should not be besieged. Nay, so great an influence did his presence exert, that Rachis, a few days later, laid down the Iron Crown, and retired with his wife, the princes and princesses of his family, to the monastery of St. Benedict.1

§ 154. Benedict of Nursia-Western Monasticism. Mabillonii annales Ord. St. Bened. (to 1157, Paris, 1703–1739), Luc. 1739–1745, 6 T. fol. in the Praef. saec. I., p. 7: Observationes de monachis in Occid. ante Benedictum. Dacherii et Mabillonii acta Sanctor. Ord. St. Bened. (to 1100), Paris, 1668-1701, 9 T. fol. The Life of St. Benedict in Gregor. M. dialog. lib. II. opp. ed. Bened., T. II., p. 207–276. Compare also Bolland. acta SS. mens. Martii., T. III., p. 247 sq. The Rule of St. Benedict. in Holstenii cod. regul. monast., T. I., p. 111-137; Germ. Transl. by Father Charles Brandes, in his Benedictine Library: Life of St. Benedict, his Rule and Explanation of it. Our Lady of Hermits, 1856–1858, 2d ed., 1863, 3 small vols. The same, The Benedictine Order and its world-wide influence (Tübg. Quarterl., 1851, p. 1-40) †* Montalembert, les Moines de l'Occident, 5 vols., Paris, 1860; Engl. transl. by Mrs. Oliphant, London, 5 vols.; American ed., Boston, 1872, 2 vols., Vol. I., p. 305-345; Germ. Transl. by Charles Brandes, O.S.B., Ratisbon, 1860-1868, Vol. II., p. 1–73.

The Order of St. Benedict, which was but a fresh manifestation of the principle of Divine energy, residing and constantly at work in the Church, came into existence at a time when both Church and State were threatened with irremediable disasters by the continued incursions of the Barbarians. This order not only saved the Church from the calamities with which she was then menaced, but also gave her the assurance of a new lease of life, imparted to her fresh vigor, and inspired, fostered, and preserved that wealth of spiritual culture which has been a blessing to all succeeding ages.

The first monks that had been seen in the West were Ammonius and Isidore, who accompanied St. Athanasius, when this great bishop came to Rome to invoke the protection of Pope Julius. While this heroic man was passing his exile in Gaul, he had an opportunity, of which he promptly availed himself, of adding to the glory he had already won by his noble defense of the divinity of Christ, that of animating the West with a holy reverence and a religious zeal for the

1 Edicta regum Longobardorum, ed Vesme, Aug. Taurinor., 1855. Conf. John von Müller, Journeys of Popes.

monastic life; and the love of self-denial and austerity inspired by his eloquence was kept alive and fostered by the examples of holiness so graphically set forth in his Life of St. Anthony. In Italy, the elements of monastic life were brought into shape, adjusted, and organized by Eusebius of Vercelli, Ambrose of Milan, and Jerome; Augustine was elo. quent in its praise in Africa; Martin, Bishop of Tours,' introduced it into Northern, and Cassian into Southern Gaul.

As early as A. D. 400, two thousand monks followed the mortal remains of St. Martin to the grave.

But the severity of the Western climate would not admit of so rigorous a discipline as that practiced with perfect impunity under the more genial skies of the East. It was, therefore, necessary to modify the Rule, and, as is usual under such circumstances, every one thought himself at liberty to introduce such changes as he conceived to be best suited to the conditions of the country and to the habits of the people. Changes so arbitrary, introduced at a time when the country was harassed by the invasions of the Barbarians and society upheaved, threatened the dismemberment of the Church and the destruction of monasticism. Happily, Providence gave to the Church at this time a man, destined to future celebrity, who drew order out of confusion, and established the monastic rule in the West on a solid and permanent basis; and thus rescued from destruction an institution whose services to religion from that day to this have been both extremely eminent and beneficial. This was BENEDICT, of the noble house of the Anicii, and, on his mother's side, the last scion of the lords of Nursia, a Sabine town, where he was born A. D. 480. He was put to school at Rome, where he received an excellent education for his years, but he felt ill at ease amid the corruption of that great city. At the early age of fourteen, he resolved to give up study, to break the ties of family, and to renounce the pleasures and allurements of the world. Bidding farewell to friends and home and all he held dear, he

1 Sulpicii Severi, de vita B. Martini lib.; dialogi tres, and epist. tres.; Gregor. Turon. de miracul. St. Martini. Conf. *Montalembert, 1. c. Amer. ed., Vol. I., p. 265-272; Germ. transl., Vol. I., p. 213–221. Reinkens, Martin of Tours, the wonder-working monk and bishop, Brsl. 1866.

plunged into those almost inaccessible hills through which the river Anio forces its way, leaping from fall to fall, to the town of Subiaco (Sublaqueum.) On his way he met a monk, named Romanus, who gave him a haircloth shirt, and a monastic dress made of skins. Continuing on his way, he met an abrupt rock overhanging the course of the Anio, in which there was a dark and narrow cave, into which the sun never found its way. Here he remained three entire years, cut off from all the world, and unknown to all, except the monk Romanus, who supplied him with food, which he conveyed to the solitary by letting it down from the top of the rock by a rope, to which was attached a bell, to give warning that the scanty meal was at hand.

But his place of concealment could not always remain a secret, and he was at length discovered by shepherds, who at first thought him a wild beast, but proclaimed him a great servant of God after the holy man had discoursed to them of the graces and mercies of Christ.

While here he was assailed by a terrible temptation. The memory of a lady whom he had formerly known continued to haunt him, and so great was the impression she had made upon him that he was on the point of leaving his retreat, when a great grace was poured in upon his soul, and, acting under its inspiration, he plunged naked into a clump of thorns and briers near his grotto, rolling about in them till he was one wound, and, amid the pains of the body, hushed forever the solicitations of passion.

The retreat of the young solitary was soon broken in upon. The people of the neighborhood came to ask his blessing, and the monks of the monastery near Vicovaro continued to importune him till he consented to become their abbot. They, however, soon tired of his austere severity, and attempted to rid themselves of him by poison. The attempt was discovered, for, when Benedict made the sign of the cross over the vessel, it burst in pieces.

Benedict again withdrew to his cavern; but the holiness of his life and the beauty of his example excited so much jealousy and hatred against him, that he resolved to leave forever a place his presence had so long sanctified.

He set out from Subiaco, and, directing his course along the western side of the Apennines and toward the south, he came at last to a magnificent mountain overlooking the river Liris (Garigliano) at its source, where he rested (A. D. 529). This is Monte Cassino.

Here St. Benedict built two chapels-one dedicated to St. John the Baptist, the first solitary of the new faith, and the other to St. Martin, the great bishop of Tours; and around these rose the monastery destined to become the most celebrated religious retreat of the Catholic world, where Benedict wrote the Rule, and from whence bishops and popes went forth to govern the Church by their prudence and wisdom, and to edify her children by their virtuous lives and illustrious examples. The life of labor, of prayer, and of meditation pursued by St. Benedict and his children contained the germ and served as the model of that more stately and complex organization into which his order developed at a later day.

His Rule, which contains seventy-three articles, is an abridgment of Christian doctrine, and embraces all the counsels of evangelical perfection. It is based on a thorough knowledge of human nature, and is characterized by a happy union of mildness and severity, of simplicity and prudence. Two leading principles run through every article of the Rule, viz., labor and obedience; and its spirit and aim seem to be to bring together all the members of a monastery into one family circle, with relations to each other as open and tender as those which exist between father and son or brother and brother.

The wisest of each community was chosen by the suffrages of his brethren to be set over them, and the name of Father, or Abbas, which he received on entering upon his duties, expressed the affectionate relations he held toward the others, who were called his Brothers.

The abbot was expected to teach by example rather than precept; to study carefully the character, disposition, and tastes of every member of the monastery over which he was set; to direct each as prudence might suggest; to temper milāness with severity, and to carefully abstain from mani

festing any preference of one above another. The most efficacious checks to any temptation, on the part of the abbot, to abuse his authority, were an abiding sense of the dreadful account he would one day be called upon to render to God, and the holy and inviolable character of the Rule (sancta regula), which bound him equally with the lowest member of the community.

Next to the abbot, but subordinate to him, came the prior (praepositus), and, for the more complete and efficient direction of the monks, a dean was set over every ten of them.

The monks were instructed to regard their superiors as the representatives of Jesus Christ, and to obey them accordingly.

The postulant (pulsans), or one who applied for admission into the community, was to pass through a year's probation, or novitiate, during which the serious obligations of the life upon which he was about to enter were, as directed by the Rule, brought before his mind three successive times.

But the most radical innovation upon former customs was the duty of residence (stabilitas loci) enjoined by the fiftyeighth article of the Rule, which forbade the monks to pass from one house to another, and directed that each one should remain where he had made his vows.

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St. Benedict was keenly alive to the dangers of a uniformly cloistered life, and wisely provided against them. He introduced among his monks the practice of alternate prayer and labor, and prescribed that, when not engaged in singing the praises of the Lord as set forth in the words of the psalm,' 'Seven times a day have I sung thy praises," they should be continually engaged in various occupations, according to the talents, skill, and acquirements of each, such as manual labor, reading, transcribing manuscripts and books, and giving instructions to the young. He used frequently to remind his brethren that "they could not be truly monks unless they should live by the labor of their hands, like their fathers and the apostles."

The tendency of the age and the wisdom of the Rule of St.

1 cxviii. 164.