It is again evident that a monk cannot serve God and mammon.  Success ruins him.  Wealth and popular favor change his character.  The people slowly realize the fact that the fat and lazy medieval monk is not dead, after all, but has simply changed his name to that of Begging Friar.  As Allen neatly observes:  “Their gray gown and knotted cord wrapped a spiritual pride and capacity of bigotry, fully equal to the rest.”

Here, then, are the “sturdy beggars” of Francis, dwelling in palatial convents, arrogant and proud, trampling their ideal into the dust.  Thus it came to pass in accordance with the principle stated at the beginning of this chapter, that when the ideal became a cloak to cover up sham, decay had set in, and ruin, even though delayed for years, was sure to come.  The poor, sad-faced, honest, faithful friar everybody praised, loved and reverenced.  The insolent, contemptuous, rich monk all men loathed.  So a change of character in the friar transformed the songs of praise into shouts of condemnation.  Those golden rays from the morning sun of the Reformation are ascending toward the highest heaven, and daybreak is near.

VI

THE SOCIETY OF JESUS

In many respects it would be perfectly proper to consider the Mendicant orders as the last stage in the evolution of the monastic institution.  Although the Jesuitical system rests upon the three vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience, yet the ascetic principle is reduced to a minimum in that society.  Father Thomas E. Sherman, the son of the famous general, and a Jesuit of distinguished ability, has declared:  “We are not, as some seem to think, a semi-military band of men, like the Templars of the Middle Ages.  We are not a monastic order, seeking happiness in lonely withdrawal from our fellows.  Our enemies within and without the church would like to make us monks, for then we would be comparatively useless, since that is not our end or aim....  We are regulars in the army of Christ; that is, men vowed to poverty, chastity and obedience; we are a collegiate body with the right to teach granted by the Catholic church[G].”

[Footnote G:  Appendix, Note G.]

The early religious orders were based upon the idea of retirement from the world for the purpose of acquiring holiness.  But as has already been shown, the constant tendency of the religious communities was toward participation in the world’s affairs.  This tendency became very marked among the friars, who traveled from place to place, and occupied important university positions, and it reaches its culmination in the Society of Jesus.  Retirement among the Jesuits is employed merely as a preparation for active life.  Constant intercourse with society was provided for in the constitution of the order.  Bishop John J. Keane, a Roman Catholic authority, says:  “The clerks regular, instituted principally since the sixteenth century, were neither monks nor friars, but priests living in common and busied with the work of the ministry.  The Society of Jesus is one of the orders of clerks regular.”