It was no part of a monk's duty to reform the world; all he had
to do was to look after himself, and to save himself from the wrath
to come. It is hardly overstating the case if I say that a monastery
was not intended to be a benevolent institution; and if a great
religious house became, as it almost inevitably did become, the
centre of civilization and refinement, from which radiated light and
warmth and incalculable blessings far and wide, these results flowed
naturally from that growth and development which the original
founders had never looked forward to or could have foreseen, but it
was never contemplated as an end to be aimed at in the beginning.
Being a home for religious men, whose main business was to spend
their days and nights in worshipping God, the first requisite, the
first and foremost, the _sine qua non_ was, that there should be
a church.
On the church of a monastery, as a rule, no amount of money spent, no
amount of lavish ornament or splendour of decoration, was grudged.
Sculpture and painting, jewels and gold, gorgeous hangings, and
stained-glass that the moderns vainly attempt to imitate, the purple
and fine linen of the priestly vestments, embroidery that to this
hour remains unapproachable in its delicacy of finish and in the
perfect harmony of colours--all these were to be found in almost
incredible profusion in our monastic churches.
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