Stoics and Saints - College of Stoic Philosophers

112 THE MONASTIC SYSTEM.
There he acquired immense influence ;
was chosen abbot of a
monastery; attempted a reformation; was nearly poisoned, and
tied back to his solitude. Men gathered rapidly around him ;
12 monasteries of 12 monks each were founded near his
cavern ; again he was in peril from poison, and again, after
thirty-five years at Subiaco, he took up his pilgrim-staff to
depart. He now settled himself at Monte Cassino, near the
head waters of the Liris, amid scenes of singular and gloomy
grandeur, and there he founded the monastery which was
destined to be a mighty factor in the development
of the
Christian world. There he thought out and published the
celebrated rule which bears his name, which simply crystal
lised into clear form and order the ideas which were floating
in the powerful and practical minds of the founders of
monachism in the West, For powerful they were, as well as
practical.
We do not need M. de Montalembert s brilliant
rhetoric to teach us that the cloister was, on the whole, no
shelter for the weaklings of society, men easily
dashed and
bruised by the rough world around them, and safer in a cell
than in a battle-field or on a throne. The great monks bear
full comparison with the greatest soldiers, statesmen, and
kings.
We may lament or condemn the form of life which
they elected, and see clearly whitherward it tends. But we
must bear in mind that it was for ages the chosen field of
action of some of the very strongest, ablest men, and the
noblest, purest women whom God sent forth into the world,
and we may be sure that a high and noble inspiration
was at
the heart of a movement which occupied such splendid
energies, and left such marks on the higher development of
mankind. There can be no doubt that the rule included a
vast crowd of weak, dreamy faineant devotees : but,
011 the
other hand, it would be hard to find, in any other sphere of
human activity during the Middle Ages, a grander company of
clear, strong, firm, and far-sighted men. We are bound to