ndowed them with his Chateau de Vauvert, including extensive lands
and vineyards. The chateau was reputed to be haunted by evil spirits,
and the street leading thither as late as the last century was known
as the Rue d'Enfer. St. Louis began a great church for them, and the
eight cells, each with its three rooms and garden, were increased to
thirty before the end of his reign; in later times the order became
one of the richest in Paris and occupied a vast expanse of land to the
south of the Luxembourg. The fine series of paintings illustrating the
life of St. Bruno, by Lesueur, now in the Louvre, was executed for the
smaller cloister of the monastery. The Grands Augustins were
established on the south bank of the Seine, near the present Pont
Neuf, and the Serfs de la Vierge, known later as the Blancs Manteaux,
from their white cloaks, in the Marais. They were subsequently
amalgamated with the Guillemites, or the Hermits of St. William, and
at No. 14 Rue des Guillemites some remains of their monastery may yet
be seen. The church of the Blancs Manteaux, rebuilt in the seventeenth
century, also exists in the street of that name.

In 1217 the first of the Dominicans were seen at Paris. On the 12th of
September seven preaching friars, among whom were Laurence the
Englishman and a brother of St. Dominic, established themselves in a
house near the _parvis_ of Notre Dame. In 1218 the University gave
them a home opposite the church of St. Etienne des Grez (St. Stephen
of the Greeks), in the Rue St. Jacques, and in the following year,
when St. Dominic came to Paris, the brothers had increased to thirty.
The saint himself drew up the plans of their monastery and always
cherished a particular affection for the Paris house. Their church was
opened in 1220, and being dedicated to St. Jacques, the Dominicans
were known as Jacobins all over France. St. Louis endowed them with a
school; they soon became one of the most powerful and opulent of the
religious orders, and their church, a burial-place for kings and
princes. The Friars Minor soon followed. St. Francis himself, in his
deep affection for France, had determined to go to Paris and found a
house of his order, but being dissuaded by his friend, Cardinal
Ugolin, sent in 1216 a few of his disciples. These early friars, true
_poverelli di Dio_, would accept no endowment of house or money, and
supporting themselves by their hands, carried their splendid devotion
among the poor, the out