Selected quad for the lemma: order_n
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A10852
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The anatomy of the English nunnery at Lisbon in Portugall Dissected and laid open by one that was sometime a yonger brother of the conuent: who (if the grace of God had not preuented him) might haue growne as old in a wicked life as the oldest among them. Published by authoritie.
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Robinson, Thomas, fl. 1622.
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1622
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STC 21123; ESTC S115995
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20,832
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42
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his returne from his famous Conquest in France In which two houses he established an Order that to the end of the world there should bee an alternate course of Prayer so that when the one had finished their deuotions the other should instantly begin And beeing thus founded that of Shyne was peopled with Carthusian Monkes the other with Nuns and Friers of S t Brigets Order But when it pleased the Lord of his infinit mercy to disperse and scatter those thicke clouds of ignorance and Superstition which had a long time bedimmed the eyes and darkned the vnderstanding of our forefathers and that the glorious light of the Gospell began to bee more and more resplendent in the latter end of the Reigne of King Henry the 8. then as well these Houses as all other of the like superstition were subuerted and abolished and the people of them either dismissed and sent home to their friends or else continuing more obstinately in their blinde zeale exiled saue onely some few who for withstanding the Kings Supremacy receiued the reward of Traitors Amongst which Father Raynolds the Confessor of these Nunnes was executed In memory of whom they haue painted his Picture manner of execution vpon their Church walles esteeming him as a holy Martyr amongst them as good as either S t Campian or Beatus Pater Henricus Garnet although that amongst the Iesuites these are little lesse then Saints After the death of this their ghostly Father both they and the Carthusians of Shyne translated themselues and diuers of their Reliques and trinkets beyond the Seas into Flanders And the successors of these banished runnagates are now the onely stumpe which remaineth of that huge tree that whilome ouerspred and shaddowed our whole Country which the Papists in regard these two houses had both one foundation and were as it were linked and tyed the one to the other do hold as miraculous and doe take it as a sure signe and token of their future returne from banishment nay some of the holiest of our vnholy Sisters haue not doubted I thinke in imitation of the old Sybils to prophesie of another golden age when they shall againe be installed in Syon but Admiranda canunt sed non credenda sorores I know my Sisters at Lisbon for false prophets in more things then one In the meane time they of Shyne remaine at Macklyn in the Low-Countries and the Nunnes of Syon after many transmigrations from Sierick-zee to their brethren at Macklyn and from thence to Roan doe now reside at Lisbon And this shall suffice for the foundation of the house and the successe thereof till this present And now by the way it shall not be likewise much amisse for the satisfaction of such as haue not been acquainted with Friers businesse in a word or two to declare the originall of both these Orders and from what Patrons they first descended For in the Catholique Romane Church amongst all the disordered orders of swarming Locusts which are almost innumerable there is none but take their beginning from one supposed Saint or other and as the rest so these For the Carthusians sprung vp from one Bruno in the kingdome of France who is said to haue beene present at the Funerall of a certaine Priest reputed for a holy man in his life but when they were executing the office of the dead for him according to the vse of the Papists it seemed they had beene deceiued in their imagination For when the Deacon was come to the Lesson which beginneth Responde mihi quantas habeo iniquitates c. the dead man suddenly start vp and said Vocatus sum or accufatus sum chuse you whether whereupon they deferred his Obsequies vntill the next day being all amazed at what had happened when proceeding the second time and comming to the same words againe the dead body made answer Iudicatus sum Then the third time they began their Seruice and at the same Responde he sate vp and said Condemnatus sum wherewith this Bruno beeing stricken into an extreme feare and much troubled to thinke that a man so generally reputed for holy should yet be damned determined to lead a most austere and solitary life and to that end being accompanied with a few others whom he had made priuy to his purpose he departed to a desart stupendious mountaine called Carthusia where he liued as they say in great regularitie and from the name of that hill they came to be called Carthusians and to this day they pretend more seuerity and strictnesse of discipline then any other Order of Monks or Friers what soeuer Howbeit they remained not long in such solitarie and vnfrequented places but by little and little obtained their houses in euery great Cittie and towne as magnificent yea and more sumptuous then their fellow-Locusts witnesse the Charter-house in London which was once a Cage of these vncleane birds Now for the other house of Syon the Nunnes thereof take their beginning from their holy mothers Saint Briget and her daughter Saint Katherine This Saint Briget was of the blood Royall of Suetia a woman questionlesse of a good vnderstanding and singular memory howbeit miserably seduced and led away by the subtill allurements of her ghostly father by whose perswasions and counsell she went to Rome as a Pilgrime and comming before the Pope she pretended to haue diuers reuelations from God amongst which one was for the founding of this Order of Nunnes which was indeed the chiefe marke that both her ghostly father and she aymed at The rest of her pretended inspirations were for the reforming of sundry abuses in the Church Yea she spared not to tell the Popes holinesse of many faults in himselfe but he like a good blood-hound quickely scented her and followed her footing till he plainly perceiued from whom she was sent who being a fellow that might vpon distaste prooue a Schismatique and make some reuolt in those remote Countries from the Romane Church he thought best to be winked at and thereupon condescended vnto her request touching the erecting of a house of this Order and so dismissed her But she liued not long after whether his Holinesse had procured some modicum to bee ministred vnto her or no it is doubtfull yet in her daughters dayes the businesse came to perfection and the first House of this Order was at a place called Watsteen in Swethland from whence certaine Nunnes were procured into England to propagate their Rules and Ceremonies in Syon house at the time when it was first built The magnificence of this Couent in former times hath beene by the report of the now-liuing Nunnes very admirable at this present it is not of any extraordinarie repute neither are the people of it for birth and parentage equall to their predecessors who were wont to bee of good discent whereas now saue onely a few they are Recusants daughters of the meaner sort and silly tender-hearted chambermaids who haue had
THE ANATOMY OF THE ENGLISH NVNNERY AT LISBON in PORTVGALL DISSECTED AND laid open by one that was sometime a yonger Brother of the COVENT Who if the grace of God had not preuented him might haue growne as old in a wicked life as the oldest amongst them VIRG. Lib. 1. AENEID Caecumque domus scelus omne retexit Published by Authoritie LONDON Printed by GEORGE PVRSLOWE for Robert Mylbourne and Philemon Stephens and are to be sold at the great South doore of Rauls 1622. TO THE RIGHT VVORSHIPFVLL M r THOMAS GVRLIN MAIOR OF THE NO LESSE ancient then loyall and wel-gouerned towne of Kings-Lynne in Norfolke and his Worshipfull Brethren the Aldermen of the same c. THE industrious and painfull Sea-man Right Worshipfull that I may goe no farther for an example then mine owne profession because quod supranos nihil ad nos being a long time crossed with vnfauourable windes persisteth notwithstanding in attempting to attaine to his desired Port which not beeing able to atchieue directly and vpon a precise rhomb or point he maketh his way by diuers Maeanders and crooked turnings lying sometimes East and anon West so neere his course as the winde will permit and by this meanes at length he ankoreth in the wished harbour Euen so my selfe hauing of a long time desired to recouer some fit occasion or meanes as my most wished port to expresse a thankefull minde vnto your Worships for no small benefits formerly conferred vpon me benè apud memores veteris stat gratia facti could neuer through contrarie windes of aduerse fortune arriue there in safety but haue had a long trauerse to and fro with little likelihood of fairer weather till now at length with my bowlins sharpe haled pardon I pray you my ruder Sea-phrase I haue doubled the Cape of good Hope from whence I am bold to send you this first returne of what I long since tooke vp of you vpon interest it being notwithstanding no way of worth to countervaile any though the least part of the debt I owe you For it is now some yeeres agone that I set sayle from the Hauen of your help bound for the Port of Prudence the Vniuersity of Cambridge beeing fully fraughted with your fauour friendship where through mine owne negligence let mee euer sigh to remember it hauing foreslowed my best market and letting go my most precious commodity my Time at an vnder-value I remained a great loser by my voyage not beeing able to make vnto you my Worshipfull creditors such satisfaction as you might iustly expect And now entring into a consideration of your gentle forbearance of me I doomed my selfe worthy to beare the brand of Ingratitude if I should forget you Whereupon not as any part of payment but as a recognizance and acknowledgement of that debt and dutie which I owe to your W ps I presume to send you this insuing discourse being not more plain in the manner then true in the matter If you shall daigne to giue it fauourable acceptance I haue what I desired and in the hope thereof alwaies praying for your prosperitie and welfare I rest Your Worships dutifull debtor THOMAS ROBINSON To the indifferent Reader READER if the Title of this Booke being The Anatomy of the English Nunnery at Lisbon doe make thee expect some Chyrurgicall mysteries or profound Lecture vpon a dissected bodie let me satisfie thee and saue thee a labour of reading it for thou art much deceiued the Author hereof is a man of no such Science being better skilled in Taâ—kes Sheats Braces Bowlins c. strange words perchance to thy vnderstanding and yet no canting then in veines sinewes muscles and arteries Yet what hee promiseth by the Title hee hath performed in the Treatise and hath truly anatomized this handmayd of the Whore of Babylon laying open her principall veines and sinewes in such sort that hee is bold to challenge the proudest Doctor of her acquaintance to traduce his worke or to taxe him of the least vntruth in what he hath written for here is no thing published but what his owne experience being optima magistra hath taught him and whereof he hath beene oculatus testis Onely the phrase he vseth is like himselfe blunt and vnelegant for ex quolibet ligno non fit Mercurius winke therefore a little at the method and suruey the matter it selfe with the wide open eyes of thy vnderstanding and spare not And if thou be not already addicted too much to Poperie thou mayst peraduenture find a preseruatiue against it Howsoeuer here it presenteth it selfe to the view of the world bee it well or ill accepted it maketh not much matter for the Authour will alwayes carry this comfort about him A good Conscience is a continuall feast Vale. T. R. THE ANATOMY OF THE ENGLISH NVNNERY AT LISBON IN PORTVGALL HAVING by reason of my Calling beene oftentimes occasioned to trauell beyond the Seas it so chanced that I was once through diuers accidents driuen to haue some conference with father Seth alias Ioseph Foster an English Frier in Lisbon and the sole Confessor of a Couent of English Nunnes residing in the same Cittie who by his subtill and wily fetches inticed me to abide with him in the house imploying me dayly in copying out certaine Treatises of Obedience which hee had composed for the Nunnes And after a while hauing depriued mee of meanes to depart from him by taking away my apparell and putting me into a disguized foolish habite of which I was heartily ashamed both hee and the Abbesse with some others of the sisters as they cal them neuer ceased to vrge me by deepe-dissembled intreaties perswasions vntill I had giuen consent to become a holy Brother and Masse-priest in the house for I had soone attained to more skill in the Rubrick then euery shaueling is ordinarily accustomed to haue and could readily find out and know any Masse by the great Letter at the beginning of it and more then that I could sing Aue regina Salue Sancta parens which is learning enough in conscience for any Abbey-lubber vnlesse hee bee too vnreasonable So that now there wanted nothing to my taking of Orders saue onely that my minority and want of yeeres hindred it wherefore in the meane time I continued in writing ouer diuers bookes for them and amongst the rest the Register of their House whereby I came to some vnderstanding of their estate beginning and successe vntill this present which for the satisfaction of the Reader I thought good to set downe as briefely as I could before I proceed any farther or speake of their manners and conuersation First therefore for the House The Nuns thereof doe challenge and indeed truely a succession from the Abbey of Sion in England now belonging vnto the Earle of Northumber land which house together with another Monasterie of Carthusian Monkes called Shyne beeing both scituated vpon the Thames were erected and built by King Henry the 5. at