In the archives of _Montserrat_ they shew you a letter written to the
Abbe by King Philip the second, who begins, "venerable and devout
_Religieux_," and tells him, he approves of his zeal, of his building a
new church at _Montserrat_, charges him to continue his prayers for him,
and, to shew his zeal for that holy house, informs him, that the bearer
of his letter is _Etienne Jordan_, the most famous sculptor then in
Spain, who is to make the new altar-piece at the King's expence, and
they agreed to pay _Jordan_ ten thousand crowns for the design he laid
before them: the altar was made at _Valladolid_, and was brought to
_Montserrat_ on sixty-six waggons; and as Jordan did much more to the
work than he had engaged to perform, the King gave him four thousand
crowns over and above his agreement, and afterwards gave nine thousand
crowns more, to gild and add further ornaments to it.
At the death of Philip the Second, his son, Philip, the Third, assisted
in person to remove the image of the Virgin from the old to the new
church; which I shall hereafter mention more fully. Before this noble
altar, in which the figure of the Virgin stands in a nitch about the
middle of it, are candlesticks of solid silver, each of which weighs
eighty pounds; they are a yard and a half high; and yet these are mere
trifles, when compared to the gold and jewels which are shewn
occasionally.
The monks observe very religiously their statutes; nor is there a single
hour in the day that you find the church evacuated.--I always heard at
least two voices chanting the service, when the monks retire from the
church, which is not till seven o'clock at night; the pilgrims continue
there in prayer the greater part of the night.
I should have told you, that beside the superior among the hermits,
there are two sorts of them, neither of which can possess a hermitage
till they have spent seven years in the monastery, and given proofs of
their holy disposition, by acts of obedience, humility, and
mortification; during, which they spend most of their time, night as
well as day, in the church, but they never sing or chant. After the
expiration of the seven years, the Abbot takes the advice of his
brethren, and if they think the probationer's manners and life entitle
him to a solitary life above, he is sent,--but not, perhaps, without
being enjoined to wait upon some old hermit, who is past doing the
necessary offices of life for himself.--Their habit, as I said before,
is brown, and they wear their long beards; but sometimes the hermits are
admitted into holy orders, and then they wear black, and shave their
beards: however, they are not actually fixed to the lonely habitations
at first, but generally take seven or eight months trial. Many of the
abbes, whose power, you may be sure, is very great, and who receive an
homage from the inferiors, very flattering, have, nevertheless, often
quitted their power for a retirement above. They observe religiously
their abstinence from all sorts of flesh; nor are they permitted to eat
but within their cells. When any of them are very ill, they are brought
down to the convent; and all buried in one chapel, called St. Joseph.
The lay-brothers are about fourscore in number; they wear a brown habit,
and are shaved; their duty is to distribute bread, wine, and other
necessaries, to the poor and the pilgrims, and lodge them according to
their condition: and many of them are sent into remote parts of the
kingdom, as well as France and other Catholic countries, to collect
charity; while those who continue at home assist in getting in their
corn, and fetching provisions from the adjacent towns, for which
purposes they keep a great number, upwards of fifty mules.--These men
too have a superior among them, to whom they are all obedient.
There are also a number of children and young students, educated at the
convent who are taken in at the age of seven or eight years, many of
whom are of noble families; they all sleep in one apartment, but
separate beds, where a lamp constantly burns, and their decent
deportment is wonderful. Dom Jean de Cardonne, admiral of the galleys,
who succoured Malta when it was besieged by the Turks, was bred at
_Montserrat_, and when he wrote to the Abbe, "Recommend me," he said,
"to the prayers of my little brethren."
As I have already told you of the miracle of a murdered and violated
virgin coming to life, and of a child of three months old saying,
_Guerin, rise, thy sins are forgiven thee_; perhaps you will not like to
have further proofs of what miracles are wrought here, or I could give
you a long list, and unanswerable arguments to prove them.
_Frere Benoit d'Arragon_ was a hermit on this mountain, whose sanctity
of life has made his name immortal in the hermitage of St. Croix. The
following sketch of his life is engraven.
"Occidit hac sacrã Frater Benedictus in sede,
Inclytus & sama, & religione sacer,
Hic sexaginta & septem castissimus annos,
Vixit in his saxis, te, Deus alme, peccans
Usque senex, senio mansit curvatus & annis
Corpus humo retulit, venerat unde prius
Ast anima exultans, clarum repetivit olympum,
Nunc sedet in summo glorificata throno."
It appears, that Louis the Fourteenth, King of France, gave a certain
sum to this convent, to say mass and pray for the soul of his deceased
mother; the sum however was not large, being something under fifty
pounds; and the donation is recorded in the chapel of _St. Louis_, upon
a brass lamp.
_P.S._ The time that this wonderful mountain became the habitation of a
religious community, may be pretty nearly ascertained by the following
singular epitaph, on a beautiful monument, still legible in the great
church of _Tarragona_.
"_Hic quiescit Corpus sanctæ memoriæ Domini Joannis filii Domini
Jacobi, Regis Arragonum, qui decimo septimo anno ætatis suæ
factus Archiepiscopus Toletanus, sic dono scientiæ infusus
Divinitus & gratia prædicationis floruit, quod nullus ejusdem
ætatis in hoc ei similis crederetur. Carnem suam jejuniis &
ciliciis macerans, in vigesimo octavo anno ætatis suæ factus
Patriarcha Alexandrinus & Administrator Ecclesiæ Tarraconensis
ordinato per eum, inter multa alia bona opera_ novo Monasterio
scalæ Dei _Diacessis Tarraconensis, ut per ipsam scalam ad Coelum
ascenderet reddidit spiritum Creatori XIV. kalendas Septembris,
anno Domini MCCCXXXIV. anno vero ætatis suæ XXXIII. pro quo Deus
tam in vita, quam post mortem ejusdem est multa miracula
operatus_."
This very young Bishop was the son of James the second, and his Queen
_Dona Blanca_; and that he was Prior of the monastery of Montserrat,
appears in their archives; for I find the names of several hermits of
this mountain, that came down to pay homage to him.--_Dederunt
obedientiam domino Joanni Patriarchæ Alexandrino, & administratori
prioratus Montis Serrati_, &c.--It is therefore probable, that he was
the first Prior, and that the convent was built about the year 1300; but
that the mountain was inhabited by hermits, or men who retired from the
world many ages before, cannot be doubted.