USA > Iowa > Dubuque County > History of the Trappist abbey of New Melleray in Dubuque County, Iowa > Part 2
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The history of the Abbey from 1240 to 1662 is not unlike that of many others. For many years it was celebrated for the eminent virtue of its abbots and its monks. In particular were the miracles and the holiness of Adam, one of its earliest abbots renowned, and for two hundred years after its founda- tion it was so esteemed by princes and by popes that four or five bulls of the Pontiffs are to be found, addressed to the monks of La Trappe, confirming and approving the privi-
1 Freeman, The Reign of William Rufus, Vol. I.
* Rotrou is said to have founded La Trappe in thanksgiving for his preser- vation from shipwreck in a voyage between Normandy and England. The roof of the monastery was shaped like an inverted keel. Concise History of the Cistercian Order, p. 142.
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THE TRAPPIST ABBEY OF NEW MELLERAY.
leges conferred by their predecessor.1 Like many other houses of the Cistercians, following the melancholy course which seems to be characteristic of all religious orders, the monks of La Trappe at last abandoned their traditions, and neglected the regular observance of the stricter rule which had been established by St. Bernard. In addition to the gen- eral causes for the decadence of monastic authority, some special ones existed in France, and these undoubtedly affected the house of La Trappe. In the fourteenth century the power of the church had been dealt a serious blow by the exile of the Popes to Avignon. This, in whatever manner it may have acted generally upon the European estimate of their authority, had little effect in France, save in exalting the Gallican church in its own esteem, and, by a nearer acquaint- ance with Avignon and its rulers, lowering the ideal of Papal holiness. But another factor was much more potent than the "Babylonian Captivity" in ministering to the decay of mon- astic purity in France. This was the " One Hundred Years' War." Placed upon the borderland between what was France and what, though French, was ruled by Englishmen, flung into the midst of contests in which they had no interested part, save as liege subjects of their own monarch, the monks of La Trappe insensibly became partisan. Perche is near enough to Paris and near enough to Normandy to have been long in dispute between the two rival powers, and the noise made by Tours and Poitiers penetrated even to the quiet of the cloister. The abbey was sacked again and again by the English. From the major part of the border monasteries religion fled, and attempted to find refuge in those parts of France which were farther removed from the ravages of war, but the monks of La Trappe did not wish to quit their soli- tude, and by fasting and daily labor were able to subsist, though meagrely. At length, however, the frequent returns of the English plunderers, who repeatedly relieved them of whatever they had amassed in the brief intervals of peace,
1 Helyot, Histoire des Ordres Monastiques. Tom. VI., p. 2.
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THE TRAPPIST ABBEY OF NEW MELLERAY.
constrained them to separate, and they did not return until the war was finished.1 Absence from the monastery and its restraints, and the corruption of the world into which they had been forced, had produced a total change in their views of the religious life, and in their views of the rigid rule of Citeaux. At their return, therefore, it is not astonishing to learn they displayed a quite different mental and moral atti- tude from that which had characterized them in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
To the general degradation of religious houses there had then contributed the causes above mentioned, and a still severer blow was administered by a system which was recog- nized by both Pontiff and King.
This was the system of Commendam. Broadly speaking, a living given in Commendam was one entrusted to the care of the holder until a proper person was supplied. In the special case of monastic establishments it consisted in the appoint- ment of seculars to the headship (or other official position) of Orders to which the incumbent did not belong, and to whose rules and requirements, whether of mode of life or of dress, he was under no obligation to conform. It is perfectly evi- dent that this custom, which may have been founded in neces- sity or wisdom, and was intended to supply for the interim places which could not on the instant of their vacancy be filled with proper incumbents, was liable to grave abuses. The ecclesiastical history of the reigns of Henry III. and Edward III., of England, abundantly illustrates this, and in France the custom became still more degraded from its original intent, inasmuch as the monarchs were wont to fill these vacancies without much reference to Rome. La Trappe long held out against the imposition of an abbot not elected by the mem- bers of the abbey establishment, but in the year 1526, Francis I. commanded the monks to receive Jean du Bellai as Abbé Commendataire. The execution of this edict the monks resisted and for a number of years continued to elect, as was
1 Helyot, Histoire des Ordres Monastiques. Tom. VI., p. 2.
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their privilege, their own abbots, while the papal curia attempted to uphold them in their contest for independence.1 But finally they were compelled to yield to the King and to accept Jean du Bellai (afterwards Cardinal) as their Abbot in Commendam. At once the sad effect of the system was manifest in La Trappe. As their was no resident Abbot the monks did as they pleased, and soon became the scandal of the surrounding country.2
Temporal ruin followed swiftly upon the decadence of spiritual life. The abbey itself fell into such decay that only six or seven monks could be lodged therein, and it became the abiding-place of the servitors and of their families only. The community life had disappeared, and the members of it met only for the chase or other diversions.3 Such was the unhappy condition of La Trappe in the middle of the seven- teenth century.
THE REVIVAL AND DE RANCE.
The reformation of La Trappe, and the introduction into this abbey of the rigid observances known to this day as Trappist, were due to the efforts of Armand Jean le Bouthil- lier de Rance, Abbé in Commendam. To rightly understand how an abbot appointed in accordance with the pernicious system of Commendam could have accomplished so astonish- ing a work, it will be necessary to trace the history of his life in some detail.
According to Helyot, 4 the reforming abbot was the son of Denis le Bouthillier, Seigneur de Rance, Secretary of "Com- mendams" under the regency of Marie de Medicis, and a counsellor of State, thus occupying a position of dignity and influence. Armand Jean was born in 1626, and, as a second son, was destined to enter the semi-religious order of the
1 Helyot, Histoire des Ordres Monastiques. Tom. VI., p. 3.
* Helyot, Ibid.
$ Helyot, Ibid.
+ Helyot, Ibid.
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Knights of Malta. The death of his older brother changed his fortunes so that instead of becoming a monk militant, all the benefices in commendam which had been conferred upon and intended for his brother were transferred to him. The position of his father rendered it easy to provide for his future, and he became, while still a child, a Canon of Notre Dame de Paris, Abbé de la Trappe, Abbé de Notre Dame du Val and of St. Symphorian of Beauvais and Prior of Boulogne, near Chambord.1 These and other titular dignities were conferred upon him before he was more than twelve years old, and from these he derived (even at that age) a revenue of about twenty thousand francs.
The change in his worldly prospects did not cause De Rance to neglect his studies. His father had already care- fully provided him with tutors in the Italian and Greek languages, and his destiny to the ecclesiastical state seemed rather an incentive to toil. At the age of twelve years 2 he is said to have given to the world a new edition of the poems of Anacreon accompanied by a commentary. This work was greatly admired by the scholars of the day, and was soon followed by a French translation of the poet. This instance of precocity, though unusual, is not exactly alone in history, and we are compelled to believe that at twelve or thirteen years of age De Rance was already an accomplished Greek scholar and a not insignificant critic. Modern scepticism may hesitate to accept evidence of such early distinction in learn- ing, but the life of De Rance testifies to his remarkable power of mind and will, and the testimony upon which this statement rests is not easily to be controverted, and is gener- ally accepted. He studied theology after having completed his course in the College d'Harcourt, and at the age of twenty-one received his licentiate's degree. Launched there- fore upon the world with every favor of fortune, De Rance's course for some years was only what might have been
1 Helyot, Histoire des Ordres Monastiques. Tom. VI., p. 4.
? Helyot, Ibid.
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expected in that age. His manners were agreeable, he was the favorite of society, his ecclesiastical state sat upon him with the same grace and elegance which characterized the fashion of his dress,1 and he became the idol of the world in which he lived and of which he was one of the most brilliant ornaments. Amid all the license of the time he preserved a comparative purity, and, although he mingled amid the gayest circles, was by no means one of the profligate Abbes in Com- mendam with which the age was afflicted. Nevertheless his life was not such as we associate to-day with the term pricst, yet this did not prevent him from receiving holy orders at the hands of his uncle the Archbishop of Tours2 in the year 1651, and the ring and bonnet of Doctor were conferred three years later.
About this time De Rance was staying with several friends at his chateau of Veret, and the gaiety of his disposition may be illustrated by the story which is told, that, after a night of festivity, they all determined to embark upon a life of adven- ture in foreign countries, to travel forth by land and sea, and go wherever the "wind should carry them." This Quixotic scheme was not accomplished, but is not uninteresting as indi- cating the manners of the age, and the freedom which was felt by "Abbes in Commendam."3 His life then up to the
1 Chateaubriand. Vie de Rance.
"He wore a light coat of beautiful violet-colored cloth. His hair hung in long curls down his back and shoulders. He wore two emeralds at the joining of his ruffles, and a large and rich diamond ring upon his finger. When indulging the pleasures of the chase in the country, he usually laid aside every mark of his profession; wore a sword, and had two pistols in his hol- sters. His dress was fawn-colored, and he used to wear a black cravat em- broidered with gold. In the more serious society which he was sometimes forced to meet, he thought himself very clerical indeed, when he put on a black velvet coat with buttons of gold."
(These details may be found in Chateaubriand's " Life of De Rance," and also in a review of the same in the Dublin Review, December, 1844. In fact for a great number of details necessarily omitted in this monograph the same work may be consultsd with advantage, especially as to the mnode of life of Veret or Veretz, but Chateaubriand is not a reliable authority.)
2 Helyot, Histoire des Ordres Monastiques. Tom. VI., p. 4.
$ Helyot Ibid, p. 5.
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age of thirty-four was that of the gay man of society, whose natural inclinations forbade indulgence of the grossest ap- petites, but who regulated his life in accordance with the spirit of the earlier years of the reign of Louis XIV. Sud- denly this man of the great world became disillusionized, and retired from the gaieties of court to the seclusion of La Trappe. Several causes are said to have contributed to this result. One was the death of his cousin, Leon de Bouthillier de Chavigni, a man to whom he was passionately attached; a second was own narrow escape from death; a third was his natural disappointment at the reception by the court of his famous argument in behalf of the Jansenists. The latter debate, which well offered De Rance an opportunity for showing his natural bent of mind, was held at the command of the King in the year 1655. At this general assembly of the French Clergy, convoked to discuss the Jansenist contro- versy, De Rance was a delegate from the diocese of Tours. Though De Rance's views changed afterwards so that he opposed the tenets of this school, nevertheless at this time he formed one of the minority of the Doctors of the Sorbonne who voted in favor of Arnauld, the Jansenist leader. Disap- pointed in the view taken of his position by the court he retired to Veret before the assembly dispersed. A story is told of the sudden death (her illness being unknown to him) of Madame de Montbazon, with whom he was intimate, and of the shock which was occasioned him by discovering her body decapitated, for the coffin was too short, and it has been sup- posed, even by Voltaire, that this had a decided effect in shap- ing his future life. This story is denied by others, and the juste milieu seems to be that the concurrence of these two events-i. c., the death of Madam de Montbazon, and De Rance's retirement from the world-occasioned the legend.1 If this story be true, it is easily to be believed that an event
1 See, in support of this story, Voltaire and La Harpe, and in contradiction of it St. Simon. It is totally denied by Maupeou, who was the first to write a biography of De Rancé. Helyot does not mention it in his chapter upon La Trappe, but the omission in his case is perhaps natural.
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THE TRAPPIST ABBEY OF NEW MELLERAY.
of such a nature would seemingly affect the course of life of a man so sensitive as De Rance was. But the reasons first mentioned were doubtless the determining ones.1 At any rate, in about 1660, just after the death of the Duke of Orleans, whose almoner he was, he made up his mind to lay down at least part of his benefices. But he consulted in regard to this serious step several of his friends of high position in the hierarchy of the church. They were the Bishops of Aleth, of Pamiers, of Châlons and of Comminges .? The counsel of the Bishop of Aleth was the least severe. "Sell," said he. "your patrimony and distribute the price of it to the poor," but he permitted him to retain his benefices. But even this seemed to De Rance an excessive self-abnegation. He replied that his family would not permit it, but he listened with respect to the reasons of the prelate. The Bishop of Pamiers went even further, and advised him not only to sell his patrimony, but to lay down his benefices with the excep- tion of one. This dictum was extremely distasteful to De Rance, who argued that he could not live upon one benefice in a way befitting his condition in life. He therefore con- sulted at last the Bishop of Comminges, who speaking with the voice of a prelate of the early times, confirmed the advice of the Bishops of Aleth and Pamiers, and in addition avowed his belief that De Rance should take the monastic habit and rule the monastery which he was still to hold, for, said he, "Abbeys in Commendam are contrary to the spirit of the church."3 Thus De Rance found himself on every side advised to purge himself of the sin of which he had unwit- tingly been guilty, and give the rest of his life as a penitential offering for his past.
This advice, coming as it did, from prelates whose opinion he respected, increased the compunctions of his conscience,
1 Another reason, perhaps more important than any of those enumerated, may have had more weight, viz., the conviction, gradually growing upon him, of a true vocation for the monastic state.
" Helyot, Histoire des Ordres Monastiques. Tom. VI., p. 6.
$ History of the Cistercian Order, pp. 140-1.
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THE TRAPPIST ABBEY OF NEW MELLERAY.
and the effect of the two combined was, that he sold his pat- rimony and resigned all his benefices except that of La Trappe, this being the poorest, the most unhealthy, and the least known. The ruinous condition of La Trappe has been before referred to. "There are in existence," says Count Chateaubriand, "formal reports in writing of the lamentable condition of this monastery. That which bears the date of 1685, signed by Dominic, Abbot of Val-Richer, describes the state it was in before the reform of De Rance. Day and night the gates were open; males and females were admitted indiscriminately to the cloister. The entrance hall was so dark and filthy that it was more like a prison than a house dedicated to God. Access was had to the several floors by a ladder placed against the walls, and the boards and joists of the floor were broken and worm-eaten in many places. The roof of the cloister had fallen in so that the least shower of rain deluged the place with water. The very pillars that supported it were bent, and as for the parlor, it had for some time been used as a stable. The refectory was such only in name. The monks and their visitors played at nine-pins or shuttlecock in it when the heat or inclemency of the weather prevented them from doing so outside. The dormitory was utterly deserted; it was tenanted at night only by birds; and the hail and the snow, the wind and the rain, passed in and out as they pleased. The brothers who should have occupied it, took up their quarters where they liked, and where they could. The church itself was not better attended to. The pavement was broken, and the stones thrown about. The very walls were crumbling to decay. The belfry threatened to come down every moment. It shook alarmingly at every ringing of the bell. When De Rance set about reforming the monastery, it was but the ruin of a monastic establish- ment. The monks had dwindled down to seven. Even these were spoiled by alternations of want and plenty. When De Rance first began to talk of reform the whole establishment was in commotion. Nothing was heard but threats of ven- geance. One spoke of assassinating him, another advised
- -
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THE TRAPPIST ABBEY OF NEW MELLERAY.
poison, while a third thought the best and safest way of get- ting rid of him would be to throw him into one of the lakes that surrounded the monastery."1
These menaces did not terrify De Rance. Monks of the stricter observance were introduced into the monastery, and the seven of the older right were obliged to sign an agree- ment in 1662 which was confirmed by the Parliament of Paris in February of the following year. In accordance with this agreement they were permitted to remain in the monastery and conform to the new rules, or to take up their residence elsewhere, and a pension of four hundred francs was assigned to them in either case .? The monks did not accept these conditions willingly, but threats of the anger of the King prevailed, and at lenght De Rance found himself the master of the Abbey of La Trappe.
But the evil which had sprung from the system of "Com- mendam" had not yet been repaired, and De Rance behold- ing in himself the sacrifice which was required for the sins of which his family and himself had been guilty, in the many years that they had figured among the hosts of Abbots in Commendam, retired, in 1663, into the convent of Persigny, there to pass his novitiate. His profession was made in 1664,3 and the abbatial benediction was pronounced in Séez, in the monastery of St. Martin, by the Bishop of Ardah4 in Ire- land. Thus from being an Abbot in Commendam De Rance became a Cistercian monk and Abbot in possession, and in formal terms, of La Trappe. Henceforth the brilliant man of the world, the gay and elegant Seigneur de Rance, Lord of Veret and holder of a plurality of benefices, becomes Armand John, the regular Abbot of La Trappe; and, with this change the Abbot entered upon the strictest regimen of
1 Chateaubriand. Vie de Rance. See also Helyot, History des Ordres Mo- nastiques. Tom. VI., p. 7.
? Helyot, Ibid.
$ Felibien, Description de la Trappe, pp. 18-19. Helvot, Ibid, p. 7.
4 Felibien, Ibid, p. 20.
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the old monks of Citeaux. His fasts were so continual and so austere, that it is hard to understand how he could have endured them and yet survived. Every day he engaged in humble, even in manual labors, from which he returned ex- hausted. He was always the first at the Office, at prayer and at all regular exercises of the Abbey. He ordered nothing in the doing of which he did not set the example, and do him- self what he prescribed to the rest. Such an example could not but induce like abstinence, and like self-denial in the monks, and the austerities of the Abbey became famous. The reforms then which were introduced by De Rance may be summarized as follows:
I. Abstinence.
2. Perpetual Silence.
3. Manual Labor.
These regulations were not new, but they had fallen into abeyance. They are all contained in the Rule of St. Bene- dict, and in spasmodic activity had appeared in many ages and in many monasteries. The glory of De Rance1 is that the power of his personality and the excess of his zeal made them the distinctive characteristics of the monks of his own abbey, and that the same power stamped them upon others. His rules were not so extreme? as those of Citeaux at its earlier beginnings, they were somewhat tempered to the necessities of his age and the comparatively less physical endurance possessed by the religious of that day, but they were the most enduring of any reforms instituted in the seventeenth century and from that time to this have remained comparatively unchanged. The reasons which justified De Rance to himself in restoring the close observance of Citeaux may be read in his own works,3 and certain extracts will be found hereafter quoted in this monograph. 4
1 Appendix IV.
2 Appendix III.
8 De Rance, A Treatise on the Sanctity and on the Duties of the Monastic State. 2 vols. Richard Grace. (Dublin, 1830.)
Appendix IV.
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THE TRAPPIST ABBEY OF NEW MELLERAY.
The later history of the Abbey of La Trappe can be quickly told.
For nearly a century after De Rancé's death (1700), La Trappe continued in strict observance of the reformed rule established by him. In the year 1791 two commissioners from the administrative assembly of the department of the Orne presented themselves to Abbot Peter Olivier and en- quired why the Abbey had not been suppressed in accordance with the decree of the constituent assembly as regards the religious order in France. Although the inquisitors them- selves examined the monks of whom there were fifty-three choir religious and thirty-seven lay brethren, and pronounced them men of strong and decided character whose thoughts were absorbed by religion, the Executive of the Department forbade the further existence of the Abbey as such, and it was suppressed by the Assembly. The confiscation of La Trappe immediately upon the decree of the Assembly in 1790 had been postponed in view of numberless petitions in its favor, but now the blow fell, the monks were scattered, a contingent of them went to Switzerland,1 the rest dispersed, the build- ings of the monastery were thrown down and the fields were left uncultivated.
In 1815, after the final defeat of Napoleon, La Trappe was repurchased by the Abbot, new buildings were erected, and from that time to this it has continued to be the Mother House of the Order. "Nothing, however, exists of the La Trappe of De Rance save the cincture of forest trees and the hills which surround the monastery; the pools which stretch their sheet of water into the forests of Perche; the abbatial lodge built by De Rance, and a few fragments of walls."?
VALSAINTE, LULLWORTH.
In the canton of Fribourg, in Switzerland, exists a valley deep hidden among the mountains, and buried amid great
1 The history of these will be found under the heading " VALSAINTE, LULL- WORTH," p. 23.
? A Concise History of the Cistercian Order, p. 175.
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THE TRAPPIST ABBEY OF NEW MELLERAY.
forests and masses of overhanging rocks. Here was a de- serted Carthusian Abbey which upon the petition of the exiled monks of La Trappe was given them for a home and refuge by the cantonal authorities, and within this monastery the austerities of La Trappe were again put into active operation. This for some years continued to be the only centre from which the followers of De Rance could exert their influence, and follow the precepts of their founder. The house was raised to the dignity of an Abbey in 1794, and even before this time began the work of founding filiations in other parts of Europe-i. c., in Belgium, in Spain, in Piedmont, and in Westphalia. These establishments date from 1793. But that house whose foundation directly concerns the history of New Melleray, was about to be established in England. Among other parts of the world to which the attention of the Abbot of Valsainte turned was Canada, and in 1794 Father John Baptist was ordered to proceed to London en route for the new world. Although the English laws against Catholics and religious orders were yet in force, this band of Trappists was received and protected by the English government under the pretense that they were French exiles. Arrangements were made for their voyage to Canada, but at the moment of embarkation the project was given up, and they remained in England. In March, 1796, the community entered their new monastery which had been erected mainly through the gen- erosity of Thomas Weld near his castle of Lullworth, in the county of Dorset, and from that castle it derived its name. The sojourn of the monks in England lasted until 1817. They were warned to receive only French novices and in- formed that the government telorated them only as French refugees. Both Irish and English postulants had joined the community and the Abbot not being willing to conform to this restriction which was imposed by Lord Sidmouth, petitioned Louis XVIII. for permission to return to France and restore the Cistercian order. This petition was granted. St. Susan of Lullworth was disposed of, and on the 10th of July, 1817, the community which numbered sixty persons embarked on
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