PLAYING AT MONKS.
1VIR. CHARLES WALKER, of Belgrave Place, Brighton, who. ever he may be, is a bold man. Undeterred by the ridicule which has been showered upon Father Ignatius and the monks of Claydon, he has published a good-sized volume in defence of thd brotherhood,—their "order," their services, their mode of life, and Anglican monasticism generally. With the book as such we have nothing to do, most of it being occupied with dying ideas, a defence of Anglicanism or, as Mr. Walker calls it, " Tracta- rianism," eulogies of the dogma of the real presence, "Catholic austerities," " fasting " and "confession," morbid notions about the impiety of spilling any of the consecrated wine, and those fanny little stories to the dischdit of " Evangelicals " in which laymen of "high" opinions are so very apt to indulge. The day for that kind of controversy has pretty well gone by, and we have no wish to revive it ; the public which cares about theology is dis- cussing the incarnation instead of the real presence, heaven and hell instead of conventual life, holiness before the Lord instead of vestments, and chants, and lecterns, and the change is decidedly beneficial. Mr. Walker having, however, the unspeakable advantage of lay training and habits of thought, admits into his book a few facts our readers may.care to know, tells us what the English Benedictines do as well as their motives in doing it, and, in short, describes the life he advises instead of merely extolling it. Even on this subject he cannot help being controversial, and breaking into holy wrath with his " Superior " for using florid music instead of the Gregorian chants,—which, with reverence be it spoken, seem rather to bore the heresiarch,—but hedoes contrive to tell us how the fraternity live and pass the twenty-four hours of
the day.
The " Monastery " was in August, 1863, and now removed to Nor-
wich a wing of Claydon Rectory, lent to the Brothers by Mr. Drury, the eccentric but well-off incumbent of that very dull little village. It contains only four rooms, a "refectory," commonly called a dining-room, dormitory or sleeping-room, parlour, and room for the Superior, Father Ignatius, whose name among unconverted Englishmen is the Rev. Joseph Leycester Lyne. As there are a good many brothers in the establishment these quarters must be some- what confined, and they are in practice still farther limited by a rule which forbids conversation in the " cloister,"—/aice passage,— in the dormitory, and in the Superior's room. The Brothers are called very early, before four, to sing " lauds " in the oratory, a brother waking them all with Benedicamus Deo. If you are sleepy you may sleep on, only if you do there is penance inflicted by the Superior, a penance not described. The Brothers all wear and sleep in the Benedictine habit, so the toilet is rapid, and after lauds they rest again till half-past five, when they rise to sing "Prime," consisting "of three psalms, a hymn, and various prayers, followed by a commemoration of the faithful departed made by the 130th Psalm, with a collect." This finished, each brother washes him- self,—a process unusually necessary from the absence of linen—and makes the beds, one chosen by weekly rotation doing meanwhile all the housemaid's work. Thence they proceed to the refectory to medi- tate till a quarter to eight, when " terce " is said, which lasts about ten minutes. At eight the rector celebrates the communion —by the way, is the parsonage consecrated ?—of which each brother partakes three times a week. Father Ignatius talks to inquirers, villagers, and children, and then such as require breakfast, of whom Mr. Walker, we are happy to see, was one, have it in the refectory. After breakfast the Brothers disperse, the Superior to write letters, one brother to teach a school, another to instruct private pupils, others to copy, translate, or study, until dinner at half -past twelve. This meal consists for four days in the week of suet pudding and roast or boiled meat ; on Wednesdays and Fridays of hard dump- ling only, and on Sundays of suet dumpling, meat, and sweet pudding. During dinner some one of the Brothers reads aloud some book on monastic duties, or chapter from the "Imitation of Christ," or on Sundays stories from Church history, and then the Brothers retire for the daily siesta. Mr. Walker acknowledges frankly that most of them slept when he was there, and as they were all in one room, and all had filled themselves with those horrible edibles Suffolk dumplings, let us hope the snoring was
expiatory. The rest lasts till two, when the Brothers repeat the nones," then work as before till four, then give themselves up to recreation, i. e., walking about the grounds—running is strictly
forbidden—till six, then sing vespers, which "consisted of four psalms, a chapter, hymn, the Nag nificat, the collect for the day, and sundry commemorations—that is, antiphons, and collects sup- plicating for particular graces, or commemorating particular saints," then go in "a grand hurry to swallow down tea," then sing "evensong," then " practice " in horal services, during which Mr. Walker had to blow the organ till he is savage at the reminiscence, then sing " compline," another service, and finally go to bed at nine in their clothes. The services are not, however, over, for at one a.m. a Brother, bearing "an enormous wax candle," marches through the dormitory saying to every sleeper, " Benedicamus Domino," to which he is expected to reply, "Dee gratias," and all assemble once more to sing the nocturne, psalms, antiphons, lessons from Scripture, and collects, and then finally to bed once more for two hours, when the Brothers are once more roused, to re-commence with the service of the "lands,' the everlasting routine. We must add that every day each brother kneels before the Superior and confesses to any breach of the order, that general confession is strictly observed, and that the duty of obedience is sternly maintained, though modified by the really fine character of the Superior, whose only foibles seem to be a tendency towards florid music, and to work the Brothers, especially at organ-blowing, till they become, like Mr. Walker, slightly savage.
It would be easy to ridicule lives like these, opposed as they are to all that Englishmen consider estimable, and describe the Claydon Monastery as an inferior barrack, into which stupid men have slunk from their duties in order to pass life in a useless routine of chanting formal praises to the God they are disobey- ing; but that is not our intention. We wish rather to ask gravely what possible special good Mr. Walker and laymen like him can conceive to be gained by a life such as he has described. It will not do to reply that he individually obtained benefit, for that is of course true. His longest stay was for ten weeks, and ten weeks of a totally new life, with active work, regular diet, regular hours, and just enough enthusiasm to keep the imagination fresh, would benefit any man, whether he obtained the rest in a hydropathic establishment at Malvern or in the Claydon Monastery. There is nothing so strongly needed in this century and amidst our feverish life as the power of retreating once or twice a year from the business and hurry of the every-day world, to some place where there is something to do, yet where the wotld is left behind, and if that something consists of choral reli- gious exercises that is, to the musical, no particular drawback. To the large proportion who are careless of music, and the few who detest it, we recommend Mr. Gully and hydropErthy as an alter- native very much less trying to the temper ; but this is not the point. The question is the value of this mode of existence pursued for a life-time, for that, and not a temporary retreat, is the end of the monastic system. What does it do for men that should justify them in quitting the duties amidst which God has placed them, and retreating out of a world which they can benefit in order to pass existence in singing praises to Christ instead of doing His declared will ? Mr. Walker will reply, no doubt, that the life has in it the healthy medicament of asceticism, that in such establishments the soul, incessantly recalled by the services to things divine, and incessantly encouraged to meditate on God and itself, is drawn nearer to the fountain of love, is rendered fitter to receive that divine grace before which all earthly or intellectual gifts are feeble and decep- tive blessings. But is it so? We will not press the truth, in which we ourselves firmly believe, that God has set before us higher ends than a selfish solicitude about our own souls, that our rela- tion to his creatures is more imperative than our relation to our- selves, but will accept the popular theology, and even on that basis can this mode of life be good ? Even Mr. Walker will not argue that it would benefit the mass of mankind, the men who cannot dream, who can be roused to substantive good only by stimulus from without, to whom the introversion of the mind is more or less attended with evil. But even those who can "meditate," can listen to eternal services without rising to a passion of angry boredom, such as mankind out of Scotland feels at long sermons, who can either enjoy incessant chant- ing or subdue their own wills to bear it as a beneficial penance — how can even this limited number be benefited by such a life ? Are they not simply indulging the very natural tendencies which it is their duty to repress, giving up life to day-dreaming—for it is day-dreaming, though one dreams of virtue and heaven—to an effort to conciliate the God Whom they should humbly serve ? Mr. Walker denies the charge of formalism - with painful earnestness, and he may possibly speak the truth. The circumstances of Claydon are exceptional, and the mere fact that every act, and penance, and annoyance is voluntarily under- gone, that any brother can fling off his habit, or box the Superior's ears for impertinence at his discretion, takes away the sense of formal observance. Each is doing as he pleases, for to each the door is open. But only imagine such a life, with its necessary addendum, so much power of compulsion as shall secure discipline among men who own the funds in common, and the tendency to formalism, to a blind routine of valueless ordinances, becomes at once observable. Even at present there is proof that evil is entering fast. Mr. Walker acknowledges that the only thing which would try the obedience of the Brothers would be an order from the Superior to resign the "habit." They regard it, he thinks, just as soldiers regard their uniform. Precisely so, as that which ministers most readily and most permanently to their vanity, their consciousness of being apart from, and better than "the world." Suppose, instead of making all this fuss, and giving all this scandal to the weak, the gentlemen who wish for seclusion and incessant offices, and discipline, and meditation, associated themselves in a house for those purposes, distinguished in nothing from the citizens around except by their superior lives? Would not that be a little nearer Christ's teaching than this adoption of a masquerading costume as a step towards holiness ? We do not object under all circumstances to a habit. It enables the Sisters of Mercy, for example, to pass unquestioned and unsuspected into places which girls in crinoline could never enter ; and it is well for the suffering and for the vitality of Christian life—the first requirement of which is charity—that they should so pass ; but these Benedictines live primarily for themselves, and wear the habit indoors, where it is useless, as well as out of doors, where it provokes animosity. What is this but vanity, the very feeling which makes Continental soldiers look upon all the rest of the world as pekins. Why by such devices make of a mode of life possibly beneficial a special religious life? There are men, doubt- less, who could lead it with advantage—for the Trappist houses are full—let them lead it, and hold their tongues, just as the devotees of every other mode of life do. Men to whose souls charity and energy, active obedience to Christ, instead of a morbid contempla- tion of His sufferings and expiation, are beneficial, lead the life which suits them without declaring that it is one which separates them immeasurably from the rest of mankind. As a matter of fact, Englishmen are indisposed to the Oriental form of worship —the form seen only in perfection among the Hindoo mystics— but there will always be a few to whom it is acceptable, and let them follow their own guidance. Theirs is a low form of service, per- haps the very lowest next to that of sponges and fungi, but still it may be service of a sort, and is at all events better than the evil from the temptation to which they retreat. If they prefer medita- tion and chanting to God's true work, to helping the miserable, and making earth happier, and raising up children to follow the law of the Lord—new agents to do His work, so be it ; but let them do it humbly, as men to whom the inferior path has been assigned, without uniform, or banners, or the assertion, which gleams through every line of this book, that men who lead a life of ecclesiastical isolation and religious selfishness are better than the toiling, and suffering, and sometimes besmirched priesthood of the world. It is easy to be clean in a glass case, not so easy when ploughing—but ploughing is God's command.
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