persons contained in the houses. Those of the lesser monas- If we reckon the number in religious [[ whole, that the dissolution of these houses was not an act of the church, but of the state, in the period preceding the reformation, by a king and parliament of the Roman Catholic communion in all points, except the king's supre10,000 macy; to which the pope himself, by his bulls and licences, had led the way. As to the merits of these institutions, authors are much divided. While some have considered them as beneficial to 5,347 learning, piety, and benevolence, others have thought them very injurious. We may form some idea of them from the following remarks of Mr. Gilpin. 30,000 2,374 Total, 47,721 He is speaking of Glastonbury Abbey, which possessed the amplest revenues of any religious house in England. “Its fraternity, says he, "is said to have consisted of five hundred established monks, besides nearly as many retainers on the abbey. Above four hundred children were not only educated in it, but entirely maintained. Strangers from all parts of Europe were liberally received, classed according to their sex and nation, and might consider the hospitable roof under which they lodged as their own. Five hundred travellers, with their horses, have been lodged at once within its walls; while the poor from every side of the country, waiting the ringing of the alms bell; when they flocked in crowds, young and old, to the gate of the monastery, where they received, every morning, a plentiful provision for themselves and their families: But as there were probably more than "On the other hand, when we consider five hundred persons bred up in indolence and lost to the commonwealth; when we consider that these houses were the great nurseries of superstition, bigotry, and ignorance; the stews of sloth, stupidity, and perhaps intemperance; when we consider that the education received in them had not the least tincture of useful learning, good manners, or true religion, but tended rather to vilify and disgrace the human mind; when we consider that the pilgrims and strangers who resorted thither were idle vagabonds, who got nothing abroad that was equivalent to the occupations they left at home; and when we consider, lastly, that indiscriminate alms-giving is not real charity, but an avocation from labour and industry, checking every idea of exertion, and filling the mind with abject notions, we are led to acquiesce in the fate of these foundations, and view their ruins, not only with a picturesque eye, but with moral and religious satisfaction." Gilpin's Observations on the Western Parts of England, p. 138, 139; Bigland's Letters on Hist. p. 313. MONASTIC, something belonging to monks, or the monkish life.-The monastic profession is a kind of civil death, which in all worldly matters has the same effect with the natural death. The council of Trent, &c. fix sixteen years the age at which a person may be admitted into the monastical state. St. Anthony is the person who, in the fourth century, first instituted the monastic life; as St. Pachomius, in the same century, is said to have first set on foot the cœnobite life, i. e., regular communities of religious. In a short time the deserts of Egypt became inhabited by a set of solitaries, who took upon them the monastic profession. St. Basil carried the monkish humour into the East, where he composed a rule which afterwards obtained through a great part of the West. In the eleventh century, the monastic discipline was grown very remiss. St. Oddo first began to retrieve it in the monastery of Cluny that monastery, by the conditions of its erection, was put under the immediate protection of the holy see; with a prohibition to all powers, both secular and ecclesiastical, to disturb the monks in the possession of their effects or the election of their abbot. In virtue hereof they pleaded an exemption from the jurisdiction of the bishop, and extended this privilege to all the houses dependent on Cluny. This made the first congregation of several houses under one chief immediately subject to the pope, so as to constitute one body, or as they now call it, one religious order. Till then, each monastery was independent, and subject to the bishop. See MONK. MONK anciently denoted, "a person who retired from the world to give himself wholly to God, and to live in solitude and abstinence." The word is derived from the Latin monachus, and that from the Greek povaxos, "solitary;" of povos solus, "alone." The original of monks seems to have been this: The persecutions which attended the first ages of the Gospel forced some Christians to retire from the world, and live in deserts and places most private and unfrequented, in hopes of finding that peace and comfort among beasts, which were denied them among men; and this being the case of some very extraordinary persons, their example gave such reputation to retirement, that the practice was continued when the reason of its commencement ceased. After the empire became Christian, instances of this kind were numerous: and those whose security had obliged them to live separately and apart, became afterwards united into societies. We may also add, that the mystic theology, which gained ground towards the close of the third century, contributed to produce the same effect, and to drive men into solitude for the purposes of devotion. The monks, at least the ancient ones, were distinguished into solitaries, canobites, and sarabites. The solitaries are those who live alone, in places remote from all towns and habitations of men, as do still some of the hermits. The canobites are those who live in community with several others in the same house, and under the same superiors. The sarabites were strolling monks, having no fixed rule or residence. The houses of monks, again, were of two kinds, viz. monasteries and lauræ. Those who are now called monks, are cœnobites, who live together in a convent or monastery, who make vows of living according to a certain rule established by the founder, and wear a habit which distinguishes their order. Those that are endowed, or have a fixed revenue, are most properly called monks, monachi; as the Chartreux, Benedictines, Bernardines, &c. The Mendicants, or those that beg, as the Capuchins and Franciscans, are more pro perly called religious and friars, though the names are frequently confounded. The first monks were those of St. Anthony, who, towards the close of the fourth century, formed them into a regular body, engaged them to live in society with each other, and prescribed to them fixed rules for the direction of their conduct. These regulations, which Anthony had made in Egypt, were soon introduced into Palestine and Syria by his disciple Hilarion. Almost about the same time, Aones, or Eugenius, with their companions Gaddanas and Azyzas, instituted the monastic order in Mesopotamia, and the adjacent countries; and their example was followed with such rapid success, that in a short time the whole east was filled with a lazy set of mortals, who abandoning all human connexions, advantages, pleasures, and concerns, wore out a languishing and miserable existence amidst the hardships of want and various kinds of suffering, in order to arrive at a more close and rapturous communication with God and angels. From the East this gloomy disposi tion passed into the West, and first in- | highest esteem; and nothing could equal the veneration that was paid about the close of the ninth century to such as devoted themselves to the sacred gloom and indolence of a convent. This veneration caused several kings and emperors to call them to their courts, and to employ them in civil affairs of the greatest moment. Their reformation was attempted by Louis the Meek, but the effect was of short duration. In the eleventh century they were exempted by the popes from the authority established; insomuch, that in the council of Lateran that was held in the year 1215, a decree was passed, by the advice of Innocent III. to prevent any new monastic institutions; and several were entirely suppressed. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it appears, from the testimony of the best writers, that the monks were generally lazy, illiterate, profligate, and licentious epicures, whose views in life were confined to opulence, idleness, and pleasure. However, the reformation had a manifest influence in restraining their excesses, and rendering them more circumspect and cautious in their external conduct. Monks are distinguished by the colour of their habits into black, white, grey, &c. Among the monks, some are called monks of the choir, others professed monks, and others lay monks; which last are destined for the service of the convent, and have neither clericate nor literature. Cloistered monks are those who actually reside in the house: in opposition to extra monks, who have benefices depending on the monastery. Towards the close of the fifth century, the monks, who had formerly lived only for themselves in solitary retreats, and had never thought of assuming any rank among the sacerdotal order, were now gradually distinguished from the populace, and endowed with such opulence and honourable privileges, that they found themselves in a condition to claim an eminent station among the pillars and supporters of the Christian community. The fame of their piety and sanctity was so great, that bishops and presbyters were often chosen out of their order; and the passion of erecting edifices and convents, in which the monks and holy virgins might serve God in the most commodious manner, was at this time carried beyond all bounds. However, their licentious- Monks are also distinguished into reness, even in this century, was become formed, whom the civil and ecclesiastia proverb; and they are said to have cal authority have made masters of anexcited the most dreadful tumults and cient converts, and put in their power seditions in various places. The mo- to retrieve the ancient discipline, which nastic orders were at first under the im- had been relaxed; and ancient, who remediate jurisdiction of the bishops, from main in the convent, to live in it acwhich they were exempted by the Ro-cording to its establishment at the man pontiff about the end of the seventh time when they made their vows, withcentury; and the monks, in return, de-out obliging themselves to any new revoted themselves wholly to advance the form. interests and to maintain the dignity of Anciently the monks were all laymen, the bishop of Rome. This immunity and were only distinguished from the which they obtained was a fruitful rest of the people by a peculiar habit, source of licentiousness and disorder, and an extraordinary devotion. Not and occasioned the greatest part of the only the monks were prohibited the vices with which they were afterwards priesthood, but even priests were exso justly charged. In the eighth cen- pressly prohibited from becoming tury the monastic discipline was ex- monks, as appears from the letters of tremely relaxed, both in the eastern St. Gregory. Pope Siricius was the first and western provinces, and all efforts to who called them to the clericate, on restore it were ineffectual. Neverthe- occasion of some great scarcity of priests less, this kind of institution was in the that the church was then supposed to labour under; and since that time the priesthood has been usually united to the monastical profession. Enc. Brit.; British Monachism, or Manners_and|| Customs of Monks and Nuns of England; Mosheim's Ecc. Hist. MONOPHYSITES, (from povos, 80lus, and quais natura,) a general name given to all those sectaries in the Levant, who only own one nature in Jesus Christ; and who maintain that the divine and human nature of Jesus Christ were so united as to form only one nature, yet without any change, confusion, or mixture of the two natures. The Monophysites, however, properly so called, are the followers of Severus, a learned monk of Palestine, who was created patriarch of Antioch, in 513, and Petrus Fullensis. presents, and attempts employed by the The opinion of the Monothelites had its rise in 930, and had the emperor Heraclius for an adherent: it was the same with that of the acephalous Severians. They allowed of two wills in Christ, considered with regard to the two natures; but reduced them to one, by reason of the union of the two natures, thinking it absurd that there should be two free wills in one and the same person. They were condemned by the sixth general council in 680, as being supposed to destroy the perfection of the humanity of Jesus Christ, depriving it of will and operation. Their sentiments were afterwards embraced by the Maronites. MONTANISTS, a sect which sprung up about the year 171, in the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. They were so called from their leader Montanus, a Phrygian by birth: whence they are sometimes called Phrygians and Cataphrygians. The Monophysites were encouraged by the emperor Anastasius, but suppressed by Justin and succeeding emperors. However, this sect was restored by Jacob Baradæus, an obscure monk, insomuch that when he died bishop of Edessa, A. D. 583, he left it in a most flourishing state in Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, and other countries. The laborious efforts of Jacob were seconded in Egypt and the adjacent countries by Theodosius, bishop of Alexandria; and he became so famous, that all the Monophysites of the East considered him as their second parent and founder, and are to this day called Jacobites, in honour of their new chief. The Monophysites are divided into two sects or parties, the one African and the other Asiatic; at the head Montanus, it is said, embraced Chrisof the latter is the patriarch of Antioch, tianity in hopes of rising to the digniwho resides for the most part in the mo- ties of the church. He pretended to nastery of St. Athanias, near the city of inspiration; and gave out that the Holy Merdin: the former are under the ju- | Ghost had instructed him in several risdiction of the patriarch of Alexandria, points which had not been revealed to who generally resides at Grand Cairo, the apostles. Priscilla and Maximilla, and are subdivided into Cophts and two enthusiastic women of Phrygia, Abyssinians. From the fifteenth cen- presently became his disciples, and in a tury downwards, all the patriarchs short time he had a great number of of the Monophysites have taken the followers. The bishops of Asia, being name of Ignatius, in order to show that assembled together, condemned his they are the lineal successors of Igna- prophecies, and excommunicated those tius, who was bishop of Antioch in the that dispersed them. Afterwards they first century, and consequently the law- wrote an account of what had passed to ful patriarch of Antioch. In the se- the western churches, where the preventeenth century, a small body of Mo-tended prophecies of Montanus and his nophysites, in Asia, abandoned for some followers were likewise condemned. time the doctrine and institution of their The Montanists, finding themselves ancestors, and embraced the communion exposed to the censure of the whole .of Rome; but the African Monophy-church, formed a schism, and set up a sites, notwithstanding that poverty and distinct society under the direction of ignorance which exposed them to the those who called themselves prophets. seductions of sophistry and gain, stood-Montanus, in conjunction with Prisfirm in their principles, and made an cilla and Maximilla, were at the head obstinate resistance to the promises, of the sect. These sectaries made no alteration | in the creed. They only held that the Holy Spirit made Montanus his organ for delivering a more perfect form of discipline than what was delivered by his apostles. They refused communion for ever to those who were guilty of notorious crimes, and believed that the bishops had no authority to reconcile them. They held it unlawful to fly in time of persecution. They condemned second marriages, allowed the dissolution of marriage, and observed three lents. Horsley's Charge, 1790; Paley's and Grove's Moral Philosophy; Beattie's Elements of Moral Science; Evans's Sermons on Christian Temper; Watts's Sermons on Christian Morals; Mason's Christian Morals; H. More's Hints, vol. ii. p. 245; Gisborne's Sermons designed to illustrate and enforce Christian Morality. MORAVIANS, a sect generally said to have arisen under Nicholas Lewis, count of Zinzendorf, a German nobleman of the last century, and thus called because the first converts to their system were some Moravian families. According to the society's own account, however, they derive their origin from the Greek church in the ninth century, when, by the instrumentality of Methodius and Cyrillus, two Greek monks, the kings of Bulgaria and Moravia being converted to the faith, were, together with their subjects, united in communion with the Greek church. Methodius was their first bishop, and for their use Cyrillus translated the Scriptures into the Sclavonian language. The antipathy of the Greek and Roman churches is well known, and by much the greater part of the Brethren were in process of time compelled, after many struggles, to submit to the see of Rome. A few, however, adhering to the rites of their mother church, united themselves in 1170 to the Waldenses, and sent missionaries into many countries. In 1547 they were called Fratres legis Christi, or Brethren of the Law of Christ; because, about that period, they had thrown off all reverence for human compilations of the faith, professing simply to follow the doctrines and precepts contained in the word of God. MORAL, relating to the actions or conduct of life, or that which determines an action to be good or virtuous. -2. A moral agent is a being that is capable of those actions that have a moral quality, and which can properly be denominated good or evil in a moral sense.-3. A moral certainty is a very strong probability, and is used in contradistinction to mathematical probability.-4. Moral fitness is the agreement of the actions of any intelligent being with the nature, circumstances, and relation of things.-5. A moral impossibility is a very great or insuperable difficulty; opposed to a natural impossibility. See INABILITY.-6. Moral obligation is the necessity of doing or omitting any action in order to be happy and good. See OBLIGATION.-7. Moral Philosophy is the science of manners, the knowledge of our duty and felicity. See PHILOSOPHY.-8. Moral sense, that whereby we perceive what is good, virtuous, and beautiful in actions, manners, and characters; or it is a kind of satisfaction in the mind arising from the contemplation of those actions of rational agents which we call good or virtuous: some call this natural conscience, others intuitive per- There being at this time no bishops ception of right and wrong, &c. See in the Bohemian church who had not article SENSE.-9. Moral law. See submitted to the papal jurisdiction, three LAW, EVIDENCE. priests of the society of United BrethMORALITY is that relation or pro-ren were, about the year 1467, conseportion which actions bear to a given rule. It is generally used in reference to a good life. Morality is distinguished from religion thus: "Religion is a studious conformity of our actions to the relations in which we stand to each other in civil society. Morality comprehends only a part of religion; but religion comprehends the whole of morality. Morality finds all her motives here below; religion fetches all her motives from above. The highest principle in morals is a just regard to the rights of men; the first principle in religion is the love of God." The various duties of morality are considered in their respective places in this work. See Bishop crated by Stephen, bishop of the Waldenses, in Austria, (see WALDENSES;) and these prelates, on their return to their own country, consecrated ten cobishops, or co-seniors, from among the rest of the presbyters. In 1523, the United Brethren commenced a friendly correspondence, first with Luther, and afterwards with Calvin and other leaders among the reformers. A persecu tion, which was brought upon them on this account, and some religious disputes which took place among themselves, threatened for a while the society with ruin; but the disputes were, in 1570, put an end to by a synod, which decreed that differences about non-essentials |