Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/807

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CIR—CIS
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liberty were guaranteed them by tlie signatures of Ruffo, of Foote, and of Micherouxa, the Russian minister. But the arrival of Nelson changed the complexion of affairs ; he refused to ratify the capitulation. Secure under the British flag, too, Ferdinand and Caroline of Austria showed them selves eager for revenge. The patriots were arrested; and Cirillo, who had tended the queen more than once, and whose skill had been employed on behalf of the English admiral himself, was thrown into prison with the others. A court was formed to try the captives, and Cirillo was brought before them. Neither his age, nor his fair life and fame, nor his heroic speech and bearing, availed with them, and he was condemned to death. Nelson attempted to save him, and Ferdinand consented to forego his vengeance if the republican would ask for mercy. He refused, and was hanged. Cirillo, whose favourite study was botany, and who was recognized as an entomologist by Linnoeus, left many books, in Latin and Italian, all of them treating of medical and scientific subjects, and all of little value now save as indications of the writer s fine qualities as a man of science and humanitarian. Exception must, however, be made in favour of the Virtu Morali dell Asino, a pleasant philosophical opuscule remarkable for its

double charm of sense and style.

CIRTA, an ancient city of Numidia, in Africa, in the country of the Massyli. It was regarded by the Romans as the strongest position in Numidia, and was made by them the convevgiug point of all their great military roads iu that country. By the early emperors it was allowed to fall into decay, bat was afterwards restored by Con- stantiue, from whom it took its modern name. See Constantine.

CIS-SUTLEJ STATES. This term has for many years been obsolete, as inapplicable to modern territorial arrangements. It came into use in 1809, when the Sikh chiefs south of the Sutlej (Satlaj) passed under British protection, and was generally applied to the country south of the Sutlej and north of the Delhi territory, bounded on the E. by the Himalayas, and on the W. by Soisa District. Prior to 1846, the greater part of this territory was inde pendent, the chiefs being subject merely to control from a political officer stationed at Ambala, and styled the agent of the governor-general for the Cis-Sutlej States. After the first Sikh war the full administration of the territory became vested in the officer already mentioned. In 1849 occurred the annexation of the Punjab, when the Cis-Sutlej States Commissionership, comprising the districts of Ambiila, Ferozpur, Ludhiana, Thaneswar, and Simla, was incorporated with the new province. The name continued to be applied to this division until 1862, when, owing to Ferozpur having been transferred to the Lahore, and a part of Thane swar to the Delhi Division, it ceased to be appro priate. Since then, the tract remaining has been known as the Ambald or Umballa Division. Those of old Cis-Sutlej States which still retain their independence are Gatiala, Jhiuo, Nabha, Maler Kotla, and Faridkot.

CISTERCIANS, a religious order of the rule of St Bene dict, founded in 1098, by St Robert abbot of Molesme. It was so named from its original convent in the forest of Citeaux (Cistercium), about 14 miles north-east of Beaune. This order became so powerful that it governed almost all Europe both in temporal and spiritual concerns, and through the exertions of St Bernard of Clairvaux had increased so rapidly in power, that within a century from its foundation it embraced 800 rich abbeys in different countries of Europe. The abbeys of La Eerie", Pontigny, Clairvaux, and Morimond were offshoots of that of Citeaux, and produced in their turn a great number of separate communities, all which continued under the superintendence of the abbey of Citeaux. The abbey of Morimond alone possessed 700 benefices ; and its supremacy was acknowledged by the military orders of Calatrava, Alcantara, and Montesa in Spain, and by those of Christ and of Avis in Portugal. But the most famous of all the communities of this order was that of Clairvaux, founded in 1115 by St Bernard (see BERNARD). Towards the end of the 12th century, however, the immense wealth of Citeaux began to operate unfavourably on its discipline, and led the way to great corruptions. Jean de la Barriere, abbot of Notre-Dame des Feuillants, near Toulouse, suc ceeded in 1577 in effecting a reform, which gave rise to the Fueillants in France, and likewise to the Reformed Bernardines in Italy. But of all the reforms among the Cistercians, the most celebrated was that effected by the abbot of La Trappe in 1664.

Dependent on the abbey of Citeaux there were about 1800 monasteries and an equal number of nunneries. This ancient abbey was the burial-place of all the dukes of Burgundy of the original line, with the exception of the first two, who died before its foundation.

The Cistercians were involved in the general fate of the religious orders during the period of the French Revolution of 1789, and were reduced to a few convents in Spain, Poland, Austria, and the Saxon part of Upper Lusatia.

The habit of the order is a white robe or cassock, with a black scapulary and a woollen girdle. The nuns wear a white tunic and a black scapulary and girdle.

The order began by exercising more austerity than either the Benedictines of that period (the llth century) or the Cluniac monks who had emerged from the Benedictine order two centuries earlier. This austerity was exhibited, not only in the rude and scanty fare of the brethren (limited during a great part of the year to one meal a day) and in the great amount of silence imposed, but likewise in the dress, the sacred vestments, and the church furniture of the order. The Cluniac monks not only possessed fine churches, but were also in the habit of adorning them with pictures, jewelled crosses, and other elaborate decora tions, while their vestments and chalices were in keeping with this splendour. Indeed one of their first men, St Hugh, a contemporary of St Bernard, strongly maintained the principle that nothing could be too rich and costly for the divine service. But St Stephen Harding, the English monk, who, though only the second abbot, was the virtual creator of Cistercian rule and discipline, im pressed on the Cistercian mind a different principle, and trained up St Bernard in it. Their chasubles were to be only of linen, the chalice not of gold but of silver gilt, and even the white robe of the order was less voluminous in its folds than that of the Cluniac brethren. In one respect, however, the sense of beauty seems to have been allowed to operate. Although the material was to be coarse, yet the form of a vestment might be carefully looked to; and this taste for beauty of form led in due time to great advances in the architecture of their buildings. This difference between the Cistercians and the Cluniacs occasioned considerable rivalry and even bitterness of senti ment, the Cistercians being in danger of something like Pharisaic pride in contrasting their own severer rule with the comparative luxury of their neighbours the Cluniacs, who apparently afforded some ground for the charge of relaxa tion of discipline, especially in the 12th century after the death of St Hugh.

In the matter of government, the Cistercian order (as

constituted by St Stephen Harding at a general chapter held in 1119) differed both from the Benedictine and from the Cluniac constitutions. According to the rule of St Benedict each monastery was to be an independent monarchy under its own abbot ; although in extraordinary cases neighbouring monasteries of the order might interfere in

the election of an abbot. This independence had not been