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 CARMELITE

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CARMELITE

life to contemplation, and in the constitutions and other documents exceptions are sometimes made in favour of convents "situated in forests", far away from human habitations. Among such convents were, to mention only two, Hulne in England and Licdekerke in the Netherlands. One of the first Dis- calced Carmelites in Spain, Thomas of Jesus, who has already been mentioned in connexion with the mis- sions, conceived the idea of founding a "desert" where the religious should find the opportunity for devoting their whole time and energy to the cultiva- tion of a spirit of contemplation. With the exception of four or five who were to remain there permanently, each friar was to spend but a year in the "desert", and afterwards return to the convent whence he had come, so that, the whole community being composed of strong and healthy members, no relaxation however slight should become necessary. After some hesita- tion the superiors took up the idea, and a suitable site having been found, the first " desert " was inaugurated 28 June, 1592, at Bolarque, on the banks of the Tagus in New Castile. The result was so encouraging that it was decided to found such a house in every prov- ince, so that there have been altogether twenty-two "deserts", many of which, however, have been swept away during periods of political agitation. They were constructed after the manner of a charterhouse, but on a smaller scale. A number of cells, each forming a little house of four rooms with a garden at- tached, were built in the shape of a quadrangle, one wing of which contained the chapel, sacristy, library, etc. In the older "deserts" the chapel was placed in the centre of the quadrangle. The refectory, kitchen, robery and other dependencies were connected with the principal cloister; all the buildings were plain, imposing on account of their austerity rather than their ornamental character. The manner of life, too, resembles that of the Carthusians, but is far more severe. The chant of the Divine Office is more solemn than in other convents; more time is devoted to mental prayer; the fast is extremely strict, the silence all but uninterrupted ; only once a fortnight the hermits after the manner of the ancient anchorites, assemble for a conference on some spiritual subject; many volumes of such conferences are still preserved and some have been printed. An hour's social intercourse follows the conference. The time not devoted to prayer and reading is spent in manual labour, the religious finding occupation in the cultivation of their gardens. Study, strictly speaking, is not allowed, lest the strain upon the mind should become too severe.

Each "desert" possessed extensive grounds which were laid out as forests with numerous rivulets and ponds. At equal distances from the convent and from each other there were small hermitages con- sisting of a cell and chapel, wliither the friars retired at certain periods of the year, as Advent and Lent, in order to live in a solitude still more profound than that of the convent. There they followed all the exercises of the community, reciting their Offices at the same time and with the same solemnity as the brothers in choir, and ringing their bell in response to the church bells. Early in the morning two neigh- bouring hermits served each other's Mass. On Sun- days and feasts they went to t lie convent for Mass, chapter, and Vespers, and returned in the evening to their hermitages, with provisions for the ensuing week. While in the hermitage they fared on bread, fruit, herbs, and water, but when in the convent their meals were less frugal, although even then the fast

almost equalled thai of the early monks. Notwith- standing this rigorous observance the "deserts" were never used as places of punishment for those guilty of any fault, but on the contrary as a refuge for those aspiring after a higher life. No one was sent to tin' "desert" except upon his own urgent request and

even then only if liis superiors judged that the appli- cant had the physical strength and ardent zeal to bear and to profit by the austerity of the hermit life. Among the more celebrated " deserts" should be men- tioned those of San Juan Bautista, founded in 1606 at Simla Fe, New Mexico; Bussaco (162S). near Coim- bra, Portugal, now a horticultural establishment and recreation ground; Massa (16S2), near Sorrento, Italy, well known to visitors to Naples on account of the marvellous view of the gulfs of Naples and Salerno to be obtained from the terrace of the convent: ami Tarasteix (1859), near Lourdes, France, founded by Father Hermann Cohen.

The Calced Carmelites tried to introduce a similar institute but were less successful. Andre Blanchard obtained in 1641 the papal approbation for the foun- dation of a convent at La Graville near Bernos, in France, where the original rule of St. Albert, without the mitigations of Innocent IV should be kept, and the life led by the hermits on Mount Carmel copied; all went well until the arrival, in 1649, of a pseudo- mystic, Jean Labadie, formerly a Jesuit, who in an incredibly short time succeeded in so influencing the majority of the religious, that at length the bishop had to interfere and dissolve the community. An- other " desert " was founded by the Calced Carmelites in 1741 at Neti near Syracuse in honour of the Ma- donna della Seala. A suggestion made in the course of the seventeenth century to the Discalced Carmel- ites of the Italian congregation to introduce perpetual mental prayer after the manner in which in some con- vents the perpetual chant of the Divine < Mice, or Per- petual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is prac- tised, namely by relays of religious, was decided against by the chapter as being altogether unsuitable.

Exterior Occupations. — Apart from the purely con- templative life led in the "deserts", and the specific religious exercises practised in all convents (though in different measure), the chief occupation of the order consists now in the care of souls and missionary work. So long as the Carmelites occupied a well-defined position at the universities and took part in the aca- demic work, a large number cultivated almost exclu- sively the higher studies. During the Middle Ages the subjects of Carmelite writings were almost invari- able, including the explanation of a certain number of Biblical writings, lectures on the various books of Aristotle, the Sentences, and canon law, and sermons De tempore and De Sanctis. In the long list of Car- melite writings preserved by Trithemius, Bale, and others, these subjects occur over and over again. Several friars are known to have cultivated the study of astronomy, as John Belini (1370) and Nicholas de Linne (1386); others concerned themselves with the occult sciences, e. g. William Sedacinensis, whose great work on alchemy enjoyed considerable vogue during the Middle Ages; Oliver Golos was expelled the order on account of his too great knowledge of astrology (1500). There were poets, too, within the order, but while many were justly praised for purity and elegance of style, as Lawrence Burelli (c. 1480), only one secured lasting renown, Blessed Baptista Mantuanus. The other fine arts were also repre- sented, painting chiefly by Filippo Lippi of Florence, whose life, unfortunately, caused him to be dismissed with dishonour. Although many friars cultivated music, no really prominent name can be mentioned. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries allusion is fre- quently made to Carmelite organists serving various churches outside the order while one obtained leave from the general to repair organs wherever his services might be required.

In the University. — When the Carmelites first ap- peared at tin- universities, the two great schools of the

Dominicans ami Franciscans were already formed,

and there remained no room for a third. Some at- tempts to elevate the teaching of John Baconthorpe