SOURCE: An introduction to The Rule of Saint Benedict, translated by Cardinal Gasquet, Cooper Square Publishers, Inc., 1966, pp. ix-xxviii.

In the following introduction to his 1929 translation of the Rule of St. Benedict, Gasquet examines Benedict's religious and monastic ideals and the influence of these in early medieval Europe.

The Rule of St. Benedict may fitly find a place in any collection of classics. As a code of laws it has undoubtedly influenced Europe; and, indeed, there is probably no other book, save of course the Holy Bible, which with such certainty can be claimed as a chief factor in the work of European civilization. It is undeniable that most of the nations of modern Europe were converted to the Christian faith and tutored in the arts of peace by the influence of the mode of life known as monastic. The men whose names are connected with the beginnings...