ch the founding of monasteries
became a necessity. The monasteries were the result of the ascetic
spirit, and their teaching was based upon authority and not upon free
investigation or original research. Thus there was introduced into
society and education a principle that, wrongly interpreted, impeded
progress for a thousand years.

Most of the time during this period the Church held supremacy over the
State with authority unquestioned. This authority was carried not only
into spiritual matters, but also into social, political, and educational
affairs. Everything that conflicted with that authority, or with the
decrees of the Church, was condemned. Even scientific discoveries that
did not harmonize with preconceived and accepted theories were
reluctantly received, if not absolutely rejected. Discoverers in the
realm of science were silenced, and sometimes actually punished, for
promulgating theories contrary to the teachings of the Church. A
notable example is that of Galileo, who taught the Copernican theory of
the universe, and for which teaching he was condemned to imprisonment
and a ban put upon his work. This exaggerated interpretation of
authority worked harm to the Church. It seemed to be forgotten that the
Bible is a book of religion and morals and not a text-book of science.

=The Benedictines.=--The most important monastic order from the
standpoint of education was that of the Benedictines. St. Benedict
founded the first monastery of the order that bears his name--Monte
Cassino, near Naples,--in 529. It will be remembered that this is the
date of the abolition of pagan schools by Justinian. On the site of
Monte Cassino had stood a pagan school. The monastery which supplanted
it remains to the present day.

Benedict's two important principles--to which cloisters hitherto had
been unaccustomed--were industry and strict discipline. These principles
made the Benedictine the most successful and beneficent of all monastic
orders. It grew rapidly, and within one hundred years from its
foundation there were more than two hundred and fifty Benedictine
monasteries. It is claimed that the order has produced 4600 bishops,
1600 archbishops, 200 cardinals, 40 popes, 50 patriarchs, 4 emperors, 12
empresses, 46 kings, 41 queens, 3600 canonized saints, and 15,700
authors, and that prior to the French Revolution it possessed 37,000
cloisters. There have been times when the wealth of this order in some
states comprised more