“Scarcely, indeed, (says Maclaine) can any thing be more ridiculous than the circumstantial narrations of the occasion, origin, founder, and revolutions of this famous order, which we find in several ecclesiastical authors. They tell us, that _Elias_ was introduced into the state of monachism by the ministry of angels; that his first disciples were _Jonah_, _Micah_, and also _Obadiah_, whose wife, in order to get rid of an importunate crowd of lovers, who fluttered about her at the court of _Achab_ after the departure of heir husband, bound herself by a vow of chastity, received the veil by the hand of _father_ ELIAS, and thus became the first abbess of the Carmelite order. They enter into a vast detail of all the circumstances that relate to the rules of discipline, which were drawn up for this community, the habit which distinguished its members, and the various alterations which were introduced into their rule of discipline in process of time. They observe, that among other marks which were used to distinguish the Carmelites from the seculars, the _tonsure_ was one; that this mark of distinction exposed them, indeed to the mockeries of a profane multitude; and that this furnishes the true explication of the term _bald-head_, which the children addressed, by way of reproach, to _Elishah_, as he was on his way to _Carmel_. (2 Kings ii. 23) They tell us, moreover, that even _Pythagoras_ was a member of this ancient order; that be drew all his wisdom from mount _Carmel_, and had several conversations with the prophet _Daniel_ at _Babylon_, upon the subject of the Trinity. Nay they go still further into the region of fable, and assert, that the Virgin _Mary_ and _Jesus_ himself assumed the habit and profession of Carmelites; and they load this fiction with a heap of absurd circumstances, which it is impossible to read without the highest astonishment.” {498} The Carmelites came into England in 1240, and appear to have obtained an establishment at Lynn not a very long while after. What sort of men they were, the reader can now form some idea. SECTION III. _Account of the convent of the Grey Friars_, _Friars Minors_, _or Franciscans_, _in Fuller’s Row_, _now St. James’s Street_, _with a sketch of that religious order_.