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Section 1 of History of Rome and the Popes in the Middle Ages, Volume 3. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The History of Rome and the Popes in the Middle Ages, Volume 3, by Hartman Grisar. Chapter 2, Monasticism and the Holy See, Part 1. The Monasteries Before the Time of Benedict

At the time when Cassiodorus established his colony of Vivarium, with its combination of religious exercises and study, while Benedict ruled the monks at Monte Cassino, conventional life had become popular not only in the East, its earliest home, but also in the West, where in many places it thrived exceedingly. As yet, however, no general rule of life was followed in the monasteries of the West. Such a rule was evolved by St. Benedict's foundation, and it was already

beginning to be accepted and applied even in the lifetime of Cassiodorus, who, however, was not acquainted with it. Such was the growth of monasticism in the church that the tree spread its manifold branches over Italy, North Africa, and Spain, over the ancient provinces of the Roman Empire in the north and over the newly founded states, even as far as Britain and Ireland. In the 6th century, in the monastery of Bangor, on the east coast of Ireland, 3,000 monks,

supporting themselves by manual labor and divided into seven choirs, kept up day and night an unceasing service of song. In Gaul, in the beginning of the 5th century, according to Solpicia Severus, a contemporary, no less than 2,000 monks assembled for the funeral of the great founder of monasteries, St. Martin of Tours. In Spain, St. Martin of Bracara, or Braga, who worked among the sous-vide of Galicia, took as his example the monastic and apostolic ministry

of his namesake of Tours. He gathered around him troops of monks and with their help converted to Catholicism the local Aryan tribes. The island of Lyrinum, from the beginning of the 5th century, became the site of flourishing monastic schools where civilization and learning found a refuge, and which served as seminaries for the training of worthy bishops. John Cassian, whose works were so much in demand, from his retreat at Marseille, labored to promote asceticism among the monasteries

of ancient and more recent foundation. He did in southern Gaul what had been done earlier and on similar lines, in northern Italy by Eusebius of Versace and Ambrose of Milan, whose enthusiasm led countless persons of both sexes to embrace virginity either in private retirement or in the life of the cloister. Augustine watched over his monasteries at Carthage, Tegaste, and Hippo. Rufinus labored in the cause of monasticism at Aquileia, and later, after a visit to the monks

of Egypt and Asia, with the help of Yersaeus, Abbot of Pinetum, he introduced the rule of St. Basil into many Western monasteries. Finally, Jerome, the most eloquent champion of asceticism and religious vows, was so successful in Rome, even in the highest circles, that we hear him exclaiming in astonishment, Rome has become like Jerusalem. How many converts are rising for virgins? Who can count the crowds of monks in the city? Formerly it was considered a disgrace to serve

God in this state. Now it is an honor and has become quite fashionable. Augustine, who had visited these Roman monasteries, recalls them with pleasure. I know many of them, he writes, As homes of saints, where in the midst of brethren who live together in love, piety, and freedom, there ever presides one distinguished for moral dignity, wisdom, and ecclesiastical learning. The history and gradual development of monastic life in Rome deserves our close attention.

It began before Augustine and Jerome, even before Athanasius visited Rome with his escort of Egyptian monks. There is no proof that these visitors to Rome from the deserts of the Nile were the first to make Romans acquainted with the co-Nobitic life. From the remarks of early authors, the opposite may be gathered, namely, that already before the fourth decade of the fourth century, besides solitary ascetics of either sex, there existed in Rome conventional communities,

particularly of men. This manner of life had not, however, as yet attained popularity, nor was it followed by people of high rank. It is nevertheless true that the oldest Roman monastery, of which we know the name and situation, belongs to a later period. It was founded by Pope Zistus III outside the city on the Appian Way ad Catacumbus, that is, nigh the temporary tomb of the Apostles and was dedicated to St. Sebastian. Through the discovery of numerous inscriptions,

we have, moreover, fairly trustworthy evidence of the existence of a convent of consecrated virgins on the Agur Varanus, beside St. Lawrence's Basilica outside the city. The Basilica of St. Agnes seems also to have had, at an early date, its convent. Near the tomb of St. Peter, we find a convent in the time of St. Gala, where this noble Roman matron passes the days of her widowhood. The Liber Pontificalis also tells us that Leo the Great founded a monastery near St. Peter's tomb,

meaning probably that named after Saints John and Paul. At St. Lawrence's tomb, a monastery for men was built near the convent for women by Pope Hillary, Leo's successor, who also erected another monastery within the city at some spot unknown. It is worthy of notice that, as the instances cited show, beginning with the monastery near the Apostles' tomb on the Appian, the early conventional establishments of Rome seem all to have been attracted to the burial places of the

famous saints. Thus, too, the saintly Paulinus of Nola and Theresia, his wife, after dedicating themselves to the religious life, built a joint ascetic or conventional dwelling beside the basilica and tomb of St. Felix of Nola, the present Cimetillae. From the apartments where they prayed and chanted psalms, they could look into the sanctuary of the patron martyr of Nola. We may add that the monasteries of Rome were established in the neighborhood of famous

shrines and basilicas, not merely to increase the devotion of the communities, but also that the monks might supervise the services at these places. The due performance of the services in the memorial basilicas and catacombs was better ensured, when, beside the city clergy who only went out to them at stated intervals, there were the pious inmates of the monasteries in attendance on the spot. Such was the case at the Quaimitarium ad Catacumbus, whilst the monks of St. Lawrence's

did the same at the Quamentarium of St. Hippolytus and for that of St. Syriaca. A reminder of the earliest consecrated virgins of Rome is contained in the Catacomb of St. Priscilla. This is the picture above the tomb of a virgin who had received the veil from the church's hierarchy and who is here represented in the act of being vested with the symbol of perpetual virginity. The bishop, seated upon his cathedral, with his deacon beside him, points with his finger to a

figure of the Virgin Mother of God on the same fresco, as if to show the candidate that lofty example of virtue in the new state of life into which she is entering. The same virgin, with her veil, appears in larger proportions in the center of the picture, praying with arms outstretched. The veil she has received falls over her head and upon her tunic, that is tunica de shinta, which is embroidered with a double stripe or clavis down the front. How simple and expressive

is the language of the epitaphs of the church's consecrated virgins compared with the titles bestowed on the vestals in the inscriptions on the statues, whereby agreeably with decrees of the high priests, they were immortalized. The chastity of the Vestelis Maxime is extolled in elaborate terms, and with much parade, because forsooth they had observed the law of the goddess, that is, the vow taken for the years of their priestly service. The Christian tombs, on the

contrary, have as a rule much simpler, though far more telling epitaphs. For instance, the tomb of worthy and well-deserving virgin, Adeodata, she rests here in peace, awaiting the order of her bridegroom, Christ. Belicia, a most faithful virgin, rests here in peace. Aurelia Agepetilla, a handmaid of God, sleeps here in peace. In this grave rests Alexandra, a consecrated virgin of happy memory, who departed to meet Christ and to be taken up to heaven, and so forth.

Pope Thomas extols his sister Irene in a touching, poetical epitaph for her zeal in following Christ, to whom she had consecrated herself in holy chastity. He closes with the prayer. Now that God, thy bridegroom, has come, remember us, O Virgin, that thy lamp may give us light before the Lord. It is not always easy to tell whether such epitaphs found in Rome refer to male or female

ascetics dwelling alone or to inmates of conventual houses. Even when monasticism had thoroughly established itself in the city, asceticism continued to be practiced by individuals, families, and even large associations, according to rules of their own choosing and independently of the monasteries. Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe, when staying in Rome at the time of Theodoric's arrival, visited not only the monastic establishments, but also certain

noble families well known to him, who practiced renunciation of the world in its very midst. As his letters show, he remained in constant friendly intercourse with many followers of this mode of life. He knew and valued Theodore, the senator and ex-consul, who dwelt with his wife, as with a sister, wholly devoted to virtue. He speaks of Theodore's pious mother, the guardian angel of the Ascidic Association, in her illustrious house. To this association belonged

also the noble Romulus. Fulgentius particularly praises the virgin Proba, who was a member of the Anisean family. He warmly extols her for feeding the poor at her table. Regardless of splendor of dress, scorning the luxurious bath, the enervating couch, salves, paint, and the jovial companionship of society. The actual monasteries of Rome received valuable support from, and were in constant spiritual intercourse with, such people of high standing who had devoted their lives to

godliness. A yet more important prop of the religious orders was the Roman papacy. We still possess a whole series of decrees issued by the popes from the 4th century onwards, dealing with monastic affairs. Some defend the monks against injustice. Others regulate their mode of life, and are concerned with discipline. Others, again, deal with the appointment of religious to offices, clerical or otherwise, etc. The popes insisted strictly on the inviolability of monastic vows

when once taken. Pope Seresius in 385 dispatched a circular letter to Bishop Himerius of Tarragona, containing instructions against breaches of conventional chastity. Leo I also, in 443, in his epistle to Rusticus, bishop of Narbonne, appointed punishments for monks or nuns who had proved false to their vows. Leo's efforts to secure among the monasteries unity and peace in the domain of orthodoxy were felt as far as Palestine. The eastern monks, easily excited and

much too prone to fanaticism, often took the side of the heretics. Having done this, they were wont to support the worst errors of faith, not only by the moral influence of their outwardly strict and mortified lives, but also by acts of violence, which they carried out at the head of a rabble, ever ready to follow them blindly. Pope Leo, in his letters, had to bring into play all his authority to allay the excitement among the monks of Palestine, who had been led astray by Nestorian

and Eutychian doctrines. We have already related how much Pope Hermistus in Rome was harassed and assail by certain overzealous Scythian monks. He patiently opposed and overcame their turbulence. It is thus seen that in monasticism all was not equally good, nor has the golden stream of zeal and strenuous asceticism at any time been altogether devoid of dross. Though conventional life on the one hand matured the richest fruits of self-sacrifice and made itself valuable by

promoting the spread of the church with its teaching and morality. Yet on the other, the solicitude of the papacy and episcopate for the welfare of the monasteries repeatedly obliged them to intervene in order to remove the abuses so ready to make their appearance. In Italy, among the pre-Benedictine monks of the 5th and 6th centuries, two things especially gave rise to dissatisfaction. Even the imperial government, which in its desire to promote

monasticism and increase its privileges, had legislated for the maintenance of good order, could not make an end of these abuses. One was the roaming about of monks of all sorts. Crowds of them were ceaselessly on the move. For good reasons of their own, they were unwilling to settle in any monastery, preferring to call in at each monastery, in turn for a few days, as passing guests. When they went, they left behind them a sad reputation for worldliness,

self-will, and the vastness of their appetite and thirst. These were the monarchy, gyrobeji, of whom St. Benedict has something to say. The other evil was due to small groups, sometimes of only two or three, uniting together without any conventional or ecclesiastical superior, with no fixed rule proved by experience, but living very much as they pleased. In reality, they serve the world, says Benedict. And belie God with their habit and their shaven

pate, this bad kind of monks we call cerebate. Cassian was already acquainted with the name and with what it stood for. The earliest conventional establishments where good discipline were observed were under the bishop, under his supervision, and guided by their superior, who was one taken from among them. They followed a settled rule of life, had their regular occupations and penitential practices, their time being duly apportioned to prayer, labor, and recreation.

As we are aware, there existed in the West no one rule obeyed in all the monasteries, nor were there any religious orders, such as the world knew them later. The customs of the monks varied from country to country. Even within the same province or city, the observances of the monasteries might differ materially. At the same time, even then, two observances had come to be valued above all others. These were the rules of the famous Greek father Basil of Caesarea and of

the Latin abbot Cassian. Both were to serve to some extent as models for the future conventional rule of life. The rule of Saint Basil owed its vogue in Italy to Rufinus. This rule was characterized by the strict conception of monasticism prevalent in the East. Its rigor was even increased by many of its observers, who embodied in it customs derived from the Egyptians. The latter practices had come to their knowledge through the widely read Life of St. Anthony,

written by Athanasius, and the lively tales told by travelers of the Nile country and its saintly monks. But Cassian and his predecessor, Martin of Tours, appealed to the Western character better than Rufinus, Basil, and the Egyptians. The life of the great wonder worker and founder of monasteries in Gaul proved attractive. His biography, written by Sulpicius Severus, found its way throughout the Roman Empire, like the life of Saint Anthony by Athanasius. In Rome, it was very favorably received

and was soon accepted by Romans everywhere. Cassian of Massalia owed his influence to the fact that his practical insight had taught him to modify the practices of the Easterns. He did not consider the extraordinary examples of certain favored saints to be binding upon all, but took into account the customs and views prevailing in the West. It seems that, before Benedict's time, Cassian's institutions formed the standard in most of the monasteries of Italy and Rome.

Even Cassiodorus could still recommend the inmates of the religious establishments founded by him to study earnestly Cassian's ascetic writings. Cassian, after his long stay in Egypt and Palestine, paid a visit to Rome in 405, and it is a remarkable coincidence that the Liber Pontificalis should ascribe to Innocent, the Pope of that day, a constitution on monastic rules. Innocent may have seized the opportunity of the presence in the city of this experienced and illustrious man

to lay down some general principles and observances which might produce order amidst the many rules then followed. The general scheme of the monastic life has at all times been based upon the same principles. Subsequent efforts made for the improvement of conventional life have always respected these fundamental principles. Such an endeavor was that of St. Caesarius of Varles, who drew up a monastic rule about the year 520 and secured its adoption in southern Gaul.

Another similar one was that made by St. Aquitius, called by St. Gregory, the father of many monasteries, in the province of Valeria, in the neighborhood of the Lacus Fusinus. Yet another was initiated by Saint Columban, who, towards the close of the 6th century, restored monastic life in Gaul and in Upper Italy, and whose strict rule, with its corporal chastisements, remained long in use. Finally, we must not forget the patriarch of medieval monasticism in the West, Benedict of

Nursia. The universal principles of the religious life comprise, first, voluntary poverty, that is, the renunciation of personal possession or control of property, then chastity or the voluntary heroic struggle with fleshly lusts. Thirdly, obedience, that is, the surrender of the subject's erring will in submission to the enlightened guidance of a superior who is himself governed by the rule. This threefold sacrifice is offered to God by irrevocable vows. Further, in the monastery,

according to the church's mind, prayer and work are combined as elements of the daily life. By prayer here is understood chiefly the official public prayers recited in the church's name, that is, the canonical hours with their psalms, antiphons, responses, lessons, etc. Work in the early monasteries of which we are speaking was either the mental labor of study, teaching, preaching to the people, or evangelizing the heathen,

or in the case of most of the monks, simple manual toil of any kind. The monks were nearly all laymen, very few being in holy orders. Palladius, in his account of the Egyptian monks, says, One of them is busy with work in the fields, another in the garden, a third in the bakehouse, a fourth at the forge. This one works as a carpenter and joiner. That one cleans and mends clothes. Another tans leather, and yet another makes shoes. Here one copies beautiful and dainty

books. There another weaves baskets, large and small. To the abbess of a Roman convent, Demetrius, a daughter of one of the highest families in the city, Saint Jerome writes, As soon as you have finished your prayers in choir, let not the wool from your hands. Let your fingers ceaselessly work at the shreds of the distaff, or press the woof in the shuttles of the loom. Collect the produce of the sisters' industry to arrange it for weaving, and look well

how the weavers do their work. If done badly, find fault with it, and show them how to do it. In this manner, Latin conventional life, even before Saint Benedict, had assumed an eminently practical form. It became a social power, offering useful and religious interests even to the untalented, and at the same time raising better minds to lofty spiritual heights. Benedict had been preordained to re-establish Western monasticism upon firmer ground by means

of a mild and wise rule, which was to become the common property of later monasteries. His ordinances, drafted after long reflection and under special illumination from above, in many ways softened the rigor of the previous forms of monastic discipline. They demanded nothing beyond the powers of any member of the community. All over and above this was left to the free will of the individual, which the rule served, however, to spur. Like that of Cassian,

this rule suited the Western character. Each monastery was to be as a family under an abbot's fatherly government. This introduction of a kind family feeling, and likewise the authority and freedom which were combined in the rule, adapted it to the needs of the medieval world better than any other previous monastic regulations. All unconscious of the far-reaching character of his innovation, Benedict was really supplanting the monasticism of the Roman world by that of

the Middle Ages. The asceticism of subsequent centuries bore the stamp of the powerful, yet peaceful and fatherly mind of the founder of Monte Cassino. His little book of rules, with its simple, practical regulations, prepared under divine providence, a sea ground upon which great churchmen were to be matured. Popes like Gregory I and Gregory VII, strong bishops and enlightened doctors like Anselm and Bede, bold and self-sacrificing missioners like Augustine

of England and Boniface of Germany, who, with troops of industrious monks, went forth into the wilds of unbelief to spread Christian civilization and impart peace to the hearts of men estranged from God. End of section 1