RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Monasticism
Monasticism took a novel form in the work of Francis of Assisi (q.v.). The old vow of poverty became an absolute renunciation of all possessions not only by the individual but by the 4. The order. The cloistered retirement of Mendicant the existing orders gave place to a Orders, vigorous attempt to influence the life of the day through preaching and the confessional. Western monasticism had been aristocratic down to the end of the twelfth century; it now became popular. A mighty spirit of new devotion went out from Assisi and took possession of the Church, breathing a fresh life into preaching, church music, art, and learning. Side by side with the Franciscan order arose the Dominican (see Dominic, Saint, and the Dominican Order), destined originally for the conversion of heretics, but soon conforming to the spirit of the Franciscan and becoming like it a mendicant order. These two associations, in the later Middle Ages, produced the chief representatives of scholastic theology, while the mysticism which flourished among them awoke the religious spirit of the individual and recast the ideal of the Christian life in a new form, which amounted to a reformation. The thirteenth century saw the development as mendicant orders of two communities which had begun as associations of anchorites, the Carmelites (q.v.) and the hermits of St. Augustine (see Augustinians) . They were followed by other mendicant orders — the Servites, Hieronymites, Minims, Trinitarians, and the Order of Our Lady of Mercy. Worldliness, however, crept into these as it had into the cloister. The Franciscans were rent asunder by the controversy regarding the vow of poverty, and the breach between the extreme or " spiritual " party with the pope displayed once more the old antinomy between monasticism and the Church in the world. The attempts at reform in the fifteenth century had only a temporary success, and in spite of the vast number of monasteries and religious brotherhoods of all sorts, monasticism seemed doomed to fall into a state of idle unprofitableness.
The age of the Counter-Reformation, however, brought new life to some of the older orders in the work of the Theatines and Capuchins (qq.v.), the Discalced Carmelites, and the French Cistercian reform of the Feuillants. But more importance attached to the new foundations, espe- 5. Later daily the Jesuits (q.v.), who developed Orders, a wholly new phase of monasticism. Standing between the secular clergy and monasticism, they considered ascetic practises and renunciation of the world only means for the spread of the Church's dominion. This purpose is expressed in a new fourth vow, " to devote the life to perpetual service of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Roman pontiff." A number of other new orders now arose which replaced the old monastic ideal of perfection and retirement from the world by adaptation to a variety of practical ends such as the education of the clergy, that of the laity in the confessional, the pulpit, and the school, and the care of the sick. The services of women were especially organized for the work of the Church. Most of these
new foundations took the freer and more elastic form of congregations; in some the vow was only for a time, or was simple instead of solemn. Only a few of these can be named here, such as the Ursulines (1535), the Piarists (1600), Vincent de Paul's great foundations of the Lazarists and Sisters of Mercy, and the Brothers of the Christian Schools (1681). Theological learning and popular devotion were promoted by the Oratory of Philip Neri (q.v.), and the French Oratory (1611). In the Trappists (q.v.) the old spirit of severe asceticism revived, on the basis of the Benedictine rule. The order of the Visitation (1610) is the only important foundation of the seventeenth century. The Jesuits found several imitators, of which the most prominent is the Redemptorist order founded by Alfonso Liguori (q.v.). The Reformation had largely diminished the sphere of influence of monasticism; but the effect of the French Revolution was still more radical. Its work was foreshadowed by that of Joseph II., who in 1782 suppressed in his dominions a number of contemplative orders and greatly reduced the numbers of the others, and was followed by the secularization of the German monasteries in 1803. With the revival of the Jesuits in 1814 began the restoration of Roman Catholic monasticism, pervaded, however, whether in the old orders as restored or in the new foundations, by the spirit of the Jesuits. The Benedictine order alone has been able to preserve an independent adherence to the ancient ideals, and at Solesmes (restored 1833), Beuron (1863), and Maredsous (1872) to achieve a remarkable work in many departments of learning.
According to the careful statistics of the Benedictine Baumgarten, which are in most cases brought down to 1901, the membership of the following orders may be given: Christian Brothers, 20,457; Franciscans, 16,458; Jesuits, 15,073; Capuchins, 9,464; Marists, 6,000; Benedictines, 4,565; Trappists, 4,538; Dominicans, 4,350; Lazarists, 3,304; Fathers of the Holy Ghost, 2,149; Carmelites, 2,000; Augustinians, 1,858.
In the Protestant churches, before the nineteenth
century, ascetic zeal was strong enough to impel
their members to a formal monastic
6. Monastic life only among the so-called " Pre- Attempts cisians " of the Reformed Church.
under Prot- Thus Johannes Gennuvit, of Vennigen estantism. on the Ruhr (d. 1699), attempted to restore the cloistered life. In 1 728 John Conrad Beissel (see Communism, II., 5; Dunkers, I., 2), a German Pietist, who had emigrated to America and had joined the Dunkers (q.v.) in 1724, withdrew to live in solitude, and was joined by others who formed a community and adopted a habit something like that of the Capuchins. In the latter half of the nineteenth century the Highchurch movement in the Anglican communion brought about the foundation of a large number of quasi-monastic communities for both men and women. Most of them are modeled in their organization on the type of Roman Catholic monasticism, though as a rule without binding vows; and the main purpose of nearly all of them is missionary or charitable work, at home or abroad. See Abbeyj
Monasticism Money of the Bible