ruth everlastin

NVHEN I WROTE the first ever Charterhouse column nearly 14 years ago our office was a stone's throw from London's former Charterhouse, in the quiet seclusion of Charterhouse Square. And it was this of course that suggested the name for the Chronicle. (London's beautiful fourteenth century Charterhouse is visitable on prior application to the Registrar).
From time to time, meanwhile, I have written about the Carthusians, but not, I must confess, very often. The main reason for this is a very simple one, namely that Carthusians are very secret people and have always assiduously shunned all publicity.
Their very motto succinctly states the object of their vocation: "To make many saints but not to publicise them."
Their secrecy, however, has been penetrated by the publication of a highly sensitive book, reviewed elsewhere this week, about these mysterious monks which reveals much of the mystery of their order without destroying it.
The subject is a surprising one for Robin Bruce Lockhart, nephew of our own beloved Freda, but not a new departure for him personally. His "discovery" of the Carthusians, in fact, was made some years ago when, as he himself explains, he was "beset with considerable anxieties" and a friend suggested he should go on a retreat.
It was thus that the author of Reilly — Ace of Spies, who also stockbrokes in the city, found himself in Britain's only Carthusian monastery, St Hugh's at Parkminster in Sussex. The experience turned out to be "not only a personal moment of truth, but a realisation that the monks within the charterhouse were living in one long, eternal moment of truth."
This "long moment" began just over 900 years ago when Bruno Hartenfaust left his native Cologne to travel through France blazing a charismatic trail. But his object was to catch less rather than more attention and he attached himself to the group of monks at Molesmes
which formed the nucleus ut the Cistercian Order.
Even their austerity, however, was not enough for this extraordinary young man who felt himself being driven by the Spirit into deeper retirement and a more hidden life of solitude.
He sought the advice of St Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble, who saw in a flash what this obvious visionary was looking for.. He directed him to a wilderness lost in the mountains called l.a Chartreuse, uninhabited except by wild beasts.
"It resembles a prison more than a dwelling place," Hugh warned Bruno, "and I do not believe that without spacial aid from Providence anyone could live there."
Just what Bruno wanted! And there, in 1084, history's most austere religious order, dedicated silence, solitude and prayer, was born.
It is the only order never to have needed reforming and is said to be more secret than the Secret Service. Its most famous secret is, perhaps, the 300 year old formula for its highly potent, popular and profitable liqueur.
The recipe, involving 130 herbs macerated in alcohol, was donated to the Order by a French marshal, but lay neglected for 100 years. Today, a million bottles of it arc sold per year.
It is almost 800 years since the prior of the first English Charterhouse (founded by Henry 1) to atone for Becket's murder) became Bishop Hugh of Lincoln. Twenty four of the world's 500 present-day Carthusians live at Parkminster.
There, Robin Bruce Lockhart got to know the late Dom Andrew Gray of whom it was said "If there is such a person in the world today as a living saint, that man is Father Andrew."
Everything in the "outside world," seemed different to Bruce Lockhart after his visit to Parkminster. He went back again and again, to that and other charterhouses. The result is Halfway to Heaven, a sublime and gripping read.
Bonny Braemore
ONE THING always leads to another. Mention of the Tudor and Huguenot anniversaries has led to the discovery of colourful events from now until the end of September in the attractive village of Braemore near Fordingbridge in Hampshire.
Braemore is a Tudor village in a remarkable state of preservation, one of only two official preservation areas in Hampshire. It will be staging a major exhibition from Lune 18 to 30 to celebrate the rich local heritage.
Interest will focus on the Braemore Countryside Museum, one of the leading rural museums in the country.
Braemore House, meanwhile, will be showing off its many Huguenot treasures. It is a magnificent Tudor Manor House with the Huguenot connection coming through the marriage of Sir Edward Hulse to Mary Lethieullicr, heiress of Charles and grand-daughter of Stuart Lethieullier.
A particularly interesting Carriage Museum is housed in the Queen Anne stables adjoining the house which contains a small but very fine collection of horse-drawn vehicles and fire fighting equipment.
A new cobblers shop has been built to display the unique collection of about a hundred tools used by the late John William Gibbins.
A pet's corner is being developed at the Countryside Museum. The star turns will he Maggie and Daisy, two African pigmy goats.
Things have, in other words, looked up considerably since my last visit. But that was quite a long time ago.
Helping others
IF CHRISTIAN AID Week which officially ends tomorrow — happened to come and go this year without your being aware of it, it is not too late to do something about it. Apart from anything else, one can always get recorded news of the latest activities of Christian Aid (whose address is 240/250 Ferndale Road, London SW9 881-1) by dialing 01-733 0562.
Christian Aid Week is Britain's longest-established campaign against hunger and poverty in many Third World countries. It relies so heavily on voluntary helpers that barely 10 per cent of its income is spent on administrative costs. The rest of the money raised (about £4.5 million a year) goes to help the victims themselves.
Priority is given to the world's 15 million refugees and the even greater number of people who leave home in search of water, land or work. They are considered to he the most vulnerable of the world's pitiable army of the permanently poor.
River runs
1 HAVE BEEN taking a trip along the Thames in London with an excellent book as a guide, the best of its kind, in fact, 1 have ever come across. It is called A Guide to London's Riverside by Suzanne Ebel and Doreen Impey (Constable f6.95). Unbeatable value.
Between Hampton Court and Greenwich Palace the character of the river changes dramatically. Suburban gardens, some looking fabulous just at the moment, and Georgian mansions give way to gasworks, breweries, the towers
of Parliament, those still bustling docks at St Katherincs . . . and then the river opens out majestically into the wide stretch which leads to the sea.
1 was just able to make out the statue of St Thomas More, more evocative than ever in this, his anniversary year. To look at his part of Chelsea from the river gives full vent to the imagination.
His statue near Chelsea Old Church sees him with his chain of office as Chancellor lying in his lap, a neat symbolic touch by the artist summing up in silent eloquence the sacrifice More was willing to make for the sake of conscience.
The Thames has not surprisingly been called "liquid history." It is the backbone of London. You can never, no matter how often you traverse it, exhaust the spotting of hitherto unnoticed houses, churches, pubs, docks, gardens, and theatres. You must make at least one trip a year to keep up with all the changes.
Now is the time to do it.
Thomas More's canonisation, incidentally, took place on May 19, 1935. So the anniversary will be this coming Sunday.
A Tridentine Rite Mass will he said in the saint's honour at St Etheldreda's, Ely Place, Holborn (on Sunday afternoon) at 4. St Etheldreda's is of course a pre-Reformation church and Mass in the same Rite as used in More's day will obviously be of special interest.
And — a propos the nearby London Charterhouse — let's not forget that Thomas More
spent ,a short time there when trying his vocation in the Order.
Theme and response
I NOTICED an interesting letter on reservation of the Blessed Sacrament nearby last week's leader comment on the Bishops' Response to the ARCIC 1 Report. The leader applauded certain "brave words" in the Response but also mentioned "negative aspects." This made me search the Response for examples.
"We do not insist," say the Bishops, on the one hand (in paragraph 20) "on the language of transubstantiation nor advocate any one theological/philosophical attempt to explain it."
The Bishops, on the other hand (in paragraph 19), express "unease' at the ARCIC assertion that "others still find any kind of adoration of Christ in the reserved sacrament unacceptable." The Church's current official stance on this point obviates the need for extremist views either way.
The Instructions accompanying the Revised Roman Rites (1979) state that the primary and original reason for reservation is so that consecrated hosts shall be available for Viaticum and Communion for the Sick. The second reason is for the distribution of Holy Communion outside Mass.
In the West, but not the (Orthodox) East, there was, by way of fairly late development, a gradual adoption of the custom of adoring the reserved Blessed Sacrament. This is given, in the Instructions, as the third reason for reservation.
As the Bishops put it, "The doctrinal implications of this position need to be examined closely." But are not psychological considerations often more decisive than theological ones in practical situations?
A READER with a finely-tuned sense of humour gives some "evidence" that Edward VII was received into the Catholic Church on his deathbed. She said she heard the story from an Oblate of St Charles, one of whose number is supposed to have received the King. But she adds that the same priest also told her about a postulant possessd by the Devil and proving same by scorching the top of the Mother Superior's desk with her hand imprint. In the end, it became hard to distinguish fact from fancy.