310 THE MONKS. 



French clergy under the dominion of the Pope, who 

 was acknowledged by Alcuin, the adherent of Charle- 

 magne, to he the " Pontiff of God, vicar of the apostles, 

 heir of the fathers, prince of the Church, guardian of 

 the only dove without stain." 



The ordinance of clerical celibacy increased the 

 efficacy of the priesthood and the power of the Pope. 

 The ranks of the clergy were recruited, generation 

 after generation, from the most intelligent of the lay- 

 men in the lower classes, and from those among the 

 upper classes who were more inclined to intellectual 

 pursuits than to military life. These men, divided as 

 they were from family connections, ceased to be Ger- 

 mans, Englishmen, or Frenchmen, and became catholic 

 or universal hearted men, patriots of religion, children 

 of the Church. And those enthusiastic laymen who 

 had adopted an ascetic isolated life, or had gathered 

 together in voluntary associations ; those hermits and 

 monks, who might have been so dangerous to the 

 Established Church, were welcomed as allies. No 

 mean jealousy in the Roman Church divided the 

 priest and the prophet, as among the ancient Jews ; 

 the mollah and the dervish, as in the East at the pre- 

 sent time. The monks were allowed to preach, and 

 to elect their own monastery priests ; they were 

 gradually formed into regular orders, and brought 

 within the discipline of ecclesiastic law. The monks 

 of the East, who could live on a handful of beans, 

 passed their lives in weaving baskets, in prayer and 

 meditation. But the monks of the West, who lived 

 in a colder climate, required a different kind of food ; 

 and as at first they had no money, they could obtain 

 it only by means of work. They laboured in the fields 

 in order to live ; and that which had arisen from 



