§66. AUGUSTINIANS, CARTHUSIANS, CAKMELITES. 363
they gradually increased to one hundred and sixty-eight. The order was formally recognized by Alexander III., 1170. The first Carthusian statutes were committed to writing by the fifth prior Guigo, d. 1137. The rule now in force was fixed in 1578, and reconfirmed by Innocent XL, 1682. l The monks lived in cells around a central church, at first two and two, and then singly.2 They divided their time between prayer, silence, and work, which originally consisted chiefly in copying books. The services celebrated in com mon in the church were confined to vespers and matins. The other devotions were performed by each in seclusion. The prayers were made in a whisper so as to avoid inter fering with others. They sought to imitate the Thebaid anchorites in rigid self-mortification. Peter the Venerable has left a description of their severe austerities. Their dress was thin and coarse above the dress of all other monks.3 Meat, fat, and oil were forbidden ; wine allowed, but diluted with water. They ate only bean-bread. They flagellated themselves once each day during the fifty days before Easter, and the thirty days before Christmas. When one of their number died, each of the survivors said two psalms, and the whole community met and took two meals together to console one another for the loss.4 No woman was allowed to cross the threshold. For hygienic purposes, the monks bled themselves five times a year, and were shaved six times a year.5 They avoided adornment in their
1 Nova coUectio statutorum Ord. Cartliusiensis, Paris, 1682.
2 For the plan of a Carthusian monastery, see Dr. Venables' art. Abbey, in "Enc. Brit.," I. 20 sq.
3 Vestes vilissimas ac super omne reliyionis propositum abjectissimas ipsoque visu horrendas assumpserunt. Pet. Ven., De miraculis, II. 28.
4 A movement among the Carthusians to pass over into other orders, where the discipline was less rigid, was severely rebuked by Innocent III. Hurter, IV. 161.
5 Medicinis, excepto cauterio et sanguinis minutione perraro utimur^ quoted by Hurter, IV. 154, from the Constitutions of Guigo. Bleeding for medicinal purposes seems to have been common in convents. It was
364 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
churches and church dignities.1 They borrowed books from Cluny and other convents for the purpose of copying them.2 The heads of the Carthusian convents are called priors, not abbots. In its earlier history the order received highest praise from Innocent III. and Peter the Venerable, Bernard, and Peter of Celle. Bernard shrank from interrupting their holy quiet by letters, and lauded their devotion to God. So at a later time Petrarch, after a visit to their convent in Paris, penned a panegyric of the order.
In England the Carthusians were not popular.3 They never had more than eleven houses. The first establishment was founded by Henry II., at Witham, 1180. The famous Charterhouse in London (a corruption of the French Char treuse), founded in 1371, was turned into a public school, 1611. In Italy the more elaborate houses of the order were the Certosa di San Casciano near Florence, the Certosa at Pisa, and the Certosa Maria degli Angeli in Rome.4
In recent times the monks of the Chartreuse became famous for the Chartreuse liqueur which they distilled. In its preparation the young buds of pine trees were used.
practised in the convent of Heisterbach, Csesar of Heisterbach, Dial., XL 2. According to the life of Bernard of Thiron, it was the custom in some con vents for monks suffering from headache or other physical ailments to have the abbot place his hands on their bodies, trusting to his miraculous power for healing. See Walter, Die ersten Wanderprediger Frankreichs, Leipzig, 1906, II. p. 50.
1 And yet they have furnished at least four cardinals, seventy archbishops and bishops, and have had rich churches noted for their works of art like the one in Naples, or the church at Pavia, where lapis lazuli is freely used. See Hurter, IV. 158.
2 Pet. Ven. , Epp. , I. 24, IV. 38. Peter gives a list of the books he sent.
3 " The discipline was too rigid, the loneliness too dreadful for our tastes and climate." Jessopp, The Coming of the Friars, p. 125.
4 The order was suppressed in France at the time of the Revolution. The monks, however, were permitted to return to Grand Chartreuse in 1816, paying a rental of 3000 francs to the government. The mother convent has again been broken up by the Associations Law of 1903. There were at that time one hundred and fifty monks in the house. Some of them went to Piedmont, and others to Tarragona, Spain, where they have set up a dis tillery for their precious liqueur.