Excerpt from History of Rome and the Popes in the Middle Ages, Vol. 3 Such was the growth Of monasticism in the Church, that the tree spread its manifold branches over Italy, North Africa, and Spain; over the ancient Provinces Of the Roman Empire in the North, and over the newly founded States, even as far as Britain and Ireland. In the sixth century, in the monastery Of Bangor, on the east coast Of Ireland, three thousand monks, supporting them selves by manual labour, and, divided into seven choirs, kept up day and night an unceasing service Of song. In Gaul, in the beginning Of the fifth century, according to Sulpicius Severus, a contemporary, no less than two thousand monks assembled for the funeral Of the great founder of monasteries, St. Martin Of Tours. In Spain, St. Martin Of Bracara (braga), who worked among the Suevi of Galleccia, took as his example the monastic and apostolic ministry Of his namesake Of Tours. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.