ORDERICUS VITALIS ORDERS. 



323 



ordeals, the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of 

 the sixteenth century are to be regarded as the clos- 

 ing period of them in Europe. But it is to be la- 

 mented that the Roman law substituted in their place 

 an equally horrid process in criminal cases, viz. the 

 torture, which was originally applied only to slaves, 

 but afterwards to freemen also. Ordeals are still 

 found in many nations out of Europe. Thus the 

 Senegambians, in Africa, apply a red-hot iron to the 

 tongue of a person suspected of crime. Some ne- 

 groes, on the coast of Guinea, put into the hands of 

 the accused herbs and barks of a peculiar character, 

 and suppose they have the properly of burning the 

 guilty. The natives of Pegu and Siam have the 

 ordeal of cold water. The Tschuwasses and Osti- 

 acks, in Russia in Asia, connect the trial of the con- 

 secrated morsel with an oath. The Chinese have 

 the ordeals by fire and water ; but the chief ordeals 

 are among the Hindoos, in Congo, and other places. 



ORDERICUS VITALIS, a historian of the twelfth 

 century, of a French family, but born in England, at 

 the age of ten was sent for education to an abbey in 

 Normandy. He entered into the order of priesthood, 

 but devoted his life to literary studies. He died after 

 1143. He wrote an Ecclesiastical History in thirteen 

 books, published in Duchesne's Histories Norman. 

 Scrip., and in other collections. 



ORDERS IN COUNCIL. See Privy Council. 



ORDERS, MILITARY. The secular military or- 

 ders are societies established by princes, the mem- 

 bers of which are distinguished by particular badges, 

 and consist of persons who have done particular 

 services to the prince and state, or who enjoy, by the 

 privileges of birth, the highest distinctions in the 

 state. They originated from the institutions of chi- 

 valry and the ecclesiastical corporations, and were, in 

 the beginning, fraternities of men, who, in addition 

 to particular duties enjoined by the law of honour, 

 united for the performance of patriotic or Christian 

 purposes. Free birth and an irreproachable life were 

 the conditions of admission. The oldest Christian 

 orders of which mention is made, are the order sanctcc 

 ampulla:, which Clovis I. founded in the year 499, 

 the order of the oak, which Garcias Ximenes, king 

 of Navarre, founded in 722, and the order of the 

 genet (de la genette), founded by Charles Martel, in 

 726 ; of which, however, the two first are uncertain. 

 The first orders after these arose during the time of 

 the crusades, and were an example for all future 

 orders. From societies established, under certain 

 rules, for the care of sick persons, as well as the 

 diffusion and support of the Christian religion, first 

 proceeded the religious military orders, of which the 

 oldest is the order of St John of Jerusalem. Tlteir 

 laws were similar to the rules of the monastic orders. 

 The pope's confirmation was essential to their estab- 

 lishment, and he was in a manner their head ; their 

 superiors and masters, however, were chosen by 

 themselves, by a majority of voices. On their model 

 the secular military orders were formed in later 

 times, which united religious with military exercises. 

 They also bore outward badges, as the religious 

 orders liad done in earlier times, after the example 

 of the crusaders. This, with the religious military 

 orders, was most commonly a cross ; which the secu- 

 lar adopted also ; differing, however, from the sim- 

 ple emblems of their spiritual brethren by the inter- 

 mixture of worldly ornaments, by a diversity of 

 colours, precious stones, and precious metals. The 

 subsequent period made changes therein, and added 

 ribands and stars. But the original pious object of 

 these orders was also changed, and they acquired by 

 degrees their present character. The statutes, in- 

 deed, sometimes speak of the defence of the Christian 

 faith, and similar pious objects ; but those precepts 



are not carried into effect. See Perrot's Collect, 

 histor. dcs Orilres de Chevalerie civils ct mililaires, 

 &c., with forty coloured copperplates (Paris, 1820, 

 4to); WippePs Die Ritteronlen, ein tubell. ckronol. 

 liter. -hist, farzeic/iniss nbcr alls welt lichen Rittcror 

 den (2 vols., Berlin, 1817 and 1819, 4to). 



ORDERS, in natural history, are the great divi- 

 sions of classes of animals, plants, or minerals ; for 

 example, the class mammalia, or animals which 

 suckle their young, is divided into ten orders, by 

 Cuvier, viz., 1. two-handed animals; 2. four-handed 

 animals, &c. 



ORDERS OF ARCHITECTURE. See Archi- 

 tecture. 



ORDERS, RELIGIOUS, are associations bound to 

 lead strict and devotional lives, and to live sepa- 

 rate from the world. They are subjected to a per- 

 petual obligation to their monastic vows, or the rules 

 of their order. (See Monastery.') The monks and 

 nuns of the East, particularly of the Greek church, 

 follow the rules of St Basil, as do also the Basilians 

 in Spain. In the Roman church, on the contrary, 

 the fundamental rules of the monasteries were drawn 

 up by St Benedict of Norcia, who is to be regarded 

 as the first founder of a spiritual order. The monas- 

 teries of the Eastern churches bear the names of 

 their common founders and guardian saints, but 

 without being so closely united to one another as the 

 members of spiritual orders in the West. According 

 to the rules of St Benedict, the principal vows to be 

 assumed by every novice after a year's probation are 

 those which enjoin the duty of prayer at certain hours 

 of the day, labour, perpetual celibacy, and a renun- 

 ciation of the pleasures of the world, unconditional 

 obedience to the superiors of the order, and constant 

 residence in the monastery. As these rules and the 

 black cowl were common to almost all the monks 

 and nuns in the West, from the sixth to the beginning 

 of the tenth century, the Benedictine order may be 

 regarded as the only one existing during that period. 

 Still, however, the monasteries belonging to it were 

 under the government of bishops, with no common 

 superiors, and were divided into several congrega- 

 tions, differing by a more or less strict observance of 

 their rules; for example, the Benedictines of Clugny, 

 of Monte-Casino, of Monte-Vergine, of Monte-Oli- 

 veto (Olivctans), of Valladolid, of St Vannes, of St 

 Maurus, of Molk, &c. (See Benedictines.') The 

 desire to give more strictness and sanctity to the 

 monastic life, was manifest in the middle ages, by the 

 establishment of new rules, founded on those of St 

 Benedict. Thus arose the Camaldulians, the gray 

 monks of Vallombrosa, the Silvestrines, the Grand- 

 montanists, the Carthusians, the Celestines, the Cis- 

 tercians, the Bernardines, Feuillans, Recollets, the 

 nuns of Port Royal, and the Trappists, and the order 

 of Fontevraud. The reputed rules of St Augustine 

 were adopted by a large number of religious orders. 

 Augustine had united only the clergy of his cathedral, 

 and several other churches of his diocese, to lead a 

 canonical life; that is, a life of celibacy, poverty, 

 seclusion, and formal devotion at certain prescribed 

 hours; but he never had an idea of founding an 

 order of monks. Moreover, the monks, who were 

 reckoned among the laity in the. seventh century, 

 could not adopt the rules of Augustine, which were 

 first designed for the clergy. But, in the eighth 

 century, they began to be viewed as members of the 

 clerical order, and in the tenth, by receiving permis- 

 sion to assume the tonsure, they were formally de- 

 clared clergymen. Indeed, public opinion and sev- 

 eral papal bulls placed them, as superior in sanctity, 

 above the secular clergy, who, for this reason, often 

 became monks, or formed associations for the per- 

 formance of monastic vows, and leading canonical 

 XI 



