MONACHISM 715 who house and tend aged invalids. As a broad general rule, nearly every post-Reformation institute is styled, not fin "Order," but a "Congregation"; but the only dis tinction which can be drawn between these two names is that "order" is the wider, and may include several congregations within itself (as the Benedictine order, for example, includes the congregations of Cluny and of St Maur), while a "congregation" is a simple unit, complete in itself, and neither dependent on another institute nor possessed of dependent varieties of its own. Another distinction drawn between the elder and younger societies is that the former are said to make " solemn vows," the latter only "simple vows." The difference here is not in the matter of the vows, which are usually the same in all cases, nor even in the ceremonies attending their utterance, which may also be alike, but in the superior binding efficacy of the solemn vows in Roman canon law, which rules that they so bind the member to his society, and the society to each member, that neither can sever the connexion, so that only the pope can dissolve it, and that in rare and exceptional cases alone. And it may be added that the term " religious " is restricted in the Latin Church to communities whose institute has been formally approved by the Roman see, and whose vows are for life, and not merely renewable, a principle which excludes the Sisters of Charity, for example, from the use of this title. By the laws of France, and of some other countries, life-vows are invalid and even prohibited, but when they make part of the original institute, such dis approval by the civil power is not held to reduce them to the canonical level of temporary vows. Returning to the history of Western monachism, the fall of the religious houses in Spain dates from the law of 21st June 1835, which suppressed nine hundred monasteries at a blow ; and the remainder had but a short respite, as they were dissolved on llth October of the same year. In Portugal, where a bias against the Roman Curia has been a traditional part of patriotism ever since the revolution of 1640, when the pope sided with Spain against the house of Braganza, there was little feeling to protect the monasteries when it happened that the crown wanted their possessions, and they were all suppressed by the decree of 28th May 1834. No European country had so many religious houses as Portugal in proportion to its population and area, and the number of the foundations dissolved in 1834 exceeded 500. In Switzerland, a con siderable measure of suppression followed the war of the Sonderbund in 1847 ; while in Italy, the last country where monachism had remained almost unmolested, an Act was passed in the Sardinian Parliament on 7th July 1866 for the suppression of monasteries within the Piedmontese dominions, and for the confiscation of their property. The measure was extended to the whole of Italy after the unification of the kingdom ; the orders were expropriated in 1873 ; their houses were declared national property, and were put to secular uses, no exception being made in favour of San Marco at Florence, of Assisi, of Vallom- brosa, or even of Monte Cassino itself. 1 On the other hand, several Roman Catholic societies have attained considerable success in the United States and Canada, thus in some degree recovering for the principle they represent part at least of the ground lost in Europe ; while in three religious communions outside the pale of the Latin obedience the Evangelicals of Germany, the Reformed of France, and the Church of England the organization of women for charitable and religious work on the lines of various old institutes has been actively carried out. The Deaconesses of Kaiserswerth, founded by Pastor Fliedner in 1836, derive part of their rule, and even of their dress, from the Dames de St Augustine, themselves lineal descendants of the first Hospitallers of the crusades, and have ramified into several countries ; the Strasburg and Miihlhausen Deaconesses derive theirs partly from the Flemish Beguines and partly from some points in the Moravian organization, itself handed down from those seceding Franciscans to whom the Unitas Fratriim really owes its origin ; while the various Anglican communities, of which there are several, have borrowed freely from different sources, according to the preference and knowledge of each founder. Some attempts at reviving the common life for men also have likewise been made, but none on any large scale ; only one has as yet exhibited any signs of vitality, a preaching order at Cowley, near Oxford, which has obtained some footing in England, and has even been able to spread to America. Bibliography. The bibliography of Monachism is excessively copious, and it is impracticable to indicate more than a few of the most important and trustworthy books. General: Hospinianus, De Monachis Libri Sex (Geneva, 1659), bitterly hostile, but a copious and trustworthy record of facts ; Helyot, Histoirc dcs Ordrcs Rcli- gicux (8 vols., Paris, 1714-1721), and again (as Dictionnaire dcs Ordres Rcligicux], with continuation by Badiche (4 vols., Paris, Migne, 1860), this book has itself a copious catalogue of works on its subject prefixed ; Alteserra, Ascctic6n, sive Originum Ed Monastics?, Libri Dcccm (Paris, 1674) ; Holstenius, Codex Rcgnlarum (3 vols., Rome, 1661) ; Montalembert, Moincs d 1 Occident (7 vols., Paris, 1860-1877) ; Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum (edited by Caley, Ellis, and Bandinel, 8 vols., London, 1846) ; Rosweyde, Vit& Patrum (Lyons, 1617). Special : Benedictines Mabillon, Ada SS. Ordi- nis S. Bcncdidi (9 vols., Venice, 1733) ; Cluniacs Marrier, Biblio- theca Cluniaccnsis (Paris, 1614) ; Cistercians Gaillardin, Lcs Trap- pistes (Paris, 1844) ; Besoigne, Histoire dc VAbbayc de Port-Royal (8 vols., Cologne, 1752-56) ; Dominicans Touron, Histoire des Hommes Ilhistres de I Ordre de Saint Dominique (6 vols., Paris, 1743-49) ; Franciscans Sedulius, Historia Scraphica (Antwerp, 1613) ; Wadding, Annales Minorum (20 vols., Rome, 1731-94). (R. F. L.) 1 The total number of monasteries, &c. , suppressed in Italy down to the close of 1882 was 2255, involving an enormous displacement of property and dispersion of inmates. And yet there is some reason to think that the state did but do roughly and harshly what the church should have done more gradually and wisely ; for the judgment passed on the dissolution by Pius IX. himself, in speaking to an English Roman Catholic bishop, was : "It was the devil s work ; but the good God will turn it into a blessing, since their destruction was the only reform possible to them. " (Cited by Rev. R. R. Suffield in Modern Review, vol. ii. p. 359, April 1881.) CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF MONASTIC FOUNDATIONS. THE religious communities which have been formed at various times in the Western Church amount to many hundreds, and receive fresh accessions almost yearly, while some among them have been suppressed, absorbed, or suffered to die out. No official list of those actually in existence and recognized by authority is published ; it is thus impracticable to enumerate them accurately, especially as many of them are only local varieties or branches of identical rules and institutes, and there are not a few cases where a once celebrated and powerful order has practically disappeared from view, though, as still lingering in one or two houses, not definitely extinct. The following table, however, gives the more remarkable foundations in chronological order, some of the earlier dates being only approximate, and even a few- later ones uncertain, for the historians often vary as to the exact year, sometimes giving that of the first attempt at organization, and sometimes that of the final approval by authority. Date. Name. Founder. Place. Date. Name. Founder. Place. 250 320 363 Monks of the Thehaid Tabennites Paul the Hermit .... Upper Egypt. Tabennse, in the Nile. Mataza, Pontus. 395 400 Austin Canons (original) . . Acrcmeti, or Sleepless Monks Hippo Regius, Africa. Mesopotamia.
Basil the Great