If we would rightly appreciate all the effects of monachism, good and bad, we must travel through the history of eighteen centuries. It must be admitted, that the institution for a long time produced some benefit. In the present condition of Eu rope the strict rules of monachism are perhaps purely a social evil. The in titution is. in its complete form, incon sistent with Protestantism. But whatever prejudice there may be against monach ism, there appears to be no well founded objection to persons voluntarily entering any religious societies where they can live in quiet and retire from the world, provided they may quit such societies when they please. But if such societies should ever be revived in Great Britain to any extent, it will be necessary to provide for their visitation in order to prevent persons being detained there against their will ; and it will be neces sary to regulate their establishment and administration by general rules. All associations of individuals, and especially those of a religious character, are greedy of acquirinf property ; and fraud will be used for this purpose, as the history of religious societies shows. The restrictions at present placed on the acquisition of property in England by corporate bodies, are to a certain extent useful and necessary, even when these bodies are not religious or ecclesiastical. But in all states where freedom of opinion is established, and religious and ecclesiastical matters are regulated by the same power which regulates matters not religious and eccle siastical, it is essential to the conservation of true political liberty to keep within strict limits all associations, religious and ecclesiastical, and to limit their acquisition of property. In those countries where monachism still retains its original cha racter, the institution must be destroyed before political liberty [LIBERTY) can exist.
(Among the most important works on the subject of monachism are the following : Nebridii a Mundelheim Antiquarium Monasticum,' fol. Viers., 1680; 'Philippi Bonanni Ordinnm Religiosorum Cats logos,' 3 vole. 4to., Rom. 1706-8 ; ' Histoire des Ordres Monastiques Religieux et Militaires,' par le Pere Hippolyte Hdlyot,' Par., 8 vols. 4to., 1714, &c.; and nov. edit. 1792 ; Crome's Geschichte der vornehmsten den,' 10 vols. Leipz., 1774-83 ; Tanner's Notitia Monastica,' fol. 1744 ; Dugdale's ' Monasticon, ' new edit. by Cayley and Ellis, 6 vols. fol., 1812-30 ; Fosbrooke's British Monachism,' 2 vols. 8vo., 1802. See also Thomasin, Discipline de l'Eg lise,' tom. i ; Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church,' book vii. ; and Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,' chap. 37.) Monk. (From the Greek 'wrath, ' Solitary, or one who leads a solitary life,' Monachus, in church Latin). In England, before the Reformation, a per son who entered and professed in reli gion,' as the phrase was, from that time was considered, for all legal purposes, to be dead. Littleton (§ 200) says, " When a man entereth into religion and is pro fessed, he is dead in the law, and his son or next cousin (consauguineus) inconti nent shall inherit him, as well as though he were dead indeed. And when he en tereth into religion, he may make his testament and his executors ; and they may have an action of debt due to him before his entry into religion, or any other action that executors may have, as if he were dead indeed. And if that he make no executors when he entereth into religion, then the ordinary ma commit the administration of his s to others, as if he were dead indeed."
It was a consequence of this legal notion of a civil death, that if a lease was made to a man for the life of another person, and this other person professed in reli gion, the lease determined ; and for this reason such a lease was always made for the natural life of any person on the con tinuance of whose life the lease was to depend ; and this phraseology is still maintained in legal instruments. (Co. -2, Rep. 48.) All Regulars, that is, those who vowed obedience, chastity, and poverty, entered some house of religion, where they pro fessed. Bare admittance into such a house was an entry into religion ; but the person was not professed till the year of probation was expired, and he had taken the habit of his order and made the vows above mentioned.
By the 27 Hen. VIII. c. 28, all monas teries, priories, and other religious houses of monks, canons, and nuns, of whatever habit, rule, or order, not having lands, rents, or other hereditaments above the value of 2001. per annum, and all their manors and lands, were given to the king and his heirs for ever. The act declared that the king should have and enjoy, ac cording to the act, the actual and real possession of such religious houses as were comprehended within it, and might give, grant, or dispose of them at his will and pleasure, to the honour of God and the wealth of the realm. The act of the 31st Henry VIII. c. 13, was still more comprehensive. By the 1st Ed. V I. c. 14 (which recites the 37th Henry VIII. c. 4), all colleges, free chapels, and chantries, and all manors, lands, or hereditaments belonging to them, or which had been given or assigned to the finding of any priest, or of any anniversary or obit, or any light or lamp, to have continuance for ever, were given to the king and his heirs and successors.
It should be observed that these acts did not affect ecclesiastical bodies or per sons, simply as such ; that is, they did not affect the secular clergy, such as arch bishops, bishops, deans and chapters, pre bendaries, archdeacons, parsons, and vicars ; but only the regular clergy. It was decided in the archbishop of Canter bury's case (Co. 2, Rep. 48), that no ec clesiastical house, unless it was also re ligious, was within the act of 31 Henry VIII. These acts however completely put an end to all the houses of regular clergy within the realm ; and on the oc casion of carrying into effect the statute of Edward VI., a great many grammar schools and other charities which did not come within the provisions of the act were also suppressed. " This act,' says Strype, "was soon after grossly abused. as the act in the former king's reign for dissolving religious houses was. For though the public good was pretended thereby (and intended too, I hope) yet private men, in truth, had most of the benefit, and the king and commonwealth, the state of learning, and the condition of the poor, left as they were before or worse." (Strype's Ecclesiastical Memoirs, ii. 423, and iii. 40, where there is a catalogue of King Edward's free grammar-schools, which were endowed for the most part out of the charity lands given to the king by the said act for this and other like purposes.) The existing laws against members of religious orders or societies of the Church of Home are stated in LAW, CRIMINAL, p. 203.