Premonstratensian
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The Premonstratensians, also called Norbertines, and in England the White Canons (from the color of their habit) are a Christian religious order of Augustinian Canons founded at Prémontré near Laon in 1120 by Saint Norbert, afterwards archbishop of Magdeburg.
Norbert had made various efforts to introduce a strict form of canonical life in various communities of canons in Germany; in 1120 he was working in the diocese of Laon, and there in a desert place, called Prémontré, in Aisne, he and thirteen companions established a monastery to be the cradle of a new order. They were canons regular and followed the so-called Rule of Saint Augustine, but with supplementary statutes that made the life one of great austerity. Norbert was a friend of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and he was largely influenced by the Cistercian ideals as to both the manner of life and the government of his order. But as the Premonstratensians were not monks but canons regular, their work was preaching and the exercise of the pastoral office, and they served a large number of parishes incorporated in their monasteries.
The order was founded in 1120; in 1126, when it received papal approbation, there were nine houses; and others were established in quick succession throughout western Europe, so that at the middle of the 14th century there are said to have been over 1,300 monasteries of men and 400 of women. The Premonstratensians played a predominant part in the conversion of the Wends and the Christianizing of the territories about the Elbe and the Oder. In time mitigations and relaxations crept in, and these gave rise to reforms and semi-independent congregations within the order. The Premonstratensians came into England about 1143 first at Newhouse in Lincoln, and before the dissolution under Henry VIII there were 35 houses. At the beginning of the 19th century the order had been almost exterminated, only eight houses surviving, all in the Austrian dominions. At the start of the 20th century there were 20 monasteries and 1,000 canons.
References
- Helyot, Histoire des ordres réligieux (1714).
- Max Heimbucher, Orden u. Kongregationen (1907), ii. 56.
- Premonstratensian Canons (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12387b.htm), Catholic Encyclopedia.fr:Prémontrés