Church Discipline; An Ethical Study of the Church of Rome (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1903. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER X THE IDEAL OF THE MONK THE second stage of the ethical structure which is embodied in the Roman system is the monastic life. The monastic world is not, indeed, separated from that of the laity by the spacious interval which many imagine. Moral and spiritual aspiration does not increase by sharply severed stages, but by an insensible elevation; and the Church is careful to adapt its discipline to the inner growth. The Buddhist religion graduates its commandments, recognising a higher class of the laity between the ordinary people and the monks and clergy. It would seem at first as if the Catholic Church had failed to observe the truth which Buddhism so clearly appreciates, but I have already spoken of congregations of lay people which form a link between the world and the cloister. The rules of such bodies as the Third Order of St . Francis or St. Dominic and the Little Oratory of St. Philip correspond to the middle commands of the Buddhist decalogue. One passes by easy steps through these to the less austere religious congregations, and ascends gradually to the heights of the Trappist and Cistercian Orders. Natura non facit saltum, the old philosophers used to say; and grace, says the theologian, accommodates its action to the ways of human nature. It will probably occur to the student of Catholic life to ask whether the monastic or the sacerdotal state is held to be the higher. If there is one feature that may be considered to mark off somewhat sharply the second stage of ethical culture in the Church of Rome it is the vow of celibacy. There are, for instance, members of the Franciscan Third Order who leave the world and adopt their rule as the ground of a cenobitic life, adding a vow of celibacy. In common Catholic opinion these are as definitely distinguished from the ma...