ost elevated
circles, so also these two powerful allurements attracted innumerable
persons to the cloisters, and multiplied in a most surprising degree the
numerical force of the monastic orders.

These orders divided themselves into two great ramifications, the monks
and the friars, and composed what may be called the aristocracy and the
democracy of monachism. The monks were distinguished from the friars by
their immense wealth, by the possessions of their monasteries, which were
generally situated out of, and at a great distance from, towns, by the
dignity of their manners, and by certain peculiarities in their internal
government, over which there reigned a certain spirit of retirement and
love of seclusion, that separated them from worldly things and the
interests and passions of profane society.

The principal orders of monks established in Spain were the Benedictine,
the Bernardine, the Carthusian, and the Hieronimites. The last two were
superior to all the rest in number, importance, and wealth, and it is
only respecting them that we shall treat in this chapter.

The Carthusians were opulent landowners; they lived in the midst of their
possessions, and, to a considerable extent, cultivated their own lands.
In these operations they rendered great service to agriculture; they
practised the science with great care and knowledge; they brought their
productions to great perfection. The breed of the Carthusian horses of
Xeres was notoriously the best in Europe. In most of the Carthusian
establishments they had schools in which education was given gratuitously
to the children of their tenantry, and to those of the poor of the
neighbouring towns. Under this point of view, it is certain that the
monasteries of the Carthusians contributed greatly to the extension and
improvement of agriculture and education in Spain. They were also
notable for the stimulus which they gave to the fine arts; for their
churches and monasteries were true museums of sculpture, painting, and
architecture. In that of Granada, all travellers admire the beautiful
paintings of its cloisters and refectory, the magnificent marbles of its
chapels and sacristy, and the good taste and richness of the ornaments
which cover all parts of the edifice.

The Carthusians observed, as fundamental rules of their order, silence
and seclusion. They had but few acts which they performed in common, and
these only on holidays. Each Carthusian lived in his