by J.C. Kirkfleet, O. Praem.; 1916, B. Herder, London

TIME PERIOD A:

From the Birth of Norbert Until the Foundation of his Order

CHAPTER A-6:

Premontre

Norberto niveas vestes, ceu Signa pudoris,

Offert angelica Virgo Maria manu.

In token of her constant love

The Angels' Queen of Heaven above

Clothes thee in white....

After the Council of Rheims, Norbert and Hugh were for a time separated. Hugh with the full consent of Norbert, accompanied his Bishop, Burchard, whom he had met at the Council, back to Cambray, while Norbert went to Laon. Pope Calixtus decided to spend the winter with his cousin, Bishop Bartholomew, at Laon, and in order to learn more about the character of our Saint, His Holiness requested the Bishop to invite Norbert also. The Bishop did so most willingly, for he saw in Norbert the very man who could be of great assistance to him in bringing about a reform in his poor and neglected diocese. Madelaine gives us a second reason, namely, that Norbert's relatives who lived in the diocese of Laon, had requested the Bishop to bring the Saint thither, for they feared for his health. [A-6-1] Norbert, on his part, was very eager to go to Laon, since this would give him the opportunity to unfold his plans in detail to the Holy Father, to ask his advice and get his approval on the carrying out of the great work of reform.

Thus all three went to Laon. Here the Pope soon greatly admired Norbert and his noble aim, and gave him constant encouragement. It is not without reason then, that one of the early chroniclers observes, that the Premonstratensian Order owes its origin to the conference between Norbert and the Pope at this time. [A-6-2] A sincere and lasting friendship sprung up also between Norbert and the Bishop. Bartholomew will one day be considered the second Founder, so to speak, of Premontre. Before he died, he had established no less than five monasteries for Norbert and his brethren, first having enabled Norbert to found Premontre. The following are the words of Bartholomew, written twenty-four years after this first meeting:

"We want it to be known "to our people and to posterity that in the year of Our Lord, 1119, a man of wonderful piety, by the name of Norbert, happened to come to our diocese; that we, seeing his holiness and admiring his learning and eloquence, forced him by our entreaties to remain over winter. The more we associated with him, and the oftener we heard him speak, the more we were refreshed by the sweet odor of his holy life. Winter being over, he was anxious to depart, but many of the clergy and nobles begged us to retain him in our diocese, which we also desired most earnestly. By the grace of God we at last with great difficulty succeeded in obtaining this favor . . " [A-6-3]

At this time there was in the diocese of Laon an abbey in which were great and numerous abuses, which the Pope as well as the Bishop was anxious to see reformed. For this reason the canons of St. Martin, such was the abbey called, at the suggestion of both Pope and Bishop, elected Norbert as their abbot. At first the Saint strenuously opposed this plan and refused the honor. He said to the Bishop: "If I have given up wealth and opulence at Cologne, was it to come here to find wealth at the Chapter of Laon?" The good Bishop had recourse to the Pontiff, and when the Pope himself expressed his desire that Norbert should take charge of the abbey, the Saint replied:

"O Most Holy Father, you remember, that I have been twice commissioned to preach the Word of God, first by the authority of your predecessor, and secondly by Your Holiness. However, as I do not wish to follow my own will, I am ready to undertake this responsible work, but I cannot break my solemn engagement without great detriment to my soul. It is known to Your Holiness that this my solemn engagement is, that I have chosen to lead with God's help a strictly evangelical and apostolic life. But since You command me, I do not refuse the task, provided the canons are willing to live according to my principles and follow my maxims."

To this the Holy Father replied that, in case the canons should refuse to do so, Norbert would be entirely free to leave them. Upon this condition, then, Norbert undertook the reform of the abbey of St. Martin of Tours.

We already know that our Saint had received from God a special gift for bringing about peace even where discord reigned supreme. However, it is not always in the power of the physician to heal. Nothing is more difficult than to reform an institution, whatever its nature, where laxity in regard to the observance of the rules has crept in. According to the words of Peter the Venerable, it is even far easier to found a new monastery than to reform one where the rules are not observed. Norbert undoubtedly knew this, but acting under obedience, he went to the abbey.

Being duly installed, he began his reform by trying to re-establish canonical life among the clerics, and by showing them daily by word and example how to observe the duties of their state of life. Holding up to them the Gospel and their own Constitutions, he explained how their eternal salvation depended on the faithful observance of both. At first the canons listened to him respectfully, but when Norbert attempted to carry his words into action, they said: "Nolumus hunc super nos" . . . "We do not want such a master," and they refused to change their manner of living. After a stay of three months Norbert saw conditions to be hopeless, and begged the Bishop to release him from his office. He was determined to leave not only the abbey of St. Martin but also the diocese of Laon. However, Bishop Bartholomew prevailed on him to change the latter plan. In the old MS. Life we read that the Bishop actually begged the Saint to stay, and offered him all possible inducements. [A-6-4] First he asked him to come to live with him in his palace, but by this time Norbert had a particular horror of palaces. When the Saint further explained his desire for solitude, the good Bishop answered: "In the diocese of Laon there are many deserts and solitudes, which I will show you. Choose the one that pleases you, and it will be yours. " Here again we see divine Providence leading Norbert to the place where he was to found a new Religious Order. As we have seen, Norbert had really failed in his efforts to reform existing conditions, first among the canons of Xanten and now among those of Laon. Still determined to carry out his work of reform, there was only one way open to him, namely, to create new canons according to his own ideals.

As the Bishop had promised, as soon as the weather permitted, he daily accompanied Norbert in search of a quiet and suitable place. They first visited Foigny, a charming and delightful spot. When Bartholomew asked Norbert's opinion of it, he replied, that having consulted not his own judgment but God in prayer, he knew that Foigny was not the place that God had destined for him. Neither was Thenailles, nor several other places which they visited. Finally they came into the forest of Coucy. Here they reached a deep marshy valley, named Premontre, covered with thorns and brush, where the waters from the mountains gathered. There was in this retreat a little chapel built by the Benedictine monks of St. Vincent's Abbey of Laon, and dedicated to St. John the Baptist; but it had fallen into ruin. Still in this little chapel the Bishop and Norbert entered to pray.

Norbert was at once seized by the spirit of God, and when after a long time the Bishop wished to tell him that night was drawing near, he found him in ecstasy, entirely lost to the world around him. When the Saint did come to himself, the Bishop asked him if this, at last, was the place. "Lord and Father," replied Norbert, "let us praise the Almighty. I have found a solitude according to my heart. This is the place which it has pleased God to prepare for me from all eternity." He further begged the Bishop to be allowed to spend the night there in prayer, and Bartholomew returned alone to Anizy, a castle about nine miles from Laon.

Once alone in the poor little chapel of St. John the Baptist, far away from the noise of the world and in the darkness of the night, our Saint poured forth his heartfelt thanks to God. Oh! how fervently he must have prayed, for during the night the heavens were opened to him, and the Blessed Virgin, surrounded by angels, appeared to him, illuminating the poor chapel with a heavenly light! In very truth she came to direct him in the founding of his Order and to tell him that his prayers were heard. She indicated the place where the first house of the Order should be built; and, showing him a white habit, said to him: "Receive my son, the white habit." The Queen of heaven then disappeared. [A-6-5]

The Saint, with glowing heart, beheld

The radiant Queen who said:

"Take thou this sign ot grace, my child,"

As o’er his bending head

She held the snowy habit . . .

Thus the night passed quickly, and before Norbert was aware of it, Bartholomew stood at his side, anxious to know how God had inspired him in that long night of prayer. Radiant with joy, Norbert exclaimed,

"This is the place of my rest and the haven of my salvation. Here I must sing the praises of the Lord, together with faithful companions, whom God will send me. I have seen during my prayer a multitude of pilgrims, clothed in white robes, carrying in their hands silver crosses and censers, pointing out to me the place where God wishes to have a church built in His honor."

The good Bishop was greatly pleased with all that Norbert related, and gladly promised to procure for him the possession of Premontre from the abbot of St. Vincent, to whom it belonged. They then returned to Laon. Norbert had, since the Council of Fritzlar, worn a gray woolen habit, but at this time he took the white habit, which he received from the hands of Bishop Bartholomew. [A-6-6]

It was not without a special design on the part of divine Providence that, among so many solitary places in the diocese of Laon, the Saint should have selected the desert of Premontre as the cradle of the Order. Heaven, which had inspired him in this first choice, showed hereby that the Order, which was to have penance for its portion and preaching for its occupation, would most fittingly take its birth in a solitude dedicated to St. John the Baptist, the model-preacher of penance. Again, the very name Premontre—Praemonstratum—Pratum Monstratum, means a place foreshown. Many of the historians seem inclined to think that the Saint himself originated this name in remembrance of his vision. Others, and among them Blessed Hugh himself, affirm that the place was thus popularly called long before Norbert's coming. Some even give us the origin of the name in relating the following story, which, however, B1. Hugh, in his "Vita," considers a fable.

They tell us that at one time there was a lion doing considerable damage in that part of the country. In vain had the people tried to kill him, when Enguerrand I, of Coucy, resolved to find him and free the country of this dangerous intruder. He inquired of a hermit where the lion was. All at once he saw him very close by, and exclaimed: "De par saint Jean, tu me l'as de pres montre." Hence, they say, the name Premontre. [A-6-7]

At any rate, ever since the time of St. Norbert, his canons have been distinguished from others by this name of Premontre. In history they are sometimes referred to as Norbertines, as for instance, in the life of St. Otho of Bamberg, but the more common historic name is Premonstratensians. In England, however, until the time of their suppression by Henry VIII, they were generally known by the name of "White Canons."

Norbert actually took possession of his dear solitude in the year 1120. His community was small, to be sure, but the Saint knew he was carrying out the will of God, and abandoned the future entirely to divine Providence. As St. Ignatius observes, the foundation of a Religious Order is too sublime to be a human work.

And no doubt this is why God has shown to nearly all Founders of Religious Orders the very spot where the first house of the order was to be built. Read, for instance, the lives of St. Romuald—St. Robert of Citeaux —B1. Bernard of Tiron,—all these had visions in which God pointed out to them the very place of their first foundation. Then we must not overlook the part God's Mother also took in the foundation of Norbert's Order, as related above.

The chapel and the surrounding country, of which Norbert had now taken possession, had at one time belonged to the Bishop of Laon. One of Bartholomew's predecessors had donated it to the Benedictine monks of St. Vincent's Abbey. [A-6-8] These monks had tried for years to cultivate the valley, but without success. So when the Bishop asked the Abbot and his monks for the property, they very willingly returned it, especially since the Bishop offered them in exchange the altar of Berry-auBrac and a half bushel of wheat from the mill of Bancourt. These details we know from a charter given by the Bishop to Premontre nearly a year later. [A-6-9] The first agreement therefore must have been a verbal one.

After Norbert and his two companions were established in Premontre, they came in contact with a priest by the name of Guy, Guido or Wido, who was leading in that vicinity the life of a hermit. [A-6-10] He had led for some years a dissipated life, but now wore a religious habit and lived hidden in this desert to do penance for his sins. After meeting our Saint he went deeper into the forests in the direction of Valenciennes, and for three years lived all alone. One day, however, he is to be the founder of the illustrious Norbertine abbey of Vicogne.

The question is discussed by different historians as to whether St. Norbert at this time had really any definite idea as to the kind of life and the work of the new Order he was now bringing into existence. Most of them agree that he did not, and this seems very likely. Ever since the day of his conversion his object had been "Reform." His aim in going to live at Premontre was beyond doubt that he and his disciples might lead a life of penance, and make this their center of true missionary labors. The exact means and ways of attaining his object he left to Divine Providence.

God had thus far led him out of his own country and brought him among strangers. When Norbert had come to Premontre, God had made known to him that this was the place destined for him, prepared from all eternity. We may therefore say that Norbert at this time was simply awaiting further developments of his providential mission.

<<start footnotes for chapter A-6>>

[A-6-1]

Madelaine, op. cit., who quotes from Vita B, Ch. XIX: Habens in progenie matris suae quosdam in eodem episcopatu et civitate propinquos. Cfr. Maurit. du Pre, Annales breves Ord. Praem. (Namurci, 1886), p. 1.

[A-6-2]

Pertz XII Chron. de Mailros. an. 1119.

[A-6-3]

Barthelemy de Vir by M. A. de Florival., p. 260. Cfr. also Le Paige, Bibliot. Ord. Praem., p. 373.

[A-6-4]

Vita B, Ch. XIX

[A-6-5]

Thus Le Paige Biblioth. Ord. Praem., p. 372.—Hanegravius, p. 15—and many others. In 1625 Theod. Galleus reproduced this Apparition in a beautiful picture; and, besides, this scene is often referred to in different official documents concerning the Order.

[A-6-6]

Le Paige, ibidem. Cfr. also De Waghenaere, "Vita Sancti Norberti metro libera.," p. l9. Both relate this event, adding that it took place on the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul— Jan. 26^th, in the year 1120.

[A-6-7]

There are MSS. kept in the archives of' the department of Aiene, according to which this story is no fable. They tell that Enguerrand, to perpetuate the memory of this dangerous hunt, establiched in his domains the Order of the Lion. Cfr. Madelaine. 

[A-6-8]

St. Bernard says in one of his letters (253) that he himself is the giver of the land of Premontre. S. J. Eales, in his Life and Works of St. Bernard, observes in a footnote to this letter: "What St. Bernard says here about the ground being given by him seems at variance with the letters of foundation of Premontre given in the name of Bartholomew, Bishop of Laon, in which the place in question is said to have belonged to the monks of St. Vincent, and to have been given by Bartholomew to Norbert. However, this seeming contradiction is explained when we remember that Hugh, in rebuilding the monastery of Premontre, had transferred it to the other side of a mountain. The first site may thus have been given by the monks of St. Vincent and the second by Bernard.

[A-6-9]

Cfr. next chapter where Charter is given.

[A-6-10]

St, Bernard refers to this priest in the letter quoted above (253).

<<end footnotes for chapter A-6>>