CARMEL was also the name of a celebrated mountain in Palestine. Though spoken of in general as a single mountain, it ought rather to be considered as a mountainous region, the whole of which was known by the name of Carmel, while to one of the hills, more elevated than the rest, that name was usually applied by way of eminence. It had the plain of Sharon on the south; overlooked the port of Ptolemais on the north; and was bounded on the west by the Mediterranean sea; forming one of the most remarkable promontories that present themselves on the shores of that great sea. According to Volney, it is about two thousand feet in height, and has the shape of a flattened cone. Its sides are steep and rugged; the soil neither deep nor rich; and among the naked rocks stinted with plants, and wild forests which it presents to the eye, there are at present but few traces of that fertility which we are accustomed to associate with the idea of Mount Carmel. Yet even Volney himself acknowledges that he found among the brambles, wild vines and olive trees, which proved that the hand of industry had once been employed on a not ungrateful soil. Of its ancient productiveness there can be no doubt; the etymology and ordinary application of its name being sufficient evidence of the fact. Carmel is not only expressly mentioned in Scripture as excelling other districts in that respect; but, every place possessed of the same kind of excellence obtained from it the same appellation in the language both of the prophets and the people. Mount Carmel is celebrated in the Old Testament, as the usual place of residence of the Prophets Elijah and Elisha. It was here that Elijah so successfully opposed the false prophets of Baal, 1 Kings xviii; and there is a certain part of the mountain facing the west, and about eight miles from the point of the promontory, which the Arabs call Mansur, and the Europeans the place of sacrifice, in commemoration of that miraculous event. Near the same place is also still shown a cave, in which it is said the Prophet had his residence. The brook Kishon, which issues from Mount Tabor, waters the bottom of Carmel, and falls into the sea toward the northern side of the mountain, and not the southern, as some writers have erroneously stated. Its greatest elevation is about one thousand five hundred feet; hence, when the sea coast on one side, and the plain on the other, are oppressed with sultry heat, this hill is refreshed by cooling breezes, and enjoys a delightful temperature. The fastnesses of this rugged mountain are so difficult of access, that the Prophet Amos classes them with the deeps of hell, the height of heaven, and the bottom of the sea: “Though they dig into hell,” (or the dark and silent chambers of the grave,) “thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down; and though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them,” Amos ix, 2, 3. Lebanon raises to heaven a summit of naked and barren rocks, covered for the greater part of the year with snow; but the top of Carmel, how naked and sterile soever its present condition, was clothed with verdure which seldom was known to fade. Even the lofty genius of Isaiah, stimulated and guided by the Spirit of inspiration, could not find a more appropriate figure to express the flourishing state of the Redeemer’s kingdom, than “the excellency of Carmel and Sharon.”

This rule consists of only sixteen articles; and it appears from it that the monks on Mount Carmel were at that time eremitical, dwelling in separate little houses. The lodging of the prior was placed at the entrance into the enclosure, and the church was in the middle of the enclosed space. The rule contains the ordinary injunctions and prohibitions as regards masses and other services to be heard or said, and kinds of food to be avoided, with some unimportant specialities of dates and seasons. Albert further enjoined on them to labour constantly with their hands, and to practise much silence. This rule was approved by Pope Honorius III. in 1226.

It is related that two English crusaders, John de Vesci and Richard de Grey, carried some of the recluses on Mount Carmel with them to England, and founded the first Carmelite monastery in England at Alnwick. Much about the same time—nearly the middle of the 13th century—Louis IX. of France, on his return from the Crusades, took with him to Paris some of the Mount Carmel monks, and established them under the name of Carmelites in a monastery there. Others passed from Mount Carmel into Italy and Spain under the special protection of the popes. The number of their establishments was very rapidly and very largely increased; and they held their first European general chapter at Aylesford in England in 1245.

The Carmelites, however, can refer to papal briefs, bulls, and rescripts of a much earlier time, in which their existence is recognized John V. (ob 686), Stephen V. (ob. 817), Leo IV (ob. 855) Adrian II. (ob. 872), Sergius ILL (ob. 911), Gregory VII. (ob. 1085), and Alexander III. (ob 1181) may be cited among the early popes who conferred privileges or special indulgences on the order. They further quote John XXII. (ob. 1334), Sixtus IV. (ob. 1484), Julius HL (ob. 1555), Kus V. (ob. 1572), Gregory XIII. (ob 1585), Sixtus V. (ob. 1590), and Clement VIII. (ob. 1605) as having all, in various documents, recognized the fact of their foundation by Elias. And, lastly, Benedict XIII. in 1725, permitted the order to erect in St Peter’s, among the statues of the founders of the religious orders, that of Elias as their founder, with the inscription,— Universus Ordo Carmxlitarum fundatori suo Sancto Eliae prophxtae erexit!

The term Universus in the above legend is intended to indicate that all the different branches of the order participated in the erection of the statue, although they have become entirely separate societies The monks of that portion of the order which had adhered to the ancient rule, modified and mitigated, however, in some respects by Innocent IV. (ob. 1254), and more largely by Eugenius IV. (ob. 1447), are termed Carmelites of the Ancient Observance. Shortly after the changes made in the rule by Pope Eugenius IV., several local reformations were effected in the order in different countries,—one in France by the general Jean Soreth of Normandy in 1451, and another in the congregation at Mantua, which rapidly spread itself, and, much to the disgust of the general of that portion of the order which adhered to the old rule, obtained from the Pontiff the right to elect a vicar-general of their own, not subject to the jurisdiction or the approbation ot the general. Various other partial reformations were effected, and the members of those congregations which adopted them are styled “Reformed Carmelites.” But a more important, or at least a more marked and decided division into two branches was brought about by one of the most noteworthy personages in all the Catholic hagiology, Saint Teresa. This extraordinary woman, a native of Avila, in old Castile, became a Carmelite nun in a nunnery of the order in that city in 1535. She at once determined on carrying out the rule in all its primitive strictness; but finding this insufficient to satisfy her abounding zeal and ambition, she obtained in 1562 a brief from Pope Pius IV. authorizing her to establish a separate branch of the order, the more austere observances of which should be modelled according to her own views. Very shortly several nunneries of “Barefoot Carmelite Nuns” were established, mainly in Spain. Her success thus far soon led her to the more ambitious project of introducing a similar reform among the Carmelite body of the other s⅛χ. And this also she accomplished by the assistance of two or three of the leading members of the Carmelite community. The members of the communities which received this reformed rule, or which were founded for the observance of it, were called Barefoot Carmelites (Carmes Déchaussés, or Carmelitani Scalzi), in distinction to those of the older bodies. For some time, however, the monasteries and nunneries of the Barefoot Carmelites remained subject to the general of the parent body; till in 1580 Pope Gregory XIII. at the instance of Philip II. of Spain, permitted them to elect their own provincial generals, who were, however, still subject to the general of the entire order. But Sixtus V. having regard to the greatly increased and increasing number of their establishments, granted them, in 1587, the privilege of electing a vicar-general of their own. Finally, Clement VIII., in 1593, separated them entirely from the other Carmelites, empowered them to elect a general of their body, and constituted them a separate Order of Friars Mendicant,—dispositions which were subsequently confirmed by Gregory XV.

The Carmelites originally wore white woollen dresses. But inasmuch as the Orientals among whom they dwelt deemed this colour a mark of nobility, they adopted striped dresses, specimens of which may still be seen in ancient paintings, the colours of such stripes being sometimes white, grey, and black, and sometimes white and dark brown. After their establishment in Europe, however, these striped dresses were abandoned, and by the authority of Honorius IV., they began in 1287 to wear a white cape and scapulary, which was, however, shortly afterwards changed for dark brown. Over this dress they now wear a white cloak and hood when they quit their convent.

The device, both of the original body and of the Barefoot Carmelites, consists of a mountain, topped by three stars, and above this a crown, from the middle of which comes forth an arm grasping a sword. The mountain represents Mount Carmel; the stars symbolize theVirgin— Stella maris— to whom the order is more especially dedicated; the crown figures forth her supremacy; the arm is the •arm of Elias; and the sword it grasps is the token of his zeal. A ∏ne drawn across the top of the mountain differentiates the device as used by the Barefoot Carmelites. The order has been, and is indeed still, a very wide-spread one, in all quarters of the globe.