Glastonbury Abbey [pp. 150-170]

Glastonbury Abbey, Past and Present.
fact used that instrument was developed and matured in the seclusion
of the cloister. By the adoption of a
stringent code of honor as regards the
plighted word, and a gallant consideration toward the vanquished and
weak, chivalry did much toward the
refinement of social intercommunication and assuaging the atrocities of
warfare. By the adoption, also, of a
gentle bearing and respectful demeanor toward the opposite sex, it elevated
woman from the obscurity in which
she lay, and placed her in a position
where she could exercise her softening influence upon the rude customs
of a half-formed society; -but we
must-not forget that the gallantry of
chivalry was, after all, but a glossing
over with the splendors of heroism
the excrescences of a gross licentiousness-a licentiousness which mounted
to its crisis in the polished gallantry
of the court of Louis XIV. Monasticism did more for woman than chivalry. It was all very well for preux
chevaliers to go out and fight for the
honor of a woman's name whtm they
had never seen; but we find that
when they were brought into contact
with woman they behaved with like
ruthless violence to her whatever her
station may have been-no matter
whether she was the pretty daughter
of the herdsman, or the wife of some
neighboring baron, she - was seized
by violence, carried off to some remote fortress, violated and abandoned.
Monasticism did something better
it provided her when she was no
longer safe, either in the house of her
father or her husband, with an irmpregnable shelter against the licentious pursuit of these preux chevaliers;
it gave her a position in the church
equal to their own; she might become the prioress or the lady abbess
of her convent; she was no longer
the sport and victim of chivalrous
licentiousness, but a pure and spotless
handmaiden of the Most High —a
fellow-servant in the church, where
she was honored with equal position
and rewarded with equal dignities
a far better thing this than chivalry,
which broke skulls il honor of her
name, whilst it openly violated the
sanctity of her person. It may be
summed up in a sentence. Monasticism worked long and silently at the
foundation and superstructure of society, whilst chivalry labored at its
decoration.
When we mention the fact that the
history of the mere literary achievements of the Benedictine order fills
four large quarto volumes, printed in
double columns, it will be readily
understood how impossible it is to
give anything like an idea of its general work in the world in the space of
a short summary. That book, written
by Zeigelbauer, and called " Historia
Rei Literarise Ordinis Sancti Benedicti," contains a short biography of
every monk belonging to that order
who had distinguished himself in the
realms of literature, science, and art.
Then comes Don Johannes Mabillon
with his ponderous work, "Acta
Sanctorum Ordinis Sancti Benedicti."
These two authorities gave a minute
history of that marvellous institution,
of whose glories we can only offer a
faint outline.
The Benedictines, after the death
of their founder, steadily prospered,
and as they prospered, sent out missionaries to preach the truth amongst
the nations then plunged in the depths
of paganism. It has been estimated
that they were the means of converting
upwards of thirty countries and provinces to the Christian faith. They
were the first to overturn the altars
of the heathen deities in the north of
Europe; they carried the cross into
Gaul, into Saxony and Belgium; they
placed that cross between the abject
misery of serfdom and the cruelty of
feudal violation; between the beasts
of burden and the beasts of preythey proclaimed the common kinship
of humanity in Christ the Elder
Brother.
Strange to say, some of its most
distinguished missionaries were natives of our own country. It was a
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