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contradicting. If, after his observation, the prior persists in his opinion and his command, let the disciple know that it ought to be so, and, confiding in the aid of God, let him obey."

Chapter sixty-nine is entitled, That in a monastery no one must defend another, and goes on to say :

"It is necessary to be very careful that, upon no pretext, a monk dare in the monastery defend another, or, so to speak, protect him, even when he shall be related by the ties of blood; let this in no manner be dared by the monks, because it might lead to grave and scandalous occurrences. If any one transgress in this, let him be severely reprimanded."

Self-denial is the natural consequence of passive obedience. Whoever is bound to obey absolutely, and on every occasion, exists not; all personality is torn from him. The rule of Saint Benedict formally establishes the interdiction of all property as well as all personal will.

"It is especially necessary to extirpate from the monastery, and unto the very root, the vice of any one possessing anything in particular. Let no person dare to give or receive without the order of the abbot, nor have anything of his own peculiar property, not a book, nor tablets, nor a pen, nor anything whatsoever; for it is not permitted them even to have their body and their will under their own power.

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Can individuality be more completely abolished?

2. I shall not detain you with the thirteen chapters which regulate worship and the religious offices; they do not give rise to any important observation.

3. Those which treat of discipline and penalties, on the contrary, require our best attention. It is here that perhaps the most considerable of the changes brought about by Saint Benedict into the monastic institution appears, the introduction of solemn and perpetual vows. Hitherto, although the entering into the monastery gave reason to presume the intention of remaining there, although the monk contracted a kind of moral obligation which daily tended to take great fixity, still no vow, no formal engagement, was yet pronounced. It was Saint Benedict who introduced them, and made them the basis of the monastic life, of which the primitive charac

1 Reg. S. Bened., c. 33.

ter thus entirely disappeared. This character was exaltation and liberty; perpetual vows, which could not long delay being placed under the care of the public power, substituted a law, an institution.

"Let him who is to be received," says the rule of Saint Benedict," promise in the oratory, before God and his Saints, the perpetuity of his stay, the reformation of his manners and obedience. Let a deed be made of this promise, in the name of the saints whose relics are deposited there, and in presence of the abbot. Let him write this deed with his own hand, or, if he cannot write, let another, at his request, write it for him, and let the novice put a cross to it, and with his own hand deposit the deed upon the altar.'

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The word novice reveals another innovation to us; a noviciate was, in fact, the natural consequence of the perpetuity of vows, and Saint Benedict, who, to an exalted imagination and an ardent character, joined much good sense, and practical sagacity, failed not to prescribe it. Its duration was more than a year. They read by degrees the whole rule to the novice, saying to him: "Here is the law under which you wish to strive; if you can observe it, enter; if you cannot, go freely." Upon the whole, the conditions and forms of trial are evidently conceived in a spirit of sincerity, and with the intention of being well assured that the will of the candidate was real and strong.

4. As regards the political code, the government itself of the monasteries, the rule of Saint Benedict offers a singular mixture of despotism and liberty. Passive obedience, as you have just seen, is its fundamental principle; at the same time the government is elective; the abbot is always chosen by the brothers. When once this choice is made, they lose all liberty, they fall under the absolute dominion of their superior, but of the superior whom they have elected, and of no other.

Moreover, in imposing obedience on the monks, the rule orders that the abbot consult them. Chapter III., entitled That the advice of the brothers must be taken, expressly says:

"Whenever anything of importance is to take place in the monastery, let the abbot convoke the whole congregation, and say what the question is, and after having heard the

1 Reg. S. Bened., c. 58

advice of the brothers, he shall think of it apart, and shall do as appears to him most suitable. We say call all the brothers to the council, because God often reveals by the youngest what is most valuable. Let the brothers give their advice in all submission, and let them not venture to defend it obstinately; let the affair depend upon the will of the abbot, and let all obey what he thinks beneficial. But as it is suitable that the disciple should obey the master, so it is desirable that the latter should regulate all things with prudence and justice. Let the rule be followed in everything, and let no one dare to break it.

"If trifling things are to be done in the interior of the monastery, let them take the advice of the ancients alone." Thus in this singular government, election, deliberation, and absolute power were coexistent.

5. The chapters which treat of various subjects have nothing remarkable, except a character of good sense and mildness, which is also seen in many other parts of the rule, and with which it is impossible not to be struck. The moral thought and general discipline of it are severe; but, in the details of life, it is humane and moderate; more humane, more moderate than the Roman law, than the barbaric laws, than the general manners of the times. I do not doubt but that the brothers, confined within a monastery, were governed by an authority upon the whole more reasonable, and in a manner less severe, than they would have been in civil society.

Saint Benedict was so impressed with the necessity for a mild and moderate rule, that the preface which he has annexed to it finishes with these words:

"We wish thus to institute a school for the service of the Lord, and we hope we have not put into this institution anything harsh or painful; but if, after the council of equity, anything for the correction of vice, or maintenance of charity, is found in it which is rather too harsh, do not, alarmed at that, flee the path of salvation; at its commencement it is always narrow; but by the progress of a regular life, and faith, the heart dilates, and runs with an ineffable sweetness into the way of God's commandments.'

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It was in 528 that Saint Benedict gave forth his rule in 543, the time of his death, it had already spread into all parts of Europe. Saint Placidus carried it into Sicily, others into Spain. Saint Maurus, the cherished disciple of Saint Bene

dict, introduced it into France. At the request of Innocent, bishop of Mans, he set out from Mount Cassino at the end of the year 542, while Saint Benedict still lived. When he arrived at Orleans, in 543, Saint Benedict no longer lived, but the institution did not the less pursue its course. The first monastery founded by Saint Maur was that of Glanfeuil, in Anjou, or Saint Maur-sur-Loire. At the end of the sixth century, the greater part of the French monasteries had adopted the same rule; it had become the general system of the monastic order, so that towards the end of the eighth century, Charlemagne caused it to be asked in the various parts of his empire, if there existed any other kind of monks than those of the order of Saint Benedict?

We have as yet not studied more than half, so to speak, of the revolutions of the monastic institutions at this epoch, their internal revolutions, the changes in the regime and legislation of monasteries, their relations on the one hand with the state, on the other with the clergy, their situation in civil society, and in ecclesiastical society. This will form the subject of our next lecture.

FIFTEENTH LECTURE.

The relations of the monks with the clergy, from the fourth to the eighth century--Their primitive independence-Causes of its decline--1. In proportion as the number and the power of the monks were augmented, the bishops extended their jurisdiction over them -Canons of the councils--2. The monks demand and obtain privileges--3. They aspire to enter into the clergy-Differences and contests among the monks themselves upon this subject--The bishops at first repulse their pretensions--They give way to them--In entering into the clergy the monks lose their independence-Tyranny of the bishops over the monasteries-Resistance of the monks-Charters granted by the bishops to some monasteries-The monks have recourse to the protection of the kings, to that of the popesCharacter and limits of the intervention-Similarity between the struggle of the monasteries against the bishops and that of the commons against the feudal lords.

WE have studied the internal system of monasteries from the fourth to the eighth century; at present let us occupy ourselves with their external condition in the church in general, with their relations with the clergy.

As people have been deceived as to the internal state and system of monasteries, by forgetting the primitive character of monks, who were at first laymen and not ecclesiastics, so have they been greatly deceived concerning their situation in the church, by forgetting their equally primitive character, which was liberty, independence.

The foundation of a great number of monasteries belonged to an epoch, when the monks were already, and for a long time had been, incorporated with the clergy; many were founded by a patron, lay or ecclesiastical, sometimes a bishop, sometimes a king, or a great nobleman; and we see them, from their very origin, subject to an authority to which they owed their existence.

It is supposed that it had always been thus, that all the monasteries had been the creation of some will foreign and superior to that of the congregation itself, and which, more or less, had retained its influence. This is entirely to overlook the primitive situation of these establishments, and the true mode of their formation.

The first monasteries were not founded by any one,-they

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