Note 11 — BENEDICT OF NURSIA AND THE ORDER OF THE BENEDICTINES.
Reading edition
Pope Gregory believed the rule of St. Benedict even to be directly inspired, and Bossuet (Panégyrie de Saint Benoît), in evident exaggeration, calls it 'an epitome of Christianity, a learned and mysterious abridgement of all doctrines of the gospel, all the institutions of the holy fathers, and all the counsels of perfection.' Montalembert speaks in a similar strain of French declamatory eloquence.