Monasteries are buildings to which people retired when they were tired of the world, or when they were unfortunate, or when they were wicked—and sometimes when they were good. The inclination to a monastic life arose with the corruptions of society, and with the dangers in which every body shared in the strifes, feuds, and wars of the dark ages. Those well-disposed persons who found it difficult to resist the corruptions of the times, sought in solitude a protection against temptation; and that fondness for contemplation, so curious in Eastern parts of the world, gave rise to the most ancient oriental philosophy, and also to that peculiar sanctity to which those who retired from the world often attained. To this was added the opinion, that, transgressions may be best atoned for by abstinence from all the pleasures of life, and from all society with men. And thus, according to an early notion popular througout the East, the Deity might be appeased. Anchorites, hermits, recluses, and monks are therefore found in the anti-christian times of Asiatic antiquity, and are also still prevalent in India and other parts of the Orient.
Among the Christians, whose religion assumes a spiritural and solitary nature among some,—a man used, as he thought, to elevate his soul above the world by hiding himself in buildings of thick stone, with little low doors and windows barely sufficient to let in the light of Heaven. Monasteries were first founded in the deserts of Upper Egypt, where Antony commonly called “the Great,” collected a number of hermits, about the year 305. These, for the sake of enjoying the benefit of retirement from the world in each other’s society, built their huts close together, and performed their devotional exercises in common. In the middle of the fourth century, Pachomius built a number of houses at a small distance from each other, upon the island of Tabenna, on the Nile, each of which was occupied by three or four monks in cells, who were all under the superintendance of a Prior. These Priories formed together the Cænobium, or Monastery—which was under the care of a Superior, the Abbot (from Abbas father)—and the monks were obliged to submit to uniform rules of life. Many of the monasteries were strictly enclosed with high walls, so as to preserve the immates from the temptations of the world around them; and to supply the place of the solitude of deserts. Hence the name of Cloisters, from Claustra, “inclosures.” The monks were soon after made to conform to still more strict discipline, which, in many cases, consisted in the most extreme mortification of the body. Stone beds, hair shirts, roots to eat and water to drink; long kneelings, frequent prostrations, severe whippings, and endless repetitions of prayers, were among the more common ways of securing admission to the realms of bliss; thus monasteries became the resort of all those who thought that heaven was attainable by such methods. Similar establishments for females were also instituted, called Nunneries, where women underwent complete exclusion from the world and the severest mortifications, many of which have been attempted to be revived in our own times, in connection with the Church of England. The Nunneries were, in some instances, worse in their effects than the monasteries; and it is a well-known fact that the vilest means were taken to imprison young females in such places by wicked relatives, who divided their fortunes with the priests, who shut them in.
Yet with all their abuses, many of the monasteries of the more enlightened European States became the dwellings of piety, industry, and temperance; and the refuge of learning, during the prevalence of those frightful wars which desolated the world in the dark ages. Yet, as the world became more settled, and as wealth began to abound, the monasteries became the receptacles of every kind of iniquity and luxury; and with it, the grossest immorality crept within their walls—together with all the vices of the world; indeed, murders, with other abominable crimes, were frequently committed in these dismal dwellings. At last the Reformation arose. In this country, King Henry VIII. seized upon the monastic revenues, and applied them to the service of the State, and to himself. In various parts of Europe where the Light of the Gospel penetrated, other kings or rulers imitated our King Henry; and from these enormous revenues, institutions for educational purposes were founded and supported. In Catholic countries they retained their original constitution, till the eighteenth century. From the influence of the spirit of the age they sunk in public estimation—their whole system was exploded. Many monasteries have become extinct, many others are with difficulty sustained; but still, in the more benighted countries of Europe they exist, to the great detriment of social progress, and will be only overthrown by the advance of intelligence, and the spread of sound religious principles.
One of the most famous of these institutions, in England, was St. Mary’s Abbey, York. It was situated near the walls of York, and during nearly five centuries maintained a very high rank among the religious establishments of the North. Its origin, as given by its first Abbot, is as follows:—Not long after the Norman conquest, Runifried, a pious monk, fixed his cell at Whitby, with the hope of being there wholly secluded from the world. His fame attracted round him a great number of devout persons, among whom was Stephen, afterwards the Abbot. From the Earl of Northumbria the monks obtained a grant of land; but when, by their labours, they had cultivated and improved it, the Earl became their persecutor, to induce them to relinquish what they had made trebly valuable. They were also harassed by the frequent attacks of pirates by sea, and robbers by land. Driven from their first place of sojourn by these distresses, they obtained from the King permission to repair for themselves the Monastery of Lashingham, then lying in ruins, about twenty miles to the north-west of Whitby. Nevertheless, in this solitude they found no rest; they were constantly subjected to the assaults of robbers and the enmity of their former persecutors, and also of the Archbishop of York, who claimed part of their domain. The case was carried at last before the tribunal of the King in person, who promised to see the monks righted; but the King dying, the claim of the Archbishop was renewed, till William Rufus interfered and gave to the Archbishop, in lieu of the disputed ground, a Church in York, dedicated to St Stephen. Soon afterwards, this monarch visiting York, laid with his own hand the first stone of a new and larger establishment than that which the monks had hitherto possessed, and calling it after St. Mary, made to it liberal grants and privileges.
This religious fraternity were Black Monks, of the Order of St. Benedict. Their Abbot was little inferior to the Bishop of the province, being mitred, and having a seat in Parliament, which entitled him to the dignified appellation of “my lord.” His retinue was sumptous whenever he travelled abroad, and he possessed two country seats in the neighbourhood of York, and a house in London, near Paul’s Wharf. He had also a spacious park well stocked with game. This sumptousness engendered jealousy among the people of the City of York, who on several occasions burned parts of the abbey, and slew the monks. Simon, the Abbot, could not appease the tumult, except upon paying a hundred pounds as a peace offering to the enraged party. Afterwards, an enormous wall was built to defend the abbey from these depredations, which effctually prevented such disasters, till the time of the dissolution of monasteries, of which I have spoken.
At this time there were, in the house, fifty monks, including the abbot, the prior, and one sub-prior, with a revenue of £2,091 4s. 7d. per annum, equal to £20,000 of our money, which was a pretty good sum for the support of fifty monks.
The mitred abbeys, at the dissolution, were for the most part granted by the King to noble or wealthy families, in consideration of service or exchange of lands, or for the payment of money; and the harvest was a rich one that the King reaped by this plundering of the monks. Soon after the dissolution, an order was issued by the Crown, to level the Abbey, and erect, with due alacrity, a palace for the residence of the Lords President of the North: thus its splendid architecture was cut up piecemeal. Some beautiful remains were, notwithstanding, still left; and, upon the formation of a Philosophical Society, in 1822, the site of St. Mary’s Abbey was chosen as a proper situation for the erection of a Botanic Garden. It was the spot on which the front of the palace had formerly stood, and which had previously been occupied by the range of buildings and apartments of the monastery. The first opening of the ground discovered antiquarian treasures, that even Keet, the great antiquarian, would have rejoiced at. Not mere heaps of mutilated stones were there, but whole portions of the walls of the monastery; of spacious and elegant door ways; of columns of various forms, rising to the height of five or six feet, standing, as they had been, before the dissolution of the monastery, intersected by massive foundations of the palace. Not an hour passed without bringing to light some long-buried specimens of the art and fancy of the monastic sculptor.