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The origin of this monastic rule is the subject of some debate. Some say Benedict originated it himself; others see in it the adaptation of an older Essene discipline known as the "rule of the Master." Whatever the case, it was not Saint Benedict's and Saint-Maur's only claim to fame. They also introduced into their order the seeds of the desire for knowledge, which soon grew in a most great and salutary fashion. Their monastery soon became the repository of the archives of the Christian world. They systematically sought out and collected all the classical manuscripts, which the earlier Catholic Church had the unfortunate tendency to burn as "heretical." When the barbarian Lombards destroyed the monastery a few years later, the first things that the monks saved, even before the relics of their saint, were the precious manuscripts, which they transported to Rome. Thanks
to them we know of Pythagoras,
Plato, Aristotle and the Orleans soon saw the arrival in the region of some groups of monks detached from Monte Cassino and sent to places where Christianity was flourishing. They brought the examples of the discipline and humility and the torch of learning that would enlighten even the humblest people. *In Orleans, between the death of Clovis and the reunification of all his possession in the hands of his son Clotaire in 558, only three bishops held office: Eusebius, who died in 520; Leontius and Antonius, who had unremarkable terms of office; and then, in about 543, came Marcus. Let us recall how Clovis had gotten rid of Rigomer and Raghenaer, members of the Merovingian family. Rigomer had had two sons: one, born in Orleans, was named Liphard; his brother Leonard was born a few kilometers away, in a hamlet named Ormes. It appears that Leonard entered the monastery of Micy upon its founding. His name is found in found in those of many villages of Beauce, among others, and also in the much later annals of the Cathars, who would consider him a martyr. Be it said with all due respect to the worthiness of good Leonard, the early medieval church seems to have been much less picky than today's in the process of canonization. The saints of the time were legion and could be found on almost every street corner. His brother Liphard was especially interested in literature and law. He was count of Orleans, and it seems likely that this post was a delicate one in such an unstable time, when three different legal codes were in force according to the nationality of the parties in each case. At the age of 40, Liphard retired from civilian life, which must not have been an entirely unenviable one, and joined the clergy at Micy. He stayed there for a while and then left the monastery with another monk named Urbice to seek a place of solitude where he could meditate. He found this place near the Loire, on the banks of the Mauve, a little river then mostly marshland. In his time, the ruins of an old Gallic oppidum existed on high ground near the river. He built his monk's cell there and set to work. At Meung-sur-Loire, he diligently began again what Saint Mesmin had done a few decades earlier at Micy: clearing land, draining swamps, building a chapel, cultivating fields and souls. Liphard founded a school at Meung that would soon become famous.. As the same causes had the same effects in this case, Liphard soon had the same reputation for religious sanctity as his elder brother. Under Marcus, bishop of Orleans in about 543, Saint Maur came to Orleans and stayed a few days. This first visit by the disciple and successor of Saint Benedict coincided with the fourth council, in which the episcopacy of Gaul strove to maintain the majesty of Christian dogma and the purity of its ethics. It must be concluded that the teachings were still a bit shaky in the minds of the faithful and that popular culture still reeked of the Druids. Marcus went to visit the site of Cléry on the left bank of the Loire, almost opposite Meung. He found Liphard, whom he knew by reputation, in his hermitage and, touched by his virtue, ordained him a priest. Since his installation in Meung, Liphard had attracted some disciples, who had been drawn by his sanctity, and who lived in monks' cells surrounding his. Among other powers, Liphard had the gift of prophecy. God had revealed that he would soon die; he told his companions of this revelation and, leaving them his faithful friend Urbice as their abbot, he died the following year. Urbice enlarged the chapel and made it the church of Meung, dedicated to Liphard. In Liphard's memory, another church was raised in the town of Orleans in order to commemorate the place of his death as well as that of his birth, as was done at the time for any self-respecting saint. The monks of Meung channeled the Mauve river by erecting roaded levees that narrowed the stream and increased its rate of flow. That made it possible to construct water mills. Thus the town of Meung became a small city that was important because of its tannery, flour, vineyard, and cooperage. It takes its place in history for the first time, and we will find it again much more often than one would expect... *At about this time, a young deacon in precarious health named Gregory arrived in Tours. He was a descendant of a great Gallo-Roman aristocratic family from Auvergne and grand-nephew of Saint-Dizier of Lyons. He visited the tomb of Saint Martin and was healed. He settled in Tours, where he soon became known for his good judgment and piety. In 537 he was elected bishop. An important moment in civilization had begun, for the memory of the West was in place. He was Gregory of Tours, a prolific writer and observer of his times. He wrote the "History of the Franks," the main source of knowledge about the Merovingian dynasty. He also wrote much about the miracles and the lives of saints. The city of Tours prospered under his leadership, and an abbey was formed around the basilica of Saint Martin, which had been built a century earlier. Gregory died in 594, but his publication, not to say his public relations work, was well done. For
a long time, people had come in droves to seek healing. The pilgrimage
to Saint-Martin of Tours acquired great renown, supported as it
was by the stories of miracles that took place at the saint's
tomb. Believers, the curious, kings, princes and highwaymen came
to ask forgiveness for their misdeeds or crimes. A royal franchise gave the abbey the right to coin money. It made mostly small change in the form of silver coins. But enough was known about economics at the time, and there was no hesitation in inventing a strong currency based on gold. It would become for a long time the French and even European monetary unit: the LIVRE TOURNOIS or the "Tours pound." Although it was a written currency rather than coinage, the Tours pound soon became the monetary standard of choice for the following centuries. It would be the basis for the first "gold franc" or rex francorum as it is known to numismatists; it would be ordered by Jean le Bon ("John the Good") nearly 700 years later, and would be present even in the royal bank notes printed by John Law in 1718, with the face values of 1000, 100 and 10 Tours pounds. For all practical purposes, the Tours pound will still be present under another name in our stock market until the advent of the Euro. After Clotaire II, bloody feuds again raged in the Merovingian family, except under the reign of Dagobert (629-639), when the country experienced a period of calm. After Dagobert came a series of what may be called "figurehead kings" who left no great mark on the Loire valley. After them, the Carolingian dynasty began to take control of the kingdom through the office of the "palace mayors," but a century would go by before the advent of Charles Martel ("Charles the Hammer"). Let us then continue to follow through these misty times the sprouting of the seeds of civilization sown by a few modest monks...
*
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enoit
de Nursie (Benedict of Nursia), who came to be known as 
Alexandrine philosophers. 