PREMONSTRATENSIANS, called also NORBERTINES. A religious Order which, during the four centuries from the twelfth to the six teenth, was one of the most numerous and pow erful monastic bodies in Europe. Its houses were especially munerous in Germany, hut there were many monasteries also in England, where. be cause of the color of their habit. the Norbertines were called White Canons. The Order was found ed by Saint Norbert. a native of Xanten, in the Diocese of Cleves. who was born about 1080. Nor bert's youth had been irregular, but. converted at the age of 35, he afterwards lived very strictly, devoting himself to the conversion of others. While engaged in this work he realized the need for missionaries to help the local clergy. He was soon joined by thirteen companions to whom he gave the rule of saint Augustine. and founded his first monastery in the forest of Coney, near Dion. at a place called MonAre (the field shown), or I foreshown), because Norbert felt that this was the place that had been pointed out to him by a vision. This became the mother house and the Order came to be named from it. The rule adopted by Saint Norbert was very strict. It imposed perpetual fasting. that is. allowed only one meal a day, not to be taken be fore noon, and required entire abstinence from meat. the daily chanting of the office. the monks were hound to the duties of preaching and hearing confessions in connection with the parish clergy.
The Order spread rapidly, first in France and the Low Countries. and. after Norbert's election (1127) as Archbishop of Magdeburg. also in Ger many. The abbot of the mother house at Coney held the rank of general and was superior of the entire Order. This continued to be the ease until
the French Revolution. Saint Norbert also founded an Order of nuns which spread almost as rapidly and as widely as that for men. At the end of the fifteenth century the Premonstraten Sian Order had not less than 1500 monasteries for men and 500 for women. most of them situated in France, Germany, and England. for the Order never made mueh progress in Italy or Spain. It maintained its first fervor for several centuries, hut mitigations of the rule gradually crept in and were followed by relaxations, which made various reforms necessary. Toward the close of the sixteenth century (1573), as the result of the Catholic reaction that followed the Coun cil of Trent, a reform movement similar to that in the Franciscan Order made considerable modification of the existing Premonstraten sian Institute. The reformed communities re mained united with the older body, however, and in 1630 the modified rule was accepted by all the communities. Since the end of the seven teenth century the Order has declined in num hers. The female branch became almost extinct in the eighteenth century. There was a reawak ening in the nineteenth century in the male branch, but the Order has suffered much from suppression in Italy. Spain. the German Empire. and Switzerland. It flourishes in Austria and Holland, however, and there are some houses in England. In the United States there is a house at De Pere, Wis., which was founded from the Abbey of Heeswijk (Holland). Consult Currier, History of Religious Orders (New York, 1S94).