Monasticism

Celibacy, fasting, penance, mortification, self-denial, humility, silence, solitude, and the whole train of monkish virtues; for what reason are they everywhere rejected by men of sense, but because they serve to no manner of purpose, neither to advance a man's fortune in the world; neither qualify him for the entertainment of company, nor increase his power of self- enjoyment? We observe, on the contrary, that they cross all desirable ends; stupefy the understanding and harden the heart, obscure the fancy and sour the temper. We justly, therefore, transfer them to the opposite column, and place them in the catalogue of vices...
(David Hume. Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals IX)

The Virtue of Monasticism

As seen by David Hume, monastic virtues are vices, and one may wonder why men ever took up such a style of life. There is a simple explanation: monasticism is a survival lifestyle. It is probably far older, as an institution, than any of the modern religions with which it is presently associated.

When human idleness falls to very low levels, and life becomes near-continuous work, every luxury must be stripped from human life, if men are to survive. At such an extreme of existence, indulgence in pleasure poses a terrible threat; because while men do as they please, they shirk doing what they must. Extreme ascetic monastic societies survived in circumstances where more self-indulgent or profligate societies could not.

The monk possessed nothing more than was essential for survival. The monk practised self-denial because this was essential to survival. He simply could not allow himself to surrender to the desire to do as he pleased. He had to work almost continuously. If practising bodily mortifications - wearing hair shirts, whipping himself - served to numb sensation and curb temptation, then it was worth doing.

The monk ate the absolute minimum. He rationed himself. If necessary - and it probably was often necessary - he was prepared to go without food, to fast.

When the monk had performed his work, he rested in complete inactivity. He did nothing but sit still. This way he did not waste energy on superfluous activity. Talking was superfluous activity. So also was sex. So also were games of any sort.

The virtue of monasticism was that its practitioners survived. They survived by reducing their requirements to the barest minimum, eating the least food, expending the least energy. The monk could live through disasters which other men did not survive. The monk could live in extremes that others could not endure.

Monastic Society

In monastic society, everything was arranged to minimize work. The monks employed a division of labour, and were thus dependent upon each other. They always ensured the most perfect equality, making certain that all worked equally - because if any one monk was overworked, it threatened the entire monastery - just as if any one link in a chain is overstressed, it threatens the whole chain.

Monastic societies minimized reproduction. Repeated experience of population explosion and crash had probably taught them to do this. They segregated the sexes. Both men and women were celibate. Children were raised only to make up the numbers, as aged monks died. The children were raised as monks.

The monks were non-violent. Anger and violence among them only wasted energy, and might result in debilitating physical damage. Therefore they resolved disputes with patience and forebearance.

Because monks owned nothing, and lived on barren lands, they had nothing that anyone else wanted. They were thus not subjected to the invasions and robberies that the inhabitants of fertile lands were subjected. Monastic societies, which had endured far longer than less ascetic or more aggressive societies, were repositories of wisdom. They taught their knowledge and skills to those who came to them.

There was nothing inherently "religious" about monasticism. It was wholly practical in nature. It was a survival lifestyle that worked - in deserts, in hostile environments, wherever life was hard. But in those hard-working societies, with very little free time, what idle time the monks had was precious. For a few hours each month the toiling monks were free to do as they wished, rather than as circumstances obliged. For a few hours, they could put down their hoes and spades, and contemplate the world around them. These precious few hours of freedom became their holy days, when briefly they became free. They postulated an ideal - a divinity - who, unlike them, was absolutely free, continuously free. They wanted to be united with this divinity, and enjoy that freedom. They did not want fine clothes or rich food, or any kind of material wealth: they wanted a state of divine freedom. They yearned for a time when they might live forever in the divine state. They longed for an end to a life of toil, for a shortening of their working days, for a time of eternal rest. That hope and longing was itself their prayer.

In this sense, monastic life generated its own religion. It was not that religiously-inclined men created monasteries so that they could worship their god, but that those who lived the monastic life discovered a god - a singular good. In societies and circumstances where leisure was abundant, it was taken for granted, and the god of monasticism was disregarded.

Chastity, silence, obedience, discipline were not in themselves virtuous. Chastity, etc. were the means to an end, not ends in themselves. Discipline generated a state of freedom, which was virtuous.

The monks were innovators. They were forever trying out new ways of working, new tools, new methods, which would increase their idle time, and allow them to enjoy divine freedom a little longer.

The Decline of Monastic Society

The technical and organizational skills of monks regularly resulted in monastic societies becoming increasingly idle, as they improved methods of agriculture or the use of tools. The few hours of idle time expanded into long holidays.

And when this happened, idle time ceased to be precious. It began to be taken for granted. Instead of life seeming like work, life began to seem like leisure. Men began to see themselves as divine. Then monastic discipline broke down - because discipline was no longer necessary. They lost sight of the one god, and began instead to worship the manifold delights made available through idle time. The monastic virtues began look like vices, as the reasons underlying them were slowly forgotten. For when human life becomes largely idle, it makes no sense to minimize needless activity through silence and contemplation, or to suppress sensual desire through mortifications and penances. Men and women became self-indulgent, playful, unchaste, talkative.

The monastic virtues result in increasing idleness. When these virtues are abandoned, idleness decreases. The early Roman republic was egalitarian (they overthrew their kings), austere, and sober: Roman idleness rose. But expansion and success bred self-indulgence and inequality: idleness fell. When imperial Rome finally disintegrated, the rise of Christian monasticism was probably an inevitable comsequence. As life became increasingly difficult, the monastic virtues reappeared. The great monastic orders built the foundations of subsequent Western society. Their technical innovation and social discipline acted to increase social idleness, and to bring about a circumstance where the monastic virtues were no longer required. The monasteries became rich, and the monks grew fat, and wore fine clothes, and took mistresses. They created that idle society in which a renaissance of sensation, and of humanity, could grow and flourish.

In this sense, monasticism acted to alleviate the conditions in which it first arose - and make monastic life unnecessary. When human life has become largely idle, the monastic virtues become redundant. They become, in effect, vices.