It was

each other, each being ruled by its own abbot.* not until the tenth century that St. Odo tried a new system, which he expected would promote a stricter discipline. He became the Abbot of Clugny in 927, and, founding or affiliating other abbeys, he ordained that there should be only one abbot, the Abbot of Clugny, in his order, the heads of the other houses being priors subject to the abbot. In the eleventh century (1098) St. Robert, founder of Citeaux, tried another plan: all the Cistercian monasteries were to be ruled by abbots, but they had a common rule, and were governed by the General Council of the order which met at Citeaux (Cistercium) every year. Many other orders were founded about the end of the eleventh or beginning of the twelfth century: the Carthusians, founded by St. Bruno (in 1084), who were pledged to live a most severe and solitary life; the Canons of St. Augustine, for maintaining public worship; and the military orders of the Temple and the Hospital of St. John at Jerusalem, due to the Crusades, which were imitated by other orders. The monastic orders were chiefly contemplative in their design, though they did immense work by their schools amongst the people. But in the thirteenth century the Mendicant Orders arose, whose design was chiefly practical; they were governed by a general in Rome, with local priors under him. The Minorites, or Grey Friars, founded by St. Francis of Assisi, was the earliest sanctioned (1223); their duties were to set an example of poverty and meekness, and to preach the Gos

* Hence, in course of time nearly every monastery had its own peculiarities in the observance of the rule. The rise of the Clugniacs and similar confederations restored uniformity to a great extent.

I

pel in as popular and simple a manner as they could. The Preachers, or Black Friars, founded almost at the same time by St. Dominic, were intended to be a learned order of priests devoted to the refutation of heresy and the conversion of heretics. Then followed the Carmelites, or White Friars, founded in Palestine, and pretending to have been founded by Elijah on Mount Carmel: and the Austin Friars, who professed to follow the rule of St. Augustine. Other orders were founded which did not spread so widely, such as those for the Redemption of Christians taken prisoners by the Moors. In spite of all rules and all the efforts of good men, the discipline of monks and friars grew laxer and laxer, and consequently many "reforms " or renovations of a stricter rule were tried, the most notable being those of the Franciscans, who were called Observants and Minims. Since the Reformation, most of the old orders have been reformed and abuses corrected, and a number of new orders have been founded, most of them active or working orders. The Franciscans were reformed a third and fourth time, the new friars being called Capuchins, from their large hood, and Recollets. The Carmelites were reformed by St. Theresa and her companions. In France, the Congregation of St. Maur was a reform of the Benedictines. The new orders were the Theatines in Italy, the Barnabites, and the Jesuits; later were the Lazarists, the Redemptorists, and the Passionists, whose duties are chiefly those of mission priests. The most remarkable of the new orders is that of the Society of Jesus, founded by St. Ignatius Loyola for the purpose of meeting and overcoming the Protestant Refor mation. In this order there are three degrees: the lay

brothers; the spiritual coadjutors, who are priests; and the professed, who have taken the fourth vow, to obey the pope in all that regards the benefit of souls and the propagation of the faith. The order is governed by a General, who has absolute authority, elected by the whole body. The members of this order, who have always maintained a very strict discipline, are employed in a great variety of ways: they have charge of important schools and colleges, they act as confessors and conductors of retreats, and they have furnished the Church with some of the greatest theologians and casuists.

70. Most of these orders have a branch for women as well as for men, and some have a third order" of associates, who obey certain rules, but live in the world. In modern times, the Sisters of Mercy, established by St. Vincent de Paul (d. 1660), for the care of the poor and sick, have become one of the most important orders.

SECTION II.

OF THINGS.

1. OUR Lord Jesus Christ established His Church and made it visible for the spiritual education and for the sanctification of mankind. He was pleased, moreover, to ordain Sacraments to convey His grace to man by sensible media; so that the sacraments resemble the Church in being at once the veils and the manifestations of the supernatural world and its mysteries, appealing to the nature and faculties of man by these outward signs of spiritual grace. Again, the Church of the redeemed worships God by praise and prayer and sacrifice; and in these matters the Church has power to regulate manner and time and place. Also, the Church on earth, being a visible corporation, has power to hold property in temporal things and to use them for maintaining and furthering religion. This section will, therefore, be divided into three chapters: I. Of the Sacraments, so far as the canon law apart from theology has to do with them; II. Of the Worship of the Church; III. Of the Temporal Goods of the Church.