confess to the prior every Saturday, but women are not allowed to come into their churches, that the monks may not see any thing, which may provoke them to lewdness. It is computed, there are an hundred and seventytwo houses of Carthusians, whereof five are of nuns, who practise the same austerities as the monks. They are divided into sixteen provinces, each of which has two visitors. There has been several canonized saints of this order; four cardinals, seventy six archbishops and bishops, and a great many very learned writers. The convents of this order are generally very beautiful and magnificent. That of Naples, though but small, surpasses all the rest in ornaments and riches. Nothing is to be seen in the church and house but marble and jasper, and the apartments of the prior are rather like those of a prince, than a poor monk. There are innumerable statues, basseliefs, paintings, &c. together with very fine gardens; all which, joined with the holy and exemplary life of the good religious, draw the curiosity of all strangers, who visit Naples. The Carthusians settled in England about the year 1180. They had several monasteries here, particularly at Witham in Somersetshire: Hinton, in the same county; Beauval, in Nottinghamshire; Kingston upon Hull: Mountgrace, in Yorkshire; Eppewort in Lincolnshire: Shene, in Surry; and one near Coventry. In London, they had a famous monastery, since called from the Carthusians, who settled there, the Charterhouse. little oratory, in honour of the holy trinity. But these hermits falling into a relaxation, and Robert not being able to reclaim them, he left them and retired to a desert called Haur, where there were religious men, who lived in much unity and simplicity of heart, and who chose him for their abbot. But those of Moleme made use of the authority of the pope to oblige him to return, and to govern them as he had done before. Some of these religious of Moleme, observing that their customs and manners were not suitable to the rule of St. Benedict, seriously endeavoured to apply some remedy. Accordingly they had recourse to abbot Robert, who promised to assist them in their pious design; but it being impossible for them to effect their purpose in that abbey, on account of the relaxation which reigned there, Robert and twenty-one others, by the permission of the pope, quitted the abbey of Moleme, and went to settle in a place called Citeaux, in the diocese of Chalons. It was a desert covered with wood and brambles, where these religious formed to themselves little wooden cells, with the consent of the lords of the soil. They settled there on the 21st of march 1098,. being St. Benedict's day, and Eudo, duke of Burgundy, assisted them in building a monastery, and gave them land and cattle; and the bishop of Chalons gave Robert the pastoral staff, as abbot, erecting the new monastery into an abbey. The following year, Robert, being ordered by the pope to resume the government of the abbey of Moleme, was succeeded in that of Citeaux, by Alberic; and pope Paschal, by a bull of the year i 100, took that monastery under his protection. Alberic drew up the first statutes for the monks of Citeaux, or Cistertians, in which he enjoined the strict observance of the rule of St. Benedict. The habit of these religious, of the monastery of Citeaux, was at first black; but they pretend that the holy virgin. appearing to St. Alberic, gave him a white habit, from which time they changed their black habit for a white one, only retaining the black scapulary. In memory of this change they keep a festival on the 5th of August, which they call the descent of the blessed virgin at Citeaux, and the miraculous changing of the habit from black to white. The number of those who embraced the Cistertian order increasing, it was necessary to build more monasteries.. Accordingly, in 1113, Stephen, abbot of Citeaux, built that of La Ferte, in the diocese of Chalons.. The next year, he founded Pontigni, in the diocese of Auxerre. Clairvaux, in the diocese of Langres,. was built in 1115. The order increased farther in 1118, by the founding of four other monasteries,, 3 L The Cistertian Monks, were a religious order, founded in the eleventh century, by St. Robert, a Benedictine, and abbot of Moleme. Certain anchorets of a neighbouring forest, having heard of St. Robert, then abbot of St. Michael de la Tonnere, intreated him to take upon him the direction of them; but the prior of his monastery, and some of the antient monks, obstructed his complying with their request. Those monks of Tonnere lived under so great a relaxation of discipline, that abbot Robert lost all hopes of reforming them, and therefore left them, and retired to the abbey of Montier-la-celle, in which he had formerly been a monk. Soon after, he was chosen prior of the monastery of St. Augulphus, which was dependent on that abbey; and then It was, that the afore-named anchorets applied themselves to the pope, who granted them a brief, which directed the abbot of Montier-lacelle to deliver Robert to them, having chosen him as governor. Robert was well pleased with the pope's order, and into the forest of Moleme, where they built themaccordingly joined those anchorets, whom he led selves little cells made of the boughs of trees, and a | No. 10. which 1 which were Prully, La Cour-Dieu, Trois-Fontaines, and Bonnevaux; and in the following year 1119, Bouras, Fontenay, Cadovin, and Maran, were founded. Then Stephen formed all these monasteries into one body, and drew up the constitutions of the order, which he called " The charter of charity," containing in five chapters, all the necessary rules for the establishment and government of the order. The first chapter of that charter enjoins the literal observance of the rule of St. Benedict, as it was observed at Citeaux; the second regulates the power of the abbots; the third settles the manner of holding general chapters, and deciding differences therein; the fourth regulates the election of abbots, and the qualifications of the electors and elected; the fifth and last treats of the resignation and deposition of abbots. This order made a surprising progress. Fifty years after its institution, it had five hundred abbies, and an hundred years afterwards, it boasted of eighteen hundred abbies, most of which had been founded before the year 1200. This great progress must be ascribed to the sanctity of the Cistertians, of whom cardinal de Vitry, in his western history savs, "the whole church of Christ was full of the high reputation and opinion of their sanctity, as it were with the odour of some divine balsam, and that there was no country or province, wherein this vine, loaded with blessings, had not spread forth its branches." And, describing their observances, he says, "they neither wore skins nor shirts, nor ever eat flesh, except in sickness, and abstained from fish, eggs, milk, and cheese: they lay only upon straw beds, in their tunics and cowls: they rose at midnight, and sang praises to God till break of day: they spent the day in labour, reading and prayer; and in all their exercises, they observed a strict and continual silence: they fasted from the feast of the exaltation of the holy cross till Easter; and they exercised hospitality towards the poor, with extraordinary charity." The order of Cistertians became in time so powerful, that it governed almost all Europe, both in spirituals and temporals. It did also great service to the church, by means of the eminent men it pro duced. These religious were employed by the pope to convert the Albigenses. Some authors say there have been six popes of this order, but it will be difficult to find any more than Eugenius III. and Benedict XII. It boasts of about forty cardinals, a great number of archbishops, bishops, and famous writers. Several kings and queens have preferred the habit of this order to their royal robes and crowns: in the single monastery of Tiebnitz, in Silesia, they reckon above forty princesses of Poland, who have taken the habit there. What adds farther to the reputation of the order is, that the military orders of Calatrava, Alcantara, and Montessa, in Spain; and those of Christ and Avis, in Portugal, are subject to it. The Abbot of Citeaux is the superior general, and father of the Cistertian order; but his power is more limited than that of the other generals of orders. This abbey has twenty-six immediate daughters, which are called of its generation. The general chapter is always held at Citeaux. Only the Latin tongue is spoken in their general chapters. Formerly, cardinals, archbishops, and bishops, used to be present at the chapters: pope Eugenius III. honoured it with his presence in the year 1148. The habit of the Cistertian monks is a white robe, in the nature of a cassock, with a black scapulary and hood, and is girt with a woollen girdle. In the choir they wear over it a white cowl. The historians of the Cisterian order are not agreed as to the original of the nuns of this order. Some ascribe it to St. Humblelina, sister of St. Bernard; others to St. Bernard himself. The most probable opinion is, that the first monastery of nuns of this order was founded at Tart, in the diocese of Langres, in the year 1120, by St. Stephen, abbot of Citeaux. The austerity of the Cistertians, at their first institution, would not allow the women, who are tenderer than the men, to undergo so heavy a yoke. After the foundation of the monastery of Tart, several others were founded in France; as those of Fervaques in the diocese of Noion, Bladech in the diocese of St. Omer, Montreuil ncar Laon, &c. The number of these monasteries increased so much, that if we may believe the historians of the order, there were six thousand of them. The habit of the Cistertian nuns is a white tunic, and a black scapulary, and girdle. The first monastery of Cistertians in England, was that of Waverly in Surry, built in the year 1129, by William Gifford, bishop of Winchester. Though these monks followed the rule of St Benedict, they were called by the English, not Benedictines, but White Friars. The catalogues of Cistertian monasteries in the reign of Edward I. when that prince granted his protection to all the monasteries, amounted in number to sixty-two. The Pope Celestin V. instituted a religious order, which from his name are called Celestines. original name of this pope was Peter de Meuron, of whom we have the following account: He was born at Isernia, a little town in the kingdom of Naples, in the year 1215. His parents were poor, and in his early youth he retired to a solitary moun tain, where he devoted himself wholly to meditation Soon after his death, his order increased so fast that they had convents not only in Italy, but likewise in France, and in many parts of Germany. They eat no flesh at any time, except when they are sick, and they rise two hours after midnight to say matins. They fast every Wednesday and Friday, and their habit is a white gown, with a hood of the same colour, and a black scapulary. The Capuchins, are a religious institution of the order of St. Francis. They owe their original to Matthew de Bassi, a Franciscan of the duchy of Urbino; who having seen St. Francis represented with a sharp-pointed capuchin, or cowl, began to wear the like in 1525, with the permission of pope Clement VII. His example was followed by two other religious, named Lewis and Raphael de Fossembrun; and the pope, by a brief, granted these three monks leave to retire to some hermitage, and retain their new habit; and the retirement they chose, was the hermitage of the Camaldolites, near Massacio, where they were very charitably received. This innovation in the habit of the order, gave great of fence to the Franciscans, whose provincial persecut ed these poor monks, and obliged them to fly from place to place. At last they took refuge in the palace of the duke de Camarino, by whose credit they 1527. built another small convent at Montmelon, in the were received under the obedience of the conventuals, in the quality of hermits minors, in the year The next year, the pope approved this union, and confirmed to them the privilege of wearing the square capuchin, and admitting among them all who would take the habit. Thus the order of so called from wearing the capuchin, the Capuchins, Their first establishment was at Colmenzono, about a league from Camarino, in a convent of the order of St. Jerom, which had been abandoned. But their numbers increasing, Lewis de Fossembrun This order soon spread itself over all Italy, and into Sicily. In 1573, Charles IX. demanded of pope Gregory XIII. to have the order of Capuchins. established in France, which that pope consented. to, and their first settlement in that kingdom was in the little town of Picpus near Paris; which they' soon quitted to settle at Meudon, from whence they were introduced into the capital of the kingdom. In 1606, pope Paul V. gave them leave to accept.of an establishment, which was offered them in Spain. They even passed the seas, to labour the conversion' of the infidels; and their order is become so considerable, that it is at present divided into more than sixty provinces, consisting of near one thousand six hundred convents, and twenty-five thousand monks, besides the missionaries of Brasil, Congo, Barbary, Greece, Syria, and Egypt. Among those who have preferred the poverty and humility of the Capuchins to the advantages of birth and fortune, was the famous Alphonso d'Est, duke of Modena and Reggio, who after the death of his wife Isabella, took the habit of this order at Munich, in the year 1626, under the name of brother John-Baptist, and died in In France the convent of Castelnuovo in 1644. likewise, the great duke de Joyeuse, after having distinguished himself as a great general, became a Capuchin in September 1587. Father Paul observes, "that the Capuchins preserve their reputation by reason of their poverty; and that if they should suffer the least change in their their institution, they would acquire no immoveable estates by it, bat would lose the alms they now receive." He adds: "It seems therefore as if here an absolute period was put to all future acquisitions and improvements in this gainful trade: for whoever should go about to institute a new order, with a power of acquiring estates, such an order would certainly find no credit in the world; and if a profession of poverty were a part of the institution, there could be no acquisitions made whilst that lasted; nor would there be any credit left when that was broke." There is likewise an order of Capuchin nuns, who follow the rule of St. Clara. Their first establishment was at Naples in 1538; and their foundress was the venerable mother Maria Laurentia Longa, of a noble family in Catalonia; a lady of the most uncommon piety and devotion. Some Capuchins coming to settle at Naples, she obtained for them, by her credit with the archbishop, the church of St. Euphebia without the city; soon after which she built a monastery for virgins, under the name of our Lady of Jerusalem, into which she retired in 1534, together with nineteen young women, who engaged themselves by solemn vows to follow the 3d rule of St. Francis. The pope gave the government of this monastery to the Capuchins; and soon after, the nuns quitted the third rule of St. Francis, to embrace the more rigorous rule of St. Clara, from the austerity of which they had the name of nuns of the passion, and that of Capuchins from the habit they took, which was that of the Capuchins. After the death of their foundress, another monastery of Capuchins was established at Rome, near the Quirinal palace, and was called the monastery of the holy sacrament; and a third, in the same city, built by cardinal Baronius. These foundations were approved in the year 1600, by pope Clement VIII, and confirmed by Gregory XV. There were afterwards several other establishments of Capuchins in particular one at Paris, in 1604, founded by the duchess de Mercœur; who put crowns of thorns on the heads of the young women whom she placed in her monastery. As the religious orders are now utterly abolished in this country, in consequence of the reformation. from popery, it is necessary before we dismiss this article, to take some notice of the effects they had on the minds of the people, both in a civil and a religious light. And first in a civil light, they had their advantages and disadvantages. The vast estates bestowed upon them for their support, were let at easy rents to tenants, and for the most part the rents were taken from what the earth produced. This encouraged industry, and promoted agriculture, the people resided in the country, where poverty was seldom known, and those cities which now make such a distinguished figure in Britain, were then little better than contemptible villages. The people in the country were satisfied with their conditions, because the cities and towns had no temptations to present them with. How different in the present age, when the country is depopulated, and the cities crowded with unthinking persons, who are verging towards the brink of destruction. The lands which formerly belonged to these houses, are now in the hands of laymen, who not being willing to set any bounds to their extravagance, keep the farmers tenants at will, and raise their rents to such an exorbitant height, that the price of all sorts of provisions daily increases and the country is in a manner neglected. But the disadvantage in a civil light was the discouragement they gave to marriage. This was an unnatural sentiment, because every man should' have his own wife, and every woman her own husband. It was the design of God, that it should be so, lest unnatural crimes should take place, and men become even worse than the beasts that perish. Many accusations were preferred against those who lived in convents at the time of the reformation, some of which are too shocking to be mentioned, and for the honour of human nature, we hope that a great number of them were false. This will appear the more probable, when we consider, that too many of those who promoted the reformation, had their own interest in view, more than the glory of God, or the happiness of immortal souls. But still perhaps, some part of the accusation was too true, for to use the words of the moralist, "Shut nature out at the door, and she will come in at the window." Celibacy is no crime, when voluntarily chosen, and submitted to in purity, but it becomes dangerous when imposed. The ancient hermits, in times of persecution, and of whom we have already given an account, were under the necessity of living in a state of celibacy, but the cause being removed, the effect should cease. There was no necessity that the monks should live in a state of celibacy, and if so, how great was their error in obliging young persons who devoted themselves to a religious life, to be deprived of all those innocent pleasures which will always take place between the sexes, when flowing from virtuous love. Secondly, in a religious light. The great error of the monastic life consisted in the monks, like the Pharisees + themselves. In these places, the disconsolate widow, the maiden injured by her false lover, the orphan, the sick, and the wounded found an assylum; the world had forgotten them, and they were dead to the pleasures and the allurements of it. It was the great error of the Reformation, that these religious houses were not preserved, for reasons of a similar nature. The revenues appropriat Pharisees of old, having considered themselves as far superior in religion to the rest of the world. Self-righteousness is contrary to every thing in genuine religion, whether natural or revealed. It precludes all necessity for repentance, and teaches poor sinful mortals to look down with contempt and disdain upon many of their fellow-creatures, who perhaps are greater objects of the divine favour than them selves. The monks taught the people to be-ed for their support would have been sufficient to lieve that the secular clergy were no better than hirelings, because they received the tythes appointed by law, for the stated discharge of their duty, whereas the monks themselves enjoyed greater estates, without doing any duty at all. support the aged and the afflicted, so that we should have had no occasion for work-houses and hospitals. The youth of both sexes belonging to our industrious poor, would have been brought up in the principles of virtue and religion, till they had been fit to go out to trades; and charity schools would have been, in many respects, unnecessary. And to conclude, bishop Burnet tells us, that archbishop Leighton, one of the greatest divines who have liv these religious houses had not been kept up for men of mortified tempers to spend the remainder of their lives in, without the entanglement of oaths and vows. All this, however, was rendered ineffectual, by the rapaciousness of our princes and nobility: but the subject is so melancholy, that we shall not dwell any longer upon it. But with all these errors, the monastic life had its advantages in a religious light. In an age of barbarity, when the great lived by the sword, and the poor were their submissive vassals, many events took place, which we, who pride ourselves for liv-ed since the age of the apostles, often lamented that ing in better times, look back to like a dream in the records of history. A husband deprived of a wife by the barbarity of lawless robbers, his daughter ravtshed, and his son killed in defending injured innocence, often induced some of our great noblemen to retire from the world, and build convents for those in the same distressed circumstances with FIRST Rites and Ceremonies in the CHURCH of ROME. person to fill the chair of St. Peter, the prince of the apostles. of the election of the pope. When the pope dies, the care of the government is committed to four cardinals, viz. The first cardinal This being over, the cardinals march in procesbishop, the first cardinal priest, the first cardinal sion, two and two, according to their rank, attended deacon, and the cardinal chamberlain of the house-by the Swiss guards, and a vast crowd of people, all hold. The first three to manage the civil affairs of the government, and the latter orders all the seals of the late pope to be broken, and the money to be coined with a device of the vacancy. singing the hymn to the Holy Ghost, called Veni Creator Spiritus. When they arrive at the conclave, they take possession of their cells by lot, after which they all go to the chapel of pope Paul III. where the The office of these four cardinals continues only bulls for the election of a pope are read, and the ten days, but they appoint deputies, and they, with dean of the sacred college exhorts the cardinals to the rest of their brethren, enter the conclave to pro- act consistent with them. They are then permitted ceed to the election of the pope, or as he is called, to go home to dinner, but they must return before A Vicar of Jesus Christ. Before they enter the con- night, for the master of the ceremonies acquaints. clave, they hear the mass of the Holy Ghost in the them, that if any of them come out of their cells Gregorian chapel, and a bishop delivers an harangue | after they are shut up, they cannot be re-admitted. in Latin, exhorting them to make choice of a proper No. 10. The marshal of the ceremonies orders the guards |