CHAPTER III.
AN EPITOME OF THE RULE OBSERVED AT MELLIFONT AT ITS FOUNDATION AND FOR ABOUT A CENTURY AND A HALF AFTERWARDS.
| “Here man more purely lives; less oft doth fall; More promptly rises; walks with stricter heed; More safely rests; dies happier; is freed Earlier from cleansing fires; and gains withal A brighter crown.” (Saint Bernard.) |
n the foregoing verses St. Bernard summarises the manifold advantages accruing from the profession and practice of the rule which he and his fellow abbots drew up for their followers. In that age of chivalry and wide extremes, men’s minds were profoundly moved by the world-wide reputation and discourses of an outspoken, fearless monk, who confirmed his words by incontestable and stupendous miracles. Then, it was nothing unusual to see the impious sinner of yesterday become a meek repentant suppliant for admission into some monastery to-day, where he could expiate and atone for his former grievous excesses. The innocent, also, sought the shelter of the cloister from the contaminating influences of a corrupt and corrupting world; and in the spirit of sacrifice presented themselves as victims to God’s outraged justice. At that same period, that is, about the middle of the twelfth century, there was witnessed an unwonted movement towards monasticism in its regenerated condition, as the Church Annals abundantly testify. This happy tendency was mainly due to St. Bernard’s influence and popularity, and was well illustrated by the saying of the historian: “The whole world became Cistercian.”
In essaying to reform St. Benedict’s Rule, the first Fathers of the Cistercian Order sought only to restore its primitive simplicity and austerity, but they, nevertheless, added some wise provisions which established their reform on a firm basis, and which the experience of ages proved to be indispensable. First of all, it was ordained, that all houses of the Order should be united under one central controlling power, and that all the Superiors should meet annually for deliberation on matters appertaining to the maintenance of discipline and the correction of abuses. This assembly was called the General Chapter, over which the Abbot of Citeaux presided as recognised head of the Order. Till then, no such institution existed, and an Abbot General, as we may call him, had it in his power, from incapacity or any other cause, to disorganise a whole Order. Under the General Chapter such a catastrophe was impossible. Besides this wise enactment, St. Stephen drew up what he called the “Chart of Charity,” by which it was ordained that the abbot of a monastery who had filiations (that is, offshoots or houses founded directly from that monastery) subject to him, should visit them annually either in person or by proxy, and minutely inquire into their spiritual, disciplinary, and financial condition. The abbots of those filiations were bound to return the visit during the year; but they did so in quality of guest and not as “Visitor,” the official title of the Abbot of the Parent House; or, “Immediate Father,” as he is called. Thus the bands of discipline were kept tightly drawn, and harmony, with uniformity of observance, was maintained throughout the entire Order.
Interior of Lavabo (Octagon.) See p. [26].
From Photo by W. Lawrence, Dublin.
The denizens of the Cloister at that time consisted of two great classes, who, indeed, enjoyed alike all the advantages of the state, but differed in their functions and employments. One was busied with the cares of Martha, the other was admitted to the privilege of Mary. The former were employed chiefly in domestic duties, and various trades, and were entrusted with the charge of the granges or outlying farms. These were the Lay Brothers. Frequently their ranks were augmented by the noble and the learned, who, unnoticed and unknown till their holy death, guided the plough, delved the soil, or tended the sheep and oxen in the glades of the forest. The other class resided in the monastery and devoted their time to the chanting of the Divine Office, alternating with study in the Cloister and manual labour in the fields and gardens. These were the choir monks. Their dress was white. By vigorous toil and strict economy, these good old monks wrested a competency from their farms, and freely shared their substance with the needy and the stranger. They exhibited to an astonished world a practical refutation of its corrupt maxims and habits. Thus by their very lives, they preached most efficaciously; for by their contempt of worldly honours and pleasures they gave proof abundant of the faith that enlightened them to recognise the sublimity of the Gospel truths; of the hope that sustained them to courageously endure temporal privations for the sake of future rewards; and of the charity that prompted them to liken themselves to Jesus Christ, their Master, who, being rich, became poor for their sakes. Some may be inclined to consider all this as the effect of monkish extravagance, weak-mindedness, and folly; but modern investigation, instituted and carried to a successful issue by honest Protestant writers, has brushed aside such calumnies as hackneyed catch-words, and has proved that beneath the monk’s cowl, there were found hearts as warm and minds as broad as in any state or grade of society. It must also be remembered, that for centuries the monks were the teachers who moulded and fashioned the youth of the upper and middle classes.