order) if the neophyte turned out unsatisfactory. The ‘solemn’ or indispensable vows would be taken at nineteen, leaving three years as a kind of secondary novitiate.
Thus the criticism of the enemies of monasticism was thought to be averted, and at the same time boys were practically secured at an early age; for it will be readily imagined that few boys would care to make an application to Rome for a dispensation and return to disturb the peaceful content of their families—having, moreover, had twelve months’ probation besides two or three years in a monastic college. It was a clever, a thoroughly Roman, coup. In justice to the monks I must add that I have never known a case in which difficulties have been put in the way of one who desired a dispensation: certainly the accusation of physical detention in monasteries or convents is without foundation. If the student was promising, their advice to him to reconsider his position would, no doubt, take a very urgent and solemn character; if he persisted, I feel sure they would conscientiously procure his dispensation. However, in my personal experience I have only known one instance; he had entered under the influence of relatives and endured the strain for two years, but wisely revolted at length, sought a dispensation, and took to the stage.
It is thus explained how the monastic career usually commences at such an early age. A visitor to the novitiate of any order (a privilege which is rarely
