(Order of), was instituted at Rome in the year 1108, under the pontificate of Innocent III. The founders whereof were John de Matha and Felix de Valois. His Holiness gave them permission to establish this order for the deliverance of captives, who groaned under the tyranny of the infidels: he gave them as a habit a white gown, ornamented with a red and blue cross. After the death of the two founders, Pope Honorius III. continued the order; and their rule was approved by his successor Clement IV. in 1367. At first they were not permitted to eat flesh; and when they travelled, were to ride only upon asses. But their rule was corrected and mitigated by the bishop of Paris, and the abbots of St Victor and St Geneviève, who allowed them to eat any kind of food, and to use horses. This order possessed, at one time, about 250 convents in 13 different provinces; six of which were in France; namely, France, Normandy, Picardy, Champagne, Languedoc, and Provence; three in Spain, viz. New Castile, Old Castile, and Arragon; one in Italy, and one in Portugal. There was formerly the province of England, where this order had 43 houses; that of Scotland, where it had nine; and that of Ireland, where it had 52; besides a great number of monasteries in Saxony, Hungary, Bohemia, and other countries. The convent of Cerfroy in France was head of the order. It is impossible for us to say what is now the state of the order, which can have no visible existence in France, and is probably suppressed even in Italy.