Monasticism (Gr. novuZtiv, to dwell apart in sol- itude ; whence fiovaxog, a monk), a state of religious retirement, more or less complete, accompanied by con- templation and by various devotional, ascetical, and penitential practices, is in truth Asceticism (q. v.), with the elements of religious solitude superadded. Monas- ticism, until the beginning of the study of comparative religion, was regarded as a strictly Christian institution, but recent researches reveal it as having entered into va- rious religious systems, both ancient and modern. In- deed, it is now clearly apparent that the Western theory of the ascetic life travelled from the East to the West, but the question of the time when it originated in the East is still clouded in mystery. "The origin of monasticism," writes Mr. Johnson in his little work on the Monls before Christ, "will ahvays be en- veloped in mystery. 'Its history is shrouded in the same obscurity as the source of the mighty stream upon tlie banks of which the first ascetics commenced the practice of their austerities' " (p. 51, 52). The probability is that monachism is a strictly Asiatic institution, and originated among heathen nations. We certainly do not think that monasticism can prove a Christian or even Jewish origin; it is not heav- enly, but earthly. Yet do we not desire to have our development theorists infer that we agree with them that it is one of the early religious forms of man.)
Says one, " The older the religion, the older its ascetic practices ; for the}' were among the first forms assumed by the religious impulse, and not among the later and better ones. They belong to the religion of the passions and emotions, and not to the religion of reason;" and then he logically infers that therefore " monasticism is as old as religion itself; for it does not gain favor with the progress of new ideas, but is gradually falling in the estimation of all." We are far from believing that mo- nasticism is a primitive institution, and is forsaken by modem civilization. Quite the contran,', we hold that ascetic practices prevail largely among semi-civilized or civilized nations, and only after a clear conception has been formed of man's dependence on a higher Be- ing, and a desire is manifest for future existence. The inspired religion prepares the way for these, and from religious excesses or alienation spring the ascetic prac- tices. In the far East the very notion of the supreme Lord faded for ages from the grasp of philosophy, and became too subtle and refined a concejition for any to retain it in their knowledge ; but the inherent evil of matter, of flesh, of sense, and of human life has remain- ed to stimulate the curiosity, to exhaust the efforts of the melancholy victims of the grim delusion, and to shape in various forms the fact that man's incumbent duty has ever been to escape from the contamination, and rise above the conditions of the flesh. Indeed, we believe that ascetic tendencies in general, and monasti- cism in particular, are the outgrowth of a religious en- thusiasm, seriousness, and ambition likely to be pursued only by those who have once believed in revealed re- ligion and have retrograded, having gone from the presence of their God to the idol they reared to repre- sent him. But, whatever may be the dilferences of opinion as to the relation of the heathen religions to the revealed, it is generally conceded that monasticism cannot prove its heavenly origin, nor honestly identify itself with the Christian religion, as it is known to be much older than Christianity. In times far anterior to the Gospel, prophets and martyrs, "in sheepskins and goatskins," wandered in the Oriental world over moun- tains and deserts, and dwelt in caves and dens of the earth, as have likewise evangelical monks.
I. Pagan Monachism. — 1. Its Monumental Ilistory, — In examining the inscriptions which have been dis- covered in South-western Asia and Egypt, we find an abundance of representations of priests and religious ceremonies. We learn from these that many of the priests shaved the head, and always wore a peculiar habit, which in historic times, we are told, was white. We learn furthermore that these priests taught that the body must be kept pure by fasting and other ascetic observances. No doubt, as our knowledge in hiero- glyphics shall progress, our information on this subject will be greatly enriched. In Arabia and India the modern traveller comes across numberless "rock -cut temples." We now know that nearly 600 years B.C. the artificial caves of India were occupied by Buddhistical monks, and there is conclusive evidence that they had served the Brahmins for a like purpose long before that. (Comp. the occasional notices of the Indian gymnoso- phists in Strabo [lib. xv, c. 1, after accounts from the time of Alexander the Great J, Arrian l^Exped. Alex. lib. vii, c. 1-3 ; and Hist. Lnd. c. 11], Pliny [Hist. Nat. vii, 2], Diodorus Siculus [lib. ii], Plutarch [Alex. c. 64], Porphyry [Z)e abstinent, lib. iv], Lucian [Fugit. c. 7], Clemens Alex. [Strom, lib. i and iii], and Augustine [De cicit. Dei, lib. xiv, c. 17: "Per opacas India? soli- tudines, quum quidam nudi philosophentur, unde gym- nosophistie nominantur; adhibenttamen genitalibus teg- mina, quibus per cjetera membrorura carent;" and lib. XV, c. 20, where he denies all merit to their celibacj^, because it is not "secundum fidem summi boni, qui est Deus"]. With these ancient representations agree the narratives of Fon Koueki [about A.D. 400, transl. by M.A.Remusat, Paris, 1836], Marco Polo [1280], Ber- nier [1670], Hamilton [1700], Papi, Niebuhr, Orlich,