((/) Fuurth Slage of Monasticism. — The same social impulse, finally, which produced monastic congrega- tions, led afterwards to monastic orders, unions of a number of cloisters under one rule and a common gov- ernment. In this, the fourth and last stage, monasti- cism presents itself in the West, and played no little part, we gladly confess, for the diffusion of Christian- ity and the advancement of learning, becoming in one sense even the cradle of the German Keformation (comp. Schaff, Ch. Hist, ii, 158, 17C).
We have seen above that Athanasius, one of the Western Church fathers, was in the East, and enjoyed a personal association with Anthony and Pachomius. When Athanasius returned to Home (about A.D. 341), he determined to introduce the practice of the monas- tic life into the Western Church. He brought home with him some Egyptian monks for the purpose of ini- tiating the Romans, and in order to exhibit to them liv- ing evidence of the sanctifying principles of the new "religio." Their uncouth and savage appearance, however, excited disgust and ridicule, and for a time the cflFort failed. But Athanasius, in nowise discon- certed, published a biographical account of St. Antho- ny, which, being early translated into Latin, had great influence on the people. Besides, respectable bishops of the West, w ho had been banished to the East dur- ing tlie Arian controversies, brought back with them, on their return, an enthusiasm for the monastic life. In Rome especially the feeling of ridicule gave way to enthusiastic admiration, and men and women of rank were impelled bj' the ascetic spirit which was spread by Jerome (346-421)) during liis residence in that city to retire from the great world, in which they had shone, and devote themselves to the monastic life. Patri- cians, rich merchants, and men of letters adopted the distinctive dress of the anchorite, and with it the three self-denying vows of the ascetic life. Senators and matrons transformed their palaces and country-seats. Villas, bearing the names of Gracchus, Scipio, Camil- lus, and Marcellus, were converted liy the represent- atives of these great names into monasteries (the ru- ins of the Anician palace, of vast extent, were still to be seen in the middle of the 8th century at tlie gate of Nursia [comp. Montalembert, ii, 8] ; and the family from whence it had its name is renowned in the annals of monasticism as the stock of which Benedict and
I Gregory the Great were descendants). From Rome I the movement spread through the provinces, and es- ■ tablished itself in the isles of the Mediterranean ; chief- ly through the energetic action of Eusebius of Vercelli, who, like Athanasius, had oVttained a temporary rest- ing-place in the Thebaid when driven from his see. Men ])Ossessing such great influence as Ambrose of Mi- lan, John Curianus, Martin of Tours, the presbyter , Jerome (q. v.), also contributed subsequently, in the I course of the 4th century, still further to awaken and diffuse this tendency of the Christian spirit in Italy an<l in Gaul.
Everywhere the institution now spread rapidly, in the same general forms in which the monasteries were built up in the EasJ. Pachomius had started some of these and given them monastic shape, but it was re- served for Basil the Great (.328-37'J) to give perfect ! organization to the vast army of monks, and to bind them by a formal vow of chastity, poverty (involving I the duty of self-support by manual labor), and obedi- I ence to authority. But even Basil's work was vague and desultory, and St. Augustine was not a little tried in his endeavors to diffuse monasticism in North Africa and Italy. He condemned the idleness of the monks, ever fearing the danger which would spring from af- fording too great freedom to men who had been accus- tomed to severe corporeal labor and to rigid restraint. Many there were who would be right well disposed to exchange a needy, sorrowful, and laborious life for one free from all care, exempt from labor, and at the same time enjoy the pleasure of being looked up to with universal respect. Those who discarded the obligation to manual labor ventured, in defending their princi- ples, to pervert many passages of the New Testament. When that precept of the apostle Paul in 2 Thess. iii, 12 was objected to them, they appealed, on the other hand, to those misconceived passages in the Sermon on the Mount in which all cai-e for the wants of the mor- row, hence all labor to acquire the means of sustenance for the morrow, were forbidden. Christian perfection was made to consist in this — that men should expect, without laboring for their support, to be provided for by the hand of God, like the fowls of the air. Tliis precept of Christ, they contended, Paul could not mean to contradict ; the laboring, accordingly, as well as the eating, in those words of Paul, must be understood not in the literal, but in a spiritual sense — as referring to I the obligation of communicating the nourishment of the divine Word, which men had themselves received, I to others also — an example of the perversion of Script- I ure worthy to be noticed. But not only Augustine — other friends of monasticism soon came to apprehend ' the obstacles likely to face Christian activity, and a I Church Council, that of Chalcedon (A.D. 451), found it necessary to pass canons for the regulation of monks. Yet these changes could affect only the East, the West having no part in its deliberations, and having as its 1 representatives only four jiapal legates. Hence, while { in the East some jirovisions were made for the safety of Christian asceticism, in the garb of monasticism, the Western Church was constantly and considerablj- I modifying the Eastern practices, until the relaxations of Western monastics threatened apostasy and heresy unlimited. The inmates of difl'erent cells under the 1 same head varied in their observance, each recluse re- j taining his accustomed usage when admitted into the ! community. And, in truth, no rule could well be uni- j versal. In Gaul the monks declaimed against the se- I vore rule of fasting imported from the East. A disci- ! plinc that was practicable under a burning Sj'rian sun I required modification to suit the colder latitude of i Gaul. Discontent and laxity were taking hold everj'- where, and monachism would perhaps have been una- ! lile to withstand the destructive influences which, in ' this and the following times, were spreading far and w ide ; and the irregularities prevailing in the spirit- I ual order would have become more widelv diffused in