Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PRE-MON'STRANTS, n. [L. præmonstrans.]

A religious order of regular canons or monks of Premontre, in the Isle of France; instituted by Norbert, in 1120. They are called also white canons. These monks were poor at first, but within thirty years they had more than one hundred abbeys in France and Germany, and in time they were established in all parts of christendom. – Encyc.