of charity and benevolence, nor for earnest propagation of the faith, and they have never been centres of intellectual activity. The names given to the monasteries recall the ancient Thebaïd; the greater of them are termed "lavra" and "stavropigia;" the smaller are called "skeet" or "poustynia" (hermitages or deserts). The catacombs at Kiev, and the crypts of ancient churches were not tombs or receptacles for the dead, but were the dwellings of early saints.
This fondness for the solitary life of the anchorite is not yet extinct in Russia; although the government forbids the creation of hermitages, they are still found in distant, hidden places, the favorite refuges and resorts of the more fanatic among the dissenting sects.
With the conception of monastic life as it was understood in Russia, one simple rule has sufficed for all the different communities which have been founded. That of St. Basil, which does little more than establish the broad principles of conventual discipline, and is generally recognized throughout the East, was introduced into Russia by the Greeks with the Christian religion, and has remained in force, ever since, in all the monastic institutions of the country. As a consequence of the uniformity of organization, no separate orders have ever existed, and the Church has been spared the intestine struggle of powerful rival communities within its bosom. The larger institutions may have sent forth branches, or colonies, affiliated with the parent head, but these ramifications have disappeared, and the various establishments, under one common rule, are independent, each of the other.
Monastic life has been deficient in variety of development, in concentration and unity of purpose, and in diversity of results; it has exerted less influence upon the progress of society, but it has also been the cause of
