BOOK III. THE CHURCH.
Introduction.[1]
NO. I., the Rule of Benedict, is given here almost in its entirety, as being historically the most important of all monastic constitutions. Benedict of Nursia was born near Rome at the end of the fifth century. When a boy of fourteen he renounced the world, and, after many changes of abode, finally settled at Monte Cassino, and became the founder of that famous monastery, destroying the temple of Apollo that stood on its site. Benedict died in 543 A.D. Pope Grregory the Great (594-604), the first real organizer among the popes, pressed the monks into the service of the church. It was the Rule of Benedict that he chose for his guidance, imposing it on a monastery that he himself had founded in Rome. By the time of Charlemagne (768-814) Benedict's Rule seems to have superseded all others. It afterwards became the basis of new orders, chief among which were Cluny and Citeaux. In the thirteenth century the Benedicts were superseded in great part by the mendicant orders, the Franciscans and Dominicans. From the fourteenth century on they were famous more for their learning than for their piety. The famous
- ↑ For fuller information on the different documents in this Book on the Church, see the articles in Herzog and Plitt's "Real encyclopaedic derprotestantischenTheologie," 17 vols., and W. Möller's "Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte," 2 vols., Freiburg, 1889-90. Both of these works give manifold references for further study.
