172 THIKD PEKIOD. A.D. 311-590
remain with their liiisbands. In the same way monasticisrn came into conflict with love of kindred, and witii the relation of parents to children ; misinterpreting the Lord's command to leave all for His sake. Nilus demanded of the monks the entire suppression of the sense of blood relationship. St. Anthony forsook his younger sister, and saw her only once after the separation. His disciple, Prior, when he became a monk, vowed never to see his kindred again, and M'ould not even speak with his sister without closing his eyes. Something of the same sort is recorded of Pachomius. Ambrose and Jerome, in full earnest, enjoined upon virgins the cloister life, even against the will of their parents. A¥hen Hilary of Poictiers heard that his daughter wished to marry, he is said to have prayed God to take her to himself by death. One Mucius, without any provocation, caused his own son to be cruelly abused, and at last, at the command of the abbot himself, cast him into the water, whence he was rescued by a brother of the cloister.'
Even in the most favorable case monasticism falls short of harmonious moral development, and of that symmetry of virtue which meets us in perfection in Christ, and next to him in the apostles. It lacks the finer and gentler traits of character, >4 which are ordinarily brought out only in the school of daijj
family life and under the social ordinjinces of God. Its" morality is rather negative than positive. There is more virtue in the temperate and thankful enjoymen^of the gifts of God, than in total abstinence ; in charitable and well-seasoned, speech, than in total silence ; in connubial chastity, than in , J celibacy ; in self-denying practical labor for the church, than ^ in solitary asceticism, which only pleases self and profits no ■^ one else. /
Catholicism, whether Greek or Roman, cannot dispense with the monastic life. It knows only moral extremes, nothing of the healthful mtjan. In addition to this. Popery needs the monastic orders, as an absolute monarchy needs large standing
* Tillem. vii. 4t>0. The abbot thereupon, as Tillemont relates, was informed by a revelation, "que Muce avait cgal6 par son obcissance celle d'Abra jam," and sooi after made him his successor.
§ 33. POSITION OF MONKS IN THE CHURCH. 173
armies both for conquest and defence. But evangelical Protestantism, rejecting all distinction of a twofold morality, assigning to all men the same great duty under the law of God, placing the essence of religion not in outward exercises, but in the heart, not in separation from the world and from society, but in purifying and sanctifying the world by the free spirit of the gospel, is death to the great monastic institution.
§ 33. Position of Monks in the Church.
As to the social position of monasticism in the system of ecclesiastical life : it was at first, in East and West, even so late as the council of Chalcedon, regarded as a lay institution : but the monks were distinguished as religiosi from the seculares., and formed thus a middle grade between the ordinary laity and the clergy. They constituted the spiritual nobility, hut not the ruling class ; the aristocracy, but not the hierarchy of the church. " A monk," says Jerome, " has not the office of a teacher, but of a penitent, who endures suiFering either for himself oi for the world." Many monks considered ecclesiastical office incompatible^with their eft'ort after perfection. It was a proverb, traced to. Pachomius : " A monk should esl)ecially shun women and bishops, for neither will let him have peace." ' Ammonius, who accompanied Athanasius to Rome, cut off his own ear, and threatened to cut out his own tongue, when it was proposed to make him a bishop.^ Martin of Tours thought his miraculous power deserted him on his transition from the cloister to the bishopric. Others, on the contrary, were ambitious for the episcopal chair, or were promoted to it against their will, as early as the fourth century. The abbots of monasteries were usua,lly ordained priests, and administered the sacraments among the brethren, but were subject to the bishop of the diocese. Subsequently the cloisters managed, through special papal grants, to make themselves independent of the episcopal jurisdiction. From the tenth century the clerical character was attached to the monks. In a certain sense,
' Omnino monachum fugere debere mulieres et episcopos. * Sozom. iv. 30,
174 TnmD period, a.d. 311-590.
they stood, from the beginning, e\ en above the clergy ; consid* ered themselves preeminently conversi and religiosi^ and their life liita religiosa / looked down with contempt upon the secular clergy ; and often encroached on their province in troublesome ways. On the other hand, the cloisters began, as earlj as the fourth century, to be most fruitful seminaries of clergy, and furnished, especially in the East, by far the greater number of bishops. The sixth novel of Justinian provides that the bishops shall be chosen from the clerg}^, or from the monastery.
In dress, the monks at first adhered to the costume of the country, but chose the simplest and coarsest material. Subsequently, they adopted the tonsui'c and a distinctive uniform.