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 MONASTICISM

472

MONASTICISM

which restores the eocnobic rule wherever possible. Some monasteries are supported by government (slilatnijie), others have to support themselves. The three chv-wes mentioned above concern the amounts received by the supported mona.steries. The stauro- pegia are: Solovetsky, at Arch:uifj:ol, Simonoff, Doii- slioyi, Xovo.spassky, and SaikiK>.>ipa.-;sky at Moscow, Vo,«ikre.«ensky or New Jerusaloni. Spa.-io-Yakovlesky. The census of IS'.H) counts 42,940 monks and 74G4 nuns in the empire. The most famous Russian mona.^teries are Kicff (Kicvsky Laura) fovmdcd in 10t)21)yaSt. .\nthoiiy, tin- largest of all; theTroitzky I.aura near Moscow, founded by St. Sergius in 13.35 and now the home of the lirst "Ecclesiastical Acad- emy" (Seminary) in the empire; the Metropolitan of .M(wiow is itshegumenos. The Pochaievsky Laura, founded in the thirteenth century and famous for its miraculous citod <if the Blessed VirKin; Solovetsky, founded in 142'.); SurielT (in tli<' government of Nov- gorod) foundeii in 11)30; Tikhvinsy (in Novgorod); Volokolamsky (in the Moscow government) founded by St. Joseph of Volokolamsk in 1479, which has an important library and has often been used as a state

Erison, and Kyrilla-Bilcsersky (in Novgorod) founded y St. Cyril in 1397. (6) MonasliHsm in the lesser Eastern Churches. — Little need be said of these Churches. All had fully developed monasticism according to St. Basil's idea before they went into schism, and all have monks and nuns under much the same conditions as the Ortho- dox, though, naturally, in each case there has been some special development of their own. The Nes- torians once had many monasteries. Joseph Simon Assemani in the eighteenth century counts 31 (" Bibl. Orientalis", III, Rome, 1725, xiv, §2). Since the fourteenth century the disciphne has become so re- laxed that monks can easily get dispensed from their vows and marry (Badger, "The Nestorians and their Rituals", London, 1852, II, p. 179). They now have neither monasteries nor convents; but there are monks and nuns who live in their own houses or wan- der about. The Copts have many monasteries ar- ranged almost exactly like those of the Orthodox (Silbemagl, "Verfassung u. gegenwiirtiger Bestand Bamtl. Kirchen des Orients", Ratisbon, 1904, 291- 293). The .4 bj/ssinia/t monasteries are very flourish- ing (ib. 299-302). There are in Abyssinia also people called debterats, regular canons who say the office in common and obey a superior called nebrait, but may marry. The Nebrait of Aksum is one of the most powerful members of the Abyssinian Church and the leader of the national party against the foreign (Coptic) metropolitan. The Syrian Jacobites once had a great number of monasteries. Down to the sixth century there were still Stylites among them. They now have only nine monasteries in the present reduced state of their Church, most of them also residences of bishops. The Jacobite monk fasts very strictly. To eat meat is a crime punished as equal to adultery (Silbemagl, op. cit., 313-315). The Arme- nian Church, as being con.siderably the largest and most flourishing of these lesser Eastern Churches, has the largest number of monks and the mo.st flourishing mo- nastic state. Armenian monks follow St. Basil's rule, but are much stricter in the matter of fasting. The novitiate lasts eight years. It is a curious contrast to this strictness that the abbot is often not a monk at all, but a married secular priest who hands on his office to his son by hereditary right. Most Armenian bishops live in monasteries. Etchmiadzin, the resi- dence of the Katholikos, is theoretically the centre of the Armenian Church. The Armenians have the huge monastery of St. James, the centre of their quar- ter of Jerusalem, where their Patriarch of Jerusalem lives, and the convent of Deir a.s.seituni on Mount Sion with a hundred nuns. Armenian monks do not as a rule become bishops; the bishops are taken from the

unmarried Vartabeds, that is, the higher class of secular priests (doctors). In all the other Eastern Churches bishops are monks. All u.se their monas- teries as jiliices of punishment for refractory clergy.

(7) I'liiiilr M(}nks. — Theonly dilTerence union with Rome mi.hUi'S to Eastern monks is that there is in the ITiiiale Churches a certain tendency to emulate the Latin religious orders. As this generally means a disposition to do something more than recite the Divine office, it may be counted an unmixed advan- tage. Uniate monks, like all the uniate clergy, are admittedly better educated than the schismatics; some of them at least attend Western schools or seminaries of Latin religious in the East. It is a Latinizing tendency that makes them often use special names for their order and even evolve into something like separate religious orders. Thus most Uniate Byzantine monks call themselves "Basilians", as the Latins use "Benedictine" or "Franciscan". Among the Melchites the two great congregations of Salvatorians and Shuwerites (see Melchites) are practically ditTi-rent orders. The Uniate Armenians have the famous Meehitarist Congregation, really a special religious order founded by Mechitar (1676- 1749). The Mechitarists have the monastery of San Lazaro at Venice, and a branch separated from the others in 1774 have a house at Vienna. By their schools, missions, and literary activity they have always done great things in educating and converting their countrymen. The Catholic Chaldees have three monasteries, Rabban Hormuzd, Alkosh, and Mar Yurgis in Mesopotamia. The Maronile Church from the beginning has been specially a monastic Church. It was first formed by the schism of the monks of St. John Maro, in the Lebanon, from the Patriarch of Antioch. Since their union with Rome they have formed separate orders. Till 1757 there were two such orders, those of St. Isaias and of St. Antony. The St. Antony monks then split again into two con- gregations, the Aleppians (monks of Aleppo) and Baladites (baladiye, country monks). Clement XIV sanctioned this separation in 1770. All follow the rule of St. Antony. For the rest the Uniate monks of each Church have the same rule and customs as the corresponding schismatics. Certain details have been revised and abuses eliminated by the Roman authorities. There are Uniate monasteries wherever there are Uniate Christians. Uniate bishops are by no means always monks as there are many of un- married secular priests. One may note especially the Uniate Byzantine monks in southern Italy and in the great monastery of Grottaferrata outside Rome.

Harnack, Das Mdnchthum, seine Ideate u. seine Geschichte ia Reden u. AufsOtze, I (Giessen, 1904), 83-139; Am^uneac, Hit- toire de Saint Pakhome et de ses communautes in Annates du Musie Guimet, XVII (Paris, 1889) ; Marin, Les Moines de Constanti- nople (Paris, 1897); Idem, De Studio ctxnohio constantinopolitano (Paris, 1897) ; Zinoerle, Lehen u, Wirken des ht. Symeon Stylites (Innsbruclc, 1855); Delehaye, Les Stylites: Compte rendu du troisiime congrks scientijique des Catholiques d Bruxettes (Brussels, 1895): Gardner, Theodore of Studium (LondoD, 1905); Lano- LOis, Le Mont Athos (Paris. 1867) ; Meyer. Beitrdge zut Kenntnis der neueren Geschichte u. des gegenwdrtigen Zustandes der Athot- ktdster in Zeitschrift filr Kirchengeschichte (1890); Riley, Athos, or the Mountain of the Monks (London. 1887); Schmidtkb, Das Klosterland des Athos (Leipzig, 1903) ; Gel2er, Vom hlgen, Berge u. aits Makedonien (Leipzig, 1904) ; Vanndtelu, Monte Athos e le Meteore (Rome, 1888) in Sguardo alf Oriente. 11 and XIII; Kattenbusch, Lehrbuch der vergleichenden ConfessioTU- kunde. I (Freiburg, 1892), 522-537; Beth, Die orienialischt Christenheit (Berlin, 1902), 322-333; Silbernaol, Verfassung u. gegenwdrtiger Bestand sdmtticher Kirchen des Orients (Ratisbon, 1904) ; Pavlov, Istorichesky ocherk secutarisakiyi zerkovnikh zemel V. Rossiyi (Odessa. 1871); Gorchakoff. Monastirskiyi Prikas (St. Petersburg. 1868) ; Kazansky, Istoria Prav. Russ. Monashestm (Moscow, 1855); Zvierinsky, Material dla istorico-to-pografiches- kagoizsliedovaniya o pr. monastirach (3 vols.. St. Petersburg, 1890); Pavlovsky, Useobshiyi Putievoditel (Nijnei-Novgorod, .1907): a guide to all Russian monasteries.

Adrian Fortescub.

IV. Western Monasticism. — (1) Pre-Benedictine Period. — The introduction of monasticism into the West may be dated from about a. d. 340 when St.