Nay, misery was
growing; kings fought, and the people bled at every pore. Merchants
reared their palaces, and the masses were perishing. Where riches
increased, there pride and ungodliness were rampant. What had
corrupted the monks, whose lives should be so pure and exemplary?
What but their vast possessions, bringing with them luxury and the
paralysis of devotion and of all lofty endeavour? It was openly
maintained that the original Benedictine Rule could not be kept now
as of yore. One attempt after another to bring back the old monastic
discipline had failed deplorably. The Cluniac revival had been
followed by the Cluniac laxity, splendour, and ostentation. The
Cistercians, who for a generation had been the sour puritans of the
cloister, had become the most potent religious corporation in Europe;
but theirs was the power of the purse now. Where had the old
strictness and the old fervour gone? Each man was lusting for all
that was not his own; but free alms, where were they? and pity for
the sad, and reverence for the stricken, and tenderness and sympathy?
"O gentle Jesus, where art Thou? and is there no love of Thee
anywhere, nor any love for Thy lost sheep, Thou crucified Saviour of
men?"
* * * * * * *
Knocking at his heart--not merely buzzing in his brain--the words
kept smiting him, "Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your
purses, neither scrip for your journey, neither two coats, nor yet
staves, for the workman is worthy of his meat!" Once men had changed
the face of the world with no other equipment.
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