Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/733

Rh MONACHISM 705 merely ruling that in temperate places a cowl and timic, thick in winter and thin in summer, with a scapular (a sleeveless woollen garment passed over the head, and falling down over the breast and back) for work hours, as also shoes and stockings, all of the ordinary country make and cheapest kind, shall suffice. Each monk is to have a change of these garments, to allow of washing, and yet another for use when sent on a journey, to be of rather better materials, and to be kept in the general wardrobe when not in actual wear. The old clothes are to be given up when new ones are served out, and are to be laid by in the wardrobe for the poor. A straw mattress, blanket, quilt, and pillow are to be furnished for each bed ; and in addition the abbot is to give every monk a knife, a pen, a needle, a handkerchief, and tablets. Chapter Ivi. rules that the abbot is to take his meals with the guests and strangers, with the privilege, if guests be few, of inviting any of the brethren he chooses, so long as some seniors are left in charge. Chapter Ivii. prescribes that craftsmen amongst the brethren are to work with the abbot s permission, and if their work is to be for sale, those who are entrusted with making the bargains are to deal honestly with pur chasers, and to sell rather below the current trade price. Chapter Iviii. lays down the rules for the admission of new members. It is not to be made too easy. The postulant is to be allowed to knock for entrance in vain for four or five days, then to be brought into the guest-room for a few days more, and so be transferred to the novice-house, where he is to remain under the charge of a senior monk for two months. If he persevere at the end of this time, the rule is to be read over to him, and the option of departing or remain ing is to be offered. If he persevere, he is returned to the novice- house for six months further probation, after which the rule is again read to him as before, and yet a third time after a further term of four months. Not till he has surmounted this final ordeal can he be admitted into the community, and before that is done he must divest himself of his property, either giving it to the poor, or mak ing a deed of gift to the monastery. Then he is allowed to sign the act of profession, including the vow of stability, which he is to lay with his own hand on the altar. Chapter lix. provides for the dedication of young children, noble or poor, by their parents to the monastic life, and requires a promise from the latter never to endow the oblate with any property, directly or in trust, though they may give to the monastery if they please and reserve the life-income to themselves. Chapter Ix. regulates the position of priests who desire to live in the monastery. They are to enjoy no relaxations or priority in virtue of their ecclesiastical rank, though the abbot may assign clerical functions to them ; and a somewhat like rule is laid down for clerks in minor orders. Chapter Ixi. provides for the reception of strange monks as guests, and for their admission if desir ing to join the community. The abbot is enjoined to listen to any criticisms such a guest may offer, and is empowered to give him, if accepted as a new member, higher standing than that of his entrance, but is forbidden so to admit a monk of any known monastery with out the consent or letters commendatory of its abbot. Chapter Ixii. rules that the abbot may choose a monk for ordination as priest or deacon ; but the ordinee is to rank in the house from the date of his admission, except when officiating, or if the community and the abbot single him out for promotion by merit. If he misbehave, he is to be reported to the bishop, and if continuing to misconduct himself, shall be expelled, only, however, in case of obstinate dis obedience to the rule. Chapter Ixiii. lays down rules for the gradation of rank in the community, and warns the abbot against arbitrary government. Chapter Ixiv. allows the abbot to be chosen either by the common consent of the whole community, or by a select electoral committee ; and the lowest in standing may be chosen, if fit. In the event of a bad choice, the bishop of the diocese, the neighbour ing abbots, or even the neighbouring laity, if having reason to think the election made for the purpose of keeping up abuses, may annul it and appoint another superior. Chapter Ixv. speaks of the mis chief occasioned in many monasteries by the rivalry of the provost or prior with the abbot, and advises that no such officer be appointed ; yet, if the circumstances of the place need one, the abbot may name a brother to the post, but he is to be as entirely subject to the abbot as any other monk, and may be admonished, deposed, or expelled for misconduct. Chapter Ixvi. directs the appointment of a porter to answer at the gate, and further recommends that every house shall have its own well, mill, garden, bakery, and handicraftsmen, to avoid the need of intercourse with the outer world. Chapter Ixvii. directs that no monk shall quit the cloister without leave of the abbot, and that, on the return of any from a journey, they are to beg the prayers of the community for any faults they have committed during their absence, and are forbidden to speak of what they have heard or seen outside. Chapter Ixviii. bids a monk who has received a hard or impossible command to undertake it patiently and obedi ently. If he find it beyond his powers, he may mention the cause quietly to his superior ; and, if the command is still persisted in, he must obey as best he can. Chapter Ixix. forbids monks to uphold or defend one another in the monastery, even their nearest of kin. Chapter Ixx. forbids striking or excommunicating another, without the abbot s authority, and provides that children, until fifteen, shall be subject to discipline from all the monks ; but any who shall chastise those above fifteen without the abbot s leave, or be unduly severe towards the younger, shall be himself punishable by rule. Chapter Ixxi. lays down that the principle of obedience is to prevail throughout the community, not only towards the abbot, or his officers, but from the juniors towards their seniors. Chapter Ixxii. is a brief exhortation to zeal ; and chapter Ixxiii. a note to the effect that the Benedictine rule is not offered as an ideal of perfection, or even as equal to the teachings of Cassian and Basil, but for mere be ginners in the spiritual life, who may thence proceed further. It has been necessary to make this detailed analysis of the rule, because no mere summary of its general scope conveys an adequate notion of it ; and it plays so import ant a part in the history of European civilization that it is expedient to obtain a clear idea of its details as well as of its main outlines. The first peculiarity in it meriting attention is the absence of any severe austerities. Plain and bare as the food and lodging appear if tested by modern notions, yet it is to be remembered that what is called &quot; comfort &quot; is a wholly recent idea, and even still scarcely familiar, it may almost be said, out of Great Britain and its colonies. The scale of living appointed by the rule secures a greater abundance of the necessaries of life, not only than was at all common amongst the Italian poor of the 6th century, but than is to be found amongst the humbler peasantry of any European country at the present day ; while even the excluded superfluities entered but little into the habits of any save the very wealthy. Next, high thinking the highest thought of the time was united with this plain living, as the considerable stress laid upon reading attests. To this part of the code is due the great service performed by the Benedictines, both in the erection of schools, and in the preservation of almost all the remains of ancient Latin literature which have come down to us. It made it not only possible but easy for them to become a learned order, and it is a very imperfect estimate of the stride forward in this provision which Milman makes, when he views the injunctions as to reading in the mere light of expedients to fill up time somehow. If it were so, the hours for reading would have been fewer, shorter, and more occasional, merely rounding off the intervals between times of labour ; but they are just as prominent and nearly as long as these. It is true that Benedict, whose own education had been abruptly broken off by his early retreat from Rome, did not speci fically enjoin the pursuit of learning on his monks; but they borrowed the idea at once from his contemporary, the celebrated Cassiodorus, the real founder of monastic learning, of which his monastery of Viviers in Bruttium is the first known school. But the most valuable feature of the rule is the position of dignity which it assigns to work. It is scarcely possible to realize at the present day the dishonour into which toil of all kinds had sunk in the days of Benedict. Not only had the institution of slavery degraded many kinds of occupation, but the gradual disappearance from Italy of the yeoman class, ruined and exiled by the concentration of great estates (latifimdia), or slain in the ceaseless battles of competitors for empire or of barbarian invaders, left few save serfs and bondsmen to till the soil, while the military habits of the invading tribes led them to contemn any life except that of a warrior. It is the special glory of Benedict that he taught the men of his day that work, sanctified by prayer, is the best thing which man can do, and the lesson has never been wholly lost sight of since. The new institute spread with even more astonishing Spread rapidity than the earlier monachism which it practically f, n&amp;lt;l m &quot; i -I ,1 ITT- ; i -. i i / i flucnceof supplanted in the West, and its history thenceforward is, t ], e B ene. with one important exception, that of Western conventual dictine. life for some centuries. Moreover, besides marking the order, close of the first or tentative era of monachism, when all kinds of crude essays and experiments were being made, vur ,-.