they wore breeches, but, at other times, their gown was to suffice. A blanket, quilt, and pillow was allotted to each brother, and the abbot was frequently to search under the beds to see whether a monk had concealed anything which he had not received from the convent. Severe were the terms of entrance--four or five days was the applicant to bear the rebuffs of the porter; and then to be received in the room appointed for the guests, where some aged brother was to explain to him the most rigorous parts of the monastic discipline, when, if he were willing to submit to them, he was received into the class of novices, upon trial for twelve months, after which, if obedient and willing to give up all he had, he was to be fully admitted into the order. A solemn profession was made, his secular garments were placed in the wardrobe, his vow was considered irrevocable, and the bond he subscribed, or signed with the cross, was laid up among the archives of the monastery, as the pledge of obedience for ever. Strange monks who visited a monastery were to be kindly entertained, so long as they chose to remain in obedience, but the abbot was not to receive the member of any other known monastery without letters of dismission. The brethren were to take precedence according to their seniority in the convent: but all were to be obedient to the abbot; not even going out, without seeking his permission and prayers. To these regulations, respecting the order of the society, are appended a number of short moral and religious maxims, breathing a pure, benevolent, and devout spirit.[2] St. Benedict was a reformer, and the rule he instituted was undoubtedly a great improvement upon the monastic habits of earlier times. Its success was great beyond expectation, for, being approved by popes and councils, it was, in process of time, adopted as the universal system of the west. The reader, no doubt, in perusing these rules, has caught some glimpses of the monastic life, and has pictured to himself the habits of the brotherhood: and now, to assist him in his imaginings, to give a local habitation and a name to the picture he may form, let us open the chronicle of a monastery in the eighth century, and take a peep at one of the structures within which communities of this kind were gathered.