more than the soul. They affected to despise all material
prosperity, and gloried in their assumed superiority, on account of
their love for religious contemplation. This radical difference between
the races of the East and West is clearly seen in the monastic
institution. Benedict embodied in his rules the spirit and active life
of the West, and hence, the monastic system, then in danger of dying, or
stagnating, revived and spread all over Europe. Again, the hermit life
was ill-adapted to the West. Men could not live out of doors in Europe
and subsist on small quantities of food as in Egypt. The rigors of the
climate in Europe demanded an adaptation to new conditions.

But aside from the differences between Eastern and Western monasticism,
the Christian institution passed through a variety of changes. The
growth of monasticism from the hermit stage to the cloistral life has
already been described. To what shall the development of the community
system be attributed? No religious institution can remain stationary,
unaffected by the changing conditions of the society in which it exists.
The progress of the intellect, and the development of social, political
and industrial conditions, effect great transformations in religious
organizations.

The monastic institution grew up amid the radical changes of European
society. In its early days it witnessed the invasion of the barbarians,
which swept away old political divisions and destroyed many of the
heritages of an ancient civilization. Then the process of reconstruction
slowly began. New states were forming; nations were crystallizing. The
barbarian was to lay the foundations of great cities and organize
powerful commonwealths out of wild but victorious tribes. The monk
could not remain in hiding. He was brother to the roving warrior. The
blood in his veins was too active to permit him to stand still amid the
mighty whirl of events. Without entirely abandoning his cloistral life,
he became a zealous missionary of the church among the barbarians, a
patron of letters and of agriculture, in short a stirring participant in
the work of civilization.

Next came the crusades. Jerusalem was to be captured for Christ and the
church. The monk then appeared as a crusade-preacher, a warrior on the
battle-field, or a nurse in the military hospital.

The rise of feudalism likewise wrought a change in the spirit and
position of the monks. The feudal lord was master of his vassals. "The