Joseph McCabe

“ Monasticism has neither interest nor advantage for the modern world; it is an enfeebled and corrupted survival of an institution whose congenial environment seems to have disappeared. Even in the stern monasteries of Trappists and Carthusians, where it still retains its full rigour of asceticism and solitude, it alienates the sympathy of the modern world; merit is now thought to consist in the fulfilment of the whole duty of man, in works that produce visible fruit, and that tend to remove the actual evils of life. ”

“ In the middle ages the average faith of men was much keener than it is in the nineteenth: the disturbing influence of science, of scientific history, and of critical literature was unknown, and tradition was a paramount authority, so that men were not only chronologically nearer to the great drama of the foundation of Christianity, but accepted the traditional version with unquestioning confidence.
However, even in the middle ages, monasticism was no purer an institution than it is now. ”

“ Hence it is only natural to expect that, in these days of less luminous and tranquil faith and less fervid imagination, the spirit of monasticism will be less potent than ever—the more so as a large section of Christianity has now repudiated the ascetical ideal entirely, and emphatically dissociated it from the teaching of Christ. Protestantism first fell upon monasticism, flail in hand, for its corruption, and nearly extinguished it ”

“ But, for the majority of the monastic bodies, with their indolent withdrawal from life’s difficulties and duties, without any real compensating virtue, or with their pitiful compromise between external occupation and their antiquated theories of detachment, one cannot but feel contempt. At the best, a monk would merely have the equivocal merit of making himself a part of a great penitential machine; as it is, his profession of preternatural virtue and unworldliness is a hollow formality that only appeals to credulous devotees. ”

“ Thus, on the one hand, certain anti-papal lecturers err in representing monasticism, as a body, as an institution of a particularly dark character; on the other hand, the pious belief of the average Catholic layman that it is an institution of unusual meritoriousness—that convents 'are the lightning conductors averting the divine wrath from great cities,' &c.—is pitifully incorrect. Monasticism, not for the first time in its history, has in spite of its high spiritual profession a luxurious overgrowth of sensuousness ”

“ The argument rests, of course, on a very superficial analogy; there is really no parallel between monasticism and Socialism. On the contrary, they are at the very opposite poles of economics. Monasticism, in the first place (except the modified monasticism of the Jesuits) , does not counsel a community of goods; neither in individual nor in common does it permit ownership. But it parts company with Socialism very emphatically when it goes on to impose extraordinary limits on production; Socialism urges a common use of the conveniences produced, and urges the production of as many as possible. ”

“ Ireland, the most Catholic and superstitious country in the civilised world, is the richest possible soil for monasticism; men who lead the lives of the mediæval monks will receive from its peasantry the deep reverence and hospitality of the mediæval world. Yet the Irish province of the Franciscan Order (the monastery at Killarney which I described belongs to the English province) is one of its most perverted and enfeebled branches. ”

“ That mental attitude which in former ages passed at once and instinctively from deep fervour to great ascetical rigour is rarely found now in educated spheres; and that very fervour and keen faith is rarer still in this age of universal soul-disturbing scepticism. It is an age of compromise; moral heroism (such, at least, as is dependent on theological sanctions) is rare, and, as only moral heroes can faithfully live the ideal monastic life, true monasticism is likewise rare. ”

“ Both categories lead lives of ordinary morality—but only ordinary, so that the garments of the saints sit very incongruously on their shoulders, to the ordinary observer; they seem to appreciate the good things of this life as keenly as ordinary mortals, and shrink from death as naively as if death meant annihilation instead of entrance into Paradise. ”

“ Thus it is that, wherever there is not deep piety, selfish individualism, which is the root of all that undignified intrigue, meanness, and dissension which has been described, is engendered. Thus it is also that there is a morbid craving for indulgence in food and drink—making a mockery of their long fasts and abstinences: in the midst of a long fast they will celebrate an accidental feast-day most luxuriously, and at the close of the fast have quite a gastronomic Saturnalia. ”

“ What is the ethical significance and the ethical value of modern monasticism? The slightest reflection on the origin of the monastic bodies will make it clear that a high degree of spirituality and a keen faith in the supernatural are necessary in the earnest votary of monasticism. The orders have been founded by men of an abnormally neurotic and fanatical temperament, who were capable of almost any ascetical excesses. ”

“ He declared that the province was deeply corrupted: that asceticism was almost unknown, and a gross sensualism pervaded their ranks—even mentioning isolated cases of friars being brought home to the monastery by the undignified aid of police-stretchers, 'theologically drunk.' He further declared that the superiors of the monasteries bribed their provincial to overlook the state of things, and that the province secured tranquillity by sending large sums of money to the Roman authorities for their new international college. ”

“ Then, in an evil hour, they drew up certain rules of life, which were slightly modified versions of their own extraordinary lives, and bade their followers bind themselves by the most solemn and indissoluble obligation to their observance. ”

“ But the vast majority of the inmates of monastic institutions may be divided, as is clear from the preceding, into two categories. One is the category of those who are religiously inclined, but whose whole merit consists in the equivocal virtue of having bound themselves to a certain system of religious services, through which they pass mechanically and with much resignation, and which they alleviate by as much harmless pleasure and distraction as they can procure. ”

“ Such rules could only be observed by men who possessed their own temperament and imagination, and one needs very little experience of human life to understand their scarcity, and the great error of supposing that any large body of men would observe them with fidelity. ”

“ During years of persecution the scattered friars naturally discarded every monastic feature of their lives, and no amount of pressure from Rome has succeeded in restoring them in these more indulgent days. The friars individually possess money (thus cutting at the very root of the Franciscan idea) , wear boots and stockings, and rarely don their habits, have secular servants, and are guilty of many other condemned practices. In a word, their lives are those of the ordinary Irish clergy; their profession of Assisian asceticism is little more than an empty formality. ”

“ The orders which, like the Franciscan, were founded for the purpose of caring for the poor and embodying voluntary poverty in their own lives, are found to be continually seeking a higher level—vying with each other for the patronage of the rich (wherever they can escape the Jesuits) , and always choosing a middle class in preference to a poor congregation. ”

“ Still, one can hardly say they are more spiritual in the religious sense: they are notoriously idle, and full of petty ambition and intrigue with their attendant strife and mutual hostility. I have met friars from all parts of the world, and there is a remarkable identity of features in their polyglot narrative. ”

“ The Roman Church in England is unimportant; it is neither more nor less than a large and active mission in an ‘heretical’ land. Hence many writers fail to correct the insularity of their experience, and thus have not a due sense of the real proportions of sects and their institutions on the great world-stage ”

“ Tales which the better class of Catholic laymen would not suffer to be told in their presence, which could not be whispered in the presence of ladies, and which are only found in such literature as 'La Terre' and 'L'Assommoir,' are very frequently told in clerical circles—especially monastic. ”

“ In a minor degree its celibacy is anti-socialistic; whatever relation of the sexes the Socialist may advocate, he certainly advocates some form of intimate relation. And the Socialist would not for a moment sanction the withdrawal of a large number of citizens from every civic duty on the plea that they were more interested in another world. ”

“ Of their idleness, which is one of the most uniform features of monastic establishments, enough has been said. Their religious ceremonies do not afford serious occupation of mind; they never undertake manual labour in these days, and they are conspicuously deficient in study; the amount of work they are entrusted with does not give occupation to half their members. ”

“ He would not exempt a large number of able-bodied men from labour on the plea that they were ‘waterspouts of divine grace’ or ‘lightning conductors of divine wrath’ for their sinful brethren. He would be impatient of all indolence, and mendicancy, and parasitism of any complexion. ”

“ In any case, if all their tales were true, it would only prove, what everybody expects, that there are many isolated cases of immorality; to extend the accusation to the whole body is unwarranted. It can only be said that these cases are numerous, and that there is a vast amount of solitary morbidity ”

“ Nevertheless it must be said that, whilst there is much more drink than is supposed, there is not much drunkenness. Usually, as long as the convent is in good circumstances, there is a constant and liberal supply of drink, but excess is rare ”

“ Another numerous and flourishing branch of the order is found in Holland. Although it is in an 'heretical' country it has full civic liberty and is generously patronised: hence it has grown into a powerful body. ”

“ And a third effect of this pious exclusion of females is seen in the tone of their conversation; it is too frequently of an unpleasant character—not immoral, rarely suggestive, but very often coarse and malodorous. ”

“ And, apart from this internal evidence, secular history gives abundant proof of the periods of deep degradation into which the orders of monks have periodically fallen; if secular historians are not trusted, a judicious selection of papal decrees and episcopal letters would place the fact beyond controversy. ”

“ Their modern disciples have also many 'spiritual' friendships, but the fact is unable to counterbalance the effect of their celibate home-life; their intercourse with women, in the face of their ascetical teaching, is necessarily either very limited or hypocritical. ”