THE BENEDICTINE RULE (9). Western Monachism in the Early Middle Ages.—Soon the Benedictine form of monastic life became the only one in Western Europe (see BENEDICTINES). The only serious rival was the Irish rule of Columban. The beginnings of Celtic mona chism are obscure. When, however, Irish monachism emerges into the full light of history, it was in its manifestations closely akin to the Egyptian, or even to the Syrian type: there was the same love of the eremitical life, the same craving after bodily austerities of an extraordinary kind, the same individualistic piety. The Irish monks were great missioners in the north of England and the northern and central parts of Europe, and in the course of the 7th century the Irish rule of St. Columban and the Roman rule of St. Benedict met in the monasteries in central Europe that had been founded by Columban and his Irish monks. The Benedictine rule supplanted the Irish so inevitably that the per sonnel ceased to be Irish, that even in St. Columban's own monas tery of Luxeuil his rule was no longer observed, and by Charle magne's time all remembrance of any other monastic rule than the Benedictine had died out. During the 7th and 8th centuries the Benedictine houses were the chief instrument in the christian izing and civilizing and educating of the Teutonic races.
(io). Offshoots and Modifications of Benedictine Monachism. —As previously stated, St. Pachomius's monasteries formed an order—a curious anticipation of what six centuries later was to become the vogue in Western monasticism. The Benedictine houses never coalesced in this manner ; even when, later on, a system of national congregations was introduced, they were but loose federations of autonomous abbeys ; although the convenient expression "Benedictine order" is frequently used, the Benedic tines do not form an order in the proper sense of the word. But with the loth century we reach the period of orders, and it is on this line that all subsequent developments in Western monas ticism have run. The first order was that of Cluny, founded in 910 (see CLUNY).
The chief offshoot from the Benedictine institute was the Cistercians (c. Imo) ; their ground idea was to return to the letter of St. Benedict's rule (see CISTERCIANS) .
Towards the end of the loth century and during the I ith a strong tendency set in to revert to the eremitical life, probably owing to the example of the Greek monks, who at this time en tered Sicily and south Italy in great numbers. This tendency produced the orders of the Camaldulians or Camaldolese (c. 975) in Italy, and in France the Grandmontines (1076) and Carthu sians (1084), all leading practically eremitical lives, and assem bling ordinarily only for the church services. The Vallombrosians (1038) near Florence maintained a cenobitical life, but eliminated every element of Benedictine life that was not devoted to pure contemplation. At Fontevrault (founded in o95) the special feature was the system of "double monasteries" i.e., neighbouring,
but rigorously separated, monasteries of men and of women.
(I I). New Kinds of Religious Orders.—A new form was that of the canons regular or Augustinian canons (q.v.) who about the year 1060 arose out of the older semi-monastic canonical insti tute, and lived according to the so-called "Rule of St. Augustine." The essential difference between monks and regular canons may be explained as follows: monks, whether hermits or cenobites, are men who live a certain kind of life for its own sake; external works, either temporal or spiritual, are accidental. But canons regular were in virtue of their origin essentially clerics, and their common life, monastery rule, and the rest, were something addi tional grafted on to their proper clerical state.
Two special kinds of orders arose out of the religious wars waged by Christendom against the Mohammedans in the Holy Land and in Spain: (I) the military orders: the Knights Hos pitallers of St. John and the Knights Templars, both at the be ginning of the I2th century, and the Teutonic Knights at its close; (2) the orders of Ransom, whose object was to free Christian prisoners and slaves from captivity under the Mohammedans, the members being bound by vow even to offer themselves in ex change; such orders were the Trinitarians (q.v.) founded in 1198, and the order of Our Lady of Ransom (de Mercede), founded by St. Peter Nolasco in 1223 ; both were under the Augustinian rule. RISE OF MENDICANT ORDERS At the beginning of the 13th century arose the series of great mendicant orders. Their nature and work and the needs that called them into being are explained in the article MENDICANT MOVEMENT, and in the separate articles on ST. FRANCIS OF Assisi and FRANCISCANS (I 210) , ST. DOMINIC and DOMINICANS CARMELITES (1245) AUGUSTINIAN HERMITS (I 256)—these were the four great orders of mendicant friars—to them were added, in 1487, the Servites (q.v.) founded in 1233. Among monks and canons regular each monastery has its fixed community. The friar, however, does not belong to any particular house, but to the province or order. In the monk attachment to his own monas tery is a virtue ; in the friar detachment is the ideal. The monk, or the canon, normally exercises his influence on the world in and through his community, not as an individual but as a mem ber of a corporate body. The friar's sphere of work is normally outside his convent, and he works and influences directly and as an individual. Here too should be mentioned St. Francis's great cre ation, the Tertiaries (q.v.) or devout men and women living in the world, who while continuing their family life and their ordinary avocations, followed a certain rule of life, giving them selves up to more than ordinary prayer and the pursuit of good works, and abstaining from amusements of a worldly kind.