96 PArERS, ETC. 



and capable, in the Lands of an unfriendly Visitor, ot' being 

 inade an engine of insufferable tyranny. Of course it must 

 not be forgotten that religious societies were bound by vowa 

 to the observance of a strict and strictly-defined rule, and 

 consequently it would not be fair to judge them with the 

 same leniency as would be accorded to men who were not so 

 circumscribed. Yet, on the other band, it is well to recollect 

 the real and actual State of the ease, and to examine the 

 matter with unprejudiced minds. A Benedictine Abbey 

 in the middle ages was a society of highly-educatcd and, 

 oftentimes, nobly-born men — a centre of religion, socia- 

 bility, and mental cultivation. Hospitality was a virtuc 

 professed and practiced ; home duties constituted the em- 

 ployment of the day ; learned leisure alternated with devo- 

 tion, and rigid asceticism was neither proposed for constant 

 observance, nor accepted as an ordinary habit of life. I 

 deny not that this State of things was against the animus 

 and spirit of the rule ; but, notwithstanding this fact, it will 

 not appear,to the present age at least,deserving of vcry grave 

 condemnation. The refectory and cloister of a Benedictine 

 House were a mediajval form of the hall and common-room 

 of our present Colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, or of a 

 metropolitan club or learned fraternity. The atmosphere 

 was in general calm and gentlemanlike, the intercourse 

 was polished, the society thoroughly respectable. And yet 

 in several matters — celibaey for instance, and Community 

 of possession — there was a broad line which separated such 

 brotherhoods from the world that surrounded them. Their 

 world lay within the precinets of their House ; and in this 

 retreat could no doubt be found men of all powers, tempers, 

 and physical peculiarities. Grave and gay, studious and 

 easy, chatty and reserved, solemn and jocose, strong and 

 weak, hcre found a common home. To suppose any other 



