_FAMOUS MONKS AND MONASTERIES._
A MONK WITH A GENIUS FOR MONKERY (A.D. 400).
Arsenius the Great was a famous monk, born about 354, and had been early
in life made tutor to the sons of the Emperor Theodosius; but finding it
an unsatisfactory post, retired at the age of forty, resolving to cleanse
his soul and fly from the society of men. He went to Egypt; and being
anxious to be taken in as a monk, applied to John Colobus (the Dwarfish),
who invited him to a meal to test his suitability. Arsenius was kept
standing while the others sat. John then flung a biscuit to him, which
Arsenius ate in a kneeling posture. "He will make a monk," said John; and
he was admitted forthwith. Arsenius soon afterwards went to Scetis, and
lived as a hermit. A senator once left him a legacy; but the hermit
rejected it, saying, "I was dead before him." Two monks once called on
Arsenius, and were received with absolute silence; they waited on another
famous monk, called Moses, who received them with cordial welcome. The
visitors were perplexed at two great men acting so dissimilarly; but the
doubt was solved by another monk, who one day saw in a vision two boats on
the Nile. One boat contained Arsenius, with the Spirit of God; the other
boat contained Moses, fed with honey by angels. Arsenius was often rude to
his visitors. One was a high-born Roman lady, who requested to be
remembered in his prayers; but the monk brusquely told her that he hoped
he might be able to forget her. She complained of this to Theophilus, who
told her she was but a woman, and the old man would pray for her soul
notwithstanding. Arsenius once took a thievish monk into his cell to cure
him, but found it impossible. He used often to say that he had been sorry
for having spoken, but never for having been silent. When his end drew
near, he was seen to weep, which made the other monks ask, "Are _you_
then, father, afraid?" "Truly," said Arsenius, "the fear that is with me
in this hour has been with me ever since I became a monk."
ST. NINIAN, THE SCOTTISH SAINT (A.D. 400).
St. Ninian was a Briton, born about 360, of Christian parents, and of a
grave and earnest disposition. After much searching of the Scriptures, he
went to Rome in order to know more of the truth. When arrived there, he
wept over the relics of the Apostles, and the Pope received him
graciously. After spending some years there, it was made clear to the Pope
that Western Britain was much in need of Christian enlightenment, and
Ninian was consecrated a bishop, and sent there as the first bishop of his
nation. On his way he visited the famous St. Martin of Tours, the
demolisher of Pagan temples. The two saints were mutually pleased and
edified. They were described as two cherubims, from the intimate
understanding and mutual light displayed by them. Ninian, on returning to
Scotland, erected a church at Whithorn, in Galloway, and he was anxious to
imitate what he had seen at Tours, and begged the loan of masons from that
place, and the church was dedicated to St. Martin. Ninian became there a
great preacher and evangelist, and the miracles he performed spread his
fame everywhere. If he read the Psalter in the open air, the shower would
avoid touching him and his book. If thieves tried to steal his cattle, an
angel drove them away. One of Ninian's scholars, being afraid of a
whipping, fled to the seashore, but took care to steal his master's
pastoral staff; and this staff, after the youth had prayed, guided his
boat in safety, and was both rudder and mast and sail by turns. The saint
converted the Picts far and near, and was succeeded by St. Mungo and St.
Columba. His relics also were said to continue to work miracles long after
he was dead.
ST. MUNGO, AN EAST LOTHIAN SAINT (A.D. 580).
While St. Servanus, an early bishop of the Scots, was settled at Culross,
near Loch Leven, one Kentigern, who had been born about 514, under
mysterious circumstances, at a seaport in East Lothian, was taken to the
bishop by the shepherds, and said to be a child of promise. On seeing the
child, Servanus smiled welcome, carefully instructed him, and gave him the
name of Mun Cu or Mungdu (the Gaelic words for "Dear one"), since named
Mungo. The boy soon began to work miracles by restoring birds and dead
bodies to life. This gift excited the jealousy of the other pupils, and
caused Mungo to flee. He went to Dumfries, and thereafter settled at
Glasgow. The King and clergy soon afterwards elected him as bishop, an
office then vacant. He lived on bread and butter and cheese, abstaining
from flesh and wine. He was clothed in a rough hair shirt, and slept every
night in a stone trough, which was in shape like a coffin, strewed with
ashes, and a stone for a pillow. Every morning he went and stood in the
neighbouring stream up to the neck, however cold it might be, till he had
chanted the Psalter, after which he came out clean and pure as a dove
washed in milk. He had the gift of silence, and spoke seldom, yet
weightily. He could scarcely help working miracles. One day he went to
plough, but had no oxen at hand; and a wolf and deer passing that way, he
hailed them, and they both came and quietly entered under the yoke. After
he had given away all his corn to the poor, he would sow the land with
sand, and great crops grew up. One day he asked the King to supply him
with corn, but met with an indignant refusal, whereon the river Clyde rose
and swept away the King's barn, and floated the contents up the Molendinar
burn, and they landed near the saint's dwelling. The King in a passion
once lifted his foot to strike the saint, and the foot became gangrened,
and the King died soon after. The saint went seven journeys to Rome, where
he was highly valued. The Queen once lost a ring, which had been thrown
into the Clyde, and she applied to St. Mungo, who caused a salmon to be
caught which had swallowed the ring. He died at the age of one hundred and
eighty-five, full of years, and in the odour of sanctity.
A MONK CURED OF ABSENTING HIMSELF FROM PRAYERS (A.D. 540).
It is related in the Life of St. Benedict, born in 480, who founded the
famous monasteries for monks, that in one of these monasteries there was a
certain monk, who could not endure to abide with the brethren during the
time of prayer, but the moment they knelt down went out, and with a
wandering mind betook himself to things purely transitory and worldly. And
this being told to the man of God, and admonition proving unavailing,
Benedict visited the monastery; and when the psalms were ended, and the
brethren knelt down to pray, he saw a little black boy drawing the monk
referred to out of the church. And pointing it out to the superior, and
the latter not being able to see the boy, "Let us pray," said Benedict,
"that you may." And after two days Maurus, a pupil of Benedict, saw him;
but still the superior could not. And on the third day, after prayer,
Benedict found the monk standing outside the door; and striking him with
his staff in reproof of the blindness of his heart, from that day forth he
was no more troubled by that black boy, but stayed out the prayers
patiently with his brethren.
THE DEATH OF ST. BENEDICT (A.D. 543).
St. Benedict, the patriarch of the Western monks and founder of the
Benedictine order, died in 543, and his biographers and contemporaries
thus described his death: "Shortly before the decease of St. Benedict,
standing at the window by night and praying to God, suddenly he perceived
a great light, and (as he thereafter declared) the whole world was brought
together before his eyes, collected as under a single ray of the sun. For
his spirit being dilated and rapt into God, he saw without difficulty
everything that is beneath God. And at the hour of his death there
appeared unto two of the brethren, then absent and apart from each other,
the self-same vision; for they saw a path stretching from his cell up to
heaven, strewed with robes of silk and with numberless lamps, burning all
along it, ascending towards the east. And, behold, a man of majestic mien
and in seemly attire stood over against them, and asked whose that path
was. And they confessing that they knew not, he answered, 'This is the
path through which Benedict, the beloved of God, is ascending to heaven.'
And thereby they knew of his decease."
ST. COLUMBA OF IONA (A.D. 597).
Columba, who had first an Irish name, was born about 518 at Gartan, in
Donegal, of good family. After his ordination he entered the monastery of
Glasnevin, near Dublin. He soon after founded the monasteries of Derry and
of Durrow. He determined to be a missionary, after engaging in some family
feuds and being tired of fighting. About 563 he left Ireland, then called
Scotia, and, accompanied by twelve disciples, took to the sea in a wicker
wherry covered with hides, leaving the result to Providence. They first
landed at Colonsay, then crossed to Iona. Two savage kings having fought a
battle, the successful one gave him the island to settle in. He made an
early visit to the Pictish King; and though at first rudely treated, he
made a conquest and obtained speedy honours. He soon became known also as
a worker of miracles. One day the inhabitants were much alarmed at the
visits of a sea monster that lived in the river Ness and roared terribly;
the saint raised his hand, and making the sign of the cross in the air,
called on the brute to desist, and, strange to say, it vanished amid the
breathless amazement of the crowds that were watching it. The saint and
his followers settled in the island of Iona, and lived somewhat in the
fashion of a monastery, but they acted as missionaries. One day a stranger
visited Iona in disguise; and joining Columba in celebrating the
Eucharist, the latter suddenly looking the stranger in the face as he
stood at the altar, said, "Christ bless thee, brother, consecrate alone,
for I know thou art a bishop." On hearing this the stranger wondered
exceedingly at the second sight of the saint, and all the bystanders gave
glory to God for the honour done by the visit of a bishop, a personage
then unknown in that quarter. Columba died in 597 as he was praying at the
altar, and the other monks saw the church filled with a strange light, for
the saint was leaving an example of piety to all future ages.
ST. COLUMBA PUNISHING A SAVAGE CHIEF (A.D. 520).
It is related by Adamnan, the biographer of St. Columba, that in the early
days, when Columba was in deacon's orders, going about in Leinster along
with his tutor Gemman, a brutal chief was pursuing a young girl who fled
before him on the level plain. As she chanced to notice the aged Gemman as
he sat reading, she ran straight towards him. The old man being alarmed at
this spectacle, called to Columba, who was reading at some distance, to
help him in defending the girl. But the brutal chief on coming up to them,
without taking the least notice of their presence, in his rage stabbed the
child as she was hiding herself under their cloaks, and leaving her dead
at their feet, turned to go back. At this the old man, turning to Columba,
said, "How long, O holy youth, shall God the just Judge allow this horrid
crime and this contempt of our faith to go unpunished?" Then the saint at
once pronounced this sentence: "Mark well, that at the very instant, when
the soul of this young innocent ascends to heaven, shall the soul of the
murderer descend into hell." Scarcely had Columba spoken the word, when
the murderer of innocent blood, like Ananias before Peter, fell down dead
on the spot. The news of this awful retribution soon spread through the
land; it made the name of the holy deacon a praise and protection to the
innocent, and a sure avenger of every brutal oppression on the part of
those savage chiefs who then ruled the land.
DEATH OF ST. COLUMBA IN IONA (A.D. 597).
The biographer of St. Columba of Iona, who died in 597, aged
seventy-seven, after thirty-four years' missionary work, says that on
feeling the hand of death he was at his own request carried out of doors
in a car to visit the working brethren, and then he warned them of his
early departure, and blessed them and the island and its inhabitants. On
the following Saturday, he told the friends that that would be the last
day of his life. He begged them to take him out, that he might bless the
barn and the crops of corn which were the supplies of their food. On going
back to the monastery, the old white pack-horse, that used to carry the
milk-pails, strange to say, came up to the saint, laid its head on his
bosom, and uttered plaintive cries, like a human being, also shedding
tears. The attendant began to drive away the beast; but the saint forbade
him, saying, "Let it alone; let it pour out its bitter grief. Lo, thou who
hast a rational soul canst know nothing of my departure--only expect what
I have just told you; but to this brute beast, devoid of reason, the
Creator Himself hath evidently in some way made it known that its master
is going to leave it." And saying this, he blessed the poor work-horse,
which turned away from him in sadness. The saint then ascended a hillock
overhanging the monastery, and stood musing and looking round, and said
that, small as that place was, it would be held in after-times in great
honour by kings and foreign rulers and saints of other Churches. On
returning to the monastery, he sat in his cell and transcribed part of the
thirty-third Psalm. The rest of the night he lay on the bare ground, with
a stone for his pillow. He discoursed to the brethren on the blessing of
peace, harmony, and charity among themselves. When the bell rang at
midnight, he rose quickly and knelt before the altar, and a heavenly light
was noticed to surround him; and the brethren knew that his soul was
departing; and after signifying to them his holy benediction, he breathed
his last. The matin hymns being then finished, his sacred body was
carried, the brethren chanting psalms; and being wrapped in fine clean
linen, was buried after three days and nights. A violent storm had been
raging for these days, preventing any person crossing the sound; but after
the burial the storm ceased, and all was calm.
THE MONK COLUMBAN (A.D. 615).
The monk Columban, who died 615, was held in great honour by Thierry II.,
the King of Burgundy, where his convents were situated. The abbot took on
himself at times to reprove the King's voluptuous life; but the
grandmother of the King took offence, and schemed till she got Columban
banished. In his journeying through France, he arrived with some followers
at the city of Nantes, and was meditating in his cell, when a beggar came
before it. Columban caused the last measure of meal to be served out of
his stores to the hungry man. The next two days the abbot had to contend
with want himself, yet he kept up his spirits, full of faith and hope,
when suddenly some one knocked at the door, and this person turned out to
be the servant of a pious female of the city, who had sent a considerable
supply of corn and wine for him. Afterwards he went to Italy, and
established in the vicinity of the Apennines the famous monastery of
Bobbio, and there the abbot found rest and ended his days. One of his
sayings was, "If thou hast conquered thyself, thou has conquered all
things." He was a disciplinarian among his monks. He said to them, "A monk
must learn humility and patience, silent obedience and gentleness. Let him
not do his own will; let him eat what is offered to him, let him fulfil
the day's work prescribed to him, let him go to bed weary, and let him be
taught to get up at the time appointed."
ST. AIDAN OF LINDISFARNE (A.D. 651).
St. Aidan, whose death made such an impression on the youthful Cuthbert,
was the most shining character among the early British Christians, a man
of the utmost gentleness, piety, and moderation. He came from Iona in 635,
settled in Northumbria, and became Bishop of Lindisfarne. He established a
training school for twelve English boys, one of whom was St. Chad. He used
to retire occasionally to complete solitude in Farne Island, and there
fast. He was an earnest missionary, and used to travel on foot and get
into conversation with any fellow-traveller, rich or poor. As he walked
along with them, they used to meditate on texts or recite psalms. Oswald
was then king; and being himself a saint, both worked amicably together.
Oswald often invited Aidan to the royal table; but the saint, after taking
very little refreshment, was always called away to some prayer meeting or
mission work of an urgent kind. One Easter Sunday he took luncheon with
the King, and they were just about to help themselves to some dainties,
when a thane rushed in and said that there was a mob of famished people at
the gates begging for alms. Oswald at once ordered the dish of untasted
dainties to be carried away and divided among them, and the saint was so
charmed that he seized the King's right hand and said, "May this hand
never decay!" That hand never decayed, and was kept with pride in a silver
casket for four centuries later by the monks of Durham. Another time King
Oswy gave a fine horse to Aidan, on which he might ride during his
mission work, so as to save much time; but soon afterwards, a beggar man
coming up, and Aidan having no change in his pocket, dismounted and gave
horse and all the trappings to the beggar instead. The King hearing of
this, asked Aidan why he did such a thing, and the answer was, "Surely a
mare is nothing to compare with that son of God?" The King at first
thought this no answer at all, and was moody; but on reflection he
relented, and threw himself at the feet of Aidan, saying he would never
again dispute as to what or how much should be bestowed on sons of God. So
they were good friends ever after. Aidan was the glory of his age, and
died in 651, and his relics long worked miracles.
ST. CHAD SUBJECT TO THE FEAR OF THE LORD (A.D. 673).
St. Chad was one of the twelve pupils of St. Aidan of Lindisfarne, and in
due time was recommended by Archbishop Theodore as Bishop of Lichfield.
St. Chad was of an ascetic and retiring manner, and went his rounds on
foot; but Theodore insisted that he should ride, and gave him a horse, and
with his own hands lifted him up to mount. Chad was a busy and careful
bishop, but pre-eminently a grave and serious man, and dwelt most on the
awful side of religion. Bede says, "He was ever subject to the fear of the
Lord, and in all his actions mindful of his end." Everything in Nature was
viewed as a call to sacred employments. If it was a high wind during the
service, Chad would stop his reading and implore the Divine mercy for all
mankind. If it became a storm or thunder and lightning, he would repair to
the church and give himself up with a fixed mind to prayer and the
recitation of psalms until the weather cleared up. If questioned as to
this, he would quote the Psalmist's words, "The Lord thundered out of
heaven," and he spoke of the last great fire, and of the Lord coming in
the clouds with great power and majesty to judge the quick and the dead.
Chad's death was remarkable, and occurred during a pestilence which swept
away many of his flock. One night his faithful monk, Owin, when at work in
the fields, heard a sweet sound as of angelic melody, which came from the
south-east and entered and filled the oratory where Chad then was, and
next it rose heavenward. As Owin was wondering what this could mean, he
noticed Chad open the window and clap his hands, as if beckoning to some
one. Owin entered, and was told to summon the brethren; and Chad
addressing them seriously, and charging them to carry on the good work
steadily, told them his end was near, for the lovable guest who had
summoned so many brethren had come to him that day. He gave them his
blessing, and told Owin privately that the voices he had heard were those
of angels come to summon him to his heavenly reward, and that they would
return for him in seven days. So on the seventh day he died, and was
always called the "most glorious" St. Chad.
DEATH OF ST. HILDA, ABBESS OF WHITBY (A.D. 680).
St. Hilda, who died in 680, was of the royal family of Northumbria, and
devoted her life to the monastic profession, and taught the strict
observance of justice, piety, and chastity. She was usually called mother,
in token of her piety and grace. For the last eight years of her life she
was sorely tried by a long sickness, accompanied with fever; but during
all that time she never omitted either to give thanks to her Maker or to
teach both publicly and privately the flock committed to her. When at the
last she felt her end to be near, she received the viaticum of the Holy
Communion; and then, having summoned to her the handmaids of Christ who
were in the same monastery, she continued admonishing them, all the while
she perceived with joy her own death approaching. On that same night the
Omnipotent Lord deigned to reveal by a manifest vision her death to
another monastery, where a holy woman, named Begu, had dedicated her
virginity to the Lord for thirty years. Begu was then resting in the
dormitory, when she suddenly heard in the air the well-known sound of the
bell by which they were wont to be aroused when any one of them was called
forth from the world. She noticed a great light in the heavens; and
looking earnestly at it, she saw the soul of Hilda, the handmaid of the
Lord, borne to heaven by attendant and conducting angels. Begu immediately
arose and told her abbess how Hilda, the mother of them all, had just then
departed from this world, ascending with exceeding light, having angels
for guides to the abodes of eternal light, and the society of the
celestial citizens. Yet these monasteries were distant from each other
thirteen miles.
THE ABBEY AND MONKS OF ST. GALL (A.D. 680).
The abbey of St. Gall was founded by St. Gallus, an Irish monk, who left
his monastery in Belfast Lough in the seventh century to preach the Gospel
on the Continent; and he settled near Lake Constance, on the banks of the
Steinach, then a wilderness. He taught the savage tribes the arts of peace
and civilised them, and the cell which he inhabited began to be visited
by pilgrims, and after his death miracles were wrought at his tomb. This
led to an abbey being founded, which became the most famous as well as
being the oldest in Germany. It was the asylum of learning from the eighth
to the tenth centuries, where the classics were most studied and copied.
The monks of St. Gall in time grew ambitious, and became imbued with a
military disposition, and used to sally forth sword in hand to conquer (as
narrated _ante_, p. 224). Their wealth, from the donations of pilgrims,
also turned their heads, and their military campaigns embroiled them with
the authorities; and in the fifteenth century the inhabitants of the
neighbouring town obtained the mastery, and soon afterwards the estates
were secularised. The library is still exhibited as a famous collection of
old manuscripts.
THE VENERABLE BEDE, MONK AND HISTORIAN (A.D. 735).
Bede, the most valuable of the early historians of English ecclesiastical
affairs, who died in 735, gives this account of himself: "Thus much of the
ecclesiastical history of the Britons, and especially of the English
nation, as far as I could learn, either by the writings of the ancients or
from the tradition of our ancestors, or by my own knowledge, I, Bede, a
servant of God, and priest of the monastery of the blessed Apostles Peter
and Paul, which is at Wearmouth and Jarrow, have composed. And being born
in the territory of that monastery, when I was seven years old, I was
given to be educated to the most reverend Abbot Benedict and afterwards to
Ceolfrid; and having spent my whole life since that time in the same
monastery, I have devoted myself entirely to the study of Scripture, and
at intervals between the observance of regular discipline and the daily
care of singing in church, I always took delight in learning, or teaching,
or writing. In the nineteenth year of my life, I received deacon's orders;
in the thirtieth, those of the priesthood,--both by the ministry of the
most reverend Bishop John, and by order of Abbot Ceolfrid. From which time
of my becoming a priest, till the fifty-ninth year of my age, I have made
it my business, for the use of me and mine, to make brief notes on Holy
Scriptures from the writings of venerable Fathers, or even to add
something to their interpretations, in accordance with their views on the
beginning of Genesis and part of Samuel." Bede died aged sixty-two.
ST. CUTHBERT ADMITTED MONK (A.D. 651-758).
Cuthbert was a shepherd-boy in 651, watching his flock on the Lammermuir
Hills, by the side of the river Leader, not far from the ancient town of
Lauder. One night, as his companions were sleeping and he was praying, on
a sudden he saw a long stream of light break through the darkness of the
night, and in the midst of it a company of the heavenly host descended to
the earth, and having received among them a spirit of surpassing
brightness, returned without delay to their heavenly home. The young man
beloved of God was struck with awe at this sight, and stimulated to
encounter the honours of spiritual warfare, and to earn for himself
eternal life and happiness. He began to offer up praise and thanksgiving,
and called on his companions to join. He then told them he had just seen
the door of heaven opened, and there was led in thither amidst an angelic
company the spirit of some holy man, who now, for ever blessed, beholds
the glory of the heavenly mansion and Christ its King, while they were
still grovelling amid this earthly darkness. He said he thought it must
have been some holy bishop, or some favoured one of the company of the
faithful, whom he saw thus carried into heaven amidst so much splendour by
that large angelic choir. As Cuthbert said these words, the hearts of the
shepherds were kindled up to reverence and praise. When the morning came,
he found that Aidan, Bishop of the Church of Lindisfarne, a man of exalted
piety, had ascended to the heavenly kingdom at the very moment of the
vision. Immediately, therefore, he delivered over the sheep that he was
feeding to their owners, and determined forthwith to enter a monastery. He
went to Melrose, the monastery two miles east of the present abbey, where
Boisil was prior, and being admitted, Boisil at once saw the future
greatness of this young novice, who lived a holy life there for ten years
more. Some other accounts state that St. Cuthbert was of Irish parentage,
and was brought by his mother when a child into Britain.
ST. CUTHBERT AS MONK BISHOP (A.D. 687).
St. Cuthbert, after leaving the monastery at Melrose, became an eloquent
preacher in Galloway and that neighbourhood, and in 664 was made prior of
Lindisfarne, in the Farne Islands, where to this day the little shells
found only on that coast are called St. Cuthbert's shells, and the sea
birds, his favourite friends, are called St. Cuthbert's birds. He built a
cell, and pilgrims from all parts flocked to ask his counsel and his
blessing during eight years, when he was chosen Bishop of Lindisfarne. He
took special interest in the monasteries of nuns, of which there were
several in his diocese, such as Coldingham and Whitby. When not visiting
officially his charges, he retired to his cell at Farne. When his last
days drew near, in 687, he directed his brethren to wrap his body after
his death in the linen which the Abbess Verca had given to him, and to
bury it, as they so earnestly desired, in their church at Lindisfarne.
"Keep peace with one another," were his last words, "and ever guard the
Divine gift of charity. Maintain concord with other servants of Christ.
Despise not any of the household of faith who come to you seeking
hospitality; but receive, and entertain, and dismiss them with
friendliness and affection. And do not think yourselves better than others
of the same faith and manner of life; only with such as err from the unity
of Catholic peace have no communion." These were his last words. His
remains were taken to Lindisfarne, where, amid the prayers and solemn
chants of the brethren, they were interred in a stone sarcophagus on the
right of the altar in St. Peter's Church. Eleven years later the body,
still uncorrupt, was taken from the tomb, wrapped in fresh linen, and
placed in a shrine of wood which was laid on the floor of the sanctuary.
Great sanctity was shown to the saint's relics by King Alfred, King
Canute, and William the Conqueror. His own copy of the Gospels is still
preserved in the British Museum as a fine specimen of Celtic art. The
cathedral of Durham was at a later date dedicated to his memory, and in
the twelfth century his relics were transferred to that place; and in
1537, when his shrine was plundered, his body was found still to be
uncorrupt.
THE BODY OF ST. CUTHBERT CARRIED ABOUT BY MONKS FOR SEVEN YEARS (A.D.
875).
When the Danes were ravaging the north of England in 875, causing great
terror among all the monasteries, Eardulph, Bishop of Lindisfarne, in
which church the body of St. Cuthbert rested, and Abbot Edred took
suddenly the resolution to carry away the body for safety. When the people
living near heard of this, they also resolved to leave their houses, and
with their wives and children accompany the sacred charge, thinking that
life without the saint's protection would be unsafe. This company
traversed nearly the whole country, carrying the body with them; and being
after a time advised to seek refuge in Ireland, sailed from the mouth of
the Derwent, in Cumberland, after taking a distressing farewell of their
friends, who stood watching on the shore. A dreadful storm overtook the
ship, and a copy of the Evangelists adorned with gold and jewels fell
overboard into the sea. The vessel was in such distress that the party
turned back, and landed at the place from which they started. They
suffered many trials, and it is said for seven years they were in charge
of the holy body and fleeing from the barbarians. At length the saint
himself appeared in a vision, and told the monk Hunred where to search for
the book when the tide was out, and also where to find a horse to draw the
carriage on which the body lay. The book was duly found, and its leaves
were all sound and perfect. And when a bridle was held up before the
horse, it ran up to the monk and offered itself to be yoked. The body was
afterwards carried to Chester-le-Street, the second see of the diocese of
Durham, and there deposited; and on account of the sanctity thereby
imparted, the King settled extensive lands on the Church for ever. King
Alfred confirmed this grant, and on one occasion St. Cuthbert appeared to
King Alfred as he was sitting reading the Scriptures, while his men were
out fishing, and not only promised an abundant supply to their nets, but
encouraged him to persevere in routing the Danes, all which promises were
duly fulfilled.
DEATHBED OF THE VENERABLE BEDE (A.D. 735).
St. Cuthbert, pupil of Bede, wrote to a friend this account of the last
days of his master: "Bede was much troubled with shortness of breath, yet
without pain, for a fortnight before the day of our Lord's resurrection;
but he passed his time cheerful and rejoicing, giving thanks to Almighty
God every day and every night, nay every hour, and daily read lessons to
us his disciples; and whatever remained of the day he spent in singing
psalms. He also passed all the night awake in joy and thanksgiving, except
so far as a very slight slumber prevented it; but he no sooner awoke than
he presently repeated his wonted exercises, and ceased not to give thanks
to God with uplifted hands. O truly happy man! He chanted the sentence of
St. Paul the apostle, 'It is dreadful to fall into the hands of the living
God,' and much more out of Holy Writ, wherein also he admonished us to
think of our last hour and to shake off the sleep of the soul; and being
learned in our poetry, he quoted some things in it. He also sang
antiphons, according to our custom and his own, one of which is, 'O King
of glory, Lord of all power, who triumphing this day did ascend above all
the heavens, do not leave us orphans, but send down upon us the Spirit of
truth which was promised by the Father! Hallelujah!' And when he came to
the words 'do not leave us orphans,' he burst into tears and wept much;
and an hour after he began to repeat what he had commenced, and we
hearing it, mourned with him. By turns we read and by turns we wept; nay,
we wept always while we read. In such joy we passed a period of fifty
days. During these days he laboured to compose two works, well worthy to
be remembered--the translation of the Gospel of St. John, and some
collections from the 'Book of Notes' of Bishop Isidorus. When the Tuesday
before the ascension of our Lord came, he began to suffer more in his
breath, and a small swelling appeared in his feet. But he passed all that
day, and dictated cheerfully, and now and then among other things said,
'Go on quickly. I know not how long I shall hold out, and whether my Maker
will not soon take me away.' When the morning appeared, he ordered us to
write with all speed what he had begun, and this done, we walked in
procession with the relics of the saints till the third hour, as the
custom of that day was. There was one of us, however, with him who said to
him, 'Most dear master, there is still one chapter wanting. Do you think
it troublesome to be asked any more questions?' He answered, 'It is no
trouble. Take your pen, and dip and write fast.' Which he did. But at the
ninth hour he said to me, 'I have some little articles of value in my
chest, such as pepper, napkins, and incense; run quickly and bring the
priests of our monastery to me, that I may distribute among them the gifts
which God has bestowed on me. The rich in this world are bent on giving
gold and silver and other precious things. But I, with much charity and
joy, will give my brothers that which God has given to me.' He spoke to
every one of them, admonishing and entreating them that they would
carefully say masses and prayers for him, which they readily promised; but
they all mourned and wept, especially because they said that they should
no more see his face in this world. They rejoiced, however, because he
said, 'The time is come that I shall return to Him who formed me out of
nothing. I have lived long; my merciful Judge well foresaw my life for me;
the time of my dissolution draws nigh, for I desire to die and be with
Christ.' Having said much more, he passed the day joyfully till the
evening; but the boy above mentioned said, 'Dear master, there is yet one
sentence not written.' He answered, 'Write quickly.' Soon after the boy
said, 'The sentence is now written.' He replied, 'It is well; you have
said the truth. It is ended. Let my head rest on your hands, for it is a
great satisfaction to me to sit opposite my holy place, in which I was
wont to pray, that I may also, sitting, call upon my Father.' And thus on
the floor of his little cell, singing, 'Glory be to the Father, and to the
Son, and to the Holy Ghost,' when he had named the Holy Ghost, he
breathed his last, and so departed to the heavenly kingdom. All who were
present at the death of the blessed Father said they had never seen any
other person expire with so much devotion and in so tranquil a frame of
mind. For, as you have heard, so long as the soul animated his body, he
never ceased to give thanks to the true and living God, with outstretched
hands exclaiming, 'Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy
Ghost,' with other spiritual ejaculations."
A WARRIOR DUKE BECOMES MONK (A.D. 806).
Duke William was commander of the first cohort in Charlemagne's army, and
fought many battles with the infidels and subdued the Saracens, and then
founded the monastery of St. Saviour, in the Herault. Afterwards, in 806,
he disclosed to the King his desire of becoming a monk, a resolution which
caused much grief to all the Court. He rejected the liberal gifts which
were then offered him, but only asked for and obtained a reliquary
containing a portion of the wood of the holy cross. It had been sent to
Charles by Zechariah, Patriarch of Jerusalem. A crowd of nobles forced
their way into his presence and implored William not to desert them. But
being inflamed with a Divine ardour, he abandoned all he held dear, and
amid tears and groans took his farewell. When he reached the town of
Brives, he offered his armour on the altar of St. Julian, the martyr,
hanging his helmet and splendid shield over the martyr's tomb in the
church, and suspending outside the door his quiver and bow, with his long
lance and two-edged sword, as an offering to God. He then set forth in the
guise of a pilgrim of Christ, and passed through Aquitaine to the
monastery which he had built a short time before in the wilderness. He
drew near to it with naked feet, and with haircloth about his body. When
the brethren heard of his approach, they met him at the cross-roads, and
forming a triumphal procession against his will, conducted him to the
abbey. He then made his offering of the reliquary more precious than gold,
with gold and silver vessels and all kinds of ornaments; and having
proffered his petition, gave up the world with all its pomps and
enticements, was made a monk, and became another person in Christ Jesus.
(See another account, _ante_, p. 215.)
HOW THE WARRIOR DUKE BEHAVED AS MONK (A.D. 806).
When Duke William, in 806, became a monk in the abbey of St. Saviour, in
the Herault, he at once showed his delight in every lowly task. He set
about making a good road up the steep cliffs, and cut through rocks to
make a causeway, using hammer and pickaxe like a day labourer. He also
planted vineyards and fruit-trees and laid out gardens. He laboured in all
ways with his own hands in true humility. He often prostrated himself
before the abbot and brethren, beseeching that for God's mercy he might be
allowed still greater self-renunciation and hard work. He sought the
lowest offices in the monastery, and the meaner the toil the more welcome.
He would gladly act as a beast of burden for the brethren in the Lord's
house. He who had been a mighty duke was not ashamed to mount a poor
donkey with a load of bottles, or carry fagots and pitchers of water, or
light the fires, or wash the bowls and platters. When the hour of
refection came, he would spread the table for the monks in due order, and
remain to watch the house, fasting till the meal was over. Once, when the
wood for baking was exhausted, he was forced to use twigs and straw, which
choked the oven, and was chidden for his delay. He had nothing with which
to clear out the ashes; but, rather than be late, he invoked Christ, and
making the sign of the cross, entered the oven himself and used his hands,
and neither was he scorched while throwing out hot cinders, nor was his
cowl singed. After this, the abbot and brethren consulting, forbade his
engaging in servile work, and allotted him a suitable cell, so that he
might apply his leisure to prayer and holy meditation. Thus, by degrees,
William arrived at great perfection in every virtue. He predicted the day
of his death, and when it occurred there was heard in the air a loud and
strange tolling of bells, though no human hands touched them.
THE SWISS ABBEY OF EINSIEDELN AND ITS PILGRIMS (A.D. 860).
The second most famous monastery in Switzerland is Einsiedeln, which rises
high on an undulating plain, and was founded in the days of Charlemagne. A
monk named Meinrad lived at that time, and had resolved to spend the rest
of his life in the wilderness devoted to prayer and to the faithful
guardianship of a little black image of the Virgin, which had been given
to him by Hildegarde, the abbess of Zurich. In 861 this holy man was
murdered by two robbers, who hoped to escape, but were pursued by two pet
ravens of the saint, which flapped their wings and haunted them till the
men reached Zurich, when notice was taken of the strange sight, and the
men were convicted and executed. The fame of the ravens and the saint
became published, and pilgrims and hermits flocked to the spot where the
saint had lived, and a Benedictine community built an abbey and church
there. They got a bull of Pope Pius VIII., authorising the consecration of
the church, and the bishop of Constance was about to proceed with the
consecration, when, on the night before, he was aroused by sounds of
angelic minstrels, and it was announced by a voice from heaven that there
was no need to go on with the sacred rite, as it had already been
consecrated by the powers of heaven and by the Saviour in person. The Pope
was satisfied that this was a true miracle, and granted plenary indulgence
to all pilgrims who should repair to this shrine of Our Lady of the
Hermits. From that time, during nine centuries, there has been a constant
series of pilgrimages, and the wealth of the monastery has grown
immensely, the abbot being a prince of the Holy Roman Empire. The French,
in 1798, stripped the chapel of its holy image; but the monks were equal
to the occasion, and produced a duplicate, which they said was the
original. Another attraction to pilgrims is a fountain with fourteen jets,
from one of which it is believed the Saviour once drank. Here pilgrims and
worshippers swarm, and rejoice in being near so hallowed a place.
ST. MEINRAD, A MONK OF THE ALPS (A.D. 890).
This St. Meinrad, born about 863, when a young monk yearned to live alone
on the serene heights of the Alps, and he fixed on Mount Etzell, about six
miles from Lake Zurich. The pine forest behind, though frequented by
wolves, did not deter him. He tore himself from his brethren, and with one
pupil set out. He took nothing with him but his missal, a book of
instructions on the Gospels, the rule of St. Benedict, and the works of
Cassian. He fixed his eyes on the glittering pinnacles of ice and snow,
and settled down in solemn silence, with nothing but the creaking of the
pines and the chatter of the magpie within hearing. He made a little pine
house interlaced with boughs, and a widow who entertained him at a
half-way house built for him a little chapel and oratory. The mysterious
noises of this lofty abode, and its grand panorama of shining realms and
flitting colours, made his hut a constant pleasure. But pilgrims found him
out and began to increase, so that he had to leave it and retire far into
the forest. He took with him two young ravens to be the companions of his
solitude. One day, after he had been some years enjoying perfect solitude,
a carpenter in search of wood discovered his cell and gave him a present
of a little statue of the Virgin, which became miraculous. Pilgrims found
this out, and gave him presents till he was thought to be rich. Then two
robbers murdered him; but owing to their being pursued by the ravens,
they were suspected, then watched, and then convicted, as already stated.
CROYLAND ABBEY BURNED BY THE DANES (A.D. 870).
In 870, the Danes having defeated the English near Croyland Abbey, the
fugitives reaching that place and relating the news caused the greatest
terror. The abbot and monks, confounded at the disaster, at once resolved
to keep with them the elder monks and children in the abbey, in the hope
of exciting pity, and to send off all the younger brethren with the relics
and jewels and the body of St. Guthlac by water. Among their treasures was
a large silver table, which, with some chalices, they threw into the well
of the cloister; but the table was so long that it could not be concealed,
and so had to be buried under ground. The younger monks carried off the
rest of the property into the woods. Meanwhile the abbot and monks clothed
themselves in their vestments, and entering the choir, chanted the
services of the hours, and went through all the Psalms of David, after
which the abbot himself said the High Mass. When the Mass was finished,
and the abbot and attendants had communicated, the Danes burst into the
church and slew the venerable abbot on the altar. The rest of the brethren
in vain endeavoured to escape, and were put to the torture, so that they
might reveal the place where the treasure was concealed. One little boy,
aged ten, who was under the charge of the prior, seeing his patron about
to be put to death, nobly entreated that he might be allowed to perish
with him. Fortunately one of the Danish earls took a fancy to the boy and
saved him. But all the monks were slain, and the brutal pirates broke into
the tombs and monuments of saints in search of treasure. When
disappointed, they collected all the dead bodies of their victims and set
fire to the monastery, and all were consumed. Next day the Danes proceeded
to Peterborough, and broke into the abbey, destroyed the altars and tombs,
and burned the books and charters, reducing the whole to a heap of ashes,
which smouldered for a fortnight.
NUNS OF COLDINGHAM CUTTING OFF THEIR NOSES (A.D. 870).
During one of the marauding expeditions of the Danes in 870, when they
fixed their headquarters at York and ravaged all the country round,
brutally killing men, women, and children, the monks and nuns were
especial objects of their fury, and all lived in terror of a visit. In
Coldingham, an abbey in Yorkshire, the lady abbess, foreseeing, from the
proximity of the enemy, that her own house would shortly be attacked, and
valuing her honour more than life itself, called the nuns into the
chapter-house. There she made to them a touching address, setting forth
the brutal passions of the Danes and their own imminent peril. All
promised to listen to her advice and implicitly follow it. Upon this the
abbess, seizing a knife, cut off with it her nose and upper lip, and the
whole sisterhood immediately redeemed their promise by mutilating
themselves in the same manner. The next day the Danish troops invaded the
monastery, and seeing the horrible spectacle, recoiled from their victims
and gave orders that the house should be fired. This command was
immediately executed, and the abbey was burned to ashes, together with the
abbess and nuns, who thus nobly suffered martyrdom rather than risk a
worse fate.
THE MONKS OF CLUNY (A.D. 909).
After the Council of Trosley in 909 expressed a resolution as to the
disorderly life carried on in monasteries, where lay abbots, with wives
and children, soldiers and dogs, occupied the cloisters of monks and nuns,
some wealthy chiefs sought after new foundations. Duke William of Auvergne
invited Berno, abbot of Beaune, to take charge of a new institution at
Cluny. Berno began with twelve monks, and soon showed his skill in
reforms. He required his monks at the end of meals to gather up and
swallow all the crumbs of bread. This rule was complained of; but a dying
monk one day exclaimed in horror that he saw the devil was holding up in
accusation against him a bag of crumbs which he had been unwilling to
swallow. This glimpse of the future terrified the other monks into
submission. The monks of Cluny were also obliged to observe periods of
perfect silence, and this was also complained of; for they dare not shout,
even if they saw their horses stolen, or if they were seized and carried
to prison by the Northmen. The monks were bled five times a year, as their
only safeguard against disease; and when once two monks entreated the
abbot to allow them to take some medicine, he told them angrily that they
would never recover, and sure enough they died after taking it. Cluny soon
obtained much reputation, and bred saints and attracted great wealth.
Popes, kings, and emperors consulted the abbot as if he were an oracle.
One abbot was called the "archangel of monks"; another, named Odilo, was
called "King Odilo of Cluny." To be the abbot of Cluny came to be a higher
station than an archbishop or even a Pope. At the end of the twelfth
century there were no less than two thousand monasteries affiliated with
that of Cluny as head centre.
ST. DUNSTAN, MONK AND ARCHBISHOP (A.D. 953).
Monastic life in England had been at a low ebb when St. Dunstan was born
at Glastonbury, in Wiltshire, of noble parentage, in 925. He was an
excellent musician, as well as a painter and worker in brass and iron,
which accomplishments recommended him to the Court of King Edmund about
933. He was so ingenious that he was accused of magic arts; and it was an
item of evidence against him that his harp, when hanging on the wall,
twanged of itself. He was banished from Court, and lived for a time in a
small cell at Glastonbury. One night the devil appeared to him in the
shape of a beautiful woman; but he, knowing better, plucked a red-hot pair
of tongs from the fire, and seized her or him by the nose till the fiend
roared and bellowed. It was thought this legend was founded on the fact
that a lady of wealth who greatly admired Dunstan made him her heir, and
he built the abbey of Glastonbury with her money, and became the first
abbot thereof. He built also other monasteries. After many reverses of his
Court favour, he at length was made Bishop of Worcester, then of London,
and next Archbishop of Canterbury; and he died and was buried there in
987, though his body was afterwards carried off clandestinely by the monks
of Glastonbury to lie in their own abbey. On one occasion he is said to
have gained a victory over his opponents by exhibiting a crucifix which
spoke on his side; and another time, after arguments, he ended by
committing the cause of the Church to God, and immediately the floor of
the room fell where his enemies stood, while his own friends remained
unharmed, owing to the firmness of the beam supporting their side.
THE MONKS OF ST. BERNARD (A.D. 952).
The monastery of St. Bernard was founded about 962 by a famous saint of
that name, at the head of a pass of the Alps, about 8,131 feet above the
sea. It is a massive building and exposed to tremendous storms. The chief
building accommodates eighty travellers, with stabling and storerooms.
Here live a community devoted to works of benevolence, in a desolate
region where seldom a week passes without a fall of snow, and which lies
eight feet deep all the year round, and often more. No wood grows within
two leagues, and all fuel is brought from a forest four leagues distant,
and forty horses are kept to fetch it. Ten or twelve brethren are always
on duty, for travellers pass nearly every day, notwithstanding all the
perils; and five or six dogs are kept in the hospice. When a traveller
reaches a certain house not far from the summit, a servant and dog issue
from the monastery to conduct the stranger. The dog is the only guide, and
nothing is seen of it except its tail, which directs the cavalcade. These
dogs are a cross between the Newfoundland and the Pyrenean. This hospice
soon became famous, and attracted many donations and grew wealthy. In 1480
it possessed ninety-eight benefices of the Church, and attained its
greatest prosperity; but its resources are now greatly reduced.
A CHANCELLOR BECOMES A MONK (A.D. 946).
About 946 Turketul, who had been chancellor to King Edward, as well as to
his son Edmund and his other son Edred, had occasion to pass through
Croyland, when three old monks invited him to stay overnight in that
monastery. They took him to prayers, showed their relics, told their
wants, and begged him to act as their advocate with the King. The
hospitality of that night made a great impression on the chancellor, who
expressed to the King his wish to go there and turn monk himself some
early day. The King was amazed, yet could not thwart his faithful servant,
and at last consented and fixed a day to accompany the new monk to his
destination; and meanwhile the chancellor gave away all his manors to the
King, giving one-tenth to the monastery. The day arrived, and also the
King, and his old servant, who, after laying aside his lay habit and
receiving the benediction of the bishop, became abbot of Croyland. Many
learned men soon joined and became priests or monks in the same house. The
abbot employed them in school-keeping, and made a point of going every day
to inspect the progress of each pupil, taking with him a servant, who
carried figs or raisins, nuts or walnuts, apples or pears, to distribute
as rewards. Turketul made great improvements at Croyland during his rule,
which continued till 975, and the monastery became wealthy and powerful.
He presented a great bell to the monastery, called Guthlac, and it and
some others, soon afterwards added, made up the best peal of bells in all
England of that day. A great fire destroyed this famous monastery in 1091.
DEATHBED OF ABBOT TURKETUL, OF CROYLAND (A.D. 975).
In 975 Abbot Turketul, of Croyland, caught a fever, and on the fourth day,
lying on his bed, he assembled forty-seven monks and four lay brethren in
his chamber, and called his steward to state the position and treasures
of the convent. There were numerous most precious relics, which the
Emperor Henry and other kings and nobles, desiring to obtain the goodwill
of Turketul, had bestowed upon him while he was chancellor. Among these he
chiefly reverenced the thumb of the blessed Apostle Bartholomew (a gift of
the Emperor), so that he always carried it about with him, and crossed
himself with it in all perils and in storm or lightning. He greatly
reverenced likewise some of the hairs of the holy mother of God, Mary,
which the King of France had given him, enclosed in a golden box. Also a
bone of St. Leodegarius, bishop and martyr, a gift of the Prince of
Aquitaine, and many other relics. The steward also produced the whole of
the gold and silver vessels, which he and the treasurer preserved entirely
for the wants of the monastery. As the fever increased, Turketul
communicated in the sacred mysteries of Christ, and embracing with both
arms the cross which his attendants had brought from the church before the
convent, he kissed it so frequently with many sighs, tears, and groans,
and so devout were the sayings which he addressed to each of the wounds of
Christ, that he excited to copious tears all the brethren who stood around
him. On the day before his death he delivered a short discourse to his
brethren who were present on the observance of order, on brotherly love,
on guarding against negligence. He also, in a prophetic admonition,
cautioned them thus: "Guard well your fire"--which some interpreted to
mean love, and others the conflagration of the building, which afterwards
actually took place. Then bidding them a last farewell, he from the bottom
of his heart besought God for them all. And then the vital powers failed,
and languor oppressed him till he passed from this world to the
Father--from the toils of the abbey to Abraham's bosom. He was buried in
his own church which he had built from the foundations near the great
altar in the sixty-eighth year of his age and the twenty-seventh of his
monkhood. The great fire took place one hundred years later.
MONK NILUS AVOIDING SAINTHOOD (A.D. 900-1005).
The monk Nilus, who was reputed to be the wisest man of his age, was
grieved that his friend John, Archbishop of Placenza, should be so much
inclined to meddle in politics, and warned him rather to retire from the
world. John would not be warned, and was punished for joining a conspiracy
against the Pope by having his eyes put out, his tongue cut off, and being
cast into a dungeon. Nilus was so shocked at this news that he left his
monastery near Gaeta and journeyed to Rome, and begged the Emperor then
to let him join the archbishop, that they might do penance together for
their sins. But the Pope and Emperor, instead of this, ordered further
punishments for the archbishop. Nilus then told them both plainly that, as
they had shown no mercy to the poor prisoner who had been committed to
their hands, neither could they expect any mercy from the Heavenly Father
for their own sins. The young Emperor Otho III. was rather pleased with
his plain speaking, and invited Nilus to ask any other favour he pleased;
but Nilus answered, "I have nothing to ask of you but the salvation of
your own soul; for though you are an emperor, you must die like other men,
and then must give account of your deeds, be they good or bad." The
Emperor on hearing this burst into tears, took the crown off his head, and
begged the man of God to give him his blessing. When Nilus had reason to
know that when he died the Governor of Gaeta intended to bring his body to
Gaeta for public burial, and to preserve his bones as a patron saint to
Gaeta, Nilus was shocked, and protested that he would rather let no one
know where he would be buried. So in his old age he took leave of his
monks and set off towards Rome, telling them, as they wept, that he was
going to prepare a monastery where they should all meet once more. On
reaching Tusculum, he rode into a small convent of St. Agatha, saying,
"Here is my resting-place for ever." He would not leave the spot, and
charged the monks not to bury him in a church nor build any arch or
monument over his grave; but if they wished some token, then to make it a
resting-place for pilgrims, for he had been a pilgrim all his life.
THE MONK NILUS AS AN ADVISER (A.D. 990).
The monk Nilus, who lived in the tenth century, was dedicated in his
infancy to the service of God, and at an early age was delighted to read
of the monks St. Antony and St. Hilarion and St. Simeon Stylites, and
developed a turn for an ascetic life. This led to his being consulted by
men of all ranks, who put to him puzzling questions. One day a noble, who
lived a loose life, put some unbecoming queries, when a priest, to divert
the conversation, asked Nilus of what kind was the forbidden fruit which
Adam tasted in Paradise. Nilus answered, "A crab-apple." Whereupon the
party laughed. He then rebuked them. "Laugh not; such a question deserves
such an answer. Moses has not told us precisely what tree it was: why
should we wish to know what the Holy Scriptures have concealed?" Another
day Nilus was visiting a castle, when he met a Jewish physician, who
professed to fear that Nilus's habits of fasting might bring on epileptic
fits, and gave him a medicine that would save him from all diseases. Nilus
only replied, "One of your own countrymen, a Hebrew, has told us that it
is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. We have a
great Physician of our own--the Lord Jesus Christ; in Him we trust, and do
not need your remedies." Nilus was once sent for to advise a rich duchess
who had incited her two sons to murder her nephew, and her conscience was
ill at ease. The bishops had prescribed for her to repeat the Psalter
three times a week and to give alms to the poor. But she could not rest
till she took the advice of Nilus. After thinking a little he said to her,
"Give one of your sons to the relations of the murdered man, to do with
him what they please, for the Lord has said, 'Whoso sheddeth man's blood
his blood shall be shed again.'" The widow said she could not do that, for
they might kill her son. She then wept bitterly, and gave money to Nilus
that he might purchase from God a forgiveness of her sins. This excited
the anger of Nilus, who hurried away, determined to be no partaker in her
sins.
THE MONASTERY OF BEC, FOUNDED A.D. 1034.
The chronicle _Beccense_ thus describes the origin of the famous monastery
of Bec: "In the year 1034 Herluinus, at the inspiration of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Author of all good things, casting aside the nobility of the
world, for which he had been not a little conspicuous, having thrown off
the girdle of military service, betook himself with entire devotion to the
poverty of Christ, and that he might be free for the service of God alone,
through the single love of God, assumed with great joy the habit of a
monk. This man, who had been a passionate warrior, and who had gotten
himself a great name and favour with Robert, the son of the second
Richard, and with the lords of different foreign countries, first built a
church on a farm of his, which was called Burnevilla. But because this
place was on a plain and lacked water, being admonished in a dream by the
Blessed Mother of God, he retired to a valley close to a river, which is
called Bec, and there began to build a noble monastery to the honour of
the same St. Mary, which God brought to perfection for the glory of His
name, and to be the comfort and salvation of many men. To which Herluinus
God, according to the desire of his heart, gave for his helpers and
counsellors Lanfranc, a man every way accomplished in liberal acts; then
Anselm, a man approved in all things, a man affable in counsel, pitiful,
chaste, sober in every clerical duty, wonderfully instructed--which two
men through God's grace were afterwards consecrated Archbishops of
Canterbury. And to this same Bec, which began in the greatest poverty, so
many and such great men, clerical as well as lay men, resorted, that it
might fitly be said to the holy abbot, 'With the riches of thy name hast
thou made thy house drunk, and with the torrent of the wisdom of thy sons
hast thou filled the world.'"
THE GREAT FIRE AT CROYLAND MONASTERY (A.D. 1091).
Ingulph, abbot of Croyland, describes the fire of 1091 thus: "Our plumber,
who had been employed on the tower of the church, one night, with fatal
madness, covered his fire over with dead cinders, so that he might be more
prepared to begin work next morning, and left for supper. Some hours
after, when all were buried in slumber, and a strong north wind blowing,
the inhabitants of the town, seeing great flames in the belfry, began to
shout and batter at the gates. The clamour of the populace awoke me, and I
could discern, as clear as noonday, the servants of the monastery
shouting, wailing, and rushing hither and thither. As I rushed to the
dormitory I was severely burnt with the drippings of molten lead and
brass. I called and shouted to the brethren, still plunged in sleep, and
on recognising my voice they leaped from their beds in terror in their
nightdresses and half naked, many being wounded and maimed in the hurry of
escape. I attempted to regain my own chamber to get the clothes which I
had there, and distribute them in case of necessity. But the heat was so
excessive and the streams of molten lead so copious that even the boldest
of the young men dared not to enter. I then found that the infirmary had
been caught with the flames, invincible in their fury; and even the green
trees, ashes, oaks, and osiers, growing near, were scorched. The tower of
the church soon fell on the southern side; and I, terrified at the crash,
dropped upon the ground half dead in a swoon, and lay till I was rescued
by my brethren. At dawn of day the brethren, weeping and depressed, some
of them pitiably mangled in the limbs, performed in common Divine service
with mournful voices and woful accents in the hall of our great master.
After having fully completed the daily and nightly hours of Divine
service, we proceeded to examine the state of the whole monastery. The
fire still raged and destroyed the granary and stable. We searched the
choir, which had been reduced to ashes, and found that all the books of
the Divine service, both the antiphoners and graduals, had perished.
Entering the vestry, we found that all our sacred vestments, the relics of
the saints, and some other valuables there deposited, were uninjured by
the fire. Some of the muniments in the charter room were shrivelled up by
the heat; and our beautiful writings, ornamented with golden crosses,
paintings, and ornamented letters, were destroyed in this night of
blackness. Besides these our whole library, containing more than three
hundred original volumes, besides the lesser volumes, numbering more than
four hundred, perished. By that casualty we lost a very beautiful tablet,
admirably constructed of every kind of metal to represent the various
stars and signs of the zodiac, each of a different colour--a gift from the
King of France to Turketul. Our dormitory, as also the necessary house,
the infirmary, and washing house, the refectory and all its contents
except a few dark-coloured cups, and the cross cup of the late King of the
Mercians, were, together with the kitchens and all their contents, reduced
to ashes. Our cellar and the very casks full of beer were destroyed. The
abbot's hall also, and his chamber, and the court of the monastery
perished in the conflagration, the flames of which, burning as it were
with Greek fury, overran them on all sides. A few of the huts of the
almsmen, the feeding houses of our beasts of burden, and the sheds of the
other animals, which were separated by stone walls, alone remained
unburnt. This conflagration was prognosticated by many signs and portents.
Repeated visions by night predicted it; all were understood after the
occurrence of the fact. The words of our holy Father Turketul in his last
moments, earnestly warning us to guard diligently our fire; the words of
our blessed Father Ulfran, bidding me in a nightly vision at Fontenelle to
preserve well the fire of the hospice and the three saints Guthlac, Neot,
and Waldeve,--of all these plain warnings I now understand and recognise
the meaning; but I do so unprofitably and too late. I now indulge in vain
complainings, and pour forth those lamentations and inconsolable tears
righteously exacted by my faults. Many nobles contributed to our wants,
and in the long list of benefactors let not the sainted memory of a poor
woman, Juliana of Weston, be forgotten, who gave us of her poverty her
whole substance--namely, a great quantity of reels of cotton wherewith to
sew the vestments of the brethren of our monastery."
THE MONKS OF VALLOMBROSA (A.D. 1039).
The constant desire to reform the ways of monks brought forward John
Gualbert, a Florentine of noble birth. When a youth he was ordered by his
father to avenge a kinsman's death; and meeting the murderer on Good
Friday in a narrow pass, he was about to fall upon him and slay him, when
suddenly the murderer threw himself from his horse and placed his arms in
the form of a cross, as if expecting certain death. The avenger, however,
in token of the holy sign and sacred day, spared him. Another time
Gualbert halted to pay his devotions in the monastic church of St.
Minian's, near Florence, when he noticed that the crucifix inclined its
head towards him. This turned his thoughts to holy things. He entered a
monastery, and after ten years' experience he resolved to found one of his
own at Vallombrosa, in 1039. He drew together a society of hermits and
coenobites. But his great discovery was the introduction of lay brethren,
whose business it was to practise handicrafts, and to manage the secular
affairs of the community, while by these labours the monks were enabled to
devote themselves wholly to spiritual contemplation. The system
established was rigorous. A novice had to undergo a year's probation,
doing degrading work, such as keeping swine and daily cleaning out the
pigsty with bare hands. The monks of Vallombrosa were attired in grey; but
afterwards this was changed to brown, and then to black. Gualbert died in
1093.
A MONK WHO TRANSCRIBED HOLY BOOKS (A.D. 1050).
Of all the incentives to monkish industry none excelled that used by
Theodoric, abbot of St. Evroult, and stated _ante_, p. 223. Another
chronicler gives this version of the same: "One of the brethren in a
certain convent was guilty of repeated transgressions of monastic rule,
but was a good scribe, and so applied himself to writing that he copied of
his own accord a bulky volume of the Holy Scriptures. After his death his
soul was brought before the tribunal of the righteous Judge. There the
evil spirits sharply accused him, and laid to his charge innumerable
offences. On the other hand, the holy angels produced the volume which the
brother had transcribed in the sanctuary of the Lord, counting letter for
letter of the enormous volume against the sins the monk had committed. At
last the letters had a majority of one, against which all the devices of
the devils could discover nothing as a set-off. The mercy of the Judge was
therefore extended to the sinful brother, and his soul was permitted to
return to his body, in order that he might enjoy an opportunity of
amending his life. Ponder well, then, my dearly beloved brethren, and shun
sloth as a deadly poison. Remember what an eminent Father once said--that
only a single evil spirit vexes with his wiles the monk who is
laboriously occupied, while a thousand devils infest the idler, and
provoke him by manifold temptations on every side, causing him to hanker
after the soul-destroying vanities of the world, and after indulgence in
fatal delights. You have not the means to feed the poor or build stately
churches, but you can pray that the avenues to your hearts may be guarded.
Pray, read, chant, write; be instant in occupations of a like kind; and
you will prudently arm yourselves against the temptations of evil
spirits."
A MONK AN ACCOMPLISHED MUSICIAN (A.D. 1063).
Among the monks of St. Evroult, a monk named Witmund, about 1063, was an
accomplished musician as well as grammarian, of which he left evidence in
the antiphons and responses which he composed, consisting of some charming
melodies in the antiphonary and collection of versicles. He completed the
history of the Life of St. Evroult by adding nine antiphons and three
responses. He composed four antiphons to the psalms at vespers, and added
the three last for the second nocturn with the fourth, eighth, and twelfth
response, and an antiphon at the canticle, and produced a most beautiful
antiphon for the canticle, at the Gospel in the second vespers. The
history of the Life of St. Evroult, composed for the use of the monks, was
first recited by two young monks, Hubert and Rodolph, sent for that
purpose by the abbot of Chartres. Afterwards Reginald the Bald composed
the response "To the glory of God," sung at vespers with seven antiphons,
which still appeared in 1063 in the service books of the monks of St.
Evroult. Roger de Sap also and other studious brethren produced with pious
devotion several hymns, having the same holy Father for their subject, and
which they placed in the library of the abbey for the use of their
successors.
THE TRAINING OF A MONK BISHOP (A.D. 1062).
In 1062 Wulfstan was made Bishop of Worcester. His parents devoted him to
a religious life from his childhood, and he took the monastic habit in the
monastery at Worcester. He quickly became remarkable for his vigils, his
fastings, his prayers, and all kinds of virtues, and was soon made master
and tutor of the novices, and then precentor and treasurer of the church.
Having these opportunities and devoting himself wholly to a life of
contemplation, he resorted to it day and night, either for prayer or holy
reading, and assiduously mortified his body by fasting for two or three
days together. He was so addicted to devout vigils that he not only spent
the nights sleepless, but often the day and night together, and sometimes
went for four days and nights without sleep--a thing we could hardly have
believed if we (says Orderic) had not heard it from his own mouth--so that
he ran great risk from his brains being parched, unless he hastened to
satisfy the demands of nature by the refreshment of sleep. Even at last,
when the urgent claims of nature compelled him to yield to sleep, he did
not indulge himself by stretching his limbs to rest on a bed or couch, but
would lie down for a while on one of the benches in the church, resting
his head on the book which he had used for praying and reading. After some
time this reverend man was appointed prior and father of the convent, an
office which he worthily filled, by no means abating the strictness of his
previous habits, but rather increasing it in many respects, in order to
afford a good example to others. When, after the lapse of some years, he
was named for the office of bishop, though at first he declared with an
oath that he would rather submit to lose his head than be advanced to so
high a dignity, he at last yielded to the general desire.
THE MONK ABELARD AND THE NUN HELOÏSE (A.D. 1079-1164).
The monk Abelard, or Master Peter, was twelve years the senior of Bernard,
of noble family, haughty in manner, singularly handsome, and dressed to
great advantage. He had a commanding intellect, and became a teacher of
renown, being followed by crowds of admirers. His success intoxicated him,
and he gave way to pleasure. He was said to have been a tutor to a niece
of a Canon Fulbert, named Heloïse, and their intimacy led to an
unconquerable love, since celebrated by all the poets. They were at last
secretly married, and after being covered with reproaches from relatives,
were separated, he seeking refuge in the abbey of St. Denis, and Heloïse
becoming a nun at Argenteuil, and afterwards a prioress in Troyes
district. Abelard was dogged by enemies, charged with heresy, and he
became a hermit on the banks of the Ardusson, near Troyes. Yet wherever he
was, his magnetic power drew the crowd after him, and he had again to
escape to a monastery of St. Gildas on the coast of Brittany, where,
however, the morals of the fraternity were very loose. At intervals he and
Heloïse met and corresponded, and their constancy was well known.
Abelard's views relating to the Trinity, which he expounded with
extraordinary ingenuity and power, roused the enmity of the orthodox
Bernard, who challenged him to a public discussion at Sens. These two men
were the ablest theologians of their day, and the approaching contest
excited extraordinary interest in the civilised world; the king, and
bishops, and abbots, and grandees watched keenly the stages of the
meeting. After, however, Bernard had begun to attack the heretical book,
Abelard abruptly left the meeting, saying that he preferred to appeal to
Rome. Abelard ended his days in pious exercises in the monastery of Cluny.
ABELARD AND ST. BERNARD IN CONTROVERSY.