Monachism

MONACHISM. - From the verb μονάζω ("I live solitary") comes the word μονάζων; the more frequent one, μοναχος, comes from the perfect μεμόναχα. "Monks" was the name given to ascetics who withdrew from the commerce of men in order to devote themselves in prayer to the service of God. In this sense the word was applied especially to anchorites (v.); but in the 4th century (St. Jerome, Ep., 14, 6; to Heliod.: PL 22, 350) it does not denote strict solitude but becomes a synonym of "cenobite," that is, one who has consecrated himself to God in a life of community. Other terms for designating a monk are, for example, "caloyer," κανονικός (one who lives according to a rule, a canon), etc.

I. EASTERN MONACHISM.

I. HISTORY

1. Institution and development

The institution of eremitic and monastic life dates from the 3rd and 4th centuries, but the study of Christian perfection began in the Church right from the earliest years. The characteristic of those who wished to apply the evangelical counsels was virginity: men were therefore called continentes, women virgines. They are already spoken of in the Acts of the Apostles, but they were numerous in the following times (Acts 21:8-9; 1 Cor. 7:8-9; Rev. 14:4; Eusebius, Hist. eccl., III, 31: PG 21, 279; Clement of Alexandria, Strom., II, 18: PG 8, 1040). Later they received the name of "ascetics," from the comparison that Clement of Alexandria proposes between the Christian life and the arduous preparation of athletes (Paedag., I, 8: PG 8, 318; Origen, In Ier. homil., 19, 7: PG 13, 518). That name therefore indicates a state of life and not merely exercises of austerity.

The ascetics lived in the world although they already had some special relationship among themselves; later a tendency toward community life manifested itself. St. Athanasius (Vita Antonii, 3: PG 26, 843) indicates the existence of παρθενώνας for virgins, but for men too a more regulated manner of life was attempted.

The life of the ascetics was made up of continual renunciation in poverty, although some were rich and did not divest themselves of their riches, in fasting and abstinence, especially from meat and wine, but above all in virginity. There was no properly so-called vow, but a kind of consecration was made (infidelity was considered as adultery: Cyprian, Epist., 62, 4: PL 4, 370) which, for virgins, was public in the time of Tertullian

(De vel. virgin., 14: PL 2, 9 8). Later, in the 4th century, some excess of zeal and certain abuses were denounced and condemned by the Council of Gangra (342).

Asceticism in the sense indicated was succeeded by anchoritism (v. ANCHORITE), that is, a life of perfection segregated from intercourse with men, and this constitutes a second step toward the religious life properly so called. Such was the life that St. Anthony (v.) led and taught his disciples, and this form would never disappear in the East; it would nevertheless enjoy less favor in the following centuries. St. Anthony gave no rule, either written or oral: Holy Scripture was to suffice; however, the examples of the elders constituted a practical way of living, and the spiritual fathers convoked the monks for their spiritual instructions. The so-called Rule of St. Anthony is apocryphal and was composed according to the letters of the Saint, the Life written by St. Athanasius, and other writings. Only in the 5th century did St. Sabas (v.) promulgate a true rule for hermits. In anchoritism two degrees can be distinguished: some led a completely solitary life; others, on the other hand, while dwelling in a separate cell, constituted a kind of colony around a church, in which they gathered for common prayer. This form of monastic colony is called a "laura."

With St. Pachomius (v.) the religious life took another step forward in its development. After having experienced eremitic life as a disciple of St. Palamon in the Upper Thebaid, he understood the advantages that a more communal life would bring. He therefore erected at Tabennisi on the Nile (ca. 320) a monastery where the disciples would live under a single roof with one and the same superior. After a short time he already had to multiply his foundations. In all there were 9 monasteries for men. His Rule was applied also to women, who had two monasteries. All of Pachomius' monasteries remained under the obedience of a single superior general, who visited his houses every year. Moreover, twice a year, at Easter and in the month of August, all the local superiors with a great number of monks from the various communities assembled to deal with common interests and to celebrate the feasts. Pachomius gave a rule, called that of the angel because according to legend he had received it from on high (Palladius, Hist. Laus., 38: PG 34, 1101); in fact this rule was not the work of a single day and was later still perfected according to experience. Various recensions of it survive, quite different in length (cf. P. Ladeuze [v. bibl.], p. 259 ff.; M. Heimbucher [v. bibl.], I, p. 79 and n. 2). Candidates for the monastic life were first subjected by Pachomius to a brief probation of some days or weeks and then, without formal profession, admitted to the community. The clothing itself signified dedication to God. Such cenobitism has as its characteristic the common life, that is, dwelling, food, exercises of piety, work, and goods in common under the same superior. However, this principle can be and in fact was applied differently by the numerous imitators of Pachomius. The diffusion of cenobitism was rapid also in the West. Perhaps already St. Anastasius, but certainly Cassian, made known in Gaul the Rule of St. Pachomius, which had a Latin translation by Dionysius Exiguus (d. 540); however, it was above all St. Jerome who made it known. For the history of Eastern monasticism, to be remembered, beside St. Pachomius, are especially Bguld, founder of the double monastery of Atripe near Tabennisi in Egypt, and even more his nephew Shenoute (333/34-421/55), a harsh and severe man but commanding. He had under him as many as 2000 monks and 1800 nuns; and he introduced such a severity as sometimes to provoke outbreaks of indiscipline.

In Palestine the monastic life also began with anchoritism, under Hilarion (291/92 - 371), then passed to the laura form (St. Chariton), to end in Pachomian cenobitism, without however the latter suppressing the two preceding forms. There were monasteries in Judea, near Eleutheropolis, founded around 335 by St. Epiphanius; near Jerusalem and Bethlehem, visited by Cassian and by Palladius. St. Jerome gave the Pachomian Rule to the convents where he himself and St. Paula were superiors.

In Syria the various forms of monastic life flourished. The "Sons of the Covenant" are very well known, but it is not equally clear what their manner of life was. Some considered their institution as similar to that of the "ascetics"; it seems, however, that they were true monks. In fact, until the time of Rabbula (5th century) there existed no special word to indicate monks; from then on, by "Sons of the Covenant" are designated rather the ascetics outside the monastery. The best known among the Syrian monks are St. James, bishop of Nisibis, who founded the monastery of the Ark at Kardue, and especially St. Ephrem (d. 373-78), who lived near Edessa. Another illustrious monk of this region was St. Nilus (d. 430). The monasticism of Syria seems independent of that of Egypt and was a beginning of anchoritism.

In Persia there is the monastery of St. Matthew (Mâr Mattaj) east of Mosul, which became famous in the Nestorian period. In Armenia the monastic life was introduced, after various eremitical forms, probably in the second half of the 4th century; it perhaps originated from Syria, but its principal source was St. Basil (G. Amaduni, Disciplina armena, Venice 1940, p. XII ff.). He has been named the great inspirer of Byzantine monasticism, which brought a renewal of the monastic spirit, insisting no longer so much on the particulars of separation from the world and on bodily mortifications as on the very principles of the spiritual life. St. Basil codified the religious life above all with two writings: with the 55 Regulae fusius tractatae ("Ὄροι κατὰ πλάτος"), which draw the outlines of the monastic life from Sacred Scripture, and the Regulae brevius tractatae ("Ὄροι κατὰ ἀπνετομήν"), 333 chapters that are rather applications and complements to the former (ed. Garnier, II, 1, 2, Paris 1829; same edition in PG 31; on authenticity see P. Allard, Basile (Saint), in DThC, II, col. 446 ff.). In the monastic doctrine of St. Basil, obedience constitutes the essence of the religious life; other fundamental points are poverty, chastity and fraternal charity. The whole constitutes an ascetic treatise more doctrinal than prescriptive. Therefore these rules alone were not sufficient for the organization of the monastic life in all its particulars; they had therefore to be completed with tradition and with moral precepts. Alongside the contemplative life properly so called, St. Basil gives great importance to works of charity: orphanages, schools, assistance to the poor and the sick. He also prescribes manual labor and the cultivation of the land.

The Rule of St. Basil found a rapid diffusion throughout the East: from Cappadocia, where it entered into force everywhere during the lifetime of the founder himself, it penetrated into neighboring countries and beyond, and among the Orthodox as well as among dissidents such as the Jacobites, where the number of convents was perhaps higher. But in the West too it had a great influence, even on St. Benedict, whose Rule nevertheless prevailed to the point of almost completely replacing that of St. Basil. However, after the Latin compilation of it made by Rufinus (PL 103, 483 ff.), some monasteries were erected according to the same Rule in southern Italy and in Sicily; their number grew when iconoclasm (8th century) and the advance of Islam brought many fugitive monks to the West. Still today the Rule of St. Basil remains the foundation of the monastic life for the whole separated East and for a good number of Eastern Catholics.

After St. Basil, St. Theodore Studite (v.; d. in 825), reformer and integrator of the monastic institution, had a special influence on Eastern monasticism. St. Theodore is rather severe; he insists especially on obedience and on charity toward one's neighbor; one of his characteristics is respect for human dignity. His method had a great influence on Mount Athos (v.) and from there passed into Russia, the Balkans and southern Italy.

The Greek canonist Petrakakos expresses the relation among the three great organizers of the monastic life: "Pachomius was the founder of the cenobium; Basil the Great its ideal organizer; Theodore Studite the distinguished interpreter of St. Basil the Great. These three constitute the Olympus of the Orthodox monastic institution." St. Theodore is called "Studite" from the famous monastery founded at Constantinople by the consul Stoudios for the ascenite monks (H. Delehaye, Stoudion-Stoudios, in An. Boll., 52 [1934], p. 64). Other monasteries had, and still have, a great celebrity. In Russia mention should be made of the Pečerska lavra of Kiev, called the monastery of the caves, founded after 1050 by a monk of Athos. It was the cradle of monastic life in Russia, where later the monasteries amounted to more than 500; in 1914 there were still counted more than 20,000 monks and more than 70,000 nuns.

In Greece the most famous is Mount Athos (v.), the Holy Mountain, situated on a peninsula of the Thracian Chersonese. In Thessaly are found the monasteries of Meteora, so called because they were almost in the air, that is, built on high rocks and accessible only by rope ladders. Another very well-known monastic center was that of Olympus. But all the countries of the East had their monasteries.

2. Various forms

Alongside this cenobitic life codified by St. Basil, by St. Theodore Studite and by others, there were numerous forms of religious life quite different from one another, some closer to anachoretism, others to cenobitism.

Very well known are the Acoemetae (v.), because "without rest" they continued the divine praises, and the Stylites (v.), whose initiator was the Syrian St. Simeon (the Great) called the Stylite (ca. 390-459), who spent 37 years on a column. He had numerous imitators; the columns were from 3 to 18 meters high. They made a kind of vow to remain upon them. Among the Stylites some were priests, one was even ordained on his column; someone is known as a writer. Around the stylite monasteries were erected for the disciples and houses for pilgrims. Few women followed that manner of life.

Some other form is also recalled, such as the Recluses (ἐγελαστικ), that is, those, men and women, who had themselves walled inside a cell to devote themselves undisturbed to contemplation, reading and manual labor. The Council of Trullo decided (can. 41) that no one could assume that manner of life unless he had first lived for three years in a monastery; but once enclosed, he could no longer leave the cell. The Pabulatores (βοσκοί) had neither roof nor bread nor other things, they lived on the mountains, occupied in the divine praises; at mealtime they went, each on his own, into the woods with a sickle to seek herbs to eat (Niceph. Call., Ecc. hist., IX, 40: PG 146, 711 ff.; S. o. o. m. e. n. o. Hist. eccl., VI, 33: PG 67, 1391 ff.). Others finally were called, according to the characteristic of their life, Subdivales, Stationaries, Shepherds, Dementes, Eusebians, etc.

Among so many originalities, abuses could not be lacking. Especially known are the Sarabaites, who, averse to the burden of the religious life, lived two or three together, without discipline or enclosure, without obedience, without spirit of poverty. Another plague was constituted by the Eastern confreres of the wanderers, well known to St. Benedict, called habittai, that is, intruders or expelled, who lived outside any convent and without any dependence, wandering from one place to another. It was necessary that the civil power too intervene.

3. Juridical organization of the monastic life

The Rules of St. Pachomius, of St. Basil and of others were internal, that is, they had the authority of the founder; however, with the spread of the monastic life and after the experience of various abuses, more official norms were needed to regulate some fundamental points of discipline. That task was carried out by various councils and also by the civil power. There are canons on the religious life in the Councils of Chalcedon, of that "in Trullo", of the Second of Nicaea and in the particular ones of Gangra, Laodicea (347-379?), Carthage (419) and in the First and Second Council held by Photius in the church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople (861). The writings of some Fathers (of St. Basil [*ad Amphil.*], of St. Nicephorus of Constantinople, of St. Cyril of Alexandria) provided texts for some canons to regulate the monastic life. Besides these dispositions of ecclesiastical authority, there is also a good number of civil laws concerning the religious life.

Already in the Theodosian Code there are norms for monks, but above all Justinian regulated the religious life. "From the strictly juridical point of view," says T. Schafer, "it is manifest that in this monastic legislation the work of Justinian not only does not appear incomplete but is indeed perfect" (Iustinianus et vita monastica, in Act. congr. iurid. intern., I, Rome 1935, p. 187). The norms of Justinian on the matter are found in his Code and in the Novels, 5, 22, 57, 76, 79, 123, 131, 133. After Justinian the legislation for monks is found especially in the Basilica and in the Novels of Leo VI the Wise (Nov., 5, 6, 7, 10, 36, 38).

However, the discipline thus fixed remains still rather general. To complete it, other more particular norms were needed, which would at the same time give the monastery a more proper physiognomy. These are found in the typika. Typikon means norm, rule, ordinance. There are typika both in the civil field and in the ecclesiastical one, and here too various kinds are distinguished, among which are the monastic typika. Especially from the 10th century onward the custom was introduced that in the foundation of some new monastery the founder (emperor, patriarch, bishop, civil or ecclesiastical official, some wealthy person) should establish in it a regulation of its own.

These are the typika of foundation. Other typika refer to some monastery already existing or are even made by testament. The subject matter, however, is more or less the same as that of the typika of foundation. They generally contain, that is, an ascetic introduction and some particulars about the founder and his foundation; then come the fundamental provisions (dependence of the monastery), liturgical ones (rank of feasts, order of ceremonies) — not to be confused with the so-called liturgical typika which regulate the whole liturgy —, disciplinary ones (election of the superior and of the minor officials, admission, common life, habit, etc.), economic ones (description of the properties, administration, etc.), but these last are not always present. Some more general typika can be applied to various monasteries; these do not contain the economic provisions.

II. CHARACTERISTICS OF MONASTIC LIFE

1. General remarks

In ancient Eastern law all religious are monks; the other forms — mendicant Orders, Regular Clerics, etc. — were introduced later. All monks belong to one and the same category: there is no distinction between choir monks and lay brothers. It is true that not all of them chant the entire Office; a part is performed by the cantors alone, but these do not constitute a special grade, and the requirement for belonging to their group is a strong voice, not completed studies. There are no monastic orders of clerics only: in ancient times priests were ordained according to the need of the monastery. Justinian grants 4 or 5 of them (Nov., 133, 2) and wills that they be chosen from among the monks who have overcome the ascetic struggle and deserve ordination to the priesthood or the diaconate (ibid.). In fact the number varies according to the typikon. Monks who are priests are called hieromonks, deacons hierodeacons; between them and simple monks there exists no distinction whatsoever as regards monastic life.

In ancient Eastern law there are no congregations or Orders in the Latin sense, that is, with a superior general and a central organization. Each monastery has its own constitutions and its own authorities. Nevertheless, between certain monasteries there sometimes exists a bond, whether of the same typikon or even of a common authority, which, however, does not completely suppress the autonomy of each of them. The monastic association of Mount Athos is a characteristic example of such a union.

Among Catholics there currently exists only one institution that preserves entirely, as far as possible in present circumstances and given the development of law in the Catholic Church, the Eastern monastic life. These are the Studites, founded at the beginning of the 20th century by the Metropolitan of Lviv in Galicia, Andrew Szepticki. They received their first typikon in 1906, which was then completed and submitted for the approval of the S. Congregation for the Eastern Church (1913). In 1932 they numbered 117 members, among them 51 professed. The war destroyed the principal foundation in Galicia. Few have remained abroad, but they give proof of a constant vitality. The other monastic institutions among Catholics have taken a good number of prescriptions from Latin law or were created outright with a purpose of apostolate (such as the Salvatorians).

There currently exist certain groups called Antonians (v.), namely: among the Maronites the Lebanese monks, the Antonians of St. Isaiah and those of Aleppo; among the Chaldeans the Antonian monks of St. Hormizd. The Byzantines have various groups of Basilians (v.), which, however, have neither a common origin nor a relation of dependence on one another. In Italy there exist the Basilians of Grottaferrata; in Galicia and elsewhere (foundations also in America) the Basilians of St. Josaphat; in Lebanon and Syria the Melkite Salvatorians, the Suwajrites and the Aleppines are called Basilians, the latter two with a common origin. There are finally the Armenian Mechitarist monks, divided into two branches: those of Venice and those of Vienna.

2. Stages of monastic life

The postulant is not known in ancient Eastern law. St. Pachomius kept newcomers near the door for a few days to test their constancy; afterwards they were admitted at once as monks; in the recent law of Catholics the postulant was introduced in imitation of Latin discipline. The novitiate, on the other hand, is of ancient tradition, although neither Pachomius nor Shenoute knew it. It exists in St. Basil, and civil law regulated it insofar as Justinian prescribed three years for it (Nov., 5, 2), which superiors in certain cases could reduce (Nov., 123, 35); most typika also require three years. Present-day law prescribes a distinctive habit for the novice.

3. Vows

St. Pachomius did not yet know an explicit profession with vows, whereas Shenoute had his monks compose a written promise to observe the rules. This was not, however, a vow made to God, but a simple promise or bond toward the monastery. Profession, on the other hand, exists in St. Basil (Reg. fus., 14: PG 31, 950-951); likewise in Syria (John Chrysostom, Exhort. II ad Theodos.: PG 47, 309-21). The Council of Chalcedon (can. 6) declares the Marriage of a monk unlawful, while St. Theodore Studite speaks of a promise and a pact (I, 20: cf. II, Ep., 88, 165, 172: PG 99, 970, 1334, 1523, 1539). It cannot be said that the content of these vows was identical to the present-day profession, although the three vows of chastity, poverty and obedience enter from the beginning into the presupposition of a life consecrated to God. In fact chastity was always considered one of the basic points of monastic life; but it does not yet appear that it rendered Marriage invalid. The spiritual fathers recommend poverty most highly, yet it does not seem that the monk was incapable of possessing. Obedience was certainly already a requirement for Pachomius and constitutes the foundation of religious life for St. Basil and St. Theodore Studite. But besides these virtues there were others considered equally necessary to monastic life, such as abstinence, prayer, etc., and the three virtues that form the object of our three vows were not singled out as more essential. Therefore the monastic profession was a declaration or solemn promise made to God to fulfill all the obligations and to sustain all that was imposed by monastic life.

As for the formula of profession, at the beginning of monastic life it was contained implicitly in the ceremony of vestition with the tonsure of the hair, the change of name and the handing over of the monastic garments. All this symbolizes a new life begun by the religious profession, which was considered as a new Baptism. From the time it became more explicit, the profession was nevertheless not made by the recitation of some formula: such formulas exist, but not for the profession, rather for the retractation of an apostate. The Byzantine monk makes his profession by means of questions and answers that are already found in manuscripts of the 9th and 10th centuries, identical to those of the Euchologion (Eschol. Byzant., Rome 1873, p. 227).

Monastic vows are always perpetual and solemn in ancient Eastern law. The other kinds of vows, temporary and simple, were introduced recently from Latin law. But a characteristic of monastic profession is the distinction of the various grades. It is true that the profession always remains one, insofar as all monks are bound to observe forever all the precepts of monastic life. In the first centuries of monasticism, that is, in its golden age, the grades are not yet spoken of; this distinction was introduced later for various circumstances, such as relaxation and also the expansion of monastic life. The spiritual fathers, such as St. Theodore Studite, fought against what they considered an abuse (Testamentum, 12: PG 99, 1819). Today, however, monastic practice has admitted them.

By his first profession, that is, after the novitiate, the monk enters the category of the "rasophoroi," that is, those who wear the rason, a black habit with wide sleeves; much has been debated about the profession of the rasophoroi, namely whether they make a true profession, or whether they are rather to be compared to novices. But it must be said that, although this profession is not expressed in questions and answers, the whole ceremonial has the meaning of a true profession.

Ordinarily, after some years (from 5 to 10) the rasophore may ask to be admitted to the second degree, that of the "staurophores" (that is, "those who carry a cross"), also called the degree of the little (angelic) habit, the "microschema." The monk of this degree is considered to be on the way of perfection. Here most stop in their own ascent. There remains, however, a further degree: that of the great angelic habit ("megaloschema") or of perfection. Rather rare are those who, after long years spent in the staurophorate, ask to be admitted to that degree as well. The megaloschema has more numerous and more severe ascetic obligations; he must, among other things, perform daily a greater number of metanias (deep bows to the ground) and observe a more complete abstinence. Just as one may remain in a determined degree without aspiring to a higher one, so there exists no absolute necessity of passing first through the lower degrees in order to reach the highest.

Among Catholics the degrees exist, but they are not infrequently assimilated more or less to the Latin institution, e.g., simple profession to the rasophorate, solemn profession to the microschema (Basilians, Melkites, Constit., nos. 31-32), or else the two professions are compared to the little and the great schema (Copts, Ethiopians, Armenians, Basilians of Grottaferrata).

4. Superiors

At the head of the monastery is the superior, who is designated by various titles: only the most common are indicated here.

In ancient times the words "elder" (γέρων, πρεσβύταρος) were used, or also "abbot" (apa, abba, etc.), which however at first meant the monk himself, and later only the superior. Also common is the term "prepositus" (προστιώς, nostanate) and its derivatives, and also ἐξάρχος, ἄρχων, or again "hegumen"; and one may distinguish, as in Byzantine law, the superior without sacred orders: the "hegumen," from the superior who is a priest or deacon: the "kategumen." An honorary title borne especially by the superiors of great monasteries is that of "archimandrite." There are also various titles for lesser superiors.

5. Enclosure

Justinian requires that the monastery be surrounded by a high wall, with a single door guarded by elderly and prudent porters (Nov., 133, 1). No woman may enter a monastery of men and vice versa, and this prohibition is extended, in male monasteries, to children, beardless youths, and married men. Often it is also explicitly forbidden to bring female animals into the monastery. Monks may not leave the convent without the permission of the superior, and this rule is even more severe for nuns. It must be added, however, that departure is not so absolutely forbidden as in the strictly papal enclosure of Latin law; the bishop permits it for grave reasons.

6. Departure

Of himself the monk must remain in his convent. However, if there are reasons, he may pass to another convent with the permission of the superiors. A monk may be expelled from his monastery for certain crimes; he nevertheless remains subject to the obligations of his state. If he abandons the monastic state, he is excommunicated and compelled to return to the monastery, where he is subjected to various penalties. Only from the beginning of the 19th century did some particular Churches begin to grant laicization, but the practice is contrary to the entire Eastern tradition.

7. Ministries

Although their life was contemplative, the monks had a great influence on the public life of the Church. Besides the very attraction of their virtue, which drew Christians and pagans to the desert or to the monasteries, besides the numerous houses for hospices, hospitals, orphanages, and schools, the activity of the monks extended elsewhere as well. Thus in the field of theology the monks were often the most ardent defenders of orthodoxy. St. Anthony went to Alexandria to bear witness to his faith, and his example drew along the great majority of the hermits, who with their zeal effectively defended the faith of Nicaea (St. Athanasius, Vita Antonii, 68-70) and were the allies of St. Athanasius, who also in the monasteries of Tabennis found help and defense in the struggle against Arianism. For this reason the monks suffered persecutions from the intruded bishops and from the emperor Valens.

St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Amphilochius struggled against the same heresy and against Macedonianism and Manichaeism. Almost all the great names of the monks distinguished themselves in the defense of the faith, such as St. Nilus, St. Serapion of Thmuis, St. Meletius, St. Aphraates, St. Sophronius, St. Sabas, St. Maximus the Confessor and his disciples, the two Athanasiuses, who suffered martyrdom for the faith. St. Isidore of Pelusium struggled against Nestorianism, St. Marcellus the Acoemete and his monks against Monophysitism, St. John Damascene against the iconoclasts, St. Theodore Studite and many others were champions for the faith. On the other hand it is also true that many heresies had fanatical defenders and sometimes even their origin among the monks: Eutychianism was born in a monastery and found many followers in the monasteries of Constantinople, Egypt, and the Thebaid. Origenism likewise found the majority of its adherents in the monastic class. The monks were among the most stubborn opponents of the Council of Florence (1493).

As ascetic writers there are known, among others: St. Serapion (d. after 362), Evagrius Ponticus (d. after 400), St. Nilus the Elder (d. ca. 430), St. Arsenius the Hermit (d. 449), St. John Climacus (d. ca. 649). In the interpretation of Holy Scripture there distinguished themselves St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Isidore of Pelusium, Eutychius, St. Ephrem, St. Sophronius and others. Monks are also found in the fields of letters and profane sciences.

8. Dependence and exemption

As a general rule the Eastern monks depend on the bishop. However, from the 8th century, or perhaps even earlier, the custom was introduced that the patriarch could exempt monasteries, churches, and houses from episcopal jurisdiction and subject them directly to himself, whether at the moment of their foundation or even afterward. This exemption was made by fixing on the exempted place a cross blessed by the patriarch. From that moment all the rights of the local bishop pass to the patriarch himself. Such an exemption is called patriarchal stauropegy. The metropolitans rose up in vain against this right, which at present has been greatly reduced, so that in some dissident patriarchal churches it no longer exists, or almost no longer exists. Among Catholics it is restricted to the stauropegies already existing and to new convents.

In ancient times, until the end of the Byzantine Empire, there existed other convents called imperial, subject directly to the Emperor and withdrawn at least in part from ecclesiastical jurisdiction; furthermore, those independent of every power, both secular and ecclesiastical, called "free and autodespotic."

Among Catholics the monks depend, according to ancient law, on the local bishop; the patriarch has over them a mediated jurisdiction, except in stauropegiac monasteries and where special law grants greater authority, as among the Maronites, Syrians, and Copts. There also exists the privilege of papal exemption among the Mechitarists of Venice and the Basilians of St. Josaphat; others also appeal to it, but the concession is not certain (Basilians, Melkites, Antonians), although they have certain rights proper to the exempt (such as proper jurisdiction).

9. Idiorrhythmia

Among the Byzantines, probably as a consequence of the unbridled independence of certain monasteries and perhaps also because of some relaxation introduced by imperial legislation (Leo VI, Nov., 5), there was formed toward the end of the 14th century, it seems, a new form of freer life which is called "idiorrhythmia."

The idiorrhythmic monastery is composed of a certain number of religious families (10 or more). At the head of each family stands a superior, who must take care of his monks (ordinarily 6 or 7), whom he has gathered into the monastery or accepted as novices. Idiorrhythmic monks may possess property, acquire it, sell it, leave it by will; they live by their work and their property within the family, where discipline is much reduced. They have in common a council that governs the entire monastery; they gather in church for the office, and a few times (3 or 4) a year they assemble in the same refectory. The monastery provides the families with bread, wine, firewood and other necessities: the rest each one procures for himself on his own account. That abuse spread widely. On Mount Athos there are 9 idiorrhythmic monasteries. All protests have failed to suppress the numerous abuses.

10. Nuns — The institutions of nuns are more or less the same as those of monks, according to the principle, often repeated in Byzantine legislation, that the prescriptions for monks apply to them as far as possible.

11. Statistics

Until the beginning of the 20th century Russia counted the greatest number of monks. Some figures for 1914 have already been cited. At present it is not possible to complete these statistics. Mount Athos comes next with some thousands of monks; Greece itself has almost 2000 (men and women). The other dissident countries count barely a few hundred religious, for a fairly considerable number of monasteries. Many of these are practically deserted; one or more monks reside there for the administration of the property.

Among Catholics the Studites counted more than 100 monks in 1932; among the other Eastern Catholics the monks number about 2000, not counting the nuns.

Antonio Wuyts

II. WESTERN MONACHISM.

The ascetic life in common, or cenobitic life, born in the East in the 4th century, spread almost simultaneously in the West as well, in various forms, often poorly and badly organized. The Rule of St. Benedict (d. ca. 547), an incomparable monument of monastic life, rapidly imposed itself over almost all other rules, giving unity to Western monachism and contributing to its powerful developments, so much so as to make it for centuries an institution of primary importance in the life of the Church.

The complex history of Western monachism is set out in the Enc. Catt. under many particular entries, amply developed; the present one has a general and coordinating character, and limits itself to monachism properly so called, with the exclusion therefore of all the other forms of associated ascetic life that arose and developed from the Middle Ages onward (Regular Canons, Mendicant Orders, Religious Congregations), which moreover have their complete treatment under the individual names.

I. PRE-BENEDICTINE MONASTICISM

As for its genesis, Christian monasticism is born from the Gospel, and precisely from the fact that Christ proposes counsels for more easily attaining Christian perfection (Mt. 16:21). The various hypotheses advanced to assign to monasticism a non-Christian origin, especially from the time when E. Weingarten (Der Ursprung des Mönchtums, Gotha 1877) launched a thorough attack on the traditional thesis, are one-sided and untenable (cf. U. Berlière, Les origines du monachisme et la critique moderne, in Rev. bénéd., 8 [1891], pp. 1-19, 49-69). As for its evolution, on the other hand, monasticism represents the final stage of Christian asceticism, which, though to differing degrees, developed in the West as well as in the East in three successive phases: asceticism within the Christian community, asceticism in solitude or anchoritism (v. ANCHORITE), and finally the ascetic life in common, that is, cenobitism or monasticism. This last phase took hold in the West in the second half of the 4th century and under the marked influence of Eastern monasticism.

1. In Italy

The best overall monograph on pre-Benedictine monasticism in Italy remains that of Ernesto Spreitzenhofer, Die Entwicklung des alten Mönchtums in Italien von seinen ersten Anfängen bis zum Antreten des hl. Benedict, Vienna 1894. Rome is perhaps the oldest center. The ascetic life in common, if it did not begin there, certainly received a strong impulse in Rome when St. Athanasius arrived (341), accompanied by two Egyptian monks, Isidore and Ammonius. "Among the noble Roman women, none at that time knew the purpose of the monks," affirms St. Jerome (Ep., 127, c. 5: PL 22, 1080). The noble Marcella was the first to embrace that ideal (ibid., 1089) and made her palace on the Aventine a center of female asceticism. St. Augustine, during his stay in Rome in 387-88, visited plura diversoria sanctorum, both male and female, true monasteries, governed by a monk or a nun who presided over everything (De mor. eccl. cath., I. I, c. 33: PL 32, 1340). In the 5th and 6th centuries there was in Rome a great flourishing of monastic life, so much so that before the 7th century one can count there 16 monasteries, 7 female and 9, it seems, male. To these monks, even before St. Gregory the Great, was entrusted the official service of the basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul; shortly afterward they are also found in the basilicas of St. John and St. Mary Major.

But in the meantime the monastic life had spread throughout all Italy. St. Eusebius of Vercelli (d. 371), formerly a lector at Rome, elected bishop of Vercelli in 345, introduced the common life among his clerics (v. CANONS REGULAR OF ST. AUGUSTINE). At Aquileia, around 370, there already existed that monastery where Rufinus and Jerome stayed before passing to the East (cf. Vallarsi, Vita Rufini: PL 21, 80). At Milan, St. Ambrose (d. 397) founded a monastery near the city walls, "plenum bonis fratribus," says St. Augustine (Conf., VIII, c. 6: PL 33, 735), "quibus unus presbyter praeerat vir optimus et doctissimus" (De mor. eccl. cath., I. I, c. 33: PL 32, 1340).

During the 5th and 6th centuries monasteries arose everywhere, at Ravenna, at Naples, in Sicily. For central Italy alone St. Gregory in his Dialogues commemorates about twenty outside of Rome, almost all pre-Benedictine (cf. F. Antonelli, De re monastica in Dialogis s. Gregorii Magni, in Antonianum, 2 [1927], pp. 401-36).

2. In Gaul

In Gaul monasticism came to life with St. Martin of Tours (v.). Ordained priest in 360, he lived as a hermit at Ligugé near Poitiers; consecrated bishop of Tours in 371, without changing his manner of life he fixed his dwelling in a cell near the city, where, through the influx of numerous disciples, the famous Marmoutier (maius monasterium) originated, one of the most celebrated centers of monastic life in the West. Another monastic center of great influence was the one begun by St. Honoratus, in the early 5th century, on the island of Lérins, off Cannes, a true school of holiness and culture; one need only think of St. Vincent of Lérins (v.) and of St. Caesarius of Arles (v.), himself also educated in this monastery. Of great importance then for monasticism in Gaul, indeed in the whole West, was the lofty personality of John Cassian (v.), founder of two monasteries at Marseilles, that of St. Victor for monks (415), and another for nuns, and author of various works of monastic asceticism, widely disseminated throughout the Middle Ages. During the 5th and 6th centuries monasticism spread widely in Gaul, and there was no city that did not have one or more monasteries.

3. In Africa

In proconsular Africa the monastic idea had a valiant protector and promoter in St. Augustine. Having returned to Tagaste after his Baptism (388), he sold his possessions, keeping the house, where with his friends he began the monastic life. Consecrated bishop of Hippo, he introduced the common life among his clerics and promoted the monastic life among the faithful of both sexes. His letter 211 (PL 33, 960), written in 423 for the monastery of Hippo over which his sister presided, had a very wide diffusion and was the basis for the constitutions of very numerous religious congregations, which rightly venerate the holy Doctor as their spiritual father. In the 5th and 6th centuries the monastic life flourished throughout Christian Africa, as can also be gathered from the Hist. persec. Africanae prov. temporibus Vandalorum (PL 58, 179-260) of Victor of Vita, written around 488, and it had authoritative representatives, such as a St. Fulgentius of Ruspe (d. 533), who even in exile founded a monastery at Cagliari. The Vandal persecution first, then the Saracen invasion, put an end to every Christian institution.

4. In the British Isles

From Gaul monasticism passed into England, and precisely among the Britons, who had taken refuge in the west of the island following the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons (428). St. Germanus of Auxerre, on his second journey to Britain (447), ordained as priest Ilut, who founded the monastery of Llantwuit. In the 6th century St. David, bishop of Menevia, spread monasticism in Wales. In the early 7th century the most celebrated monastery of Britain was Bangor Iscoed, near Chester, divided, according to Bede (Hist. eccl., I. II, c. 2: PL 95, 83 ff.), into seven sections, each of at least 300 monks.

Monasticism flourished even more in Ireland, where the very ecclesiastical organization became almost monastic. St. Patrick, apostle of Ireland (d. 461), had visited Marmoutier and Lérins, and several Irish monasteries are traced back to him; but the great monastic development occurred in the 6th century. Some of the more important monasteries are: Killeany, on the principal of the Aran islands, in Galway Bay, founded by St. Enda (d. 542); Clonard in Meath, founded around 520 by St. Finnian (v.), to whom as many as 3000 disciples are ascribed; Moville in Ulster, founded by another St. Finnian, who came from the monastery of Killeany (d. 590); Clonmacnoise, on the left bank of the Shannon, a great center of culture, founded by St. Ciaran around 544; finally the famous Bangor, north of Moville, on the southern coast of Belfast Lough, founded around 588 by St. Comgall (d. 601), from which St. Columbanus and St. Gall came. Female monastic life also had a wide development: St. Brigid (d. 524), foundress of the monastery of Kildare, had great influence.

One of the best-known characteristics of Irish monasticism was its power of expansion. The first example is found in St. Columba (d. 597), educated at Moville and then at Clonard, who around 563 left Ireland and landed, with 12 companions, on the small island of Iona (v.), west of Scotland and 115 km. north of Ireland, founding there that famous monastery, which was a center of culture and of the evangelization of the northern Picts. A monk of Iona, St. Aidan (v.), bishop and abbot (d. 651), founded in 635, on the small island of Lindisfarne (v.), that other famous abbey, which was a center of the evangelization of Northumbria and can be considered as the Iona of the Anglo-Saxons.

The first, however, to open the series of Irish monastic and apostolic migrations toward the European continent was St. Columban (v.); he, having set out in 590 from Bangor with 12 companions, founded in the Vosges the monastery of Anegray, then the more famous one of Luxeuil, then moved to Lake Constance, and, having left St. Gall there, went down into Italy and founded the monastery of Bobbio, where he died in 615.

But at this moment another factor of primary importance for monasticism in the British Isles had come into play: the Roman monks, St. Augustine with 40 companions, sent by St. Gregory the Great for the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons, had landed in Kent around Easter of 597. Their influence is not limited to the evangelizing work among the Anglo-Saxons; the subsequent overcoming of the disciplinary and liturgical particularisms of Breton and Irish monasticism, the Romanization of culture in England, the dissemination of the Rule of St. Benedict, and finally the missionary spirit of Anglo-Saxon monasticism, to which the evangelization of Germany and of the peoples of the north is largely due, goes back, at its root, to the influence of the Roman monks.

II. ST. BENEDICT AND THE SPREAD OF BENEDICTINE MONACHISM

In pre-Benedictine Western monasticism, alongside examples of holy life and sometimes of great industry and learning, there were also abuses and disorders that the ecclesiastical and civil authority could not entirely eliminate; suffice it to think of the gyrovagues and the sarabaites, "monachorum teterrimum genus," mentioned by St. Benedict (Reg., c. 1). Above all, a great common Rule was lacking, one suited to the nature of the religious life and to the Western spirit. The many Rules in use were in substance nothing but collections of spiritual maxims, with lists of prohibitions and penances. Recourse was had by preference to the Rules of St. Basil, rich in prescriptions little attuned to the Western mentality, and to Cassian's norms of monastic life; but rather than on the basis of a true and proper rule (sometimes several Rules were combined for the use of one and the same monastery), the various religious houses were governed by the will of the abbot, whence arbitrariness was also easy.

St. Benedict's inestimable merit is that of having given Western monasticism a practical, reasonable and discreet legislation of the religious life, suited to the conditions and the character of the Western spirit, a true fixed rule, in which arbitrariness is excluded, whatever was best in the monastic tradition is preserved, and new elements of the first importance are added, such as stability in the monastery and manual labor; that labor which then, through the influence of Cassiodorus, founder of the famous monastery of Vivarium, also becomes cultural and scientific work. As for the origin and content of the Benedictine Rule, v. BENEDETTO: IV. La Regola.

The Rule of St. Benedict had a rapid and very wide diffusion, so as to prevail very soon over all the other rules. Two factors chiefly favored its diffusion: its intrinsic excellence and the support of the ecclesiastical authority, especially of the popes, beginning with St. Gregory the Great. The incomparable praise that the latter gives to St. Benedict in his Dialogues, one of the most widely read books of the Middle Ages, was a powerful vehicle for the diffusion also of the Rule of the great Patriarch.

In Italy, during the 7th century, the diffusion of the Benedictines was delayed by the Lombards; wherever these passed, monasticism was almost destroyed; they respected only Bobbio, inhabited by Irish and Frankish monks; and it is interesting that precisely at Bobbio the Benedictine Rule found acceptance already in the first half of the 7th century. Outside the Lombard domains, in the Duchy of Rome and in the Exarchate, the Benedictines expanded during the 7th century, but with difficulty; while in Sicily and especially in southern Italy Basilian monasticism (v. BASILIANI D'ITALIA) gained a foothold, fed by the migrations of Greek monks, driven out by the Persian and Arab invasion, and later by the iconoclast persecution. In the first half of the 7th century, Greek monks also took refuge in Rome (cf. F. Antonelli, I primi monasteri di monaci orientali a Roma, in Riv. di archeol. cristiana, 5 [1928], 105-21), and there they increased greatly in the following century.

The conversion of the Lombards in the last decades of the 7th century opens a period of extraordinary flourishing of the Benedictines in Italy. In 705 the abbey of Farfa in Sabina is founded, which rises rapidly to extraordinary power; monks of Farfa found shortly afterward St. Vincent on the Volturno. From this moment in all the Lombard territories Benedictine abbeys multiply, with the protection of the rulers, as is the case of Nonantola, founded in 752 by St. Anselm (v.), brother-in-law of King Aistulf. Around 720 Montecassino too rises again from its ruins, under the abbot Petronax, and becomes a driving center of Benedictine monasticism, in Italy and beyond.

In Gaul the Rule of St. Benedict established itself during the 7th century. Already around 620-630 the monastery of Altaripa was founded, in the diocese of Albi, under the Rule of St. Benedict. Around the same period, a monk of Luxeuil, Donatus, elected bishop of Besançon (before 627), founds in this city two monasteries, that of St. Paul and the female one of St. Mary, governed by his mother. For these nuns he writes a Rule (PL 87, 273-98), which for the most part depends literally on that of St. Benedict. But there is a more interesting fact: the principal disseminators of the Rule of St. Benedict in France were the monks of St. Columbanus. Recognizing the gaps in their Rule, they sought to fill them with adaptations taken from the Rule of St. Benedict. The center of Celtic monasticism in Gaul was Luxeuil; now, it was precisely an abbot of Luxeuil, Walbert (629-70), who adapted the Cassinese usages for his abbey and had them accepted by the daughter monasteries. This Columbanian-Benedictine combination in-

met with widespread favor, and the Rule of St. Benedict ended up prevailing. The favor of the Merovingians also contributed to this, in particular that of St. Bathilde (v.), wife of Clovis II, who later withdrew to the religious life (d. in 80). Around 660 even Lérins, a stronghold of pre-Benedictine Gallic monasticism, accepted the Rule of St. Benedict. Shortly afterward, St. Leodegar, bishop of Autun (663-80), speaking at a local Synod about monastic observances, cites nothing but the Rule of St. Benedict (MGH, Concilia, I, Concilia Aevi Merov., Hannover 1893, p. 221).

In the north of Gaul, in present-day Belgium, monasticism made great progress through the work of St. Amand (v.), apostle of Belgium, in the first half of the 7th century, and precisely according to the Columbanian-Benedictine Rule of Luxeuil.

In Frisia, on the other hand, and in Germany, the spreaders of Benedictine monasticism were the Anglo-Saxon monks, great apostles of these regions, in the second half of the 7th century and during the 8th century: it is enough to recall St. Willibrord (v.), St. Suitbert (v.) and St. Boniface (v.).

III. BENEDICTINE REFORMS

During the 7th century and in the early years of the 8th, Benedictine monasticism reached the zenith of its diffusion and vitality in all the countries it had penetrated; unfortunately its decline was not slow to manifest itself, first in England and Gaul, a little later in Italy and Germany. The principal cause is to be sought in the so-called right of appropriation, a general phenomenon that was not limited to monasteries alone, but affected bishoprics themselves and in general ecclesiastical institutions endowed with real property, and that could only have disastrous consequences. As regards monasteries, the genesis of this right is easily explained. Few were the monasteries founded and endowed by an abbot; as a rule it was kings, princes, bishops, or even wealthy and influential laymen who founded a monastery, in territory subject to them or of their property, and endowed it with the real property necessary for its subsistence: fields, vineyards, forests. It was natural that the lord, founder and donor of the goods, should also be the born protector of the monastery, which in some way belonged to him. But protection opened the way to ever broader interference in the very life of the monastery; thus a body of rights of the "proprietor" (as the founding lord was called) took shape, and by the early 8th century these rights were by then publicly and universally recognized. They concerned above all two things: a control over the election of the abbot, and a broad interference in the administration of the goods. Matters reached the point of seeing abbeys governed by laymen and monasteries burdened with taxes, or even stripped of their goods, given as appanages to royal officials or to creatures of the prince. This was in substance the first example of that secularization of ecclesiastical goods which, under different forms, has since been repeated many times through the centuries. The system of appropriation, developed beyond measure under Charles Martel (v.), unfortunately continued also under Charlemagne, despite the fact that he meditated and desired monastic reform, as appears from his numerous capitularies on the subject. The monastery was considered and had in reality become a territorial power, and, by force of the right of appropriation, constituted a wheel in the political-social machinery, which it was very difficult to do without. In this state of affairs, however, monastic discipline could not subsist; indeed, abbeys where the regular Benedictine life was still practiced were rare: disorder had taken on proportions more than worrying.

At this moment the reforming action of St. Benedict of Aniane (v.) was most providential, and he may not unjustly be called the second father of Benedictine monasticism. He began the reform in 785, with the support of Louis the Pious, then king of Aquitaine, who placed him at the head of the monasteries of his kingdom. With Louis's accession to the Empire (814), the influence of St. Benedict of Aniane extended to all of France, and in a short time a great number of monasteries, from the Pyrenees to the Rhine, were by him brought back to the regular Benedictine life. Famous is the great assembly of abbots at Aachen in 817, of which Benedict was the soul and which concluded with that Capitulare monasticum (MGH, Legum sect. II, Capitularia regum francorum, I, Hannover 1883, p. 343 ff.), which was to be the basis of the reform, and which may be considered as the first example of what in religious law were later the Constitutions, that is, declarations of the Rule. Many prescriptions of that Capitulary were useful and opportune; there were, however, also elements that departed from the Benedictine tradition, and above all the tendency toward a certain centralization. In any case, Benedict's reforming action had broad success. In the early 9th century, the Benedictine Rule, reformed by Benedict of Aniane, passed from southern France also into Spain. The rebirth created by Benedict unfortunately did not last long. Supported as it was by imperial power, when this collapsed, Benedict's reform too could not sustain itself.

Benedict of Aniane died in 821; the reign of Louis the Pious (d. 840) was very troubled; with the fratricidal wars of his sons the powerful structure of the Carolingian Empire was broken. One of the most disastrous consequences of this weakening was that of opening the way to the invasions of the Normans from the north, the Saracens from the south and the Hungarians from the east. For a long succession of years Europe, and above all France, Italy and Germany, were traversed by bands of pirates and plunderers; a very great number of abbeys, bishoprics, churches and villages were sacked and destroyed. Monastic discipline, like the life of the clergy and morals in general, fell deeply low. Lay abbots multiplied and the abbeys became feudal lordships. The end of the 9th century and the early years of the 10th mark the deepest point of the descent.

But precisely at this moment a salutary reaction begins to manifest itself here and there, and there begins that period of rebirth which would reach its greatest splendor in the 12th century.

The driving center of this rebirth was Cluny (v.), an abbey founded in 910 and governed by a series of first-rate abbots, among whom stand out St. Odo (d. 941), St. Maiolus (d. 994), St. Odilo (d. 1048), St. Hugh (d. 1109) and Peter the Venerable (d. 1156), under whom the Cluniac reform reached its apogee and counted monasteries throughout Europe. Of primary importance for the implementation and diffusion of the Cluniac reform was the fact that Cluny obtained, as early as 931, to be immediately subject to the Pope and was thus withdrawn from every influence of the local civil and ecclesiastical authority. With Gregory VII (1073-85), himself a monk of Cluny, the energies of the Cluniac reform were placed fully at the service of the Church. Incalculable are the contributions of the Cluniacs to ecclesiastical reform and to the rebirth of culture and of Christian life.

Besides Cluny, and not without its more or less direct influence, many other minor centers of monastic reform arose, from the first half of the 10th century: Brogne in Flanders (919); Gorze (v.) in Lorraine (933); St. Benignus at Dijon (990) and St-Vanne of Verdun (1004) in France; Cava (1011) in Italy; Hirsau (1071) in Germany. Two principal elements characterized these various centers of reform: a certain union among the various abbeys originating from one and the same center, and the extension of exemption (v.) which freed the monasteries from every external interference.

A century after Cluny, from the old Benedictine trunk other particular reforms are born, generally attuned to criteria of more severe monastic asceticism and of greater poverty, in reaction to the growing economic-political power of the great abbeys. The principal of these reforms are: the Camaldolese, founded in 1012 (v. BENEDETTINI CAMALDOLESI), whose diffusion in Italy, in the 11th and 12th centuries, can be compared to that of the Cluniacs in France; the Vallombrosans founded in 1036 (v. BENEDETTINI VALLOMBROSANI); the Carthusians (v.) arisen in 1084; the Cistercians (v.) founded in 1098; and later the Silvestrines which go back to 1231 (v. BENEDETTINI SILVESTRINI), and the Olivetans founded in 1313 (v. BENEDETTINI

OLIVETANI). All these various reforms had their own ordinances and physiognomy, so much so as to appear as distinct corporations, in the manner of the religious Orders in the modern sense of the word, and in a certain way prepared the way for the new mendicant Orders of the 13th century.

In parallel line with male monasticism there developed, from the 4th century onward, female monasticism. From the 7th-8th century, also in the female element the rule of St. Benedict prevails: v. BENEDETTINI: IV. Benedictine Nuns.

IV. INFLUENCE OF MONACHISM IN THE WESTERN CHRISTIAN WORLD

Harnack's statement does not seem exaggerated that, after the papacy, monasticism in the West "was the strongest influence exercised in all the domains of Latin Christianity" (A. Harnack, Il m., Italian trans. by D. Battaini, Piacenza 1909, p. 90). In reality, at the great stages of the Church's history and especially in the most difficult periods, monasticism and religious in general are always present and active.

Giving now a summary glance at the influence that monasticism has exercised in the Western Christian world, one may limit oneself to recalling its principal aspects, namely the religious influence, the economic-social one and the cultural one.

1. Religious influence

It is certain that from its very appearance monasticism represented, within the Christian community, the ideal of evangelical perfection, realized in a concrete and visible form of life. Hence its function, silent but real and continuous, of recalling and stimulating, by the force of example, not only the faithful but also the clergy, to a higher and more coherent Christian life. This is perhaps the least clamorous but the deepest and most precious contribution that monasticism has uninterruptedly exercised in Christendom. In the early Middle Ages, moreover, when the Church was called to the formidable task of building a new society and a new Christian civilization, fusing barbarians and Romans together, monasticism and in particular Benedictine monasticism, whose origin lies chronologically astride antiquity and the Middle Ages, was the most valid providential instrument. Every abbey and every monastery, ordinarily erected outside the cities, soon became a center of attraction: a population settled there for agricultural work and thus a settlement was formed (many cities and villages had this origin), in the midst of which the monastery was an ideal oasis of peace and a school of Christian life; the Benedictine's "ora et labora" was the simplest and most effective lesson for bending crude barbarian customs to the gentleness of the Gospel.

Monasticism then earned merit, as is well known, also through a broad activity of active conquest for the faith. St. Gregory the Great may be called the first missionary pope, in the modern sense of the word, and the Roman monks sent by him to England constitute the first missionary expedition. They bring with them the Gospel and Virgil, Christian and classical culture; the Anglo-Saxons first, the Germanic peoples later, are conquered for Christianity and introduced into the world of culture almost exclusively through the work of monks.

Finally, mention must also be made of the religious influence exercised by monks through theological and spiritual literature. From the 7th century until the 13th, theological literature, which from the age of Charlemagne onward is fairly rich, as well as spiritual literature (Lives of saints, books of prayers, ascetic writings) are for the most part of monastic origin. It is superfluous, moreover, to recall the religious influence exercised by Benedictine monasticism through the liturgy.

2. Economic-social influence

One of the most important and most beautiful chapters of the history of Benedictine monasticism is that relating to the activity of the great medieval abbeys in the agricultural and industrial field: marshes drained, forests felled, fields cleared; an agricultural cultivation so advanced as to remain thereafter substantially unchanged until our own times; consequently a contribution of the first order to the Christian civilization of the barbarian populations, with improvement of the condition of serfs and peasants, a charitable and welfare function through the revenues of the abbey lands: v. BENEDETTINI: III. L'opera civilizzazione.

3. Cultural influence

The merits of monasticism for culture are well known. During the barbarian darkening, culture survived in the monasteries, and even flourished there, first in England, reaching its apogee with Bede, then on the continent, especially from the time when Charlemagne sought to favor by every means a cultural rebirth, which in reality he was able to arouse, availing himself of the work of learned monks, in particular of Alcuin (v.). Many abbeys become at this epoch true centers of culture, with a literary production imposing for that time and with a consequently very broad influence: suffice it to recall, for example, Corbie, Fulda, St. Gall, Reichenau, to cite only a few names. Every abbey moreover had its library, and to feed the library a scriptorium was necessary. Some of these scriptoria became, so to speak, publishing centers of primary importance, so much so as to create types of script, with their own characteristics, recognizable at first glance. It was in these monastic scriptoria that the treasures of ancient literature, passing from fragile papyrus to parchment, were snatched from destruction. It is recognized by all by now that what has been preserved of Latin literature was saved in the libraries of churches and especially in monastic ones: a priceless service this, rendered by the Church and by monasticism to culture.

The abbeys and monasteries, moreover, also as regards culture, were not closed fortresses: cultural wealth was placed at the service of the public through the school, another sector in which the Benedictine monasticism of the early Middle Ages earned high merit. From the 7th century onward no mention is found any longer of the great public schools, where until the end of the 4th century classical letters were taught; by necessity of things their place was taken by episcopal schools and especially by monastic schools, that is, attached to monasteries, whose functioning was stimulated and better organized under Charlemagne (cf. S. d'Irsay, Histoire des Universités françaises et étrangères, I, Paris 1933, p. 39 ff.).

Finally, mention must be made of the contribution given by Benedictine monasticism to the arts. Romanesque art was sometimes called monastic art. "If one bears in mind," writes Berlière, "that monk artists drew the plans of numerous churches, directed their construction, decorated their walls, carved their capitals, that monks are the most celebrated miniaturists, goldsmiths, glassmakers of the time, one will rightly conclude that Romanesque art is monastic art. This is true of England as well as of Germany and France" (U. Berlière, L'Ordine monastico dalle origini al sec. XII, Bari 1928, p. 111).

V. PRESENT STATE OF WESTERN MONASTICISM

In Western monasticism three types are distinguished today: Benedictine, Cistercian, Carthusian. Some principal data are given here, referring to the individual entries for further statistical information.

a) Benedictines:

1. Confederated Benedictines

The Confederation dates back to 1893 and today embraces 15 Congregations, of which the list is given, with the year of foundation following the name: 1) Cassinese (1408); 2) English (1300; re-established in the 17th century); 3) Hungarian (1500); 4) Swiss (1868); 5) Bavarian (1684; restored in 1858); 6) of Brazil (1828); 7) French or Solesmense (1837); 8) American-Cassinese (1855); 9) Beuronese (1868); 10) Cassinese of the Primitive Observance (1872); 11) Swiss-American (1881); 12) Austrian (1889; reorganized in 1930); 13) of St. Ottilien for the foreign missions (1884, approved in 1896); 14) Belgian (1920); 15) Slavic (1945). 2. Camaldolese Benedictines (v.) with two Congregations, that of the Camaldolese Hermit Monks, with its center at Camaldoli in Tuscany, and that of the Camaldolese Hermits of Monte Corona (1523). 3. Vallombrosan Benedictines (v.). 4. Silvestrine Benedictines (v.). 5. Olivetan Benedictines (v.).

b) Cistercians (v.): 1. Sacred Cistercian Order (1908); 2. Cistercian Congregation of Italy (1479); 3. Congregation of Casamari (1152); 4. Reformed Cistercians (v.) or Trappists (1664).

c) Carthusians (v.).

Finally, it should be remembered that the following Eastern monks also currently live in the West: 1. Mechitarists (v.), or Armenian Benedictines; 2. Monks of St. Paul the First Hermit (v.); 3. Antonians (v.); 4. Basilians (v.).

VI. MONASTIC MEDICINE

It has its natural beginning in the Benedictine cloister, but even before it established itself there (it is impossible to determine when this happened), Cassiodorus, having abandoned the political offices of the court of the Goths and withdrawn to private life in his villa of Vivarium near Squillace in Calabria, had established in that hermitage a small lay community of persons like himself, desirous of peace and recollection after so many stormy events. Once gathered there, Cassiodorus's companions devoted themselves to study and to philanthropic works, among which the chief was the care of the sick. In the villa's library there were many medical books, and Cassiodorus (De institutione divin. litter., ch. 31: PL 70, 1146) urged his companions to study them, so as to bring relief to the sick. This, which may be called the "prehistory" of monastic medicine, was followed by its history properly so called.

It was written in the Rule of St. Benedict (ch. 36):

"Let the care of the sick be before all things," by "sick" being understood the brethren of the Order. Hence arose the necessity of the existence of a monacus infirmarius with the duties of nurse, pharmacist, and physician; furthermore, that of an infirmary; of an ortus simplicium for cultivating medicinal plants; of an armarium pigmentariorum, a primitive pharmacy where medicines were kept; of a kind of school for instructing the new infirmarian monks; while the libraries with which the monasteries were provided preserved, among other things, the medical codices, and in the "writing centers," another glory of the Order, the copyists multiplied copies of them to hand down to posterity.

From this, therefore, in the cloister there existed all the prerequisites necessary for the life of medicine, and excellent conditions for its dignified maintenance and for the fulfillment of the charitable mission willed by Christianity. This is all the more precious if one considers that, outside the cloisters, the healing art, deprived of schools and of every means of subsistence, led a wretched and undignified life. But monastic medicine, precisely because of the deficiency of lay physicians, of opportunities for study, and of adequately equipped places of refuge, could not long remain within the limits of the cloister; thus infirmaries and hospitals came to be formed outside it to receive the poor sick who knocked at the doors of the monastery and whom Christian charity forbade turning away; while, on the other hand, the rich, princes, and the powerful summoned to their bedside in illness the monaci infirmari of proven medical skill and sometimes of no small fame.

At the same time, lay elements, desirous of learning the healing art, began to infiltrate the monastic medical schools. Thus, little by little, monastic medicine was becoming laicized, both through the aforementioned infiltration and through the departure from the cloister of the monaci infirmari, whose absence was sometimes prolonged for a very long time. This clashed with the principles of monastic life, which could not tolerate such continual infractions of the Rule, too often willed even by the abbots for the profit brought to the community by the generous rewards that the infirmari drew from their visits. Thus began the first oppositions and the first prohibitions; first among others rises the voice of St. Bernard (Epp. 67-68: PL 182, 175-78), who sets forth the case of an infirmarius who fled from the monastery to escape the injunctions of the abbot, who wanted to send him always around on visits, without leaving him any way to attend to the divine service. To this first voice, others joined in protest; then followed councils and synods forbidding the practice of monastic medicine (Reims, 1119; Clermont, 1130; Second Lateran, 1139; Montpellier, 1162; etc.). Thus, little by little, this medicine disappeared, though by then it had already accomplished its function as a means of union between the declining classical world and the nascent medieval one, preserving codices and multiplying them, keeping alive the idea of the school, and giving nourishment to the lay medicine that arose from it. In fact, from the monastic schools, with the concurrence of certain particular conditions, the school of Salerno originated (v. SALERNITANA, SCUOLA). - See pl. LXXXVI.

Adalberto Pazzini