which, night and day, the poor can come and warm themselves."
In the way of charity, the monks who remain on their premises and
witness the public misery continue faithful to the spirit of their
institution. On the birth of the Dauphin the Augustins of Montmorillon
in Poitou pay out of their own resources the tailles and corvees of
nineteen poor families. In 1781, in Provence, the Dominicans of Saint
Maximin support the population of their district in which the tempest
had destroyed the vines and the olive trees. "The Carthusians of Paris
furnish the poor with eighteen hundred pounds of bread per week. During
the winter of 1784 there is an increase of alms-giving in all the
religious establishments; their farmers distribute aid among the poor
people of the country, and, to provide for these extra necessities, many
of the communities increase the rigor of their abstinences." When at
the end of 1789, their suppression is in question, I find a number of
protests in their favor, written by municipal officers, by prominent
individuals, by a crowd of inhabitants, workmen and peasants, and these
columns of rustic signatures are eloquent. Seven hundred families of
Cateau-Cambresis[1309] send in a petition to retain "the worthy
abbes and monks of the Abbey of St. Andrew, their common fathers and
benefactors, who fed them during the tempest." The inhabitants of
St. Savin, in the Pyrenees, "portray with tears of grief their
consternation" at the prospect of suppressing their abbey of
Benedictines, the sole charitable organization in this poor country. At
Sierk, Thionville, "the Chartreuse," say the leading citizens, "is, for
us, in every respect, the Ark of the Lord; it is the main support of
from more than twelve to fifteen hundred persons who come it every day
in the week. This year the monks have distributed amongst them their
own store of grain at sixteen livres less than the current price." The
regular canons of Domievre, in Lorrraine, feed sixty poor persons twice
a week; it is essential to retain them, says the petition, "out of pity
and compassion for poor beings whose misery cannot be imagined; where
there no regular convents and canons in their dependency, the poor cry
with misery."[1310] At Moutiers-Saint-John, near Semur in Burgundy, the
Benedictines of Saint-Maur support the entire village and supply it this
year with food during the famine. Near Morley in Barrois, the abbey of
Auvey, of the Cistercian order, "was alway