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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42518	A short history of monastical orders in which the primitive institution of monks, their tempers, habits, rules, and the condition they are in at present, are treated of / by Gabriel d'Emillianne.	Gavin, Antonio, fl. 1726.	1693 (1693)	Wing G394; ESTC R8086	141,685	356

Court He at first refused a Bishoprick that was offered him rather out of Pride or some other End as may be supposed than out of Humility because some while after he accepted two of them to wit that of Worcester and that of London both which he possessed at once without the least scruple of Conscience He was made at last Archbishop of Canterbury and got so far into King Edward's favour that nothing was done either in the Kingdom or in the Church without his consent or rather without his Order He made use at first of the great power he had at Court to advance to Bishopricks some of his own Relations who to please him were become Monks Amongst those were Oswald and Ethelwald the first of whom was promoted to the Bishoprick of Worcester and the other to that of Winchester In which having succeeded he undertook to promote the Affairs of the Monks to the great prejudice of those of the Clergy Thus Dunstan being a very lustful man hated as such usually do Lawful Marriage and seeing that the Clergy-men in that time were permitted to Marry he undertook to force them to forsake their Wives and Children and to turn Monks Oswald and Ethelwald joined with him in the same design and all of them having unanimously forged several false Accusations and Calumnies against those of the Clergy who refused to take the Monastical Habit they turned them out of their Churches Prebendaries and Colleges The offended Party carried immediately their Complaints to the King who appointed Commissioners to examine their Cause in the Chapter of the Church of Winchester of which the Monks had already possessed themselves in the year 963. The Judges being fully convinced by the just Reasons of the Clergy were upon the point to pronounce in favour of their re-establishment when the Monks thinking they had no time to lose made use of this crafty Device They hid one of their Gang upon the Roof of the Hall where the Assembly was kept who cryed out with all his strength through a hole not being seen Non bene sentiunt qui Presbyteris favent Those who speak in favour of the Priests are not in the Right Then the Monks clapping their Hands called out this was the voice of an Angel and that they needed no other Judgment but what Heaven it self had pronounced The Commissioners were so much terrified at it that against all Justice and Reason the Clergy men were cast and lost the right of their Cause After this Dunstan and his Agents observed no longer any moderation towards the Secular Clergy but used them with all sort of violence The King himself at their sollicitation persecuted them utterly and commanded them to be chased out of all Cathedral Churches and Colleges In a Letter which he wrote to Dunstan to Oswald and to Ethelwald he expresseth himself in these words I have the Sword of Constantine in my hand and you that of St. Peter let us join them together and drive the Lepers out of the Camp viz. the Church-men who lived in the state of a Lawful and Honest Marriage So let us cleanse the Sanctuary of the Lord and henceforward receive none to the Ministry of the Altars but the Children of Levi who said to his Father and Mother I know you not and to his Brethren I know not who you are c. Understanding in this last Clause the Monks who had renounced their Relations and Families to live with more ease and less care in the Cloisters The three Bishops had no sooner received this Letter but like Ravenous Wolves they fell upon that Flock which as good Pastors they should have protected and unmercifully oppressed it They builded with their Spoils during the Reign of that King XLVIII Monasteries and richly endowed them The affairs of the Monks having suffered some decay under the Reign of the following King Dunstan took upon himself to restore them under King Edward in the year 975. He assembled for this purpose a National Council in the East of England But having had no success in it he assembled another in Wilceria or Calne where he refused to dispute against Beornelmus a Scotch Bishop and a very learned man and one well versed in Scripture who offered to prove by it the lawfulness of the Marriage of Priests And indeed the Assembly begun already to be persuaded by the strength of his Reasons when a fatal and deplorable accident carried the Cause in favour of Dunstan The House in which this great Assembly was met sunk and there were buried in its ruins almost all the Chiefest both of the Clergy and Nobility of England The Monks alone had the good luck to escape who published immediately that Heaven had espoused their Cause had wrought a Miracle for their preservation and avenged them of their Adversaries But several Authors of great sense do accuse not without Reason this Dunstan and his Monks of a Plot no less Treacherous and Abominable than was that of the Gunpowder Treason to have undermined this Building and made it ready to fall upon this Assembly in case their Affairs did not take that turn which they desired in which case it was an easie thing for the Monks to make their escape For as Bishop Parker wisely observed How is it possible to believe that God would have wrought Miracles to maintain the cause of those who had refused to be tried by the Authority of his Holy Word Nevertheless so sad an accident gave the Victory to the Monks over the Secular Married Clergy whose places they continued to usurp almost during six hundred years until King Henry the VIII exterminated them in a lesser time and with more facility than Dunstan had for establishing of them I come now to give you some instances of the Pride and Sauciness of Monks in oppressing the English Unmarried Clergy Lanfrank a Benedictine Monk and Abbot of St. Stephen of Caen in Normandy having been raised to the Dignity of Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 1070 he immediately introduced his Brethren the Monks into the Cathedral Church who in process of time by the great power they had at Court were admitted to give their Votes in the Election of the Archbishops together with the Suffragan Bishops Chief Prelates and Great Canons of that Diocese But being afterwards grown Insolent by the Possession of the Relicks of Thomas Becket they pretended to have alone the power of Electing the Archbishop with exclusion of the subordinate Bishops and Clergy and not only so but they had the brazen Face to send Commands peremptorily to the Archbishops obliging them to do or undo what they listed We have a famous example of both in the Life Balduinus Archbishop of Canterbury related by Parker in his Britannick Antiquities First concerning his Election 't is said that the Suffragan Bishops and the chiefest of the Clergy of that Province being assembled to join with the Monks in the Election of a Successour to Richard Archbishop

year 1313. Some are of opinion that Peter Damianus established this Religion a long time before Pope Celestin about the year 1078 and that the Habit of those Monks was of a Blue or Celestial Colour whence they were called Celestins They wear now a White Casock with a Patience a Scapulary a Hood and a Cowl all black They possess now in France about twenty Monasteries 'T is an usual expression in that Country for a great Coxcomb to call one a pleasant Celestin. Of the Order of the Olivetans JOhn Ptolomaeus Gentleman of Siena in Italy a Learned Lawyer desirous to give himself wholly to devotion retired to a ground of his own called Accona distant fifteen miles from the Town having drawn along with him two other persons who followed him in his retreat in the year 1313. Their Congregation increased in a little while and because they professed no written Rule and made no Vows guided only by the zeal they had for Jesus Christ they were accused before Pope John the XXII who held his Seat at Avignon as Innovators Enemies to Monastical Vows This Pope referred their Cause to the Bishop of Aresse who commanded them to follow the Rule of St. Benet This hapned in the year 1319. and to go Cloathed all in White viz. to wear a Casock a Scapulary and a long broad Cowl with large Sleeves He ordered besides this that their Congregation should be called by the name of St. Mary of Mount Olivet and that the Church of their Chief Monastery of Accona should bear the same name About that time John Ptolomaeus having proposed to himself St. Bernard Abbot of Clairvaux for a Pattern would be called of his name Bernardus He died of the Plague in the year 1348 and 't is unknown where his Body was laid His Religious are called yet to this day Olivetans They live in a Congregation and have perpetual Regular Abbots though their abode is but triennial in the same Monastery They have divided their Abbies into six Provinces which do elect by turns the General of the Order These Monks are so much disordered that several Popes to remove so great a Scandal had a mind to abolish them intirely as 't was done to the above-mentioned Humilies but their Protectors have been so powerful and so well paid that they have ever till now averted this Storm from their Heads Of some other Orders of St. Benet and Chiefly of the famous Congregation of St. Maur in France TO put an end to the Orders which follow the Rule of St. Benet I say that some are to be seen yet in the East as in the Valley of Josaphat and in the Indies who differ only in Cloaths The first wear a Hood and a Cowl of a readish Colour and after the use of Eastern Countries a long Beard The others to wit the Indians have a black short Casock with a white Scapulary and a white Cloak over it that reacheth to their Heels There are also many Reformations of the Order of St. Benet in Germany in Lorrain and in France but among others that of St. Maurus in France is very remarkable It was erected by Pope Gregory the XV. in the year 1621 upon the motion of Louis the XIII King of France Father Desiderius De la Cour native of Lorrain was the first who went about it very earnestly and the first Monastery where this Reform took place was that of the White Cloaks or Blanc Manteaux at Paris Pope Urban the VIII confirmed this Congregation in the year 1627. It increased so much in so short a time that one may reckon now two hundred Monasteries in France belonging to it They are divided into six Monastical Provinces each of which is governed by a Visitor They have a General besides who keeps two Assistants or Helpers and lives in the Abby of St. Germain des Prez at Paris The Abbots and Superiors of the whole Congregation meet together with their Deputies in a General Chapter every third year and there they make their Regulations which are joined with the Declarations upon their Rule and ought very strictly to be observed This Congregation would have spread its Branches yet farther if King Louis the XIV by a piece of Policy unwilling to see any Private Body to grow so strong had not put a stop to it He would not permit them to reform many other Monasteries which are yet very loose and corrupted and had rather to see them Secularized as 't was done lately to the Abbies of Enee and Savigni near Lions than to have them incorporated with these Reformed Monks They are extreamly Rich being very good Husbands and partly because they want Monks to fill their Monasteries The French Nobility being now a days Enemies to a lazy Life the meanest sort of people only sue for to be received amongst them This Congregation hath however produced some great men in this Age famous by their learned Works to wit D. Hugues Menard Lucas d' Achery John Mabillon Gabriel Gerberon but scarcely could they produce as many others of this kind amongst them The length of their Office at Church taking up the best part of their time is perhaps the cause of their ignorance The Jesuits are very troublesom to them because by the great power they have at Court they get to themselves several of their Abbies and Priories This is the reason why in some points one sees St. Ignatius of Loiola cutting with long Shears St. Benet's Purse I shall say no more of the Monastical Orders that follow the Rule of St. Benet only this That several other Monasteries of Benedictine Monks are to be seen here and there dispersed who are not reformed and do not live in a body of a Congregation but all of them lead so corrupted and wicked lives that they may be considered where-ever they are as the plague of all honesty and good manners CHAP. XIII Of the Orders of St. Hierom. 'T IS very certain that St. Hierom governed a long while the famous Monastery built at Bethlem by the devout Paula but it was by the good example of his life only not leaving any thing in Writing that might be serviceable after his death to the Monastical Government So that the Orders which bear in our days St. Hierom's Name are not to be called so for their following his Rule but because they have chosen this great Doctor for their Patron and Protector 'T is very true also that some time before he entred the Monastery of Paula he had retired himself to the most desert places of Syria to get more freedom from Worldly Affairs and to apply himself the better to Study and the Contemplation of Holy Things But then and afterwards he did it with a perfect liberty of Spirit without determination to any Place Exercise or Pract●ce of Vertue by any Vow nor distinguished himself from others by the singularity of his Habit. Prosper Stellarius an Augustinian Monk who hath collected the Rules of the Founders

XX. Of the Habits and of the Tonsure or Shaving of Monks I Have set down at the end of each Order what Habits those Monks wear and in what Form and Colour they do differ one from another according to the Fancy of their Founders Now I must further more explain to you what a Capuchon a Scapulary a Patience a Force a Plited Cloak the Scandals and the Monastical Crown are The Capuchon in its first Institution was no other thing but a Sack which the first Penitents wore upon their Heads with one Corner in after the manner of the Colliers here in London But our Monks have brought it at last to the form of a Hood and is of the same Stuff with their Habits It is a very commodious contrivance because when they are hot they cast it back upon their Shoulders and when they are cold they draw it very deep on their Heads to keep their Ears warm Some have it so curiously Wrought that three Women at work can hardly make one in four days Speaking of it in a Spiritual Sense they call it the Helmet of Salvation Galeam salutis and believe that the Devil hath not the Power in that Harness to suggest to them ill Thoughts Some Monks as the Benedictins the Augustinians the Dominicans c. wear it very broad and hanging down almost to the Calf of their Legs to extend the more on their Bodies the virtue of this holy Garment The Capucins contrarywise have the tail of their Capuchion turned right upwards which makes them they say more Terrible to the Powers of the Air and uniteth them more immdiately to God The Scapulary is a piece of Stuff divided length-ways in half and sowed to their Capuchion which reacheth before and behind almost to their Feet T is called Scapulary à Scapulis because it covers their Shoulders and in the Spiritul Sense it is an Armour against the Devil Impenetrable to all the Arrows of his Malice This Scapulary when first contrived was an Habit for work whereof almost all the Peasants made use formerly working in the Fields because this covering their Stomack Back and Shoulders and having no Sleeves it left their Hands and Arms freer for work Now as the Monks were obliged in the antient times to work with their Hands St. Benet and the other Institutors of Monks gave them the Scapulary to wear Scapulare propter opera tantum But as for the Monks in our days who have preferred Idleness before Working they might also go without a Scapulary When the execrable Regicide James Clement a Dominican Fryar went to kill Henry the III. he hid hisgreat Dagger under his great Dagger under his Scapulary and made it serve in such manner to an use very different from its Institution The Patience is only another name to signify the two sides of their Scapulary the part which is one their Backs is called the Hinderpatience and that one their Breast the Forepatience This word is in expression of their Sufferings because one of these Monks having once by chance stretched his Scapulary together with the Capuchion on the ground they ingeniously observed that it represented a kind of a Cross and very luckily for them they published that they were the Imitators of Jesus Christ bearing after him their Crosses in this World And indeed who can doubt but these Scapularies being for the most part of a very fine Cloth or Linnen be very heavy Crosses to these poor Monks The Frock or Cowl is a Stately Gown with large Sleeves which the Monks wear over their other Habits when they go to Church or to work in the Towns In a Spiritual Sense it is the Protection of God Almighty that Surrounds them they say on every side The Cape is a long Cloak plited round about the Neck and without Sleeves of which some Fryars make use in stead of the Frock The Carmelites particularly wear such Garment because they say it represents better ●he Cloak of the Prophet Elijah who they pretend to have been the Founder of their Order The Sandals are Wooden-shoes or Clogs which render them they say like to the Apostles The Monastical Crown is a Circle of Hair which the Barber leaves to their Heads when he Shaves them Beda in the first Book of his History Chap. 22. saith that the Monks and Priests have their Heads Shaved and leave above the Ears a Circle of Hair in the form of a Crown to represent the Crown of Thorns of our Saviour and that this Crown is a warning to them that they ought to imitate Christ in his Sufferings and bear patiently all sorts of Affronts and Injuries for the sake of his Name And in truth saith Hospinian these good Monks and Priests are put very hard to it and suffer every day a great deal of Shame for the Cause of Christ Jesus and of his Holy Gospel Alas how are they to be pitied these holy Martyrs of the Popish Church sleeping as they do till Noon-day upon good Down Feather-Beds How weary how tired are they in cutting up the Partridges the Snipes the Pheasants and others Dainties wherewith their Tables are covered Oh the Sharp Thorny-Crown that so cruelly afflicts their tender Heads How kind how human were the Barbarous Jews who drove the Crown of Thorns into the Sacred head of our Lord Jesus in comparison of those unmerciful Barbers who Shave every Week or Fortnight the Heads of Fryars and Monks and moreover to accumulate misfortunes wash them with sweet and odoriferous Waters Isidorus and other Authors give another Explication of the Monastical Crown They say that it represents the slight which the Monks ought to make of the things of the World by losing all their Hairs except only a small Portion which they reserve for themselves to wit that little Circle about the Ears This Circle notwithstanding according to them is a Royal Crown that raises them above all other Christians as much as Kings are above their own Subjects T is very true goes on my Author Hospinian that these Fellows wear a Royal Crown on their Heads since they are exempted from all Jurisdiction and Power of the Magistrates when all the others are bound to obey Nay they are above Kings and Princes to whom they are become formidable and are adored by those of their party like Gods Having already gathered for themselves almost all the Riches of the Universe they may well boast themselves of their Frugality and of the contempt of Wordly things which they so insatiably purchase Rupertus saith that the shaving of Monks makes them in a manner bald to honour Jesus Christ Crucified on Calvary which is by him interpreted A bald Mountain Calvi sunt quia scilicet Christus in Calvariae loco Crucifixus est This is a good reason saith my Author and worthy of a great Divine Lastly Bellarmin adds another Mystery to it and saith that this Crown is a mark of Penitence and of Conversion And my Author