About a century later the monastic system went through another change or development, when Benedict, a remarkable organizer, instituted on Monte Cassino, near Naples, his celebrated monastery (529, A.D.), which became the model of all the monasteries of the West.  He reaffirmed the rules of Basil, but with greater strictness.  He gave no new principles to monastic life; but he adapted it to the climate and institutions of the newly founded Gothic kingdoms of Europe.  It became less Oriental; it was made more practical; it was invested with new dignity.  The most visionary and fanatical of all the institutions of the East was made useful.  The monks became industrious.  Industry was recognized as a prime necessity even for men who had retired from the world.  No longer were the labors of monks confined to the weaving of baskets, but they were extended to the comforts of ordinary life,—­to the erection of stately buildings, to useful arts, the systematic cultivation of the land, to the accumulation of wealth,—­not for individuals, but for their monasteries.  Monastic life became less dreamy, less visionary, but more useful, recognizing the bodily necessities of men.  The religious duties of monks were still dreary, monotonous, and gloomy,—­long and protracted singing in the choir, incessant vigils, an unnatural silence at the table, solitary walks in the cloister, the absence of social pleasures, confinement to the precincts of their convents; but their convents became bee-hives of industry, and their lands were highly cultivated.  The monks were hospitable; they entertained strangers, and gave a shelter to the persecuted and miserable.  Their monasteries became sacred retreats, which were respected by those rude warriors who crushed beneath their feet the glories of ancient civilization.  Nor for several centuries did the monks in their sacred enclosures give especial scandal.  Their lives were spent in labors of a useful kind, alternated and relieved by devotional duties.

Hence they secured the respect and favor of princes and good men, who gave them lands and rich presents of gold and silver vessels.  Their convents were unmolested and richly endowed, and these became enormously multiplied in every European country.  Gradually they became so rich as to absorb the wealth of nations.  Their abbots became great personages, being chosen from the ranks of princes and barons.  The original poverty and social insignificance of monachism passed away, and the institution became the most powerful organization in Europe.  It then aspired to political influence, and the lord abbots became the peers of princes and the ministers of kings.  Their abbey churches, especially, became the wonder and the admiration of the age, both for size and magnificence.  The abbey church of Cluny, in Burgundy, was five hundred and thirty feet long, and had stalls for two hundred monks.  It had the appointment of one hundred and fifty parish priests.  The church of Saint