The Irish standard., 1897-10-16
THEY WERE NEITHER LAZY NOR lOLE.
BESTOWED ON THEM by
A SPANISH PUDLIClST.
M,NAsTERIEs IN The MIDDLE AGES.
PRESERVED SCIENCE AND LETTERS
AND TITLED THE SOIL.

Prof Henri p. Corrondo, in the Balti-
more Mirror, contributes the following
account of the labors Of the monks:
The monks SO much prosecuted and
criticised in our days were the fathers
Of our civilization. Without them all
would have perishcd. Very few writ
ers have, like the Spanish publicist.
Jacques Balmez, exposed the services
rendered by the religious orders. 5or-
row a few of his pages:
"The monks Of the occident were no.
contented to sanctify themselves, from
the first they influenced society. The
light and life enclosed in their holy
abode made efforts in order to open a
passage. in order to enlighten and to
fecundate the chaos in which the world
was plunged and almost dead.
II do not know in history a spectacle
more beautiful and more consoling,
than the one offered to us in the foun-
dation, the existence and the develop
ment of religious institutions in Eu-
rope. Everything has fallen into decay,
everything has sunkcn down, every
the fifth century. Religion, morality.
public power, manners, morals, sciences
and arts had experienced enormous loss,
evils were 80 numerous that the rem
edy for them seemed to be impossible.
What ignorance. what corruption, what
elements OF social dissolution. What
devastation everywhere! 1t Is then
that st. Benoit appeared and undertook
to combat the evil which was about to
take possession of the entire world His
arms were only his virtues; the elo-
quence OF his example give him an lr
reststible ascendancy; elevated above
his century, burning with zeal and at
the same time full of discretion and
prudence, he founded that order OF
Benedictines who must live through
the extreme confusion OF ages us an i'm
movable pyramid above the hurricanes
of the desert.
What idea was ever 80 great, so
beneficient, more filled with foresight
and wisdom? At a time when learning
and virtues had no refuge; when ig-
nOrance, corruption and barbarism
spread rapidly their conquest. to elevate
refuge to misfortune, to form sacred
depository for the precious monumer/,
OF antiquity, to open schools Of science
and virtue, was not that grand
thought? When n man who reflects
considers the silent abode Of Mont Cas-
sin, When he sees from every part the
SONS of families guiding their steps to-
ward that monastery. some with the
project to remain there forever, others
to receive high education of which
they will carry the bencfactions to the
world; when he sees nlonasteriea Of
the order multiply everywhere, as some
great fire-side of activity, he cannot
help to bow with a profund veneration
before the extraordinary man who has
conceived such great designs. II we
man inspired by heaven. at least We
must consider him as one OF those
geniuses who from time to time have
appeared on this earth to become the
titular angel of mankind.
1.-THE monks cleared the untitled
lands, dried the swamps, constructed
roads, closed in their beds the waters
of the rivers, and constructed over
them bridges. In countries which by
the invasion of the barbarians, had snf-
fercd kind Of universal deluge, they
renovated. A considerable part of IIu-
rope had never received any culture
from the hand OF man. The forests, the
rivers, the lakes, the thickcts full of
briars were in all their horror, such
AS they were left by nature. The monas-
tcries which founded themselves mere
and there, can be regarded as those
centers OF action, rs those general fac
tories that civilized peoples establish
in new countries of which they propose
to change the face by powerful col
onies. And yet some people cried at
the engrossment of estates by the
monks. Did there ever exist a more
legitimate title to the possession OF tho
earth? Everybody knows that a multi
tudc OF villages and cities were born
and increased in the shade of abbeys
How much does not Germany owe tn
the monks. Is 1t not the monks that
cleared her uncultivatcd lands, made ag-
ricnlture flourish and covered that
country with numerous towns? How
much does not France. how much DO
not Spain and England owe to them7
Most certainly England would never
have attained that high degree OF CIV
ilization which she slorIes in, 1t the