Gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

INTRODUCTION. xv
Paris, in 1.086, in the wild mountains of Grenoble in France. They came
into Scotland in the year 1429- They had only one establishment among
us, near Perth, called " Monasterium Vallis Virtutis, 11 which James I.
founded after his captivity in England.
The Gilberti?ies — The order was established by one Gilbert, who was
born in the reign of William the Conqueror. Having received holy orders,
he spent all his substance and patrimony on the poor and in actions of piety,
and took a particular care of distressed girls, who were ashamed to make
known to the world their poverty and condition. The nuns observed a con-
stant silenee in the cloister, and were not admitted to their novitiate till
they were fifteen years of age, and could not be professed unless they had
perfectly by heart the psalms, hymns, and antiphona, that were sung during
divine service.
The Templars. — There were likewise among us two orders of religious
knights, one of which was the Templars, or Red Friars, established at Je-
rusalem, in the year 1118. Baldwin II. king of Jerusalem, gave them a
dwelling near the temple of that city, from which they were called Tem-
plars ; their office and vow being to defend the temple and city of Je-
rusalem, to entertain Christian strangers and pilgrims charitably, and guard
them safely through the Holy Land. There was one general prior that had
the government of this Order in Scotland and in England. They came into
Scotland in the reign of King David I.
The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. — The Johannites, or Knights of
Jerusalem, had their first beginning from certain devout merchants of the
city of Melphi in the kingdom of Naples, who, trading to the Holy Land, ob-
tained of the Calif of Egypt a permission to build a church and monastery at
Jerusalem, for the reception of the pilgrims that came to visit the Holy Land,
and paid yearly a tribute upon that account. Afterwards they built a church
in honour of the Virgin Mary, and another consecrated to the memory of
Mary Magdalene, the one being for men and the other for women, who were
received there with great demonstrations of charity. When this city was
taken by Godfrey of Bouillon, Gerard of Martiques, a native of Provence in
France, built there a larger church, with an hospital for the sick and for pil-
grims, in the year 1104, in honour of St. John, where he placed these knights,
who took their names from that hospital.
The same cross with that of the Templars was likewise ordered to be put
upon all houses that were feued out by these knights.*
The Dominicans, or Black Friars. — The Mendicants were distin-
guished from the monks, in that these last were confined to their cloisters,
whereas the others were allowed to preach, and beg their subsistence abroad ;
and were distinguished from one another by the colour of their habit.
The first of these was the Dominicans, or Black Friars, called also Fratres
Proedicatores, because of their frequent preaching.
The Franciscans, or Grey Friars. — The second order of the Mendi-
cants are the Franciscans, so called from their patriarch St. Francis, a mer-
chant of Assise in Italy. They were also called Minorites (Fratres minores)
or Grey Friars, from their habit. They were established by that saint in
* The superiority of the greater part of the extensive possessions of the Knights Templars
and the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem in Scotland, is now vested in John B. Grade,
Esq. W. S. who is possessed of much curious information regarding these religious orders, of
v, hkh we regret that our limits will not permit us to avail ourselves.