o THE CURIA
careful Benedictine fidelity to a pure liturgy, to science and to art. The Order not only conserves what is old but constantly sends an invigorating new stream of vitality through the Catholic world. Its pastoral methods and the wholesome spirit of its educational institution are famous. The abbeys enjoy great independence; and the monk be- longs all his life to the home he has chosen. The same basic trait of a monastic family bound to its site prevails in other developments out of the Benedictine Rule branches of the original Order, among which the Cistercians, the strict Carthusians, and the still stricter Trappists, are most familiar. They live in the utmost simplicity, in a silence and seclusion devoted to work and prayer. Their existence is so com- pletely the opposite of everything which human nature normally desires that a lover of life stands in awe before this hard reversal oi his own ideal.
The Mendicant Orders serve the immediate demands of the people. They live in simple, often poverty-stricken monasteries on the alms of the faithful and in turn offer Christian mercy to the body and the soul. They include the Sons of St. Dominic in their black habits, and the sons of St. Francis in their brown robes. Both Orders also serve ecclesiastical learning in scholarly foundations. In addition to the Franciscans proper, there are the bearded Capuchins, men of the people in their manner of preaching, caring for souls, and helping the poorest of the poor. Finally we may mention the Carmelites, the Augustinian hermits (Luther s Order), and the Christian Brothers. Just as the monastic Orders localize their work in the fixed central point of the abbey and perform it there, so the Mendicant Orders go wherever their work calls, being sent from one monastery to another. They are always homeless, as the Son of Man was homeless, but yet are rooted in a great religious family spread all over the world.
Then there are associations with a freer constitution, the members of which are religious but not monks or mendicant brothers. The most important of these is the Society of Jesus. The Theatines and the Piarists also belong to this group which is the model for various religious congregations and societies which are not Orders in the strict sense. They too are bound by lifelong vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, but these vows are not taken in the solemn, sternly bind- ing form of the Orders, but rather as simple and therefore more easily
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