DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9841#0045
XXII.]
COMPULSORY CELIBACY.
27
Such scandal as the Roman Catholic church has en-
dured, from the time of Boccaccio downwards, on ac-
count of the profligacy of her monks, the Oriental
church has certainly escaped: and yet, even here, the
vices inherent in the very principles of an institution
which opposes the first great command of God and
nature, by imposing celibacy on all its members, have
been sufficiently developed to have called for the in-
effectual prohibitions of a General Council in the early
ages of Christianity17, to have become the theme of
popular songs at the present dayls, and, at last, to have
induced the Bavarian government of Greece, actually
to put down the monastic order in all parts of the new
kingdom, and to apply the revenues, which these use-
less monks consumed, to the purposes of education.
Notwithstanding the Hegumenos's absence we fared
well: and, without our having transgressed the limits
of reason and moderation, he found, on his return in
the evening, that our time after dinner had not been
unemployed. The most serious subject of our con-
versation was the affair of Murnies, and I soon learnt,
that every absurd belief which was entertained by the
body of the peasants there assembled, is also shared by
my reverend friends: for instance, it is quite impossible
to disabuse them of the idea that Mehmet-Alfs sole
object in establishing schools at Neokhdrio, was to seize
on all the children some fine day, to put them on board
a ship of war lying in the bay of Siidha, which was
conveniently near, and to carry them off to Egypt.
Their ideas respecting the manner in which the Pasha
made his terms with the English Admiral and the
Consuls, are still more absurd. In these unhappy coun-
tries, the Superior of the most liberally endowed mo-
17 As is observed by Gibbon, c. xxxvii. " The seventh general council
prohibits the erection of double or promiscuous monasteries of both sexes;
hut it appears from Balsamon, that the prohibition was ineffectual." Several
of these promiscuous convents still exist in Crete: e. g. Haghia Hodegetria,
and Pezane's.
18 See above, Vol. i. p. 146.
COMPULSORY CELIBACY.
27
Such scandal as the Roman Catholic church has en-
dured, from the time of Boccaccio downwards, on ac-
count of the profligacy of her monks, the Oriental
church has certainly escaped: and yet, even here, the
vices inherent in the very principles of an institution
which opposes the first great command of God and
nature, by imposing celibacy on all its members, have
been sufficiently developed to have called for the in-
effectual prohibitions of a General Council in the early
ages of Christianity17, to have become the theme of
popular songs at the present dayls, and, at last, to have
induced the Bavarian government of Greece, actually
to put down the monastic order in all parts of the new
kingdom, and to apply the revenues, which these use-
less monks consumed, to the purposes of education.
Notwithstanding the Hegumenos's absence we fared
well: and, without our having transgressed the limits
of reason and moderation, he found, on his return in
the evening, that our time after dinner had not been
unemployed. The most serious subject of our con-
versation was the affair of Murnies, and I soon learnt,
that every absurd belief which was entertained by the
body of the peasants there assembled, is also shared by
my reverend friends: for instance, it is quite impossible
to disabuse them of the idea that Mehmet-Alfs sole
object in establishing schools at Neokhdrio, was to seize
on all the children some fine day, to put them on board
a ship of war lying in the bay of Siidha, which was
conveniently near, and to carry them off to Egypt.
Their ideas respecting the manner in which the Pasha
made his terms with the English Admiral and the
Consuls, are still more absurd. In these unhappy coun-
tries, the Superior of the most liberally endowed mo-
17 As is observed by Gibbon, c. xxxvii. " The seventh general council
prohibits the erection of double or promiscuous monasteries of both sexes;
hut it appears from Balsamon, that the prohibition was ineffectual." Several
of these promiscuous convents still exist in Crete: e. g. Haghia Hodegetria,
and Pezane's.
18 See above, Vol. i. p. 146.