RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Monastioism
next great oenter was Mount Athos (see Athos), which was inhabited by hermits from the middle of the ninth century, though the first regular monastery was not founded until 963. In the Hesychastic controversy (see Hesychasts) the fanatical element in eastern monachism once more found expression. The monks regarded themselves as inspired and endowed with the gifts of miracles and of prophecy in order to make what amounted to a new development of revelation. The colonies on Mount Athos increased in number until in 1045 there were 180. With its numerous hermits and monasteries of combined aristocratic and democratic constitution, Athos is still the most famous seat of Greek monasticism.
Although monasticism stood out originally in sharp contrast to the Church in the midst of the world, open conflict was avoided. The bishops, especially Athanasius, succeeded in 9. Relation abating the anticlerical tendencies of to Church monasticism, which on its side preand State, served an abiding respect for the Church and its institutions, so that the relations between secular and regular clergy in the East finally became a very friendly one, until by the increasing enforcement of celibacy and the choosing of dignitaries from the monastic ranks the opposition was almost entirely removed. The trouble which the Church had in the fifth century with monastic fanaticism led to strict regulation by the Council of Chalcedon (canons iv., viii., xxiii., xxiv.). The monasteries and all the monks of a diocese were to be subject to the bishop, without whose leave no new monasteries might be erected; slaves were not to be received without the consent of their masters; to the ordinary vows was added the obligation of " stability " or continuance in one fixed residence, to prevent disorderly roving. The same line was followed by Justinian in his monastic legislation, which became the model for all subsequent state regulations in the East. The second Trullan synod of 692 increased the freedom of entrance into the monastic state, which Justinian had facilitated for slaves, ordered wandering hermits either to allow themselves to be gathered into monasteries or to retire into the desert (see Gyhovagi), and laid down the principle that only he who had approved himself as a cenobite should become a hermit. Under the iconoclastic emperors the monks led the defense of images, with John of Damascus (q.v.), who belonged to the monastery of St. Sabas on the Dead Sea, at their head. The monasteries underwent great trials during this period, and there is some reason to think that the emperors contemplated their total suppression. The Second Council of Nicffia (787) allowed the unrestricted foundation of monasteries (though that of Constantinople, 861, restored the requirement of episcopal permission), and reiterated the prohibition of monks and nuns leaving their convents. Since the Trullan synod of 692 had confined the requirement of celibacy to the bishops, they were thereafter usually taken from the monasteries, which gave great power to monasticism. This was increased by the fact that the monks, who had given to the practise of confession its systematic development, were long its VII.— 30
chief ministers. The main service of Greek monasticism as a whole was the awakening of the Church to the consciousness of practical needs. The monks' constant effort for the sanctification of their own hearts had given them a deep insight into the inner life, and the great preachers of the East, such as Basil, Chrysostom, and Gregory Nazianzen, had learned to know human nature through monasticism, while its influence may be traced also in the attention paid to psychological problems in the dogmatic theology of John of Damascus.
II. Monasticism in the West: This was wholly
of eastern origin. In his Roman exile (341-343)
Athanasius spread the news of the work of Anthony
and Paehomius, and according to Palladius (His-
toria Lausiaca, i.), a monk named Isi-
1. Begin- dore visited Rome about 350. Peter,
nings in the successor of Athanasius, who took Italy, Gaul, refuge in Rome in 373, perhaps deter-
and Ger- mined the movement of ascetics many. toward the East already noted. The first western monasteries seem to have originated between 370 and 380; but the movement made slow progress, and was hindered rather than helped by the older institution of communities of consecrated virgins. During his Roman sojourn (382-385), Jerome labored for the promotion of monasticism; but when the daughter of his pupil Paula died in 385 as a result of her extreme asceticism, the populace broke out in violent opposition, and he was forced to leave Rome, Paula and her other daughter Eustochium following him to the East to end their lives in a convent at Bethlehem. Nevertheless, when Augustine was in Rome in 388, he found a number of monastic " abodes of the saints " there, and he states that the inmates of the Roman convents procured their livelihood by spinning and weaving. In northern Italy Ambrose was the most prominent promoter of monasticism; he founded in the suburbs of Milan a monastery modeled on the eastern type, though he maintained it from his own resources, which was a departure from the model. Eusebius of Vercella? deserves special mention as being, with Augustine, the first to organize a community life of a more or less monastic kind for the clergy (see Chapter). In southern Italy, Paulinus (q.v.), later bishop of Nola, was a pioneer of the new movement. It was for the monastery of Pinetum, probably near Terracina, that Rufinus translated the rule of Basil. By 412 Jerome was able to boast of "many convents of virgins and an innumerable multitude of monks " in Italy. In Gaul Martin of Tours (q.v.) forwarded the movement by founding, soon after 360, the monasteries of Liguge" near Poitiers and Marmoutiers near Tours. In the south an association of hermits was founded at the beginning of the fifth century by Honoratus on the island of Lerins, and two others in Marseilles by Cassian about the same time (see Cassianus, Johannes), followed by a large number of others in the course of the century. The new institution soon took root in German soil, possibly owing to an impulse given by Athanasius during his exile at Treves. When the officer Pontitianus came from that city to Milan in 387, he told Augustine of the
MonaBticism