Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/182

 164 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chap. 'A^^ a thing self-reliant and God-defiant, with, none of the (A' tuej in Christianity it could only be the worst of vices. i^/f^ Sooting it out means the expulsion of the pagan spirit • ^ r from Christian ethics. In Benedict's still more con- r^ structive exposition the chief Christian virtue is hu- mility, pride's opposite. The greatness and efiiciency of the regula of Bene- dict of Nursia ^ did not lie in its inventive originality, but in its wise revision and constructive use of mo- nastic principles and experience. A tabulation of the special resemblances and divergences between Bene- dict's regulations and those of his predecessors would not give an adequate idea of his regula. He was ac- quainted with the writings of Jerome and Augustine ; but appears to have made chief use of Basil and Cas- sian.^ It is doubtful whether he knew of the regula of his contemporary, Caesarius of Aries. Using his ma- terials with discrimination, he added to them from his own spiritual life and from his experience as director of monks. The regula of Benedict gained universal dominion among the monks of the West, superseding other authorities. Compared with the regulae of Basil, it was as a clear and ordered code is to a mass of ques- tions and answers. No one could find a definite and explicit rule of conduct in Basil; Benedict's regula was just such a rule. Again, the works of Cassian, though systematic, contained no regula. Yet the necessary principle of monasticism was obedience; 1 480-543 A.D. Foundation of Monte Cassino, 629 (cir.). 2 He read the regulae of Basil in Rufinus' Latin version.
 * ' I spirit of the little child. Pride might be a pagan vir-