Norbert was a pioneer; and his foundation is a happy and successful mixture of the spiritual elements which constitute the perfect priestly and religious life. The Order of Premontre represents in medieval and modern society, a form of sacerdotal life which, during many centuries, was deemed the ideal of the clerical profession, the guarantee of its interior sanctity and its exterior reputation. It unites in itself all that stamps the life of the active priest as a worthy imitation and a continuation of the life of Christ's own disciples, protecting them by the common life, against an ever...