Leo was pope from 440 to 461 and it has been well maintained that he was the first occupant of the office to comprehend the wide possibilities of the papal dignity in the future. In his sermons and letters he vigorously asserted the sovereign authority of his position, and in his influence on the events of his time, as for example the Council of Chalcedon in 451, he sought with no little success to bring men to a general acknowledgment of this authority.
Source—Text in Jacques Paul Migne, Patroligiæ Cursus Completus ["Complete Collection of Patristic Literature">[, First Series, Vol. LIV., cols. 144-148. Translated in Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church (New York, 1895), Second Series, Vol. XII., pp. 117-118.
Although, therefore, dearly beloved, we be found both weak and slothful in fulfilling the duties of our office, because, whatever devoted and vigorous action we desire to undertake, we are hindered in by the frailty of our nature, yet having the unceasing propitiation of the Almighty and perpetual Priest [Christ], who being like us and yet equal with the Father, brought down His Godhead even to things human, and raised His Manhood even to things Divine, we worthily and piously rejoice over His dispensation, whereby, though He has delegated the care of His sheep to many shepherds, yet He has not Himself abandoned the guardianship of His beloved flock. And from His overruling The apostle Peter still with his Church and eternal protection we have received the support of the Apostle's aid also, which assuredly does not cease from its operation; and the strength of the foundation, on which the whole superstructure of the Church is reared, is not weakened by the weight of the temple that rests upon it. For the solidity of that faith which was praised in the chief of the Apostles is perpetual; and as that remains which Peter believed in Christ, so that remains which Christ instituted in Peter.
For when, as has been read in the Gospel lesson,[89] the Lord had asked the disciples whom they believed Him to be amid the various opinions that were held, and the blessed Peter had replied, saying, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," Christ's commission to Peter the Lord said, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father, which is in heaven. And I say to thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build My church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed also in heaven." [Matt. xvi. 16-19.]
The dispensation of Truth therefore abides, and the blessed Peter persevering in the strength of the Rock, which he has received, has not abandoned the helm of the Church, which he undertook. For he was ordained before the rest in such a way that from his being called the Rock, from his being pronounced the Foundation, from his being constituted the Doorkeeper of the kingdom of heaven, from his being set as the Umpire to bind and to loose, whose judgments shall retain their validity in Peter properly rules the Church through his successors at Rome heaven—from all these mystical titles we might know the nature of his association with Christ. And still to-day he more fully and effectually performs what is intrusted to him, and carries out every part of his duty and charge in Him and with Him, through whom he has been glorified. And so if anything is rightly done and rightly decreed by us, if anything is won from the mercy of God by our daily supplications, it is of his work and merits whose power lives and whose authority prevails in his see....[90]
And so, dearly beloved, with becoming obedience we celebrate to-day's festival[91] by such methods, that in my humble person he may be recognized and honored, in whom abides the care of all the shepherds, together with the charge of the sheep commended to him, and whose dignity is not belittled even in so unworthy an Leo claims to be only Peter's representative heir. And hence the presence of my venerable brothers and fellow-priests, so much desired and valued by me, will be the more sacred and precious, if they will transfer the chief honor of this service in which they have deigned to take part to him whom they know to be not only the patron of this see, but also the primate of all bishops. When therefore we utter our exhortations in your ears, holy brethren, believe that he is speaking whose representative we are. Because it is his warning that we give, and nothing else but his teaching that we preach, beseeching you to "gird up the loins of your mind," and lead a chaste and sober life in the fear of God, and not to let your mind forget his supremacy and consent to the lusts of the flesh.
Short and fleeting are the joys of this world's pleasures which endeavor to turn aside from the path of life those who are called to eternity. The faithful and religious spirit, therefore, must desire the things which are heavenly and, being eager for the An exhortation to Christian constancy divine promises, lift itself to the love of the incorruptible Good and the hope of the true Light. But be assured, dearly-beloved, that your labor, whereby you resist vices and fight against carnal desires, is pleasing and precious in God's sight, and in God's mercy will profit not only yourselves but me also, because the zealous pastor makes his boast of the progress of the Lord's flock. "For ye are my crown and joy," as the Apostle says, if your faith, which from the beginning of the Gospel has been preached in all The peculiar privilege of the church at Rome the world, has continued in love and holiness. For though the whole Church, which is in all the world, ought to abound in all virtues, yet you especially, above all people, it becomes to excel in deeds of piety, because, founded as you are on the very citadel of the Apostolic Rock, not only has our Lord Jesus Christ redeemed you in common with all men, but the blessed Apostle Peter has instructed you far beyond all men.
11. The Rule of St. Benedict
A very important feature of the church life of the early Middle Ages was the tendency of devout men to withdraw from the active affairs of the world and give themselves up to careers of self-sacrificing piety. Sometimes such men went out to live alone in forests or other obscure places and for this reason were called anchorites or hermits; but more often they settled in groups and formed what came to be known as monasteries. The idea that seclusion is helpful to the religious life was not peculiar to Christianity, for from very early times Brahmins and Buddhists and other peoples of the Orient had cherished the same view; and in many cases they do so still. Monasticism among Christians began naturally in the East and at first took the form almost wholly of hermitage, just as it had done among the adherents of other Oriental religions, though by the fourth century the Christian monks of Syria and Egypt and Asia Minor had come in many cases to dwell in established communities. In general the Eastern monks were prone to extremes in the way of penance and self-torture which the more practical peoples of the West were not greatly disposed to imitate. Monasticism spread into the West, but not until comparatively late—beginning in the second half of the fourth century—and the character which it there assumed was quite unlike that prevailing in the East. The Eastern ideal was the life of meditation with as little activity as possible, except perhaps such as was necessary in order to impose hardships upon one's self. The Western ideal, on the other hand, while involving a good deal of meditation and prayer, put much emphasis on labor and did not call for so complete an abstention of the monk from the pursuits and pleasures of other men.
In the later fifth century, and earlier sixth, several monasteries of whose history we know little were established in southern Gaul, especially in the pleasant valley of the Rhone. Earliest of all, apparently, and destined to become the most influential was the abbey of St. Martin at Tours, founded soon after St. Martin was made bishop of Tours in 372. But the development of Western monasticism is associated most of all with the work of St. Benedict of Nursia, who died in 543. Benedict was the founder of several monasteries in the vicinity of Rome, the most important being that of Monte Cassino, on the road from Rome to Naples, which exists to this day. One should guard, however, against the mistake of looking upon St. Benedict as the introducer of monasticism in the West, of even as the founder of a new monastic order in the strict sense of the word. The great service which he rendered to European monasticism consisted in his working out for his monasteries in Italy an elaborate system of government which was found so successful in practice that, in the form of the Benedictine Rule (regula), it came to be the constitution under which for many centuries practically all the monks of Western countries lived. That it was so widely adopted was due mainly to its definite, practical, common-sense character. Its chief injunctions upon the monks were poverty, chastity, obedience, piety, and labor. All these were to be attained by methods which, although they may seem strange to us to-day, were at least natural and wholesome when judged by the ideas and standards prevailing in early mediæval times. Granted the ascetic principle upon which the monastic system rested, the Rule of St. Benedict must be regarded as eminently moderate and sensible. It sprang from an acute perception of human nature and human needs no less than from a lofty ideal of religious perfection. The following extracts will serve to show its character.