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the necessary consequence of the counsels of perfection given us by Jesus Christ, and they formed the complete and full development of that divine principle, which teaches us that our Lord came not only to atone for our sins, but to be the model and example which it is our duty to imitate. But we may go farther, the first types and models of the religious state existed under the Old Testament dispensation: the monastic principle even then began to develope itself. What was Elias ?-what was Elisha?-what were the sons of the prophets who dwelt in lonely spots near the river Jordan?—what were the Rechabites, who drank neither wine nor strong drink, who dwelt in tents, and whom the Holy Ghost has so gloriously praised by the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah ?—what, I say, were all these glorious holy men of the old law but so many monks and hermits -so many religious men? And if we come to the New Testament, assuredly the religious state is there placed in the most exalted point of view. The holy Gospel tells us of one, of whom the Son of God himself pronounced, that a greater had never been born amongst the sons of men. And who was this? was he not the great precursor of the Messias, the cousin of our Lord, the glorious St. John the Baptist,-he of whom it is written, that he was sanctified even from his mother's womb? Assuredly, next to the blessed Virgin Mary herself, there is no saint higher or more glorious in the heavenly court than Saint John the Baptist, and Saint John the Baptist was a hermit: he dwelt in the desert, which is the true meaning of the word hermit in the Greek tongue. He was a monk, that is a solitary; he practised poverty, chastity, and obedience, he was a preacher of penance, and he wore the garments of penance and abjection. The holy Gospel informs us that his clothing was a hair shirt. But there was one greater than St. John the Baptist, of whom that great saint declared, "the latchet of his shoes he was not worthy to unloose," our Lord Jesus Christ himself— the God man, the Redeemer of men, himself lived a monastic and religious life. He observed perpetual chastity, he practised voluntary poverty, and he renounced his own will, that in all things he might cbey only the will of God, manifested whether immediately by his heavenly Father, or by those who were appointed by him to exercise his authority here on earth. And if we consult that ancient Father of the Church, the great Cassian, we find that in his treatise de Institutis Monachorum, he lays down the principle which I have been just advancing, both concerning the saints of the old law and those of the New Testament, showing at large that their manner of life formed the very type

of the monastic and religious state. And the same father Cassian justly observes, that the great body of the first disciples of Christ, in the first foundation of the Church at Jerusalem, appear, from the accounts handed down to us in the Acts of the Apostles, to have lived a cenobitical and monastic life, in many respects at least. It is quite clear that they renounced all private property, and what they did possess, they held in common for the advantage of all. They employed their time in continual psalmody, and in the exercise of useful manual labour. But, as the same holy father remarks, this pious mode of life amongst the great body of the faithful did not long continue, even in the primitive Church. Hence, after the death of the apostles, the zeal and fervour of many diminishing, Christians again resumed the possession of private property, renouncing the cenobitical life: though many always remained faithful to the connsels of Jesus Christ, so that the monastic life never ceased to be observed in all its original perfection. Innumerable young people of both sexes cousecrated their virginity to Jesus Christ, the odour of whose virtue, after the lapse of more than seventeen centuries, still diffuses a sacred perfume throughout the whole earth. Who has not heard of the invincible chastity of St. Agnes? of St. Catherine, of St. Cecilia, and of that whole train of virgins, of whom the Holy Ghost has declared in the book of the Apocalypse, that it is their high and holy office immediately to wait upon the Lamb in the heavenly Paradise? Others again retired to dens and caverns, as the apostle Saint Paul testifies in his epistle to the Hebrews, there to serve God and sing his divine praises,―men of whom the Holy Ghost declares, "that the world was not worthy of them." Eusebius tells us, in the second book of his "Ecclesiastical History," that St. Mark the Evangelist founded a whole order of men and women in Egypt who lived the most retired lives, practising the greatest austerities and mortifications, and possessing uothing but what was common to the whole community. And Philo-Judæus describing their manner of life in his book de Vitâ Theoricâ, has drawn the most accurate picture of the monastic life. Then advansing onwards, though to a period some centuries earlier than that of St. Benedict, we find the whole Christian earth filled with religious men and women. The fame of St. Anthony, St. Pachomius, St. Mary of Egypt, St. Paul of the Desert, St. John Climachus, and of innumerable others, has filled the whole Church of God. St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, that most glorious doctor of the Church, relates in the book of his Confessions how much the simple narrative of the life of St. Anthony conduced towards his own

conversion; and he also tells us that there was a devout convent of holy friars at Milan, at the very time when he received the sacrament of Baptism from the hands of the glorious Saint Ambrose. Who has not heard of the great St. Basil, and of the famous rule which he composed for his monks,-a rule which to this hour is followed in all the monasteries of the oriental Church? Who has not heard of the rule drawn up by the great St. Augustine, by which he sanctified whole generations of the clergy? And to come to our own England, this kingdom in the most primitive times furnished its share of monastic sanctity and glory. The abbey of Glastonbury traces up the pedigree of its holy inhabitants even to the apostolic times, to say nothing of a venerable tradition, honorably mentioned by Dugdale, which assures us that there St. Joseph of Arimathea ended his days in a holy monastie life. The glory and antiquity of the monks of Bangor, of those of the island of Lindisfarne, of the island of Iona on the coast of Scotland, once filled the whole Church, and even now, after a lapse of so many centuries, their names are not forgotten. In a word, wherever Christianity has been planted, the monastic life has been planted along with it it seems to form an essential portion of Christianity, and if any Church were to exist without it, it would be an anomaly unprecedented in the ages that are passed. How absurd and wicked then are the prejudices of those who contend against the institutions of the religious state; truly such impugners of Catholic truth are in a deplorable state of blindness and ignorance!

But if the religious state be a necessary and an essential portion of Christianity, the external forms of it may vary according to circumstances, and may be modified by the discretion of the Church. Like all other institutions under the influence of man, it is liable to decay, and requires from time to time a reformation. Accordingly we find that as the monastic or religious spirit has declined in the old orders, God has always raised up in his Church men endued with an apostolical spirit, who have revived primitive fervour and zeal in new ones. Such was St. Benedict in his day in the Western Church; such was St. Dunstan in England; such was St. Bruno, the fonnder of the Carthusians; and such in fine was the glorious St. Bernard, to whom in great measure we owe the institution of the Cistercian monks,-this institute is in fact a reform of the old Benedictines, and those who serve God according to it profess to follow the rule of St. Benedict without miti

* See St. Austin's Confessions, book viii. c. 6.

gation. Hence the community of the English Cistercians, established in Charnwood Forest, in the county of Leicester, may be said to have revived amongst us the primitive monastic life, such as it existed in the primitive Church; and as an eye-witness of what they have done and suffered for God, the writer of this tract can bear testimony. The fame of their piety and virtue has already filled the whole of this kingdom, so that strangers of the highest rank visit their monastery from all quarters. During the course of this very summer they had the honour to receive even a royal visit. When first the holy men took possession of Mount Saint Bernard, they were six In number: the Reverend Father Odilo, prior; Father Bernard, sub-prior; and four lay brothers, Brother Luke, Brother Xavier, Brother Simeon, and Brother John. They had an old half-ruined cottage for their dwelling, which had served as a lodging for some peasants before the monks acquired possession of the Mount. Here they were exposed to all the inclemency of the weather, so that on more than one occasion the snow actually penetrated through the ruinous roof and fell upon them as they lay at night on their straw mattresses. And yet even here they commenced their holy practice of life: they rose at midnight to sing Matins and Lauds, and never shall I forget that Easter morning on which, prompted by devotion, I rode to their humble dwelling, that I might hear the poor servants of Christ singing at the solemn midnight hour the joyful alleluias in honour of our Lord's resurrection. Never shall I forget that glorious invitatory "Surrexit Dominus verè : alleluia;" sung with all the sweetness of the simple Church melody. Truly such music as that might have delighted even the angels themselves! The Cisterians celebrate solemn High Mass in their churches every day in the year, they sing all the canonical hours of the divine office, they devote a considerable time to meditation and pious study; they employ many hours in manual labour every day; they never eat meat, fish, eggs, or butter, and the only animal food of which they partake is milk and cheese: besides these, they are allowed bread, vegetables, fruits, rice, and the like. The community of Mount Saint Bernard consists at present of twenty-four individuals, choir monks and lay brothers. As I have already stated, they have erected through the assistance of their friends a most solemn and picturesque monastery, which forms a perfect specimen of an old English abbey, containing cloisters, cemetery, chapter-house, refrectory, lavatory, noviciate, calefactory, kitchens, guest apartments, infirmary, and library. The whole has been erected in the purest early pointed or

lancet Gothic style, and it forms a noble monument of the taste and skill of that great man whom God has raised up amongst us to rebuild the walls of our ruined Zion, whose honourable name I have already recorded. Nothing now remains incomplete but the church, and without this the whole of what has already been erected becomes useless, as the community are unable to occupy a dwelling in which they have as yet no means of fulfilling their rule by the due celebration of the divine office.

For this, therefore, we appeal to the charity of the Catholic ladies of England, earnestly entreating them to contaibute towards the Bazaar, which is intended to be held in one of the northern counties for this holy object, during the course of the ensuing summer.

Grace Dieu Manor,

AMBROSE LISLE PHILLIPPS.
SHREWSBURY.

Feast of St. Edward the Confessor, King of England.

ECCLESIASTICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
INTELLIGENCE.

ENGLAND.

LONDON.-The Moorfields branch of the Catholic Institute held its annual meeting on the 5th ult., the Rev. Wm. Hall in the chair. The subscriptions during the year amounted to 46l. 12s. 5d.

On Whit Sunday the, sacrament of confirmation was administered at Moorfields by the Right Rev. Dr. Griffiths. Amongst several hundred persons confirmed, a considerable proportion were converts to our holy faith.

On the 10th ult., the annual meeting of the St. John's Wood, and Spanishplace Auxiliaries to the Catholic Institute, was held in the large schoolroom, Lisson-grove, the Hon. C. Langdale in the chair. It appeared from the report, that upwards of 30l. had been collected, principally from the district of St. John's Wood, the Spanish-place district not having been sufficiently attended to.

The first annual meeting of the holy guild of St. George the Martyr, was held on the evening of Wednesday, the 27th of April, in the Belgian Chapel, London-road.

On the 2nd ult., Miss Kellett and Miss Bartlett were received into the holy sisterhood of Mercy, at Bermondsey.

The annual meeting of the Kensington and Hammersmith Auxiliary Catholic Institute was held at the boy's school, Holland-street, Kensington, on the 28th of April, the Rev. W. Bugden in the chair.

LONDON. The marriage ceremony of the Hon. Henry Petre and Miss Walmsley of Middleton Hall, will, we understand, take place at St. Helen's Catholic chapel, Brentwood, on Mondy, the 6th of June instant.

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