" Another endowment was made by Peter, Knight of
Maull, in these quaint terms: "I, Peter, profiting by this lesson, and
desirous, though a sinner and unworthy, to provide for my future
destiny, I have desired that the bees of God may come to gather their
honey in my orchards, so that when their fair hives shall be full of
rich combs, they may be able to remember him by whom the hive
was given."
The people believed that the prayers of the monks lifted their souls
into heaven; that their curses doomed them to the bottomless pit. A
monastery was the safe and sure road to heaven. The observation of
Gibbon respecting the early monks is applicable to all of them: "Each
proselyte who entered the gates of a monastery was persuaded that he
trod the steep and thorny path of eternal happiness."
The second cause for monasticism in general was a natural love of
solitude, which became almost irresistible when reinforced by a despair
of the world's redemption. The poet voiced the feelings of almost every
soul, at some period in life, when he wrote:
"O for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumor of oppression or deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,
Might never reach me more."
The longing for solitude accompanied the desire for salvation. An
unconquerable weariness of the world, with its strife and passion,
overcame the seeker after God. A yearning to escape the duties of social
life, which were believed to interfere with one's duty to God, possessed
his soul.
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