§ 66. AUGUSTiNIA^S, CARTHUSIANS, CARMELITES. 365
4. The Carmelites, or the Order of the Blessed Mary the Virgin of Mt. Carmel, had their origin during the Crusades, 1156. l The legend carries their origin back to Elijah, whose first disciples were Jonah, Micah, and Obadiah. Obadiah's wife became the first abbess of the female community. Their history has been marked by much division within the order and bitter controversies with other orders.
Our first trustworthy notice is derived from Phocas, a Greek monk, who visited Mt. Carmel in 1185. Berthold of Calabria, a Crusader, made a vow under the walls of Antioch that in case the Christians were victorious over Zenki, he would devote himself to the monastic life. The prayer was answered, and Berthold with ten companions established himself on Mt. Carmel.2 The origin of the order became the subject of a violent dispute between the Carmelites and the Jesuits. The Jesuit Papebroch precipitated it in 1668 by declaring that Berthold was the founder. He was an swered by the Carmelite Daniel 3 and others who carried the origin back to Elijah. Appeal was made to Innocent XII., who, in 1698, in the bull redemptoris, commanded the two orders to maintain silence till the papal chair should render a decision. This has not yet been done.4
The community received its rule about 1208 from Albert, afterwards patriarch of Constantinople. It was confirmed
1 Ordo B. M. V. de Monte Carmelo is the name given by Innocent IV. The brethren are called fratres eremiti de monte Carmdo, by Honorius III., in his sanction of the order, 1226. The art. Carmelite^ in Wetzer-Welte, II. 1966-1976, and Karmeliter, in Herzog, X. 84-88, give a good account and contain lists of literature. Potthast, I. No. 7524.
2 The convent on Mt. Carmel is a conspicuous object as you approach the coast from the Mediterranean, and from the hills round about Nazareth. The present building was erected in 1828, and is an hour's walk from Haifa. Napoleon used the former buildings for a hospital during his Syrian campaign.
8 Speculum Carmelitarum seu historia Eliani ordinis, 4 vols. Antwerp, 1680.
4 Benedict XIII., in 1725, gave quasi-sanction to the order's claim by per mitting it to erect a statue to Elijah in St. Peter's. It bears the inscription Universus ordo Carmelitarum fundatori suo St. Elite prophetce erexit.
366 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
by Honorius III., 1226. Its original sixteen articles gave the usual regulations against eating meat, enjoined daily silence, from vespers to tierce (6 P.M. to 9 A.M.), and pro vided that the monks live the hermit's life in cells like the Carthusians. The dress was at first a striped garment, white and black, which was afterwards changed for brown.
With the Christian losses in Palestine, the Carmelites be gan to migrate westwards. In 1238 they were in Cyprus, and before the middle of the thirteenth century they were settled in far Western Europe. The first English house was at Alnwick, and a general chapter was held at Aylesford, 1246.
From the general of the order, Simon Stock, an English man (1245-65), dates the veneration of the scapulary,1 a jacket which he received from the Virgin Mary. It exempts, so the story runs, those who die with it on, from the fires of purgatory. Mary promised to go down to purgatory every Saturday, and release those who have worn it. The story is included in the Breviary,2 and was pronounced true and to be believed by all, by Benedict XIV. In 1322 John XXII., in obedience to a vision, issued the famous bull Sabbatina, which promised to all entering the order, deliverance from purgatory by Mary, the first Saturday after their decease.3
1 The Carmelites are often called the Brotherhood of the Scapulary. The scapulary is a sleeveless jacket covering the breast and back, and was originally worn over the other garments when the monk was at work. The garment has been the frequent subject of papal decree down to Leo XIII., 1892. July 16 has been set apart since 1587 as a special festival of the scap ulary, and is one of the feasts of the Virgin. A work has been written on the proper use of the scapulary, by Brocard : Eecueil des instructions sur la devotion au St. Scapulaire de Notre Dame de Monte Carmelo, Gand, 4th ed. 1875. Simon Stock was one hundred when he died.
2 Hergenrother-Kirsch, Kirchengesch., II. 362, says it is introduced as a matter of "pious opinion, " fromme Meinung.
3 The original bull has not been found, and its authenticity has been a sub ject of warm dispute in the Catholic church. The pertinent words of Mary are Ego mater gratiose descendam sabbato post eorum mortem et, quot inveniam in purgatorio, liberabo. "I, mother, will graciously descend on the