The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Short History of Monks and Monasteries
by Alfred Wesley Wishart

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Title: A Short History of Monks and Monasteries

Author: Alfred Wesley Wishart

Release Date: August 17, 2004 [EBook #13206]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF MONKS AND MONASTERIES ***

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A SHORT HISTORY OF

MONKS

AND MONASTERIES

_By_ ALFRED WESLEY WISHART

Sometime _Fellow_ in _Church History_ in _The University of Chicago_

ALBERT BRANDT, PUBLISHER
TRENTON, NEW JERSEY
MDCCCC

1900

PREFACE

The aim of this volume is to sketch the history of the monastic
institution from its origin to its overthrow in the Reformation period,
for although the institution is by no means now extinct, its power was
practically broken in the sixteenth century, and no new orders of
importance or new types have arisen since that time.

A little reflection will enable one to understand the great difficulties
in the execution of so broad a purpose. It was impracticable in the
majority of instances to consult original sources, although intermediate
authorities have been studied as widely as possible and the greatest
caution has been exercised to avoid those errors which naturally arise
from the use of such avenues of information. It was also deemed
unadvisable to burden the work with numerous notes and citations. Such
notes as were necessary to a true unfolding of the subject will be found
in the appendix.

A presentation of the salient features of the whole history was
essential to a proper conception of the orderly development of the
ascetic ideal. To understand the monastic institution one must not only
study the isolated anchorite seeking a victory over a sinful self in the
Egyptian desert or the monk in the secluded cloister, but he must also
trace the fortunes of ascetic organizations, involving multitudes of
men, vast aggregations of wealth, and surviving the rise and fall of
empires. Almost every phase of human life is encountered in such an
undertaking. Attention is divided betwe