History chs. 7-9

Beginning with St. Anthony, an Athlete of God, the hermetical monk separated himself and limit time spent with others to devote himself to focus on God.

The monks are called religious clergy as opposed to secular clergy because of their renunciation of material wealth and devotion to God.

In the 3rd century, St. Pachomius founded Christian cenobitic monasticism and wrote the book of observances for monks that became the rule for early monastic life. A century later, St. Benedict established the rules for cenobitic monasteries, which dictated how monks lived together as equals and share all things in common. Except for the abbot, all monks are equal and share their possessions.

The strict rules of the monasteries served to safeguard the monastic life of poverty, obedience, and celibacy. New converts into monastic life can take up to one year to observe the life and up to 5 additional years as a novitiate.

The daily lives of monks are dictated by the rules of St. Benedict. They worked about 6 hours and prayed for about 7 hours. Their quality of life is normally better than those living outside the monasteries because of the self-sufficiency of the monasteries to cultivate food in the fertile mash lands. The rigorous academic life often made them better educated, which drew the attention and the enrollment of the nobles' children. The monasteries grew in wealth and became a ladder to the priesthood. Many of the nobles sent their children to monasteries hoping that they would be well educated and hopefully climb the ladder to become bishops, cardinals, and even popes.

King Henry VIII coveted the wealth of the monasteries and mounted campaigns to take them over. Eventually, he succeeded in shutting down the monasteries in much of England.

Monasteries are known as the preserver of knowledge and land. They also were instrumental in reforming the church.

Monasticism began to decline after the Reformation when Luther renounced his vowels from the Augustinian and married Katie, a nun.