Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/50

 TRASILLA

26

TREASON

private prayers and five hours to manual labour; in winter there are only about four hours devoted to manual labour, the extra hour thus deducted being given to study.

The monks are obUged to live by the labour of their hands, so the task appointed for manual labour ia seriously undertaken, and is of such a nature as to render them self-supporting; such as cultivation of the land, cattle-raising, etc. Dinner is partaken of at 11 A. M. in summer, at 11.30 in winter, and at 12 on fast days, with supper or collation in the evening. Food consists of bread, vegetables, and fruits; milk and cheese may also be given except in Advent, Lent, and all Fridays out of Paschal time. Flesh-meat, fish, and eggs are forbidden at all times, except to the sick. All sleep in a common dormitory, the beds being divided from each other only by a partition and curtain ; the bed to consist of mattress and pillow stuffed with straw, and sufficient covering. The monks are obliged to sleep in their regular clothing; which consists of ordinary underwear, a habit of white, and a scapular of black wool, with a leathern cincture; the cowl, of the same material as the habit, is worn over all. Enclosure, according to canon law, is perpetual in all houses. It is never allowed for the religious to speak amongst themselves, though the one in charge of a work or employment may give neces- sary directions; and all have the right of conversing with the superiors at any time, except during the night hours, called the "great silence".

Studies. — Before ordination to the priesthood (and all choir religious are destinctl for that) the monk must pass a satisfactory examination before the abbot, in the curriculum prescribed by the order and the De- crees of the Holy See; and afterwards all are obliged to participate in conferences on theology and Sacred Scriptures at least once each month. Students pre- paring for ordination are granted extra time, during the hours of work, for the prosecution of their studies.

The third part deals with the reception of subjects. The greatest care is insisted on to see that the postu- lants are of good character, honest birth, and without encumbrances of any kind; also that they have pur- sued the course of studies prescribed by the Holy See; they must have attained at least their fifteenth year. The novitiate is of two years' duration, during which time the novice is formed to the religious life, but he can leave, or the superior may send him away, if he is unable or unwilling to conform to the spirit of his vo- cation. The time of probation completed, the sub- ject is voted for, and if accepted, makes simple, but perpetual vows; these are followed by solemn vows at the end of three, or in special cases, five yeara. Be- sides choir religious there are lay brothers. These must be at least, seventeen years of age when received; they are then postulants for two years, novices for two more, after which they may be admitted to simple, though perpetual, vows, then after six years more they may make solemn vows. They do not recite the Divine Oflice, but have special prayers appointed to be said at the same hours throughout the day. They are not obliged to follow special studies, but are en- gaged in manual labour for a somewhat longer time than the choir religious; their habit is nearly the same as that of those in the choir, but brown in colour. They are religious in the full sense of the word, and participate in all the graces and privileges of the order, except that they have neither active nor passive voice in the luanagcnicnt of the affairs of the order.

It may be well to here deny a few customs that have been attributed, by ignorance, to the order. The monks do not s.alute one another by the "me- mento mori ", nor do they dig a part of their grave each day; in meeting each other they salute by an inclina- tion of the head, and graves are d>ig only after a brother is ready to be placed in it. (For statistics see Cistercians.)

Gaillardin, Les trappistes ou Vordre de Ctteaux au XIX'. {siecU Paris, 1844); Hist, poputaire de N ,-D. de la Grande Trappe (Paris. 1895) ; La Trappe, by a Trappist of Sept-Fons (Paris, 1870); VimTt. Citeaux, La Trappe et Betlefontaine (Paris, 1883); The Cisterciail Order, Us Object; its Rule (Cambridgp, 1895); La Trappe, congregation de moines de Vordre binedictino-cistercien (Rome. 1864); M. P. P., La Trappe mieux connue (Paris, 1834); Reglements de la Maison Dieu de N.-D. de la Trappe mis en nourel ordre et augmentes des usages particuliers de la Maison Dieu de la Val-Sainte (2 vols., Fribourg, 1794); Hist, abregee de r ordre de Ctteaux, by a monk of Thymadeuc (St-Brieuc. 1897); Us dts cisterciens reformis de la congregation de la Grande Trappe, with the Charta Charitatis and Decretum Apostolicum quo institute sunt diue congregationes B. M. de Trappa in Gallia, 1847 (Toulouse. 1876) ; Us de Vordre des cisterciens reformes precedes de la regie de S. Benolt et des constitutions, published by the general chapter of 1894 (Westmalle, 1895); ReglemenI de la Trappe du Rev. Pi-re Dom .Armand-Jean le Bouthillier de Ranee, revu par le ckapilre general de la congregation (Paris, 1878).

Edmond M. Obrecht.

Trasilla and Emiliana, Saints, aunts of St. Gregory the Great, \-irgins in the sixth century, given in the Roman MaitjTology, the former on 24 Dec, the latter on .5 Jan. St. Gregorv ("Hom.", XXXVIII, 15, on the Gospel of St Matthew, and "Lib. Dial.", IV, 16) relates that his father, the Senator Gordian, had three sisters who vowed them- selves to God and led a Ufe of virginity, fasting, and prayer in their own home on the Clivus Scauri in Rome. They were Trasilla (Tarsilla, Tharsilla, Thrasilla), Emihana, and Gordiana. Gordiana, led on at first by the words and example of her sisters, did not persevere but returned to the vanities of the world. After many years in the serWce of God, St. Felix III, an ancestor, appeared to Trasilla and bade her enter her abode of glory. On the eve of Christmas she died, seeing .lesus beckoning. A few days later she appeared to Emiliana, who had followed well in her footsteps, and invited her to the celebration of Epiphany in heaven. Tradition says that their relics and those of their mother, St. Silvia, are in the Oratory of St. Andrew on the Celian HiU.

Armellini. Le chiese di Roma (Rome, 1887), 127; Snow, 51. Gregory the Great (London, 1S92), 26.

Francis Mershman.

Treason, .\ccusations op. — A common misrepre- sentation concerning the EUzabethan persecution of English and Irish Catholics from 1.570 onwards is the statement that the victims devoted to imprison- ment, torture, and death suffered not for their religious belief but for treason against the queen and her government. This view, officially promulgated by Elizabeth's lord high treasurer, Wilham Cecil, Lord Burghley, in 1.5S;i, was constantly reiterated by the judges in the courts, by Protestant writers in their controversial works, and has thence made its way into popular manuals of history. At the present day it frequently reappears as one of the stock accusations brought against the Church by Anglican controversialists of various types. The simple fact that in very many instances those condemned to death ostensibly for treason were offered their lives and liberty if they would attend Anglican worship, shows conclusively that the martyrs did in fact suffer for religion; but at this epoch religion and pohtics were so inextricably confu.sed that this explanation, though valid in the ca.se of individual martyrs, does not suffice to meet the general accusation. As a recent .\nglican historian writes: "The vexed ques- tion whether the Romanists died for treason or for their faith imjilies an antithesis which had little meaning in that age of mingled politics and religion" (A. F. Pollard, " Politic;d History of Englimd", VI, 377). Everything centres round the excommunica- tion of Elizalieth by St. Pius ^■. •2^^ February, 1.';70. This art created a situation full of perplexity for English Catholics. It even underlies the history of the rising of the northern earls in 1569, for when they rose they had rea.son to believe that the excomnuini- cation had already taken place. Harassed as they