RELIGION, EDUCATION, FINE ARTS, 



505 



tions differ widely among themselves as to the 

 duration of the happy period During the 

 civil and religious wars in France and England 

 the belief in niillenniamsm was prominent. 

 The Fifth-monarchy men of Cromwell's time 

 were rnillenarians of the most exaggerated 

 and dangerous sort, and marked by extreme 

 arrogance. Their peculiar tenet was that the 

 millennium had come and they were the saints 

 who were to inherit the earth. Great eager- 

 ness and not a little ingenuity have been ex- 

 hibited by many persons in fixing a date for 

 the commencement of the millennium. The 

 celebrated theologian Johann Albrecht Bengel | 

 asserted, from a study of the prophecies, that ; 

 the millennium would begin in 1836. This 

 date was long popular. Swedenborg held that 

 the last judgment took place in 1757, and that 

 the new Church, or " Church of the New 

 Jerusalem," as his followers designate them- 

 selves in other words, the millennium era 

 then began. In America considerable agita- 

 tion was excited by the preaching of one Wil- 

 liam Miller, who fixed the second advent of 

 Christ about 1843. Of late years the most 

 noted millqfiarian was Dr. John Cummings 

 of England, who originally placed the end of 

 the present dispensation in 1866 or 1867 ; but 

 as the time drew near without any millennial 

 symptoms, he was understood to have modified 

 his views considerably, and came to the belief 

 that the beginning of the millennium will not 

 differ so much, after all, from the years im- 

 mediately preceding it as people commonly 

 suppose. 



Ecole Polyteclmique, a celebrated mil- 

 itary academy of France, established in 1794 

 through the instrumentality of M. Lamblardie, 

 director of the Fonts et Chaussc'es. The acad- 

 emy was first called the Ecole Central e des 

 Travaux Publics; but in the following year, 

 1795, the name was changed to Ecole Poly- 

 teclmique, and numerous alterations were made 

 in its organization. It was dissolved in 

 1816, again in 1830, and again in 1832, on 

 account of the impetuous way in which the 

 scholars mixed themselves up with the political 

 disturbances of those years ; but it was re- 

 established on each occasion, after the restora- 

 tion of tranquillity. Candidates are admitted 

 by competitive examination, which takes place 

 yearly. To be eligible as a candidate the 

 youth must be French, and must be more than 

 sixteen and less than twenty years of age before 

 the first of January following ; but soldiers are 

 admissible up to twenty-five, provided they 

 can give proof of service in the regular army. 

 The course of instruction lasts for two years, 

 when graduates have the privilege of choosing, 

 from the various public services supplied from 



this school, the particular branch they wish to 

 enter. The school was last reorganized by a 

 decree of the 15th of April, 1873. 



Benedictines, as the order of monks were 

 called who followed the rule of St. Benedict, 

 are regarded as the main agents in the spread 

 of Christianity, civilization, and learning in 

 the west. At one time the order is said to have 

 had as many as 37,000 monasteries, and 

 counted among their branches the great Order 

 of Clugny, foimded about 910 ; the still greater 

 Order of the Cistercians, founded in the follow- 

 ing century ; the congregations of Monte Cas- 

 sino in 1408, of St. Vanne in 1600, and of St. 

 Maur on the Loire in 1627. All the Benedic- 

 tine houses in France were affiliated to this last 

 congregation. Among the monks of St. Maur 

 were many noted scholars, and the services 

 they rendered to literature it would be difficult 

 to overestimate. At the Revolution in 1792 

 the Benedictines were suppressed in France 

 and their splendid conventual buildings were 

 destroyed, but the order was revived later. 

 Most of the richest abbeys and all the cathe- 

 dral priories (excepting Carlisle) in England 

 belonged to the Benedictines, and they had 

 numerous monasteries in Scotland. The Ben- 

 edictines gained great distinction in both Italy 

 and Germany in the former as literati, jurists, 

 and physicians, and in the latter as promoters 

 of education and as the founders of mediaeval 

 scholasticism. As early as 1354 this order 

 could boast of having numbered among its 

 followers 24 popes, 200 cardinals, 7,000 arch- 

 bishops, 15, 000 bishops, 1,560 canonized saints, 

 and 5,000 holy persons judged worthy of 

 canonization, besides 20 empresses, 47 kings, 

 above 50 queens, 20 sons of emperors, 48 sons 

 of kings, 100 princesses, and an immense number 

 of the nobility. In the fifteenth century the 

 order had 15,107 monasteries, of which only 

 5,000 were left after the Reformation, and there 

 are now not more than 800. They were com- 

 monly styled the "Black Monks" from their 

 dress, a long black gown with a cowl or hood 

 of the same, and a scapulary. The rule of St. 

 Benedict was much less severe than that which 

 the eastern ascetics followed. Besides implicit 

 obedience to their superiors, the Benedictines 

 were to shun laughter, to hold no private 

 property, to live sparely, to exercise hospi- 

 tality, and, above all, to be industrious. 



ARCHITECTURE. 



Architecture, or the art of planning and 

 raising edifices, appears to have been among 

 the earliest inventions. The first habitations 

 of men were such as nature afforded, with but 

 little labor on the part of the occupant, and 

 sufficient to supply his simple wants grot* 



