MONASTERY
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MONASTERY
kingdom of Italy has not been slow to perceive that a sacerdotal class, with interests alien, if not antagonis- tic, to society and to the family, is necessarily and log- ically a foe to civil and political liberty. By a law enacted June 28, 1866, all monasteries and similar re- ligious corporations in the kingdom of Italy were sup- pressed, their members pensioned, and their property sold and funded for the maintenance of public schools. Monte Casino and San ^Nlarco, of Florence, were alone exempted. The former is left as a venerable monu- ment of the past ; the latter is spared in honor of Savo- narola and the beautiful frescos of Fra Angelico da Fi- esole. Tliis law has been executed with great rigor : and in spite of allocutions, excommunications, and all the brutum fulnmi of tlie Vatican, the work of secular- ization is already finished. Some of the monks have gladly seized the opportunity of bettering their condi- tion by marriage; others have returned to their homes or accepted the refuge offered by charity ; but the great majority of these unfortunates, whose only crime con- sists in having been misplaced in chronology by being born several centuries too late, and whose habits are too fixed and inveterate to be easily changed, hire houses and live in clubs on the subsidies of the government. While in Italy and France, the two most Catholic na- tions, the monastic system is thus rapidly disappearing, the tendency to introduce similar institutions in Protes- tant countries, especially the effort of the Ritualists of the Anglican communion, under the pretence (more or less honest) of promoting Christian charities, can only be regarded as a fatal retrogression and dangerous de- generacy.
In 1870 revelations of corruption, bestiality, and cruelty in a Polish convent contributed more than all else to quicken the Protestant, and we may well say general dislike for monastic institutions. The story of Barbara Ubryk, the Polish nun, however exceptional, could not but raise a sense of horror throughout Europe, and it is not to be denied that the pr( judice such an in- stance excites is in a great degree just. It is one thing to hear of an exceptional instance of individual crueltj' ; it is another thing to know that such cruelty can be practiced in the name of religion, and in institutions which, under its shelter, claim peculiar immunities. There is great force in the plea that one such case sub- stantiated justifies the public control of all similar es- tablishments. In England, the famous trial of "Saurin V. Starr" revealed wliat spiritual tj-ranny and moral degradation might be concealed in conventual institu- tions under the most harmless exterior. The convent which Miss Saurin entered was one of those for which the plea is advanced that they do practical service in the cause of education and charity. It is not difficult to imagine that a hotheaded Protestant might have been for the time confused if he had been taken to see Miss Saurin and her fellow-sisters patiently devoting themselves to the instruction of their scholars. Yet, whatever the technical result of the trial, it left all im- partial readers with a most painful impression of the degrading and demoralizing atmosphere of the convent. And in conserpience Parliament was moved to appoint, March 20, 1870, a select committee to make inquiries concerning conventual or monastic institutions in (Ireat Britain. The result of sudi investigation wjis unfavor- able ill that country, and has turned popidar opinion against their existence. In Poland also the Itussian government has in very recent times found itself faced with a most alarming spread of treason and corruption generated and fostered in monasteries, and the days of monasticism may be said to be numbered even there. As what is said of English Christianity is so well applicable to all other Protestant countries, we quote Mr. Bhmt here in conclusion of this subject: "The da_v of monasticism has forever set. . . . There is no longer any need for its existence, even if it could be set up again in its best condition. iMore than Benedic- tiue learning sheds a ray of glory on our colleges. Our
Poor-laws render unnecessary' the alms for the monas- tery wicket; and such doles would become a positive evil now as an encouragement to idleness and sloth. Our clergy are welcome visitors at the cottage fireside, where the monk of later days was not, with his contri- butions for the house. The glor>' of monasticism was the fidelity with which it discharged its earlier mission; the self-sacrifice with which it taught men to rise supe- rior to the trials and calamities of life; the unfeigned piety with which the monk resigned every eartldy ad- vantage that he might win a heavenh' reward. But it survived its reputation, and there is more hope of re^ covering to life the carcass around which the eagles have gathered than of renovated monkdom. The rib- aldry of Boccaccio and Pabelais, the Ep. ohscuror. tit., and the more measured terms of Piers Ploughman and Chaucer, were mainly instrumental in bringing about the downfall of monasticism ; but this was after it had already been shorn of its splendor, and when scarcely a ray remained to it of its former glory" (comp. ^Nlurphy, Terra Incor/nita, or the Convents of the United Kinrjdom [Lond. 1873, 8vol ; I'auli, Pictures of Old England [Lond. 1861, 12moJ, chap. iii).