Transactions. 115 



that are carved upon the mhcrcre seats within the chancel and the 

 ^•argo^'les outside of ancient Cathedrals and Abbey or Minster 

 churches. The Monks regarded the Secular clergy with contempt, 

 and considered those only entitled to the name of " religious " who 

 belong-ed to a Monastic Order. 



Having now described the origin and growth of the Monastic 

 system, and explained wherein it differed from the Episcopal 

 organisation, which it tried to supersede, I now proceed to notice 

 those Orders who owned monasteries in Dumfries and its neigh- 

 bourhood 500 years ago. 



I begin with the oldest Order — the Benedictines — who pos- 

 sessed Lincluden Abbey as a Nunnery from A.D. 1164 until it was 

 changed into a Collegiate institution about A.D. 1400. This Order 

 was founded by St. Benedict of Olugny about A.D. 529, and came 

 soon afterwards to England. He took as its motto the words of 

 the Apostle Paul : "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ 

 in God." It became a wealthy and learned Order, and universal 

 throughout the west for four centuries of the Middle Ages. Their 

 abbeys were almost always built in or near to towns, and often 

 upon an eminence ; and they were distinguished by the richness 

 and often magnificence of their architecture in contrast with the 

 plainness of abbeys of the Cistercian Order, immediately to be 

 noticed. St. Benedict added manual labour to the religious life, 

 observing that idleness was the great enemy of the soul ; and he 

 also made the vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity perpetual. 



This is the only abbey they possessed in the district, and I 

 here show you drawings of a Monk and of a Nun of the Order. 

 The habit of both was a larg'e black woollen robe, covering the 

 body to the feet, with a plain black scapulary ; the Nuns wore a 

 black veil and a white wimple over the chest and neck, which 

 sometimes also covered the chin ; and also a cowl or coif, which 

 covered the forehead. 



The Benedictine was the parent of among others the Cistercian 

 Order, which owned the large Abbeys of Dundrennan and Sweet- 

 lleart, called in later time the New Abbey. 



This Order was founded by St Bernard at Citeaux, in 

 Durgundy, A.D. 1098, and introduced into England a century 

 later. It was a reformed Order of the Benedictine, adhering to 

 the strict letter of its rules and inculcating silence, except to the 

 Abbot, aud simplicity of habit and diet. The sites of its abbeys 



