Early Christian monasticism parallels
what we saw about the forest ascetics in India. It appeared in
Egypt in areas very much influenced by Gnostic thought, which would
account for an often extreme asceticism as isolated individuals
seemingly competed in the rigors to which they put their bodies in
order to liberate their souls from evil. Another factor playing a
role was the cult of the martyrs, which saw instant entrance to heaven
for those who had been put to death for their faith. As Roman
persecution ended, "dying to the world" as a monk for some became an
equivalent. Originally these desert monks were hermits or loners,
but quickly monastic communities were formed, and the idea of a
monastery spread north. In remote areas, such as Ireland, monks
preserved knowledge of Greek even as it disappeared in Italy, and
everywhere in Europe, as new tribal groups replaced the Romans,
monasteries were typically the only places where one might find
literate individuals.
Saint Benedict, who lived at the turn
of the sixth century, formulated a set of rules that set the standard
for European monasticism throughout the Middle Ages. A key to the
lifestyle of the monk, who ordinarily committed himself to a particular
community for the rest of his life, was expressed in the Latin phrase ora et labora (pray and work). Prayer above all
was the chanting of the liturgical hours (the divine office, as it was
called, consisting of the Psalms and other passages from the Bible)
beginning before dawn and continuing at different times until the early
evening. Work was all that it takes to maintain what in effect
was a small village as well as the copying and illustration of
manuscripts. Most monasteries were for men only, although, as in
the Buddhist world, there were communities of women. All monks
were expected to take vows committing themselves to lifelong poverty,
chastity, and obedience (they could not own private property, they were
to remain celibate, and they were to follow the directives of the
individual who was elected head of the monastery). Only some
would become priests but all were considered to be "religious" who were
then outside the control both of the local bishop as well as whatever
government otherwise existed. Because in order to chant the
scriptures one had to be able to read them, young men who wanted to
become monks had to be literate, and one result was that anyone who
wanted his son to get an education in order to gain a governmental post
would have him live with the monks in order to be taught his Latin
(still the only common language in Europe and virtually the only
language as yet in written form).
A Benedictine monastery in early
France or Germany or Italy would very much resemble a Buddhist
monastery in China or Japan. It often was a fortress refuge from
banditry, and it was often enough the only civilizing influence in
areas that were characterized by vicious local warfare.
Understandably, as in Asia, a Western monastery might slip considerably
from its ideals. We already learned about Hui Neng, the future
Sixth Patriarch who had to flee for his life and even then faced
threats of assassination from men who supposed were on the road to
enlightenment. Benedict himself had formulated his rule in
response to the failings he had seen in his own monastic training, but
this still did not prevent his own monasteries from having worldly
abbots who lived very luxurious lives or ordinary monks who were just
as capable of violence as their Chinese counterparts. Throughout
the Middle Ages various reformers would appear who would attempt to
develop more austere and prayerful communties (the Cistercians were an
example), and as European religious unity came to be threatened more
mobile religious communties were formed by Saint Francis and Saint
Dominic.
The Reformation spelled an end to
monasteries in Protestant Europe as well as in the England of Henry
VIII. Martin Luther, himself a priest in the Augustinian monastic
order in Germany, had
rejected celibacy for the clergy and this alone would have meant an end
to the type of celibate community he had belonged to, but a more
signficant factor was that with newly emerging ideas of nationalism a
Catholic monastery, with its rich holdings of land, was both an
obstacle and an appealing target. The fact too that the printing
press made the monks' scriptorium (the area where manuscripts were
recopied by hand and usually elaborately illustrated) obsolete as well
as the fact that nationalism dictated an end to Latin as a liturgical
language (the language used in religious ceremonies) meant that the
principal cultural role of the monastery was over. This combined
with the Protestant emphasis on Bible reading and a rejection of the
cults dealing with the Virgin Mary and the saints meant that religious
services became very different, and in a way all churchgoers were
expected to live in a more ascetic manner.
The Benedictines of Saint Andrew's Abbey
in Valyermo in the high desert past Palmdale remain an example of
the ideals Saint Benedict proposed fifteen hundred years ago.
They welcome visitors, especially at the time of their fall festival in
late September, and any of you who would want to get a greater feeling
for what their world is about might want to make the drive and attend
services at their chapel.
Monasteries
and convents do need to be seen as poltical structures in their own
right. For a fictional portrayal that also reflects the
persistence of old Gnostic traditions in medieval Europe, read Umberto
Eco's The Name of the Rose or
rent the 1986 film with Sean Connery. For a nonfictional account
of convent life before the Second Vatican Council rent the Audrey
Hepburn film The Nun's Story.
To better understand what
attracts someone to monastic life, there is no better book than the
enormously influential Seven Storey
Mountain by Thomas
Merton.
Monasticism
has continued to
play a dominant role in the Greek and Russian Orthodox worlds as well
as in Ethiopia and the Mideast, and it remains important in the Roman
Catholic world even as other types of religious communities
proliferated, and it has even been revived to some extent in the
Protestant world. In the last few years there has been an
increased
interest in the monastic life among Catholic and Orthodox men and
women. Does this withdrawal from the world seem like an excuse to
escape from ordinary responsibilities--or do you think the monk or nun
(especially the individual committed to what is called a contemplative
lifestyle) can have a positive influence on the world around?
Janwillem van de Wettering is a Dutch mystery writer who as a young man
traveled to Kyoto and was allowed to live in a Zen monastery even
though he did not share Buddhist religious beliefs (his account is in a
wonderful little book entitled The
Empty Mirror) . Given
Zen teaching, this is not particularly surprising. However, do
you think it would make sense for a Buddhist to have made a similar
trip to spend time in a Catholic monastery? In thinking through
your answer, what do you see as the difference--or the
connection--between spirituality and religion in the sense of an
organized structure of beliefs and practices?
