On leaving
the Chartreuse he had appointed a successor as superior, and the
institute steadily took more settled shape and further development.
Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, writing about forty years later,
speaks thus of the mode of life of the earliest Carthusians:--

"Warned by the negligence and lukewarmness of many of the older monks,
they adopted for themselves and for their followers greater precaution
against the artifices of the Evil One. As remedy against pride and
vain-glory they chose a dress more poor and contemptible than that of
any other religious body; so that it is horrible to look on these
garments, so short, scanty, coarse and dirty are they. In order to cut
up avarice by the roots, they enclosed around their cells a certain
quantity of land, more or less, according to the fertility of the
district; and they would not accept a foot of land beyond that limit
if you were to offer them the whole world. For the same motive they
limit the quantity of their cattle, oxen, asses, sheep and goats. And
in order that they might have no motive for augmenting their
possessions, either of land or animals, they ordained that in every
one of their monasteries there should be no more than twelve monks,
with their prior the thirteenth, eighteen lay brothers and a few paid
servants. To mortify the flesh they always wear hair shirts of the
severest kind, and their fasting is wellnigh continuous. They always
eat bread of unbolted meal, and take so much water with their wine
that it has hardly any flavour of wine left. They never eat meat,
whether in health or ill. They never buy fish, but they accept it if
it is given to them for charity. They may eat cheese and eggs only on
Sundays and Thursdays. On Tuesdays and Saturdays they eat cooked
vegetables. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays they take only bread
and water. They eat once a day only, save during the octaves of
Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, Epiphany and other solemnities. They
live in separate little houses like the ancient monks of Egypt, and
they occupy themselves continually with reading, prayer and the labour
of their hands, especially the writing of books. They recite the
prayers for minor canonical hours in their own dwellings, when warned
by the bell of the church; but they all assemble in church for matins
and vespers. On feast days they eat twice, and sing all the offices in
the churc