RELIGIOUS
753
RELIGIOUS
simple vows antecedent to, or in substitution for,
solemn vows.
In all these stages, the profession of the Evangelical counsels has been most carefully regulated by the Church. In the existing structure, some parts are fixed and regarded as essential, others are accidental and subject to change; we may then ask what is essential to fully developed religious hfe. The re- ligious state, to be perfect, requires (1) the three evangeUcal counsels: voluntary poverty, perfect chastity regarded as means to perfection; and in pursuit of that perfection, obedience to lawful au- thority; (2) the external profession of these counsels, for the reUgious state means a condition or career publicly embraced; (3) the perpetual profession of these counsels, for the religious state means something fixed and permanent, and in order to ensure this stability in practices which are not made obligatory by any law, the religious promises himself to God by a perpetual vow. The religious state then is defined, as the mode of life, irrevocable in its nature, of men who profess to aim at the perfection of Christian charity in the bosom of the Chiu'ch by the three per- petual vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
The religious state may exist in the proper sense without solemn vows, as Gregory XIII showed in his Constitutions "Quanto fructuosius" (2 July, 1583) and "Ascendente Doraino" (25 May, 1584), declaring that the scholastics of the Society of Jesus were really religious; without community hfe, for the hermits were rehgious in the strictest sense of the word; without oral or written profession, since until the time of Pius IX, even tacit or implied profession was considered sufficient; without express and formal approbation by ecclesiastical authority, as this has only been insisted upon since the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), confirmed by the Second Council of Lyons (1274). Before this time, it was enough not to have been repudiated by ecclesiastical authority. However, in actual practice, the express interven- tion of ecclesiastical authority is required; this au- thority may be that of the Apostolic See or of the bishop. Many institutes exist and flourish with the approbation of the bishop alone; but, since the Motu Proprio "Dei providentis" (16 July, 1906), the bishop before establishing an institute must obtain the writ- ten approbation of the Holy See.
Again, the Church, while not condemning the BoHtary hfe, no longer accepts it as religious. For- merly, a religious did not necessarily form a part of an approved institute; there were persons simply called professed, as well as professed in such an institute or such a monastery. At the present day, a religious always begins by entering some approved religious family; only in exceptional cases of ex^pulsion or final secularization, does it happen that a religious ceases to have any connexion with some particular institute, and in such cases the bishop becomes his only supe- rior. The Church insists on the use of a habit, by which the religious are distinguished from secular persons. A distinctive habit is always required for nuns; the clerical habit is sufficient for men. Those approved institutes whose members may be taken for seculars out of doors, lack that public profession which characterizes the religious state, in the sight of the Church, according to the Decree of the Sacred Con- gregation of Bishops and Regulars, 11 August, 1889 1^;
The question has long been discussed whether the religious state involves a donation of oneself, or whether the vows, as such, are sufficient. By such donation the reUgious not only binds himself to be poor, chaste etc., but he no longer belongs to himself; he is the property of God, as much as and even more than a slave was formerly the proijerty of his master. To show that this alienation of oneself is not neces- sarj', it is sufficient to observe that if every religious ceased to belong to himself either for the purpose of XII.— 48
marriage, or for the possession of property, any con-
trary acts would be null and void from the beginning;
now this nuUity has not always existed, and does not
e.xist for all religious at the present day. In reaUty
then the reUgious state consists strictly in the per-
petual engagement, the source of which is found at
present in the three vows.
The formal intervention of the Church has the effect of introducing the reUgious Ufe into the pubUc worship of CathoUcisrn. As long as the promise or the vow remains a purely personal matter, the re- hgious can offer himself to God only in his own name; his homage and his holocaust are private. The Church, in ratifying and sanctioning his engage- ment, deputes the religious to profess in the name of the Christian community his complete devotion to God. He is consecrated especially by solemn pro- fession, Uke a temple or a liturgical prayer, to give honour to God.
In practice, when offering himself to God, the reh- gious also contracts obligations to the order whose child he becomes. Does the rehgious state in itself contemplate any such obUgation of submission to an organized society, or to a cUrector or confessor? There is nothing more natural, it is true, than that a person, who does not profess himself perfect but a simple aspirant after perfection, should choose for himself a master and guide; but even this does not seem to be essential. The ancient hermits were free from all such subordination; even the pope may be a member of a reUgious order: the only essential obedience seems to be that which every man owes to the hierarchical Church, and to those whom she clothes with her authority.
(2) Various Forms of Religious Life. — The essential unity of the religious life is consistent with a great variety which is one of the glories of the Church, and permits a larger number of men to find a religious profession adapted to their needs and dispositions, and multiphes the services which reUgious render to Christian society and mankind in general. Be- sides the common end of religious life, which makes it a school of perfection, the different orders have special objects of their own, which divide them into contem- plative, active, and mixed orders. The contemplative orders devote themselves to union with God in a Ufe of solitude and retirement; the active orders expend their energy in doing good to men. If their activity is spiritual in its objects and requires contemplation for its attainment, they are mi.xed orders; such as those which are devoted to preaching and higher education. The orders keep the name of active order if they devote themselves to corporal works of mercy, such as the care of sick persons and orphans. The dominant note of their mode of Ufe gives us, as we have seen, clerical, monastic, mencUcant, miUtary, and hospitaller orders. The vows divide them into orders with simple vows and solemn vows: even the number of vows differs in different institutes. There remain still two other points of difference which re- quire to be considered, namely the juridical condi- tion, which distinguishes reUgious orders from con- gregations; and the rule.
■'I J) Religious Life and the Sacred Ministry. — If the monastic Ufe has sometimes appeared incom- r (ttible with those sacred functions which drew the ionk out of his silence and retreat (see Decree of Gratian, c. XVI, q. 1, c. 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11), the simple division into contemplative and mixed orders shows the mistake of those persons who have rep- resented the reUgious life as inconsistent with the sacred ministry, as if piety were opposed to charity, or apostolic zeal did not presuppose and foster the love of God. This error, which had already been refuted by St. Thomas in his "Contra impugnantes religionem", ch. iv, directed against WilUam of St. Amour, was renewed in the Jansenist pseudo-Coun-
