from unimpeachable witnesses, who lived in the middle ages, to prove the virtues and perfection of discipline which existed in the monasteries; that we may not depart with such an erroneous impression as that the evil had counterpoised the good. The language of these witnesses is that of prudence, as well as of admiration. "Of the sanctity of many, no one can judge more truly than the Searcher of hearts," says the monastic historian of the Cistercians; "yet we speak what we have heard and known concerning our abbots."* Let us hear, then, what was the result of their knowledge. "If there be any perfection in this world, it can be found in cloisters :"+ such is the evidence of Hugo of St. Victor. "Truly," says St. Bernard, "you can behold, in almost all congregations of monks, some men that are filled with consolations, abounding in joy, always cheerful and agreeable, fervent in spirit, meditating day and night on the law of God, frequently looking up to heaven and lifting up pure hands in prayer, careful observers of their conscience, and devout followers of good works; to whom discipline is lovely, fasting sweet, the vigils short, manual labor pleasant, and the whole austerity of their conversation refreshing." "I see in cloisters," says Peter of Blois, who was himself a secular priest," celestial men, or rather earthly angels, whose conversation is in heaven,—who, with a certain noble pride, despise the honors and riches of this world." Hear how those who knew the monks personally speak: "If any one asks me," says the Abbot de Rance, speaking of Brother Euthyme III., "whether this monk has or has not sinned since he came under our direction? I answer, by the principles of faith, he has sinned, since the Holy Ghost teaches us, 'Non est enim homo qui non peccet ;'|| but I answer, by my own knowledge and according to my observation, he has not sinned."¶ Odelirius, counsellor of Roger, earl of Shrewsbury, has immortalized his name by his eloquent exhortations to that noble-man, in 1083, in praise of monks and the monastic discipline. "Who," he exclaims, "can worthily relate all their vigils, hymns, psalmody, prayers, alms, and sacrifices! What denial of their own will for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ! What shall I say of the chastity of monks, of their silence, of their modesty, of their obedience? Such an abundance of virtues confounds my astonished intelligence, and I confess that my tongue fails me to express it. From my tender youth I have long been admitted to the secrets of monks; and, by familiar relations, I have learned thoroughly what were their manners. In consequence, when I consider the conduct of all mortals, who inhabit the earth, I see that they are all, in their lives, inferior to monks who live canonically according to the rules of their order."** Richard, archbishop of Canterbury, in the reign of Henry II., writing to the Cistercian order, says, "Among all the orders with which the Spouse of Christ. is adorned, there is none more fragrant with virtue, none sweeter in Christ with * Gasp. Jong. Notit. Abb. Ord. Cist. Lib. iv. 16. De Claustro Animæ, ii. 17. § Epist. cii. Lib. 2. Reg. viii. ** Orderic Vital. Lib. v. the odor of a holy reputation, than yours." Yet he blames them for one thing,"because the lands which were subject to tithes, before they possessed them, are made exempt by the fact of coming into their hands."* Peter of Blois bears a similar testimony to the Cistercians. "There," he says, "is a most approved school of religion; there one finds the practice of the utmost modesty, regularity of manners, the affection of fraternity, peace of mind, the communication of all things, mutual service, rigor of discipline, the love of obedience, the bond of charity, the subjection of the flesh, the exercise of hospitality, liberty of study, the order of vigils, the calm of meditation, the devotion of psalmody." To the Carthusian order—which, in fact, has never required reform to the present day -he bears the same. "Through all lands," he says, " by the grace of God, its fame hath gone forth, and the odor of its sweetness hath reached to the ends of the earth for it is the plantation of God, and the vine of the Lord of Sabaoth; therefore now has its fruit multiplied to an immense increase. Behold how it stretches forth its branches, now even to the sea, and its outshoots as far as England!" Would you inquire now concerning "the lambs that Francis and Dominic led among the way where well they throve, not swollen with vanity ?"§ Dante says, "he tells of both, who one commendeth, which of them soe'er be taken for their deeds were to one end." Cornelius Mussus Bitontinus says that the world was reformed by these two, Dominic and Francis. In the beginning of the evangelic announcement, he observes, when the word of the Lord was preached to the Jews and Gentiles, two were chosen, Peter and Paul. When the world had relapsed to vices, and the Lord in mercy wished to reform it, he again chose two, the one cherubic, the other seraphic,-two bodies, but one mind.¶ Pope Urban IV. styles the order of Minors, "that field of virtues which the Lord hath blessed."** Even the incidental tribute paid to it by a worldly poet will be to some no less satisfactory; as when Octavien de Saint-Gelais, in his "Sœour d'Honneur," while describing the vanity of his early life, and his fear of lightening, acknowledges that while in that state, whenever it thundered he wished to be a Franciscan: : -pour iors estre convers Ou cordelier chantent hymnes et vers."+t As The learned Albertus Sartiunensis having received from his friend,. Nicholas Niccoli, a mordant invective against the fathers, of the observance written by the famous Poggio Brandolino, whose enmity arose from a family pique, wrote a formal reply, wishing to defend, he says, these most innocent men, with whom he has conversed, as a brother, during fourteen years. "You consider,” he says to Poggio, "as not worthy of the highest honor, those who, in my opinion, detect *Pet. Bles. Epist. 82. + Id. 86. Wadding, Apparat. ad Annal. + Id. 86. § Dante, i. 10. | Par. xỉ. ** Ap. Martene, Vet. Script. ii. 1261. + Goujet, Bibliothèque Française, tom. x. 263. things well,-who are greatful to their friends, pacific to their enemies, solicitous for the dangers of others. and not negligent to their own,-who, casting off all pollutions of the world, condemn what they once were, and love what they are to be in the future life, make themselves judges of their own wanderings, exult in having escaped from the disquietudes and tempests of the world, and, with minds far above it, superior to all earthly power, devote themselves to virtue and justice, forgetting what is behind, and stretching forwards to what is before, think life tedious and death most happy,-whose care it is never tc yield to vice, but to subdue it, who deplore the passions of the profligate, having restrained their own by discipline,-who, through evil report and good report, in cold and poverty, pursue their steady way, rejoicing more than the vulgar and foolish multitude in their vanities,—and, what is above all, who so completely subject and humiliate and neglect themselves for Christ, that they bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, and fear not to be counted fools for his sake, saying with the Apostle, 'If any one seem to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise,'-lo! this is what I think of these men such I know to be the pure and excellent lives of many of them; such, at least, the innocuous character of the rest."* This brings us down to an age of great degeneracy: yet, let it be observed, that there is still a cloud of witnesses, who give the same evidence. Observe what learning and sanctity the celebrated Ambrose Traversari of Camaldoli found in the numerous monasteries of his order in Italy, when, as prior-general, in 1433, he made his visitation. Again, on his journey from Basle to Vienna, in 1435, he says, "many most noble monasteries we found on the banks of the Danube, in which the monks lived most religiously."+ In 1415, an Italian author thus speaks: "What shall I say of monks, of which the number of most holy and learned seems almost infinite? We cannot deny that now and formerly there have been bad men in that habit: but who could number the good and illustrious? Who so mad as to think that if men wished to be evil, they would choose such a life as this? Truly, long since, all devotion of Christians, and nearly ali religion, would have perished, if these holy men had not, by their doctrine and example of life, protected the faith of Christ, contending for it, as the Apostle says, 'through evil report and good report. Men are disposed to criticise the conduct of monks with more severity than justice; and those are counted monsters who are detected falling in the least from the rule of perfection. I think it often happens that many, desirous of calumniating them before the vulgar, say things of them which are far from true, ascribing their poor habit, grave speech and aspect, to hypocrisy; their preaching, to vanity; their cheerfullness, to scurrility; their justice, to cruelty; their care to preserve the rights of the Church, to avarice and rapacity for Ap. Wadding, tom. I. Annal. Camald. Lib. lxii. all things are full of calumny, and thus did men declaim against the apostles and against Christ."* Wythmann, In 1708 and 1718, it was resolved, in the general chapter at Marmoutier, to depute two monks to travel, in order to visit the archives of different abbeys in France and Germany. Dom Martene and Dom Durand proceeded accordingly on this visitation; and their testimony as to the perfection which then prevailed with few exceptions, in the religious houses, is to the highest degree delightful and conclusive.† Even the arch-sophist of France, in modern times, bears this testimony:"It cannot be denied," he says, "that there were great virtues in the cloister. There is hardly still a monastery which does not contain some admirable souls."+ If, now, from these general statements, we pass to the examination of more particular evidence, the result will be no less consoling. William of Malmesbury says of the abbey of Thorney, "Truly I might call that island the abode of chastity and of all virtues, and a school of divine philosophers." abbot of Ramsey, was a man who sought rather to govern by fear than love, so that there were often occasions of harsh retorts. On one of these, being greatly exasperated, he went to Aetheric, the bishop of the diocese, and accused the monks of insubordination and disorder. The bishop, who had been educated in that house, was inclined to give no credit to the accusation; for he could not believe that the men whose piety he had known when a boy could so soon have fallen from the love of discipline. Therefore, consoling the abbot with some general words, and sending him away, he secretly resolved to visit the abbey in disguise, to judge with his own eyes as to the justice of the charge. So, coming to the island, and lodging in the neighborhood, he arrived very early in the morning, in disguise of a traveller, and entered the monastery as if for the sake of praying; and, as every place stood open to all comers, he began to examine all things carefully: then he saw some at private altars, devoutly celebrating mass; others praying around the high altar; others sitting in thick order between the pillars of the cloister, either reading in profound silence, or else writing or employed in some other useful exercise. After a while, one of the brethren, observing the curiosity with which he examined every part of the house, began to wonder at him; and at length, discovering him to be the bishop, hastened and informed the abbot, who came forth to receive the guest. But Aetheric reproved him severely, and admonished him to be less suspicious and morose in his government of the abbey, and reminded him of the express injunctions of St. Benedict on this head; and then, concluding with words of peace to the brethren as well as to the abbot, he departed. But the abbot, reflecting on his own faults, and the obstacles occasioned by the violence of his temper, resigned the administration of the abbey, and, taking leave of * Benedict Accolti Aretini De Præstantia Virorum sui Evi. Dialog. Thesaur, Antiq. Italiæ, ix. Voyage Lit, de Deux Bénédict. See also Vet. Script. Præf. in tom. ix. Volt. Essai sur les Mœurs, &c. § In Lib. iv. De Gest. Pontif. Ang. the brethren, set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Ethelstan was elected in his place. After a year, Wythmann returned; and the fame of his approach reached Ramsey at the moment when Ethelstan, with the monks, were sitting in the refectory. Immediately, he ordered the lector to stop reading, and, putting on the sacred vestments, they all proceeded with great reverence to meet the former abbot. But he, remembering his faults, humbly refused to re-assume his authority, and chose for his residence a solitary place called Northeya, which is but a stone's throw from the church, but inaccessible, excepting by a boat; and there, with one monk for his companion, and two servants, he spent the remainder of his days. To such monasteries our old English poet thus alludes: "There was an ancient house, not far away, Renown'd throughout the world for sacred lore England, in fact, possessed many such. Lydgate, while lamenting his own disobedient sensual life, following the reverse of all that he was taught, and taking little heed "What Christ Jesus suffered for his sake," acknowledges that the discipline of the abbey at Bury was excellent : "This holy rule was unto me radde And expounde in full notable wyse By vertuous men, relygious and sadde, I herde all well, but towchyng to the dede Of that they taught, I toke but lytell hede." in the twelfth century, when Sugar was abbot of St. Denis, the two Cistercian abbeys of Rivaulx and fountains, in the diocese of York, were in great reputation of sanctity. Of the latter, Gasper Jongelinus says that it drew its name from certain fountains, which were a happy presage of its future holiness: for truly, he adds, there were there in abundance the waters of celestial desire, and of living piety, which spring up to life eternal.† But let us look elsewhere. St. Peter Damian visited Mount-Cassino, and thus describes it: "All here were either aged, or young men rejoicing in the decorum of youthful life,-who, as sons of the proph ets, were fit to seek Elias through the desert; or truly, in the flower of youth, like the Apostle John, to overcome the wicked one."‡ That was a fine tribute to the virtue of the monastery of Septimus which Marsilins Ficinus paid, in writing to Francis Soderino, bishop of Volterra, where he says, "I know indeed how you love these monks; those pious men, whom I also not only love, but worship." Scardeoneo, a secular priest, speaking of the convent of St. Mark at Padua, adds this testimony: "Which to this day flourishes in the highest opinion of sanctity."|| Ermenric, monk of Richnau, in his epistle " De Grammatica," thus * Spenser, ii. 10. Epist. xvii. Notitæ Abbat. Ord. Cister. per Univ. Orb. Lib. viii. 5. |