A little before his
time, St. Benedict had made rules for the persons who wished to serve
God, and to live apart from the world. They lived in buildings named
monasteries, or convents; the men, who were called monks, under the
rule of an abbot, the women, nuns, under an abbess. They took a vow of
poverty, chastity, and obedience; lived and worked as hard as possible,
and spent much time in prayer and doing good, teaching the young, giving
medicine to the sick, and feeding the poor. They would fix their home in
a waste land, and bring it into good order, and they went out preaching
and convening the heathen near. Everyone honoured them; and in the worst
times, they were left unhurt; their lands were not robbed, and in those
savage days, little that was gentle or good would have been safe but for
the honour paid to the Church.
LESSON XXIX.
MAHOMET.
"God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie."--2
_Thess_. ii. 11.
The Eastern Empire was not broken up like the Western. The emperors
reigned at Constantinople in great state and splendour, in palaces lined
with porphyry and hung with purple, and filled with gold and silver.
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