Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/852

BENEDICT BISCOP. fully after his books, and to preserve them from loss or injury.

The benefits conferred by Benedict on Anglo-Saxon civilization, which was then only in its dawn, and the impulse given by his labors to Anglo-Saxon learning, were greater than can now be estimated. It is not certain that he wrote any books, and those ascribed to him are of little value; but by his personal teaching, and especially by his founding at Wearmouth such a valuable and, for the time, extensive library, he implanted in the nation a taste for literature and learning, which soon was fruitful in results, and continued to be so for many centuries. Bede, a pupil, wrote his life.

BENEDICTINE, ben'e-dik'tin. A liqueur somewhat resembling chartreuse, distilled at Fécamp (q.v. ) in France. It gets its name from the fact that it was originally manufactured by the Benedictine monks. Since the French Revolution, however, the preparation has been in the hands of a secular company. See.

BENEDICTINE EDI'TIONS OF THE FA'THERS. Scarce and costly volumes containing the works of Barnabas, Lanfranc, Bernard, Anselm, Augustine, Cassiodorus, Ambrose, Hilary, Jerome, Athanasius, Gregory of Tours, Gregory the Great, Hildebert, Irenæus, Lucius Cæcilius, Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusalem, Basil, Cyprian, Justin Martyr, Origen, and Gregory Nazianzen — in all 61 volumes. So called because edited by scholars of the Benedictine Order of monks in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries.

BENEDICTINES. The general name of the monks following the rule of Saint Benedict. The first Benedictine monastery was founded at Monte Cassino, in the Apennines about midway between Rome and Naples, by Saint Benedict himself, about 529. It was partly modeled on what he had learned of the earlier Eastern monasticism, but differed from that in giving greater prominence to the community idea, while the monks of the East had tended more to live a solitary life. In Benedict's idea, the monastery was to be to the monk what the family was to persons living in the world — an ordered home, with reciprocal duties and claims. Each monastery formed a separate comnmnity, with its own internal organization; the founder did not legislate for a world-wide organization, like the mendicant orders or the Jesuits. In fact, strictly speaking, he did not found an order, but laid down a rule by which to govern a state of life. Each of the modern orders, moreover, has in view some special work to which its activities are directed; the Benedictine has no external work peculiar to his order. The earlier monasticism differed from the later in having no relation to the clerical state; most of the monks and even some abbots were laymen at the first. The vows taken by those who joined a Benedictine monastery were originally three — of stability, i.e. to remain attached to the monastery, not to wander at will; of conversion of life. i.e. to labor until death to attain the perfection of the state to which they were called; and of obedience to their superiors.

The Order increased so rapidly that after the Sixth Century the Benedictines must be regarded as the main agents in the spread of Christianity, civilization, and learning in the West. The provision of the rule for incessant industry resulted, among other things, in the promotion of systematic agriculture and the reclaiming of large tracts of land which would otherwise have lain waste. Without them, the continuity of Christian art, like that of Christian literature, would doubtless have been broken in the West. In the Dark Ages between the Seventh and Eleventh centuries, when confusion and barbarism prevailed in the political and social spheres, the artistic tradition which had been carried on by the bishops was taken up by the great monasteries of this Order; and they also afforded the only common meeting-ground for sharply distinct social classes, thus exerting a unifying influence upon the new nationalities then springing into life.

Each of these establishments was a world in itself. It included not only fully professed monks, but lay brothers, or conversi, who had greater freedom of movement and occupation. The high wall of the monastery inclosed a great variety of structures centring around the church, to which were attached, generally on the right side, the principal group of monastic buildings — the dormitories above (one for choir brothers and one for conversi) and the refectory, chapter-house, and general hall, library, kitchen, store-rooms, etc., all grouped about a main cloister. Then there were other groups; one in particular with a hospital, a chapel and cloister for convalescents, doctor's quarters, and the like; another group for the schools and for teaching of arts and trades: sometimes another devoted to the external laity with a hospice, refectory, chapel, stable, and barns. A drawing of about the year 820 shows the plan of the projected buildings at Saint Gall (q.v.), altogether the most elaborate known, where everything is labeled with a detailed description, even to the garden devoted to growing herbs and simples for the doctor's pharmacopœia, and the workshops assigned to the different arts and trades. The weaving and dyeing of cloth, the curing and tanning of skins, were followed by the work of the tailor, the shoemaker, and the embroiderer. The preparation of vellum led up to writing, illuminating, and binding of manuscripts. Glass-blowing was practiced from its commonest to its most artistic developments. Carpentry and joinery, masonry in brick and stone, were taught practically in construction. Then came the more purely artistic occupations of bronze casting and hammering, work in gold, silver, and silver-gilt, ivory, wood and gem carving, enameling and inlaying, layer-sculpture, fresco-painting, and sometimes mosaic-work. No known branch of art or industry was neglected. One monk was usually at the head of this entire department, with others in charge of the subdivisions; but often lay brothers were at the head — all were admitted equally in these branches.

There were even established, outside of the monastic walls, groups of secular workmen employed by the monastery, often its slaves, serfs, or dependents, whose labor was at the abbot's disposal. Thus there grew up villages and even towns of considerable size around the larger monasteries. Such communities were among the earliest organized in the Middle Ages, each a formative nucleus amid a general disintegration. When a sovereign or noble wished to build or decorate a church or any other building, or