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LEFT TRAPHAGEN 469 TBAPPIST the South Dakota School of Mines. He was the author of bulletins on "Drinking Water"; "The Alkali Soils of Montana"; "The Sugar Beet in Montana"; etc.; and of "A New Departure in Cyanide Treat- ment" (1899) ; "Some Notes on the Esti- mation of Carbohydrates" (1899) ; "Notes on Alkali Soil in Montana" (1899); "Food Adulteration in Mon- tana"; "Labor and Industry" (1900) ; etc. TRAPPIST, a religious order, cele- brated for its extraordinary austerities, is so called from an abbey of the Cis- tercian order, found. 'd in the middle of the 12th century, in the narrow valley of La Trappe, near Mortagne, in the Norman department of Orne — called "the trap" because cf its inaccessibility. In the first half of the 17th century the abbey of La Trappe fell, with other ecclesiastical preferments, to Dominique Armand-Jean le Bouthillier de Ranee (1626-1700), originally an accomplished but worldly courtier, who suddenly turned his back on the vanities of the world. It was in 1662 that he com- menced his reforms. At first he encoun- tered violent opposition from the breth- ren; but his firmness overcame it all. He himself entered on a fresh novitiate in 1663, made anew the solemn profes- sion, and was reinstalled as abbot. The monks were forbidden the use of meat, fish, wine, and eggs. All intercourse with externs was cut off. The reform of De Ranee is founded on the principle of perpetual prayer and entire self-abnegation. By the Trappist rule the monks are obliged to rise at two o'clock A. M. for matins in the church, which last till half-past three; and after an interval occupied in private devotion they go at half-past five to the office of prime, which is followed by a lecture. At seven they engage in their several daily tasks, indoors or out, according to the weather. At half -past nine they return to the choir for successive offices of terce, sext, and none; at the close of which they dine on vegetables dressed without but- ter or oil, or on vegetable soup, and a little fruit. Milk and cheese are used save in time of fast; the sick are allowed eggs. The dietary is not the same in all the houses of the order. In some, light beer or wine is sparingly allowed. The principal meal is succeeded by manual labor for two hours, after which each monk occupies an hour in private prayer or reading in his own cell till four o'clock, when they again assemble in the choir for vespers. The supper consists of bread and water, and after a short in- terval of repose is followed by a lecture. At six o'clock they recite compline in choir, and at the end spend half an hour in meditation, retiring to rest at eight o'clock. The bed is a hard straw mat- tress, with a coarse coverlet; and the Trappist never lays aside his habit, even in case of sickness, unless it should prove extreme. Perpetual silence is prescribed, save in cases of necessity, and at cer- tain stated times; only the abbot and the guest-master are allowed to speak to strangers. But conversation by means of manual and other signs are practiced. The minor practices and observances are devised so as to remind the monk at every turn of the shortness of life and the rigor of judgment; and the last scene of life is made signal in its austerity by the dying man being laid during his death-agony on a few handfuls of straw, that he may, as it were, lay aside on the very brink of the grave even the last fragment of earthly comfort to which the necessities of natural life had till then compelled him to cling. The reformed order of La Trappe scarcely extended beyond France in the first period of its institution. The in- mates of La Trappe shared, at the Rev- olution, the common fate of all the re- ligious houses of France; they were com- pelled to quit their monastery. But a considerable number of them found a shelter at Valsainte, in the canton of Fribourg, in Switzerland. In the vicis- situdes of the Revolutionary War they were driven from this house; and a com- munity numbering about 250, together with a large number of nuns who had been established for purposes of educa- tion, found refuge at Constance, at Augs- burg, at Munich, and even in Russia. During the Revolutionary War small com- munities obtained a certain footing in Italy, Spain, America, England, and, not- withstanding the prohibitory law, even in France, at Mont Genevre. After the Restoration they resumed, by purchase (1817), possessions of their old home at La Trappe, which continued to be the head monastery of the order. During the course of the next 50 years they formed many establishments in France, the house of La Meilleraye being one of the famous abbeys. When, in 1880, 1,450 brethren of the order were expelled from France, only a comparatively small number v/ere left. In England the Cistercian house of St. Bernard, in Leicestershire, is Trappist; so is the convent at Stapehill, in Dorset. In Ireland the order has houses at Mount Melleray, near Cappoquin; in Waterford, and at Roscrea, in Tipperary. America has houses at Gethsemane, in Kentucky; at New Melleray, near Du- buque, la.; at Tracadie, in Nova Scotia,