Europe Abbies of this Order which do acknowledge Citeaux for their Mother and him who is Abbot thereof for their General This Plague did infect England almost in its very beginning They had there a Monastery in the year 1132 at Rishval They wore at the beginning a Black Habit but it was changed by Bernard Abbot of Clairvaux into what it is now viz. a White Casock with a narrow Patience or Scapulary and a black Gown with long Sleeves when they go abroad but going to Church they wear it White and pretend that the Virgin Mary appeared to St. Bernard and commanded him to wear for her own sake such white Cloathes Of the Sacred and Reformed Order of Citeaux called Feuillans FAther John de la Barriere a French Gentleman was the Author of this Reformation Being twenty one years old he was made Commandatory Abbot of a Monastery of St. Bernard called Feuillans He held this Abby in commendam during eleven years after the manner of other Commendatory Abbots without exercising any other Function but that of receiving his Revenues After which it came into his thoughts to make himself a Monk under the Rule and the Habit of Citeaux He put this design in execution in the Monastery of Eunes and thence he retired to his Abby of Feuillans where being witness of the disorders of his Monks he undertook to reform them But these bony Fryers seeing him begin the Reformation in the Kitchin with a great courage opposed him threatning to break his Head and Shoulders is he went on with such work Nevertheless Father John was never the more disheartned for this and by his Constancy won at length some of them to his Party which became in time the strongest and chased those who would not reform from the Monastery The new reformed Monks lead there as saith a Popish Author a more Angelical than Humane Life abstaining not only from Flesh Eggs Fish and from all Milk-meats but also from Oyl Salt and Wine living only on Bread Pulse and Water Pope Gregory the XIII being informed of this Institution of the Abbot of Feuillans sent to him a Brief of Congratulation and founded at Rome a Monastery for his Monks Since this Sixtus the V. and Clement the VIII favoured them very much and their Congregation got ground particularly in France But they are now fallen very much from their former observances They boast themselves of being under a special Protection of the Virgin Mary in whose Honour they are all Cloathed in White Of the Order of the Humbled or Humilies THIS Order was founded in the year 1162. by some Gentlemen of Milan who were detained in a very hard Captivity under the Emperor Conrade or according to some others under Frederick Barbarossa These Gentlemen having put themselves all in White came before him and fell prostrate at his Feet which moved him so much to compassion that he gave them permission to return into their own Country They continued still to wear there the same Habit wherewith they had obtained their liberty and having taken the Name of Humiliati began some Congregations which growing every day bigger and bigger a Gentleman called Guido who was their Chief ordered them to live according to the Order of St. Benet There have been particularly in the State of Milan several rich Monasteries of this Order The Cardinal Charles Boromeo was the last Protector of it who seeing their abominable lewdness undertook to reform them But these Monks not willing to be redressed perswaded one of their Gang called Hierom Donac to murder him This desperate Fellow fired a Gun at the Cardinal who being a little out of his reach he missed him and being apprehended was immediately sentenced to Death and executed for his barbarous attempt Pope Pius the V. justly incensed at such a bloody Villany intended against one of his Cardinals did quite abolish that Religion in the year 1570 They wore white Cloaths and their Superiors were called Provosts The Bull of Abrogation of this Order is exprest in such terms that make a true representation of the detestable Life which the most part of the Monks of the Church of Rome lead to this day in their Cloisters There is an enumeration of all sorts of Crimes and Sacriledges which can be imagined If the Popes do not undertake to abolish these 't is not for want of reason for the doing of it but because these Monks for their mony have powerful Protectors at the Roman Court to whom they pay yearly very big Pensions and against whose Lives they have not attempted yet as the Humiliati did against that of Cardinal Boromeo their Protector 'T was observed when this Order was abolished that only seventy Monks were found in ninety Monasteries which they did possess Of the Order of the Celestins PEter Celestinus was born in the year 1215 at Isernia a Town in the Kingdom of Naples Scarcely was he come to be sixteen years of age when he left his Fathers House and fled into a Solitude Some years after he went to Rome where he was Ordained Priest and then he became a Monk in a Monastery of St. Benet From thence he withdrew into one of the Grotto's of Mont Moron in the year 1239 and lived there several years for which he was called Peter of Moron He gave beginning to the Monastery of the Holy Ghost at Majella which is the Chief of the Order established by him afterwards and confirmed in the Council of Lions by Gregory the X. under the Rule of St. Benet After the death of Nicholas the IV. the Roman See having been vacant two years and three months by reason of the Competition and Intreagues of the Cardinals this Peter was at last upon the motion of Cardinal Latinus elected Pope in the year 1294. They went to search for him in his Solitude where they found him busie in plowing the ground He was with much ado wrought upon to accept of the Pontificate but yielded at last came riding upon an Ass to Aquila where he was consecrated in the presence of above 20000 people He took the name of Coelestinus and was the fifth of this Name But his Genius proved soadverse to the Pride and Stateliness of the Roman Court that having drawn thereby upon himself the hatred of the Cardinals and being moreover very simple and of little wit one of those Gentlemen the Cardinals had the cunning to persuade him to abdicate the Popedoâ— on his behalf which he did and the new Pope was called Boniface the VIII But poor Celestin had no sooner deposed himself but his wretched Successor fearing lest for his apparent Holiness he should be recalled made him to be apprehended and put in a stinking loathsom Dungeon near Anagni where he died in the year 1296. Boniface disannulled a great many things which the deceased Pope had established for the grandeur of his own Order and took from it the Monastery of Cassin Clement V. made him a Saint in
Imprimatur Feb. 3. 1692. Ra. Barker Advertisement Two Books published by the same Author THE Frauds of the Monks and Priests set forth in Eight Letters lately written by a Gentleman in his Journey to Italy the third Edition in Octavo Observations on a Journy to Naples wherein the Frauds of Romish Monks and Priests are farther discovered by the same Author Bedae Venerabilis Opera quaedam Theologica nunc primum edita nec non Historica anteà semel edita accesserunt Egberti Archiepiscopi Eboracensis Dialogus de Ecclesiastica Institutione Adhelmi Sireburnensis Liber de Virginitate ex Codice Antiquissimo Emendatus in Quarto L. Annei Flori Rerum Romanarum Epitome Interpretatione Notis Illustravit Anna Tanaquilli Fabri Filia Jussu Christianissimi Regis in usum Serenissimi Delphini in Octavo 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 LONDON Printed by S. Roycroft for W. Bentley in Russel-street Covent-Garden 1693. TO The Most Reverend the ARCHBISHOPS The Right Reverend the BISHOPS And to the rest of the Reverend Clergy OF THE Church of England This Book is humbly Presented by Gabriel d' Emillianne THE PREFACE I Must desire my Reader to observe here three things concerning this Book First What were the Motives which induced me to write it Secondly The Methods which I observed in it and Thirdly The Reasons I have to dedicate it to the English Clergy I. Several of the Order of Gray and Black Fryars having had the confidence in the late King James's Reign not only to flock by Troops from beyond Seas into England but also to appear publickly in their Monkish Habits and a great many others of different Colours preparing to follow The People here was not in a little amazement to see these new Faces while the Papists were very busie in combing the Fox's Tail to make it appear finer and magnified every where the pretended Holiness both of these Monks and of their Habits The good Protestants did only laugh at them but the wiser sort inquired who they were and in what Book one might have a sufficient notice of them There were indeed some Latin Books which treated of Monks and also some French and Italian but besides that all these were written in Foreign Tongues unknown to the most part of the vulgar sort of People they were almost all of them written in a Popish way and by Monks who had not forgot to be kind to themselves There wanted then an English Book to give a sufficient and true information about this matter A learned Doctor in Divinity undertook at that time to do it whose Pen would have without doubt far out-done mine had he perfected the Work which he had begun But these mimical Faces of Monks having disappeared in the late happy Revolution and the Doctor 's applications being required another way he thought fit to leave off and I was desired to try what I could do on this Subject both with shortness and impartiality II. These Two Parts I have endeavoured to make good having briefly related the times of the Institution of each Religious Order their Founders their Tempers their Habits and given a short Abstract of their Rules I have made use both of Protestant and Popish Authors amongst whom I have endeavoured to retrieve the Truth After each Rule I have treated of those Monks who do profess the same according to the times of their respective Foundations excepting only some few who are under the pretended Rules of St. Austin and have taken the Name of Regular Clerks whom because they are so newly hatched I have placed after the Mendicant Fryars After these you shall find a little Treatise of Nuns and another of Military Regular Orders All these Treatises might have been more enlarged each of them affording very plentiful matter but I have chosen to he short and to relate only what might give a sufficient notice of them I am further now to inform my Reader of some Reasons I had to dedicate this small Performance to the Venerable Clergy of the Church of England III. First As I cannot sufficiently praise God for his great Mercy in calling me to be a Member of this Holy Church so I I thought I could not honour enough those who are the Pillars and the chief Ornaments of it Secondly Having many particular Obligations to several of the Clergy I hoped they might perceive in this Dedication of my Book to them though in General the earnest desire which I have to be thankful But what inclined me yet very powerfully to do it was that being not altogether ignorant of the great disturbances which the Monks in all Ages almost from their first Establishment in this Country Caused amongst the English Clergy nay of the violent Usurpations Slanders Tyrannies Persecutions and Oppressions wherewith they so devilishly attempted the total Destruction both of Churches and Church men I thought it would well suit with the Honour of the Reformation if I should bring in these Monks as vanquished Slaves and lay them at the Feet of the Protestant Clergy who at last by God's Grace and Mercy have so gloriously triumphed over them The Church History is full of the bold and malitious attempts of the Monks against the English Secular Clergy and it will not be methinks amiss to relate here some few instances among so many to verifie what I have said before One of the first who declared against the Clerical State was Dunstan The Monks who always reverenced him as their great Support Patron and Favourer ceased not to extol him to the Skies and went so far as to assert that he had been sanctified in his Mothers Womb and they made so much noise with Lyes and pretended Miracles that he was easily made a Saint in the Church of Rome However several good Authors speak otherwise of him that he had been a very debauched Youth excessively inclined to Women and a great lover of Magical Arts wherewith he bewitched to that degree Alfgina Princess of the Royal Blood that she could not live separate from him Therefore that she might enjoy continually his Company she caused a House to be built near the Church of St. Mary at Glascow where the Hypocrite Dunstan to deceive the World had built a little Cell for himself When she died she left to him the whole disposal of her Estate to be given to Pious Uses thinking thereby to attone for her great sins before God Dunstan builded with the Mony five Monasteries and richly endowed them making himself Abbot of the best of them Which which was also they say the first that was built in England Nevertheless he did not build them out of any love for Solitude for during the Reigns of seven Kings under whom he lived he almost never stirred from great Lords Houses or from the
of Monks and Fryars upon the Secular Clergy and how at all times they endeavoured to oppress it not only in the Church of Canterbury but in all the other Churches of England Scotland and Ireland but this would make a Book and not a Preface Therefore I chuse to stop here intreating only my Reader to make this one Reflection more that when in King Jame's time the Monks began to hope for their re-establishment in these Kingdoms these Holy Penitent Fryars out of a Spirit of Mortification not only did pitch upon the most delightful places of Great Lincolns Inn Fields of the Savoy of St. Jame's Park c. where they builded Monasteries but also were seen at the Temple at the Black and White Fryars nay at Westminster Abby to make Projects and to take Dimensions for the rebuilding of their Convents not despairing to see themselves in a short time in a condition to turn both Prebendaries Canons and Ministers out of these Churches so impatient they were already to come to a Contest with the Clergy This may be sufficient to shew that I had some Reason to dedicate this short History of Monks who ought to be considered as an Anticlergy to the Clergy it self and to that Clergy which by God's great Blessing is become a just Terror and a Scourge to them RELIGIOUS ORDERS Which are Treated of IN THIS BOOK OF St. Paul of Thebes in Egypt who was the First Hermit page 1 Of St. Anthony First Abbot p. 6 The Order of Tabennisiens or of St. Pacomius p. 8 The Order of the Eustasiens p. 11 The Order of St. Basil p. 14 The Order of the Studites p. 21 The Order of St. Austin p. 23 The Congregation of Lateran in Italy p. 33 The Congregation of Regular Canons of St. Saviour in Italy p. 36 The Congregation of St. Georges in Alga at Venice and St. Georges in Sicily p. 37 The Regular Canons of the Holy Sepulcher p. 39 The Congregation of Regular Canons of St. Genvieve p. 40 The Congregation of Regular Canons of St. Victor p. 42 The Congregation of Regular Canons of St. Rufus in Dauphine p. 43 The Congregation of our Saviour in Lorrain ibid. The Congregation of Regular Canons of Windesem in the Low Countries p. 44 The Congregation of Regular Canons of the Holy Cross of Conimbria in Portugal p. 45 Of some other Houses of Regular Canons p. 46 The Order of the Hermits of St. Austin p. 48 The Orders and Rules of Cassianus Caesarius and Isidorus p. 51 The Order of the Williamites p. 54 The Order of the Zambonites p. 55 The Order and Rules of St. Benet Patriarch of the Monks in the West p. 57 The Order of St. Benet p. 59 The Order of Cluny p. 91 The Congregation of Mount Cassin p. 94 The Order of Camaldoni p. 95 The Order of Valombrosa p. 98 The Order of Sylvestrins p. 100 The Order of Grammont p. 101 The Order of Carthusians p 102 The Cistercian Order of Bernardins p 108 The Order of Feuillans p. 110 The Order of the Humbled or Humilies p. 112 The Order of Celestine p. 114 The Order of the Olivetans p. 116 Some other Orders of St. Benet and Congregation of St. Maurus p. 118 Of the Orders of St. Hierom p. 121 The Hermits of St. Hierom p. 122 The Congregation of the Hieronimites of Montebello p. 123 The Reformation of Lupo d' Olmedo p. 124 The Congregation of Hieronimites of Fiesole p 125 Of some Religious Orders which follow the Rule of St. Austin p 127 The Order of St. Anthony ibid. The Order of Premontre p. 130 The Order of Gilbertinâ—s in England p. 133 The Ord. of Maturines or Trinitaries p. 135 The Order of Mercy for the Redeeming of Captives p. 138 The Order of Armenians ibid. The Order of Servants of the Virgin Mary p. 139 The Order of the Hermits of St. Paul p. 140 The Order of Jesuiti p. 141 The Order of St. Ambrosius in the Wood p. 142 The Order of Apostolins p. 143 The Order of the Brothers of Charity called otherwise St. John of God or Ignorant Fryars p. 144 The Order of the Holy Cross called Cruciferi in Italy p. 146 The Order of Dominican Fryars p. 147 The Order of Carmelites p. 153 The Order of Vnshod Carmelites p. 156 The Order of St. Francis p. 158 The Order of Minors Fryars called Sabbotiers or Wooden Shoe-Beares p. 172 The Order of Minors Conventuals p. 173 The Order of Capucines p. 174 The Order of St. John of Penitency p. 176 The Order of Minimes or Good Men p. 177 Of some Orders of Regular Clerks and Fathers of Common Life p. 184 The Order of Divine Love or Theatins p. 185 The Order of Somasks p. 187 The Order of Jesuits p. 188 The Order of the Fathers of the Oratory p. 207 The Order of the Fathers of Well-dying p. 209 The Order of Minor Clerks p. 210 The Order of Barnabites or Regular Clerks of St. Paul p. 211 The Order of the Holy Ghost in Saxia at Rome p. 212 The Congregation of Hermits of Madam Gonzague p. 214 The Fathers of Christian Doctrin p. 215 Of some Religious Orders which have been suppressed or united to others or of which the Authors the time of their Institution or Habits are not well known p. 216 The Order of White-men ibid. The Amedys or Friends of God p. 217 The Order of Fontavellane p. 218 The Beggars Beggins and Begines p. 219 The Penitents p. 220 The Habits and of the Tonsure or Shaving of Monks p. 223 Treatise of NUNS OF Marcella First Founder of Nuns p. 235 Regular Canonesses of St. John of Lateran ibid. Regular Canonesses of the Holy Sepulcher ibid. Regular Canonesses of St. Austin ibid. Regular Canonesses of the Low Countries ibid. Regular Canonesses of Mons. ibid. Regular Canonesses of Colen p. 236 Regular Nuns of St. Agnes at Dort ibid. Bighines of Amsterdam ibid. Nuns of the Good Jesus ibid. Nuns of St. Caesarius ibid. Congregation of Women of the Christian Doctrine ibid. Congregation of Our Lady p. 237 Hospitaler Nuns of St. John of Jerusalem ibid. Hospitaler Nuns of the Holy Ghost ibid. Black Nuns ibid. Order of Women Servants p. 238 Nuns Knightesses or Sword-bearers of St. James ibid. Nuns of Tabennisia in Egypt ibid. Nuns of St. Basil ibid. Acoemetes or Studites Nuns ibid. Women Hermits p. 239 Nuns of St. Anthony ibid. Benedictine Nuns ibid. Benedictines of Cluny ibid. Benedictines of Chesal Benoist ibid. Benedictine Nuns of Mount Calvary p. 240 Benedictines of Camaldoli ibid. Carthusian Nuns ibid. Benedictine Nuns of Citeaux ibid. Military and Knight Nuns of the Order of Calatrava ibid. Gregorian Benedictines ibid. Ambrosian Benedictines p. 241 Benedictine Nuns of St. Columbanus ibid. Nuns under the Bishops Rules ibid. Benedictine Nuns of the Order of Feuillans ibid. Benedictine Nuns of Mount Olivet ibid. Nuns of Premontre ibid. Dominican Nuns p. 242 Nuns of the Redemption of Captives ibid. Nuns Servites or Servants of the Virgin Mary ibid. Nuns Hermits
to conceal from the World their Infamous Practices made away secretly their Children and this was the Reason why at the time of the Reformation so many Bones of Young Children were found buried in their Cloisters and thrown into places where they ease Nature Of the Order of the Mathurines or Trinitaries THIS Order carries the name of its Institutor or Founder who was John of Matha born in Provence in France in the year 1154. He followed his Studies at Aix and at Paris where he took his Degrees and being afterwards made Priest he retired himself near Meaux in a place called Cerfroid with an Hermit whose name was Felix with whom he led a solitary Life Having been both admonished as the Papists say in a Dream to go to Pope Innocent the III. accordingly they went This Pope having had the same Vision waited for their coming A hideous Phantom they say while he was saying Mass appeared to him the day before all in white with a Cross half Red and half Blew on his Breast holding with his Hands two Slaves bound in Chains and this Vision made him resolve to establish an Order whose care should be to go and redeem the Christian Captives detained in Slavery by the Infidels Having then conferred with the two Hermits he made them take an Habit like to that which the Phantom appeared in while he was at the Altar and having gathered great Alms he sent them to redeem with that mony several Captives which undertaking having had a good success many others followed their example and Monasteries were founded for them where they professed the Rule of St. Austin Their Order was confirmed in the year 1207 under the name of the Redemption of Captives John Matha founded at Rome the Convent of St. Thomas of Formis where he died in the year 1214. This Order was received in England in the year 1357 and was called the Order of Ingham Besides the Rule of St. Austin which they profess they have particular Constitutions approved by Pope Innocent the III. whereof the following are the chiefest Principal Statutes of the Order of the Holy Trinity for Redemption of Captives 1. All the Estates or Goods that fall legally to them are to be divided into three parts the two first whereof shall be employed in works of Charity both towards themselves and those that are in their service and the third shall be applied for the Redemption of Captives 2 All their Churches ought to be dedicated to the most Holy Trinity 3. They ought to acknowledge the Solicitor or Proctor of the Monastery for their Superior who shall be called Father Minister of the House of the Holy Trinity 4. They must not ride on Horse-back but on Asses only 5. Fasts are ordered four times a Week unless they be Holy-days 6. They ought to eat Flesh only on Sundays and some Holy-days 7. All the Alms given to them for the redeeming of Captives ought to be faithfully employed for that purpose except only as much as is necessary for the charges of their Journey The rest of their Constitutions are only about the Oeconomy of their Convents the manner of keeping their General Chapters and the election of their Superiors As for the Church Office 't is declared that they ought to conform themselves to the Regular Canons of the Abby of St. Victor at Paris The Monks of this Order have plaid so many tricks under the Cloak of their holy Institution that they have lost their credit and do scarcely meet now a days with people that will intrust them with their Monies for the Redemption of Christian Slaves from the hands of the Infidels They have nevertheless some Monasteries here and there particularly in France Of the Order of Mercy THIS Order was instituted about the year 1218 for the same end as the preceding viz. for the Redemption of Captives James King of Arragon was moved to its establishment by Raimond of Pennafort and Peter Notaseus who first received in the King's presence by the hands of the Bishop of Barcelona the Religious Habit of this Order was made General of it in the year 1230. Gregory the IX confirmed it under the Rule of St. Austin Their Habit is a Casock a Scapulary and a white plaited Cloak and they wear on their Breast a Scutcheon with a White Cross in a Red Field Of the Order of the Armenians THESE Monks were founded in Armenia by Eustatius Bishop of that place an Heretick about the year 320. They professed since the Rule attributed to St. Basil But being driven from the Mountains of Armenia they retired into Italy where they built some Monasteries of which the Chief is that of St. Bartholomew of Genoua Changing their Country they changed also both their Habit and Rule and putting themselves under the Order of St. Austin took the Constitutions of St. Dominick to be ruled by They are Cloathed almost like the Dominicans except their Patience or Scapulary which is black They passed into England in the year 1258. Of the Order of the Servants of the Virgin Mary THE Institutor of this Order was one called Fudert a Florentine Physitian who having applied himself with some Merchants to an Eremetical Life he gave them the Rule of St. Austin with some amendments to it That which contributed very much towards the establishment of this New Order was that famous imposture of the Picture of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary whose Face these notorious Cheats published to have been drawn by an Angel There is yet to be seen the Chief Monastery of this Order Innocent the IV. refused his approbation to it but several Popes after him gave them as many priviledges as they could Wish They have yet in Italy about fifty Convents Formerly at Paris our Lady of Billetes was a Convent of this Order These Religious wear a black Habit with a Cosock a Scapulary and a Cloak of the same Colour This Order begun in the year 1233 and according to some other Authors in 1304 and again others say in 1285. 'T is now fallen into a great corruption of Life and Manners Of the Order of the Hermits of St. Paul THE Body of Paul of Thebes surnamed the first Hermit having been transported into a place near Buda in Hungary about the year 1215. One Eusebius instituted out of Reverence towards him a Congregation of Hermits who took his Name Urbanus the IV. denied them the Rule of St. Austin which they did ask but it was granted them since by Clement the V. in the year 1308. Many Convents of this Order were to be seen in Hungary which have been wholly ruined by the Turks This Religion did belong particularly to the Hungarian Nation These Monks wear white Cloaths a long round Scapulary and over it a short Cloak of the same Stuff They go barefooted with Sandals Of the Order of Jesuati THIS Congregation was instituted by John Colombinus Gentleman of Siena He was a Married Man and
his Wife a very devout Woman did continually exhort him to be charitable to the Poor and to mind Godliness more than he did At last their Devotion passed into Superstition and they resolved to live separated one from another not for a while as St. Paul approves Man and Wife sometimes to do but for ever and preferred a retired Life in a Cloister before all the good they did in the World to the Poor Many followed their example and Colombinus having formed a considerable Congregation of people who had abdicated their Wives Pope Urbanus the V. honoured him so far as to give him with his own Hands the holy Habit of Religion in the year 1366 and the Popes his Successors were not wanting to approve and confirm this Order These Monks do profess St. Austin's Rule observing moreover some Constitutions which John of Tossignan a Religious of the same Order left them They were called Jesuati because they had almost continually and upon every trifling occasion too the Holy and Venâ—rable Name of Jesus in their Mouths They were also called Apostolick Clerks and were obliged to recite 165 times a day the Lord's Prayer and as many Ave Maria's instead of the Canonical Office abstaining from saying Mass Their Churches being almost all dedicated to St. Hierom Alexander the VI. ordered that they should be called Hieronimiaâ— Jesuati Their Habit was White upon which they wore a Tawny Cloak a White Hood and a big leathern Girdle with Sandals This Order changed several times its Constitutions and at last for its Scandalous Disorders was by Pope Clement the IX quite abolished in the year 1668. Of the Order of St. Ambrose in the Wood. THE Religious of this Order were ancienly called Barnabites from the name of St. Barnaby but being fallen into a declining Condition they wanted Restorers In the year 1431 three Gentlemen of Milan did re-establish this Order in a Solitary Place where 't is said St. Ambrose did in former times apply himself to Contemplation and to the Composition of his Books from whence it was called afterwards of St. Ambrose in the Wood. They do officiate according to the old Ambrosian Rite The Cardinal Charles Borromeo reformed them a second time They follow the Rule of St. Austin and wear an Hermetical Habit of a redish Colour with a Patience and a plited Cloak Of the Order of Apostolins SOME say without reason that the Apostle St. Barnabas having preached the Goâ—pel at Milan laid the first draughts of this Religion and that it was afterwards perfected and made Illustrious by St. Ambrose from whence it got they say the name both of St. Barnabas and of this Holy Doctor In the Countries of Ancona and of Genoa they were called Apostolini and in Lombardie by reason of their apparent Holiness Santarelli They have been once united with those of St. Ambrose in the Wood. But their hypocritical Life having broken at last into open disorders they were by a Bull of Urban the VIII almost exstinguished Their Habit is a Scapulary sew'd together a leathern Girdle of a Tawny Colour wearing in Winter a narrow Cloak of the same Colour Of the Order of the Brothers of Charity called otherwise of St. John of God or Ignorant Fryars THESE Fryars are Hospitalers and make Profession to wait on the Sick They have no Schools amongst them and if any Priest do at any time desire to be received into their Order they are so great Enemies of Learning that for two or three words of Latin that he perhaps hath learned to say Mass with he must subscribe that he shall never pretend to any Preferment or degree of Superiority amongst them as long as he liveth One John a Porteguese born at Monte Major in the Diocese of Evora whose strict Life in appearance got him the name of John of God was the Founder of this Religion He was in his Youth a Shepherd and being 22 years of Age he listed himself for a Soldier amongst those that were sent to the relief of Fontarabia From thence he passed into Germany and then returned into Spain from whence he went to travel into Africa Being returned to Grenada a Sermon which Father d' Avile made wrought so much upon him that he tore his Hair and beat his Breast in a dreadful manner crying with a loud voice along the Streets The naked man followeth Christ naked The people taking him for a Mad Man carried him to a Mad House where he was kept close and bound Some while after he was released and went in Pilgrimage to our Lady of Guardloupe and then returned to Grenada where he took a House and entertained the Poor giving them Meat Drink and Lodging going every day a begging for them and crying aloud Do Good Works my Brethren for God's sake He gathered copious Alms wherewith he built a considerable Hospital in Grenada But his Zeal carried him so far that being not able to bear any longer such hardships he was overwhelmed at last and died in the year 1550 aged 55. Some of his Brethren went to Rome and founded there an Hospital by the permission of Pius the V. who gave them Bulls for the confirmation of their new Order and put them under the Rule of St. Austin These Fryars are Cloathed with a Casock a Patience a narrow Hood and wear a Bag on their Shoulders in token of their Office of going to beg for the Poor Sick and Prisoners One might also here in England make a Religious Order of those Basket-men who are kept for the service of the Prisons Of the Order of the Holy Cross called Cruciferi in Italy THIS Order was Instituted or at least Reformed by one Gerard Prior of St. Mary of Morello at Bologna and confirmed in the year 1160 by Pope Alexander the III. who brought these Religious under St. Austin's Rule and made some other Constitutions for its government This Religion fell into a very corrupt State after the year 1400 and its Monasteries became a prey to several Roman Prelates Nevertheless Pope Pius the V. bewitched by these Monks restored them their former Possessions again But as anciently they were so well established by an Alexander another Pope of the same Name Alexander the VII did quite abolish their Religion in Italy in the year 1656 giving the Estates they had in the Venetian Territories to that Republick to carry on the War against the Turks They wore a Casock and a Patience a long Gown a Hood made in the form of a Cap their whole Habit being of a Skie colour There are some Monks of this Order yet in the Low Countries and in Portugal and they did possess formerly a great many Convents in Syria But they are diversly clad according to the different Countries wherein they live wearing a Cross on their Habits or in their Hands Some Authors do affirm that Godfrey of Bullen after the Conquest of Jerusalem instituted this Order and some