Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance

by P. L. Jacob

St. Athanasius, one of the most illustrious pupils of St. Anthony, continued to spread, by his discourses and his writings, the doctrines of his master. He went to reside at Rome in 340, with several eminent anchorites, and he then preached by example as well as by precept, and became the indefatigable promoter of monastic institutions in Western Europe.

At the same period, St. Pachomius, who had founded in the Thebais the monastery of Tabennæ, compiled the first complete regulations that have been handed down to us for the use of the cenobites, in which manual labour as well as prayer was prescribed. Several celebrated doctors and fathers of the Church, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, St. John Chrysostom, St. Jerome (Fig. 237), and St. Cyril, practised asceticism.

Fig. 236*—St. Anthony, a statuette in stone of the Third Century, belonging to a gentleman of Cambrai. This engraving, never before published, shows us what the holy doctors thought of the great anchorite of Egypt. He is treading underfoot the devil, who is represented by the unclean animal in the flames. The closed book signifies that, without any study, solely by hearing them read, he learnt the Holy Scriptures by heart; and St. Jerome testifies that he expounded them with wisdom. The triangular tau is the Egyptian shape of the cross; the bell signifies the power of driving away the evil spirit.

St. Eusebius, Bishop of Vercelli, was the first Western prelate who associated monastic and clerical life. His clergy passed their existence in fasting, praying, reading, and labour. St. Ambrosius says, “These clergy only changed their condition for a bishopric or martyrdom.” At about the same period (352–360) St. Martin founded, in the neighbourhood of Poitiers, the most ancient of the monasteries in Gaul (Monasterium Locociagense), and twelve years afterwards, the famous Abbey of Marmoutiers, which was so rich a nursery of holy prelates and learned doctors. The sermons of St. Basilius, in the kingdom of Pontus, his numerous monastic foundations, the rules which he laid down, and which were forthwith adopted by all the Eastern monks, bear witness to the strength of the Christian movement in Asia towards the close of the fourth century.

Fig. 237.—St. Jerome in the desert: the saint is holding in his hand a stone with which he is about to beat his beast.—From a picture of the School of Andrea del Sarto (Sixteenth Century), in the Louvre.

The great monastery of Tabennæ, which at that time served as the type for all conventual foundations, comprised a vast network of small houses, built one after the other, and united under the supreme control of one head. The religious administration of the monastery was, moreover, entrusted to a prior or abbot, who was assisted by a deputy, while the steward who was entrusted with the secular duties—the daily expenditure, and the incidents connected with material life—also had an assistant, who took his place when he was absent. The monastery was thus divided into houses, each managed by a prior; each house contained a certain number of chambers, or cells, and each cell was always shared by three monks. It required three or four houses to constitute the tribe, or monastery.

The great monasteries had from thirty to forty houses, with about forty monks in each, making in all seven or eight hundred persons. At the death of St. Pachomius, the order of Tabennæ numbered seven thousand monks. Palladius says that catechumens preparing for baptism, children, youths, and men of all ages were received there. All were obliged to study the New Testament and the Psalter; three times a day wholesome instruction was given to those who required it, and three times a week the prior of each house assembled the monks who were placed under his control to hold conversation with them, called a catechizing, or argument, after which they discussed amongst each other the questions that had been dealt with. The teaching of the monks was not limited to this, it extended from beyond the walls of the monastery to the faithful in the neighbouring district. Once on Saturdays, and twice on Sundays, the prior explained to them the mysteries of the faith, to say nothing of the catechisms and lessons, of which the chief or general of the order himself took charge every week. St. Pachomius and St. Orsevius did not confine themselves to the mere development of the moral principles taken from Holy Scripture; they entered upon an exegesis of them, giving their audience the right of questioning, replying, and discussing their statements, and afterwards answering all objections so made by writing. The study of the Fathers of the Church was added to that of the holy books. The prior sometimes authorised plain monks, who were learned or eloquent, as was a certain Theodorus, to defend the truths of the Christian religion against the profane and to establish a series of public lectures.

The monastic discipline set up by St. Basilius was almost identical with that of St. Pachomius; his monks discussed nearly every topic amongst themselves. He merely instructed them not to try and override each other in these debating tournaments, urging them to avoid ostentation, empty words, and the inspirations of vanity; he even directed them as to the intonation of voice, and the gestures most becoming. In the monasteries founded by St. Basilius, many children were taken as pupils, and sent back into the world when they were old enough to select a profession and make their own way in life.