Joseph McCabe

“ On the other hand Roman Catholics appeal to their monastic institutions as an eloquent proof of their undying spiritual vitality. From the schismatic churches (such as the Anglican) , the detached branches of the great tree of Christianity, the life has naturally departed; it flows on with perennial youth in the mother church of Rome. Rome alone can now inspire moral heroism, but Rome can do it, in spite of the rapid beat of time and the corroding forces of a sceptical age. She still holds up the loftiest Christian ideals to humanity, and her children embrace them in thousands. ”

“ Men have gazed on the clear entrancing vision—its fair integrity and its unchanging joy mocking the precarious fulfilment of their soul’s desire here below—until the attitude of hope and expectancy has satisfied them even now. ”

“ Christ is discovered to have been a Socialist: the early Church a model Socialistic community. And in proof that the Church did not abandon the Socialistic teaching of its founder under the shadow of imperial patronage and in the possession of regal power, monasticism is held up as an object lesson in Socialism that has never been absent from the Church. No doubt it is strange that the monks themselves, twenty or thirty years ago, anathematised Socialistic ideas as fervently as the rest of the faithful, but monks have never been the wisest section of the Church. ”

“ A large part—if not the larger part—of our latter day prophets, either abandon all hope of ever grasping the fading and intangible vision, or, at the most, pronounce it to be the unfaithful and distorted mirage of an inexplorable region. ”

“ Now that Socialism has forced its way through the serried ranks of theologians and philosophers into the arena of honourable discussion, it has met with the usual solemn consecration from the Church, like Darwinism or the Higher Criticism. ”

“ Are modern monasteries and convents the same whitened sepulchres as their predecessors on whom the scourge of the Reformation fell so heavily? A strong suspicion is raised against them by their former history. The suspicion is confirmed by a number of 'escaped' monks and nuns who have traversed the land proclaiming that such is the case; although, it must be borne in mind, they usually come from that distant land which is not remarkable for the accuracy of its contributions to our literature. The impenetrable secrecy of monastic life is also far from reassuring. ”

“ For the vast majority it has lost all the sharpness of outline and all the warmth of colour that once made it so potent an agency in human life. Compromise is the word. It may be true: and if the churches will temper their strictures so that they do less violence to present aims and ideals—well, like Pascal, men will remain on the safe side. But the age of martyrs, the age of Crusaders, the age of public penance, and even of private mortification, must hope for no revival. ”

“ Monasticism, inseparable as it is from every great religious system, seems to emanate spontaneously from the fundamental religious idea. China, India, and Europe, despite their marked divergence in conceiving the ultimate objects of religious belief, and the distinct racial and territorial influences that have affected their development, have been equally prolific in monastic institutions—they seem to be evoked by the simple rudimentary story which is common to them all. ”

“ The Catholic layman, to whom the task of defending them is usually committed—it would be indelicate for the monks and nuns to defend themselves—usually knows as much of the interior and the régime of English monasteries as he does of those of Thibet. The monks preserve the most jealous secrecy about their inner lives: their constitutions strictly forbid them to talk of internal matters to outsiders, and their secular servants are enjoined a like secrecy with regard to the little that falls under their observation. ”

“ It is true that the fact is not much appreciated outside their own sphere, for the modern monks are not wholly unaffected by the world-evolution. The Benedictine does not bury himself with dusty tomes far from the madding crowd: he is found daily in the British Museum and nightly in comfortable hotels about Russell Square. ”

“ But the religious mind, at least in the western world, has entered upon a more troubled phase of its development. Physical and economical science have drawn its attention more eagerly to its present home: a growing self-consciousness has made it more careful and introspective ”

“ Besides the rich spiritual emolument there were many attractions in the independent missionary life, and the Belgian friars offered themselves generously for the work. English novices were obtained, churches and monasteries erected, and ten years ago the English province found itself strong enough to form a detached organism. To-day it numbers eight large monasteries and more than a hundred religious in the United Kingdom. ”