[44] Pelagianism was the heresy of the monk Pelagius, who flourished in the fourth century. He contested the doctrine of original sin, as imputed to all mankind from the fall of Adam, and taught that the grace of God is accorded to us in proportion to our merits. Semi-pelagianism taught that man may begin the work of his own amelioration, but cannot complete it without Divine help.
Ireland.—So early as the sixth century Ireland was the centre of art and science in the West. The Irish monks had followed the oriental tradition as modified by its passage through Scandinavia; they exercised a considerable influence on continental art by their manuscripts and illuminations, and prepared the way for the renascence of the days of Charlemagne, to which such importance was given by the monuments of the Romanesque movement.
St. Columba was a monk of the seminary of Clonard in Ireland, whence towards the close of the sixth century he passed over to the continent, founding the Abbeys of Luxeuil and Fontaine, near Besançon, and later that of Bobbio, in Italy, where he died in 615. His principal work was the Rule prescribed to the Irish monks who had accompanied him, and those who took the vows of the monasteries he had founded. In this famous work he did not merely enjoin that love of God and of the brethren on which his Rule is based; he demonstrated the utility and beauty of his maxims, which he built upon Scriptural precepts, and upon fundamental principles of morality. The school of Luxeuil became one of the most famous of the seventh century, and, like that of Lérins, the nursery of learned doctors and famous prelates.
Monte Casino.—In the sixth century St. Benedict preached Christianity in the south of Italy, where, in spite of Imperial edicts, Paganism still prevailed among the masses. He built a chapel in honour of St. John the Baptist on the ruins of a temple of Apollo, and afterwards founded a monastery to which he gave his Rule in 529. This was the cradle of the great Benedictine order.
The number of St. Benedict's disciples grew apace. He had imposed on them, together with the voluntary obedience and subordination which constitute discipline, those prescriptions of his Rule, which demanded the partition of time between prayer and work. He proceeded to make a practical application of these principles at Monte Casino, the buildings of which were raised by himself and his companions. Barren lands were reclaimed and transformed into gardens for the community; mills, bakehouses, and workshops for the manufacture of all the necessaries of life were constructed in the abbey precincts, with a view to rendering the confraternity self-supporting; auxiliary buildings were reserved for the reception of the poor and of travellers. These, however, were so disposed that strangers were kept outside the main structure, which was reserved exclusively for the religious body.
The great merit of St. Benedict, apart from his philosophical eminence, lies in his comprehension of the doctrine of labour. He was perhaps the first to teach that useful and intelligent work is one of the conditions, if not indeed the sole condition, of that moral perfection to which his followers were taught to aspire. If he had no further title to fame, this alone should ensure his immortality.
"The apostles and first bishops were the natural guides of those who were appointed to build the basilicas in which the faithful met for worship. When at a later stage they carried the faith to distant provinces of the empire, they alone were able to indicate or to mark out with their own hands the lines on which buildings fitted for the new worship should be raised.... St. Martin superintended the construction of the oratory of one of the first Gallic monasteries at Ligujé, and later of that of Marmoutier, near Tours, on the banks of the Loire. In the reign of Childebert, St. Germain directed the building of the Abbey of St. Vincent—afterwards re-named St. Germain-des-Près—in Paris. St. Benedict soon added to his Rule a decree providing for the teaching and study of architecture, painting, mosaic, sculpture, and all branches of art; and it became one of the most important duties of abbots, priors, and deans to make designs for the churches and auxiliary buildings of the communities they ruled. From the early centuries of the Christian era down to the thirteenth century, therefore, architecture was practised only by the clergy, and came to be regarded as a sacred science. The most ancient plans now extant—those of St. Gall and of Canterbury—were traced by the monks Eigenhard and Edwin.... During the eleventh and twelfth centuries there rose throughout Christendom admirable buildings due to the art and industry of the monks, who, bringing to bear upon the work their own researches, and the experience of past generations, received a fresh stimulus to exertion in this age of universal regeneration, by the enthusiasm with which their kings inspired them for the vast ruins of the ninth century."[45]
[45] Albert Lenoir, L'Architecture Monastique; Paris, 1856.
From the earliest centuries of the Christian era communities both male and female had been formed with the object of living together under a religious rule; but it seems evident that the greater number of monasteries owed their fame and wealth, if not their actual origin, to the reputation of their relics. These attracted the multitude. Pilgrimages became so frequent, and pilgrims so numerous, that it was found necessary to build hospices, or night-refuges, in various towns on their routes. A confraternity of the Pilgrims of St. Michael was formed in the beginning of the thirteenth century in Paris, where the confraternity of St. James of Pilgrims had already built its chapel and hospital in the Rue St. Denis, near the city gate.
From the seventh to the ninth century important abbeys flourished in nearly all the provinces now comprised in modern France. Later, under the immediate successors of Charlemagne, great monasteries were founded in all the countries which made up his dominions. Charlemagne himself had greatly contributed to the development of religious institutions by his reliance on the bishops, and more especially the monks who represented progress, supported his policy, and enforced his civilising mission. But after his death the study of art and science declined so rapidly that a radical reform became necessary in the tenth century, a reform which seems to have had its birth in the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny, established in Burgundy about the year 930.