MONACO 



3882 



MONASTICISM 



as deputy in the Prussian Parliament from 1873 

 to 1882, when Bismarck was at the height of his 

 power. To the latter's policies he was strongly 

 opposed. Mommsen was a famous archaeolo- 

 gist in the field of ancient Roman inscriptions. 

 His Roman History, the first volume of which 

 was published in 1854, is considered a standard 

 reference work by American universities. 



MONACO, mon'ako, an independent princi- 

 pality on the Mediterranean coast of France, 

 the smallest in Europe, being only eight square 

 miles in area. Up to 1861 it had an area of 

 fifty square miles and included Mentone and 



MONACO AND MONTE CARLO 

 French in language, but Italian in tradition. 



Roccabauna. Owing to financial stress, the 

 greater part was at that time transferred to 

 France for about $750,000. It now consists of 

 Monaco, the capital, Condamine and Monte 

 Carlo; the population is chiefly in these three 

 cities. There is very little industrial life; the 

 principal business of the people of Monaco is 

 in connection with the hotels and the gambling 

 resorts, which attract people from all parts of 

 the world. 



Winter resorts are maintained on a magnifi- 

 cent scale. The most famous of these is Monte 

 Carlo, the world's most notorious gambling 

 center, with its costly Casino. The splendor of 

 the gambling halls, together with the fascination 

 of the game of chance, has gained for Monte 

 Carlo a world-wide reputation. Large sums of 

 money are being continually lost there, and 

 jewels and estates are mortgaged to satisfy the 

 demands of this insidious pastime. Suicide is 

 common. A syndicate pays so heavily to the 

 Prince of Monaco for its license to gamble that 

 no tax for the support of the government is 

 placed upon the people. 



Emperor Otho I, founder of the Holy Roman 

 Empire, ceded this principality to the ancestors 

 of the Prince of Monaco, and the government 



has since remained in this family. Population 

 in 1910, 19,121. 



Consult Smith's Monaco and Monte Carlo ; 

 Mayne's Romance of Monaco and Its Rulers. 



MONARCHY, mon'arki, that form of gov- 

 ernment in which executive power is vested in 

 an hereditary ruler. The old idea of monarchy 

 was that the power of the ruler should be ab- 

 solute, a theory which included the doctrine of 

 the divine right of kings. Changes which were 

 largely the result of the French Revolution 

 have brought into existence the term limited, 

 or constitutional, monarchy, as opposed to des- 

 potic, or absolute, monarchy. When the power 

 of a ruler is limited either by a legislative body 

 or a constitution, or by both, the state is said 

 to be a limited monarchy. 



Absolute monarchies are fast disappearing. 

 Russia, long an extreme type of despotism, 

 overthrew absolutism in 1917, and even in 

 Turkey the people are beginning to ask for a 

 voice in the government. The people of nearly 

 all European countries live under limited mon- 

 archical forms of government; the exceptions, 

 in addition to the two noted, are the republics 

 of France and Switzerland. See GOVERNMENT. 



MONASTERY, mon'asteri. See MONASTI- 

 CISM, below. 



MONASTICISM, monas'tisiz'm, a form of 

 organized and regulated conduct of life, grow- 

 ing out of one of the deepest instincts of human 

 nature the love of solitude. This craving to 

 be alone has perhaps manifested itself chiefly 

 as an expression of spiritual life. Among Asi- 

 atics the instinct has been peculiarly strong. 

 The ancient Oriental philosophies of asceticism 

 and mysticism led men into solitary life as a 

 condition of that almost utter self-effacement 

 which meant escape from the follies of the 

 world and an entering into union with the om- 

 nipotent Creator. Among ancient peoples there 

 were probably no hermit organizations, but 

 many devotees of the oldest religions, in China, 

 India, Tibet and Canaan, lived the life of a 

 recluse, either wholly or in part. Before the 

 time of Christ there was in Judea a society 

 called Essenes, whose members lived an organ- 

 ized monastic life. 



Christian Monasticism, which began in the 

 second century after Christ, has developed ex- 

 tensively since that time. In the beginning it 

 was due partly to a desire on the part of Chris- 

 tians to escape persecution or the corruption of 

 society, but was largely the result of asceticism, 

 a desire for self-renunciation. Strangely, and 

 yet not strangely, Egypt was the home of 



