added some new statute or custom to the original rule, each of them became the founder of a congregation or secondary order, adhering, in essentials, to the order of St. Benedict, but differing from it, in some particular observances. Such are the Carthusians, the Camadules, the Celestines, the monks of Grandmont, the congregation of St. Maur, and the order of Citeaux,-and the filiation from them, the Monks of la Trappe.

"I believe," says the Protestant authoress of the elegant Tour to Alèt and the Grande Chartreuse, "that very few, even among "Protestants, have visited la Trappe, without being struck with "the heavenly countenances of these recluses, with the truly ange"lic discourse, which flows from their lips as from a fountain of living water. It is impossible to describe the gravity, benignity, peace and love, visible in most of their aspects, or the humility, yet self-possessed politeness and attention in their manner. "When they are asked, why they chuse this seclusion, their an"swer is uniform: To glorify God, to repent of our sins, and to pray for the unhappy world, which prays not for itself."

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III. 3. St. Benedict admitted both the learned and the unlearned into his order. The first, recited the divine office, in the choir; the second, discharged several duties, which regarded the household œconomy, and the other temporal concerns of the monastery. At this time, the regular recitation of the divine office was only a practice of monastic discipline: at a subsequent period, it was made the general duty of all priests, deacons, and subdeacons; and became of course, the duty of all the religious, who had entered into any of those orders. As it was performed in the choir, it became a general practice in the Benedictine order, to admit none into it, who were not sufficiently instructed to recite the office in the choir; but it was not required that they should be priests, or even be in holy orders. All St. Bernard's brothers were professed religious, but none of them was in orders.-Afterwards, the Benedictines judged it advisable to admit into their order many, who, from ignorance, or some other circumstance, were incapable of the duty of the choir, and to employ them in the menial duties or other laborious employments of the house. This introduced Lay Brothers

into the Benedictine order. At first, they were rather attached to the general body of the order, than a portion of it; but, in time, they were acknowledged, both by the church and the order, to be a portion of the order, and in the strictest sense of the word to be professed religious.-In its admission of laybrothers, the Benedictine order has been followed by all other religious orders, both men and women. In 1322, the Council of Vienne, ordered all monks to enter into the order of priesthood, and to be instructed for it accordingly.-The monks of Vallombrosa in Tuscany, are the first among whom lay-brothers are found with that name.

Few of our readers will have patience to peruse the Annales Ordinis Sancti Benedicti of Mabillon, in six volumes, in quarto, or his Acta Sanctorum Ordinis Sancti Benedicti, in nine volumes, in folio: they will find the substance of them in Bulteáu's Abrégé de l'histoire de Saint Benoit, 2 volumes, quarto, 1664.

IV.

THE CANONS REGULAR OF ST. AUGUSTIN derive their origin from certain respectable ecclesiastics, who, in the 8th century, formed themselves into a kind of middle order, between the monks and the secular clergy. They adopted so much of the monastic discipline, as to have their dwellings and table, in common, and to assemble, at stated hours, for the divine service; but they made no vows; and often discharged the functions of the holy ministry, in churches committed to their care. Thus, they rendered essential service to religion.-By degrees, they degenerated; but, in the 12th century, a considerable reformation was introduced among them, under the auspices of Pope Nicholas the second. Some of the members, among whom it was introduced, formed themselves into communities, which had a common dwelling and common table, but each individual, after contributing to the general stock, employed the fruits and revenues of his benefices, as he thought expedient. Others, in consequence of the zealous exhortations of Ivo, bishop of CharConf.

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tres, subjected themselves to an austere mode of life; they renounced their worldly possessions, all private property, and lived in a manner resembling the austerity and discipline of a monastic life. This gave rise to the distinction between the secular and the regular canons.-The former observed the decree of Nicholas the second; the latter conformed to the directions of Ivo; and being formed on the rules and suggestions laid dowa by St. Augustin, in his Epistles, the observers' of them became generally called the Regular Canons of St. Augustin. They kept public schools for the instruction of youth, and exercised a variety of functions, which rendered them extremely useful to the church. A spirit of relaxation having found its way into the order, St. Norbert attempted to restore it to its primitive severity. He first introduced his reform into his convent at Prémontré in Picardy; it spread throughout Europe, with great rapidity; and, from the convent, in which it was first established, the communities, which embraced it, were called the Premonstratenses.

An account of the Canons regular of St. Augustin, and of the Premonstratenses, is given in a work, entitled Joan. le Paige, Bibliotheca Ordinis Premonstratensis, præsertim vero Sancti Augustini regulam profitentibus, utilis maximeque necessaria. Par. 1633, in folio.

It remains to add, that Convents of Nuns were founded, the institutes of which corresponded with those of the religious orders and congregations which we have noticed, and with some of their principal reforms.

V.

For many centuries, the Benedictines, and the congregations which emanated from them, and the Canons of St. Augustin, constituted the only monastic orders of the West: but, in the 13th century, the MENDICANT ORDERS arose these were, the Franciscans, the Dominicans, the Carmelites, and the Hermits of St. Augustin.

V.1. The Franciscans were founded by St. Francis, the son of a merchant of Assissium in the Province of Umbria. He had little human learning, but, in the science of the saints, he had few equals. From humility, he called the brethren of his order, Friars-minors, or, the Little Brethren, and composed a rule for them, which the Pope approved. They chiefly exerted themselves in the laborious parts of the sacred ministry. In hospitals, in prisons, among the lowest orders of the poor, in every place, where labour or danger attended the exercise of the functions of the ministry, or where there was a total absence of remuneration, the Franciscan friars were sure to be found. But it was not only in the lower walks of the ministry, that they laboured; many of them were eminent for their learning; many have filled the highest dignities of the church, and some have worn the Triple Crown.

There are three orders of St. Francis. The first of them, soon after the decease of St. Francis, divaricated into the Conventual Friars, who admitted some mitigations into their practice of the rule, and the Observantine Friars, who derived their name from their stricter observance of it. In France, they were called Cordeliers, from a cord, with which they girded their habit. Reforms have sometimes been introduced among the Observantines; the principal of the reformed congregations are, the Recollects, or Grey Friars, who received their name from the Spanish word Ricogidios, which signifies reformed: and the Capucins, who received their appellation from a patch, worn by

them on the back of their habits.

The Second Order of St. Francis, is that of the Poor Clares, and is remarkable for its extreme severity.

The Third Order of St. Francis, was instituted by him for persons of both sexes, living in the world, but united by certain rules and exercises, compatible with a secular life; and not binding under sin, but serving as rules for their direction. This institute was imitated by the Dominicans and Carmelites. There were some monasteries, particularly in Flanders, of Nuns, who were called of the Third Order of St. Francis: they vowed inclosure, and had a mitigated rule.

The Annals of the Order of St. Francis are written in 17 volumes, in folio, entitled Luca Waddingi, Annales Minorum, seu Historia Trium Ordinum a Sancto Francisco institutorum, Editio secunda, studio Josephi Maria Fonseca. Romæ 1731, &c. Wadding was an Irishman: Father Harold, also an Irishman, published a good abridgement of this work, and a continuation of it, in two volumes.

V. 2. St. Dominic, from whom the Dominicans derive their name, originally adopted, for the government of his disciples, the rule of the Canons Regular of St. Augustin. Afterwards, he substituted for it, the rule of St. Benedict; but with so many alterations, as almost made it a new rule. Public instruction was its great object: on this account, the disciples of St. Dominic were, at first, called Preaching Friars.

The history of the Order of St. Dominic, is elegantly written, by Father Touron, a monk of that Order, in six volumes, quarto. A complete edition of the Hibernia Dominica of Thoma de Burgo Col. Agr. 1762, is one of the greatest typographical curiosities. The Supplement is not easily found, and, in the work itself, the pages, from 136 to 147, are wanting in most editions.

V.3. Some writers have endeavoured to derive the origin of the Carmelites from Elias. They allege, that, after the decease of that prophet, an uninterrupted succession of hermits, inhabited Mount Carmel, down to the time of Christ and his Apostles; and that, having embraced, in the earliest years of Christianity, the Christian religion, they continued their succession to the twelfth or thirteenth century, when the rule of the Carmelites, as it is now observed, was communicated to St. Simon Stock, their general, by divine revelation. At that time, they were established at Palestine: Alberic, their fifth general in succession from St. Simon Stock, removed from Palestine; and houses of the order, were established in many parts of Europe. A reform was introduced into the order by the exertions of St. Theresa. Those, who embraced the reform, were, from their not wearing shoes, called the Discalceated, or Unshodden Carmelites, in opposition to those, who continued Calceated, or shodden.