PREMONSTRATENSIAN
389
PREMONSTRATENSIAN
ing given eight bishops to Prague, ten to Olmlitz, and abbey. In certain matters he has to obtain the con-
soine to other dioceses; a patriarch (John of Luxera- sent of the majores de domo. The abbeys were divided
burg) to Aquileia, and a cardinal (John of Prague) to into circaries (provinces), named after the countries in
which they were situated. Each circary had a visitor,
and the most important had also a vicar-general
named by the abbot general. Hugo in his "Annales"
gives the nnnie nf each abbey and convent and of the
vlllrl, ill
1h.|
Abbey of To.ngerloo. Belgium
The four large vol-
umes of the "Annales"
give a descript ion and
an historical notice of
each abbey and hence
they supply very im-
portant information
to the student of the
history of the order.
Hugo had also pre-
pared and nearly com-
pleted, when he died
in 1739, two more
volumes, the first of
which was to treat of
earned ]iersons of the
(in lei- am loft he books
they had written; the
second was to give
the lives of sons and
daughters of St. Nor-
bert who had been
the Church. In 1141 the Abbey of St. Samuel, near
Jerusalem, was founded, and in 114.5 another at Beth-
lehem. The abbeys were de.stroyed in 1187, when
many of the religious were put to the sword or perislierl
in the fire. Those who escaped founded a new ciimi-
munity at Acre; but
in 1291 this place, the
last stronghold of t he
Christians in t he Holy
Land, was taken by
the Sultan Saraf , win >
cut to pieces the ab-
bot, Egide de Marie
and put the religi( n i -
twenty-six in nun
ber, to death.
Inll47AbbotW,V ter of Laon led a eel ony to Portugal and founded the Abbey of St. Vincent, near Lis- bon. Two young Spanish noblemen, Sanchez de Assures and Dominic, while travelling in France.
had heard of St. Norbert. They went to Prdmontre canonized or beatified, or who were deemed to have and were admitted to the order by St. Norbert. Or- had the note of sanctity. The Rev. Leo Goovaerts, of dained priests, they were sent to preach in Spain, and the Norbertine Abbey of Averbode, Belgium, has since having obtained a few religious from La Cjise-Dieu, published a "Dictionnaire bio-bibliographique", in an abbey in Gascony, they founded in 1143 the Abbey which he gives the names of over three thousand au- of Retorta, the first in Spain. In 1149 the mother- thors, a notice of their lives, and a description of the house sent some of its religious to found the Abbey books they had written. George Lienhardt , Abbot of of St. Samuel at Barletta, in Apulia, Italy. At the Roggensburg, gives in his "Hagiologia the nariies of same time sons of St. Norbert went forth from one hundreds of persons whose holiness of life constitutes abbey or another to found new houses in Great the brightest ornament of the Order of St. Norbert. Britain and Ireland, Poland, Denmark, Norway, and Loss of Fir.st Fervour; Causes and Remedies. —
even Riga on the Bal- '_ The spiritual fervour,
tic Sea. In addition, I I I so remarkable and
sixteen cathedral i edifying in the first
chapters were com- ^^ two centuries, had
posed of Norbertine i |K gradually been grow-
canons, under a ^L flfi ing cold. A number
bishop elected by .^R> Jk- ^^^ Wp\ "'^ religious communi-
them. One of these .^^■^'^^^^S^HH^HHl- ^'^^ ^^'^^ "° longer
was Candida Casa or ^»'^B---Ji^H^B"^» i i i i^^^^H. t animated by the spirit
Whithorn, in Scot- ^T'^AA K^Kir-'^" ' iK^'t i • ^^% of St. Norbert. With
land. Itisimpos.siblc ^ ^ V ■'■iB' ' « i B« ^^P^^^^^ the gradual disap- to give the exact num- B|^B^ '>■■"■ 'IK .!^^«^^j>-^ff^^^^THB pearance of manual b<>r of abbeys, priories, ^^^^Bl i J'tB U"iiirf^^^^^5»^ ,.»v^!"^ labour, intellectual
and convents of nuns, ^^^^R|j;..JmP ' ?Jp^^3«^^iiSjill|*^^ . ,,^,.,..'^^'--,-.-!^^^ activity, and certain so much do the vari- ^^HPit^^Ki^^ii ' '-■" ' '^ ^i^^^^^W^tt^M observances, spiritual ous li.sts differ from MffllBiiflM^ "'..' ^^^iJB^^^^SHHIH^^H progress was retarded one another. Perhaps |||{||j|||||^|PP:.; ,„,;:.^^^^^ and even a kind of
the oldest list known , " " .'^ r ;:; z spiritual stagnation
., . 1. , Abbey of Lelesz, .North Eastern HnNG.\RY "^ . , ./^ „„„„*
IS that which was set in, to the great
made for the general chapter of 1320, and given by Le detriment of these communities. Affluence was an-
Paige. The most complete has been compiled by other cause of this weakness. The first religious had
Hugo, the annalist uf the order. Some authors .say cleared part of the forests, and by making the land
that there were l:it)(l abbeys and .500 convents of nuns, more productive had created more resources, while the
without count ing the smaller residences, but these fig- charity of benefactors had also increased the revenues,
ures seem to be much exaggerated. However, what- and with this affluence arose also a spirit of worldliness;
ever these lists may mean, they show the prodigious but another evil was that this affluence excited the
fecundity of the order during the first two centuries of rapacity of covetous men in Church and State. The
its existence. superiors of some houses had become more lax in
Organization. — The highest authority of the order abolishing abuses, and so irregularities had gradually
is centred in the general ehar)ter. The abbot general crept in. Owing to the distance of many houses from
presides over it, but he owes obedience to it. The the mother-house at Preniontre and also to national
abbot general has the power to make the canonical aspirations, cohesion, the strength of any society, had
visit.ation of any abbey, but his abbey is visited by the been weakened in the ordc-r; already in Saxony, Eng-
three principal abbots of the order, viz. by the .Abbots land, and Spain a tendency was observed to form .sepa-
of Laon, FlorefTe, and Cuissy. The abbots are elected rate congregations with regulations of their own. With
for life in a manner prescribed by the "Statuta"'. the approval of the popes the austere rule, especially
The abbot names his prior and other officials of his with regard to perpetual abstiiience from flesh meat,
