Joseph McCabe

“ The proportion of nuns who take the vow of chastity at an early age is smaller, as I have said but the sin is more grievous. The life of the nun who finds in later life that she has made a mistake is infinitely more wretched; the priest is in the world and frequently of it, the nun is jealously imprisoned in the walls of her convent. No doubt her vow is usually only a ‘simple’ vow and theoretically dispensable; but who ever knew a nun to write to Rome for a dispensation? No woman would dare to face the practical ignominy of such a step. ”

“ For our monastic literature, never entertaining for a moment the idea that such a performance was beyond the powers of the average normally-constituted individual, taught us to see in spirit myriads of ugly little demons (why the devil should always choose or make an ugly body to appear in is problematical—the modern conception of him, à la Marie Corelli, is much more plausible) with pointed ears and forked tails, sitting on our shoulders and on the arms of our stalls and filling our minds with irrelevant thoughts. ”

“ It would be too serious an outrage on human nature to allow boys of sixteen to contract an utterly irrevocable [2] obligation of so grave a character; at the same time it was clearly imperative to secure boys at that age if the religious orders were not to die of inanition. So a compromise was effected: boys should be admitted to the monastic life at the age of fifteen for their novitiate, and should make what are called ‘simple’ vows at the age of sixteen. ”

“ Our votes having been satisfactorily obtained we prepared to make our religious profession at the completion of our year of probation. The profession, an impressive religious ceremony, consists essentially of a vow to observe the rule of St. Francis and to ‘live in poverty, chastity, [4] and obedience for the whole time of our lives.’ When the morning arrived a large and sympathetic congregation had gathered in the little church, and the sight of the six young friars—mere boys we all were—solemnly casting off every earthly hope with all the energy of aged Stoics, moved them deeply. ”

“ If it be true that monastic life is ever sinking into corruption, we should feel more inclined to pity than to blame the monks.
The secular clergy make no vow of poverty or obedience, and it may be urged that even their vow of celibacy is more defensible. The seminary student makes his vow when he is admitted to the subdiaconate, the first of the holy orders, and the canonical and usual age of the subdeacon is twenty-one. ”

“ A few neurotic devotees enter into the service with their usual fervour, but the vast majority, to whom a religious concentration of thought during an hour’s service is an impossibility even in their most lucid hours, are fatally oppressed with sleep and weariness. In summer they fall asleep in their stalls; in winter the night’s repose is lost, and many constitutions are ruined by the hour or hour and a half spent in the icy-cold chapel at midnight. ”

“ The novitiate is an episode in the training of the monastic, not of the secular, clergy: it is a period of probation imposed upon all aspirants to the monastic life. Religious of every order and congregation, [1] both men and women, must spend at least one year as ‘novices’ before they are permitted to bind themselves by the solemnity of the vows. During that period they experience the full severity and asceticism of the life to which they aspire, and they in turn are minutely observed and tested by their superiors. ”

“ The community is assembled for the purpose in the chapter room (a room in which the superior assembles his religious three times per week for prayer, exhortation, and public confession of their minor faults—breaking utensils, oversleeping, &c.) and the superior invites a discussion on the merits or demerits of the novice. He then produces a bag of white and black marbles, of which he gives a pair to each voter: they are collected with great secrecy in two bags, and if the novice does not obtain a majority of ‘white balls’ he is significantly invited to abandon his intention. ”

“ Since there was no parish attached to the monastery at Killarney (which is the correct canonical status of a monastery) , a few words must be said of the life of the priests. At that time it was a hopeless mystery to me, and it is principally from later observation and information that I am able to describe it. That it was far from a life of industry will be readily understood; occasional visits to the sick poor and the rendering of services to the secular clergy of the diocese constituted the whole of their external work. ”

“ The novitiate, as the convent is called in which the novices are incarcerated, is normally a distinct monastery: economy of space, however, frequently compels the monks merely to separate the wing of some existing monastery for that purpose. ”

“ The name of the novice is also changed when he enters the monastery, as a sign that he is henceforth dead to the world. The surname is entirely dropped, and the Christian name is changed into that of some saint of the Order who is adopted as patron; thus my own name was changed into Antony. We were now, therefore, fully fledged friars, and we entered at once upon the dull routine of the monastic life. The character of the life will be best understood by a detailed description of an ordinary monastic day. ”

“ Even when a feast-day coincided with a fast-day, the restriction in solids was usually compensated by a greater generosity in fluids; we young novices were more than exhilarated on one or two occasions when dinner had been opened with a strong claret soup, accompanied by the usual pint of beer and a glass of sherry, and followed by two or three glasses of excellent port—sometimes even champagne. ”

“ Every precaution has been taken to keep him in blank ignorance of sexual matters, and to defer the development of that faculty of which he is asked to make a life-long sacrifice. He has never come in contact with the complementary sex, for even during his vacation the fear of scandal hangs like a mill-stone about him ”

“ The Belgian friars and the early English missionaries always take beer. Silence is not enforced during the quarter of an hour which is allowed for tea, but at its termination the strictest silence is supposed to be observed until recreation on the following day. In point of fact, however, the law of monastic silence is only observed with any degree of fidelity by novices and students, and by these only so long as the superior is within earshot. ”

“ On the Continent, fasting, in the strict sense of the word, is much more frequently practised in monasteries, but an intensification of their usual idleness is the necessary consequence; in England, it is to the credit of the monks, and clergy generally, that they prefer industry to fasting, though it is hardly to their credit that they still make a profession of fasting. ”

“ In the confessional I have known students of a much more advanced age who were still unconscious of its power. In fact the Church knows that they are unconscious, and expects them to be unconscious; for if she awaited the full development of mind and body in her candidates her clergy would never be sufficiently recruited. ”

“ It was pitiful, sometimes, to see young students endeavouring to keep their attention screwed upon the abstract doctrines of Christianity for so long a time—to see them nervously tightening their lips against the assaults of the evil one. ”

“ There is only one clear case on record where the power has been used: it need hardly be said that it was in favour of a member of a wealthy royal house. ↑ It is well to note that a house of friars may be called with equal propriety a friary, monastery, or convent. ↑ A vow of chastity embraces the obligation of celibacy and much more: it doubles the guilt of any transgression of the virtue of chastity or purity, which, in the theory of the Church of Rome, is a very comprehensive piece of ethical legislation. ”

“ Tennis and handball are also indulged in by the students. The lay-brothers play dominoes and the priests often follow their example, but the three sections—priests, students, and lay-brothers may never intermingle; they are never even permitted to speak to each other without necessity. Cards are expressly forbidden; bagatelle is popular; and I have known the priests of a London monastery to occupy their recreation with marbles for many months. ”

“ The Passionists are the only English congregation who cling to the practice with any fidelity, and their statistics of premature mortality are an eloquent commentary on the stupidity of the Italian authorities who are responsible for it. ”

“ At a quarter to five every morning one of the friars was awakened by his alarm clock, and proceeded at once to arouse the community. We novices, with the eye of our instructor constantly upon us, shot out of our rooms at lightning speed, but in most cases the process was not so simple. ”

“ At that time and until the present century the neophytes were men of a more advanced age. After twelve months of trial, prayer, and reflection they were permitted to make their vows or ‘profession’ from which there was no dispensation. In recent years, however, the practice of taking aspirants at an earlier age has developed so rapidly that one feels apprehensive of a revival of the old Benedictine custom of accepting children of tender years whose parents were determined that they should be monks, for financial or political reasons. ”

“ And when the place was finally chosen as convent of the novitiate the good friars put their house in order, tightened their girdles, and resigned themselves to a more or less regular discipline; for one of their most sacred principles is that novices must not be scandalized. ”

“ Besides the ordinary fasts of the Church, the friars observe several which are peculiar to their rule, especially a long fast from the first of November until Christmas. However, there are few who really fast—that is, content themselves with one full meal per day—in this degenerate age, even in monasteries; abstinence from flesh-meat is the usual limit of their mortification. ”

“ The costume is still uncomfortable and insanitary: in summer the heavy robe and the rough woollen underclothing are intolerable; in winter the looseness and width of the tunic promotes an undesirable ventilation, and, with due respect to Edward Carpenter, sandalled feet are decidedly unhealthy. Their rule prescribes that the costume consist of ‘two tunics, a hood, girdle, and drawers,’ but the inner tunic is interpreted in England to be an ordinary woollen shirt ”

“ The average youth of twenty-one may be admitted to be capable, in ordinary circumstances, of forming an opinion on such matters, but we must remember that the ecclesiastical student has had an abnormal training. ”

“ At 2.30 the bell summons them to choir for Vespers, the last section of the Office, and shortly afterwards tea is announced by the same medium. Nothing is eaten, but each friar receives a large bowl of tea; many of the older friars take another pint of beer instead, for tea is a comparatively recent innovation. ”