tion to Western
customs; and it combines simplicity with completeness, strictness with
gentleness, humility with courage, and gives the whole cloister life a
fixed unity and compact organization, which, like the episcopate,
possessed an unlimited versatility and power of expansion. It made every
cloister an _ecclesiola in ecclesia_, reflecting the relation of the
bishop to his charge, the monarchical principle of authority on the
democratic basis of the equality of the brethren, though claiming a
higher degree of perfection than could be realized in the great secular
church. For the rude and undisciplined world of the Middle Age, the
Benedictine rule furnished a wholesome course of training and a constant
stimulus to the obedience, self-control, order, and industry which were
indispensable to the regeneration and healthy growth of social life.[11]

The spirit of the rule may be judged from the following sentences of the
_prologus_, which contains pious exhortations: 'Having thus,' he says,
'my brethren, asked of the Lord who shall dwell in His tabernacle, we
have heard the precepts prescribed to such a one. If we fulfil these
conditions we shall be heirs of the kingdom of heaven. Let us, then,
prepare our hearts and bodies to fight under a holy obedience to these
precepts; and if it is not always possible for nature to obey, let us
ask the Lord that He would deign to give us the succor of His grace.
Would we avoid the pains of hell and attain eternal life while there is
still time, while we are still in this mortal body, and while the light
of this life is bestowed upon us for that purpose, let us run and strive
so as to reap an eternal reward. We must, then, form a _school of divine
servitude_, in which, we trust, nothing too heavy or rigorous will be
established. But if, in conformity with right and justice, we should
exercise a little severity for the amendment of vices or the
preservation of charity, beware of fleeing under the impulse of terror
from the way of salvation, which cannot but have a hard beginning. When
man has walked for some time in obedience and faith, his heart will
expand, and he will run with the unspeakable sweetness of love in the
way of God's commandments. May He grant that, never straying from the
instruction of the Master, and persevering in His doctrine in the
monastery until death, we may share by patience in the sufferings of
Christ, and be worthy to share together His kingdom.'

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