ATGUSTINES, or AtGUSTIN'IANS, names given to several religious bodies in the Roman Catholic church. Whether St. Augustine ever framed any formal mile of monastic life, is uncertain; but one was deduced from his writings, and \VHS 11(10111c11 ts many as 30 monastic fraternities, of which the chief were the Canons Regular. the Knights Templars (q.v.), the Begging Hermits. the Friars Preachers or Dominicans (q.v.), and the Premonstral ensians (q.v.). The CAxoNs 12F.ort.Ait or ST. A 17CUSTIN V., or A CANONF, appear to have been founded or remodeled about the middle of the 1111i century. Their discipline was less severe than that of monks properly so called, lint more rigid than that of the secular or parochial clergy. They lived under one roof, having a common dormitory and refectory. Their habit was 0 long cassock. with a white 1.0(.1114 oxer 11, n11 covered by a black cloak or hood. whence they were often called 13Iaek enrolls. In Engl:ind, where they were established early in the 12th e., they had about 170 houses, the earliest, it would seem, being at Nostell, near Pontefract, In Yorkshire. In Scotland they had about 25 houses: the earliest at Scone was founded in 1114, and filled by canons from Nostell; the others of most note were at Int.:Imolai in the firth of Forth, St. Andrews, Holyrood, Cambuskenneth, and Inchaffray.
The lifatotxo HERMITS OF ST. AUGUSTINE, or AUSTIN FRIARS, NVVIT more austere order, renouncing all property, and vowing to live by the voluntary alms of the faithful. They are believed to have sprung from certain societies of recluses who, in the 11th and 12th centuries, existed especially in Italy without any regulative consti tution. At the instigation, as is alleged. of the rival fraternities of Dominicans and
Franciscans. pope Innocent IV., about the middle of the 13th c., imposed on thetn the rule of St. Augustine, whom they claimed as their founder. In 1256, pope Alexander IV. placed them under the coutrol of a superior or president called a "general." In 1287. a code of rules or constitutions was compiled, by which the order long continued to be nliverned. About 1570, friar Thomas of Jesus, a Portuguese brother of the order, introduced a more austere rule, the disciples of which were forbidden to wear shoes, whence they were called de:scab:will, or " barefooted friars." The degeneracy of the order in the 14th c., called into existence new or reformed Augustinian societies, among which was that Saxon one to which Luther belonged. But in his day, even these had fallen victims to the general corruption of thu priesthood, and he inflicted serious injury upon it by his unsparing denunciations. After the French revolution, the order was Nvholly suppressed in France, Spain, and Portugal, mid partly in Italy and southern Germany. It was diminished even in Austria and Naples. It la most powerful in Sardinia and America.
The name of A. was given also to an order of nuns who claimed descent from a convent founded by St. Augustine at IIippo, and of which his sister was the first abbess. They were vowed to the care of the sick and the service of hospitals. The Hotel-Dieu at Paris is still served by them.