LATER LITERATURE.
L, Holstenius (bori. tt Hamburg 1596, a Protest., then a Romanist convert, and librarian of the Vatican) : Codex regularum monastic, first Rom. 1661 ; then, eL'arged, Par. and Angsb. in 6 vols. fol. The older Greek Menolog a (^T^i/oXciym), and Men^a (/^Tyraio), and the Latin Calendaria and Maetyrologia, i. e. church calendars or indices of memorial days (days of the earthly death and heavenly birth) of the
148 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590,
saints, with sbort bio^^raphical notices for liturgical use. P. IlEiiBKf.'I EoswEYUE (Jesuit) : Vitas Patrum, sive Historise Ereraiticaa, librl x. Antw. 1628. Acta Sanctorum, quotquot toto orbe coluntur, Antw. 1648-178G, 53 vols, fob (begun by the Jesuit Bollandus, coutiuucd by several scholars of bis order, called JJoUarulids, down to the lltb Oct. in the calend;ir of saints' days, and resumed in 1845, after long interruption, by Theiner and others). D'Aoueijy and Mabillon (Benedictines) : Acta Sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti, Par. 1668-1701, 9 vols. fol. (to 1100). Pet. Helyot (Franciscan): Histoire des ordres monastiques religieux et militaires. Par. 1714-'19, 8 vols. 4to. Alban Butler (R. 0.) : The Lives of the Fathers, ^Martyrs, and other principal Sainia (arranged according to the Catholic calendar, and completed to the 31st Dec), first 1745 ; often since (best ed. Lond. 1812-13, in 12 vols. ; another, Baltimore, 1844, in 4 vols). Gibbon : Chap, xxxvii. (Origin, Progress, and Effects of Monastic Life ; very unfavorable, and written in lofty philosophical contempt). Henrion (R. 0.) : Histoire dea ordres religieux. Par. 1835 (deutsch bearbeitet von S. Fehr, Tiib. 1845, 2 vols.). F. V. Biedenfeld : Ursprung u. s. w. siimmtlicher Monchsorden im Orient u. Occident, Weimar, 1837, 3 vols. Sch.midt (R. 0.) : Die Monchs-, Nonnen-, u. geistlichen Ritterorden nebst Ordensregeln u. Abbildungen., Augsb. 1838, sqq. H. H. Milman (Anglican) : History of Ancient Christianity, 1844, book iii. ch. 11. H. Ruffnek (Presbyterian) : The Fathers of the Desert, New York, 1850, 2 vols, (full of curious information, in popular form). Count de Mox- TALEMBEKT (R. C.) : Les Moincs d'Occident depuis St. Benoit jusqu'a St. Bernard, Par. 1860, 3<}q. (to embrace 6 vols.) ; transl. into English : The Monks of the West, etc., Edinb. and Lond. 1861, in 2 vols. (vol. i. gives the history of monasticisni before St. Benedict, vol. ii. is mainly devoted to St. Benedict ; eloquently eulogistic of, and apologetic for, monasticism). Otto ZooKi.En: Kritische Geschichte der Aske>e. Frankf. a. M. 1863. Comj). also the relevant sections of Tillemont, Fleuky. SonEooKii (vols. V. and viii.), Neander, and Gieselei:.
§ 28. Origin of Chridimi MonasticisTn. Comparison with oilier forms of Asceticism.
riosPiNiAN : De origine et progressu monachatus, 1. vi., Tig. 1588, and en larged, Genev. 1669, fol. J. A. Mohler (R. C.) : Geschichte dea Mouc}ithuras in der Zeit seiner Entstehung n. ersten Ausbildung, 1836 (in his collected works, Regensb. vol. ii. p. 165 sqq.). Isaao I'aylob (Independent) : Ancient Christianity, Lond. 1844, vol. i. p. 299 sqq, A. Vogel: Ueber das Monchthum, Berl. 1858 (in the " Deutsche Zeitschrift fur christl. Wissenschaft," etc.). P. Sohaff: Ueber den Ursprung und Charakter des Monchthums (in Dorner's, etc. "Jabrbiicher fiir deutsche Theol.," 1801, p. 555 ft".). J. Ckopp: Origenes et causaa monachatus. Gott. 1863.
§ 28. ORIGESr OF CHRISTIAN MONASTICISM. 149
In the beginning of the fonrth century monasticisni appearp In the history of the church, and thencefortli occupies a distinguished place. Beginning in Egypt, it spread in an irresistible tide over the East and the West, continued to be the chief repository of the Christian life down to the times of the Reformation, and still remains in the Greek and Roman churches an indispensable institution and the most productiye seminary of saints, priests, and missionaries.
With the ascetic tendency in general, monasticism in particular is found by no means only in the Christian church, but in other religions, both before and after Christ, especially in the East. It proceeds from religious seriousness, enthusiasm, and ambition ; from a sense of the vanity of the world, and an inclination of noble souls toward solitude, contemplation, and freedom from the bonds of the flesh and the temptations of the world ; but it gives this tendency an undue predominance over the social, practical, and world-reforming spirit of religion. Among the Hindoos the ascetic system may be traced back almost to the time of Moses, certainly beyond Alexander the Great, who found it there in full force, and substantially with the same characteristics which it presents at the present day.' Let us consider it a few moments.
The Yedas, portions of which date from the fifteenth century before Christ, the Laws of Menu, which were completed before the rise of Buddhism, that is, six or seven centuries before our era, and the numerous other sacred books of the Indian religion, enjoin by example and precept entire abstraction of thought, seclusion from the world, and a variety of
' Comp. the occasional notices of the Indian gymnosophists in Strabo (lib. XV. cap. 1, after accounts from the time of Alexander the Great), Arrian (Exped. Alex. 1. vii. c. 1-3, and Hist. Ind. c. 11), Plinius (Hist. Nat. vii. 2), Diodorus Siculus (lib. ii.), riutarch (Alex. 64), Porphyry (De abstinent. 1. iv.), Lucian (Fugit. '7), Clemens Alex. (Strom. 1. i. and iii.), and Augustine (De civit. Dei, 1. xiv. c. 17 : "Per opacas Indiaa solitudines, quura quidam nudi philosophentur, unde gymnosophistae nominantur ; adhibent tamen genitalibus tegmina, quibus per csetera membrorum earent ; " and 1. xv. 20, where he denies all merit to their celibacy, because it is not " secundum fidem summi boni, qui est Deus "). With these ancient representations agree the narratives of Fon Koueki (about 400, translated by M. A. Rdmusat, Par 1836), Marco Polo (1280), Bernier (ICTO), Hamilton (1700), Papi, Niebunr, Orlich, Som^orat, and others.