did not cease with the foundation of the convent, as each succeeding abbot modified, by addition or retrenchment, the discipline previously established, sometimes borrowing from the rules of other monasteries, and sometimes framing new constitutions in his own right. By this means the peace of the fraternity was sometimes destroyed, although in other cases the authority of a definite rule would be a great advantage. About 1223, a contention having arisen between the abbot of Evesham and the rest of the community, relative to some almost obsolete regulations, all the ancient customs, before traditional, were collected and written down by the abbot, and afterwards submitted to the pope for his approbation.* The great number of different orders that arose rendered it necessary that a stop should be put to the practice, and Innocent III. decreed that no new order should be established. Gregory X. issued a similar decree relative to the mendicants. In the index to Hospinian's valuable work on the monks there are the names of 203 different orders, and some account is given of each order in the text. The interference of the popes, however, was sometimes exercised in a pernicious manner, by relaxing the severity of the original rules; and by glosses and explanations further changes were effected, through which more rapid strides were made towards corruption.

The diversities of practice among the monks present themselves under almost every form to which we may direct our attention.

By some fraternities ignorance was accounted as a virtue, and to others we are indebted for the preservation of nearly all we know of antiquity, including the record of divine revelation. The first monks being laymen would almost necessarily be ignorant, and from their previous habits would despise all kinds of literature, whether sacred or secular. Thus, the monks of Citeaux, leading an ascetic life, in silence, prayer, and manual labour, were regardless of literary occupations; whilst those of Premontré, who were nearly coeval in their foundation, combined with these exercises an assiduous attention to intellectual pursuits. There was in Italy a particular order calling themselves Brothers of Ignorance, who all took an oath not to know anything or learn anything. "All the monks, in reality," said Luther, " belong to this order." earlier priests of Budha were ignorant we may infer from the fact

*Tindal's History of Evesham.

+ Berrington's Literary History of the Middle Ages.

That the

that their sacred institutes were not committed to writing until upwards of 500 years after the death of their founder; and if they had been men of general intelligence it would not have been possible to palm upon them so great a mass of absurdities and inconsistencies as is contained in the records they profoundly venerate.

The changes that took place throughout the Roman empire soon after Christianity was generally received have been too exclusively referred to the inroads of the barbarians. The reading of the ancient classics would be discouraged by the pastors of the church, lest they should lead the young student to admire with pernicious intensity the system that a little time before had held in the same regions an unlimited sway. We who are of more recent times can peruse the myth or the legend; we can listen to the rythm that has never been surpassed in the pleasantness of its cadence, or to the periods that are unequalled in the majesty of their roll; we can contemplate the manifested conceptions before which the mightiest sages have bowed down in lowly reverence; and the only effect they produce is one that is æsthetic, and not religious. But it was not so in the earlier centuries of the Christian era. The student then beheld around him the monuments of a superstition that might yet have some hold upon his affections; here was the mighty shrine, still beautiful, that had been erected by his own ancestors; there the very statue,

"which, if made

By human hands, seem'd not of human thought," before which his mother or some other beloved relative had been accustomed to worship; from his playmates in the country or the slaves with whom he was most familiar among the domestics at the city residence of his parent, he would hear many a tale of nymph or of dryad; and the barbarous words or pleasant echo of many an ancient invocation would be impressed upon his memory, as he listened to it over the blazing faggot or in the stillness of the moonlight. Hence it came to pass that the scholars in the medi-æval monastic establishments were commanded to look upon all heathen authors with suspicion; the only use to be made of them being to learn therefrom "the rules of grammar, the quantity of syllables, and the laws of metre." In some foundations, as in that of Isodore, the perusal of heathen authors was entirely forbidden. Justinian, by an edict, imposed a perpetual silence upon the schools of Athens, under the idea that heathenism was still inculcated in the lectures

of its professors.* Nor let it be said that these fears were groundless. We may see the power of ancient associations, even when the tenets of a better faith are professed, in the bardic poetry of our own country, and in the great number of old customs having a pagan origin that are still clung to with a tenacity that proves their strength, when even the death-struggle has long been carried on. There is also, in countries where heathenism is still professed, a danger lest the toil of the student or the care of the controversialist should be received as an act of homage to the excellence of the works over which they pore. When these dangers had passed away, the monks of some of the fraternities embraced the advantages of their position, and freed themselves from the trammels, now become comparatively useless, by which their predecessors had been properly bound. Basil and his companions, in their retirement on the banks of the river Iris, spent a considerable portion of their time in the study of the Scriptures, in which they availed themselves of the assistance of the commentators, and especially of Origin. Benedict enjoined his disciples to read, copy, and collect books. In the sixth century the recluses of both sexes were enjoined by the founders of the monasteries in which they lived to employ a certain portion of their time in reading the works of the fathers. Libraries were established, and to the more feeble of the monks was assigned, although not to them exclusively, the duty of copying manuscripts. In the next century the times for study were regularly appointed, and public examinations and discussions were held, that it might be seen whether the students had turned to good account their opportunities of acquiring knowledge. Upon the character of the abbot much would depend, both as to the nature of the studies, and the diligence of the transcribers. John Whethamsted, abbot of St. Albans, caused more than eighty books to be written during his abbacy; and by the care of one of the abbots of Glastonbury fifty-eight were written. In 1305 the monks of Bolton gave thirty shillings, the price of two good oxen, for the Book of Sentences, by Peter Lombard; "but," says Dr. Whitaker, their historian, "I can only discover that they purchased three books in forty years." The library of the Grey Friars, London, built by Sir Richard Whittingdon, was 129 feet long, and 31 feet broad, and was well filled with books. There were 1700 MSS. in the library at Peterborough. Ingulf tells us that when the library at Croyland Hallam's Literature of Europe. Giesler's Text-Book.

was burnt the monks lost 700 books. The ecclesiastics were sometimes assisted by the munificence of laymen. William, son of Richard de Perci, gave three ox-gangs of land, with five tofts, at Dunesley, to the chauntor of the abbey church at Whitby, to make and write books for the church; and Richard de Paston granted a rent-charge of twelve pence per annum to the convent at Bromholm, to keep their books in repair. Two water mills were assigned to the precentor of Bury Abbey to find parchment and ink for the convent. The literary labours of some of the monks, since the invention of printing, more particularly of those forming the congregation of St. Maur, are too well known to require more specific notice.*

The priests of Ceylon are entitled to a share of the praise received by the western recluses. When the literature of the island was nearly annihilated by the ravages of the continental kings, they set themselves to copy and translate the principal works connected with their religion, which they procured from Burma and Siam. But they have written very few original works; and those they possess abound so much in repetitions from each other, that it becomes a tedious exercise to read them, after one or two of the more celebrated have been perused.

The advancement of Christianity will have an effect upon the literature of Asia, similar to that which was produced upon the study of the classics, when the gospel first began to grapple successfully with the ancient religions of Greece and Rome. In India, the supreme power being in the hands of Christians, the native pundits receive comparatively little encouragement; the pastors of the church discountenance the reading of the ancient books by their converts, unless it be by a few, for the purpose of refuting their arguments or exposing their absurdity; and in a little time, more especially with Pali literature, the most active of its students will be men of another land and a different creed. And as the oriental scriptures, when their contents are known, possess no such fascination as that which will ever attract men of taste to the perusal of the relics of Greece and Rome, it is not improbable that many of the books written in Sanskrit and Pali will in time be entirely un

Neander's Bernard. Hallam's Literature. Berrington's Literary History. Burton's Monasticon. Taylor's Index Monasticus. Whitaker's History of Whalley. Tanner's Notitia Monastica. Whitaker's History of

Craven. Hospinianus de Monachis.

read, and perhaps their style unintelligible. This process of decay is already apparent in Ceylon. There being no outward stimulus to exertion, the priests exhibit no enthusiasm of study, and many of them are unable to read at all. In China these effects are still more apparent, as it is said that few of the priests in that country understand Pali. Its peculiarities preclude its being written with alphabetical accuracy in the Chinese character, so that it degenerates into a complete jargon, wherein the sound is but imperfectly preserved, and the sense not at all. But the people of the east have immense advantages over those of the west when in the same state of transition. Our forefathers did not fight merely for the settlement of local institutions, however wide their immediate influence may extend. They wrote, and spoke, and bled, for the establishment of principles. These principles and institutions, with all the improvements that experience has taught us are necessary, are taken to the inhabitants of India, and in the vigour of their energy are at once presented for their imitation, or authoritatively promulgated for their adoption. They may sometimes mistake our meaning, as when the people of some parts of the Company's territory, at the time trial by jury was introduced among them, complained that, after they were compelled to give the government so many lacs of rupees annually for the administration of justice, they should be obliged, after all, to administer it themselves. But it requires only a little experience to enable them to see the greatness of the boon they have received. As their language will remain unchanged, they have another advantage over the west. It was in the period when the Latin language became unintelligible to the mass of the people, and the modern languages were not fully formed, that the torpor was presented which seemed to paralyse the powers of the intellect to so great a degree that, during several ages, there was little improvement in either art, science, or the literature connected with sacred truth.

The monks were not all bound by an inviolable oath; as among the priests of Budha, the obligation to further obedience was sometimes a voluntary act. In the number of recluses addressed by James, of Nisibis, there were some who had dedicated themselves to continence by a vow, and others by resolution. Philip Neri forbade any of his disciples to bind themselves to the community by oath or vow. The bond of union was to arise from mutual affection and respect. The French Oratorians, founded by Peter de Berulle,