Statuta ordinis cartusiensis a domno Guigone priore cartusie edita

Les Chartreux ne suivent pas la règle de saint Benoît, mais les dispositions d'un corpus coutumier évolutif, qualifié de Statuts. Seule l'organisation de la liturgie des Heures suit d'assez près la règle bénédictine. Mises par écrit pour la première fois par Guigues vers 1127, les Consuetudines Cartusiae ou Coutumes de Chartreuse furent adaptées au fil des chapitres généraux et des exigences du droit canonique, et rééditées sous des formes et avec un contenu très différent, à plusieurs reprises. Cet ordre est un des plus austères : les religieux observent une clôture perpétuelle, un silence presque absolu. Proche des règles diététiques les plus modernes, les chartreux pratiquent de fréquents jeûnes et l'abstinence complète de viande. Ils ne reçoivent la visite de leur famille que deux jours par an. Ils portent une robe de drap blanc, serrée avec une ceinture de cuir, et un scapulaire avec capuce du même drap, appelé cuculle. Ils ont en permanence le cilice maintenu à la taille par une corde appelée lombar. À l'extérieur des limites des maisons, ils portent une chape noire avec capuchon pointu, identique à celle que portent les novices pour les exercices conventuels.

Le fonctionnement de l’ordre est parfaitement démocratique. Chaque supérieur, appelé prieur, est élu pour deux ans. Il doit démissionner au bout de deux ans pour être réélu par le chapitre. En sorte qu’un prieur n’est jamais un abbé, nommé pour la durée de sa propre vie. Chaque moine chartreux exerçant une fonction peut être déposé et retourner à la plus grande humilité.

“The Bâle edition was commissioned by the Carthusian General Chapter in 1509, and was almost certainly due to the initiative of Dom François du Puy, Prior of the Grande Chartreuse. Its publication was supervised by the prior of the charterhouse of Freiburg in Breisgau, the noted humanist, Dom Gregory Reisch. The printer, John Amorbach of Bâle, produced this masterpiece of early printing on 15 January 1510.” (J. Hogg)

Most of the large woodcuts are by Urs Graf (c. 1485-1528). The first consists of nine smaller cuts illustrating the foundation of the Carthusian order. Another is a genealogical tree with Bruno at the base, showing the descent of the order’s chief figures, and Guigo in the middle. The work was printed at the expense of the Carthusian monastery of St John the Baptist in Freiburg im Breisgau.

“Guigo de Castro was the fifth prior of the Grande Chartreuse, legislator of the Carthusian Order and an ascetical writer, born at Saint-Romain in Dauphiné in 1083 or 1084 ; died 27 July, 1137 (1136 and 1138 are also given). He became a monk of the Grande Chartreuse in 1107, and three years later his brethren elected him prior. To Guigues the Carthusian Order in great measure owes its fame, if not its very existence. When he became prior, only two charterhouses existed, the Grande Chartreuse and the Calabrian house where St. Bruno had died ; nine more were founded during his twenty-seven years' priorship. These new foundations made it necessary to reduce to writing the traditional customs of the mother-house. Guigues's "Consuetudines", composed in 1127 or 1128, have always remained the basis of all Carthusian legislation. After the disastrous avalanche of 1132, Guigues rebuilt the Grande Chartreuse on the present site.

A man of considerable learning, endowed with a tenacious memory and the gift of eloquence, Guigues was a great organizer and disciplinarian. He was a close friend of St. Bernard and of Peter the Venerable, both of whom have left accounts of the impression of sanctity which he made upon them. His name is inscribed in certain martyrologies on 27 July, and he is sometimes called "Venerable" or "Blessed", but the Bollandists can find "no trace whatever of any ecclesiastical cultus". Guigues edited the letters of St. Jerome, but his edition is lost. Of his genuine writings there are still in existence, besides the "Consuetudines," a "Life of St. Hugh of Grenoble", whom he had known intimately, written by command of Pope Innocent II after the canonization of the saint in 1134 ; "Meditations", and six letters (P.L., CLIII). These letters are all that remain of a great number, many of them addressed to the most distinguished men of the day. Guigues's letters to St. Bernard are lost, but some of the saint's replies are extant. Other works which have been attributed to him are : the letter "Ad Fratres de Monte Dei" (P.L., CLXXXIV), which is perhaps genuinely his, but is also attributed to William of Saint-Thierry, and the "Scala Paradisi" (P.L., XL), probably the work of his namesake, the ninth prior.” (New Advent)