The Catholic encyclopedia (Volume 2); an international work of reference on the constitution, doctrine, discipline and history of the Catholic Church . fferent object from St. Benedicts. The We can now take up again the story of Benedictslife. How long he remained at Subiaco we do notknow. Abbot Tosti conjectures it was until the year529. Of these years St. Gregory is content to tell nomore than a few stories descriptive of the life of themonks, and of the character and government of The latter was making his first attempt torealize in these twelve monasteries his conception ofthe
The Catholic encyclopedia (Volume 2); an international work of reference on the constitution, doctrine, discipline and history of the Catholic Church . fferent object from St. Benedicts. The We can now take up again the story of Benedictslife. How long he remained at Subiaco we do notknow. Abbot Tosti conjectures it was until the year529. Of these years St. Gregory is content to tell nomore than a few stories descriptive of the life of themonks, and of the character and government of The latter was making his first attempt torealize in these twelve monasteries his conception ofthe monastic Hfe. We can fill in many of the detailsfrom the Rule. By his own experiment and hisknowledge of the history of monasticism the sainthad learnt that the regeneration of the individual,except in abnormal cases, is not reached by the pathof solitude, nor by that of austerity, but by thebeaten track of mans social instinct, with its nec-essary conditions of obedience and work; and thatneither the body nor the mind can be safely over-strained in the effort to avoid evil (ibid., Ixiv). Thusat Subiaco we find no solitaries, no conventual her-. The Abbey of Monte Cassino Rule, including its .system of prayer and publicpsalmody, is meant for every class of mind and everydegree of learning. It is framed not only for theeducated and for souls advanced in perfection, butit organizes and directs a complete life which isadapted for simple folk and for sinners, for the ob-servance of the Commandments and for the be-ginnings of goodness. We have written this Rule,writes St. Benedict, that by observing it in mon-asteries, we may shew ourselves to have some degreeof goodness in life and a beginning of holiness. Butfor him who would hasten 1o the perfection of re-ligion there are the teachings of the holy Fathers, thefollowing whereof bringeth a man to the height ofperfection (ibid., Ixxiii). Before leaving the subjectof prayer it will be well to point out again that byordering the publ
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