Benedictines

Benedictines, a monastic order of the Roman Catholic Church, founded by Benedict of Nursia in 515 (according to others, 529) in Monte Cassino. The leading ideas in the monastic rule of St. Benedict were, see BENEDICT OF NURSIA, that the monks should live in common a retired life, remain poor, and render unlimited obedience to their superiors. Benedict states explicitly (ch. 73) that his rule can lead only to the beginning of a holy life, while he refers his monks for perfectness to the Scriptures and the fathers. His aim was to give to repentant and religious men of the world a house of refuge, but he had no projects for a universal mission in the Church such as those entertained by the later mendicant orders. He received children into his convents, who, under the common superintendence of all the monks, and clothed in the monastic habit, were educated for the monastic life.

The spread of the order was very rapid. As early as 541 it was introduced into Sicily, and in 543 into France. The order began to take extraordinary dimensions through the exertions of Pope Gregory the Great, who lent the whole weight of his vast influence to its diffusion. Augustine introduced it into England and Ireland, and the followers of Cassian and Columban in large number exchanged their former rules for those of Benedict. When, in the eighth century, the bulk of the Germanic world entered into connection with the Roman Catholic Church, the prominent influence of Boniface, himself a Benedictine, secured for the principles of his order almost general adoption by the rising monastic institutions of Germany. As its wealth and power advanced, the Benedictine order by degrees almost monopolized the science and learning in the Christian Church, and established a large number of distinguished schools. Their many Irish teachers (known under the name of Scots) were the first to lay the foundation of the scholastic theology. As many of the convents amassed great riches, the strict rule and primitive purity of morals disappeared, and attempts at reform were called forth. The most remarkable among these were that of Benedict of Aniane (q.v.) in the eighth century, of Abbot Berno at Clugny 910, at Hirschau 1069, at Vallombrosa in the eleventh century, at Bursfield in 1425. These reforms introduced among the followers of Benedict the congregational system, combining several convents into a congregation, with a common government. The congregation of English Benedictines founded by Augustine was reformed by St. Dunstan in 900, again by Lanfranc in 1072, and finally suppressed by Henry VIII. The congregational government has since remained that of the Benedictines, who have never had a general and central government like the other orders. The efforts to introduce a greater centralization led, from the end of the tenth century, to the establishment of new orders. Thus arose, on the basis of the rule of St. Benedict, but with many alterations, the orders of Camaldoli, see CAMALDULES, Fontevrault (q.v.), Chartreux (q.v.), Citeaux, see CISTERCIANS, Humiliates, Olivetans, Tironeneans, see BERNARD OF TIRON, and others.