In the earliest age of the monastic sys tem, the monks were left at liberty as to many things which were afterwards re gulated. St. Athanasius, in one of his epistles, speaks of bishops that fist, and monks that eat and drink ; bishops that drink no wine, and monks that do ; bishops that are not married, and many monks that are the fathers of children. Originally too, monks were all laymen ; and, although it gradually became more and more the common practice for them to take holy orders, it was not till the year 1311 that it was made obligatory upon them to do so by Pope Clement V. Nor was any vow of celibacy or any other particular vow formally taken by the earliest monks on their admission. It appears even that it was not unusual for persons to embrace the monastic life with the intention of only continuing monks for a few years, and for those who had spent some time in a monastery actually to return to the world. We have just seen how the practice as to some of these points was at length regulated by the Im perial legislation.
The word nun, in Greek Nosh, in Latin Nonna, is said to be of Egyptian origin, and to signify a virgin. Another account is, that the original meaning of the Latin nonna, nonnana, or nennanis, was a penitent. The Italians still use noun and nonna for a grandfather and grandmother. Cyprian and Tertullian, in the latter part of the third century, make mention of virgins dedicating them selves to Christ. Some of these ecclesi astical or canonical virgins, as they were called, appear already to have formed themselves into communities, similar to those of the monks : but others continued to reside in their fathers' houses. The progress of female monachism however, from the rudeness and laxity of the first form of the institution, to the strict regu lation which characterized its maturity, moved on side by side with that of male monachism.
Monasteries are called by the Greek fathers not only Morateripia and MOV0.2, but also sometimes ow.wola, that is, holy places : ilyeen4pe7a, the residences of the abbots, styled if•youttivin, or chiefs ; Au/Aleut, inclosures ; and oporrarripsa, places of reflection or meditation, that being one of the purposes to which they were very early applied. For a general account of the different sorts of religious houses, and of their government, and the habits and other peculiarities of the principal orders of monks and nuns, the reader is referred to the works mentioned at the end of this article. The three vows of Chastity, Poverty, and Obedience are taken by all monks and nuns at their admission. All,
both male and female, likewise receive the tonsure, like all the ecclesiastics of the Romish church. In all the orders the candidate for admission must first under go a novitiate, which varies from one to three years. The age at which novices may make profession differs in different countries; but the rule laid down by the council of Trent only requires that the party, whether male or female, should be sixteen. In the modern constitution of monachism, the vows and status of a pro fessed person, as indeed of all ecclesi astics, are by the law of the Roman church for lite and indelible.
The greatest revolution by which the history of monachism has been marked since the establishment of the rule of St. Benedict, was the rise, in the begin ning of the thirteenth century, of the Mendicant Friars.
The general dissolution of monastic establishments was one of the first conse quences of the Reformation in our own and all other countries that separated from the Romish church. There are however . a few Protestant monastic establishments in some parts of Germany. Even in some Roman Catholic countries, especially in Germany and France, the number of these establishments has been greatly re duced within the present century and the latter part of the eighteenth century, and the wealth and power of those that still exist most materially curtailed. The reform of the German monasteries was begun by the Emperor Joseph IL: those of France were all swept away at the commencement of the Revolution; but some of them were set up again, though with diminished splendour, after the restoration of the Bourbons. Since the relaxation of the penal laws, several Roman Catholic nunneries have been erected in England and Scotland, as well as in Ireland. (As to the present statutes on the subject, see LAW, Carmiresr., p. 203.) Monks and nuns of all de scriptions still swarm in Italy, and in the countries of South America lately subject to the Spanish and Portuguese crowns : in Spain and Portugal all mo nasteries have been suppressed within these few years. Even in modern times we still hear occasionally of the institu tion of a new order of monks. One, called the Congregation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was established by the late Pope Leo XII. in 1826. The most important new order of monks, founded in the Ro man Catholic church since the first out break of the Reformation, is that of the Jesuits.