THE HISTORY OF MORTMAIN. PART I. CHAPTER I. OF THE ESTABLISHMENT AND DECLINE OF MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS. As history, in its delineation of the character of men, affords a material elucidation of their motives and their measures, it can need but little apology, that, in a chronological detail of the statutes which have been passed to restrain alienations in mortmain, we should take a transient view of the times and causes which gave rise to them; more apology would be necessary for any censure that may be found against monastic subtlety, were it not supported by the unbiassed dictate of historic truth. Long before the invasion of the Danes, when England was yet in its rude and uncultivated state, the innocence and ignorance of the people seem to have subjected them for the most part to the influence and commands of the Druid chiefs, and the heads of their respective clans; they seem to have lived in an implicit obedience unlimited control; and though their possessions were secured B secured by first occupancy and labour, yet this control was often exerted to supply the requisites of general or particular maintenance, ambition, caprice, or superior power; and although their labour was small, yet they preferred the procuring sustenance by the pleasures of the chase, to the labour of cultivating the soil for the fruits of the earth. In process of time, as each clan, or family, increased in years and strength, emulation strove to possess the mastery, and thus various chiefs were set up in the room of a general and familiar acquiescence under one father : intestine feuds, and bloodshed, the natural consequence, disrobed many of the inhabited parts of the island of their tranquillity; and, whether as arbiters or as peace-makers, or commanded, as they declared, by holy inspiration, the bards struck the lyre, and as often led on one clan to the slaughter of another as they ever endeavoured to promote the blessings of peace; the wounds of one quarrel were seldom healed without giving place to new eruptions. These holy visitants were generally occupied in fan. ning the fatal flame; which, while it raged, drew into their coffers the small treasures of the people! In proportion, however, as more regularity and order gained acceptance throughout the country, and as the people saw and felt the superior advantages of uniting under the obedience of a popular government, we find in very ancient writers, that the bards lost great part of that superstitious influence, which they had so artfully exerted; and though they secluded themselves in groves and caverus, which they hallowed with a mystical secrecy of religious but artful veneration, yet the people did not continue so readily to acquiesce in their power over genes ral affairs, but accorded to them supreme authority in all matters relative to sacred rites; and it is certain, that very large tributes were even then exacted from the people, and deposited in these pious retreats, as offerings, to insure happiness and eternal fame. But this barren and useless superstition, at length, fell into disrepute, and gave place to christianity. The progress of ecclesiastical authority in Europe, at length, gave birth to the venerable distinction of clergy and laity. The community of goods was adopted for a short time in the primitive church. Instead of an absolute sacrifice, a moderate proportion was accepted; nothing, however inconsiderable, was refused. These oblations, for the most part, were made in money; nor was the society of Christians either desirous or capable of acquir ing, to any considerable degree, the incumbrance of landed property. It had been provided by several laws, which were enacted with the same design as our statutes of mortmain, that no real estates should be given, or be allowed, to any corporate body, without either especial privilege or a particular dispensation from the emperor, or from the senate *; who were seldom disposed to grant them. A transaction, however, is related under the reign of Alexander Severus, which discovers that the restraint was sometimes eluded or suspended, and that the Christians were permitted to claim and to possess lands within the limits of Rome itself. The progress of Hist. Aug. 181. Christianity, and the civil confusion of the empire, contributed to relax the severity of the laws; and before the close of the 3d century, many considerable estates were bestowed on the opulent churches of Rome, Milan, Carthage, Antioch, Alexandria, and the other great cities of Italy and the provinces. • Dioclesian gave a rescript, which is only a declaration of the old law! Collegium, si nullo speciali privilegio subnixum sit, hæreditatem capere non posse, dubium non est. Fra. Paolo (c. 4.) thinks that these regulations had been much neglected since the reign of Valerian. Gibbon, ii, 345. The B 2 The bishop was the natural steward of the church; the public stock was entrusted to his care, without account or control; the presbyters were confined to their spiritual functions; and the more dependent order of deacons was solely employed in the management and distribution of the ecclesiastical revenue. Not to dwell upon the abuses of its application in some respects, it is acknowledged, that after the expences of the maintenance of the bishop, his clergy, and their worship, the whole remainder was the sacred patrimony of the poor. According to the discretion of the bishop, it was distributed to support widows and orphans, the lame, the sick, and the aged of the community; to comfort strangers and pilgrims, and to alleviate the misfortunes of prisoners and captives, more especially when their sufferings had been occasioned by their firm attachment to the cause of religion. A generous intercourse of charity united the most distant provinces, and the smaller congregations were cheerfully assisted by the alms of their more opulent brethren. Such an institution, which paid less regard to the merit than to the distress of the object, very materially conduced to the progress of Christianity. The advantages of immediate relief, and of future protection, allured into its hospitable bosom many of those unhappy persons whom the neglect of the world would have abandoned to the miseries of want, of sickness, and of old age. There is some reason, likewise, to believe, that great numbers of infants, who, according to the inhuman practice of those times had been exposed by their parents, were frequently rescued from death, baptised, educated, and maintained by the piety of the Christians, and at Gibbon, 345, the expence of the public treasure. and seq. The priesthood, with uncommon and unexampled zeal, settled in various parts of this island, under every disadvantage, except those of a fertile soil, their own un restrained restrained resolution, and a careful choice of an advantageous ground; huts and hovels in some recluse parts, were the only residence of themselves and their mysteries; they had acquired the habit and skill of industry and labour, through necessity and vicissitude, and they shared with each other the alternate duties of agriculture and prayer. The chiefs of clans, or families, or districts, resorted thither to pay their sacred homage; and if they left behind them any token of their sincerity, they seldom departed without some useful instruction in religion or in life. life The origin of monastic institutions in Europe is to be found in the middle of the 3d century. Prosperity and peace introduced the distinction between the vulgar and the ascetic Christians. The latter seriously renounced the business and the pleasures of the age; abjured the use of wine, of flesh, and of marriage; chastised their bodies, mortified their affections, and embraced of misery, as the price of eternal happiness. In the reign of Constantine, the Ascetics fled from a prophane and degenerate world, to perpetual solitude or religious society. Like the first Christians of Jerusalem, they resigned the use or the property of their temporal possessions; established regular communities of the saine sex, and similar dispositions; and assumed the names of Hermits, Monks, and Anchorets, expressive of their lonely retreat in a natural or artificial desert. Egypt afforded the first example of monastic life. Antony, at Mount Colzim, in A. D. 251 to 356; Athanasius, at Rome, in 341; and various other patriarchs, spread their followers over many parts of the eastern and western empires, and into Ethiopia, `with astonishing rapidity and numbers. The monastery of Banchor, in Flintshire, which contained above 2000 brethren, dispersed B 3 |