Note 9 — Relation of 1609–1610

The Trinitarian order was founded at Rome in 1198 by St. John of Matha, a native of Provence, and Felix of Valois, an aged French hermit, in order to redeem Christian captives from the infidels. The order received sanction from Innocent III. Their rule was that of St. Augustine, with particular statutes; and their diet was one of great austerity. The habit in France was a soutane and scapular of white serge, with a red and blue cross on the right breast. The first monastery was established at Cerfroy, France, and continued to be the mother-house, until the French Revolution. At one time the order had two hundred and fifty houses, and by the seventeenth century had rescued 30,720 Christian captives. At the dissolution they had eleven houses in England, five in Scotland, and one in Ireland. The religious were often called Red or Maturin friars in England, from the color of the cross on their habit and because of their famous house at Paris near the chapel of St. Maturin.