taking as a theme for poetic song the fall of Satan and the sin of our first parents. The foundation of Wear- mouth Abbey by Benedict Biscop, a monk of Lindis- farne (A.D. 665), was remarkable for the introduction of painted glass. Workmen were brought from the Continent, who instructed the Saxon monks in the mys- tery of their craft (Milman, Latin Christianity, iv, -l). The sister-foundation, Jarrow, endowed with a domain granted by Egfrid, was the monastery in which the venerable Bede had his cell. In South Britain the most ancient monastery was that founded by Augustine at Canterbury, and placed under Benedictine rule. The deed of gift whereby king Ethelbert conveyed the site (A.D. 605) is, according to Palgrave, the earliest exist- ing document of the public records of England. Greg- ory followed up the mission with a colony of monks, who also imported all that could be required for the ob- servance of the Komish ritual. Thus the subjugation of England to the see of Rome was the work of the Benedictine monks. One of their number, Mellitus, first bishop of London, founded Westminster Abbey. The first metropolitan recognised by all England was Theodore, an Oriental monk, a native of Tarsus, and placed in the see of Canterbury by pope Vitalianus, A.D. 668. The council held at Whitby on the subject of Easter (A.D. 664) showed that strong traces still re- mained of the Oriental tendencies of the British Church ; and an African monk, Adrian, was sent with the bishop elect as a safeguard and trusty envoy : " ne quid ille contrarium veritati et fidei, Gr£Bcorum more, in eccle- siam cui pr;i2cesset, introduceret" (Bede, //. E. iv, 1). To him is due the creation of the parochial system, by persuading the territorial proprietors to build and en- dow churches, retaining the advowson in their own hands. The Church-rate is of co-ordinate date. The- odore was a laborious student, and, with the assistance of Adrian, he gradually made the monasteries of Eng- land schools of sound learning. The principal sees having sprung from monastic origin, the canons were naturally monks. After the Conquest disputes arose between the secular and the regular, i. e. between the parochial and monastic clergy; and an attempt was made by Walkelin, bishop of Winchester, to supersede the monastic chapter by a body of forty secular clergy. Lanfranc, however, vigorously opposed the change, and obtained from pope Alexander a constitution in confir- mation of the capitular rights of the monasteries affect- ed (Fleury, H. E. Ixi, 53 ; comp. also Soames, Latin Ch. during the A nglo-Saxon Times [Lond. 1848, 12mo] ; and Soames, The Anglo-Saxon Ch. [Lond. 1856, 12mo, 4th ed.]).
4. In 550 the rule of St. Basil, followed by all Greek monasteries, was introduced at Rome ; but St, Benedict gradually absorbed all other monks into his great rule. In 585 St. Columban's rule of prayer, reading, and man- ual labor was founded in Gaul. In 649 the Monothelite persecution in the East transferred manj^ monks to the Western Church, and in the 8th century the Iconoclasts were the cause of a still larger assimilation. In the 13th century St. Dominic prevailed on women to observe a stricter rule. The first written rule — that of St. Basil, bishop of Ciesarea in the 4th century, who em- bodied the traditional usages, was derived from that of Pachomius, and aimed at the combination of prayer and manual toil ; it was modified by St. Benedict, the pa- triarch of Western monks, but in the 11th century was still vigorous in Naples. Polydore Yergil says that in 373 St. Basil first enacted the triple vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. In 410 Lerins was founded. The Benedictine rule spread rapidly in Italy before his death in 543. Maurus and Placidus extended it in France and Sicily; others introduced it into Spain, where monasteries are said to have existed in 380; and in less than two centuries all the monastic orders in the West were affiliated to it. St. Columban built the first abbey in England in 563, as he had done in Ireland ; in the latter instance it was preceded only by
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the St. Bridget's cell at Kiklare, which was famous in 521, being established probably by a pupil of St. Patrick. In 802 the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle decreed that the Benedictine rule should be universally adopted. From the 10th century it put forth branches: Clugny in 910, under its abbots, embraced the rule; so did the Camal- dolesi in 1020, from St. liomuald; the Cistercians in 1098, from St. Kobert; the Carthusians in 1080, from St. Bruno; the Valombrosans in lOGO, from John Gual- berte; the Celestines in 1294, from Peter di Merona; and the Ulivetans in 1319. At Bangor in 003 there was a monastery with seven portions, each consisting of ^hrce hundred monks, with their jjrovosts or rectors. Benedict Biscop in G77 built the monasteries at Wear- moutli and Yarrow of stone; and in 1035 Lanfranc united all the English abbeys into one congregation. St. Maur in 1G21 was the last instance of its reform. The lands possessed by monasteries were held under the same tenure as all other land ; and, till a compara- tively late period, the abbots themselves led their quota of troops into the field. In the time of Charlemagne fourteen monasteries of the empire furnished their pro- portion of soUliers. In 982 the bishop of Augsburg and the abbot of Fulda were killed in the same battle. Charles Martcl was opposed by troops collected and headed by an abbot of Fontenelle.