1616. The head of the Order being called General of the Regular Clarks of the Congregation of Somasks and of the Christian Doctrin in France They are Clothed with Black Cloth as the Priests and wear a Hat They have the most part of their Convents in Italy and in some places publick Colleges where they teach Youth as the Jesuits do Of the Order of the Jesuits IGnatius Loyola a Spaniard laid the Foundation of this Order about the year of oâ—â— Lord 1540. He was of a Fierce and Barbarous Temper and being but a Youth threatned to cut off a Limb from him who the least displeased him coming very often to Blows He never quitted this cruel and inhuman disposition and even inspired his Order with it He followed at first Military Employments but having received a Wound in his Thigh at the Siege of Pampelone he left the Wars and happening one day to read a Book full of Lies called by the Papists the Flowers of the Saints and amongst other things being in a fixed consideration of the high esteem Men had for being Founders of Orders he thought it would not be lost labor if he became also the Forger of one But as he was very Ignorant which must needs be a great obstruction to his design he resolved as stupid as he was to Study and with strength of Application acquired tolerable Knowledge He improved it at Salamanca and it was there that appearing publickly in an extravagant Habit and Preaching in the Streets without leave of the Bishop he was delivered to the Inquisition to examin his Doctrin But he was found very firm in all the Errors and Impieties of Popery and therefore let out of Prison and had in more Honour than before This gave him encouragement to go to Paris where he applied himself again to Study and was made Master of Arts. His Hypocrisy increasing more and more he betook himself to beg Alms from Door to Door and taught Youth for nothing getting by this means the esteem and love of the meanest sort of People Nay some Gentlemen drawn by his Example joyned with him and became his Companions and all together made a Vow to Renounce the World and to go to Jerusalem to Preach there to the Turks and draw them to the Errors of Popery But first They resolved to go to Rome and receive the Popes Blessing as also Priestly Ordination The Jesuits say that their Ignatius being near the City of Rome God the Father appeared to him visibly and desired his Son Jesus Christ who was loaden with an heavy Cross to take a special care both of him and of his Companions Christ promised him he would not fail and told Ignatius he would be favourable to him at Rome Ego vobis Romae propitius ero This made them to take the name of the Company of Jesus because the Eternal Father had given them they say for Companions to his Son who acknowledged them to be such The good disposition wherein they found Paul the III. at Rome made them to resolve not to lose time but to establish their their Society before they went to Jerusalem and they elected unanimously Igantius for their General After ten years of Generalship he made as if he should be glad to be dispensed with and quit it but being sweetly forced to a longer continuance in it he wrote his Book of Spiritual Exercises which some say he had taken out of the Abby of Montserrat where he made some abode at the beginning of his Conversion The Society increasing daily Ignatius undertook to explain further the form of his Institution and having brought it to certain Heads he had them approved by the Pope He died of a burning Fever in the year 1556 aged 65 years having founded almost an hundred Houses of his Order Some Jesuit Authors say he was very often tormented by Devils and that he boasted before his Death how much good he had done to the Church of Rome as also of having extreamly enriched his Society shewing further how heartily sorry he was to part from it in so Flourishing a Condition Of the Rule of the Jesuits THe most rigorous Statute of the Jesuits is that which forbids the publication of their Rule and Pope Paul the III. by a Bull of the year 1549 permitteth the General of the Jesuits to Excommunicate to put in Prison and also to employ the secular Power for chastising as he pleaseth all those of what quality or condition soever they be who shall dare to manifest their Constitutions to the Publick Why so great a precaution accompanied with so much severity but because saith Hospinian they are ashamed that one should know the base and filthy things which they practise secretly Omne enim quod honestum soitur publicari non timetur saith S. Augstin Nevertheless this Rule having been Printed at Lions in the year 1607 with the design to distribute Copies of it in their Colleges Novitiates and Profest-houses they could not take their Measures so well but some of them are fallen into secular Hands Prosper Stellarius Hospinian and others do relate it at length in their Works I might also have inserted it in mine was it not of too great a bulk Therefore I have chosen rather to give first an Idea of it in general and then to set down some principal Points which I have observed in the perusing of it As for the Idea in general I say that as Mahomet hath taken something of all sorts of Religions to make up his own in the same manner Ignatius Loyola and all his crew have made a Rapsody of all sorts of Monastical and Collegiate Rules to compose that of their Order It is for the most part filled with nothing but human Traditions Hypocrisies Idolatries and devilish inventions which are required therein as to run over all the World to endevour to draw not only the Infidels but all the Christians also if it be possible to their Idolatrous Worship the Sacrifice of the Mass the Worship of Saints c. To extend as much as in them lies the Dominions of Antichrist who is the Pope and to infect the whole Earth with the Venom of their perverse Doctrins This is the general design of their Institute And as for the Rules belonging to the internal direction of their Houses or Convents they are a great part of them Superstitious Impious or Silly Practices Nevertheless I must confess that the external Government of their Order for policy and cunning to compass their ends of heaping Riches and Power in the World hath not met yet with its like upon the Earth I shall relate here Commpendiously of their Rules only as much as is necessary to prove both the one and the other Some Rules of the Jesuits drawn from their Common Rules RUle 2. They ought to be present every day at the Sacrifice of the Mass to abuse the People with their Hypocrisy Rule 4. They
Violet Colour The Cathedral of Pampelune is officiated by Regular Canons and in the same Diocese there is the famous Priory of Ronceaux where the Emperor Charlemain placed a College of Regular Canons to take charge of an Hospital which he founded to receive the Pilgrims that should pass by those remote places as well those of France who should go to St. James as those of Spain who travelled to Rome They are drest in Black and wear a little white Scapulary very strait which comes down to their middle they wear also a kind of a Cross of a green Stuff made in the form of an F. to signifie that they are of an Order belonging to Hospitals Of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustin THE Fathers of this Order do boldly derive their Original from St. Augustin They pretend that this Saint being at Milan retired there into a Monastery and that passing afterwards into Africa he brought thither along with him 12 Fryers whom he established not long after near his Episcopal Church of Hippo living together with them But to speak truly this is no better than a story contrived by these honest Monks who have vanity enough to attribute to themselves an antiquity to which they have no title I need give no other warrant for what I say than Possidonius who wrote the Life of St. Augustin and makes no mention of them 'T is also acknowledged by the Learned that those seventy six Sermons written to the Hermits Ad Fratres in Eremo commemorantes and supposed by the Augustinian Fathers to be the Works of this holy Doctor are only the productions of some Impostor Having weighed every thing very impartially one shall find that the Order of these Augustinians was in the beginning formed of several Heremitical Congregations which were spread in several places under different names and especially of the Williamites and Zambonites Pope Innocent IV. did form the design of this Union but Death having prevented him this Work was reserved to Alexander IV. Nor was the great St. Augustin though dead many Ages before wanting to promote it with his utmost power He appeared say they to this Pope in a Dream under a dreadful Figure having his Head as big as a Tun and the rest of his Body as small as a Reed This made Alexander IV. understand that he ought to put in execution the project of his Predecessor He gave them the pretended Rules of St. Augustin joined them in a Body under one General ordering them to wear the same Habit to wit a long Gown with broad Sleeves a fine cloath Hood and under these black Garments other white ones and that they should tyâ— about their Middle a leathern Girdle fastned with an Ivory Bone This Order being confirmed by the following Popes so prodigiously increased that a very little while after they had above 2000 Convents of Men and 300 of Women Being afterwards fallen from their Observances which is the common fate of all the Religious Orders of the Church of Rome Father Thomas of Jesus of the House of Andrada laid the first Foundations of a Reformation in Portugal about the year 1574 Louis of Leon established it in Spain Father Andreas Dies in Italy and Father Francis Ameâ— carried it into France and it was confirmed by Clement VIII in the year 1600. The following Popes consented that the three Congregations of France Italy and Spain should have each a Vicar General who should depend on the General of the Augustinians They are one of the four Orders which are now called Mandians or Beggars from their begging Alms from Door to Door though indeed it is a shame that they are suffered so to do having all of them some few Religious of St. Francis excepted more than sufficient yearly incomes for their maintenance The Reformed Augustinians wear Sandals and are called Unshod for distinction sake from those who have not received the Reform and go under the name of great Augustinians These last passed from Italy into England in the year 1252. and at their arrival a raging Sickness broke out in London and spread into the whole Kingdom as a presage of the great evils which these Monks should cause one day in England There is a great number of other Congregations that follow the Rule of St. Augustin of whom I shall speak in another place Now having said that the Augustinians drew their Original from the Williamites and Zambonites I shall only treat here in few words of these two ancient Orders of Hermits Of the Orders and Rules of Cassianus Caesarius and Isidorus JOhn Cassian was born at Athens and lived in the Fifth Age. He passed the first years of his Youth in the Monasteries of Palestina where he had great familiarity with the Abbot Germanus and they went together into Egypt where they lived seven years After he became a Disciple to St. John Chrysostom by whom he was ordained a Deacon and after the death of this holy Prelate he went to Rome from whence in the year 410. when this City was taken by Alaricus he took his way to Marseilles and was there ordained a Priest by Bishop Venetius He afterward founded there two Monasteries one for Men and the other for Women professing himself amongst them a Monastick Life He wrote there his Books of Collations or Conferences of the Fathers of the Desert viz. of those Hermits whom he had seen in the Wilderness of Palestina which he dedicated to several eminent men He had already written the Institutions and manner of life of the Egyptian Monks and it is very probable that he proposed them for a pattern to his own Monasteries having left no other written Rule besides This Cassianus died in the year 448. and is now look'd upon very strangely by the Papists some of them chiefly at Marseilles and in Provence worshipping him as a Saint and others holding him for an Heretick who followed the errors of the Semipelagiens Caesarius Archbishop of Arles lived in the Sixth Age and was brought up in his Youth in the famous Monastery of the Lerins which was at that time the most renowned School for Learning where he made a considerable progress in his Studies We have of his Works forty six Homilies some Letters an exhortation to Charity a Treatise of the Ten Virgins some Rules for Nuns which he wrote in favour of Caesaria his own Sister who lived in a Monastery founded by him and are to be found in the VIII Tome of Bibliotheca Patrum 'T is said that Tetradius his Nephew wrote by his direction another Rule for Monks which is also to be seen there As for the first which is attributed to Caesarius it is so like to some spiritual instructions which St. Austin wrote for some devout Women who lived together with his Sister that some few words only being changed it seems to be the same Muta quaedam Verba Caesaris habes totam Regulam
at establishing the Authority of and Subordination to other Superiors Some are for the direction of their Studies and Colleges others for the Government of their Novitiates and Profest-houses Others again are for their Diet and their Habits T is not possible to express the great care they ought to take of their Health The Means they use to that purpose are admirable They have in every Convent a Prefect or Overseer of Health whose care and Application is continually to Study the way of promoting the same A part of his Office is to examin if the Meat which is prepared for the Fathers Jesuits is good and well drest He is to look that they be not prejudiced in their Health by bad Air by too much Heat Cold immoderate Labour or by too great Application of Mind and ought to give notice of it to the Superior that he may remedy it One cannot but see in all these Rules the extrordinary great love which the Jesuits have for their own Bodies and one would think they do not believe another Life hereafter There is moreover amongst these Rules a great Catalogue to be seen of the Masses which their Priests ought say and of the Rosaries or Beads which those who are not Priests ought to recite every Month and every Week for their Benefactors as well living as deceased to get more of them if possible may be Every Jesuit Priest is also obliged to say one Mass every Month and those who are not Priests one Row of Beads or the third part of a Rosary for the Reduction of Hereticks especially those of the Northen Countries They do not say for their Conversion but for their Reduction being all one to them whether this be effected by way of Persuasion or by Fire and Sword They do declare in many places of their Rule that to teach Youth to preach the Doctrins of the Romish Church to execute Missions to assist sick Persons on their Death-Beds to hear Confessions and to extend as much as lies in them the Popes Spiritual Domination ought to be the chiefest employments of the Society They give directions for that purpose and make an express Vow of the last which they call a Vow of Obedience to the Pope or of Mission The Subjects who do compose this Company are considered five different ways either as Professed of four Vows or as Spiritual Coadjutors who are Priests or as Temporal Coadjutors who are Brothers or as Masters and Students or lastly as Novices They have particular Rules for all these Degrees and Conditions The General is above all these Orders and they give to him the Glorious Titles of God's Legate Vicar of God's Republick which is the Order of the Jesuits His Generalship is perpetual and he is only subject to the Pope His chiefest business besides the Government of his Order is to find out all sorts of means of rooting out the Hereticks Enemies of the See of Rome and to take away the Lives or Dominions of those Princes or Kings who are not under its obedience Of the Encrease and Power of the Jesuits THIS Society favoured by the Popes as wholly devoted to them did so much multiply and so fast that Father Ribadeneira a Jesuit having made a Catalogue of their Provinces Colleges and Religious Houses in the year 1608. to wit seventy years after the Foundation of their Order reckons 31 Provinces 21 Profest Houses 293 Colleges 33 Novitiates other Residential Houses 96. But since that time they are so much increased that there is no Religious Order so much dilated so abundantly favoured with Priviledges so Rich and so Powerful as theirs A Book in Folio would not be enough to give to the Publick the History of it I shall only say in general that they are spread all over the World and in those Countries where they have not the liberty to appear in their Jesuitical Habit they keep themselves there Incognito in great numbers and leave no stone unturned to compass their intreagues and ill designs All their Houses and Colleges are very stately and curiously built Pope Gregory the XIII gave them in Rome against the Orders of the Senate a whole Island or quarter of the Town where they pulled down all the Houses turned out all the Owners the Widows and the Orphans to build there a College The same Pope gave them 25 Tuns of Gold towards the raising of it They maintain there 500 Jesuits of all the parts of the World who are the chief Emissaries of the General and as so many Mastiff-dogs ready to be let loose at his pleasure upon those whom they call Hereticks King Louis the XIV was no less liberal towards this Order in his Kingdom where he caused to be built every where stately Palaces for them while Spain Germany Poland Italy and the other Popish Countries have suffered these Vulturs to gnaw their Entrails and become fat upon them Rodolphus Hospinianus a very grave and faithful Author hath left us four Books of the Jesuitical History He treats in the First of the Origin Name Habit and Rules of the Jesuits he handleth in the Second the Increase and Power of this Order in the Third he exposes to publick view the wicked Acts Frauds Impostures and Bloody Counsels of the Jesuits both in Portugal and in France the Conspiracies Troubles Seditions Parricides horrid and enormous Crimes which they have committed in England Scotland Bohemia Hungary Moscovy Poland c. Lastly His Fourth Book does very plainly represent their Doctrin of Killing and Deposing Kings and Princes their Equivocations and Contradictions I shall not spend time to relate them to my Reader here in a Country where their Artifices and Devilish Enterprises are so well known I will only set down a curious Piece related by the same Author in his Fourth Book which is their form of Consecrating and Blessing those Murtherers whom they have persuaded to lay Violent and Sacrilegious Hands on Kings Here is word for word the order of it Ceremonies of the Consecration Blessing and Sanctification of Regicides by the Jesuits extracted out of a Process Printed at Delphes by John Andrew HE who is so unhappy as to be persuaded by the Jesuits to assassinate either a King or a Prince is brought by them into a secret Chappel where they have prepared upon an Altar a great Dagger wrapped up in linnen Cloath together with an Agnus Dei. Drawing it out of the Sheath they besprinkle it with Holy Water and fasten to the Hilt several Consecrated Beads of Coral pronouncing this Indulgence That as many Blows as the Murtherer shall give with it to the Prince he shall deliver so many Souls from Purgatory After this Ceremony they put the Dagger into the Parricides Hand and recommend it to him in this sort Thou chosen Son of God take the Sword of Jephte the Sword of Sampson the Sword of David wherewith he did cut off the Head of Goliath the Sword of Gideon
Clerks Minors owe their establishment to Austin Adorne a Gen-man of Genoa He set up their first Congregation at Naples in the year 1558 with two other Gentlemen of the family of Caracciola Austin and Francis The Constitutions of their Order were approved by Paul the V. in the year 1605. They have a Convent at Rome at St. Laurence in Lucia where their general abode is and a College at St. Agnes of Piazza Navona They are Cloathed as Secular Priests only with a courser Cloath Of the Order of Barnabites or Regular Clerks of St. Paul THIS Congregation was approved at Bologna by Pope Clement the VII in the year 1533. and by Paul the III. in 1535. James Anthony Morigias Bartholomew Ferrara of Milan and Francis Mary Zaccaria of Cremona began to establish it by a Famous Preacher called Seraphim who persuaded them to read diligently the Epistles of St. Paul for which cause they took the name of Clerks of St. Paul They are called likewise Barnabites either for their great devotion towards that Saint Barnabâ— who founded the Church of Milan or because they made their first Exercises in a Church of Regular Canons Dedicated to this Saint This Congregation is much increased since and hath produced great men They have several Colleges in Italy and some in France Savoy and other part Of the Order of the Holy Ghost in Saxia at Rome IN the year of our Lord 1198 Pope Innocent the III. caused to be built at Rome the staely and famous Hospital of the Holy Ghost in Saxia or Saxony which place was so called because formerly the Saxons a people of Germany had their Quarter there and endowed it very richly for the relief of the Poor Sick and other Indigents He ordered a Rule for all the Brothers and Sisters who would enter that Order In this year 1564 Father Bernardinus Cirilli General of the same Reformed it This Rule commands all the Brothers and Sisters to live in Obedience and Chastity possessing nothing as their own and above all to be careful of the Sick They make their Promise and Vow in such manner I such one give and offer my self to God and to the Blessed Virgin Mary to the Holy Ghost and to my Lords the Poor Sick to be their humble Servant as long as I live I promise to keep Chastity by the grace of God and to live without possessing any thing as my own and to you my General Master and all your Sccessors to pay you all Obedience and to take a faithful care of the Incomes for the Poor Then the Superior gives him this Answer For the Vow which thou hast made to God to the Virgin and to our Lords the Poor Sick we receive thee and the Souls of thy Father and Mother to participate of the Masses Fasts Prayers Alms and other good Works which are and shall be done in the House of the Holy Ghost God make thee partaker of them as we all hope Know also that the House of the Holy Ghost promises to give thee Bread and Water and an Humble Robe This said the Superior takes a Cloak on which is a Cross and putting it on his Shoulders saith to him In virtue of this Sign of the Cross all evil Spirits be expelled from thee and Christ Jesus bring thee to his everlasting Kingdom This Congregation hath several Hospitals in divers parts of Christendom of which that of Rome is the Chief The General Chapters are kept there and each Hospital is obliged to render an account there by the Duputies of its Administration Supposing a Religious of this Order be found in possession of any thing as his own when he dies he is not to be buried in Holy Ground but he is lookt upon as one excommunicated They wear a Black Sacerdotal Habit with a White Cross on their Breast and another upon their Cloak on the left Side Of the Congregation of the Hermits of Madam Gonzague FRancis of Gonzague fourth Marquess of Mantoua going to one his Country Houses and passing near an Old Wall on which was painted an Image of the Virgin Mary his Horse was so much frighted at it that in curvetting it threw his Master on the ground A Gentleman of his Retinue called Hierom Regnini seeing the Marquess all bruised with his fall fell immediately on his Knees and made a Vow to the Virgin that if his Master did recover he would in that very place lead an Hermetical Life Which thing having succeeded as he desired he went about to perform his Vow and the Marquesses Lady caused a Monastery to be built for him where several other Gentlemen joined together and established a Rule amongst them which was confirmed by Pope Alexander the VI. They make no profession and none of their Observances does bind upon pain of Mortal Sin They have a General and about threescore and ten Monasteries the Chief whereof is that of Gonzaga in which are twelve Hermits This Congregation began under Pope Innocent the VIII and the Empire Maximilian the First Of the Fathers of Christian Doctrin THIS Religious Congregation was founded by Caesar de Bus born at Cavailon a Town of Provence in France The end of this Institution was to Catechise the People in imitation as they say of the Apostles teaching them the Mysteries of our Faith and together the gross Errors of Popery Pope Clement the VIII approved this Congregation and Paul the V. did the same in the year 1616. He obliged these Teachers or Doctrinaries â—o make Monastical Vows and united their Coâ—pany to that of the Regular Clerks of Somask to make together with them one Body under the same General Since that time by a Bull of Pope Innocent the X. granted in the year 1647. the Priests of the Christian Doctrin were disunited from the others and had a French General for themselves Thuy possess several Convents and Colleges in France There is likewise in Italy another Order of the Fathers of the Christian Doctrin who do acknowledge for their Founder Cardinal Charles Borromeo who instituted them at Milan in the year 1568. CHAP. XIX 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 know First Of the Order of the White Men. IN the year 1399 under the Pontificate of Boniface the IX a certain Priest came down from the Alpes into Italy followed with a great multitude of People He was Cloathed all in White had very modest Looks and by his Speech one might have taken him for a Saint He deplored with loud and very sensible Expressions the miserable Condition of Mankind and Preached Repentance for Sin He was going directly to Rome with hopes to remedy the evil first in the place where he thought Religion suffered the most In his way by Lucca the Apennine and Tuscany great crouds both of Men and Women of all Ages and Conditions followed him and took White
Monasterii Cassinensis 1 Patriarchae Sacrae Religionis 2 Abbas Sacri Monasterii Cassinensis 3 Dux 4 Princepts omnium Abbatum Religiosorum 5 Vice-Cancellarius Regnorum utriusque Siciliae Hierusalem Hungariae 6 Comes 7 Rector Campaniae Terrae Laboris Maritimaeque Provinciae 8 Vice-Imperator 9 Princeps Pacis Titles of the Abbots of Montcassin 1 Patriarch of the Sacred Religion 2 Abbot of the Sacred Monastery of Cassin 3 Duke and 4 Prince of all Abbots and Religious 5 Vice-Chancellor of the Kingdoms of both the Sicilies of Jerusalem and Hungaria 6 Count and 7 Governour of Campania and Ferrra di Lavoro and of the Maritime Province 8 Vice-Emperour and 9 Prince of Peace They want but three steps more to arrive at the top of that Ladder of Humility which St Benet hath built in his Rule All the favour which one may show to St. Benet in this place is to excuse his intention and to say that when he permitted his Monks to possess so much in common he did not foresee the ill use they would make of it and to what excess of delicacy and pride it would carry them CHAP. X. Of the Progress of the Order of St. Benet since the year 543 to 940. When begun the first Reformation BENET when living sent two of his most beloved Disciples Maurus and Placidus one into France and the other into Sicily for to found there some Monasteries They made there in a short time a wonderful progress by the favourable disposition of several great Lords who did help them in their design It hapned also beyond Benet's intention and by a particular providence of God who draws good from evil when he pleaseth that some years after his death many of his Monasteries became well indowed Colleges wherein Youth were instructed and Sciences did flourish Because as in that time the most part of Europe was not yet converted to the Christian Faith or was lately brought over to it there was need of good learned men to convert and confirm the people in the Doctrin of the Gospel The Christian Princes considering the advantages of retirement for Studies and that Benet's Rule did contain for the most part Statutes very proper for the administration of a College they founded many Monasteries of his Order with the intent they should teach in them not only their young Monks but all others who would come there to board Hence it was that the manual labour which according to St. Benet's Rule took up the best part of the day was shortned if not quite released in favour of the Students and those who had not wit enough in their heads to apply themselves seriously to studies and to compose Books found enough in their Fingers to Transcribe Bind and guild them This in a very short time did furnish all the Monasteries with excellent Libraries that were a great help to their Studies because Printing not being used in those times all Books being in Writing were extream dear and those Seculars who had not the advantage of the Libraries of Monks were not able to have many This gave then fair opportunity to the Religious of becoming learned and what encouraged them more yet was that on the account of their Learning they were called to Bishopricks and other Ecclesiastical Dignities even to the Papacy it self In an old Table of the greatness of the Order of St. Benet I find 28 Popes 200 Cardinals 1600 Archbishops 4000 Bishops The principal Monasteries where Studies and Learned Men did flourish with great reputation were those of Fulda Milan Hirsauge Auxerre St. Martins of Treves Hirsfeld Rheims St. Gall St. Denis Wissembourg Malmesbury in England Corbie Neubourg Altendorf Luxevil and a great many others the relation of which might prove perhaps too tedious In a word if we believe Tritemius towards the year 840. almost all the Monasteries of the Order of St. Benet were learned Academies and Schools in which were taught not only Divinity and Philosophy but also Mathematicks Musick Rhetorick Poetry the Hebrew Arabick Greek and Latin Tongues These were the Golden Ages of the Monks very different from those of our times It was then that the Abbies of the Order of St. Benet became so rich by the great and noble gifts which the Princes and great Lords gave them as an encouragement to the learned By which means the Abbots became themselves great and mighty Lords and got magnificent Titles The Abbot of Augia the Rich in Germany has yearly 60000 Golden Crowns and in his Monastery were received none but Princes Earls and Barons The Abbies of Weissembourg of Fulda and of St. Gall in Germany do possess yetâ—innumerable riches and their Abbots are Dukes and Princes of the Empire One of the Abbots of St. Gall entred into Strasbourg on a publick occasion with a Retinue of 1000 Horse Should I treat here in particular of all the Abbies of the Order of St. Benet this could not be done without making a great Volume They were formerly above 15000 in number but they are now a great deal more As the intentions of those who founded Monasteries were very various I shall here relate some of the principal motives which gave rise to these Foundations CHAP. XI What were the motives to the Founding of so many Monasteries SOME as I have already said had a motive thereto the making attonement for their Extorsions Paricides and Robberies and hoped they had done it in great measure by employing part of what they had pillaged or stollen in founding Monasteries such was the infatuation of those times Others indeed carried by a truly noble Spirit and good Zeal founded many of them to favour Virtue and Letters witness Oswaldus King of England who founded several Ut inventus in iis bonis Literis Moribus imbui ac erudiri posset to the end that Youth should be instructed in them both in Learning and good Manners Not very long after the False Doctrin of Proper Merit and of applying the Merits of one man to another having crept into the Church the most impious and wicked undertook to lay foundations with this infamous Bargain that while they gave themselves up to all sorts of Crimes and sinful Courses the Monks should pray and merit Heaven for them and their Posterity A fourth reason which perswaded a great many persons towards the end particularly of the tenth Century to found Monasteries was a false Opinion they had imbibed that the World would come to an end with that Age. This does appear by the old Charters of Donation of those times of which this is one In Dei Nomine perpetrandum est unicuique hominum quam velâ—citer tempora caduca praetereunt futura appropriant Ideo penset unusquisque apud semetipsum si habeat unde aliquid de facultatibus suis tribuere valeat ad venerabilia loca pro remedio animae suae ut in sempiterna requie cum Beato Petro Andraea Paradysum
Patience and over this Patience they wear a Hood all of the same Colour but when they go abroad they put over their white Cloaths a black plited Cloak with a black Hood This is one of the four Mendicants or begging Orders of Fryars who to satisfie their infamous Lusts and to fill their Guts are the devourers of the substance of the Poor CHAP. XV. Of the Order of Carmelites THE Fryars of this Order who were anciently called Hermits of Mount Carmel say that the Prophet Elias was the first Carmelite and the Founder of their Congregation though he never left them any written Rule But this Title of Antiquity to which they pretend is denied to them by the Papists themselves The true time of their Foundation was in the year 1122 by Albert Patriarch of Jerusalem He gathered together some Hermits who lived dispersed here and there upon Mount Carmel and in Syria and gave them a Rule which is nothing else but a collection out of that which is attributed to St. Basil He caused a Monastery to be built for them near a Spring of Water called the Fountain of Ely and a Church which he dedicated to the Virgin Mary He gave them one Brochard for their Superior In the disorders of Palestina the Saricins having chased thence the Christian Princes this Order which was already much multiplied passed into Europe with its Rules and Statutes Pope Honorius the IV. having made some alteration in their Habit ordered that they should be called Brothers of the Virgin Mary and gave them the same Priviledges of the other Mendicant Fryars Pope Innocent the IV. having taken them under his Protection mitigated their Rule tied them to Monastical Vows which they never made before and commanded them to blot out of their Rule this important Clause Ut de solo Servators salutem sperarent that they ought to hope for Salvation from Christ alone Which having done he granted them any thing that they listed to leave their Solitudes and come to live in the Towns to hear the Confessions to make the God of Bread and to worship Idols c. Pope John the XXIII exempted them from Episcopal Jurisdictions and from Purgatory He pretended for this that the Virgin Mary had appeared to him before he was made Pope promising to raise him to that High Degree of Honour upon condition that he should confirm to her Brothers the Carmelites the changes which Innocent the IV. had made in their Rule and that he would exempt them from Purgatory Insuper me Filio meo jubentibus privilegium hoc dabis ut quicunque Ordinem meum intraverit à culpa poena liberatus in aeternum salvus fiat By express command of me and of my Son thou shalt grant this priviledge that whosoever enters this my Order of Carmelites shall be free from guilt and punishment of their sins and eternally saved Urban the IV. gave three years of Indulgence to those who should call the Carmelites Brothers of Mary though they never were related to her Eugenius the VI. mitigated their Rule again giving them permission to eat Flesh as a reward for having burnt alive one Thomas Brother of their own Order for saying that the abominations of the Church of Rome were grown to such a hight of corruption that it needed a Reformation Th◠Franciscans having obtained great Indulgences every year at the Feast of their St. Francis which brought them a world of Oblations and Alms the Carmelites yet more cunning Fellows obtained an Indulgence and full remission of all Sins for those who should go and visit their Churches or hear one of the Sermons which they make in Honour of the Virgin Mary every Saturday The number of their Convents is extreamly multiplied They were already so much sallen from their observances about 50 years after their Instituon which was in the year 1270. That one Nicolaus of Narbona who was the seventh General of their Order having publickly reproved them for their Hypocrisie Incest Sodomy in a word for all the most enormous Crimes and seeing he was not able to recall them to an honest Life he forsook them at last as desperate pestilent men and retired into a Solitude after having governed five years their Order If they were so abominable while they were yet but a Green Wood what may one think they are now when they are a Dry Stick and in this wretched Age in which we live These are the beloved Brothers of the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel the Holy Children of the Prophet Ely They wear a Casock a Scapulary a Patience and a Hood of a Brown Colour a white plited Cloak and a black Hat Of the Order of the Vnshod Carmelites HERE a Woman called Theresa gave Laws to Men. She was born at Avila a Town of Spain from noble Parents in the year 1515. Being twenty years of Age she entred a Monastery of Carmelite Nuns and a good while after formed in Avila a little Convent under the Name of St. Joseph where she began the Reformation of her Order with so great success that besides seventeen other Monasteries of Nuns which she built and governed several Convents of Men took her for their Mother and Mistress and obeyed her Statutes Pius the IV. confirmed and approved her Rule in the year 1562. She died in the year 1582 and was made a Saint by Gregory the XV. in the year 1622. Father John of the Cross was the Instrument she made use of for the Reformation of the Convents of Men. These Fryars wear the same Habit as the fore-mentioned Carmelites but of a very course Cloath and go barefooted from whence they are called Unshod Carmelites When they sing at Church they pinch their Noses to mortifie by that the Pleasure which might arise from an harmonious Song This Order is very much multiplied in Spain and in France to the great sorrow of the Brothers of the Virgin Mary whom this Reformation does not please for fear they should be one day compelled to embrace it By which means they would lose the Poltron Title which they have long deserved of Carmes en Cuisine or Kitchin Fryars Lastly This Theresa who reformed them was a great Hypocondriack Fanatick and pretender to Revelations She composed her self a large Book full of Phancies of a deluded mind which serves at this day for a Guide and Direction to Spiritual and Devout Papists and which they believe more than the Gospel CHAP. XVI Of the Order of St. Francis FRancis was born at Assisy in Umbria He was a debauched Youth and having robbed his Father was disinherited but he seemed not to be very much troubled at it and even stripped himself of all his Cloaths saying he would follow Christ naked and have him alone for a Father He retired himself in the year 1206 to a little Chappel near Assisy called our Lady of the Angels There having entertained a strong Fancy that Christian
the Sword of Judith the Sword of the Maccabees the Sword of Pope Julius the II. wherewith he cut off the Lives of several Princes his Enemies filling whole Cities with Slaughter and Blood Go and let Prudence go along with thy Courage let God give new strength to thy Arm. After which they all fall down on their Knees and the Superior of the Jesuits pronounces the following Exorcism Come ye Cherubins ye Seraphims Thrones and Powers come ye holy Angels and fill up this Blessed Vessel the execrable Parricide with an immortal Glory do ye present him every day with the Crowns of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Holy Patriarchs and Martyrs We do not look upon him now as one of ours but as one belonging to you And thou O God who art terrible and invincible and hast inspired him in Prayer and Meditation to kill the Tyrant and Heretick for to give his Crown to a Catholick King comfort we beseech thee the Heart of him whom we have Consecrated for this Office strengthen his Arm that he may execute his Enterprise cloath him with the Armour of thy Divine Power that having performed his Design he may escape the Hands of those who shall go in pursuit of him give him Wings that his holy Members may flie away from the power of the impious Hereticks replenish his Soul with Joy Comfort and Light by which his Body having banished all fear may be upheld and animated in the midst of Dangers and Torments This Exorcism being ended they bring the Parricide before another Altar where hangs the Image of James Clement Dominican Fryar who with a venemous Knife killed King Henry the III. This Image is surrounded with Angels who protect him and bring him to Heaven The Jesuits shew it to him and put afterwards a Crown on his Head saying Lord regard here thy Arm and the Executer of thy Justice let all the Saints arise bow and yield to him the most honourable place amongst them After every thing so performed he is permitted to speak to none but to four Jesuits who are deputed to keep him company These Fellows are not wanting in their Discourses to tell him very often that they perceive a Divine Light that surrounds him and is the cause why they bow to him kiss his Hands and Feet and consider him no more as a Man but as a Saint Nay they make a shew as if they did envy the great Honour and Glory which does attend him and say sighing Oh that God had been pleased to make choice of us instead you and given us so much Grace that as you we might be translated into Heaven without going into Purgatory Here 's the end of the Ceremony and of the Order of these Fathers who call themselves the Company of Jesus Of the Order of the Fathers of the Oratory THIS Congregation of Regular Priests was Founded at Rome by Philip Neri a Florentine Secular Priest in Italy He gathered a Company of Ecclesiasticks who applied themselves to the exercises of Clerical Life and got a great Name in the World They begun their practices in the year 1550 but their Order was not confirmed till twenty five years after by Gregory the III. who gave to Philip Neri the Parochial Church of St. Mary in Valicella called now La Chiesa Nuova He built there a Convent where he passed almost his whole Life not going out but to visit the Seven Churches In imitation of him Peter of Berulle instituted at Paris the Congregation of the Fathers of the Oratory of Jesus He was peculiarly encouraged to it by Cardinal Gondi Bishop of Paris Pope Paul the V. approved this Congregation in the year 1613 and since it hath spread it self very much in France and in the Low Countries These Priests have this for the end of their Institution to honour as much as lies in them the Infancy Life and Death of our Saviour Jesus Christ and of the Virgin Mary to whom they render an Idolatrous Worship They have several times a Week meetings to which they invite Seculars also to make them meditate in their Churches called by them Oratories from whence they have got the Name of Fathers of the Oratory on what the Virgin Mary hath done while she was yet a Child with what Diligence she went to School with what Modesty she plaid with the young Girls of her Age on the great Respect she had towards the Priests bowing to them in the Streets and running in such manner over all the Actions of her Life till her Death with particulars which were never known by Scripture or ancient Tradition they believe they have performed great exercises of Piety by Preaching to the Seculars three or four hours at each meeting upon these and such like matters They make it also their business to teach Youth in their Colleges to Preach and to go on Missions They make no Vows and can very easily go out from their Society to possess some good Living offered to them They are generally much beloved by all sorts of people for their Honesty and Affability but mortally hated by the Jesuits who have persecuted them extreamly in these last Times accusing them of favouring the Opinions of Jansenius but indeed it is because they are their Rivals and they fear lest the Papists weary at last of their tyranny and impieties should one day give their Houses and Colleges to the Fathers of the Oratory They are Cloathed like secular Priests viz. with a long black Casock a Girdle and a long Cloak of the same Colour This Order hath produced several both learned and honest men according to their Principles Of the Order of the Fathers of Well Dying THIS Religion is instituted to serve the Sick and comfort them in their Dying-Hour Those who do compose it are Regular Clerks Camillus of Lelis was the Author thereof He was born in the Land of Abruâ—so in the Diocese of Chiety in Italy called Buccianico and having past the first years of his Life in being a Soldier he resolved to employ the last in serving the Poor in the Hospitals and comforting Dying People Four of his Friends joined with him in the same design and their new Religion was approved by Pope Sixtus the V. in the year 1584. but upon condition that they should follow some Ancient Rule These good Fathers being not very well pleased with it as desirous to have the Honour of being the Founders of a distinct Order continued still their former practices In the mean while Sixtus the V. passed to another Life and Gregory the XIV who succeeded him confirmed this Congregation in the year 1591 making it free and independent 'T is called the Congregation of Regular Clerks serving the Sick Their Habit is Clerical with a Cross on their Breast and another upon their Cloak on the Right Side of Tawny Colour with a great flopping Hat upon their Heads They have several Convents in Italy Of the Order of Clerks Minors THE Regular
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
taking from them the Cord which is not given to them again unless they be humble and submissive Dying without the Cord there is no Mercy no Heaven open for them They do promise in their Profession to promote with the utmost of their power the honour and advantage of the Minimes Order Thus these Good Men so are called the Fathers Minimes have found the way with folded Arms to get Glory and Wealth and to exercise their Empire not only in the Monasteries of their Order but in secular Houses also and wherever their Cord can reach The Order of Minime Fryars is very much dilated particularly in France in Italy and in Spain where they are called the Fathers of the Victory by reason of a great Victory which one of their Kings got as he thought by the intercession of Francis of Paula Though their name of Minimes should make them remember what they ought to be to wit the least of all Nevertheless they go to Law very often with the Capucins and other Religious for the Precedency when they march in the Processions They have likewise found the way how two sweeten their Quadragesimal Life for which they make a solemn Vow by going by turns three or four Months in the Year to Eat Meat in the Apartment appointed for the Sick not having any other Sickness but because this Quadragesimal Life does not well agree they say with their Stomacks In such manner all these grand projects of an ill grounded Sanctity do ordinarily vanish in Smoak CHAP. XVIII Of some Orders of Regular Clarks First Of the Fathers of Common Life I Was willing to make an end of the Mendicant Orders now I come to some Congregations of Regular Clarks some of which I left behind though they be more ancient than the last whereof I have spoken amongst those are the Fathers of Common Life One Gerard Legrand having finished his Studies in the Sorbonne at Paris returned to Deventer a Town of the Low Countries where he had his Birth He contented himself with the degree of a Deacon not willing to be raised to the Dignity of a Priest Besides the frequent Sermons which he made he instituted a Congregation of several Clarks or Church-men who instructed Youth both in Learning and good Manners And forasmuch as every one of them got his Substance by his own Labour and especially from Copying of Books Florentius who partly had the care of this Society said one day to Gerard How much better would it be for us to make all one Common Purse and to live together in Common This proposal pleased Gerard and meeting with no opposition the Congregation of the Clarks or Brothers of Common Life had its beginning first in the Town of Deventer and was established afterwards all over Low Germany It was confirmed by several Popes Gerard died in the year 1384 and Florentius in 1400. These Clarks are Seculars and make no Vows Their Cloaths are very like to those of the Black Monks of the Order of S. Benet only their Hood and Sleeves are something narrower Of the Order of Divine Love or Theatins UNder the Pontificate of Clement the VII some superstitious Men having withdrawn themselves into Gardens to apply their Minds better as they thought to the Exercise of Prayer and other Practices of Devotion they were by ignorant and deluded People called the Company of Divine Love One Peter Caraffa joyned with them and shewed so much of outward Humility that not only he refused the Bishoprick of Brundusium offered to him by the Emperour Charles the V. but left that of Chieti or Theate which Pope Julius the II. had given him Having then lived some while amongst them He and four others more one of whom were called Cajetan undertook to give new Life to the Order of Regular Clarks which was already very much degenerated To that purpose having brought all their Estates into a Common Purse they applied themselves wholly to sing at Church to Meditation and Prayer therefore they were called Regular Priests And because Peter Caraffa had left his Bishoprick of Theate to embrace this sort of Life they were called Theatins and also by reason of their Habit being so like to that of the Jesuits they had in some Countries the name of Theatin Jesuits Bobadilla the Jesuit relates that under the Generalship of Lainez they desired to make but one Body with the Jesuits but that finding them too remiss and proud they would not grant their request Pope Paul the III. offered the Dignity of a Cardinal to John Peter Caraffa and that great despiser of Bishopricks thought it was too good a Bit to refuse it He accepted of it then very willingly and being returned to Rome he took again the Bishoprick of Theate which happened to be vacant and of which he had formerly divested himself by Humility He accepted also of several Employments of State and the Papacy at last He took the name of Paul the IV. in remembrance of Paul the III. who gave him the Cardinals Cap. He was justly reproached for having like a cunning Fox refused the lesser Honours to advance himself to the greatest of all which is the Papal Chair the Character which Hospinian hath given us of him isthis In Pontisicatis summo egregius hic Divini Amoris socius mundi contemptor splendoris antiqui Clericorum Ordinis Restaurator tantùm pecuniis accumulandis studuit totusque belli quà m pacis amantior Arma Caedes Incendia meditatus est per omnem Europam in Christi Ecclesiam This holy Monk of Divine Love this great despiser of the World and restorer of the ancient splendour of the Clerical Order set his Heart so much on heaping up Riches and more desirous of War than Peace he carried Fire and Sword thro' all Europe against the Church of Christ His Order of Theatins subsists yet to this day in Italy where they enjoy the great Priviledges which their Founder granted to them They wear a Black Habit as the Priests and go sometimes with a Cloak and other times with a Black Chamber Gown and a square Cap on their Heads Of the Order of Somasks ABout the year 1531. another Congregation of Regular Clarks had its begining Hierom Emilian a Noble Venetian was the Institutor of it and the Town of Somasks between Milan and Bergamo where the first Foundation of this Religion was laid gave to it its name In the year 1546. the Cardinal Caraffa united it to the Order of Theatins whereof he was the Founder but in the year 1555. being Pope he separated them The following Popes took care of this new Congregation and Pius the V. gave to them the Monastery of S. Majol of Pavia and put them under the Rule of S. Austin in the year 1568. Sometime since the Fathers of the Christian Doctrin established by Caesar Bus in Avignon petition'd to be united to the Somasks which was granted them by Paul the V. in the year