nunc etiam in Nisibi civitate Syrorum ab Hebraeis sedulo fertur
exponi, collatis expensis in urbe Romana professos doctores scholae
potius acciperent Christianae, unde et anima susciperet aeternam
salutem, et casto atque purissimo eloquio fidelium lingua comeretur'
(De Inst. Praefatio).]

In the earliest days of Monasticism men like the hermits of the
Thebaid had thought of little else but mortifying the flesh by vigils
and fastings, and withdrawing from all human voices to enjoy an
ecstatic communion with their Maker. The life in common of monks like
those of Nitria and Lerinum had chastened some of the extravagances of
these lonely enthusiasts while still keeping their main ends in view.
St. Jerome, in his cell at Bethlehem, had shown what great results
might be obtained for the Church of all ages from the patient literary
toil of one religious recluse. And finally St. Benedict, in that Rule
of his which was to be the code of monastic Christendom for centuries,
had sanctified Work as one of the most effectual preservatives of the
bodily and spiritual health of the ascetic, bringing together
_Laborare_ and _Orare_ in friendly union, and proclaiming anew for the
monk as for the untonsured citizen the primal ordinance, 'In the sweat
of thy brow thou shalt eat bread.'

[Sidenote: The father of literary Monasticism.]

The great merit of Cassiodorus, that which shows his deep insight into
the needs of his age and entitles him to the eternal gratitude of
Europe, was his determination to utilise the vast leisure of the
convent for the preservation of Divine and human learning and for its
transmission to after ages. In the miserable circumstances of the
times Theology was in danger of becoming brutified and ignorant; the