Saloi (stndiosi)., a sect of ascetics who practiced un- conimon austerities (Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. vi, c. 11 ; Epiphan. Expos. Fid. c. 22). ii. 'EkXiktoi, or iKXtKTwv tKXiKTorepoi, the elect, or elect of the elect (Clem. Alex. Quis Dives Salv. n. 3G). iii. 'AicoiYijjroi, insom- nes, the sleepless, or the watchers ; a term applied es- pecially to the members of a monastery (ty-ovhor') near Constantinople (Niceph. Hist. Eccl. lib. xv, c. 23 ; Baron. Annal. a. 459). iv. Boctkoi, i. e. the grazers; so called because they professed to subsist on roots and herbs, like cattle (Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. lib. vi, c. 33 1 Evagr. Hist. Eccl. lib. i, c. 21). v. 'navxaarai, quiescentes, or quietistce, quietists, monks who lived by themselves in perpetual silence (Justin. Novc II. v, c. 3; Suicer. Thesaitr. Eccl. s. v. iiavxaaTric). vi. 'Awo-a^a- ixtvoi, renunciantes, renouncers; so called from their formal renunciation of the world and secular enjoj-- ments (Pallad. Hist. Lavs. c. 15). vii. Culdai, Colidei, Keldei, Keledei, certain ancient monks in Scotland and the Hebrides, supposed to have been so called as culto- res Dei, worshippers of God, because they were wholly occupied in preaching the Gospel. Some suppose that they were priests; others regarded them as canons regular; others, again, that they constituted a secret society, and were the forerunners of the modern Free- masons, viii. Apostolici, apostolicals, monks in Eng- land and Ireland, before the arrival of the Benedic- tines, with Augustine, at the latter end of the 6th cen- tury.
There were the following orders of monks : 1, those of Basil — Greek monks and Carmelites; 2, those of Augustine, in three classes^ — canons regular, monks, and hermits ; 3, those of Benedict ; and, 4, those of St. Francis : all of which names may be consulted in their respective places. Monks are now distinguished by the color of their habits into black, white, gray, etc. The ancient dress was the colobium or lehitus, a linen sleeveless dress ; a melotes or per(r, a goatskin habit ; a cowl, covering the head and shoulders ; the mafovta, a smaller cowl, cross-shaped over the shoulders ; and a black pall. St. Benedict introduced during manual labor the lighter scapular, reaching from the shoulders down the back, and the cowl became a habit of cere- mony, and worn in choir. Borrowing the language of the regular and secular canons, the monks at length, when in their common habits they attended choir, called it ordinary service days, "dies in cappis," in dis- tinction to "dies in albis," days in surplices or festivals, the cope being black like the frock. There are diff'erent classes of monks : some are called monks of the choir, others professed monks, and others lay monies; which latter are destined for the service of the convents, and have neither clericate nor literature. Cloistered monks are those who actually reside in the house, in opposi- tion to extra monks, who have benefices depending on the monastery. Blonks are also distinguished into re- formed, whom the civil and ecclesiastical authority have made masters of ancient convents, and enabled to retrieve the ancient discipline, which had been re- laxed ; and ancient, who remain in the convent, to live in it according to its establishment at the time when they made their vows, without obliging themselves to anj' new reform.
Among the remarkable institutions of Christianity which have prevailed in the Roman Catholic and the Greek Church, there is none that makes a more con- spicuous figure than the institution of monachism or monkery ; and, if traced to its origin, it will be found strikingly to exemplify the truth of the maxim that, as some of the largest and loftiest trees spring from very small seeds, so the most extensive and wonderful effects sometimes arise from very inconsiderable causes. In times of persecution during the first ages of the Church, while "the heathen raged, and the rulers took counsel together against the Lord, and against his anointed," many pious Christians, male and female, married and unmarried, justly accounting that no hu-
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man felicity ought to come in competition with their I fidelity to Christ, and diffident of their own ability to ! persevere in resisting the temptations with which they | were incessantly harassed by their persecutors, took I the resolution to abandon their professions and worldly , prospects, and, while the storm lasted, to retire to un- | frequented places far from the haunts of men (the i married with or without their wives, as agreed be- tween them), that they might enjoy in quietness their i feith and hope, and, exempt from the temptations to ^ apostasy, employ themselves principally in the wor- 8hip and service of their Maker. The cause was rea- ; sonable and the motive praiseworthy, but the reason- i ableness arose solely from the circumstances. "When the latter were changed the former vanished, and the motive could no longer be the same. When there was not tlie same danger in society, there was not the same occasion to seek security in solitude. Accordingly, when persecution ceased, and the profession of Chris- [ tianity was rendered perfectly safe, many returned j without blame from their retirement and resumed their stations in society. Some, indeed, familiarized by time to a solitary life, at length preferred, through habit, what they had originally adopted through neces- sity. See Ascetics ; Heumits. They did not, how- ever, waste their time in idleness : they supported themselves by their labor, and gave the surplus in j charity. But they never thought of flattering them- selves b}' vows or engagements, because by so doing they must have exposed their souls to new tempta- tions and perhaps greater dangers. It was, therefore, a very different thing from that system of monkery which afterwards became so prevalent, though in all probability it constituted the first ftep towards it.