. Four princes;. stery of Monte Cas-sino, with a pattern and rule whereupon thenumerous monasteries of the West were forages uniformly fashioned. Wide diffusion wasthus given to Benedicts belief in the benefits oflabor as a means of discipline, instead of anascetic idleness; and so through him monasti-cism became almost a new thing. Growing intoan immense power, it attracted those of noblespirit into the cloister as a refuge from theworld, whatever their rank or station, even lead-ing the worlds nobility to lay aside all rankand wealth for the sake of a common cowl andcell. It manifested its s
. Four princes;. stery of Monte Cas-sino, with a pattern and rule whereupon thenumerous monasteries of the West were forages uniformly fashioned. Wide diffusion wasthus given to Benedicts belief in the benefits oflabor as a means of discipline, instead of anascetic idleness; and so through him monasti-cism became almost a new thing. Growing intoan immense power, it attracted those of noblespirit into the cloister as a refuge from theworld, whatever their rank or station, even lead-ing the worlds nobility to lay aside all rankand wealth for the sake of a common cowl andcell. It manifested its strength in a signal wayabout twenty years before Bernard was born,by imposing the law of monkish celibacy uponthe entire priesthood, through the monkish Pope,the great Hildebrand, Gregory VII. Benefits of Monasticism.—Monasticism wasby no means without good results. AlmightyGod so overrules the mistakes of men in theirclumsy work for His kingdom as to turn hin-derances into eventual helps. The event has 124 3 O. BERNARD proved that for a certain stage in the develop-ment of the Christian world monachism playeda very important part. The ark described inthe Biblical story could not do the work of aswift modern steamship; but in its time, accord-ing to the narrative, it had its use and servedits purpose, by saving the race from the whelm-ing flood. And, to carry out the figure, somescholars think that it was monasticism alonethat saved Europe from complete destructionunder the mediaeval flood of barbarism. Hadit not been for monks and monasteries, saysGregory Smith, in his work on Christian Mo-nasticism, the barbarian deluge might haveswept away utterly the traces of Roman civili-zation. Development of the Individual.—The largeshare which monasticism had in the shaping ofthe kingdom of God on earth found its basisin the fact that it provided a field for the devel-opment of the individual. The papacy had soonbecome a huge machine, the organized churchemphatically a system, for
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