism. However heretical any of these sects may
+have been, it is impossible to make them out enemies to the social
+order, except as all opponents of established religious traditions
+create disturbance. "What these bodies held in common," says Hardwick,
+"and what made them equally the prey of the inquisitor, was their
+unwavering belief in the corruption of the medieval church, especially
+as governed by the Roman pontiffs."
+
+In 1208 Dominic visited Languedoc a second time, and on his way he
+encountered the papal legates returning in pomp to Rome, foiled in their
+attempt to crush this growing schism. To them he administered his famous
+rebuke: "It is not the display of power and pomp, cavalcades of
+retainers, and richly-houseled palfreys, or by gorgeous apparel, that
+the heretics win proselytes; it is by zealous preaching, by apostolic
+humility, by austerity, by seeming, it is true, but by seeming holiness.
+Zeal must be met by zeal, humility by humility, false sanctity by real
+sanctity, preaching falsehood by preaching truth." It is extremely
+unfortunate for the reputation of Dominic that he ever departed from the
+spirit of these noble words, which so clearly state the conditions of
+true religious progress.
+
+Dominic now gathered about him a few men of like spirit and began his
+task of preaching down heresy. But "the enticing words of man's wisdom"
+failed to win the Albigensians from what they believed to be the words
+of God. So, unmindful of his admonition to the papal legates, Dominic
+obtained permission of Innocent III. to hold courts, before which he
+might summon all persons suspected of heresy. When eloquence and courts
+failed, the pope let loose the "dogs of war." Then followed twenty years
+of frightful carnage, during which hundreds of thousands of heretics
+were slain, and many cities were laid waste by fire and sword. "This was
+to punish a fanaticism," says Hallam, "ten thousand times more innocent
+than their own, and errors which, according to the worst imputations,
+left the laws of humanity and the peace of social life unimpaired."
+Peace was concluded in 1229, but the persecution of heretics went on.
+
+What part Dominic personally had in these bloody proceedings is
+litigated history. His admirers strive to rescue his memory from the
+charge that he was "a cruel and bloody man." It is argued that while the
+pope and temporal princes carried on the sanguinary war against the
+heretics, Dominic confined himself to pleading with them in a spirit of
+true Christian love. He was a minister of mercy, not an avenging angel,
+sword in hand. It has to be conceded that the constant tradition of the
+Dominican order that Dominic was the first Inquisitor, whether he bore
+the title or not, rests upon good authority. But what was the nature of
+the office as held by the saint? As far as Dominic was concerned, it is
+argued by his friends that the office "was limited to the
+_reconciliation_ of heretics and had nothing to do with their
+_punishment_." It is also claimed that while Dominic did impose
+penances, in some cases public flagellation, no evidence can be produced
+showing that he ever delivered one heretic to the flames. Those who were
+burned were condemned by secular courts, and on the ground that they
+were not only heretics but enemies of the public peace and perpetrators
+of enormous crimes.
+
+But while it may not be proved that Dominic himself passed the sentence
+of death or applied the torch to the faggots with his own hand, he is by
+no means absolved from all complicity in those frightful slaughters, or
+from all responsibility for the subsequent establishment of the Holy
+Inquisition. The principles governing the Inquisition were practically
+those upon which Dominic proceeded; the germs of the later atrocities
+are to be found in his aims and methods. By what a narrow margin does
+Dominic escape the charge of cruelty when it is boasted "that he
+resolutely insisted on no sentence being carried out until all means had
+been tried by which the conversion of a prisoner could be effected."
+Another statement also contains an inkling of a significant fact,
+namely, that secular judges and princes were constantly under the
+influence of the monks and other ecclesiastical persons, who incited
+them to wage war, and to massacre, in the Albigensian war as in other
+crusades against heresy. No word from Dominic can be produced indicating
+that he remonstrated with the pope, or that he tried to stop the
+crusade. In a few instances he seems to have interceded with the crazed
+soldiery for the lives of women and children. But he did not oppose the
+bloody crusade itself. He was constantly either with the army or
+following in its wake. He often sat on the bench at the trial of
+dissenters. He remained the life-long friend of Simon de Montfort, the
+cruel agent of the papacy, and he blessed the marriage of his sons and
+baptized his daughter. Special courts for trying heretics were
+established, previous to the more complete organization of the
+Inquisition, and in these he held a commission.
+
+The Holy Office of the Inquisition was made a permanent tribunal by
+Gregory IX., in 1233, twelve years after the death of Dominic, and
+curiously enough, in the same year in which he was canonized. The
+Catholic Bollandists claim that although the _title_ of Inquisitor was
+of later date than Dominic, yet the _office_ was in existence, and that
+the splendor of the Holy Inquisition owes its beginning to that saint.
+Certain it is that the administration of the Inquisition was mainly in
+the hands of Dominican monks.
+
+In view of all these facts, Professor Allen is justified in his
+conclusions respecting Dominic and his share in the persecution of
+heretics: "Whatever his own sweet and heavenly spirit according to
+Catholic eulogists, his name is a synonym of bleak and intolerant
+fanaticism. It is fatally associated with the blackest horrors of the
+crusade against the Albigenses, as well as with the infernal skill and
+deadly machinery of the Inquisition."
+
+In 1214, Dominic established himself, with six followers, in the house
+of Peter Cellani, a rich resident of Toulouse. Eleven years of active
+and public life had passed since the Subprior of Osma had forsaken the
+quietude of the monastery. He now resumed his life of retirement and
+subjected himself and his companions to the monastic rules of prayer and
+penance. But the restless spirit of the man could not long remain
+content with the seclusion and inactivity of a monk's life. The scheme
+of establishing an order of Preaching Friars began to assume definite
+shape in his mind. He dreamed of seven stars enlightening the world,
+which represented himself and his six friends. The final result of his
+deliberations was the organization of his order, and the appearance of
+Dominic in the city of Rome, in 1215, to secure the approval of the
+pope, Innocent III. Although some describe his reception as "most
+cordial and flattering," yet it required supernatural interference to
+induce the pope to grant even his approval of the new order. It was not
+formally confirmed until 1216 by Honorius III.
+
+Dominic now made his headquarters at Rome, although he traveled
+extensively in the interests of his growing brotherhood of monks. He was
+made Master of the Sacred Palace, an important official post, including
+among its functions the censorship of the press. It has ever since been
+occupied by members of the Dominican order.
+
+Throughout his life Dominic is said to have zealously practiced rigorous
+self-denial. He wore a hair shirt, and an iron chain around his loins,
+which he never laid aside, even in sleep. He abstained from meat and
+observed stated fasts and periods of silence. He selected the worst
+accommodations and the meanest clothes, and never allowed himself the
+luxury of a bed. When traveling, he beguiled the journey with spiritual
+instruction and prayers. As soon as he passed the limits of towns and
+villages, he took off his shoes, and, however sharp the stones or
+thorns, he trudged on his way barefooted. Rain and other discomforts
+elicited from his lips nothing but praises to God.
+
+Death came at the age of fifty-one and found him exhausted with the
+austerities and labors of his eventful career. He had reached the
+convent of St. Nicholas, at Bologna, weary and sick with a fever. He
+refused the repose of a bed and bade the monks lay him on some sacking
+stretched upon the ground. The brief time that remained to him was
+spent in exhorting his followers to have charity, to guard their
+humility, and to make their treasure out of poverty. Lying in ashes upon
+the floor he passed away at noon, on the sixth of August, 1221. He was
+canonized by Gregory IX., in 1234.
+
+
+
+_The Dominican Orders_
+
+The origin of the Order of the Preaching Friars has already been
+described. It is not necessary to dwell upon the constitution of this
+order, because in all essential respects it was like that of the
+Franciscans. The order is ruled by a general and is divided into
+provinces, governed by provincials. The head of each house is called a
+prior. Dominic adopted the rules laid down by St. Augustine, because the
+pope ordered him to follow some one of the older monastic codes, but he
+also added regulations of his own.
+
+Soon after the founding of the order, bands of monks were sent out to
+Paris, to Rome, to Spain and to England, for the purpose of planting
+colonies in the chief seats of learning. The order produced many
+eminent scholars, some of whom were Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus,
+Echard, Tauler and Savonarola.
+
+As among the Franciscans, there was also an Order of Nuns, founded in
+1206, and a Third Order, called the Militia of Jesus Christ, which was
+organized in 1218.
+
+
+
+_The Success of the Mendicant Orders_
+
+In 1215, Innocent III. being pope, the Lateran council passed the
+following law: "Whereas the excessive diversity of these [monastic]
+institutions begets confusion, no new foundations of this sort must be
+formed for the future; but whoever wishes to become a monk must attach
+himself to some of the already existing rules." This same pope approved
+the two Mendicant orders, urging them, it is true, to unite themselves
+to one of the older orders; but, nevertheless, they became distinct
+organizations, eclipsing all previous societies in their achievements.
+The reason for this disregard of the Lateran decree is doubtless to be
+found in the alarming condition of religious affairs at that time, and
+in the hope held out to Rome by the Mendicants, of reforming the
+monasteries and crushing the heretics.
+
+The failure of the numerous and varied efforts to reform the monastic
+institution and the danger to the church arising from the unwonted
+stress laid upon poverty by different schismatic religious societies,
+necessitated the adoption of radical measures by the church to preserve
+its influence. At this juncture the Mendicant friars appeared. The
+conditions demanded a modification of the monastic principle which had
+hitherto exalted a life of retirement. Seclusion in the cloister was no
+longer possible in the view of the remarkable changes in religious
+thought and practice.
+
+Innocent III. was wise enough to perceive the immediate utility of the
+new societies based upon claims to extraordinary humility and poverty.
+The Mendicant orders were, in themselves, not only a rebuke to the
+luxurious indolence and shameful laxity of the older orders, but when
+sanctioned by the church, the existence of the new societies attested
+Rome's desire to maintain the highest and the purest standards of
+monastic life. Hence, the Preaching Friars were permitted to reproach
+the clergy and the monks for their vices and corruptions.
+
+"The effect of such a band of missionaries," says John Stuart Mill,
+"must have been great in rousing and feeding dormant devotional
+feelings. They were not less influential in regulating those feelings,
+and turning into the established Catholic channels those vagaries of
+private enthusiasm which might well endanger the church, since they
+already threatened society itself."
+
+Two novel monastic features, therefore, now appear for the first time:
+1. The substitution of itineracy for the seclusion of the cloister; and
+2. The abolition of endowments.
+
+1. The older orders had their traveling missionaries, but the general
+practice was to remain shut up within the monastic walls. The Mendicants
+at the start had no particular abiding place, but were bound to travel
+everywhere, preaching and teaching. It was distinctly the mission of
+these monks to visit the camps, the towns, cities and villages, the
+market places, the universities, the homes and the churches, to preach
+and to minister to the sick and the poor. They neither loved the
+seclusion of the cell nor sought it. Theirs to tramp the dusty roads,
+with their capacious bags, begging and teaching. Only by this itinerant
+method could the people be reached and the preachers of heresy be
+encountered.
+
+2. One of the chief sources of strength in the heretical sects was the
+justness of their attack upon the Catholic monastic orders, whose
+immense riches belied their vows of poverty. The heretics practiced
+austerities and adopted a simplicity of life that won the hearts of the
+people, by reason of its contrast to the loose habits of the monks and
+clergy. Since it was impossible to reform the older orders, it became
+absolutely essential to the success of the Mendicants that they should
+rigorously respect the neglected discipline. As the abuse of the vow of
+poverty was particularly common, the Mendicants naturally
+emphasized this vow.
+
+While it is true that a begging monk was by no means unknown, yet now,
+for the first time, was the practice of mendicity formally adopted by
+entire orders. Owing to the excessive multiplication of mendicant
+societies, Pope Gregory X., at a general council held at Lyons in 1272,
+attempted to check the growing evil. The number of Mendicant orders was
+confined to four, viz., the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Carmelites
+and the Augustinians or Hermits of Augustine. The Council of Trent
+confined mendicity to the Observantines and Capuchins, since the other
+societies had practically abandoned their original interpretation of
+their vow of poverty and had acquired permanent property.
+
+When Francis tried to enforce the rule of poverty, his rigor gave rise
+to most serious dissensions, which began in his own lifetime and ended
+after his death in open schism. Some of his followers were not pleased
+with his views on that subject. They resisted his extreme strictness,
+and after his death they continued to advocate the holding of property.
+The popes tried to settle the quarrel, but ever and anon it broke out
+afresh with volcanic fierceness. They finally interpreted the rule of
+poverty to mean that the friars could not hold property in their own
+names, but they might enjoy its use. Under this interpretation of the
+rule, the beggars soon became very rich. Matthew of Paris said: "The
+friars who have been founded hardly forty years have built even in the
+present day in England residences as lofty as the palaces of our kings."
+But the better element among the Franciscans refused to consent to such
+a palpable evasion of the rule. A portion of this class separated
+themselves from the Franciscans, rejected their authority, and formed a
+new sect called the _Fratricelli_, or Little Brothers. It is very
+important to keep the history of this name clearly in mind, for it
+frequently appears in the Reformation period and has been the cause of
+much misunderstanding. The word "Fratricelli" came to be a term of
+derision applied to any one affecting the dress or the habits of the
+monks. When heretical sects arose, it was applied to them as a stigma,
+but it was used first by a sect of rigid Franciscans who deserted their
+order, adopted this name as their own, and exulted in its use. The
+quarrel among the monks led to a variety of complications and is
+intricately interwoven with the political and religious history of the
+thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. "These rebellious
+Franciscans," says Mosheim, "though fanatical and superstitious in some
+respects, deserve an eminent rank among those who prepared the way for
+the Reformation in Europe, and who excited in the minds of the people a
+just aversion to Rome."
+
+The Mendicants were especially active in educational work. This is to be
+attributed to several causes. Unquestionably the general and increasing
+interest in theological doctrines and the craving for knowledge affected
+the monastic orders. Europe was just arousing from her medieval
+slumbers. The faint rays of the Reformation dawn were streaking the
+horizon. The intellect as well as the conscience was touched by the
+Spirit of God. The revolt against moral iniquity was often accompanied
+by skepticism concerning the authority and dogmas of the church.
+Questions were being asked that ignorant monks could not answer. Too
+long had the church ignored these symptoms of the approach of a new
+order of things. The church was forced to meet the heretics on their own
+ground, to offset the example of their simplicity and purity of life by
+exalting the neglected standards of self-denial, and to silence them, if
+possible, by exposing their errors. Then came the Franciscans, with
+their austere simplicity and their insistence upon poverty. Then also
+appeared the Dominicans, or as they were called, "The Watch-dogs of the
+Church," who not only barked the church awake, but tried to devour
+the heretics.
+
+Francis halted for some time before giving encouragement to educational
+enterprises. A life of devotion and prayer attracted him, because, as he
+said, "Prayer purifies the affections, strengthens us in virtue, and
+unites us to the sovereign good." But, he went on, "Preaching renders
+the feet of the spiritual man dusty; it is an employment which
+dissipates and distracts, and which causes regular discipline to be
+relaxed." After consulting Brother Sylvester and Sister Clara, he
+decided to adopt their counsel and entered upon a ministry of preaching.
+The example and success of the Dominicans probably inspired the
+Franciscans to give themselves more and more to intellectual work.
+
+Both orders received appointments in all the leading universities, but
+they did not gain this ascendency without a severe conflict. The regular
+professors and the clergy were jealous of them for various causes, and
+resisted them at every point. The quarrel between the Dominicans and the
+University of Paris is the most famous of these struggles. It began in
+1228 and did not end until 1259. The Dominicans claimed the right to two
+theological professorships. One had been taken from them, and a law was
+passed that no religious order should have what these friars demanded.
+The Dominicans rebelled and the University passed sentences of
+expulsion. Innocent IV., wishing to become master of Italy, sided with
+the University, but the next month he was dead,--in answer to their
+prayers, said the Dominicans, but rumor hinted an even blacker cause.
+The thirty-one years of the struggle dragged wearily on, disturbed by
+papal bulls, appeals, pamphlets and university slogans. At last
+Alexander IV., in 1255, decided that the Dominicans might have the
+second professorship and also any other they thought proper. The noise
+of conflict now grew louder and boded ill for the peace of the church.
+The pulpits flashed forth fiery utterances. The monks were assailed in
+every quarter. William of Amour published his essay on "The Perils of
+the Last Times," in which he claimed that the perilous times predicted
+by the Apostle Paul were now fulfilled by these begging friars. He
+exposed their iniquities and bitterly complained of their arrogance and
+vice. His book was burned and its author banished. Although meaning to
+be a friend of Rome, he unconsciously contributed his share to the
+coming reform. In 1259, Rome thundered so loud that all Europe was
+terrified and the University was awed into submission.
+
+Another interesting feature in the history of their educational
+enterprises is the entrance of the Mendicants into England, where they
+acted a leading part in the educational and political history of the
+country. The Dominicans settled first at Oxford, in 1221. The
+Franciscans, after a short stay at Canterbury, went to Oxford in 1224.
+The story of how the two Gray friars journeyed from Canterbury to Oxford
+runs as follows: "These two forerunners of a famous brotherhood, being
+not far from Oxford, lost their way and came to a farmhouse of the
+Benedictines. It was nearly night and raining. They gently knocked, and
+asked admittance for God's sake. The porter gazed on their patched robes
+and beggarly aspect and supposed them to be mimics or despised persons.
+The prior, pleased with the tidings, invited them in. But instead of
+sportively performing, these two friars insisted, with sedate
+countenances, that they were men of God. Whereat the Benedictines in
+jealousy, and displeased to be cheated out of their expected fun, kicked
+and buffeted the two poor monks and turned them out of doors. One young
+monk pitied them and smuggled them into a hay-loft where we trust they
+slept soundly and safe from the cold and rain." The two friars finally
+reached Oxford and were well received by their Dominican brothers. Such
+was the simple beginning of a brilliant career that was profoundly to
+affect the course of English history. Both at Cambridge and Oxford the
+monastic orders exercised a remarkable influence. Traces of their labors
+and power may still be seen in the names of the colleges, and in the
+religious portions of the university discipline. They built fine
+edifices and manned their schools with the best teachers, so that they
+became great rivals of the regular colleges which did not have the funds
+necessary to compete with these wealthy beggars. Another cause of their
+rapid progress was the exodus of students from Paris to England. During
+the quarrel at Paris, Henry III. of England offered many inducements to
+the students, who left for England in large numbers. Many of them were
+prejudiced in favor of the friars, and they naturally drifted to the
+monastic college. The secular clergy charged the friars with inducing
+the college students to enter the monasteries or to turn begging monks.
+The pope, the king, and the parliament became involved in the struggle,
+which grew more bitter as the years passed. After a while Wyclif
+appeared, and when he began his mighty attack upon the friars the joy
+with which the professors viewed the struggle can be appreciated.
+
+
+
+_The Decline of the Mendicants_
+
+The Mendicant friars won their fame by faithful and earnest labors. Men
+admired them because they identified themselves with the lowest of
+mankind and heroically devoted themselves to the poor and sick. These
+"sturdy beggars," as Francis called his companions, were contrasted with
+the lazy, rich, and, too often, licentious monks of the other orders.
+Everywhere the friars were received with veneration and joy. The people
+sought burial in their rags, believing that, clothed in the garments of
+these holy beggars, they would enter paradise more speedily.
+
+Instead of seeking the seclusion of the convent to save his own soul,
+the friar displayed remarkable zeal trying to save mankind. He became
+the arbiter in the quarrels of princes, the prime mover in treaties
+between nations, and the indispensable counselor in political
+complications. The pope employed him as his authorized agent in the most
+difficult matters touching the welfare of the church. His influence upon
+the common people is thus described by the historian Green: "The theory
+of government wrought out in the cell and lecture-room was carried over
+the length and breadth of the land by the Mendicant brother begging his
+way from town to town, chatting with the farmer or housewife at the
+cottage door and setting up his portable pulpit in village green or
+market-place. The rudest countryman learned the tale of a king's
+oppression or a patriot's hope as he listened to the rambling,
+passionate, humorous discourse of the beggar friar."
+
+By these methods the Mendicants were enabled to render most efficient
+service to their patrons at Rome in their efforts to establish their
+temporal power. They were, in fact, before the Reformation, just what
+the Jesuits afterwards became, "the very soul of the hierarchy." Yes,
+they were immensely, prodigiously successful. The popes hastened to do
+them honor. Because the friars were such enthusiastic supporters of the
+church, the popes poured gold and privileges into their capacious
+coffers. Thankful peasants threw in their mites and the admiring noble
+bestowed his estates.
+
+The secular clergy, with envy and chagrin, awoke to the alarming fact
+that the beggars had won the hearts of the people; their hatred was
+increased by the fact that when the Roman pontiffs enriched these
+indefatigable toilers and valiant foes of heresy, they did so at the
+expense of the bishops and clergy, which, perhaps, was robbing Paul to
+pay Peter.
+
+Baluzii says: "No religious order had the distribution of so many and
+such ample indulgences as the Franciscans. In place of fixed revenues,
+lucrative indulgences were placed in their hands." So ill-judged was the
+distribution of these favors that discipline was overturned. Many
+churchmen, feeling that their rights were being encroached upon,
+complained bitterly, and resolved on retaliation. It is just here that a
+potent cause of the Mendicant's fall is to be found. He helped to dig
+his own grave.
+
+Having elevated monasticism to the zenith of its power, the Mendicant
+orders, like all the other monastic brotherhoods, entered upon their
+shameful decline. The unexampled prosperity, so inconsistent with the
+original intentions of the founders of the orders, was attended by
+corruptions and excesses. The decrees of councils, the denunciations of
+popes and high ecclesiastical dignitaries, the satires of literature,
+the testimony of chroniclers and the formation of reformatory orders,
+constitute a body of irrefragable evidence proving that the lowest level
+of sensuality, superstition and ignorance had been reached. The monks
+and friars lost whatever vigor and piety they ever possessed.
+
+It is again evident that a monk cannot serve God and mammon. Success
+ruins him. Wealth and popular favor change his character. The people
+slowly realize the fact that the fat and lazy medieval monk is not dead,
+after all, but has simply changed his name to that of Begging Friar. As
+Allen neatly observes: "Their gray gown and knotted cord wrapped a
+spiritual pride and capacity of bigotry, fully equal to the rest."
+
+Here, then, are the "sturdy beggars" of Francis, dwelling in palatial
+convents, arrogant and proud, trampling their ideal into the dust. Thus
+it came to pass in accordance with the principle stated at the beginning
+of this chapter, that when the ideal became a cloak to cover up sham,
+decay had set in, and ruin, even though delayed for years, was sure to
+come. The poor, sad-faced, honest, faithful friar everybody praised,
+loved and reverenced. The insolent, contemptuous, rich monk all men
+loathed. So a change of character in the friar transformed the songs of
+praise into shouts of condemnation. Those golden rays from the morning
+sun of the Reformation are ascending toward the highest heaven, and
+daybreak is near.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+_THE SOCIETY OF JESUS_
+
+In many respects it would be perfectly proper to consider the Mendicant
+orders as the last stage in the evolution of the monastic institution.
+Although the Jesuitical system rests upon the three vows of poverty,
+celibacy and obedience, yet the ascetic principle is reduced to a
+minimum in that society. Father Thomas E. Sherman, the son of the famous
+general, and a Jesuit of distinguished ability, has declared: "We are
+not, as some seem to think, a semi-military band of men, like the
+Templars of the Middle Ages. We are not a monastic order, seeking
+happiness in lonely withdrawal from our fellows. Our enemies within and
+without the church would like to make us monks, for then we would be
+comparatively useless, since that is not our end or aim.... We are
+regulars in the army of Christ; that is, men vowed to poverty, chastity
+and obedience; we are a collegiate body with the right to teach granted
+by the Catholic church[G]."
+
+[Footnote G: Appendix, Note G.]
+
+The early religious orders were based upon the idea of retirement from
+the world for the purpose of acquiring holiness. But as has already been
+shown, the constant tendency of the religious communities was toward
+participation in the world's affairs. This tendency became very marked
+among the friars, who traveled from place to place, and occupied
+important university positions, and it reaches its culmination in the
+Society of Jesus. Retirement among the Jesuits is employed merely as a
+preparation for active life. Constant intercourse with society was
+provided for in the constitution of the order. Bishop John J. Keane, a
+Roman Catholic authority, says: "The clerks regular, instituted
+principally since the sixteenth century, were neither monks nor friars,
+but priests living in common and busied with the work of the ministry.
+The Society of Jesus is one of the orders of clerks regular."
+
+Other differences between the monastic communities and the Jesuits are
+to be observed. The Jesuit discards the monastic gown, and is decidedly
+averse to the old monastic asceticism, with its rigorous and painful
+treatment of the body. While the older religious societies were
+essentially democratic in spirit and government, the monks sharing in
+the control of the monastic property and participating in the election
+of superiors, the Jesuitical system is intensely monarchical, a
+despotism pure and simple. In the older orders, the welfare of the
+individual was jealously guarded and his sanctification was sought.
+Among the Jesuits the individual is nothing, the corporate body
+everything. Admission to the monastic orders was encouraged and easily
+obtained. The novitiate of the Jesuits is long and difficult. Access to
+the highest grades of the order is granted only to those who have served
+the society many weary years.
+
+[Illustration: IGNATIUS DE LOYOLA
+
+AFTER GREATBACH'S ENGRAVING FROM THE WIERZ PRINT
+
+BENTON: ALBERT BRANDT, PUBLISHER, 1900]
+
+But in spite of such variations from the old monastic type, the Society
+of Jesus would doubtless never have appeared, had not the way for its
+existence been paved by previous monastic societies. Its aims and its
+methods were the natural sequence of monastic history. They were merely
+a development of past experiences, for the objects of the society were
+practically the objects of the Mendicants; the vows were the same with a
+change of emphasis. The abandonment of austerities as a means of
+salvation or spiritual power was the natural fruit of past experiments
+that had proved the uselessness of asceticism merely for the sake of
+acquiring a spirit of self-denial. The extirpation of heresy undertaken
+by Ignatius had already been attempted by the friars, while the
+education of the young had long been carried on with considerable
+success by the Benedictine and Dominican monks. The spirit of its
+founder, however, gave the Society of Jesus a unique character, and
+monasticism now passed out from the cell forever. The Jesuit may fairly
+be regarded as a monk, unlike any of his predecessors but nevertheless
+the legitimate fruit of centuries of monastic experience.
+
+
+
+_Ignatius de Loyola, 1491-1556 A.D._
+
+Inigo Lopez de Recalde, or Loyola, as he is commonly known, was born at
+Guipuzcoa, in Spain, in 1491. He was educated as a page in the court of
+Ferdinand the Catholic. He afterwards became a soldier and led a very
+wild life until his twenty-ninth year. During the siege of Pamplona, in
+1521, he was severely wounded, and while convalescing he was given lives
+of Christ and of the saints to read. His perusal of these stories of
+spiritual combat inspired a determination to imitate the glorious
+achievements of the saints. For a while the thirst for military renown
+and an attraction toward a lady of the court, restrained his spiritual
+impulses. But overcoming these obstacles, he resolutely entered upon his
+new career.
+
+Sometime after he visited the sanctuary of Montserrat, where he hung his
+shield and sword upon the altar of the Virgin Mary and gave his oath of
+fealty to the service of God. A tablet, erected by the abbot of the
+monastery in commemoration of this event, reads as follows: "Here,
+blessed Ignatius of Loyola, with many prayers and tears, devoted himself
+to God and the Virgin. Here, as with spiritual arms, he fortified
+himself in sackcloth, and spent the vigil of the night. Hence he went
+forth to found the Society of Jesus, in the year MDXXII."
+
+After spending ten months in Manresa, Loyola went on a pilgrimage to the
+Holy Land, intending to remain there, but he was sent home by the
+Eastern monks, and reached Italy in 1524.
+
+Now began his struggle for an education. At the age of thirty-three he
+took his seat on the school-bench at Barcelona. In 1526 he entered the
+University at Alcala. He was here looked upon as a dangerous innovator,
+and was imprisoned six weeks, by order of the Inquisition, for preaching
+without authority, since he was not in holy orders. After his release he
+attended the University of Salamanca, but he finally took his degree of
+Master of Arts at the University of Paris, in 1533.
+
+During this period he was several times imprisoned as a dangerous
+fanatic, but each time he succeeded in securing a verdict in his favor.
+The hostility to Ignatius and his work forms a strange parallel to the
+bitter antagonism which his society has always encountered.
+
+Nine men, among whom was Francis Xavier, afterwards widely renowned, had
+been chosen with great care, as the companions of Ignatius. He called
+them together in July, 1534, and on August 15th of the same year he
+selected six of them and bade them follow him to the Church of the
+Blessed Virgin, at Montmartre, in Paris. There and then they bound
+themselves to renounce all their goods, and to make a voyage to
+Jerusalem, in order to convert the Eastern infidels; if that scheme
+proved impracticable, they agreed to offer themselves to the sovereign
+pontiff for any service he might require of them. War prevented the
+journey to the Holy Land, and so, after passing through a variety of
+experiences, Ignatius and his companions met at Rome, to secure the
+sanction of Pope Paul III. for the new society. After a year and a half
+of deliberation and discussion a favorable decision was reached, which
+was, no doubt, partly facilitated by the growth of the Reformation. The
+new society was chartered on September 27, 1540, for the "defence and
+advance of the faith."
+
+Ignatius was elected as the general of the order and entered upon his
+duties, April 17, 1541. He soon prepared a constitution which was not
+adopted until after his death, and then in an amended form. Loyola ended
+his remarkable and stormy career, July 31, 1556.
+
+
+
+_Constitution and Polity of the Order_
+
+The _Institutum_, which contains the governing laws of the society, is a
+complex document consisting of papal bulls and decrees, a list of the
+privileges which have been granted to the order, ten chapters of rules,
+decrees of the general congregations, the plan of studies (_ratio
+studiorum_), and three ascetic writings, of which the Spiritual
+Exercises of Ignatius constitute the chief part.
+
+The society is distributed into six grades: novices, scholastics,
+temporal coadjutors, spiritual coadjutors, professed of the three vows,
+and professed of the four vows.
+
+The professed form only a small percentage of the entire body, and
+constitute a sort of religious aristocracy, from which the officers of
+the society are selected. Only the professed of the fourth vow, who add
+to the three vows a pledge of unconditional obedience to the pope,
+possess the full rights of membership. This final grade cannot be
+reached until the age of forty-five, so that if the candidate enters the
+order at the earliest age permissible, fourteen, he has been on
+probation thirty-one years when he reaches the final grade.
+
+The society is ruled by a general, to whom unconditional obedience is
+required. The provinces, into which the order is divided, are governed
+by provincials, who must report monthly to the general. The heads of all
+houses and colleges must report weekly to their provincials. An
+elaborate system of checks and espionage is employed to ensure the
+perfect working of this complex ecclesiastical machinery. Fraud or
+evasion is carefully guarded against, and every possible means is
+employed to enable the general to keep himself fully informed concerning
+the minutest details of the society's affairs.
+
+_The Vow of Obedience_
+
+That which has imparted a peculiar character to the Jesuit and
+contributed more than any other force to his success, is the insistence
+upon unquestioning submission to the will of the superior. This emphasis
+on the vow of obedience deserves, therefore, special consideration.
+Loyola, in his "Spiritual Exercises," commanded the novice to preserve
+his freedom of mind, but it is difficult for the fairest critic to
+conceive of such a possibility in the light of Loyola's rule of
+obedience, which reads: "I ought not to be my own, but His who created
+me, and his too by whose means God governs me, yielding myself to be
+moulded in his hands like so much wax.... I ought to be like a corpse,
+which has neither will nor understanding, or like a small crucifix,
+which is turned about at the will of him who holds it, or like a staff
+in the hands of an old man, who uses it as may best assist or
+please him."
+
+As an example of the kind of obedience demanded of the Jesuit, Loyola
+cited the obedience of Abraham, who, when he believed that Jehovah
+commanded him to commit the crime of infanticide, was ready to obey. The
+thirteenth of the rules appended to the Spiritual Exercises says: "If
+the Church shall have defined that to be black which to our eyes appears
+white, we ought to pronounce the thing in question black."
+
+Loyola is reported as having said to his secretary that "in those who
+offer themselves he looked less to purely natural goodness than to
+firmness of character and ability for business." But that he did not
+mean _independent_ firmness of character is clearly seen in the obvious
+attempt of the order to destroy that noble and true independence which
+is the crowning glory of a lofty character. The discipline is
+marvelously contrived to "scoop the will" out of the individual. Count
+Paul von Hoensbroech, who recently seceded from the society, has set
+forth his reasons for so doing in two articles which appeared in the
+"Preussische Jahrbuecher." A most interesting discussion of these
+articles, in the "New World," for December, 1894, places the opinions of
+the Count at our disposal. It is quite evident that he is no passionate,
+blind foe of the society. His tone is temperate and his praises
+cordially given. While recognizing the genius shown in the machinery of
+the society and the nobility of the real aims of the Jesuitical
+discipline, and while protesting against the unfounded charges of
+impurity, and other gross calumnies against the order, Count Paul
+nevertheless maintains that it "rests on so unworthy a depreciation of
+individuality, and so exaggerated an apprehension of the virtue of
+obedience, as to render it unfit for its higher ends." The uniform of
+the Jesuit is not an external garb, but such freedom is insignificant in
+the light of the "veritable strait-jacket," which is placed upon the
+inward man. The unformed and pliable novice, usually between the ages of
+sixteen and twenty, is subjected to "a skillful, energetic and
+unremitting assault upon personal independence." Every device that a
+shrewd and powerful intellect could conceive of is employed to break up
+the personal will. "The Jesuit scheme prescribes the gait, the way to
+hold the hands, to incline the head, to direct the eyes, to hold and
+move the person."
+
+Every novice must go through the "Spiritual Exercises" in complete
+solitude, twice in his life. They occupy thirty days. The "Account of
+the Conscience" is of the very essence of Jesuitism. The ordinary
+confession, familiar to every Catholic, is as nothing compared with this
+marvelous inquiry into the secrets of the human heart and mind. Every
+fault, sin, virtue, wish, design, act and thought,--good, bad or
+indifferent,--must be disclosed, and this revelation of the inner life
+may be used against him who makes it, "for the good of the order."
+Thus, after fifteen years of such ingenious and detailed discipline, the
+young man's intellectual and moral faculties are moulded into Jesuitical
+forms. He is no longer his own. He is a pliable and obedient, even
+though it may be a virtuous and brilliant, tool of a spiritual
+master-mechanic who will use him according to his own purposes, in the
+interest of the society.
+
+The Jesuits have signally failed to convince the world that the type of
+character produced by their system is worthy of admiration. The
+"sacrifice of the intellect"--a familiar watchword of the Jesuit--is far
+too high a price to pay for whatever benefits the discipline may confer.
+It is contrary to human nature, and hence to the divine intention, to
+keep a human soul in a state of subordination to another human will. As
+Von Hoensbroech says of the society: "Who gave it a right to break down
+that most precious possession of the individual being, which God gave,
+and which man has no authority to take away?"
+
+It is true that no human organization has so magnificently brought to
+perfection a unity of purpose and oneness of will. It is also true that
+a spirit of defiance toward human authority is often accompanied by a
+disobedience of divine law. But the remedy for the abuses of human
+freedom is neither in the annihilation of the will itself, nor in its
+mere subjection to some other will irrespective of its moral character.
+Carlyle may have been too vehement in some of his censures of Jesuitism,
+but he certainly exposed the fallaciousness of Loyola's views concerning
+the value of mere obedience, at the same time justly rebuking the too
+ardent admirers of the perverted principle: "I hear much also of
+'obedience,' how that and kindred virtues are prescribed and exemplified
+by Jesuitism; the truth of which, and the merit of which, far be it from
+me to deny.... Obedience is good and indispensable: but if it be
+obedience to what is wrong and false, good heavens, there is no name for
+such a depth of human cowardice and calamity, spurned everlastingly by
+the gods. Loyalty? Will you be loyal to Beelzebub? Will you 'make a
+covenant with Death and Hell'? I will not be loyal to Beelzebub; I will
+become a nomadic Choctaw rather, ... anything and everything is
+venial to that."
+
+
+
+_The Casuistry of the Jesuits_
+
+It is often asserted, even by authoritative writers, that a Jesuit is
+bound by his vows to commit either venial or mortal sin at the command
+of his superior; and that the maxim, "The end justifies the means," has
+not only been the principle upon which the society has prosecuted its
+work but is also explicitly taught in the rules of the order. There is
+nothing in the constitution of the society to justify these two serious
+charges, which are not to be regarded as malicious calumnies, however,
+because the slovenly Latin in one of the rules on obedience has misled
+such competent scholars as John Addington Symonds and the historian
+Ranke. Furthermore, judging from the doctrines of the society as set
+forth by many of their theologians and the political conduct of its
+representatives, the conclusion seems inevitable that while the society
+may not teach in its rules that its members are bound to obedience even
+to the point of sin, yet practically many of its leaders have so held
+and its emissaries have rendered that kind of obedience.
+
+Bishop Keane admits that one of the causes for the decline and overthrow
+of the society was its marked tendency toward lax moral teaching. There
+can be but little doubt that the Jesuits have ever been indulgent toward
+many forms of sin and even crime, when committed under certain
+circumstances and for the good of the order or "the greater glory
+of God."
+
+To enable the reader to form some sort of an independent judgment on
+this question, it is necessary to say a few words on the subject of
+casuistry and the doctrine of probabilism.
+
+Casuistry is the application of general moral rules to given cases,
+especially to doubtful ones. The medieval churchmen were much given to
+inventing fanciful moral distinctions and to prescribing rules to govern
+supposable problems of conscience. They were not willing to trust the
+individual conscience or to encourage personal responsibility. The
+individual was taught to lean his whole weight on his spiritual adviser,
+in other words, to make the conscience of the church his own. As a
+result there grew up a confused mass of precepts to guide the perplexed
+conscience. The Jesuits carried this system to its farthest extreme. As
+Charles C. Starbuck says: "They have heaped possibility upon possibility
+in their endeavors to make out how far there can be subjective innocence
+in objective error, until they have, in more than one fundamental point,
+hopelessly confused their own perceptions of both[H]."
+
+[Footnote H: Appendix, Note H.]
+
+The doctrine of probabilism is founded upon the distinctions between
+opinions that are sure, less sure, or more sure. There are several
+schools of probabilists, but the doctrine itself practically amounts to
+this: Since uncertainty attaches to many of our decisions in moral
+affairs, one must follow the more probable rule, but not always, cases
+often arising when it is permissible to follow a rule contrary to the
+more probable one. Furthermore, as the Jesuits made war upon individual
+authority, which was the key-note of the Reformation, and contended for
+the authority of the church, the teaching naturally followed, that the
+opinion of "a grave doctor" may be looked upon "as possessing a fair
+amount of probability, and may, therefore, be safely followed, even
+though one's conscience insist upon the opposite course." It is easy to
+see that this opens a convenient door to those who are seeking
+justification for conduct which their consciences condemn. No doubt one
+can find plausible excuses for the basest crimes, if he stills the voice
+of conscience and trusts himself to confusing sophistry. The glory of
+God, the gravity of circumstances, necessity, the good of the church or
+of the order, and numerous other practical reasons can be urged to
+remove scruples and make a bad act seem to be a good one. But crime,
+even "for the glory of God," is crime still.
+
+This disagreeable subject will not be pursued further. To say less than
+has been said would be to ignore one of the most prominent causes of the
+Jesuits' ruin. To say more than this, even though the facts might
+warrant it, would incur the liability of being classed among those
+malicious fomentors of religious strife, for whom the writer has mingled
+feelings of pity and contempt. The Society of Jesus is not the Roman
+Catholic Church, which has suffered much from the burden of
+Jesuitism--wounds that are scarcely atoned for by the meritorious and
+self-sacrificing services on her behalf in other directions. The
+Protestant foes have never equaled the Catholic opponents of Jesuitism,
+either in their fierce hatred of the system or in their ability to
+expose its essential weakness. A writer in the "Quarterly Review,"
+September, 1848, says: "Admiration and detestation of the Jesuits
+divide, as far as feeling is concerned, the Roman Catholic world, with a
+schism deeper and more implacable than any which arrays Protestant
+against Protestant."
+
+
+
+_The Mission of the Jesuits_
+
+The Society of Jesus has been described as "a naked sword, whose hilt is
+at Rome, and whose point is everywhere." It is an undisputed historical
+fact that Loyola's consuming passion was to accomplish the ruin of
+Protestantism, which had twenty years the start of him and was
+threatening the very existence of the Roman hierarchy. It has already
+been shown that the destruction of heresy was the chief aim of the
+Dominicans. What the friars failed to attain, Loyola attempted. The
+principal object of the Jesuits was the maintenance of papal authority.
+Even to-day the Jesuit does not hesitate to declare that his mission is
+to overthrow Protestantism. The Reformation was inspired by a new
+conception of individual freedom. The authority of tradition and of the
+church was set at naught. Loyola planted his system upon the doctrine of
+absolute submission to authority. The partial success of the Jesuits,
+for they did beat back the Reformation, is no doubt attributable to
+their fidelity, virtue and learning. Their devotion to the cause they
+loved, their willingness to sacrifice life itself, their marvelous and
+instantaneous obedience to the slightest command of their leaders, made
+them a compact and powerful papal army. Their methods, in many
+particulars, were not beyond question, and, whatever their character,
+the order certainly incurred the fiercest hostility of every nation in
+Europe, and even of the church itself.
+
+Professor Anton Gindely, in his "History of the Thirty Years' War,"
+shows that Maximilian, of Bavaria, and Ferdinand, of Austria, the
+leaders on the Catholic side, were educated by Jesuits. He also fixes
+the responsibility for that war partly upon them in the plainest terms:
+"In a word, they had the consciences of Roman Catholic sovereigns and
+their ministers in their hands as educators, and in their keeping as
+confessors. They led them in the direction of war, so that it was at the
+time, and has since been called the Jesuits' War."
+
+The strictures of Carlyle, Macaulay, Thackeray, and Lytton have been
+repeatedly denounced by the Jesuits, but even their shrewd, sophistical
+defences of their order afford ample justification for the attitude of
+their foes. For example, in a masterful oration, previously quoted from,
+in which the virtues of the Jesuits are extolled and defended, Father
+Sherman says: "We are expelled and driven from pillar to post because we
+teach men to love God." He describes Loyola as "the knightly, the loyal,
+the true, the father of heroes, and the maker of saints, the lover of
+the all-good and the all-beautiful, crowned with the honor of sainthood,
+the best-loved and the best-hated man in all the world, save only his
+Master and ours." "'Twas he that conceived the daring plan of forging
+the weapon to beat back the Reformation." No one but a Jesuit could
+reconcile the aim of "preaching the love of God" with "beating back the
+Reformation," especially in view of the methods employed.
+
+Numerous gross calumnies have been circulated against the Society of
+Jesus. The dread of a return to that deplorable intellectual and moral
+slavery of the pre-Reformation days is so intense, that a calm,
+dispassionate consideration of Jesuit history is almost impossible. But
+after all just concessions have been made, two indisputable facts
+confront the student: first, the universal antagonism to the order, of
+the church that gave birth to it, as well as of the states that have
+suffered from its meddling in political affairs; and second, the
+complete failure of the order's most cherished schemes. France, Germany,
+Switzerland, Spain, Great Britain and other nations, have been compelled
+in sheer self-defence to expel it from their territories. Such a
+significant fact needs some other explanation than that the Jesuit has
+incurred the enmity of the world merely for preaching the love of God.
+
+Clement XIV., when solemnly pronouncing the dissolution of the order, at
+the time his celebrated bull, entitled "_Dominus ac Redemptor Noster_"
+which was signed July 21, 1773, was made public, justified his action in
+the following terms: "Recognizing that the members of this society have
+not a little troubled the Christian commonwealth, and that for the
+welfare of Christendom it were better that the order should disappear,"
+etc. When Rome thus delivers her _ex cathedra_ opinion concerning her
+own order, an institution which she knows better than any one else, one
+cannot fairly be charged with prejudice and sectarianism in speaking
+evil of it.
+
+But while there is much to be detested in the methods of the order,
+history does not furnish another example of such self-abnegation and
+intense zeal as the Jesuits have shown in the prosecution of their aims.
+They planted missions in Japan, China, Africa, Ceylon, Madagascar, North
+and South America.
+
+In Europe the Mendicant friars by their coarseness had disgusted the
+upper classes; the affable and cultured Jesuit won their hearts. The
+Jesuits became chaplains in noble families, learned the secrets of every
+government in Europe, and became the best schoolmasters in the age. They
+were to be found in various disguises in every castle of note and in
+every palace. "There was no region of the globe," says Macaulay, "no
+walk of speculative or active life in which Jesuits were not to be
+found." That they were devoted to their cause no one can deny. They were
+careless of life and, as one facetiously adds, of truth also. They
+educated, heard confessions, plotted crimes and revolutions, and
+published whole libraries. Worn out by fatigue, the Jesuits still toiled
+on with marvelous zeal. Though hated and opposed, they wore serene and
+cheerful countenances. In a word, they had learned to control every
+faculty and every passion, and to merge every human aspiration and
+personal ambition into the one supreme purpose of conquering an opposing
+faith and exalting the power of priestly authority. They hold up before
+the subjects of the King of Heaven a wonderful example of loving and
+untiring service, which should be emulated by every servant of Christ
+who too often yields an indifferent obedience to Him whom he professes
+to love and to serve.
+
+Francis Parkman, in his brilliant narrative of "The Jesuits in North
+America," presents the following interesting contrast between the
+Puritan and the Jesuit: "To the mind of the Puritan, heaven was God's
+throne; but no less was the earth His footstool; and each in its degree
+and its kind had its demands on man. He held it a duty to labor and to
+multiply; and, building on the Old Testament quite as much as on the
+New, thought that a reward on earth as well as in heaven awaited those
+who were faithful to the law. Doubtless, such a belief is widely open to
+abuse, and it would be folly to pretend that it escaped abuse in New
+England; but there was in it an element manly, healthful and
+invigorating. On the other hand, those who shaped the character, and in
+a great measure the destiny, of New France had always on their lips the
+nothingness and the vanity of life. For them, time was nothing but a
+preparation for eternity, and the highest virtue consisted in a
+renunciation of all the cares, toils and interests of earth. That such a
+doctrine has often been joined to an intense worldliness, all history
+proclaims; but with this we have at present nothing to do. If all
+mankind acted on it in good faith, the world would sink into
+decrepitude. It is the monastic idea carried into the wide field of
+active life, and is like the error of those who, in their zeal to
+cultivate their higher nature, suffer the neglected body to dwindle and
+pine, till body and mind alike lapse into feebleness and disease."
+
+Notwithstanding the success of the Jesuits in stopping the progress of
+the Reformation, it may be truthfully said that they have failed. The
+principles of the Reformation dominate the world and are slowly
+modifying the Roman church in America. "In truth," says Macaulay, "if
+society continued to hold together, if life and property enjoyed any
+security, it was because common sense and common humanity restrained men
+from doing what the order of Jesus assured them they might with a safe
+conscience do." Our hope for the future progress of society lies in the
+guiding power of this same common sense and common humanity.
+
+The restoration of the order by Pius VII., August 7th, 1814, while it
+renewed the papal favor, did not allay the hostility of the civil
+powers. Various states have expelled them since that time, and wherever
+they labor, they are still the objects of open attack or ill-disguised
+suspicion. Although the order still shows "some quivering in fingers and
+toes," as Carlyle expresses it, the principles of the Reformation are
+too widely believed, and its benefits too deeply appreciated, to
+justify any hope or fear of the ultimate triumph of Jesuitism.
+
+
+
+_Retrospect_
+
+So the Christian monk has greatly changed since he first appeared in the
+deserts of Nitria, in Egypt. He has come from his den in the mountains
+to take his seat in parliaments, and find his home in palaces. He is no
+longer filthy in appearance, but elegant in dress and courtly in manner.
+He has exchanged his rags for jewels and silks. He is no longer the
+recluse of the lonely cliffs, chatting with the animals and gazing at
+the stars. He is a man of the world, with schemes of conquest filling
+his brain and a love of dominion ruling his heart. He is no longer a
+ditch-digger and a ploughman, but the proud master of councils or the
+cultured professor of the university. He still swears to the three vows
+of celibacy, poverty and obedience, but they do not mean the same thing
+to him that they did to the more ignorant, less cultured, but more
+genuinely frank monk of the desert. Yes, he has all but completely lost
+sight of his ancient monastic ideal. He professes the poverty of
+Christ, but he cannot follow even so simple a man as his Saint Francis.
+
+It is a long way from Jerome to Ignatius, but the end of the journey is
+nigh. Loyola is the last type of monastic life, or changing the figure,
+the last great leader in the conquered monastic army. The good within
+the system will survive, its truest exponents will still fire the
+courage and win the sympathy of the devout, but best of all, man will
+recover from its poison.
+
+
+
+VII
+
+_THE FALL OF THE MONASTERIES_
+
+The rise of Protestantism accelerated the decline and final ruin of the
+monasteries. The enthusiasm of the Mendicants and the culture of the
+Jesuits failed to convince the governments of Europe that monasticism
+was worthy to survive the destruction awaiting so many medieval
+institutions. The spread of reformatory opinions resulted in a
+determined and largely successful attack upon the monasteries, which
+were rightly believed to constitute the bulwark of papal power. So
+imperative were the popular demands for a change, that popes and
+councils hastened to urge the members of religious orders to abolish
+existing abuses by enforcing primitive rules. But while Rome practically
+failed in her attempted reformations, the Protestant reformers in church
+and state were widely successful in either curtailing the privileges
+and revenues of the monks or in annihilating the monasteries.
+
+Since the sixteenth century the leading governments of Europe, even
+including those in Catholic countries, have given tangible expression to
+popular and political antagonism to monasticism, by the abolition of
+convents, or the withdrawal of immunities and favors, for a long time a
+source of monastic revenue and power. The results of this hostility have
+been so disastrous, that monasticism has never regained its former
+prestige and influence. Several of the older orders have risen from the
+ruins, and a few new communities have appeared, some of which are
+distinguished by their most laudable ministrations to the poor and the
+sick, or by their educational services. Yet notwithstanding the
+modifications of the system to suit the exigencies of modern times, it
+seems altogether improbable that the monks will ever again wield the
+power they possessed before the Reformation,
+
+In the present chapter attention will be confined to the dissolution of
+the monasteries under Henry VIII., in England. The suppression in that
+country was occasioned partly by peculiar, local conditions, and was
+more radical and permanent than the reforms in other lands, yet it is
+entirely consistent with our general purpose to restrict this narrative
+to English history. Penetrating beneath the varying externalities
+attending the ruin of the monasteries in Germany, Spain, France,
+Switzerland, Italy, and other countries, it will be found that the
+underlying cause of the destruction of the monasteries was that the
+monastic ideal conflicted with the spirit of the modern era. A
+conspicuous and dramatic example of this struggle between medievalism,
+as embodied in the monastic institution, and modern political, social
+and religious ideals, is to be found in the dissolution of the English
+monasteries. The narrative of the suppression in England also conveys
+some idea of the struggle that was carried on throughout Europe, with
+varying intensity and results.
+
+There is no more striking illustration of the power of the personal
+equation in the interpretation of history than that afforded by the
+conflicting opinions respecting the overthrow of monasticism in England.
+Those who mourn the loss of the monasteries cannot find words strong
+enough with which to condemn Henry VIII., whom they regard as
+"unquestionably the most unconstitutional, the most vicious king that
+ever wore the English crown." Forgetting the inevitable cost of human
+freedom, and lightly passing over the iniquities of the monastic system,
+they fondly dwell upon the departed glory of the ancient abbeys. They
+recall with sadness the days when the monks chanted their songs of
+praise in the chapels, or reverently bent over their books of parchment,
+bound in purple and gold, not that they might "winnow the treasures of
+knowledge, but that they might elicit love, compunction and devotion."
+The charming simplicity and loving service of the cloister life, in the
+days of its unbroken vows, appeal to such defenders of the monks with
+singular potency.
+
+Truly, the fair-minded should attempt to appreciate the sorrow, the
+indignation and the love of these friends of a ruined institution.
+Passionless logic will never enable one to do justice to the sentiments
+of those who cannot restrain their tears as they stand uncovered before
+the majestic remains of a Melrose Abbey, or properly to estimate the
+motives and methods of those who laid the mighty monastic institution
+in the dust.
+
+
+
+_The Character of Henry VIII_
+
+Before considering the actual work of suppression, it may be interesting
+to glance at the royal destroyer and his times. The character of Henry
+VIII. is utterly inexplicable to many persons, chiefly because they do
+not reflect that even the inconsistencies of a great man may be
+understood when seen in the light of his times. A masterly and
+comprehensive summary of the virtues and vices of the Tudor monarch, who
+has been described as "the king, the whole king, and nothing but the
+king," may be found in "A History of Crime in England," by Luke Owen
+Pike. The distinguished author shows that in his brutality, his love of
+letters, his opposition to Luther, his vacillation in religious
+opinions, King Henry reflects with remarkable fidelity the age in which
+he lived, both in its contrasts and its inconsistencies. "It is only the
+previous history of England which can explain all the contradictions
+exhibited in his conduct,--which can explain how he could be rapacious
+yet sometimes generous, the Defender of the Faith yet under sentence of
+excommunication, a burner of heretics yet a heretic himself, the pope's
+advocate yet the pope's greatest enemy, a bloodthirsty tyrant yet the
+best friend to liberty of thought in religion, an enthusiast yet a
+turncoat, a libertine and yet all but a Puritan. He was sensual because
+his forefathers had been sensual from time immemorial, rough in speech
+and action because there had been but few men in Britain who had been
+otherwise since the Romans abandoned the island. He was superstitious
+and credulous because few were philosophical or gifted with intellectual
+courage. Yet he had, what was possessed by his contemporaries, a faint
+and intermittent thirst for knowledge, of which he himself hardly knew
+the meaning." Henry was shrewd, tenacious of purpose, capricious and
+versatile. In spite of his unrestrained indulgences and his monstrous
+claims of power, which, be it remembered, he was able to enforce, and
+notwithstanding any other vices or faults that may be truthfully charged
+against him, he was, on the whole, a popular king. Few monarchs have
+ever had to bear such a strain as was placed upon his abilities and
+character. Rare have been the periods that have witnessed such
+confusion of principles, social, political and religious. Those were the
+days when liberty was at work, "but in a hundred fantastical and
+repulsive shapes, confused and convulsive, multiform, deformed." Blind
+violence and half-way reforms characterized the age because the
+principles that were to govern modern times were not yet formulated.
+
+Judged apart from his times Henry appears as an arrogant, cruel and
+fickle ruler, whose virtues fail to atone for his vices. But still, with
+all his faults, he compares favorably with preceding monarchs and even
+with his contemporaries. If he had possessed less intelligence, courage
+and ambition, he would not now be so conspicuous for his vices, but the
+history of human liberty and free institutions, especially in England,
+would have been vastly different. His praiseworthy traits were not
+sufficiently strong to enable him to control his inherited passions, but
+they were too regnant to permit him to submit without a struggle to the
+hierarchy which had dominated his country so many centuries. Such was
+
+                "the majestic lord,
+     That broke the bonds of Rome."
+
+
+
+_Events Preceding the Suppression_
+
+Many causes and incidents contributed to the progress of the reformation
+in England, and to the demolition of the monasteries. Only a few of them
+can be given here, and they must be stated with a brevity that conveys
+no adequate conception of their profound significance.
+
+Henry VIII. ascended the throne, in the year 1509, when eighteen years
+of age. In 1517, Luther took his stand against Rome. Four years later
+Henry wrote a treatise in defence of the Seven Sacraments and in
+opposition to the German reformer. For this princely service to the
+church the king received the title "Defender of the Faith" from Pope
+Leo X.
+
+About 1527 it became known that Henry was questioning the validity of
+his marriage with Catharine of Aragon, whom he had married when he was
+twelve years old. She was the widow of his brother Arthur. The king
+professed conscientious scruples about his marriage, but undoubtedly his
+desire for male offspring, and later, his passion for Anne Boleyn,
+prompted him to seek release from his queen. In 1529, Henry and
+Catharine stood before a papal tribunal, presided over by Cardinal
+Wolsey, the king's prime minister, and Cardinal Campeggio, from Rome,
+for the purpose of determining the validity of the royal marriage. The
+trial was a farce. The enraged king laid the blame upon Wolsey, and
+retired him from office. The great cardinal was afterwards charged with
+treason, but died broken-hearted, on his way to the Tower, November
+29, 1530.
+
+The breach between Henry and Rome, complicated by numerous international
+intrigues, widened rapidly. Henry began to assume an attitude of bold
+defiance toward the pope, which aroused the animosity of the Catholic
+princes of Europe.
+
+Notwithstanding the desire of a large body of the English people to
+remain faithful to Rome, the dangers which menaced their country from
+abroad and the ecclesiastical abuses at home, which had been a fruitful
+cause for complaint for many years, tended to lessen the ancient horror
+of heresy and schism, and inclined them to support their king. Another
+factor that assisted in preparing the English people for the
+destruction of the monasteries was Lollardism. As an organized sect, the
+Lollards had ceased to exist, but the spirit and the doctrines of Wyclif
+did not die. A real and a vital connection existed between the Lollards
+of the fourteenth, and the reformers of the sixteenth, centuries. In
+Henry's time, many Englishmen held practically the same views of Rome
+and of the monks that had been taught by Wyclif[I].
+
+[Footnote I: Appendix, Note I.]
+
+A considerable number of Henry's subjects, however, while ostensibly
+loyal to him, were inwardly full of hot rebellion. The king was
+surrounded with perils. The princes of the Continent were eagerly
+awaiting the bull for his excommunication. Henry's throne and his
+kingdom might at any moment be given over by the pope to invasion by the
+continental sovereigns.
+
+Reginald Pole, afterwards cardinal, a cousin of the king, and a strong
+Catholic, stood ready to betray the interests of his country to Rome.
+Writing to the king, he said: "Man is against you; God is against you;
+the universe is against you; what can you look for but destruction?"
+"Dream not, Caesar," he encouragingly declared to Emperor Charles V.,
+"that all generous hearts are quenched in England; that faith and piety
+are dead. In you is their trust, in your noble nature, and in your zeal
+for God--they hold their land till you shall come." Thus, on the
+testimony of a Roman Catholic, there were traitors in England waiting
+only for the call of Charles V., "To arms!" Pole was in full sympathy
+with all the factions opposed to the king, and stood ready to aid them
+in their resistance. He publicly denounced the king in several
+continental countries.
+
+The monks were especially enraged against Henry. They did all they could
+to inflame the people by preaching against him and the reformers. Friar
+Peyto, preaching before the king, had the assurance to say to him: "Many
+lying prophets have deceived you, but I, as a true Micah, warn you that
+the dogs will lick your blood as they did Ahab's." While the courage of
+this friar is unquestioned, his defiant attitude illustrates the
+position occupied by the monks toward those who favored separation from
+Rome. The whole country was at white heat. The friends of Rome looked
+upon Henry as an incarnate fiend, a servant of the devil and an enemy
+of all religion. Many of them opposed him with the purest and best
+motives, believing that the king was really undermining the church of
+God and throwing society into chaos.
+
+In 1531, the English clergy were coerced into declaring that Henry was
+"the protector and the supreme head of the church and of the clergy of
+England," which absurd claim was slightly modified by the words, "in so
+far as is permitted by the law of Christ." Chapuys, in one of his
+despatches informing Charles V. of this action of convocation, said that
+it practically declared Henry the Pope of England. "It is true," he
+wrote, "that the clergy have added to the declaration that they did so
+only so far as permitted by the law of God. But that is all the same, as
+far as the king is concerned, as if they had made no reservation, for no
+one will now be so bold as to contest with his lord the importance of
+the reservation." Later on, Chapuys says that the king told the pope's
+nuncio that "if the pope would not show him more consideration, he would
+show the world that the pope had no greater authority than Moses, and
+that every claim not grounded on Scripture was mere usurpation; that
+the great concourse of people present had come solely and exclusively to
+request him to bastinado the clergy, who were hated by both nobles and
+the people." ("Spanish Despatches," number 460.)
+
+Parliament, in 1534, conferred on Henry the title "Supreme Head of the
+Church of England," and empowered him "to visit, and repress, redress,
+reform, order, correct, restrain, or amend all errors, heresies, abuses,
+offences, contempts, and enormities, which fell under any spiritual
+authority or jurisdiction." The "Act of Succession" was also passed by
+Parliament, cutting off Princess Mary and requiring all subjects to take
+an oath of allegiance to Elizabeth.
+
+It was now an act of treason to deny the king's supremacy. All persons
+suspected of disloyalty were required to sign an oath of allegiance to
+Henry, and to Elizabeth as his successor, and to acknowledge the
+supremacy of the king in church and state. This resulted in the death of
+some prominent men in the realm, among them Sir Thomas More. In the
+preamble of the oath prescribed by law, the legality of the king's
+marriage with Anne was asserted, thus implying that his former marriage
+with Catharine was unlawful. More was willing to declare his allegiance
+to the infant Elizabeth, as the king's successor, but his conscience
+would not permit him to affirm that Catharine's marriage was unlawful.
+
+The life of the brilliant and lovable More is another illustration of
+the mental confusions and inconsistencies of that age. As an apostle of
+culture he favored the new learning, and yet he viewed the gathering
+momentum of reformatory principles with alarm, and cast in his lot with
+the ultra-conservatives. Four years of his young manhood were spent in a
+monastery. He devoted his splendid talents to a criticism of English
+society, and recommended freedom of conscience, yet he became an ardent
+foe of reform and even a persecutor of heretics, of whom he said: "I do
+so detest that class of men that, unless they repent, I am the worst
+enemy they have." When a man, whom even Protestant historians hasten to
+pronounce "the glory of his age," so magnificent were his talents and so
+blameless his character, was tainted with superstition, and sanctioned
+the persecution of liberal thinkers, is it remarkable that inferior
+intellects should have been swayed by the brutality and tyranny of
+the times?
+
+The unparalleled claims of Henry and his attitude toward the pope made
+the breach between England and Rome complete, but many years of painful
+internal strife and bloodshed were to elapse before the whole nation
+submitted to the new order of things, and before that subjective freedom
+from fear and superstition without which formal freedom has little
+value, was secured.
+
+The breach with Rome was essential to the attainment of that religious
+and political freedom that England now enjoys. But the first step toward
+making that separation an accomplished fact, acquiesced in by the people
+as a whole, was to break the power of the monastic orders. It may
+possibly be true that the same ends would have been eventually attained
+by trusting to the slower processes of social evolution, but the history
+of the Latin nations of Europe would seem to prove the contrary. As the
+facts stand it would appear that peace and progress were impossible with
+thousands of monks sowing seeds of discord, and employing every measure,
+fair or foul, to win the country back to Rome. Gairdner and others
+argue that Henry was far too powerful a king to have been successfully
+resisted by the pope, unless the pope was backed by a union of the
+Christian princes, which was then impracticable. That fact may make the
+execution of More, Fisher and the Charterhouse monks inexcusable, but it
+by no means proves that Henry would have been strong enough to maintain
+his position if the monasteries had been permitted to exist as centers
+of organized opposition to his will. Many of the monks, when pressed by
+the king's agents, took the oath of allegiance. Threats, bribes and
+violence were used to overcome the opposition of the unwilling.
+
+
+
+_The Monks and the Oath of Supremacy_
+
+It is quite evident that the king's purpose to destroy the whole
+monastic institution was partly the result of the determined resistance
+which the monks offered to his authority. The contest between the king
+and the monks was exceedingly fierce and bloody. Many good men lost
+their lives and many innocent persons suffered grievously. Perhaps the
+most pathetic incident in the sanguinary struggle between the king and
+the monks was the tragic fall of the Charterhouse of London. The facts
+are given at length by Froude, in his "History of England," who bases
+his account on the narrative of Maurice Channey, one of the monks who
+escaped death by yielding to the king. The unhappy monk confesses that
+he was a Judas among the apostles, and in a touching account of the ruin
+that came upon his monastic retreat he praises the boldness and fidelity
+of his companions, who preferred death to what seemed to them dishonor.
+
+The pages of Channey are filled with the most improbable stories of
+miracles, but his charming picture of the cloister life of the
+Carthusians is doubtless true to reality. The Carthusian fathers were
+the best fruit of monasticism in England. To a higher degree than any of
+the other monastic orders they maintained a good discipline and
+preserved the spirit of their founders. "A thousand years of the world's
+history had rolled by," says Froude, "and these lonely islands of prayer
+had remained still anchored in the stream; the strands of the ropes
+which held them, wearing now to a thread, and very near their last
+parting, but still unbroken." In view of the undisputed purity and
+fearlessness of these noble monks, a recital of their woes will place
+the case for the monastic institution in the most favorable light.
+
+Channey says the year 1533 was ushered in with signs,--the end of the
+world was nigh. Yes, the monk's world was drawing to a close; the moon,
+for him, was turning into blood, and the stars falling from heaven.
+
+More and Fisher were in the Tower. The former's splendid talents and
+noble character still swayed the people. It was no time for trifling;
+the Carthusian fathers must take the oath of allegiance or perish. So
+one morning the royal commissioners appeared before the monastery door
+of the Charterhouse to demand submission. Prior Houghton answered them:
+"I know nothing of the matter mentioned; I am unacquainted with the
+world without; my office is to minister to God, and to save poor souls
+from Satan." He was committed to the Tower for one month. Then Dr.
+Bonner persuaded the prior to sign with "certain reservations." He was
+released and went back to his cloister-cell to weep. Calling his monks
+together he said he was sorry; it looked like deceit, but he desired to
+save his brethren and their order. The commissioners returned; the monks
+were under suspicion; the reservations were disliked, and they must sign
+without conditions. In great consternation the prior assembled the
+monks. All present cried out: "Let us die together in our integrity, and
+heaven and earth shall witness for us how unjustly we are cut off."
+Prior Houghton conceived a generous idea. "If it depends on me alone; if
+my oath will suffice for the house, I will throw myself on the mercy of
+God; I will make myself anathema, and to preserve you from these
+dangers, I will consent to the king's will." Thus did the noble old man
+consent to go into heaven with a lie on his conscience, hoping to escape
+by the mercy of God, because he sought to save the lives of his
+brethren. But all this was of no avail; Cromwell had determined that
+this monastery must fall, and fall it did. The monks prepared for their
+end calmly and nobly; beginning with the oldest brother, they knelt
+before each other and begged forgiveness for all unkindness and offence.
+"Not less deserving," says Froude, "the everlasting remembrances of
+mankind, than those three hundred, who, in the summer morning, sate
+combing their golden hair in the passes of Thermopylae." But rebellion
+was blazing in Ireland, and the enemies of the king were praying and
+plotting for his ruin. These monks, with More and Fisher, were an
+inspiration to the enemies of liberty and the kingdom. Catholic Europe
+crouched like a tiger ready to spring on her prostrate foe. It is sad,
+but these recluses, praying for the pope, instilling a love for the
+papacy in the confessional, these honest and conscientious but dangerous
+men must be shorn of their power to encourage rebels. There was a farce
+of a trial. Houghton was brought to the scaffold and died protesting his
+innocence. His arm was cut off and hung over the archway of the
+Charterhouse, as other arms and heads were hideously hanging over many a
+monastic gate in Merry England. Nine of the monks died of prison fever,
+and others were banished. The king's court went into mourning, and Henry
+knotted his beard and henceforth would be no more shaven--eloquent
+evidence to the world that whatever motive dominated the king's heart,
+these bloody deeds were unpleasantly disturbing. Certainly such a
+spectacle as that of a monk's arm nailed to a monastery was never seen
+by Englishmen before.
+
+The Charterhouse fell, let it be carefully noted, because the monks
+could not and would not acknowledge the king's supremacy, and not
+because the monks were immoral. Some spies in Cromwell's service offered
+to, bring in evidence against six of these monks of "laziness and
+immorality." Cromwell indignantly refused the proposal, saying, "He
+would not hear the accusation; that it was false, wilfully so."
+
+The news of these proceedings, and of the beheading of More and Fisher,
+awakened the most violent rage throughout Catholic Europe. Henry was
+denounced as the Nero of his times. Paul III. immediately excommunicated
+the king, dissolved all leagues between Henry and the Catholic princes,
+and gave his kingdom to any invader. All Catholic subjects were ordered
+to take up arms against him. Although these censures were passed, the
+pope decided to defer their publication, hoping for a peaceful
+settlement. But Henry knew, and the Catholic princes of Europe knew,
+that the blow might fall at any time. He had to make up his mind to go
+further or to yield unconditionally to the pope. The world soon
+discovered the temper of the enraged and stubborn monarch. He might
+vacillate on speculative questions, but there were no tokens of feeble
+hesitancy in his dealings with Rome. The hour of doom for the
+monasteries had struck.
+
+Having thus glanced at the character of Henry VIII., the prime mover in
+the attack upon the monasteries, and having surveyed some of the events
+leading up to their fall, we are now prepared to consider the actual
+work of suppression, which will be described under the following heads:
+First, The royal commissioners and their methods of investigation;
+Second, The commissioners' report on the condition of affairs; Third,
+The action of Parliament; Fourth, The effect of the suppression upon the
+people; and Fifth, The use Henry made of the monastic possessions. These
+matters having been set forth, it will then be in order to inquire into
+the justification, real or alleged, of the suppression.
+
+
+
+_The Royal Commissioners and Their Methods of Investigation_
+
+The fall of Sir Thomas More left Thomas Cromwell the chief power under
+the king, and for seven years he devoted his great administrative
+abilities to making his royal patron absolute ruler in church and state.
+
+Cromwell, Earl of Essex, was of lowly origin, but his energy and
+shrewdness, together with the experience acquired by extensive travels,
+commanded the attention of Cardinal Wolsey, who took him into his
+service. He was successively merchant, scrivener, money-lender, lawyer,
+member of parliament, master of jewels, chancellor, master of rolls,
+secretary of state, vicar-general in ecclesiastical affairs, lord privy
+seal, dean of Wells and high chamberlain.
+
+Close intimacy with Wolsey enabled Cromwell to grasp the full
+significance of Henry's ambition, and his desire to please his royal
+master, coupled with his own love of power, prompted him to throw
+himself with characteristic energy into the work of centralizing all
+authority in the hands of the king and of his prime minister. In secular
+affairs, this had already been accomplished. The task before him was to
+subdue the church to the throne, to execute which he became the
+protector of Protestantism and the foe of Rome. Green says: "He had an
+absolute faith in the end he was pursuing, and he simply hews his way to
+it, as a woodman hews his way through the forest, axe in hand." Froude
+says: "To him ever belonged the rare privilege of genius to see what
+other men could not see, and therefore he was condemned to rule a
+generation which hated him, to do the will of God and to perish in his
+success. He pursued an object, the excellence of which, as his mind saw
+it, transcended all other considerations, the freedom of England and the
+destruction of idolatry, and those who, from any motive, noble or base,
+pious or impious, crossed his path, he crushed and passed on over
+their bodies."
+
+There seems to be a general agreement that Cromwell was not a
+Protestant. His struggle against the temporal power of the pope fostered
+the reformatory movement, but that did not make Cromwell a Protestant
+any more than it did his master, Henry VIII. Foxe describes Cromwell "as
+a valiant soldier and captain of Christ," but Maitland retorts "that
+Foxe forgot, if he ever knew, who was the father of lies."
+
+Without doubt Cromwell ruled with an iron hand. He was guilty of
+accepting bribes, and, as some maintain, "was the great patron of
+ribaldry, and the protector of the low jester and the filthy." But,
+sadly enough, that is no serious charge against one in his times. It is
+said that Henry used to say, when a knave was dealt to him in a game of
+cards, "Ah, I have a Cromwell!" Francis Aidan Gasquet, a Benedictine
+monk, in his valuable work on "Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries,"
+says of Cromwell: "No single minister in England ever exercised such
+extensive authority, none ever rose so rapidly, and no one has ever left
+behind him a name covered with greater infamy and disgrace."
+
+In 1535, Henry, as supreme head of the church, appointed Cromwell as his
+"Vicegerent, Vicar-General and Principal Commissary in causes
+ecclesiastical." His immediate duty was to enforce recognition of the
+king's supremacy. The monks and the clergy were now to be coerced into
+submission. A royal commission, consisting of Legh, Layton, Ap Rice,
+London and various subordinates, was appointed to visit the monasteries
+and to report on their condition.
+
+Henry Griffin says in his chronicle: "I was well acquainted with all the
+commissioners; indeed I knew them well; they were very smart men, who
+understood the value of money, for they had tasted of adversity. I think
+the priests were the worst of the whole party, although they had a good
+reputation at the time, but they were wicked, deceitful men. I am sorry
+to speak thus of my own order, but I speak God's truth." "It is a
+dreadful undertaking," said Lord Clinton. "Ah! but I have great faith in
+the tact and judgment of the men I am about to select,"
+retorted Cromwell.
+
+Dr. John London was a base tool of Cromwell, and a miserable exponent of
+the reform movement. He joined Gardiner in burning heretics, was
+convicted of adultery at Oxford, was pilloried for perjury and died in
+jail. The other royal agents were also questionable characters. Dean
+Layton wrote the most disgusting letters to Cromwell. Once he informed
+his patron that he prayed regularly for him, prefacing this information
+with the remark, "I will now tell you something to make you laugh."
+
+Father Gasquet sums up his view of the commissioners in the words of
+Edmund Burke: "It is not with much credulity that I listen to any when
+they speak ill of those whom they are going to plunder. I rather suspect
+that vices are feigned, or exaggerated, when profit is looked for in the
+punishment--an enemy is a bad witness; a robber worse." Burke
+indignantly declares: "The inquiry into the moral character of the
+religious houses was a mere pretext, a complete delusion, an insidious
+and predetermined foray of wholesale and heartless plunder."
+
+Such are the protests from the defenders of the monasteries even before
+a hearing is granted. "What," say they, "believe such perjurers,
+adulterers and gamblers; men forsworn to bring in a bad report; men who
+were selected because they were worthless characters who could be
+relied on to return false charges against an institution loved by
+the people?"
+
+The commissioners began their work at Oxford, in September, 1535. The
+work was vigorously pushed. On reaching the door of a monastery, they
+demanded admittance; if it was not granted, they entered by breaking
+down the gate with an axe. They then summoned the monks before them, and
+plied them with questions. An inventory was taken of everything; nothing
+escaped their searching eyes. When the king decided to suppress the
+lesser monasteries, and ordered a new visitation of the larger ones,
+they seized and sold all they could lay their hands on; "stained glass,
+ironwork, bells, altar-cloths, candles, books, beads, images, capes,
+brewing-tubs, brass bolts, spits for cooking, kitchen utensils, plates,
+basins, all were turned into money." Many valuable books were destroyed;
+jewels and gold and silver clasps were torn from old volumes, and the
+paper sold as waste; parchment manuscripts were used to scour tubs and
+grease boots. Out of the wreck about a hundred and thirty thousand
+manuscripts have been saved. It must be admitted that the commissioners
+were not delicate in their labors; that they insulted many nuns, robbed
+the monks, violated the laws of decency and humanity, and needlessly
+excited the rage of the people and outraged the religious sentiments of
+the Catholics. They even used sacred altar-cloths for blankets on their
+horses, and rode across the country decorated in priestly and monkish
+garments. There seems to be some ground for the statement that Henry was
+ignorant, or at least not fully informed, of their unwarranted violence
+and gross sacrilege. The abbey of Glastonbury was one of the oldest and
+finest cloisters in England. It was a majestic pile of buildings in the
+midst of gardens and groves covering sixty acres; its aisles were vocal
+with the chanting of monks, who marched in gorgeous processions among
+the tall, gray pillars. The exterior of the buildings was profusely
+decorated with sculpture; monarchs, temple knights, mitered abbots,
+martyrs and apostles stood for centuries in their niches of stone while
+princes came and passed away, while kingdoms rose and fell. The nobles
+and bishops of the realm were laid to rest beneath the altars around
+which many generations of monks had assembled to praise and to pray. The
+royal commissioners one day appeared before the walls. The abbot,
+Richard Whiting, who was then eighty-four years of age, was at
+Sharphorn, another residence of the community. He was brought back and
+questioned. At night when he was in bed, they searched his study for
+letters and books, and they claimed to have found a manuscript of
+Whiting's arguments against the divorce of the king and Queen Catharine;
+it had never been published; they did not know whether the venerable
+abbot had such intent or not. Stephen declares the spies themselves
+brought the book into the library. However, the abbot was chained to a
+cart and taken to London. The abbey had immense wealth; every Wednesday
+and Friday it fed and lodged three hundred boys; it was esteemed very
+highly in the neighborhood and received large donations from the knights
+in the vicinity. The abbot was accused of treason for concealing the
+sacred vessels; he was old, deaf, and sick, but was allowed no counsel.
+He asked permission to take leave of his monks, and many little
+orphans; Russell and Layton only laughed. The people heard of his
+captivity and determined "to deliver or avenge" their favorite, but
+Russell hanged half a dozen of them and declared that "law, order and
+loyalty were vindicated." Whiting's body was quartered, and the pieces
+sent to Wells, Bath, Chester and Bridgewater, while his head, adorned
+with his gray hairs clotted by blood, was hung over the abbey gate.
+
+
+
+_The Report of the Commissioners_
+
+The original report of the commissioners does not exist. Burnet declares
+that he saw an extract from it, concerning one hundred and forty-four
+houses, which contained the most revolting revelations. Many of the
+commissioners' letters and various documents touching the suppression
+have been collected and published by the Camden Society. Waiving, for
+the present, the inquiry into the truth of the report, it was in
+substance as follows:
+
+The commissioners reported about one-third of the houses to be fairly
+well conducted, some of them models of excellent management and pure
+living; but the other two-thirds were charged with looseness beyond
+description. The number of inmates in some cloisters was kept below the
+required number, that there might be more money to divide among the
+monks. The number of servants sometimes exceeded that of the monks.
+Abbots bought and sold land in a fraudulent manner; gifts for
+hospitality were misapplied; licentiousness, gaming and drinking
+prevailed extensively. Crime and absolution for gold went hand in hand.
+One friar was said to have been the proud father of an illegitimate
+family of children, but he had in his possession a forged license from
+the pope, who permitted his wandering, "considering his frailty."
+Froude, in commenting upon the report, says: "If I were to tell the
+truth, I should have first to warn all modest eyes to close the book and
+read no farther."
+
+All sorts of pious frauds were revealed. At Hales the monks claimed to
+have the blood of Christ brought from Jerusalem, and not visible to
+anyone in mortal sin until he had performed good works, or, in other
+words, paid enough for his absolution. Two monks took the blood of a
+duck, which they renewed every week; this they put into a phial, one
+side of which consisted of a thin, transparent crystal; the other thick
+and opaque; the dark side was shown until the sinner's gold was
+exhausted, when, presto! change, the blood appeared by turning the other
+side of the phial. Innumerable toe-parings, bones, pieces of skin, three
+heads of St. Ursula, and other anatomical relics of departed saints,
+were said to cure every disease known to man. They had relics that could
+drive away plagues, give rain, hinder weeds, and in fact, render the
+natural world the plaything of decaying bones and shreds of dried skin.
+The monks of Reading had an angel with one wing, who had preserved the
+spear with which our Lord was pierced. Abbots were found to have
+concubines in or near the monasteries; midnight revels and drunken
+feasts were pleasant pastimes for monks weary with prayers and fasting.
+While it would be unjust to argue that the existence of "pious frauds"
+affords a justification for the suppression of the monasteries, it must
+be remembered that they constituted one element in that condition of
+ecclesiastical life that was becoming repugnant to the English people.
+For several generations there had been a marked growth in the hostility
+toward various forms of superstition. True, neither Henry nor Cromwell
+can be accredited with the lofty intention of exterminating
+superstition, but the attitude of many people toward "pious frauds"
+helped to reconcile them to the destruction of the monasteries.
+
+
+
+_The Action of Parliament_
+
+The report of the commissioners was laid before Parliament in 1536. As
+it declared that the smaller monasteries were more corrupt than the
+larger ones, Parliament ordered the suppression of all those houses
+whose revenues were less than two hundred pounds per annum. By this act,
+three hundred and seventy-six houses were suppressed, whose aggregate
+revenue was thirty-two thousand pounds yearly. Movable property valued
+at about one hundred thousand pounds was also handed over to the "Court
+of Augmentations of the King's Revenue," which was established to take
+care of the estates, revenues and other possessions of the monasteries.
+It is claimed that ten thousand monks and nuns were turned out into the
+world, to find bed and board as best they could. In 1538, two years
+later, the greater monasteries met a similar fate, which was no doubt
+hastened by the rebellions that followed the abolition of the smaller
+houses. Many of the abbots and monks were suspected of aiding in the
+rebellion against the king's authority by inciting the people to take up
+arms against him. Apprehending the coming doom, many abbots resigned;
+others were overcome by threats and yielded without a struggle. In many
+instances such monks received pensions varying from fifty-three
+shillings and four pence to four pounds a year. The investigations were
+constantly carried on, and all the foul stories that could be gathered
+were given to the people, to secure their approval of the king's action.
+With remorseless zeal the king and his commissioners, supported by
+various acts of parliament, persevered in their work of destruction,
+until even the monastic hospitals, chantries, free chapels and
+collegiate churches, fell into the king's hands. By the year 1545, the
+ruin was complete. The monastic institution of England was no more. The
+total number of monasteries suppressed is variously estimated, but the
+following figures are approximately correct: monasteries, 616; colleges,
+90; free chapels, 2,374; and hospitals, 110. The annual income was about
+one hundred and fifty thousand pounds, which was a smaller sum than was
+then believed to be in the control of the monks. Nearly fifty thousand
+persons were driven from the houses, to foment the discontent and to
+arouse the pity of the people. Such, in brief, was the extent of the
+suppression, but a little reflection will show that these statements of
+cold facts convey no conception of the confusion and sorrow that must
+have accompanied this terrific and wholesale assault upon an institution
+that had been accumulating its possessions for eight hundred years. At
+this distance from those tragic events, it is impossible to realize the
+dismay of those who stood aghast at this ruthless destruction of such
+venerable establishments.
+
+
+
+_The Effect of the Suppression Upon the People_
+
+For months the country had seen what was coming; letters from abbots and
+priors poured in upon the king and parliament, begging them to spare the
+ancient strongholds of religion. The churchmen argued: "If he plunders
+the monasteries, will not his next step be to plunder the churches?"
+They recalled what Sir Thomas More had said of their sovereign: "It is
+true, his majesty is very gracious with me, but if only my head would
+give him another castle in France, it would not be long before it
+disappeared." Sympathy for the monks, an inborn conservatism, a natural
+love for ancient institutions, a religious dread of trampling upon that
+which was held sacred by the church, a secret antipathy to reform, all
+these and other forces were against the suppression. But the report of
+the visitors was appalling, and the fear of the king's displeasure was
+widespread; so the bill was passed amid mingled feelings of joy,
+sympathy, hatred, fear, anxiety and uncertainty. The bishops were
+sullen; Latimer was disappointed, for he wanted the church to have
+the proceeds.
+
+Outside of Parliament there was much discontent among the nobles and
+gentry of Roman tendencies. Even the indifferent felt bitter against the
+king, because it seemed unjust that the monks, who had been sheltered,
+honored and enriched by the people, should be so rudely and so suddenly
+turned out of their possessions. A dangerously large portion of the
+people felt themselves insulted and outraged. At first, however, there
+were few who dared to voice their protests. "As the royal policy
+disclosed itself," says Green, "as the monarchy trampled under foot the
+tradition and reverence of ages gone by, as its figure rose, bare and
+terrible, out of the wreck of old institutions, England simply held her
+breath. It is only through the stray depositions of royal spies that we
+catch a glimpse of the wrath and hate which lay seething under the
+silence of the people." That silence was a silence of terror. To use the
+figure by which Erasmus describes the time, men felt "as if a scorpion
+lay sleeping under every stone." They stopped writing, gossiping, going
+to confession, and sending presents for the most thoughtless word or
+deed might be tortured into treason against the king by the command
+of Cromwell.
+
+The rebellion which followed the first attack upon the monasteries was
+not caused wholly by religious sentiments. The nobles regarded Cromwell
+as a base-born usurper and yearned for his fall, while the clergy felt
+outraged by his monstrous claims of authority in ecclesiastical affairs.
+In a sense the conflict that ensued was but a continuation of the
+long-standing struggle between the king, the barons, and the clergy for
+the supreme power. From the reign of Edward I., the people had commenced
+to assert their rights and the struggle had become a four-sided one.
+
+These four factions were constantly shifting their allegiance, according
+to the varying conditions, and guided by their changing interests. At
+this time, the clergy, the nobles and the people in northern England,
+particularly, combined against the king, although the alliance was not
+formidable enough to overcome the forces supporting the king.
+
+The secular clergy felt that they were disgraced and coerced into
+submission. They felt their revenues, their honors, their powers, their
+glory, slipping away from them; they joined their mutterings and
+discontent with that of the monks, and then the fires of the rebellion
+blazed forth in the north, where the monasteries were more popular than
+in any other part of England.
+
+The first outbreak occurred in Lincolnshire, in the autumn of 1536. It
+was easily and quickly suppressed. But another uprising in Yorkshire, in
+northern England, followed immediately, and for a time threatened
+serious consequences. Some of the best families in that part of the
+country joined the revolt, although it is noteworthy that these same
+families were afterwards Protestant and Puritan; the rebel army numbered
+about forty thousand men, well equipped for service. Many prominent
+abbots and sixteen hundred monks were in the ranks. The masses were
+bound by oath "to stand together for the love which they bore to
+Almighty God, His faith, the Holy Church, and the maintenance thereof;
+to the preservation of the king's person and his issue; to the purifying
+of the nobility, and to expel all villein blood and evil counsellors
+from the king's presence; not from any private profit, nor to do his
+pleasure to any private person, nor to slay or murder through envy, but
+for the restitution of the Church, and the suppression of heretics and
+their opinions." It is clear, from the language of the oath, that the
+rebels aimed their blows at Cromwell. The secular clergy hated him
+because he had shorn them of their power; the monks hated him because he
+had turned them out of their cloisters, and clergy and people loathed
+him as a maintainer of heresy, a low-born foe of the Church. The
+insurgents carried banners on which was printed a crucifix, a chalice
+and host, and the five wounds, hence they called themselves "Pilgrims of
+Grace." The revolt was headed by Robert Aske, a barrister.
+
+Cromwell acted most cautiously; he selected the strongest men to take
+the field. Richard Cromwell said of one of them, Sir John Russell, "for
+my lord admiral, he is so earnest in the matter that I dare say he could
+eat the Pilgrims without salt." The Duke of Norfolk was entrusted with
+the command of the king's forces.
+
+Henry preferred negotiation to battle, in accepting which the rebels
+were doomed. To wait was to fail. Their demands reduced to paper were:
+1. The religious houses should be restored. 2. England should be
+reunited with Rome. 3. The first fruits and tenths should not be paid to
+the crown. 4. Heretics, meaning Cranmer, Latimer and others, should
+cease to be bishops. 5. Catharine's daughter Mary should be restored as
+heiress to the crown. These and other demands, the granting of which
+would have meant the death of the Reformation, were firmly refused by
+the king, who marveled that ignorant churls, "brutes and inexpert folk"
+should talk of theological and political subjects to him and to
+his council.
+
+After several ineffectual attempts to meet the royal army in battle,
+partly due to storms and lack of subsistence, the rebels were induced to
+disperse and a general amnesty was declared. But new insurrections broke
+out in various quarters, and the enraged king determined to stamp out
+the smoldering fires of sedition. About seventy-five persons were
+hanged, and many prominent men were imprisoned and afterwards executed.
+This effectually suppressed the rebellion.
+
+The revolt showed the strength of the opponents to the king's will, but
+it also proved conclusively that the monarchy was the strongest power in
+the realm; that the star of ecclesiastical domination had set forever in
+England; that henceforth English kings and not Italian popes were to
+govern the English people. True, the king was carrying things with a
+high hand, but one reform at a time; the yoke of papal power must first
+be lifted, even if at the same time the king becomes despotic in the
+exercise of his increased power. Once free from Rome, constitutional
+rights may be asserted and the power of an absolute monarchy judiciously
+restricted.
+
+Following the Pilgrimage of Grace came the complete overthrow of the
+monastic system by the dissolution of the larger monasteries.
+
+
+
+_Henry's Disposal of Monastic Revenues_
+
+What use did Henry make of the revenues that fell into his hands? As
+soon as the vast estates of the monks were under the king's control, he
+was besieged by nobles, "praying for an estate." They kneeled before
+him and specified what lands they wanted. They bribed Cromwell, who sold
+many of the estates at the rate of a twenty years' purchase, and in some
+instances presented valuable possessions to the king's followers. Many
+families, powerful in England at the present time, date the beginning of
+their wealth and position to the day when their ancestors received their
+share of the king's plunder.
+
+The following interesting passage from Sir Edward Coke's Institutes,
+shows that Henry sought to quiet the fears of the people by making the
+most captivating promises concerning the decrease of taxes, and other
+magnificent schemes for the general welfare: "On the king's behalf, the
+members of both houses were informed in Parliament that no king or
+kingdom was safe but where the king had three abilities: 1. To live of
+his own and able to defend his kingdom upon any sudden invasion or
+insurrection. 2. To aid his confederates, otherwise they would never
+assist him. 3. To reward his well-deserving servants. Now the project
+was, that if Parliament would give unto him all the abbeys, priories,
+friaries, nunneries, and other monasteries, that forever in time then
+to come he would take order that the same should not be converted to
+private uses, but first, that his exchequer, for the purpose aforesaid,
+should be enriched; secondly, the kingdom should be strengthened by a
+continual maintenance of forty thousand well-trained soldiers; thirdly,
+for the benefit and ease of the subject, who never afterwards (as was
+projected), in any time to come, should be charged with subsidies,
+fifteenths, loans or other common aids; fourthly, lest the honor of the
+realm should receive any diminution of honor by the dissolution of the
+said monasteries, there being twenty-nine lords of Parliament of the
+abbots and priors, ... that the king would create a number of nobles."
+
+The king was granted the revenues of the monasteries. About half the
+money was expended in coast defences and a new navy; and much of it was
+lavished upon his courtiers. With the exception of small pensions to the
+monks and the establishment of a few benefices, very little of the
+splendid revenue was ever devoted to religious or educational purposes.
+Small sums were set apart for Cambridge, Oxford and new grammar schools.
+Not-withstanding the pensions, there was much suffering; it is said
+many of the outcast monks and nuns starved and froze to death by the
+roadside. Latimer and others wanted the king to employ the revenues for
+religious purposes, but Henry evidently thought the church had enough
+and refused. He did, however, intend to allot eighteen thousand pounds a
+year for eighteen new bishoprics, but once the gold was in his
+possession, his pious intentions suffered a decline, and he established
+only six, with inferior endowments, five of which exist to-day.
+
+
+
+_Was the Suppression Justifiable?_
+
+It is quite common to restrict this inquiry to a consideration of the
+report made by the commissioners against the monks, and to the methods
+employed by them in their investigations. The implication is that if the
+accusations against the monasteries can be discredited, or if it can be
+shown that the motives of the destroyers were selfish and their methods
+cruel, then it follows that the overthrow of the monasteries was a most
+iniquitous and unwarrantable proceeding. Reflection will show that the
+question cannot be so restricted. It may be found that the monastic
+institution should have been destroyed, even though the charges against
+the monks were grossly exaggerated, the motives of the king unworthy,
+and the means he employed despicable.
+
+At the outset a few facts deserve mention. It is usual for Protestants
+to recall with pride the glorious heroism of Protestant martyrs, but it
+should be remembered that Roman Catholicism also has had its martyrs.
+Protestant powers have not been free from tyranny and bloodshed. That
+noble spirit of self-sacrifice which has glorified many a character in
+history is not to be despised in one who dies for what we may pronounce
+to be false.
+
+It must also be granted that the action of the king was not dictated by
+a pure passion for religious reform. Indeed it is a fair question
+whether Henry may be claimed by the Protestants at all. Aside from his
+rejection of the pope's authority, he was thoroughly Catholic in
+conviction and in practice. His impatience with the pope's position
+respecting his divorce, his need of money, his love of power, and many
+other personal considerations determined his attitude toward
+the papacy.
+
+It should also be freely conceded that the royal commissioners were far
+from exemplary characters, and that they were often insolent and cruel
+in the prosecution of their work.
+
+"Our posterity," says John Bale, "may well curse this wicked fact of our
+age; this unreasonable spoil of England's most noble antiquities." "On
+the whole," says Blunt, "it may be said that we must ever look back on
+that destruction as a series of transactions in which the sorrow, the
+waste, the impiety that were wrought, were enough to make the angels
+weep. It may be true that the monastic system had worn itself out for
+practical good; or at least, that it was unfitted for those coming ages
+which were to be so different from the ages that were past. But
+slaughter, desecration and wanton destruction, were no remedies for its
+sins, or its failings; nor was covetous rapacity the spirit of
+reformation."
+
+Hume observes that "during times of faction, especially of a religious
+kind, no equity is to be expected from adversaries; and as it was known
+that the king's intention in this visitation was to find a pretext for
+abolishing the monasteries, we may naturally conclude that the reports
+of the commissioners are very little to be relied upon." Hallam declares
+that "it is impossible to feel too much indignation at the spirit in
+which the proceedings were conducted."
+
+But these and other just and honorable concessions in the interests of
+truth, which are to be found on the pages of eminent Protestant
+historians, are made to prove too much. It must be said that writers
+favorable to monasticism take an unfair advantage of these admissions,
+which simply testify to a spirit of candor and a love of truth, but do
+not contain the final conclusions of these historians. Employing these
+witnesses to confirm their opinions, the defenders of monasticism
+proceed with fervid, glowing rhetoric, breathing devotion and love on
+every page, to paint the sorrows and ruin of the Carthusian Fathers, and
+the abbots of Glastonbury and Reading. They ask, "Is this your boasted
+freedom, to slay these men in cold blood, not for immorality, but
+because they honestly did not acknowledge what no Protestant of to-day
+admits, viz.: that King Henry was the Supreme Head of the Church?"
+Having pointed out the exaggerations in the charges against the monks
+and having made us weep for the aged fathers of the Charterhouse, they
+skillfully lead the unwary to the conclusion that the suppression should
+never have taken place. This conclusion is illogical. The case is
+still open.
+
+Furthermore, if one cared to indulge in historical reminiscences, he
+might justly express astonishment that Rome should object to an
+investigation conducted by men whose minds were already made up, or that
+she should complain because force was employed to carry out a needed
+reform. Did the commissioners take a few altar-cloths and decorate their
+horses? Did Rome never adorn men in garments of shame and parade them
+through streets to be mocked by the populace, and finally burned at the
+stake? Were the altar-cloths dear to Catholic hearts? Were not the
+Bibles burned in France, in Germany, in Spain, in Holland, in England,
+dear to the hearts of the reformers? But however justifiable such a line
+of argument may be, there is little to be gained by charging the sins of
+the past against the men of to-day. Nevertheless, if these facts and
+many like them were remembered, less would be said about the cruelties
+that accompanied the suppression of the monasteries.
+
+Were the charges against the monks true? It seems impossible to doubt
+that in the main they were, although it should be admitted that many
+monasteries were beyond reproach. Eliminating gross exaggerations, lies
+and calumnies, there still remains a body of evidence that compels the
+verdict of guilt. The legislation of the church councils, the decrees of
+popes, the records of the courts, the reports of investigating
+committees appointed by various popes, the testimony of the orders
+against each other, the chronicles, letters and other extant literature,
+abound in such detailed, specific charges of monastic corruption that it
+is simply preposterous to reject the testimony. All the efforts at
+reformation, and they were many, had failed. Many bishops confessed
+their inability to cope with the growing disorders. It is beyond
+question that lay robbers were encouraged to perpetrate acts of
+sacrilege because the monks were frequently guilty of forgery and
+violence. Commenting upon the impression which monkish lawlessness must
+have made upon the minds of such men as Wyclif, Pike says: "They saw
+with their own eyes those wild and lawless scenes, the faint reflection
+of which in contemporaneous documents may excite the wonder of modern
+lawyers and modern moralists." The legislation of church and state for a
+century before Henry VIII. shows that the monks were guilty of brawling,
+frequenting taverns, indulging in licentious pleasures and upholding
+unlawful games.
+
+Bonaventura, the General of the Franciscan Order in its earliest days,
+and its palmiest, for the first years of a monastic order were always
+its best years--this mendicant, their pride and their glory, tells us
+that within fifty years of the death of its founder there were many
+mendicants roaming around in disorderly fashion, brazen and shameless
+beggars of scandalous fame. This unenviable record was kept up down to
+the days of Wyclif, who charged the begging friars with representing
+themselves as holy and needy, while they were robust of body, rich in
+possessions, and dwelt in splendid houses, where they gave sumptuous
+banquets. What shall one say of the hysterical ravings against Henry of
+the "Holy Maid of Kent," whose fits and predictions were palmed off by
+five ecclesiastics, high in authority, as supernatural manifestations?
+What must have been the state of monasteries in which such meretricious
+schemes were hatched, to deceive silly people, thwart the king and stop
+the movements for reform?
+
+Moreover, the various attempts to reform or to suppress the monasteries
+prior to Henry's time show he was simply carrying out what, in a small
+way, had been attempted before. King John, Edward I. and Edward III.,
+had confiscated "alien priories." Richard II. and Henry IV. had made
+similar raids. In 1410, the House of Commons proposed the confiscation
+of all the temporalities held by bishops, abbots and priors, that the
+money might be used for a standing army, and to increase the income of
+the nobles and secular clergy. It was not done, but the attempt shows
+the trend of public opinion on the question of abolishing the
+monasteries. In 1416, Parliament dissolved the alien priories and vested
+their estates in the crown. There is extant a letter of Cardinal Morton,
+Legate of the Apostolic See, and Archbishop of Canterbury, to the abbot
+of St. Albans, one of the mightiest abbeys in all England. It was
+written as the result of an investigation started by Innocent VIII., in
+1489. In this communication the abbot and his monks were charged with
+the grossest licentiousness, waste and thieving. Lina Eckenstein, in her
+interesting work on "Woman Under Monasticism," says: "It were idle to
+deny that the state of discipline in many houses was bad, but the
+circumstances under which Morton's letter was penned argue that the
+charges made in it should be accepted with some reservation." In 1523,
+Cardinal Wolsey obtained bulls from the pope authorizing the suppression
+of forty small monasteries, and the application of their revenues to
+educational institutions, on the ground that the houses were homes
+neither of religion nor of learning.
+
+What Henry did, every country in Europe has felt called upon to do in
+one way or another. Germany, Italy, Spain, France have all suppressed
+monasteries, and despite the suffering which attended the dissolution in
+England, the step was taken with less loss of life and less injury to
+the industrial welfare of the people than anywhere else in Europe[J].
+
+[Footnote J: Appendix, Note J.]
+
+Hooper, who was made a bishop in the reign of Edward VI., expressed the
+Protestant view of Henry's reforms in a letter written about the year
+1546. "Our king," he says, "has destroyed the pope, but not popery....
+The impious mass, the most shameful celibacy of the clergy, the
+invocation of saints, auricular confession, superstitious abstinence
+from meats, and purgatory, were never before held by the people in
+greater esteem than at the present moment." In other words, the
+independence of the Church of England was secured by those who, if they
+were not Roman Catholics, were certainly closer in faith to Rome than
+they were to Protestantism. The Protestant doctrines did not become the
+doctrines of the Church of England until the reign of Edward VI., and it
+was many years after that before the separation from Rome was complete
+in doctrine as well as respects the authority of the pope.
+
+These facts indicate that there must have been other causes for the
+success of the English Reformation than the greed or ambition of the
+monarch. Those causes are easily discovered. One of them was the
+hostility of the people to the alien priories. The origin of the alien
+priories dates back to the Norman conquest. The Normans shared the
+spoils of their victory with their continental friends. English
+monasteries and churches were given to foreigners, who collected the
+rents and other kinds of income. These foreign prelates had no other
+interest in England than to derive all the profit they could from their
+possessions. They appointed whom they pleased to live in their houses,
+and the monks, being far away from their superiors, became a source of
+constant annoyance to the English people. The struggle against these
+alien priories had been carried on for many years, and so many of them
+had been abolished that the people became accustomed to the seizure of
+monasteries.
+
+Large sums of money were annually paid to the pope, and the English
+people were loudly complaining of the constant drain on their resources.
+It was a common saying in the reign of Henry III., that "England is the
+pope's farm." The "Good Parliament," in 1376, affirmed "that the taxes
+paid to the church of Rome amounted to five times as much as those
+levied for the king; ... that the brokers of the sinful city of Rome
+promoted for money unlearned and unworthy caitiffs to benefices of the
+value of a thousand marks, while the poor and learned hardly obtain one
+of twenty." Various laws, heartily supported by the clergy as well as by
+the civil authorities, were enacted from time to time, aimed at the
+abuses of papal power. So steadfast and strong was the opposition to the
+interference of foreigners in English affairs, it would be possible to
+show that there was an evolution in the struggle against Rome that was
+certain to culminate in the separation, whether Henry had accomplished
+it or not. What might have occurred if the monks had reformed and the
+pope withdrawn his claims it is impossible to know. The fact is that the
+monks grew worse instead of better, and the arrogance of foreigners
+became more unendurable. "The corruption of the church establishment, in
+fact," says Lea, "had reached a point which the dawning enlightenment of
+the age could not much longer endure.... Intoxicated with centuries of
+domination, the muttered thunders of growing popular discontent were
+unheeded, and its claims to spiritual and temporal authority were
+asserted with increasing vehemence, while its corruptions were daily
+displayed before the people with more careless cynicism." In view of
+this condition of affairs, the existence of which even the adherents of
+modern Rome must acknowledge, one cannot but wonder that the ruin of the
+monasteries should be attributed to Henry's desire "to overthrow the
+rights of women, to degrade matrimony and to practice concubinage." Such
+an explanation is too superficial; it ignores a multitude of
+historical facts.
+
+The monasteries had to fall if England was to be saved from the horrors
+of civil war, if the hand of the pope was to remain uplifted from her,
+if the insecure gains of the Reformation were to become established and
+glorious achievements; if, in fact, all those benefits accompanying
+human progress were to become the heritage of succeeding ages.
+
+Whatever benefits the monks had conferred upon mankind, and these were
+neither few nor slight, they had become fetters on the advancement of
+freedom, education and true religion. They were the standing army of the
+pope, occupying the last and strongest citadel. They were the unyielding
+advocates of an ideal that was passing away. It was sad to see the
+Carthusian house fall, but in spite of the high character of its
+inmates, it was a part of an institution that stood for the right of
+foreigners to rule England. It was unfortunate they had thrown
+themselves down before the car of progress but there they were; they
+would not get up; the car must roll on, for so God himself had decreed,
+and hence they were crushed in its advance. Their martyrdom was truly a
+poor return for their virtues, but there never has been a moral or
+political revolution that has furthered the general well-being of
+humanity, in which just and good men have not suffered. It would be
+delightful if freedom and progress could be secured, and effete
+institutions destroyed or reformed, without the accompaniment of
+disaster and death, but it is not so.
+
+The monks stood for opposition to reform, and therefore came into direct
+conflict with the king, who was blindly groping his way toward the
+future, and who was, in fact, the unconscious agent of many reform
+forces that concentrated in him. He did not comprehend the significance
+of his proceedings. He did not take up the cause of the English people
+with the pure and intelligent motive of encouraging free thought and
+free religion. He did not realize that he was leading the mighty army of
+Protestant reformers. He little dreamed that the people whose cause he
+championed would in turn assert their rights and make it impossible for
+an English sovereign to enjoy the absolute authority which he wielded.
+Truly "there is a power, not ourselves," making for freedom, progress
+and truth.
+
+Thus a number of causes brought on the ruin of the monasteries. Henry's
+need of money; the refusal of the monks to sign the acts of supremacy
+and succession; the general drift of reform, and the iniquity of the
+monks. They fell from natural causes and through the operation of laws
+which God alone controls. As Hill neatly puts it, "Monasticism was
+healthy, active and vigorous; it became idle, listless and extravagant;
+it engendered its own corruption, and out of that corruption
+came death."
+
+Richard Bagot, a Catholic, in a recent article on the question, "Will
+England become Catholic?" which was published in the "Nuova Antologia,"
+says: "Though it is impossible not to blame the so-called Reformers for
+the acts of sacrilege and barbarism through which they obtained the
+religious and political liberty so necessary to the intellectual and
+social progress of the race, it cannot be denied that no sooner had the
+power of the papacy come to an end in England than the English nation
+entered upon that free development which has at last brought it to its
+present position among the other nations of the world." Mr. Bagot also
+admits that "the political intrigues and insatiable ambition of the
+papacy during the succeeding centuries constituted a perpetual menace
+to England."
+
+The true view, therefore, is that two types of religious and political
+life, two epochs of human history, met in Henry's reign. The king and
+the pope were the exponents of conflicting ideals. The fall of the
+monasteries was an incident in the struggle. "The Catholics," says
+Froude, "had chosen the alternative, either to crush the free thought
+which was bursting from the soil, or to be crushed by it; and the future
+of the world could not be sacrificed to preserve the exotic graces of
+medieval saints."
+
+The problem is reduced to this, Was the Reformation desirable? Is
+Protestantism a curse or a blessing? Would England and the world be
+better off under the sway of medieval religion than under the influence
+of modern Protestantism? If monasticism were a fetter on human liberty
+and industry, if the monasteries were "so many seminaries of
+superstition and of folly," there was but one thing to do--to break the
+fetters and to destroy the monasteries. To have succeeded in so radical
+a reform as that begun by King Henry, with forty thousand monks
+preaching treason, would have been an impossibility. Henry cannot be
+blamed because the monks chose to entangle themselves with politics and
+to side with Rome as against the English nation.
+
+
+
+_Results of the Dissolution_
+
+Many important results followed the fall of the monasteries. The
+majority of the House of Lords was now transferred from the abbots to
+the lay peers. The secular clergy, who had been fighting the monks for
+centuries, were at last accorded their proper standing in the church.
+Numerous unjust ecclesiastical privileges were swept aside, and in many
+respects the whole church was strengthened and purified. Credulity and
+superstition began to decline. Ecclesiastical criminals were no longer
+able to escape the just penalty for their crimes. Naturally all these
+beneficent ends were not attained immediately. For a while there was
+great disorder and distress. Society was disturbed not only by the
+stoppage of monastic alms-giving, but the wandering monks, unaccustomed
+to toil and without a trade, increased the confusion.
+
+In this connection it is well to point out that some writers make very
+much of the poverty relieved by the monks, and claim that the nobles,
+into whose hands the monastic lands fell, did almost nothing to mitigate
+the distresses of the unfortunate. But they ignore the fact that a blind
+and undiscriminating charity was the cause, and not the cure, of much of
+the miserable wretchedness of the poor. Modern society has learned that
+the monastic method is wholly wrong; that fraud and laziness are
+fostered by a wholesale distribution of doles. The true way to help the
+poor is to enable the poor to assist themselves; to teach them trades
+and give them work. The sociological methods of to-day are thoroughly
+anti-monastic.
+
+On the other hand, the infidel Zosimus, quoted by Gibbon, was not far
+wrong when he said "the monks robbed an empire to help a few beggars."
+The fact that the religious houses did distribute alms and entertain
+strangers is not disputed; indeed it is pleasant to reflect upon this
+noble charity of the monks; it is a bright spot in their history. But it
+is in no sense true that they deserve all the credit for relieving
+distress. They received the money for alms in the shape of rents, gifts
+and other kinds of income. Hallam says, "There can be no doubt that many
+of the impotent poor derived support from their charity. But the blind
+eleemosynary spirit inculcated by the Romish church is notoriously the
+cause, not the cure, of beggary and wickedness. The monastic
+foundations, scattered in different countries, could never answer the
+ends of local and limited succor. Their gates might, indeed, be open to
+those who knocked at them for alms.... Nothing could have a stronger
+tendency to promote that vagabond mendicity which severe statutes were
+enacted to repress."
+
+It seems almost ungracious to quote such an observation, because it may
+be distorted into a criticism of charity itself, or made to serve the
+purposes of certain anti-Romanists who cannot even spare those noble
+women who minister to the sick in the home or hospital from their
+bigoted criticisms. Small indeed must be the soul of that man who
+permits his religious opinions to blind his eyes to the inestimable
+services of those heroic and self-sacrificing women. But even Roman
+Catholic students of social problems must recognize the folly of
+indiscriminate alms-giving. "In proportion as justice between man and
+man has declined, that form of charity which consists in giving money
+has been more quickened." The promotion of industry, the repression of
+injustice, the encouragement of self-reliance and thrift, are needed far
+more than the temporary relief of those who suffer from oppression or
+from their own wrong-doing.
+
+Some of those who deplore the fall of the monasteries make much of the
+fact that the modern world is menaced by materialism. "With very rare
+exceptions," cries Maitre, a French Catholic, "the most undisguised
+materialism has everywhere replaced the lessons and recollections of the
+spiritual life. The shrill voice of machinery, the grinding of the saw
+or the monotonous clank of the piston, is heard now, where once were
+heard chants and prayers and confessions. Once the monk freely undid
+the door to let the stranger in, and now we see a sign, 'no admittance,'
+lest a greedy rival purloin the tricks of trade." Montalembert,
+referring to the ruin of the cloisters in France, grieves thus:
+"Sometimes the spinning-wheel is installed under the ancient sanctuary.
+Instead of echoing night and day the praises of God, these dishonored
+arches too often repeat only the blasphemies of obscene cries." The
+element of truth in these laments gives them their sting, but one should
+beware of the fervid rhetoric of the worshipers of medievalism. This
+century is nobler, purer, truer, manlier, and more humane than any of
+the centuries that saw the greatest triumphs of the monks. They, too,
+had their blasphemies, often under the cloak of piety; they, too, had
+their obscene cries. Their superstitions and frauds concealed beneath
+those "dishonored arches" were infinitely worse than the noise of
+machinery weaving garments for the poor, or producing household comforts
+to increase the happiness of the humblest man.
+
+There is much that is out of joint, much to justify doleful prophecies,
+in the social and religious conditions of the present age, but the
+signs of the times are not all ominous. At all events, nothing would be
+gained by a return to the monkish ideals of the past. The hope of the
+world lies in the further development and completer realization of those
+great principles of human freedom that distinguish this century from the
+past. The history of monasticism clearly shows that the monasteries
+could not minister to that development of liberty, truth and justice,
+which constitute the indispensable condition of human happiness and
+human progress. Unable to adjust themselves to the new age, unwilling to
+welcome the new light, rejecting the doctrine of individual freedom, the
+monks were forced to retire from the field.
+
+So fell in England that institution which, for twelve centuries, had
+exercised marvelous dominion over the spiritual and temporal interests
+of the continent, and for eight hundred years had suffered or thrived on
+English soil. "The day came, and that a drear winter day, when its last
+mass was sung, its last censer waved, its last congregation bent in rapt
+and lovely adoration before the altar." Its majestic and solemn ruins
+proclaim its departed grandeur. Its deeds of mercy, its conflicts with
+kings and bishops, its prayers and chants and penances, its virtues and
+its vices, its trials and its victories, its wealth and its poverty, all
+are gone. Silence and death keep united watch over cloister and tomb. We
+should be ungrateful if we forgot its blessings; we should be untrue if,
+ignoring its evils, we sought to bring back to life that which God has
+laid in the sepulcher of the dead.
+
+     "Where pleasant was the spot for men to dwell,
+     Amid its fair broad lands the abbey lay,
+     Sheltering dark orgies that were shame to tell,
+     And cowled and barefoot beggars swarmed the way,
+     All in their convent weeds of black, and white, and gray.
+
+     From many a proud monastic pile, o'erthrown,
+     Fear-struck, the brooded inmates rushed and fled;
+     The web, that for a thousand years had grown
+     O'er prostrate Europe, in that day of dread
+     Crumbled and fell, as fire dissolves the flaxen thread."
+
+     --_Bryant_.
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+_CAUSES AND IDEALS OF MONASTICISM_
+
+All forms of religious character and conduct are grounded in certain
+cravings of the soul, which, in seeking satisfaction, are influenced by
+theoretical opinions. The longings of the human heart constitute the
+impulse, or the energy, of religion. The intellectual convictions act as
+guiding forces. As a religious type, therefore, the monk was produced by
+the action of certain desires, influenced by specific opinions
+respecting God, the soul, the body, the world and their relations.
+
+The existence of monasticism in non-Christian religions implies that
+whatever impetus the ascetic impulses in human nature received from
+Christian teaching, there is some broader basis for monastic life than
+the tenets of any creed. Biblical history and Christian theology furnish
+some explanation of the rise of Christian monasticism, but they do not
+account for the monks of ancient India. The teachings of Jesus exerted a
+profound influence upon the Christian monks, but they cannot explain the
+Oriental asceticism that flourished before the Christ of the New
+Testament was born. There must have been some motive, or motives,
+operating on human nature as such, a knowledge of which will help to
+account for the monks of Indian antiquity as well as the begging friars
+of modern times. It will therefore be in order to begin the present
+inquiry by seeking those causes which gave rise to monasticism
+in general.
+
+
+
+_Causative Motives of Monasticism_
+
+Whatever the origin of religion itself, it is certain that it is man's
+inalienable concern. He is, as Sabatier says, "incurably religious." Of
+all the motives ministering to this ruling passion, the longing for
+righteousness and for the favor of God is supreme. The savage only
+partially grasps the significance of his spiritual aspirations, and
+dimly understands the nature of the God he adores or fears. His worship
+may be confined to frantic efforts to ward off the vengeful assaults of
+an angry deity, but however gross his religious conceptions, there is at
+the heart of his religion a desire to live in peaceful relations with
+the Supreme Being.
+
+As religion advances, the ethical character of God and the nature of
+true righteousness are more clearly apprehended. But the idea that moral
+purity and fellowship with God are in some way associated with
+self-denial has always been held by the religious world. But what does
+such a conception involve? What must one do to deny self? The answer to
+that question will vastly influence the form of religious conduct. Thus
+while all religious men may unite in a craving for holiness by a
+participation in the Divine nature, they will differ widely in their
+opinions as to the nature of this desirable righteousness and as to the
+means by which it may be attained. Roman Catholicism, by the voice of
+the monk, whom it regards as the highest type of Christian living, gives
+one answer to these questions; Protestantism, protesting against
+asceticism, gives a different reply.
+
+The desire for salvation was, therefore, the primary cause of all
+monasticism. Many quotations might be given from the sacred writings of
+India, establishing beyond dispute, that underlying the confusing
+variety of philosophical ideas and ascetic practices of the
+non-Christian monks, was a consuming desire for the redemption of the
+soul from sin. Buddha said on seeing a mendicant, "The life of a devotee
+has always been praised by the wise. It will be my refuge and the refuge
+of other creatures, it will lead us to a real life, to happiness and
+immortality."
+
+Dharmapala, in expounding the teachings of the Buddha, at the World's
+Parliament of Religions, in Chicago, clearly showed that the aim of the
+Buddhist is "the entire obliteration of all that is evil," and "the
+complete purification of the mind." That this is the purpose of the
+asceticism of India is seen by the following quotation from Dharmapala's
+address: "The advanced student of the religion of Buddha when he has
+faith in him thinks: 'Full of hindrances is household life, a path
+defiled by passions; free as the air is the life of him who has
+renounced all worldly things. How difficult is it for the man who dwells
+at home to live the higher life in all its fullness, in all its purity,
+in all its perfection! Let me then cut off my hair and beard, let me
+clothe myself in orange-colored robes and let me go forth from a
+household life into the homeless state!'"
+
+In the same parliament, Mozoomdar, the brilliant and attractive
+representative of the Brahmo Somaj, in describing "Asia's Service to
+Religion," thus stated the motives and spirit of Oriental asceticism:
+"What lesson do the hermitages, the monasteries, the cave temples, the
+discipline and austerities of the religious East teach the world?
+Renunciation. The Asiatic apostle will ever remain an ascetic, a
+celibate, a homeless Akinchana, a Fakeer. We Orientals are all the
+descendants of John the Baptist. Any one who has taken pains at
+spiritual culture must admit that the great enemy to a devout
+concentration of mind is the force of bodily and worldly desire.
+Communion with God is impossible, so long as the flesh and its lusts are
+not subdued.... It is not mere temperance, but positive asceticism; not
+mere self-restraint, but self-mortification; not mere self-sacrifice,
+but self-extinction; not mere morality, but absolute holiness." And
+further on in his address, Mozoomdar claimed that this asceticism is
+practically the essential principle in Christianity and the meaning of
+the cross of Christ: "This great law of self-effacement, poverty,
+suffering, death, is symbolized in the mystic cross so dear to you and
+dear to me. Christians, will you ever repudiate Calvary? Oneness of will
+and character is the sublimest and most difficult unity with God." The
+chief value of these quotations from Mozoomdar lies in the fact that
+they show forth the underlying motive of all asceticism. It would be
+unjust to the distinguished scholar to imply that he defends those
+extreme forms of monasticism which have appeared in India or in
+Christian countries. On the contrary, while he maintains, in his
+charming work, "The Oriental Christ," that "the height of self-denial
+may fitly be called asceticism," he is at the same time fully alive to
+its dangerous exaggerations. "Pride," he says, "creeps into the holiest
+and humblest exercises of self-discipline. It is the supremest natures
+only that escape. The practice of asceticism therefore is always
+attended with great danger." The language of Mozoomdar, however, like
+that of many Christian monastic writers, opens the door to many grave
+excesses. It is another evidence of the necessity for defining what one
+means by "self-mortification" and "self-extinction."
+
+Turning now to Christian monasticism, it will be found that, as in the
+case of Oriental monasticism the yearning for victory over self was
+uppermost in the minds of the best Christian monks. A few words from a
+letter written by Jerome to Rusticus, a young monk, illustrates the
+truth of this observation: "Let your garments be squalid," he says, "to
+show that your mind is white, and your tunic coarse, to show that you
+despise the world. But give not way to pride, lest your dress and your
+language be found at variance. Baths stimulate the senses, and are
+therefore to be avoided."
+
+To keep the mind white, to despise the world, to overcome pride, to stop
+the craving of the senses for gratification,--these were the objects of
+the monks, in order to accomplish which they macerated and starved their
+bodies, avoided baths, wore rags, affected humble language and fled from
+the scenes of pleasure. The goal was highly commendable, even if the
+means employed were inadequate to produce the desired results.
+
+All down through the Middle Ages, the idea continued to prevail that the
+monastic life was the highest and purest expression of the Christian
+religion, and that the monks' chances of heaven were much better than
+those of any other class of men. The laity believed them to be a little
+nearer God than even the clergy, and so they paid them gold for their
+prayers. It will readily be understood that in degenerate times, so
+profitable a doctrine would be earnestly encouraged by the monks. The
+knight, whose conscience revolted against his conduct but who could not
+bring himself to a complete renunciation of the world, believed that
+heaven would condone his faults or crimes if in some way he could make
+friends with the dwellers in the cloister. To this end, he founded
+abbeys and sustained monasteries by liberal gifts of gold and land. Such
+a donation was made in the following language: "I, Gervais, who belong
+to the chivalry of the age, caring for the salvation of my soul, and
+considering that I shall never reach God by my own prayers and fastings,
+have resolved to recommend myself in some other way to those who, night
+and day, serve God by these practices, so that, thanks to their
+intercession, I may be able to obtain that salvation which I of myself
+am unable to merit." Another endowment was made by Peter, Knight of
+Maull, in these quaint terms: "I, Peter, profiting by this lesson, and
+desirous, though a sinner and unworthy, to provide for my future
+destiny, I have desired that the bees of God may come to gather their
+honey in my orchards, so that when their fair hives shall be full of
+rich combs, they may be able to remember him by whom the hive
+was given."
+
+The people believed that the prayers of the monks lifted their souls
+into heaven; that their curses doomed them to the bottomless pit. A
+monastery was the safe and sure road to heaven. The observation of
+Gibbon respecting the early monks is applicable to all of them: "Each
+proselyte who entered the gates of a monastery was persuaded that he
+trod the steep and thorny path of eternal happiness."
+
+The second cause for monasticism in general was a natural love of
+solitude, which became almost irresistible when reinforced by a despair
+of the world's redemption. The poet voiced the feelings of almost every
+soul, at some period in life, when he wrote:
+
+     "O for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
+     Some boundless contiguity of shade,
+     Where rumor of oppression or deceit,
+     Of unsuccessful or successful war,
+     Might never reach me more."
+
+The longing for solitude accompanied the desire for salvation. An
+unconquerable weariness of the world, with its strife and passion,
+overcame the seeker after God. A yearning to escape the duties of social
+life, which were believed to interfere with one's duty to God, possessed
+his soul. The flight from the world was merely the method adopted to
+satisfy his soul-longings. If such times of degeneracy and rampant
+iniquity ever return, if humanity is again compelled to stagger under
+the moral burdens that crushed the Roman Empire, without doubt the love
+of solitude, which is now held in check by the satisfactions of a
+comparatively pure and peaceful social life, will again arise in its
+old-time strength and impel men to seek in waste and lonely places the
+virtues they cannot acquire in a decaying civilization.
+
+Even amid the delights of human fellowship, and surrounded by so much
+that ministers to restfulness of soul, it is often hard to repress a
+longing to shatter the fetters of custom, to flee from the noise and
+confusion of this hurrying, fretful world, and to pass one's days in a
+coveted retirement, far from the maddening strife and tumult.
+Montalembert's profound appreciation of monastic life was never more
+aptly illustrated than in the following declaration: "In the depths of
+human nature there exists without doubt, a tendency instinctive, though
+confused and evanescent, toward retirement and solitude. What man,
+unless completely depraved by vice or weighed down by care and cupidity,
+has not experienced once, at least, before his death, the attraction of
+solitude?"
+
+While the motives just described were unquestionably preeminent among
+the causative factors in monasticism, it should not be taken for granted
+that there were no others, or that either or both of these motives
+controlled every monk. The personal considerations tending to keep up
+the flight from the world were numerous and active. It would be a
+mistake to credit all the monks, and at some periods even a majority of
+them, with pure and lofty purposes. Oftentimes criminals were pardoned
+through the intercession of abbots on condition that they would retire
+to a monastery. The jilted lover and the commercial bankrupt, the
+deserted or bereaved wife, the pauper and the invalid, the social
+outcast and the shirker of civic duties, the lazy and the fickle were
+all to be found in the ranks of the monastic orders. Ceasing to feel any
+interest in the joys of society, they had turned to the cloister as a
+welcome asylum in the hour of their sorrow or disappointment. To some it
+was an easy way out of the struggle for existence, to others it meant an
+end to taxes and to military service, to still others it was a haven of
+rest for a weary body or a disappointed spirit. Thus many specific,
+individual considerations acted with the general desires for salvation
+and solitude to strengthen and to perpetuate the institution.
+
+
+
+_Beliefs Affecting the Causative Motives_
+
+In the first chapter it was shown that a variety of views respecting the
+relation of the body and the soul influenced the origin and development
+of Christian monasticism. It will not now be necessary to repeat what
+was there said. The essential teaching of all these false opinions was
+that the body was in itself evil, that the gratification of natural
+appetites was inherently wrong, and that true holiness consisted in the
+complete subjection of the body by self-denial and torture. Jerome
+distinctly taught that what was natural was opposed to God. The Gnostics
+and many of the early Christians believed that this world was ruled by
+the devil. The Gnostics held that this opposition of the kingdom of
+matter to God was fundamental and eternal. The Christians, however,
+maintained that the antagonism was temporary, the Lord having given the
+world over to evil spirits for a time. The prevailing opinion among
+almost all schools was that a union with God was only possible to those
+who had extinguished bodily desires.
+
+The ascetic theory undoubtedly derived much support from the views held
+concerning the teachings of the Bible. The Oriental monks frequently
+quoted from their sacred books to justify their habits and ideals. In
+like manner, the Christian monks believed that they, and they alone,
+were literally obeying the commands of Christ and his apostles. This
+phase of the subject will receive attention when the three vows of
+monasticism are considered.
+
+In the West, two conditions, one political and social, the other
+religious, set in motion all these spiritual desires and ascetic beliefs
+tending toward monasticism. One was the corrupted state, of Roman
+society and the approaching overthrow of the Roman Empire. The other was
+the secularization of the church.
+
+Men naturally cling to society as long as there exists any well-founded
+hope for its regeneration, but when every expectation for the survival
+of righteousness yields to a conviction that doom is inevitable, then
+the flight from the world begins. This was precisely the situation in
+the declining days of Rome and Alexandria, when Christian monasticism
+came into being. The monks believed that the end of the world was nigh,
+that all things temporal and earthly were doomed, and that God's hand
+was against the empire. "That they were correct in their judgment of the
+world about them," says Kingsley, "contemporary history proves
+abundantly. That they were correct, likewise, in believing that some
+fearful judgment was about to fall on man, is proved by the fact that it
+did fall."
+
+So they fled to escape being caught in the ruins of society's tottering
+structure,--fled to make friends with the angels and with God. If one
+cannot live purely in the midst of corruption, by all means let him live
+purely away from corruption, but let him never forget that his piety is
+of a lower order than that which abides uncorrupted in the midst of
+degenerate society. There is much truth in the observation of Charles
+Reade in "The Cloister and the Hearth": "So long as Satan walks the
+whole earth, tempting men, and so long as the sons of Belial do never
+lock themselves in caves but run like ants, to and fro corrupting
+others, the good man that sulks apart, plays the Devil's game, or at
+least gives him the odds."
+
+But the early Christian monks believed that their safety was only in
+flight. It was not altogether an unworthy motive; at least it is easy to
+sympathize with these men struggling against odds, of the magnitude of
+which the modern Christian has only the faintest conception.
+
+The conviction that the only true and certain way to secure salvation
+is by flight from the world, continued to prevail during the succeeding
+centuries of monastic history, and it can hardly be said to have
+entirely disappeared even at the present time. Anselm of Canterbury, in
+the twelfth century, wrote to a young friend reminding him that the
+glory of this world was perishing. True, not monks only are saved,
+"but," says he, "who attains to salvation in the most certain, who in
+the most noble way, the man who seeks to love God alone, or he who seeks
+to unite the love of God with the love of the world?... Is it rational
+when danger is on every side, to remain where it is the greatest?"
+
+The Christian church set up an ideal of life which it was impossible to
+realize within her borders, and one which differed in many respects from
+the teachings of Jesus. Her demands involved a renunciation of the
+world, a superiority to all the enticements of bodily appetites, a lofty
+scorn of secular bonds and social concerns. A vigorous religious faith
+had conquered a mighty empire, but corruption attended its victory. The
+standard of Christian morals was lowered, or had at least degenerated
+into a cold, formal ideal that no one was expected to realize; hence
+none strove to attain it but the monks. When Roman society with its
+selfishness, lust and worldliness, swept in through the open doors of
+the church and took possession of the sanctuary, those who had cherished
+the ascetic ideal gave up the fight against the world, and the flight
+from the world-church began. They could not tolerate this union of the
+church with a pagan state and an effete civilization. In some respects,
+as a few writers maintain, many of these hermits were like the old
+Jewish prophets, fighting single-handed against corruption in church and
+state, refusing to yield themselves as slaves to the authority of
+institutions that had forsaken the ideals of the past.
+
+Thus the conviction that the end of human society was nigh, and that the
+church could no longer serve as an asylum for the lovers of
+righteousness, with certain philosophical ideas respecting the body, the
+world and God, united to produce the assumption that salvation was more
+readily attainable in the deserts; and Christian monasticism, in its
+hermit form, began its long and eventful history.
+
+
+
+_Causes of Variations in Monasticism_
+
+Prominent among the causes producing variations in the monastic type was
+the influence of climatic conditions and race characteristics.
+
+The monasticism as well as the religion of the East has always differed
+from the monasticism and the religion of the West. The Eastern mind is
+mystical, dreamy, contemplative; the Western mind loves activity, is
+intensely practical. Representatives of the Eastern faiths in the recent
+Parliament of Religions accused the West of materialism, of loving the
+body more than the soul. They affected to despise all material
+prosperity, and gloried in their assumed superiority, on account of
+their love for religious contemplation. This radical difference between
+the races of the East and West is clearly seen in the monastic
+institution. Benedict embodied in his rules the spirit and active life
+of the West, and hence, the monastic system, then in danger of dying, or
+stagnating, revived and spread all over Europe. Again, the hermit life
+was ill-adapted to the West. Men could not live out of doors in Europe
+and subsist on small quantities of food as in Egypt. The rigors of the
+climate in Europe demanded an adaptation to new conditions.
+
+But aside from the differences between Eastern and Western monasticism,
+the Christian institution passed through a variety of changes. The
+growth of monasticism from the hermit stage to the cloistral life has
+already been described. To what shall the development of the community
+system be attributed? No religious institution can remain stationary,
+unaffected by the changing conditions of the society in which it exists.
+The progress of the intellect, and the development of social, political
+and industrial conditions, effect great transformations in religious
+organizations.
+
+The monastic institution grew up amid the radical changes of European
+society. In its early days it witnessed the invasion of the barbarians,
+which swept away old political divisions and destroyed many of the
+heritages of an ancient civilization. Then the process of reconstruction
+slowly began. New states were forming; nations were crystallizing. The
+barbarian was to lay the foundations of great cities and organize
+powerful commonwealths out of wild but victorious tribes. The monk
+could not remain in hiding. He was brother to the roving warrior. The
+blood in his veins was too active to permit him to stand still amid the
+mighty whirl of events. Without entirely abandoning his cloistral life,
+he became a zealous missionary of the church among the barbarians, a
+patron of letters and of agriculture, in short a stirring participant in
+the work of civilization.
+
+Next came the crusades. Jerusalem was to be captured for Christ and the
+church. The monk then appeared as a crusade-preacher, a warrior on the
+battle-field, or a nurse in the military hospital.
+
+The rise of feudalism likewise wrought a change in the spirit and
+position of the monks. The feudal lord was master of his vassals. "The
+genius of feudalism," says Allen, "was a spirit of uncontrolled
+independence." So the abbot became a feudal lord with immense
+possessions and powers. He was no longer the obscure, spiritual father
+of a little family of monks, but a temporal lord also, an aristocrat,
+ruling wide territories, and dwelling in a monastery little different
+from the castle of the knight and often exceeding it in splendor. With
+wealth came ease, and hard upon the heels of ease came laziness,
+arrogance, corruption.
+
+Then followed the marvelous intellectual awakening, the moral revival,
+the discoveries and inventions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
+The human mind at last had aroused itself from a long repose, or turned
+from a profitless activity into broad and fruitful fields. The
+corruption of the monasteries meant the laxity of vows, the cessation of
+ministration to the poor and the sick. Then arose the tender and loving
+Francis, with his call to poverty and to service. The independent
+exercise of the intellect gave birth to heresies, but the Dominicans
+appeared to preach them down.
+
+The growth of the secular spirit and the progress of the new learning
+were too much for the old monasticism. The monk had to adapt himself to
+a new age, an age that is impatient of mere contemplation, that spurns
+the rags of the begging friar and rebels against the fierce intolerance
+of the Dominican preaching. So, lastly, came the suave, determined,
+practical, cultured Jesuit, ready to comply, at least outwardly, with
+all the requirements of modern times. Does the new age reject monastic
+seclusion? Very well, the Jesuit throws off his monastic garb and
+forsakes his cloister, to take his place among men. Are the ignorance
+and the filth of the begging friars offensive? The Jesuit is cultured,
+affable and spotlessly clean. Does the new age demand liberty?
+"Liberty," cries the Jesuit, "is the divine prerogative, colossal in
+proportion, springing straight from the broad basin of the
+soul's essence!"
+
+Such in its merest outlines is the story of the development of the
+monastic type and its causes.
+
+
+
+_The Fundamental Monastic Vows_
+
+The ultimate monastic ideal was the purification of the soul, but when
+translated into definite, concrete terms, the immediate aim of the monk
+was to live a life of poverty, celibacy and obedience. Riches, marriage
+and self-will were regarded as forms of sinful gratification, which
+every holy man should abandon. The true Christian, according to
+monasticism, is poor, celibate and obedient. The three fundamental
+monastic vows should therefore receive special consideration.
+
+1. The Vow of Poverty. The monks of all countries held the possession of
+riches to be a barrier to high spiritual attainments. In view of the
+fact that an inordinate love of wealth has proved disastrous to many
+nations, and that it is extremely difficult for a rich man to escape the
+hardening, enervating and corrupting influences of affluence, the
+position of the monks on this question is easily understood. The
+Christian monks based their vow of poverty upon the Bible, and
+especially upon the teachings of Christ, who, though he was rich, yet
+for our sakes became poor. He said to the rich young man, "Sell all that
+thou hast and give to the poor." In commissioning the disciples to
+preach the gospel He said: "Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass
+in your purses; nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, nor
+shoes." In the discourse on counting the cost of discipleship, He said:
+"So therefore, whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he
+hath, he cannot be my disciple." He promised rewards to "every one that
+left houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children,
+or lands for my name's sake." "It is easier," He once said, "for a
+camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter the
+kingdom of heaven." He portrayed the pauper Lazarus as participating in
+the joys of heaven, while the rich Dives endured the torments of the
+lost. As reported in Luke, He said, "Blessed are ye poor." He Himself
+was without a place to lay His head, a houseless wanderer upon
+the earth.
+
+The apostle James cries to the men of wealth: "Go to now, ye rich men,
+weep and howl, for your miseries that shall come upon you." John said:
+"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any
+man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
+
+Whatever these passages, and many others of like import, may signify, it
+is not at all strange that Christians, living in times when wealth was
+abused, and when critical Biblical scholarship was unknown, should have
+understood Christ to command a life of poverty as an indispensable
+condition of true holiness.
+
+There are three ways of interpreting Christ's doctrine of wealth. First,
+it may be held that Jesus intended His teachings to be literally obeyed,
+not only by His first disciples but by all His followers in subsequent
+years, and that such literal obedience is practicable, reasonable and
+conducive to the highest well-being of society. Secondly, it has been
+said that Jesus was a gentle and honest visionary, who erroneously
+believed that the possession of riches rendered religious progress
+impossible, but that strict compliance with His commands would be
+destructive of civilization. Laveleye declares that "if Christianity
+were taught and understood conformably to the spirit of its Founder, the
+existing social organism could not last a day." Thirdly, neither of
+these views seems to do justice to the spirit of Christ, for they fail
+to give proper recognition to many other injunctions of the Master and
+to many significant incidents in his public ministry. Exhaustive
+treatment of this subject is, of course, impossible here. Briefly it may
+be remarked, that Jesus looked upon wealth as tending oftentimes to
+foster an unsocial spirit. Rich men are liable to become enemies of the
+brotherhood Jesus sought to establish, by reason of their covetousness
+and contracted sympathies. The rich man is in danger of erecting false
+standards of manhood, of ignoring the highest interests of the soul by
+an undue emphasis on the material. Wealth, in itself, is not an evil,
+but it is only a good when it is used to advance the real welfare of
+humanity. Jesus was not intent upon teaching economics. His purpose was
+to develop the man. It was the moral value and spiritual influence of
+material things that concerned him. Professor Shailer Mathews admirably
+states the true attitude of Jesus towards rich men: "Jesus was a friend
+neither of the working man nor the rich man as such. He calls the poor
+man to sacrifice as well as the rich man. He was the Son of Man, not the
+son of a class of men. But His denunciation is unsparing of those men
+who make wealth at the expense of souls; who find in capital no
+incentive to further fraternity; who endeavor so to use wealth as to
+make themselves independent of social obligations, and to grow fat with
+that which should be shared with society;--for those men who are gaining
+the world but are letting their neighbors fall among thieves and Lazarus
+rot among their dogs."
+
+Jesus was therefore not a foe to rich men as such, but to that
+antisocial, abnormal regard for wealth and its procurements, which leads
+to the creation of class distinctions and impedes the full and free
+development of our common humanity along the lines of brotherly love and
+cooeperation. A Christian may consistently be a rich man, provided he
+uses his wealth in furthering the true interests of society, and
+realizes, as respects his own person, that "a man's life consisteth not
+in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." The error of
+monasticism consists in making poverty a virtue and an essential
+condition of the highest holiness. It is true that some callings
+preclude the prospect of fortune. The average clergyman cannot hope to
+amass wealth. The resident of a social settlement may possess capacities
+that would win success in business, but he must forego financial
+prospects if he expects to live and labor among the poor. In so far as
+the monks deliberately turned their backs on the material rewards of
+human endeavors that they might be free to devote themselves to the
+service of humanity, their vow of poverty was creditable and reasonable.
+But they erred when they exalted poverty as of itself commending them in
+a peculiar degree to the mercy of God.
+
+2. The Vow of Celibacy. "The moral merit of celibacy," says Allen, "was
+harder to make out of the Scripture, doubtless, since family life is
+both at the foundation of civil society and the source of all the common
+virtues." The monks held that Christ and Paul both taught and practiced
+celibacy. In the early and middle ages celibacy was looked upon by all
+churchmen as in itself a virtue. The prevailing modern idea is that
+marriage is a holy institution, in no sense inferior in sacredness to
+any ecclesiastical order of life. He who antagonizes it plays into the
+hands of the foes to social purity and individual virtue.
+
+The ideas of Jerome, Ambrose, and all the early Fathers, respecting
+marriage, are still held by many ecclesiastics. One of them, in
+defending the celibacy of existing religious orders, says: "Celibacy is
+enjoined on these religious orders as a means to greater sanctification,
+greater usefulness, greater absorption in things spiritual, and to
+facilitate readier withdrawal from things earthly." He gives two reasons
+for the celibacy of the priesthood, which are all the more interesting
+because they substantially represent the opinions held by the Christian
+monks in all ages: First, "That the service of the priest to God may be
+undivided and unrestrained." In support of this, he quotes I. Cor., 7:
+32, 33, which reads: "But I would have you free from cares. He that is
+unmarried is careful for the things of the Lord, how he may please the
+Lord: but he that is married is careful for the things of the world, how
+he may please his wife." And secondly, "Celibacy," according to Trent,
+"is more blessed than marriage." He also quotes the words of Christ that
+there are "eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake." He then adds: "It
+is desirable that those called to the ministry of the altar espouse a
+life of continence because holier and more angelic."
+
+It is generally admitted that the vow of celibacy was not demanded of
+the clergy in primitive Christian times. It was only after many years of
+bitter debate and in response to the growing influence of the monastic
+ideal, that celibacy finally came to be looked upon as the highest form
+of Christian virtue, and was enforced upon the clergy. As in the case of
+the vow of poverty, there certainly can be no reasonable objection to
+the individual adoption of celibacy, if one is either disinclined to
+marriage or feels that he can do better work unmarried. But neither
+Scripture nor reason justifies the imposition of celibacy upon any man,
+nor the view that a life of continence is holier than marriage. It may
+be reverently said that God would be making an unreasonable demand upon
+mankind, if the holiness He requires conflicted with the proper
+satisfaction of those impulses He himself has deeply implanted in
+human nature.
+
+3. The Vow of Obedience. The monks were required to render absolute
+obedience to the will of their superiors, as the representatives of God.
+Dom Guigo, in his rules for the Carthusian Order, declares: "Moreover,
+if the Prior commands one of his religious to take more food, or to
+sleep for a longer time, in fact, whatever command may be given us by
+our Superior, we are not allowed to disobey, lest we should disobey God
+also, who commands us by the mouth of our Superior. All our practices of
+mortification and devotion would be fruitless and of no value, without
+this one virtue of obedience, which alone can make them acceptable
+to God."
+
+Thus a strict and uncomplaining obedience, not to the laws of God as
+interpreted by the individual conscience, but to the judgment and will
+of a brother man, was demanded of the monks.
+
+     "Theirs not to reason why,
+     Theirs not to make reply,
+     Theirs but to do and die."
+
+They were often severely beaten or imprisoned and sometimes mutilated
+for acts of disobedience. While the monks, especially the Friars and
+Jesuits, carried this principle of obedience to great extremes, yet in
+the barbarous ages its enforcement was sadly needed. Law and order were
+words which the untamed Goth could not comprehend. He had to be taught
+habits of obedience, a respect for the rights of others, and a proper
+appreciation of his duty to society for the common good. But while, at
+the beginning, the monastic vow of obedience helped to inculcate these
+desirable lessons, and vastly modified the ferocity of unchecked
+individualism, it tended, in the course of time, to generate a servile
+humility fatal to the largest and freest personal development. In the
+interests of passive obedience, it suppressed freedom of thought and
+action. Obedience became mechanical and unreasoning. The consequence was
+that the passion for individual liberty was unduly restrained, and the
+extravagant claims of political and ecclesiastical tyrants were greatly
+strengthened.
+
+Such was the monastic ideal and such were some of the means employed to
+realize it. The ascetic spirit manifests itself in a great variety of
+ways, but all these visible and changing externals have one common
+source. "To cherish the religious principle," says William E. Channing,"
+some have warred against their social affections, and have led solitary
+lives; some against their senses, and have abjured all pleasure in
+asceticism; some against reason, and have superstitiously feared to
+think; some against imagination, and have foolishly dreaded to read
+poetry or books of fiction; some against the political and patriotic
+principles, and have shrunk from public affairs,--all apprehending that
+if they were to give free range to their natural emotions their
+religious life would be chilled or extinguished."
+
+
+
+IX
+
+_THE EFFECTS OF MONASTICISM_
+
+"We read history," said Wendell Phillips, "not through our eyes but
+through our prejudices." Yet if it were possible entirely to lay aside
+one's prepossessions respecting monastic history, it would still be no
+easy task to estimate the influences of the monks upon human life.
+
+In every field of thought and activity monasticism wrought good and
+evil. Education, industry, government and religion have been both
+furthered and hindered by the monks. What Francis Parkman said of the
+Roman Catholic Church is true of the monastic institution: "Clearly she
+is of earth, not of heaven; and her transcendently dramatic life is a
+type of the good and ill, the baseness and nobleness, the foulness and
+purity, the love and hate, the pride, passion, truth, falsehood,
+fierceness, and tenderness, that battle in the restless heart of man."
+
+A careful and sympathetic survey of monastic history compels the
+conclusion that monasticism, while not uniformly a blessing to the
+world, was not an unmitigated evil. The system presents one long series
+of perplexities and contradictions. One historian shuts his eyes to its
+pernicious effects, or at least pardons its transgressions, on the
+ground that perfection in man or in institutions is unattainable.
+Another condemns the whole system, believing that the sum of its evils
+far outweighs whatever benefits it may have conferred upon mankind.
+Schaff cuts the Gordian knot, maintaining that the contradiction is
+easily solved on the theory that it was not monasticism, as such, which
+has proved a blessing to the Church and the world. "It was Christianity
+in monasticism," he says, "which has done all the good, and used this
+abnormal mode of life as a means of carrying forward its mission of love
+and peace."
+
+To illustrate the diversities of opinion on this subject, and
+incidentally to show how difficult it is to present a well-balanced,
+symmetrically fair and just estimate of the monastic institution as a
+whole, contrast the opinions of four celebrated men. Pius IX. refers to
+the, monks as "those chosen phalanxes of the army of Christ which have
+always been the bulwark and ornament of the Christian republic as well
+as of civil society." But then he was the Pope of Rome, the Arch-prelate
+of the Church. "Monk," fiercely demands Voltaire, "Monk, what is that
+profession of thine? It is that of having none, of engaging one's self
+by an inviolable oath to be a fool and a slave, and to live at the
+expense of others." But he was the philosophical skeptic of Paris.
+"Where is the town," cries Montalembert, "which has not been founded or
+enriched or protected by some religious community? Where is the church
+which owes not to them a patron, a relic, a pious and popular tradition?
+Wherever there is a luxuriant forest, a pure stream, a majestic hill, we
+may be sure that religion has left there her stamp by the hand of the
+monk." But this was Montalembert, the Roman Catholic historian, and the
+avowed champion of the monks. "A cruel, unfeeling temper," writes
+Gibbon, "has distinguished the monks of every age and country; their
+stern indifference, which is seldom mollified by personal friendship,
+is inflamed by religious hatred; and their merciless zeal has
+strenuously administered the holy office of the Inquisition." But this
+was Gibbon, the hater of everything monastic. Between these extreme
+views lies a wide field upon which many a deathless duel has been fought
+by the writers of monastic history.
+
+The variety of judgments respecting the nature and effects of
+monasticism is partly due to the diversity in the facts of its history.
+Monasticism was the friend and the foe of true religion. It was the
+inspiration of virtue and the encouragement of vice. It was the patron
+of industry and the promoter of idleness. It was a pioneer in education
+and the teacher of superstition. It was the disburser of alms and a
+many-handed robber. It was the friend of human liberty and the abettor
+of tyranny. It was the champion of the common people and the defender of
+class privileges. It was, in short, everything that man was and is, so
+varied were its operations, so complex was its influence, so
+comprehensive was its life.
+
+Of some things we may be certain. Any religious institution or ideal of
+life that has survived the changes of twelve centuries, and that has
+enlisted the enthusiastic services and warmest sympathies of numerous
+men and women who have been honorably distinguished for their
+intellectual attainments and moral character, must have possessed
+elements of truth and moral worth. A contemptuous treatment of
+monasticism implies either an ignorance of its real history or a wilful
+disregard of the deep significance of its commendable features.
+
+It is also certain that while the methods of monasticism, judged by
+their effects upon the individual and upon society, may be justly
+censured, it is beyond question that many monks, groping their way
+toward the light in an age of ignorance and superstition, were inspired
+by the purest motives. "Conscience," observes Waddington, "however
+misguided, cannot be despised by a reflecting mind. When it leads one to
+self-sacrifice and moral fortitude we cannot but admire his spirit,
+while we condemn his sagacity and method."
+
+
+
+_The Effects of Self-Sacrifice Upon the Individual_
+
+Christianity requires some sort of self-denial as the condition of true
+Christian discipleship. Self-love is to yield to a love of others. In
+some sense, the Christian is to become dead to the world and its
+demoralizing pleasures. But this primal demand upon the soul needs to be
+interpreted. What is it to love the world? What is it to keep the body
+in subjection? What are harmful indulgences? To give wrong answers to
+these questions is to set up a false ideal; the more strenuously such
+false ideal is followed, the more disastrous are the consequences. One's
+struggle for moral purity may end in failure, and one's efficiency for
+good may be seriously impaired by a perversion of the principle of
+self-abnegation. Unnatural severity and excessive abstinence often
+produce the opposite effect from that intended. Instead of a peaceful
+mind there is delirium, and instead of freedom from temptation there are
+a thousand horrible fiends hovering in the air and ready, at any moment,
+to pounce upon their prey. "The history of ascetics," says Martensen,
+"teaches us that by such overdone fasting the fancy is often excited to
+an amazing degree, and in its airy domain affords the very things that
+one thought to have buried, by means of mortification, a magical
+resurrection." In attempting to subdue the body, many necessary
+requirements of the physical organism were totally ignored. The body
+rebelled against such unnatural treatment, and the mind, so closely
+related to it, in its distraction, gave birth to the wildest fancies.
+Men, who would have possessed an ordinarily pure mind in some useful
+occupation of life, became the prey of the most lewd and obnoxious
+imaginations. Then they fancied themselves vile above their fellows, and
+laid on more stripes, put more thorns upon their pillows, and fasted
+more hours, only to find that instead of fleeing, the devils became
+blacker and more numerous.
+
+Self-forgetfulness is the key to happiness. The monk thought otherwise,
+and slew himself in his vain attempt to fight against nature. He never
+lifted his eyes from his own soul. He was always feeling his spiritual
+pulse, staring at his lean spiritual visage, and tearfully watching his
+growth in grace. An interest in others and a strong mind in a strong
+body are the best antidotes to religious despair and the temptations of
+the soul. Life in the monastery was generally less severe than in the
+desert's solitude. There was more and better food, shelter, and comfort,
+but there were many unnecessary and unnatural restrictions, even in the
+best days of monasticism. There were too many hours of prayer, too many
+needless regulations for silence, fasting and penance, to produce a
+healthy, vigorous type of religious life.
+
+
+
+_The Effects of Solitude Upon the Individual_.
+
+It has already been shown that some solitude is essential to our richest
+culture. Our higher nature demands time for reflection and meditation.
+But the monks carried this principle to an extreme, and they
+overestimated its benefits. "Ambition, avarice, irresolution, fear, and
+inordinate desires," says Montaigne, "do not leave us because we forsake
+our native country, they often follow us even to cloisters and
+philosophical schools; nor deserts, nor caves, nor hair shirts, nor
+fasts, can disengage us from them."
+
+Besides these passions, which the monks carried with them, their
+solitary life tended to foster spiritual pride, contract sympathy, and
+engender an inhumane spirit. True, there were exceptions; but the
+sublime characters which survive in monastic history are by no means
+typical of its usual effects. Seclusion did not benefit the average
+monk. Indeed there is something wanting in even the loftiest monastic
+characters. "The heroes of monasticism," says Allen, "are not the heroes
+of modern life. All put together, they would not furnish out one such
+soul as William of Orange, or Gustavus, or Milton. Independence of
+thought and liberty of conscience, they renounced once for all, in
+taking upon them the monastic vow. All the larger enterprises, all the
+broad humanities, which to our mind make a greater career, were rigidly
+shut off by a barrier that could not be crossed. All the warmth and
+wealth of social and domestic life was a field of forbidden fruit, to be
+entered only through the gate of unpardonable sin."
+
+Thus self-excluded from a normal life in society, often the subject of
+self-inflicted pain, it is no wonder that the monk impaired all the
+nobler and manlier feelings of the soul, that he became strangely
+indifferent to human affection, that bigotry and pride often sat as
+joint rulers on the throne of his heart. He who had trampled on all
+filial relations would scarcely recognize the bonds of human
+brotherhood. He who heard not the prayer of his own mother would not be
+likely to listen to the cry of the tortured heretic for mercy. Man as
+man was not reverenced. It was the monk in man who was esteemed. As
+Milman puts it, "Bigotry has always found its readiest and sternest
+executioners among those who have never known the charities of life."
+
+Nor is it a matter of surprise that the monk was spiritually proud. He
+was supposed to stand in the inner circle, a little nearer the throne of
+God than his fellow-mortals. When dead, he was worshiped as a saint and
+regarded as an intercessor between God and his lower fellow-creatures.
+His hatred of the base world easily passed over into a sense of
+superiority and ignoble pride.
+
+"True social life," says Martensen, "leads to solitude." This truth the
+monks emphasized to the exclusion of the converse, "true life in
+solitude leads back to society." John Tauler, the mystic monk, realized
+this truth when he said: "If God calls me to a sick person, or to the
+service of preaching, or to any other service of love, I must follow,
+although I am in the state of highest contemplation." The hermits of the
+desert, and too often the monks of the cloister, escaped from all such
+services, and selfishly gave themselves up to saving their own souls by
+contemplation and prayer. Ministration to the needy is the external side
+of the inner religious life. It is the fruit of faith and prayer. The
+monk sought solitude, not for the purpose of fitting himself for a place
+in society, but for selfish, personal ends. Saint Bruno, in a letter to
+his friend Ralph le Verd, eulogizes the solitude of the monastic cell,
+and among other sentiments he gives expression to the following: "I am
+speaking here of the contemplative life; and although its sons are less
+numerous than those of active life, yet, like Joseph and Benjamin, they
+are infinitely dearer to their Father.... O my brother, fear not then to
+fly from the turmoil and the misery of the world; leave the storms that
+rage without, to shelter yourself in this safe haven."
+
+Thus sinful and sorrowing humanity, needing the guidance and comfort
+that holy men can furnish, was forgotten in the desire for personal
+peace and future salvation.
+
+Another baneful result of isolation was the strangulation of filial
+love. When the monk abandoned the softening, refining influence of women
+and children, one side of his nature suffered a serious contraction. An
+Egyptian mother stood at the hut of two hermits, her sons. Weeping
+bitterly, she begged to see their faces. To her piteous entreaties, they
+said: "Why do you, who are already stricken with age, pour forth such
+cries and lamentations?" "It is because I long to see you," she replied.
+"Am I not your mother? I am now an old and wrinkled woman, and my heart
+is troubled at the sound of your voices." But even a mother's love could
+not cope with their fearful fanaticism., and she went away with their
+cold promise that they would meet in heaven. St. John of Calama visited
+his sister in disguise, and a chronicler, telling the story afterwards,
+said, "By the mercy of Jesus Christ he had not been recognized, and they
+never met again." Many hermits received their parents or brothers and
+sisters with their eyes shut. When the father of Simeon Stylites died,
+his widowed mother prayed for entrance into her son's cell. For three
+days and nights she stood without, and then the blessed Simeon prayed
+the Lord for her, and she immediately gave up the ghost.
+
+These as well as numerous other stories of a similar character that
+might be quoted illustrate the hardening influence of solitude. Instead
+of cherishing a love of kindred, as a gift of heaven and a spring of
+virtue, the monk spurned it and trampled it beneath his feet as an
+obstacle to his spiritual progress. "The monks," says Milman, "seem
+almost unconscious of the softening, humanizing effect of the natural
+affections, the beauty of parental tenderness and filial love."
+
+
+
+_The Monks as Missionaries_
+
+The conversion of the barbarians was an indispensable condition of
+modern civilization. Every step forward had to be taken in the face of
+barbaric ignorance and cruelty. In this stupendous undertaking the monks
+led the way, displaying in their labors remarkable generalship and
+undaunted courage. Whatever may be thought of later monasticism, the
+Benedictine monks are entitled to the lasting gratitude of mankind for
+their splendid services in reducing barbaric Europe to some sort of
+order and civilization. But again the mixture of good and evil is
+strangely illustrated. It seems impossible to accord the monks
+unqualified praise. The potency of the evil tendencies within their
+system vitiated every noble achievement. Their methods and practical
+ideals were so at variance with the true order of nature that every
+commendable victory involved a corresponding obstacle to real social and
+religious progress. The justice of these observations will be more
+apparent as this inquiry proceeds.
+
+
+
+_Monasticism and Civic Duties_
+
+The withdrawal of a considerable number of men of character and talent
+from the exercise of civic duties is injurious to the state. The burdens
+upon those who remain become heavier, while society is deprived of the
+moral influence of those who forsake their civic responsibilities. When
+the monk, from the outside as it were, attempted to exert an influence
+for good, he largely failed. His ideals of life were not formulated in a
+real world, but in an artificial, antisocial environment. He was unable
+to appreciate the political needs of men. He could not enter
+sympathetically into their serious employments or innocent delights.
+Controlled by superstition, and exalting a servile obedience to human
+authority, he became a very unsafe guide in political affairs. He could
+not consistently labor for secular progress, because he had forsaken a
+world in which secular interests were prominent.
+
+It may be true that in the early days of monasticism the monks pursued
+the proper course in refusing to become Roman patriots. No human power
+could have averted the ruin which overtook that corrupt world. Perhaps
+their non-combatant attitude gave them more influence with the
+conquerors of Rome, who were to become the founders of modern nations.
+
+In later years, the abbots of the principal monasteries occupied seats
+in the legislative assemblies of Germany, Hungary, Spain, England,
+Italy, and France. In many instances they stood between the violence of
+the nobles and the unprotected vassal. Political monks, inspired by a
+natural breadth of vision and a love of humanity, secured the passage of
+wise and humane regulations. Palgrave says: "The mitre has resisted many
+blows which would have broken the helmet, and the crosier has kept more
+foes in awe than the lance. It is, then, to these prelates that we
+chiefly owe the maintenance of the form and spirit of free government,
+secured to us, not by force, but by law; and the altar has thus been the
+corner-stone of our ancient constitution."
+
+Although there is much truth in the foregoing observation, yet on the
+other hand, when the influence of the monastic ideal upon civilization
+is studied in its deeper aspects, it cannot be justly maintained that
+the final effects of monasticism minister to the development of a normal
+civilization. Industrial, mental and moral progress depend upon a
+certain breadth of mind and energy of soul. Asceticism saps the vitality
+of human nature and confines the activity of the mind within artificial
+limits. "Hence the dreary, sterile torpor," says Lecky, "that
+characterized those ages in which the ascetic principle has been
+supreme, while the civilizations which have attained the highest
+perfection have been those of ancient Greece and modern Europe, which
+were most opposed to it."
+
+The monks did not hesitate to become embroiled in military quarrels, or
+to incite the fiercer passions of men when it suited their purpose.
+Their opposition to kings and princes was often not based on a love of
+popular freedom, but on an indisposition to share power with secular
+rulers. The legislative enactments against heretics, many of which they
+inspired, clearly show that they neither desired nor tolerated liberty
+of speech or conduct. They were the Almighty's vicars on earth, before
+whom it was the duty of king and subject to bow down. Vaughan writes of
+the period just prior to the Reformation: "The great want was freedom
+from ecclesiastical domination; and from the feeling of the hour,
+scarcely any price would be deemed too great to be paid for that
+object." The history of modern Jesuitism, against which the legislation
+of almost every civilized nation has been directed, affords abundant
+testimony to the inherent hostility of the monastic system, even in its
+modified modern form, to every species of government which in any way
+guarantees freedom of thought to its people. This stern fact confronts
+the student, however much he may be inclined to yield homage to the
+early monks. It must be held in mind when one reads this pleasing
+sentence from Macaulay: "Surely a system which, however deformed by
+superstition, introduced strong moral restraints into communities
+previously governed only by vigor of muscle and by audacity of spirit, a
+system which taught the fiercest and mightiest ruler that he was, like
+his meanest bondman, a responsible being, might have seemed to deserve a
+more respectful mention from philosophers and philanthropists."
+
+The general effect of monasticism on the state is, therefore, not to be
+determined by fixing the gaze on any one century of its history, or by
+holding up some humane and patriotic monk as a representative product of
+the system.
+
+
+
+_The Agricultural Services of the Monks_
+
+Europe must ever be indebted to Benedict and his immediate followers for
+their services in reclaiming waste lands, and in removing the stigma
+which a corrupt civilization had placed upon labor. Benedict came before
+the world saying: "No person is ever more usefully employed than when
+working with his hands or following the plough, providing food for the
+use of man." Care was taken that councils should not be called when
+ploughing was to be done or wheat to be threshed. Benedict bent himself
+to the task of teaching the rich and the proud, the poor and the lazy
+the alphabet of prosperity and happiness. Agriculture was at its lowest
+ebb. Marshes covered once fertile fields, and the men who should have
+tilled the land spurned the plough as degrading, or were too indolent to
+undertake the tasks of the farm. The monks left their cells and their
+prayers to dig ditches and plough fields. The effect was magical. Men
+once more turned back to a noble but despised industry. Peace and plenty
+supplanted war and poverty. "The Benedictines," says Guizot, "have been
+the great clearers of land in Europe. A colony, a little swarm of monks,
+settled in places nearly uncultivated, often in the midst of a pagan
+population--in Germany, for example, or in Brittany; there, at once
+missionaries and laborers, they accomplish their double service, through
+peril and fatigue."
+
+It is to be regretted that history throws a shadow across this pleasing
+scene. When labor came to be recognized as honorable and useful, along
+came the begging friars, creating, both by precept and example, a
+prejudice against labor and wealth. Rags and laziness came to be
+associated with holiness, and a beggar monk was held up as an ideal and
+sacred personage. "The spirit that makes men devote themselves in vast
+numbers," says Lecky, "to a monotonous life of asceticism and poverty is
+so essentially opposed to the spirit that creates the energy and
+enthusiasm of industry, that their continued coexistence may be regarded
+as impossible." But such a fatal mistake could not long captivate the
+mind, or cause men to forget Benedict and his industrial ideal. The
+blessings of wealth rightly administered, and the dignity of labor
+without which wealth is impossible, came to be recognized as necessary
+factors in the true progress of man.
+
+
+
+_The Monks and Secular Learning_
+
+For many centuries, as has been previously shown, the monks were the
+schoolmasters of Europe. They also preserved the manuscripts of the
+classics, produced numerous theological works, transmitted many pious
+traditions, and wrote some interesting and some worthless chronicles.
+They laid the foundations of several great universities, including those
+of Paris, Oxford and Cambridge. For these, and other valuable services,
+the monks merit the praise of posterity. It is, however, too much to
+affirm, as Montalembert does, that "without the monks, we should have
+been as ignorant of our history as children." It is altogether
+improbable that the human mind would have been unproductive in the field
+of historical writing had monasticism not existed during the middle
+ages. While, also, the monks should be thanked for preserving the
+classics, it should not be supposed that all knowledge of Latin and
+Greek literature would have perished but for them.
+
+It is surprising that the literary men of the medieval period should
+have written so little of interest to the modern mind, or that helps us
+to an understanding of the momentous events amid which they lived.
+Unfortunately the monkish mind was concentrated upon a theology, the
+premises of which have been largely set aside by modern science. Their
+writings are so permeated by grotesque superstitions that they are
+practically worthless to-day. Their hostility to secular affairs blinded
+them to the tremendous significance of the mighty political and social
+movements of the age.
+
+It is undeniable that the monks never encouraged a love of secular
+learning. They did not try to impart a love of the classics which they
+preserved. The spirit of monasticism was ever at war with true
+intellectual progress. The monks imprisoned Roger Bacon fourteen years,
+and tried to blast his fair name by calling him a magician, merely
+because he stepped beyond the narrow limits of monkish inquiry. Many
+suffered indignities, privations or death for questioning tradition or
+for conducting scientific researches.
+
+So while it is true that the monks rendered many services to the cause
+of education, it is also true that their monastic theories tended to
+narrow the scope of intellectual activity. "This," says Guizot, "is the
+foundation of their instruction; all was turned into commentary of the
+Scriptures, historical, philosophical, allegorical, moral commentary.
+They desired only to form priests; all studies, whatsoever their nature,
+were directed to this result." There was no disinterested love of
+learning; no desire to become acquainted with God's world. In fact, the
+old hostility to everything natural characterizes all monastic history.
+Europe did not enter upon that broad and noble intellectual development
+which is the glory of our era, until the right arm of monasticism was
+struck down, the dread of heresy banished from the human mind, and
+secular learning welcomed as a legitimate and elevated field for
+mental activity.
+
+Hamilton W. Mabie, in his delightful essay on "Some Old Scholars,"
+describes this step from the gloom of the cloister to the light of God's
+world: "Petrarch really escaped from a sepulcher when he stepped out of
+the cloister of medievalism, with its crucifix, its pictures of
+unhealthy saints, its cords of self-flagellation, and found the heavens
+clear, beautiful, and well worth living under, and the world full of
+good things which one might desire and yet not be given over to evil. He
+ventured to look at life for himself and found it full of wonderful
+dignity and power. He opened his Virgil, brushed aside the cobwebs which
+monkish brains had spun over the beautiful lines, and met the old poet
+as one man meets another; and lo! there arose before him a new,
+untrodden and wholly human world, free from priestcraft and pedantry,
+near to nature and unspeakably alluring and satisfying."
+
+The Dominicans and Jesuits set their faces like flint against all
+education tending to liberalize the mind. Here is a passage from a
+document published by the Jesuits at their first centenary: "It is
+undeniable that we have undertaken a great and uninterrupted war in the
+interests of the Catholic church against heresy. Heresy need never hope
+that the society will make terms with it, or remain quiescent ... No
+peace need be expected, for the seed of hatred is born within us. What
+Hamilcar was to Hannibal, Ignatius is to us. At his instigation, we have
+sworn upon the altars eternal war." When this proclamation is read in
+the light of history, its meaning stands forth with startling clearness.
+Almost every truth in science and philosophy, no matter how valuable it
+was destined to become as an agent in enhancing the well-being of the
+race, has had to wear the stigma of heresy.
+
+It is an interesting speculation to imagine what the intellectual
+development of Europe would have been, had secular learning been
+commended by the monks, and the common people encouraged to exercise
+their minds without fear of excommunication or death. It is sad to
+reflect how many great thoughts must have perished still-born in the
+student's cloister cell, and to picture the silent grief with which
+many a brilliant soul must have repressed his eager imagination.
+
+
+
+_The Charity of the Monks_
+
+In the eleventh century, a monk named Thieffroy wrote the following: "It
+matters little that our churches rise to heaven, that the capitals of
+their pillars are sculptured and gilded, that our parchment is tinted
+purple, that gold is melted to form the letters of our manuscripts, and
+that their bindings are set with precious stones, if we have little or
+no care for the members of Christ, and if Christ himself lies naked and
+dying before our doors." This spirit, so charmingly expressed, was never
+quite absent from the monkish orders. The monasteries were asylums for
+the hungry during famines, and the sick during plagues. They served as
+hotels where the traveler found a cordial welcome, comfortable shelter
+and plain food. If he needed medical aid, his wants were supplied.
+During the black plague, while many monks fled with the multitude,
+others stayed at their posts and were to be found daily in the homes of
+the stricken, ministering to their bodily and spiritual needs. Many of
+them perished in their heroic and self-sacrificing labors.
+
+Alms-giving was universally enjoined as a sure passport to heaven. The
+most glittering rewards were held out to those who enriched the monks
+with legacies to be used in relief of the poor. It was, no doubt, the
+unselfish activities of the monks that caused them to be held in such
+high esteem; the result was their coffers were filled with more gold
+than they could easily give away. Thus abuses grew up. Bernard said:
+"Piety gave birth to wealth, and the daughter devoured the mother."
+Jacob of Vitry complained that money, "by various and deceptive tricks,"
+was exacted from the people by the monks, most of which adhered "to
+their unfaithful fingers." While Lecky eloquently praises the monks for
+their beautiful deeds of charity, "following all the windings of the
+poor man's grief," still he condones in the strongest terms the action
+of Henry VIII. in transferring the monastic funds to his own treasury:
+"No misapplication of this property by private persons could produce as
+much evil as an unrestrained monasticism."
+
+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."
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+A
+
+Abbey, _see_ Monastery.
+Abbot, meaning of word, 425;
+  as father of family of monks, 143;
+  election of, 144;
+  description of installation of, 145;
+  wealth and political influence of, 147;
+  disorders among lay, 179;
+  as a feudal lord, 373;
+  in legislative assemblies, 400.
+Abelard opposed by Bernard, 196.
+Abraham, St., the hermit, 50;
+  quoted, 60.
+Abstinence, no virtue in false, 419.
+Accountability, personal, sense of maintained by monks, 414.
+Act of Succession, 298.
+Agriculture, monasteries centers of, 155;
+  and the Cistercian monks, 192;
+  fostered by monks, 403.
+  _See_ Benedict, Order of St.
+Alaric the Goth sacks Rome, 103.
+Albans, St., Abbey of, Morton on its vices, 338.
+Albertus Magnus, a Dominican, 242.
+Albigensians, Hallam on doctrines of, 232;
+  Hardwick on same, 233;
+  Dominic preaches against, 234;
+  Dominic's part in crusade against, 235.
+Alcuin, on corruptions of monks, 173;
+  education and, 167.
+Alexander IV., Pope, on the stigmata of St. Francis, 221;
+  and the University of Paris quarrel, 250.
+Alfred, King, the Great, complains of monks, 173;
+  his reformatory measures, 181.
+Alien Priories, confiscated, 338;
+  origin of, 340.
+Allen, on the fate of the Templars, 202;
+  on Dominic and the Albigensian crusade, 238;
+  on spiritual pride of the Mendicants, 257;
+  on the genius of feudalism, 373;
+  on the deficiencies of monastic characters, 394.
+Alms-giving, _see_ Charity.
+Alverno, Mount, and the stigmata of St. Francis, 219.
+Ambrose, embraces ascetic Christianity, 84;
+  Theodosius on, 115;
+  saying of Gibbon applied to, 116;
+  describes Capraria, 126;
+  his influence on Milanese women, 126.
+Ammonius, the hermit, visits Rome, 72.
+Anglicans, claims of, respecting the early British Church, 162.
+Anglo-Saxons and British Christianity, 164.
+Anglo-Saxon Church, effect of Danish invasion on, 181;
+  effect of Dunstan's work on, 187.
+  _See_ Britain.
+Anslem, of Canterbury, on flight from the world, 369.
+Anthony, St.,
+  visits Paul of Thebes, 37;
+  his strange experiences, 38;
+  buries Paul, 41;
+  birth and early life of, 43;
+  his austerities, 44, 45;
+  miracles of, 46;
+  his fame and influence, 47;
+  his death, 48;
+  Taylor on biography of, 48.
+Ap Rice, a Royal Commissioner, 311.
+Aquinas, Thomas, a Dominican, 242.
+Ascetic, The, his morbid introspection, 392;
+  meaning of word, 425.
+  _See_ Monks and Hermits.
+Asceticism, in India, 18-20, 357;
+  among Chaldeans, 20;
+  in China, 20;
+  among the Greeks, 21, 22;
+  the Essenes, 23;
+  in apostolic times, 27;
+  the Gnostics, 27;
+  and the Bible, 30, 366;
+  in post-apostolic times, 31;
+  modifications of, under Basil, 64;
+  protests against, in early Rome, 124;
+  various forms of, 385;
+  effects of, 391, 401.
+  _See_ Monasticism.
+Aske, Robert, heads revolt against Henry VIII., 326.
+Athanasius, St., visits hermits, 35;
+  his life of Anthony, 42;
+  influence of same on Rome, 80, 83;
+  spreads Pachomian rule, 63;
+  visits Rome, 71,
+    and effect of, 80;
+  visits Gaul, 119;
+  his saying on fasting, 121.
+Atonement, for sin, the monk's influence on doctrine of, 417.
+Augustine, Bishop of Hippo,  his life, and services to monasticism,
+     117, 119;
+  influenced by biography of Anthony, 43;
+  on marriage and celibacy, 112;
+  charges monks with fraud, 128.
+Augustine, Rule of, adopted by Dominic, 232, 241.
+Augustine, the monk, his mission to England, 161.
+Augustinians, 246.
+Aurelius, Emperor, Christianity during reign of, 124.
+Austerities, Robertson on, 94.
+  _See_ Asceticism and Self-denial
+Austin Canons, 118.
+
+
+B
+
+Bacon, Roger, a Franciscan, 228;
+  imprisonment of, 407.
+Bagot, Richard, on the English reformation, 345.
+Bale, John, on the fall of the monasteries, 333.
+Baluzii, on the prosperity of the Franciscans, 255.
+Bangor, Monastery of, founded, 123;
+  slaughter of its monks, 165.
+Barbarians, the struggle of the monks with, 148, 149, 170;
+  conversion of, 398.
+Basil the Great, 63;
+  revolts against excessive  austerities, 64;
+  founder of Greek monasticism, 64, 65;
+  his rules, 65;
+  adopts irrevocable vows, 65;
+  on marriage, 66;
+  enforces strict obedience, 66.
+Bede, The Venerable, on the British
+  Church, 123; on monks and
+  animals, 156.
+Begging Friars, _see_ Mendicants,
+  Franciscans and Dominicans.
+Benedict, Pope, XI., 221; XII.,
+  consecrates Monte Cassino,
+  135; on the stigmata of St.
+  Francis, 221.
+Benedict of Aniane, his attempted
+  reform, 176.
+Benedict, of Nursia, birth and
+  early life, 131; his trials, 132;
+  his fame attracts followers, 133;
+  his strictness provokes opposition,
+  133; retires to Monte Cassino,
+  134; conquers Paganism,
+  135; his miracles and power
+  over barbarians, 137; his last
+  days, 13 8; his rules, 138; Schaff
+  on same, 148; Cardinal Newman
+  on mission of, 149; saying
+  of, on manual labor, 403.
+Benedict, Order of St., 131; rules
+  of, 138; the novitiate, 140;
+  daily life of monks, 140; meaning
+  of term "order," 143;
+  abbots of, 144; manual labor,
+  147, 403; Schaff on rules of,
+  148; its dealings with barbarians,
+  148, 398; its literary and
+  educational services, 151; its
+  agricultural work, 155, 404;
+  spread of, 158; its followers
+  among the royalty, 159.
+Bernard, of Clairvaux, his birth
+  and monastic services, 193;
+  character of his monastery,
+  192; on drugs and doctors,
+  194; his reforms, 195; Vaughan
+  on, 195; Storrs on, 197; the
+  Crusades, 197; on the abuses
+  of charity, 411.
+Bernardone, Peter, father of Francis,
+  208. _See_ Francis.
+Bethlehem, Jerome's monasteries
+  at, 85, 88; Paula establishes
+  monasteries at, 100.
+Bible, The, and monasticism, 30,
+  376.
+Bigotry, of monks, 394.
+Biography, monastic history centers
+  in, 84.
+Bjoernstrom, on the stigmata, 223.
+Blaesilla, murmurs against monks
+  at her funeral, 125.
+Blunt, on the: fall of the monasteries,
+  333.
+Boccaccio, comments on his visit
+  to Monte Cassino, 136.
+Boleyn, Anne, and Henry VIII.,
+  294.
+Bollandists, Catholic, on Dominic
+  and the Inquisition, 238.
+Bonaventura, on the stigmata of
+  Francis, 220; a Franciscan, 228;
+  on vices of the monks, 337.
+Boniface, the apostle to the Germans,
+  167.
+Bonner, Bishop, persuades Prior
+  Houghton to sign oath of
+  supremacy, 303.
+Brahminism, asceticism under, 19.
+Britain, Tertullian, Origen, and
+  Bede, on Christianity in, 123;.
+  relation of early church in, to
+  Rome, 162; monasticism in,
+  162, 168.
+Brotherhood of Penitence, 229.
+Bruno, the abbot of Cluny, 177.
+Bruno, founder of Carthusian order,
+  188; Ruskin on the order, 189;
+  the monastery of the Chartreuse, 189;
+  his eulogy of solitude, 396.
+Bryant, poem of, on fall of monasteries, 353.
+Buddha, on the ascetic life, 357.
+Buddhism, asceticism under, 19.
+Burke, Edmund, quoted by Gasquet on fall of monasteries, 312.
+Burnet, on report of Royal Commissioners, 316.
+Bury, Father, on Chinese monks, 20.
+
+
+C
+
+Cambridge, University of, the friars at, 252, 405.
+Campeggio, Cardinal, the divorce proceedings of Henry VIII. and, 294.
+Capraria, Rutilius and Ambrose on island of, 126.
+Capuchins, 246.
+Carlyle, Thomas, on Mahomet, 33;
+  quotes Jocelin on Abbot Samson's election, 145;
+  on the twelfth century, 157;
+  on the monastic ideal, 174;
+  on Jesuitical obedience, 271;
+  views of, criticised, 278.
+Carmelites, 246.
+Carthusians, The, establishment of, 188;
+  famous monastery of, 189;
+  rules of, 189;
+  in England, 191, 334.
+  _See_ Charterhouse.
+Cassiodorus, the literary labors of, 152.
+Casuistry, of the Jesuits, 272; 429.
+Catacombs, visited by Jerome, 87.
+Catharine, of Aragon, Henry's divorce from, 293.
+Catholic, Roman, _see_ Rome, Church of.
+Celibacy, praised by Jerome and Augustine, 112;
+  views of Helvidius on, opposed by Jerome, 113;
+  the struggle to establish sacerdotal, 183;
+  Lingard on, 183;
+  Lea on, 184;
+  vow of, 380;
+  and Scripture teaching, 381;
+  early Fathers on, 381;
+  a modern ecclesiastic's reasons for, 381;
+  how vow of, came to be imposed, 382;
+  no special virtue in, 419.
+Cellani, Peter, Dominic retires to house of, 238;
+Celtic Church, _see_ Britain.
+Cenobites, meaning of term, 425;
+  origin of, in the East, 57;
+  habits of early, 58;
+  aims of, 60.
+Chalcis, desert of, 87.
+Chaldea, asceticism in, 20.
+Chalippe, Father Candide, on miracles of saints, 224.
+Channey, Maurice, on fall of the Charterhouse, 302.
+Channing, William E., on various manifestations of the ascetic
+     spirit, 385;
+  on exaggerations of monasticism, 415.
+Chapter, The,
+  defined, 144;
+  of Mats, 228.
+Chapuys, despatches of, to Charles V., 297.
+Charity, of monks, 348, 410;
+  true and false, 348, 412;
+  Bernard, Jacob of Vitry and Lecky on abuses of, 411;
+  as a passport to Heaven, 411.
+Charlemagne, 118.
+Charles V., Emperor, Pole writes to, 296;
+  Chapuy's despatches to, 297.
+Charterhouse, of London, 191;
+  execution of monks of, 301, 334;
+  and the progress of England, 343.
+  _See_ Carthusians.
+Chartreuse, Grand, monastery, 189.
+Chastity, vow of, in Pachomian rule, 61.
+  _See_ Celibacy.
+China, asceticism in, 20.
+Chinese monks, Father Bury on, 20.
+Christ, _see_ Jesus Christ.
+Christian clergy, character of, in the fourth century, 77.
+Christian ideal, tending toward fanaticism, 129.
+Christian discipleship, nature of true, 390.
+Christianity, asceticism and apostolic, 27, 28, 31;
+  conquers Roman empire, 71, 76;
+  endangered by success, 77;
+  in Rome in the fourth century, 79;
+  Lord on same, 80;
+  is opposed to fanaticism, 94;
+  in ancient Britain, 123, 161, 162;
+  Clarke on, 171;
+  Mozoomdar on essential principle of, 359;
+  requires some sort of self-denial, 390, 418, 419;
+  monasticism and, compared, 420;
+  monasticism furnishes example of, 422.
+  _See_ Britain and Church.
+Chrysostom, becomes an ascetic, 84;
+  brief account of life of, 116;
+  monastic cause furthered by, 117.
+Church, Christian, the triumphant, compared with church in age of
+     persecution, 109;
+  ideal of, furthers monasticism, 129;
+  and the barbarians, 149;
+  of the thirteenth century, 206;
+  its life-ideal, 369;
+  its union with paganism, 370.
+  _See_ Anglo-Saxon Church, Britain, and England, Church of.
+Cistercian Order, the monks and rule of, 192;
+  decline of, 193.
+Citeaux, Monastery at, 192.
+Civic duties and monasticism, 399.
+  _See_ Monasticism.
+Clairvaux, Bernard of, _see_ Bernard;
+  Monastery of, 193.
+Clara, St., Nuns of, founded, 228.
+Clarke, William Newton, on Christianity of first and second
+     centuries, 171.
+Clarke, James Freeman, on Brahmin ascetics, 20.
+Classics, Jerome's fondness for the, 95;
+  the monks and the, 405.
+Clement XIV., Pope, dissolves the Society of Jesus, 279.
+Clergy of the Christian Church, 77.
+Clinton, Lord, on the work of suppression, 311.
+Cloister, 426.
+  _See_ Monastery.
+Cluny, Monastery at, 177;
+  the congregation of, 178.
+Coke, Sir Edward, quoted, 329.
+Columba, St., his church relations, 162.
+Commissioners, The Royal, appointed to visit monasteries of England,
+     their methods, 308, 333;
+  character of, 311;
+  begin their work, 313;
+  their report, 316;
+  Parliament acts on same, 319.
+Confession, among the Jesuits, 269.
+Conscience, liberty of, renounced by monks, 394.
+Constantine the Great, 71.
+Contemplation, John Tauler on, 395;
+  Bruno on, 396.
+Convents. _See_ Monasteries.
+Copyright, first instance of quarrel for, 170.
+Council, of Saragossa, 122;
+  of Trent, 382;
+  Lateran, 242.
+Court of Augmentation, 319.
+Crocella, Santa, chapel of, 131;
+  Romanus the monk, 131.
+Cromwell, Richard, on Sir John Russell, 326.
+Cromwell, Thomas, his life and aims, 308;
+  Green and Froude on, 309;
+  his religious views, 309;
+  Foxe and Gasquet on character of, 310;
+  becomes Vicegerent, 310;
+  inspires terror and hatred, 324;
+  his removal demanded, 326;
+  overcomes the Pilgrims of Grace, 326;
+  bribed for estates, 329.
+Cross, loyalty to the, fostered by monks, 414;
+  power of the doctrine of, 418.
+Crusades, effect of, on monastic types, 373.
+  _See_ Military Orders and Bernard.
+Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, 61;
+  and murder of Hypatia, 68.
+
+
+D
+
+Damian, Church of St., repaired by Francis, 211, 214.
+Danish invasion of England, its consequences, 180.
+Dante, on Francis and poverty, 215.
+Democracy, Christian, and monasticism, 422.
+Desert, Jerome on attractions of, 89.
+De Tocqueville, on self-subjection, 143.
+Dhaquit, the Chaldean, quoted, 20.
+Dharmapala, on the ascetic ideal in India, 357.
+Dill, Samuel, on Rome's fall and the Christian Church, 74, 79, 108,
+     109.
+Domestic life, a field of forbidden fruit, 394, 398.
+  _See_ Family-ideal and Jerome.
+Dominic, St., Innocent III. dreams of, 216;
+  early life of, 230;
+  his mother's dream, 231;
+  visits Languedoc, 232;
+  rebukes papal legates, 234;
+  his crusade against Albigensians, 234;
+  his relation to the Holy Inquisition, 235;
+  establishes his order, 239;
+  at Rome, 239;
+  his self-denial and death, 240;
+  canonized, 241.
+Dominic, St., Nuns of, 242.
+Dominicans, The, the Inquisition and, 238;
+  order of, founded, 239;
+  constitution of the order of, 241;
+  spread of, 241;
+  eminent members, 242;
+  three classes of, 242;
+  the preaching of, 249;
+  quarrel with the Franciscans, 249;
+  enter England, 251;
+  fatal success and decline of, 253, 256;
+  on the stigmata of Francis, 221;
+  liberal education and, 408.
+Ducis, on the Hermits, 32.
+Duns Scotus, a Franciscan, 228.
+Dunstan, reforms of, 182;
+  his character and life-work, 186.
+
+
+E
+
+East, monasticism in the, _see_ Monasticism and Monks.
+Echard, a Dominican, 242.
+Eckenstein, Lina, on Morton's letter, 339.
+Edersheim, on the Essenes, 24.
+Edgar, King, aids Dunstan in reform, 186.
+Education, The Mendicants and, 248;
+  the monks further, in England, 253;
+  the effect of monasticism on, 407.
+Edward I. and III., confiscate alien priories, 338.
+Egypt, The hermits of, 33;
+  Kingsley and Waddington on same, 34.
+Elijah, and asceticism, 30.
+Elizabeth, Princess, and the Act of Succession, 298.
+Endowments of monasteries, abolished by first Mendicants, 244;
+  reason for some, 361.
+England, Church of, separates from Rome, 328;
+  causes of, and by whom separation secured, 340, 342.
+  _See_ Britain.
+Essenes, asceticism of, 23.
+Ethelwold, aids Dunstan, 186.
+Eudoxia, Empress, banishes Chrysostom, 117.
+Eustochium, _see_ Paula.
+
+
+F
+
+Fabiola, St., Lecky on her charities, 105;
+  her care for sick, 105;
+  her death, 105.
+Family-ideal, of monastery, Taunton on, 143.
+  _See_ Domestic Life.
+Fanaticism, Christianity hostile to, 94;
+  tendency toward, among early Christians, 129.
+Farrar, on the luxury of Rome, 75.
+Fasting, amusing instance of rebellion of monks against, 120;
+  Athanasius on, 121.
+  _See_ Self-denial, Ascetic and Asceticism.
+Ferdinand, of Austria, educated by Jesuits, 277.
+Feudalism, monasticism affected by, 373.
+Finnian, the monk, quarrels with Columba, 170.
+Fisher, G.P., on the stigmata of Francis, 223.
+Fisher, execution of, by Henry VIII., 301, 306.
+Filial love, strangulation of, by monks, 397.
+Forsyth, on St. Francis, 225.
+Foxe, on Thomas Cromwell, 310.
+France, New, and the Jesuits, 282.
+Francis, St., his birth and early years, 208;
+  his dreams and sickness, 209;
+  visits Rome, 210;
+  seeking light on his duty, 210, 211;
+  sells his father's merchandise and keeps proceeds, 211;
+  renounces his father, 212;
+  assumes monkish habit, 213;
+  repairs Church of St. Damian, 214;
+  Dante on poverty and, 215;
+  visits Innocent III., 216;
+  visits Mohammedans, 217; a
+  lover of birds, 217;
+  Longfellow's poem on a homily of, 218;
+  his temptations, 218;
+  the stigmata, 219;
+  death of, 224;
+  his character, 225;
+  his rule, 226;
+  on prayer and preaching, 249;
+  method of, forsaken, 421.
+Franciscans, The, first year of, 215;
+  order of, sanctioned, 216, 217;
+  three classes of, 226;
+  the rule of, 226;
+  Sabatier on rule of, 227;
+  the title "Friars Minor," 227;
+  number of, 228;
+  St. Clara and, 228;
+  The Third Order of, 229;
+  quarrel over the vow of poverty, 246;
+  prosperity of, 246;
+  educational work of, 248;
+  quarrel with Dominicans, 249;
+  settle in England, 251;
+  Baluzii on success of, 255;
+  fatal success of, 253.
+Fratricelli, sketch of the, 247.
+Freedom, religious, want of, 402.
+Friars, Begging, _see_ Franciscans, Dominicans and Mendicants.
+Friars Minor, 227.
+Froude, on the Charterhouse monks, 302, 304;
+  on Thomas Cromwell, 309;
+  on the report of the Royal Commissioners, 317;
+  on the Catholics and the Reformation, 346.
+Future punishment, the monks and the doctrine of, 417.
+
+
+G
+
+Gairdner, on Henry's breach with Rome, 301.
+Galea, the Goth, awed by St. Benedict, 137.
+Gardiner, burns heretics, 311.
+Gasquet, on Thomas Cromwell, 310;
+  quotes Burke on the suppression, 312.
+Gauls, monastic, complain to St. Martin, 120.
+Germany, monasticism enters, 122.
+Gervais, reason for his donations, 361.
+Gibbon, on bones of Simeon, 57;
+  on Egyptian monks, 62;
+  on Roman marriages, 110;
+  saying of, applied to Ambrose, 116;
+  on military orders, 199;
+  quotes Zosimus, 348;
+  on the monastic aim, 362;
+  on the character of the monks, 388.
+Gindeley, on the Jesuits and the Thirty Years' War, 277.
+Giovanni di San Paolo, on gospel perfection, 226.
+Glastonbury, fall of Abbey of, 314.
+Gnostics, and asceticism, 27, 366.
+Godfrey de Bouillon, endows Hospital of St. John, 201.
+Godric, his unique austerities, 132.
+Goldsmith, on the English character, 166.
+Grand Chartreuse, monastery, 189.
+Greece, asceticism in, 20.
+Greeks, ancient, asceticism among the, 21.
+Greek Church, monasticism of the, 64, 67.
+Green, J.R., on the preaching friars, 254;
+  on Thomas Cromwell, 309;
+  on the suppression, 323.
+Gregory of Nazianza, on ascetic moderation, 65.
+Gregory, Pope, I., 138;
+  II., 135;
+  VII., 160, 178;
+  IX., 241;
+  X., 245.
+Gregory, St., Monastery of, rules of, 141.
+Griffin, Henry, on the Royal Commissioners, 311.
+Grimke, on historic movements, 84.
+Guigo, rules of, 190;
+  on vow of obedience, 383.
+Guizot, on state of early Europe, 149;
+  on the Benedictines, 404;
+  on monastic education, 407.
+Gustavus, contrasted to monks, 394.
+Guzman, _see_ Dominic.
+
+
+H
+
+Hallam, on the Albigensians, 233, 235;
+  on the suppression, 334;
+  on charity of the monks, 349.
+Happiness, the key to, 392.
+Hardwick, on the Albigensian doctrines, 233.
+Harnack, on early ascetics, 28;
+  on nominal Christianity of Rome, 77;
+  on life-ideal in the early church, 129;
+  on monasticism and the church, 414.
+Hell, the monks' teachings about, 417.
+Helvidius, on celibacy, 113.
+Henry, King, II., and the British church, 165;
+  III., invites students to England, 252;
+  IV., confiscates alien priories, 338.
+Henry VIII., and the independence of English church, 163;
+  and the fall of the monasteries, 286;
+  opinions respecting his character, 288, 290;
+  inconsistencies of, 291;
+  "Defender of the Faith," 293;
+  his divorce from Catharine, 293;
+  breach with Rome, 294, 300;
+  dangers to his throne, 295;
+  monks enraged at, 296;
+  as "Head of the Church," 297, 298;
+  Act of Succession, 298;
+  Oath of Supremacy, 298, 301;
+  excommunicated, 306;
+  the struggle for power, 324;
+  suppresses "Pilgrims of Grace," 326;
+  his use of monastic revenues, 328, 330;
+  Coke on his promises to Parliament, 329;
+  his motives for the suppression, 332;
+  Hooper on reforms of, 339;
+  an unconscious agent of new forces, 344;
+  two epochs met in reign of, 346;
+  Lecky on his use of monastic funds, 411.
+Heresy, growth of, in thirteenth century, 206;
+  monks attempt extirpation of, 261, 402;
+  Jesuits and, 276, 409.
+Heretical sects, attack vices of monks, 245.
+Hermit life, founder of, 35;
+  unsuited to women, 107.
+Hermits, The, of India, 20;
+  of Egypt, 33;
+  their mode of life, 49;
+  visit Rome, 71;
+  effect of story of, in Rome, 71, 80, 84;
+  of Augustine, 246.
+Hilarion, the hermit, 49.
+Hildebrand, _see_ Gregory VII.
+Hill, on manual labor, 142;
+  on fall of monasticism, 345.
+History, monastic contributions to, 406.
+Hoensbroech, Count Paul von, on Jesuitical discipline, 268.
+Holiness, false views of, 421.
+  _See_ Soul-purity and Salvation.
+Holy Land, motives for exodus to, 97.
+Holy Maid of Kent, 337.
+Home-life, not to be despised, 420.
+Honorius, III., Pope, sanctions Franciscan Order, 217;
+  confirms Dominican Order, 239.
+Hooper, Bishop, on Henry's reforms, 339.
+Hospital, Knights of, _see_ Knights.
+Hospitals, founded by Fabiola, 105;
+  Lecky on, 105;
+  result of woman's sympathy, 111.
+Houghton, Prior, _see_ Charterhouse.
+Household duties, Jerome on, 114.
+  _See_ Domestic Life.
+House of Lords, majority in the, changed, 347.
+Houses, Religious, _see_ Monasteries.
+Hugh, St., of Lincoln, and the swan, 157;
+  Ruskin on, 189.
+Human affection, monks indifferent to, 394, 397.
+Hume, on the suppression, 333.
+Hypatia, Kingsley's, quoted, 61;
+  death of, 48.
+
+
+I
+
+Ideal, monastie, 354. _See_ Monasticism.
+Ignatius, St., _see_ Loyola.
+Independence, Jesuitism and personal, 270;
+  of thought, renounced  by monks, 394.
+  _See_ Freedom, Liberty.
+India, asceticism in, 18, 357.
+India, monasticism in, 18, 357, 358;
+  causes of same, 355.
+Individual, influence of the, 91;
+  effect of self-sacrifice upon the, 390;
+  effect of solitude upon the, 393.
+Industry, modern, not to be despised, 420.
+Innocent, Pope, III., 216, 234, 239, 242;
+  IV., 250;
+  VIII., 339.
+Inquisition, The Holy, the Albigensian crusade and, 233;
+  relation of Dominicans toward, 235;
+  its establishment and management, 238.
+Intellectual progress, monasticism opposed to true, 407;
+  in Europe, 409.
+Introspection, evil effects of morbid, 392.
+Iona, Monastery of, 168.
+Ireland, St. Patrick labors in, 123;
+  monasteries of, as centers of culture, 169.
+Isidore, the hermit, visits Rome, 72.
+Itineracy, substituted for seclusion in cloister, 244.
+
+
+J
+
+Jacob of Vitry, on abuses of charity, 411.
+James, the Apostle, quoted on rich men, 377.
+Jerome, St., his life of Paul of Thebes, 35;
+  on Pachomian monks, 59;
+  his letter to Rusticus, 59;
+  on solitude, 61;
+on number of Egyptian monks,
+  63; on clergy of the fourth and
+  fifth centuries, 77; in his cell,
+  85; Schaff on, 86; his birth
+  and early life, 86; his travels,
+  and austerities, 87, 92; organizes
+  monastic brotherhood,
+  88; his literary labors, 88;
+  glorifies desert life, 89; influences
+  Rome, 91; his temptations,
+  93; his fondness for the
+  classics, 95; his biographies of
+  Roman nuns, 96; his life of
+  St. Paula, 97, and of Marcella,
+  102; on folly of Roman women,
+  108; on marriage and celibacy,
+  112; on household duties, 113;
+  attacks the foes of monks, 127;
+  on vices of monks, 128; on
+  monastic aim, 360; on the
+  natural, 366.
+Jesuits, _see_ Jesus, The Society of.
+Jesuits, The Pagan, 22, 426.
+Jesus Christ, the Essenes and, 26;
+  quoted by early ascetics, 31,
+  and by Jerome, 92; teachings
+  of, used by monks, 366, 376;
+  his doctrine of wealth, 377;
+  his attitude toward rich men,
+  379; the doctrine of the cross
+  and, 418.
+Jesus, The Society of, Sherman on
+  nature of, 258; rejects seclusion,
+  258; Bishop Keane on,
+  259, 273; how differs from
+  other monastic communities,
+  259; founded by Loyola, 264;
+  constitution and polity of, 265;
+  grades of members of, 265;
+  vow of obedience in, 266; von
+  Hoensbroech on, 268; confession
+  in, 269; Carlyle on
+  obedience in, 271; casuistry of,
+  272, 429; its doctrine of probabilism,
+  274; the Roman
+  Church and, 275; Roman foes
+  of, 276; mission of, 276; its attitude
+  toward Reformation, 277;
+  the Thirty Years' War and, 277;
+  calumnies against, 279; Clement
+  XIV. dissolves, 279; expulsion
+  of, from Europe, 279;
+  missionary labors of, 280; Parkman
+  contrasts, with Puritans,
+  281; failure of, 283; restoration
+  of, 283; causes for rise of,
+  374; hostility of, to free government,
+  402; liberal education
+  opposed by, 409. _See_ Loyola.
+Jewish asceticism, 23.
+Jocelin, quoted by Carlyle, 145.
+John,  King, confiscates alien
+  priories, 338.
+John, St., Knights of, _see_ Knights.
+John, St., of Calama, visits his
+  sister in disguise, 397.
+John, the Apostle, on love of the
+  world, 377.
+John the Baptist, and asceticism,
+  30.
+Johnson, on Monastery of Iona,
+  168.
+Joseph, St., Church of, in England,
+  163.
+Josephus on the Essenes, 23.
+Jovinian, hostility of, toward
+  monks, 127; compared by
+  Neander to Luther, 127.
+Julian, Emperor, the exodus of
+  monks and the, 127.
+Juvenal, satire of, on Roman
+  women, 82.
+
+
+K
+
+Keane, Bishop, on the Jesuits,
+  259, 273.
+Kennaquhair, installation of abbot
+  of, 145.
+King, on Hildebrand, 178.
+Kingsley, on Egypt and the hermits,
+  34; on Roman women,
+  82, 106; on fall of Rome, 78,
+  367.
+Knights of St. John, their origin
+  and mission, 200.
+Knights of the Hospital, sketch
+  of the, 198.
+Knights Templars, rule of the,
+  197; rise and fall of, 202.
+
+
+L
+
+Labor, manual, Jerome on, 59;
+  in Pachomian rule, 60; Hill on
+  benefits of, 142; among the
+  Benedictines, 147, 404; Benedict
+  on, 403; effect of Mendicants
+  on, 404; not to be despised,
+  420.
+Lama, Grand, in India, 21.
+Lateran Council, 242.
+Latimer, Bishop, and the monastic
+  funds, 323.
+Laumer, St., and wild animals,
+  156.
+Laveleye on Christianity, 378.
+Lay abbots, disorders among the,
+  179.
+Layton, a Royal Commissioner,
+  311. 312.
+Lea, on celibacy, 184; on the
+  Reformation, 342.
+Learning, influence of Alcuin
+  and Wilfred on, 167; Irish
+  monasteries as centers of, 169;
+  monks further, in England,
+  252; the monks and secular,
+  406; effects of monasticism on
+  the course of, 407. _See_ Literary
+  services.
+Lecky, on Fabiola's hospitals, 105;
+  on asceticism and civilization,
+  401; on industry and the monastic
+  ideal, 405; on abuses of
+  alms-giving, 411; on the monastic
+  doctrines of hell, 418.
+Legh, a Royal Commissioner, 311.
+Leo X., Pope, 293.
+Liberty, the Jesuits on, 375. _See_
+  Freedom and Independence.
+Libraries, monastic, 152.
+Lincoln, Abraham, quoted, 205.
+Lingard, on Bede and the conversion
+  of King Lucius, 124;
+ on the Anglo-Saxon Church,
+  181.
+Literary services of monks, 153,
+  406. _See_ Learning.
+Lollardism, way paved for destruction
+  of cloisters by, 294.
+  _See_ 429.
+Lombards destroy Monte Cassino,
+  135.
+London, John, a Royal Commissioner,
+  311.
+Longfellow, poem of, on Francis,
+  218; on Monte Cassino, 135-
+Lord, John, on needed religious
+  reforms, 80.
+Loyola, St. Ignatius, his birth,
+  261; enters upon religious work,
+  262; his pilgrimage to the Holy
+  Land, 263; his education, 263;
+imprisonments, 263; founds Society
+  of Jesus, 264; his "Spiritual
+  Exercises," 265, 267; on
+  obedience, 267; his mission,
+  276; Sherman on, 278; compared
+  with Hamilcar, 409. _See_
+  Society of Jesus.
+Lucius, a British king, embraces
+  Christianity, 124.
+Luther, influence of, in history, 92;
+  an Augustinian monk, 118;
+  Henry VIII. attacks, 293.
+Lytton, his views of Jesuits denounced,
+  278.
+
+
+M
+
+Macarius, the hermit, 49.
+Macaulay, his views of Jesuits
+  opposed, 278; on the aims of
+  Jesuits, 283; on the Roman
+  Church, 402.
+Mabie, H.W., on the monks
+  and the classics, 408.
+Mahomet, Carlyle on, 33.
+Maitland, on Benedictine monasteries,
+  155.
+Maitre, on desecration of cloisters,
+  350.
+Malmesbury, his charges against
+  the monks, 173.
+Manicheism, relation of, to Albigensians,
+  233.
+Marcella, St., Jerome on life of,
+  102; her austerities and charity,
+  103.
+Maria dei Angeli, Sta., Francis
+  hears call in church of, 214.
+Marriage, Basil on, 66; how
+  esteemed in Rome, 110; Gibbon
+  on, in Rome, 110; Jerome
+  and Augustine on, 112;
+  vow of celibacy and, 381.
+Married life in Rome, Jerome on,
+  114.
+Martensen, on ascetics, 391; on
+  solitude and society, 395.
+Martin, St., of Tours, credibility
+  of biography of, 119; sketch
+  of his life, 120; his death, 122;
+  churches and shrines in honor
+  of, 122.
+Martinmas, 122.
+Materialism, monasticism and, 350,
+  413; of the West, 371.
+Mathews, Shailer, on Christ and
+  riches, 379.
+Matthew of Paris, on prosperity
+  of friars, 246.
+Maur, St., walks on water, 137.
+Maximilian, of Bavaria, educated
+  by Jesuits, 277.
+Melrose Abbey, 289.
+Mendicant Friars, The, 205; success
+  of, 242, 255; their value
+  to Rome, 243; confined to four
+  societies, 246; quarrels among,
+  246; their educational work,
+  248; in England, 251; decline
+  of, 253; as preachers, 244;
+  254; effects of prosperity on,
+  256.
+Mendicity of monks, 245.
+Milan, church of, Emperor refused
+  entrance to the, 115.
+Military-religious orders, their origin,
+  labors and decline, 197.
+Militia of Jesus Christ, 242.
+Mill, John Stuart, on preaching
+  friars, 244.
+Milman, on the early church leaders,
+  129; on dream of Dominic's mother, 231;
+on bigotry of monks, 395;
+  on monks and natural affections, 398.
+Milton, contrasted to monks, 394.
+Miracles, 224.
+  _See_ Anthony, Stylites, St. Martin, etc.
+Missionary labors, of monks, 148, 171, 398;
+  of the Jesuits, 280, 281.
+Modern life and thought, monasticism rejected by, 421.
+Mohammedans, mission of Francis to, 217.
+Monastery, of Pachomius, 58;
+  Monte Cassino, 134;
+  St. Gregory's, rules of, 141;
+  Kennaquhair, 145;
+  Vivaria, 152;
+  Bangor, 165;
+  Iona, 168;
+  Cluny, 177;
+  Grand Chartreuse, 189;
+  Charterhouse, 191, 301, 334, 343;
+  Citeaux, 192;
+  Clairvaux, 193;
+  St. Nicholas, 240;
+  Melrose, 289;
+  Glastonbury, 314.
+Monasteries, in Egypt, 44;
+  of Jerome, 88;
+  of Paula, 100;
+  in early Britain, 123;
+  as literary centers, 151;
+  decline of, in Middle Ages, 173;
+  destruction of, by Danes, 180;
+  corruptions of, in Dunstan's time, 185;
+  abandonment of endowments, 244;
+  fall of, in England, 286;
+  fall of, in various countries, 288, 430;
+  obstacles to progress, 343;
+  new uses of, 350;
+  life in, 392;
+  charity of, 410.
+Monasteries, The Fall of, in England, 286;
+  various views of, 288;
+  necessity for dispassionate judgment, 289;
+  events preceding, 293;
+  progress and, 300;
+  the Charterhouse, 302;
+  the Royal Commissioners and their methods, 308, 313;
+  Glastonbury, 314;
+  report of commissioners, 313, 314;
+  action of Parliament, 319;
+  the lesser houses, 319;
+  the larger houses, 320;
+  total number and the revenues of, 321;
+  effect of, upon the people, 322;
+  Green on same, 323;
+  uprisings and rebellions, 325;
+  use of funds, 328;
+  justification for, 331;
+  Bale, Blunt and Hume on justification for, 333;
+  Hallam on, 334;
+  charges against monks true, 336;
+  Bonaventura and Wyclif on vices of monks, 337;
+  confiscation of alien priories, 338;
+  compared with suppression in other countries, 339, 430;
+  alienation of England from Rome, 342;
+  superficial explanation of, 343;
+  true view of, 344;
+  monks and reform, 344;
+  causes of, enumerated, 345;
+  results of, 345, 347;
+  general review of, 352;
+  Bryant on, 353.
+Monasticism, Eastern, origin of, 17, 29;
+  philosophy and, 18;
+  Christian, 29;
+  the Scriptures and, 30;
+  in Egypt, 33;
+  virtual founder of, 42;
+  under Pachomius, 58, 63;
+  under Basil, 63;
+  character of, in Greek church, 67;
+  perplexing character of, 69.
+  _See_ Jerome, Basil and Athanasius.
+Monasticism, Western, 71;
+  introduction in Rome, 71;
+  effect upon Rome, 80;
+women and, 96, 106;
+  Gregory the Great and, 160;
+  in England, 162; spread of, 115;
+  in Germany, 122;
+  in Spain, 122;
+  in early Britain, 123, 168;
+  disorders and oppositions, 124;
+  enemies of, 127;
+  its eclipse, 130;
+  code of, 139;
+  reforms of, and military types, 173, 197;
+  decline of, in the Middle Ages, 173, 179;
+  Benedict of Aniane tries to reform, 176;
+  in England, in Middle Ages, 180;
+  failure of reforms, 196, 207;
+  its moral dualism, 205;
+  its recuperative power, 205;
+  in the thirteenth century, 206;
+  new features of, 244;
+  popes demand reforms in, 286;
+  attacked by governments, 287;
+  Hill on fall of, in England, 345;
+  a fetter on progress, 347;
+  alms-giving and, 348;
+  age of, compared to modern times, 351.
+Monasticism, Causes and Ideals of, 354;
+  causative motives, 355;
+  the desire for salvation, 356;
+  quotations on the ideal, 129, 173, 174, 357, 358, 360;
+  nothing gained by return to ideal, 352;
+  motive for endowments, 361;
+  the love of solitude, 362;
+  various motives, 364;
+  beliefs affecting the causative motives, 365;
+  Gnostic teachings, 366;
+  effect of the social condition of Roman Empire, 367;
+  the flight from the world, 368;
+  causes of variations in types, 371;
+  East and West compared, 371;
+  effect of political changes, 372;
+  the Crusades, 373;
+  effect of feudalism, 373;
+  effect of the intellectual awakening, 374;
+  the Modern Age and the Jesuits, 374;
+  the fundamental vows, 375.
+Monasticism, Effects of, 386;
+  the good and evil of, 387;
+  variety of opinions respecting, 387;
+  the diversity of facts, 389;
+  elements of truth and worth, 390;
+  effects of self-sacrifice, 390, of solitude, 393;
+  the monks as missionaries, 398;
+  civic duties, 399;
+  upon civilization, 401;
+  upon agriculture, 403;
+  upon secular learning, 405;
+  the charity of monks, 410;
+  upon religion, 412, 413;
+  the sense of sin, 414;
+  the atonement for sin, 417;
+  the distinction between the secular and the religious, 418;
+  monasticism and Christianity, 420;
+  old monastic methods forsaken, 421;
+  summary of effects, 423.
+Monastic Orders, the usual history of, 174.
+  _See_ Benedict, Order of St., Franciscans, etc.
+Monks, not peculiar to Christianity, 17;
+  Jerome on habits of, 36;
+  in Egypt, 44;
+  Pachomian, 58;
+  number of Eastern, 63;
+  under Basil, 63;
+  character of Eastern, 67, 69;
+  as theological fighters, 68;
+  Hypatia and the, 68;
+  in the desert of Chalcis, 87;
+  in early Rome, 96;
+  motives of early, 106, 128;
+  of Augustine, 118; under
+Martin of Tours, 120;
+  opposition to Roman, 125, 147;
+  disorders among the early, 128, 150;
+  literary services of, 151, 153, 167, 169, 248, 253, 405, 406;
+  agricultural services of, 155, 192, 403;
+  wild animals and the, 156;
+  early British, 162, 168;
+  influence of the, in England, 166;
+  the barbarians and the, 148, 171, 398;
+  military, 173, 197;
+  corruptions of, 124, 173, 175, 179, 196, 206, 336;
+  the celibacy of, 183;
+  changes in the character of, 284;
+  rebel against Henry VIII., 296;
+  as obstacles to progress, 300, 343;
+  required to take the Oath of Supremacy, 301;
+  pious frauds of, in England, 318;
+  receive pensions, 320;
+  oppose reforms in England, 344;
+  privileges and powers of the, affected by the suppression, 347;
+  charity of the, 348, 410, 411;
+  objects of the, 360;
+  once held in high esteem, 361;
+  their flight from Rome, 368;
+  diversity of opinions respecting the, 388;
+  effect of austerities on the, 390;
+  effect of solitude on the, 393;
+  deficiencies in the best, 394;
+  as missionaries, 398;
+  civic duties and the, 399;
+  military quarrels incited by the, 401;
+  enthusiasm for religion kept alive by the, 413;
+  their sense of sin, exaggeration in their views and methods, 413;
+  their doctrine of hell, 417;
+  the doctrine of the cross and the, 418.
+  _See_ Mendicants, Benedict, Order of St., etc.
+Montaigne, on the temptations of solitude, 393.
+Montalembert, on Eastern monachism, 67;
+  on Benedict, 130;
+  on the ruin of French cloisters, 351;
+  on the attractions of solitude, 364;
+  on the value of the monks, 388, 406.
+Montanists, The, and asceticism, 27.
+Monte Cassino, Monastery at, Montalembert on, 134;
+  sketch of its history, 134.
+Montserrat, tablet on Ignatius in church at, 262.
+More, Sir Thomas, causes of his death, 298;
+  his character, 299;
+  influence of, in prison, 303, 305;
+  on Henry's ambition, 322.
+Morton, Cardinal, on the vices of the monks, 338.
+Mosheim, on Francis, 225;
+  on the quarrel of the Franciscans, 247.
+Mozoomdar, on the motives and spirit of Oriental asceticism, 358.
+Mutius, taught renunciation, 62.
+
+
+N
+
+Neander, compares Jovinian to Luther, 127;
+  on the dreams of Francis, 209.
+Newman, Cardinal, on Benedict's mission, 149.
+Nicholas, St., Monastery of, 240.
+Normans, The, and the alien priories, 341.
+Novitiate, Benedictine, extended by Gregory, 160;
+  of the Jesuits, 260, 269.
+  _See_ various orders.
+Nun, _see_ Women.
+Nunneries, origin of, 106.
+
+
+O
+
+Obedience, vow of, in Pachomian rule, 61;
+  enforced by Basil, 66;
+  among the Jesuits, 266;
+  Loyola on, 267;
+  Dom Guigo on, 383;
+  its value and its abuses, 384.
+Observantines, 246.
+Oliphant, Mrs., on the temptations of Francis, 218;
+  on the stigmata, 222.
+Origen, on Christianity in Britain, 123.
+Oswald, aids Dunstan in reforms, 186.
+Oxford University, friars enter, 251;
+  founded by monks, 406.
+
+
+P
+
+Pachomius, St., 32;
+  birth and early life of, 58.
+Pachomian Monks, rules of, 58;
+  vows, 61;
+  their number and spread, 63.
+Pagan philosophy powerless to save Rome, 76.
+Palgrave on the miter, 400.
+Pamplona, Ignatius wounded at siege of, 262.
+Parkman, Francis, on the Puritans and the Jesuits, 281;
+  on the Roman Church, 386.
+Parliament of Religions, World's Fair, views of asceticism at the,
+  357, 358.
+Paris, University of, 249, 406.
+Paschal II., Pope, the gift of Cluny, 178.
+Patrick, St., 122;
+  labors in Ireland, 123;
+  was he a Romanist? 162.
+Paul, The Apostle, on asceticism, 27.
+Paul III., Pope, excommunicates Henry VIII., 306.
+Paul of Thebes, Jerome's life of, 35;
+  his early life, 36;
+  visited by Anthony, 37;
+  his death, 40;
+  effect of his biography on the times, 42.
+Paula, St., Jerome on death of, 98, 101;
+  her austerities and charities, 98, 100;
+  separates from her children, 98;
+  her monasteries at Bethlehem, 100;
+  inscription on her tombstone, 102;
+  faints at her daughter's funeral, 125.
+Paulinus, embraces ascetic Christianity, 84.
+Peter, The Apostle, marriage of, 115.
+Peter the Venerable, 178.
+Petrarch, Mabie on, and the classics, 408.
+Peyto, Friar, denounces Henry VIII., 296:
+Philanthropy, spirit of, kept alive by monks, 412.
+  _See_ Charity.
+Philip IV., King, of France, his charges against the Knights, 202.
+Phillips, Wendell, on the reading of history, 386.
+Philo, on the Essenes, 23;
+  on the Therapeutae, 27.
+Philosophy, ascetic influence of Greek, 21;
+  Gnostic, 27;
+  Pagan, and fall of Rome, 76.
+Pike, Luke Owen, on the character of Henry VIII., 290;
+  on the lawlessness of monks, 336.
+Pilgrims of Grace, 326;
+  their demands and overthrowal, 327.
+Pillar Saints, 51.
+Plague, Black, and the monks, 410.
+Plato, ascetic teachings of, 22.
+Pliny, on the Essenes, 25.
+Pole, Reginald, on Henry VIII. and Rome, 295.
+Politics, not to be despised, 420.
+Portus, inn at, 105.
+Potitianus, affected by Anthony's biography, 83.
+Poverty, vow of, in Pachomian rule, 61;
+  Franciscans quarrel over, 246;
+  and the Scriptures, 376.
+Preaching Friars, _see_ Dominicans, Franciscans and Mendicants.
+Pride, spiritual, of monks, 395.
+Probabilism, doctrine of, 274.
+Protestantism, effect of, upon monasticism, 286;
+  guilty of persecution, 332;
+  and the Church of England, 340;
+  its real value to England, 346;
+  its religious ideal, 356.
+Putnam, on the rule of St. Benedict, 139;
+  on Cassiodorus, 153;
+  on the first quarrel over copyright, 170.
+Pythagoras, asceticism of, 21, 426.
+
+
+R
+
+Reade, Charles, on the monk's flight from the world, 368.
+Reading, the monks of, their pious frauds, 318.
+Recluses, _see_ Hermits.
+Reformed Orders, 173.
+Reform, monastic, 173, 205;
+  fails to stop decline of monasteries, 196, 207, 286;
+  demanded by popes, 286;
+  failure of, 336.
+  _See_ Monasticism.
+Reformation, The Protestant, furthered by certain Franciscans, 247;
+  relation of Mendicants to, 248;
+  the Jesuits and, 277; 278, 283;
+  in England, its character, and results, 345,346;
+  and the monastic life, 374.
+Relics, fraudulent, 128, 318.
+Religion, monasticism and, 18, 412;
+  influence of feelings and opinions, 354;
+  enthusiasm for, fostered by monks, 413;
+  the sense of sin, 414;
+  salvation, 417;
+  the distinction between the secular and the religious, 418, 420;
+  the doctrine of the cross, 418;
+  essence of, 419;
+  true, possible outside of convents, 421.
+Religious houses, _see_ Monasteries.
+Renunciation of the world, 358, 369.
+  _See_ Self-denial.
+Rice, Ap, a Royal Commissioner, 311.
+Riches, _see_ Wealth.
+Richard II., confiscates alien priories, 338.
+Robertson, F. W., on excessive
+  austerities, 94.
+Rome, Church of, her claims
+  respecting the early British
+  Church, 162; writers of, on
+  the stigmata, 223; her relation
+  to the Jesuits, 275, and the
+  English people, 294, 341;
+  martyrs of, 332; writers of, on
+  the fall of monasteries, 334,
+  335; England separates from,
+  342; her religious ideal, 356;
+  Parkman on, 386; Macaulay
+  on, 403. _See_ Henry VIII.
+Rome, Monasticism introduced in,
+  71; social and religious state
+  of, in the fourth century, 72,
+  74; Dill on causes of the
+  fall of, 74; classes of society
+  in, 75; Farrar on luxury of,
+  75; epigram of Silvianus, 76;
+  Kingsley on ruin of, 78; Jerome
+  on sack of, by Alaric, 103.
+  _See_ Jerome.
+Roman Empire, nominally Christian,
+  73;. its impending doom,
+  73, 367.
+Romanus, a monk, 131.
+Royalty, affected by monasticism,
+  179.
+Rules, monastic, the first, 58;
+  before Benedict, 107; of Augustine,
+  118; of St. Benedict,
+  138, 139, 147, 151, 158; of
+  Dom Guigo, 189; of St. Francis,
+  226. _See_ Celibacy, Poverty,
+  Obedience.
+Ruskin, on St. Hugh of Lincoln,
+  189.
+Rusticus, a monk, 59.
+Rutilius, on the monks, 126.
+
+
+S
+
+Sabatier, on rule of St. Francis,
+  227.
+Saint, Paul of Thebes, 35; Anthony,
+  37; Athanasius, 42; Abraham,
+  50, 60; Macarius, 49;
+  Hilarion, 49; Simeon Stylites,
+  51; Pachomius, 58; Basil,
+  63; Gregory of Nazianza, 65;
+  Jerome, 85; Paula, 97; Marcella,
+  102; Fabiola, 105; Ambrose,
+  115; Chrysostom, 116;
+  Augustine, 117; Martin of
+  Tours, 119; Maur, 137; Patrick,
+  123, 162; Benedict of
+  Nursia, 131; Hugh of Lincoln,
+  157, 189; Gregory the Great,
+  159; Columba, 162, 168, 170;
+  Boniface, 167; Wilfred, 167;
+  Benedict of Aniane, 176;
+  Dunstan, 182; Bruno, 188;
+  Bernard, 192; Francis, 208;
+  Clara, 228; Dominic, 230;
+  Loyola, 261.
+Salvation, the desire for, 70, 111,
+  355, 396; the struggle for,
+  95; monastic views of, 417.
+Samson, Abbot, election of, 145.
+Santa Crocella, chapel of, 131.
+Saracens burn Monte Cassino
+  monastery, 135.
+Saragossa, Council of, forbids
+  priests to assume monks' robes,
+  122.
+Savonarola, a Dominican, 242.
+Saxons invade England, 180.
+Schaff, Philip, on origin of monasticism,
+  18; on Montanists,
+  28; on the biography of the
+hermit Paul, 35;
+  on St. Jerome, 86;
+  on Augustine, 117;
+  on Benedictine rule, 148;
+  on monasteries as centers of learning, 153;
+  on effects of monasticism, 387.
+Scholastica, story about, 138.
+Schools, monastic, 154, 167.
+  _See _ Learning.
+Scott, Walter, on installation of an abbot, 145;
+  on the crusaders, 199.
+Seclusion, 244, 259.
+  _See_ Solitude.
+Secular life, duties of, 113;
+  the monks and, 399;
+  distinction between religion and the, 418;
+  true view of, 420.
+Self-crucifixion, 418.
+Self-denial, its nature, 356;
+  Mozoomdar on, 358.
+Selfishness, engendered by monasticism, 396.
+Self-forgetfulness, the key to happiness, 392.
+Self-mastery, the craving for, 70.
+Self-sacrifice, effect of, upon the individual, 390;
+  meaning of true, 419.
+  _See_ Asceticism.
+Serapion, monks of, 63.
+Severus, his life of St. Martin, 119.
+Sherman, Father Thomas E., on the Society of Jesus, 258;
+  on Loyola, 278.
+Sick, ministered to by women, 350.
+  _See_ Charity.
+Silvianus, epigram of, on dying Rome, 76.
+Simon de Montfort, 237.
+Simeon Stylites, birth and early life of, 51;
+  austerities of, 52;
+  his fame, 52;
+  lives on a pillar, 53;
+  Tennyson on, 54;
+  death of, 56;
+  refuses to see his mother, 397;
+  method of, forsaken, 421.
+Sin, monastic confessions of, 413;
+  consciousness of, preserved by monks, 414;
+  exaggerated views of, 415;
+  false methods to get rid of, 416;
+  monastic influence on doctrine of atonement for, 417.
+Sisterhoods, _see_ Women.
+Sixtus IV. and V., Popes, on the stigmata, 221.
+Social service, spirit of, 419, 423.
+Solitude, of Egypt, 33;
+  provided for in Pachomian rules, 60;
+  Jerome on, 61;
+  the love of, as a cause of monasticism, 362, 363;
+  effects of, upon the individual, 393;
+  Montaigne on temptations of, 393;
+  society and, 395.
+Soul-purity, struggles for, 95.
+  _See_ Salvation.
+Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius, 265.
+Spain, monasticism enters, 122.
+Starbuck, Charles C., on the casuistry of the Jesuits, 274.
+Stigmata, of St. Francis, 219.
+Storrs, on Bernard, 197.
+Subiaco, desert of, 131.
+Superstitions, monastic, when revolt against is justifiable, 423.
+Suppression of monasteries,
+  _see_ Monasteries, The Fall of.
+Supremacy, the monks required to take the oath of, 301.
+
+
+T
+
+Tabenna, Monastery at, 32, 58.
+Tauler, John, a Dominican, 242;
+  on service and contemplation,
+  395.
+
+Taunton, E.L., on the family-idea
+  of monasteries, 143; on Augustine
+  and British monks, 165.
+Taylor, Isaac, on the biography
+  of Anthony, 48.
+Templars, _see_ Knights.
+Tennyson, on Stylites, 54.
+Tertullian, on Christianity in
+  Britain, 123.
+Thackeray, views of, on Jesuits
+  opposed, 278.
+Theodoret, on Stylites, 51, 53.
+Theodosius, Abbot, 50.
+Theology, the monks and, 406;
+  White on same, 416.
+Theophilus, joins Eudoxia against
+  Chrysostom, 117.
+Therapeutae, Philo on the, 27.
+Thieffroy, on charity of monks,
+  410.
+Third Order, _see_ Franciscans and
+  Dominicans.
+Thirty Years' War, the Jesuits
+  and the, 277.
+Trench, on monastic history, 175;
+  on genius in creation, 207;
+  on the stigmata, 223.
+Trent, Council of, restricts Mendicants,
+  246; on marriage, 382.
+
+
+U
+
+Universities, foundations of, laid
+  by monks, 405.
+Urban II., Pope, the gift of
+  Cluny monastery, 178.
+
+
+V
+
+Valens, Emperor, fails to stop
+  flight from Rome, 127.
+Vaughan, on Bernard's reforms,
+  195; on the need of reformation,
+  402.
+Virgins, _see_ Marriage.
+Virgil, Jerome's fondness for, 95;
+  Mabie on reading of, 408.
+Vivaria, literary work in monastery
+  at, 152.
+Voltaire, on the monks, 388.
+Vows, monastic, 61; irrevocable,
+  66, 112; usual history of,
+  174; of the military orders,
+  198; the fundamental, 375;
+  the passing away of, 423. _See_
+  Poverty, Celibacy and Obedience.
+Vulgate, Jerome, 85.
+
+
+W
+
+Waddington, on the hermits, 34;
+  on conscience and method of
+  monks, 390.
+War, monks incite to, 401.
+Watch-dogs of the Church, a term
+  applied to the Dominicans, 249.
+Wealth, Christ's doctrine of, 377;
+  not in itself an evil, 379; its
+  true value, 405; compatible
+  with Christianity, 420.
+White, on the theology of the
+  monks, 416.
+Whiting, Richard, Abbot of
+  Glastonbury, 315.
+Widows, _see_ Women and Marriage.
+Wilfred, St., his monastic labors, 167.
+William of Aquitaine, 177.
+William of Amour, 250.
+William of Orange, 394.
+Wolsey, Cardinal, 294, 308.
+Women, welcome call of monks, 81;
+  Kingsley on same, 82;
+  Juvenal on Roman women, 82;
+  Jerome's influence on, 86, 96;
+  monasticism and, 106;
+  hermit life unsuited to, 107;
+  effect of corrupt society on, 107,
+  no; distinguished by mercy, in, 350;
+  compared with monks, 111;
+  married life of, in Rome, 112;
+  influence of Ambrose upon, 126;
+  regulation of Guigo concerning monks and, 190.
+Wyclif, attacks the friars, 253, 337;
+  spirit of, affects monasticism, 295, 429.
+
+
+X
+
+Ximenes, Cardinal, a Franciscan, 228.
+
+
+Z
+
+Zosimus, on charity of monks, 348.
+
+
+_Printed at_ THE BRANDT PRESS, _Trenton, N.J., U.S.A_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Short History of Monks and
+Monasteries, by Alfred Wesley Wishart
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