PREFACE.

F there is a book in the world which accom

IF

plishes just what has been attempted in the following pages, I am ignorant of its existence. I was led to this study by a profound love and admiration for the monks; and I have felt at times the working of their spirit, and longed to be one of their number. If, then, it be thought that I have dealt with them too severely, let it be remembered that I am passing judgment upon myself.

It was my fortune to reside for several months at the Catholic University of Munich, in Bavaria, where I came in contact with members of the Order of Saint Benedict, and shall always remember that season as one of the most profitable in my religious experience. Had I been what the world would call a good Protestant, I did not then see, nor

do I now, how I could have helped becoming a good Catholic; and this step taken, I would not have stopped short of its complete realization, monkish life.

the

At other times, I have discovered what seemed to me a higher standard of morality than that adopted by the monks; and a closer acquaintance with their mode of life, as it now exists in Europe, gave to the hopes which I once indulged a sad fall. Six months' observation in Southern France and Italy convinced me, that this institution was far from what I had thought to find it.

A visit to the monastery on Mount Cassim, founded by Saint Benedict in 429, did much to open my eyes to this fact. I was hospitably entertained; and the Brother who escorted me around the vast structure where I remained over night, was particularly kind; but when I mentioned to him my inclination to the monkish life, he declared that the time for making one's self a monk was now past, and then gave as a reason the fact that the monasteries had been deprived of their revenues, and their abbots of the titles which they used to bear.1 I said

1 The abbot of Mount Cassim was formerly the first baron in Italy.

to him that I thought them but poor disciples of the saint whose name they bore, if they allowed themselves to be cast down by circumstances such as these.

66

The next morning, I expressed considerable anxiety to my guide of the day before, on the score of my passport, which I had failed to have vised before leaving Naples for Rome. "Tell them that you have not been at Naples," he suggested. "But," I replied, "they will ask where I have been, and how I got from France into the Papal States." Ah, I have it!" said he, " tell them you landed at Gaeta [a small port near Mount Cassim]; or, if you have to say Naples, tell them that the police there examined your passport, and said it was all right." "Great Heavens!" thought I, "and these are the men who had the exclusive manipulation of our Scriptures for several hundred years!"

I copy the following extract from my journal of that day: "On the whole, my visit to Mount Cassim, and conversation with the Brothers there, make me less confident than formerly that the monastic life belongs to the future." I visited, subsequently, several monasteries in Italy, and among

others, the one upon the top of Mount Carvo, fourteen miles from Rome; but this feeling has gradually strengthened with me, from that time until

now.

If, however, men and women can be prevailed upon to devote their lives to charitable works by holding up to them the inducement of a uniform or badge of office, make the offer by all means for the sake of an ulterior good. Just as we stimulate children with the promise of "rewards," and give a "banner" to the best class in Sunday school.

As for the historical chapters of this book, I must leave them to speak for themselves. Much of the research has been made in a field as yet quite unexplored; and the original documents have always been consulted when they were to be had.

If the reception of this volume should warrant the step, I purpose very soon to bring the study down to our own times. There are many histories of the different monastic orders in existence, but no available work in our language, as far as I am acquainted, which treats the subject of Christian monasticism in a concise and general manner. The plan of the future work would be nearly as follows: