are bound by place and the unit is the individual community. Thus among monks and canons regular each monastery has its own fixed community, which is in a real sense a family; and the monk or canon, no matter where he may be, looks on his monastery as his “home,” like the ancestral home of a great family. With the friars this is all changed: the friar does not belong to any particular house, but to the province or order, so that there is no reason, beyond the command of his superiors, why he should be living in one house rather than another. In the monk attachment to his own one monastery is a virtue; in the friar detachment is the ideal. The monk, or the canon, normally exercises his influence on the world in and through his community, not as an individual but as a member of a corporate body. The friar’s sphere of work is normally outside his convent, and he works and influences directly and as an individual. Lastly, in regard to the object aimed at there was an important difference, for the professed object of the friars was to be clerical helpers of the parochial clergy in meeting the specifically religious needs of the time. Already, in St Francis’s lifetime, his friars had grown into an order dedicated to spiritual ministrations among the poor, the sick, the ignorant, the outcasts of the great cities; while by the very conception of their institute the Dominicans were dedicated to the special work of preaching, especially to heretics and heathens. Here, too, should be mentioned St Francis’s other great creation, the Tertiaries (q.v.), or devout men and women living in the world, who while continuing their family life and their ordinary avocations, followed a certain rule of life, giving themselves up to more than ordinary prayer and the pursuit of good works, and abstaining from amusements of a worldly kind.
12. The Religious Orders in the Later Middle Ages.—The 13th century was the heyday of monasticism in the West; the Mendicant orders were in their first fervour and enthusiasm; the great abbeys of Benedictines, Cistercians and Augustinian canons reflected the results of the religious reform and revival associated with Hildebrand’s name, and maintained themselves at a high and dignified level in things religious and secular; and under the Benedictine rule were formed the new congregations or orders of Silvestrines (1231), Celestines (c. 1260) and Olivetans (1319), which are described under their several headings. But towards the end of the century a period of decline set in, which ran its course in increasing volume throughout the 14th century. A great wave of secularity rolled over the Church, engulfing the religious orders with the rest; love waxed cold, fervour languished, learning declined, discipline was relaxed, bitter rivalries broke out, especially between Franciscans and Dominicans. The great schism was reflected in the Mendicant orders which were divided into two obediences, to the destruction of discipline. The great wealth of the old monastic orders exposed them, especially in France and Italy, to the vicious system of commendation, whereby a bishop, an ecclesiastic, or even a layman was appointed “commendatory abbot” of a monastery, merely for the purpose of drawing the revenues (see Abbot); the monasteries were often deprived even of necessary maintenance, the communities dwindled, and regular observance became impossible. There is reason to believe that in England a relatively good level was maintained throughout, thanks in great measure to the fact that the kings resolutely refused to allow the introduction of commendation—Wolsey was the first and last commendatory abbot in England. In the German lands, the lowest level was touched, and the writings of the Augustinian canon Johann Busch, and of the Benedictine abbot Trithemius reveal a state of things in the first half of the 15th century that urgently called for reform. The first move in this direction was made in the Netherlands and north Germany under the influence of Gerhard Groot (q.v.), and issued in the formation of the Windesheim congregation of Augustinian canons and the secular congregation of Brothers of Common Life (q.v.) founded c. 1384, both of which became centres of religious revival. During the first half of the 15th century numerous and effective efforts at reform were initiated in all the orders without exception, and in every part of Europe. These movements, promoted by the councils of Constance and Basel, partook of the spirit of the time and were characterized by an extreme austerity of life and a certain hardness of spirit, and a sort of police regulation easily understandable at a time of reaction from grave abuses. At this time arose the Hieronymites (q.v.) founded in 1375, under the Augustinian rule, the Observants (1415) among the Franciscans (q.v.), and the Minims (founded c. 1460 by St Francis of Paola, q.v.), whose programme was to outdo the Minors or Franciscans. These various reform movements among the orders were widely but not universally successful; and so the Reformation found religious houses in an unsatisfactory state in sufficient numbers to afford the reformers one of their chief handles against the old religion. The Reformation and the religious wars that followed in its wake destroyed the monasteries and religious orders of all kinds in northern Europe and crippled them in central Europe.
13. The Modern Orders.—During the Reformation period there sprang up, to meet the needs of the time, a new kind of religious order, called Regular Clerks. These are religious orders in the full sense of the word, as the members take the solemn religious vows. Regular clerks are by their institute clerics and priests, and they are devoted to some particular work or works as their own special object—as education, the preaching of missions and retreats, or the going on missions to the heathen. They carry still further the tendencies that differentiate the friars from the monks; and in particular, in order to be more free in devoting themselves to their special works, the orders of regular clerks have commonly given up the choral celebration of the canonical office, which had been maintained by the friars. Of regular clerks by far the most important are the Jesuits (q.v.), founded in 1540; there are also the Theatines (founded 1524 by St Cajetan and Caraffa, afterwards Paul IV.); the Barnabites (founded 1530, by St Antonio Zaccaria) and others (see Max Heimbucher, Orden u. Kongregationen (1897), II., §§ 108–114). Strictly speaking the “religious congregations” should be distinguished from the orders of regular clerks, the difference being that in the former the vows, though taken for life, are only “simple vows” and more easily dispensable by authority; but the character and work of the two institutes is very similar. The chief of these congregations are the Passionists (founded by St John of the Cross, 1725) and the Redemptorists (founded by St Alfonsus Liguori, 1749), both dedicated to giving missions and retreats. The Christian Brothers, devoted to primary education, founded by St Jean Baptiste de la Salle in 1679, are not in orders (Heimbucher, op. cit. §§ 115–118).
Besides the religious congregations there are a number of “secular congregations,” composed of secular priests living together under temporary vows and free to leave at will; the following deserve mention: Oblates of St Charles (founded by St Charles Borromeo, 1578); Oratorians (founded by St Philip Neri, c. 1570); the French Oratory (founded by Cardinal Berulle, 1613), a similar but distinct institution, which produced a number of scholars of the highest distinction—Thomassin, Morin, Marlebranche, Richard Simon, Juénin, Lebrun, Masillon, and others; Lazarists (founded by St Vincent de Paul, 1624); Sulpicians (founded by M. Olier, 1642), and a vast number of others, including several for the mission to the heathen (see Heimbucher op. cit. §§ 124–140).
During the period under review, from the Reformation to the French Revolution, the old orders went on alongside of the new, and many notable revivals and congregations arose among them: the most noteworthy were the Capuchins (q.v.) among the Franciscans (1528); the Discalced Carmelites (q.v.) of St Teresa and St John of the Cross (1562); the Trappists (q.v.) among the Cistercians (1663); and, most famous of all, the Maurists (q.v.) among the Benedictines of France (1621).
14. The Religious Orders in Recent Times.—At the end of the 18th century and the opening of the 19th the religious orders received a succession of blows in those countries in which they had survived the Reformation from which they have only
