From this sketch it is evident that the institution of monachism had arrived at a state of very considerable corruption both in the Eastern and the Western churches, when St. Benedict arose to reform it, in the latter, in the earlier part of the Gth century. [BENEDICTINE ORDER.] The Carthusians. Cistercians, Grandimontenses, Prxmonstmtensm, Cluniacs, &c., were all only so many varieties of Benedictioes. The historians of monachism indeed reckon up twenty-three subdivisions of this order in all, distinguished only by such local or other specific appellations, and by some slight differences of habit and discipline. The innovations introduced by Benedict were of course longest in penetrating to the more remote corners of Christendom ; and perhaps in no other part of Europe were they so long in being generally received as in the British Islands. Bede and others denominate the system which prevailed among the British monks before the arrival of St. Augustine in 597, the apostolic discipline ; but it was probably merely the ancient rule of Pachomius. It is even disputed whether St. Augustine brought over with him the rile of St. Benedict ; and at all events it is tolerably clear that the rule was not universally estab lished in the British churches till its observance was enforced by St. Dunstan and his friend Oswald, in the reign of Edgar, after the middle of the 10th century.
Meanwhile in the Eastern church also monasteries and nunneries had been made the subject of legal regulation by a constitution of Justinian (Nov. 5), addressed to Epiphanius, the archbishop of Con stantinople and patriarch, in the consulship of Belisarius, A.D. 535. Persons were not permitted to assume the monastic habit till after a three years' probation, and the abbots (ieeiseirod were re. spired, during this time, to examine well into their life, conversation, and fitness for the monastic profession. On being approved, the candi dates assumed the dress and tonsure. Both free persons and slaves were alike admissible into monasteries, and were received on the same footing in all respects. It seems that a man could leave his monastery and enter the world again, though it was considered sinful; but as all the property which he had not disposed of before entering the mona.sisoy (subject to some provisions for his wife or children, if he had any) became the property of the monastery on his entering it, if he chose to leave it ho could not take with him or recover any part of his property. Celibacy and chastity were required of the monks, though at this thno marriage was permitted to certain clerical persona, as singers and readers. Further regulations on the life of monks and nuns are con tained in the 134th Novel.
In the earliest age of the monastic system, the monks were left at liberty as to many things which were afterwards made the subject of strict regulation by the Lem, either of the state or the church. St. Athernmins, in one of his epistles, speaks of bishops that fast, and monks that eat and drink ; bishops that drink no wine, and monks that do; bishop. 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 obli gatory upon them to do so by Pope Clement. V. Nor was any vow of celibacy or any other partioular vow formally taken by the earliest monks on their admission. It appears even that it was not unusual for perwes to embrace the monastic life with the intention of wily con tinuing monks for a few yearn. and for those who had spent some time in a monastery actually to return to the world.
The word num in Greek Node in Latin :Venom, is said to ho of Egyptian origin, and to signify a virgin. Another account is, that the
original meaning of the Latin sense, nonnana, or nonmanis, was a penitent The Italians still use ;tonne and 'tonna for a grandfather and grandmother. Cyprian and Tertillian, in the latter part of the 3rd century. intik° mention of virgins dedicating themselves to Christ. Such a practice was indeed a natural mode of self-sacrifice, which had been familiar to all relig'ons. Some of these ecclesiastical 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 menachism, however, from the rudeness and laxity of the first form of the insti tution, to the strict regulation which characterised its maturity, moved on side by side with that of male monachiam.
Monasteries are called by the Greek fathers not only Moraeripia and Morel, hilt also sometimes aelarera, that is, holy places ; iryoweveia, the residences of the abbots, stylsd immures, or chiefs; uh'3pai, in closures ; and Ivo...ray-01am, places of reflection or meditation, that being one of the purposes to which they were very early applied.
The three vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, are taken by all monks sued nuns at their admission. All, both male and female, like wise receive the tonsure, like all the ecclesiastics of the Romish church. In all the orders the candidate for admission must first undergo a noviciate, which varies from one to three years. The ago 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. It is scarcely necessary to add, that in the modern constitution of monachism, the vows and status of a professed person, as indeed of all ecclesiastics, are by the law of the Roman church for life 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 beginning of the 13th century, of the Mendicant Friars. Of these an account has been given under the word FRIARS : and further particulars will be found under the names of the several orders.
The general dissolution of monastic establishments was one of the first consequences 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 reduced within the last fifty or sixty years, and the wealth and power of those of them that still exist most materially curtailed. The reform of the German monasteries was begun by the emperor Joseph IL; those of Franco were all swept away at the commencement of the first 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. Monks and nuns of all descriptions still swarm in Itsily,and in the countries of South America lately subject to the Spanish and Portuguese crowns; in Spain and Portugal monasteries were suppressed by the Cortes, during the war against Bonaparte : but many of them have been since restored, though much of their property has been sold and applied to national purposes. Even in modern times wo still hear occasionally of the institution of a new order of monks. One, called the Congregation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was established by the lath Pope Leo XII., in 1526.