On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
little wine for thy stomach , and thy often infirmities . " In the Doctor ' s letter to Mr . J . Toulmin , ( Pt . II . p . 70 , ) he says , " Now it is notorious that this life of
voluntary poverty and perpetual chastity continues to be vowed and observed by great numbers of both sexes in the Catholic Church , while it is nothing more than a subject of ridicule to the best of Protestants / ' Here he of
course alludes to the monastic lives of monks and nuns ; but every reasonable man must allow , that the utility of their seclusion from the world will , upon their merits or demerits , stand or fall . The first consideration will be the rules which every recluse was sworn to the observance of on their
admission , and , secondly , their employment within the walls of their incarceration . The evils attendant on the congregating so many individuals of either sex under one roof , must be great to a degree .
' With the Dominicans , silence was rigidly observed , and after Complin till Thirds , praying 100 or 200 times a-day . Only woollen in dress or beds—cloister and its cells , and in the ceils an image of the Virgin Mary and crucifix . — Knights Hospitalers . Never to sleep but clothed in camels' hair or some
such dress . Brothers incorrigible , after a third admonition , to be sent to Jerusalem on foot . The cross to be worn upon their robes and cloaks . —Knights Templars . Mass for a dying knight ,
apd 100 Lord ' s Prayers for him afterwards for 7 days . Three horses to every knight . One servant to every knight . Horses , arms , &c . to be found for knights who staid with them for a term . Linen shirts from Easter to All
Saints ; woollen at other times . Sleeping in their shirts and breeches . —Franciscans . On journeys to eat whatever was set before them . Short sermons , because our Lord ' s were such . Brothers
unable to observe the rule , to recur to the ministers . If unlearned , not to learn . —Gil her tine Nuns . Tithing of lambs , and the whole substance under the care of the nuns . To be shut in
by a ditch and wall or fence . Maundy Adoration of the Cro * s . To wash their hoods seven times a-yewr . i- ^ -JBrigettme Nuns . Beds of . straw . No secular person , male or female , to enter the pottae . < In the house was a grave con *
Untitled Article
stantly open , which . the abbess and convent visited daily , and performed divine service at . " This will suffice for a specimen of the monastic rules ; and now let us turn to the employment of their holy
observapts , especially at the season which is so recently past , and which , I conceive , will not be inapposite , an epitome whereof being repeated at every Roman chapel in the kingdom at and before JSaster * . " In tfce first nights of the Passion Week , if matins be
ended before day-break , let them ( the monks ) retire to rest , though it is laudable if they remain watching . After prime on these days , let the whole psalter be gone over in the choir ; after that let the Litany be sung in
prostrate position ; then let theip read till the time of shoeing themselves ; and after the chapter , let them unshoe themselves and wash the pavement of the church and the altar with holy water . Let no mass be said till this
be done ; after which let them wash their feet and re-shoe themselves . After sixths , let there be a mass , and such a number of poor as the abbot apT proves having been collected in the place , let them proceed to the Maundy ( which was done by washing , wiping and kissing their feet , and giving them water to wash their hands ., and money
and provisions ; the choir pinging suitable antiphons ) . " On Good Friday , the abbot , with the convent , went to church * The cross ( crucifix ) was brought befpre the altar , and an acolyth followed with a cushion , on which the cross was put . Then followed a religious service ,
during which the cross was exalted , and then uncovered . Upon this the abbot and aU the convent prostrated themselves before the cross , saying * the seven penitential psalms and suitable prayers . After which they kissed the cross , the abbot returning to hia seat ; the congregation did the same . As the burial of our Lord was on that
day , an image of a sepulchre was made on a vacant side of the altar , a veil drawn round it , and the cro §» laid therein . " A description of thifi ima * ginary sepulchre is thus given : " An image of God , Almighty rising put of the same sepulchre , with all ine ordinance that longeth thereto , that is to say , a lathe made of timbre ^ and wire-
Untitled Article
286 Superstitious Corruptions qfthe Romish Churcfu
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1821, page 286, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2500/page/30/
-