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Synopsis: The Third Order in the Twelfth Century. Primitive Rule of the Norbertine Tertiaries. The Third Order at Antwerp. The Confraternity of the White Scapular in Beauport. The Third Order remodelled by Brief of Benedict XIV.
Theobald had been the first Tertiary of the Order of Prémontré; he was not destined to be the only one. The Counts of Brienne, who founded our Abbey of Basse-Fontaine, in the diocese of Troyes, became remarkable among the many disciples whom the spirit of the holy Patriarch had attracted even in the midst of the world. "So exact," says an old writer, "was their fidelity to the Rule drawn up for them by the Blessed Norbert, that all could see these princes did not wear the white scapular in vain. The integrity of their lives and the purity of their morals never belied the colour of their habit." [GDR-001]
Soon every district in France and many parts of Europe gave Tertiaries to the family of St. Norbert. "Kings, princes, dukes, counts, lords, and vassals," says Le Paige, "flocked to the Abbeys of Prémontré, demanding the white habit of St. Norbert, and the rule he had prepared for men of the world." [GDR-002]
We cannot but regret the brevity of the Norbertine writer. The names would have been valuable to us, and more circumstantial details could scarcely have failed to edify the reader. Each of the monasteries of the Order had its Register covered with names of Brothers and Sisters ad succurrendum, who, according to the writers of the Institute, were Tertiaries. The names - a great many of these Associates - are to be found in the Necrologies of the Norbertine Abbeys, some of which have lately been published, as for instance, in the Necrology of Floreffe, near Namur, Belgium, and also the Obituary of Silly, in the diocese of Séez, France. There were also many Norbertine Tertiaries in England before the Reformation. The Necrology [GDR-003] of Beauchief Abbey, near Sheffield, Gives the names of more than twenty-five members. The Necrologies of all our Abbeys should certainly furnish similar indications.
The following Rules were observed by the Tertiaries of those distant ages: After they had received the white scapular from the hands of a Premonstratensian Abbot, their names were entered by the Sacristan on the Register of the Confraternity. From that time forward they were bound to recite devoutly a certain number of "Paters" and "Aves"; viz., for Matins, fifteen "Paters" and "Aves" with the Apostles Creed once; for Prime, Terce, Sext, and None, seven "Paters" and "Aves"; for Vespers, twelve; and for Compline, seven, adding the Apostle's Creed. They were, moreover, to confess and communicate at least seven times a year, viz., on the Feast of Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, All Saints, the Assumption, and the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. In addition to the fasts appointed by the Church, they were to fast on every Friday of the year, and to abstain during Advent. These Rules, however, did not bind under pain of sin. The members bound themselves only to the acceptance of the penances imposed at the discretion of their own confessor. [GDR-005]
Such regulations were not too severe for the generous spirit of the Christians of these ages of faith. The world was literally crowded with men and women, young and old, who bore without human respect the badges of a religious Order, and observed as closely as possible all its customs in the privacy of their homes. It would, in fact, be difficult to over-estimate the beneficial influence exerted by the Third Orders on the general advance of Christian civilisation in France and throughout Europe.
The Bollandists specify some of the results which were visible at Antwerp about the middle of the twelfth century. The Patriarch of Prémontré was already surnamed the Apostle of Antwerp. The extinction of the heresy of Tanchelin, the re-establishment of Catholic worship, the restoration of peace to the city, were certainly benefits sufficient to entitle him to everlasting gratitude. The following contract of Brotherhood made (1135) by the Canons of Notre Dame at Antwerp and the Canons of Prémontré of St. Michael's Abbey, in the same place, is, therefore, not surprising. In this agreement there is a covenant that parishioners of Notre Dame who desire aggregation to the Premonstratnesians, "on taking the Rule and habit of the Order, can receive the sacraments from them, and be buried by them, and in their cemeteries". As Père Papebroeck, the Bollandist, observes, there is evidently question here of a spiritual confraternity, comprising in its ranks the faithful of both sexes, even though married like those whom the Mendicant Orders call Tertiaries. [GDR-006]
The same author is of the opinion that, about the middle of the sixteenth century, the custom of wearing the scapular became modified, and that, instead, the Tertiaries carried a medal made of lead, having on one side a Host in a Monstrance. It would appear the Associates wore this medal suspended from their necks as a token of their faith in the most Holy Sacrament. The same writer adds that the Tertiaries of St. Norbert could scarcely choose a more suitable ensign than the image of the Blessed Sacrament, for the Adorable Eucharist was ever the centre of St. Norbert's thoughts and the strengthening principle of his religious life.
Works begun in the Church at the breath of founders raised up by God seldom fail to meet with enemies. From time to time they are assailed by prejudice born of passions, by the love of novelty which causes them to be cast in the shade, even by time itself, the inevitable enemy of all human institutions. Thus it happened that, in the thirteenth century, our Third Order gradually declined. From that period little mention of it is to be found in the history of the Church. The Ritual and the Statutes of the Order do not speak of it. In the Ordinary or Ceremonial there is only a passing allusion, important, however, because it determines what prayers should be said in each Abbey "for deceased persons who have participation in our Brotherhood, or who, at the hour of death, shall have been duly clothed in the habit of the Order"; but it must be borne in mind that these books only speak of what directly concerns the members of the First and Second Orders of St. Norbert. Le Paige, in his Bibliotheca Ord. Praem., printed in 1633, gives the ceremonial of blessing the white scapular, and of clothing with it the members of the Third Order.
At the close of the seventeenth century, a great effort for its revival was made in Catholic Brittany, in France. At that time the Abbey of Beauport, not far from St. Brieux, was held in commendam - that is, was without an Abbot of the Order, but it was ruled by a Prior who in better days would well have deserved the abbatial dignity. Prior Vincent Royer maintained in his monastery the most edifying regularity, and by his care the Abbey Church soon ranked first in wealth and splendour of all the churches in Brittany. His zeal was not restricted to the monastery; "he obtained a Pontifical Brief approving the Confraternity of the White Scapular which had been established in the Abbey. This Confraternity was also praised and approved by the General Chapter of the Order, assembled at Prémontré under the Abbot-General Michael Colbert in 1686. It does not appear to have differed from the Third Order, and it granted its members participation in all the spiritual goods of the Order." [GDR-007]
In the eighteenth century the Premonstratensians in Bavaria, with the consent of the Abbot-General Bruno Bécourt, resolved in their turn to re-constitute and extend this institution, which was already working in Bavaria and in other parts of Europe, and which they thought was likely to be productive of the happiest results for the good of souls. The Right Reverend Joseph Silbermann, Abbot of St. Saviour, in the diocese of Passau, the Vicar-General of the Order in Bavaria, the Tyrol, and the Palatinate, addressed a request on this subject to Pope Benedict XIV (1751). The illustrious Pontiff granted his request, approved once more the Third Order of St. Norbert, and gave it Rules better adapted to the new needs, or, to put it more correctly, to the new weaknesses of the age. A Manual immediately appeared at Passau, entitled Idea and Practices of the Ancient Third Order of St. Norbert. This was, it seems, the first Manual for the use of the Norbertine Tertiaries.
The important Brief of Benedict XIV, which contains the Rules of the Third Order of Prémontré, will be given and explained in the next chapters.
