I have heard it said that they are men of great note,
and, perhaps, of too high ambition in the Catholic Hierarchy, who
having fallen under the grave censure of the Church, are banished
for fixed periods to these distant monasteries. I believe that the
term during which they are condemned to remain in the Holy Land is
from eight to twelve years. By the natives of the country, as well
as by the rest of the brethren, they are looked upon as superior
beings; and rightly too, for Nature seems to have crowned them in
her own true way.
The chief of the Jerusalem convent was a noble creature; his
worldly and spiritual authority seemed to have surrounded him, as
it were, with a kind of "court," and the manly gracefulness of his
bearing did honour to the throne which he filled. There were no
lords of the bedchamber, and no gold sticks and stones in waiting,
yet everybody who approached him looked as though he were being
"presented"; every interview which he granted wore the air of an
"audience"; the brethren as often as they came near bowed low and
kissed his hand; and if he went out, the Catholics of the place
that hovered about the convent would crowd around him with devout
affection, and almost scramble for the blessing which his touch
could give.
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