Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/709

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
CHARTULARY
637
CHASTITY

Grand-Som towers above its roof, on the south the road approaches through a narrow gorge, while on the north and west the valley is shut in by heights covered with woods, due to the planting of the earlier monks, but now the property of the State. The first monastery, built by St. Bruno in 1084 on the spot marked by the chapel of Notre-Dame de Casalibus, was destroyed by an avalanche in 1132, and the new buildings were erected on part of the site of the present grand cloître. The monastery was burnt eight times between 1320 and 1676. At the latter date the prior, Innocent Le Masson, began to rebuild the greater part of it in the somewhat cold and heavy style of the period. His work was solid, and there is a severe monastic element about it. The buildings of to-day are substantially as he left them, though they have been extensively restored during the nineteenth century. They are on the typically Carthusian plan, with the addition of the great guest-houses and capitular hall, constructed to accommodate the Carthusian priors attending the general chapters, together with their attendants. The most ancient portions are the Gothic parts of the grand cloître (over 700 feet long) and the church, which dates in part from 1320 or perhaps earlier, but owes its present form to restoration in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. The monastery, with a small portion of the surrounding pastures, was rented from the State till, in accordance with the Association Laws of 1901, the last monks were expelled by two squadrons of dragoons on the 19th of April, 1903. For the history of the monastery and order and for the famous liqueur see Carthusian Order.

La Grande Chartreuse par un chartreux (Lyons, 1898), tr. Whitehead (London, 1893); Chevalier, Topo-bibl. (Paris, 1894-99), 665.


Chartulary (Cartularium, Chartularium, also called Pancarta and Codex Diplomaticus), a medieval manuscript volume or roll (rotulus) containing transcriptions of original documents relating to the foundation, privileges, and legal rights of ecclesiastical establishments, municipal corporations, industrial associations, institutions of learning, and private families. The term is also, though less appropriately, applied to collections of original documents bound in one volume or attached to one another so as to form a roll. The allusion of St. Gregory of Tours to chartarum tomi in the sixth century is commonly taken to refer to chartularies; the oldest, however, that have come down to us belong to the tenth century. Those belonging to the centuries from the tenth to the thirteenth are very numerous. Sometimes the copyist of the chartulary reproduced the original document with literary exactness. Sometimes, however, he took liberties with the text to the extent of modifying the phraseology, modernizing proper names of persons or places, and even chancing the substance of the meaning for some such purpose as to extend the scope of the privileges or immunities which the document granted. The value of a chartulary as an historical document depends, of course, on the extent to which it reproduces the substantial meaning of the original, and this question must be settled by the well-known canons of historical criticism. Generally speaking, a chartulary should rank as a public document possessing greater value than a private letter or the narrative of an annalist. We have as yet no complete inventory of the chartularies of the various institutions of the Middle Ages. In recent years many chartularies of medieval monasteries and churches have been published, more or less completely. The "Catalogue général des cartulaires des archives départementales" (Paris, 1847) and the "Inventaire des cartulaires" etc. (Paris, 1878-9) are the chief sources of information regarding the chartularies of medieval France. For the principal English (printed) chartularies, see Gross, "Sources and Literature of English History", etc. (London, 1900), 204-7 and 402-67. The important chartulary of the University of Paris was edited by Father Denifle, O. P., and M. Chatelain, "Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis" (Paris, 1889, sqq.).

Giry, Manuel de diplomatique (Paris, 1894), I, 28 sqq.; Bresslau, Urkundenlehre (Leipzig, 1889); Oesterley, Wegweiser durch die Literatur der Urkundensammlungen (Berlin, 1855—6); Grande encyclopédie, s. v. Cartulaire.


Chastellain (or Chastelain), Georges, a Burgundian chronicler, b. in the County of Alost, Flanders, in 1403; d. at Valenciennes in 1475. He studied at Louvain, and, after a few years in the army, travelled in England and France. He next entered the service of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, whose successor, Charles the Bold, coming to Valenciennes in 1473, to hold a chapter of the Golden Fleece, conferred upon him the honour of knighthood, with the title of Indiciarius of the order.

Chastellain's more important works include (1) "Chronique des choses de mon temps", a history of the years 1417-74, of which only fragments remain, continued after Chastellain's death, by his disciple, Jean Molinet. It was first edited by Buchon in "Les chroniques nationales" (1827) and re-edited by Kervyn de Lettenhove (8 vols., Brussels, 1863-67). (2) "Récollections des merveilles advenues en mon temps" (Antwerp, 1505). (3) "Chronique de Messire Jean de Lalaing", a delightful biography. In spite of excessive partiality to the Duke of Burgundy, Chastellain's historical works are valuable for the accurate information they contain. As a poet he was famous among his contemporaries. He was the great master of the school of grands rhétoriqueurs, whose principal characteristics were fondness for the most artificial forms and a profusion of latinisms and græcisms.

Buchon, Notice sur Chastellain (in vol. I of his edition, 1827); Reiffenberg, Notice sur G. Chastellain (1836); Quicherat in Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes (1842), IV, 62 sq.


Chastellain, Pierre, missionary among the Huron Indians, b. at Senlis, France, in 1606; d. at Quebec, 14 August, 1684. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1624 and at the age of thirty sailed from France with two future martyrs, Fathers Isaac Jogues and Charles Garnier, and the new Governor of Canada, Montmagny, the successor in that post of Champlain. In July, 1636, Chastellain and Garnier left Three Rivers with the Indian trading canoes to join the mission in the Huron country. In the September following, both were attacked by smallpox, but recovered. For nearly fifty years Chastellain toiled on the mission of Canada at different stations among the Hurons as well as in Quebec. With great strength of character he combined a gentleness that was never ruffled and an unfailing charity towards others. During his laborious mission work he composed his book "Affectus amantis Christum seu Exercitium amoris erga Dominum Jesum pro totâ hebdomadâ", a quarto of 483 pages (Paris, 1647).

Menology of the Society of Jesus, English Assistancy (Roehampton, 1902), II, 70, 71; Thwaites, Jesuit Relations (Cleveland, 1896-1901), VIII, 307; Sommervogel, Bibl. de la c. de J., II.


Chastity. — In this article chastity is considered as a virtue; its consideration as an evangelical counsel will be found in the articles on Celibacy of the Clergy, Continency, and Virginity. As a vow, chastity is discussed in the article Vow.

As a Virtue. — Chastity is the virtue which excludes or moderates the indulgence of the sexual appetite. It is a form of the virtue of temperance,