The abolition of monasteries, which succeeded the former revolution in
France, caused a fraternity of Trappists to seek refuge from the general
persecution of religious orders under the protection of the proprietor of
Lulworth Castle, on the coast of Dorsetshire; their patron being a rigid
Catholic, and much governed by the priests. They had been established many
years when I visited them; my curiosity being excited by the current
reports of the severities to which their order subjected them in the
habitual discipline of the convent. The day selected for the visit was
quite in harmony with the objects in view; a cold, bleak, cloudy morning,
which terminated in rain, without a single ray of the sun to enliven a
December gloom. Mr., now Cardinal, Weld was paying his temporal and
spiritual devotions at the Quirinal Palace and the shrine of St. Peter;
but, in the absence of the family from Lulworth, his huntsman regularly
exercised a small pack of harriers round the neighbouring hills among the
goss covers, for the amusement of a few sportsmen and his own profit.
Three of us proceeded one morning to enjoy our customary diversion; but
the bleakness of the wind which swept the hills overlooking the sea
induced the huntsman to keep the hounds at home, and we, in consequence,
determined to make up for our disappointment by riding over to Lulworth.
In summer, this little retired spot is an object of attraction, from its
romantic cove and fine castle; while many parties, doubtless, are drawn
there by the savoury idea of boiled lobsters, usually provided for their
refreshment at the small public-house of the village; where "mine host"
was wont to rivet the attention of the juvenile portions of his guests
especially, while the older refused him not their ears, to tales of the
castle and the convent, about which, as in most Catholic families of
distinction, and among religious institutions, there hung a cloud of
mystery, which the young votaries of worldly enjoyments love to penetrate.
Leaving our horses at the inn, we walked directly up to the convent
situated a little way beyond the village, impressed with feelings which
the stories we had heard unavoidably excited. Nor were these feelings
diminished by the gloomy solitude and silence of the scenery around,
interrupted only by the howling wind and the roaring of the waves, which
beat against the precipitous rocks surrounding the cove, and sustaining
the massive walls of the castle.
A plain white-washed building, with few and small windows, apparently
created out of a barn or granary and an old farm-house, was encircled by a
high wall enclosing also a muddy courtyard, and a garden destined to
supply the fraternity merely with the necessary herbs and seeds on which
the meagre-fed brethren were nourished. We lifted the heavy knocker of a
rude door surmounted by a crucifix, and a lay-brother, resembling him
represented in the Opera of the Duenna, answered our modest knocking. An
order from "the family" was demanded; and for want of it we urged our
special journey (about twenty miles), names, and rank; all of which was
transmitted to the superior, while we remained some time unbidden in the
courtyard, where the only sign of life was the deep barking of an old
house-dog, who rivalled his human associates in misanthropy.
At length the creaking hinges of the door were heard again, and, with an
injunction to be sparing of speech, we were bidden to follow the animated
shadow which flitted in the owl-light before us, through various winding
passages. Had I been alone, and had that crime which has lately so shocked
humanity been then in existence, I think I should have "pulled in
resolution," and told the miserable _cicerone_ that I would call another
time. But, as companionship imparts courage, on we went, filled with vivid
recollections of Mrs. Radcliffe's romances, accompanied with an urgent
curiosity also to see, for the first time, living monks and a real
monastery. One of the former passed us in our way, clothed in the dingy
habit of his order fastened round the waist with a twisted cord. He bowed
as he passed; and we were told, in a whisper, that he was recently arrived;
and from not associating with the rest of the brethren, and having a
separate apartment, he was supposed to be a man of rank, known only to the
superior, and concerning whom conjecture was rife, but no inquiry
permitted. What this recluse really was my story will hereafter disclose.
The general furniture of the convent appeared to be neat and clean, but of
coarse materials and rude construction, while its scantiness evinced
either the penury of the institution, or the denial which formed part of
the monastic discipline peculiar to the order of La Trappe. There might be
a third explanation of the ill-lighted bareness of the walls and floors,
together with the general aspect of privation and devotion, an explanation
which occurred to us subsequently--there might have been studied effect
and deception in their display before visiters.
We entered the refectory and the dormitory, neither of which bore any sign
of luxury, nor even of ordinary comfort. The needful repose of man seemed
scarcely provided for in the one, nor the "creature comforts" in the other.
Meat was forbidden, except when prescribed for the health of the inmates.
Vegetable broth, bread, and water, formed, we were told, the chief
resources of the culinary department of the convent; and, in the very act
of enjoying these, around the disconsolate-looking table, the superior was
accustomed to remind the brotherhood occasionally during the repast not to
indulge the appetite for food, so as to divert their thoughts for an
instant from heaven. This spiritual memento was introduced by the rap of a
stout oaken-stick upon the table; when instantly, every hand raised to the
mouth was arrested and held still where it was, until a second rap
permitted it to proceed in its carnal office, the interval being employed
in silent ejaculation to the Deity, or perhaps, with some, in "curses not
loud but deep" against the inexorable superior, who so compelled them to
mortify a not unnatural desire.
In the dormitory a similar mortification nightly awaited the unconscious
sleepers, although "upon uneasy pallets stretching them," in the
occasional tinkling of an obtrusive bell, that peremptorily hurried them
from their recumbent position to the cold stones of the chapel, where on
bended knees they were obliged to pray and meditate.
From the refectory and the dormitory we were conducted to the chapel, with
renewed injunctions to ask no questions while there, and to preserve the
strictest silence. Here we found about thirty, I think, of the brethren,
in their coarse black habits and cord belts, with rosary, shaved crowns,
and fixed eyes; some kneeling, and others prostrate upon the stony
floor,--picturesquely grouged, _à la Rembrandt_, about the steps of the
altar and other parts of the chapel. All were silent and motionless, and
regarded our intrusion no more than if they were so many marble statues.
Some of the monks were old and haggard, and others young and better
conditioned than might be conceived of men fed, or rather starved, as they
were represented to be. Their features appeared generally to be coarse and
vulgar. The chapel itself was perfectly plain, and unadorned but by a few
of the customary figures and paintings, representing disgusting situations
of saints and martyrs under voluntary torture and privation. Lamps that
"shed a pale and ineffectual light," crucifixes, and images of the Virgin
and Son, were duly scattered about the niches of the chapel.
From the chapel we were conducted to the superior's room, a small
scantily-furnished apartment, with however an appearance of greater
comfort than elsewhere about the building, from the presence of a plain
chair and table, some religious books, a cot, and a little fire. The
superior himself possessed somewhat more of the aspect of a gentleman than
the rest of the brethren, as well as the dim light of a lamp allowed us to
observe his figure; of which certainly, whatever might have been his mode
of living, rotundity formed no such feature as I have seen among the jolly
monks in Spain and Portugal. He related to us the habits of his order,
from which we learnt further particulars than had been related by the
_cicerone_. Silence seemed to be the rule of the establishment during the
whole twenty-four hours, the exceptions being very few: one of the
brethren, we were told, had never been known to speak for about thirty
years, in accordance with a vow, and was supposed to have become dumb.
When one monk met another, the salutation was limited to this simple
expression--"Brother, we must die." And lest this fact should not have
been sufficiently kept in recollection, a grave was constantly open in the
burying-ground at hand, the digging of which was a source of bodily
exercise and recreation to the brethren; a new one being always made when
a tenant was found for that which already gaped to receive him.
I need scarcely observe, that from the rigid silence vowed and practised,
the order of La Trappe includes no females in its over-zealous ordinances.
The only books allowed those who could read were Missals and the Bible,
which were constantly in their hands.
Medical aid was not denied, when occasion required it, from one qualified
to practise among the Weld colony in the village, who of course was no
heretic; but the ordinary management of the _materia medica_, furnished by
the garden, rested with such of the fraternity as were gifted in the art
of healing.
In addition to all the mortification of the flesh pointed out to us, we
were given to understand that the twisted cords around the waist were
frequently employed in self-inflicted scourgings at the altar, to which
the superior exhorted the brethren as a penance for past, and humiliation
for future, sins; a ceremony which, by all accounts, was in some instances
unjustly taken out of the hands of the public executioner, while in others,
perhaps, the cord might not at all have been misapplied if its adjustment
to the neck, instead of the waist, had been anticipated by the same
functionary.--_Metropolitan_.
[1] See _Mirror_, vol. xvi p. 201.
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