Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

RELIGIOUS HOUSES. 343
82; Benedictine off-shoots, viz., Cistercian, 75 ;
Chmiacs, 21 ; Austin Canons, 170 ; White Canons
(Premonstratensians), 31 ; Gilbertine Canons, 24 ;
Carthusians, 9. Then as to the orders of Friars,
the Franciscans (Grey Friars) possessed 62 houses ;
the Dominicans (Black Friars), 56 ; the Carmelites
(White Friars), 51 ; the Augustiniaus, also distinguished
their black habit, and ^B____B sometimes called l_
Black Friars, 46.1 The houses of Knights' Hospitallers
were very numerous. The Trinitarians, who
were often called Eed or Maturin Friars, possessed
11 houses in England at the time of the Dissolution.2
Some of these houses, though fewer than
is generally supposed, were immediately subject to
the Holy See, ad Romanam Ecclesiam nullo media
pertinentes There were 132 houses of nuns, belonging
to various orders, amongst them the royal
abbeys of Shaftesbury and Syon.
Besides these numerous men and women in
religious houses, the Order of Widowhood received
a special consecration from the Church. Matthew
Paris mentions a certain Cecilia who, in presence of
St. Edmund of Canterbury, made a vow of chastity
in her widowhood, and received from him the marriage
ring with a gown de russcto.* Lord Pembroke,
1 Gasquet, II. Appendix v. and I. Appendix.
2 Catholic Directory, 1st edition, p. 810.
3 Electionis Formula. Begistrum Abbaticz Johannis Jrhetham-
*tede secundw, p. 10.
4 Chronica Major, v. p. 235.