foams in the chasm below, which grows | visitors at the monastery numbered seven.
deeper as the road ascends, till at last the Supper is prepared for all at the monas-
eye plunges with a shudder into the tery; and it was excellent for those who
wooded precipice. A huge, pointed rock do not mind the absence of meat, which
-le pic de l'Aiguille-surmounted with the Carthusians never eat, and never serve
a cross, rises between the road and the to their guests. It consisted of soup,
stream. Here also once existed a fort, omelette, fish, beans, sweets, and a glass
l'Eillette, constructed by the monks in the of Chartreuse at dessert.
"The English
fifteenth century to defend the road they ladies do not like our soup," said the kindly
had just made; but it was also demolished sister, diffidently handing a thick bread
in 1856.
soup, and seemed pleased that for once it
found favor.

An occasional traveller, a cart loaded with timber from the mountains, alone disturb this grand solitude. Leaving the stream, the road continues through the forest, and finally reaches an open space, where the buildings of the Chartreuse appear in sight, at the foot of a range of mountains, the highest of which is the Grand Som.

Those who look for the picturesque in architecture, or for treasures of art, need not go to the Grande Chartreuse-let them turn to the Certosa of Pavia. But the historical associations of eight centuries cast their own halo round the spot. From this parent institution the Carthusian convents over the whole world have been governed, for the prior of the Grande Chartreuse is the père général- the head of the whole order.

On arrival, the gentlemen walk to the monastery, where they are received by one of the brothers and shown to their cells. These are in a building across the courtyard, and were formerly destined for the priors who came from the provinces to attend the general chapter; and the strangers have their meals in the refectories which were used by the same priors. The ladies go to a house a few steps to the left, which was once the infirmary, and are welcomed by a nun from the Convent of the Sœurs de la Providence, near Grenoble, who, with three lay sisters, spends the summer there to receive the female visit ors. The small guests' rooms are much the same in both establishments, and are furnished in the simplest fashion, with a bed, chair, wash-hand stand, prie-dieu, crucifix, and one or two religious prints. The ladies have, however, the advantage of being able to replenish the scanty water-supply at the fountain before the infirmary, which, in the freshness of the early morning, in the midst of such surroundings, is peculiarly exhilarating.

The fathers do not allow their rest to be disturbed by the visitors, and as there was no opportunity of seeing the monastery in the evening, the gentlemen could find no better employment after supper than to visit their wives in the infirmary - for which permission is given, in one of the public rooms. One Frenchman, who had not the excuse of a wife, invented a cousinship for the occasion, and naturally claimed it, on arrival, with the youngest and prettiest. Thus a sociable, if not a monastic, evening was spent round the blazing fire till the hour of closing, nine o'clock, parted the company. The men are admitted to the night service in a gallery. Mass is said by the father-coadjutor for the nuns and lady visitors, soon after six o'clock A.M., in the small chapel of Notre Dame de la Salette, which adjoins the monastery. It is well known that no women, except royal personages, are shown over the monastery, and they have to content themselves with descriptions and photographs. Before the French Revolution no woman was allowed to enter even the precincts of the desert, and royal benefactresses implored in vain to be buried with the saints.

The Grande Chartreuse consists of a large mass of irregular buildings, which, as they are surrounded by a wall, can only be seen well from a height. The most interesting room in it is the chapter-room, which contains the portraits of all the heads of the order, beginning with St. Bruno, whose statue by Foyatier is over the chair where sits the père général. Many remarkable men from various countries have filled this place, and have steered the order through times of diffi culty. Below the portraits are painted scenes from the life of St. Bruno, copied from the paintings of Lesueur, which are now in the Louvre. In the hall, called It was a beautiful October evening when | l'Allée des Cartes, there are curious reprewe arrived at the Grande Chartreuse. sentations of old Carthusian monasteries The tourist season was drawing to a close, in various parts of Europe. Before the and only five ladies sat down to supper at French Revolution the collection was the long, hospitable table, while the male | almost a complete one, but there only reVOL. LXXIII. 3802

LIVING AGE.

mains about thirty of these paintings now. The library contains some twenty thousand volumes, and has been entirely collected in modern times. The fathers may freely borrow from it. From the earliest times, even when very poor, the Carthusians have had a good library, and have valued books as their most precious possessions. The books are called in the early statutes "the perennial food of souls," and they were placed under the care of the father-sacristan, who had also the care of the sacred vessels.*

teenth century on account of the time it wasted. In the room where he sleeps is a small dining-table, with wooden plate, spoon, and fork; and the oratory, where he performs the offices with the same ceremonial as in the choir- taking off and putting on the cowl, standing, kneeling, and lying flat on the ground. A bell calls the fathers simultaneously to their private devotions, as well as to those in the church.

In the staircase stands a cross, in remembrance of the following old legend During the fire of 1371 the general of told by a Carthusian writer of the fourthe order, mindful of the losses sustained teenth century. A novice of the order on a former occasion, called out, "Ad complained much of the rules, and espelibros, ad libros, leave everything else, my cially of having to wear the black cope of fathers, but save the books." Though the novitiate. One day he dreamt that he they were saved this time, the library was saw Christ, laden with a heavy cross, tryalmost completely destroyed by subse- ing with much difficulty to go up the stairquent fires, and the valuable one collected case of his cell; whereupon the novice, by Dom Le Masson, after the fire of 1676, moved with pity, helped to lift the cross, was scattered during the French Revolu- saying: “Lord, take it not amiss if I try tion. At this time also the archives of to assist thee; I cannot endure to see the monastery were for the most part lost. thee in such trouble." But the Lord A few valuable manuscripts, with beauti- turned indignantly towards him, and made ful illuminations done by the Carthusians, him desist, saying: "Dost thou presume found their way into the library at Gre-to lift this heavy burden while thou art not noble, where they may now be seen in willing to wear for my sake so light a thing glass cases. In the old days the Carthu- as a cope?" and disappeared, leaving the sians employed themselves in transcribing manuscripts; and from transcribers they became printers as soon as printing was invented. They have had their own authors, but these wrote chiefly on monastic matters, and are little known to the world at large.

The cells of the fathers are built round the cloister. There are thirty-six of them, one of which is not tenanted, and is alone shown. They are divided, like the earliest cells, into various compartments. On each door is the initial letter of the inmate's name, and a text or other inscription in Latin bearing on the monastic life, such as " Qui non reliquit omnia sua non potest esse discipulus tuus." Near the door is a little wicket, through which the father receives his food or anything else he may want. On the ground floor he has a little promenoir, or gallery, for walking in bad weather; a small garden, which he cultivates himself; a room with tools for carpentering; and next to it, the bûcher, or storeroom for wood. A staircase leads to a bedroom, an adjoining small study with bookshelves, and a room which was once used as a kitchen when the father cooked part of his own food, a custom which was abolished as early as the thir

La Grande Chartreuse, par un Chartreux, from

which much of my information is taken.

novice overwhelmed with shame and repentance. Since then every cell has had a cross near its staircase. In the Middle Ages the cells were foundations endowed by benevolent people, and in return prayers were said for their souls. Three times a day the fathers leave their cells to go to the offices - the night service, high mass, and vespers.

Once a week they take a walk together, called spaciement, of about three hours and a half, within the limits of the desert, and during that time they may talk.

They are called together for their walk by the same bell that tolls for the funerals, and they assemble in the Chapelle des Morts, where they hear a few verses from the "Imitation " read to them before they start. This chapel was built over the remains of the first disciples of St. Bruno, which were brought thither after the avalanche. Over the door there is a marble bust of Death, draping itself in a most pretentious way. This chapel is near the cemetery, where stone crosses with inscriptions mark the graves of the heads of the order. The other tombs have merely wooden crosses over them, and are nameless. The Carthusians are not buried in coffins, but each monk is laid in the earth on a wooden plank.

On Sundays the fathers dine together

in the refectory. They never speak there. | a partition. The Carthusians attach
Passages from the Scriptures, sermons or special meaning to these services.
homilies, are chanted to them in Latin
from a small tribune built in the wall, but
they are allowed to have a colloquy be-
tween nones and vespers.

The discipline of the Carthusians is very rigorous, and the order, therefore, never spread much among women. There are very few female Carthusian convents, and in these it was found necessary to relax somewhat the rules of silence and solitude, as they were too great a strain on the female constitution.

a

All the Carthusians agree [says one of them, quoted before] that this is their best moment. To sing the praises of God at the foot of the altar, in the silence and shadows of the night, when the world forgets God, and many offend Him, fills the soul with a joy and comfort which cannot be bought too dear, and the hours fly rapidly. The stranger from his gallery cannot form a clear idea of the office: not having a book in his hand, the meaning of the words escapes him, and the time must seem long to him. Not so with the Carthu

St. Bruno, though he lived the Carthusian in his stall; he sings, and understands sian life, did not formulate the rules himself. It was not till twenty-six years after his death that they were put into writing by Guigues, the fifth prior, under the name of consuetudines, or customs. They were, in fact, simply a record of customs that were followed, and that are still followed to this day. These rules all tend consistently to one end. "Contemplation" (says a Carthusian writer), or, in other words, to see, to love, and to praise God, "is the final end of the human soul in a future life.... To begin here on earth in an imperfect manner, or in the least imperfect manner possible, the life of contemplation which will be led in heaven is the object which the Carthusians propose to themselves." The solitude is intended to detach them from distracting objects, and to enable them to concentrate themselves; the silence is to make them hear the voice of God, which is not in the storm; the mortifications and privations are to free their souls from everything that might clog them and interfere with the end in view.

the mysterious meaning of the Psalms-that divine hymns which, for thousands of years, prophetic history of the Christian world, those the synagogue, and the Catholic Church after her, recite every day. He follows the numerous rites which have to be performed every moment; he seeks, finds, and applies to himself the Divine teaching that flows from the sacred text; and, finally, and above all, he "addresses to God his homage, his praise, and his songs.

severe

The Carthusians are the only order who are never allowed meat under any circumstances. The punishment for those who infringed the rule was at one time very -they were cut off from the order - but it was afterwards mitigated. They have a great monastic fast, which lasts from the 14th of September to Easter; and during that time, with few exceptions, they only have one meal a day.

They are frequently interrupted in their sleep. The night service begins at twelve, and lasts till two, and they are waked again at six A.M., or sometimes at five A.M. The night services are very striking. But for the faint glimmer of a single oil-lamp in the choir, and the lanterns which the fathers each bring with them, and which are sometimes put out during the service, the church is wrapt in darkness. Each stall is completely isolated by

The singing of the Carthusians is of the utmost simplicity, and somewhat monotonous. They have no part-singing. They are not allowed any musical instruments, and it is considered waste of time to practise singing. The religious emotions excited through the senses by elaborate church music are wholly alien to their sober and simple piety. This is not the only link between the Carthusian and the Calvinist.

The dress of the fathers is entirely of white wool, white being a symbol of the resurrection of Christ. The use of linen is forbidden. Even their sheets are of cloth. The difficulty of cleanliness under these circumstances would be to many of us the greatest of all mortifications, and it is comforting to hear what an old writer of the seventeenth century says about it :

C'est une chose générale par tout l'Ordre que Dieu n'a point voulu que les moines de cet Ordre soient affligez et inquiétez de ces exempté toutes leurs cellules, desquelles autrepuantes bestiales, appelées punaises, et en a ment et difficilement ils se pourraient garantir, pour y avoir grande disposition, à cause qu'ils couchent vestus, n'usent point de linge, changent peu souvent d'habits, ont leurs cellules faites de bois par dedans, leurs lits fermés de bois au lieu de courtines,* et le fouâre (la paillasse) de leur lit qu'ils sont si peu curieux de changer qu'il y en a qui ne le changent pas en vingt ans une fois.

The Carthusians are a living example

• They now have curtains.

of the fact that asceticism is not injurious | who had suddenly, without apparent reato health, for they reach a great age. son, left his regiment, to the regret of all Some of the popes, from benevolent mo- his comrades, and had made himself a tives, have wished to soften their rules. Carthusian. Thus Urban the Fifth, himself a Benedictine, proposed to mitigate their severity in four points. He proposed, among other things, that they should be allowed to eat meat in case of illness or infirmity. But the Carthusians implored the pope not to oblige them to depart from their ancient customs, arguing that for their order it might have serious consequences; and the sole mitigation they were obliged to accept was to wear a hat out of doors.

If the candidate is accepted at all, he goes through a month's probation, at the end of which the fathers vote by ballot whether he is to be admitted as a novice. The noviciate lasts at least a year, and again a ballot is taken. The novice then makes his first profession in the chapterroom. Kneeling, he repeats the sixteenth Psalm, and when he comes to the words, "The Lord is the portion of my inheri tance," the father-general takes from him the black cope, and puts the large white Carthusian garment, called cuculle over him.

One of the popes at Avignon also of fered to relax the rule of abstinence from meat in case of illness. This time the Carthusians sent as a protest a deputation Four years later the final solemn proof twenty-seven of their number, the young-fession is made, during high mass, at the est of whom was eighty, while the others foot of the altar, where the profès lays varied between ninety, ninety-three, and down his written declaration, " signed, ninety-five. Such an appeal was more not with his name, but with a cross, for he eloquent than words, and the pope was is now dead to the world." convinced. The fathers show their earnestness and good sense by not admitting any one into their order until they have very seriously tested his moral and physical fitness. Frequently after the trial the aspirant is refused, or retires of his own accord. Of all the ascetic orders, the Carthusian is the most spiritual in the true sense of the word, and to maintain their lofty standard, as they have indisputably done for eight centuries, they have had to sift carefully. To impose asceticism where it would be too great a strain on human nature is to degrade rather than to elevate. "It is better," says Dom le Masson, "to set fire to a cell than to put in it a Carthusian without a vocation."

Besides the fathers there are two categories of lay brothers: the frères convers, who have taken vows, and the frères donnés, who are only bound by a civil con. tract, though they may in course of time, after a trial of eleven years, became frères convers. The former are dressed in white, like the fathers; they wear beards, and have their heads shaved. The donnés wear brown on week-days and white on Sundays. These all do the practical work in and out of the house, and are responsible to the père procureur, who has charge of all temporal matters.

St. Hugh of Lincoln, of whom the Carthusians are justly proud, was once procureur of the Grande Chartreuse. In Sometimes the fathers have gone so far those days, and until the end of the sevenas to err on the safe side. It is told of teenth century, the père procureur lived one of the greatest generals of the order, with the frères convers in an establishment Dom Jean Pégon, that he was refused, called La Correrie, on the road from the when he first presented himself, on the Grande Chartreuse to Grenoble by the ground that he seemed neither sufficiently Sappey — a kind of supplementary Charrobust nor instructed. But the father- treuse, where all the practical work was general, touched by his disappointment, done, and where the servants of the priors recommended him to try at another Char- who came to the general chapter received treuse, where there was a want of men. hospitality. It was destroyed by a fire in He was accepted there, and thirty-eight 1674, and partly rebuilt. During the years later he entered the Grande Char- French Revolution it fell into ruins, aud treuse as its father-general. At his instal- the Carthusians have since turned it into lation he preached on the text: "The a hospital for the sick poor of the neighstone which the builders rejected is be-borhood. come the headstone of the corner."

The Carthusian vocation takes some by storm. There are various examples of it in the past, and we were told by a French lady on the spot of an instance in the present day a young Prince de B

The Carthusians, owing to their own exertions, once had large possessions. They turned part of the desert into arable, and part of it into pasture land, and they kept large flocks and herds. Pope Innocent the Fourth allowed them as many as

sixty cows. Their iron-foundries were | and, according to all ecclesiastical histo-
famous throughout Dauphiné on account rians, they have always led irreproacha-
of the excellent work they produced. ble lives. Their order has never required
They manufactured their own cloth, they
had their own printing-presses.