Another religious foundation named Sieczechow is thirty-eight miles distant from the foregoing monastery of the Holy Cross, situated near Ruthenos, in the same diocese of Cracow, and half-a-mile from the Royal castle of Stozicza, a residence of the King of Cracow (Poland). It lies between the two towns, Radom and Lublin. The third house is Plotsko, founded in the city so named. The bishop of this place took part in the Council of Constance, and our abbot of Cluni was well acquainted with him. This monastery, again, is distant from Tyniec some sixty miles. A fourth monastery, Mogilno, in the diocese of Gnesnen, is also sixty miles distant from that of Tyniec, but not more than sixteen from Plotsko, in a northerly direction, whilst from the town of Gnesnen the distance may be about four. The fifth convent, named Lublin, is in the diocese of Posen, and not above four miles from the city of Posen, but sixty miles distant from Tyniec. The abbots of these five congregations are infulati,214 i.e., have all received investiture from Rome, excepting one, the abbot of Plotsko; and there are at least four dependent cells to each of these abbeys. All the foregoing particulars have been set down in writing by me, Brother John de Montenoyson, professed monk of the Order of Cluni, and professor of theology in the University of Paris, and copied from an authenticated report of Brother Nicholas Nason, one of the fraternity of Tyniec, in the year of our Lord 1418, and February 16, during the sitting of the Council of Constance. We conclude these Visitations with the following extracts. They show rather a melancholy view of spiritual concerns; and belong rather to the Chapter-General decisions mentioned hereafter. Being from another source, the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal at Paris, they are given apart. 214 Infulatı may be said of all priests wearing chasubles, or mostly performing divine offices in choir. In the case of abbots or ecclesiastical dignitaries we take the word in the above sense. DEBT 1303-1446, AND Some have mort de Valpaco an es cuant qzed non conIts rationalibus, ss: mielicet, quod ipse - dominoris, nec habent longe distantibus な a in via per s et detestabiles homines sscas se morales, quod non alettendon se in hieme red talent necessarum nec prebendam Meniles incedunt lundbese, 16 a "exillus stent scares mulleres; multæ le aconselva sant Aveo 1-11, In prioratu de Bissellem ceskerm, opposite to Breisach immediate dependente & pinnstu lat Basileensis, est prier cum menacho qui sunt Taupervo siue culpa ipsorum: nihil ergo Possunt bune dintores, quousque deveniant ad pliciei 201turam. P.555.). (Anno 1927). In prierata Ensensyngheim (Ensionen, Haut-Rhin. dniunt infinitores, qued illam mulerem quam emit, omnino a se removeat et abjiciat, sub pæna privationis benedeйi. [P. 568.) (Anno 1428.) In prioratu de Esensingen (Ensisheim), campanile et domus prioratus indigent reparatione; diffiniunt diffinitores quod dictam ecclesiam et domum reparari faciat, et de cetero nullas mulieres secum habeat. [P. 98.] (Anno 1455.) In prioratu de Valpaco (Feldbach) prior est in miserabili statu; quam plura altaria sunt destructa, certæ capellæ collapsæ, ecclesia omnino ruinosa et male ædificata; prioratus in pluribus debitis gravatur; certa ornamenta ecclesiæ et immobilia impignorata et alienata, et certa bona mobilia per priorem furtive ablata. [P. 618.] (Anno 1529). Item quia maledictam et utinam inauditam sectam illam Luteranam occulatim in dies magis ac magis pullulare videmus; diffinitionem predecessorum nostrorum renovantes, auctoritate apostolica inhibemus in virtute sancte obedientie, et sub excommunicationis pæna, omnibus et singulis fratribus nostris, quocumque nomine conseantur, et quacumque præfulgeant dignitate, ne illos sordidos et venenatos libros Luteranos jamdiu per sacrosanctam apostolicam sedem et sanctissimam Parisiensem universitatem damnatos, de cetero legere seu penes se servare presumant; sed si quos penes se habeant, infra triduum a die noticie hujus inhibitionis nostre computandum, igni aut suis superioribus tradant. [Bibl. de l'Arsenal; MS. 777, 778; Visites de Cluny, Thus far the Visitations we have been able to obtain. Others doubtless exist, among the records of different Government and Continental ecclesiastical archives, the transcript of which would naturally have rendered the present undertaking more complete, by how much the more the present inquiry is capable of further development. We come now to a totally new feature in the investigation of monastic records, and one which, to our knowledge, has never yet been undertaken, the results of such Visitations; the resolutions, namely, orders, and sentences pronounced thereon, and promulgated by Cluni's ruling power, the Chapter-General of the Order. This seems to have been a part of the subject of chief importance, but hitherto wanting, and we therefore fulfil a satisfactory task in drawing attention to the same. CHAPTERS-GENERAL OF THE ORDER OF CLUNI, FROM 1259 TO 1768. RESOLUTIONS, DECREES, ORDERS, AND [Extracted from the original documents in the We have already, at pp. 8, 9, shown how the ChapterGeneral was constituted, and have little more to add to that explanation than what follows. The ChapterGeneral was later in point of date to the institution of abbatial Visitations, the one being the result of the other; but both were placed on a determinate footing in 1233, during the Pontificate of Pope Gregory IX. A Bull of that year (Jan. 13) is given in the Bullarium Sacri ordinis Cluniacensis (p. 110) regarding the same :-" Et in eo (capitulo) diffinitores de abbatibus et prioribus Cluniacensis ordinis statuantur, et visitatores per singulas provincias ordinentur, visitationes, forma et correctionis modo juxta Cisterciensem consuetudinem observatur." A selected number of this Chapter were nominated to act in the name of the whole assembly, and received the name of "Diffinitores" (Définiteurs).215 At first, 215 As the different extracts extend over several centuries, it has been impossible to place them exactly in order of date. They have been chronologically arranged as far as possible, so as not to interfere with the different sources whence they were derived. 216 The Diffinitores [or Definitores] (for which the French have the corresponding name Définiteurs) were, according to Ducange, (among the Augustinans and Benedictines), nine members elected at the first meeting of a General Chapter, to whom was delegated the principal (or sole) authority of the Chapter, in passing sentence, or resolutions, in respect of whatever came before it. Whether elected by suffrage, or selected by the Abbot, is not said. four in number, they comprised two abbots and two priors. Pope Nicholas IV., by his Bull of 12 Sept., 1289, augmented the number to fifteen. The séances of the Chapter-General were held every year at Cluni on the third Sunday after Easter (on which is sung Jubilate), and all abbots and priors not attending were called upon to send in an excuse, generally by one of their own brethren, for their non-appearance. Those of the Chapter thus appointed to act (as observed), pronounced sentence, made orders, and passed resolutions and enactments; promulgating the same, under the name of " Deffinitiones Provinciarum." Before such Chapters or tribunal all Visitation-Reports were read, and resolutions adopted thereon. It will not escape notice among the following entrieswe simply draw attention to the fact that, whereas the resolutions passed on certain English houses rest entirely alone, and the Visitations of which they are the sequel, are not forthcoming, the latter must manifestly have perished. They are not (as we know) among the Archives of Cluni in the French National Library; they exist nowhere, therefore, in any probability. That we have, consequently, arrived at this knowledge, and can fix the dates of such as are wanting, is so far historic gain. [RESOLUTIONS IN RESPECT OF ENGLISH AND GERMAN FOUNDATIONS IN 1291.] [Only those entries have been extracted from the following documents in the French National Library, which relate to England and Germany, viz., after "Provence," and immediately preceding "Poitou."] Visitatio Anglie. § In domo Sancti Pancracii Lewensis [St. Pancras of Lewes] plura bona alienata et translata dicuntur in secu |