Monk, James Henry, D.D., an English prel- ate, was born at Huntingford, Herts, in the early part of 1784. His preparatory education was received at the Charterhouse, and he then entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow in 1805. Two years later he occupied the position of assistant tutor, and in 1808 succeeded Porson as regius professor of Greek. While in this chair he applied himself faith- fully to critical analyses of various Greek texts. He "published, in conjunction with C. J. Bloomfield, D.D., The Posthumous Tracts of Richard Poison. During his professorship an exciting dispute arose concerning the occupancy of the chair of botany, and Sir James Ed- ward Smith, president of the Linnsean Society, London, being disappointed in not securing the position, made bitter use of his pen concerning it. In reply, JMonk published A Vindication of the Universitg of Cambridge (1818), which, from the prominence of both parties, caused considerable stir in literary circles {Lond. Quart. xix, 434-446). In 1822 he resigned his professorship to accept the deanery of Peterborough, and eight years later was made bishop of Gloucester. During this year (1830) he published a Life of Richard Bentley, D.D. This work not only possesses literary excellence and biographical interest, but also comprises a large portion of the Uterary annals of the first half of the last centurj-, besides valuable historical facts concerning the Univer- sity of Cambridge. " The style is generally plain and masculine, and if sometimes negligent, and at others elaborate, its ordinary tone is that of a writer of strong sense and of elegant and scholarlike accomplishment" {Lond, Quart xlvi, 120). Many minor inaccuracies
have been justly and severely criticised (Edinh. Rev. li, 321), but its general merit caused it to receive a hearty welcome by the literati. In 1836 Bristol was added to Gloucester, and he became the bishop of the united di- oceses. This otfice he held until his death at Stapleton, near Bristol, June 6, 1856. See Stubbs, Registrum Sa- crum Anglicanum (Oxf. 1858, 8vo) ; Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and . 1 mer. A uthors, s. v. ; Hallam, Hist. Lit. ii, 275 ; and the Reviews quoted. (H. W. T.)
Monkey-god is a divinity of the Hindus, very common in tlie temples of the Deccan. He is said to have been a favorite general of the god Rama, and was named Hanvman, but, being an aboriginal, the Puranas transformed him into a monkey. See Trevor, India, its Xatires and Jli^-sioiis, p. 82.
. Monks, Eastern. The Oriental Church differs in many respects from the Latin or Western, but in no particular more than in its paucity of monastic or- ders. In the early ages of the Church, these flourish- ed especially in the East ; indeed, that part of the world, as may be seen in the article Moxasticism, was the home of Christian monks. But the downfall of the Roman empire despoiled the Church more or less, and the monastic institution became a part of the Western Ciiurch, while in the East it gradually de- generated and declined.
i. Oriental Monks. — The conflict with the Saracens contributed to the weakening of the monastic orders ; and thougli there are remains of ancient monastic in- stitutions in all the provinces of European Turkey and Greece, especially in Bulgaria, Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, the Morea, the islands of the ^gean, and the sea-borders of Asia Minor, those used as such in our day arc comparatively few.
Among the monasteries still existing, the most re- markable are those of Mount Athop, Metcora, Mount Sinai, and of the Princes Islands. The first of these is under the control of both the Oriental and the Russo- Greek Church. The latter established a monastery on this mount, occupied b}' about twenty monks, dur- ing the reign of the empress Catharine. See below ; compare also the article Athos. Two of the exist- ing monasteries, on the west side, were founded by a king of Servia in the 12th century, and are occu- pied by Bulgarian monks, using the Slavonic tongue in religious worship. Most of the monasteries, how- ever, were founded and richly endowed b}' tlie Greek emperors. There are about one hundred and twenty hermitages ; and the number of chapels, oratories, and shrines, in a space not exceeding ten leagues in diam- eter, is estimated at nine hundred and thirtJ^ The monasteries of Princes Islands were former]3' the most flourishing in Turkey, but they are now nearly aban- doned by monastics, and have become places of pleas- ure and recreation in the summer months. " The empty cloisters of one or two," says a recent visitor, "are trodden by a few pale and wretchedly poor monks, some deposed patriarchs and disgraced priors, or other subordinates of theirs, flitting through the sombre porches and gliding along the deserted church- es like the ghosts of the former inmates." The near- ly ruined monasteries of Metcora (seven in all), in Thessaly, are situated in the wildest part of Mount Pindus, man}^ of them perched on the peaks of the mountain and on summits of precipitous rocks, the only access to which is bj' nets attached to ropes and pulleys, by means of which visitors are drawn up, or by ladders fixed to the rock. There are aliout sixty monks remaining in the ruins of those now dilapidated monasteries. The famous Greek monastery of Mount Sinai is exceedingly austere. It contains aljout one hundred monks, under a superior styled archbishop and head of Mount Sinai. He is chosen by election, but receives investiture from the patriarch of Jerusa- lem. See Sinai.