The views of the new Protestantism concerning monasticism are probably no less excessive than those of the old.
But when, in consequence of the Arab invasion, the monasticism of those countries was cut off from intercourse with the rest of Christendom, it decayed.
Like the new theology and the new science of law, the new monasticism was also rooted in Latin soil.
The first monk to become pope, Gregory was naturally a strong supporter of monasticism.
In all these lesser orders may be discerned the tendency of a return to the elements of Eastern monasticism discarded by St Benedict - to the eremitical life; to the purely contemplative life with little or no factor of work; to the undertaking of rigorous bodily austerities and penances - it was at this time that the practice of self-inflicted scourgings as a penitential exercise was introduced.