monasticism (monastisizm)

[ tically. It is not the habit that makes the monk, many being mon aster i ally accoutred who inwardly are nothing le than monachal. Urquhart , tr. of Rabelais, i., Author's Prol. ( Davies .) monastery (mon'as-te-ri), n.; pl. monasteries (-riz). [In early form minster , q. v.; = F. то nastère = Sp. monasterio = Pg.mosteiro = It. mo nasterio = OBulg. monastyrí , monostyri = Serv. manastir = Pol. monasterz = Hung. monostor ( Slav.), term, however, strictly includes the abbey, the priory, the nunnery, and the friary, and in this broad use is synonymous with convent. Monasteries in the Christian church were probably first established in the fourth century. St. Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century established a monastic rule which has been the foundation of nearly all the rules which govern monastic vows. Vows under different rules were made from the beginning of Christianity. The It may be questioned whether anything but monasticism could have kept the church and clergy free from the political combinations and dangers of the early time. Stubbs, Const. Hist., § 84. 2. The condition or state of living like a monk, in religious retirement from the world. In older Anglo-Saxon Britain monasticism itself had but seldom aspired either to the dreamy quietude of the East or the pa ionate and exce ive austerity of the West: it was a religious profe ion, no more. Milman, Latin Christianity, vii. 1.