he senses for gratification,--these were the objects of
the monks, in order to accomplish which they macerated and starved their
bodies, avoided baths, wore rags, affected humble language and fled from
the scenes of pleasure. The goal was highly commendable, even if the
means employed were inadequate to produce the desired results.

All down through the Middle Ages, the idea continued to prevail that the
monastic life was the highest and purest expression of the Christian
religion, and that the monks' chances of heaven were much better than
those of any other class of men. The laity believed them to be a little
nearer God than even the clergy, and so they paid them gold for their
prayers. It will readily be understood that in degenerate times, so
profitable a doctrine would be earnestly encouraged by the monks. The
knight, whose conscience revolted against his conduct but who could not
bring himself to a complete renunciation of the world, believed that
heaven would condone his faults or crimes if in some way he could make
friends with the dwellers in the cloister. To this end, he founded
abbeys and sustained monasteries by liberal gifts of gold and land. Such
a donation was made in the following language: "I, Gervais, who belong
to the chivalry of the age, caring for the salvation of my soul, and
considering that I shall never reach God by my own prayers and fastings,
have resolved to recommend myself in some other way to those who, night
and day, serve God by these practices, so that, thanks to their
intercession, I may be able to obtain that salvation which I of myself
am unable to merit." Another endowment was made by Peter, Knight of
Maull, in these quaint terms: "I, Peter, profiting by this lesson, and
desirous, though a sinner and unworthy, to provide for my future
destiny, I have desired that the bees of God may come to gather their
honey in my orchards, so that when their fair hives shall be full of
rich combs, they may be able to remember him by whom the hive
was given."

The people believed that the prayers of the monks lifted their souls
into heaven; that their curses doomed them to the bottomless pit. A
monastery was the safe and sure road to heaven. The observation of
Gibbon respecting the early monks is applicable to all of them: "Each
proselyte who entered the gates of a monastery was persuaded that he
trod the steep and thorny path of eternal happiness."

The second cause for monasticism in general wa