of his Disciples who condemn Marriage despise married Priests who fast on Sundays and cannot abide those that eat Flesh who instead of cloathing themselves as the others do have invented a new and extraordinary Habit and brought in a world of other Novelties They say that a great many Women deceived by their Discourses and infected with their Errors have separated themselves from their Husbands and not being able afterwards to keep themselves Chaste have committed Adulteries 'T is farther said that some of them have cut their Hair and put themselves in Mens Apparel The Bishops about Gangres the metropolitan City of Paphlagonia being assembled together have excommunicated those who were the followers of such Maxims unless they did recant Since that time they say Eustatius changed his Habit and did not appear cloathed otherwise than the other Priests being willing to shew that what he did was not out of Pride but out of a desire to attain greater perfection Thus far Sozomen of the Order of the Eustatiens CHAP. IV. Of the Progress and Propagation of these two Orders the Tabennisiens and the Eustatiens THE Devil was too much concerned in the establishment of Monastical Orders not to make it his business in that very beginning to promote them He made use of some Instruments of Wickedness to divulge that an Angel brought this Rule from Heaven to Pacomius in like manner as the Law of God was given to Moses upon two Tables of Stone But there is a great deal of difference betwixt these two Laws or Rules The Law given to the Israelites containeth nothing but what is well-becoming the Holiness of God who is the Author of it whereas Pacomius his Rules are in many particulars very defective not to say ridiculous For what virtue had those Garments made of Skins towards the repressing of Concupiscence Were they not rather very fit for the increasing of it What was the meaning of those Caps with red Nails likewise of those Veils which they were to have on their Heads at Meals In placing three in each Cell did not this give them an occasion to break their silence And that which seems to me yet more unreasonable the distinction they made between raw and imperfect Monks and the more perfect and great Wits was it not enough to discourage them which were marked but with an Iota and to puff up the others with a great deal of Pride who were esteemed worthy of the Letters Z and X How then can any one imagine that God could be the Author of such Whimsies which even Humane Prudence hath corrected in following Ages For indeed we do not find any such practices observed in the Cloisters now a days But it must be acknowledged that to give better credit to men's Inventions there is no way more effectual than boldly to give out that they come from Heaven Nevertheless this Order had so good success that Pacomius saw himself in a very short time Father of above nine thousand Monks who lived under his Rule as well in Deserts as Monasteries We do not find at this time any Monastery which follows that ancient Rule St. Hierom translated it into Latin and it is to be seen at the end of Cassian's Works Palladius also makes an abridgment of it in the Lauzaick History Pacomius lived at the beginning of the first Century and died in the year 405. I come now to speak of the Order of the Eustatiens which multiplied also considerably but withall apparently shews that the Monastical Life went not very far without becoming a source of Errors in the Church being already of it self a kind of Schism though under a pretence of greater Perfection Amongst the Errors wherewith the Eustatiens were charged were these That they condemned Marriage despised married Priests had their meetings in private Houses and had invented a new and unaccustomed sort of Garment This was the reason why the Bishops about Gangres assembled in a Provincial Council thundred with Anathema's against all the Monks of their Jurisdictions who adhered to such practices This shews plainly that Marriage was so far from being prohibited to Priests in those times that they were counted Hereticks who thought themselves obliged to Celibacy or would be distinguished by any Habit different from that of the Laicks or secular Clergy Eustatius humbled himself or at least feigned so to do left all his Practices and the Monastick Habit I leave now the Roman Catholicks to judge if their Monks be not guilty of such and greater Innovations and whether the Church of England had not great cause to cut them off from its Body having so good an Example of an Age which excepting some few Errors into which they were fallen did not in purity come behind that of the Apostles CHAP. V. Of the Order of St. Basil BASIL Priest of Caesarea in Cappadocia being persecuted by Eusebius his Bishop withdrew himself to a solitary place in Pontus where he applied his mind wholly to Pious Studies Great numbers of Solitaries having met with him there he undertook to instruct them and converted his Desert into a Learned School of Divinity and Philosophy being also very careful to bring them up in the practice of Christian Virtues Therefore he gave them Rules not much unlike to them which are prescribed in Colleges and well governed Accademies Notwithstanding that Rule which is commonly attributed to him is so different from St. Basil's stile and so variously related that there is ground enough to doubt whether he indeed wrote it In some Copies it hath but 35 Chapters in others 95 and again in some others even a 100. Gregory Nazianzen who was contemporary with him his Fellow-scholar and great Friend mentions not a word of it in the Elogy which he wrote of his Life and Death though he takes notice withall of several little Works of St. Basil of lesser moment than this Rule is However solitary Life is quite otherwise represented there than that Monkish one accompanied with Vows and a world of Superstitions amongst the Romanists now a-days This Rule is writ by way of Dialogue in which Basil answereth the demands of his Disciples and is so large that it makes alone a great Volume Therefore to give a less tedious draught of it to my Reader I thought fit to separate what is in it purely Monastick from the common Duties of Honesty or Christianity which belong to all men to the end that one may see what the Monastical Institutions have added to the Gospel I shall then for an example leave the First the Second and the Third Chapters which enjoyned them to love God with all their Hearts Soul and Strength and their Neighbour as themselves The fifteenth which commands that they should serve God with upright hearts and all fervency of affection the 75th which bids them to hate Sin and make Gods Law their delight and all the rest of that kind which containing the most eminent Duties of Christian Life ought not
said by his own Sermons He ordered for these Knights or rather for those Bloody Dogs a Spiritual Rule above the common one of Seculars and beneath that of the Religious They were called at that time the Brothers of the Militia of St. Dominick and when these Murtherers had done cutting the Throats of these poor People having nothing more to do they retired with their Women to their Houses living there a wicked and idle Life observing only some silly Rules which the Dominican Fryars gave them and were called afterwards the Brothers of the Penitence of St. Dominicus Of the Knights of the Virgin Mary in Italy IN the year 1233. Bartholomew of Vicence of the Order of Preachers was the Author of these Knights whom he instituted to maintain Peace in all the Cities of Italy and exterminate all sorts of Discord and Divisision Pope Vrbanus the IV. in the year 1262 approved of it Their Habit was a white Robe with another gray one and they wore a Purple Cross in a white Field with some Stars on the top of it They took also under their protection the Widows and the Orphans They were since called merry Brothers because they lived without care and a very pleasant Life in their Houses Of the Order of Knights of Montese or Brothers of our Lady THE Knights of Montese were so called from the Place of their first residence having been instituted at the same time when the Templars were abolished and whose Estates they got in the Kingdom of Valence upon condition they should Defend its Frontier Places against the Moors Their Order was approved by Benet XIII and Martin V. They wore a white Habit and a read Cross over it Of the Order of Christ-Knights in Portugal DIonysius Perioca King of Portugal Nephew to Alfonsus the X. King of Castiglia Instituted this Order commoâ—ly called of Portugal or of Christ He ordered them to wear a black Habit and black Cross Pope John the XXII in the year 1321 commanded them to follow St. Benet's Rule Their Duty is to make War against the Moors who inhabit Besica It is by their means that the Portuguese Empire hath strecht it self very far in the East in Africa in Brasil and other Western Countries Of the Knights of St. Georges of Carinthia THIS Order was founded in the year 1470 by Frederick the IV. Emperour and first Archduke of Austria The Knights were under the Rule of St. Austin and obliged to defend the Frontier Places of Hungary and Bohemia against the Turks Fredericâ— gave to the first Grand Master of that Order and to his Successours the Title of Prince with the Town of Milestad in Carinthia He founded there likewise a College of Regular Canons of St. Austin under the direction of the Bishop who was to be one of these Knights This Order was since brought wery low and the Emperour Maximilian designed to re-establish it had not the Civil Wars hindred him from the performance of it A List of the Order of Knights Instituted by the Popes THE Knights of Christ by Pope John XXII wear a red Cross The Knights of the Holy-Ghost wear a white Cross The Knights of S. Peter by Leo the X. against the Turks The Knights of S. Georges by Alexander the IV. The Knights Pii Instituted in the year 1560 by Pope Pius the IV. who gave them his name And for this very reason he would have them to go before the Knights of all other Crowns even those of Malta The Knights of Lorreto Instituted in the year 1586 by Sixtus the V. The Knights of St. Anthony The Knights of Julius Conclusion of Military Order THERE are as I already have mentioned two sorts of Knights one of Regulars and the other of Seculars The Regulars may be divided again according to the end of their Institution into Knights who do profess to sight against the Turks and other Insidels and into Knights Instituted to destroy all those who do not submit themselves to the Church of Rome As for the first one cannot deny but they have done great Services to Christendom by the brave Expeditions wherewith they have signalized themselves and the great Victories they have got over the Enemies of Christianity and they would deserve indeed more praises yet if Christ had left us any Precept to propagate his Holy Religion with Fire and Sword There is no reward as I know of promised to those who shall destroy the Infidels but for those who shall work their Conversion I dont question but the Knights of Malta are good Soldiers and that the persuasion they have that by spilling Turkish Blood they save their Souls and acquire great Merits before God hath a considerable influence upon their Enterprises upholds them in the midst of the greatest Dangers and makes them to sight like Lions but who is the Warrant of all those fair Promises in the other World but the Pope's Word alone Nevertheless I must say in honour of those of Malta that they are now the only Knights true to their Profession of fighting against the Infidels The others as the Teutonicks in Germany do indeed enjoy great Estates but where is their Standards where are their Military Expeditions What is become of that Noble Acient Valour which made them formerly the Bulwark of Christendom in Hungary against the Turks It seems now turned entirely against Pots and Drinking-glasses saith a very grave Author I pass from these Orders to those that are Instituted to destroy the Enemies of the Popish See whom they call Hereticks and especially the Protestants As we are very reasonably persuaded that the Church of Rome is not only full of Errours but also possest with a Spirit of Persecution and bestial Fury against those who refuse to embrace them we can give no other name but that of Barbarous Cuthroats to those wretched persons who by a Sacrilegious and abominable Vow do promise at the Altars to promote with their Fortunes and Lives her Bloody designs and Vengeances against those who maintain the Purity of the Faith The Dragoons who in our days so cruelly persecuted the Reformed Churches of France wanted nothing but to make Vows for to be Knighted at Rome or rather to become yet more worthy of Hell These Dragoons put me in mind of the Order of the Dragon Instituted in Germany by the Emperour Sigismond This Prince saith a Popish Author shewed so great a Zeal for the advancement of the Christian Religion that not satisfied with having so often fought the Turks and got many Victories over them at his instance two General Councils were called one at Constance and the other at Basil for the extirpation of Heresy and Schism especially in Bohemia and Hungary and for a lasting Monument of his Devotion he Instituted the Military Order of the Dragon so called because these Knights had for their Coat of Arms a Precipitated Dragon as a sign that Heresie and Schism those venemous and
pestiferous Dragons were by him vanquished and supplanted This is the Notion which this Author gives us of that Order which manifestly shews to what Merit and Honour these deluded People think they arrive by the Persecution which they raise against the true defenders of the Gospel Time will come saith Christ when those who Persecute you shall think they do great Service to God As for the Secular Orders of Knights having not Treated of them in this Book it would be superfluous to give here the Character of them I only say that most of these Orders being Instituted to establish a true Submission of the Subjects to their Princes or a perfect Friendship amongst equals or lastly to serve for Badges of Nobility and honour to distinguish Illustrious and brave Men they cannot but produce very good effects in those Kingdoms where they are established and Crowned Heads will always do well to make them Glorious by becoming themselves the Heads of them A CONCLUSION OF THE Whole WORK NO Body will deny but it is very advantagious to retire now and then into Solitude far from the noise and dissturbances of the World there to examine more at leisure and with a composed mind the State of his own Conscience and the Ways of Salvation to the end that one may dispose himself to discharge better afterwards his great Duties towards God and to order more charitably his Employments and Conversation amongst men A Retirement made for such good Ends and Purposes cannot but be very good and commendable and in this sense ought to be understood all the Elogies which the Holy Doctors and First Fathers of the Church have given to Solitude Christ himself hath commended the same by his own Example when he retired into desert places upon the Mountains with his Disciples where he taught them to pray and instructed them in all the duties of the Gospel He gave them in the Solitude those Precepts which they were to practise in the Cities insomuch that all these Retirements were only ordered for to converse better afterwards in the World The Romanists who commonly take things very materially without well examining what goes before and what after were not wanting to pronounce that because Christ did practise Retirement this same Retirement considered absolutely in it self without reference to the end for which it was chiefly intended was to be looked upon as the most perfect State in which a Christian may live not observing that it was only to be considered as an excellent means for better ordering civil Life Upon this mistaken Principle are grounded all the the Monastical Orders of the Church of Rome and the Monks are called by a very improper Emphasis Religious Men which is as much as to say perfect Christians Would to God they were so indeed or at least that they did come something near to the simplicity and honesty of Life of the most part of the first Monks who inhabited in the Third and Fourth Ages in the Deserts of Palestina and Thebaide they in this case should be only guilty of a little too much Superstition which the uprighness of their Hearts might render excusable both before God and before Man But the Monks of our times have brought things to such a point of Abomination by their Hypocrisies Cheats perfidious and infamous Practices that happy a thousand times those Kingdoms and People are who see themselves freed from such a Brood of Vipers who tear in pieces the very Bowels of those who cherish them in their Bosoms Nevertheless I know very well that these wretched persons well stocked with impudence are very eager in taxing the Protestants with being declared Enemies to those very Christian Virtues Poverty Chastity and Obedience endeavouring by that means to render them more odious to those of their own Party But in this they are very unjust because there is never a good Protestant but will acknowledge that voluntary Poverty for the love of God is a great Treasure to a Christian who knows how to make a good use of it that Chastity is a Virtue beloved both of God and of Angels and that Obedience to lawful Superiours Spiritual and Temporal is a necessary Virtue to maintain that good order of things which God hath established here on Earth All the disference between a Papist and a Protestant in this Point is that the first believeth that he can make bold with God's Gifts dispose of them after his own Will and make a Vow before-hand to observe what is not in his own power to perform unless it be given him from above exposing himself thereby to an evident danger of becoming perjured and Sacrilegious in not performing his solemn Oath and Promises The other on the contrary hath a just and respectful sentiment of Gods Grace and his Holy Gifts which being meerly free are above our natural reach and therefore must be fervently prayed for and when given humbly received but not disposed of before-hand as being not sure if God will be pleased to bestow them upon us It is then the Vow that is found fault with as Bold and Rash and not the Virtues which are Heavenly and Holy This Declaration I hope will be enough fore the present to defeat all these odious Calumnies laid so unjustly by Popish Monks and Priests at the Protestants doors viz. that they hate Retirement Christian Poverty Chastity and Obedience Having done with this I come to another Observation concerning the beginning of Monastical Orders In the first page of this History where I say that it is generally agreed that Monastical Institutions did begin towards the middle of the third Age I dicourse only to those who have truly unpartially and with unprejudiced mind inquired into these matters I know very well that some Popish Writers blinded by a false Zeal for Monkery have been so hot in pushing it up as to make Monks of almost all the Ancient Fathers and the Primitive Christians of the Holy Apostles and the Blessed Jesus him St. John the Baptist Elias and the Sons of the Prophets Noah in the Ark and a long time before him Enos Nay they go back beyond the World and say that God before the Creation of the Universe was a Monk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alone As for this last I make no disficulty to call it a down right Impiety and Profaneness to raise such ridiculous comparison between their filthy Monks and Almighty God And for Enos the Son of Seth the only ground they have to assert that he was a Monk is because it s said in Scripture that he begun to call upon the name of the Lord. If to begin to call in a special manner upon the name of the Lord is as they would have it to be a Monk to be sure our first Reformers who departing from Idolatrous Popery called in an undefiled manner upon the name of the Lord must have also their Lot amongst the Monks Noah they say and all those who entred the Ark
to be look'd upon as Rules given by Basil to Monks only but as the Law of God and Jesus Christ his only Son given to all of whatsoever condition they be I shall likewise omit certain common Duties of Society which do generally belong to all well-ruled Houses and Families as the 16th Chapter commanding that he who is the head of them ought to consider himself as Gods Minister the 59th bidding the Steward to be trusty and honest for why should these and other such be called Basil's Rules which are common dictates of Reason or obligations binding even those who by a very improper distinction are called Seculars and men of the World Thus have I ordered the matter and reduced that great Rule which goes commonly under the name of St. Basil to 25 Chapters that seem to relate more to a Monastick Life The Monastick Rule of St. Basil contained in 25 Chapters THE First commandeth the Monks to live together for the sake of Mutual Help Comfort Instruction Exercise of Virtue Efficacy of Prayer and Security from Danger The 2d That none without trial be admitted into their Fraternity The 3d. That they should dispose of their Wealth to the Poor and Needy The 4th That Children with the consent of their Parents in presence of Witnesses may be admitted The 5th That stinted Measures be set down for their Eating and Drinking The 6th That their Apparel be plain and decent and that they wear a Girdle The 7th That next to God they be obedidient to their Superior The 8th Declares the good qualities which their Superiors ought to have The 9th That the Superior of the Monastry first reprove the Offenders with meekness and gentleness but if they prove obstinate and will not be reclaimed then he is to account them as Heathens and Publicans The 10th That he suffer not the least Offence to pass unreproved The 11th That they confess their Faults to those who are the Dispensers of Holy Mysteries The 12th That they should possess all things in common The 13th That men of Estates render to their Kindred what is their due and the remainder to the Poor The 14th That none that are entred return to their Parents Houses unless to give them instructions and that to be done by the permission of their Superiors The 15th That whosoever Defames or patiently hears his Brother Defamed be Excommunicated The 16th That no man do his own will in the Monastery or the least thing without the Superior's leave The 17th That they debar no man from entring into the Convent upon trial nor give them any offence The 18th That the measure of Eating and Fasting be set by the Superior The 19th That he who scorns to receive a Garment when presented him ought not to receive it when he afterwards asks for it The 20th That those who by their own Fault do not come to Dinner at the fixed time ought not to eat till the next day at the same hour The 21st That none ought to give the least thing to the Poor but by the hands of those which are ordered for that Office The 22d That they should be careful of the Utensils appertaining to the Monastery no less than if they were the Holy Vessels belonging to the Altar The 23d That they must apply themselves to Handy-works that so they may be helpful to others The 24th That in token of humility they wear Sackcloath and speak with moderation The 25th That the Monks are not to discourse alone with Women Besides these twentyfive Chapters there is another wholly Monastick but which is only proper to him who is the Director of the Nuns That when he confesses a Nun or Recluse he ought to do it with decency in the presence of the Abbess These are Basil's Monastical Institutions His Order flourished particularly in the East where almost all those who lived in Monasteries or Cells followed his Rule It increased to admiration afterwards but since these Countries are fallen into the hands of Infidels the most part of those Monasteries have been destroyed Nevertheless it is to be seen with some splendor in Greece where it hath still continued since the separation of that Church from the Romish These Monks wear Black Cloaths plain and without any Ornament consisting in a long Casock and a great Gown with large Sleeves They wear on their Heads a Hood which reacheth to the Shoulders They wear no Linnen sleep without Sheets upon the Straw eat no Flesh fast very often and Till the ground with their own hands There are also some Monasteries of the Order of St. Basil in Sicily and Calabria of which that of St. Saviour of Messina is the Chief and was founded in the year 1057. by Robert Guiscard of Normandy It hath the pre-eminency over all the others They use in their Office the Greek Tongue though some in Spain make use of the Romish Breviary being also somewhat different from the Greeks in their Habits There are also some Monasteries of St. Basil in Italy whereof the Principal founded by Nilus near Tivoli or Tusculum is called Crypta Ferrata But at present those as well as the other Italian Monks are very much corrupted We see likewise Monks of St. Basil in Germany who differ also from the others in the Colour and Fashion of their Habits They wear a long Casock a Patience or Scapulary a Frock with large Sleeves a Hood or Caputium and over it a broad flat Cap. They are much esteemed amongst the Germans and pass amongst them for very Religious Persons All these Monks besides the Rule of St. Basil who is very copious in his Precepts and prescribed almost nothing else but the Duties of Christian Life have also their particular Constitutions which have been established refined and changed from time to time by their Superiors or General Chapters So that if we compare them now with the ancient Rule attributed to St. Basil we shall see a strange difference which demonstrates the Corruptions and Novelties of the Greek and Latin Churches Of the Order of the Acaemetes or Studites THIS Religious Congregation was established in the year 459 at Constaminople under Gennadius's Episcopacy They were called Acoemetes no Sleepers or such as lived without sleep because they were day and night imployed at Church to sing praises to God It seems they had undertaken to follow St. John Chrysostom his advice which he gives even to all Lay-men to pray to God during the Night having established amongst them a continual Prayer and succeeding one another by turns in the Office of singing Psalms They were likewise called Studites from one Studius who founded for them at Constantinople the Monastery of St. John the Baptist 'T is unquestionable that the Abbot Alexander was their Founder notwithstanding what Nicephorus saith that it was Marcellus who in truth was only the Restorer of this Order The Acoemetes opposed stoutly Acacius Patriarch of Constantinople whom Pride had made to revolt against the Church