CARTHU'SIANS. A monastic order which owes its origin to Saint Brim) (q.v.), who re tired in 1086, with six companions. to the soli tmle of La Chartreuse (whence the name). near Grenoble, where they built hermitages, wore rude garments. and lived upon vegetibles and coarse bread. The fifth prior, Guigo (died 1137). com posed a body of rules, called the St/if u 21is, or 0)i/such/dines Cart usiw, but they have often been changed. After 1171), when the order received Papal approbation, it extended rapidly. It dates from 1180 in England, where the mime of Chartreuse house; was corrupted into ('barter Houses. The onto is now conducted under the rules annroyed in 16S2 by Pone Innocent XI.
The Carthnsians were divided into two classes— fathers (mitres) and lay brothers (con rersi). Each father occupied a separate cell, with a bed of straw, a pillow, a woolen coverlet, and the means of manual labor or of writing. They left their cell, even for meals, only on festivals and on days of the funeral of a brother of the older. Thrice a week they fasted on bread. water, and salt, and there were several lengthened fasts in the year. Flesh was forbidden at all times, and wine, junless mixed with water. Unbroken si lence, except on rare occasions, was enforced, as well :IS frequent prayer and night watching. These ansterities were continued, with little modification, by the modern Carthusians. The
order at one time counted sixteen provinces, and boasted of the most magnificent convents in the world—as La Grande Chartreuse (see CHAR TREUSE, LA GRANDE ) , in France. and In Italy the Certosa di Pavia, IS miles south of Milan. The former is still in such use: the buildings date from 1676. The buildings of the latter date from 1396, but are now preserved only as a national monument, the monasteries having been sup pressed in Italy. The Carthusians were given to hospitality and works of charity, and were, on the whole, better educated than the mendicant orders. Their principal seats were in Italy, France, and Switzerland; but they have shared the fate of the other monastic establishments, and their convents are now, for the most part. solitudes indeed. The Carthusian nuns arose at Salette, on the Rhone. in France. about 1229. They followed the rules of the Carthusian monks. hut with some mitigations, of which the most notable is that they have a common refectory. When the monasteries were suppressed under Henry VIII., there were nine Carthusian monas teries in England. To-day there is one, near Steyning, eight miles northwest of Brighton. See CHARTERHOUSE.