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Bible Encyclopedias
Monasticism
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or (Gr. ,uovaa"Tucos, living alone, µovos), a system of living which owes its origin to those tendencies of the human soul which are summed up in the terms " asceticism " and " mysticism." Mysticism may broadly be described as the effort to give effect to the craving for a union of the soul with the Deity already in this life; and asceticism as the effort to give effect to the hankering after an ever-progressive purification of the soul and an atoning for sin by renunciation and self-denial in things lawful. These two tendencies may well be said to be general instincts of humanity; because, though not always called into activity, they are always liable to be evoked, and in all ages and among all races they frequently have asserted themselves. (See Asceticism and Mysticism.) Indeed the history of religion shows that they are among the most deep-rooted and widespread instincts of the human soul; and monasticism is the attempt to develop and regulate their exercise. Thus monasticism is not a creation of Christianity; it is much older, and before the Christian era a highly organized monasticism existed in India. (See the articles on Brahmanism; Buddhism; and Lhasa.) Pre-Christian Monasticism. - Greek asceticism and mysticism seem never to have produced a monastic system; but among the Jews, both in Judaea and in Alexandria, this development took place. In Judaea the Essenes before the time of Christ lived a fully organized monastic life (see Schiirer, Jewish People, Ii. § 30); and the same is true in regard to the Therapeutae in the neighbourhood of Alexandria (the authenticity of Philo's De Vita contemplativa, which describes their manner of life, is again recognized by scholars).
A general sketch of pre-Christian asceticism and monasticism, with indication of the chief authorities, is given in O. Zockler's Askese and Monchtum (1897), pp. 32-135. This account is epitomized by O. Hannay, Spirit and Origin of Christian Monasticism (1903), app. i: the view now common among scholars is there maintained, that these pre-Christian realizations of the monastic idea had little, and indeed no, influence on the rise and development of Christian monasticism.
2. Beginnings of Christian Monasticism. - The practice of asceticism asserted itself at an early date in Christian life: men and women abstained from marriage, from flesh meat, from the use of intoxicating drink, and devoted themselves to prayer, religious exercises and works of charity (S. Schiwietz, Das morgenlandische Monchtum, 1904, pt. O. Hannay, op. cit. chs. 2, 3). This they did in their homes, without withdrawing from their families or avocations. In time, however, the tendency to withdraw from society and give oneself up wholly to the practice of religious and ascetical exercises set in; and at any rate in Egypt, at the middle of the 3rd century, it was the custom for such ascetics to live in solitary retirement in the neighbourhood of the towns and villages. This was the manner of life which St Anthony (q.v.) began to lead, c. 270; but after fifteen years he withdrew to a deserted fort on the east bank of the Nile, opposite the Fayum. Here he enclosed himself and led a life cut off from all intercourse with man. There are reasons for doubting that Anthony was the first Christian hermit: probably there is some historical foundation for the tradition that one of those who fled to the desert in the Decian persecution continued to dwell in a cave by the shore of the Red Sea, unknown to men, till visited by St Anthony long years afterwards (see E. C. Butler, Lausiac History of Palladius, 1898, pt. i. p. 230). But this was a single case which does not affect the fixed tradition of monastic Egypt in the 4th century that Anthony was the father of Christian monachism.
During twenty years Anthony lived a life of seclusion, never coming forth from his fort, never seeing the face of man. But his fame went abroad and a number of would-be disciples came and took up their abode in the caves and among the rocks that surrounded his retreat, and called on him to guide them in the path of life they had chosen. In response to these appeals Anthony came forth and set himself to organize the life of the multitude of ascetics that had grown up around him. This act, which took place in the first years of the 4th century, must be regarded as the inauguration of Christian monachism.
3. St Anthony's Monachism
The form of monastic life directly derived from St Anthony was the type that prevailed in middle and northern Egypt up to the middle of the 5th century. The chief authorities for the study of this type of monastic life are the Vita Antonii (probably by Athanasius), the Historia monachorum (ed. E. Preuschen), the Historia lausiaca of Palladius (ed. E. C. Butler) - these works are to be found in Latin in Rosweyd's Vitae Patrum (Migne, Patrol Lat. Lxxiii., Lxxiv.) - and the writings of Cassian (English translation by Gibson in " Nicene and Post-Nicene Library "). A generation ago all this literature was in disrepute; but it has been revindicated, and its substantially historical character is now recognized on all hands (see E. C. Butler, op. cit. pt. ii. § I).
Antonian monachism grew out of the purely eremitical life, and it retained many of the characteristic features inherited from its origin. The party of travellers whose journey in 394 is narrated in the Historia monachorum found at the chief towns along the Nile from Lycopolis (Assiut or Siut) to Alexandria, and in the deserts that fringed the river, monastic habitations, sometimes of hermits, sometimes of several monks living together but rather the life of hermits than of cenobites. It is at the great monastic settlements of Nitria and Scete that we are best able to study this kind of Egyptian monasticism. Here in one portion of the desert, named Cellia, the monks lived a purely eremitical life; but in Nitria (the Wadi Natron) they lived either alone, or two or three together, or in communities, as they preferred. The system was largely voluntary; there was no organized community life, no living according to rule, as it is now understood. In short the life continued to be semieremitical. (See Butler, op. cit. pt. i. p. 233; Hannay, op. cit. chs. 4, 5; Schiwietz, op. cit. pt. ii. §§ I - II.) 4. St Pachomius's Monachism. - Very different was the type of monastic life that prevailed in the more southerly parts of Egypt. Here, at Tabennisi near Dendera, about 315-320, St Pachomius established the first Christian cenobium, or monastery properly so called. (On St Pachomius and his monastic institute see P. Ladeuze, Cenobitisme Pakhomien (1898); Schiwietz, op. cit. pt. ii. §§ 12-16; E. C. Butler, op. cit. pt. i. p. 234, pt. ii. notes 4 8, 49, 54, 59)Before his death in 346 Pachomius had established nine monasteries of men and one of women, and after his death other foundations continued to be made in all parts of Egypt, but especially in the south, and in Abyssinia. Palladius tells us that c. 410 the Pachomian or Tabennesiot monks numbered some seven thousand. The life was fully cenobitical, regulated in all details by minute rules, and with prayer and meals in common. As contrasted with the Antonian ideal, the special feature was the highly organized system of work, whereby the monastery was a sort of agricultural and industrial colony. The work was an integral part of the life, and was undertaken for its own sake and not merely for an occupation, as among the Antonian monks. This marks a distinctly new departure in the monastic ideal.
In another respect too St Pachomius broke new ground: not only did he inaugurate Christian cenobitical life, but he also created the first " Religious Order." The abbot of the head monastery was the superior-general of the whole institute; he nominated the superiors of the other monasteries; he was visitor and held periodical visitations at all of them; he exercised universal supervision, control and authority; and every year a general chapter was held at the head house. This is a curious anticipation of the highly organized and centralized forms of government in religious orders, not met with again till Cluny, Citeaux, and the Mendicant orders in the later middle ages.
A passing reference should be made to the Coptic abbot Shenout, who governed on similar lines the great " White Monastery," whereof the ruins still survive near Akhmim; the main interest of Shenout's institute lies in the fact that it continued purely Coptic, without any infiltration of Greek ideas or influence. (See J. Leipoldt, Schenute von Atripe, 1903.) Egyptian monachism began to wane towards the end of the 5th century, and since the Mahommedan occupation it has ever been declining. Accounts of its present condition may be found in R. Curzon's Monasteries of the Levant (1837), or in A. J. Butler's Ancient Coptic Churches (1884). Hardly half a dozen monasteries survive, inhabited by small and ever dwindling communities.
5. Oriental Monachism
The monastic institute was imported early in the 4th century from Egypt into Syria and the Oriental lands. Here it had a great vogue, and under the influence of the innate Asiatic love of asceticism it tended to assume ale form of strange austerities, of a kind not found in Egyptian monachism in its best period. The most celebrated was the life of the Stylites or pillar hermits (see Simeon Stylites). Monastic life here tended to revert to the eremitical form, and to this day Syrian and Armenian monks are to be found dwelling in caverns and desert places, and given up wholly to the practice of austerity and contemplation (see E. C. Butler, Lausiac History of Palladius, pt. i. p. 239, where the chief authorities are indicated). Before the close of the 4th century monachism spread into Persia, Babylonia and Arabia.
6. Basilian and Greek Monachism
Though Eustathius of Sebaste was the first to introduce the monastic life within the confines of what may be called Greek Christianity in Asia Minor (c. 340), it was St Basil who adapted it to Greek and European ideas and needs. His monastic legislation is explained and the history of his institute sketched in the article BASILIAN
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Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Monasticism'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/m/monasticism.html. 1910.
