CHAPTER VII.
MONASTICISM.
See the Lit. on Monasticism in vol. II. 387, and III. 147 »q. § 82. Use of Convents in the Middle Ages.
THE monks were the spiritual nobility of the church, and represented a higher type of virtue in entire separation from the world and consecration to the kingdom of God. The patristic ideal of piety passed over into the middle ages : it is not the scriptural nor the modern ideal, but one formed in striking contrast with preceding and surrounding heathen cor ruption. The monkish sanctity is a flight from the world rather than a victory over the world, an abstinence from mar riage instead of a sanctification of marriage, chastity outside rather than inside the order of nature, a complete suppression of the sensual passion in the place of its purification and con trol. But it had a powerful influence over the barbaric races, and was one of the chief converting and civilizing agencies. The Eastern monks lost themselves in idle contemplation and ascetic extravagances, which the Western climate made impos sible ; the Western monks were, upon the whole, more sober, practical, and useful. The Irish and Scotch convents became famous for their missionary zeal, and furnished founders of churches and patron saints of the people.
Convents were planted by the missionaries among all the barbarous nations of Europe, as fast as Christianity progressed. They received special privileges and endowments from princes, nobles, popes, and bishops. They offered a quiet retreat to men and women who were weary of the turmoil of life, or had suf-
364 FOUKTH PERIOD. A.D. 590-1049.
fered shipwreck of fortune or character, and cared for nothing but to save their souls. They exercised hospitality to strangers and travelers, and were a great blessing in times when traveling was difficult and dangerous.1 They were training schools of ascetic virtue, and the nurseries of saints. They saved the remnants of ancient civilization for future use. Every large convent had a library and a school. Scribes were employed in copying manuscripts of the ancient classics, of the Bible, and the writings of the fathers. To these quiet literary monks we are indebted for the preservation and transmission of nearly all the learning, sacred and secular, of ancient times. If they had done nothing else, they would be entitled to the lasting gratitude of the church and the world.
During the wild commotion and confusion of the ninth and tenth centuries, monastic discipline went into decay. Often the very riches of convents, which were the reward of industry and virtue, became a snare and a root of evil. Avaricious laymen (Abba-comites) seized the control and perpetuated it in their families. Even princesses received the titles and emoluments of abbesses.
§ 83. St. Benedict. St. Nilus. St. Romuald.
Yet even in this dark period there were a few shining lights.
ST. BENEDICT OF ANIANE (750-821), of a distinguished family in the south of France, after serving at the court of Charlemagne, became disgusted with the world, entered a con vent, founded a new one at Aniane after the strict rule of St.
1 As they are still in the East and on the Alps. Travelers will not easily forget the convents of Mt. Sinai in the Desert, Mar Saba near the Dead Sea, and the hospices on the Alpine passes of St. Bernard, St. Gotthard, and the Simplon. Lecky (II. 84) gays: " By the monks the nobles were overawed, the poor protected, the sick tended, travelers sheltered, prisoners ransomed, the remotest spheres of suffering explored. During the darkest period of the middle ages, monks founded a refuge for pilgrims amid the horrors of the Alpine snows. A solitary hermit often planted himself, with his little boat, by a bridgeless stream, and the charity of his life was to ferry over the traveler."
$83. ST. BENEDICT. ST. NILUS. ST. ROMUALD. 365
Benedict of Nursia, collected a library, exercised charity, espe cially during a famine, labored for the reform of monasticism, was entrusted by Louis the Pious with the superintendence of all the convents in Western France, and formed them into a " congregation," by bringing them under one rule. He attended the Synod of Aix-la-Chapellc in 817. Soon after his death (Feb. 12, 821) the fruits of his labors were destroyed, and the disorder became worse than before.1
ST. NILUS the younger,2 of Greek descent, born at Rossano in Calabria3 (hence Nilus Rossanensis), enlightened the darkness of the tenth century. He devoted himself, after the death of his wife, about 940, to a solitary life, following the model of St, Anthony and St. Hilarion, and founded several convents in Southern Italy. He was often consulted by dignitaries, and answered, like St. Anthony, without respect of person. He boldly rebuked Pope Gregory V. and Fmperor Otho III. for bad treatment of an archbishop. When the emperor after wards offered him any favor he might ask, Nilus replied : " I ask nothing from you but that you would save your soul ; for you must die like every other man, and render an account to God for all your good and evil deeds/' The emperor took the crown from his head, and begged the blessing of the aged monk. When a dissolute nobleman, who comforted himself
1 The life of B. was written by Ardo. See the Acta Sunct- mens. Februar. *wb Feb. 12; Mabillon, Ada Sand. ord. 8. Bened. ; Nicolai, Der hell. Benedict, Griinder von Aniane und Cornelimiinster (Koln, 1865) ; Gfrorer, Kirchengesch. III. 704 sqq.
1 To distinguish him from the older Nilus, who was a pupil and friend of Chrysostom, a fertile ascetic writer and monk on Mt. Sinai (d. about 440). There were more than twenty distinguished persons of that name in the Greek church. See Allatius, Diatriba de Nilis et Psellis ; Fabricius, Bibl Gr. X. 3.
8 The pbice where two German scholars, O. von Gebhardt and Harnack, dis covered the Codex Rossanensis of the Greek Matthew and Mark in the library of the archbishop (March, 1879). It dates from the sixth or seventh century, is beautifully written in silver letters on very fine purple-colored vellum, and was published by O. von Gebhardt in 1883. See SchafFs Companion to the Gr. 2'., p. 131, and Gregory's Prolegomena, I. 408.