Among the orders and sects which grew and multiplied were many similar to those in papal Europe -- mendicants, sellers of indulgences, builders of shrines and images, and openers of mountain paths. The monasteries became asylums for the distressed, afflicted and persecuted. In them the defeated soldier, the penniless and dissatisfied, the refugee from the vendetta, could find inviolate shelter. To them the warrior after war, the prince and the minister leaving the palace, the honors and pomp of the world, could retire to spend the remnant of their days in prayer, worship, and offices of piety. Often the murderer, struck with remorse, or the soldier before his bloody victim, would resolve to turn monk.
Not rarely did men crossed in love, or the offspring of the concubine displaced by the birth of the legitimate son, or the grief-stricken father, devote himself to the priestly life. In general, however, the ranks of the bonzes were recruited from orphans or piously inclined youth, or from overstocked families. To the nunneries, the fertile soil of bereavement, remorse, unrequited love, widowhood furnished the greater number of sincere and devout nuns. In many cases, the deliberate choice of wealthy ladies, or the necessity of escaping an uncongenial marriage planned by relatives, undesirable attentions, or the lusts of rude men in unsettled times, gave many an inmate to the convents.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
