THE SWAY OF THE CROSS 277

Indeed with Gregory, as Robinson has put it, we leave behind
us the Rome of Csesar and Trajan and enter upon that of
the Popes. In the centuries that followed, the Popes were
supreme, though they called themselves merely the servants
of the servants of God.

Next to the Popes, who were the head of the official hier-
archy of the Catholic Church, there was the unofficial army
of monks who greatly influenced the shaping of Christian
life in the Middle Ages. On account of their lives being
very strictly regulated, they1 were called the " regulars/* and
the official clergy were distinguished from them as the
"seculars" or persons still connected with the world
(saeculum). Monasticism was a philosophy which consi-
dered the normal life in the world miserable and sinful, and
therefore to be redeemed through severe discipline. It was,
however, not peculiar to medieval Europe. It corresponds
to the Hindu idea of sannydsa and the Buddhist ideal of
asceticism which was carried to excess by the Jains in India.
It is better, some thought, to undergo voluntarily the maxi-
mum of suffering in this world and earn merit in Heaven,
rather than sinfully enjoy here and earn the torments of
hell later as the wages of sin. Though all may not agree
.in this, the monasteries, in the Middle Ages, rendered an
undoubted service to civilisation. They became the reposi-
tories of whatever was worthy of being saved from the
wreckage of the past. "It would be difficult," observes
Professor Robinson, " to overestimate the influence that the
monks and other religious orders exercised for centuries in
Europe. The proud annals of the Benedictines, Francis-
-cans, Dominicans, and Jesuits contain many a distinguished
name. Eminent philosophers, scientists, historians, artists,
poets, and statesmen may be found in their ranks. Among
those___are 'The Venerable Bede', Boniface, Thomas