Trinitarians

TRINITARIANS: A Roman Catholic order (Ordo sanctissimce Trinitatis redemptionis captivorum; also called Ordo asinorum, the members being at first permitted to ride only on asses; and in France, Maturines, from their chapel of St. Mathurin or St. Mathelin at Paris), founded, according to tradition, in 1198 by Jean de Maths (b. at Faucon, near Barcelonette, 31 m. n.w. of Nice, June 23, 1160; d. at Rome Dec. 17, 1213) and Fdlix de Valois (b. 1127; d. at Paris Jan. 20, 1212). The legendary account of their origin is not wholly sustained by the earliest known document. This is a privilegium of Innocent III. of May, 1198, approving the reception of property at Cerfroid, specially the house given by Countess Margaret of Burgundy, and implying the existence of the order

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before the legendary journey to Rome, 1198. It is questionable whether the original idea of working for the ransom of the captives was Jean's or Margaret's, but, from the words of this document, more probably the Tatter's. A second document of Dec., 1198, from Innocent, shows that the pope had sent back Jean for recommendations from the bishop of Paris and the abbot of St. Victor. On Jean's return with these and a copy of the rule, the pope confirmed the order. A new pr£vilegium of protection was granted by Innocent, June 18, 1209. The rule of the Trinitarians requires the brothers to live in obedience to the "minister" of their house, and in celibacy and poverty. Each single house is to be occupied by three clerical and three lay brothers, controlled by a." minister," the latter a priest chosen by the brothers and required to hold a chapter each Sunday. At the head of the entire order is the minister superior, who convenes the annual chapter on the octave of Whitsunday and directs the discipline over the ministers inferior. A third of the income of the order is set apart for the liberation of prisoners. The first minister superior was Jean de Maths, who received from Innocent III: the church and hospital of San Tommaso in Formis, on the Celian Hill. A few years after the establishment of the Trinitarians, a.female~branch was founded in Spain, though it did not receive a definite constitution until 1236. In 1199 the first mission was sent to Tunis and 188 redeemed captives were brought back in triumph to Cerfroid. The order, which, had increased chiefly in the Latin countries, was extended to England, Scotland, Ireland, and the East, and was reconfirmed by Honorius III. (1217); Clement IV. permitted certain relaxations of its rule (1287); and Clement VII. sanctioned mendicancy (1574). The Trinitarians did not escape degeneration, and efforts at reform led to divisions. Of the branches the most important is that of the Diacalced Trinitarians, established in Spain and recognized as a distinct congregation by Clement VIII. in 1599, and extended to France and Italy. In 1609 Paul Y. declared them a mendicant order, but until 1636 they were under the general of the main order.

The internal history of the Trinitarians is obscure. A. König maintained that at the height of their prosperity, in the fifteenth century, they had some 880 monasteries, while Pierre Helyot states for his time, the first half of the eighteenth century, that they still possessed about 250 in eleven provinces. According to 0. Braunsberger (Stimmen aus Maria Laach, supplement No. 79, 1901) in 1835 forty-seven of the eighty-seven Spanish monasteries of the order were suppressed, a like fate having befallen the six Austrian houses in 1782-90. P. Deslandres shows 102 houses far France and the Netherlands, of which at the end of the eighteenth century there survived ninety-three, besides eleven in England, one in Ireland, and seven in Scotland. The calced Trinitarians became extinct in 1894, while the diacalced branch has maintained itself till the present time by four settlements at Rome (1905), including the parish churches of Santa Maria dells Fornaci and San Grisogono, besides other settlements in Spain, Austria, America, and elsewhere.

The order devotes itself, for the time being, to the ransom and education of negro children and num bers 450. The female order never flourished, having only ten cloisters in their chief seat, Spain, toward the close of the eighteenth century. P. Dan (His toire de Barbaric, Paris, 1649) gave the number of rescue expeditions as 363, the number of released captives as 30,720. The correct figures, if they could be produced, would undoubtedly be much higher.

(A. Hauck.)

Bibliography: The "Rule" was printed at Paris, 1835, 1652; the "Statutes" at Douai, 1588; cf. L. Holatenius, Codes reputarum, ed. M. Brockie, ii. 38 sqq., Augeburg, 1759. Consult: M. Gmelin, Die Litteratur zur Geschichte des Orders St. Tranitatia, Carlsruhe, 1870; idem, Die Trinitarier ode, Weissapanier in Oeaterreich, Vienna, 1871; Helyot, Ordres monast%quea, ii. 310 sqq.; Heimbucher, Order cared Kongregationen, ii. 89-78; Gallia Christians, viii. 1731 sqq., 18 vols., Paris, 1715 sqq.; G. Uhlhorn, Die Liebesth&tigkeit in MittelaZter, pp. 285 sqq., 498 sqq., Stuttgart, 1884; P. Deslsndrea, L'Ordre des trinitaires, 2 vols., Toulouse, 1903; KL, aii. 84-91.