the classic authors and the classic arts in the service of the new
religion. Christianity possessed no distinct and separate media of
expression and no separate body of knowledge which could bear fruit as
matter of instruction. Pagan art and literature were indispensable
whether for the study of history or of mere humanity. Christianity was
therefore compelled to employ the old forms of art, which involved the
use of the old instrumentalities of literary education. When, finally,
paganism had fallen under its repeated assaults, what had been forced
use became a matter of choice, and the classics were taken under the
Church's protection and marked with her approval.

The data regarding Horace in the Middle Age are few, but they are clear.
We need not examine them all in order to draw conclusions.

The monastic idea, of eastern origin and given currency in the West by
Jerome, was first reduced to systematic practice by Benedict, who
created the first Rule at Monte Cassino about the time of the Mavortian
recension of Horace, in 527. New moral strength issued from the
cloisters now rapidly established. Cassiodorus, especially active in
promoting the spiritual phase of monkish retreat, made the intellectual
life also his concern. Monte Cassino, between Naples and Rome, and
Bobbio, in the northern part of the peninsula, were the great Italian
centers. The Benedictine influence spread to Ireland, which before the
end of the sixth century became a stronghold of the movement and an
inspiration to England, Germany, France, and even Italy, where Bobbio
itself was founded by Columban and his companions. St. Gall in
Switzerland, Fulda at Hersfeld in Hesse-Nassau, Corvey in Saxony, Iona
in Scotland, Tours in France, Reichenau on Lake Constance, were all
active centers of religion and learning within two hundred years from
Benedict's death.

The monasteries not only afforded the spiritual enthusiast the
opportunity of separation from the world of temptation and storm, but
were equally inviting to men devoted first of all to the intellectual
life. The scholar and the educator found within their walls not only
peaceful escape from the harshnesses of political change and military
broil, but the opportunity to labor usefully and unmolested in the
occupation that pleased them most. The cloister became a Christian
institute. The example of Cassiodorus was followed two hundred years
later on a larger scale by Charlemagne. Schools were fou