Demonologia

by J. S. Forsyth

After this great and glorious victory, the Devil would never grapple with him again; but would, sometimes, in the shape of a Raven, a Bustard, an Ethiopian, or some savage beast, stand at a distance, loll out his tongue, and make wry faces at him. And although Romualdus was a bit of a duellist, as we have already shewn, would challenge and dare the Devil to come up to the mark, his devilship was too good a judge to venture near him; and finding at length that he was no match for Romualdus, he stirred up divers monks to persecute him, which, in fact, they did with great fury, but with as ill success as he who prompted them.

The fourth order of monks is that of the Valle Umbrosa, instituted by one Gilbert, from whom his fraternity assumed the name of Gilbertines. The reader will at once know enough of this Mr. Gilbert when we inform him, at once, that he was the pupil of Romualdus, and that he was called to be a monk by a crucifix, which, when he was in the act of worshipping it, nodded its head and smiled at him.

The fifth order is the Carthusian, instituted towards the end of the eleventh century; it is governed by institutions of its own making, and is the strictest order in the Roman church. This monastery was generally the last refuge of the discontented, rather than the retreat of unfeigned piety and devotion, who threw themselves into this solitary state of life, to which they fettered themselves, by indissoluble vows, for the remainder of their days. They were allowed enough of good bread and wine, and although they abstained from flesh, and every thing that had touched it, they had a plentiful supply of good fish and fruit.

This inhuman order was instituted by one Bruno, a German, but who was a canon of the church of Rheims; of whom the reader will learn enough, when we inform him that he was driven to this determination by a Parisian doctor, with whom he had been intimately acquainted, and of whose piety as well as learning, he entertained a very high opinion, and who for three days following after his death, when he was on the point of being committed to the grave, sate up, and loudly declared, that by the just judgment of God he was damned; which, as soon as he had pronounced, he lay down again.[^[81]]

There is another story that the bishop of Grenoble, the night before Bruno and his six companions came to him, in quest of a solitary place to live in, had a vision, in which he saw Christ come down from Heaven, and in a desert place of his diocese, called the Chartreuse, built a palace. He likewise beheld seven stars of the colour of gold, which having joined themselves together, they made a crown, which by degrees raised itself from the earth, and ascended up into heaven. The bishop at first sight knew Bruno and his companions to be the seven stars he had seen; and in consequence of this recognition, he bestowed upon them all the lands called the Chartreuse. In order, also, that Bruno should be as little remiss in his duty and gratitude, he erected the monastery as conformable to the vision of the bishop as means and materials would allow.

The sixth order of monks in the Roman church is the Cistertian, said to have been instituted by Abbot Robert; but whether it was so or otherwise, Bernard has always been named as the founder.

Bernard was born in France in the 12th century; and to do him justice, he seems to have had the best natural parts, and the most learning of any of the monastic founders; and had it not been for the tragical fraud he adopted to promote a very unfortunate cruzado, and the other frauds he used in favour of the Pope, to whom he adhered during the time of a schism, his sincerity and piety might have been judged equal to his other talents.

His mother, during the time she was pregnant with him, dreamed she had a white dog in her womb, which in all probability was the reason the Cistertian monks dressed in white, in the same manner as Benedict’s raven might have suggested the colour to the vestments of the Benedictines.

During his infancy Bernard was much troubled with head-ach; and an old woman having been sent for to cure him, he would not suffer her to come near him, from the belief that she made use of charms. One Christmas-day, when he was at church, during his boyhood, he prayed that the very hour in which Christ was born might be revealed to him; and when that hour came, he saw a new-born infant. What a pity it is that Bernard, who has written so much, did not record that hour, the day, the month, and the year, about which chronologers are still so much divided.

During a hard frosty night, Bernard was seized with a violent paroxysm of satyriasis, or strong carnal inclination: he precipitated himself into a pond of water, and remained there until he was almost frozen to death.