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and discipline were observed; but two things contributed to its decline, and at length brought on its ruin; the first was, the violent contest which arose between the clerks and the converts, on account of the pre-eminence which the latter pretended over the former; and the second was, the gradual diminution of the rigour and austerity of Stephen's rule, which was softened and mitigated from time to time, both by the heads of the order, and by the Roman pontiffs. This once famous monastic society was distinguished by the title of the order of grandmontains, as Muret, where they were first established, was situated near Grammont, in the province of Limoges.'

The order of

XXVII. In the year 1084, was instituted the famous order of Carthusians, so called from Chartreux, a dismal and wild spot of ground, near Grenoble in Dau- the Carthuphine, surrounded with barren mountains and sians. craggy rocks. The founder of this monastic society, which surpassed all the rest in the extravagant austerity of their manners and discipline, was Bruno, a native of Cologn, and canon of the cathedral of Rheims in France. zealous ecclesiastic, who had neither power to reform, nor patience to bear the dissolute manners of his archbishop Manasse, retired from his church with six of his companions, and having obtained the permission of Hugh, bishop of Grenoble, fixed his residence in the miserable desert already mentioned." He adopted at first the rule of St. Bene

This

f The origin of this order is related by Bernard Guidon, whose treatise upon that subject is published in the Bibliotheca Manuscriptorum, Phil. Labbei, tom. ii. p. 275. For an account of the history of this celebrated society, see Jo, Mabillon, Annal. Bened. tom. v. p. 65, s. p. 99, tom. vi. p. 116, and Præf. ad Actor. SS. Ord. Bened. Sæc. vi. part i- p. 34. Helyot, Hist. des Ordres, tom. vii. p. 409. Gallia Christ. Monachor. Bened. tom. ii. p. 645. Baluzii Vita Pontif. Avenionens. tom. i. p. 158, et Miscellanea, tom. vii. p. 486. The life and ghostly exploits of Stephen, the founder of this order, are recorded in the Acta Sanctorum, tom. ii. Febr. p. 199.

g Some place the institution of this order in the year 1080, and others in the year 1086.

h The learned Fabricius mentions, in his Bibl. Lat. medii avi, tom. ii. p. 784, several writers who have composed the history of Bruno and his order, but his enumeration is incomplete; since there are yet extant many histories of the Carthusians, that have escaped his notice. See Innocent. Massoni Annales Carthusian. published in the year 1687. Petri Orlandi Chronicon Carthusianum, and the clegant, though imperfect history of the order in question, which is to be found in Helyot's Hist. des Ordres, tom. vii. p. 366. Many important illustrations on the nature and laws of this famous society have been published by Mabillon, in his Annal. Benedict. tom. vi. p. 638, 683. A particular and accurate account of Bruno has been given by the Benedictine monks, in their Hist. Liter. de la France, tom. ix. p. 233; but a yet more ample one will be undoubtedly given by the compilers of the Acta Sanctorum, when they shall have carried on their work to the 6th of October, which is the festival consecrated to the memory of Bruno. It was a current report in ancient times, that the occasion of Bruno's retreat was the miraculous restoration of a certain priest to life, who, while the funerál

dict, to which he added a considerable number of severe and rigorous precepts; his successors however went still farther, and imposed upon the Carthusians new laws much more intolerable than those of their founder, laws which inculcated the highest degrees of austerity that the most gloomy imagination could invent. And yet, notwithstanding all this, it is remarkable, that no monastic society degenerated so little from the severity of their primitive institution and discipline as this of the Carthusians. The progress of their order was indeed less rapid, and their influence less extensive in the different countries of Europe, than the progress and influence of those monastic establishments, whose laws were less rigorous, and whose manners were less austere. It was a long time before the tender sex could be engaged to submit to the savage rules of this melancholy institution; nor had the Carthusian order ever reason to boast of a multitude of females subjected to its jurisdiction; it was too forbidding to captivate a sex, which, though susceptible of the seductions of enthusiasm, is of a frame too delicate to support the severities of a rigorous self denial.*

XXVIII. Toward the conclusion of this century,' the order of St. Anthony of Vienne in Dauphine, The order of was instituted for the relief and support of such as were seized with grievous disorders, and was particularly the disease called St. Anthony's fire. All

St. Anthony of

Vienne.

service was performing, raised himself up and said, "By the just judgment of God I am damned," and then expired anew. This story is looked upon as fabulous by the most respectable writers, even of the Roman church, especially since it has been refuted by Launoy, in his treatise De causa Secessus Brunonis in Desertum. Nor does it seem to preserve its credit among the Carthusians, who are more interested than others in this pretended miracle. Such of them at least as affirm it, do it with a good deal of modesty and diffidence. The arguments on both sides are candidly and accurately enumerated by Cæs. Egass. du Boulay, in his Histor. Academ. Paris. tom, i. p. 467.

i See Mabillon, Præf. ad Sac. vi. pars ii. Actor. SS. Ord. Bened. p. 37.

k The Carthusian nuns have not sufficiently attracted the attention of the authors who have written concerning this famous order; nay, several writers have gone so far as to maintain, that there was not in this order a single convent of nuns. This notion however is highly erroneous; as there were formerly several convents of Carthusian virgins, of which indeed the greatest part have not subsisted to our times. In the year 1368, there was an extraordinary law passed, by which the establishment of any more female Carthusian convents was expressly prohibited. Hence there remain only five at this day; four in France, and one in Bruges in Flanders. See the Varietes Historiques Physiques et Literaires, tom. i. p. 80, published at Paris in 8vo. in the year 1752. Čertain it is, that the rigorous discipline of the Carthusians is quite inconsistent with the delicacy and tenderness of the female sex; and therefore, in the few female convents of that order that still subsist, the austerity of that discipline has been diminished, as well from necessity, as from humanity and wisdom; it was more particularly found necessary to abrogate those severe injunctions of silence and solitude, that are so little adapted te the known character and genius of the sex.

1 In the year 1095.

who were infected with that pestilential disorder repaired to a cell built near Vienne by the Benedictine monks of Grammont, in which the body of St. Anthony was said to repose, that by the prayers and intercessions of this eminent saint, they might be miraculously healed. Gaston, an opulent nobleman of Vienne, and his son Guerin, pretended to have experienced, in their complete recovery, the marvellous efficacy of St. Anthony's intercession, and, in consequence thereof, devoted themselves and their possessions, from a principle of pious gratitude, to the service of St. Anthony, and to the performance of generous and charitable offices toward all such as were afflicted with the miseries of poverty and sickness. Their example was followed, at first, but by eight persons; their community however was afterward considerably augmented. They were not bound by particular vows like the other monastic orders, but were consecrated in general to the service of God, and lived under the jurisdiction of the monks of Grammont. In process of time, growing opulent and powerful by the multitude of pious donations they received from all parts, they withdrew themselves from the dominion of the Benedictines, propagated their orders in various countries, and at length obtained, in the year 1297, from Boniface VIII. the dignity and privileges of an independent congregation, under the rule of St. Augustin.

XXIX. The licentiousness and corruption that had infected all the other ranks and orders of the clergy, The order of were also remarkable among the canons, which canons. was a middle sort of order between the monks and secular priests, and whose first establishment was in the eighth century. In certain provinces of Europe, the canons were corrupted to a very high degree, and surpassed, in the scandalous dissolution of their manners, all the other ecclesiastical and monastic orders. Hence several pious and virtuous persons exerted their zeal for the reformation of this degenerate body; some pontiffs appeared in this good cause, and more especially Nicolas II. who, in a council held at Rome in the year 1059, abrogated the ancient rule

m See the Acta Sanctor. tom. ii. Januarii, p. 160. Helyot, Hist. des Ordres, tom. ii. p. 108. Gabr. Penott. Histor. Canonicorum regular. lib. ii. cap. 70. Jo. Erh. Kapii, Diss. de fratribus S. Anton. published at Leipsic, in the year 1737. For an account of the present state of this principal hospital or residence of this order, where the abbot remains, see Martene and Durand, Voyage Liter. de deux Benedictins de la Congreg. de St. Maur. tom. i. p. 260.

of the canons, which had been drawn up at Aix la Chapelle, and substituted another in its place." These laudable attempts were attended with considerable success, and a much better rule of discipline was established in almost all the canonical orders, than that which had been formerly in use. It was not however possible to regulate them all upon the same footing, and to subject them to the same degree of reformation and discipline; nor indeed was this necessary. Accordingly a certain number of these canonical colleges were erected into communities, the respective members of which had one common dwelling, and a common table, which was the point chiefly insisted upon by the pontiffs, as this alone was sufficient to prevent the canons from entering into the bonds of matrimony. It did not however exclude them from the possession or enjoyment of private property; for they reserved to themselves the right of appropriating to their own use the fruits and revenues of their benefices, and of employing them as they thought expedient. Other canonical congregations subjected themselves to a rule of life less agreeable and commodious, in consequence of the zealous exhortations of Ivo, or Ives, bishop of Chartres, renouncing all their worldly possessions and prospects, all private property, and living in a manner that resembled the austerity of the monastic orders. Hence arose the well-known distinction between the secular and the regular canons; the former of which observed the decree of Nicolas II. while the latter, more prone to mortification and self-denial, complied with the directions and jurisdictions of Ivo; and as this austere prelate imitated St. Augustin' in the manner of regulating the conduct of his clergy, his canons were called by many the regular canons of St. Augustin."

n This decree of Nicolas II. by which the primitive rule of the canons was changed, is published by Mabillon among the papers, which serve as proofs to the fourth volume of his Annales Bened, and also in the Annals themselves. See tom. iv. Annal. Bened. p. 748, as also lib. Ixi. § xxxv. p. 586.

o St. Augustin committed to writing no particular rule for his clergy; but his manner of ruling them may be learned from several passages in his Epistles.

p See Mabillon, Annal. Bened. tom. iv. p. 586, et Opera Posihuma, tom. ii. p. 102, 115. Helyot, Hist. des Ordres, tom. ii. p. 11. Lud. Thomassini Disciplina Ecclesia circa Beneficia, tom. i. pars i. l. iii. c. xi. p. 657. Muratori, Antiq. Ital. medii ævi, tom. v. p. 257. In the Gallia Christiana of the Benedictine monks, we find frequent mention made both of this reformation of the canons, and also of their division into seculars and regulars. The regular canons are much displeased with all the accounts that render the origin of their community so recent; they are extremely ambitious of appearing with the venerable character of an ancient establishment, and therefore trace back their first rise, through the darkness of the remotest ages, to Christ himself, or at least

xxx. The most eminent Greek writers of this century, were,

The principal

Theophanes Cerameus, i. e. the potter, of whom Greek writers. there is yet extant a volume of Homilies, that are not altogether contemptible;

Nilus Doxopatrius, who was remarkable for his knowledge in matters relating to ecclesiastical polity;

Nicetas Pectoratus, who was a most strenuous defender of the religious sentiments and customs of the Greek church; Michael Psellus, whose vast progress in various kinds of learning and science procured him a most distinguished and shining reputation;

Michael Cerularius, bishop or patriarch of Constantinople, who imprudently revived the controversy between the Greeks and Latins, which had been for some time happily suspended;

Simeon the Younger, author of a book of Meditations on the Duties of the Christian life, which is yet extant;

Theophylact, a Bulgarian, whose illustrations of the sacred writings were received with universal approbation and esteem."

XXXI. The writers who distinguished themselves most among the Latins, were they that follow:

Latin writer.

to St. Augustin. But the arguments and testimonies, by which they pretend to support this imagined antiquity of their order, are a proof of the weakness of their cause and of the vanity of their pretensions, and are not worthy of a serious refutation. It is true, the title of canons is undoubtedly of much more ancient date, than the eleventh century, but not as applied to a particular order or institution, for at its first rise it was used in a very vague general sense, see Claud de Vert, Explications des Ceremonies de la Messe, tom. i. p. 58, and therefore the mere existence of the title proves nothing. At the same time it is evident beyond all possibility of contradiction, that we find not the least mention made of the division of the canons into regular and secular before the eleventh century. And it is equally certain, that those canons, who had nothing in common but their dwelling and table, were called secular; while those who had divested themselves of all private property, and had every thing without exception in common with their fraternity, were distinguished by the title of regular canons.

To Dr. Mosheim's account of the canons, it may not be improper to add a few words concerning their introduction into England, and their progress and establishment among us. The order of regular canons of St. Augustin was brought into England by Adelwald, confessor to Henry I. who first erected a priory of his order at Nostel, in Yorkshire, and had influence enough to have the church of Carlisle converted into an episcopal see, and given to regular canons invested with the privilege of choosing their bishop. This order was singularly favoured and protected by Henry I. who gave them, in the year 1107, the priory of Dunstable, and by queen Mand, who erected for them, the year following, the priory of the Holy Trinity in London, the prior of which was always one of the twenty-four aldermen. They increased so prodigiously that, beside the noble priory of Merton, which was founded for them in the year 1117, by Gilbert, an earl of the Norman blood, they had, under the reign of Edward I. fifty-three priories, as appears by the catalogue presented to that prince, when he obliged all the monas teries to receive his protection, and to acknowledge his jurisdiction.

q For a more ample account of these Greek writers, the reader may consult the Bibliotheca Græca of Fabricius.

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