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XII.

and sacerdotal orders were exposed, were held in c ENT higher esteem than they were. The reign of pART II. corruption became, however, so general, that it reached at last even the convents; and the monks, who were gaining with the most ardent efforts the summit of ecclesiastical power and authority, and who beheld both the secular clerks and the regular canons with aversion and contempt [c], began, in many places, to degenerate from that sanctity of manners, and that exact obedience to their rules of discipline, by which they had been formerly distinguished, and to exhibit to the people scandalous examples of immorality and vice [d]. The Benedictines of Clugni, who undoubtedly surpassed, in regularity of conduct and purity, of manners, all the monastic orders who lived under their rule, maintained their integrity for a long time, amidst the general decay of piety and virtue. They were, however, at length carried away with the torrent; seduced by the example of their abbot PONTIUS, and corrupted by the treasures that were poured daily into their convent by the liberality of the opulent and pious, they fell from their primitive austerity, and, following the dissolute examples of the other Benedictines, they gave themselves up to pleasure, and dwelt carelessly [e]. Several of the succeeding abbots endeavoured to remedy this disorder, and VOL. III.

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[c] See RUPERTI Epistola in MARTENE Thesaur. Anecd. tom. i. p. 285. This writer prefers the monks before the apostles.

[d] See BERNARD. Consideration. ad Eugenium, lib. iii. cap. iv. See also the Speculum Stultorum, or Brunellus, a Poem, composed by NIGEL WIREKER, an English bard of no mean reputation, who lived about the middle of the x11th century. In this Poem, of which several editions have been published, the different orders of monks are severely censured; the Carthusians alone have escaped the keen and virulent satire of this witty writer.

[e] ISAIAH, lvii. 8.

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XII.

CEN T. to recover the declining reputation of their conPART II. Vent; but their efforts were much less successful than they expected, nor could the monks of Clugni ever be brought back to their primitive sanctity and virtue [ƒ].

The pro

state of the

Order.

XVI. The Cistertian Order, which was much sperous inferior to the monks of Clugni, both with respect Cistertian to the antiquity of their institution, and the possessions and revenues of their convent, surpassed them far in the external regularity of their lives and manners, and in a certain striking air of innocence and sanctity, which they still retained, and which the others had almost entirely lost. Hence they acquired that high degree of reputation and authority, which the order of Glugni had formerly enjoyed, and increased daily in number, credit, and opulence. The famous St BERNARD, abbot of Clairval, whose influence throughout all Europe was incredible, whose word was a law, and whose counsels were regarded by kings and princes as so many orders to which the most respectful obedience was due; this eminent ecclesiastic was the person who contributed most to enrich and aggrandize the Christian Order. Hence he is justly considered as the second parent and founder of that Order; and hence the Cistertians, not only in France, but also in Germany and other countries, were distinguished by the title of Bernardin monks [g]. A hundred and sixty religious communities derive their origin, or their rules of discipline, from this illustrious abbot, and he left, at his death, seven hundred monks in the monastery of Clairval. The church abounded

[f] See MARTENE, Amplissima Collectio Monumentor. Veter. tom. ix. p. 1119.

[g] See Jo. MABILLON, Annal. Ord. Benedict. tom. vi. passim, in vita St Bernardi, which he has prefixed to his edition of the works of that saint.-See also ANGELI MANRIQUES, Anmales Cistercienses, tom. ii, and iii.

XII.

abounded with bishops and archbishops that had CENT. been formed and prepared for the ministry by his PART II. instructions, and he counted also, among the number of his disciples, EUGENIUS III. one of the best and wisest of the Roman pontifs.

arise be

and the

XVII. The growing prosperity of the Cistertian Jealousies Order excited the envy and jealousy of the monks tween the of Clugni, and, after several dissensions of less Cirstertians consequence, produced at length an open rup-monks of ture, a declared war between these two opulent Clugni. and powerful monasteries. They both followed the rule of St BENEDICT, though they differed in their habit, and in certain laws, which the Cistertians more especially had added to that rule. The monks of Clugni accused the Cistertians of affecting an extravagant austerity in their manners and discipline; while the Cistertians, on the other hand, charged them, and that upon very good grounds, with having degenerated from their former sanctity, and regularity of conduct. St BERNARD, who was the oracle and protector of the Cistertians, wrote, in the year 1127, an Apology for his own conduct in relation to the division that subsisted between the two convents, and inveighed with a just, though decent, severity against the vices that corrupted the monks of Clugni [b]. This charge was answered, though

with

[] This apology, as it is called, of St BERNARD is well worth the attention of the curious reader, as it exhibits a true and lively picture of monastic opulence and luxury, and shews how the religious orders in general lived in this century. The famous abbot, in this performance, accuses the monks of Clugni of luxury and intemperance at their table, of superituity and magnificence in their dress, their bed-chambers, their furniture, equipage, and buildings. He points out the pride and. vanity of the abbots, who looked much more like the governors of provinces, than the spiritual fathers of humble and holy communities, whose original profession it was, to be crucified and dead to the interests and pleasures, the pomps and vanities of a present world. He declares, with a pious concern, that he

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PART II

CENT with uncommon moderation and candour, by XII. Peter MauricIUS, abbot of Clugni; and hence it occasioned a controversy in form, which spread from day to day its baneful influence, and excited disturbances in several provinces of Europe [i]. It was, however, followed with a much more vehement and bitter contest concerning an exemption from the payment of tythes, granted among other privileges and immunities to the Cistertians, A. D. 1132, by INNOCENT II. A considerable part of the lands which the Cistertians possessed, and to which the pontif granted this exemption, were subject to the monks of Clugni, who suffered consequently by this act of liberality, and disputed the matter, not only with the Cistertians, but with the Pope himself. This keen dispute was, in some measure, terminated in the year 1155, but in what manner, or upon what conditions, is more than is come to our knowledge [k].

Lives and manners of

XIII. The regular canons, who were erected the canons. into a fixed and permanent order in the preceding century, employed their time in a much more useful and exemplary manner than the monastic

drones,

knew several abbots, each of whom had more than sixty horses in his stable, and such a prodigious variety of wines in his cellar, that it was scarcely possible to taste the half of them at a single entertainment. See FLEURY, Hist. Ecclesiastique, liv. lxxvii. tom. xiv. p. 351. edit. Bruxelles

[i] See S. BERNARDI Apologia in Oper. tom. i. p. 523—533. The Apology of PETER, abbot of Clugni, surnamed the venerable, which is published among his Epistles, lib. ii. ep. 28. in the Bibliotheca Cluniacensis, tom. i. p. 657-695. See also the Dialogus inter Cluniacensem et Cisterciensem, published by MARTENE, in his Thesaur. Anecdot. tom. v. P. 1573-1613. Compare with all these MABILLON, Annal. Benedict. tom. vi. p. 80. and MANRIQUEZ, Annal. Cisterc. tom. i. p. 28.

[k] See ANGELI MANRIQUEZ, Annal. Cistercienses, tom. i. p. 232.-MABILLON, Annal. Benedict. tom. vi. p. 212. 479. & Præfat. ad Opera S. Bernardi. Jo. DE LANNES, Histoire du Pontificat. d' Innocent II. p. 68-79.-Jo. NIC. HERTII Diss. de exemptione Cis.erc à decimis,

PART II.

drones, who passed their day in luxury and sloth. c E N T. They kept public schools for the instruction of XII. youth, and exercised a variety of ecclesiastical functions, which rendered them extremely useful to the church [7]. Hence they rose daily in credit and reputation, received many rich and noble donations from several persons, whose opulence and piety rendered them able and willing to distinguish merit, and were also often put in possession of the revenues of the monks, whose dissolute lives occasioned, from time to time, the suppression of their convents. This, as might well be expected, inflamed the rage of the monastic orders against the regular canons, whom they attacked with the greatest fury, and loaded with the bitterest invectives. The canons, in their turn, were far from being backward in making reprisals; they exclaimed, on the contrary, against the monks with the utmost vehemence; enumerated their vices both in their discourses and in their writings, and insisted upon their being confined to their monasteries, sequestered from human society, and excluded from all ecclesiastical honours and functions. Hence arose a long and warm contest between the monks' and canons concerning pre-eminence in which both parties carried their pretensions too high, and exceeded the bounds of decency and moderation [m]. The champions, who espoused the interest of the monks, were the famous PETER ABELARD, HUGH of Amiens, RUPERT of Duytz; while the cause of the canons was defended by PHILIP HARVENGIUS, a learned abbot, and several other men of genius and abilities [n]. The effects

See the Histoire Litteraire de la France, tom. ix. p. 112. [m] See LAMBERTI Epistola in MARTENE, Thesaur. Anei. P. 329.

dot.tom.

[2] ABELARDI Opera, p. 228. Paris, 1616, in 4to.-MAR-. TENE, Thesaur. Anecdot. tom v. p. 970-975. 1614. et Am

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