Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble, to a desert
spot in the Alps 14,000 feet above the sea. There St Bruno founded his
monastery known as the Grande Chartreuse. His monks were hermit monks,
each had, as each has still, his own little dwelling. The Order, which
has never been reformed--Cartusia nunquam reformata Quia nunquam
deformata--and has uniformly followed the Rule approved by
Pope Innocent XI., recognises three classes of brethren, the
fathers, the conversi or lay brethren, and nuns. Each house is
governed by a Prior and each monk lives, as I have said, in a separate
dwelling of five little rooms and a tiny cloister, or rather
ambulatory, facing a little garden. His food is given him through a
hatch at the foot of the stairs leading to his rooms. He attends Mass
in Choir, Matins and Vespers too, but the other Hours are said in his
cell. As the Carthusians were when they first came into England so
they are to-day.
But it is not in honour of St Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble, that the
monastery at Parkminster is dedicated, but of quite another saint.
When Henry II. set out to found a Carthusian house in England in
obedience to the Pope, the place he chose for it was Witham in
Selwood, a solitude, for the Rule of the Order demanded it, and that
is also why we have this monastery in the Weald to-day.
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