Benedict's two important principles--to which cloisters hitherto had been unaccustomed--were industry and strict discipline. These principles made the Benedictine the most successful and beneficent of all monastic orders. It grew rapidly, and within one hundred years from its foundation there were more than two hundred and fifty Benedictine monasteries. It is claimed that the order has produced 4600 bishops, 1600 archbishops, 200 cardinals, 40 popes, 50 patriarchs, 4 emperors, 12 empresses, 46 kings, 41 queens, 3600 canonized saints, and 15,700 authors, and that prior to the French Revolution it possessed 37,000 cloisters. There have been times when the wealth of this order in some states comprised more than half of all the property. The Benedictine monks tilled the soil of the country surrounding their monasteries, literally making the "desert blossom as the rose." They were untiring in zeal for the Church and in deeds of mercy. They established cloister schools in Italy, France, Spain, England, Ireland, Germany, and Switzerland. Monte Cassino (529), Italy; Canterbury (586) and Oxford (ninth century), England; St. Gall (613), Switzerland; Fulda (744), Constance, Hamburg, and Cologne (tenth century), Germany; Lyons, Tours, Paris, and Rouen (tenth century), France; Salzburg (696), Austria; and many other schools were founded chiefly by the Benedictines. Among the many great teachers that they produced were Alcuin of England, Boniface of Germany, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and Abelard. It thus appears that the Benedictine order took a deep interest in education, and their work deserves a most honorable place among the educational agencies of the period under discussion. =The Seven Liberal Arts.=--We have seen that much attention was always given to religious instruction in the Christian schools. The Bible, the doctrines of the Church, and its rites and ceremonies were at first exclusively taught. But later secular branches were introduced. These secular branches were known as the seven liberal arts, which comprised the following subjects:-- {Reading and {1. Grammar. {Writing. {I. Trivium[1] {2. Rhetoric. The Seven { {3. Logic. Liberal Arts. { { {1. Arithmetic. { {2. Music. { II. Quadrivium[31] {3. Geometry. { {4. Astronomy. This course required seven years. Latin was the only language used, and consequently the native tongues suffered. The _trivium_ was the most popular course; such knowledge was considered an absolute necessity for any one making claim to culture. After completing the _trivium_, those who wished for higher culture studied the _quadrivium_.