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.

THE END