The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-03-07

4 Yin ocNGn yCdAo INOAAludlA 4ANNA
L shut up III his cell, never
speaking a word in all this time.
The figure Of st. Simon Stylites liv-
ing alone on a column capital shines
out from his age as an illuminating
symbol. How ridiculous these self
might become appears
in Peter Damlan's account OF the
life of Dominic LoricatuS:
Through a long course Of Gid
ing years, grit with iron mail, he
has waged truceless war against
the wicked spirits; with SURPASSED
body and heart always ready for
battle, he marches as an eager
warrior against the hostile array.
Likewise it is his regular and
unremitting habit, with a rod in
each hand every day to beat time
upon his naked body, and thus
scourge out two psalters. And this
even in the Stacker season. For in
Lent or when he has penance TO
perform land he often under
takes a penance of hundred
years., each day, while he plies
himself with his rods, he pays of
at least three psalters, repeating
them mentally (meditandoD
The penance Of a hundred years
Is performed thus: With us three
thousand blows satisfies year OF
penance; and the chanting mod
ulatio) of ten psalms. as has often
been tested, admits one thousand
blows.
Now. clearly, as the Psalter con-
sists of one hundred and nifty
psalms, any one computing cor
rectly will see that five years of
penance lie in chanting one
psalter, with this discipline. Now
whether you take five times
twenty or twenty times five you
have a hundred. Consequently
whoever chants twenty psalters,
with this accompanying discipline,
may be confident of having per-
formed a hundred years OF PEN
ance. Herein or Dominic outdoeS
those who struck with only one
hand; for he, true son of Ben
jamin, wars indefatigably with
both hands against the rebellious
allurements OF the flesh. He has
told me himself that he easily &C
complishes a penance of a hun
dred years in six days.
More social than the mystics were
The monks. Stoicism, perhaps even
Of Brahmanism and Buddhism,
combined with the desire for life
Of peaceful scholarship and secure
to develop the great mon
astic orders.
Despite the VOWS of chastity,
obedience and poverty which were
sxacted of the monk, his life con-
5ained attractions appealing to
hose who did not care for the dull
ness of economic drudgery, or the
risks and turmoil of war.
There was quiet in the monastery,
scholars could copy ancient manu-
scripts and preserve something oil
Greek and Roman literature for the
modern mind; indeed, for many
centuries none but priests kept the
of writing, and the cleri-
cal art reflects by its name its as
ISOLATION with clerics and the clergy.
Perhaps, too, there was a COM
nunistic satisfaction in the monas-
tic life, a soothing regularity of rou-
tine that fell like ointment upon
sensitive souls who would have suf-
fered from the shafts of the world.
TINE first monastic center was
i Egypt; there Anthony met his
temptations and struggled in his
solitude. In $50 st. Benedict
founded the greatest of the orders,
on essentially democratic principles;
the abbot was to be elected by the
monks, and every man was to share
in the simple goods Of the
Later st. Bernard (born 1090)
founded his order at ClairvauX, and
inspired it with his passionate piety.
Man" says Bernard, sis none else
than a fetid sperm, sack of dung,
the food of worms you have
never seen a viler dunghill than
man."
And he calls upon the pope to
punish a great hereto: ARNOLD of
whose speech is honey and
whose touch poison, who has the
heart of a dove and the tail of a
scorpion, whom BreScia ,vomited
forth, Rome abhorred, France re-
PEELED, Germany abominates and