monachism

[Fr. mon a chis me, from Eccles. Lat. monachus =a monk.] The system of monastic life; monkery, monkishne . "What labor is to be endured turning over volumes of rubbish in the rest, Florence of Worcester, Hunting don, Simeon of Durham, Hoveden, Matthew of Westminster, and many others of obscurer note, with all their mona chisms , is a penance to think."- Milton : Hist . Eng . , bk. iv. The ultimate fact on which monachism rests is that many people are born with a tendency to contemplation rather than to active exertion, and, if pious, consider that they will be more free from temptation to sin by retiring from the ordinary world. Hot climates tend to strengthen these feelings, and monachism has flourished more luxuriantly in Asia, Africa, and Southern Europe, than in the colder north. (1) Ethnic Monachism: The most gigantic development of monachism the world has ever seen was that of Buddhism (q. v.), and it was the earliest in point of date. The Jain system is also monastic, Brahmanism po e ed it to a le , but still to a considerable extent. Of the Hindu Triad the worship of Brahma scarcely exists; connected with that of Vishnu and Siva there are many monastic orders or sects. Of the former, Dr. Horace Hayman Wilson enumerates nineteen, and of the latter eleven, with fourteen others, some sub-divided ( Works (1862), i. 12). Curiously enough, most of them arose about the same dates as the leading religious orders of Christen dom were instituted, as if Oriental and Western minds advanced equally, or some cause had operated simultaneously both in the East and the West. (2) Jewish Monachism: The Nazarites were an ascetic sect temporarily under vows, but not bound το celibacy, which is nowhere enjoined even on 2748 priests under the Mosaic law. Elijah and John the Baptist had monastic tendencies (1 Kings xvii. 3, 4, xix. 1-9; 2 Kings i. 8; Matt. iii. 4). But genuine Jewish monasticism, with its celibacy as well as its asceticism and seclusion from society, seems to have begun with the E enes (q. v.), and to have been continued by the The rape ute (q.v.). (3) Christian Monachism: In the second century certain persons who aimed at stricter piety than their neighbors often held converse together with out quite separating from society. They were called ascetics, and were the succe ors of the The rape ute, who prepared the way for the rise of through the desert of Thebais in Upper Egypt durmonachism. In the third century Paul ranged ing the Decian persecutions. He and others who acted similarly were called A nacho rets or Anchorites, or persons who retire from society, recluses, solitaries [ANCHORITE], also eremites or hermits, that is, persons who live in the desert. [EREMITE.] They frequently resided in caves. In 305 Anthony, an Egyptian monk, collected many of the eremites into communities. These were called coœnobites from their living in common. In this he was largely a isted by his disciple Pachomius. The same discipline spread through Western Asia and Europe. From among the Eremites who lived apart from each other sprung the Sarabaites and Gyrovagi (Vagabond monks), disreputable races, the Stylites, or Pillar Saints, a ociated forever with the name of Simeon, who died in 451, with other ramifications. At first all the monastic establishments followed the rule of Pachomius, but in the early part of the sixth century St. Benedict introduced new regulations, and all the monastic orders for some centuries were Benedictine. Many ordinary monks becoming corrupt, the new Order of Canons was instituted in the twelfth century, and, as the great wealth which their communities had acquired was believed to be one of the main causes of that corruption, there arose, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, different mendicant orders, the members of which vowed poverty. [MENDICANT-ORDERS.] At first all the monks were laymen; now they consist of three cla es: (1) Priests; (2) choir monks, in minor orders; and (3) lay brothers, who act as servants and laborers. Originally they were under the jurisdiction of the bishop, but ultimately they were exempt from all authority except that of the Holy See. The influence of the mendicant orders was on the wane at the Reformation, and the Jesuits took their place. At that date many monasteries in England and elsewhere were deprived of their endowments and suppre ed, Those of France were swept away in the first Revolution. Though since restored, they have not attained their former importance. [MONASTERY, MONK, NUN.] mon-a-chus, s. [Lat., from Gr. monachos=a monk.] Zool .: A genus of Phocide, called by F. Cuvier Pelagius. Monachus alb i venter is the Monk-seal (q.v.). M.tropical is , a Jamaican species, is probably distinct.