"One loving spirit," said St.Augustine, "sets another on fire"; and expressed in this phrase the law which governs the spiritual history of man.

This law finds notable expression in the phenomena of the Religious Order; a type of association, found in more or less perfection in every great religion, which has not received the attention it deserves from students of psychology.

If we study the lives of those who founded these Orders--though such a foundation was not always intended by them--we notice one general characteristic: each was an enthusiast, abounding in zest and hope, and became in his lifetime a fount of regeneration, a source of spiritual infection, for those who came under his influence.
In each the spiritual world was seen "through a temperament," and so mediated to the disciples; who shared so far as they were able the master's special secret and attitude to life.

Thus St.Benedict's sane and generous outlook is crystallized in the Benedictine rule.

St.
Francis' deep sense of the connection between poverty and freedom gave Franciscan regeneration its peculiar character.