Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Trinitarians

TRINITARIANS, an order of monks founded at Rome in 1198 by St. John of Matha, a native of Provence, and an old French hermit, Felix of Valois, to redeem Christian captives out of the hands of the infidels. The order was sanctioned by Innocent III.; the rule was that of St. Austin, with particular statutes; the diet was of great austerity; and the habit, at least in France, was a soutane and scapular of white serge, with a red and blue cross on the right breast. At one time the order possessed 250 houses, and it was estimated in the 17th century, that, since its foundation, it had been instrumental in rescuing more than 30,000 Christian captives from what was practically slavery. A reform took place in 1599, and resulted in the erection of the congregation of Discalced Trinitarians in Spain, in which country the order (reformed and unreformed) was suppressed in the reign of Isabella II.