Lost Monks

Lost Monks

Abbey of Cambron http://kenstraussposts.blogspot.com/2007/06/160607-abbey-of-cambron.html

The story of a Cistercian Abbey founded in 1148 by Saint Bernard. Its monks served the poor for the first several-hundred year.

In appreciative local landowners gave the abbey many tracts of fertile land that by the 1600’s it extended over more than 6000 hectares (nearly 15,000 acres).

Austerity vanished until their monks were known more for their wealth than service. :‘Riche comme un moine de Cambron’.

‘As rich as a monk from Cambron’.

Through the 18th century corruption and decadence were rife. In 1789 the Austrian emperor, Joseph II, withdrew financial support, alleging that it had become ‘useless’ as a religious order. Joseph II was the brother of Marie Antoinette but also a proponent of enlightened absolutism which was supposed to be a form of "benevolent despotism". His reforms were in his mind an attempt to establish a system for the good of all. Like his mother he sought the emancipation of the peasantry and promoted education and the secularization of church lands along with the reduction of the religious orders and the clergy in general.

Since the inquisition the term "Church" had officially come to mean the Roman Church but now with the Patent of Tolerance (1781) providing limited guarantee of religious freedom to non-Catholic Christians living in Habsburg lands, including Lutherans, Calvinists, and the Greek Orthodox. Replacing Latin appeared "reasonable" but it did not stop there. The influence of the state grew due to the apostasy and corruption of the Church but now it leaped forward.

With passing of the Edict of Tolerance in 1782 even Jews were free to pursue all branches of commerce. With that privilege Jews were required to create German-language primary schools or send their children to Christian schools. With these laws the autonomy of the Jewish communities diminished. Previously they had their own court, charity, internal taxation and school systems. The State replaced the religious leaders in matters of education and moral law.

Joseph II suppressed a third of the monasteries closing 700 of them. He reduced the number of monks and nuns from 65,000 to 27,000. This was a huge boon to his own wealth and power as he attempted to replace the position of the Church with his own "benevolent despotism". The Church's ecclesiastical tribunals, which had become authoritarian and corrupt, were abolished and marriage was defined as a civil contract outside the jurisdiction of the Church.

The wealth of the Church had come from the kings they had crowned over the people since the days of Charlemagne. Now the kings either withdrew their favor or took back their wealth. The complaint of the people was minimal since what was posing as the church had long abandoned the ways of love and the Perfect law of liberty. As austerity of sacrifice and service was replaced by opulence and indulgence the care of the needy and sick diminished along with the love of the people. The new monk was drawn by greed and avarice which drew men of power and greed to the treasures of abbeys like the Cistercian of Cambron. Pushed by that greed and a resentment of its political power Louis XIV attacked it with 12,000 men and 18 cannon. Today the ruins of this abbey have been converted into one of the largest bird sanctuaries in Europe.

The failing and cause of the destruction of monastic society was due to an abandonment of the ways of Christ and the early Church. The Church gave power to men and became dependent upon their benefits. Those Benefactors who exercise authority turned on the Church who had crowned them kings over men in exchange for financial support.

This idea of a church supported by compelled taxes or men who ruled has been one of the great temptations that face those who would dare to follow Christ. From Cain to Constantine men have sat and ate with kings to their detriment. Before 1776 Congregationalists and Anglicans had received public financial support. They called their state benefactors "nursing fathers" in opposition to the very instructions of Christ concerning calling men Fathers and even prayer. This false justification for this possessive political policy comes from Isaiah 49:23.

These apostate Churches taking the name of Christ in vain and claiming to be His Church attempted to continue this false religious practice of applying to the Nimrods of the world for benefits. In Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire passed "general assessment schemes". The imposed what they called religious taxes upon all citizens, who then had the option of designating their share to the church of his choice.

There was opposition to this Covetous practice by men like Isaac Backus.

Today the "general assessment schemes" have simply cut the Church out all together providing social welfare through the State almost exclusively. Churches are not centers of welfare, education, depositories of information serving society. They have become places of entertainment and delusion where your ears can be tickled for a price of sacrificing the righteousness of God.

The Church needs to Repent and seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and began to attend to the Weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith which include caring for the needs of our neighbors and the widows and orphans of our society through Pure Religion in matters of health, education, and welfare. We are NOT to provide for the needy of society through the Covetous Practices and the men who call themselves benefactors but who exercise authority one over the other like the socialists do.

The Way of Christ was like neither the way of the world of Rome nor the governments of the gentiles who depend on those fathers of the earth through force, fear and fealty who deliver the people back in bondage again like they were in Egypt. Christ's ministers and true Christians do not depend upon systems of social welfare that force the contributions of the people like the corban of the Pharisees which made the word of God to none effect. Many people have been deceived to go the way of Balaam and the Nicolaitan and out of The Way of Christ and have become workers of iniquity.

The Christian conflict with Rome in the first century Church appointed by Christ was because they would not apply to the fathers of the earth for their free bread but instead relied upon a voluntary network providing a daily ministration to the needy of society through Faith, Hope, and Charity by way of freewill offerings of the people, for the people, and by the people through the perfect law of liberty in Free Assemblies according to the ancient pattern of Tuns or Tens as He commanded.

The modern Christians are in need of repentance.

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