The works of the famous antiquary, Polidore Virgil containing the original of all arts, sciences, mysteries, orders, rites, and ceremonies, both ecclesiastical and civil : a work useful for all divines, historians, lawyers, and all artificers / compendiously English't by John [i.e. Thomas] Langley.

CHAP. II. The division of Monastical life into s••••∣dry Sects and factions.

IN the year 166, after the death of An∣thony, Bennet an Italian, born at Nur∣si in Vmbria, when he had lived long in solitarinesse, resorted to a City of Italy, named Sabblaque, a City of the Latines, fourty miles from Rome. And because he was greatly delighted with a solitary life, and also the people pressed to see and hear his preachings, he departed thence to Cassine. And in the time of John the first,* 1.1 in the year of our Lord 524, he builded there an Abbey, and as∣sembled the Monks, that were dispersed alone in divers places, into one covent, and ordered them with instructions of manners and rules of living, confirmed with three vows, that is, chastity, will∣full poverty, and obedience, because they should all together mortify their own will and lusts.

These three forenamed Vows,* 1.2 Basili∣us, Bishop of Caesaria did first institute and publish, in the year of our Lord, 383. And also assign the year of pro∣bation

or Trial, that Religious persons had before they were professed.

The Order of Cluniacenses, were or∣dained by one Odon an Abbot at Masti∣cense, a Village of Burgundy. And William Duke of Aquitane gave them an House, the year of our Lord 916. in the time of Sergius the third. Not long after, the Religion of Camaldimenses was begun by Romoaldus of Ravenna, in the Mount Apenninus, the year of our Lord 850. They kept perpetual silence, every Wednesday, and Friday they Fast, they eat bread and water, they go bare∣foot, and lye on the ground. In a part of the same Mountain called Vallis Um∣brosa, or the shadowed Valley, in the year of Christs incarnation 1040. under Gregory the sixth, John Gualbert began a new sect of Monks, and named them of the place where the Abbey stood, the Shadowed-Valley Order.

The Monks of Olivet sprung up as a fruit of disorder, the same year that the variance was among the three Bishops, and were instituted by Barnardus Ptolo∣mous, the year of Christ 1407. under Gregory the 12th. The Faction of Gran∣dimoniensers, began by Steven of Avern, in Aquitane or Guyen, the year of our

Lord 1076, under Alexander the se∣cond, and had their Title of the Moun∣tain where their Abbey stood. A little after the same time, Robert Abbot of Molisme, in Cistersium a Forrest in Bur∣gundy, did institute the order of Cister∣cians; albeit, some ascribe this to one Ordingus a Monk, that perswaded Ro∣bert to the same, about the year of our Lord 1098. under Urbane the second; Of this Religion was that great Clerk St. Bernard.

Almost an hundred years after this in the year of our Lord 1166. The order of Humiliates was devised by cer∣tain persons, exiled by Fredericus Bar∣barussa, which when they were restored to their Countrey, apparelled themselves in white, and lived by a kind of Vow, in Prayers, Penury, and working wool, and were admitted by Innocentius the third, and other his successours.

Celestines were founded by Celestinus the fifth of that name, Bishop of Rome, in the year of our Lord, 1198. In En∣gland Saint Gilbert at Tirington, and Sempringham, began an order called after him Gilbertines, in the time of Engenius the fourth, the year of Christs Incarnati∣on 1148.

The Justinians were invented by Lew∣is Barbus, a Re••igious man of Venice, in the Abbey of Saint Justine at Padua, the year of our Salvation 1412, in the dayes of John the 24th. There were al∣so Orders of Nuns devised after the same Rules of Superstition, as the o∣ther be.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Bennet buil∣ded an Ab∣bey at Cassi∣num.
• * 1.2

  Three Vows Basilius or∣dained.