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MONASTICISM (Gr. p.ovacrnabs, living ...

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MONASTICISM (Gr. p.ovacrnabs, living alone, µ6vos)  , a See also:system of living which owes its origin to those tendencies of the human soul which are summed up in the terms " See also:asceticism " and " See also:mysticism." Mysticism may broadly be described as the effort to give effect to the craving for a See also:union of the soul with the Deity already in this See also:life; and asceticism as the effort to give effect to the hankering after an ever-progressive See also:purification of the soul and an atoning for See also:sin by renunciation and self-denial in things lawful . These two tendencies may well be said to be See also:general instincts of humanity; because, though not always called into activity, they are always liable to be evoked, and in all ages and among all races they frequently have asserted them-selves . (See ASCETICISM and MYSTICISM.) Indeed the See also:history of See also:religion shows that they are among the most deep-rooted and widespread instincts of the human soul; and See also:monasticism is the See also:attempt to develop and regulate their exercise . Thus monasticism is not a creation of See also:Christianity; it is much older, and before the See also:Christian era a highly organized monasticism existed in See also:India . (See the articles on See also:BRAHMANISM; See also:BUDDHISM; and See also:LHASA.) 1 . Pre-Christian Monasticism.—See also:Greek asceticism and mysticism seem never to have produced a monastic system; but among the See also:Jews, both in See also:Judaea and in See also:Alexandria, this development took See also:place . In Judaea the See also:Essenes before the See also:time of See also:Christ lived a fully organized monastic life (see Schiirer, Jewish See also:People, ii . § 30) ; and the same is true in regard to the See also:Therapeutae in the neighbourhood of Alexandria (the authenticity of See also:Philo's De Vita contemplativa, which describes their manner of life, is again recognized by scholars) . A general See also:sketch of pre-Christian asceticism and monasticism, with indication of the See also:chief authorities, is given in O . ZSckler's Askese and Monchtunt (1897), pp . 32–135 . This See also:account is epitomized by J .

O . See also:

Hannay, Spirit and Origin of Christian Monasticism (1903), app. is the view now See also:common among scholars is there maintained, that these pre-Christian realizations of the monastic See also:idea had little, and indeed no, See also:influence on the rise and development of Christian monasticism . 2 . Beginnings of Christian Monasticism.—The practice of asceticism asserted itself at an See also:early date in Christian life: men and See also:women abstained from See also:marriage, from flesh See also:meat, from the use of intoxicating drink, and devoted themselves to See also:prayer, religious exercises and See also:works of charity (S . Schiwietz, Das morgenlandische Monchtum, 1904, pt. i.; J . O . Hannay, op. cit. chs . 2, 3) . This they did in their homes, without withdrawing from their families or avocations . In time, however, the tendency to withdraw from society and give oneself up wholly to the practice of religious and ascetical exercises set in; and at any See also:rate in See also:Egypt, at the See also:middle of the 3rd See also:century, it was the See also:custom for such ascetics to live in solitary retirement in the See also:neighbour-See also:hood of the towns and villages . This was the manner of lifewhich St See also:Anthony (q.v.) began to See also:lead, c . 270; but after fifteen years he withdrew to a deserted fort on the See also:east See also:bank of the See also:Nile, opposite the See also:Fayum .

Here he enclosed himself and led a life cut off from all intercourse with See also:

man . There are reasons for doubting that Anthony was the first Christian See also:hermit: probably there is some See also:historical See also:foundation for the tradition that one of those who fled to the See also:desert in the Decian persecution continued to dwell in a See also:cave by the See also:shore of the Red See also:Sea, unknown to men, till visited by St Anthony See also:long years afterwards (see E . C . See also:Butler, Lausiac History of See also:Palladius, 1898, pt. i. p . 230) . But this was a single See also:case which does not affect the fixed tradition of monastic Egypt in the 4th century that Anthony was the See also:father of Christian monachism . During twenty years Anthony lived a life of seclusion, never coming forth from his fort, never seeing the See also:face of man . But his fame went abroad and a number of would-be disciples came and took up their See also:abode in the caves and among the rocks that surrounded his See also:retreat, and called on him to See also:guide them in the path of life they had chosen . In response to these appeals Anthony came forth and set himself to organize the life of the multitude of ascetics that had grown up around him . This See also:act, which took place in the first years of the 4th century, must be regarded as the inauguration of Christian monachism . 3 . St Anthony's Monachism.—The See also:form of monastic life directly derived from St Anthony was the type that prevailed in middle and See also:northern Egypt up to the middle of the 5th century .

The chief authorities for the study of this type of monastic life are the Vita Antonii (probably by See also:

Athanasius), the Historia monachorum (ed . E . Preuschen), the Historia lausiaca of Palladius (ed . E . C . Butler)—these works are to be found in Latin in Rosweyd's Vitae Patrum (See also:Migne, See also:Patrol See also:Lat . LXXIII., LXXIV.)—and the writings of Cassian (See also:English See also:translation by See also:Gibson in " Nicene and See also:Post-Nicene Library ") . A See also:generation ago all this literature was in disrepute; but it has been revindicated, and its substantially historical See also:character is now recognized on all hands (see E . C . Butler, op. cit. pt. ii . § 1) . Antonian monachism See also:grew out of the purely eremitical life, and it retained many of the characteristic features inherited from its origin .

The party of travellers whose See also:

journey in 394 is narrated in the Historia monachorum found at the chief towns along the Nile from Lycopolis (See also:Assiut or Siut) to Alexandria, and in the deserts that fringed the See also:river, monastic habitations, sometimes of hermits, sometimes of several monks living together but rather the life of hermits than of See also:cenobites . It is at the See also:great monastic settlements of Nitria and Scete that we are best able to study this See also:kind of See also:Egyptian monasticism . Here in one portion of the desert, named Cellia, the monks lived a purely eremitical life; but in Nitria (the See also:Wadi Natron) they lived either alone, or two or three together, or in communities, as they preferred . The system was largely voluntary; there was no organized community life, no living according to See also:rule, as it is now understood . In See also:short the life continued to be semi-eremitical . (See Butler, op. cit. pt. i. p . 233; Hannay, op. cit. chs . 4, 5; Schiwietz, op. cit. pt. ii . §§ 1-r i.) 4 . St See also:Pachomius's Monachism.—Very different was the type of monastic life that prevailed in the more southerly parts of Egypt . Here, at Tabennisi near See also:Dendera, about 315-320, St Pachomius (q.v.) established the first Christian cenobium, or monastery properly so called . (On St Pachomitis and his monastic See also:institute see P .

Ladeuze, Cenobitisme Pakhomien (1898); Schiwietz, op. cit. pt. ii . §§ 12-16; E . C . Butler, op. cit. pt. i. p . 234, pt. ii. notes 48, 49, 54, 59)• Before his See also:

death in 346 Pachomius had established nine monasteries of men and one of women, and after his death other See also:foundations continued to be made in all parts of Egypt, but especially in the See also:south, and in See also:Abyssinia . Palladius tells us that c . 410 the Pachomian or Tabennesiot monks numbered some seven thousand . The life was fully cenobitical, regulated in all details by See also:minute rules, and with prayer and meals in common . As contrasted with the Antonian ideal, the See also:special feature was the highly organized system of See also:work, whereby the monastery was a sort of agricultural and See also:industrial See also:colony . The work was an integral See also:part of the life, and was undertaken for its own See also:sake and not merely for an occupation, as among the Antonian monks . This marks a distinctly new departure in the monastic ideal . In another respect too St Pachomius See also:broke new ground: not only did he inaugurate Christian cenobitical life, but he also created the first " Religious See also:Order." The See also:abbot of the See also:head monastery was the See also:superior-general of the whole institute; he nominated the superiors of the other monasteries; he was visitor and held periodical visitations at all of them; he exercised universal supervision, See also:control and authority; and every See also:year a general See also:chapter was held at the head See also:house .

This is a curious anticipation of the highly organized and centralized forms of See also:

government in religious orders, not met with again till See also:Cluny, Citeaux, and the Mendicant orders in the later middle ages . A passing reference should be made to the Coptic. abbot Shenout, who governed on similar lines the great " See also:White Monastery," whereof the ruins still survive near See also:Akhmim; the See also:main See also:interest of Shenout's institute lies in the fact that it continued purely Coptic, without any infiltration of Greek ideas or influence . (See J . Leipoldt, Schenute von Atripe, 1903.) Egyptian monachism began to wane towards the end of the 5th century, and since the See also:Mahommedan occupation it has ever been declining . Accounts of its See also:present See also:condition may be found in R . Curzon's Monasteries of the See also:Levant (1837), or in A . J . Butler's See also:Ancient Coptic Churches (1884) . Hardly See also:half a dozen monasteries survive, inhabited by small and ever dwindling communities . 5 . See also:Oriental Monachism.—The monastic institute was imported early in the 4th century from Egypt into See also:Syria and the Oriental lands . Here it had a great See also:vogue, and under the influence of the innate See also:Asiatic love of asceticism it tended to assume the form of See also:strange austerities, of a kind not found in Egyptian monachism in its best See also:period .

The most celebrated was the life of the Stylites or See also:

pillar hermits (see See also:SIMEON STYLITES) . Monastic life here tended to revert to the eremitical form, and to this See also:day Syrian and Armenian monks are to be found dwelling in caverns and desert places, and given up wholly to the practice of austerity and contemplation (see E . C . Butler, Lausiac History of Palladius, pt. i. p . 239, where the chief authorities are indicated) . Before the See also:close of the 4th century monachism spread into See also:Persia, Babylonia and See also:Arabia . 6 . Basilian and Greek Monachism.—Though See also:Eustathius of Sebaste was the first to introduce the monastic life within the confines of what may be called Greek Christianity in See also:Asia See also:Minor (c . 34o), it was St See also:Basil who adapted it to Greek and • See also:European ideas and needs . His monastic legislation is explained and the history of his institute sketched in the See also:article BASILIAN MONKS . Here it will suffice to say that he followed the Pachomian rather than the Antonian See also:model, setting himself definitely against the practice of the eremitical life and of excessive asceticism, and inculcating the See also:necessity and superiority of labour . The lines laid down by St Basil have continued ever since to be the lines in which Greek and See also:Slavonic monasticism has rested, the new multitudinous modifications of the monastic ideal, See also:developed in such abundance in the Latin See also:Church, having no counterpart in the Greek .

But the See also:

element of work has decreased, and Greek and Slavonic monks give themselves up for the most part to devotional contemplation . 7 . Early Western Monachism.—The knowledge of the monastic life was carried to western See also:Europe by St Athanasius, who in 340 went to See also:Rome accompanied by two monks . The Vita Antonii was at an early date translated into Latin and propagated in the See also:West, and the practice of monastic asceticism after the Egyptian model became common in Rome and throughout See also:Italy, and before long spread to See also:Gaul and to northern See also:Africa . A resume of the chief facts will be found in E . C . Butler, op. cit. pt. i. p . 245; see also Hannay, op. cit. ch . 7 . The monastic ideals prevalent were those of the Antonian monachism, with its hankering after the eremitical life and the practice of extreme bodily austerities . But See also:climatic conditions and racial temperament rendered the Oriental manner of monasticism unattainable, as a rule, in the West . Hence it came to pass that by the end of .the 5th century the monastic institute in western Europe, and especially in Italy, was in a disorganized condition, sinking under the See also:weight of traditions inherited from the East .

It was St See also:

Benedict who effected a permanently working See also:adaptation of the monastic ideal and life to the requirements and conditions of the western races . 8 . St Benedict's Monachism.—St Benedict (c . 500) effected his purpose by a twofold break with the past: he eliminated from the idea of the monastic life the element of Oriental asceticism and extreme bodily austerity; and he put down the tendency, so marked in Egypt and the East, for the monks to See also:vie with one another in ascetical practices, commanding all to live according to the rule . The life was to be self-denying and hard, but not one of any great austerity (for details see BENEDICT OF NURSIA; and E . C . Butler, op. cit. pt. i. pp . 237 and 251) . The individual See also:monk was sunk in the community, whose corporate life he had to live . St Benedict's rule was a new creation in monastic history; and as it rapidly supplanted all other monastic rules in western Europe, and was for several centuries the only form of monasticism in Latin Christianity (outside of See also:Ireland), it is necessary to speak in some little detail of its spirit and inner character.' It has to be emphasized at the outset that the monasteries in which the See also:Benedictine rule was the basis of the life did not form a See also:body or See also:group apart within the great " monastic order," which embraced all monasteries of whatever rule; nor had Benedictine monks any special work or See also:object beyond that common to all monks—viz. the sanctifying of their souls by living a community life in accordance with the See also:Gospel counsels . St Benedict defines his monastery as " a school of the service of the See also:lord " (Reg., Prol.) . The great act of service is the public common celebration of the canonical See also:office, the " work of See also:God " he calls it, to which " nothing is to be preferred " (Reg. c .

43) . The See also:

rest of the day is filled up with a See also:round of work and See also:reading . Work, and in St Benedict's time it was predominantly See also:field work, took an even more recognized and integral place in the life than was the case under St Pachomius or St Basil, occupying notably more time than the church services . St Benedict introduced too into the monastic life the idea of See also:law and order, of rule binding on the abbot no less than on the monks; thus he reduced almost to a vanishing point the element of arbitrariness, or See also:mere dependence on the abbot's will and whim, found in the earlier rules . Lastly, he introduced the idea of stability, whereby monk and community were See also:bound to each other for life, the normal thing for the Benedictine being to live and See also:die in the monastery of his profession: thus the See also:power hitherto enjoyed by monks, of wandering from monastery to monastery, was cut away, and the Benedictine community was made into a See also:family whose members were bound to one another by bonds that could not be severed at will . 9 . Western Monachism in the Early Middle Ages.—It is easy to understand that a form of monastic life thus emptied of distinctively Oriental features and adapted to the needs of the West by a great religious See also:genius like St Benedict, should soon have distanced, all competitors and have become the only monastic rule in western Europe . The steps in the See also:propagation of the Benedictine rule are traced in the article See also:BENEDICTINES . The only serious See also:rival was the Irish rule of See also:Columban; and here it will be in place to say a word on Irish monasticism, which, in its birthplace, stood aloof to the end from the general See also:movement . The beginnings of See also:Celtic monachism are obscure, but it seems to have been closely connected with the tribal system ? When, however, Irish monachism emerges into the full See also:light of history, it was in its manifestations closely akin to the Egyptian, or even to the Syrian type: there was the same love of the eremitical life, the same craving after bodily austerities of an extraordinary kind, the same individualistic piety . The Irish monks were great missioners in the See also:north of See also:England and the northern and 1 This topic is dealt with by F .

Phoenix-squares

A . Gasquet, Sketch of Monastic Constitutional History (pp. viii.-xxii.), the Introduction to and edition of the translation of See also:

Montalembert's Monks of the West (1895) . 2 See See also:Willis Bund, Celtic Church in See also:Wales (1897) ; H . Zimmer, See also:art . Keltische Kirche " in See also:Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie (3rd ed.), translated into English by Kuno See also:Meyer (1902) . central parts of Europe, and in the course of the 7th century the Irish rule of St Columban and the See also:Roman rule of St Benedict met in the monasteries in central Europe that had been founded by Columban and his Irish monks . The Benedictine rule supplanted the Irish so inevitably that the personnel ceased to be Irish, that even in St Columban's own monastery of Luxeuil his rule was no longer observed, and by See also:Charlemagne's time all remembrance of any other monastic rule than the Benedictine had died out . During the 7th and 8th centuries the Benedictine houses were the chief See also:instrument in the christianizing, civilizing and educating of the See also:Teutonic races . In spite of the frequent pillage and destruction of monasteries by Northmen, See also:Saracens, See also:Arabs and other invaders; in spite of the existence of even widespread See also:local abuses, St Benedict's institute went on progressing and consolidating; and on the whole it may be said that throughout the early middle ages the general run of Benedictine houses continued to perform with substantial fidelity the religious and social functions for which they were created . Io . Offshoots and Modifications of Benedictine Monachism: the Rise of "Orders."—Up to the beginning of the loth century we do not meet in the West such a thing as an " order " —an organized corporate body composed of several houses, diffused through various lands, with centralized government and See also:objects and methods of its own . As stated above, St Pachomius's monasteries formed an order—a curious anticipation of what six centuries later was to become the vogue in Western monasticism .

The Benedictine houses never coalesced in this manner; even when, later on, a system of See also:

national congregations was introduced, they were but loose federations of autonomous abbeys; so that to this day, though the convenient expression " Benedictine order " is frequently used, the Benedictines do not form an order in the proper sense of the word . But with the loth century we reach the period of orders, and it is on this See also:line that all subsequent developments in Western monasticism have run . The first order was that of Cluny, founded in 91o; in rule and manner of life it continued purely Benedictine, and it wielded extraordinary power and religious influence up to the middle of the 12th century . (See CLUNV.) The chief offshoot from the Benedictine institute were the See also:Cistercians (c . Too); their ground idea was a return to the See also:letter of St Benedict's rule, and a See also:reproduction, as close as could be, of the exterior conditions of life as they existed in St Benedict's own monastery; consequently field work held a prominent place in the Cistercian ideal . This ideal it has not been possible permanently to maintain in the great body of the order, but only in limited circles, as See also:Trappists (q.v.) . But for a century (1125–1225) Citeaux supplanted Cluny as the spiritual centre of western Europe . The Cistercians were an organized, centralized order in the full sense of the word . (See CISTERCIANS.) Towards the end of the loth century and during the 11th a strong tendency set in to revert to the eremitical life, probably owing to the example of the Greek monks, who at this time entered See also:Sicily and south Italy in great See also:numbers . This tendency produced the orders of the See also:Camaldulians or Camaldolese (c . 975) in Italy, and in See also:France the See also:Grandmontines (IO76) and See also:Carthusians (1084), all leading practically eremitical lives, and assembling ordinarily only for the church services . The See also:Vallombrosians (1038) near See also:Florence maintained a cenobitical life, but eliminated every element of Benedictine life that was not devoted to pure contemplation .

At See also:

Fontevrault (founded in 1095) the special feature was the system of " See also:double monasteries " i.e. neighbouring, but rigorously separated, monasteries of men and of women—the government being in the hands of the abbesses . In all these lesser orders may be discerned the tendency of a return to the elements of Eastern monasticism discarded by St Benedict—to the eremitical life; to the purely contemplative life with little or no See also:factor of work; to the undertaking of rigorous bodily austerities and penances—it was at this time that the practice of self-inflicted scourgings as a See also:penitential exercise wasintroduced . All this was a reaction from St Benedict's reconstruction of the monastic life—a reaction which in the See also:matter of austerities and individualistic piety has made itself increasingly See also:felt in the later manifestations of the monastic ideal in the West . r r . New Kinds of Religious Orders.—Up to this point we have met only with monasticism proper; and if the See also:term were taken strictly, the See also:remainder of this article would be concerned only with the later history of the institutes already spoken of; for neither canons See also:regular, friars, nor regular clerks, are in the strict sense monks . But it is usual, and it will be convenient here, to use the term monasticism in a broader sense, as See also:equivalent to the technical " religious life," and as embracing the various forms that have come into being so prolifically in the Latin Church at all periods since the middle of the 11th century . The first of these new forms was that of the canons regular or Augustinian canons (q.v.) who about the year To6o arose out of the older semi-monastic canonical institute, and lived ac-cording to the so-called " Rule of St See also:Augustine." The essential difference between monks and regular canons may be explained as follows: monks, whether hermits or cenobites, are men who live a certain kind of life for its own sake, for the purpose of leading a Christian life according to the Gospel's counsel and thus serving God and saving their own souls; See also:external works, either temporal or spiritual, are accidental; clericature or ordination is an addition, an See also:accession, and no part of their object, and, as a matter of fact, till well on in the middle ages it was not usual for monks to be priests; in a word, the life they lead is their object, and they do not adopt it in order the better to See also:compass some other end . But canons regular were in virtue of their origin essentially clerics, and their common life, monastery, rule, and the rest, were something additional grafted on to their proper clerical See also:state . The difference manifested itself in one external point: Augustinian canons frequently and freely themselves served the See also:parish churches in the patronage of their houses; Benedictine monks did so, speaking broadly, hardly at all, and their doing so was forbidden by law, both ecclesiastical and See also:civil . In other respects the life of canons regular in their monasteries, and the external policy and organization among their houses, differed little from what prevailed among the See also:Black Benedictines; their superiors were usually provosts or priors, but sometimes abbots . As contrasted with the friars they are counted among the monastic orders . Alongside of the local federations or congregations of houses of Augustinian canons were formed the Premonstratensian order (1120) (q.v.), and the English " double order " of St See also:Gilbert of Sempringham (1148) (q.v.), both orders, in the full sense of the word, composed of Augustinian canons .

Two special kinds of orders arose out of the religious See also:

wars waged by Christendom against the Mahommedans in the See also:Holy See also:Land and in See also:Spain: (I) the Military orders: the Knights Hospitallers of St See also:John and the Knights See also:Templars, both at the beginning of the 12th century, and the Teutonic Knights at its close; (2) the orders of See also:Ransom, whose object was to See also:free Christian prisoners and slaves from captivity under the Mahommedans, the members being bound by See also:vow even to offer themselves in See also:exchange; such orders were the See also:Trinitarians (q.v.) founded in 1198, and the order of Our See also:Lady of Ransom (de Mercede), founded by St See also:Peter Nolasco in 1223; both were under the Augustinian rule . At the beginning of the 13th century arose the See also:series of great Mendicant orders . Their nature and work and the needs that called them into being are explained in the article MENDICANT MOVEMENT, and in the See also:separate articles on ST See also:FRANCIS OF See also:AssIsI and See also:FRANCISCANS (See also:I2I0), ST See also:DOMINIC and See also:DOMINICANS (I2I.5), See also:CARMELITES (I245), AUGUSTINIAN HERMITS (I256)—these were the four great orders of Mendicant friars—to them were added, in 1487, the See also:Servites (q.v.) founded in 1233 . It will be in place here to explain the difference between friars, monks, and canons regular . The distinction between the two last has already been brought out; but they agree in this that the individual monk and See also:canon alike belongs to his house of profession and not to any greater or wider See also:corporation . They are bound by place and the unit is the individual. community . Thus among monks and canons regular each monastery has its own fixed community, which is in a real sense a family; and the monk or canon, no matter where he may be, looks on his monastery as his " See also:home," like the ancestral home of a great family . With the friars this is all changed: the See also:friar does not belong to any particular house, but to the See also:province or order, so that there is no See also:reason, beyond the command of his superiors, why he should be living in one house rather than another . In the monk See also:attachment to his own one monastery is a virtue; in the friar detachment is the ideal . The monk, or the canon, normally exercises his influence on the See also:world in and through his community, not as an individual but as a member of a- corporate body . The friar's See also:sphere of work is normally outside his See also:convent, and he works and influences directly and as an individual . Lastly, in regard to the object aimed at there was an important difference, for the professed object of the friars was to be clerical helpers of the parochial See also:clergy in See also:meeting the specifically religious needs of the time .

Already, in St Francis's lifetime, his friars had grown into an order dedicated to spiritual ministrations among the poor, the sick, the ignorant, the outcasts of the great cities; while by the very conception of their institute the Dominicans were dedicated to the special work of See also:

preaching, especially to heretics and heathens . Here, too, should be mentioned St Francis's other great creation, the See also:Tertiaries (q.v.), or devout men and women living in the world, who while continuing their family life and their See also:ordinary avocations, followed a certain rule of life, giving themselves up to more than ordinary prayer and the pursuit of See also:good works, and abstaining from amusements of a worldly kind . 12 . The Religious Orders in the Later Middle Ages.—The 13th century was the heyday of monasticism in the West; the Mendicant orders were in their first fervour and See also:enthusiasm; the great abbeys of Benedictines, Cistercians and Augustinian canons reflected the results of the religious reform and revival associated with See also:Hildebrand's name, and maintained themselves at a high and dignified level in things religious and See also:secular; and under the Benedictine rule were formed the new congregations or orders of See also:Silvestrines (1231), See also:Celestines (c . 126o) and See also:Olivetans (1319), which are described under their several headings . But towards the end of the century a period of decline set in, which ran its course in increasing See also:volume throughout the 14th century . A great See also:wave of secularity rolled over the Church, engulfing the religious orders with the rest; love waxed See also:cold, fervour languished; learning declined, discipline was relaxed, See also:bitter rivalries broke out, especially between Franciscans and Dominicans . The great See also:schism was reflected in the Mendicant orders which were divided into two obediences, to the destruction of discipline . The great See also:wealth of the old monastic orders exposed them, especially in France and Italy, to the vicious system of See also:commendation, whereby a See also:bishop, an ecclesiastic, or even a layman was appointed " commendatory abbot " of a monastery, merely for the purpose of See also:drawing the revenues (see ABBOT) ; the monasteries were often deprived even of necessary See also:maintenance, the communities dwindled, and regular observance became impossible . There is reason to believe that in England a relatively good level was maintained throughout, thanks in great measure to the fact that the See also:kings resolutely refused to allow the introduction of commendation—See also:Wolsey was the first and last commendatory abbot in England . In the See also:German lands, the lowest level was touched, and the writings of the Augustinian canon Johann See also: