Page:Completecatechis00deharich.djvu/56

 likewise overrun and subjugated by those ferocious Infidels.

41. In the Western countries of Europe, the Crusades everywhere roused the people to a more vigorous exertion of their mental powers, and to a new spiritual life. During the destructive Migration of Nations (38), the sciences had found an asylum in the monasteries; but now they spread among the people, and were ardently cherished by them. Celebrated schools and universities were established; and men of wonderful erudition, as St. Anselm (d. 1109), Albertus Magnus (d. 1280), St. Thomas of Aquino (d. 1274), and others, occupied the professorial chairs. Those times, generally called " The Middle Ages," are still more renowned for the lustre of Christian virtues, for the firmness of faith, for childlike simplicity, and for an ardent love of God and man. Even at the present time we behold with surprise and wonder those ancient gigantic cathedrals which were erected by the piety of our ancestors; and we are enraptured at the most tender devotion, expressed in the paintings and statues with which they adorned the buildings consecrated to God. Such great and charming works could only be produced by the Religion which filled their hearts and governed all their actions. This same Religion also poured out the greatest blessings over the earth through the holy Founders of Religious Orders, St. Romuald (d. 1027), St. Bruno (d. 1101), St. Norbert (d. 1134), St. Ber-