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| | '''Monk'''<Br> |
| | * a member of a religious community of men typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.<Br> |
| | * synonyms: brother, religious, cenobite, contemplative, mendicant; friar; abbot, prior; novice, oblate, postulant; lama, marabout..."the monks teach a class in organic gardening" The term is said to be from the Greek word ''mono'' meaning ''alone'' or ''monakhos'' meaning ''solitary'' |
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| 'Monasticism' is literally the act of 'dwelling alone'. A monk is someone who has separated himself from what might be called the "[[world]]". Since he often lived in a community being alone did not mean he was not with others. | | If a monk is ''a member of a religious community of men'' why would he be considered solitary or alone? |
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| The levites of Israel called out by Moses from an organized society established around the [[Golden calf]] made themselves a separate society belonging to God. While they had areas that were separate from the general population they also served a purpose within the greater needs of society.
| | '[[Monasticism]]' is literally the act of 'dwelling alone' according to some. A monk is someone who has separated himself from what might be called the "[[world]]". Since he often lived in a community being ''alone'' did not mean he was not with others. A historical look at [[Monasticism]] with hope of looking at where many monastics strayed from Christ's principles. |
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| Being separate from the world has been a common theme and practice of religious orders from the beginning <Ref>Numbers 8:14 Thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the children of Israel: and the Levites shall be mine.
| | [[Married Monks]]<Br> |
| Numbers 3:13 Because all the firstborn [are] mine; [for] on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast: mine shall they be: I [am] the LORD.
| | Should monks take a vow of celibacy? |
| Luke 6:22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you [from their company], and shall reproach [you], and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.
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| 2 Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [thing]; and I will receive you,</Ref>
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| But to be a separate religious society one must practice [[religion]] which requires service to the homes of the people.
| | [[Lost Monks]]<Br> |
| | Did the church go wrong in the formation of Abbeys and other forms of monastic life? |
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| The ascetic life stile is characterized by or suggesting the practice of severe self-discipline and abstention from all forms of indulgence, typically for religious reasons.
| | '''[[Modern Monastic life]]'''<Br> |
| | Is a look at modern Abbeys and monasteries including a review of August Turak businessman's perspective of the Trappist monks at '''[[Mepkin Abbey]]'''. <Br> |
| | Also contains a video of 5 volunteer testing life at '''Worth Abbey''' in England. |
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| But to truly be an ascetic one must sacrifice their own comfort, wealth and social security for the benefit of others. We are all to love our neighbor as ourselves but the ascetic loves his neighbor more than him or herself.
| | [[Rules of St Benedict]] |
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| The self imposed ascetic life style of deprivation or austere sacrifice without a religious purpose of fulfilling your duty to God and your fellowman is in essence vanity.<Ref>Matthew 6:16 Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.</Ref>
| | [[The_Rule_of_Columbanus]]Celtic monastic rule |
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| While a true monk does not lay up wealth<Ref>Matthew 6:19 ¶ Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:</Ref> his vow of poverty does not mean he may punish himself with sacrifice just for sacrifice sake. What he gives up must be for strengthen the poor in the hope that they be not poor in spirit but will also seek to give and forgive freely<Ref>Matthew 6:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:</Ref>.
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| Monasticism had been structured, ordered and significant part of the Church life since before Christ. It had a local character in each community with its own customs, practices and collection of rules, which would change with time.
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| Benedict of Nursia was born around 480AD into a wealthy family and a world at war. Benedict did not invent the idea of monasticism as part of the Christianity. Benedict brought structure to monasticism and provided some stability if not uniformity.
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| [[Rules of St Benedict]]<Br> | |
| http://www.osb.org/rb/text/toc.html#toc
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| Columbanus was an Irish missionary who founded a number of monasteries in Europe around 590 in the Frankish and Lombard kingdoms. The most notable was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxeuil_Abbey Luxeuil Abbey] in present-day France and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobbio_Abbey Bobbio Abbey][http://www.comune.bobbio.pc.it/sottolivello.asp?idsa=9&idam=&idbox=20&idvocebox=166] in present-day Italy.
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| Columbanus taught a [[The_Rule_of_Columbanus|Celtic monastic rule]] and Celtic penitential practices for those repenting of sins, which emphasized private confession to a priest, followed by penances levied by the priest.
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| Benedict of Aniane advanced the establishment and interpretation of those rules with the support of Charlemagne during the end of the 8th century. By 843 with the decline of the Caroglian Empire monasteries were often plundered driving the monks to become wandering groups of [[mendicant]]s.
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| These rules have lasted for centuries in part because they survived the cleansing efforts of the inquisitions which also had the spirit of control.
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| The Cistercian order was founded when Robert, Abbot of Molesme, left the Benedictines with twenty fellow monks to found a monastery in Cîteaux, near Dijon in France in 1098.
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| The were reacting against the wealth and opulence of many Benedictine monasteries. They sought to restore monastic life to the original spirit. Th spread rapidly, and by the year 1200 had founded over 500 Cistercian houses in Western Europe.
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| The Cistercians followed the Rule of St Benedict more literally, placing a strong emphasis on simplicity, austerity and isolation.
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| Rules will not hold man's soul in check.
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| Rules are the tools of corruption.
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| Without virtue all fails.
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| Virtue thrives in the love of service.
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| In England there was a period called the ‘Dissolution of the Monasteries’. Henry VIII had become king in 1509. At that time there was nearly 900 religious houses in England and Wales consisting of ''abbeys'', and smaller houses often called ''priories'' or ''nunneries'' with term ''friary'' used to describe the smallest of these religious houses.
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| Some were ''open'' and some were ''closed''. The members of an open house worked with the local sick and poor in the local community. They also provided teachers for the young. Their practice of compassion and service for the welfare of the people often kept them poor and loved by the people. Closed religious houses were closed to all those outside of those who lived in that religious house and many were very wealthy.
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| There had been many factors that had contributed to the wealth and therefor the corruption of monasteries. There was a centralization of power with the rise of kings in the world. Those kings could [[1_Samuel_8|take and take and take]] and could confiscate the wealth of families. This often caused families to pledge land to religious orders. Often at the same times members of their families would enter those orders to secure some interest in their property id not influence. Wherever there was a concentration of wealth corruption would fester.
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| The Church was established by Christ to be the social welfare of the people through faith hope and charity. Only people who loved one another could remain free souls under God. The covering of the Church comes from the service to the people by the free will offerings of the people which provides for the people fulfilling the duty to God and our fellowman. With out the practice of that in pure [[religion]] there is no [http://www.hisholychurch.org/media/books/FCR/FCRcover.php covering for the Church]
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| Henry VIII had spent a great deal of this inheritance by the 1530. Some of the monasteries were the wealthy. Men like Thomas Cromwell falsely spread the idea that a great deal of their annual wealth went to the Vatican. Some that wealth certainly did go to the Vatican and with that churches influence all over Europe the Vatican could was made rich. But the greatest wealth was in the influence local controlled wealth could exercise over the political environment within each nation.
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| Wealthy and powerful men could win popular support of the people by donating to the open ''priories, nunneries'' and ''friars''. But corruption of centuries under the influence of kings and not so noble Nobles had taken its toll on what should have been His Church.
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| Where is the spirit of Christ in the modern Church?
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| What minister will make himself poor to provide the benefaction of Christ?
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| If we look back at the history of the Church where is the history of repentance?
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| Before Henry Cardinal Wolsey and eventually Thomas Cromwell had shut down religious houses in England because they were no longer effective. Property had been confiscated and sold by the cardinal to provide for charitable purposes such as a school in Ipswich.
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| We can see an attempt at change in religious houses around 1535. Cromwell as vicegerent oversaw the running of the Church not merely from the top of the Church hierarchy but by the State through his ''Valor Ecclesiasticus''. That power now corrupted the state because it could muffle and even control the Church through its centralized top down authority.
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| Should there have been a Church hierarchy or a king to take its place?
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| The highest in the Church should be the best servant of the church not a ruler. This means that the people must keep the church pure by their wise and benevolent offerings given to those they see serving the true needs of the people and serving to strengthen the poor.
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| When elders of families are slothful in their duty to God and their fellow man the kings and fathers of the earth will take power until the people [[1_Samuel_8#1_Samuel_8:18|"cry out" but "the LORD will not hear you in that day."]]
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| The protection of the Church is the virtue of Christ dwelling in the hearts and minds of the people.
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| You would think with top down authority of the state over the Church that the most corrupt abbeys would be rooted out first. But power corrupts and the reverse took place.
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| The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suppression_of_Religious_Houses_Act_1535 Suppression of Religious Houses Act] of 1535 stated that any monastery with an income of less than £200 a year, which was assessed by the Valor Ecclesiasticus), was to be dissolved. Their property would pass to the Crown.
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| The heads of the houses were to be offered a pension. But the monks and friars who often did the work of the Church were forced to enter larger religious houses.
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| They could also choose to abandon their vows of poverty and loyalty to the leaers of their orders and go live in some other society but still keeping their vow of chastity.
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| Forty percent of the religious houses fell within this category of having little income. Most were closed but at least 60 or 70 were given royal permission by Henry to remain open if they would pay the king what often amounted to their entire year’s income. This meant an increase in revenue for the king from £13,500 to £15,500 per year and a devastation of the better part of the Church.
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| Those commissioned by the king set upon the small monasteries quickly so that valuable metal including gold, silver, bronze and lead could be taken by the government and melted down. Tenants were often removed if they did not swear allegiance to the king or were expected to have loyalty to the Church and the land was rented out.
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| Some locals would complain but the government was sure to auction off to the local population or allowed them to be looted with impunity. Many monasteries became dismantled ruins. The farther from London you went the more virtue you found in the people. In the North were one of the causes of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrimage_of_Grace Pilgrimage of Grace and the Lincolnshire Rising]] along with the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigod%27s_Rebellion Bigod's Rebellion], some of the most serious Tudor rebellions.
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| But their efforts were doomed and they were ''indicted of high treason against the King, and that day condemned by a jury of knights and esquires for the same, whereupon they had sentence to be drawn, hanged and quartered,'' others were " hanged, bowelled and quartered, and their heads set on London Bridge and divers gates in London"<Ref> Wriothesley's Chronicle</Ref>
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| The people as a whole did not support their courage as they had to long been weakened by serfdom and servitude. If people are to be free the Church must always strive to give power and liberty to the people. The purpose of Christ was to aid everyman in becoming head of his house and priest to his family. [http://www.hisholychurch.org/media/books/THL/tableofcontents.php The higher Liberty] is the original right to choose the distribution of your time, labor and wealth.
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| [[Married Monks]]
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| == Lost Monks ==
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| Abbey of Cambron
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| http://kenstraussposts.blogspot.com/2007/06/160607-abbey-of-cambron.html
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| The story of a Cistercian Abbey founded in 1148 by Saint Bernard. Its monks served the poor for the first several-hundred year.
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| In appreciative local landowners gave the abbey many tracts of fertile land that by the 1600’s it extended over more than 6000 hectares (nearly 15,000 acres).
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| Austerity vanished until their monks were known more for their wealth than servie ‘riche comme un moine de Cambron’ (‘as rich as a monk from Cambron’).
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| Drawn by greed for the abbey’s treasures and resentment of its political power Louis XIV attacked it with 12,000 men and 18 cannon and through the 18th century corruption and decadence were rife.
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| In 1789 the Austrian emperor, Joseph II, withdrew financial support, alleging that it had become ‘useless’ as a religious order.
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| Today the ruins of this abbey have been converted into one of the largest bird sanctuaries in Europe.
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| == Modern Monastic life ==
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| '''A look at modern Abbeys and monasteries'''
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| August Turak gives a businessman's perspective of the Trappist monks at '''[[Mepkin Abbey]]'''.
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| At '''Worth Abbey''' in England 5 men volunteer to examine monastic life in a video documentary.
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| {{#ev:youtube|ch0SY2pHkDg|320|right|Modern Monastic life part 1-3 of many <Br>
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| on YouTube '''The Monastery 2005 episode 1 of 3''' <Br>
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| http://youtu.be/ch0SY2pHkDg}}
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| Interesting examination of monastic life as seen through the eyes of 5 volunteers.
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| It is really all about and the psychology and even the deception of a mental prison monastic life may form. The institutionalizing of monks as you sometime see with prisoners is common and not part of Christ's plan.
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| Monastic life is not without its own merits. It this isolated life where many distractions are stripped away you see men dealing with the problems of relationships.
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| Of course the same problems can be confronted by married monks as with any married people. What seems to be in short supply amongst some modern [[Monks]] and [[Churches]] in general is pure [[Religion|religion]].
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| The purpose of the Church as an institution of Christ has been very much abandoned by most [[Religion|religions]] and [[Churches]].
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| So what should real monastic life be like?
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| | [[Mepkin Abbey]] |
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| {{Template:Monks}} | | {{Template:Monks}} |
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| ==Footnotes== | | ==Footnotes== |
| <references /> | | <references /> |
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| | [[Category:Articles]] |
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| | [[Category:Definitions]] |