A Short History of Monks and Monasteries
Monasticism was humanity's most radical experiment in pursuit of the divine: thousands who abandoned the world to find something deeper within it. Wishart traces this extraordinary phenomenon from its roots in the deserts of Egypt and the contemplative traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism, through the Benedictine golden age that preserved learning while Europe burned, to the wealthy and powerful institutions that sparked the Reformation's fury. This is not mere institutional history. Wishart renders vivid the hermits who lived atop pillars for decades, the monks who copied manuscripts by candlelight, the abbots who became bankers to kings. Yet he never loses critical distance, probing the tension between spiritual devotion and earthly power that eventually proved monasticism's undoing. Written in 1896 with Victorian thoroughness and curiosity, this volume illuminates how a movement of radical renunciation shaped law, learning, medicine, and the very texture of Western civilization.
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“Wherever a Benedictine house arose, or a monastery of any one of the Orders, which were but offshoots from the Benedictine tree, books were multiplied and a library came into existence, small indeed at first, but increasing year by year, till the wealthier houses had gathered together collections of books that would do credit to a modern university.””
— Alfred Wesley Wishart
“Excepting always the religious services of the Benedictine monks, their greatest contribution to civilization was literary and educational[””
— Alfred Wesley Wishart
“No institution has contributed as much to the amelioration of human misery or struggled as patiently and persistently to influence society for good as the Christian church.””
— Alfred Wesley Wishart
“Whenever men obey that injunction of labor, no matter what their station, there is in the act the element of happiness, and whoever avoids that injunction, there is always the shadow of the unfulfilled curse darkening their path.””
— Alfred Wesley Wishart
“A great soul craves occupations and recognizes obligations more in harmony with the true nobility of human nature.””
— Alfred Wesley Wishart
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<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/a-short-history-of-monks-and-monasteries-145ed522-bc81-4c40-8377-99147c702b35"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read A Short History of Monks and Monasteries by Alfred Wesley Wishart free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/a-short-history-of-monks-and-monasteries-145ed522-bc81-4c40-8377-99147c702b35)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/a-short-history-of-monks-and-monasteries-145ed522-bc81-4c40-8377-99147c702b35][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read A Short History of Monks and Monasteries by Alfred Wesley Wishart free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/a-short-history-of-monks-and-monasteries-145ed522-bc81-4c40-8377-99147c702b35Cite this book
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Wishart, Alfred Wesley. A Short History of Monks and Monasteries. Lex, lex-books.com/book/a-short-history-of-monks-and-monasteries-145ed522-bc81-4c40-8377-99147c702b35.Wishart, A. W. (n.d.). A Short History of Monks and Monasteries. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/a-short-history-of-monks-and-monasteries-145ed522-bc81-4c40-8377-99147c702b35Wishart, Alfred Wesley. A Short History of Monks and Monasteries. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/a-short-history-of-monks-and-monasteries-145ed522-bc81-4c40-8377-99147c702b35.