-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/9eb151347ba6d50dca8b4be02c8ba926.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=DdG-BWWW78Y5DxTDUruVAtHZgeX95kMtsP%7EwW8PiPwUbU-WURgCUhlCjbhzzIzptJJuXoALv6lxqPXYilITRMS4V6UlF1OAdKceiETAHEs9dABMyJZmIt4kwvDTQz8J5UccMl2AhsM70p%7Ed5vd5I4eBcfRxD%7EHI2P-DobFDfx2wbmqpJplaCoU2CQzRGj3XHNtmfylFKkVGkAiiGsgutmscRUVCFlZg1%7ELZzgZeIbNEipX9HpO84KDnme2JeH4ky6IPSlX8h8KabAASf5y0LMQuSVB5vWT1w9aSZDJMV12c3j%7Ek1LfdAuwVVy7Tj8%7EFyerUmqHH5Iez7aEn2ff0Maw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
f0c3e22787415857d319522e34397712
PDF Text
Text
The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
vanity had helped to spread so deadly an influence. If he had lived a
little longer she might have changed him. So she thought; but Alice
knew better, and when she wept because she had been too late, the
dead man’s daughter knew that any time since Paul’s funeral would
have been too late. If she had talked to Lock every day it would not
have changed him. Only one thing, only Paul’s example, would have
taught him better, and that had gone to strengthen him in his folly.
(2’o be continued.)
IRelitjious ©tiicrs of tlje IfBititile
BY DENHAM ROWE NORMAN, VICAR OF MIDDLETON-BY-WIRKSWORTH.
The Monastic Orders.—The Benedictines.
E are not for a moment to imagine that such a vast and
I
I long-lived system as that which is known as ‘Monasticism,’
I
j sprung up in the Church at short notice or without signs
i of its approaching advent. On the contrary, in the
earliest pages of Church history there are unmistakable
traces of a desire for a holier life than that which could be lived in
the world. The worries and anxieties of daily occurrence were a
burden too heavy for some, who panted after a nearer approach to a
true Christian life. These sensitive people fretted, and chafed, and
pined, in the presence of so much evil as they saw around them; and
thus uneasy and unhappy,
‘ Each was ambitious of the obscurest place.’
From Apostolic times there was a class of Christian converts who
exercised greater self-denial, lived after a stricter rule, than their
fellow-men; and as it would appear, the austere and hard lives led
by these members of the Church, instead of causing a decrease, led to
an increase in their numbers. A danger seems to have been threat
ened to the peace of the Church by some of the customs and doctrines
of these more rigid and exacting Christians; for we find, in a set of
rules of great authority, called the ‘ Apostolic Canons,’ this command:
‘ If any bishop, presbyter, or deacon, or any other of the clergy,
abstain from marriage, flesh, or wine, not for exercise sake, but as
abominating the good creatures of God, &c. . . . let him either reform
himself or be deposed and cast out of the Church.’
By-and-by, not only did Christians crave to live thus severely,
but desired to give up all they had in the world and lead a life of
absolute poverty. Events happened presently which were favourable
to those who felt such desires. In the terrible times of the Docian
persecution, a.d. 249—251, when Fabianus, Bishop of Rome, Alexander
of Jerusalem, and Babylas of Antioch, suffered death, when the learned
Origen with others were imprisoned, very many Christians fled to the
deserts, woods, and caves for safety. These refuges were so prized,
became so dear to the fugitives, that'even, when all dangers had passed
away, they were chosen rather than dwellings in towns and cities.
There was now to be a fresh and strong movement in favour of
the solitary or monastic way of life. About the year a.d. 251 there
was born at the village of Coma, in Upper Egypt, one whose life
became the model of all who aimed at perfection in this point. Anthony,
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
■*
;
or, as he is sometimes styled, St. Anthony, gave up all his possessions,
retired from the society of men, dwelt in a hole of a rock, and spent
his time in acts of devotion. Crowds of admirers soon came to his
retreat, seeking counsel, desiring to settle down near to him, and spend
their lives after his pattern.
The first seeds of this system of solitary life having thus been
sown, there was soon an appearance of an abundant crop. Hilarion,
a disciple of Anthony, was ready to plant the system of monastic life
in Palestine ; whilst Basil the Great of Caesarea, the friend and fellow
student of Gregory Nazianzen, helped on the cause amongst Christ
ians in Syria and Asia Minor. The first religious house where monks
of various degrees and estates lived under the rule or guidance of a
chief or abbot was founded by Pachomius, in Egypt. ‘ Pachomius,’
as a quaint author writes, ‘ by the help of God effected this.’
It is generally supposed that Athanasius introduced this solitary
life into Europe. Living in banishment at Borne, a.d. 341, this bold
champion of the faith wrote a life of St. Anthony. This biography was
translated into Latin, and was most eagerly read by numerous citizens.
This sketch of a life of self-denial and seclusion attracted many and
convinced some. There was a company ready to adopt this life. One
by one the names of those who are familiar to us as leading Churchmen
in the fourth and fifth centuries appear as countenancing this isolated
and austere life,—St. Ambrose of Milan, St. Martin of Tours, and
St. Jerome. The last-named writer often in his letters speaks of the
joys of this life, and compares the sweetness of happiness he derived
from dwelling in the village of Bethlehem with the splendours and
attractions of Borne. ‘ At Bethlehem, Christ’s little village, there was
nothing to be heard but psalms; one could not go into the field but he
heard the ploughman singing his hallelujahs, the mower comforting
himself with hymns, and the vine-dressers tuning David’s Psalms.’
Jn the East and in the West the system had found a home within
the Church, and its friends were not slow in trying to prove what
could be done by men thus withdrawn from the business of life in
spreading the Christian religion far and wide. In France, in Britain,
in Ireland, zealous and tried members wrought, and prayed, and taught,
with little to cheer them but a strong sense of duty. Scattered far
and wide as sheep without a shepherd, under no general law, respon
sible to no central head, with many individual members of depraved
and unruly life, there needed some strong and firm master to stand
up among the monks as governor. About the year a.d. 480 such
a man was born at Norsia, in Italy, by name Benedict. Whilst at
Borne receiving his education, he became so uneasy at the evils he
saw on every side, that at the early age of fifteen he left Borne and
retired to a solitary rock, where he was supported by a daily meal
from the scanty store of a monk of Subiaco, whose name was Bomanus.
Discovered at length in his retreat by some shepherds, Benedict spent
his time in instructing them, and persuading them to devote themselves
to the service of God. When about thirty years of age, a.d. 510,
Benedict was chosen as abbot of a monastery near his retreat; but
he soon gave such offence to the brethren by his austere and holy
living, that they tried to take his life by poison.
Betiring again to his rock, there were soon vast numbers seeking
7
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
his company and desiring his advice. Shortly he was able to found
twelve monasteries or homes, with an abbot and twelve monks in each
dwelling, a.d. 528, owing to misunderstandings with a priest named
Florentius, St. Benedict left Subiaco, and after a while came with his
A bENEblCTINE, FliuM DL’GJJALE’S ‘WARWICKSHIRE.’
companions to Monte Cassino. In the neighbourhood of this small
town there was a lofty eminence, where stood a temple of the heathen
god Apollo, and a sacred grove. Benedict presently so far prevailed
that the heathen god was destroyed, the grove cut down, and a Christian
oratory, or church, was erected, which was dedicated to St. John and
St. Martin. Above the church was eventually founded the celebrated
Monastery, which has ever since been regarded as the chief and central
home of the Order.
Whilst completing his buildings in this retired spot, Benedict
S
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
drew up the laws of his famous 1 Rule of Life,’ which for a long course
of years was regarded as the model of all such religious codes. Ac
cording to the provisions of the Rules, those who after long and
anxious probation were admitted to fellowship, took upon themselves
the vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and readiness for manual
labour, which vows were to be regarded as irrevocable. Each Monastery
BATTLE ABBEY AS IT WAS ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS AGO.
adopting the Rule of St. Benedict, was to be governed by an abbot
chosen by the monks and approved by the bishop. The Brethren of
the Order were to rise two hours after midnight for matins, and if at
the monastery, to attend eight services daily: they were to be at manual
labour seven hours. The Psalter was to be repeated each week ; a
book was to be read aloud at every meal; two kinds of cooked vege
tables were permitted; to each monk was allowed a small measure of
wine. The Abbot of each Monastery was to discriminate and moderate
the labours which he imposed on each individual. He was to take for
his pattern the example of prudence presented in the words of the
9
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
patriarch, Gen. xxxiii. 13, ‘If men should overdrive them one day, all
the ilock will die.’ Hospitality was to be shown to all, and especially
to the poor: even the Abbot was required to share in washing the feet
of guests. It should be remembered that those monks, living thus
away from the world in retirement under the guidance of St. Benedict,
were laymen, not clergy. It is not known that even Benedict himself,
the founder of the Order, was ever ordained. The members of the
Order wore a distinctive dress or habit, usually black, but always of
a coarse and plain character.
For about fourteen years St. Benedict was spared to set a pattern
of industry, humiliation, and devotion, to his disciples, beseeching them
continually to avoid the sins of pride, idleness, and covetousness.
Finding that his life was drawing to a close he ordered his grave to
be dug; which order having been executed, he asked to be conveyed
to the spot. Looking at this narrow cell in silence, he after a while
said, ‘ Am I here to await, in this strait bed, a joyful resurrection?’
He rapidly sank, and died on March 21,543, being, as the old chroniclers
state, the eve of Passion Sunday.
The Benedictine Order from this time rapidly grew in the esteem of
devoted men. Members of influence soon founded monasteries in
Sicily, France, and Spain. In the year a.d. 596 the Order was intro
duced into England by Augustine, who was himself a member;
and it was not very long before almost every religious house in
England adopted, either by persuasion or compulsion, the Rule of the
famous Order. Gradually there sprang up in the several counties of
England noble homes of the Order, in which were presently gathered
sons of nobles and chiefs, ready to devote themselves to this life of
religious exercises. Thus we find, in a.d. 677, St. Peter’s at Wearmouth,
and St. Paul’s at Jarrow, were raised by Benedict, or Bennet Biscop, one
of whose pupils was the Venerable Bede. In a.d. 714 Croyland Abbey,
one of the very noblest of the many honies of the Order in Eng
land, was commenced. Every century saw some new house built,
and even when the Saxon rule was ended the Order of St. Benedict
was not left friendless or without a patron. Speed, in his history,
thus speaks of William the Conqueror as a supporter of the monks
of St. Benedict, p. 435:—‘Besides his many other stately buildings,
both for fortification and devotion, three Abbeyes of chiefe note he is
sayd to have raised, and endowed with large priviliges and rich pos
sessions. The first was at Battle in Sussex, where he wonne the
Diademe of England in the valley of Sangue-lac, so called in French,
for the streames of blood therein spilt. Most certain it is, that in the
very same place where King Harold’s Standard was pitched, and
under which himself was slain, there William the Conqueror laid that
foundation, dedicating it to the Holy Trinity and to S. Martin, that
ther the Monks might pray for the soules of Harold and the rest that
were slain in that place.’
From the reign of William, 1066, to the time of Henry VIII., 1546,
when all the Religious Houses of the Order were seized, there was a
gradual increase of the Order in England, so that at length a traveller
had not far to go who wished to visit the Benedictines from house to
house. Westminster Abbey was a Benedictine foundation, ro like
wise were Abingdon, St. Alban’s, and Glastonbury. Though energetic
10
�A Hint Well Taken.
and desirous of planting their Order ever in some new home, it would
be untrue to describe the Benedictines in these words:—
1 Like zealous missions, they did care pretend
Of souls in show, but made the gold their end ; ’
for it is to mon that England owes much of her mediaeval prosperity
and early civilisation. Forests were cleared by these monks, roads
were made, wastes reclaimed, fields tilled, churches built, schools taught,
books copied over and over again, heathenism rooted out. These were,
some of the many works which were done by these pioneers of enlight
enment. Though they have been styled by an eminent Frenchman,
M. Guizot, ‘ The Clearers ’ of Europe, yet their special work was the
*
foundation of schools of learning. Two silent but truthful witnesses
to the untiring zeal of the Benedictine Order on behalf of education
are those facts,— that in the precincts of their Abbey at Westminster
the first printing-press was set up in England, and that in Italy the
first printing-press which was put together was for the Order of
St. Benedict, at a small house at Subiaco, where St. Benedict had dwelt.
Though the Order was suppressed in England at the time of the
Reformation, yet it has existed in various countries of Europe; its
members toiling on still in their own line of literature, and giving the
world from time to time some of the noblest writings of ancient days,
edited with all that care and precision for which the Order has become
famous. The Benedictine edition of the early Church writers, such as
St. Augustine, is regarded as the standard edition. Though Monte
Cassino has passed through many troublous changes since the death of
the devoted Benedict, yet its substantial buildings in these days can
assure the traveller that the ‘ Benedictine Order ’ still survives, and
can welcome guests with a generous hospitality.
What an important part in the pages of history this noble Order
has played may be judged of when it is stated, that from its ranks
there have been chosen no fewer than forty popes, two hundred cardinals,
fifty patriarchs, one hundred and sixteen archbishops, four thousand
six hundred bishops, four emperors, twelve empresses, forty-six kings,
and forty-one queens.
& îWint toril Œafcen.
R. LOCKHART, of Glasgow, when travelling in Eng
land, was sojourning in an inn when Sunday came round. .
On entering the public room, and about to set out for 1
church, he found two gentlemen preparing for a game
at chess. He politely said to them : ‘ Gentlemen, have
you locked up your portmanteaus carefully?’
‘ No. What 1 are there thieves in this house ? ’
‘ I do not say that; only I was thinking that if the waiter comes
in and finds you making free with the fourth commandment, he may
think of making free with the eighth commandment.’ The gentlemen
said, ‘ There is something in that,’ and laid aside their game.
* Les Défricheurs de l’Europe.
11
�3acfc anti tije Hangman.
MOW, Jack, row fair and softly,’
i * The landsman gravely said,
‘We City men, at weary desk,
Work precious hard for bread.
Long hours, and barely room to turn,
While you are gay and free,
It makes it seem one holiday,
Your life, my friend, at sea.’
‘Aye! tis a famous life, sir,
When skies are blue and bright,
And winds are soft and favouring;
But come some stormy night
And stand beside me on the deck
Of our good ship Renown,
I wager you will heave a sigh
For your snug place in town.
I couldn’t stand your work, sir!
I grant you that, I own ;
But then you have your people round,
Yom family, your home:
While I, in sailing out of port,
Leave all I love behind,
And know my mother breaks her heart
With every puff of wind.
You take your walk o’ Sundays,
The girl a-near your heart,
Whom you will promise some fine day
To hold till death do part;
You saunter through the flowery lane
’Mid talk of that same day,
While I may whistle for my Jane
Some thousand miles away!
We're pretty much alike, sir—
Our lives are none too soft—
You sitting on your long-legged stool,
And I, poor Jack, aloft;
You gasping for a freer air,
I blown across the deck,
Both praying, if in different tongue,
“ Lord! keep our ship from wreck.”
I sometimes like to think, sir,
That He was once afloat,
Along with His disciples,
In that poor fisher-boat,
And saw tlie gale rise fierce and fast
In far-off Galilee,
Just as I've watched it on the deck
Of our good ship at sea.
12
�The Happiest Life.—The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
grew so fond of him that whenever, from his barking, they apprehended
danger, they would rush towards him for protection, and seek shelter
in his kennel. A farmer’s wife had a young duck which, by some
accident, was deprived of its companions, and attached itself to her.
Wherever she moved it followed her so closely that she was in constant
fear of treading upon and crushing it to death. It laid itself by the
fire and basked on the hearth, and when noticed seemed delighted.
This went on till some other ducks were procured, when, being con
stantly driven out of the house, it gradually associated with its more
natural companions.
Oe iWavincst ¡Life.
RATHER, I know that all my life
Is portioned out for me ;
And the changes that will surely come
I do not fear to see :
But I ask Thee for a present will
Intent on pleasing Thee.
I ask Thee for a thoughtful love,
Through constant watching wise,
To meet the glad with joyful smiles
And wipe the weeping eyes:
And a heart at leisure from itself
To soothe and sympathise.
I would not have the restless will
That hurries to and fro,
Seeking for some great tiling to do,
Or secret thing to know.
I would be treated like a child
And guided where to go.
Wherever in the world I am,
In whatsoe’er estate,
There is a fellowship with hearts
To keep and cultivate :
And a work of lowly love to do
For the Lord on Whom I wait.
I
I ask Thee for the daily strength,
To none that ask denied,
And a mind to blend with outward things
While keeping at Thy side:
Content to fill a little space
So Thou be glorified.
And if some things I do not seek
In my cup of blessing be,
I would have my spirit filled the more
With grateful love to Thee;
And careful less to serve Thee much
Than to please Thee perfectly.
There are briers besetting every path
Which call for patient care,
There is a cross in every lot,
And an earnest need for prayer:
But a lowly heart that leans on Thee
Is happy anywhere.
In service which Thy love appoints
There are no bonds for me ;
For my secret heart is taught the truth
Which makes Thy children free :
And a life of self-renouncing love
Is a life of liberty.
M. L. Waking.
Keligious ©rtrers of tfje IBüftile
BY DENHAM ROWE NORMAN, VICAR OF MIDDLET0N-BY-WIRK3W0RTH.
The Monastic Orders.— II. The Augustins.
the history of the ‘ Benedictine Order ’ it was stated that
the members of the Order were chiefly, if not entirely, lay
men ; Benedict himself, the founder, never having been
ordained. In the sketch now given of another famous
religious community, it is well to remark that the ‘Augus
tins’ were chiefly ordained men, or men who were looking forward to
ordination.
If, on several important matters, there were different opinions held
by the great doctors of the Christian Church, there seems to have been
but one opinion about the need of special homes, retired from the world,
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
for those who would devote themselves wholly to God’s service. On
this point of Christian order and discipline there appears to have been
a complete unity of sentiment. There were reasons why such a manner
of common life was then most desirable and most necessary.
It was in the earlier years of the fifth century that the movement
in favour of this retired life received a great impetus. There had
been signs of a desire for such a mode of life manifest for many years,
and these signs had become more and more evident as time went on ; but
now circumstances arose in which it was no longer possible to delay the
formation of companies of earnest and holy men, who might live together
apart from the cares and worry of the world.
From the year a.d. 400, the Christians living within the limits of
the Roman empire had to endure so many terrible and crushing evils,
that unless some such provision as that afforded by the foundation of
homes for study or retirement had been made, the fate and fortune of
Christianity in those countries would have been in imminent peril. In
the years a.d. 408-410 there came three separate invasions by the Visi
goths under Alaric. A little later there came the Vandals, under
Genseric; and, after a very brief interval, the Huns, under Attila,
who called himself ‘ the Scourge of God.’ In such times as these, when
armed and savage men were ever near at hand to spoil churches and
murder clergy and people without mercy, there was need of such places
of refuge as were now being formed.
Besides the troubles which came from without—which came from
heathen hands—in Northern Africa, there was another foe. Vast num
bers of men who called themselves Christians, but who in reality were
heretics, were continually harassing the members of the Church. These
Circumcelliones (vagrants), or, as they styled themselves, Agonistici
(combatants), were such a source of constant anxiety to the faithful,
that Augustine, bishop of Hippo, determined to collect into societies
those whose desire it was to become ordained servants of the Church.
In view of such trials as then pressed on Christians, when it is remem
bered that churches were desecrated, that clergy were imprisoned and
put to death, when the holy vessels were destroyed, is it a matter for
surprise if we find that such men as Augustine sanctioned and helped
to found homes,
‘ By shady oak, or limpid spring,
where faithful and self-denying men might keep alive and free from
error the religion of Jesus Christ ?
If, as there are some reasons for believing, Eusebius, bishop of
Vercelli, in the North of Italy, who flourished about the year a.d. 354,
and Hilary, bishop of Arles, 430-449, lived together with their clergy a
i common fife, yet it is to the widely known and venerated name of
1 St. Augustine that the fame attaches of having founded an Order of
religious men whose lives were to be passed in a home specially set
apart for their use. The strong and practical mind of this great Church
leader recognised the necessity of such an institution, and at once set
about its foundation. There must be such a brotherhood living under his
eye, listening to his teaching, yielding to his guidance, each and all of
which society were to aim at fulfilling, not only the precepts of the Gospel
but its COUNSELS.
One great idea of his life—an idea which Augustine had enter4
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
tained before his conversion to Christianity—was now carried out ; he
had established a community of religious men, but now, with that
shrewd good sense for which he is noted, he would guard against evils
which were likely to beset this company and hinder them in their
AN AUGUSTINIAN.
(FROJI DUGDALE’s ‘WARWICKSHIRE.’)
spiritual duties. The kind of life he designed for his brotherhood had
attractions for numbers who would have been but indifferent and, per
chance, unworthy members, and Augustine, with jealous care, provided
strict rules for the regulation of these unpromising postulants. He
saw men coming for admittance, many of whom were of the lower and
lowest classes, to whom
‘ The shining cincture and the broidered fold ’
of the monk were of more importance than the inner life of piety and
holiness. These he would not reject. ‘ These,’ said he, ‘ may become
5
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
honoured instruments in the hands of God ; for as it is written (1 Cor. i.
26-28) “ Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble, are called ; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the
world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of
the world to confound the things that are mighty, and base things of
the world and things which are despised hath God chosen.” ’ But for
all who were admitted to the Order or Community there was to be a
full occupation. For every member there was to be set out a measure
or portion of work. Hard, daily manual labour, in some shape or other,
was to be done by every monk. And besides the requirement of daily
tasks from each, there was a strict rule of life laid down, which went far
to secure order, usefulness, and spiritual growth in the members.
It was thus by drawing themselves together, and when formed into
compact bodies, that these servants of the Church would carry on the
work of teaching the people in the towns and villages, and train up
6ome of their brethren for the special work of going out into heathen
lands with the offer of salvation and eternal life. Those who had been
ordained, or who were expecting to be ordained, would in this way, by
living a retired, and holy, and self-denying life, win the hearts of men
and gain them over to the faith.
What had the sanction of such names as Eusebius of Vercelli, of
Hilary of Arles, and of St. Augustine of Hippo, soon became widely
known, and in a short time there was, in a vast number of dioceses,
similar communities. Bishops, in almost every European country,
founded and presided over bodies of their clergy; and hence what had
been commenced as an absolutely necessary institution in one, two, or
three countries, soon spread its branch-houses throughout the whole of
the Western Church, until ‘ The Augustins,' or those clergy who pro
fessed to live after the plan of life drawn up for the seminary at Hippo,
became a most important and considerable organised body of Church
workers .
From the fact that St. Augustine drew up his scheme for the regu
lation of the lives of his clerical community or ‘ Order,’ so as to be in
accordance not only with the distinct teaching of Holy Writ but with the
canons which had received the sanctions of General Councils of the
Church, those who adopted and carried out his rule became known as
‘ Canons,’ and a little later as ‘ Regular Canons.’ In the early days of
the foundation of the Order, when they were called sometimes ‘ The
Lord’s Brethren’ (Jratres Dominici),those bitter lines of Chaucer could
hardly have been a faithful description, when, in the Ploughman's Tale,
he says—
i
1
,
‘ And all such other Counterfaitors,
Chanons, Canons, and sueh disguised,
Been Goddes enemies and traytours,
His true religion hav some despised.’
It was only to be expected that an important, learned, and zealous
body of men, whose lives and labours for the good of men were well
reported of, and whose kindly offices were constantly sought after,
would, in the end, come into possession of lands and money. And as a
fact of history, these Augustins did thus draw to themselves an everincreasing number of gifts and presents. Benefactors became so many
*nd so liberal, that within a while the riches of the community became
6
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
z
a burden, hindering the members in the spiritual warfare on which they
had entered. There was a falling away in these Augustins, from that
plain, hard life, from that sharp discipline, which had been insisted on
by him whose name they bore. Indeed, the loose morals, the corrupted
condition of many societies of the Order, became so notorious, that respect
and regard were rapidly fading away.
About 750 a.d. the general state of the ' Augustin Order’ was so
serious as to attract the attention of a man of noble birth—Chrodegang,
a nephew of Pepin, and Archbishop of Metz. This prudent man,
observing the very different life led by these Augustins or Canons to
that which he knew to be the rule of the Order as drawn by St. Augus
tine, set himself the task of a reformation of these Canons. After a
time of consideration, Chrodegang issued a set of rules which are known
as the ‘ Sincere Rules of Metz,—Regulce Sincerce apud Mansi.' By these
rules there was to be a common refectory, a common dormitory, an uni
form dress. The clerical members—those, that is, who had already
been ordained—were bound to attend Divine service so many times aday, and each was to spend so much time in manual labour and so much
in study. Youngers were to show respect for elders. All .were to
receive Holy Communion every Sunday and high festival. Stripes and
confinement were inflicted for certain neglects or wrongs. The code, as
drawn up by Chrodegang, was laid before a council of the Church held
at Aix-la-Chapelle (about fifty years after the death of its author),
a.d. 816, under the presidency of Louis the Pious, and having obtained
the approval of the bishops and divines there assembled, it was soon
generally received and recognised as the Augustin Rule for Canons
Regular.
In the course of the next two or three centuries these ‘Canons’
increased again rapidly, both in numbers and influence, and living more
closely to their rule, they were able to draw into their Order many noble
and religious men. In Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and England,
these Augustins founded homes. The precise date when a branch of
the Augustin Order was first introduced into England is a matter of
uncertainty. Some would have us understand that the event took place
a.d. 640, when Birinus was Bishop of Dorchester. Others, following the
Chronicon Augustin,, compiled by Josephus Pamphilus, assert that the
Augustins were settled in London a.d. 1059, before the Norman Con
quest. The most probable date is a.d. 1105, in the reign of Henry I.,
when one Eudo introduced the Order to this country. For some time
St. John’s, at Colchester, was one of their chief houses; but these
Augustins, or Black Canons as they were sometimes called from the
colour of their habit, soon gained a large amount of favour and in
terest among the English, and obtained grants of land in almost every
county.
It has been observed, that to the ‘ Benedictine Order ’ we owe many
of our noble cathedrals; it may now be stated that it is to the ‘Augustin
Order ’ that we are indebted for the cathedrals of Oxford, Lincoln, Salis
bury, Lichfield, Carlisle, and Hereford. Whatever was done by these
Canons, however, in the way of teaching, or building, or civilising, was
of no avail when the day of trouble came. One of their own Order
Martin Luther—commenced his labours, and in a brief period the
storm which he raised became so violent, not only in Germany but in
7
�Faith—Use of Time.
England, that the ‘ Augustin Order,’ like all other religious communi
ties, was suppressed, and its lands and houses alienated.
The end of the Order is thus described by Fuller, in his Holy War,
p. 252:—‘For an introduction to the suppression of all the residue,
the King had a strait watch set upon them, and the regulars therein tied
to a strict and punctual observation of their orders, without any relax
ation of the least liberty ; insomuch that many did quickly unnun and
disfriar themselves, whose sides, formerly used to go loose, were soon
galled with strait lacing. Then followed the great dissolution or judgment-day on the world of abbeys remaining ; which, of what value
soever, were seized into the King’s hands. The Lord Cromwell, one of
excellent parts, but mean parentage, came from the forge to be the
hammer to maul all abbeys; whose magnificent ruins may lesson the
beholders, that it is not the firmness of the stone nor fastness of the
mortar maketh strong walls, but the integrity of the inhabitants.'
dTaitl).
HE substance of things hoped for
By Christians high and low—
Hoped for! how fondly hoped for
Only our God can know.
For only our God can see
Each inmost hope and fear;
No man hath power to see and know
What is to God so clear.
T
See the great cloud of witnesses
In solemn sequence rise;
Proclaiming each the power of Faith,
They pass before our eyes.
We grasp the truth they showed in life,
And show in death again;
We thank the Lord of Heaven and earth
They witness not in vain.
The evidence of things not seen,
Things past and things to come,
By some believed, to some unknown,
And disbelieved by some.
Things written in God’s Holy Word,
Which, though by faith received,
Nor eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard,
Nor heart of man conceived.
Then let us lay aside each weight,
Each strong besetting sin,
And let us run with patience
That we the prize may win;
That, looking unto Jesus,
We may follow where He trod,
And together be set down with Him
Beside the throne of God.
God’s words and works to finite sense
May hard and dark appear;
His ways are not our ways, yet all
By Faith seem plain and clear.
Even that holy mystery
By Faith we understand—
How the worlds were framed by the
Word of God,
And His glory filled the land.
Faith, Hope, and Charity— these three
Shall be with us alway—
Shall be to us a fire by night,
A guiding cloud by day.
By Faith our Love is cherished,
By Faith our Hope we see ;
We’ll live in Hope, we’ll live by Faith,
And Love our life shall be.
R. S. R. A.
of &ime.
Lord Coke wrote the subjoined distich, which he religiously
observed in the distribution of his time :—
‘ Six hours to sleep; to law’s grave study, six;
Four spend in prayer; the rest to Nature fix.'
Sir William Jones, a wiser economist of fleeting hours of life,
amended the sentiment in the following lines :—
‘Seven hours to law; to soothing slumber, seven;
Ten to the world allot; and all, all, to Heaven.’
8
�Church Proverbs.
voiced proclamation. Who does not remember the bc,y that said at
school, with head erect and fiery tongue, that the master had ‘ better
not touch me, I can tell him,’ and on turning round and seeing the
master behind him, very properly begged his master’s pardon, and put
his bluster in his pocket lor a time? ¡¿o is it with the man who talks
loudly before the battle, that boasts himself when he puts on his
armour instead of waiting till, victorious and having given proof of
better stuff than boasting, he takes it off. A red coat and a swagger
ing gait do not make a soldier any more than Cucullus facit monachum.
For there are such things as wolves in sheep’s clothing. Holy
Scripture appeals, in saying this, to our common experience and ob
servation. There were bad men in good monks’ attire in former
days, and there are still wolves in skins of sheep and lambs. This
tells us, doubtless, to beware of others, but it tells us also to take heed
to ourselves. If, for example, we meet our neighbour No. 1 with a
a smile and a handshake of warmest welcome, see we to it that we do not
go and say to our neighbour No. 2 anything unfriendly about No. 1. For
a smile and a handshake do not make friendship. A staunch word behind
the slandered back is more like true friendship. There is a saying in
9
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
this same Latin tongue which runs over with wise sayings, of which
the English is, ‘ A true friend is tested in a doubtful matter.’ That
is to say, if you get into trouble, and the world shakes its head at you
without cause, then comes the time for you to see what makes friend
ship, and what is only the outside cowl of friendship. When the sun
shines and fortune smiles, as the saying is, then everybody is smiling
too, and the world is pleasant as pleasant can be. But that does not
make friendship any more than the cowl makes the good monk.
What really did make the monk was his obedience, his poverty, his
holiness, his sincerity, and other such consistencies, added upon his
formal and due admission to the fraternity he belonged to. Then came
his cowl. That was all well enough, a part of his uniform and pro
fession. But it did not make him what he was. There are essential
parts of a character, parts, that is, which if you take away, the char
acter is altered altogether; and there are not essential parts. The
cowl or hood was a mere sign of monkery, and the monk was a monk
when he took it off as truly as when he wore it on. The hood did
not make the monk.
Œfje ïUIioious ©rïira of tïje iMiWe
BY DENIIAJI ROWE NORMAN, VICAR OF MIDDLETON-BY-WIRKSWORTH,
The Monastic Orders.—III. The Cistercians.
1 the troubled and unsettled years of the ninth and tenth
centuries, a.d. 800-1000, the strict rule of life which had
been drawn up by St. Benedict for the monks of his Order
was gradually relaxed. In some monasteries the standard
set up by the master was far too high to be reached, and
upon various pleas dispensations of the rule were constantly granted.
The well-known and rigid piety of the founder and the earlier mem
bers for a long time sustained the popularity of the Benedictines; but
when faults and failings of later monks became known to the laity, who
made no profession of peculiar devotion to God, there were numerous
expressions of discontent.
But though the state of many of the religious houses had thus
grown into such unsavoury repute, there was at that time so much real
need for these homes of learning—these centres of religious life—that
rather than allow them to decay and perish, wise, holy, strong-minded
men determined, from time to time, to reform them, and, if possible,
to revive the love of study and prayer among those who had devoted
themselves to such a life. That which was becoming to a monk, and
pleasant in the eye of God, and useful to the Church, was retained.
That which was unprofitable and unbecoming was to be cast away.
That which had even the appearance of evil was to be avoided with
utmost care. Very bold, stern, and firm, were some of these Reformers;
and little pity had they for the follies and weaknesses of the inmates of
the cloister. A quaint old English historian, writing his account of these
numerous efforts to amend the lives of monks and make them such men
as they professed to be, thus puts the mattery—‘ Now as mercers, when
their old stuffs begin to tire in sale, refresh them with new names to
make them more vendible; so, when the Benedictines waxed stale in the
10
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
world, the same Order was set forth in a new edition corrected and
amended.’ It is quite true, as Fuller states, that there are a number of
Orders all springing from the parent Benedictine rule; but it must he
remarked that each separate name given is a fresh testimony on behalf
of the earnest desire there was that the rule of life designed by
St. Benedict should be observed and adhered to.
One of these attempts to i refine the drossy Benedictines,’ was made
by Robert de Molesme. This man was of noble birth, and at a very
early age (15) was received into a monastery. The manner of life led
at this first religious house did not suit his ascetic turn of mind, and
long did he search for a monastery in which the laws were sharp enough
to satisfy his yearnings. In the end, he joined a congregation at
Molesme, in the diocese of Langres, in the north-east of France ; and
here for a time, as head of the house, he enforced with utmost rigour
the original rule of St. Benedict. This exact and punctual observance,
enforced with unflinching zeal, was too much for the monks; they urged
the differences of climate and situation as excuses for neglects, and
refused to obey their abbot. Robert, discovering that his labours were
likely to be in vain, with the consent of Hugh of Lyons, the Pope’s
legate, withdrew from Molesme.
In the year a.d. 1098, Robert, with about twenty followers, set out
to found a new home. This company took a fancy to a wild and barren
spot at Cistercium, or Citeaux, not far from the town of Dijon. In a
little while this band of holy men—the founders, the originators of the
far-famed ‘ Cistercian Order ’—obtained from the Duke of Burgundy a
tract of land whereon they might build a home and pasture their cattle.
Robert had not been at Cistercium many months when he was sum
moned back to Molesme. The young society was now left to the
guidance of Abbot Alberic, who drew up a set of rules for his monks.
On the death of Alberic, an Englishman, named Stephen Harding, suc
ceeded as abbot, and he added fresh regulations, which obtained the
sanction of the Pope, and became known under the title of the ‘ Charter
of Love.’
By the authority of Calixtus a special dress was worn by the Cis
tercian monks, which was to be made, says an old chronicler, ‘ in
accordance with a pattern which Alberic, the second abbot of the Order,
had been shown in a vision by the Blessed Virgin Mary, and from a
white cloth fabric.’
The utmost simplicity of food was to be used, as may be imagined
when it is stated that one of the rules was that only a single meal daily
was-to be taken between September and Easter. Their homes were
always to be chosen in retired and waste places, such as those described
by Goldsmith in his poem, The Hermit:—
* Far in a wilderness obscure
The lonely mansion lay;
A refuge to the neighbouring poor
And stranger», led astray.'
It would appear that these monks of Citeaux—these Cistercians—
were so wonderfully exact in their lives and so austere in their devo
tions that for some years they were not increased in numbers.
‘ The scrip, with herbs and fruit supplied,
And water from the spring,’
11
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
was too hard a fare to attract men to the ranks of the fraternity. Byand-by, however, Stephen Harding was to see a result of his untiring
labours, his unceasing prayers. The little community in their seclu
sion was one day surprised by the appearance of a large company of
more than thirty men, who came under the influence of Bernard to
seek an admission. Bernard (or, as he is generally called, St. Bernard),
born at Fontaines, near Dijon, a.d. 1091, had been trained by a holy
mother, Alice or Aletha, and early in life, in a retired chapel, had
‘ poured out his heart like water before the sight of God,’ and given
himself up to God’s service for life. Having prevailed on his brothers,
father, and sister, and others, to give up the world and join him, Ber
nard with his company set out for Citeaux, drawn to that monastery
by the reports of the holy and devoted lives of its inmates. The arrival
of this large number was welcome; but now the cloisters of Citeaux
were so full that other homes were needed. In a.d. 1113 Bernard
arrived; in that same year one company went out and founded a settle
ment at La Ferte. In 1114 another band established a home at
Pontigny. In 1115 another society took up its abode at Morimond.
The Cistercians having now commenced in earnest to send forth
from the parent house at Citeaux bands of holy men, in the latter end
of a.d. 1115 parted with a company under the lead of St. Bernard, who
was to prove one of the most renowned and illustrious members of the
Order. This congregation came, after a time of search, unto a deserted
spot which had been in former years the resort of a gang of robbers,
and went by the name of Vallis Absinthialis—The Valley of Worm
wood. Here a settlement was made in this unpromising, uninviting
wilderness, which, under the more pleasing title of Clara Vallis, or
Clairvaux, or Bright Valley, has become known as the scene of the
labours of one of the most noted men of any period.
At the early age of twenty-five St. Bernard found himself Abbot
of Clairvaux ; and everything which an abbot ought to be he seems to
have striven after with untiring zeal. He prayed standing till he
became faint and exhausted. Though of a weak and frail constitution,
he laboured in the fields and woods with his monks till he fell—looking
in his work, as one record of his life has it, ‘ as if a lamb were yoked to
the plough and compelled to drag it.’ His charities were abundant, pro
viding, among other outlays, food for numbers of poor during a famine in
Burgundy. His studies, and more especially of the Word of God, were
severe and long-continued. It is hardly to be wondered at if, under the
control and direction of such an uncommon abbot as St. Bernard, the
Cistercian Order rapidly increased in numbers, wealth, and consider
ation. The monastery of Clairvaux, though its inmates had to live
upon ‘ porridge made of beech-leaves, with no other seasoning but what
was given to it by hunger or the love of God,’ was resorted to by
hundreds who were unable to gain an admission, and was regarded as
the very model of such homes. Pope Innocent II., a.d. 1131, visited
this Cistercian home at Clairvaux when Bernard was abbot; and
so well-pleasing in his eyes were these ‘ poor in Christ,’ that he granted
to Clairvaux and to the whole Cistercian Order special exemptions
and peculiar privileges. The mean chapel with its bare walls, the refec
tory or dining-room with its earthen floor, the coarse food, the scant
clothing, these were no hindrances to men of high birth—even
12
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
A CISTERCIAN.
(FROM DUGDALE’8 ‘WARWICKSHIRE.’)
royalty in the person of Henry, the king’s brother, asking for mem
bership among the monks. There was a special charm which drew
men, a charm described in a few words by St. Bernard himself, and
which have thus been translated by Wordsworth :—
« Here man more purely lives; less oft doth fall;
More promptly rises ; walks with nicer tread;
More safely rests ; dies happier ; and gains withal
A brighter crown.’
In a short time, chiefly through the wonderful repute of St. Ber
nard, the Cistercian Order became most popular in every country in
Europe. France supplied many homes, and detachments soon found
settlements in England and Germany. During the time of St. Ber
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
nard, a.d. 1115-1153, as many as one hundred and sixty branch houses
had been founded, and within a hundred years it is reckoned that there
were as many as three thousand monasteries inhabited by monks of this
Order.
These strict, austere, abstemious Cistercians—or Bernardines, as they
were sometimes called, after the great light of the Order—were intro
duced into England a very few years after the foundation at Citeaux.
In the year 1128 William Giffard, who had been chancellor to three
successive monarchs—William I., William IL, and Henry I., and at
length was consecrated Bishop of Winchester—invited over some Cister
cians, and built for them a home at Waverley, in Surrey. Another
early and liberal patron of the Order in England was William l’Epée,
who encouraged a company to come north and settle down at Rievaulx
in Yorkshire.
Besides these two earlier homes, the Cistercians had numerous
branch-houses in various parts of England, such as Woburn, Furness,
Fountains, Kirkstall, Tintern,“ Buckland, Bindon, whose ruins now tell
what men of mark these monks must have been.
Though the Cistercians were bound by rule to be in strict obedi
ence to bishops, yet they do not seem to have been careful in their con
duct to kings. Speed in his history gives an instance of want of loyalty.
King John had just been present at the funeral of St. Hugh at Lin
coln, by which act the historian supposes great humility was shown; he
then goes on with these observations, pp. 537-8,—‘ Yet here the king
rested not to give proof in so great a height of his lowly mind, and then
benigne (however afterwards averted) to the Clergie ; when twelve
Abbots of the Cisteaux Habit (whose whole Order had displeased him,
by refusing to give Ayde towards his great payment of thirtie thousand
pounds), came now to Lincolne, and all prostrate at his feete, craved his
gracious favour, for that his Forresters had driven out (for so the King
had given command) of his Pastures and Forrests all their Cattell,
wherewith themselves and Christ’s poore were sustained. The King
touched with remorse att so venerable a troope of Suppliants (though so
great offenders), commanded them to rise, who were no sooner up, but
the King, inspired with Divine Grace, fell flat on the ground before them,
desiring pardon, adding that hee not onely admitted them to his love,
and their Beasts to his Pastures (a speciall favour which kings had
granted that Order) but would also build an Abbey for men of their sort
(if they would designe some choice seat), wherein himself meant to be
enshrined. Neither did he promise them more than he performed, nor
were those wylie “ Humiliates ” regardless of choosing a delicate plot for
the purpose, where hee built a goodly Abbey of their Order, deservedly
for the pleasance of the place named Beaulieu, and of rich Revenue and
exceedinge Priviledge. But this Cisteaux dis-Order was not alone,
either in those shamefull indignities or gamefull attonements.’
This Order has given to the Church many men of learning, and has
furnished her with popes, cardinals, bishops, and missionaries. For a
long time it was the most popular Order in Europe, and had a large
share of power in deciding the numerous questions which harassed and
perplexed the public mind. But after three centuries’ prosperity there
came a time of weakness and decay. At the Council of Pisa, held
vn March 1409, there was a public complaint made of the members of
14
�From India.
the Cistercian Order, that they were sadly wanting in those virtues
which their rules enjoined Robert Hallam, bishop of Salisbury, who
had been sent over by Henry IV. to the Council, made the charge
against the Order, and the only answer which came from the head of the
Order—the Abbot of Citeaux—was, that this falling away was caused by
the contentions and distractions of the times.
Various efforts were made to reform the Order and to regain for it
its old power and fame, but about the year 1500 there were so many
divisions amongst the members that in Spain, Italy, and Germany, there
was a complete breaking up of the old Order, with its annual chapters
under the presidency of the Abbot of Citeaux. Not many years after
came its suppression under Henry VIII. in England. There were
houses of Cistercians for two more centuries in France ; but these were
swept away in the great Revolution in a.d. 1789.
■- ♦
dfront
H, come you from the Indies ? and,
soldier, can you tell
Aught of the gallant 90th, and who are
safe and well ?
0 soldier, say my son is safe (for no
thing else I care),
And you shall have a mother’s thanks
—shall have a widow’s prayer! ’
O
‘ Oh, I’ve come from the Indies, I’ve
just come from the war,
And well I know the 90th, and gallant
lads they are:
From colonel down to rank and file, I
know my comrades well,
And news I’ve brought for you, mother,
your Robert bade me tell.’
‘And do you know my Robert now!
oh, tell me, tell me true—
0 soldier, tell me word for word all'
that he said to you !
His very words—my own boy’s words—
0 tell me every one !
You little know how dear to his old
mother is my son ! ’
‘Through Havelock’s fights and marches
the 90th were there;
In all the gallant 90th did your Robert
did his share:
Twice he went into Lucknow,untouched
by steel or ball;
And you may bless your God, old dame,
that brought him safe through all.’
‘ Oh, thanks unto the living God that
heard his mother’s prayer,
The widow’s cry that rose on high her
only son to spare !
O bless'd be God, that turned from him
the sword and shot away —
And what to his old mother did my
darling bid you say ? ’
‘ Mother, he saved his colonel’s life, and
bravely it was done;
In the despatch they told it all, and
named and praised your son :
A medal and a pension’s his; good luck
to him I say;
And he has not a comrade but will wish
him well to-day.’
‘Now,soldier.blessings on your tongue 1
O husband,that you knew
How w'ell our boy pays me this day for
all that I've gone through ;
All I have done and borne for him the
long years since you're dead !
But, soldier, tell me how he looked,
and all my Robert said.’
‘ He’sbronzed, and tanned, and bearded,
and you’d hardly know him, dame •.
We've made your boy into a man, but
still his heart’s the same ;
For often, dame, he talks of you, and
always to one tune;—
But there, his ship is nearly home, and
lie 11 be with you soon.’
‘Oh! is he really coming home? and
shall I really see
My boy again, my own bov, home ? and
when, when will it be ?
Did you say soon?'—‘Well, he is home;
keep cool, old dame; he's here.'—
‘O Robert, my own blessed boy! '—‘O
mother ¡—mother dear! ’
W. Bennett.
15
�Qtye forces of SEnglanU.
‘ Where’s the coward that would not dare
To fight for sueh a land ?’—Jiarmioii.
HE stately homes of England!
T How beautiful they stand,
Amidst their tall ancestral trees,
O’er all the pleasant land!
The deer across their greensward bound,
Through shade and sunny gleam;
And the swan glides past them with the sound
Of some rejoicing stream.
16
�Humility.—The Religious Orders of the. Middle Ages.
of some misty hill, afford more pleasure than a whole thicket full of
pheasants.’ It is not generally known that Paris is largely supplied
with pheasants from England. No less than 50,000 were sent to the
Paris market in the early part of last season.
^umiliti).
HE bird that soars on highest wing,
Builds on the ground her lowly
nest;
And she that doth most sweetly sing,
Sings in the shade when all things rest.
In lark and nightingale we see
What honour hath humility.
When Mary chose the ‘ better part,
*
She meekly sat at Jesus’ feet;
And Lydia’s gently-opened heart
Was made for God’s own temple meet.
T
Fairest and best adorned is she
Whose clothing is humility.
The saints that wear Heaven’s brightest
crown,
In deepest adoration bends ;
The weight of glory bows him down,
Then most when most his soul
ascends.
Nearest the throne itself must be
The footstool of humility.
J. Montgomery.
SHje Religious (©rtrers of tlje WW
BY DENHAM ROWE NORMAN, VICAR OF MIDDLETON-BY-WIRKSWORTH.
‘ What if some little pain the passage have,
That makes frail flesh to fear the bitter wave ?
Is not short pain well borne that brings long ease,
And lays the soul to sleep in quiet grave ?
Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas,
Ease after war, death after life, does greatly please.’
Spenser’s Faerie Queene, b. i. c. ix.
The Monastic Orders.— IV. The Carthusians.
HE life of Christian devotion could not be crushed out of
the Church even by the most wanton and worldly-minded
bishops and priests. Indeed, it often happened that the
very unworthiness in those holding high office was the
cause of a fresh revival of religious energy. Again and
again these more earnest and zealous men were provoked to act with
determined vigour by the careless and unsaintly lives of the clergy.
About the elose of the eleventh century, a.d. 1070, there was a
prelate of a covetous and aspiring turn of mind holding the Arch
bishopric of Rheims, by name Manasseh. This man was of so sordid a
disposition, was so forgetful of his sacred calling, as publicly to declare
‘ that the Archbishopric of Rlieims would be a very good post were it
not that masses had to be sung in order to receive its ample income.’
Such an open disregard for what is becoming in one placed as an over
seer and chief teacher in the Church roused the spirit of a man, who
for years had been closely watching the behaviour of Manasseh. This
zealot was Bruno, who in early years had been educated at Cologne.
Bom about 1030, he came after his school days to Rheims where he
was appointed master of the school attached to the Cathedral. Bruno
soon became famous-for his learning and piety, and drew around him
the youth of the city in large numbers. Indeed, his reputation became
so notable that scholars from afar were sent to his seminary ; amongst
3
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
others one who, in the course of a few years, became Pope under the
title of Urban II.
As may easily be supposed, there soon sprang up between men of
such totally opposite characters as Manasseli and Bruno serious and
sharp contentions. In the end Bruno grew so weary with what he saw
and heard, was so utterly disgusted with the conduct of the Arch
bishop, that he resolved to seek,
* In cloisters dim, far from the haunts of Folly,’
a retreat, where he might lead a life according to his own strong views
of duty to God. It was about the year 1084 a.d. when Bruno, with
a small company of like-minded men, hade farewell to Rheims, its
luxuries, its pomps, its ease, and found a resting-place in a wild and
barren spot in the vale of Chartreux, or Cartusium.
‘ Vainly directing his view
To find out men’s virtues, and finding them few,’
Bruno determined to secure in the members of this his little family as
near an approach to Christian perfection as possible. To this end he
caused to be built on the chosen site a set of separate cells, in which
each monk might live in retirement and seclusion. There was the
monastery proper for the celebration of divine worship on Sundays and
festivals, and other public acts of the fraternity, but the greater part of
the time every week was spent in isolation from the other members.
In this retired and elevated spot (about 4000 feet above the level of
the sea), which was some 14 miles north of Grenoble, hedged in by hills
and surrounded by lands of unpromising features, Bruno and his com
panions, the founders of the celebrated ‘ Carthusian Order’ of monks,
‘ Serene, and unafraid of solitude,’
devoted themselves with great fervour to their duties, under the friendly
prelate, Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble.
It would appear from the records of this Monastic Order, which
are found in various old chronicles, that nearly from the first, if not
from the first, there were laymen as well as clergy admitted as members
of the community; one writer asserting that the numbers, on account of
the poverty of the soil, were to be limited to thirteen or fourteen
clergy and sixteen laymen. It was understood that each of those
who had joined the company, and was living apart from the world,
had taken this step with a view of spending the rest of life in
contemplation, and in the hope that thus he might ‘ secure the
salvation of his soul.’
The Carthusians were an offshoot from the great ‘ Benedictine
Order,’ but the rule of St. Benedict was made much more severe
by Bruno and his successors. In addition to the three great demands
of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience, there was a fourth requirement
from those who entered the Monastery at Chartreux—constant,
almost continual silence. Only once a-week was conversation per
mitted. Meals were not taken in a common room or refectory, as
■was customary with members of other Orders, but separately in the
cells, except on the great feasts of the Church. Three days in the
week bread and water were the only fare ; on high days, cheese and
fish might be added. Wine was permitted occasionally in small
■quantities, but it was always to be mixed with water. Next to their
4
�The Religious Orders of the Middle A ges.
skin they wore rough garments made from goatskins, and their clothing
was all made from materials of coarse texture and sober colour.
Bruno, after having spent about six years at ‘ Cartusium/ or
Chartreux, guiding and encouraging his associates, was summoned
A CARTHUSIAN.
(FROM DUGDALES ‘ WARWICKSHIRE.’)
to Rome by Urban II., his former scholar; but the holy man was soon
tired of the city. Having refused the offer of the Bishopric of Reggio,
which Urban urged upon his acceptance, Bruno retired to Sicily,
where he was welcomed by Roger the Count. In this wild and
desolate land Bruno sought ami found a home to his liking, and
set himself the task of building a suitable monastery for himself
and company. Sto. Stephano del Bosco, in the diocese of Squillace,
5
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
was the work of his hand; and here, in the year a.d. 1101, the pious
and unwearied monk passed away from earth at the age of seventy.
There is mention made in some old authors of writings of Bruno,
especially of some commentaries on the Psalms and Epistles of St.
Paul, but none of those fragments have come down to these days.
On the departure of Bruno from Chartreux the society enlarged
their house, improved their lands, and, above all, were diligent in
preparing for the day of death. Under Landuin, their head, these
Carthusian monks steadily increased in influence, and became more
widely known as self-denying men, and despisers of show and ex
travagant pomp. Simple they were in their demands, as may be
supposed when it is stated that, with the exception of the chalice,
which was to be of silver, all other vessels of the sanctuary were
to be of the plainest kind and least costly material. As a striking
piece of evidence on behalf of this rigid simplicity and exclusion
of expensive ornament, an incident is recorded by Guibert de Nogent,
the chronicler, which may thus be summarised : the Count de Nevers,
hearing of their fame for holiness and hatred of splendour, paid them
a visit one day. Seeing on his visit that the monks were most staid,
grave, and very austere in their mortifications, he tried to prove
their honesty. With this intent, on his return home he sent to
them a present of sundry silver vessels : the intended gift was at once
returned with this message, ‘ We want gold and silver neither to give
away, nor to decorate our church; to what use can we put them then?’
The good Count did, however, find a way to please these men, for
he sent them a roll of parchment-skins, on which they might use
their arts of writing and illuminating, for which they were famous.
About the year 1128, Guigo, fifth Prior of Chartreux, drew up
a set of ‘ Customs ’ for his fraternity, and after this date the Order
gradually rose into fame. So well was the community reported of,
that in 1178 Pope Alexander III. approved of the constitution
which had been drawn up for its governance. It is true that on
account of the strictness of the Rules, and the rigid obedience to the
Rule which was enacted, the numbers of the Carthusians were in
creased very slowly; but if, in comparison with other religious societies,
the Carthusian was a small one, it was select; its members were of
the most ascetic and pious of all monks. One witness on their
behalf, a trustworthy man, Peter of Clugni— Peter the Venerable—thus writes of them to the Pope :—‘ These holy men feast at the
table of wisdom ; they are entertained at the banquet of the true
Solomon, not in superstitions, not in hypocrisy, not in the leaven
of malice and wickedness, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth.’ However slow the progress made in the earlier years of the
Order, wise and learned Priors of Chartreux succeeded eventually, and
* Planted out their sapling stocks
Of knowledge into so«ial nurseries,’
in various countries of Europe, and established branch houses in the
midst of every nation.
Very shortly after the approbation of the Pope had been obtained
the Carthusians were invited into England, and a settlement was
effected at Witham in Somersetshire, a.d. 1181. Soon further de
tachments arrived. Amongst their most liberal benefactors in this
6
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
country was William Longespee, Earl of Salisbury, son of Henry II.
and Fair Rosamond. This nobleman gave them lands and endow
ments at Henton in Somersetshire. William, and Ella his wife, were
eager to assist in every way the labours of these holy and learned
men. In the reign of Richard II., a.d. 1398, the Carthusians
were settled by the munificence of Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Notting
ham, at Epworth in Lincolnshire, and subsequently other branch
houses were founded by other patrons at Coventry, Hull, Beauvale,
and elsewhere.
Perhaps the noblest and best-known house of the Order in Eng
land was that founded about a.d. 1371, in the reign of Edward III.,
by Sir Walter de Manny of Cambrey, at St. John’s Street,
Clerkenwell—the Chartreuse, or, as it is popularly called, the Charter
house. This home of the Carthusians was well endowed, and of very
considerable extent.
Times of change, however, came : grievous and troublous times for
these devout men. Little did they dream that their labours in writing
were hastening on those rueful changes; yet so it was, for the mighty
movement which came and dislodged them from their well-loved
homes may be traced back to the study of their manuscript Bibles.
In obedience to their Rules they had been most ready, and to no
requirement had they been more faithful than that which may thus
be translated from Dugdale’s Monasticon, vol. i. p. 951:—
‘ Now read, now pray, now work with a will,
So time shall be short, and toil itself light.’
In various kinds of occupation these Carthusians were found busy.
Indeed, if the impartial truth must be told, these men were the
most persevering, the most industrious, the most painstaking members
of society. Their motto almost seems to have been
* Get work, get work;
Be sure 'tis better than what you work to get
for, in some shape or other, these Carthusians would spend their time
in manual labour.
From the foundation of the Order the favourite work of the
members was that of writing, especially in writing out fresh copies
of the several books of the Old and New Testament. In their
solitary cells these men loved to reproduce that sacred treasure,
regarding their library as their chief earthly delight. Their cells
might be poor and mean, their fare might be coarse and hard, their
clothes might be simple and plain, but tlicir library must be well
stored with manuscripts: it was this craving of theirs for books —
more books—which made so acceptable the bundle of parchment
presented by the Count de Nevers. ‘ A cloister without books,’ says
one, ‘ is like a castle without arms.’
The Carthusians are also honourably known as among the first
and most successful horticulturists of their time. Wherever they
settled, their gardens soon became famous. Let the soil be what
it would, they had a reputation for being able to turn it into a
land of abundance and beauty. At Chartreux, as elsewhere, what
they found on arrival as a howling wilderness, they transformed into
a very paradise of delight. Nor can their skill as builders be over7
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
looked, some of their monasteries, as that of the Certosa, near Pavia,
being amongst the most splendid of religious houses.
A wonderful chorus of praise is bestowed by historians on these
Carthusians: one (Mosheim) thus delivering his verdict:—‘ Nor is
there any sect of monks which has departed less from the severity
THE CHARTERHOUSE.
of its original discipline .... indeed, it could never prevail much
among females, owing undoubtedly to the rigours and gloominess
of its discipline.’ Another (Robertson) thus giving his conclusions :—
‘ They preserved themselves from personal luxury more strictly than
any other Order ; thus they escaped the satire which was profusely
lavished on monks in general, and they never needed a reformation.’
Amongst the most illustrious men who have been members of the
‘ Carthusian Order,’ is one whose name is well known in English
history, St. Hugh of Lincoln. To this saintly man we owe one of
the most noble and glorious of our English cathedrals, Lincoln
■ 8
�Trust.
Minster. Arriving in England about a.d. 1130, he devoted himself
so zealously to the duties of his high office, that at his death he was
generally mourned, and as a tribute of respect to his memory, Speed
tells us that ‘ King John of England and King William of Scotland,
with their royall allyes, carried the hearse on those shoulders
accustomed to uphold the weight of whole kingdomes.’
The dread day came at length for those ‘ Carthusians ’ who had
settled in England. In the year 1535 Henry VIII. wreaked his
wrath upon these monks. In an old record of the times of this
strong-willed king, there is this touching entry: ‘ Also the same year,
the 3rd day of May was Holyrood day, and then was drawn from the
Tower unto Tyburn the three Priors of the Charter-Houses and there
hanged, headed, and quartered ; and one of the Prior’s arms was
set up at the gate into Aldersgate Street.’ Brave John Haughton,
the Prior of Charter-House, died a martyr — a martyr to a blood
thirsty tyrant’s temper; and died as a martyr should, without fear
or regret. Nor was this the only method found for getting rid of
the Carthusians, as several were cast into dungeons, and left to pine
away to death in the midst of all kinds of noisome filth.
After the suppression of the Order in England it still flourished
in Europe, retaining in a great degree its reputation for devotion,
wisdom, and industry amongst its members.
Besides the four Monastic Orders whose fortunes have been briefly
related, ‘ the Benedictine,’ ‘ the Augustine,’ ‘ the Cistercian,’ ‘ the
Carthusian,’ there were other fraternities of lesser mark,— the
Cluniacs, founded a.d. 900, by William, Duke of Aquitaine, sys
tematised by Odo, Abbot of Clugny, a.d. 927, introduced into Eng
land, a.d. 1077, by William, Earl of Warenne, son-in-law of the
Conqueror, who built them a home at Lewes, and were settled at Barn
staple and Pontefract; the Order of Camaldoli, founded about a.d. 1027
by Bomualdo, a man of high birth, a native of Ravenna; the Order
of Vallombrosa, founded by John Gualberto about 1073 ; and the
Olivetans, of which St. Bernard rtolomei was the founder.
&rust
The following Lines were written by Dr. Alford, the Dean of Canterburyt
shortly before his death.
I know not if dark or bright
My barque is wafted from the strand
Shall he my lot;
By breath Divine,
If that wherein my hopes delight
And on the helm there rests a Hand
Be best or not:
Other than mine.
One Who has known in storms to sail
It may be mine to drag for years
Toil’s heavy chain ;
I have on board ;
Or, day and night, my meat be tears
Above the raging of the gale
I have my Lord.
On bed of pain.
Dear faces may surround my hearth
He holds me when the billows smite:
I shall not fall;
With smiles and glee ;
If sharp, ’tis short; if long, ’tis light;
Or I may dwell alone, and mirth
He tempers all.
Be strange to me.
Safe to the land! ■ safe to the land!
The end is this,
And then with Him go hand in hand
Far into bliss.
9
�i £Intil Sebentg ITunes» £ebcn?
AY had not slipped away without making a change in the
life at Breezy Cottage. Two more inmates were added
to its number,—a young man, bearing so strong a likeness
to Ella that to say he was her brother was unnecessary,
and an old servant.
For these two Ella had made every preparation from the first;
all the comforts and elegancies of the cottage had been collected
together in the room intended for Malcolm Lindsay; while to old
Mary was allotted the large bed-room, in which little Eva also slept;
a tiny room near being Ella’s sleeping-apartment.
For two or three days after her brother’s arrival, Ella Lindsay’s
face wore a less harassed look ; whether she found it well to have him
constantly by her, or whether the nightly chats with old Mary relieved
her heart, certainly she was brighter and less anxious. But the cloud
came back all too soon.
‘ Master Malcolm’s breakfast, please,’ said the old woman, bringing
a tray into the room one morning when Ella was making the tea for
their early meal.
Ella’s quick glance met the stern face of Mary. She turned very
white, and sat down.
‘ It’s no use fretting,’ said the old servant. ‘ I knew it couldn’t
last; we must just bear it and say nothing.’
‘ Is Malcolm ill ?’ asked Eva.
‘ No, dear, he’s quite well, only tired,’ said Ella, with a heart
breaking sigh.
The trouble of her life was pressing heavily upon her; this one
son of the house, the brother who ought to have been her stay and
comfort, was her grief and trial, a slave to the terrible love of strong
drink.
By little and little it had crept upon him, marring all his prospects
in life; time after time he had foresworn the deadly thing, only to
return to it; and but for the command of the Lord to forgive a
brother ‘ until seventy times seven times,’ Ella’s love might hardly
have held out through the trying scenes she had had to witness, aye?
and to take a prominent part in, too !
Malcolm Lindsay’s fair face and clear blue eyes told so different a
tale to the looker-on, that few guessed the heart-break he was to
those who loved him.
Since their parents’ death, Ella had been the one person towards
whom he turned for guidance in the troubles he brought on himself;
twice she had obtained suitable situations for him, when his unsettled
habits had caused his employers to dismiss him; and at last, when
Malcolm declared his preference for the sea, and that there alone
could he find occupation and excitement likely to deter him from his
favourite sin, she made interest to get him on board a merchant-vessel,
draining their somewhat slender coffers to furnish his outfit.
One voyage was enough to show that a sea-life was no cure for
drinking habits ; no sooner was he on land shortly after the talcing of
Breezy Cottage, than his money all went in the old way, and old Mary,
who had been left in London to await his arrival, having missed the
first notice of the incoming of his ship, had a weary search for him
10
�‘ Mr. and Mrs. Broadlands—
See, they sweep along,
The important members
Of that bending throng.’
13
�&fje Religious ©mrs of tlje Wirtile &ges.
BY DENHAM ROWE NORMAN, VICAR OF MIDDLETON-BY-WIRKSWORTH.
‘ And more than prowess theirs, and more than fame ;
No dream, but an abiding consciousness
Of an approving God, a righteous aim,
An arm outstretched to guide them and to bless;
Fi-i m as steel bows for angels’ warfare bent,
They went abroad, not knowing where they went.’
Lyra Apostolica.
The Military Orders.—The Teutonic Knights.
WN the general excitement which prevailed in Europe about
O the Holy Places at Jerusalem, there were few towns in
which the cause of restoration to Christian use had not
SI been ably pleaded. Untiring enthusiasts had traversed
every country, stirring up the zeal and courage of believers.
Not by any means the last to be moved, or the least in importance,
were the inhabitants of that large tract of territory in central Europe
called Germany. Like France, Italy, England, and Spain, Germany
could spare numbers of her sons to go forth, some to fight for and
others to settle down in Jerusalem. Even the cool, stolid German,
took this fever of foreign enterprise, and could join in the spirit of
those words of Warton’s Ode:—
‘ Bound for Holy Palestine
Nimbly we brush’d the level brine,
All in azure steel arrayed ;
O’er the wave our weapons played,
And made the dancing billows glow.’
Pilgrims, or palmers, had gone forth to Palestine from Germany, as
from other Christian states, for purposes of devotion, for a long course
of years. As with the travellers from other nations, so also with these
Germans, it happened that many on their arrival at Jerusalem needed
both food and shelter. The increasing need of a settled home was felt
so keenly about the year a.d. 1120, that a pious German erected, and
to a certain extent endowed, a Hospital for the reception of men.
Nor was it long before this liberal and generous deed was imitated.
The wife of the founder of the Hospital, observing that female pilgrims
had not been provided for, built a similar refuge for the accommodation
of women. In a quiet, unobtrusive way, these refuges were used by
weary strangers until a.d. 1187, when, at the recapture of Jerusalem
by the Turks under Saladin, they were sharers of the common ruin
with the Christian institutions of every other nation. Though the
inmates at that time were forced to flee, they seem to have kept
together as a company in their subsequent search for a home.
1
Hopes, perchance, of a return to the well-loved sanctuary at Jeru
salem may have had an influence with the members of the community,
and constrained them to live on 1 a common life.’ Nor, as it would
appear, were these fond hopes without some degree of warrant. Almost
immediately after the loss of Jerusalem and their consequent flight, news
came to the East of the intended march of their Emperor, the brave
and invincible Frederic Barbarossa. Frederic, however, died from a
chill taken in bathing in the river Cydnus, when near to the work he
60 much wished to perform. Disappointed this little band of German
14
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
Christians must have been at this untoward and fatal accident; but
in a little while brighter days dawned upon them.
A temporary shelter had been found at A«re, on the coast, and during
the protracted siege of that famous town, a.d. 1190, the members of
this religious body rendered most effectual aid to their sick and
wounded fellow-countrymen. The numbers of invalids becoming daily
greater, the fraternity obtained from the camp several sail-cloth tents,
which were fitted up and used as infirmaries. It was whilst thus
engaged in these pious and patriotic labours of love that they attracted
the notice and won the esteem of Frederic, Duke of Suabia, who had
succeeded as leader of the German troops on the death of the Emperor
Frederic Barbarossa. Men capable of such self-denying, unrewarded
works of mercy, were worthy of encouragement, and Frederic shortly
determined to use the community of German Christians in a wider and,
as he thought, more honourable sphere of employment. The design was
soon carried out, and this humble band was raised to a rank, position,
and dignity, similar to what had been before secured by the Knights
Hospitallers and Knights Templars. Speaking quite seriously, one
of the admirers of the new Order observed on this act of Frederic in
founding it, with more of enthusiasm than reverence, ‘ It pleased
God to create this Third Order, because a threefold cord is not quickly
broken.’
An approval of this step was soon obtained; and now that this
German Order might not be a whit inferior to its elder rivals, rules
of guidance were sought, and a Grand Master desired. The choice
of the electors fell on Henry a Walpot, who had much distinguished
himself amongst his brother-members. But now all was not done.
The Emperor Frederic had been at open war with the Pope, and had
been placed under a ban of excommunication: it was doubted whether
Papal sanction to the formation of this Order could be obtained. This
difficulty, however, was overcome, for we find that Celestine IH., a.d. 1192,
not only entertained the applicatiofi, but gave to its members the rule of
St. Augustine as a code of discipline.
As there had been a Special solemn dedication of each of the elder
‘ Military Orders,’ so now a similar ceremony was observed; and hence
forward the community is known in history by the title of ‘ The
Teutonic Knights of St. Mary in Jerusalem.’ AU the members of this
Order were of German or Teutonic birth: were Teutons — that is,
‘ Thuath-duine,’ or North-men. As with the Hospitallers and Templars,
so in this Order there were members of noble birth and others of more
humble descent, divided into classes according to their rank. In order
still further to distinguish the members of this German fraternity a
special dress was assigned to them—a white mantle, and upon it a
black cross edged with gold.
Thus fully recognised as a ‘ Military Order,’ these Germans took
upon themselves a share of the work of maintaining the Christian
influence in the Holy Land during the century a.d. 1191-1291, and in
caring for the suffering poor and sick during that period of partial
occupation. Large benefactions of lands and money were made to
them, but these gifts of their countrymen were so profuse as to do
harm to the Order instead of good. That simplicity of life, that earnest
devotion, that rigorous self-denial, that plainness of dress, so character15
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
istic of the community in earlier days, became at length, as wealth
increased, utterly lost virtues. It is said, however, that with all its
shortcomings the Order of Teutonic Knights were more cordial to
the Christian cause than the Templars ; who, ‘ sometimes to save their
own stakes, would play booty with the Turks.’
The end of the long contest, however, drew near. The final battle
at Acre at length commenced; and we learn, that those of the Teutonic
Knights who were left in Palestine were at the post of danger. That
supreme moment, when ‘ God hath no need of waverers round His
shrine,’ arrived, and then called upon by Henry II., King of Cyprus
and nominal King of Jerusalem, to defend the tower near him to the
utmost, these brave men rushed to the rescue, but only to. stem the
tide of victorious onslaught for a little while, and then perish in the
fray.
Such Knights of the Teutonic Order as escaped from this last and
crushing fight returned to Europe; and with this character, as Fuller
describes them,—‘ Frequent mention hath been formerly made of the
“ Teutonic Order,” or that of Dutch Knights, who behaved themselves
right valiantly clean through the Holy War; and, which soundeth.
much to their honour, they cannot be touched either for treason or
faction, but were both loyal and peaceable in the whole service.’
Tennyson tells us in a couplet that —
‘ A slow-developed strength awaits
Completion in a painful school
which idea is thoroughly true of the future history of the ‘ Military
Order.’ As early in its history as the year a.d. 1230, the Grand
Master, Herman, had been invited to send part of his Order into
Europe, on an errand of war against some barbarous and heathen tribes.
Conrad, Duke of Massovia in Poland, had sent pressing messages, and
had made most tempting proposals: whatever territory was gained
by the Knights in the undertaking was to be held by them as their own
possessions, in right of war. Conrad, a prudent man, was so teased with
these savage troublers of his peace, that, having failed to rid himself
of thptu by the aid of a band he himself had raised, under the style of
‘ The Order of Knights-brethren of Dobrin,’ a company of ‘ sword
bearing brethren, brave, slashing lads,’ he now sends to the ‘ Teutonic
Knights ’ with proposals of a most generous sort, which in the end
were accepted. Herman, with a large number of the Knights of the
Order and men-at-arms, set out for Europe a.d. 1230, and entered on
the long campaign against the heathen and cruel inhabitants of Eastern
Europe. When Acre was lost in 1291, the few members of the
Order who survived hastened to join their companions in Europe,
whom they found now settled down in the possession of extensive
provinces.
If it be true,—
‘ Meet is it changes should control
Our being, least we rust in ease,’
then those Knights who returned from Palestine found only what might
have been expected. Little time was given them wherein to rest.
The Christian faith, even here in Prussia, and now at once on their
return, needed defenders and propagators, and these ‘ booted Apostles,
%s one writer calls them, were ready, under the sanction of the Church,
16
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
to go forth to the work. Avery terrible page of history is this, which
relates the struggle between the Teutonic Knights and the Pagan
Prussians. The conversion to Christianity of a race of barbarians,
one of whose customs was ‘ to destroy or sell all the daughters of a.
family excepting one,5 was a most laudable undertaking, but the means
used in that endeavour seem shockingly severe and harsh. But thi®
work the Teutonic Knights had commenced, and from it they did not
shrink, until, in outward appearance at least, those Prussians whom
they had conquered acknowledged the faith of Christ.
The daring and courage exhibited by these champions of the
Church in their conflicts with the enemy soon became noised abroad,
and attracted to their standard recruits from well-nigh every land.
Amongst those who ventured their lives in this holy but perilous
EFFIGY OF HENRY IV.
cause was one who eventually became Henry IV., King of England.
Speed, in his history, p. 735, thus narrates the incident:—‘ a.d. 1390,
Henry of Bullingbroke, Earle of Derbie, son of the Duke of Lan
caster, loath to spend his houres in sloath, but desirous to pursue
renown by martiall Acts in forraine parts, sailed over to the warres ira
Prussia, where in sundry enterprizes against tbe Lithuanians he won
great honour, which, by comparison of King Richard’s calmness, pre
pared a wav for him in the Englishes affections to poynts more
eminent.’ The result of these military exploits, continued through a
long course of vears, is thus very pithily summed up and stated by
Fuller, who, on p. 218 of the Helu Rom, says,—‘ By their endeavours the
Prussians, who before were but heathen Christians, were wholly con
verted, many a brave city builded . . . and those countries of Prussia
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
and Livonia which formerly were the coarse list, are now become the
rich fringe of Europe.1
In possession of such provinces, these Teutonic Ivnignts grew
haughty and self-indulgent, and lived with but small regard to the
strict rule of St. Augustine, which was the professed code of discipline.
Within a while those who liad for so long been conquerors had to
submit to defeat and humiliation. In the year 1410, in a great battle
near Tannenburg, their army was defeated, the Grand Master and
many of the Knights losing their lives. The influence of the Order
was on the wane. Little by little encroachments weie made on then
territories. About a.d. 14GG a large province was taken fiom them by
Poland. Nor did this signal warning of decaying power affect the
lives of these once austere but now luxurious Knights these soldiers
of the Church, these favoured children of the Pope. Irreligious and
immoral themselves, they cared not to see others zealous, holy, and
learned. Their treatment of the celebrated astronomer, Nicolas Coper
nicus, canon of Frauenburg, was utterly unworthy of men of honour,
to say nothing of men who were bound by clearest vows to defend the
cause of truth. In the years 1504—7 this famous man and leained
divine defended his rights against the arrogant and ambitious claims
which were made by these Teutonic Knights.
The doom of such a community could not long be uncertain ; their
acts were frequently of such a hard, merciless, unchristian character, that
enemies on all sides rose up against their unjust and inhuman rule. In
the year a.d. 1521 Brandenburg took another large portion of their
country, and from this time very little remained to them of all their once
vast domain. Dantzic and other seaports on the Baltic, which had once
flourished under their rule, were lost. Internal disputes and bitter
divisions ensued, until at last, in 1525, the Grand Master accepted the
position of a Prince of the Empire, and became a subject instead of an
independent ruler.
The Military Order of ‘The Teutonic Knights of St. Mary in Jeru
salem,’ after this fatal act, gradually sunk into a very weak and insig
nificant position, and entirely forsook their ancient patron the Pope.
The extinction of the Order is thus described by the historian Wad
dington :—‘ The Teutonic Order continued to subsist in great estimation
with the Church ; and this patronage was repaid with persevering
fidelity, until at length, when they perceived the grand consummation
approaching, the holy Knights generally deserted that tottering fortress
and arranged their rebellious host under the banners of Luther.’ The
\ Order is mentioned some times in the years that have succeeded, but in
no honourable way. Some few members have tried to keep up a show
of an existence for the Order, but only to earn for themselves the
repute of being a ‘ cheap defence of nations.’
18
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
It will be a pleasure to wear it, and to feel that you are doing it for
the sake of him that’s gone. There’s everything complete, and the
children’s things, too. I’ll run home and fetch them up after tea : it
will be well to try everything on to-night, or there'll be something to
alter, perhaps, just at last. It’s just tlie same with weddings : if you
don’t see to it all, there’s sure to be a fuss and trouble when you ought
to be starting ; and if your bonnet isn’t comfortable, or your gown is
too tight, you can’t give your thoughts properly to anything else all
the time you’ve got them on.’
{To be continued.)
ST. JOHN’S GATE, CLERKENWELL, 1841.
lAdigious ©rlira of tfjc
ages.
BY DENHAM ROWE NORMAN, VICAR OF MIDDLETON-BY-WIRKSWORTH.
The Military Orders.—Knights Hospitallers, or Knights of St. John.
HE desire to become members of this famous Order grew
so rapidly, that those who guided the counsels of the com
munity advised greater care in selecting candidates. The
rules of entrance were revised and made more stringent.
At length none but members of noble and ancient families
could hope for enrolment.
It was necessary as well as convenient, as the Order came to
embrace recruits from all parts of Europe, to divide the knights into
9
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
Ir
what were called ‘ Languages.’ These sections were inscribed, one for
England and one each for France, Provence, Auvergne, Italy, Germany,
Aragon. For every one of these seven divisions there was a separate
code of bye-laws and instructions, binding only on the knights of the
language for which it had been drawn up.
As time went on, the Order increased greatly in popularity, and
constantly rendered effective service to the weary pilgrims, as well
to the failing cause of Christian rule in Palestine But with this
esteem, ever on the advance, these Knights of St. John waxed proud
and overbearing. Aware of their importance as defenders of the
Christian Church and supporters of the Christian King, they became
most troublesome to King, Patriarch, and Clergy. Under cover of
an edict of the Pope of Rome they claimed exemption from payment
of tithes, not only in the Holy Land, but in whatever countries their
property might be situated. Nor was relief to be obtained from this
patent wrong. Fulcher the Patriarch travelled to Rome to seek
redress, but without avail. The Pope’s Bull was the final settlement
of the case.
The interests of the Order became so vast, and friends became so
numerous and lavish, that it was essential to have special homes in
every country, where selected recruits might be maintained until re
quired for service in the Holy Land. In England, several charitably
disposed and religious-minded men adopted the cause of these Hospi
tallers; the very foremost being one Jerdan or Jordan Briset, of
Wellinghall, in Kent According, to Speed the historian, this worthy,
with Muriel his wife, in the reign of Henry I., a.d. 1130, endowed
what was called a ‘ Commandery,’ or Religious House, at Clerkenwell.
This house eventually, when several additions had been made to the
first design, became a remarkably fine building, and was used by the
members of the Order who might happen to be in this country on the
business of the knights. It was called the Hospital of St. John, and
for centuries was noted for its beauty and grandeur.
Close by the Hospital of St. John at .Clerkenwell was an oratory,
or church, and this building was consecrated by Heraclius the Patriarch
of Jerusalem, a.d. 1185, in the presence of the Grand Master of the
Order, who was then in England as an embassy from the King of
Jerusalem
In course of time several smaller branch-houses were
built in England in connexion with this large home at Clerkenwell; as
for instance, at Carbrook in Norfolk, and Bucklands in Somersetshire.
Their wealth increasing continually, these knights were ready to
espouse the cause of Christians at all times, even when occasionally
those requiring succour were not very friendly disposed towards them.
It came to pass about the year a.d. 1237, that their rivals the Tem
plars had met with a crushing defeat. At once the Hospitallers
hastened to revenge the insult. Detachments of knights of the Order
hurried away to Palestine to the aid of the Templars. There is a
very imposing account given of the departure of the English con
tingent on that occasion. Starting from their House at Clerkenwell,
the company consisting of more than three hundred knights, and a
vast retinue of followers of various grades, the procession passed along
the roads and through the streets, receiving everywhere marks of
popular favour and approval. Hearty and long-continued wrere the
10
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
cheers that greeted those gallant men as they embarked for their dis
tant and perilous voyage.
The ending of this martial enterprise does not appear to have been
very satisfactory, for in less than two years the two Orders are found
to be taking different sides in the settlement of a question of succes
sion,—the Knights of St. John entering into a treaty with the ruler
of Egypt, pledging themselves to defend him against the ruler of
Damascus ; the Templars at the same time contracting with a subor
dinate of the ruler of Damascus to defend his master and himself
against the ruler of Egypt. Indeed it is clear that these two great
religious Orders were at constant feud. Much of the misery, many o!
the misfortunes, and the early collapse of the Christian kingdom in
Palestine, can be assigned to no other cause than the perpetual wranglings between these : Hospitallers ’ and ‘ Templars; ’ the former, as
was supposed, ever struggling to maintain Imperial views, and the
latter the desires of the Pope of Pome. On more than one occasion
the dispute between them was not settled by words. In the year
1259 there was such a fierce contention, that nothing short of open
combat could settle it; and so bitter was the enmity, that the
Hospitallers, who were victors, allowed scarcely a ‘ Templar to escape
their swords.’
Soon, however, there were enemies in the land, brave and thirsting
for conquest—the Mamelukes. These hardy and savage men, led by
their chief Bibars, came to ravage and lay waste the Holy Land, and
to destroy utterly what remained of the Christian Church and king
dom. Town after town was taken by these ruthless invaders. Caesarea
was captured At.Azotus there was a fortress, and in it a garrison of
a small'company of the Knights of St. John, about ninety in number
This handful of troops, with heroic courage, stood for days the assaults
of these Mameluke zealots. Death, however, so reduced their numbers,
that on entrance upon the walls few knights were found to defend
them, and of these, not one was left alive at the close of the contest.
From this time troubles multiplied, and little leisure was obtained
by these Soldiers of the Church, a.d. 1268, Jaffa, and the still more
important town of Antioch, fell into the hands of these Mameluke foQS.
The restless Bibars and his troops were ever on the march, engaged in
their mission of exterminating Christianity. At one small stronghold
of Christians—the tower of Karac, which was situated between the
seaports of Tripoli and Tortosa—the Knights of this Order of St.
John again distinguished themselyes by acts of intrepid bravery. Not
withstanding the valour and heroism displayed, the numbers of the
Mamelukes were too great, and Karac, as other citadels, shared the
common fate.
/
In the closing years of the Christian effort to retain a old
h
*
on
Palestine, there were unseemly disputes as to the succession to the
throne of Jerusalem : which conduct has drawn from Fuller this remark {Holy War, p. 238)—‘ Like bees, making the greatest hum
ming and buzzing in the hive, when now ready to leave it.’ It is,
however, to the credit of this Order of St. John that they declined
taking part in such uncalled-for strife. ‘ Better,' said they, ‘ first ob
tain possession of the land, and rid it of enemies, and then it will be
time to settle who shall be its sovereign.’
11
�anti tfje Strong Spirit.
IGHT not even onr religions conversation be more fruitful
than it is ? St. James, from whose Epistle we might derive
a complete code of rules for the government of the tongue,
says, ‘ Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow
to wrath; for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousiK'hH of God.’
lie is speaking of religious things, of hearing and
speaking ‘the word of truth’ mentioned in the former verse. Does
not religion suffer often from our hot and impetuous advocacy ? We
are zealous for God, and that, we think, excuses everything; and we
are ready with the nickname or the good story against those whose
views differ from our own, and we separate readily from those that will
not go so far as we; and the lines that separate Church parties are
<htily more deeply marked. We meant to do what was righteous before
God ; our fault is only zeal. But ‘ the wrath of man worketh not the
righteousness of God.’ God's great purposes, in the growth of Ilis
kingdom, will gain nothing from our noisy warmth. Our righteous
ness before God would be to speak the truth, but to speak it in love ;
and to he slow to speak, lest perhaps we should utter the word of
poison instead of that of truth. It is a great misfortune if those that
arc firmest in the faith should disfigure the beauty of it by a want of
love. You despise tho gainsayer of your truth; you denounce him ;
you soo in him nothing but stupidity and perverseness, and you tell
tho world so. Yet he is your brother after all. Your Lord could pity
that porvcrsencss and stupidity which kindles in you so much irritation.
Is there, after all, anything more moving to a good man’s heart than
tho fact that many are losing sight, from one cause or another, of
Christ their only guide ? Tho world was redeemed, not by fiery indig
nation, but by a manifestation of unspeakable love. And what was
true of our redemption is still true. No man is ever reclaimed from
an error by more robuko and anger. Go to your Lord in prayer and
say to llim, 1 Lord, wo have kept Thy faith:’ ‘ Well done, good and
faithful servant I ’ ‘ Lord, we have been indignant against those who
kept it not; wo have smitten them, and degraded them, and brought
them into disrepute :’’Put up thy sword within thy sheath. The
wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Judge not, that
ye bo not judged.’
The Archbishop of Y’ork.
-
0------
CTijc iJnoto-Storni.
Tp 11 ROUGH the hushed air the whitening shower descends,
At first thin, wavering, till at last the flakes
Fall broad and wide and fast, dimming the day
With a continual flow. Tho cherished fields
Put on their winter robe of purest white:
lis brightness all, save where the snow melts
Along the maiy current. Low the woods
Bow their hoar heads, and ere the languid sun,
Faint from the west, emits his evening ray,
Earth's universal face, deep hid and chill.
Is one wide daxxling waste, that buries wide the works of man.
�‘ Dust to Dust:
there’s many that will be so glad to be quiet they won’t scarce niindB
whether they are buried or not,’ said Alice, hardly heeding his words.
Paul looked at her as she spoke.
‘ You’ve seen trouble, Alice! Nay, Im not asking what it is—I
don’t want to know,’ he added hastily, seeing how she started and'
turned pale. 4 But there’s a deal of comfort for such as you in the'
burial part of the Prayer-book. Like leaving everything behind and!
starting afresh after a rest: that don't seem to make death so very
bad, does it?’
‘ Pm not afeard of dying; living is harder.’
‘ Maybe, but we’ve got to do what’s set us.’
‘ And what’s set you is none so hard,’ replied the worn wotnan;
‘ none so hard but what it’s easy done, I reckon.’
Paul looked at her again.
‘I suppose folk think so yet; whiles Im tired, Alice, works work,,
whether it brings in money or whether it only keeps folk from clam
ming and striving, and there are times when I m very weary.
‘ Are you, Paul? I’m sorry, it looks as if you had no care, notrouble, no sorrow; yet you’re kind to them as has lots of them. Go
and see father, and talk to him a bit, happen he’ll listen to you.’
But old Lock would not listen.
‘ It’s all very well for you, Paul Crowley ; if you was to die to
morrow, your burying would be the grandest bturton town has ever set
eyes on: you don’t need to lie awake nights thinking of the parish
coffin, and none to follow you to your grave.’
‘ If I was to die to-morrow I should have the plainest funerab
Sturton has seen this many a day,’ said Paul, quietly.
‘ Nay, now, would you ?’
‘ Yes.’
‘ How canst thou be sure ? ’
‘ Because I have left written word about it, and my wife knowswhat I think. Big funerals are the ruin of Sturton. Keep your
money, Ben; but don’t tie them down to spending it on a grand
funeral.’
‘ Well, my lad, if thee sets the example, I’ll follow,’ said the old
man with a slow chuckle; 1 but thee 11 have to look sharp if thee is to
be buried afore me.’
Four days later the sudden toll of the passing bell had startled
Ben Lock from his evening doze. He sat up counting the strokes as
they beat across the summer air.
‘ Who is it for, Alice ?’ he asked, as she came softly to his side.
‘ Who is it for ?’ he repeated, impatiently turning round when she did
not answer, and then he saw that her lips were trembling, and that;
heavy tears were falling down her thin cheeks.
‘ Can t thee speak ? Who’s gone?’
‘ Paul Crowley,’ she said, with a sob; and throwing her apron over
her head she passed swiftly away to her own room.
(Te be continued.)
�^Tlje Religious
of tijc
&grs.
BY DENHAM ROWE NORMAN, VICAR OF MIDDLETON-RY-WIRKSWORTH.
The Military Orders.— II. Knights Templars, or Red-Cross Knights.
‘ And on his breast a bloody cross he bore,
The dear remembrance of his dying Lord,
For whose street sake that glorious badge he wore,
And dead, as living ever, Him adored:
Upon his shield the like was also scored,
For sovereign hope, which in His help he had.
Right, faithful, true, he was in deed and word,
But of his cheere did seem too solemn sad ;
Yet nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad (dreaded).’
Spenser, Faerie Queene.
¡HE spirit of enterprise liad been shown in such a marked
manner by the members of St. John’s Hospital at Jeru! salem, that it is nothing of a surprise to find that soon
the Hospitallers had imitators. Very quickly after those
religious knights had ventured to become ‘ Military Friars,’
there was another little knot of men ready to start a new community.
It may be, that these eager enthusiasts saw with some shade of envy
the public favour bestowed on the Hospitallers, and desired to obtain
for themselves a share of that respect and esteem.
The honour of being founders of this new ‘ Order’ is due to Hugh
de Payens and Geoffrey (or Ganfred) de Saint Omer, and six or seven
other individuals whose names have not come down to us. These
worthies had seen with shame the ills inflicted on pilgrims by the
Mahometan inhabitants of Palestine as they passed from the sea
coast to Jerusalem. Tales of oppression and hard usage had been
reported so frequently, that at last the step was taken of forming a
company of able and trustworthy Christians, whose duty it should be
to preserve order along the line of road from Acre and other seaports
to Jerusalem. It is said that for the first nine years, 1118-27, there
were only nine members of this brotherhood.
The kind of persons these Templars had to defend and procure
safe-conduct for, who were called Palmers, is thus described by one of
our most gifted early English poets, Spenser,—
‘ A silly man, in simple weeds foreworne,
And soiled with dust of the long dried way;
His sandales wore with toilsome travell torne,
And face all tand with scorching sunny ray,
As he had traveild many a sommer’s day
Through boyling sands of Arabie and Inde;
And in his hand a Jacob’s staffe, to stay
His weary limbs upon ; and eke behind
His scrip did hang, in which his needments he did bind.’
Faerie Queene. Book I.
Such a company was sure, however, to attract associates when it
had established itself and made known its purposes. The energy and
courage displayed in dealing with the Mahometan robbers by these
Christian worthies soon came to be favourably spoken of in Jerusalem,
and to be reported in the states of Western Europe. So praiseworthy
did the object appear in the eyes of men of mark, that in a little
while there were numerous applications for admission to the rau'.s of
the Order—applications, too, not from mere common folk, but from
members of good families in France, Italy, England, and other
18
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
■
J.
-■•di'
<.1V®
ir4]
,..<S
»
*
to
■jß|
countries. The re
nown and ability
of the first few
members were so
celebrated,
that
numbers of high
born men craved
admittance to the
Order.
A home was
given for the mem
bers of the Order
by King Baldwin
IT., who began to
reign a.d. 11 IS.
The spot assigned
was close to the
Temple of the HolySepulchre,and from,
the fact of their
residence being
nigh the Temple,
the title of Tem
plars was taken by
the knights.
In.
their earliest years
the members of the
Order are reported
to have been ex
tremely poor ; in
deed so poor, that
food and clothing
had to be found for
them by the Hos
pitallers. Matthew
Paris, an old chro
nicler, affirms that
A KNIGIIT TE3IPLAR.
the Order had a
seal, on which the figures of two men on one horse were engraven, as a
symbol of the narrowness of their means. They styled themselves
‘ Soldiers of Christ,’ and ‘ Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the
Temple of Solomon.’
Finding them exceedingly useful as guardians of the peace in.
his kingdom, Baldwin treated them with favour, and conferred on
them gifts and honours. The Patriarch of Jerusalem — Stephen—
was also kindly disposed towards them, inasmuch as through their
assiduity travellers were able to come up to the Holy Places with
but little fear of harm.
The Hospitallers also regarded these
brave, active, and self-denying men with the utmost affection. The
Patriarch went so far in his zeal to assist them, that he prayed
Pope Honorius II. to confirm the Order; which request was grant©!
at the Council of Troyes, a.d. 1128. Everard was elected as first
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
■Grand Master of the Order, and held that office for about eight
years.
The vows taken on admission as a Knight Templar were 1 poverty,
chastity, obedience, and to defend pilgrims coming to the Holy Sepulchre.’
EFFIGIES ON THE TOMES OF KNIGHTS TEMPLARS.
What kind of life the knights were expected to lead may be judged of
by an exhortation addressed to them on a certain occasion by St.
Bernard. ‘ They were never to be idle, mending their old clothes
when wanting other work; never to hawk, hunt, play chess, or dice,
or witness plays. They were to arm themselves with faith within,
with steel without; to aim more at strength than pomp ; to be feared,
20
�The Religious Orders of the Middle Ages.
not admired; to strike terror with their valour, not stir covetousness
with their wealth in the heart of their enemies.’
Pope Honorius II., after the fashion of the times, sanctioned as
the peculiar habit of these Knights Templars a white mantle. In a
few years after, however, these valiant and daring men had shown
such an amount of readiness and promptitude in the discharge of
their duties, that Pope Eugenius III. honoured them with the special
privilege of wearing a cross of red cloth sewn on the mantle at the
breast. From this circumstance they are frequently spoken of as
‘ Bed-Cross Knights.’ From about this time in their history there
was a regular and withal rapid rise in wealth and popularity. Large
manors were conferred upon the community, and men of very highest
rank entered the Order. The fatigues and hardships and losses con
sequent on membership were no hindrance, but, on the contrary, appear
to have had a certain charm for resolute and high-minded soldiers.
In course of time, the Knights Templars, who regarded them
selves as allies of the king and not as his subjects, entered upon a
wider sphere of work. From being maintainers of a safe journey for
pilgrims between Acre and Jerusalem, they became a very strong and
well-trained body of troops, able to assist materially the forces of the
king in his battles with Mahometan enemies. Indeed, by the year
a.d. 1150, when a march was proposed against Damascus, it was
observed that the Knights of the Bed Cross were amongst the best
armed, best mounted, best drilled soldiers in the army. It is worthy
of remark, that occasionally this spirit of independence and selfreliance, which was constantly shown, suffered severe mortifications,
by defeat and humiliations at the hands of foes. An instance of this
rebuke occurred about a.d. 1154. The town of Ascalon was besieged.
Baldwin promised the Knights Templars, who were great favourites
with him, the spoil of the town if they could take it. The order
came—none but Templars were to make the attempt. Their rashness
or their lust of gain cost them their lives.
Henceforward, the Knights Templars may be regarded more
properly as an independent corps of the Christian army in Palestine
than as members of a small and insignificant Order. Frequently
they refused to act with the Boyal troops, and on certain occasions
they espoused the cause of men who had little love for Christ and
the Holy Places.
A very startling reminder that these knights at times were not
so prudent or faithful as their vows would bespeak them, is afforded
in a short sentence in Fuller’s Holy War, p. 311,—‘ 12 Templars
hanged for traitors, a.d. 1165.’ Very questionable also was their
behaviour when refusing King Almeric aid in his attack on Egypt.
It is more than probable that this conduct arose from jealousy of the
.rival Order of Hospitallers.
�BY W. R. CLARK, M.A. PREBENDARY OF WELLS AND VICAR OF TAUNTON.
Luke, ii. 49.—‘ Wist ye not that I must be about my
Father's business?'.
N the narrative of our Lord's manifestation in the Temple,
short as it is, there are many points of deep interest and
suggestiveness.
Every word is full of meaning, and
invites thoughtful study and devout meditation.
But
there are none more deeply significant than those which
have just been read. It would indeed be difficult to find any words
the whole range of human literature, sacred or profane, which express
a meaning more solemn, more profound, than that which is conveyed in
the answer of the youthful Jesus to His loving and anxious mother:
‘ Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business ?’
They tell us what is the true idea of man’s life and work here on
earth; they express the true meaning of that sense of responsibility
which ought to rest upon every moral and accountable being ; and they
exhibit a calm confidence in the habitual intention of the Speaker, which
is as beautiful as it is rare.
I. These words of our Lord tell us, first of all, what is the true idea
of man's life and work here on earth. It is, to be about our Father's
business. The question is often asked, and it needs to be asked oftener
than it is,1 What is our life ? ’ What is the meaning and object and end
of human life on earth ? What were we made for ? What ought we
to be and to do ? Many answers have been given to these questions.
Some of them are true, some of them are false, and some of them are
half true and half false. Well would it be for us all if we began life
with these words of our Lord as the answer to that question, ‘ I
must be about my Father’s business.’ How many false and baseless
theories it would dash to the ground ! From what aimless gropingin
the dark it would deliver us ! And yet, how few really receive this as
the true and complete answer to the great question of life !
In a certain sense, doubtless, we all perceive the beauty and confess
the truth of this thought. But our hearts do not feel it, and our
lives do not respond to it. With our lips we confess the vanity and
emptiness of mere worldly ideals, but in our lives we show that we
believe them to be real and substantial. Pleasure, we say—what a.
deception it is ! The favour of man—what a phantom! Wealth—what a
snare! Power—what a burden and anxiety ! Yet we go after pleasure
with all our might, and we wear ourselves out in the pursuit of
popularity ; and we treat money as a god, and we are eager for power
and wretched when we lose it; and amid the roar and tumult of lust, and
ambition, and avarice, how few hear the still small voice which says, in
the depth of our hearts, ‘ I must be about my Father’s business ! ’
Here, at least, in the house of God, we may listen to it for a
moment, and pray that it may not be silenced for a little while; that
it may be heard by us in the silent hour of prayer, when no one is with
us but God; in our family and social life, to give it a high and noble
character: in our days and hours of business and relaxation, to remind us
22
S
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The religious orders of the Middle Ages
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Norman, Denham Rowe
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [London]
Collation: 6-10, 3-8, 10-15, 3-9, 14-18, 9-11, 18-21 p. ; ill. ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. From seven issues of Parish Magazine [journal title from World Cat]. Date of publication from KVK.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
[Parish Magazine]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1873]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5557
Subject
The topic of the resource
Religion
History
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The religious orders of the Middle Ages), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Church History-600-1500
Conway Tracts
Middle Ages
Monasticism and Religious Orders
Religious Orders