a rule for their government. At first, those orders only were considered to be mendicant, which had no fixed income; but derived their whole subsistence from casual and uncertain bounty. Experience soon discovered, that many spiritual as well as many temporal evils attended mendicity. In consequence of it, some of the Franciscan establishments, and almost all the establishments of the three other orders, began to acquire permanent property. This, the church first permitted; and afterwards countenanced. The council of Trent confined mendicity to the Observantine Friars. 4. It remains to add, that convents of nuns were founded; whose institutes corresponded with those of the religious orders and congregations, which have been noticed; and with some also of the principal reforms. 5. The only military order, in England, at the time of the Reformation, was that of St. John of Jerusalem. It was divided into three classes;-the nobles, who followed the profession of arms, for the defence of the faith against the followers of Mahomet, and for the protection of pilgrims;- the ecclesiastics, who exercised their religious functions for the benefit of the order;-and the lay-brothers, whose duty it was to take care of the pilgrims, and of the sick. After the loss of the Holy Land, they successively retired to Cyprus, to Rhodes, and to Malta, from the last of which places they received the appellation of Knights of Malta. The Knights Templars once flourished in England;-and were instituted, for the same purposes as the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. Some account of their suppression will be given in a subsequent part of this work. IX. 2. Advantages derived from the Religious Orders. THE language, which is employed, in describing the characters and manners of the regular clergy, is generally such, as might induce a reader to suppose that they were altogether useless, and a heavy burthen on the public: but, the case was far otherwise. 1. To every public imposition of the state, both the secular, and the regular, clergy contributed, at least their proportionate share; while, in addition to these, subsidies, not required from the laity, were sometimes, under the name of benevolences, exacted from them. Most of their lands were held by the tenure of knight's-service; and were, therefore, liable to pecuniary contributions, for the ransom of the lord, for making his eldest son a knight, and for portioning his daughters, and to the obligation of finding a certain number of soldiers, to serve in the field, at the charge of the monastery. 2. The individuals, again, from whose benevolence they had acquired their possessions, and the heirs of these individuals, received back from them some return of that bounty. They had the benefit of corodies, or the privilege of quartering a certain number of poor servants, on the religious houses which they had founded: or, in later times, of claiming from them annual pensions for their servants, as commutations for their corodies. 3. The public was essentially benefited by their duty of hospitality. This obliged the monasteries to receive and entertain their benefactors, and their heirs, and all their followers. So that, to use Mr. Collier's expression*, "the monasteries were like "houses of public entertainment, for the gentry, "that travelled." In the present state of society, the practice of this hospitality appears in the light of a festivity; but, in the times, of which we are speaking, it was always considered, as a serious duty, imposing, more than is now imagined, a very heavy, and a very unpleasing obligation. 4. We must add, that the convents maintained the poor; there being, in these times, no national provision for them. On such a subject, it is impossible to form even a plausible calculation; but it is obvious that a considerable proportion,-(can it be exaggeration to say one third?),-of monastic property, returned, in the way of direct payment or expenditure, to the public; or to the representatives of their benefactors. 5. That, in those times, the monasteries were the best schools of education, is a point, now universally admitted. History scarcely mentions a person of either sex, without mentioning, at the same time, the monastery in which that individual was educated. Neither was this education confined to the nobles, or to the wealthy. The chil * Eccl. Hist. vol. ii. p. 165. dren of their tenants; and the very poorest of the poor, were there instructed in religion, and morality. A school was as regular an appendage to a monastery, as a chapel. But, what was the religion, what the morality, that was taught in them? 66 If we credit Dr. Robertson, "Instead of aspiring to sanctity and virtue, which alone can ren"der men acceptable to the great Author of order " and excellence, they imagined, that they satisfied 66 every obligation of duty, by a scrupulous observ"ance of external ceremonies. Religion, according to their conception of it, comprehended nothing else; and the rites, by which they per"suaded themselves, that they could gain the "favour of Heaven, were of such a nature as might "have been expected from the rude ideas of the 66 66 ages, which devised and introduced them. They "were either so unmeaning, as to be altogether "unworthy of the Being to whose honour they "were were consecrated; or so absurd, as to be a dis grace to reason and humanity. All the religious "maxims and practices of the dark ages," continues the royal historiographer, in a note to this passage, "are a proof of this. I shall produce one “remarkable testimony, in confirmation of it, from 66 an author canonized by the church of Rome, "St. Eloy, or Eligius, bishop of Noyon, in the "seventh century-' He is a good christian, who "comes frequently to church; who presents the *Hist. of Charles V. vol. i. p. 19, note xi. quarto edition. oblation, which is offered to God, upon the altar; "who doth not taste of the fruits of his own in 68 66 dustry, until he has consecrated a part of them "to God; who, when the holy festivals shall approach, lives chastely, even with his own wife, during several days, that, with a safe conscience, "he may draw near to the altar of God; and who, "in the last place, can repeat the creed, and the "Lord's prayer. Redeem then your souls from destruction, while you have the means in your power; offer presents, and tithes, to churchmen; "come more frequently to church; humbly implore the patronage of the saints, for, if you observe "these things, you may come with security, in the day, to the tribunal of the eternal Judge; and 66 66 say, give to us, O Lord! for we have given "unto thee." Dacherii Spicilegium veter. Script. v. ii. p. 94. "The learned, and judicious, tran"slator of Dr. Mosheim's ecclesiastical history, "from one of whose additional notes, I have bor"rowed this passage, subjoins a very proper reflec"tion; 'We see here a large, and ample, description "of a good christian, in which there is not the least "mention of the love of God, resignation to his "will, obedience to his laws, or of justice, benevo"lence, and charity, towards men.' Mosh. Eccles. "Hist. v. i. p. 324." A charge, expressed in more direct, or stronger terms against the clergy of the middle ages, for teaching a false and depraved system of morality, cannot be imagined. What, then, must be the surprise of the reader, when, from the perusal of |
