ABSTRACT
Despite the noble work of S. Martin and Cassian and the pervading influence of the holy house of Lerins, there is much reason to believe that Western monasticism was in very sorry plight when it was brilliantly and permanently restored by the nursing hand of S. Benedict. The Rule is exceedingly ingenuous and simple. S. Benedict is perfectly unconscious that he is legislating for a new world. Abbot Butler points out that "the general conditions of life were probably not rougher or harder than would have been the lot of most of the monks had they remained in the world." One of the best known of living French monks, in fact, bids his Benedictine brethren forget the history of a dozen centuries and return to the simple ideals with which the great order began its long career. The table of the abbot shall always be with the guests and pilgrims.
