mende" by which the title of abbot was conferred on those who were ignorant of monastic institutions ; al- beit this step, so loathsome in his judgment, was the work of infallible popes and Catholic kings. Catho- lics have their own institutions and the great dignita- ries of their own Church to blame for the most con- spicuous illustrations and examples of spoliation and robbery. The enormous wealth accumulated by these monasteries was too tempting a prize to be resisted, first by rapacious abbots, then by bishops hunger- ing for temporal power as well as ecclesiastical influ- ence, then by needy kings, and at last hy unprincipled popes. They turned from one to the other for protec- tion, and found the spoiler rather than the friend. The utter and ignominious fall of more than three thousand monasteries in Europe, and the ruthless destruction even of their ruins in countries which had never repu- diated the authority of the Roman See, is a startling fact, which, although our author recounts, he fails to explain on his own theory of the supreme and God- given claims of the Church ; while the jeremiad that he wails over the base uses to which these gorgeous buildings have returned is out of harmony with his vivid appreciation of modern ideas of progress. One might suppose that on the fall of the monastery the spirit of humanity, all care for the sick and dying, all science, art, and literature, all brave adventure, all subjugation and replenishing of the earth, and mis- sionary enterprise had utterly vanished ; while, on the contrarj', the fact of the case is that the mighty spirit generated by the contact of Christianity with modern thought was too strong to be retained in the crisp and worn-out skins of monastic orders ; and when these burst, neither the spirit nor the fragrance was lost. New life demanded new institutions, and it is too late in the day to prove that modern civilization is only a feeble parody on that which we readily allow took its origin in the cloister. Grand and even wor- thy attempts, to be sure, have been made at various times to recover the ancient prestige of monasticism, and there is a kind of work that none perhaps can do so well as the Society of Jesus ; but the fuel which even now promotes the flame of monastic piety is that morbid view of the nature of the human will which is fostered by materialistic science, that mischievous es- timate of human life which proceeds from the scepti- cism of the Fatherhood of God, and that neo-Platonic or Gnostic repudiation of the true brotherhood of all mankind which is perpetual dishonor to the word and spirit of Jesus Christ. We do not wonder that ill the light of these truths a celebrated English savant writes that the continued violation of the most distinctive at- tributes of human nature is the recorded secret of the failure of monachism. " Its principle of poverty has ever outraged man's original conception of property; as a celibate, it is directly opposed to the social nature of man ; and its law of solitary striving for religious perfection is antagonistic to the first principle of Chris- tian communion and spiritual intercourse. The pro- fession of povertj' frequently ended in the most insa- tiable avarice and cupiditj', while vows of perpetual virginity resulted in unbounded licentiousness. That which began witii a sincere desire for perfect purity, ended in the diffusion of licensed corruption." For these reasons we do not feel justified in dissenting from the general opinion, which is that, "however ser- viceable the monastery may have been as an institu- tion in the mediaeval ages, preserving, as in an ark, the treasures of religion and learning from the waves of barbarism which in rapid succession broke over Europe, it has lost to a great extent its beneficial pow- er, and in the present state of societj' has no peculiar functions of a useful nature to discharge ; and that the truly good of both sexes would better serve the end of their being by mixing in society, and trying to im- prove it, than by turning monks and nuns, and look- ing out on the world from behind the bars of a prison,
MOXASTICISM
478
MONBODDO
■within which they have by their own consent submit- ted to be encaged" {Brit, and For. Rev. 1868, p. 450).
Literature.— (i.) Greek miters : Socrates, JI. Eccles. lib. iv, cap. 23 sq. ; Sozomcn, //. E. lib. i, cap. 12-14 ; iii, 14; vi, 28-34; Palladius, Ilistoria Lausiaca (laro- (Hu irpug Aavaov, a court-officer under Theodosius II, to whom the work was dedicated), composed about 421, with enthusiastic admiration, from personal ac- quaintance, of the most celebrated contemporaneous ascetics of Egypt ; Theodoret (j 457), Ilistoria reliffiosa, seu ascetica vicendi ratio ((piKoitoQ iaropic), biogra- phies of thirty Oriental ancliorets and monks, for the most part from personal observation ; Nilus the elder (t about 450), Be vita ascetica, Be exercitatione moruis- tica, Epistolm 355, and otlier writings. (2.) Latin writ- ers: Kulinus (t 410), Hist. Eremitica, s. Vitoe Pat rum; Sulpicius Severus (about 400), Bialorji III (the first dialogue contains a livel}' and entertaining account of the Egyptian monks, whom he visited; the two others relate "to Martin of Tours) ; Cassianus (f 432), Insti- tutiones coenobiati/:, and Collationes Patrum (spiritual conversations of Eastern monks). Also the ascetic writings of Athanasius (Yita Antonii), Basil, Greg- ory Nazianzen, Chrysostom, and Isidore of Pelusium among the Greek ; Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome (his lives of anchorets, and his letters), Cassiodorus, and Gregory the Great among the Latin fathers. (3.) Later literature: Ilolstenius (a Roman convert). Co- dex regularum monastic. (Kom. 1661 ; enlarged, Paris and Augsb. 6 vols, fol.) ; the older Greek Menoloyia (^firjvoXoyui) and Mencea (jU?/vaT«), and the Latin Ca- lendaria and Marlyrolotjia — i. e. Church calendars or indices of memorial days (days of the earthly death and heavenly birth) of the saints, with short biograph- ical notices for liturgical use ; Herbert Rosweyde (Jes- uit), Vit^ Patrum, sire Ilistorim Erem'Jicce, lib. x (Ant- werp, 1628) ; Acta Sanctorum, qiijfquot toto orbe colun- tur (Antwerp, 1643-178G, 53 vols. fol. ; begun by the Jesuit Uollandus, continued by several scholars of his order, called BoUandists, down to October 11 in th3 calendar of saints' days, and resumed in 1845, after long interruption, by Theiner and others) ; D'AcIiciy and Mabillon (Benedictines), Acta Sanctorum ord'nis S. Benedicli (Paris, 1GG8-1701, 9 vols, folio [to 1100]) ; Helj'ot (Franciscan), Ifistoire des ordres monasti'iiies religieux et mili/aires (Par. 1714-19, 8 vols. 4to ; new ed., with an additional vol. on the modern history of monachism by Migne, 1849, 4 vols.) ; Butler (H. C), The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and other principal Saints, arranged according to the Catholic calendar, and completed to December 31 (1745, and often since ; I best ed. Lond. 1812-13, 12 vols. ; another, Baltimore, ' 1844, 4 vols.) ; Gibbon, chap, xxxvii ("Origin, Prog- ress, and Effects of Monastic Life ;" verj' unfavorable, and written in lofty philosophical contempt) ; Ilenrion (R. C), Ilistoire des ordres reliffieux (Par. 1835) ; Bie- denfeld, Ursprung siinimtlicher Monchsorden in Onent u. Occident (Weimar, 1837, 3 vols.) ; Schmidt (R. C), Bie Monchs-, Nonnen-, it. geistlichen Ritterorden nebst Ordmsregeln v. .{bbildmigcn (Augsb. 1838 sq.) ; Paul Lacroix, Militari/ and Religious Life in the Middl' Ages and at the Period oflh- Ri naissance ; Daj', Monastic In- stitutions: their Origin, Progress, etc. (Lond. 1846, 2d ed.) ; Milman (Anglican i, /listorg of Ancient Christian- % (l)k. iii, chap, xi), and his Latin Christianily ; Ruff- ner (Presbj'terian), The Fathers of the Beser't (N. Y., 1850, 2 vols.), full of curious information, in popular form; Montaleml)ert (R. C), Les Moines d' Occident depuis St. Benoit jusquii St. Bernard (Paris, 1860 sq. ; translated into English, The Mottles of the West, etc., Edinb. and Lond. 1861 sq.); another extensive work has been in preparation for some time by the Bene- dictine Dom Gueranger, of France ; ZocldcT, Kritische Gcschichte der Askese ( Frankfurt-am -Main, 1863); comp. also Ilefele, Coticilingeschichte (the several vol- umes); Wessenberg, Kirchen verstiminlungen, i, 119 sq. (sec Index in vol. iv) ; Ozanam, Etudes Germaniques ;