English Monastic Life. Gasquet Francis Aidan

pro officiis Prioris et Subprioris ibidem. Mon. Angl. VI. p. 112.

       Institutiones beati Gilberti et successorum ejus, per Capitula Generalia institutæ. Mon. Angl. VI. p. 2, pp. *xxix. – *xcvii.

      Regula Monachorum S. Trinitatis. Mon. Angl. VI. p. 3, p. 1,558 seqq.

      De primordiis et inventione sacræ Religionis Iherosolimorum. Mon. Angl. V. p. 2, pp. 787 seqq.

      De Canonicorum Ordinis Præmonstratensis Origine, etc. Mon. Angl. V. p. 2, pp. 857 seqq.

      Consuetudines Abbatiæ Eveshamensis. Mon. Angl. II. 27-32.

      De officis Præcentoris. Mon. Angl. II. p. 39.

      De Sacrista. Mon. Angl. II. p. 40.

      Constitutiones per Decanum et Capitulum Ecclesiæ Cathedralis S. Pauli, Lond., factæ, Moniales Cœnobii S. Helenæ prope Bishop’s-gate, infra Civitatem London, tangentes. Mon. Angl. IV. p. 553.

      Leges Monachis Hydensibus ab Edgaro Rege datæ. Mon. Angl. II. p. 439 seqq.

      Constitutiones Capituli Generalis O.S.B. apud Northampton, A.D. 1225, in Mon. Angl. I. pp. xlvi. – li.

      A Consuetudinary of the Fourteenth Century for the House of St. Swithin, Winchester. ed. G. W. Kitchen, D.D. 1886.

      Collectanea Anglo-Premonstratensia (Camden Soc.). 1904.

      Charters and Records of Cluni. G. Duckett.

      Visitations of English Cluniac Foundations. G. Duckett.

      Two Chartularies of the Priory of St. Peter at Bath. ed. W. Hunt (Somerset Record Soc.). 1893.

      Rentalia et Custumaria of Glastonbury. ed. C. Elton (Somerset Record Soc.).

      Woman and Monasticism. L. Eckenstein. 1896.

      S. Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilbertines. Rose Graham. 1902.

      Gesta Abbatum S. Albani. ed. Riley (Rolls Series), II. pp. 95-107, Constitutiones Abbatis Johannis de Maryns, c. 1308. pp. 301-316, Constitutiones, c. 1336. pp. 418-466, Constitutiones Abb. Thomæ de la Mare, c. 1386. pp. 511-519. Constitutions for nuns of Sopwell.

       Gesta Abbatum S. Albani. ed. Riley (Rolls Series), III. pp. 470-72. Constitutiones Abbatis Johannis de la Moote.

      Adam de Domerham. Hearne, p. 123. De electione Walteri More Abbatis Cenobii Glastoniensis.

      The Register of Ralph of Shrewsbury, Bishop of Bath and Wells (1329-1363). ed. T. S. Holmes (Somerset Record Soc.). 1896.

      Episcopal Register of the Diocese of Winchester. William of Wykeham. ed. T. F. Kirby (Hampshire Record Soc.). 1899.

      Episcopal Registers of the Diocese of Exeter. Seven vols. ed. F. C. Hingeston-Randolph.

      Episcopal Register of the Diocese of Winchester, John de Sandale and Rigaud de Asserio. ed. F. J. Baigent (Hampshire Record Soc.). 1897.

      Episcopal Registers of the Diocese of Worcester. ed. J. Willis Bund (Worcester Hist. Soc.).

      Visitations of the Diocese of Norwich, A.D. 1492-1532. ed. A. Jessop, D.D. (Camden Soc.). 1888.

      Rites and Customs within the Monastical Church of Durham. ed. J. Raine (Surtees Soc.). 1842.

      The Durham Household Book. ed. J. Raine (Surtees Soc.). 1844.

      Halmota Prioratus Dunelmensis. ed. J. Booth (Surtees Soc.). 1886.

      Durham Account Rolls. ed. J. T. Fowler (Surtees Soc.). 3 vols. 1898-1900.

       CHAPTER I

      THE MONASTIC LIFE

      The regular or monastic life was instituted to enable men to attain with greater security to the higher ideals of the Christian life proposed to them in the Gospel. In the early ages of the Church the fervour of the first converts, strengthened and purified by the fierce persecutions they had to endure for religion, enabled them, or a considerable number of them, to reach this high standard without withdrawing from the world, its business, or society. The belief that, by the means of regulated labour and strict discipline of the senses and appetites, it was in the power of man to perfect his moral nature and rise to heights in the spiritual order, not otherwise attainable, seems almost inherent in man’s nature. Well-regulated practices founded upon this principle have been existent in all forms of religious worship other than Christian, and they can be recognised no less in the observances of ancient Egypt than in those of the lamas of modern Thibet. In the pagan world this doctrine seems to have dictated much of the peculiar teaching of the Stoics; and among the Jews the Essenes governed their lives in theory and practice upon this belief. Even among the early Christians there were some, who by striving to master their lower nature desired to attain the true end of human life as the Gospel taught them, the knowledge and love of God and obedience to His will. These were known as Ascetae, and in one of the earliest Christian documents they are mentioned as a class of Christians between the laity and the clergy. They were, however, in the world though not “of the world,” and strove to reach their goal whilst living their ordinary life by means of perseverance in prayer, voluntary chastity and poverty, as well as by the exercise of mortification of all kinds.

      Though the practice of seeking seclusion from the world for the purpose of better carrying out these ideals was apparently not unknown in the third century, it was not until after the conversion of Constantine that it can be said to have become general. The triumph of Christianity not only freed Christians from the spiritual stimulus of persecution, but it opened the door of the Christian home to worldly habits and luxury which were hitherto unknown, and which made the practice of the higher ideals of the spirit difficult, if not impossible, in the ordinary surroundings of the family life. To use the expression of Walter Hilton, the baptism of Constantine “brought so many fish into Peter’s net that it was well-nigh rent by the very multitude.” Henceforth it became necessary for Christians, who would satisfy the deeply seated instinct of human nature for the higher life, to seek it mostly in the solitudes of the desert, or later within the sheltering walls of the monastery.

      For a right understanding of monastic history and monastic practices in the West generally, and even in England, it is necessary to have some idea at least of the main features of Eastern monachism. It has been pointed out by Dom Butler, in his masterly introduction to the Lausiac History of Palladius,1 that monachism developed along two lines in Egypt. The first was the system initiated and directed by St. Anthony, when about the year A.D. 305, after living a life of seclusion for some twenty years, he undertook the direction and organisation of the multitude of monks which the reputation of his sanctity had drawn to his neighbourhood. The second was due to St. Pachomius, who, just about the same time, at the beginning of the fourth century, whilst yet quite a young man, founded his first monastery at Tabennisi in the far south of Egypt.

      The first system came to prevail over a great portion of the country by the end of the first century after its foundation by St. Anthony. The monks were mostly hermits in the strict sense of the word. They lived apart and “out of earshot of one another,”2 coming together at certain times for divine worship. In other districts the religious lived together in threes or fours, who, on all days but the Saturdays and Sundays when all assembled in the great church, were used to sing their songs and hymns together in their common cells. Of this system Palladius, who is the first authority on the matter, says: “They have different practices, each as he is able and as he wishes.” Dom Butler thus describes it: —

      “There was no rule of life. The Elders exercised an authority, but it was mainly personal… The society appears to have been a sort of spiritual democracy, ruled by the personal influence of the leading ascetics, but there was no efficient hold upon individuals to keep them from falling into extravagances… A young man would put himself under the guidance of a senior and obey him in all things; but the bonds between them were wholly voluntary. The purely eremitical life tended to die

1

Texts and Studies, Cambridge, vol. vi., No. 1, p. 233.

2

Ibid.