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050 - 19 The Monastic Orders · Short History of the Christian Church

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  Speaker 1: Part two, Chapter nineteen of Short History of the Christian
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  Speaker 1: Church by John Fletcher Hurst. This LibriVox recording is in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain, Chapter nineteen. The monastic orders. Eastern monasticism,
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  Speaker 1: which in the early period had flourished in all parts,
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  Speaker 1: especially along the Valley of the Nile, declined as the
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  Speaker 1: medieval period advanced. The monks had departed from their original
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  Speaker 1: pure and simple life and had ceased to be examples
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  Speaker 1: for popular imitation. Eustatheus of Thessalonika describes the monastic decline
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  Speaker 1: of the twelfth century in the Eastern Church as deplorable.
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  Speaker 1: He speaks of the monks as a hypocritical and ignorant class,
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  Speaker 1: no longer worthy of the confidence or support of the Church.
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  Speaker 1: The most celebrated of all the Eastern monasteries were those
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  Speaker 1: of Mount Athos. They still exist, are held in high esteem,
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  Speaker 1: and are supposed to contain important literary treasures still in
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  Speaker 1: manuscript with which the Christian scholars of the West are
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  Speaker 1: as yet unacquainted. Eccentric types of monasticism manifested themselves in
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  Speaker 1: the East in the twelfth century. Imitators of Simian Stolides
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  Speaker 1: arose in large numbers. Many Anchorites spent their lives in
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  Speaker 1: the tops of trees or in caves. Numerous devices were
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  Speaker 1: resorted to, such as the wearing of an iron shirt
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  Speaker 1: or other articles inflicting physical pain, in order to make
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  Speaker 1: the self abnegation complete in the eye of God. Some
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  Speaker 1: of the monasteries were enlivened by theological discussions, though the
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  Speaker 1: general tendency was towards sloth and ignorance. In the cloisters
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  Speaker 1: at Mount Athos, the disposition towards mysticism and quietism prevailed
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  Speaker 1: for some time. As the Byzantine Empire declined and the
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  Speaker 1: Roman Church gained strength, the Eastern monastic life lost its
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  Speaker 1: place in the general life of the Church. Western monasticism
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  Speaker 1: developed with amazing rapidity. The Benedictines and clunia Sensians occupied
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  Speaker 1: a prominent place in the great body of the Latin Church.
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  Speaker 1: The wealthy and noble were attracted towards them. Not only
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  Speaker 1: were fabulous gifts made to them, but the nobility even
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  Speaker 1: left their estates, took on themselves the vows of poverty,
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  Speaker 1: and in all menial service, placed themselves on a level
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  Speaker 1: with the monks. They became cooks, shepherds, carpenters, anything in
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  Speaker 1: everything which the monastic order required of its humblest members.
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  Speaker 1: Peter of Klugni born ten ninety two or ten ninety
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  Speaker 1: four and Hildegarde of Bingen born eleven o four were
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  Speaker 1: distinguished from monastic zeal. Bernard of Clervaux born ten ninety
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  Speaker 1: one was very successful in extending the world work of
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  Speaker 1: the Benedictine Order. He encouraged the reclaiming of waste lands
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  Speaker 1: and other works of material improvement. During the thirteenth century
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  Speaker 1: there were no less than thirteen hundred Benedictine abbeys, this
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  Speaker 1: large increase from very humble beginnings being due chiefly to
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  Speaker 1: the reformatory energy and pure example of Bernard himself. The
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  Speaker 1: Mendicant orders were a reaction against the vast wealth which
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  Speaker 1: was poured into the abbeys of the Latin Church. The
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  Speaker 1: adoption of the monastic life by the nobility had no
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  Speaker 1: doubt its effect in introducing a new and more dangerous
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  Speaker 1: taste than had hitherto reigned in those simple abodes. The
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  Speaker 1: orders which now arose repudiated all wealth and professed to
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  Speaker 1: live on alms alone. The fratree Minores or Franciscans, arose
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  Speaker 1: from Saint Francis of Assisi, who was born in eleven
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  Speaker 1: eighty two. He was distinguished for his zeal and popular eloquence.
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  Speaker 1: He was a model of poverty, without money, shoes, or staff.
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  Speaker 1: He went through the country and preached the blessings of
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  Speaker 1: poverty to the multitudes. He applied to Pope Innocent the
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  Speaker 1: third for authority for a separate order, and gained the
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  Speaker 1: object of his desire. The early stages of his career
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  Speaker 1: were without decided result, disciples growing but slowly in number.
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  Speaker 1: But after a certain point his success suddenly broke upon him.
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  Speaker 1: By the year twelve nineteen he had won five thousand
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  Speaker 1: men to his order, and by twelve sixty four there
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  Speaker 1: were throughout Europe eight thousand Franciscan cloisters, which were occupied
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  Speaker 1: by two hundred thousand monks. The Dominicans were founded by
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  Speaker 1: dominic who was born in eleven seventy. The order was
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  Speaker 1: approved by Pope Honorious the third. The tastes of its
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  Speaker 1: members were scientific. They were fond of theological discussion. They
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  Speaker 1: carried on a bitter controversy with the Franciscans over the
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  Speaker 1: question of Mary's exemption from sin, the Dominicans holding to
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  Speaker 1: the negative. In the year twelve thirty. They had a
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  Speaker 1: theological school in Paris, which became a great center of
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  Speaker 1: sacred learning. Besides these chief orders, there were others which
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  Speaker 1: were obscure imitations. Among them were the Carmelites, the Augustine Hermits,
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  Speaker 1: and the Servites Serve Batta Virginis Marie, servants of the
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  Speaker 1: Blessed Virgin Mary. The Beguins and Beghards were peculiar to
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  Speaker 1: the Netherlands. Lambert de Begue of Louvain is said to
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  Speaker 1: have founded the Beghard order about eleven eighty. Both of
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  Speaker 1: these orders drifted into theological vagaries and were finally condemned
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  Speaker 1: and persecuted by the Roman Church. The Count Soul of
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  Speaker 1: Leon reduced the medicant orders from twenty three to four Dominicans, Franciscans,
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  Speaker 1: Carmelites and Augustines. The Knightly orders were an outgrowth of
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  Speaker 1: two forces, the regular monastic life in the church and
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  Speaker 1: the physical needs called forth by the Crusades. The knights
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  Speaker 1: templars were founded by Hugo of Paiennes in eleven nineteen,
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  Speaker 1: and Godfrey of Saint Omer Baldwin, King of Jerusalem opened
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  Speaker 1: a part of the sanctuary close to the temple for
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  Speaker 1: their occupation. They were greatly strengthened by the eloquence and
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  Speaker 1: influence of Bernard of Clervaux, who in eleven twenty eight
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  Speaker 1: gained an ecclesiastical confirmation of them by the Senate of
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  Speaker 1: troyas The Knights of Saint John, though originally founded for
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  Speaker 1: purposes of benevolence, became also a famous military order. Schiller,
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  Speaker 1: in his Knights of Saint John, the us portrays their
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  Speaker 1: prowess in war and their sacrifice for the suffering, Oh noble,
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  Speaker 1: shown the fearful cross upon your mail afar, when Rhodes
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  Speaker 1: and Acre hailed your might, o lions of the war,
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  Speaker 1: when leading many a pilgrim horde through wastes of Syrian gloom,
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  Speaker 1: or standing with the cherub's sword before the holy tomb.
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  Speaker 1: Yet on your forms the apron seemed a nobler armor far,
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  Speaker 1: when by the sick man's bed ye stood O lions
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  Speaker 1: of the war, When ye the high born bowed your
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  Speaker 1: pride to tend the lowly weakness, the duty, though it
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  Speaker 1: brought no fame, fulfilled by Christian meekness religion of the cross,
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  Speaker 1: thou blend'st as in a single flower, the twofold branches
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  Speaker 1: of the palm humility and power. But from this high
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  Speaker 1: estate there was a sad decline. When the Knights became
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  Speaker 1: strong and were the objects of universal love and as admiration,
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  Speaker 1: they began to depart from their original charity and poverty.
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  Speaker 1: They became wealthy and immoral, and finally lost the respect
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  Speaker 1: of the Church and the nations. After the Crusades, they
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  Speaker 1: settled on the island of Cyprus. In the year thirteen
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  Speaker 1: o nine, they captured the island of Rhodes and lived
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  Speaker 1: there as the armed defenders of the Faith. They maintained
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  Speaker 1: their ground till fifteen twenty three, when they were forced
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  Speaker 1: to surrender the island to the Turks after one of
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  Speaker 1: the most stubbornly contested sieges in history. Down to modern times,
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  Speaker 1: their valor against the Turks has been unsurpassed. In fifteen thirty,
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  Speaker 1: Charles the Fifth ceded to them the island of Malta,
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  Speaker 1: which they held until seventeen ninety eight, when Napoleon Bonaparte
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  Speaker 1: took it. It is now a British possession. The Brothers
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  Speaker 1: of the common Life arose amid the distractions of the
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  Speaker 1: papal exile in France and the terrors of the Black Death.
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  Speaker 1: The Order was the crystallization of a general desire in
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  Speaker 1: the church for a new spiritual life. It was founded
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  Speaker 1: by Gerhard Grote thirteen forty eighty four and produced such
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  Speaker 1: pure members as Thomas A. Kempis of the Monastery of
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  Speaker 1: Agnesburg near Zwola in the Netherlands, and other men of
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  Speaker 1: a similar intensely spiritual life. End of Chapter nineteen