cloister of Monte Cassino, was destined to attain. He probably never aspired beyond the regeneration and salvation of his own soul and that of his brother monks, and all the talk of later Catholic historians about his far-reaching plans of a political and social regeneration of Europe, and the preservation and promotion of literature and art, find no support whatever in his life or in his rule. But he humbly planted a seed, which Providence blessed a hundredfold. By his rule he became, without his own will or knowledge, the founder of an order, which, until in the thirteenth century the Dominicans and Franciscans pressed it partially into the background, spread with great rapidity over the whole of Europe, maintained a clear suprem- acy, formed the model for all other monastic orders, and gave to the Catholic church an imposing array of missionaries, au- thors, artists, bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and poj)es, as Gregory the Great and Gregory VII. In less than a century after the death of Benedict, the conquests of the barbarians in Italy, Gaul, Spain were reconquered for civilization, and the vast territories of Great Britain, Germany, and Scandinavia incorporated into Christendom, or opened to missionary labor ; and in this progress of history the monastic institution, regula- ted and organized by Benedict's rule, bears an honorable share. ' Cap. 06 : " Monasterium, si possit fieri, ita debet coustrui, ut omnia necessarla, id est, aqua, molendinum, hortus, pistrinum, vel artes diversae intra monasterium ox- erccantur, ut non sit necessitas monachis vagandi foras, quia omuiuo non cxpedit animabus eorum." t I § 45. THE BENEDICTINES. CASSIODOEUS. 225 Benedict himself established a second cloister in the vicinitj of Terracina, and two of his favorite disciples, Placidus and St. Maiirus/ introduced the " holy rule," the one into Sicily, the other into France. Pope Gregory the Great, himself at one time a Benedictine monk, enhanced its prestige, and con- verted the Anglo-Saxons to the Roman Christian faith, by , Benedictine monks. Gradually tho rule found so general ac- ceptance both in old and in new institutions, that in the time of Charlemagne it became a question, whether there were any monks at all, who were not Benedictines, The order, it u true, has degenerated from time to time, through the increase of its wealth and the decay of its discipline, but its fostering care of religion, of humane studies, and of the general civiliza- tion of Europe, from the tilling of the soil to the noblest learn- ing, 'has given it an honorable place in history and won im- mortal praise. He who is familiar with the imposing and venerable tomes of the Benedictine editions of the Fathers, their thoroughly learned prefaces, biographies, antiquarian dissertations, and indexes, can never think of the order of the Benedictines without sincere regard and gratitude. The patronage of learning, however, as we have already said, was not within the design of the founder or his rule. The joining of this to the cloister life