ABSTRACT
A monk, rich indeed in experience, but destitute of material force, displayed an organizing power in purely secular affairs that few of the world's great statesmen have excelled. The work of S. Gregory was never lost, but after he had passed away, the European world was in little better state than it had been before. Whether the spiritual children of S. Benedict soared so very far above the general level of the secular clergy in pure morality is a far more arguable thing than the fact that they were now the chief rebuilders of Western Europe. The cloister life was more pleasing to God than any good service to the world, and to return to the work even of an ideal secular priest would be to risk salvation itself. The new world which he helped to create was a growth rather than a structure.
