| | CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: The Benedictine Order |
 | | John Gualbert, the founder of Vallombrosa, was the first to introduce the system of lay brethren, by drawing a line of distinction between the monks who were clerics and those who were not. |
 | | The latter had no stalls in choir and no vote in chapter; neither were they bound to the daily recitation of the breviary Office as were the choir monks. |
 | | All these colleges flourished until the Reformation, and even after the dissolution of the monasteries many of the ejected monks retired to Oxford on their pensions, to pass the remainder of their days in the peace and seclusion of their Alma Mater. |
| www.newadvent.org /cathen/02443a.htm (17496 words) |