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Monasticism: from Benedict to the Singing Nun |
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Jackson Snyder, 12/14/90 |
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By
the 8th century, Benedictine missions had carried the rule and the Gospel
throughout Europe, England, and Ireland. Monasticism became the driving
force of Christian evangelism with each monastery conforming the rule to
some extent to its particular socio-cultural environment. Notable monastic
missionaries include Boniface to the Germans, Patrick to Ireland, Columban
to the Celts, and Augustine to England. Pope Gregory should also be
mentioned for his enduring devotion to Benedict and his rule. Early
Benedictine monasticism was responsible, to a great extent, for the
conquest of the barbarians, pagans, and heretics of the Western world. The
rule itself was one of austerity and disciplined living, articles found
therein deal with such subjects as poverty, chastity, obedience to the
abbot, clothing, reception of guests, and prayer: "Our prayer must be
brief and pure, unless it chance be prolonged with the inspiration of
God's grace." By
the time of the Carolingian dynasty, monasticism had become an important
and invaluable political tool used by Charlemagne to maintain power, solve
social problems, and insure the way to eternal bliss. Benedictine
monasteries flourished by means of the incessant military campaigning of
the Carolingians, official sanction, and local patronage. As a result, and
because of the especially sad state of the clergy in those days
(participants in simony, immorality, controversy, and ignorance), the
discipline of monastic life broke down over the course of time, permitting
laxity in behavior, additions and subtractions to the Rule, and the
allowance of outside manual labor. Because of the prominence and
importance of monasticism and the Christian faith to the empire,
Charlemagne and his immediate successors determined to bring about reform
through standardization of religious practices, governmental supervision,
and enforcing strict observance of the Rule among monastics. In
910, William the Good, ruler of Aquitaine, chartered a new Benedictine
monastery at Cluny of Burgundy, granting patronage to the Pope rather than
to himself or any local vassal. The monks were cautioned to recapture the
purity of the Rule, develop and utilize ceremonial forms of praise to God,
stringently observe the canonical hours, and, most importantly, branch out
to other, "daughter" monasteries. Such reform was a fresh breeze
to medieval Christianity, and within 300 years, Cluny had over 1500
daughters. With the benefit of central authority and power (the abbot of
the mother house was the president over all), the Cluniac houses became
rich and opulent, attracting great benefices from the rich and powerful. At
about the same time and for perhaps the same reasons, new monastic reforms
began to take root simultaneously throughout Europe. At Metz, one John
Groze, dismayed with the affluence of Cluny, began a work of greater
austerity, finally attaining some 150 daughters. Unlike Cluny, these
houses were only loosely affiliated with the motherhouse. In addition,
some Benedictine monasteries, like the one at Bec in Normandy, wanted to
retain their individuality of identity, thus did not want to join with the
Cluniac-Benedictine system. Rather, due to the influence of reform, they
began to "revive," determining to "strip away local
accretions" of sloth and lethargy. The Normans conquered England in
1066, exporting this renewed Benedictine monasticism to England through
their abbot of Bec and Archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc, and later the
great the Christian apologist, Anselm, known well yet today for his
treatise Why the God-Man: The
God-Man...cannot be made from a divine nature and a human nature either by
the transformation of one into the other or by the corrupt mingling of
both into a third. I
believe one of the most important of the reform movements began at Hirsau,
Germany in 1069 by one William. Though not affiliated with Cluny, the
monastery at Hirsau observed the same variations to the Benedictine rule,
but was granted, by papal authority, the freedom to modify its rule for
the sake of local custom and religious practice. Such modification would
allow the inclusion of the conversi, lay monks who were allowed to
be married, and retired nobility. Such "reform" seems to have
paved the way for greater and greater aberration from the Rule, and new
orders such as the Cistercian, Augustinians, and other, later and more
divergent, orders. The
Cistercian order of Citeaux was a literal interpreter of the Rule of
Benedict. It was the Cistercians' intention to follow every jot and tittle
of the Rule - "to the last dot;" if the Rule did not mention a
particular situation, that situation was avoided. The few exceptions
included Mass and Order for the Dead. Cistercian novitiates took a severe
vow of poverty. Since, by 1098, the European population had increase to
the point of utilizing much of the arable land, the Cistercians founded
their houses on worthless wasteland, therefore they were not subject to
patronage. The Cistercian constitution was authored by Stephen Harding in
his Carta Charitatis, detailing matters such as relations between
abbots (with "fraternal spirit") and houses, and who should
judge in case of disputes (the body of abbots, rather than "the
abbot" of the mother house). Since prayer was such an urgent matter,
time was made for prayer by enlisting conversi to do the majority
of manual labor on the "granges," or farmlands. Freed from the
confines of patronage, the conversi of the Cistercian order were
able to make major advancements in agricultural methods. In doing so, the
order became rich even if the members did not. The
Augustinian Canons, a less well-organized, looser association, came into
being about the same time as the Cistercian order (around 1063). This
fellowship was mostly urban and secular, allowing for a much broader range
of lifestyles the any previous monastic movement. The Order was based on
the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, a rule derived from a letter from
Augustine (of Hippo) to his "sister," explaining simple
instructions for nuns. The fellowship of Augustinian Canons grew rapidly,
due, no doubt, to the more inclusive and less austere rule. The
era of the seven Crusades (1095 - 1274) ushered in an enthusiastic revival
of a particularly militant and unique form of devotional Christianity,
giving rise to such movements as the Order of Knights Templars and
Hospitalars, and mobilizing monks, nobility, the military, and peasants in
a holy war against all pagans or heretics, with the final goal of
liberating "the holy land" from such. The three branches of the
Templars, the Alcantra, Calatrava, and Santiago, were especially important
in the reconquest of Spain after 1156. Nobles of these Templars became the
secular rulers of the Spanish state after the reconquest. In
the early 13th century, Dominic of Spain, an Augustinian Canon and
inquisitor, was encouraged by the Pope to start a new monastic order
devoted to academics and preaching. As a result, the new Dominican order
developed from Augustinian roots around 1218, and was known affectionately
(or not-so) as the "watchdogs of God." The emphasis of the
Dominicans became academics. Although the "friars" begged, they
were encouraged to complete in-house coursework in theology, then
university work. Dominican houses were affiliated with universities. Being
the most hermeneutically oriented order, the Dominican friars were
involved to a great degree in the inquisition. Contemporary with Dominic
was Francis of Assisi, a youth from a prominent family, who was converted
to Christ through a spiritual experience. Later
impressed by one of Jesus' messages to his disciples (when they were to go
out two by two), he began an order based on that passage in Matthew 10,
exhorting those that would follow him to give up all that they had to
minister to the poor and downtrodden, and imitate Christ in their daily
lives. The Pope condoned Francis’ work in 1210, and by his death (1226),
the movement was widespread, even into Africa; there became thousands of
Franciscans. These brothers and sisters (the Poor Clares) were given to
preaching, begging, and self-abasement. Later, the movement became known
for its academics and intellectualism. The Franciscans and Dominicans had
many similarities due to identical times, similar missions, and what may
have been inspired concern for the dregs of society, Christ, and the
Catholic Church. Finally,
we come to the 13th and 14th century, a time of constant war, plague,
political heterodoxy, and flagrant religious hypocrisy. Since I wrote my
term paper on the Brethren of the Common Life, I will only mention that
this movement was a mixture of both clergy and laity, took no vows at all
(at first, later became Canons), with members working rather than begging.
The Brethren were founded by Groote as a response to the poor quality of
the clergy about him. The summa of the movement is recorded in the
writings of Ruysbroek (the leaders of the movement venerated his
writings), Groote, and a Kempis. Other movements that were important in
this time of crisis include the beghards and beguines (quasi-heretical,
loosely bound mendicant sects), the Brethren of the Free Spirit (and other
such heretical and spiritualist fellowships), and the Friends of God,
based on the writings of the mystic, Meister Eckhart, the via negativa,
and flagellation. There were probably countless other groups as well at
this time, I can name these: Waldensians, Hussites, and Cathars. Although
these named were dealt with harshly and finally by the Inquisition of the
Dominicans, there must have been hundreds that fell through the cracks. So,
beginning with Benedict and continuing through a millennium of Christian
development to its decline, we summarize the phenomenon of monasticism in
Europe. Although, in retrospect, monasticism is often criticized and
questioned for its value in the scheme of Christian philosophy and
practice, after a closer examination one finds that the movement fulfilled
many needs of its harsh society, changing with time to do so. In the nick,
society dispensed with monasticism altogether, preferring only the
Dominican "singing nun" and the "flying nun" of the
order of St. Bernadette, both commonly known and recognized from the
1960s. The former mendicant was soon rejected, then forgotten, dying an
impoverished sexual anomaly. But her song continues to ricochet from one
wall of the skull to another like a piece of red-hot shrapnel, keeping us
awake until the nightmares come. The latter lives on in our hearts as a
specter of absurdity, a total affront to our Christian sensibilities. |