terror.

the priestly office. There were also two laymen, Andrew and Garin. All these trembled, and were seized by a wholesome When they asked a certain holy hermit how they might escape this terrible judgment of God, they received answer from Psalm liv. "Lo! I have prolonged my flight, and remained in solitude." With one mind they were fired by a love of solitude, and they approached St. Hugh, bishop of the Church of Grenoble, begging that he would assign them a place suitable for the fulfilment of their purpose in his diocese, which abounded with many desert mountains. He received them in person with thanks and respect, treated with them, and granted their wish. For by his advice and aid, and in his company, they entered on the site, and built the Carthusian retreat; for the afore-mentioned holy bishop had seen in a dream the Lord building a dwelling-place suitable for His high rank. He had also seen seven stars, which pointed out the way to it. There therefore the holy prelate, who was their patron, and was associated with the establishment of the first Carthusian house, lived in devotion and careful practice of the rules so long that Bruno, the first prior of the Carthusian house, urged him occasionally to leave it, using these words, "Go to your own sheep, and pay them the debt which is due to them." Bruno was succeeded in his office of prior by Dom: Laudwin, a man excellently instructed in sacred and profane literature. After him Dom Peter, a Frenchman, undertook the control of the Carthusian house. He, through a desire for silence and solitude, asked and obtained a release. His place in the control of the house was supplied by Dom: John. After his death Dom: Guigo, a man admirably instructed in profane and sacred literature, was appointed to fill the vacancy. He arranged, and illustrated by his example, the plan of the Carthusian rule; and throughout his life he lived according to the form and direction of the statutes which follow.1

It is only necessary to add that Bruno was not permitted to do what no doubt he would have preferred, namely to end his days at La Chartreuse. About 1090 Pope Urban II. summoned him to Rome to help him in some important business, and in order that the papal city might have the benefit of his piety and devotion. But his passion for solitude never abated, and he gained permission to retire to Calabria. There he died in 1101, having founded at his new dwelling-place a second house of the Carthusian Order.

We understand, then, the objects which Bruno and his friends had before them in retiring to La Chartreuse. How they set about

1 Statuta Ordinis Cartusiensis a domino Guigone Priore Cartusiense.
Edita Basle 1510.

organising the new society, and what particular rules they adopted. for the purpose, we shall never be able to discover. The earliest light which is thrown upon that subject-and even that shows to us no details-dates from a time seventy or eighty years later. In the year 1159 two strangers visited La Chartreuse, and part at least of what they heard there concerning the life of its inhabitants has, fortunately, been preserved.

One of these visitors was himself the head of a religious house. He was accompanied by a member of his own order, who lived to become renowned in this country, if not in all Europe. Hugh, afterwards prior of the first Carthusian house in England-namely that founded by Henry II. at Witham in Somersetshire-and subsequently Bishop of Lincoln, was the younger of the two strangers. He was deeply impressed by the sincere devotion and self-denying asceticism which he witnessed, and at once formed a wish to be admitted as a member of the Order. On hearing this, one of the older monks, judging from his looks and what he had heard of his bringing up, that he was unfitted for so severe a life, did what he could to dissuade him. He drew a terrible picture of the hard life led by the Carthusians, and the extreme severity with which they treated themselves and one another. After reading the words which he addressed to Hugh, we cannot doubt that whatever were the details of their rule, it was drawn up with the object of heaping upon the brotherhood as much hardship as human nature could endure. The narrative is preserved in the Life of St. Hugh of Lincoln. A translation from the Latin runs as follows:

"In that company of holy men was one who formerly had a great reputation in the world, and on this occasion was highly esteemed for his observance of the sacred rule (of St. Bruno). To him Hugh confidently disclosed his most secret thoughts, not so much asking his advice whether he should carry out his plan, but rather how he could soonest give effect to his wishes. His enquiry was made with tears and lamentations, and the answer he received was very different from that which he expected, for that far-sighted man, gazing on one who by the evidence of his looks was a youth who had lived in luxury, and was of tender age, and knowing that he was a member of a distinguished family, could not believe that he had sufficient vigour of character or bodily strength to comply with the rules of that Order. Therefore, with the view of restraining him. by his alarming answer from this rash design, or endeavouring rather to find out how much strength of purpose he had, he replied: 'How, my son, can you venture to entertain such an idea? The inhabitants

of the rocks whom you see here present are harder than any rock; they do not think of sparing themselves or those who live with them; the place you see is in appearance rugged; the practice of the Order is most severe; even the specially rough hair-shirt in which they dress would tear away skin and flesh from your body; the severity of the discipline would utterly destroy the delicacy which I observe in you.'

If we wish to realise the life of the Carthusians as it is seen in the present day, and the way in which it differs from that of other religious orders, there are two points on which we should fix our attention. The first is their isolation from the world, the second is their isolation from one another. The main object, or one of the main objects, of all orders is no doubt separation from the temptations and the wickedness of the world. The Carthusian fathers go a good deal farther than this, and endeavour to separate themselves from the world itself. With this object in view, they shut themselves up in the great cloister of their house, and will see no one. From that great cloister they can pass directly to the church, the chapterhouse, the frater, the library. With the one exception of the walk they take all together once a week outside the precincts, it is literally true that the Carthusian fathers pass their lives within the walls of the great cloister of their house.

Into this great cloister they admit no one. Not even in church does a Carthusian father ever look upon the face of one from the outer world, except on the rare occasions when a prelate of their own church pays the convent a visit. He is honoured by admission into the most important part of the church, namely the fathers' choir, but very seldom is any other stranger allowed to be present on the floor of the church during divine service. It is true that guests staying in the convent, or visitors who ask permission to see such parts of it as are shown to the public, are allowed to attend the services. They, however, are placed in a gallery, where they can see very little, and where they cannot be seen at all. The fathers thus confining themselves strictly to one part of the convent, preserve their seclusion undisturbed, by shutting out from that part of the building the rest of the human race. The conviction of their founder seems to have been that if you are to leave the world, you must leave it altogether. He had seen worldliness and corruption flourishing among leading churchmen, who had renounced the world and the flesh. The only safe Magna Vita S. Hugonis. Epis: Lincoln: Longmans, 1864.

1

Ed: T. F. Dimock (Rolls Series 37). Liber i. ch. 7.

plan, in his opinion, was to shut yourself up within four walls, secure from the possibility of being tempted by the unholy thing. For eight centuries the Carthusians have adhered to this leading idea. Neither for evil, nor yet for good, will they have anything to do with the outer world. Whatever alterations in the detail of the rule may have been brought about by time, to the spirit they still cling, and their life takes its distinguishing features from this determination.

But they cannot do this without depriving themselves of many opportunities of doing those good works for the benefit of their fellow creatures, for which other religious orders have been most deservedly renowned. Their rule will not allow them to become preachers, like the Franciscans and Dominicans. They are not the founders and conductors of schools and colleges, like the Benedictines, who have for so many centuries maintained places of education for the young, and places of study for all. The Carthusians have not given themselves to the cultivation of the soil, like the Cistercians and the Trappists. They have renounced the very functions of the priest, except within their own walls, and for the edification of themselves and their fellows. A Carthusian father is forbidden to baptise or hear confessions, to administer the last sacraments to the dying, or to bury the dead, unless he is assured that the circumstances are such that the services of no other priest can be obtained. Then, for the moment, the rule is relaxed, and he is not only allowed but ordered to render the service required. The Carthusian father aims at the life of a solitary. His isolation from the world is complete. The brothers, or conversi, who are laymen, and who are occupied in manual labour for the good of the community, are permitted to hold necessary intercourse with the outer world. But the isolation from the world of the fathers is never interrupted.

Only less complete is their isolation from one another. Each father leads his life alone. They very rarely meet in private, and then only with the express leave of the prior. If two of them encounter one another in passing through the cloister, they do not speak, they do not even look at one another. The hood of the cowl is drawn forward; they pass without a glance. But though they do not meet in private, there are fixed occasions occurring about three times a week, when the whole of them assemble together, and when conversation is permitted or enjoined. On Sundays, and also on chapter feasts (of which there are about fifty in the year), they dine together in the frater. No conversation is permitted at the table, but later in the day they adjourn to the little cloister or to the garden, and then "recreation," that is general conversation is allowed.