through fear of future want, he used to order whatever it was to be thrown into the river *. During a famine in 1304, William, abbot of Morimond, gave up three thousand head of cattle to feed the peoplet. The "stupid" friars of St. Yuste were not found deficient in customs of charity when the Emperor Charles V. came to live with them. Of wheat six hundred fanegas, or about one hundred and twenty quarters, in ordinary years, and in years of scarcity sometimes as much as fifteen hundred fanegas, or three hundred quarters, were distributed at the convent gate; large donations of bread, meat, oil, and a little money, were given publicly or in private at Easter, Christmas, and other festivals; and the sick poor in the village of Quacos were freely supplied with food, medicine, and advice ‡. At the present day the Trappists every where by general consent are regarded as the fathers of the poor in the locality where their monastery stands. We read in monastic annals that sometimes even delicacies used to be distributed; the young used to have fruit given to them, adults the best provisions. Albert de Chranichborn, abbot of Porta in 1311, ordained that at All Souls every year a certain portion of white bread of the first quality should be given to all the poor, including the prisoners of the province §. The monastery supplied lodging and food for three days to all who required either. Morimond, for instance, was an asylum open to all travellers of all countries, who were received without money and without passports ||. When Goldsmith was travelling on the continent, without a penny in his pocket, he availed himself of the custom which prevailed in convents, where any poor wandering scholar, by taking part in the philosophical disputations which used to be held on certain days, could claim a gratuity in money, a dinner, and a bed for one night, being as sure of a reception in these learned houses, which was as free from humiliation, as in the cottages of the peasantry. "With the members of these establishments," said he, “I could converse on topics of literature, and then I always forgot the meanness of my circumstances." But when he returned to England," says his biographer, "he felt all his loneliness and destitution. How was he to travel there? purse was empty; his philosophy was no longer of any avail. There were no convents; and as to the learned and the clergy, not one of them would give a vagrant scholar a supper and a night's lodging for the best thesis that ever was argued ¶.” By an easy transition we proceed, then, to an observation of the hospitality furnished by monasteries in conformity with the Raderus, Bavaria Sancta, iv. 68. + Dubois. 66 His S Chronic. Portensis. ¶ W. Irving's Goldsmith, 38. religious obligation imposed by Christianity. From the earliest times we find a sense of this duty actuating monks. So in the lives of the fathers we read, "When the servants of God perceived that any one came to them, immediately they ran to meet him, and receiving him as an angel of God, they washed his feet, invited him to prayer, placed a table, and fulfilled all the offices of charity according to the divine commands." Blessed Apollonius prescribed this to the brethren, saying, "Quasi Dominum suscipiamus advenientem," for he added, " Hospes fui et suscepistis me." Accordingly we read, " On our approach, blessed Apollonius came forth to meet us, prostrated himself on the ground, and then, rising, saluted us with a kiss. Then, on entering the monastery, we were led to pray in the church as usual, after which he supplied us with all things needful for the refreshment of the body." Abbot Cassian said, “We came from Palestine to Egypt to a certain father, and when he showed us hospitality, we asked him why he did not observe his rule? and he replied, Fast is always with me, but I cannot keep you always with me; and fast is voluntary, but charity of ceaseless obligation."" The hospitable and holy reception of all strangers in monasteries recals the ancient world, and strikes every one with an irresistible charm. Few can visit such a house without being struck with the kind and gracious reception that they meet with. The words, the looks, the turns given to every thing are friendly. "Hier ist ein junge Fremde," said one of the friars to another, after a few words of conversation with me at the gate, as he introduced me into the cloister at Sursee, when they proceeded to welcome me, not as a stranger whose unbidden presence was displeasing, but as a favoured friend. How often in recent times can such old men be observed leading through the inner doors of their convent some traveller whose looks, perhaps, betray his hatred of religion, yet still ushering him farther, 6 "With reconciling words and courteous mien, Turning into sweet milk the sophist's spleen !" In one very ancient rule there is a curious clause respecting a danger, which indicates the practice of an Homeric simplicity in receiving guests; for we read as follows: "The cells of strangers should be placed apart from the monastery, with beds ready, where unknown persons may sleep and lay down their sacks, in which no tools or utensils of the monastery should be left, lest perchance those who are thought spiritual guests may turn out to be thieves. Two brothers are to be deputed to watch them; they are to sleep in the same cell with them, so that if * De Vit. SS. Patrum, c. 13. one of the strangers should wish to go to the church in the night, another, through fatigue, be unwilling to rise, there should be a guardian to watch each of them, both him going through the obscure places of the monastery to the church, and him remaining in his bed. And the door of the cell should be locked from within, and the key hidden, so that he who wishes to leave it must rouse the guardians to have the doors opened, in order that by these means charity may be exercised, and the things of the monastery kept safe. Similarly during the day, if one of the guardians be occupied, the other must keep a watch over the strangers from afar*.” The zeal, too, with which strangers were received had an Homeric, or rather Biblical character. Father James, of St. Martin, prior of the convent of Mercy at Barcelona, used to lie in wait for pilgrims in the street, like another Abraham, and introduce them into the convent, and exercise towards them all hospitality +. The monastery of Weingarten being destroyed by fire in 1196, the blessed Meingosus, the abbot, gave a memorable example of hospitality; for before he rebuilt the monks' cells, he constructed the hospice for the guests and for the poor, while he and the brethren dwelt in tents, living the more frugally, that they might be liberal to the poor strangers, in each of whom they received Christ ‡. In some monasteries, as at the Hieronymite convent of Guadaloupe, the refectory boards used to be spread sometimes as often as seven times a day for the guests of all ranks, who came in crowds to dine with St. Jerome. Hospitality was not to end even at the departure. Guests were to be given provisions for the road when they left the monastery" ac proficiscentibus juxta posse cœnobii viaticum imponendum §." Travellers who lodged with St. Honorat in his monastery of Lerins felt as if arrived in their country and in their own house, such cordiality did they experience; and when they left it, they seemed to leave their home, their relations, and their friends. This is what St. Hilary says. A great number of strangers came to visit him; for no one passed without interrupting his voyage for that purpose, and he received those whom he had never before seen as if they were his ancient friends. When Mabillon travelled, he found these manners still flourishing. He spoke with delight of that frank and joyous cordiality which he experienced in the monasteries of Italy, though it is true, he adds, that in this respect they surpassed those of France. The monks of Pontigny have been charged with a breach of hospitality in requesting St. Thomas of Canterbury to depart, * Regula Magistri, c. lxxix. ap. Luc. Holst. Bucelinus, Chronolog. Constant. § Regula S. Fructuosi, c. x. 66 lest their brethren elsewhere should incur persecution on his account; but Mathieu Paris gives rather a different version of the circumstance from that generally repeated, for he says only that Louis, king of France, came to Pontigny, and in order to shelter the Cistercian order from the king of England, took away Thomas with him to Sens, after the archbishop had received hospitality during two years from these monks *. At all events, it was in monasteries that the great archbishop met with the most gracious reception, as he testified in the affecting interview which he had with the abbot of St. Albans, only eight days before he suffered. On that occasion, turning to his clerks who attended him, Look you what has happened, my friends," said he ; "this lord abbot, who has no obligations to me, has this day been more kind and more polite to me than all my brethren and all the bishops my suffragans." Sometimes particular nations regarded certain religious houses as in an especial manner their hospitium. The monastery of Latiniacus, in the diocese of Paris, was a public hospice for all Irishmen travelling in France +. Especial revenues were sometimes held for the purpose of entertaining strangers. In the abbey of Waltham, founded by Harold, the means of hospitality were copiously furnished; and the dean had a larger share of provisions than the others, for this reason-" quia pluribus habebat benefacere quam simplex canonicus." The expenses incurred everywhere by this practice must have been considerable. The abbey of Monte Cassino having, as we have just seen, a great house in the town of St. Germain, which was kept open to all qualified persons passing, the cost of this hospitality amounted often to the sum of 3000 ducats per annum. Sometimes when there was any backwardness manifested in the exercise of hospitality, the monks themselves interfered to induce their superior to resume the ancient usages. Thus, at St. Edmundsbury, Hugh the abbot was remonstrated with; for, says Jocelin of Brakelond, on the third day after Master Dennis became cellarer, three knights with their esquires were received in the guest-house that they might there be refreshed, the abbot then being at home, and abiding in his inner chamber; all which, when this magnanimous Achilles had heard, not willing to waver in his stewardship as the others had done, he rose up, and took the key of the cellary, and taking with him those knights to the abbot's hall, and approaching the abbot, said, My lord, thou well knowest that the rule of the abbey is, that knights and lay folks should be entertained in your hall, if the abbot be at home; I am not desirous, nor indeed am I able to receive those guests it belongeth unto thee to enter 6 * Ad ann. 1166. Hist. Abb. Cassinens. 624. 66 Yepes, Chron. Gen. ii. 232. U tain; else take back the keys of your cellary, and appoint some other cellarer at thy good pleasure.' The abbot hearing this, nill he will he, entertained those knights, and ever afterwards entertained knights and lay folks according to ancient rule, and in the same way as now they are received when the abbot is at home. Once upon a time Hugh the abbot, wishing to reconcile matters with Master Sampson, appointed him his subsacrist; and he, although often accused, yet was the oftener promoted from one office to another; at one time he was appointed guest-master, at another time pittance-master, at another time third prior, and again subsacrist; and many there were who then strove against him that afterwards flattered him. But he, not acting as the other officials did, never could be induced to turn flatterer; whereupon the abbot said, that he had never before seen such a man as Sampson the subsacrist, whom he could in no wise bend to his will. ́ The abbey being vacant, the prior above all things studied to keep peace in the convent, and to preserve the honour of the Church in entertaining guests, being desirous of irritating no one, of not provoking any body to anger, in fact, of keeping all persons and things in quietness, nevertheless winking at some acts in our officials which needed reformation." Here we should observe, however, the peculiar character of the monastic hospitality, as employed in subserving to a desire of the moral improvement of those who are its objects. In very early times it would seem as if the guests were expected to imitate, at least by engaging in some useful employment, the example of their hosts. Thus, in an ancient rule we read, "When any brother or guest comes to the monastery, in consideration of the fatigue of his journey, he may remain without doing any thing for two days. After which interval he is to be told to labour either in the fields or at some art, or else to leave the monastery; and if he consents he is to be set to work with the brethren, but if he declines he must depart; and his bed is to be prepared for the next guest who may arrive. But spiritual guests, though they may not be able to labour on the very day of their arrival, will be sure on the following day, when they see the brethren working, to seek employment of their own accord— ne non solum otiosi sed et miseri a laborantibus judicentur *." At Monte Cassino certain monks were especially deputed to serve the guests in the hospitium, and excite and prepare them for confession and communion. The truth however is, that the place itself, as we before observed, conduced to produce these effects. The example, the chant, the discourse of the monks were all instrumental. When James II. visited La Trappe for the first time, he went to communion, and as he kneit * Regula Magistri, c. lxxviii. |