English Monastic Life

the Gospel. In the early ages of the Church the fervour of the first converts, strengthened and purified by the fierce persecutions they had to endure

ces of ancient Egypt than in those of the lamas of modern Thibet. In the pagan world this doctrine seems to have dictated much of the peculiar teaching of the Stoics; and among the Jews the Essenes governed their lives in theory and practice upon this belief. Even among the early Christians there were some, who by striving to master their lower nature desired to attain the true end of human life as the Gospel taught them, the knowledge and

imulus of persecution, but it opened the door of the Christian home to worldly habits and luxury which were hitherto unknown, and which made the practice of the higher ideals of the spirit difficult, if not impossible, in the ordinary surroundings of the family life. To use the expression of Walter Hilton, the baptism of Consta

story of Palladius,[1] that monachism developed along two lines in Egypt. The first was the system initiated and directed by St. Anthony, when about the year A.D. 305, after living a life of seclusion for some twenty years, he undertook the direction and organisation of the multitude

of one another,"[2] coming together at certain times for divine worship. In other districts the religious lived together in threes or fours, who, on all days but the Saturdays and Sundays when all assembled in the great church, were use

nce of the leading ascetics, but there was no efficient hold upon individuals to keep them from falling into extravagances.... A young man would put himself under the guidance of a senio

together under a complete system of organisation, not, indeed, as a family under a father, but rather as an army under a discipline of a military character. T

ed congregation or order, with a superior general and a system of visitation and general chapters-in short, all the machinery of centralised governmen

e naturally varied; between thirty and forty on an average living together. At the more solemn services all the members of the various houses came together to the common church; but the lesser offices were celebrated by the houses individually. Und

ervance which might be obligatory upon all; and to leave it open to each-and to, indeed, encourage each-t

or fasted if they felt called on so to do. Some took a meal only in the evening, others every second or even only every fifth day. The Rule allowed them their full freedom; an

ersonal advance in virtue; each strove to do his utmost in all kinds of ascetical exercises and austerities-in prolonging his fasts, his prayers, his silence. The favourite name used to describe any of the prominent monks was "great athlete." They loved "to make a record" in austerities, and to contend with one another in

me "the recognised embodiment of the monastic ideal." It preserved its primitive character in the matter of austerities during the fourth century, and St. Augustine declares that he knew of religious bodies

d by the monks was a simple reproduction of that of St. Anthony's followers. Cassian, the great organiser of monachism in Gaul, also followed closely the primitive Egyptian ideals both in theory and practice, whilst what is known of the early history of the monastery at Lerins, founded by Honoratus, to whom Cassian dedicated the se

but when the superior ordained. They prayed always in common, and generally depended upon the will of a common superior. About the same time St. Jerome translated the Rule of Pachomius, and the influence of these two Rules upon the monastic life of Italy at the period when St. Benedict comes upon the scene is manifest. Whatever changes had been introduced into the local observances, and however varied were the practices of individual monasteries, it is at least certain that at this period the monastic system in use in Italy was founded upon and drew its chief inspirations from Egyptian models. What w

ck on the austerities that had hitherto been regarded as the chief means for attaining the spiritual end of the monastic life." He calls his Rule "a very little rule for beginners"-minima inchoationis regula, and says that though there may be in it some things "a little severe," still he hopes that he will establish "nothing harsh, nothing heavy." The most cursory comparison between this new Rule and those which previo

erities introduced into his rule of life. The strong note of individualism characteristic of Egyptian monachism, which gave rise to what Dom Butler calls the "rivalry in ascetical achievement," gave place

de St. Benedict's Rule less a development than a revolution in monachism. It may be almost called a new creation; and it was

es included among their officials one, and in some cases many bishops. At the head was the abbot, and the episcopal office was held by members of the house subordinate to him. In certain monasteries the number of bishops was so numerous as to suggest that they must have really occupied the position of priests at the subordinate churches. Thus St. Columba went in A.D. 590 from Iona to a synod at Drumcheatt, accompanied by as many as twenty bishops; and in some of the Irish ecclesiastical meetings the bishops, as in the case of some of the African synods, could be counted by hundreds. This Celtic system appears to be without parallel in other parts of the Christian Church, and scholars have suggested that it was a purely indigenous growth. One writer, Mr. Willis Bund, is of the opinion that the origin was tribal and that the first "monasteries" were mere settlements of Christians-clergy and laity, men, wo

rch was Celtic in origin it may be presumed that the Celtic type of monachism prevailed amongst the Christians in this country after the Saxon conquest. Whether it followed the distinctive practice of Irish monastic

Benedict.[8] The Columban Rule was a code of great rigour, and "would, if carried out in its entirety, have made the Celtic monks almost, if not quite, the most austere of men." Even if it was not actually in use, the Rule of St. Columbanus may safely be taken to indicate the tendencies of Celtic monasticism generally, and the impracticable nature of much of the legislation and the hard spirit which characterises it goes far to explain how it came to pass that whenever it was brought face to face

ria to the monks of Iona to come into Northumbria, and continue in the North the work of St. Paulinus, which had been interrupted by the incursions of Penda. Iona, the foundation and home of St. Columba, was a large monastic and missionary centre regulated according to the true type of Celtic monachism under the abbatial superior; and from Iona came St. Aidan and the ot