No. 4.] MONKS IX AGRICULTURE. 9 



The time at which this great work began was almost ooin- 

 eident with the Christian era, and lasted through what we 

 are pleased to eall the dark or mediaeval ages, but which, 

 when Ave conic to examine, we find to our surprise filled with 

 light, with charities of the noblest kind and enduring monu- 

 ments of Christian grace. 



With the fall of the Roman empire and the influx of the 

 great waves of barbaric tribes that swept over Europe, 

 civilization was stamped out and Christianity ceased to exist. 

 The cleared lands and cultivated fields reverted to forest and 

 moor, cities and towns lay in ruins, and the citizen was re- 

 duced to the condition of the beggar and the slave. The 

 despairing cry of St. Jerome from his peaceful hermitage at 

 Bethlehem fell vainly on the ears of a hopeless world : ' ' For 

 twenty years Roman blood has been flowing every day be- 

 tween Constantinople and the Julian Alps. Scythia, Thrace, 

 Macedonia, Daeia, Thessalonica and Epirus all belong to the 

 barbarians, who ravage, rend and destroy everything before 

 them. How many noble matrons and maids have been the toys 

 of their lust ; how many bishops in chains, priests butchered, 

 churches destroyed, altars turned into stables, relics pro- 

 faned ! Sorrow, mourning and death are everywhere. The 

 Roman world is crumbling into ruins." And what St. 

 Jerome so vividly describes of the Eastern world was equally 

 true of the West. France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Eng- 

 land had all fallen a prey to the never-ending swarms that 

 poured across the barrier rivers of the Rhine and Danube. 



But out of the midst of this universal chaos and desolation 

 now burst forth an army of Christian soldiers. Some, tak- 

 ing upon themselves vows of solitude and self-renunciation, 

 penetrated the wilderness to live as ascetics, — a life of 

 prayer and holy calm, withdrawn from the turmoil and 

 wretchedness of the world ; others, seeking out the most 

 inaccessible and unfrequented spots, erected their buildings, 

 and, gathering about them their disciples, entered upon the 

 true monastic life ; while yet others again, as missionaries, 

 advanced boldly into the enemy's dominions, to conquer 

 back for the church the territory it had lost, and to gather 

 into its folds these new peoples and new tribes whose in- 



