The Sun.
London, England, 1802-06-09 00:00:00

ORIGIN OF MONASTERIES.

A Monastery is an house .for the reception of
religious persons : whether it be an abbey, priory,
or nunnery. It is derived from .a Greek word, ex-
pressive of solitude :-whether absolute, and in
,the
.stridest sense, as of Stmeow STYLITES, and some
other melancholy enthusiasts ; or, at least, by a se-
paration from lay society, and a devoting of either
sex to celibacy. It arose in Egypt about the 300,
and was instituted ih a manner which yet continues
in that country. But in 350 it was brought to
Rome by AT3 ANASHIS ; and in that City was en-
tertaibed by few .followers, and with little applause,.,
Until sot); when St. Equitius.and St. Beres7iB gave
it a form of stability, and diffused it. Yet the in-
stitution of St. Equ;tius was of small extent and du:
ration ; while that of St. Benedia enlarged itself
thronoLall Italy, and passed beyond the mountains.
At which period the Monks, and, for a long time
after, were not clerical, but secular; and in the
Monasteries, which they had without the Cities,
lived, of their own labour, by agriculture, and
other works ; and also of oblations made to them, by
the faithful. But.in Cities; they liyed by their se-
veral occupations, and by such appointments as were
allotted to them by the Church, at the public ex.:
pence. The former, or rliral.Moqks, retained much
longer the ancient discipline ; but of the latter, those
who became the clerical, by dividing, to their se-
parate emolument the goods of the Church, lost,
proportionably, of the estimation of the people ; .
whence it came, that few gave or bequeathed any
thing considerable to them. And thus would have
ceased the augmentation of the acquests of the
Church-. But the Monks continuing to live in com:.
mon, and to perform ads of piety and benevolence,
was the cause that the public liberality, not be-
coming extind, and only changing its diredion,
was exerted towards them ; which was greatly in-
strumental to the increase of ecclesiastical wealth :
and, progressively,their possessions were exceedingly
enlarged by grants and bequests, to the mainten-
ance of a great number of Monks : and to hospita-
lity, education, and other pious works. The Ab-
bot TR ITHiMIUS relates that the Monasteries of
the Benedictines were rt 5,000 in number, exclusive
of the priories and other smaller Convents.
In England and Wales, were religious houses of
the Monastic discipline, under the various names of
abbeys, priories, commandries, frieries, hermitages,
and other similar appellations. At the Reformat:on,
were .oppressed, by successive ads, nearly 3,200
of these houses, particularly enumerated and
.va-
lued z not including the Friars' houses, and those
suppressed by WoLssv ; nor a considerable num-
cr, probably of small religious houses. The total
of the clear yearly revenue amounted to 1(4,7841.
los. 3ad. And it is remarked, that if allowance
be made for the less Monasteries, and houses not
included in the estimate, and for plate, &c.. which
fell into the King's hands, on the dissolution ; and
for the value cf money at that time, at least six times
greater than a' present ; and farther, that ;he lands
were supposed to have been estimated much below
their then real worth, their whole revenues must be
concluded to have been' immense. No computation
appears to have been made of the number of persons
contained in .the dissolved house's. A general idea

last period, Cardinal WOLSEY, by license from the
King and Pope, obtained a dissolution of above 3o
religious houses, for founding and endowing of his
Colleges at Oxford and Ipswich.. About the same
time a Bull was granted by the Pope to Cardinal
WOLSEY, to suppresS Monasteries where there were
not above six Monks; to the value of 8000 ducats a
year, for endowing Windsor, and King's College
in Cambridge : and two other Bulls were granted to
the Cardinals WOLSEY and CAMPEIUS, where there
were less than twelve Monks, and to annex. them
to greater Monasteries : and another Bull to the
same Cardinals, to inquire concerning Abbeys to be
suppressed, in order to become Cathedrals. On
these particular commissions, nothing 'seems to
have been done. The motives ascribed to WoL.
szy, and, in part, perhaps with truth, and to se-
veral other co-operators in this design, are the
desire of promoting learning : and, in Arch-
bishop CRANMER particularly, the vieweif advancing
the Reformation.' With relation to the more imme-
diate, or, at least, more avowed inducements, they
were the loose and vicious lives of the religious ;
the employment of their revenues not according to
the intent of the donors ; and their many cheats, in
images, counterfeit relics, and feigned miracles,
Which had brought them into some degree even of
popular contempt. Apart of them, and especially the
Observant', had opposed the divorce from CATHA-
RINE of Arragon, for which King HENRY was so
impatiently anxious, under the irresistible influence
of his conscientious passions. Arid their spirit as an
exclusive sieciety, conneaed with a foreign juris--
didion, and armed with some considerable portion
of direa political power (for several of the Abbots
were Lords Of Parliament) and supported by a yet
more dangerous instrument of authority their
abused influence—this exelasiie spirit, thus aided,
was justly esteemed injurious to the independence of
the Civil Authority. •
The parade, formalities, and pageantry, of these
places, where wealth-and art laboured to adorn the
throne of luxurious indolence, and to add enticing
Splendor to the shrine of superstition, naturally
contributed to assist the, substitution .of shlw to
reality : which has ever beet the method of pro--
moting, and preserving when obtained, the aseend-
ance of the nominally religious over the enslaved
multitude. Vet, with all these many and weighty •
charges, of luxury, supers ti tion.„ hypocrisy, avarice,
and a depraved secular ambition, rendering them,
from their degenerate state of uselessness, positively,
formidable, and pernicious'tothe community; with all:
these subjeas of crirnina tion, the chief of which, it may.
well be feared, they would not in general have been
able to answer, at the time of our English Reforma-
tion, before Judges more calm 'and disinterested
than those in the hands of whom they .were at
that crisis ; it will yet be owned, the service of
those establishments, defelive as they were, was
nor, in a remoter period, inconsiderable in ex-
tent, nor of perishable duration. When there was
little trade, little agriculture ; when the rapacious
Ckrgy were too great in worldly magnificence and
power, to spare much of their revenues tb the pioua
duty of benevolence; the retired inhabitants of these
cells fed the poor, sheltered the benighted traveller in
his deyious wanderings through a then ill conneded
Country—proteeted, sometimes it may be guilt, and
it must often have been, innocence, from the vindic-
tive Baron, and from the iron sceptre—perpetuated
the historic memory of our ancestors—resolved and
transcribed, before their solitary lamp, those clas-
sic. pages whence language, the -manners, science,
virtue, human society, in its progressive forms,
were to derive such diversified advantages'--and pre-
served here, and in other parts of Europe, the
SCRIPTURE in its original languages. Nor-ought
we to be silent on the evidences of our ancient Con.
stituticm, which we deduce often from records in-
debted to monastic hands for their transmission to
• us.*

COUNTRY NEWS.

LANCASTER, JUNE 5.

On Thursday se'nnight, the wife of. Joshua Al-
derson, of Cockfield, in Halifax; in consequence of.
a sudden sickness, with which she was seized on
seeing her husband bled, dropped down and instant-
ly expired.
On 'Thursday se'nnight, -a poor-old man., called
John Storey, but better known by the name 'of
Yorkey, was found hanging upon the bough of a
tree in the neighbourhood of Irthington, quite life-
less: He left his son's house that morning, where
he had been staying a few days, under the pretence
of returning home to Carlisle, but,had not gone far
before he thus rashly terminated his life, upon
which, we understand, he had made several previ-
ous attempts.—The Coroner's Jury brought in a
verdlit of lunacy.
The following curious circumstance occurred a
few days ago :—As two young Gentlemen of this
town were amusing themselves with shooting, on:
Lancaster Moor, one of them perceiving a large
hawk in pursuit of a small: bird, fired at it, and
brought it to the ground. Well pleased with his
prize, he ran to take it up ; not being aware of its
talons, he soon felt their fraternal embrace, and it
was with much difficulty he extricated himself, but
not without much bloodshed. Unwilling to give
up the contest, he took his silk handkerchief from
his neck, and.throwing it over the hawk, he pro-
ceeded towards the town. Arriving at Gallows:.
hill, he must take another -view of the fallen foe,
and untying the handkerchief, there he saw the
hatVk apparently dead, and turning to his compa-
nion, the sagacious bird sprapg up, and took flight,
with the handkerchief sticking, fast to its claws ;'
and though both our sportsmen discharged their
pieces at the bird; it was out of sight, with its
trophy, in a few minutes, to their great mortifica.
tion.