Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/177

 vn] WESTERN MONASTICISM 169 near Milan ; Jerome wrote enthusiastic and extrava- gant letters to his admirers, urging the virgin life, which he himself led, whether in Rome among ador- ing women, or in his cell in Palestine, where he also counselled and directed. The youngest of this triad, Augustine, from the time of his conversion earnestly advocated virginity. Late in life he wrote a " libellum " as a regula for a convent of north-African nuns.^ The qualities which were to distinguish Western monasti- cism speak in this writing. It does not discuss ; it is not enlightening or educational; it lays down rules for the nuns to follow in their daily life, orders them to hear the " libellum " read once a week, and — let them give thanks to God when, on hearing it, they find they have carried out its precepts. Augustine's " libellum " was not a comprehensive monastic regula ; but its di- rections were clear. Inchoate as it was, it presented a mode of daily life and governance which any nun or monk could understand, remember, and follow. The Roman capacity for definite legislative precept is here. Before Augustine wrote his libellum, men who had experience in monastic and anchorite life began to write. Rufinus, friend and enemy of Jerome, trans- lated freely the Regulae of Basil, condensing the matter, but introducing no order into that chaos.* In other Western writings the practical and legislative genius of the West may be observed ordering monasti- cism and preparing it to be a way of life fit to accom- plish tasks other than Eastern monks had dreamed of. 1 Ep. 211, written 423 a.d. • Printed In Vol. I of Lucas IlolstoTiiiis, (<,<i,'j- li-f/ulantm, pp. 67-108, and made up of 203 QuestioncH < t lU sixnisioncs.