Religious ORDERS, are congregations or societies of monastics, living under the same superior, in the same manner, and wearing the same habit. Religious or-
(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 lesione, vel portare ignem vel ferrum ignitum sine lesione in manu. Recipe succum bismalvie, et albumen ovi, et semen ptylli et calcem, et pulveriza, et confice cum illo albumine ovi succum raphani; commisce; ex hac confectione illineas corpus tuum vel manum, et dimitte sicari, 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.
White 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.