MOMORDICA ELATERIUM. 



MONACHISM. 



Hence it appears that of all axes parallel to a given axis the 

 moment of inertia is least for that axis which parses through the 

 centi e of gravity ; so that, cceteris paribus, the greatest motion is 

 produced by a given force when the axis passes through the centre of 

 gravity. Of all the axes which pass through the centre of gravity 

 there are three, each at right angles to the other two, which possess 

 remarkable properties, and are called principal axes. [ROTATION ] 



From what has been said it may easily be supposed that the moment 

 of inertia is as important in the consideration of rotatory motions as 

 the rectangle in mensuration. We shalf see a further use of this 

 function in OSCILLATION, and also a practical mode of finding the 

 moment of inertia. 



MOMORDICA ELATERIUM, Wild Cucumber ; called in the last 

 edition of the ' London Pharmacopoeia' by the name given to it by 

 L. Claude Richard, Ecbalium oficmarum, a name more appropriate 

 than Elattr'um, which merely means any very active purgative, while 

 L'cbaliuni refers to the remarkable power the fruit of this plant possesses 

 of projecting the seeds along with a thin juice out of the capsule or 

 pepo when ripe. Hence its familiar name of " squirting cucumber." 

 It is an annual, native of the south of Europe, but also cultivated at 

 Mitcham, near London. The unripe pepo and the juice are officinal 

 A very small quantity, less than a quarter of a grain, of the dried pepo 

 will act powerfully as a hydragogue purgative. But the juice, called 

 extract of elaterium, yields a principle called elaterin, or momordicine, 

 also termed elatin. This is the active principle, and is very potent. 

 The twentieth part of a grain is often sufficient to excite active purging : 

 rarely should more than the-tenth part of a grain be given, and every 

 precaution should be used to avoid prostration, such as not repeating the 

 dose till an interval of one or two days, supporting the strength with 

 beef-tea, surrounding the abdomen with a flannel belt or bandage, to be 

 tightened after each action of the bowels, and if necessary giving at the 

 same time, unless contra-indicated, brandy or porter. Even the juice 

 or the vapour of it may be absorbed through the skin, and cause 

 violent vomiting and purging. 



The M ' nivrdica, openu/ata, Linn., a plant iu South America, one of 

 the bitterest in the world, has, according to Dr. Hancock, similar 

 properties. 



MONACHISM (from the Greek nivos, alone ; whence p/n4(/ar, to 

 live alone ; and fiovaxbs, a solitary, or 'a monk). In this its proper and 

 original signification of a solitary, a monk may be considered as only 

 another name for antchoret, or anchoret (in Greek, a</ax a> P 7 I r 'l s ). t Qa * 

 is, a person who withdraws from society, a recluse ; or for an eremite, 

 corrupted into hermit (in the same way as the old and more correct 

 ethnick has been corrupted into heathen), in Greek, tpTj/iiTTjs, that is, 

 a dweller in a desert or solitude. 



The practice of retiring from the world fur mortification or pious 

 contemplation has been in use from time immemorial iu the Brahmiuical 

 and other religions of the East, and was known even among the Jews 

 long before the birth of Christianity. We need mention only the 

 instance of the prophet Elijah, to whom Roman Catholic writers 

 indeed are fond of referring as the founder of monachism. An example 

 of still more venerable antiquity is afforded by the Nazarites, male 

 and female, described in the sixth chapter of the Book of Numbers, 

 whose " vow of separation," however, lasted only for a certain fixed 

 time. 



In the earliest days of Christianity, many of the converts to the 

 new religion, in their ambition to signalise themselves by extraordinary 

 piety, adopted a remarknble severity of life and strictness of religious 

 observance, whence they came to be known by the name of ascetics 

 (in Greek d<ri<77Tal), that is, literally, exercisers. Another name by 

 which they are sometimes spoken of by the early ecclesiastical writers 

 is spoudiei (<rirw5aioi). that is, zealots. The connection of these 

 ascetics with the description of persons afterwards called monks has 

 been a subject of much disputation, the admirers and champions of the 

 monastic system in general asserting the identity of the monks and 

 ascetics, and their opponents maintaining that asceticism, as it existed 

 in the primitive church, and monachism. as it sprung up in a later age, 

 were two things wholly distinct. The truth appears to be that the 

 early ascetics were certainly not universally, nor perhaps even generally, 

 monks or solitaries ; but still a separation, more or less rigid, from 

 social life was one obvious mode of mortification and devotional 

 abstraction, and one that was undoubtedly practised by some of the 

 ascetics, though most probably without anything resembling the vows 

 and other methodical restrictions which make part of monachism in 

 its mature state. The ascetics themselves, it may be here observed, are 

 commonly derived from the Jewish sect of the Therapeutic, or 

 Eaaenians, who inhabited the banks of the lake Mareotis, in the delta 

 of Egypt, and who, having previously cast off much of the ancient 

 reverence of their nation for the Mosaic law, had embraced Christianity 

 in great numbers very soon after its promulgation. " The austere life 

 of the Essenians," says Gibbon, " their fasts and excommunications, 

 the community of goods, the love of celibacy, their zeal for martyrdom, 

 and the warmth, though not the purity, of their faith, already offered 

 a very lively image of the primitive discipline." (' Decline and Fall,' 

 chap. 15.) And in a note, after admitting that Basnage, in his 

 ' Histoire des Juifs,' has demonstrated, in spite of Emebius and a 

 crowil uf modern Roman Catholic-:, that the Therapeutic were neither 

 Chris'ians nor monks ; he adds, " It still remains probable that they 



ARTS A!D SCI. DIV. VOL. V. 



changed their name, preserved their manners, adopted some new 

 articles of faith, and gradually became the fathers of the Egyptian 

 ascetics." Afterwards (chap. 37), he seems distinctly to represent tho 

 a."eti'-s as the fathers of the monks. 



It is admitted on all hands that the immediate founders of mona- 

 chism were two Egyptians, named Paul and Anthony. St. Jerome 

 calls the former the author of that mode of life, the latter its illus- 

 strator " hujus vita; auctor Paulus, illustrator etiam Antonius." 

 (Hieron.,' Ep. 22, ad Eustoch.,' c. 16.) Paul is designated the The- 

 Ixean. An account of St. Anthony, as he is styled, and of the pro- 

 gress of the monastic system during his life, which extended from A.D. 

 251 to A.D. 35*), has already been given under his name. [ANTHONY, 

 ST., in BIOG. DIV.] We shall only note here that the first monasfic 

 community is said to have been established at Faioum, near Aphrodi- 

 topolis, in the Thebais of Egypt, about the year 3U5 or 306, that is, 

 after the cessation of the persecutions which had originally driven 

 Anthony, Paul, and others to the deserts. Strictly speaking, 

 however, this and other monasteries appear to have been founded 

 rather by Anthony's disciples, and in obedience to the spirit which 

 his example had diffused, than directly under his own superintendence. 



Of these disciples, the most eminent was Pachornius : if the Deciau 

 persecution and Anthony gave rise to monachism, monasteries owe 

 their origin to Pachomius and the peaceful times of Constantine. The 

 ancient writer of the ' Acta Pachoinii ' makes Anthony acknowledge 

 this himself in the following speech to one of the disciples of Pacno- 

 mius : " When I first became a monk, there was as yet no monastery 

 in any part of the world where one man was obliged to take care of 

 another, but every one of the ancient monks, when the persecution was 

 ended, exercised a monastic life by himself in private. But afterwards 

 your father Pachomius, by the help of God, effected this." The other 

 most celebrated early propagators of monachism are Hilarion, another 

 disciple of Anthony, who carried the system into Palestine, about 

 A.D. 328 ; St. Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, who brought it to 

 Rome, A.D. 340 [ATHANASIUS, in BIOG. DIV.] ; Eustathius, bishop of 

 Sebaste, or Sebastia, by whom it was soon after extended to Armenia 

 and Paphlagonia ; St. Basil, who established it in the province of 

 Pontus, A.D. 360 [BASIL, iu BIOG. DIV.] ; and St. Martin, bishop of 

 Tours, by whom it was, about A.D. i70, introduced into Gaul whence 

 it is generally supposed to have been imported into the British Isles 

 by Pelagius, about the beginning of the fifth century. 



At first all the communities of monks followed the rule of Pachomius, 

 and therefore they were not distinguished into various orders, as iu 

 later times, but took their names from the places where they were 

 established, as the monks of Mount Scethis, of Tabenne. of Nitria, of 

 Canopus, &c. But besides the monks that lived in communities, and 

 who were called from that circumstance CtnMtm, or somet mes Hi/no- 

 ditce, there were for some ages divers other species, which the eccle- 

 siastical antiquarians have taken much pains to distinguish Some 

 lived, although in the Kime district of the wilderness, yet all in separate 

 caves or cells, and without any association or common government, in 

 which case the collection of hermitages was called a Laura, according 

 to Epiphanius. Another sort are described by Cassian under the 

 name of Sarabaitie, and were called by the Egyptians Rembjlh, accord- 

 ing to St. Jerome, who says that they lived two or three together, 

 without any rule, but each after his own fashion, taking up their 

 abode for the most part in cities and fortified stations (casteliis\. Iu 

 other respects he gives a very bad account of them : although they 

 were wont to contend with each other, he says, iu extraordinary feats 

 of fasting, yet at other times they would indulge to as much excess in 

 riotous festivity ; all things about them were affected ; loose gloves 

 (manicsc), puffed-out boots (caligaefollicantes), coarse clothes, frequent 

 sighing, much visitation of the young women, violent inveighing 

 against the clergy. Iu short, concludes Jerome, they are the pests 

 and banes of the church. Another species of these early monks or 

 solitaries were those called Stylita), that is, pillar saints (Irom CTTUA.OS, 

 a pillar), the founder of whom was one Simeon, a Syrian shepherd, 

 who having, in A.D. 408, when he was only thirteen years old. left his 

 flocks and joined a monastic community, afterwards withdrew himself 

 to a mountain about thirty or forty miles east from Antioch, and there, 

 confining himself by a chain within a mandra, or circle of stones, pro- 

 ceeded at last to take up his residence on the top of a pillar, which 

 was gradually raised from the height of nine to that of sixty feet. 

 Simeon Stylites died A.D. 451, after having, it is said, existed for thirty 

 years at the last-mentioned elevation in the air. " Habit and exercise," 

 says Gibbon, " instructed him to maintain his dangerous si uatiou 

 without fear or giddiness,' and successively to assume the different 

 postures of devotion. He sometimes prayed in an erect attitude, with 

 his outstretched arms in the form of a cross ; but his most familiar 

 practice was that of bending his meagre skeleton from the forehead to 

 the feet ; and a curious spectator, after numbering twelve hundred and 

 forty-four repetitions, at length demisted from tho endless account." 

 This strange sort of piety, however, does not seem to have proved Vi ry 

 contagious ; amoug the few pillar saints, besides the contriver of the 

 practice, whose names are recorded, the most famous are, another 

 Simeon, styled the Younger, who is said to have occupied his airy 

 watch-tower for sixty-eight years, and one Alypius, \vho le.t the 

 bishopric of Adrianup.e for thi.-j other sort of epitscopacy, and, it is 

 affirmed, kept singing psalms and hymns between heaven and earth, 



3 A 



