Stoics and Saints - College of Stoic Philosophers

124 THE MONASTIC SYSTEM.
the monks began to see in the Papacy the power which
would uphold them against the tyranny both of the bishops
and of the secular lords. From that time the monks and
the Eornan See begin to draw together in closer relations,
and in the end the whole army of the monks, during the
palmy days of the institution, became the army of the Papal
Church.
Without the monks the work of the Church would
probably have been impossible. For good or for evil they
served her with singular fidelity, and were as a body her
devoted champions. Celibates after the manner of all
standing armies they were at the disposal of the Church,
to maintain her pretensions, to fight her battles, and to
carry out her plans. The extension to all the pcrsonel of
the Church of the monastic principle of celibacy threw
into her hands a power of enormous magnitude. It kept
the whole spiritual force of Christendom under one head,
and ready, as it were, at the single word of command.
Terrible as were the evils of Church pretensions and claims,
and of the wrongs and outrages perpetrated
in the most
sacred Name, it was doubtless better for humanity at large
that the particular form of Christ s
kingdom represented by
the mediaeval Church should be wrought
out to the fullest
possible perfection. The Church completed her organisation
by adopting the principle of the monastic orders, and could
always count on them for consistent and effective service.
Hence it follows that our estimate of the value of the
influence of the monks in mediaeval society will
largely
depend on the value we attach to the influence of Eome.
A very noble idea was at the root of the devotion of the
monks to the Papal
chair. It was in the conviction that
the Tvoman See represented the unity of Christendom, that
they vowed themselves to its service ; they would realise
through Rome the visible kingdom of the Lord.