No More Learning

In Egypt,
as we have seen, the monks were Monophysite. In Constantinople, the
,
great order of the Acoemetae (sleepless—so called from the perpetual
psalmody kept up in their churches) was fanatically Chalcedonian.
Possibly the recent foundation (under the patriarch Gennadius) of their
great monastery of Studium by a Roman, may partly account for their
devotion to the Tome of Leo. In any case, they formed the most vigorous
resisting body to all efforts against the settlement of Chalcedon. The
policy of Acacius seems to have been determined by the influence acquired
over him by Peter Mongus of Alexandria, although, in his earlier days
of Chalcedonian orthodoxy, he had regarded Peter as an arch-heretic.
Peter Mongus, or the Stammerer, had been implicated in many of
the violent acts of Dioscorus, and had been archdeacon to Timothy the
Cat. On the death of Timothy, he was, under circumstances somewhat
diversely related, chosen as his successor, though the other Timothy
(Salophaciolus) was still alive. On the death of Salophaciolus, a mild and
moderate man, there was a hotly disputed succession, and Zeno obtained
the recognition of Peter as patriarch of Alexandria (A. D. 482). Peter
had already sketched out a line of policy with Acacius, which was
shortly embodied in the document well known as the Henoticon or
Union Scheme of Zeno.
The object of the Henoticon was stated as the restoration of peace
and unity to the Church. The means by which such unity was to be
obtained were, however, unlikely to satisfy more than one party. We
have seen that Gibbon eulogises it, and more recent historians have
followed his opinion. But since a theological eirenicon drawn up by
men of shifty character and no scruples must be judged by the measure
of its success, we may hesitate to congratulate the originators of a
document which, though approved by the patriarchs of the East, was
certainly not so by all their clergy and people, and therefore caused a
schism of thirty-five years between Rome and Constantinople, and forced
-
the Church of the far East into counter-organisation under the aegis of
the Great King. Like the Emperor Constantius before him, who sought
to settle the Arian difficulty by abolishing the ówooúolov, and the
Emperor Constans after him, who wished to allay the bad feelings of
the Monotheletes and their opponents, by disallowing their distinctive
terminology, Zeno tried the autocratic short cut out of controversy
by the prohibition of technical terms. Like the other would be
pacifiers, he aroused a great storm.
The Henoticon is in the form of a letter from the Emperor to the
bishops and clergy, monks and laity, of Alexandria, Egypt, Libya, and
Pentapolis. It begins by setting forth the sufficiency of the faith as
declared at Nicaea and at Constantinople, and goes on to regret the


## p. 517 (#547) ############################################

Opposition to the Henoticon
517
а
number of those who, owing to the late discords, had died without
baptism or communion, and the shedding of blood which had defiled the
earth and even the air. Therefore, the above-mentioned symbols which
had also been confirmed at Ephesus are to be regarded as entirely adequate.
Nestorius and Eutyches are anathematised and the “twelve chapters" or
anathemas of Cyril approved. It declares that Christ is “consubstantial
with the Father in respect of the Godhead and consubstantial with our-
selves as respects the manhood; that He, having descended and become
incarnate of the Holy Spirit and Mary, the Virgin and Mother of God,
is one and not two. . . for we do in no degree admit those who make
either a division or a confusion or introduce a phantom. ” It goes on to
say that this is no new form of faith, and that if anyone had taught any
contrary doctrine, whether at Chalcedon or elsewhere, he was to be
anathematised. Finally, all men are exhorted to return into the com-
munion of the Church.
On its face, the document may seem reasonable enough. If all men
could be brought to an agreement on the basis of the creeds of 325 and
381, the less said about Chalcedon the better. But the very mention of
Chalcedon in the document, with the suggestion that it might have
erred, destroys the semblance of perfect impartiality. As might naturally
be expected, the Alexandrians and Egyptians generally were ready to
adopt it, though there was an exception in the "headless” party
(acephali), the right wing of the anti-Chalcedonians, who were not
satisfied because it did not directly condemn the Tome of Leo. But
these people were extreme. In general, the apparent intention of
leaving the authority of Chalcedon an open question was interpreted
as giving full liberty to repudiate that authority. This was certainly
the view taken by Peter Mongus, and in all probability by Acacius
likewise. Certain letters purporting to be from these prelates shew a
more compromising spirit, but in a lately discovered correspondence
handed down from Armenian sources, we find Peter denouncing the
“infamous Leo,” and exhorting Acacius, as he celebrates mass, to sub-
stitute mentally for the names of Marcian, Pulcheria, and others whom
he is bound outwardly to commemorate, those of Dioscorus, Eudocia,
and other faithful persons.
As might naturally be expected, the Henoticon policy received
strenuous opposition in Rome, where Simplicius, the next pope but
one after Leo the Great, was determined to lose none of the ground
gained by his predecessors. After a very bitter and unsatisfactory
correspondence with Acacius, and two nugatory embassies to Con-
stantinople, Simplicius solemnly excommunicated the Patriarch of
Constantinople, as favourer of heretics, at a synod in Rome. An
Acoemete monk took charge of the notification and fastened it to the
mantle of Acacius during service. A similar sentence was passed on
Mongus and on Zeno himself.
CH. XVII.


## p. 518 (#548) ############################################

518
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century [491–518
During the long period of the schism, a good many efforts were made
for the restoration of peace, which proved abortive by reason on the one
hand of the high demands of the Roman see, which always required the
erasure of the name of Acacius from the diptychs, and on the other, the
growth in power and assurance of Eastern Monophysitism. Anastasius,
Zeno's successor (491-518), generally bore a character for piety and
moderation, but towards the end of his life, when he was very aged,
appears to have been committed to a Monophysite policy. He seems at
least to have been regarded by the Monophysites of later days as friendly
to their party. He was influenced in this direction by a refugee of great
force of intellect and will, Severus the Pisidian, formerly a pagan and
a lawyer, later an uncompromising Monophysite, and head of the once
“headless party" to whom the Henoticon seemed not to go far enough.
Under his influence, the people of Constantinople were agitated by the
singing in church of the Trisagion with addition, while their rivals
shouted Peter's Theopaschite in its original form. Anastasius shewed
some firmness in withstanding the Roman demands, but he was un-
fortunate in his dealings with his own patriarchs. The first of these,
Euphemius, who was eager for peace with Rome, he degraded from
office, only to replace him by another advocate (Macedonius) of the same
cause, and after Macedonius in turn had been degraded, a patriarch was
appointed (Timotheus) who gave no confidence to either party. With
a large section of the people, Anastasius, in spite of his conscientious
devotion to duty, made himself intensely unpopular. He made a last
attempt to come to an agreement with Pope Hormisdas, but it failed in
the same way as previous efforts. The task of making terms with Rome
was left to his successor Justin, who became emperor in 518. A solemn
ceremony was held in rehabilitation of the Council of Chalcedon. Shortly
after, legates arrived from the Pope, and union was restored on the
condition, formerly refused, of the erasure of Acacius' name from the
diptychs. Strange to say the two patriarchs whom Anastasius had
displaced for their Romeward inclinations, were, in virtue of their
schismatic appointment, struck off likewise. Zeno and Anastasius
received a kind of post-mortem excommunication. All the leading
members of Monophysite and other heretical sects were anathematised.
The end of the schism can hardly be regarded as terminating the
series of controversies which are the subject of this chapter. East and
West were never again to be reunited with any cordiality. But now,
for a time, the outward dissension ceases, and in the struggle not far
distant with Vandals in Africa and Goths in Italy, the Empire repre-
sents the side of the Catholic Faith against either persecuting or tolerant
Arianism.
Meantime, in the East, the Henoticon and the semi-Monophysite
policy of the Emperors had far-reaching results. Mention has already
been made of the school of Edessa, once presided over by Ibas,


## p. 519 (#549) ############################################

489–578]
Nestorianism and Monophysitism in the East
519
and of the reaction in Osrhoene, after Ibas' death, in a Monophysite
direction. In 489 Zeno, regarding Edessa as still a hotbed of Nes-
torianism, closed the school there. The result was that a good many
scholars migrated across the Persian frontier to Nisibis where, as already
stated, Barsumas was bishop. In this city a very flourishing school was
founded, in which the works of the great Antiochene doctors, Diodorus
of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia, might be studied in peace, and
where even the memory of Nestorius himself was honoured. The
great episcopal see of the Persian Church had since 410 been fixed at
Seleucia-Ctesiphon, and the bishop (catholicos) of that see was fairly
independent of those who, from his point of view, were regarded as the
“ western fathers” of the Syrian churches. Christians in Persia enjoyed
peace and patronage, with intermittent persecutions, under the great
kings of the Sassanid dynasty. It seems to have been part of the
Nestorian policy of Barsumas to convince the king that Monophysitism
meant inclination to side with the Empire whenever war broke out,
while Nestorianism was consistent with loyalty to Persia. Under these
circumstances, the Nestorian Church in Persia grew and flourished.
Beside its school at Nisibis, it had, in course of time, one at Seleucia.
Its character was greatly determined by its monastic institutions. Its
missionary zeal made itself felt in India and even in China. Altogether,
though the time of its greatness was not of very long duration, it
acquired, by its intellectual and religious activity, a very respectable
place among the Churches which the dissensions of the fifth century
alienated from Catholic Christendom.
While Christianity in Persia was becoming Nestorian, Syria was
becoming Monophysite. The whole story of the process does not
fall within our present limits, but it may be remarked that the
great organiser of the Monophysite communities, both in Egypt
and Syria, was Severus the Pisidian who held the see of Antioch from
512 till his deposition in 519, and whose active and productive life
ended about 540. The reorganiser of the Monophysite Church after
the persecution which followed the reunion of Rome and Constantinople
was Jacobus Baradaeus, who died about 578, and from whom the
Syrian Monophysites are sometimes called Jacobites. His history,
however, does not concern us here.
Historically viewed, the interest of these controversies lies not so
much in the motives by which they were inspired as in the dissolutions
and combinations to which they gave birth. The alienation of churches
seems in many cases to be at bottom the alienation of peoples and nations,
the religious difference supplying pretext rather than cause. And some-
times the asserted cause of the dispute is lost sight of when the difference
has been made permanent. So it was, apparently, with the Jacobite-
,
Syrian and the Nestorian-Persian Churches. Also we may notice that
the Christianity of the Copts has become more like a reversion, with
CH. XVII.


## p. 520 (#550) ############################################

520
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
differences, to the popular religion of the old Egyptians than an
elaboration of the principles of Cyril and Dioscorus. And again the
breach between Greeks and Latins was sure to break out again, however
often the ecclesiastical dispute which had served as the occasion of a
temporary alienation might be settled. The fruits of the disunion we
have been examining became evident enough in the days of the
Mahommedan invasions, yet had the actual occasions of the disunion
been entirely absent, we can hardly feel sure that a united Christendom
would have stood ready to repel the Saracen advance. Even if the
Empire had never lost its unity, it could hardly have retained in
permanent and loyal subordination the populations of Egypt and of
the East. They had been but superficially connected with Byzantium,
while, perhaps unconsciously, they remained under the sway of more
ancient civilisations than those of Hellas and of Rome.


## p. 521 (#551) ############################################

521
CHAPTER XVIII.
MONASTICISM.
CHRISTIAN Monasticism was a natural outgrowth of the earlier
Christian asceticism, which had its roots in the gospel. For it is now
recognised that such sayings as: “If thou wouldest be perfect, go sell
that thou hast, and give to the poor,. . . and come, follow me"; and :
“There are eunuchs, which made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of
heaven's sake: he that is able to receive it, let him receive it”; and the
teaching of St Paul on celibacy, did as a matter of fact give an impetus to
the tendency so common in seriously religious minds towards the practice
of asceticism. These tendencies are clearly discernible among Christians
from the beginning; and not only among the sects, but also in the
great Church. Celibacy was the first and always the chief asceticism;
but fasting and prayer, and the voluntary surrender of possessions, and
also works of philanthropy, were recognised exercises of those who gave
themselves up to an ascetical life. This was done at first without
withdrawal from the world or abandonment of home or the ordinary
avocations of life. At an early date female ascetics received ecclesiastical
recognition among the virgins and widows, and there are grounds for
believing that at the middle of the third century there already were
organised communities of women--for in the Life of Anthony we are
told that before withdrawing from the world he placed his sister in a
Ilapdevớv or house of virgins, the name later used for a nunnery. At
this date there was nothing of the kind for men ; but, at any rate in
Egypt, the male ascetics used to leave their homes and dwell in huts in
the gardens near the towns. For when, c. 270, St Anthony left the
world, it was this manner of life he embraced at first.
St Anthony was born in middle Egypt about the year 250. When
he was twenty, on hearing in church the gospel text "If thou wouldest
be perfect," as cited above, he took the words as a personal call to
himself and acted on them, going to practise the ascetical life among
the ascetics who dwelt at his native place. After 15 years so spent,
he went into complete solitude, taking up his abode in a deserted
CH. XVIII.


## p. 522 (#552) ############################################

522
St Anthony. Antonian Monachism
fort at a place called Pispir, on the east bank of the Nile opposite the
Fayum, now called Der-el-Memun (c. 285). In this retreat Anthony
spent twenty years in the strictest seclusion, wholly given up to prayer
and religious exercises. A number of those who wished to lead an
ascetic life congregated around him, desiring that he should be their
teacher and guide. At last he complied with their wishes and came
forth from his seclusion, to become the inaugurator and first organiser
of Christian monachism.
This event took place about the beginning of the fourth century-
305 is the traditional date; only a few years later did Pachomius found,
in the far south, the first Christian monastery properly so called. It
will be convenient to trace separately the two streams of monastic
tradition that flowed respectively from the two great founders, Anthony
and Pachomius.
The form of monachism that drew its inspiration from St Anthony
prevailed throughout Lower or Northern Egypt. All along the Nile to
the north of Lycopolis (Asyut), and in the adjacent deserts, and on the
sea-board near Alexandria, there were at the end of the fourth century
vast numbers of monks, sometimes living alone, sometimes two or three
together, sometimes in large congregations--but even then the life was
semi-eremitical. Antonian monachism reached its greatest and most
characteristic development in the deserts of Nitria and Scete, and it is
here that we have the most abundant materials for forming a picture of
the life of these monks. Palladius and Cassian both lived in this district
for many years during the last decade of the fourth century; St Jerome,
Rufinus, and the writer of the Historia Monachorum visited it; and
they have left on record their impressions. Nitria, the present Wady
Natron, is a valley round some nitre lakes, lying out in the desert to
the west of the Nile, some 60 miles due south of Alexandria. Those
who began the monastic life here were Amoun and Macarius of Egypt,
himself a disciple of Anthony. A few miles from Nitria was the desert
called Cellia from the number of hermits' cells that studded it, and
further away still, out in the “utter solitude," was the monastic settle-
ment of Scete. Rufinus and the writer of the Historia Monachorum
describe Cellia : The cells stood out of sight and out of earshot of one
another; only on the Saturday and Sunday did the monks assemble for
the services; all the other time was spent in complete solitude, no one
ever visiting another except in case of sickness or for some spiritual
need. Palladius says that 600 lived in Cellia.
This was a purely eremitical life; but in Nitria it was otherwise.
The following is Palladius' account, as he saw it in 390.
“ In Mount Nitria 5000 monks dwell following different manners of
life, each according to his power and desire; so that anyone could live
alone, or with another, or with several. In the mountain there are seven
bakeries and a great church by which stand three palm trees, each with
AL


## p. 523 (#553) ############################################

Monachism in Nitria and Scete
523
a whip hanging from it; one is for the monks who misbehave themselves,
one for thieves, and one for chance comers : so that anyone who offended
and was judged worthy of stripes, embraced the palm tree and made
amends by receiving on the back the fixed number of blows. Close to
the church is the guest house, and any guest who comes is entertained
until he goes of his own accord, even if he stay for two or three years.
For the first week they let him stay in idleness, but after that they
make him work, either in the garden or the bake-house or the kitchen.
Or if he be a man of position they give him a book to read, but do not
allow him to have intercourse with anyone till noon. Physicians dwell
in this mountain, and confectioners; they use wine, and wine is sold.
They all make linen with their hands, so that they have no needs. And
about three in the afternoon one may stand and hear how the psalmody
arises from each habitation, and fancy oneself rapt aloft into Paradise.
But they assemble at the church only on Saturday and Sunday. ” Palladius
tells, too, of one Apollonius, a merchant, who became a monk in Nitria,
and being too old to learn a handicraft, purchased medicines and stores
at Alexandria and cared for all the brotherhood in their sicknesses, for
twenty years going the round of the cells from daybreak till three in
the afternoon,
knocking at the doors to see if anyone was sick : and of
another who on becoming a monk retained his money and devoted it
wholly to works of hospitality towards the poor, the aged and the
infirm, and was judged by the fathers to be equal in merit to his
brother, who had dispossessed himself of his belongings and given himself
up wholly to a life of strict asceticism.
What has been said will bring out the special feature of this type of
monasticism—its voluntariness : even when the monks lived together,
there was not any common life according to rule. A large discretion
was left to each one to follow his own devices in the employment of
his time and the practice of his asceticisms. In short, this form of
monachism grew out of the eremitical life, and it retained its eremitical
or semi-eremitical character even in the great monastic colonies of
Nitria and Scete.
We may now pass to the Pachomian monachism dominant in the
southern parts of Egypt. Pachomius was a pagan by birth; he was
born about 290, and became a Christian at the age of twenty. He
adopted the eremitical life under Palaemon, a hermit who lived by the
Nile in the diocese of Tentyra (Denderah). The legend of his call to
be the creator of Christian cenobitical life is thus told by Palladius.
“Pachomius was in an extraordinary degree a lover of mankind and
a lover of the brotherhood. While he was sitting in his cave an angel
appeared unto him and said: “Thou hast rightly ordered thy own life;
needlessly therefore dost thou sit in the cave; come forth and bring
together all the young monks and dwell with them, and legislate for
them according to the exemplar I will give thee. ' And he gave him
а

CH. XVIII.


## p. 524 (#554) ############################################

524
Pachomian Monachism
a brazen tablet whereon was engraved the Rule. ” There follows what
probably is the most authentic epitome of the earliest Christian Rule
for Monks.
St Pachomius founded his first monastery at Tabennisi near Denderah
c. 315-320, and by the time of his death in 346 his order counted nine
monasteries of men and one of women, all situated between Panopolis
(Akhmim) to the north and Latopolis (Esneh) to the south, and peopled
by some 3000 monks in all. After his death other monasteries were
founded, one at Canopus near Alexandria, and several in Ethiopia ; so
that by the end of the century Palladius tells us there were 7000
Pachomian or Tabennesiot monks—St Jerome's 50,000 may safely be
rejected.
Palladius visited the Pachomian monastery at Panopolis (Akhmim)
and has left us what is by far the most actual and living picture of
the daily life. He tells us that there were 300 monks in this monastery,
who practised all the handicrafts and out of their superabundance
contributed to the support of nunneries and prisons. . The servers of the
week got up at daybreak and some worked in the kitchen while others
laid the tables, getting them ready by the appointed hour, spreading on
them loaves of bread, mustard leaves, olive salad, cheeses, herbs chopped
up, and pieces of meat for the old and the sick. “And some come in and
have their meal at noon, and others at 1 or at 2 or at 3 or at 5, or in the
late evening, and others every second day. And their work was in like
fashion: one worked in the fields, another in the garden, another in the
smithy, another in the bakery, another at carpentry, another at fulling,
another at basket-making, another in the tanyard, another at shoe-
making, another at tailoring, another at calligraphy”; he mentions also
that they keep camels and herds of swine: he adds that they learn
by heart all the Scriptures. From the Rule it appears that they
assembled in the church four times a day, and approached Communion
on Saturday and Sunday.
Here we have a fully constituted and indeed highly organised
cenobitical life, the day being divided between a fixed routine of church
services, Bible reading, and work seriously undertaken as an integral
factor of the life. Herein lies one of the most significant differences
between Pachomian and Antonian monachisms. In the latter the
references to work are few, and the work is of a sedentary kind, commonly
basket-making and linen-weaving, which could be carried on in the cell ;
and the work was undertaken merely in order to supply the necessaries
of life, or to fill up the
time that could not be spent in actual prayeron
contemplation or the reading of the Bible. Palladius' picture of the
Pachomian monastery, on the other hand, is that of a busy, well-
organised, self-supporting agricultural colony, in which the daily religious
exercises only alternated with, and did not impede, the daily labour that
was so large an element of the life: and so this picture is of extraordinary
a


## p. 525 (#555) ############################################

Theory of Egyptian Monachism
525
value. Whatever may be thought of the life led by the hermits or
quasi-hermits of northern Egypt, there will hardly be two opinions as to
the strenuousness and virility of the ideal aimed at by. St Pachomius.
The Antonian ideal is the one that (even in accentuated forms) has been
in all ages dominant in the Easty and it was the form of monachism
first propagated throughout Western Europe. It was not the least
of St Benedict's contributions to Western monachism that he introduced,
with the modifications called for by differences of climate and national
character, a type of monachism more akin to the Pachomian, in which
work of one kind or another, undertaken for its own sake, forms an
essential part of the life.
Having thus traced in the briefest manner the external phenomena
of the earliest Christian monachism, we must say a word on its inner
spirit. The theory or philosophy of primitive Christian monachism
'finds its fullest expression in Cassian's Collations. These are 24 con-
ferences of considerable length, which purport to be utterances of
several of the most prominent of the Nitriot and Scetic monks, made in
response to queries and difficulties put by Cassian himself and his friend
Germanus, who lived for a number of years in Scete between 390 and
400. The Collations were not written till 25 years later, and the
question has been raised how far they reproduce actual discourses
uttered by the various monks named; or are compositions of Cassian's,
a literary device for presenting the teaching and ideas current in Scete.
In any case, there can be no reasonable doubt that they do faithfully
represent the substance and spirit of that teaching—and this is all that
is of historical importance. Cassian puts into the foreground, in his
first Collation, an exposition of the purpose or scope of the monastic
life: Abbot Moses declares it to be the attainment of Purity of Heart, so
that the mind may rest fixed on God and divine things: for this purpose
only are fastings, watchings, meditation of Scripture, solitude, privations
to be undertaken : such asceticisms are not perfection, but only the .
instruments of perfection. This conference supplies the key to the
fundamental conception of the monastic state. It is a systematic and
ordered attempt to exercise the tendencies symbolised by the terms
Mysticism and Asceticism—two of the most deeply rooted religious
instincts of the human heart, but which beyond most others need
regulation and control.
Egyptian monachism was probably at its
highest point of development about the year 400, just when Cassian and
Palladius came in contact with it. Without accepting the probably
apocryphal figures given by some of the authorities, there can be no
doubt that there were at that date very many thousands of monks in
Egypt. And the original enthusiasms and spirituality of the movement
still, on the whole, held sway. But with the fifth century the decay set
in, which has gone on progressively till our_day. The Egyptian monks,
who had been the great adherents of the Catholic faith in the Arian
CH. XVIII.


## p. 526 (#556) ############################################

526 Monachism in Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia
times, became the chief supporters of Dioscorus in making the Egyptian
Church Monophysite. As the Mahommedan invasion swept over Egypt
the monasteries were in great measure destroyed, and Egyptian monas-
ticism has ever since been gradually dying out; at the present day only
a few monasteries survive, and the institution is in a moribund condition,
unless some unlooked-for revival come about.
When we pass from Egypt to the oriental lands, we find that
in Palestine monastic life was introduced from Egypt by Hilarion early
in the fourth century. He had been a disciple of Anthony, and the life
he Ted in Palestine was purely eremitical. There are traces of cenobitic
monasteries in Palestine during the fourth century, especially those
established under Western influences—as by St Jerome and Paula, Rufinus
and the two Melanias. But the glimpses of Palestinian monachism
at the end of the century given us by Palladius in the Lausiac History,
reveal the fact that it remained in large measure eremitical
In Syria and Mesopotamia, whether in the Roman or in the Persian
territories, there was at the beginning of the fourth century what
appears to have been an indigenous growth of asceticism analogous
to the pre-monastic asceticism found in Egypt and elsewhere. The
institution was known as the “Sons of the Covenant," and the members
were bound to celibacy and the usual ascetical practices, but they were
not monks properly so called. We hear much of them from Aphraates
(c. 330); and Rabbula, bishop of Edessa a century later, wrote a code
of regulations for priests and Sons of the Covenant. As he wrote also
a Rule for monks, it seems clear that the Sons of the Covenant did not
develop into a monastic system, but the two institutions existed along-
side of each other till at any rate the middle of the fifth century.
The
beginnings of monachism proper in the Syrian lands are difficult to
trace. It is probable that the story of Eugenius, who was said to have
introduced monasticism from Egypt in the early years of the fourth
century, must be rejected as legendary. Theodoret opens his Historia
Religiosa, or lives of the Syrian monks, with an account of one Jacob
who lived as a hermit near Nisibis before 325; but as this was a century
before Theodoret's time, the facts must remain somewhat doubtful.
He gives accounts of a number of Syrian monks in the end
of the fourth century and the beginning of the fifth: most of
them were hermits; and even when disciples gathered around them,
the life continued to be strongly individualistic and eremitical. This
has continued to be the tendency of Syrian monachism, both Nestorian
and Monophysite. Cenobitical life was commonly only the first stage
of a monk's career; the goal aimed at was to be a hermit; after a few
years each monk withdrew to a cell at a distance from the monastery, to
live in solitude, frequenting the monastic church only on Sundays and
feasts. Rabbula's Admonitions for Monks (c. 425) are of great interest :
he lays down that no one is thus to become a hermit until he has been
:


## p. 527 (#557) ############################################

Character of Oriental Monachism
527
а
proved in a monastery for a considerable time. The following regulation
is of special interest: “Those who have been made priests and deacons
in the monasteries, and have been entrusted with churches in the villages,
shall appoint as superiors those who are able to rule the brotherhood;
and they themselves shall remain in charge of their churches. ” The
practice here indicated, of monks serving churches, is probably unique
in the East; it has been done in the West in later times, but has
always been regarded as abnormal.
Thus while in Egypt the tendency was to abandon the eremitical life
for the cenobitical, in Syria the opposite tendency set in. In another
respect, too, Syrian monachism developed aļong lines different from those
that prevailed in Egypt. Egyptian monks practised, it is true, austerities
,
and mortifications of the severest kind; but they were what may be
called natural, as prolonged abstinence from food and sleep, exposure to
heat and cold, silence and solitude, heavy labour and physical fatigue.
In Syria on the contrary austerities of a highly artificial character
became the vogue: the extraordinary life of the pillar hermits, who
abode for years on the summits of pillars, at once presents itself in
illustration. Theodoret and the other authorities speak as if it were a
common practice, that monks should carry continually fastened to their
backs great stones or iron weights—Rabbula forbids this except to
hermits. Sozomen tells us of a kind of Syrian monk called “Grazers,"
who used to go out into the fields at meal-times and eat grass
like cattle.
A good picture of the lines on which Syrian monachism settled down
after the sixth century is afforded by Thomas of Marga's “Book of the
Governors,” or history of the great Nestorian monastery of Beth Abhe
in Mesopotamia.
All the evidence shews that the ingrained oriental hankering after
asceticism, still found in Hindu fakirs, asserted itself in Syrian mona-
chism from the beginning, and it has there at all times been a characteristic
feature of the system.
Monasticism seems to have made its entry into Greek-speaking lands
from the East. It first appears in the Roman province of Armenia in
connexion with Eustathius of Sebaste, c. 330-340. The claim has been
.
made, indeed, that monasteries were established in Constantinople by
Constantine, but this must be regarded as legend; there probably were
none there before the end of the fourth century. The monasticism of
Eustathius was of a highly ascetical character, with strongly developed
Manichaean tendencies, which were condemned at the Council of Gangra,
c. 340. Similar in character, but carrying the same tendencies to still
greater extremes, were the Messalians or Euchitae, in Paphlagonia,
described by Epiphanius.
The real father of Greek monachism was St Basil. After spending
a year in visiting the monks of Egypt and Syria, he retired, c. 360, to a
lonely spot near Neocaesarea in Pontus, and there began to lead a
a
CH, XVIII.


## p. 528 (#558) ############################################

528
St Basil's Monastic Legislation
monastic life with the disciples who quickly gathered round him.
His
conception of the monastic life was in many important points a
new departure, and it proved epoch-making in the history of mona-
chism : it has continued to this day the fundamental conception of
Greek and Slavonic monasticism ; and St Benedict, though he borrowed
more in matter of detail from Cassian, in matter of principles and ideas
owed more to St Basil than to any other monastic legislator. Thus in
the monasticism of both East and West, St Basil's ideas still live on.
For this reason it will be proper to give a somewhat full account of his
monastic legislation. The materials are to be found chiefly in the two
sets of Rules (the Longer and the Shorter), the authenticity of which is
now recognised, and in certain of his Letters, supplemented by letters of
St Gregory Nazianzen to him.
St Basil's construction of the monastic life was fully cenobitical, in
this respect advancing beyond that of St Pachomius. In the Pachomian
system the monks dwelt in different houses within the monastery pre-
cincts; the meals were at different hours; and all assembled in the
church oply for the greater services. But St Basil established a common
roof, a common table, and common prayer always; so that we meet here
for the first time in Christian monastic' legislation the idea of the
cenobium, and common life properly so called. Again, St Basil de-
clared against even the theoretical superiority of the eremitical life
over the cenobitical. He asserted the principle that monks should
endeavour to do good to their fellow men; and in order to bring
works of charity within reach of his monks, orphanages were established,
separate from the monasteries but close at hand and under the care of
the monks, in, which apparently children of both sexes were received.
were taken into the monasteries to be educated, and not with
the view of their becoming monks. Another new feature in St Basil's
conception of the monastic life was his discouragement of excessive
asceticism; he enunciated the principle that work is of greater value
than austerities, and drew the conclusion that fasting should not be
practised to sách an extent as to be detrimental to work. All this
represents a new range of ideas.
The following is an outline of the actual daily life in St Basil's
monasteries. A period of novitiate or probation, of indeterminate length,
had to be passed, at the end of which a profession of virginity was made,
but no monastic vows were taken : Palladius, writing in 420, says in
the Prologue to the Lausiac History, that it is better to practise the
monastic life freely, without the constraint of a vow. But though there
were no vows, St Basil's monks were considered to be under a strict
obligation of persevering in the monastic life, and of abiding in their
own monastery. Their time was divided between prayer, work, and the
reading of Holy Scripture. They rose for the common psalmody while
it was still night and chanted the divine praises till the dawn ; six times
Boys also
13
1


## p. 529 (#559) ############################################

Greek Monachism
529
each day did they assemble in the church for prayer. Their work was
field labour and farming-St Gregory Nazianzen speaks of the ploughing
and vine-dressing, the wood-drawing and stone-hewing, the planting and
draining. The food and clothing, too, the housing and all the con-
ditions of life, he describes as being coarse and rough and austere.
The monastic virtues of obedience to the superior, of personal poverty,
of self-denial, and the cultivation of the spiritual life and of personal
religion, are insisted on.
The Basilian form of monachism was the one that spread in the
adjacent provinces of Asia Minor and in Armenia; and under the
influence of the Council of Chalcedon, which passed several canons
regulating the monastic life, and of the civil law, it gradually made its
way and became recognised throughout the Greek portion of the
Empire as the official form of monastic life. But the Eastern tendency
towards the practice of extreme austerity and the eremitical life has
always struggled to find expression, and to this day there are hermits on
Mount Athos and at other monastic centres of the Orthodox Church.
In the fifth century the Holy Land became the head centre of Greek
monachism, and monasteries of two kinds arose in considerable numbers.
There were the cenobia, or monasteries proper, where the life was
according to the lines laid down by St Basil; and there were the lauras,
wherein a semi-eremitical life was followed, the monks living in separate
huts within the enclosure. St Sabas, a Cappadocian, was the great
organiser of this manner of life—he founded no fewer than seven lauras
in Palestine, and drew up a Typicon or code of rules for their guidance.
Sabas was appointed Exarch of all the lauras of Palestine, while his
compatriot and contemporary Theodosius became Archimandrite of all
the cenobia of Palestine. Under the stress of the Origenistic controversy
and of the Arab invasion Palestinian monachism waned, and in the
seventh century the centre of gravity of Greek monasticism shifted
to Constantinople, where in the early years of the ninth century it
underwent a reorganisation at the hands of Theodore, abbot of the
monastery of the Studium. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the
centre of gravity again shifted, this time to Mount Athos, where it has
ever since remained.
Since the time of Theodore the Studite Greek and Slavonic mona-
chism has undergone little change: it is still St Basil's monachism, but
the elements of hard labour and of works of charity have been almost
wholly eliminated from the life, and intellectual work has not, as in
the West, taken their place on any large scale—indeed, it has usually
been discouraged; so that for the past thousand years Greek and
Slavonic monks have been almost wholly given up, in theory at any
rate, and in great measure in practice too, to a life of purely devotional
contemplation. They do not call themselves Basilians, but "simply
34
X
C. MED. H. VOL. I. CH. XVIII.


## p. 530 (#560) ############################################

530
Abuses to which Early Monachism was liable
1
1
1
Monks, and St Basil's Rules scarcely hold a leading place in the code
of monastic legislation that regulates their life.
While the monastic system was in its primitive unorganised state it
lent itself to certain obvious abuses. Anyone who chose could become
a hermit and live according to his own devices. Impostors and charlatans
under the guise of pretended austerities deceived the simple and lived
upon alms received on false pretences. These abuses seem to have
attained a great magnitude in Syria at the middle of the fifth century,
if we may judge from the vigorous protests of Isaac of Antioch; but
they existed everywhere. They led to the gradual regulating of the
monastic life and the subjecting of the monks to the authority of the
bishops. In this way a body of legislation, both ecclesiastical and civil,
grew up, which restricted the voluntariness of the system, and made it
an integral part of the general polity of both Church and State. This
“ecclesiasticising” of the monks is often deplored; but it was part of.
the inevitable march of events and a condition of the continued existence
of the institution. In the fifth and sixth centuries other tendencies
made themselves felt, and the monks in great numbers became embroiled
in the ecclesiastical politics and the theological controversies of the time.
Sometimes they were on the orthodox side, sometimes on the heterodox;
but on whatever side they stood, they were only too often violent and
fanatical, and some of the most discreditable episodes of Church history
in those days were the work of Eastern monks-as the murder of
Flavian at the Robber Synod of Ephesus.
Before we pass to the West, it will be well to speak of the nuns in
Egypt and the East. It has already been said at the beginning of
this chapter, when speaking of the pre-monastic Christian ascetics,
that communities of women existed at an earlier date than com-
munities of men-in Egypt as early as the middle of the third
century. The records of Egyptian monachism agree in representing
women as taking part in great numbers in every phase of the monastic
movement. There were women who lived as hermits and as recluses,
shut up in tombs; there are various stories of women disguising them-
selves as men and living in monasteries, and being discovered only after
death. Pachomius founded two nunneries, one, under his sister, at
,
Tabennisi, the other, which numbered 400 nuns, near Panopolis
(Akhmīm); and after his death many others were founded in his order.
The famous Coptic abbot Senuti of Atripè governed a great commu-
nity of nuns in addition to the monks of the White Monastery. We
learn from Palladius that at the end of the fourth century there were
numerous nunneries in all parts of monastic Egypt, and the glimpses he
lets us see of their inner life are graphic and interesting. He tells us of
one Dorotheus who had the spiritual charge of a nunnery, and used to
sit at a window overlooking the convent, " keeping the peace among the
3


## p. 531 (#561) ############################################

Nuns in Egypt and the East
531
a
nuns”; also of an old nun, Mother Talis, superioress of a convent
at Antinoë, so beloved by her nuns that there was no need of a key in
that convent, as in others, to keep the nuns from wandering, “ as they
were fast tied by love of her. ”
In Syria there were at the beginning of the fourth century “Daughters
of the Covenant,” analogous to the “Sons of the Covenant,” spoken of
above. Whether they led a full community life is uncertain ; but in one
of Rabbula's regulations, at the beginning of the fifth century, it is
prescribed that “Sons or Daughters of the Covenant who fall from their
estate be sent to the monasteries for penance,” which implies the
'
existence of convents of women. In all probability there were in Syria,
as elsewhere, fully organised nunneries, though there is not much
Syrian evidence concerning them.
Certainly in Palestine at this time
there were many convents of women, including those established under
the influence of the Roman ladies Paula and Eustochium and the
Melanias. When St Basil began his monastic life about 360, his mother
and sister were already living in a community of nuns in the immediate
vicinity, with a river between them; and throughout Greek-speaking
Christendom, in Asia Minor and above all in Constantinople, women
practised the monastic life hardly less than men. No Eastern nuns,
however, have at any time devoted themselves to external works of
charity like the modern active congregations of women in the West.
There is a considerable body of evidence shewing that the ascetical
life was pursued in the West—notably at Carthage and Rome—as in
the East, before the introduction of monasticism proper ; but there is
no sufficient reason for questioning the tradition that attributes the
knowledge of the monastic life in Western Europe to the influence of
St Athanasius. In the year 339 he came to Rome, accompanied by two
Egyptian monks, and thus spread in the City and its neighbourhood the
knowledge of the manner of life that was then being practised in Egypt.
Many candidates presented themselves, and we learn from Ambrose,
Jerome and Augustine that in the last
quarter of the fourth century
there were numerous monasteries of men and of women in Rome. Among
the high-born patrician ladies the movement
had a great vogue and
became so fashionable that an agitation against it arose, of which
St Jerome had to bear the brunt. These ladies, brought up in
every
luxury, gave up all things and surrendered themselves to lives of hardship
and devotional exercises. The most famous of them, as Paula and
Melania, even left Rome and went to the Holy Land where they
established sisterhoods. Monasteries rapidly spread over Central and
Southern Italy, and the islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea were peopled by
hermits. In North Italy, too, monasteries existed by the end of the
fourth century at the chief cities--at Aquileia, where Rufinus and
Jerome were trained in the monastic life; at Milan, where Ambrose had
CH. XVIII.
34-2


## p. 532 (#562) ############################################

532
Early Italian and African Monachism
a great monastery of men; at Ravenna and Pavia and many other
towns.
Eusebius, bishop of Vercelli (d. 371), introduced a change in the idea
of the monastic life that merits for him a more prominent place among
monastic legislators than is commonly accorded to him: he combined
the elerical and monastic states, making the clerics of his cathedral live
together in community according to the monastic rule. This was the
starting-point of the practice destined to prevail both in West and East,
whereby monks as by ordinary rule become priests, though it was several
centuries before the custom was established.
It was in the form initiated by Eusebius at Vercelli that the monastic
life was introduced into Africa by St Augustine on his return from Italy
in 388. In 391 he was ordained presbyter at Hippo and established a
community of clerics living together according to rule; and when in
396 he became bishop of Hippo, he continued to follow the same manner
of life along with his clerics. Several bishops went forth from this
community to other sees, and in most cases they established similar
monasteries of clerics in their episcopal cities. This union of the
clerical and monastic lives was widely prevalent in Africa, and it became
the exemplar both of the institution of secular canons in the Carolingian
reform, and of that of canons regular, or Augustinian canons, in the
Hildebrandine.
Monasteries of the type normal in those days also arose in Africa.
-- In the times of Tertullian and Cyprian veiled virgins were recognised ;
but it is doubtful whether they had developed into a proper monastic
system before St Augustine's time. During his episcopate there certainly
were many nunneries, one being presided over by his sister; and his
Letter 211—the only authentic “ Rule of St Augustine "—was written
for the guidance of a nunnery. Thus in the early years of the fifth
century monachism was strong and flourishing in the African Church.
The beginnings of Spanish monachism are obscure, and the records
scanty. The first reference is a canon of the Council of Zaragoza in
380, forbidding clerics to become monks: this shews that the monastic
institute must by that date have spread considerably in Spain ; but there
seems to be no extant evidence of the existence of a monastery in Spain
till the beginning of the sixth century. There is a tradition that then
one Donatus carried monasticism from Africa into Spain; but the names
to be associated with early Spanish monachism are Martin, bishop of
Braga, a Pannonian and the apostle of the Arian Sueves, who died in
580, and Fructuosus, also bishop of Braga, about a century later. The
latter was the great organiser and propagator of monachism in the
Peninsula, establishing several monasteries and writing (probably) two
rules for their guidance. It is chiefly from these rules that we get
glimpses of the earlier Spanish monachism. It seems to have been a


## p. 533 (#563) ############################################

Spanish and Keltic Monachism
533
common practice for a man to call his house a “monastery,” and to live
in it with his wife, children and servants : against this abuse, and others,
St Fructuosus legislates. One feature of his Rule is unique: it contains
a pact between the abbot and monks, whereby the latter bind themselves
to the performance of the duties of the monastic life under the abbot,
and empower him to inflict specified punishments for certain offences
and on the other hand reserve to themselves, in case the abbot should
act in an arbitrary or tyrannical way, the right of appeal to other abbots
or to the bishop. St Fructuosus lived a century after St Benedict's
death ; but throughout the Gothic period there is no trace of Benedictine
monachism in Spain. In the extant rules of Spanish origin—those of
Leander, of Isidore, and of Fructuosus—it is possible to discern certain
reminiscences which betray a knowledge of the Benedictine Rule; but
Mabillon greatly exaggerates their significance. These rules are in no
sense declarations or commentaries on St Benedict's, and Spanish
monachism was not at all Benedictine before the time of the Christian
Reconquest. Early Spanish monachism was indigenous, and it retained
its individuality till the fall of the Gothic kingdom.
Our only
glimpses of it have to be obtained through these later rules, and so it
has been necessary to carry our view forward beyond the strict limits of
this survey. It may
be doubted whether monasteries were numerous in
the Gothic period: the Councils of Toledo throughout the seventh century
used to be attended by fifty or sixty bishops; but there were never
more than ten abbots present, and often only six, or five, or four.
We have little information concerning the origins of monachism in
the Keltic lands, though the system played a prominent part in the
Christianising of most of them. It seems that the earliest Keltic
monasteries were missionary stations, closely connected with the tribal
system. St Patrick, who had passed some years as a monk in Lerins
(see below), built up the Irish Church in large measure on a monastic ·
framework, and this initial tendency became more and more accentuated,
till the bishops came to be subordinated to the abbots of the great
monasteries. Our first definite knowledge of an organised cenobitical
life in Ireland comes to us from the sixth century, during the course of
which several great monasteries were established in various parts of the
island, some of them counting more than a thousand monks. But any
full knowledge of early Irish monachism has to be gathered, not on
Irish soil, but from the documents connected with St Columba, who
towards the end of the sixth century established a great monastery in
the island of Iona or Hy, the missionary influence whereof spread over
southern Scotland and northern England; and from the documents
connected with St Columbanus, who early in the seventh century founded
a number of Irish monasteries in Central Europe. St Columbanus' Rule
is the only Irish monastic rule, properly so called, that has come down
to us from the early period of Irish monachism: it was not composed
CH. XVIII.


## p. 534 (#564) ############################################

1
534
Keltic and Gallic Monachism
in Ireland, but undoubtedly it embodies the Irish traditions of monasticism
and ascetical discipline. Irish cenobitical life as seen in these documents,
was one of extreme rigor and austerity. At all times the eremitical life
had a great vogue in Keltic monachism ; and in spite of all difficulties
of climate, the Irish hermits successfully rivalled in their extraordinary
penances and austerities and vigils, the hermits of Egypt, and even
those of Syria. In Ireland, where the population continued purely
Keltic, the Irish rules and Irish monasticism maintained themselves
throughout the Middle Ages ; but in England and on the Continent,
where they came into contact with populations Teutonic or teutonised,
they succumbed before the Roman Rule of St Benedict.
Gaul is the country of Western Europe in which early monachism
was most widely propagated and flourished most, and for which the
records of pre-Benedictine monachism are the most abundant. It is
said that St Athanasius introduced the knowledge of the monastic life
at Trier during his exile there (336–7); and the well-known story
of St Augustine's conversion shews that before the end of the century
there were monks living an eremitical life there.
But it is with the name of St Martin of Tours that the beginnings
of Gallic monachism are rightly associated. A Pannonian by race, born
early in the fourth century, he had practised the monastic life for some
years before becoming bishop of Tours in 372. Nearly ten years earlier he
had established a monastery near Poitiers, and on becoming bishop of Tours
he formed one just outside of his episcopal city, at the place afterwards
called Marmoutier. Here he gathered together eighty monks, and lived
with them a life of great solitude and austerity. They dwelt singly in caves
and huts, meeting only for the church services and for meals ; they fasted
rigorously and prayed long-it was indeed a reproduction of the life of
the Egyptian monks. Our information concerning this earliest Gallic
monachism is mainly derived from the writings of St Martin's biographer,
Sulpitius Severus, and from his correspondence with St Paulinus of Nola.
From these sources we learn that by the end of the fourth century
monasteries and monks and nuns were already numerous not only in the
province of Tours, but in Rouen and the territory that afterwards
became Normandy and Picardy.
The beginning of the fifth century witnessed the inauguration of
monachism in Provence, at Marseilles under the influence of John
Cassian, and in the island of Lerins under that of Honoratus. From
Lerins went forth a number of monk-bishops, who throughout the fifth
and sixth centuries, by the monasteries they set up in their episcopal
cities, and by the monastic rules they composed for their government,
spread far and wide through south-eastern Gaul the influence and ideas
of Lerins. In other parts of Gaul, too, monasteries arose in the fifth
century, the most famous being Condat in the Jura mountains.
After the Frankish conquest of Gaul and under the early Mero-


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Monachism in Frankland
535
vingian kings the monastic movement continued throughout the sixth
century to spread all over Frankland. A twofold tendency set in-one
towards relaxation of life and observance; the other towards the
eremitical life and the extremest forms of asceticism, such as are met
with among the Syrian hermits. Gregory of Tours gives numerous
examples of hermits, especially in Auvergne, who in their fantastic
austerities equalled those of Syria ; and his evidence is corroborated by
other documents. It was not till the seventh century that Benedictine
monachism got a foothold in Gaul, and about the same time
St Columbanus imported his Rale and manner of life from Ireland.
For a time the three forms of monachism—the old Gallic, the Colum-
banian, and the Benedictine-existed side by side in Gaul. In order to
understand why the Benedictine gradually and inevitably supplanted
the earlier monachisms in France, in Italy, and in England, and was
destined to become the only monachism of Teutonic Europe, it is
necessary to survey the character of the earlier types. The early African
and Spanish monachisms were swept away by Vandals
and Moors; the
Irish remained insular and isolated from the great currents of monastic
development, so that Italy, France and England are the countries in
which the transformation of the earlier types of Western monachism
into the Benedictine was worked out.
It has to be remembered that in those days neither in the West
nor in the East, outside the Pachomian system, was there anything
resembling the present Western idea of different “Orders” of monks
there was only the monastic order. Monasteries were autonomous, each
having its own practices and its own rule, or selection of rules, depending
mainly on the abbot's choice. Before St Benedict's time there were
current in the West translations of certain Eastern rules-that of
Pachomius, translated by Jerome; that of Basil, translated by Rufinus ;
and a rule attributed to Macarius. There was a rule made up out of
the writings of Cassian ; there was St. Augustine's Letter (No. 211) on
the government of a nunnery. It is doubtful whether Honoratus of
Ierins wrote a rule. The only extant Western rules, properly so called,
which are certainly earlier than St Benedict's, are that of Caesarius of
Arles for monks and his somewhat longer rule for nuns; but these are
quite short, and not one of the rules that came into contact with
St Benedict's in his own time, or for a century afterwards, not even the
Rule of Columbanus, could claim to be an ordered and practical code of
laws regulating the life and working of a monastery. This St Benedict's
Rule pre-eminently was ; and the fact that it supplied so great a want
doubtless was one of the chief reasons why it supplanted all its rivals.
But there was another and still more powerful reason: St Benedict
was the man who adapted monasticism to Western ideas and Western
needs. Monasticism in Italy and Gaul was an Eastern importation, and
up to St Benedict it bore the marks of its origin. The life of the hermits
V
CH, XVIII.


## p. 536 (#566) ############################################

536
St Benedict eliminates Eastern elements
1
79
of the Egyptian deserts, with their prolonged fasts and vigils and their
other bodily austerities, was looked upon as the highest ideal—the true
ideal-of the monastic life; and the monks of Italy and Gaul endeavoured
to emulate a manner of life hard enough in oriental climes, but doubly
hard in Western Europe. This straining after severe bodily austerities
can clearly be discerned in the fragmentary records that have survived
of pre-Benedictine monachism in Italy and France, where the practice of
a purely eremitical life was very common.
St Benedict, while recognising the eremitical life, says definitely that
he legislates for cenobites only; moreover he did away with the oriental
spirit of rivalry in asceticism, whereby the monks used to vie with one
another in their mortifications. St Benedict laid down the principle
that all should live by the Rule and conform themselves in all things to
the life of the community; and even during Lent, when the undertaking
of some extra mortification was recommended, it was all to be under the
abbot's control. Moreover the common community life which St Benedict
established in his monasteries, was not one of great severity: a hard life
it was of course, and one of self-denial; but if judged by the ideals and
ideas current in his day, his Rule must have appeared to his contemporaries
to be in the matter of diet, of sleep, of work, and of hours of prayer,
nothing else than what he describes it—"A little rule for beginners.
Italian and French monks were at that time trying to live up to
ideals that were impossible for most in the Western lands, and the
general failure was producing a widespread disorganisation and decay.
St Benedict came and eliminated these incongruous Eastern elements,
and made a reconstruction of the monastic life admirably suited to
Western, and especially to Teutonic, conditions. To this must be
attributed in greatest measure the success achieved by his Rule.
St Benedict was born in Nursia, near Spoleto, probably about the
year 480; he was of a noble Umbrian family, and he was sent to Rome
to follow the courses in the schools. The licentiousness there prevalent
made him determine to withdraw not only from Rome, but also from
the world, and to become a monk. Full of this idea he fled away from
Rome to the Sabine hills, and buried himself in a cave overlooking Nero's
artificial lake on the Anio at Subiaco, forty miles from Rome. It is
probable that he was not a mere boy, but a youth old enough to have
become enamoured with a lady in Rome : consequently the date was within
years
of 500. There can be no doubt that the Sacro Speco at
Subiaco is the cave inhabited by St Benedict during the first years of
his monastic life; its solitude was complete, and the wild severe grandeur
of the surrounding scenery was well calculated to inspire his young heart
with deep religious feeling. In this cave he lived for three years, only a
single monk of a monastery in the neighbourhood knowing of his
existence and supplying him with the necessaries of life. It is not a
little remarkable that he who was destined to turn Western monasticism
a
a few


## p. 537 (#567) ############################################

St Benedict's Life
537
a
a
definitely away from the eremitical ideal, should himself, as a matter of
course, have gone to live as a hermit on determining to become a monks
it was only after very thorough personal experience of the hermit's life
that St Benedict decided it was not to be for his disciples.
In another matter also did he turn his back on his own early ideas:
after passing three years of solitude in his cave, his existence gradually
became known and disciples flocked to him in such numbers that he was
able to establish not only a monastery ruled over by himself, but also
twelve others in the neighbourhood, over which he exercised the sort
of control which the superior-general of a group or congregation of
monasteries would now be said to exercise. But when he was compelled
to leave Subiaco, and migrated to Monte Cassino, he confined himself
exclusively to the government of his own community there, without
continuing to exercise control over the other monasteries he had founded.
And so his Rule is concerned with the government of a single monastery
only, without any provision for the grouping of monasteries into congrega-
tions or orders, as became the vogue later on in the West. This
continued the Benedictine practice for many centuries ; during the
greatest period of Black Monk history the great Benedictine houses
stood in isolation, each self-governed and self-contained. It was not till
the thirteenth century that, under the inspiration of Cluny and Citeaux,
the policy was adopted of federating the Benedictine abbeys of the
different ecclesiastical provinces; and to this day the essential autonomy
of each house is the foundation stone and central idea of Black Monk
polity.
It is impossible to fix the date at which St Benedict founded his
monastery at Monte Cassino-probably about 520. He lived there
till his death, and Monte Cassino is the place above all others associated
with his name. The rest of his life was quite uneventful; in 543 he was
visited by Totila, and he died about the middle of the century.