CLERKS
52
CLERKS
regular clerks are classed by authors as a branch or
modern adaptation of the once world-famous family of
regular canons (see Canons and Canonesses Regu-
lar). This Ls because of the intimate connexion ex-
isting between the two ; for while separated from the
secular clergy by their vows and the observance of a
community life and a rule, they form a distinct class
in the religious state, the clerical, in opposition to the
monastic, which includes monks, hermits, and friars.
Clerks regular are distinguished from the purely mo-
nastic bodies, or monks, in four ways; They are pri-
marily devoted to the sacred ministrj-; not so the
monks, whose proper work is contemplation and the
solemn celebration of the liturgy. They are obliged
to cultivate the sacred sciences, which, if cultivated by
the monks, are yet not imposed upon them by virtue of
their state of life. Clerks regular as clerics must re-
tain some appearance of clerical dress distinct from
the habit and cowl of the monk. And lastly, because
of their occupations, they are less given to the prac-
tice of austerity which is a distinct feature of the
purely monastic life. They are distinguished from the
friars in this, that though the latter are devoted to the
sacred ministry and the cultivation of learning, they
are not primarily priests. Finally, clerks regular dif-
fer from canons regular in that they do not possess
cathedral or collegiate churches, devote themselves
more completely to ministerial work in place of choir-
service, and have fewer penitential observances of
rule.
History. — The exact date at which clerks regular appeared in the Church cannot be absolutely deter- mined. Regular clerks of some sort, i. e. priests de- voted both to the exercise of the ministry and to the practice of the religious life are found in the earliest days of Christian antiquity. Many eminent theolo- gians hold that the clerks regular were founded by Christ Himself. In this opmion the Apostles were the first regular clerks, being constituted by Christ min- isters par excellence of His Church and called by Him personally to the practice of the counsels of the relig- ious life (cf. Suarez). From the fact that St. Augus- tine in the fourth century estabUshed in his house a community of priests leading the religious life, for whom he drew up a rule, he has ordinarily been styled the foimder of the regular clerks and canons, and upon his rule have been built the constitutions of the canons regular and an immense number of the relig- ious communities of the Middle Ages, besides those of the clerks regular establi-shed in the sixteenth century. During the whole medieval period the clerks regular were represented by the regular canons who under the name of the Canons Regular or Black Canons of St. Augustine, the Premonstratensians or White Canons, Canons of St. Norbert, etc., shared with the monks the possession of those magnificent abbeys and monasteries all over Europe which, even though they are in ruins, compel the admiration of the beholder.
It was not until the sixteenth century that clerks regular in the modern and strictest sense of the word came into being. Just as the conditions obtaining in the thirteenth century brought about a change in the monastic ideal, so in the sixteenth the altered circum- stances of the times called for a fresh development of the ever fecund religious spirit in the Church. This develojiment, adapted to the needs of the times, was had in the various bodies of simple clerics, who, desir- ous of devoting themselves more perfectly to the ex- ercise of their priestly ministry imder the safeguards of the religious life, instituted the several bodies which, under the names of the various orders of regular clerics, constitute in themselves and in their imitators one of the most efficient instruments for good in the Church militant to-day. So successful and popular and well adapted to all modern needs were the clerks regular, that their mode of life was chosen as the pat-
tern for all the various communities of men, whether
religious or secular, living under rule, in which the
Church has in recent times been so prolific. The first
order of clerks regular to be founded were the Thea-
tines (q. v.) established at Rome in 1524; then fol-
lowed the Clerks Regular of the Good Jesus, founded at
Ravenna in 1526, and abolished by Innocent X in
1651 ; the Barnabites (q. v.) or Clerks Regular of St.
Paul, MUan, 1530; The Somaschi (q. v.) or Clerks
Regular of St. Majolus, Somasca, 1532 ; the Jesuits or
the Society of Jesus (q. v.), Paris, 1534; the Regular
Clerks of the Mother of God, Lucca, 1583; the Regu-
lar Clerks Ministering to the Sick, Rome, 1584; the
Minor Clerks Regular, Naples, 1588; and the Piarists
or Regular Clerks of the Mother of God of the Pious
Schools, Rome, 1597. Since the close of the six-
teenth centurj' no new orders have been added to the
number, though the name Clerks Regular has been
assumed occasionally by communities that are techni-
cally only religious, or pious, congregations (see Con-
gregations, Religious).
Suarez, De Religione, tr. 9 ; Humphrey, Elements of Relig- ious Life (London, 1884) ; Idem, The Religious Slate (Lon- don. 1903), 11: Andre-Wagner, Diet, de droit canonique (Paris. 1901); Vermeersch, De Religiosis Institutis et Per- sonis (Bruges. 1904), I; Wernz. J'us BecrefafiKm (Rome, 1899). HI; Heltot, Dict.des ordres religieux (Paris, 1859). ed. Migne, III; Heimbuchkr, Die Orden und Kong, der kath. Kirche (Paderborn, 1907), III. j^^^ p x. MuRPHT.
Clerks Regular of Our Saviour, a religious con- gregation instituted in its present form in 1851, at Benoite-Vaux in the Diocese of Verdun, France. The constitutions and spirit of the congregation are those of the Canons Regular of Our Saviour, who were es- tablished as a reform among the various bodies of regular canons in Lorraine by St. Peter Fourier (q. v.), canon of Chamousay in 1623, and confirmed by Urban VIII in 1628. The scope of the reformed order, as outlined in the "Summarium Constitutionum" of St. Peter, was the Christian education of youth and the exercise of the sacred ministry among the poor and neglected. The order flourished exceedingly through- out the Duchy of Lorraine and made its way into France and Savoy; but was completely destroyed by the French Revolution. In 1851 four zealous priests of the Diocese of Verdun, anxious to see revived the apostolic labours of the sons of Fourier, withdrew to the retired shrine of Our Lady of Benoite-Vaux, and there began a religious life according to the rule given to his canons by St. Peter Fourier. Three years later they received the approbation of the Holy See, which changed their name from Canons Regular, the title of the earlier organization, to Clerks Regular. During the next half eenturj- the congregation spread and it now numbers several houses, its special work being the education of youth. The members of the congrega- tion are of three grades, priests, scholastics, and lay brothers. Though possessing the title "clerks regular" (q. V.) they are not such in the strict sense of the word, as their vows, though perpetual, are simple, according to the present practice of the Roman authorities of es- tablishing no new institutes of solemn vows.
Heimbucher, Die Orden und Kong, der kath. Kirche (Pader- born. 1907). II, 47 sq.; Helyot, Diet, des ordres religieux, (Paris. 1859), ed. Migne, IV.
John F. X. MtmPHY.
Clerks Regular of St. Paul. See Barnabites.
Clerks Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca, a congregation founded by the Blessed Gio- vanni Lconardi, son of middle-class parents, who was born in 1541 at Diecimo. a small township in the Re- public of Lucca, though at that time the chief place of a fief of the. s.ame name held by the bishops of Lucca from tlie republic. .4t sevi>nteen years of age he was sent to Lucca to learn the apothecary's trjide, but having from a tender age been most piously inclined,
