There were really four distinct stages in the development of the
monastic institution:
1. Asceticism. Clergy and laymen practiced various forms of self-denial
without becoming actual monks.
2. The hermit life, which was asceticism pushed to an external
separation from the world. Here are to be found anchorites, and stylites
or pillar-saints.
3. Coenobitism, or monastic life proper, consisting of associations of
monks under one roof, and ruled by an abbot.
4. Monastic orders, or unions of cloisters, the various abbots being
under the authority of one supreme head, who was, at first, generally
the founder of the brotherhood.
Under this last division are to be classed the Mendicant Friars, the
Military Monks, the Jesuits and other modern organizations. The members
of these orders commenced their monastic life in monasteries, and were
therefore coenobites, but many of them passed out of the cloister to
become teachers, preachers or missionary workers in various fields.
NOTE D
Matins. One of the canonical hours appointed in the early church, and
still observed in the Roman Catholic Church, especially in monastic
orders. It properly begins at midnight. The name is also applied to the
service itself, which includes the Lord's Prayer, the Angelic
Salutation, the Creed and several psalms.
Lauds, a religious service in connection with matins; so called from the
reiterated ascriptions of praise to God in the psalms.
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