THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTOKY OF OLD PLYMOUTH. 337 
And now we must retrace our steps, and speak of the religious 
orders which from time to time were represented in Plymouth. 
I believe the oldest settlers were the Carmelites. They belonged 
to the Mendicant Friars, although they were not originally such. 
They derived their name from Mount Carmel, where their 
monasteries were at first situated. They claim to be of very 
ancient origin, their founder being no other than the prophet 
Elijah,* and having as members all the prophets and Old Testament 
saints, from Elijah to Christ, and, I believe as well, all the heathen 
philosophers, to say nothing of the ancient Druids. 
It is, however, long after the time of these great ones, so long, 
indeed, that it seems almost ridiculous to mention the year a. d. 1209, 
that any historical information is to be obtained. In that year 
some monks living on Mount Carmel procured a rigid rule of life, 
in sixteen articles, under the hand of the patriarch Albert, of 
Jerusalem. They were to hold no property, to live in separate 
cells, to continue day and night in prayer, to keep silence, to fast 
from the festival of the Holy Cross until Easter, except on Sundays, 
to abstain from flesh at all times, and to labour with their hands, 
with many other rules, which were all confirmed by the Pope 
Honorius III. in 1224. Soon after the doubtful peace con- 
cluded by Frederic II. with the Sultan, in 1229, the Saracens 
deprived the Carmelites of their convents, and drove them from 
the mountain, and they resolved, to avoid further persecution, to 
leave Palestine, and thus became scattered in all directions. 
Some took refuge in Cyprus, and in 1238 founded a monastery 
there ; some, who were Sicilians, returned to their own country, 
and settled at Messina; and others, in 1244, settled in Provence, 
where they had a house in the neighbourhood of Marseilles. 
Several of the English brethren came to England for the purpose 
of establishing houses here. These brethren do not seem to 
have been thrown on their own resources, as were the others ; for 
the story goes that Eichard Grey and John Vesey, knights, two 
English commanders, being near Mount Carmel, resolved to visit 
the same in devotion, and there they found, among others, 
several of their countrymen leading hermits' lives, being induced 
by whose sanctity, they obtained leave of the prior for some 
* For an account of the disputes as to the origin of the Carmelites, see 
G-oschier's "Diet. Ency. Theo. Catholique," tome iv. p. 52. I am much 
indebted to this article for the following account. 
