§ 66. AUGUSTLNIANS, CARTHUSIANS, CARMELITES. 367
After the success of the Franciscans and Dominicans, the Carmelites, with the sanction of Innocent IV., adopted the practice of mendicancy, 1245, and the coenobite life was substituted for life in solitary cells. The rules concerning clothing and food were relaxed to meet the climatic condi tions of Europe.
A division took place in the order in 1378. The wing, holding to the stricter rule as confirmed by Innocent IV., is known as the Carmelites of the Ancient Observance. Both wings have their respective generals. The Carmelite name most famous in the annals of piety is that of St. Theresa, the Spanish saint who joined herself to the Car melites, 1533. She aided in founding seventeen convents for women and fourteen for monks. This new branch, the Barefoot Carmelites, spread to different parts of Europe, Mt. Carmel, Africa, Mexico, and other countries. The monks wear leathern sandals, and the nuns a light shoe.1
Of the other numerous monastic orders, the following may be mentioned. The Antonites, or Brothers of the Hospital of St. Antonius2 are named after the Egyptian hermit, St. Anthony. The founder, Gaston, prayed to St. Anthony for the deliverance of his son from a disease, then widely preva lent, and called St. Anthony's fire, morbus sacer. The prayer was answered, and the father and his son devoted themselves to a religious life. The order was sanctioned by
Sabbath after their death, and whomever I find in purgatory I will free." One ground for doubting the authenticity of the bull is that Mary promises to forgive sins. Paul V., in 1613, decreed that this "pious faith" should be preached. See art. Sabbatina, in Wetzer-Welte, X. 1444-1447.
1 By the decision of Clement VIII., 1593, the Barefoot monks became an independent order, and elect their own general superior. Hurter, IV. 213, concludes his short account of the Carmelites by saying, that among other things which they used to exaggerate to a ridiculous extent was the number of their houses, which they gave at 7500, and of their monks, which they gave as 180,000.
2 Falco, Antoniance hist, compendium, Lyons, 1534. Uhlhorn, D. christl. Liebesthatigkeit d. Mittelalters^ Stuttg. 1884, 178-186, 343 sqq.
368 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
Urban II., 1095, and was intended to care for the sick and poor. In 1118 it received from Calixtus II. the church of St. Didier de Mothe, containing St. Anthony's bones. In 1218 Honorius III. gave the members permission to take monastic vows, and in 1296 Boniface VIII. imposed on them the Augustinian rule. They had houses in France, Ger many, Hungary, and Italy. It used to be the custom on St. Anthony's day to lead horses and cattle in front of their convent in Rome to receive a form of blessing.1
The Trinitarians, ordo sanctissima Trinitatis de redemptione captivorum, had for their mission the redemption of Christian captives out of the hands of the Saracens and Moors. Their founder was John of Matha (1160-1213). The order was also called the ordo asinorum, Order of the Asses, from the fact that its members rode on asses and never on horseback.2
The order of Font Evraud (Fontis Elraldi in Poitiers) had the peculiarity that monks and nuns were conjoined in associated cloisters, and that the monks were under the supervision of an abbess. The abbess was regarded as the representative of the Virgin Mary, and the arrangement as in conformity with the word of Christ, placing John under the care of Mary. A church built between the male and female cloisters was used in common. The order was founded by Robert d' Abrissel (d. 1117), whom Urban II. heard preach, and commissioned as a preacher, 1096. Rob ert was born in Brittany, and founded, 1095, a convent at Craon. He was a preacher of great popular power. The
1 The Antonites regarded St. Anthony as the patron of stable animals, a view popularly held in Italy. An example of this belief is given in the Life of Philip Schaff, 56 sq.
2 The Trinitarians were also called Maturines, from their house in Paris near St. Mathurine's chapel. They had a few houses in England. A Span ish order with the same design, the Ordo B. V. M. de Mercede redemptionis captivorum, was founded by Peter Nolasco and Raymond of Pennaforte. See Hurter, IV. 219.