Religious ORDERS, are congregations or societies of monastics, living under the same superior, in the same manner, and wearing the same habit. Religious orders
(A) In his work De Mirabilibus Mundi, at the end of his book De Secretis Mulierum, Amstelod. 1702, 12mo, p. 100. Experimentum mirabile quod facit hominem ire in ignem sine læsione, vel portare ignem vel ferrum ignitum sine læsione in manu. Recipe succum bismalvæ, et albumen ovi, et semen pſylli et calcem, et pulveriza, et confice cum illo albumine ovi succum raphani; commisce; ex hac confectione illineas corpus tuum vel manum, et dimitte ficari, et postea iterum illineas, et post hoc poteris audacter sustinere ignem sine nocumento.
Order II Ordinance.
ders may be reduced to five kinds; viz. monks, canons, knights, mendicants, and regular clerks. See MONK, CANON, &c.
Father Mabillon proves, that till the ninth century, almost all the monasteries in Europe followed the rule of St Benedict; and that the distinction of orders did not commence till upon the reunion of several monasteries into one congregation: that St Odo, abbot of Cluny, first began this reunion, bringing several houses under the dependence of Cluny: that, a little afterwards, in the 11th century, the Camaldulians arose; then, by degrees, the congregation of Vallombrosa; the Cistercians, Carthusians, Augustines; and at last, in the 13th century, the Mendicants. He adds, that Lupus Servatus, abbot of Ferrières, in the ninth century, is the first that seems to distinguish the order of St Benedict from the rest, and to speak of it as a particular order.
While ORDER denotes the order of regular canons of St Augustine. See AUGUSTINES.
Black ORDER denoted the order of BENEDICTINES.
These names were first given these two orders from the colour of their habit; but are disused since the institution of several other orders, who wear the same colours.
Gray ORDER was the ancient name of the CISTERCIANS; but since the change of the habit, the name suits them no more.