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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: The Benedictine Order</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02443a.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="Comprises monks living under the Rule of St. Benedict, and commonly known as 'black monks'"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="02443a.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/b.htm">B</a> > The Benedictine Order</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>The Benedictine Order</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>The Benedictine Order comprises <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> living under the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Rule of St. Benedict</a>, and commonly known as "black <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>". The order will be considered in this article under the following sections:</p> <p>I. History of the Order; <br>II. Lay brothers, Oblates, Confraters, and Nuns; <br>III. Influence and Work of the Order; <br>IV. Present Condition of the Order; <br>V. Benedictines of Special Distinction; <br>VI. Other Foundations Originating from, or Based upon, the Order.</p> <h2 id="section1">History of the order</h2> <p>The term <em>Order</em> as here applied to the spiritual <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a> of St. Benedict is used in a sense differing somewhat from that in which it is applied to other <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> orders. In its ordinary meaning the term implies one complete religious <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a>, made up of a number of <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, all of which are subject to a common superior or "general" who usually resides either in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> or in the mother-house of the order, if there be one. It may be divided into various provinces, according to the countries over which it is spread, each provincial head being <a href="../cathen/05706a.htm">immediately subject</a> to the general, just as the superior of each house is subject to his own provincial. This system of centralized authority has never entered into the organization of the Benedictine Order. There is no general or common superior over the whole order other than the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> himself, and the order consists, so to speak, of what are practically a number of orders, called "congregations", each of which is autonomous; all are united, not under the obedience to one general superior, but only by the spiritual bond of allegiance to the same Rule, which may be modified according to the circumstances of each particular house or congregation. It is in this latter sense that the term <em>Order</em> is applied in this article to all <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> professing to observe <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">St. Benedict's Rule</a>.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <h3>Beginnings of the order</h3> <p>St. Benedict did not, strictly speaking, found an order; we have no evidence that he ever contemplated the spread of his Rule to any <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> besides those which he had himself established. <a href="../cathen/14321a.htm">Subiaco</a> was his original foundation and the cradle of the institute. From <a href="../cathen/06780a.htm">St. Gregory</a> we learn that twelve other <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> in the vicinity of <a href="../cathen/14321a.htm">Subiaco</a> also owed their origin to him, and that when he was <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obliged</a> to leave that neighbourhood he founded the celebrated <a href="../cathen/10526b.htm">Abbey of Monte Cassino</a>, which eventually become the centre whence his Rule and institute spread. These fourteen are the only <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of which there is any reliable evidence of having been founded during St. Benedict's lifetime. The tradition of <a href="../cathen/12142b.htm">St. Placid's</a> mission to <a href="../cathen/13772a.htm">Sicily</a> in 534, which first gained general credence in the eleventh century, though accepted as genuine by such writers as <a href="../cathen/09479b.htm">Mabillon</a> and Ruinart, is now generally admitted to be mere romance. Very little more can be said in favour of the supposed introduction of the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Benedictine Rule</a> into Gaul by <a href="../cathen/10072a.htm">St. Maurus</a> in 543, though it also has been strenuously upheld by many responsible writers. At any rate, evidences for it are so extremely <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubtful</a> that it cannot be seriously regarded as historical. There is reason for <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">believing</a> that it was the third <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/10526b.htm">Monte Cassino</a> who began to spread a <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> of the Rule beyond the circle of St. Benedict's own foundations. It is at least certain that when <a href="../cathen/10526b.htm">Monte Cassino</a> was sacked by the Lombards about the year 580, the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> fled to <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, where they were housed by <a href="../cathen/11603a.htm">Pope Pelagius II</a> in a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> adjoining the <a href="../cathen/09014b.htm">Lateran Basilica</a>. There, in the very centre of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> world, they remained for upwards of a hundred and forty years, and it seems highly probable that this residence in so prominent a position constituted an important factor in the diffusion of a <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> of Benedictine monasticism. It is generally agreed also that when <a href="../cathen/06780a.htm">Gregory the Great</a> embraced the <a href="../cathen/10459a.htm">monastic</a> state and converted his <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a> palace on Apostle, it was the Benedictine form of monachism that he adopted there.</p> <p>It was from the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of St. Andrew in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> that <a href="../cathen/02081a.htm">St. Augustine</a>, the prior, and his forty companions set forth in 595 on their mission for the evangelization of <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>, and with them St. Benedict's <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of the monastic life first emerged from <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>. The arguments and authorities for this statement have been admirably marshalled and estimated by Reyner in his "Apostolatus Benedictinorum in Angliâ" (Douai, 1626), and his <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proofs</a> have been adjudged by <a href="../cathen/09479b.htm">Mabillon</a> to amount to demonstration. [Cf. Butler, "Was St. Augustine a Benedictine?" in Downside Review, III (1884).] At their various stopping places during the journey through <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> left behind them traditions concerning their rule and form of life, and probably also some copies of the Rule, for we have several evidences of its having gradually introduced into most of the chief <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of Gaul during the seventh century. Lérins, for instance, one of the oldest, which had been founded by <a href="../cathen/07451a.htm">St. Honoratus</a> in 375, probably received its first <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> of the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Benedictine Rule</a> from the visit of <a href="../cathen/02081a.htm">St. Augustine</a> and his companions in 596. Dismayed by the accounts they had heard of the ferocity of the English, the missionaries had sent their leader back to <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> to implore the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> to allow them to abandon the object of their journey. During his absence they remained at <a href="../cathen/09188b.htm">Lérins</a>. Not long after their departure, Aygulph, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Fleury, was called in to restore the discipline and he probably introduced the full Benedictine observance; for when <a href="../cathen/02441b.htm">St. Benedict Biscop</a> visited Lérins later on in the seventh century he received the Benedictine habit and <a href="../cathen/14779a.htm">tonsure</a> from the hands of Abbot Aygulph. Lérins continued through several centuries to supply from its <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> for the chief churches of Southern Gaul, and to them perhaps may be traced the general diffusion of St. Benedictine's Rule throughout that country. There, as also in <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Switzerland</a>, it had to contend with and supplement the much stricter <a href="../cathen/08098b.htm">Irish</a> or Celtic Rule introduced by St. Columbanus and others. In or practised side by side. <a href="../cathen/07018b.htm">Gregory of Tours</a> says that at Ainay, in the sixth century, the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> "followed the rules of Basil, Cassian, Caesarius, and other fathers, taking and using whatever seemed proper to the conditions of time and place", and doubtless the same liberty was taken with the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Benedictine Rule</a> when it reached them. In other <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> it entirely displaced the earlier codes, and had by the end of the eighth century so completely superseded them throughout <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> that <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a> could gravely <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> whether <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of any kind had been possible before St. Benedict's time. The authority of <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a> and of his son, Louis the Pious, did much, as we shall presently see, towards propagating the principles of the Father of western monachism.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p><a href="../cathen/02081a.htm">St. Augustine</a> and his <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> established the first <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> Benedictine <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> at <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a> soon after their arrival in 597. Other foundations quickly followed as the Benedictine missionaries carried the light of the Gospel with them throughout the length and breadth of the land. It was said that St. Benedict seemed to have taken possession of the country as his own, and the history of his order in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> is the history of the English Church. Nowhere did the order link itself so intimately with people and institutions, secular as well as religious, as in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>. Through the influence of saintly men, Wilfrid, Benedict Biscop, and <a href="../cathen/05199a.htm">Dunstan</a>, the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Benedictine Rule</a> spread with extraordinary rapidity, and in the North, when once the <a href="../cathen/05228a.htm">Easter controversy</a> had been settled and the Roman supremacy acknowledged (<a href="../cathen/15610a.htm">Synod of Whitby</a>, 664), it was adopted in most of the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> that had been founded by the Celtic missionaries from <a href="../cathen/08090a.htm">Iona</a>. Many of the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">episcopal sees</a> of <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> were founded and governed by the Benedictines, and no less than nine of the old <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedrals</a> were served by the black <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of the <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priories</a> attached to them. Even when the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> was not himself a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a>, he held the place of titular <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>, and the community formed his chapter.</p> <p>Germany owed its evangelization to the <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> Benedictines, Sts. Willibrord and <a href="../cathen/02656a.htm">Boniface</a>, who preached the Faith, there in the seventh and eighth centuries and founded several celebrated <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a>. From thence spread, hand in hand, <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> and Benedictine monasticism, to <a href="../cathen/04722c.htm">Denmark</a> and Scandinavia, and from the latter even to Iceland. In <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a> <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> had been founded by the <a href="../cathen/15476b.htm">Visigothic</a> kings as early as the latter half of the fifth century, but it was probably some two or three hundred years later <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">St. Benedict's Rule</a> was adopted. <a href="../cathen/09479b.htm">Mabillon</a> gives 640 as the <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">date</a> of its introduction into that country (Acta Sanctorum O.S.B., saec. I, praef. 74), but his conclusions on this point are not now generally accepted. In <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Switzerland</a> the disciples of Columbanus had founded <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> early in the seventh century, two of the best known being St. Gall's, established by the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saint</a> of that name, and Dissentis (612), founded by St. Sigisbert. The Celtic rule was not entirely supplanted by that of St. Benedict until more than a hundred years later, when the change was effected chiefly through the influence of <a href="../cathen/11662b.htm">Pepin the Short</a>, the father of <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a>. By the ninth century, however, the Benedictine had become the only form of monastic life throughout the whole of Western <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, excepting <a href="../cathen/13613a.htm">Scotland</a>, <a href="../cathen/15532a.htm">Wales</a>, and <a href="../cathen/08098b.htm">Ireland</a>, where the Celtic observance still prevailed for another century or two. At the time of the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformation</a> there were nine Benedictine houses in <a href="../cathen/08098b.htm">Ireland</a> and six in <a href="../cathen/13613a.htm">Scotland</a>, besides numerous <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> of <a href="../cathen/03780c.htm">Cistercians</a>.</p> <p>Benedictine monasticism never took such deep root in the eastern countries of <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> as it had done in the West. The <a href="../cathen/02612b.htm">Bohemians</a> and the Poles, nevertheless, owed their conversion respectively to the Benedictine missionaries Adalbert (d. 997) and Casimir (d. 1058), whilst <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">Bavaria</a> and what is now the <a href="../cathen/02121b.htm">Austrian Empire</a> were evangelized first by <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> from Gaul in the seventh century, and later on by <a href="../cathen/02656a.htm">St. Boniface</a> and his disciples. A few of the larger <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> founded in these countries during the ninth and tenth centuries still exist, but the number of foundations was always small in comparison with those farther west. Into Lithuania and the Eastern Empire the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Benedictine Rule</a> never penetrated in early times, and the great <a href="../cathen/13529a.htm">schism</a> between East and West effectually prevented any possibilities of development in that direction.</p> <h3>Early constitution of the order</h3> <p>During the first four or five centuries after the death of St. Benedict there existed no organic bond of union amongst the various <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> other than the Rule itself and obedience to the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>. According to the holy legislator's provisions each <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> constituted an independent <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a>, self-contained, autonomous, managing its own affairs, and subject to no external authority except that of the local <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocesan</a> <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>, whose powers of control were, however, limited to certain specific occasions. The earliest departures from this system occurred when several of the greater <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> began sending out offshoots, under the form of daughter-houses retaining some sort of dependence upon the mother <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> from which they sprang. This mode of propagation, together with the various reforms that began to appear in the eleventh and succeeding centuries, paved the way for the system of independent congregations, still a feature peculiar to the Benedictine Order.</p> <h3>Reforms</h3> <p>A system which comprised many hundreds of <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> and many thousands of <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, spread over a number of different countries, without any unity of organization; which was exposed, moreover, to all the dangers and disturbances inseparable from those troublous times of kingdom-making; such a system was inevitably unable to keep worldliness, and even worse vices, wholly out of its midst. Hence it cannot be denied that the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> often failed to live up to the monastic ideal and sometimes even fell short of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> and moral standards. There were failures and <a href="../cathen/13506d.htm">scandals</a> in Benedictine history, just as there were declensions from the right path outside the <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloister</a>, for <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> are, after all, but men. But there does not seem ever to have been a period of widespread and general corruption in the order. Here and there the members of some particular house allowed abuses and relaxations of rule to creep in, so that they seemed to be falling away from the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> spirit of their state, but whenever such did occur they soon called forth efforts for a restoration of primitive austerity; and these constantly recurring reform movements form one of the surest evidences of the vitality which has pervaded the Benedictine Institute throughout its entire history. It is important to note, moreover, that all such reforms as ever achieved any measure of success came invariably from within, and were not the result of pressure from outside the order.</p> <p>The first of the reforms directed towards confederating the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">monastic houses</a> of a single kingdom was set on foot early in the ninth century by <a href="../cathen/02467a.htm">Benedict of Aniane</a> under the auspices of <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a> and Louis the Pious. Though a Benedictine himself born in Aquitaine and trained at Saint-Seine near <a href="../cathen/04794b.htm">Dijon</a>, Benedict was imbued with the rigid austerity of the East, and in his Abbey of Aniane practiced a mode of life that was severe in the extreme. Over Louis he acquired an ascendancy which grew stronger as years went on. At his instigation Louis built for him a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> adjoining his own palace at <a href="../cathen/01001a.htm">Aix-la-Chapelle</a>, which was intended to serve as a model according to which all others were to be reformed, and to bring about this end Benedict was invested with a general authority over all the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of the empire. Absolute uniformity of discipline, observance, and habit, after the pattern of the royal <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, was then the general scheme which was launched at an assembly of all the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> at <a href="../cathen/01001a.htm">Aachen</a> (Aix-la-Chapelle) in 817 and embodied in a series of eighty <em>capitula</em> passed by the meeting. Though by reason of the very minuteness of these <em>capitula</em>, which made them vexatious and ultimately intolerable, this scheme of centralized authority lasted only for the lifetime of Benedict himself, the <em>capitula</em> (printed in full in <a href="../cathen/07296b.htm">Herrgott</a>, "Vetus Disciplina Monastica", Paris, 1726) were recognized as supplying a much needed addition to <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">St. Benedict's Rule</a> concerning points not sufficiently provided for therein, and as filling much the same place then as the approved Constitutions of a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> or congregation do now.</p> <p>A century later, in 910, the first real reform that produced any widespread and general effect was commenced at the Abbey of Cluny in <a href="../cathen/03068a.htm">Burgundy</a>, under St. Berno, its first <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>. The object was an elaboration of the Benedictine ideal, for the uniform preservation of which a highly centralized system of government, hitherto unknown to Benedictine monachism, except as suggested by <a href="../cathen/02467a.htm">St. Benedict of Aniane</a>, was introduced. It was in fact the establishment of a veritable <em>order</em>, in the common acceptance of that term, within the Benedictine <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a>, the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> of Cluny retaining an actual headship over all dependent houses, the latter being governed only by <a href="../cathen/12427c.htm">priors</a> as his vicars. For two centuries or more Cluny was probably the chief religious influence in the <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Latin Church</a>, as it was also the first <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> to obtain exemption from episcopal oversight. Through the efforts of Berno's immediate successors the congregation grew apace, partly by founding new houses and partly by incorporating those already existing, so that by the twelfth century Cluny had become the centre and head of an order embracing some 314 <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> in all parts of <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, the Empire, <a href="../cathen/09362a.htm">Lorraine</a>, <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>, <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>, <a href="../cathen/13613a.htm">Scotland</a>, and <a href="../cathen/12181a.htm">Poland</a>. Although the congregation had its own constitutions and was absolutely autonomous, its members always claimed to be and were actually recognized as real Benedictines; hence it was not strictly a new order but only a reformed congregation within the order. (See CLUNY).</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>Following the example of Cluny, several other reforms were initiated from time to time in different parts during the next three centuries, which while taking the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Rule of St. Benedict</a> as a basis, aimed frequently at a greater austerity of life than was practised by the black <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> or contemplated by the holy Rule. Some were even semi-eremitical in their constitution, and one — Fontevrault — consisted of <a href="../cathen/10452a.htm">double monasteries</a>, the religious of both sexes being under the rule of the <a href="../cathen/01007e.htm">abbess</a>. In dealing with these reformed congregations a distinction must be made between those which, like Cluny, continued to be considered as part of the main Benedictine body, and those which constituted practically new and independent orders, like <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, and have always been looked upon as outside the Benedictine confederation, though still professing the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Rule of St. Benedict</a> in some form or other. Those of the former category are treated here, since they and their successors constitute the order as we understand it at the present day. In the latter class the most important were Camaldoli (1009), Vallombrosa (1039), Grammont (1076), <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> (1098), Fontevrault (1099), Savigny (1112), <a href="../cathen/10538b.htm">Monte Vergine</a> (1119), <a href="../cathen/14372c.htm">Sylvestrines</a> (1231), <a href="../cathen/16020a.htm">Celestines</a> (1254), and <a href="../cathen/11244c.htm">Olivetans</a> (1319). All of these will be described in detail under the respective titles.</p> <p>The influence of Cluny, even in <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> which did not join its congregation or adopt any of the other reforms mentioned above, was large and far-reaching. Many such <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a>, including <a href="../cathen/14321a.htm">Subiaco</a> and <a href="../cathen/10526b.htm">Monte Cassino</a>, adopted its customs and practices, and modelled their life and spirit according to the example it set. Monasteries such as these often became in turn the centres of revival and reform in their respective neighbourhoods, so that during the tenth and eleventh centuries there arose several free unions of <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> based on a uniform observance derived from a central <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a>. These unions, the germ of the congregational system which developed later on, deserve a somewhat detailed enumeration here. In <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> there had been three distinct efforts at systematic organization. The various <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> founded by <a href="../cathen/02081a.htm">St. Augustine</a> and his fellow-monks had preserved some sort of union, as was only natural with new foundations in a <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> country proceeding from a common source of origin. As <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> spread through the land this necessity for mutual dependence diminished, but when <a href="../cathen/02441b.htm">St. Benedict Biscop</a> came to <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> with <a href="../cathen/14571a.htm">Archbishop Theodore</a> in 669, it fell to him to foster a spirit of uniformity amongst the various Benedictine <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> then existing. In the tenth century <a href="../cathen/05199a.htm">St. Dunstan</a> set himself to reform the <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">monastic houses</a> on the model of Fleury and of what he had seen successfully carried out at <a href="../cathen/06542c.htm">Ghent</a> during his exile in <a href="../cathen/06094b.htm">Flanders</a>. With his co-operation <a href="../cathen/05555b.htm">St. Ethelwold</a> brought out his "Concordia Regularis", which is interesting as an early attempt to procure a uniform observance in all the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of a nation. A century later <a href="../cathen/08784c.htm">Lanfranc</a> continued the same <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> by issuing a series of <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">statutes</a> regulating the life of the <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> Benedictines. It should be noted here that these several attempts were directed only towards securing outward uniformity, and that as yet there was apparently no <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of a <em>congregation</em>, properly so called, with a central source of all legislative authority. In Fra Chaise-Dieu (Auvergne), St. Victor (Marseilles), St. Claude, Lérins, Sauve-Majour, Tiron, and Val-des-Choux, were all centres of larger or smaller groups of houses, in each of which there was uniformity of rule as well as more or less dependence upon the chief house. Fleury adopted the <a href="../cathen/04073a.htm">Cluniac</a> reform, as did also <a href="../cathen/02479c.htm">St. Benignus of Dijon</a>, though without subjection to that organization; and all were eventually absorbed by the congregation of St. Maur in the seventeenth century, excepting St. Claude, which preserved its independence until the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">Revolution</a>, Val-des-Choux, which became <a href="../cathen/03780c.htm">Cistercian</a>, and Lérins, which in 1505 joined the Italian congregation of St. Justina of Padua. In <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a> the chief groups had their centres at Cluse in <a href="../cathen/12076b.htm">Piedmont</a>, at Fonte Avellana, which united to the <a href="../cathen/03204d.htm">Camaldolese</a> congregation in 1569, La Cava, which joined the congregation of St. Justina in the fifteenth century, and Sasso-Vivo, which was suppressed as a separate federation in the same century and its forty houses united to other congregations of the Benedictine <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a>. The <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> were divided chiefly between <a href="../cathen/06313b.htm">Fulda</a> and Hirschau, both of which eventually joined the Bursfeld Union. (See <a href="../cathen/03084c.htm">BURSFELD</a>.) In <a href="../cathen/02121b.htm">Austria</a> there were two groups of <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> of <a href="../cathen/10167a.htm">Melk</a> (Molck or Melek) and Salzburg being the chief houses. They continued thus until well into the seventeenth century, when systematic congregations were organized in compliance with the <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Tridentine</a> decrees, as well be described in due course. Other free unions, for purposes of mutual help and similarity of discipline, were to be found also in <a href="../cathen/13613a.htm">Scotland</a>, Scandinavia, <a href="../cathen/12181a.htm">Poland</a>, <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">Hungary</a>, and elsewhere, in which the same <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> was carried out, viz., not so much a congregation in its later sense, with a centralized form of government, as a mere banding together of houses for the better maintenance of rule and policy.</p> <p>Notwithstanding all these reform movements and unions of <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, a large number of Benedictine <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> in different countries retained to the end of the twelfth century, and even later, their original independence, and this state of things was only terminated by the regulations of the <a href="../cathen/09018a.htm">Fourth Lateran Council</a>, in 1215, which were to change materially the whole trend of Benedictine polity and history. By the twelfth canon of this council it was decreed that all the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of each <a href="../cathen/12514a.htm">ecclesiastical province</a> were to unite into a congregation. The <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> of each province or congregation were to meet in chapter every third year, with power to pass <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> binding on all, and to appoint from amongst their own number "visitors" who were to make <a href="../cathen/15479a.htm">canonical visitation</a> of the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> and to report upon their condition to the ensuing chapter. In each congregation one of the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> was to be elected president, and the one so chosen presided over the triennial chapter and exercised a certain limited and well-defined authority over the houses of his congregation, in such a way as not to interfere with the independent authority of each <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> in his own <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>. <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> was the first and for some time the only country to give this new arrangement a fair trial. It was not until after the issue of the <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Bull</a> "Benedictina" by <a href="../cathen/02430a.htm">Benedict XII</a>, in 1336, that other countries, somewhat tardily, organized their national congregation in conformity with the designs of the Lateran Council. Some of these have continued to the present day, and this congregational system is now, with very few exceptions and some slight variations in matters of detail, the normal form of government throughout the order.</p> <h3>Progress of the order</h3> <p>At the time of this important change in the constitution of the order, the black <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of St. Benedict were to be found in almost every country of Western <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, including Iceland, where they had two <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a>, founded in the twelfth century, and from which missionaries had penetrated even into <a href="../cathen/06777b.htm">Greenland</a> and the lands of the <a href="../cathen/05539a.htm">Eskimo</a>. At the beginning of the fourteenth century the order is estimated to have comprised the enormous number of 37,000 <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>. It had up to that time given to the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> no less than 24 <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a>, 200 <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinals</a>, 7,000 <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">archbishops</a>, 15,000 <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, and over 1,500 <a href="../cathen/02364b.htm">canonized</a> <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a>. It had enrolled amongst its members 20 emperors, 10 empresses, 47 kings, and 50 queens. And these numbers continued to increase by reason of the additional strength which accrued to the order form its consolidation under the new system. In the sixteenth century the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformation</a> and the religious <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">wars</a> spread havoc amongst its <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> and reduced their number to about 5,000. In <a href="../cathen/04722c.htm">Denmark</a>, <a href="../cathen/07615b.htm">Iceland</a>, and Sweden, where several houses had joined the German (Bursfeld) Union, the order was entirely obliterated by the <a href="../cathen/09438b.htm">Lutherans</a> about 1551 and its <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a> confiscated by the crown. The arbitrary rule of <a href="../cathen/08508b.htm">Joseph II of Austria</a> (1765-90) and the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">French Revolution</a> and its consequences completed the work of destruction, so that in the early part of the nineteenth century, the order numbered scarcely more than fifty <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> all told. The last seventy years, however, have witnessed a remarkable series of revivals and an accession of missionary enterprise, with the result that there are now over one hundred and fifty <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of black <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, or, including affiliated congregations and <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> of <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a>, a total of nearly seven hundred. These revivals and examples of expansion will now be treated in detail under the headings of the various congregations, which will bring the history of the order down to the present day.</p> <p>(1) <em>The English Congregation</em>.—The English were the first to put into practice the decrees of the Lateran Council. Some time was necessarily spent in preliminary preparations, and the first general chapter was held at Oxford in 1218, from which time up to the <a href="../cathen/10455a.htm">dissolution</a> under <a href="../cathen/07222a.htm">Henry VIII</a> the triennial chapters appear to have been held more or less regularly. (Details of these chapters will be found in Reyner, "Apostolatus Benedictinorum".) At first only the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of the southern province of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a> were represented, but in 1338, in consequence of the <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Bull</a> "Benedictina", the two provinces were united and the English congregation definitely established. This system of the union of houses and periodical chapters interfered in the least possible degree with the Benedictine tradition of mutual independence of <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, though the <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Bull</a> "Benedictina" was intended to give some further development to it. In other countries attempts were made from time to time to effect a greater degree of organization, but in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> there was never any further advance along the path of centralization. At the time of the <a href="../cathen/10455a.htm">dissolution</a> there were in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> nearly three hundred houses of black <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, and though the numbers had from one cause or another somewhat declined, the English congregation may truthfully be said to have been in a flourishing <a href="../cathen/04211a.htm">condition</a> at the time of the attempt to suppress it in the sixteenth century. The grave charges brought against the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> by <a href="../cathen/07222a.htm">Henry VIII's</a> Visitors, though long believed in, are not now credited by serious historians. This reversal of opinion has been brought about mainly through the researches of such writers as Gasquet (Henry VIII and the English Monasteries, London, new ed., 1899; Eve of the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformation</a>, London, 1890), and Gairdner (Prefaces to "Calendars of State Papers of Henry VIII").</p> <p>Throughout the period of suppression the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> were the champions of the old Faith, and when turned out of their homes very few conformed to the new religion. Some sought refuge abroad, others accepted pensions and lingered on in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> hoping for a restoration of the former state of things, whilst not a few preferred to suffer lifelong <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">imprisonment</a> rather than surrender their convictions and claims. In <a href="../cathen/09766a.htm">Queen Mary's</a> reign there was a brief revival at <a href="../cathen/15592c.htm">Westminster</a>, where some of the surviving <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> were brought together under <a href="../cathen/06025a.htm">Abbot Feckenham</a> in 1556. Of the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> professed there during the three years of revived existence, Dom Sigebert Buckley alone survived at the beginning of the seventeenth century; and he, after forty years of <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">imprisonment</a>, when nigh unto death, in 1607, invested with the English habit and affiliated to <a href="../cathen/15598a.htm">Westminster Abbey</a> and to the English congregation two <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, already Benedictines of the Italian congregation. By this act he became the link between the old and the new lines of English black <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, and through him the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> succession was perpetuated. About the same time a number of <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> were being trained abroad, mostly in <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>, for the English mission, and these were in 1619 aggregated by <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">papal</a> authority to the English congregation, though the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> founded by them had perforce to be situated abroad. St. Gregory's at <a href="../cathen/05138a.htm">Douai</a> was established in 1605, St. Lawrence's at Dieulouard in Lorraine in 1606, and St. Edmund's at <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> in 1611. The first two of these communities remained on the continent until driven to <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> by the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">French Revolution</a>, but the third has only recently returned. In 1633, by the <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Bull</a> "Plantata", <a href="../cathen/15218b.htm">Pope Urban VIII</a> bestowed upon the restored English congregation "every privilege, grant, <a href="../cathen/07783a.htm">indulgence</a>, faculty, and other prerogative which had ever belonged to the ancient English congregation" and also approved of its members taking on <a href="../cathen/11176a.htm">oath</a> by which they bound themselves to labour for the reconversion of their country. So <a href="../cathen/15753a.htm">zealous</a> were they in this twenty-seven suffered <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrdom</a> for the Faith, whilst eleven died in <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">prison</a>. Two other <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> were added to the congregation, viz., Lamspring in <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> in 1643, and Saint-Malo in Brittany in 1611, the latter, however, being passed over to the French (Maurist) congregation in 1672.</p> <p>In 1795 the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of <a href="../cathen/05138a.htm">Douai</a> were expelled from their <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> by the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">Revolution</a>, and after many hardships, including <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">imprisonment</a>, escaped to <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>, where, after a temporary residence at Acton Burnell (near Shrewsbury), they settled in 1814 at <a href="../cathen/05149a.htm">Downside</a> in Somerset. The <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of Dieulouard were also driven out at the same time and after some years of wandering established themselves in 1802 at <a href="../cathen/01439b.htm">Ampleforth</a> in Yorkshire. The <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of St. Edmund's, Paris, not successful in making their escape from <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, were dispersed for a time, but when, in 1818, the buildings of St. Gregory's at <a href="../cathen/05138a.htm">Douai</a> were recovered by the congregation, the remnants of St. Edmund's community reassembled and resumed conventual life there in 1823. For eighty years they continued undisturbed, recruited by English subjects and carrying on their <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> for English boys, until, in 1903, the "Association Laws" of the French government once more expelled them from their <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>; returning to <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>, they have established themselves at Woolhampton in Berkshire. The Abbey of Lamspring continued to flourish amongst <a href="../cathen/09438b.htm">Lutheran</a> surroundings until it was suppressed by the <a href="../cathen/12519c.htm">Prussian</a> Government in 1802 and the community dispersed. In 1828 a restoration of conventual life in a small way was attempted at Broadway in Worcestershire, which lasted until 1841. The <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> then went to other houses of the congregation, though the community was never formally disbanded. Continuity was preserved by the last survivors of Broadway being incorporated in 1876 into the newly founded community of Fort Augustus in <a href="../cathen/13613a.htm">Scotland</a>. In 1859 St. Michael's <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priory</a>, at Belmont, near <a href="../cathen/07255a.htm">Hereford</a>, was established, in compliance with a <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> of <a href="../cathen/12134b.htm">Pius IX</a>, as a central <a href="../cathen/11144a.htm">novitiate</a> and house of studies for the whole congregation. It was also made the pro-cathedral of the <a href="../cathen/11018a.htm">Diocese of Newport in England</a>, the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> and canons of which are chosen from the <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> Benedictines, the <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedral</a>-prior acting as <a href="../cathen/12517a.htm">provost</a> of the chapter. Up to 1901 Belmont had no community of its own, but only members from the other houses who were resident there either as professors or students; the general chapter of that year, however, decided that <a href="../cathen/11144a.htm">novices</a> might henceforth be received for St. Michael's <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>. In 1899 <a href="../cathen/09169a.htm">Leo XIII</a> raised the three <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priories</a> of St. Gregory's (Downside), St. Lawrence's (Ampleforth), and St. Edmund's (<a href="../cathen/05138a.htm">Douai</a>) to the rank of <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a>, so that the congregation now consists of three <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a>, and one <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedral</a>-<a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priory</a>, each with its own community, but Belmont still remains the central <a href="../cathen/11144a.htm">novitiate</a> and <em>tyrocinium</em> for all the houses. Besides its regular <a href="../cathen/12386b.htm">prelates</a>, the English congregations, by virtue of the <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Bull</a> "Plantata" (1633), allowed to perpetuate as titular dignities the nine <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedral</a>-<a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priories</a> which belonged to it before the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformation</a>, viz., <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a>, <a href="../cathen/15649c.htm">Winchester</a>, <a href="../cathen/05211a.htm">Durham</a>, Coventry, <a href="../cathen/05396a.htm">Ely</a>, <a href="../cathen/15703a.htm">Worcester</a>, Rochester, <a href="../cathen/11121a.htm">Norwich</a>, and Bath; to these have been added three more, <a href="../cathen/11756b.htm">Peterborough</a>, Gloucester, and Chester, originally Benedictine <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> but raised to <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedral</a> rank by <a href="../cathen/07222a.htm">Henry VIII</a>. Six ancient abbacies also, <a href="../cathen/01252b.htm">St. Alban's</a>, <a href="../cathen/15592c.htm">Westminster</a>, Glastonbury, <a href="../cathen/05648a.htm">Evesham</a>, Bury St. Edmunds, and St. Mary's, <a href="../cathen/15733b.htm">York</a>, are similarly perpetuated by privilege granted in 1818.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>(2) <em>The Cassinese Congregation</em>.—To prevent confusion it is <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> to pint out that there are two congregations of this name. The first, with <a href="../cathen/10526b.htm">Monte Cassino</a> as its chief house, was originally known as that of St. Justina of Padua, and with one exception has always been confined to <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>. The other is of much later institution and is distinguished by the title of "Primitive Observance". What follows relates to the former of these two.</p> <p>Most of the <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italian</a> <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> had fallen under the influence of Cluny in the tenth and eleventh centuries, and had adopted its customs, but by the end of the fourteenth century they had so greatly declined that there was then hardly one left in which the <a href="../cathen/04073a.htm">Cluniac</a> observance was retained. The Abbey of St. Justina at <a href="../cathen/11385b.htm">Padua</a>, which had formerly been <a href="../cathen/04073a.htm">Cluniac</a>, was in a very corrupt and ruinous state in 1407 when <a href="../cathen/07001a.htm">Gregory XII</a> bestowed it <em><a href="../cathen/07719a.htm">in commendam</a></em> on the <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">Cardinal</a> of Bologna. That <a href="../cathen/12386b.htm">prelate</a>, desirous of reform, introduced some <a href="../cathen/11244c.htm">Olivetan</a> <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, but the three remaining <a href="../cathen/04073a.htm">Cluniac</a> <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> appealed to the <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venetian</a> Republic against this encroachment on their <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a>, with the result that the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> was restored to them and the <a href="../cathen/11244c.htm">Olivetans</a> dismissed. The <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinal</a> resigned the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> to the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a>, who thereupon gave it to Ludovico Barbo, a canon regular of St. George in alga. He took the Benedictine habit and received the abbatial blessing in 1409. With the help of two <a href="../cathen/03204d.htm">Camaldolese</a> <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> and two canons of Alga, he instituted a reformed observance, which was quickly adopted in other <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> as well. Permission was obtained from the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> for these to unite and form a new congregation, the first general chapters of which was held in 1421, when Abbot Barbo was elected the first president. Amongst those that joined were the celebrated <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> of <a href="../cathen/14321a.htm">Subiaco</a>, <a href="../cathen/10526b.htm">Monte Cassino</a>, <a href="../cathen/13369a.htm">St. Paul's</a> in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, St. George's at <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venice</a>, La Cava, and <a href="../cathen/05785d.htm">Farfa</a>. In 1504 its title was changed to that of the "Cassinese Congregation". It gradually came to embrace all of the chief Benedictine houses of <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, to the number of nearly two hundred, divided into seven provinces, <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, <a href="../cathen/10683a.htm">Naples</a>, <a href="../cathen/13772a.htm">Sicily</a>, <a href="../cathen/15103b.htm">Tuscany</a>, <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venice</a>, <a href="../cathen/09336b.htm">Lombardy</a>, and <a href="../cathen/06419a.htm">Genoa</a>. In 1505 the Abbey of Lérins in Provence together with all its dependent houses joined it. A highly centralized system of government was developed, modelled on the Italian republics, by which the autonomy of the individual houses was almost entirely destroyed. All power was vested in a committee of "definitors", in whose hands were all appointments, from that of president down to the lowest official in the smallest <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>. But in spite of this obvious departure from the Benedictine ideal and the dangers arising from such a system, the congregation continued in considerable prosperity until the <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">wars</a> of the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">Revolution</a> period; and the later decrees of the Italian government put a check to its reception of <a href="../cathen/11144a.htm">novices</a> and began a series of suppressions which have reduced its numbers enormously and shorn it of much of its former greatness. The formation of the congregation of Primitive Observance from out of its midst has still further diminished the congregation, until it now consists nominally of sixteen <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, some entirely without communities, and only three or four with sufficient numbers to keep up full conventual observances.</p> <p>(3) <em>The Cassinese Congregation of Primitive Observance</em>.—In the year 1851 Abbot Casaretto of <a href="../cathen/14321a.htm">Subiaco</a> initiated at <a href="../cathen/06419a.htm">Genoa</a> a return to a stricter observance than was then in vogue, and several other <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of the Cassinese congregation, including <a href="../cathen/14321a.htm">Subiaco</a> itself, desiring to unite in this reforming movement, Pius IX joined all such <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> into one federation, which was called after its chief house, the "Province of <a href="../cathen/14321a.htm">Subiaco</a>". Before long <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> in other countries adopted the same reformed observance and became affiliated to <a href="../cathen/14321a.htm">Subiaco</a>. In 1872 this union of <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> was separated altogether from the original congregation and erected as a new and independent body under the title of the "Cassinese Congregation of Primitive Observance", which was divided into provinces according to the different countries in which its houses were situated, with the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/14321a.htm">Subiaco</a> as abbot-general of the whole federation.</p> <p>(a) The Italian Province dates from the original federation in 1851, and comprises ten <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> with over two hundred religious. One of these is the <a href="../cathen/10538b.htm">Abbey of Monte Vergine</a>, formerly the mother-house of an independent congregation, but which was aggregated to this province in 1879.</p> <p>(b) The English Province was formed in 1858 when certain <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> at <a href="../cathen/14321a.htm">Subiaco</a> obtained permission to make a foundation in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>. The Isle of Thanet, hallowed by the memory of <a href="../cathen/02081a.htm">St. Augustine's</a> landing there twelve hundred and sixty years previously, was selected and a church which <a href="../cathen/12558b.htm">Augustus Welby Pugin</a> had built at Ramsgate was placed at their disposal. By 1860 a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> had been erected and full conventual life established. It became a <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priory</a> in 1880 and in 1896 an <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a>. In course of <a href="../cathen/14726a.htm">time</a>, in addition to serving several neighbouring missions, the community embarked on work in <a href="../cathen/11040a.htm">New Zealand</a>, where Dom Edmund Luck, a Ramsgate <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a>, was made <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/02068a.htm">Auckland</a>. They also undertook work in Bengal in 1874, but this has since been relinquished to the <a href="../cathen/13675a.htm">secular clergy</a>.</p> <p>(c) The <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgian</a> Province began in 1858 with the affiliation to <a href="../cathen/14321a.htm">Subiaco</a> of the eleventh-century Abbey of Termonde. Afflighem followed in 1870, and since then two new foundations have been made in <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgium</a>, and quite recently missionary work has been undertaken in the Transvaal, South Africa.</p> <p>(d) The French Province, perhaps the most numerous and flourishing in the congregation, dates from 1859. Jean-Baptiste Muard, a <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> and founder of a <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a> of <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocesan</a> missioners, became a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> at <a href="../cathen/14321a.htm">Subiaco</a>. After his profession there in 1849, he returned to <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> with two companions and settled at Pierre-qui-Vire, a lonely spot amid the forests of Avallon, where a most austere form of Benedictine life was established. After his death in 1854, the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> he had founded was affiliated to the Cassinese P. O. congregation and became the mother-house of the French province. New foundations were made at Béthisy (1859), Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, the ancient Fleury (1865), <a href="../cathen/11230c.htm">Oklahoma</a>, Indian Territory, <a href="../cathen/15156a.htm">U.S.A.</a> with an Apostolic vicariate attached (1874), Belloc (1875), Kerbeneat (1888), Encalcat (1891), Nino-Dios, <a href="../cathen/01702d.htm">Argentina</a> (1899), and <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a> (1901). In 1880 the French Government annexed Pierre-qui-Vire and expelled the community by force; some of them, however, were able to regain possession a year or two later. The remainder sought refuge in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>, where in 1882 they acquired the site of the old <a href="../cathen/03027a.htm">Cistercian Abbey of Buckfast</a>, in Devonshire. Here they are gradually rebuilding the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> on its original foundations. The "Association Laws" of 1903 again dispersed the congregation, the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of Pierre-qui-Vire finding a temporary home in <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgium</a>, those of Belloc and Encalcat going to <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>, and Kerbeneat to South <a href="../cathen/15532a.htm">Wales</a>, whilst those of Béthisy and Saint-Benoît, being engaged in <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parochial</a> work, obtained authorization and have remained in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>.</p> <p>(e) The Spanish Province dates from 1862, the year in which the ancient Abbey of Montserrat, founded in the ninth century, was affiliated to the Cassinese P. O. congregation. The old Spanish congregation, which ceased to exist in 1835, is dealt with separately. Other old <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> which had been restored, St. Clodio in 1880, Vilvaneira in 1883, and Samos in 1888, were, in 1893, joined with Montserrat to form the Spanish province. Since then new foundations have been made at Pueyo (1890), Los Cabos (1900), and Solsona (1901), besides one at <a href="../cathen/09597b.htm">Manila</a> (Philippines) in 1895. This province also includes the Abbey of New Norcia in Western Australia, founded in 1846 by two exiled <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> from St. Martin's Abbey, Compostella, who after the general suppression in 1835 had found a home at La Cava in <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>. Seeing no hope of a return to <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a> they had volunteered for foreign mission work and were sent to Australia in 1846. Their names were Joseph Serra and Rudesind Salvado. They settled amongst the aboriginal inhabitants at a place some seventy miles north of Perth, which they called New Norcia in <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a> of St. Benedict's birthplace, and there worked as pioneers of civilization and <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> amongst the natives. Their labours were <a href="../cathen/04380a.htm">crowned</a> with success and their <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> gradually became the centre from which a number of outlying mission stations were established. Dom Serra became coadjutor to the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Perth in 1848, and Dom Salvado was made <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/12312b.htm">Port Victoria</a> in 1849, though he still remained superior of New Norcia, which was made an <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> in 1867 with a <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a> attached. It had been aggregated to the Italian province of the congregation in 1864, but was transferred to the Spanish province on its formation in 1893. The <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> own vast tracts of bushland around their <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> and they rear horses, sheep, and cattle on a large scale. The community includes a number of aboriginal converts amongst its lay brethren.</p> <p>(4) <em>The Bursfeld Union</em>.—Although more fully dealt with in a <a href="../cathen/03084c.htm">separate article</a>, something must be said here about this congregation. Formed in 1430, it included all the principal <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>, and at the height of its prosperity numbered one hundred and thirty-six houses of men and sixty-four of <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a>. It flourished until the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Protestant Reformation</a>, which with the religious <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">wars</a> that followed entirely obliterated it, and most of its <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> passed into <a href="../cathen/09438b.htm">Lutheran</a> hands. In 1628 the few remaining representatives of the congregation, having recovered a <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">right</a> to some of their possessions, offered seven <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> to the newly resuscitated English congregation, on condition that the task of getting rid of the <a href="../cathen/09438b.htm">Lutheran</a> occupants should devolve upon the <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, whilst the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> should be restored to the Bursfeld congregation in the event of its ever requiring them. No advantage was taken of this offer except with regard to two houses—Rintelin, which was used as a <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminary</a> for a few years by the <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> Benedictines, and Lamspring, which continued as an abbey of <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> from 1644 to 1802. No other <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of the Bursfeld Union were ever restored to Benedictine use. (See <a href="../cathen/03084c.htm">BURSFELD</a>.)</p> <p>(5) <em>The Spanish Congregation</em>.—There were originally two distinct congregations in <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>, that of the "Claustrales" or of <a href="../cathen/14459a.htm">Tarragona</a>, formed in 1336, and that of Valladolid, organized in 1489. At the time of the general suppression in 1835, the former comprised sixteen <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a>, and the latter fifty, besides one or two <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priories</a> in <a href="../cathen/11732b.htm">Peru</a> and Mexico. Belonging to the Claustrales were Our Lady's Abbey, Vilvaneira, St. Stephen's, Rivas del Sil, founded in the sixth century, and St. Peter's, Cardena, which claimed to be the oldest in <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>. The Valladolid congregation had St. Benedict's, Valladolid (founded 1390), for its mother-house, and amongst its houses were St. Martin's, Compostella (ninth century); St. Benedict's, Sahagún, the largest in <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>; St. Vincent's, Salamanca, famous for its <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">university</a>; Our Lady's, Montserrat; and St. Domingo at Silos. Of the sixty-six <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> suppressed in 1835, five have been restored, viz., Montserrat (1844), St. Clodio (1880), Vilvaneira (1883), and Samos (1888) by the Cassinese P. O. congregation, and Silos (1880) by the <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">French</a> <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> from Ligugé. Of the rest, sixteen remain as <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> churches, thirteen are now occupied by other <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> orders, two or three are used as barracks, two as <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">prisons</a>, one as a <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocesan</a> <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminary</a>, a few have been converted into municipal buildings or private residences, and the remainder have been destroyed.</p> <p>(6) <em>The Portuguese Congregation</em>.—In the sixteenth century the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of <a href="../cathen/12297a.htm">Portugal</a> were all held by commendatory <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> and consequently were in a very unsatisfactory state as regards discipline. A reform was initiated in 1558 in the Abbey of St. Thirso, <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> from <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a> being introduced for the purpose. After much difficulty the leaders succeeded in spreading their reform to two or three other houses, and these were formed into the <a href="../cathen/12297a.htm">Portuguese</a> congregation by Pius V in 1566. The first general chapter was held at Tibaes in 1568 and a president elected. The congregation eventually comprised all the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of <a href="../cathen/12297a.htm">Portugal</a> and continued in a flourishing state until the wholesale suppression of <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">religious houses</a> in the early part of the nineteenth century, when its existence came to an abrupt end. Only one Benedictine <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> in <a href="../cathen/12297a.htm">Portugal</a> has since been restored—that of Cucujães, originally founded in 1091. Its resuscitation in 1875 came about in this way: to evade the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> forbidding their reception of <a href="../cathen/11144a.htm">novices</a>, the <a href="../cathen/02745c.htm">Brazilian</a> Benedictines had sent some of the subjects to <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> for study and training in the <a href="../cathen/13369a.htm">monastery of St. Paul's</a>, where they were professed about 1870. The <a href="../cathen/02745c.htm">Brazilian</a> government refusing them permission to return to that country, they settled in <a href="../cathen/12297a.htm">Portugal</a> and obtained possession of the old <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of Cucujães. After twenty years of somewhat isolated existence there, unable to re-establish the <a href="../cathen/12297a.htm">Portuguese</a> congregation, they were, in 1895, affiliated to that of Beuron. Thus <a href="../cathen/02745c.htm">Brazil</a>, which had received its first Benedictines from <a href="../cathen/12297a.htm">Portugal</a>, became in turn the means of restoring the Benedictine life in that country.</p> <p>(7) <em>The <a href="../cathen/02745c.htm">Brazilian</a> Congregation</em>.—The first Benedictines to settle in <a href="../cathen/02745c.htm">Brazil</a> came from <a href="../cathen/12297a.htm">Portugal</a> in 1581. They established the following <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>: St. Sebastian, <a href="../cathen/13466a.htm">Bahia</a>, (1581); Our Lady of Montserrat, Rio de Janeiro (1589); St. Benedict, Olinda (1640); the Assumption, Sao Paulo (1640); Our Lady's, Parahyba (1641); Our Lady's, Brotas (1650); Our Lady's, near Bahia (1658); and four <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priories</a> dependent on Sao Paulo. All these remained subject to the <a href="../cathen/12297a.htm">Portuguese</a> superiors until 1827, when in consequence of the separation of <a href="../cathen/02745c.htm">Brazil</a> from the Kingdom of <a href="../cathen/12297a.htm">Portugal</a>, an independent <a href="../cathen/02745c.htm">Brazilian</a> congregation was erected by <a href="../cathen/09167a.htm">Leo XII</a>, consisting of the above eleven houses, with the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/13466a.htm">Bahia</a> as its president. A <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> of the <a href="../cathen/02745c.htm">Brazilian</a> government in 1855 forbade the further reception of <a href="../cathen/11144a.htm">novices</a>, and the result was that when the empire came to an end in 1889, the entire congregation numbered only about twelve members, of whom eight were <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> of over seventy years of age. The abbot-general appealed for help to the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a>, who applied to the Beuronese congregation for volunteers. In 1895 a small colony of Beuronese <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> having spent some time in <a href="../cathen/12297a.htm">Portugal</a> learning the language, set out for <a href="../cathen/02745c.htm">Brazil</a> and took possession of the abandoned Abbey of <a href="../cathen/11242a.htm">Olinda</a>. The divine office was resumed, mission work in the neighbourhood commenced, and a <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> of <em>alumni</em> (pupils destined for the <a href="../cathen/10459a.htm">monastic</a> state) established. Two new <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> have also been added to the congregation: Quixada, founded in 1900, and St. Andre at <a href="../cathen/03005a.htm">Bruges</a> (Belgium) in 1901, for the reception and training of subjects for <a href="../cathen/02745c.htm">Brazil</a>. In 1903 Rio de Janeiro was made the mother-house of the congregation and the residence of the abbot-general.</p> <p>(8) <em>The <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Swiss</a> Congregation</em>.—The earliest <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> in <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Switzerland</a> were founded from Luxeuil by the disciples of Columbanus, amongst whom was St. Gall, who established the celebrated <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> afterwards known by his name. By the end of the eighth century the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Benedictine Rule</a> had been accepted in most, if not in all of them. Some of these <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> still exist and their communities can boast of an unbroken continuity from those early days. The various <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Switzerland</a> were united to form the <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Swiss</a> congregation in 1602, through the efforts of Augustine, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/05367a.htm">Einsiedeln</a>. The political disturbances at the end of the eighteenth century reduced the number of <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> to six, of which five still continue and constitute the entire congregation at the present day. They are as follows: (a) Dissentis, founded in 612; plundered and destroyed by fire in 1799; restored 1880. (b) <a href="../cathen/05367a.htm">Einsiedeln</a>, founded 934, the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> from which the Swiss-American congregation has sprung. (c) Muri, founded 1027; suppressed 1841; but restored at Gries (Tyrol) 1845. (d) Engelberg, founded 1082. (3) Maria Stein, founded 1085; the community was disbanded in 1798, but reassembled six years later; again suppressed in 1875, when the members went to Delle in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>; expelled thence in 1902, they moved to Dürnberg in <a href="../cathen/02121b.htm">Austria</a>, and in 1906 settled at Bregenz. The sixth <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> was Rheinau, founded 778, which was suppressed in 1862; its <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, being unable to resume conventual life, were received into other <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of the congregation.</p> <p>(9) <em>The Congregation of St.-Vannes</em>.—To counteract the evils resulting from the practice of bestowing <a href="../cathen/02473c.htm">ecclesiastical benefices</a> upon secular <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> <em><a href="../cathen/07719a.htm">in commendam</a></em>, then rife throughout Western <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, Dom Didier de la Cour, Prior of the Abbey of St.-Vannes in <a href="../cathen/09362a.htm">Lorraine</a>, inaugurated in 1598 a strict disciplinary reform with the full <a href="../cathen/01656b.htm">approbation</a> of the <a href="../cathen/04155b.htm">commendatory abbot</a>, the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/15350c.htm">Verdun</a>. Other <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> soon followed suit and the reform was introduced into all the houses of Alsace and Lorraine, as well as many in different parts of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>. A congregation, numbering about forty houses in all, under the presidency of the <a href="../cathen/12427c.htm">prior</a> of St.-Vannes, was formed, and was approved by the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> in 1604. On account of the difficulties arising from the direction of the <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">French</a> <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> by a superior residing in another kingdom, a separate congregation — that of St.-Maur — was organized in 1621 for the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, whilst that of St.-Vannes was restricted to those situated in <a href="../cathen/09362a.htm">Lorraine</a>. The latter continued with undiminished fervour until suppressed by the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">French Revolution</a>, but is privileges were handed on by <a href="../cathen/07006a.htm">Gregory XVI</a> in 1837 to the newly founded Gallican congregation, which was declared to be its <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> successor, though not enjoying actual continuity with it.</p> <p>(10) <em>The Congregation of St.-Maur</em>.—The <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">French</a> <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> which had embraced the reform of St.-Vannes were in 1621 formed into a separate congregation named after St. Maur, the disciple of St. Benedict, which eventually numbered on hundred and eighty houses, i.e. all in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> except those of the <a href="../cathen/04073a.htm">Cluniac</a> congregation. The reform was introduced mainly through the instrumentality of <a href="../cathen/02426b.htm">Dom Laurent Bénard</a> and quickly spread through <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>. Saint-Germain-des-Prés at <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> became the mother-house, and the superior of this <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> was always the president. The constitution was modelled on that of the congregation of St. Justina of Padua and it was a genuine return to the primitive austerity of conventual observance. It became chiefly celebrated for the literary achievements of its members, amongst whom it counted <a href="../cathen/09479b.htm">Mabillon</a>, Montfaucon, d'Achery, Martene, and many others equally famous for their erudition and industry. In 1790 the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">Revolution</a> suppressed all its <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> and the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> were dispersed. The superior general and two others suffered in the massacre at the Carmes, 2 September, 1792. Others sought safety in flight and were received into Lamspring, and <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> of <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Switzerland</a>, <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>, and North America. A few of the survivors endeavoured to restore their congregation at <a href="../cathen/14133b.htm">Solesmes</a> in 1817, but the attempt was not successful, and the congregation died out, leaving behind it a fame unrivalled in the annals of monastic history. (see <a href="../cathen/10069b.htm">MAURISTS</a>.)</p> <p>(11) <em>The Congregation of St. Placid</em>.—This congregation was also an outcome of the reform instituted at St.-Vannes. The Abbey of <a href="../cathen/07507a.htm">St. Hubert</a> in Ardennes, which had been founded about 706 for canons regular but had become Benedictine in 817, was the first in the Low Countries to embrace the reform. To facilitate its introduction, <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> were sent from St.-Vannes in 1618 to initiate the stricter observance. In spite of some opposition from the community as well as from the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocesan</a>, the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/09236a.htm">Liège</a>, the revival of discipline gradually gained the supremacy and before long other <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, including St. Denis in Hainault, St. Adrian, Afflighem, St. Peter's at <a href="../cathen/06542c.htm">Ghent</a>, and others followed suit. These were formed into a new congregation (c. 1630) which was approved by <a href="../cathen/15218b.htm">Pope Urban VIII</a>, and existed until the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">Revolution</a>. Two <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> of this congregation, Termonde and Afflighem, have since been restored and affiliated to the <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgian</a> province of the Cassinese P. O. congregation.</p> <p>(12) <em>The Austrian Congregations</em>.—For many centuries the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of <a href="../cathen/02121b.htm">Austria</a> maintained their individual independence and their <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> acquired positions of much political power and dignity, which, though considerably diminished since <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval times</a>, are still such as are enjoyed by no other Benedictine <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a>. The example of reform set by the congregation of St. Justina in the fifteenth century exercised an influence upon the Austrian <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>. Beginning (1418) in the <a href="../cathen/10167a.htm">Abbey of Melk</a> (founded about 1089), the reform was extended to other houses, and in 1460 a union of those that had adopted it was proposed. Sixteen <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> were present at a meeting held in 1470, but for some reason this union of <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> does not seem to have been at all lasting, for in 1623 a new Austrian congregation was projected to consist of practically the same <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> as the former congregation: <a href="../cathen/10167a.htm">Melk</a>, Göttweig, Lambach, Kremsmünster, <a href="../cathen/15417a.htm">Vienna</a>, Garsten, Altenburg, Seitenstetten, Mondsee, Kleinck, and Marienberg. In 1630 it was proposed to unite this congregation, those of <a href="../cathen/03084c.htm">Bursfeld</a> and <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">Bavaria</a>, and all the houses that were still independent, into one general federation, and a meeting was held at <a href="../cathen/12657a.htm">Ratisbon</a> to discuss the scheme. The <a href="../cathen/14347a.htm">Swedish</a> invitation, however, put an end to the plan and the only result was the formation of another small congregation of nine <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a>, with that of St. Peter's, <a href="../cathen/13411b.htm">Salzburg</a>, at its head. These two congregations, <a href="../cathen/10167a.htm">Melk</a> and Salzburg, lasted until towards the end of the eighteenth century, when the despotic rule of <a href="../cathen/08508b.htm">Joseph II</a> (1765-90) gave them their death-blow. In 1803 many of the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> were suppressed and those that were suffered to remain were forbidden to receive fresh <a href="../cathen/11144a.htm">novices</a>. The Emperor Francis I, however, restored several of them between the years 1809 and 1816, and in 1889 those that still survived, some twenty in number, were formed into two new congregations under the titles of the Immaculate Conception and St. Joseph, respectively. The former comprises ten houses under the presidency of the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Göttweig, and the latter seven, with the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/13411b.htm">Salzburg</a> at its head. The congregation of the Immaculate Conception, in which are Kremsmünster, dating from 777, St. Paul's in Carinthia, and the Scots <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> at <a href="../cathen/15417a.htm">Vienna</a>, includes none of later date than the twelfth century; whilst in the congregation of St. Joseph there are Salzburg (before 700), Michaelbeuern (785), four others of the eleventh century, and only one of recent foundation, Innsbruck (1904).</p> <p>(13) <em>The Bavarian Congregation</em>.—A reform initiated amongst the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">Bavaria</a>, based upon the <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Tridentine</a> decrees, caused the erection of this congregation in 1684. It then consisted of eighteen houses which flourished until the general suppression at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Beginning in 1830, the <a href="../cathen/12748a.htm">pious</a> King Ludwig I restored the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> of Metten and Ottobeuern (founded in the eighth century), Scheyern (1112), and Andechs (1455), and founded new <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> at <a href="../cathen/02073b.htm">Augsburg</a> (1834), <a href="../cathen/10631a.htm">Munich</a> (1835), Meltenburg (1842), and Schäftlarn (1866). Pius IX restored the congregation (1858) comprising the above houses, of which the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Metten is president. The <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> of Plankstetten (1189) and Ettal (1330) were restored in 1900 and 1904, respectively and added to the congregation.</p> <p>(14) <em>The Hungarian Congregation</em>.—This congregation differs from all others in its constitution. It comprises the four <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> of Zalavar (1919), Bakonybel (1037), Tihany (1055), and Domolk (1252), which are dependent on the Arch-Abbey of Monte Pannonia (Martinsberg), and to these are added six "residences" or <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">educational establishments</a> conducted by the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>. The members of this body are professed for the congregation and not for any particular <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, and they can be moved from one house to another at the discretion of the arch-abbot and his sixteen assessors. The arch-abbey was founded by Stephen, the first king of <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">Hungary</a>, in 1001, and together with the other houses enjoys an unbroken succession from the <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">date</a> of foundation. The congregation is affiliated to the Cassinese, though it enjoys a status of comparative independence.</p> <p>(15) <em>The Gallican Congregation</em>.—This, the first of the new congregations of the nineteenth century, was established in 1837 at <a href="../cathen/14133b.htm">Solesmes</a> in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> by <a href="../cathen/07058a.htm">Dom Guéranger</a>. He had been professed at <a href="../cathen/13369a.htm">St. Paul's</a>, <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, and though at one time desirous of joining the community of <a href="../cathen/10526b.htm">Monte Cassino</a>, was urged by the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/09143b.htm">Le Mans</a> to restore the Benedictine Order in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>. He acquired possession of the old <a href="../cathen/10069b.htm">Maurist</a> <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priory</a> of <a href="../cathen/14133b.htm">Solesmes</a>, which <a href="../cathen/07006a.htm">Pope Gregory XVI</a> made an <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> and the mother-house of the new congregation. He also declared it to be the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> successor to all the privileges formerly enjoyed by the congregations of Cluny, St.-Vannes, and St.-Maur. <a href="../cathen/07058a.htm">Guéranger</a> was soon joined by numbers of offshoots. In this way Ligugé, originally founded by <a href="../cathen/09732b.htm">St. Martin of Tours</a> in 360, was restored in 1853, Silos (Spain) in 1880, Glanfeuil in 1892, and Fontanelle (St. Wandrille), founded 649, in 1893. New foundations were likewise made at <a href="../cathen/09715b.htm">Marseilles</a> in 1865, Farnborough (England), and Wisque in 1895, <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> 1893, Kergonan 1897, and a cell from Silos was established in Mexico in 1901. The community of <a href="../cathen/14133b.htm">Solesmes</a> have been expelled from their <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> by the French government no less than four times. In the years 1880, 1882, and 1883 they were ejected by <a href="../cathen/15446a.htm">force</a>, and, being afforded hospitality in the neighbourhood, kept up their corporate life as far as possible, using the <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> church for the <a href="../cathen/11219a.htm">Divine Office</a>. Each time they succeeded in re-entering their <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a>, but at the final expulsion in 1903 they were, in common with all other religious of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, driven out of the country. The <a href="../cathen/14133b.htm">Solesmes</a> <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> have settled in the Isle of Wight, <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>, those of Fontanelle, Glanfeuil, Wisque, and Kergonan have gone to <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgium</a>, those of Ligugé to <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>, and those of <a href="../cathen/09715b.htm">Marseilles</a> to <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>. The Fathers at <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> have been allowed to remain, in consideration of the important literary and history work on which they are engaged. This congregation has endeavoured to carry on the work of the <a href="../cathen/10069b.htm">Maurists</a>, and numbers many well-known writers amongst its members. The <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/14133b.htm">Solesmes</a> is the superior general, to which position he has been twice re-elected.</p> <p>(16) <em>The Congregation of Beuron</em>.—This congregation was founded by Dom Maurus Wolter, who, whilst a <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminary</a> professor, was fired with the desire of restoring the Benedictine Order in <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>. He went to <a href="../cathen/13369a.htm">St. Paul's</a>, <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, where he was joined by his two brothers, and all were professed in 1856, one dying soon after. The two survivors, Maurus and Placid, set out in 1860, with a sum of £40 and the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope's</a> blessing, to reconquer <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> for St. Benedict. In 1863, through the influence of the Princess Katharina von Hohenzollern, they obtained possession of the old Abbey of Beuron, near Sigmaringen, which had been originally founded in 777, but was destroyed in the tenth century by Hungarian invaders and later restored as a house of canons regular; it had been unoccupied since 1805. Dom Maurus became the first <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> of Beuron and superior of the congregation. In 1872 a colony was sent to <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgium</a> to found the Abbey of Maredsous, of which Dom Placid was first <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>. The community of Beuron were banished in 1875 by the "May Laws" of the <a href="../cathen/12519c.htm">Prussian</a> Government and found a temporary home in an old <a href="../cathen/09750a.htm">Servite</a> <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> in the Tyrol. Whilst there their numbers increased sufficiently to make new foundations at <a href="../cathen/05517c.htm">Erdington</a>, <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>, in 1876, Prague in 1880, and Seckau, <a href="../cathen/14318a.htm">Styria</a>, in 1883. In 1887 Beuron was restored to them, and since then new houses have been established at <a href="../cathen/09658a.htm">Maria Laach</a>, <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> (1892), <a href="../cathen/09391a.htm">Louvain</a>, and Billerbeck, <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgium</a> (1899 and 1901), and in 1895 the Portuguese <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of Cucujães was added to the congregation. The founder died in 1900, and his brother, Dom Placid Wolter, succeeded him as Archabbot of Beuron.</p> <p>(17) <em>The American Cassinese Congregation</em>.—Nothing very definite can be said with regard to the first Benedictines in North America. There were probably settlements amongst the <a href="../cathen/05539a.htm">Eskimo</a> from <a href="../cathen/07615b.htm">Iceland</a>, by way of <a href="../cathen/06777b.htm">Greenland</a>, but these must have disappeared at an early <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">date</a>. In 1493 a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> from Montserrat accompanied <a href="../cathen/04140a.htm">Columbus</a> on his voyage of discovery and became vicar-Apostolic of the West Indies, but his stay was short, and he returned to <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries one or two <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, and at least one of the <a href="../cathen/10069b.htm">Maurist</a> congregation, worked on the American mission; and at the time of the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">French Revolution</a> negotiations had been commenced by Bishop Carroll, first <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/02228a.htm">Baltimore</a>, for a settlement of <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> Benedictines in his <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a>, which, however, came to nothing. The Benedictine Order was first established permanently in America by <a href="../cathen/15648b.htm">Dom Boniface Wimmer</a>, of the Abbey of Metten, in <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">Bavaria</a>. A number of <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">Bavarians</a> had <a href="../cathen/10291a.htm">emigrated</a> to America, and it was suggested that their spiritual wants in the new country should be attended to by <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">Bavarian</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>. <a href="../cathen/15648b.htm">Dom Wimmer</a> and a few companions accordingly set out in 1846, and on their arrival in America they acquired the church, a house, and some land belong to the small mission of St. Vincent, Beatty, <a href="../cathen/11638c.htm">Pennsylvania</a>, which had been founded some time previously by a <a href="../cathen/06217a.htm">Franciscan</a> missionary. Here they set to work, establishing conventual life, as far as was possible under the circumstances, and applying themselves assiduously to the work of the mission. Reinforced by more <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> from <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">Bavaria</a> and their poverty relieved by some munificent donations, they accepted additional outlying missions and established a large college. In 1855 St. Vincent's, which had already founded two dependent <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priories</a> was made an <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> and the mother-house of a new congregation, <a href="../cathen/15648b.htm">Dom Wimmer</a> being appointed first <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> and president. Besides St. Vincent's Arch-Abbey, the following foundations have been made: St. John's Abbey, Collegeville, <a href="../cathen/10326c.htm">Minnesota</a>, founded 1856, mainly through the generosity of King Ludwig I of <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">Bavaria</a>; connected with the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> is a large college for boys, with an attendance of over 300; St. Benedict's Abbey, Atchison, <a href="../cathen/08597a.htm">Kansas</a>, founded 1857, said to possess the finest Benedictine church in America, built in the style of the Rhenish churches of the tenth and eleventh centuries; there is in connexion a <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> with 150 boys; St. Mary's Abbey, <a href="../cathen/10779c.htm">Newark</a>, <a href="../cathen/10790a.htm">New Jersey</a>, founded 1857, with a <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> of 100 boys; Maryhelp Abbey, Belmont, <a href="../cathen/11108a.htm">North Carolina</a>, founded 1885, the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> of which is also vicar-Apostolic of North Carolina; attached to the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> are two colleges and a <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>, with over 200 students; St. Procopius's Abbey, <a href="../cathen/03653a.htm">Chicago</a>, founded 1887, with a <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> of 50 boys and an <a href="../cathen/11322b.htm">orphanage</a> attached; St. Leo's Abbey, Pasco County, <a href="../cathen/06115b.htm">Florida</a>, founded 1889; this <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> has a dependent <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priory</a> in Cuba; St. Bernard's Abbey, Cullman County, <a href="../cathen/01240a.htm">Alabama</a>, founded 1891, with a <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> of over 100 boys; St. Peter's Priory, established in Illinois in 1892 and transferred to Muenster, <a href="../cathen/13482b.htm">Saskatchewan</a>, N. W. T., in 1903; St. Martin's Priory, Lacey, the State of Washington, founded 1895.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>(18) <em>The <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Swiss</a> American Congregation</em>.—In 1845 two <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> from <a href="../cathen/05367a.htm">Einsiedeln</a> in <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Switzerland</a> came to America and founded the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of St. Meinrad, in <a href="../cathen/07738a.htm">Indiana</a>, serving the mission and conducting a small <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> for boys. It became a <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priory</a> in 1865, and in 1870 was made an <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> and the centre of the congregation which was canonically erected at the same time. The first <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>, Dom Martin Marty, became, in 1879, first <a href="../cathen/15401b.htm">Vicar Apostolic </a> of Dakota, where he had some years previously inaugurated mission work amongst the Indians. The following new foundations were made: Conception Abbey, Conception, Missouri (1873), the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> of the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> being president of the congregation; New Subiaco Abbey, Spielerville, Arkansas (1878); St. Benedict's Abbey, Mount Angel, <a href="../cathen/11288a.htm">Oregon</a> (1882); St. Joseph's Abbey, <a href="../cathen/04462b.htm">Covington</a>, Louisiana (1889); St. Mary's Abbey, Richadton, <a href="../cathen/11111b.htm">North Dakota</a> (1899); St. Gall's Priory, Devil's Lake (1893), the last two communities subject to the same <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>. To all these <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> are attached numerous missions, in which the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> exercise the <a href="../cathen/04572a.htm">cure of souls</a>. They also have several <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminaries</a> and colleges.</p> <p>(19) <em>The Congregation of St. Ottilien</em>.—This congregation, specially established for the work of foreign missions, was commenced in 1884 in the Abbey of St. Ottilien, in <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">Bavaria</a>, under the title of the "Congregation of the Sacred Heart". It was not then Benedictine, but in 1897 was affiliated to the Cassinese congregation and in 1904 formally incorporated into the Benedictine Order. The <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of St. Ottilien is the superior general and the Beuronese <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/13672a.htm">Seckau</a> the apostolic visitor. This congregation has been largely recruited from the congregation of Beuron, to which it is bound by close ties. In 1901 it established a cell at Wipfeld, in <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">Bavaria</a>, and it has also ten mission stations in Central Africa, one of its members being <a href="../cathen/15401b.htm">Vicar Apostolic </a> of Zanzibar. Its roll of <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a> was opened in August, 1905, by a <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>, two <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, two <a href="../cathen/09093a.htm">lay brothers</a>, and two <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a>, who suffered <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrdom</a> for the Faith at the hands of the Central African natives.</p> <p>(20) <em>Independent Abbeys</em>.—Besides the above congregations there also are two independent <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a>, which belong to no congregation, but are <a href="../cathen/05706a.htm">immediately subject</a> to the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>; (a) The Abbey of Fort Augustus, <a href="../cathen/13613a.htm">Scotland</a>. Founded in 1876, as a <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priory</a> of the English congregation, mainly through the munificence of Lord Lovat, its first community was drawn from the other houses of that body. It was intended partly to continue the community of Sts. Denis and Adrian, originally of Lamspring, which had been dispersed since 1841, and of which there were only one or two surviving members; and partly to preserve continuity with the Scottish <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> that had from time to time been founded in different parts of <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> and <a href="../cathen/02121b.htm">Austria</a>, and of which there was, likewise, only one survivor—Father Anselm Robertson, professed at St. Jame's, <a href="../cathen/12657a.htm">Ratisbon</a>, in 1845. These <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> took up residence with the new community and assisted in the clothing of the first <a href="../cathen/11144a.htm">novice</a> received for Fort Augustus. In order that its members might be exempt from the external mission work with which the <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> Benedictines are specially charged, the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> was, in 1883, separated from the English congregation by the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>, and in 1888 was made an independent <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a>, directly subject to the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a>. A <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of the Beuron congregation, Dom Leo Linse, was at the same time appointed its first <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>. The Beuronese constitutions were first adopted, but these have since been replaced by new constitutions. Of late years the community has undertaken the spiritual care of three <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a> in the vicinity of the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a>. (b) St. Anselm's Abbey and International Benedictine College, <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>. This was originally founded in 1687 as a <a href="../cathen/04107b.htm">college</a> for Benedictines of the Cassinese congregation, but later on <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of other congregations were also admitted. Having ceased to exist in 1846, it was revived on a small scale by the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/13369a.htm">St. Paul's</a>, and reconstituted in 1886 as a <a href="../cathen/04107b.htm">college</a> and <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">university</a> for Benedictines from all parts of the world by <a href="../cathen/09169a.htm">Leo XIII</a>, who at his own expense erected the present extensive buildings. In 1900 the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> church was <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a>, in the presence of a great gathering of <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> from all over the world, by Cardinal Rampolla, acting as representative of the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a>. St. Anselm's is presided over by Abbot Hildebrand de Hemptinne (who is also <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Maredsous) with the title of "Abbot Primate" of the whole order. It has power to grant degrees in <a href="../cathen/14580x.htm">theology</a>, <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosophy</a>, and canon law, and both professors and students are drawn from all congregations of the order. There is accommodation for one hundred students, but the full number in residence at one time has not yet exceeded sixty.</p> <h2 id="section2">Lay brothers, oblates, confraters, and nuns</h2> <p>(1) <em>Lay Brothers</em>.—Up to the eleventh century in Benedictine houses no distinction of rank was made between the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clerical</a> and the lay brethren. All were on an equal footing in the community and at first comparatively few seem to have been advanced to the <a href="../cathen/12409a.htm">priesthood</a>. St. Benedict himself was probably only a <a href="../cathen/08748a.htm">layman</a>; at any rate it is <a href="../cathen/03539b.htm">certain</a> that he was not a <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a>. A <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> not in <a href="../cathen/11279a.htm">sacred orders</a> was always considered as eligible as a <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> for any office in the community, even that of <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>, though for purposes of convenience some of the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> were usually <a href="../cathen/11279a.htm">ordained</a> for the service of the altar; and until literary and scholastic work, which could only be undertaken by men of some <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> and culture, began to take the place of manual labour, all shared alike in the daily round of agricultural and domestic <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duties</a>. St. John Gualbert, the founder of Vallombrosa, was the first to introduce the system of lay brethren, by drawing a line of distinction between the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> who were <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clerics</a> and those who were not. The latter had no stalls in choir and no vote in chapter; neither were they bound to the daily recitation of the breviary Office as were the choir <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>. Lay brothers were entrusted with the more menial work of the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, and all those <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duties</a> that involved intercourse with the outside world, in order that the choir brethren might be free to devote themselves entirely to <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a> and other occupations proper to their <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clerical</a> vocation. The system spread rapidly to all branches of the order and was imitated by almost every other <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> order. At the present day there is hardly a congregation, Benedictine or otherwise, that has not its lay brethren, and even amongst numerous orders of <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> a similar distinction is observed, either between the <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> that are bound to choir and those that are not, or between those that keep strict enclosure and those that are not so enclosed. The habit worn by the lay brethren is usually a modification of that of the choir <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, sometimes differing from it in colour as well as in shape; and the <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vows</a> of the lay brethren are in most congregations only simple, or renewable periodically, in contrast with the solemn <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vows</a> for life taken by the choir religious. In some communities at the present time the <a href="../cathen/09093a.htm">lay brothers</a> equal and even outnumber the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, especially in those, like Beuron or New Nursia, where farming and agriculture are carried out on a large scale.</p> <p>(2) <em>Oblates</em>.—This term was formerly applied to children offered by their <a href="../cathen/11478c.htm">parents</a> in a solemn way to a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, a dedication by which they were considered to have embraced the <a href="../cathen/10459a.htm">monastic</a> state. The custom led to many abuses in the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a>, because oblates sometimes abandoned the <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious life</a> and returned to the world, whilst still looked upon as professed religious. The <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, therefore, in the twelfth century, forbade the dedication of children in this way, and the term <em>oblate</em> has since been taken to mean <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a>, either lay or cleric, who <a href="../cathen/15506a.htm">voluntarily</a> attach themselves to some <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> or order without taking the <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vows</a> of religious. They wear the habit and share all the privileges and exercises of the community they join, but they retain dominion over their <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a> and are free to leave at any time. They usually make a promise of obedience to the superior, which binds them as long as they remain in the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, but it only partakes of the nature of a mutual agreement and has none of the properties of a <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vow</a> or solemn contract.</p> <p>(3) <em>Confratres</em>.—A custom sprang up in the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a> of uniting lay people to a <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> community by formal aggregation, through which they participated in all the <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> and <a href="../cathen/06636b.htm">good</a> <a href="../cathen/01115a.htm">works</a> of the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, and though living in the world, they could always feel that they were connected in a special way with some religious house or order. There seem to have been Benedictine <em>confratres</em> as early as the ninth century. The practice was widely taken up by almost every other order and was developed by the <a href="../cathen/10183c.htm">mendicants</a> in the thirteenth century into what are now called "third orders". It was peculiar to Benedictine <em>confratres</em> that they were always aggregated to the particular <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of their selection and not to the whole order in general, as is the case with others. The Benedictines have numbered kings and emperors and many distinguished <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> amongst their <em>confratres</em>, and there is hardly a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of the present day which has not some lay people connected with it by this spiritual bond of union.</p> <p>(4) <em>Nuns</em>.—Nothing very definite can be said as to the first <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> living under the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Rule of St. Benedict</a>. <a href="../cathen/06780a.htm">St. Gregory the Great</a> certainly tells us that <a href="../cathen/02467b.htm">St. Benedict's</a> sister, Scholastica, presided over such a community of religious <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> who were established in a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> situated about five miles from his <a href="../cathen/10526b.htm">Abbey of Monte Cassino</a>; but whether that was merely an isolated instance, or whether it may be legitimately regarded as the foundation of the <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">female</a> department of the order, is at least an open question. We do not even <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">know</a> what rule these <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> followed, though we may conjecture that they were under <a href="../cathen/02467b.htm">St. Benedict's</a> <a href="../cathen/05024a.htm">spiritual direction</a> and that whatever rule he gave them probably differed but little, except perhaps in minor details, from that for <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> which has come down to us bearing his name. It seems tolerably certain, at any rate, that as <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">St. Benedict's Rule</a> began to be diffused abroad, <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> as well as men formed themselves into communities in order to live a <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious life</a> according to its principles, and wherever the Benedictine <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> went, there also we find <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> being established for <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a>. Nunneries were founded in Gaul by Sts. Caesarius and Aurelian of Arles, <a href="../cathen/09732b.htm">St. Martin of Tours</a>, and St. Columbanus of Luxeuil, and up to the sixth century the rules for <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> in most general use were those of St. Caesarius and St. Columbanus, portions of which are still extant. These were, however, eventually supplanted by that of St. Benedict, and amongst the earliest <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">nunneries</a> to make the change were Poitiers, Chelles, <a href="../cathen/12764b.htm">Remiremont</a>, and Faremoutier. <a href="../cathen/09479b.htm">Mabillon</a> assigns the beginning of the change to the year 620 though more probably the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Benedictine Rule</a> was not received in its entirety at so early a date, but was only combined with the other rules then in force. Remiremont became for <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> what Luxeuil was for men, the centre from which sprang a numerous spiritual <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a>, and though later on it was converted into a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convent</a> of noble <a href="../cathen/03255b.htm">canonesses</a>, instead of <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> properly so called, a modified form of the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Benedictine Rule</a> was still observed there. <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">St. Benedict's Rule</a> was widely propagated by <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a> and his son, Louis the Pious, and the Council of <a href="../cathen/01001a.htm">Aix-la-Chapelle</a> in 817 enforced its general observance in all the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">nunneries</a> of the empire. The Abbey of Notre Dame de Ronceray, at <a href="../cathen/01489b.htm">Angers</a>, founded in 1028 by Fulke, Count of Anjou, was one of the most influential <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> in the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a>, and had under its <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> a large number of dependent <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priories</a>.</p> <p>The earliest <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> for <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> were at <a href="../cathen/06125a.htm">Folkestone</a>, founded 630, and St. Mildred's in Thanet, established 670, and it is probable that under the influence of the successors of St. Augustine's <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> at <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a> and elsewhere, these <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">nunneries</a> observed the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Benedictine Rule</a> from the first. Other important Anglo-Saxon <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> were: Ely, founded by <a href="../cathen/05554b.htm">St. Etheldreda</a> in 673, Barking (675), <a href="../cathen/15648a.htm">Wimborne</a> (713), Wilton (800), Ramsey, Hants (967), and Amesbury (980). In Northumbria, Whitby (657) and Coldingham (673) were the chief houses of <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a>. <a href="../cathen/07350a.htm">St. Hilda</a> was the most celebrated of the abbesses of Whitby, and it was at Whitby that the synod which decided the paschal controversy was held in 664. Most of these <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> were destroyed by <a href="../cathen/04722c.htm">Danish</a> invaders during the ninth and tenth centuries, but some were subsequently restored and many others were founded in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> after the Norman conquest.</p> <p>The first <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> in <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> came from <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> in the eighth century, having been brought over by <a href="../cathen/02656a.htm">St. Boniface</a> to assist him in his work of conversion and to provide a means of <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> for their own sex amongst the newly evangelized Teutonic races. Sts. Lioba, Thecla, and Walburga were the earliest of these pioneers, and for them and their companions, who were chiefly from <a href="../cathen/15648a.htm">Wimborne</a>, <a href="../cathen/02656a.htm">St. Boniface</a> established many <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> throughout the countries in which he preached. In other parts of <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">nunneries</a> sprang up as rapidly as the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> for men, and in the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a> they were almost, if not quite, as numerous. In later <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval times</a> the names of St. Gertrude, called the "Great", and her sister <a href="../cathen/10105b.htm">St. Mechtilde</a>, who flourished in the thirteenth century, shed a lustre on the Benedictine <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> of <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>. In <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a> the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> seem to have been very numerous during the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a>. In the thirteenth century several were founded in which the reform of Vallombrosa was adopted, but none of these now exist. There were also <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> belonging to the reforms of Camaldoli and Mount Olivet, of which a few still survive.</p> <p>Except in the Bursfeld Union, which included houses of both sexes, and in the <a href="../cathen/03780c.htm">Cistercian</a> reform, where the <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> were always under the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, and a few others of minor importance, the congregational system was never applied to the houses of <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> in an organized way. The <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> were generally either under the exclusive direction of some particular <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a>, through the influence of which they had been established, or else, especially when founded by lay people, they were subject to the <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> of the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> of the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a> in which they were situated. These two conditions of existence have survived to the present day; there are nine belonging to the first and over two hundred and fifty to the second category.</p> <p>Early in the twelfth century <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> was the scene of a somewhat remarkable phase in the history of the Benedictine <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a>. <a href="../cathen/13096a.htm">Robert of Arbrissel</a>, formerly chancellor to the Duke of Brittany, embraced an <a href="../cathen/07280a.htm">eremitical</a> life in which he had many disciples, and having founded a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of canons regular, carried out a new <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> in 1099 when he established the double Abbey of Fontevrault in Poitou, famous in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> for many centuries. The <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> and <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> both kept the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Benedictine Rule</a>, to which were added some additional austerities. The <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> of enclosure was very strictly observed. In 1115 the founder placed the entire community, <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> as well as <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a>, under the rule of the <a href="../cathen/01007e.htm">abbess</a>, and he further provided that the <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> elected to that office should always be chosen from the outside world, as such a one would have more practical <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> of affairs and capacity for administration than one trained in the <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloister</a>. Many noble ladies and royal princesses of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> are reckoned amongst the abbesses of Fontevrault. (See FONTEVRAULT.)</p> <p>Excepting at <a href="../cathen/06129b.htm">Fontevrault</a> the <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> seem at first not to have been strictly enclosed, as now, but were free to leave the <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloister</a> whenever some special <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a> or occasion might demand it, as in the case of the <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> already mentioned, who went to <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> for active missionary work. This freedom with regard to enclosure gave rise, in course of <a href="../cathen/14726a.htm">time</a>, to grave <a href="../cathen/13506d.htm">scandals</a>, and the Councils of <a href="../cathen/04288a.htm">Constance</a> (1414), Basle (1431), and <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Trent</a> (1545), amongst others, regulated that all the professedly contemplative orders of <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> should observe strict enclosure, and this has continued to the present time as the normal rule of a Benedictine <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convent</a>.</p> <p>The <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Protestant Reformation</a> in the sixteenth century affected the <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> as well as the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>. Throughout northwestern <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> the Benedictine institute was practically obliterated. In <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> were suppressed and the <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> turned adrift. In <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>, <a href="../cathen/04722c.htm">Denmark</a>, and Scandinavia the <a href="../cathen/09438b.htm">Lutherans</a> acquired most of the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">nunneries</a> and ejected their inmates. The <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">wars</a> of religion in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> also had a disastrous effect upon the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> of that country, already much enfeebled by the evils consequent on the practice of <em>commendam</em>. The last few centuries, however, have witnessed a widespread revival of the Benedictine life for <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> as well as for men. In <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, especially, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there sprang up several new congregations of Benedictine <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a>, or reforms were instituted among those already existing. These were not strictly congregations in the technical sense, but rather unions or groups of houses which adopted a uniform observance, though the individual <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> still remained for the most part subject to their respective <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>. Mention may be made of the reforms of Montmartre, <a href="../cathen/02377c.htm">Beauvais</a>, Val-de-Grace, and <a href="../cathen/05138a.htm">Douai</a>, and those of the Perpetual Adoration founded at <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> in 1654 and Valdosne in 1701. The <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">French Revolution</a> suppressed all these <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a>, but many have since been restored and fresh foundations added to their number.</p> <p>The first <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convent</a> of <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> since the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformation</a> was founded at <a href="../cathen/03021a.htm">Brussels</a> in 1598; and another was established at <a href="../cathen/03209c.htm">Cambrai</a> in 1623 under the direction of the <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> Benedictine Fathers of <a href="../cathen/05138a.htm">Douai</a>, from which a filiation was made at <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> in 1652. At Ghent in 1624 a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convent</a> was founded under <a href="../cathen/14081a.htm">Jesuit</a> guidance, and established daughter-houses at Boulogne in 1652, Ypres in 1665, and Dunkirk in 1662. All these communities, except that of Ypres, were expelled at the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">French Revolution</a> and escaped to <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>. That of <a href="../cathen/03209c.htm">Cambrai</a> is now at <a href="../cathen/14244a.htm">Stanbrook</a> and still remains a member of the English congregation under the <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> of its <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot-president</a>. The <a href="../cathen/03021a.htm">Brussels</a> community is now at East Bergholt, and the <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> at Colwich, whence an off-shoot has been planted at Atherstone (1842). Those of <a href="../cathen/06542c.htm">Ghent</a> are now at Oulton; Boulogne and Dunkirk, having combined, are settled at Teignmouth. The <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convent</a> of Ypres alone remains at the place of its original foundation, having survived the troublous times of the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">Revolution</a>. There are also small Benedictine <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> of more recent foundation at Minster (Thanet), Ventnor, Dumfries, and Tenby, and one at Princethorpe, originally a French community founded at Montargis in 1630, but driven to <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> in 1792, and now almost exclusively English. The <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> of Stanbrook, Oulton, Princethorpe, Ventnor, and Dumfries conduct boarding-school for the higher <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> of young ladies, and those of Teignmouth, Colwich, Atherstone, and Dumfries have undertaken the work of perpetual adoration.</p> <p>In <a href="../cathen/02121b.htm">Austria</a> many of the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval</a> <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> have remained undisturbed, and likewise a few in <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Switzerland</a>. In <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgium</a> there are seven <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">dating</a> from the seventeenth century, and in <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> fourteen, established mostly during the last half century. In <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, where at one time they were very numerous, there still remain, in spite of recent suppressions, eighty-five Benedictine <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">dating</a> from the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a>, with over a thousand <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a>. <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Holland</a> has three <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> of modern date, and <a href="../cathen/12181a.htm">Poland</a> one, at <a href="../cathen/15555a.htm">Warsaw</a>, founded in 1687. The <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> of <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a> numbered thirty at the time of the suppressions of 1835. The <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> were then robbed of all their possessions, but managed to preserve their corporate existence, though in great poverty and with reduced numbers. Ten of the old <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> have since been restored, and eleven new ones founded. It is a peculiarity of the <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spanish</a> <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> that their abbesses who are elected triennially, receive no solemn blessing, as elsewhere, nor do they make use of any abbatial insignia.</p> <p>Benedictine life in America may be said to be in a flourishing <a href="../cathen/04211a.htm">condition</a>. There are thirty-four <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> with nearly two thousand <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a>, all of which have been founded within the last sixty years. The first establishment was at St. Mary's, <a href="../cathen/11638c.htm">Pennsylvania</a>, where <a href="../cathen/15648b.htm">Abbot Wimmer</a> settled some German <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> from <a href="../cathen/05364a.htm">Eichstätt</a> in 1852; this is still one of the most important <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> in the <a href="../cathen/15156a.htm">United States</a> and from it many filiations have been made. St. Benedict's <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convent</a> at <a href="../cathen/13356b.htm">St. Joseph</a>, <a href="../cathen/10326c.htm">Minnesota</a>, founded in 1857, is the largest Benedictine <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convent</a> in America. Other important houses are at Allegheny (Pennsylvania), Atchison (Kansas), <a href="../cathen/03653a.htm">Chicago</a> (2), Covington (Kentucky), Duluth (Minnesota), Erie (Pennsylvania), Ferdinand (Indiana), Mount Angel (Oregon), Newark (New Jersey), <a href="../cathen/11005b.htm">New Orleans</a> (Louisiana), Shoal Creek (Arkansas), and Yankton (<a href="../cathen/14160a.htm">South Dakota</a>). The <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> are chiefly occupied with the work of <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a>, which comprises elementary <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> as well as boarding <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> for secondary <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a>. All the American <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convents</a> are subject to the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> of their respective <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">dioceses</a>.</p> <h2 id="section3">Influence and work of the order</h2> <p>The influence exercised by the Order of St. Benedict has manifested itself chiefly in three directions: (1) the conversion of the Teutonic races and other missionary works; (2) the civilization of northwestern <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>; (3) <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">educational</a> work and the cultivation of literature and the arts, the forming of <a href="../cathen/09227b.htm">libraries</a>, etc.</p> <p>(1) <em>Missionary Work of the Order</em>.—At the time of <a href="../cathen/02467b.htm">St. Benedict's</a> death (c. 543) the only countries of Western <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> which had been <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianized</a> were <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>, <a href="../cathen/06395b.htm">Gaul</a>, and part of the British Isles. The remaining countries all received the Gospel during the next few centuries, either wholly or partially through the preaching of the Benedictines. Beginning with St. Augustine's arrival in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> in 597, the missionary work of the order can be easily traced. The companions of <a href="../cathen/02081a.htm">St. Augustine</a>, who is usually called the "Apostle of England", planted the Faith anew throughout the country whence it had been driven out nearly two centuries previously by the Anglo-Saxon and other <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">heathen</a> invaders. <a href="../cathen/02081a.htm">St. Augustine</a> and <a href="../cathen/09090a.htm">St. Lawrence</a> at <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a>, <a href="../cathen/08586a.htm">St. Justus</a> at Rochester, <a href="../cathen/10168b.htm">St. Mellitus</a> at <a href="../cathen/09341a.htm">London</a>, and St. Paulinus at York were Benedictine pioneers, and their labours were afterwards supplemented by other <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> who, though not strictly Benedictine, were at least assisted by the black <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> in establishing the Faith. Thus St. Birinus evangelized Wessex, St. Chad the Midlands, and St. Felix East Anglia, whilst the Celtic <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> from <a href="../cathen/08090a.htm">Iona</a> settled at <a href="../cathen/09269a.htm">Lindisfarne</a>, whence the work of St. Paulinus in Northumbria was continued by <a href="../cathen/01233d.htm">St. Aidan</a>, <a href="../cathen/04578a.htm">St. Cuthbert</a>, and many others. In 716 <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> sent forth Winfrid, afterwards called <a href="../cathen/02656a.htm">Boniface</a>, a Benedictine <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> trained at <a href="../cathen/05708a.htm">Exeter</a>, who preached the Faith in Friesland, Alemannia, <a href="../cathen/14712a.htm">Thuringia</a>, and <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">Bavaria</a>, and finally, being made <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of Mentz (Mainz), became the Apostle of central <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>. At <a href="../cathen/06313b.htm">Fulda</a> he placed a <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">Bavarian</a> convert named Sturm at the head of a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> he founded there in 744, from which came many missionaries who carried the Gospel to <a href="../cathen/12519c.htm">Prussia</a> and what is now <a href="../cathen/02121b.htm">Austria</a>. From Corbie, in Picardy, one of the most famous <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, St. Ansgar set out in 827 for <a href="../cathen/04722c.htm">Denmark</a>, <a href="../cathen/14347a.htm">Sweden</a>, and <a href="../cathen/11117b.htm">Norway</a>, in each of which countries he founded many <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> and firmly planted the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Benedictine Rule</a>. These in turn spread the Faith and monasticism through Iceland and Greenland. For a short time Friesland was the scene of the labours of <a href="../cathen/15621c.htm">St. Wilfrid</a> during a temporary banishment from <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> in 678, and the work he began there was continued and extended to <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Holland</a> by the <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> Willibrord and Swithbert. <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> was first preached in <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">Bavaria</a> by Eustace and Agilus, <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> from Luseuil, early in the seventh century; their work was continued by <a href="../cathen/13229a.htm">St. Rupert</a>, who founded the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> and see of <a href="../cathen/13411b.htm">Salzburg</a>, and firmly established by <a href="../cathen/02656a.htm">St. Boniface</a> about 739. So rapidly did the Faith spread in this country that between the years 740 and 780 no less than twenty-nine Benedictine <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> were founded there.</p> <p>Another phase of Benedictine influence may be founded in the work of those <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> who, from the sixth to the twelfth century, so frequently acted as the chosen counsellors of kings, and whose wise advice and guidance had much to do with the political history of most of the countries of <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> during that period.</p> <p>In more recent times the missionary spirit has manifested itself anew amongst the Benedictines. During the penal times the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> was kept alive in great measure by the Benedictine missioners from abroad, not a few of whom shed their blood for the Faith. Still more recently Australia has been indebted to the order for both its <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholicity</a> and its <a href="../cathen/07322c.htm">hierarchy</a>. The English congregation supplied some of its earliest missionaries, as well as its first <a href="../cathen/12386b.htm">prelates</a>, in the <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> of <a href="../cathen/12201a.htm">Archbishop Polding</a>, <a href="../cathen/15121a.htm">Archbishop Ullathorne</a>, and others during the first half of the nineteenth century. Later on, the <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spanish</a> <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, DD. Serra and Salvado, arrived and successfully evangelized the western portion of the continent from New Nursia as a centre. Mention must also be made of the numerous missions amongst the <a href="../cathen/07747a.htm">North American Indians</a> by the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of the Swiss-American congregation from St. Meinrad's <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a>, <a href="../cathen/07738a.htm">Indiana</a>; and those of the American-Cassinese congregation in various parts of the <a href="../cathen/15156a.htm">United States</a>, from St. Vincent's Arch-Abbey, Beatty, <a href="../cathen/11638c.htm">Pennsylvania</a>. Apostolic work was also done by the English Fathers of the Cassinese P. O. congregation amongst the <a href="../cathen/07358b.htm">Hindus</a> in Western Bengal, and amongst the Maoris in New Zealand; and <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">French</a> <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of the same congregation laboured in the Apostolic vicariate of the Indian Territory, U. S. A., from the headquarters at the Sacred Heart Abbey, Oklahoma. In Ceylon the <a href="../cathen/14372c.htm">Sylvestrine</a> Benedictines have undertaken (1883) missionary work amongst the natives in the <a href="../cathen/08596b.htm">Diocese of Kandy</a>, the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> of which is a member of the order; and still more recently the congregation of St. Ottilien, expressly established to provide workers for the foreign mission field, has established missions amongst the native tribes of Central Africa, where the seeds of the Faith have already been watered by the blood of its first <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a>.</p> <p>(2) <em>Civilizing Influence of the Order</em>.—<a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> and civilization go hand in hand, and hence we naturally look to North-western <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> for the effects of the civilizing influences exerted by the Benedictine missionaries. St. Benedict himself began by converting and civilizing the barbarians who overran <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a> in the sixth century, the best of whom came and learned the Gospel principles at <a href="../cathen/10526b.htm">Monte Cassino</a>. Previous to the institution of monasticism labour had been regarded as the symbol of slavery and serfdom, but St. Benedict and his followers taught in the West that lesson of free labour which had first been inculcated by the fathers of the <a href="../cathen/04749a.htm">desert</a>. Wherever the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> went, those who were not employed in preaching tilled the ground; thus whilst some sowed in <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a> the seeds of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian Faith</a>, others transformed barren wastes and virgin forests into fruitful fields and verdant meadows. This principle of labour was a powerful instrument in the hands of the monastic pioneers, for it attracted to them the common people who learned form the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> thus reared as from object lessons the secrets of organized work, agriculture, the arts and <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">sciences</a>, and the principles of <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> government. Neander (Eccl. Hist.) points out that the profits accruing from the labour of the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> were employed ungrudgingly for the relief of the distressed, and in times of famine many thousands were saved from starvation by the charitable foresight of the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>. The accounts of the beginnings of <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> after <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> present the same features with recurring regularity. Not only were the marshes drained, sterile plains rendered fertile, and wild beasts tamed or driven away, but the bandits and outlaws who infested many of the great highways and forests were either put to flight or converted from their <a href="../cathen/05649a.htm">evil</a> ways by the industrious and unselfish <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>. Around many of the greater <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> towns grew up which have since become famous in history; <a href="../cathen/10526b.htm">Monte Cassino</a> in <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a> and Peterborough and <a href="../cathen/01252b.htm">St. Alban's</a> in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> are examples. Large-hearted <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a>, eager to advance the interests of their poorer neighbours, often <a href="../cathen/15506a.htm">voluntarily</a> expended considerable annual sums on the building and repairing of bridges, the making of roads, etc., and everywhere exercised a benign influence directed only towards improving the social and material condition of the people amongst whom they found themselves. This spirit, so prevalent during the ages of <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a>, has been successfully emulated by the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of later times, of which no more striking instances in our own day can be cited than the wonderful influence for good amongst the aboriginal inhabitants of Western Australia possessed by the <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spanish</a> Benedictines of New Nursia, and the great industrial and agricultural work done amongst the native tribes of South Africa by the <a href="../cathen/15024a.htm">Trappists</a> at Mariannhill and their numerous mission stations in Natal.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>(3) <em>Educational Work and the Cultivation of Literature</em>.—The work of <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> and the cultivation of literature have always been looked upon as belonging by right to the Benedictines. In the earliest days of the order it was the custom to receive children in the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> that they might be <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">educated</a> by the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>. At first such children were always destined for the <a href="../cathen/10459a.htm">monastic</a> state, and St. Benedict legislated in his Rule for their solemn dedication by their <a href="../cathen/11478c.htm">parents</a> to the service of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>. St. Placid and St. Maur are examples from St. Benedict's own day and amongst other may be instanced the English saint, <a href="../cathen/02384a.htm">Bede</a>, who entered the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of Jarrow in his seventh year. The <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> of these children was the germ out of which afterward developed the great <a href="../cathen/10459a.htm">monastic</a> <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>. Although St. Benedict urged upon his <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> the <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a> of systematic reading, it was <a href="../cathen/03405c.htm">Cassiodorus</a>, the quondam minister of the Gothic kings, who about the year 538 gave the first real impetus to monastic learning at <a href="../cathen/15493a.htm">Viviers</a> (Vivarium) in Calabria. He made his <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> a <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> academy, collected a great number of <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a>, and introduced an organized plan of study for his disciples. The liberal arts and the study of the <a href="../bible">Holy Scripture</a> were given great attention, and a <a href="../cathen/10459a.htm">monastic</a> <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> was established which became the pattern after which many others were subsequently modelled.</p> <p>In <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> <a href="../cathen/02081a.htm">St. Augustine</a> and his <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> opened <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> wherever they settled. Up to that time the tradition of the <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloister</a> had been opposed to the study of profane literature, but <a href="../cathen/02081a.htm">St. Augustine</a> introduced the classics into the English <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, and St. Theodore, who became <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a> in 668, added still further developments. <a href="../cathen/02441b.htm">St. Benedict Biscop</a>, who returned to <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> with <a href="../cathen/14571a.htm">Archbishop Theodore</a> after some years abroad, presided over his <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> at <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a> for two years and then, going north, transplanted the new <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">educational</a> system to <a href="../cathen/15572a.htm">Wearmouth</a> and Jarrow, whence it spread to Archbishop Egbert's <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> at <a href="../cathen/15733b.htm">York</a>, which was one of the most famous in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> in the eighth century. There <a href="../cathen/01276a.htm">Alcuin</a> taught the seven <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">sciences</a> of the "trivium" and "quadrivium", i.e. grammar, rhetoric, and <a href="../cathen/09324a.htm">logic</a>, arithmetic, music, geometry, and <a href="../cathen/02025a.htm">astronomy</a>. (See <a href="../cathen/01760a.htm">THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS</a>.) Later on <a href="../cathen/01309d.htm">King Alfred</a>, <a href="../cathen/05199a.htm">St. Dunstan</a>, and <a href="../cathen/05555b.htm">St. Ethelwold</a> did much to foster learning in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>, substituting <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> for secular canons in several <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedrals</a> and greatly improving the <a href="../cathen/10459a.htm">monastic</a> <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>. Ramsey Abbey, founded by St. Oswald of <a href="../cathen/15703a.htm">Worcester</a>, long enjoyed the reputation of being the most learned of the <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>. Glastonbury, Abingdon, <a href="../cathen/01252b.htm">St. Alban's</a>, and Westminster were also famous in their day and produced many illustrious scholars.</p> <p>In <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a> inaugurated a great revival in the world of letters and stimulated the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of his empire to study, as an essential of their state. To further this end he brought over from <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> in 782 <a href="../cathen/01276a.htm">Alcuin</a> and several of the best scholars of York, to whom he entrusted the direction of the academy established at the royal court, as well as various other <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> which he caused to be started in different parts of the empire. <a href="../cathen/09479b.htm">Mabillon</a> gives a list of twenty-seven important <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> established under <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a> (Acta Sanctorum O.S.B., saec. IV, praef., 184). Those of <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a>, <a href="../cathen/15002a.htm">Tours</a>, and Lyons eventually developed into <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">universities</a>. In Normandy, later on, Bec became a great scholastic centre under <a href="../cathen/08784c.htm">Lanfranc</a> and <a href="../cathen/01546a.htm">St. Anselm</a>, and through them gave a fresh impetus to the English <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>. Cluny also took its share in the work and became in turn the custodian and fosterer of learning in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>.</p> <p>In <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> <a href="../cathen/02656a.htm">St. Boniface</a> opened a <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> in every <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> he founded, not only for the younger <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, but also for the benefit of outside scholars. Early in the ninth century two <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of <a href="../cathen/06313b.htm">Fulda</a> were sent to Tours by their <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> to study under <a href="../cathen/01276a.htm">Alcuin</a>, and through them the revival of learning gradually spread to other houses. One of the two, <a href="../cathen/12617a.htm">Rabanus Maurus</a>, returning to <a href="../cathen/06313b.htm">Fulda</a> in 813, became <em>scholasticus</em> or head of the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> there, later <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>, and finally <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/09550a.htm">Mainz</a>. He was the author of many books, one of which, his "De Institutione Clericorum", is a valuable treatise on the <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> and practice of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> in the ninth century. This work probably exercised a beneficial influence on all the cloister-schools of the <a href="../cathen/06238a.htm">Frankish</a> Empire. Hirschau, a colony sent out from <a href="../cathen/06313b.htm">Fulda</a> in 830, became a celebrated seat of learning and survived till the seventeenth century, when both the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> and its <a href="../cathen/09227b.htm">library</a> were destroyed during the <a href="../cathen/14648b.htm">Thirty Years War</a>. <a href="../cathen/12723a.htm">Reichenau</a>, which suffered a similar fate at the same time, owed its early celebrity to its <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> under Walafrid Strabo, who had studied at <a href="../cathen/06313b.htm">Fulda</a> and on his return became <em>scholasticus</em> and subsequently <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>. In Saxony the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of New Corbie also possessed a famous <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>, which sent forth many learned missionaries to diffuse learning over <a href="../cathen/04722c.htm">Denmark</a>, <a href="../cathen/14347a.htm">Sweden</a>, and <a href="../cathen/11117b.htm">Norway</a>. It was founded by Ansgar, the apostle of Scandinavia, who came from Old Corbie in 822, where he had been the favourite disciple of <a href="../cathen/11518a.htm">Paschasius Radbertus</a>, a <a href="../cathen/14580x.htm">theologian</a>, poet, musician, and author of Scriptural commentaries and an exposition of the <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">doctrine</a> of the <a href="../cathen/05572c.htm">Holy Eucharist</a>.</p> <p>After the death of <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a> the revival of secular learning which he had begun waned somewhat, except in the Benedictine <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> where the study of letters still remained the prerogative of the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>. The Abbey of St. Gall, in particular, during the tenth century drew to its walls numerous students desirous of gaining the <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> that was imparted there, and produced many celebrated writers. The fame of <a href="../cathen/12723a.htm">Reichenau</a> also revived, and from it was founded <a href="../cathen/05367a.htm">Einsiedeln</a> (934), which helped to carry on the traditions of the past. Nor was <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a> behindhand, as is shown by the history of such <a href="../cathen/10459a.htm">monastic</a> <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> as <a href="../cathen/10526b.htm">Monte Cassino</a>, Pomposia, and <a href="../cathen/02605b.htm">Bobbio</a>.</p> <p>Most of the older <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">universities</a> of <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> have grown out of <a href="../cathen/10459a.htm">monastic</a> <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>. <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a>, <a href="../cathen/15002a.htm">Tours</a>, and Lyons have been mentioned; amongst others were <a href="../cathen/07356b.htm">Reims</a> and Bologna, and, in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>, Cambridge, where the Benedictines of <a href="../cathen/04541a.htm">Croyland</a> first set up a <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> in the twelfth century. At Oxford, the <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> Benedictines, though they could not claim to be the founders, took an important part in the <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">university</a> life and development. Monks had from time to time been sent from different <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> to study there, but in 1283 a number of the chief <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> combined in founding a joint college for their members, called St. Benedict's, or Gloucester, Hall, which is now <a href="../cathen/15703a.htm">Worcester</a> College. In 1290 the <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedral</a>-<a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priory</a> of <a href="../cathen/05211a.htm">Durham</a> established for its own <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> <a href="../cathen/04578a.htm">St. Cuthbert's</a> College, which is now Trinity; and in 1362 another college, now Christ Church, was founded for the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a>. The <a href="../cathen/03780c.htm">Cistercians</a> had Rewley Abbey just outside the town, founded about 1280, and St. Bernard's College, now St. John's, established in 1436 by <a href="../cathen/03656a.htm">Archbishop Chichele</a>. All these colleges flourished until the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformation</a>, and even after the <a href="../cathen/10455a.htm">dissolution of the monasteries</a> many of the ejected <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> retired to Oxford on their pensions, to pass the remainder of their days in the peace and seclusion of their <a href="../cathen/01326c.htm">Alma</a> Mater. <a href="../cathen/06025a.htm">Feckenham</a>, afterwards <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Westminster under <a href="../cathen/09766a.htm">Queen Mary</a>, was the last <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> Benedictine to graduate at Oxford (about 1537) until, in 1897, the community of Ampleforth Abbey opened a hall and sent some of their <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> there to study for degrees.</p> <p>Besides being the chief <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">educational</a> centres during the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a>, the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> were, moreover, the workshops where precious <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> were collected, preserved, and multiplied. To the monastic transcribers the world is indebted for most of its ancient literature, not only the Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers, but those of the classical authors also. (Numerous examples are cited in <a href="../cathen/10794a.htm">Newman</a>, Essay on the Mission of St. Benedict, 10.) The monastic <em>scriptoria</em> were the book-manufactories before the invention of printing, and rare <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> were often circulated amongst the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, each one transcribing copies before passing the original on to another house. Without <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> the copying was often merely mechanical and no sign of real scholarship, and the <a href="../cathen/12405a.htm">pride</a> taken by a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> in the number and beauty of its <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> sometimes rather that of the collector than of the scholar, yet the result is the same as far as posterity is concerned. The <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> preserved and perpetuated the ancient writings which, but for their industry, would undoubtedly have been lost to us. The copyists of Fontanelle, <a href="../cathen/12725a.htm">Reims</a>, and Corbie were especially noted for the beauty of their penmanship, and the number of different <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> transcribed by some of their <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> was often very large.</p> <p>Full particulars are given by <a href="../cathen/14463c.htm">Ziegelbauer</a> (Hist. Lit. O. S. B., I) of the most important <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval</a> Benedictine Libraries. The following are some of the chief amongst them: In <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>: Canterbury, founded by <a href="../cathen/02081a.htm">St. Augustine</a>, enlarged by <a href="../cathen/08784c.htm">Lanfranc</a> and <a href="../cathen/01546a.htm">St. Anselm</a>, containing, according to a catalogue of the thirteenth century, 698 volumes; Durham, catalogues printed by the Surtees Society (VII, 1838); Whitby, catalogues still existing; Glastonbury, catalogues still existing; <a href="../cathen/15572a.htm">Wearmouth</a>; <a href="../cathen/04541a.htm">Croyland</a>, burnt in 1091, containing 700 volumes; Peterborough. In <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>: <a href="../cathen/06102c.htm">Fleury</a>, <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> deposited in the town <a href="../cathen/09227b.htm">library</a> of <a href="../cathen/11318b.htm">Orléans</a>, 1793; Cobrie, 400 of the most valuable <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> removed to Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, 1638, the remainder, partly to the National Library, <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> (1794), and partly to the town <a href="../cathen/09227b.htm">library</a> of <a href="../cathen/01429d.htm">Amiens</a>; Saint-Germain-des-Prés; Cluny, <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> dispersed by the <a href="../cathen/07527b.htm">Huguenots</a>, except a few which were destroyed at the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">Revolution</a>; Auxerre; Dijon. In <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>: Montserrat, the majority of the <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> still existing; Valladolid; Salamanca; Silos, <a href="../cathen/09227b.htm">library</a> still existing; <a href="../cathen/09516a.htm">Madrid</a>. In <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Switzerland</a>: <a href="../cathen/12723a.htm">Reichenau</a>, destroyed in the seventeenth century; St. Gall, dating from 816, still existing; <a href="../cathen/05367a.htm">Einsiedeln</a>, still existing. In <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>: <a href="../cathen/06313b.htm">Fulda</a>, much indebted to <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a> and <a href="../cathen/12617a.htm">Rabanus Maurus</a>, with 400 copyists under Abbot Sturm, and containing, in 1561, 774 volumes; New Corbie, <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> removed to the University of Marburg in 1811; Hirschau, dating from 837; St. Blaise. In <a href="../cathen/02121b.htm">Austria</a> and <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">Bavaria</a>: Salzburg, founded in the sixth century, and containing 60,000 volumes; Kremsmünster, of the eleventh century, with 50,000 volumes; Admont, the eleventh century, 80,000 volumes; <a href="../cathen/10167a.htm">Melk</a>, the eleventh century, 60,000 volumes; Lambach, the eleventh century, 22,000 volumes; Garsten; Metten. In <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>: <a href="../cathen/10526b.htm">Monte Cassino</a>, three times destroyed by the Lombards in the sixth century, by the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Saracens</a>, and by fire in the ninth, but each time restored and still existing; Bobbio, famous for its palimpsests, of which a tenth-century catalogue is now in the <a href="../cathen/01393a.htm">Ambrosian Library</a>, <a href="../cathen/10298a.htm">Milan</a>, printed by Muratori (Antiq. Ital. Med. Aev., III); Pomposia, with an eleventh-century catalogue printed by Montfaucon (Diarium Italicum, c. xxii).</p> <p>Besides preserving the writings of the ancient authors, the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> were also the chroniclers of their day, and much of the history of the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a> was written in the <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloister</a>. English history is especially fortunate in this respect, the monastic chroniclers including <a href="../cathen/02384a.htm">St. Bede</a>, <a href="../cathen/11278a.htm">Ordericus Vitalis</a>, <a href="../cathen/15633d.htm">William of Malmesbury</a>, <a href="../cathen/06114a.htm">Florence of Worcester</a>, <a href="../cathen/13794d.htm">Simeon of Durham</a>, <a href="../cathen/11499a.htm">Matthew Paris</a>, and Eadmer of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a>. The rise of the scholastics, for the most part outside the Benedictine Order, in later <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval times</a>, seems to have checked, or at any rate relegated to the background, both the literary and the <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">educational</a> activity of the black <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, whilst the introduction of the art of printing rendered superfluous the copying of <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> by hand; at the same time it is worth noticing that many of the earliest printing presses were set up in Benedictine <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloisters</a>, e.g. by Caxton at <a href="../cathen/15592c.htm">Westminster</a>, and by some authorities the invention of movable types is also ascribed to the sons of St. Benedict.</p> <p>The most notable revival of learning in post-Reformation times was that effected by the congregation of St.-Maur in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> in the seventeenth century. Diligent and profound study in all departments of <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> literature was one of the professed objects of this reform, and a congregation that produced such men of letters as <a href="../cathen/09479b.htm">Mabillon</a>, Montfaucon, d'Achery, Menard, Lami, Garnier, Ruinart, Martene, Sainte-Marthe, and Durand needs no further eulogy than a reference to their literary achievements. Their editions of the Greek and <a href="../cathen/09022a.htm">Latin</a> <a href="../cathen/06001a.htm">Fathers</a> and their numerous historical, <a href="../cathen/14580x.htm">theological</a>, archaeological, and critical works are sufficient evidence of their industry. There were not less successful in the conduct of the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> they established, of which those at Soreze, Saumur, Auxerre, Beaumont, and Saint-Jean d'Angely were the most important. (See <a href="../cathen/10069b.htm">MAURISTS</a>.)</p> <p>The arts, <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">sciences</a>, and utilitarian crafts also found a home in the Benedictine <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloister</a> from the earliest times. The <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of St. Gall and <a href="../cathen/10526b.htm">Monte Cassino</a> excelled in illumination and <a href="../cathen/10584a.htm">mosaic</a> work, and the latter community are credited with having invented the art of <a href="../cathen/11395a.htm">painting</a> on glass. A contemporary life of <a href="../cathen/05199a.htm">St. Dunstan</a> states that he was famous for his "writing, <a href="../cathen/11395a.htm">painting</a>, moulding in wax, carving of wood and bone, and for work in gold, silver, iron, and brass". Richard of Wallingford at <a href="../cathen/01252b.htm">St. Alban's</a> and Peter Lightfoot at <a href="../cathen/06579a.htm">Glastonbury</a> were well-known fourteenth-century clockmakers; a clock by the latter, formerly in Wells <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedral</a>, is still to be seen in the South Kensington Museum, London.</p> <p>In modern times the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of Beuron have established a <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> of art where <a href="../cathen/11395a.htm">painting</a> and design, especially in the form of polychromatic decoration, have been brought to a high stage of perfection. The printing presses of <a href="../cathen/14133b.htm">Solesmes</a> and Ligugé (both now confiscated by the French Government) have produced much excellent typographical work, whilst the study and restoration of the traditional <a href="../cathen/12144a.htm">plainchant</a> of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> in the same <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, under DD. Pothier and Mocquereau, is of world-wide reputation. <a href="../cathen/05400a.htm">Embroidery</a> and vestment-making are crafts in which many communities of <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> excel, and others, like Stanbrook, maintain a printing office with considerable success.</p> <h2 id="section4">Present condition of the order</h2> <h3>Development of external organization</h3> <p>A brief sketch of the constitution and government of the order is necessary for a proper understanding of its present organization.</p> <p>According to St. Benedict's <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a>, each <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> constituted a separate, independent, autonomous <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a>, the members of which elected their own superior. The <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a>, therefore, of the different houses were equal in rank, but each was the actual head of his own community and held his office for life. The necessities of the times, however, the need for mutual support, the establishment of daughter-houses, and possibly the <a href="../cathen/01381d.htm">ambition</a> of individual superiors, all combined in course of <a href="../cathen/14726a.htm">time</a> to bring about a modification of this ideal. Although foreshadowed by the Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) <em>capitula</em> of 817 under <a href="../cathen/02467a.htm">St. Benedict of Aniane</a>, the actual results of which died out with their originator, the first real departure from the Benedictine ideal, subjecting the superiors of different houses to one central authority, was made by Cluny in the tenth century. The plan of the <a href="../cathen/04073a.htm">Cluniac</a> congregation was that of one grand central <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> with a number of dependencies spread over many lands. It was <a href="../cathen/06058c.htm">feudalism</a> applied to the monastic institute. Every prior or subordinate superior was the nominee of the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Cluny and held office only during his pleasure; the autonomy of the individual communities was destroyed so far, even, that no <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> could be professed in any house except by permission of the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Cluny, and all were <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obliged</a> usually to spend some years at Cluny itself. But notwithstanding the extent of this departure from Benedictine tradition, the Cluniacs were never considered to have seceded from the main Benedictine body or to have instituted a new order. Hirschau, in <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>, copied Cluny, though with less conspicuous success, and <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> developed the system still further and constituted a new order outside the Benedictine fold, which has ever since been regarded as such. The example of Cluny produced imitators and many new unions of <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> subject to a central <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> resulted. The Lateran Council of 1215, perceiving the good points of the system as well as its dangers, set itself to strike the mean between the two. The risks of an ever-widening breach between those which adhered to Benedictine tradition and those which had adopted the <a href="../cathen/04073a.htm">Cluniac</a> <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">ideas</a>, were to be minimized, whilst at the same time uniformity of observance and the mutual strength resulting therefrom, were to be fostered. The council decreed that the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of each country should be banded together into a congregation; periodical representative chapters were to ensure systematic government after one pattern; the appointment of definitors and visitors was to secure uniformity and cohesion; and the autonomy of the individual <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> were to be preserved. The plan promised well, but <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> alone seems to have given it a fair trial. In some of the countries it was not until the issue of the <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Bull</a> "Benedictina" in 1336, or even the <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Tridentine</a> decrees of two centuries later, that any serious attempt was made towards carrying out the proposals of 1215. Meanwhile certain Italian reforms had produced a number of independent congregations outside the order, differing from each other in organization and spirit, and in each of which the departure from Benedictine principles was carried a stage further. Even in the <a href="../cathen/04073a.htm">Cluniac</a> congregation the power of the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Cluny was, after the twelfth century, somewhat curtailed by the institution of chapters and definitors. The <a href="../cathen/14372c.htm">Sylvestrines</a> (1231) preserved the perpetuity of superiors and recognized the advantages of a representative chapter, though its chief superior was something more than a mere <em>primus inter pares</em>. The <a href="../cathen/16020a.htm">Celestines</a> (1274) adopted a somewhat similar system of centralized authority, but differed from it in that their superior was elected triennially. The <a href="../cathen/11244c.htm">Olivetans</a> (1319) marked the furthest point of development by instituting an abbot-general with <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> over all the other <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> as well as their communities. The general chapter nominated the officials of all the houses; the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> belonged to no one <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> in particular, but to the whole congregation; and by thus destroying all community <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a>, and placing all power in the hands of a small committee, the <a href="../cathen/11244c.htm">Olivetan</a> congregation approximated nearest to the alter orders like the <a href="../cathen/12354c.htm">Dominicans</a> and <a href="../cathen/14081a.htm">Jesuits</a>, with their highly centralized systems of government. The congregation of St. Justina of Padua was modelled on similar lines, though afterwards considerably modified, and some centuries later St.-Vannes and St.-Maur followed in its wake. The Spanish congregation of Valladolid, too, with its abbot-general, and with superiors who were not perpetual and chosen by the general chapters, must be classed with those that represent the line of departure from earlier Benedictine tradition; as must also the resuscitated English congregation of the seventeenth century, which inherited its constitution from that of <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>. In these two latter congregations, however, there were some modifications, which made their dissent from the original ideal less marked than in those previously enumerated. On the other side, as representing those that preserved the traditional autonomy and <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a> spirit in the individual houses, we have the Bursfeld Union which, in the fifteenth century, made an honest attempt to carry out the Lateran decrees and the provisions of the <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Bull</a> "Benedictina". The Austrian, <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">Bavarian</a>, and <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Swiss</a> congregations of the same period followed out the same <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a>, as do also almost all of the more modern congregations, and by the legislation of <a href="../cathen/09169a.htm">Leo XIII</a> the traditional principles of government have been revived in the English congregation. In this way the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> Benedictine ideal was restored, whilst by means of general chapters, at which every <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of the congregation was represented, and by the periodical visitations made by the presidents or others elected for that <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a>, uniform observance and regular discipline were preserved. The presidents were elected by the other <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> composing the chapter and their office was merely presidential not that of a superior general or <em>abbas abbatum</em>.</p> <h3>Present system of government</h3> <p>All the congregations of more recent formation have been constituted, with slight variations, on the same plan, which represents the normal and traditional form of government in the order. Uniformity in the various congregations is further secured by what are called <em>Constitutions</em>. These are a series of declarations on the holy Rule, defining its interpretation and application, to which are added other regulations on points of discipline and practice not provided for by St. Benedict. The constitutions must be approved at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, after which they have binding force upon the congregation for which they are intended. The <em>capitula</em> of <a href="../cathen/01001a.htm">Aachen</a> and the <em>Concordia Regularis</em> were the earliest examples of such constitutions. Amongst others may be mentioned the "Statutes" of <a href="../cathen/08784c.htm">Lanfranc</a>, the "Discipline of Farfa", the "Ordo" of <a href="../cathen/02501a.htm">Bernard of Cluny</a>, and the "Constitutions" of St. William of Hirschau. (The three latter are printed by <a href="../cathen/07296b.htm">Herrgott</a> in "Vetus Disciplina Monastica", Paris, 1726.) Since the thirteenth century every congregation has had its own set of constitutions, in which the principles of the Rule are adapted to the particular work of the congregation to which they apply. Each congregation is composed of a certain number of <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> of which, with other officials and elected representatives, form the general chapter, which exercises legislative and executive authority over the whole body. The power possessed by it is strictly limited and defined in the constitutions. The meetings of the chapter are held usually every two, three, or four years and are presided over by one of the members elected to that office by the rest. Whilst the office of <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> is usually for life, that of the president is generally only for a term of years and the <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> holding it is not in all cases eligible for continuous re-election. Each president, either by himself or in conjunction with one or more specially elected visitors, holds canonical visitations of all the houses of his congregation, and by this means the chapter is kept informed of the spiritual and temporal condition of each <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, and discipline is maintained according to the constitutions.</p> <h3>The Abbot Primate</h3> <p>In order the better to bind together the various congregations that constitute the order at the present day, <a href="../cathen/09169a.htm">Pope Leo XIII</a>, in 1893, appointed a nominal head over the whole federation, with the title of Abbot Primate. The traditional autonomy of each congregation, and still further of each house, is interfered with in the least possible degree by this appointment, for, as the title itself indicates, the office is in its nature different from that of the general of an order. Apart from matters explicitly defined, the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> <a href="../cathen/12423b.htm">primate's</a> position with regard to the other <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> is to be understood rather from the analogy of a <a href="../cathen/12423b.htm">primate</a> in a <a href="../cathen/07322c.htm">hierarchy</a> than from that of the general of an order like the <a href="../cathen/12354c.htm">Dominicans</a> or <a href="../cathen/14081a.htm">Jesuits</a>.</p> <h3>Methods of recruiting</h3> <p>The recruiting of the various <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of the order differs according to the nature and scope of the influence exerted by each individual house. Those that have <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> attached to them naturally draw their members more or less from these <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>. The English congregation is recruited very largely from the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> attached to its <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>; and other congregations are similarly recruited. Some <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">educate</a> and train in their <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> a number of <em>alumni</em>, or pupils provisionally intended for the <a href="../cathen/10459a.htm">monastic</a> state, who though not in any way bound to do so, if showing any signs of vocation, are encouraged to receive the habit on reaching the canonical age.</p> <p>A candidate for admission is usually kept as a <em><a href="../cathen/12319b.htm">postulant</a></em> for at least some weeks in order that the community he seeks to join may judge whether he is a suitable <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> to be admitted to the probationary stage. Having been accepted as such, he is "clothed" as a <em>novice</em>, receiving the religious habit and a religious name, and being placed under the care of the novice-master. According to the Rule he has to be trained and tested during his period of <a href="../cathen/11144a.htm">noviceship</a>, and canon law requires that for the most part the <a href="../cathen/11144a.htm">novice</a> is to be kept apart form the rest of the community. For this reason the <a href="../cathen/11144a.htm">novices'</a> quarters are generally placed, if possible, in a different part of the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> from those occupied by the professed <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>. The canonical <a href="../cathen/11144a.htm">novitiate</a> lasts one year, at the end of which, if satisfactory, the <a href="../cathen/11144a.htm">novice</a> may be admitted to simple <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vows</a>, and at the conclusion of another three years, unless rejected for grave reasons, he makes his solemn <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vows</a> of "Stability, Conversion of manners, and Obedience". (<a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Rule of St. Benedict</a>.)</p> <h3>Habit</h3> <p>With slight modifications in shape in some congregations the habit of the order consists of a tunic, confined at the waist by a girdle of leather or of cloth, a <a href="../cathen/13508b.htm">scapular</a>, the width of the shoulders and reaching to the knees or ground, and a hood to cover the head. In choir, at chapter, and at certain other ceremonial times, a long full gown with large flowing sleeves, called a "cowl", is worn over the ordinary habit. The colour is not specified in the Rule but it is conjectured that the earliest Benedictines wore white or grey, as being the natural colour of undyed wool. For many centuries, however, black has been the prevailing colour, hence the term "black <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a>" has come to signify a Benedictine not belonging to one of those separate congregations which has adopted a distinctive colour, e.g. the <a href="../cathen/03204d.htm">Camaldolese</a>, <a href="../cathen/03780c.htm">Cistercians</a>, and <a href="../cathen/11244c.htm">Olivetans</a>, who wear white, or the <a href="../cathen/14372c.htm">Sylvestrines</a>, whose habit is blue. The only differences in colour within the Benedictine federation are those of the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of <a href="../cathen/10538b.htm">Monte Vergine</a>, who though now belonging to the Cassinese congregation of Primitive Observance, still retain the white habit adopted by their founder in the twelfth century, and those of the congregation of St. Ottilien, who wear a red girdle to signify their special missionary character.</p> <h3>Present work of the order</h3> <p>Parochial work is undertaken by the following congregations: Cassinese, English, <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Swiss</a>, <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">Bavarian</a>, Gallican, American-Cassinese, Swiss-American, Beuronese, Cassinese P.O., Austrian (both), <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">Hungarian</a>, and the Abbey of Fort Augustus. In the majority of these congregations the mission are attached to certain <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> and the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> serving them are under the almost exclusive control of their own monastic superiors; in others the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> only supply the place of the <a href="../cathen/13675a.htm">secular clergy</a> and are, therefore, for the time being, under their respective <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocesan</a> <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>.</p> <p>The work of <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> is common to all congregations of the order. It takes the form in different places of <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminaries</a> for <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> studies, <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, and gymnasia for secondary <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> not strictly <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a>, or of colleges for a higher or <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">university</a> course. In <a href="../cathen/02121b.htm">Austria</a> and <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">Bavaria</a> many of the government <em>lycées</em> or gymnasia are entrusted to the care of the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>. In <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> and America the Benedictine <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> rank high amongst the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">educational establishments</a> of those countries, and compete successfully with the non-Catholic <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> of a similar class. Those of the American Cassinese congregation have already been enumerated; they include three <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminaries</a>, fourteen <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> and colleges, and an <a href="../cathen/11322b.htm">orphanage</a>, with a total of nearly two thousand students. The <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Swiss</a> American congregation carries on scholastic work at five of its <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a>. At. St. Meinrad's, besides the <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminary</a>, there is a commercial college; at Spielerville (Arkansas) and Mount Angels (Oregon) are <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminaries</a>; and at Conception, Spielerville, Covington (Louisiana), and Mount Angel are colleges. The <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> Benedictines have large and flourishing colleges attached to each of their <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a>, and belonging to Downside are also two other smaller <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, one a "grammar <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>" at Ealing, London, and the other a preparatory <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> recently established at Enniscorthy, <a href="../cathen/08098b.htm">Ireland</a>.</p> <h3>Foreign missionary work</h3> <p>Besides the congregation of St. Ottilien, which exists specially for the purpose of foreign missionary work, and has ten mission stations in the Apostolic Vicariate of Zanzibar, a few others are also represented in the foreign mission field. Both American congregations labour amongst the Indians, in Saskatchewan (N.W.T., <a href="../cathen/03227a.htm">Canada</a>), Dakota, Vancouver's Island, and elsewhere. The Cassinese P.O. congregation has missions in the Apostolic Vicariate of the Indian Territory (U.S.A.) and in <a href="../cathen/01702d.htm">Argentina</a>, under the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of the French province, in New Zealand under the English province, in Western Australia (Diocese of New Nursia and Apostolic <a href="../cathen/08645a.htm">Vicariate of Kimberley</a>) and in the <a href="../cathen/12010a.htm">Philippines</a> under the Spanish province, and the <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgian</a> province has quite lately made a foundation in the Transvaal, South Africa. The <a href="../cathen/02745c.htm">Brazilian</a> congregation has several missions in <a href="../cathen/02745c.htm">Brazil</a>, which are under the direction of the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Rio de Janeiro, who is also a <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>. In the island of Mauritius the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/12289a.htm">Port Louis</a> is generally an <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> Benedictine. Mention has already been made of the work of the <a href="../cathen/14372c.htm">Sylvestrine</a> Benedictines in <a href="../cathen/03547c.htm">Ceylon</a> and of the <a href="../cathen/03780c.htm">Cistercians</a> in Natal, South Africa.</p> <h3>Statistics of the order</h3> <div style="overflow-x:auto;"><table summary="Table"> <tr><th>Congregation</th><th>Monasteries</th><th>Monks</th><th>Missions and Churches Served</th><th>No. of Souls Administered to</th><th>Schools</th><th>Students</th></tr> <tr><td>Cassinese</td><td>16</td><td>188</td><td>274</td><td>170,540</td><td>6</td><td>476</td></tr> <tr><td>Cassinese</td><td>16</td><td>188</td><td>274</td><td>170,540</td><td>6</td><td>476</td></tr> <tr><td>English</td><td>4</td><td>277</td><td>79</td><td>87,328</td><td>5</td><td>380</td></tr> <tr><td>English</td><td>4</td><td>277</td><td>79</td><td>87,328</td><td>5</td><td>380</td></tr> <tr><td>Swiss</td><td>5</td><td>355</td><td>42</td><td>34,319</td><td>7</td><td>978</td></tr> <tr><td>Swiss</td><td>5</td><td>355</td><td>42</td><td>34,319</td><td>7</td><td>978</td></tr> <tr><td>Bavarian</td><td>11</td><td>383</td><td>51</td><td>78,422</td><td>10</td><td>1,719</td></tr> <tr><td>Bavarian</td><td>11</td><td>383</td><td>51</td><td>78,422</td><td>10</td><td>1,719</td></tr> <tr><td>Brazilian</td><td>13</td><td>110</td><td>6</td><td></td><td>4</td><td>770</td></tr> <tr><td>Brazilian</td><td>13</td><td>110</td><td>6</td><td></td><td>4</td><td>770</td></tr> <tr><td>Gallican</td><td>11</td><td>374</td><td>1</td><td>550</td><td>2</td><td>42</td></tr> <tr><td>Gallican</td><td>11</td><td>374</td><td>1</td><td>550</td><td>2</td><td>42</td></tr> <tr><td>American Cassinese</td><td>10</td><td>753</td><td>151</td><td>110,320</td><td>18</td><td>1,702</td></tr> <tr><td>Cassinese</td><td>10</td><td>753</td><td>151</td><td>110,320</td><td>18</td><td>1,702</td></tr> <tr><td>Beuronese</td><td>9</td><td>711</td><td>14</td><td>3,812</td><td>5</td><td>141</td></tr> <tr><td>Beuronese</td><td>9</td><td>711</td><td>14</td><td>3,812</td><td>5</td><td>141</td></tr> <tr><td>Swiss American</td><td>7</td><td>348</td><td>103</td><td>35,605</td><td>10</td><td>675</td></tr> <tr><td>American</td><td>7</td><td>348</td><td>103</td><td>35,605</td><td>10</td><td>675</td></tr> <tr><td>Cassinese P.O. </td><td>36</td><td>1,092</td><td>90</td><td>115,410</td><td>17</td><td>859</td></tr> <tr><td></td><td>36</td><td>1,092</td><td>90</td><td>115,410</td><td>17</td><td>859</td></tr> <tr><td>Austrian: </td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>Imm. Conc. </td><td>11</td><td>647</td><td>367</td><td>460,832</td><td>11</td><td>1,891</td><td> <td>11</td><td>647</td><td>367</td><td>460,832</td><td>11</td><td>1,891</td></tr> <tr><td>St. Joseph</td><td>7</td><td>293</td><td>61</td><td>55,062</td><td>10</td><td>901</td><td>Joseph</td><td>7</td><td>293</td><td>61</td><td>55,062</td><td>10</td><td>901</td></tr> <tr><td>Hungarian</td><td>11</td><td>198</td><td>145</td><td>37,269</td><td>6</td><td>1,668</td></tr> <tr><td>Hungarian</td><td>11</td><td>198</td><td>145</td><td>37,269</td><td>6</td><td>1,668</td></tr> <tr><td>St. Ottilien</td><td>2</td><td>163</td><td>10</td><td>2,835</td><td>3</td><td>190</td><td> Ottilien</td><td>2</td><td>163</td><td>10</td><td>2,835</td><td>3</td><td>190</td></tr> <tr><td>Fort Augustus</td><td>1</td><td>47</td><td>8</td><td>430</td><td></td><td></td><td> Augustus</td><td>1</td><td>47</td><td>8</td><td>430</td><td></td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>St. Anselm's</td><td>1</td><td>1</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td> Anselm's</td><td>1</td><td>1</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr> <tr><td></td><td>155</td><td>5,940</td><td>1,402</td><td>1,192,734</td><td>114</td><td>12,392</td></tr> <tr><td></td><td>155</td><td>5,940</td><td>1,402</td><td>1,192,734</td><td>114</td><td>12,392</td></tr> </table></div> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>Orders and congregations professing the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Rule of St. Benedict</a> but not included in the Benedictine Federation are as follows:—</p> <div style="overflow-x:auto;"><table summary="Table"> <tr><th></th><th>Monasteries</th><th>No. of Religious</th></tr> <tr><td><a href="../cathen/03204d.htm">Camaldolese</a></td><td>19</td><td>241</td></tr> <tr><td>Vallombrosa</td><td>3</td><td>60</td></tr> <tr><td>Cistercians (Common Observance) </td><td>29</td><td>1,040</td></tr> <tr><td>Cistercians (Trappists) </td><td>58</td><td>3,637</td></tr> <tr><td>Sylvestrines</td><td>9</td><td>95</td></tr> <tr><td>Olivetans</td><td>10</td><td>122</td></tr> <tr><td>Mechitarists</td><td>14</td><td>152</td></tr> <tr><td></td><td>142</td><td>5,347</td></tr> </table></div> <p>Nuns, Benedictine and others:—</p> <div style="overflow-x:auto;"><table summary="Table"> <tr><th></th><th>Convents</th><th>No. of Religious</th></tr> <tr><td>Benedictine Nuns:</td><td></td><td></td></tr> <tr><td>1. Under Benedictine <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbots</a></td><td>9</td><td>251</td></tr> <tr><td>2. Under Bishops</td><td>253</td><td>7,156</td></tr> <tr><td><a href="../cathen/03204d.htm">Camaldolese</a> <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">Nuns</a></td><td>5</td><td>150</td></tr> <tr><td>Cistercian Nuns</td><td>100</td><td>2,965</td></tr> <tr><td>Olivetan Nuns</td><td>20</td><td>200</td></tr> <tr><td></td><td>387</td><td>10,722</td></tr> </table></div> <p>The foregoing tables, which are taken from the "Album Benedictinum" of 1906, give a grand aggregate of 684 <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, with 22,009 religious of both sexes. The statistics for missions and churches served include those churches and missions over which the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> exercise the right of patronage, as well as those actually served by <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>.</p> <h2 id="section5">Benedictines of special distinction</h2> <p>The following lists are not intended to be in any way exhaustive; they merely profess to include some of the more famous members of the order. The names are classified according to the particular sphere of work in which they are most celebrated, but although many of them might therefore have a just claim to be included in more than one of the different classes, when the same individual was distinguished in several different departments of work, from considerations of space and for the avoidance of unnecessary repetition, his name has been inserted only under one head. The lists are arranged more or less chronologically, except where some connecting features seem to call for special grouping. To most of the names the country to which the individual belonged is added in parenthesis.</p> <h3>Popes</h3> <p><a href="../cathen/06780a.htm">St. Gregory the Great</a> (Rome); born c. 540, d. 604; one of the four Latin <a href="../cathen/05072b.htm">doctors</a>; celebrated for his writings and for his reform of <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> change; called the "Apostle of <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>" because he sent <a href="../cathen/02081a.htm">St. Augustine</a> to that country in 596. Sylvester II or Gerbert (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), 999-1003; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of Fleury. <a href="../cathen/06791c.htm">St. Gregory VII</a> or Hildebrand Aldobrandeschi (<a href="../cathen/15103b.htm">Tuscany</a>), 1073-85; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of Cluny and afterwards <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/13369a.htm">St. Paul's</a>, <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>. <a href="../cathen/15410a.htm">Bl. Victor III</a> (Benevento), 1087-87; <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/10526b.htm">Monte Cassino</a>. Paschal II (Tuscany), 1099-1118; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of Cluny. Gelasius II or Giovanni da Gaeta, John Cajetan (Gaeta), 1118-19; historian. <a href="../cathen/03479b.htm">St. Celestine V</a> or Pietro di Murrhone (Apulia), b. 1221, d. 1296; founder of the order of <a href="../cathen/16020a.htm">Celestines</a>; was elected <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> 1294, but abdicated after reigning only six months. <a href="../cathen/04023a.htm">Clement VI</a> (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), 1342-52; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of Chaise-Dieu. <a href="../cathen/15214a.htm">Bl. Urban V</a> (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), 1362-70; <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of St. Victor, <a href="../cathen/09715b.htm">Marseilles</a>. Pius VII or Barnaba Chiaramonti (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), 1800-23; was taken by force from <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> and <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">imprisoned</a> at <a href="../cathen/13489c.htm">Savona</a> and Fontainebleu (1809-14) by <a href="../cathen/10687a.htm">Napoleon</a>, whom he had <a href="../cathen/04380a.htm">crowned</a> in 1804; returned to <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> in 1814. <a href="../cathen/07006a.htm">Gregory XVI</a> or Maurus Cappellari (Venice), 1831-46, a <a href="../cathen/03204d.htm">Camaldolese</a> <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> and <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of St. Andrew's on the Coelian Hill, <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>.</p> <h3>Apostles and missionaries</h3> <p><a href="../cathen/02081a.htm">St. Augustine</a> (Rome), d. 604; Prior of St. Andrew's on the Coelian Hill; the Apostle of <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> (596); first <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a> (597). <a href="../cathen/02656a.htm">St. Boniface</a> (England), b. 680, <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyred</a> 755; Apostle of <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> and <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/09550a.htm">Mainz</a>. <a href="../cathen/15645a.htm">St. Willibrord</a> (England), born c. 658, d. 738; the Apostle of Friesland. St. Swithbert (<a href="../cathen/01505a.htm">England</a>), d. 713; the Apostle of <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Holland</a>. <a href="../cathen/13229a.htm">St. Rupert</a> (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), d. 718; the Apostle of <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">Bavaria</a> and <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/13411b.htm">Salzburg</a>. St. Sturm (Bavaria), d. 779; first <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/06313b.htm">Fulda</a>. St. Ansgar (Germany), b. 801, d. 865; <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of Corbie and Apostle of Scandinavia. <a href="../cathen/01127c.htm">St. Adalbert</a>, d. 997; the Apostle of <a href="../cathen/02612b.htm">Bohemia</a>.</p> <h3>Founders of abbeys and congregations, reformers, etc.</h3> <p>St. Erkenwald (England), died c. 693; <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/09341a.htm">London</a>; founder of Chertsey and Barking <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a>. <a href="../cathen/02441b.htm">St. Benedict Biscop</a> (England), d. 690; founder of <a href="../cathen/15572a.htm">Wearmouth</a> and Jarrow. St. Filbert (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), d. 684; founder of <a href="../cathen/08566a.htm">Jumièges</a>. <a href="../cathen/02467a.htm">St. Benedict of Aniane</a> (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), d. 821; reformer of <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> under <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a>; presided at council of <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a>, Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), 817. <a href="../cathen/05199a.htm">St. Dunstan</a> (England), d. 988; <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Glastonbury (c. 945), and afterwards <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a> (961); reformer of <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>. St. Berno (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), d. 927; founder and first <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Cluny (909). St. Odo or Eudes (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), b. 879, d. 942; second <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Cluny. St. Aymard (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), d. 965; third <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Cluny. St. Majolus or Maieul (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), b. 906, d. 994; fourth <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Cluny; <a href="../cathen/11355a.htm">Otto II</a> desired to make him <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> in 974 but he refused. <a href="../cathen/11207c.htm">St. Odilo</a> (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), d. 1048; fifth <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Cluny. <a href="../cathen/02501a.htm">Bernard of Cluny</a> (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), d. 1109; famous in connexion with the eleventh-century "Ordo Cluniacensis" which bears his name. Peter the Venerable (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), d. 1156; ninth <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Cluny; employed by several <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> in important affairs of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. St. Romuald (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), b. 956, d. 1026; founder of the <a href="../cathen/03204d.htm">Camaldolese</a> congregation (1009). Herluin (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), d. 1078; founder of Bec (1040). <a href="../cathen/13097d.htm">St. Robert of Molesmes</a> (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), b. 1018, d. 1110; founder and <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Molesmes (1075); joint-founder and first <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> (1098). St. Alberic (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), d. 1109; joint-founder and second <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>. <a href="../cathen/14290d.htm">St. Stephen Harding</a> (England), d. 1134; joint-founder and third <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>. St. Bernard (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), b. 1091, d. 1153; joined <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> with thirty other noblemen (1113); founded Clairvaux (1115); wrote many spiritual and <a href="../cathen/14580x.htm">theological</a> works; was a statesman and adviser of kings, and a <a href="../cathen/05075a.htm">Doctor of the Church</a>; he preached the <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm#section2">Second Crusade</a> throughout <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> and <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> at the request of Eugenius III (1146). St. William of Hirschau (Germany), c. 1090; author of "Constitutions of Hirschau". St. John Gualbert (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), b. 999, d. 1073; founder of Vallombrosa (1039). St. Stephen or Etienne (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), d. 1124; founder of Grammont (1076). <a href="../cathen/13096a.htm">Bl. Robert of Arbrissel</a> (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), d. 1116; founder of Fontevrault (1099). St. William (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), d. 1142; founder of <a href="../cathen/10538b.htm">Monte Vergine</a> (1119). St. Sylvester (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), b. 1177, d. 1267; founder of the <a href="../cathen/14372c.htm">Sylvestrines</a> (1231). St. Bernard Ptolemy (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), b. 1272, d. 1348; founder of the <a href="../cathen/11244c.htm">Olivetans</a> (1319). Ludovico Barbo (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), d. 1443; first a canon regular, then <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of St. Justina of Padua and founder of the congregation of the same name (1409). Didier de la Cour (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), b. 1550, d. 1623; founder of the congregation of St.-Vannes (1598). <a href="../cathen/02426b.htm">Laurent Bénard</a> (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), b. 1573, d. 1620; Prior of Cluny College, Paris, and founder of the <a href="../cathen/10069b.htm">Maurist</a> congregation (1618). José Serra (Spain), b. 1811, died c. 1880; Coadjutor <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> of Perth, Australia (1848); and Rudesind Salvado (Spain), b. 1814, d. 1900; <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/12312b.htm">Port Victoria</a> (1849); founders of New Nursia, Australia. <a href="../cathen/07058a.htm">Prosper Guéranger</a> (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), b. 1805, d. 1875; founder of the Gallican congregation (1837); restored <a href="../cathen/14133b.htm">Solesmes</a> (1837); well known as a <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> writer. Jean-Baptiste Muard (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), b. 1809, d. 1854; founder of Pierre-qui-Vire and of the French province of the Cassinese Congregation of the Primitive Observance (1850). Maurus Wolter (Germany), b. 1825, d. 1900; founder of the Beuronese congregation (1860); <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Beuron (1868). Pietro Francesco Casaretto (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), b. 1810, d. 1878; founder and first Abbot-General of Cassinese congregation of Primitive Observance (1851). <a href="../cathen/15648b.htm">Boniface Wimmer</a> (Bavaria), b. 1809, d. 1887; founder of American Cassinese congregation (1855). Martin Marty (Switzerland), b. 1834, d. 1896; founder of <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Swiss</a> American congregation (1870); <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of St. Meinrad's, <a href="../cathen/07738a.htm">Indiana</a> (1870); <a href="../cathen/15401b.htm">Vicar Apostolic </a> of Dakota (1879). Jerome Vaughan (England), b. 1841, d. 1896; founder of Fort Augustus Abbey (1878). Gerard van Caloen (Belgium), b. 1853; restorer of <a href="../cathen/02745c.htm">Brazilian</a> congregation; <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/13466a.htm">Bahia</a> (1896); <a href="../cathen/08025a.htm">titular</a> <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/12040b.htm">Phocaelig;a</a> (1906).</p> <h3>Scholars, historians, spiritual writers, etc.</h3> <p>St. Bede (England), b. 673, d. 735; <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of Jarrow, <a href="../cathen/05075a.htm">Doctor of the Church</a>, historian, and commentator. <a href="../cathen/01280b.htm">St. Aldhelm</a> (England), d. 709; <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Malmesbury and <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Sherborne. <a href="../cathen/01276a.htm">Alcuin</a> (England), d. 804, <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of York; founder of <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> under <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a>. <a href="../cathen/12617a.htm">Rabanus Maurus</a> (Germany), d. 856; <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/09550a.htm">Mainz</a>. <a href="../cathen/11518a.htm">St. Paschasius Radbertus</a> (Germany), d. 860; <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Corbie. Ratramnus (Germany), d. 866; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of Corbie, who took part in Sacramentarian controversy. Walafrid Strabo (Germany), d. 849; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of <a href="../cathen/06313b.htm">Fulda</a>, and afterwards <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/12723a.htm">Reichenau</a>. Abbon of Fleury (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), tenth century; at one time a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> at <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a>. <a href="../cathen/11125b.htm">Notker</a> (Switzerland), d. 1022; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of St. Gall; theologican, mathematician, and musician. Guido d'Arezzo (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), died c. 1028; inventor of the gamut. <a href="../cathen/07266a.htm">Hermannus Contractus</a> (Germany), eleventh century; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of St. Gall; learned in Eastern languages; author of the "Salve Regina". Paul Warnefrid, or <a href="../cathen/11591b.htm">Paul the Deacon</a> (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), eighth century; historian and teacher (<em>scholasticus</em>) at <a href="../cathen/10526b.htm">Monte Cassino</a>. <a href="../cathen/07356b.htm">Hincmar</a> (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), d. 882; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of St. Denis; <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/12725a.htm">Reims</a> (845). <a href="../cathen/11764a.htm">St. Peter Damian</a> (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), b. 988, d. 1072; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of the <a href="../cathen/03204d.htm">Camaldolese</a> reform at Fonte Avellano; <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm#b">Cardinal Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/11346a.htm">Ostia</a> (1057). <a href="../cathen/08784c.htm">Lanfranc</a> (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), b. 1005 in <a href="../cathen/09336b.htm">Lombardy</a>, d. at <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a>, 1089; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> at Beck (1042); founder of the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> there; <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a> (1070). <a href="../cathen/01546a.htm">St. Anselm</a> (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), b. 1033 in <a href="../cathen/12076b.htm">Piedmont</a>, d. 1109; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> at <a href="../cathen/02379b.htm">Bec</a> (1060); <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Bec (1078); <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a> (1093); usually considered the first scholastic. Eadmer (England), d. 1137; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a> and disciple of <a href="../cathen/01546a.htm">St. Anselm</a>, whose life he wrote. The English historians; <a href="../cathen/06114a.htm">Florence of Worcester</a>, d. 1118; <a href="../cathen/13794d.htm">Simeon of Durham</a>, d. 1130; <a href="../cathen/08418b.htm">Jocelin de Brakelonde</a>, d. 1200, a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> and chronicler of Bury St. Edmunds; <a href="../cathen/11499a.htm">Matthew Paris</a>, d. 1259, a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of <a href="../cathen/13329a.htm">St. Albans</a>; <a href="../cathen/15633d.htm">William of Malmesbury</a>, died c. 1143; <a href="../cathen/06536b.htm">Gervase of Canterbury</a>, died c. 1205; <a href="../cathen/13116c.htm">Roger of Wendover</a>, d. 1237, a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of <a href="../cathen/13329a.htm">St. Albans</a>. <a href="../cathen/11783c.htm">Peter the Deacon</a> (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), died c. 1140; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of <a href="../cathen/10526b.htm">Monte Cassino</a>. <a href="../cathen/05240b.htm">Adam Easton</a> (England), d. 1397, a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of <a href="../cathen/11121a.htm">Norwich</a>; <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">Cardinal</a> (1380). John Lydgate (England), died c. 1450; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of Bury St. Edmunds; poet. John Wheathamstead (England), d. 1440; <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/13329a.htm">St. Albans</a>. <a href="../cathen/15062a.htm">Johannes Trithemius</a> (Germany), b. 1462, d. 1516; <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Spanheim, a voluminous writer and great traveller. Louis Blosius (Belgium), b. 1506, d. 1566; <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Liessies (1530); author of the "Mirror for Monks". Juan de Castaniza (Spain), d. 1599; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of St. Saviour's, Onna. <a href="../cathen/07105c.htm">Benedict van Haeften</a> (Belgium), b. 1588, d. 1648; Prior of Afflighem. Clement Reyner (England), b. 1589, d. 1651; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> at Dieulouard (1610); <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Lamspring (1643). <a href="../cathen/02212b.htm">Augustine Baker</a> (England), b. 1575; d. 1641; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of Dieulouard and author of "Sancta Sophia". <a href="../cathen/03189a.htm">Augustine Calmet</a> (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), b. 1672, d. 1757; <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Senones-en-Vosges; best known for his "Dictionary of the <a href="../bible">Bible</a>". Carolus Meichelbeck (Bavaria), b. 1669; d. 1734; librarian and historian of Benediktbeuern. <a href="../cathen/14463c.htm">Magnoald Ziegelbauer</a> (Germany), 1689, d. 1750; author of a literary history of the Order of St. Benedict. <a href="../cathen/07296b.htm">Marquard Herrgott</a> (Germany), b. 1694, d. 1762; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of St.-Blasien. Suitbert Baumer (Germany), b. 1845, d. 1894; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of Beuron. <a href="../cathen/14788c.htm">Luigi Tosti</a> (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), b. 1811, d. 1897; <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>; Vice-Archivist to the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>. J. B. F. Pitra (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), b. 1812, d. 1889; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of <a href="../cathen/14133b.htm">Solesmes</a>; <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm#b">Cardinal-Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/06243a.htm">Frascati</a> (1863); librarian of the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy Roman Church</a>. Francis Aidan Gasquet (England), b. 1846; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of Downside and <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot-President</a> of the <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> Benedictine congregation. Fernand Cabrol (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), b. 1855; <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Farnborough (Gallican congregation). Jean Besse (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), b. 1861; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of Ligugé. Germain Morin, of the Beuronese congregation, b. 1861. John Chapman, of the Beuronese congregation, b. 1865. Edward Cuthbert Butler (England), b. 1858; <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Downside (1906).</p> <h3>The Congregation of St.-Maur</h3> <p>The following are some of the chief writers of this congregation: Adrien Langlois, d. 1627; one of the first <a href="../cathen/10069b.htm">Maurists</a>. Nicolas Menard, b. 1585, d. 1644. Gregoire Tarrisse, b. 1575, d. 1648; first Superior General of the congregation. Luc d'Achery, b. 1609, d. 1685. Antoine-Joseph Mege, b. 1625, d. 1691. Louis Bulteau, b. 1625, d. 1693. Michel Germain, b. 1645, d. 1694; a companion of <a href="../cathen/09479b.htm">Mabillon</a>. Claude Martin, b. 1619, d. 1707; the greatest of the <a href="../cathen/10069b.htm">Maurists</a>. Thierry Ruinart, b. 1657, d. 1709; a companion and biographer of <a href="../cathen/09479b.htm">Mabillon</a>. François Lamy, b. 1636, d. 1711. <a href="../cathen/04454a.htm">Pierre Coustant</a>, b. 1654, d. 1721. Denis de Sainte-Marthe, b. 1650, d. 1725. <a href="../cathen/06389a.htm">Julien Garnier</a>, b. 1670, d. 1725. Edmond Martène, b. 1654, d. 1739. Ursin Durand, b. 1682, d. 1773. Bernard de Montefaucon, b. 1655, d. 1741. <a href="../cathen/14463c.htm">René-Prosper Tassin</a>, d. 1777.</p> <h3>Bishops, monks, martyrs, etc.</h3> <p>St. Laurence (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), d. 619; came to <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> with <a href="../cathen/02081a.htm">St. Augustine</a> (597), whom he succeeded as <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a> (604). <a href="../cathen/10168b.htm">St. Mellitus</a> (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), d. 624; a Roman <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>, sent to <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> with other <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> to assist <a href="../cathen/02081a.htm">St. Augustine</a> (601); founder of St. Paul's, London, and first <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/09341a.htm">London</a> (604); <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a> (619). <a href="../cathen/08586a.htm">St. Justus</a> (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), d. 627; came to <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> (601); first <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Rochester (604) and afterwards <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a> (624). <a href="../cathen/11585a.htm">St. Paulinus of York</a> (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), d. 644; came to <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> (601); first <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/15733b.htm">York</a> (625); <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Rochester (633). St. Odo (England), d. 961; <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a>. <a href="../cathen/05394a.htm">St. Elphege</a> or Aelfheah (England), d. 1012; <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a> (1006); killed by the Danes. St. Oswald (England), d. 992; nephew of <a href="../cathen/11211b.htm">St. Odo of Canterbury</a>; <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/15703a.htm">Worcester</a> (959); <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/15733b.htm">York</a> (972). <a href="../cathen/02522b.htm">St. Bertin</a> (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), b. 597, d. 709; <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/13365c.htm">Saint-Omer</a>. St. Botolph (England), d. 655; <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>. <a href="../cathen/15621c.htm">St. Wilfrid</a>, born c. 634, d. 709; <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/15733b.htm">York</a>. <a href="../cathen/04578a.htm">St. Cuthbert</a>, d. 687; <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/09269a.htm">Lindisfarne</a>. <a href="../cathen/08469b.htm">St. John of Beverley</a>, d. 721; <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/07318b.htm">Hexham</a>. <a href="../cathen/14357c.htm">St. Swithin</a>, d. 862; <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/15649c.htm">Winchester</a>. <a href="../cathen/05555b.htm">St. Ethelwold</a>, d. 984; <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/15649c.htm">Winchester</a>. <a href="../cathen/15687a.htm">St. Wulfstan</a>, d. 1095; <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/15703a.htm">Worcester</a>. <a href="../cathen/01172b.htm">St. Ælred</a>, b. 1109, d. 1166; <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Rievaulx, Yorkshire. <a href="../cathen/14676a.htm">St. Thomas of Canterbury</a> or Thomas Becket, born c. 1117, <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyred</a> 1170; Chancellor of <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> (1155); <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a> (1162). <a href="../cathen/05294a.htm">St. Edmund Rich</a>, d. 1240; <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a> (1234); died in exile. <a href="../cathen/14326a.htm">Suger</a> (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), b. 1081, d. 1151; <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of St. Denis and Regent of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>. <a href="../cathen/13046c.htm">Bl. Richard Whiting</a>, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> of Glastonbury, Bl. Roger James, and Bl. John Thorn, <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of Glastonbury; <a href="../cathen/07518a.htm">Bl. Hugh Faringdon</a>, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Reading, Bl. William Eynon, and Bl. John Rugg, <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of Reading; and <a href="../cathen/02381a.htm">Bl. John Beche</a>, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Colchester; all executed (1539) for denying the supremacy of <a href="../cathen/07222a.htm">Henry VIII</a> in <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> matters. <a href="../cathen/06025a.htm">John de Feckenham (or Howman)</a>, d. 1585; last <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Westminster; died in <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">prison</a>. Sigebert Buckley, born c. 1517, d. 1610; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of Westminster; the link between the old and new English congregations. <a href="../cathen/13098c.htm">Ven. John Roberts</a>, born c. 1575, <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyred</a> 1610; founder of St. Gregory's, <a href="../cathen/05138a.htm">Douai</a>. William Gabriel Gifford, b. 1554, d. 1629; professor of <a href="../cathen/14580x.htm">theology</a> at <a href="../cathen/07356b.htm">Reims</a> (1582); Dean of <a href="../cathen/09251a.htm">Lille</a> (1597); a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> at Dieulouard (1609); <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/12725a.htm">Reims</a> (1622). Leander of St. Martin (John Jones), b. 1575, d. 1635; President of the English congregation and Prior of St. Gregory's, <a href="../cathen/05138a.htm">Douai</a>. Philip Ellis, b. 1653, d. 1726; <a href="../cathen/15401b.htm">Vicar Apostolic </a> of the Western District (1688); transferred to <a href="../cathen/13683b.htm">Segni</a>, <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a> (1708). <a href="../cathen/15539b.htm">Charles Walmesley</a>, b. 1722, d. 1797; <a href="../cathen/15401b.htm">Vicar Apostolic </a> of the Western District (1764); a Doctor of the Sorbonne and F. R. S. William Placid Morris, b. 1794, d. 1872; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of Downside; <a href="../cathen/15401b.htm">Vicar Apostolic </a> of Mauritius (1832). <a href="../cathen/12201a.htm">John Bede Polding</a>, b. 1794, d. 1877; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of Downside; Vicar Apostolic in Australia (1834); first <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/14365a.htm">Sydney</a> (1851). <a href="../cathen/15121a.htm">William Bernard Ullathorne</a>, b. 1806, d. 1889; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of Downside; <a href="../cathen/15401b.htm">Vicar Apostolic </a> of the Western District (1846); transferred to Birmingham (1850); resigned (1888). Roger Bede Vaughan, b. 1834, d. 1883; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of Downside; Cathedral Prior of Belmont (1863); coadjutor to <a href="../cathen/12201a.htm">Archbishop Polding</a> (1872); succeeded as <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/14365a.htm">Sydney</a> (1877). Cardinal Sanfelice (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), b. 1834, d. 1897; <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/10683a.htm">Naples</a>; formerly <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of La Cava. Joseph Pothier (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), b. 1835; inaugurator of the <a href="../cathen/14133b.htm">Solesmes</a> <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> of <a href="../cathen/12144a.htm">plain-chant</a>; <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Fontanelle (1898). Andre Mocquereau (<a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>), b. 1849; Prior of <a href="../cathen/14133b.htm">Solesmes</a> and successor to Dom Pothier as leader of the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>. John Cuthbert Hedley, b. 1837; a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> of Ampleforth; <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a> Coadjutor <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Newport (1873); succeeded as Bishop (1881). Benedetto Bonazzi (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), b. 1840; <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of La Cava (1894); <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/02477b.htm">Benevento</a> (1902). Domenico Serafini (<a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>), b. 1852; Abbot General of the Cassinese Congregation of Primitive Observance (1886); <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/14232b.htm">Spoleto</a> (1900). Hildebrand de Hemptinne (Belgium), b. 1849; Abbot <a href="../cathen/12423b.htm">Primate</a> of the order; <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Maredsous (1890); nominated Abbot Primate by <a href="../cathen/09169a.htm">Leo XIII</a> (1893).</p> <h3>Nuns</h3> <p>St. Scholastica, died c. 543; sister to St. Benedict. Among <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> Benedictine <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a>, the most celebrated are: <a href="../cathen/05554b.htm">St. Etheldreda</a>, d. 679; <a href="../cathen/01007e.htm">Abbess</a> of <a href="../cathen/05396a.htm">Ely</a>. St. Ethelburga, died c. 670; <a href="../cathen/01007e.htm">Abbess</a> of Barking. <a href="../cathen/07350a.htm">St. Hilda</a>, d. 680; <a href="../cathen/01007e.htm">Abbess</a> of Whitby. <a href="../cathen/15588b.htm">St. Werburgh</a>, d. 699; <a href="../cathen/01007e.htm">Abbess</a> of <a href="../cathen/03649a.htm">Chester</a>. St. Mildred, seventh century; <a href="../cathen/01007e.htm">Abbess</a> in Thanet. <a href="../cathen/15526b.htm">St. Walburga</a>, d. 779; a <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nun</a> of <a href="../cathen/15648a.htm">Wimborne</a>; sister to <a href="../cathen/15644c.htm">Sts. Willibald and Winnibald</a>; went to <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> with Sts. Lioba and Thecla to assist <a href="../cathen/02656a.htm">St. Boniface</a> c. 740. <a href="../cathen/14563a.htm">St. Thecla</a>, eighth century; a <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nun</a> of <a href="../cathen/15648a.htm">Wimborne</a>; <a href="../cathen/01007e.htm">Abbess</a> of Kitzingen; died in <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>. St. Lioba, d. 779; a <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nun</a> of <a href="../cathen/15648a.htm">Wimborne</a>; cousin to <a href="../cathen/02656a.htm">St. Boniface</a>; <a href="../cathen/01007e.htm">Abbess</a> of Bischofsheim; died in <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>. Among other Benedictine <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a> are: <a href="../cathen/07351a.htm">St. Hildegard</a> (Germany), b. 1098, d. 1178; <a href="../cathen/01007e.htm">Abbess</a> of Mount <a href="../cathen/13229a.htm">St. Rupert</a>; St. Gertrude the Great (Germany), d. 1292; <a href="../cathen/01007e.htm">Abbess</a> of Eisleben in Saxony (1251). <a href="../cathen/10105b.htm">St. Mechtilde</a>, sister to St. Gertrude and <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nun</a> at Eisleben. <a href="../cathen/06205c.htm">St. Frances of Rome</a>, b. 1384, d. 1440; <a href="../cathen/15617c.htm">widow</a>; founded order of Oblates (Collatines) in 1425.</p> <h2 id="section6">Foundations originating from or based upon the Benedictine Order</h2> <p>It has already been shown in the first part of this article how the reaction which followed the many relaxations and mitigations that had crept into the Benedictine Order produced, from the tenth century onwards, a number of reforms and independent congregations, in each of which a return to the strict letter of <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">St. Benedict's Rule</a> was attempted, with certain variations of ideal and differences of external organization. That of Cluny was the first, and it was followed, from time to time, by others, all of which are deal with in separate articles.</p> <h3>St. Chrodegang</h3> <p>Besides those communities which professedly adhered to the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Benedictine Rule</a> in all its strictness, there were others founded for some special work or purpose, which, while not claiming to be Benedictine, took that Rule as the basis upon which to ground their own particular legislation. The earliest example of this was instituted by <a href="../cathen/03729b.htm">St. Chrodegang</a>, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/10247a.htm">Metz</a>, who in the year 760 brought together his <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedral</a> <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> into a kind of community life and drew up for their guidance a code of rules, based upon that of St. Benedict. These were the first "regular canons", and the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> thus started spread very rapidly to almost every <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedral</a> of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>, and <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, as well as to some in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>. In the latter country, however, it was not an entirely new <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a>, for we learn from <a href="../cathen/02384a.htm">Bede's</a> "Ecclesiastical History" (I, xxvii) that even in St. Augustine's time some sort of "common life" was in vogue amongst the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> and their <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>. <a href="../cathen/03729b.htm">St. Chrodegang's</a> institute and its imitations prevailed almost universally in the <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedral</a> and collegiate churches until ousted by the introduction of the <a href="../cathen/03288a.htm">Austin Canons</a>.</p> <h3>Carthusians</h3> <p>A word must here be said as to the <a href="../cathen/03388a.htm">Carthusian Order</a>, which some writers have classed amongst those founded on the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Benedictine rule</a>. This supposition is based chiefly on the fact that they have retained the name of St. Benedict in their <em>Confiteor</em>, but this was more probably done out of recognition of that saint's position as the <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of Western Monasticism than from any <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> that the order was a filiation from the older body. Confusion may also have arisen on account of the founder of the <a href="../cathen/03388a.htm">Carthusians</a>, <a href="../cathen/03014a.htm">St. Bruno</a>, being mistaken for another of the same name, who was <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/10526b.htm">Monte Cassino</a> in the twelfth century and therefore a Benedictine.</p> <h3>Independent Benedictine congregations</h3> <p>The various reforms, beginning with Cluny in the tenth century and extending to the <a href="../cathen/11244c.htm">Olivetans</a> of the fourteenth, have been enumerated in the first part of this article and are described in greater detail in separate articles, under their respective titles. To these must be added the Order of the <a href="../cathen/07543a.htm">Humiliati</a>, founded in the twelfth century by certain nobles of <a href="../cathen/09336b.htm">Lombardy</a> who, having rebelled against the <a href="../cathen/07233a.htm">Emperor Henry VI</a>, were taken captive by him into <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>. There they commenced the practice of works of <a href="../cathen/12748a.htm">piety</a> and penance, and were for their "humility" allowed to return to <a href="../cathen/09336b.htm">Lombardy</a>. The order was definitely established in 1134 under the guidance of St. Bernard, who placed it under the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Benedictine rule</a>. It flourished for some centuries and had ninety-four <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, but through popularity and prosperity corruption and irregularities crept in, and after an ineffectual attempt at reformation, Pope Pius V suppressed the order in 1571. Mention must also be made of the more modern <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenian</a> Benedictine congregation (known as <a href="../cathen/10102b.htm">Mechitarists</a>), founded by Mechitar de Petro in the eighteenth century, in communion with the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>; this is now reckoned amongst the non-federated congregations of the order. (See <a href="../cathen/07543a.htm">HUMILIATI</a>, <a href="../cathen/10102b.htm">MECHITARISTS</a>.)</p> <h3>Quasi-Benedictine foundations</h3> <p><em>(1) Military Orders</em></p> <p><a href="../cathen/07214a.htm">Hélyot</a> enumerates several <a href="../cathen/10304d.htm">military orders</a> as having been based upon that of St. Benedict or in some way originating from it. Though founded especially for military objects, as for instance the defence of the holy places at <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, when not so engaged, these <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a> lived a kind of a <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious life</a> in commanderies or preceptories, established on the estates belonging to their order. They were not in any sense <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clerics</a>, but they usually took <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vows</a> of poverty and obedience, and sometimes also of chastity. In some of the Spanish orders, permission to marry was granted in the seventeenth century. The <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a> practised many of the customary monastic austerities, such as <a href="../cathen/05789c.htm">fasting</a> and silence, and they adopted a religious habit with the tunic shortened somewhat for convenience on horseback. Each order was governed by a Grand Master who had <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> over the whole order, and under him were the commanders who ruled over the various houses. The following were the <a href="../cathen/10304d.htm">military orders</a> connected with the Benedictine Order, but for fuller details the reader is referred to separate articles. (a) The <a href="../cathen/14493a.htm">Knights Templars</a>, founded in 1118. <a href="../cathen/02498d.htm">St. Bernard of Clairvaux</a> drew up their rule, and they always regarded the <a href="../cathen/03780c.htm">Cistercians</a> as their brethren. For this reason they adopted a white dress, to which they added a red cross. The order was suppressed in 1312. In <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a> there were: (b) The Knights of Calatrava founded in 1158 to assist in protecting <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a> against the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Moorish</a> invasions. The Knights of Calatrava owed their origin to the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> and <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of the <a href="../cathen/03780c.htm">Cistercian</a> <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of Fitero. The general chapter of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> drew up a rule of life and exercised a general supervision over them. The black hood and short <a href="../cathen/13508b.htm">scapular</a> which they wore denoted their connexion with <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>. The order possessed fifty-six commanderies, chiefly in <a href="../cathen/01465b.htm">Andalusia</a>. The Nuns of Calatrava were established c. 1219. They were <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloistered</a>, observing the rule of the <a href="../cathen/03780c.htm">Cistercian</a> <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> and wearing a similar habit, but they were under the <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> of the Grand Master of the <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a>. (c) Knights of Alcantara, or of San Julian del Pereyro, in Castille, founded about the same time and for the same purpose as the Knights of Calatrava. They adopted a mitigated form of <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">St. Benedict's Rule</a>, to which certain observances borrowed from Calatrava were added. They also used the black hood and abbreviated <a href="../cathen/13508b.htm">scapular</a>. It was at one time proposed to unite this order with that of Calatrava, but the scheme failed of execution. They possessed thirty-seven commanderies. (d) <a href="../cathen/10534a.htm">Knights of Montesa</a>, founded 1316, an offshoot from Calatrava, instituted by ten <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knights</a> of that order who placed themselves under the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> instead of their own Grand Master. (e) Knights of St. George of Alfama, founded in 1201; united to the <a href="../cathen/10534a.htm">Order of Montesa</a> in 1399.</p> <p>In <a href="../cathen/12297a.htm">Portugal</a> there were three orders, also founded for purposes of defence against the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Moors</a>:— (f) The Knights of Aviz, founded 1147; they observed the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Benedictine Rule</a>, under the direction of the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a> and Clairvaux, and had forty commanderies. (g) The <a href="../cathen/10272a.htm">Knights of St. Michael's Wing</a>, founded 1167; the name was taken in <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a> of the archangel whose visible assistance secured a victory against the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Moors</a> for King Alphonso I of <a href="../cathen/12297a.htm">Portugal</a>. The rule was drawn up by the <a href="../cathen/03780c.htm">Cistercian</a> <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Alcobaza. They were never very numerous, and the order did not long survive the king in whose reign it was founded. (h) The Order of <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a>, reared upon the ruins of the <a href="../cathen/14493a.htm">Templars</a> about 1317; it became very numerous and wealthy. It adopted the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Rule of St. Benedict</a> and the constitutions of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>, and possessed 450 commanderies. In 1550 the office of grand master of this order, as well as that of Aviz, was united to the crown. (I) The Monks of the Order of Christ. In 1567, a stricter life was instituted in the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convent</a> of Thomar, the principal house of the Order of <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a>, under this title, where the full monastic life was observed, with a habit and <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vows</a> similar to those of the <a href="../cathen/03780c.htm">Cistercians</a>, though the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> were under the <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> of the grand master of the Knights. This order now exists as one of the noble orders of knighthood, similar to those of the Garter, Bath, etc., in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>. In <a href="../cathen/13492a.htm">Savoy</a> there were the two orders: (k) the Knights of <a href="../cathen/10068c.htm">St. Maurice</a>, and (l) those of St. Lazarus, which were united in 1572. They observed the <a href="../cathen/03780c.htm">Cistercian</a> rule and the object of their existence was the defence of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">Faith</a> against the inroads of the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Protestant Reformation</a>. They had many commanderies and their two principal houses were at <a href="../cathen/15092d.htm">Turin</a> and <a href="../cathen/11048a.htm">Nice</a>. In <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">Switzerland</a> also the Abbots of St. Gall at one time supported (m) the military Order of the Bear, which <a href="../cathen/06255a.htm">Frederick II</a> had instituted in 1213.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p><em>(2) Hospitallers</em></p> <p>The Order of the Brothers <a href="../cathen/07476a.htm">Hospitallers</a> of <a href="../cathen/03065c.htm">Burgos</a> originated in a <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospital</a> attached to a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convent</a> of <a href="../cathen/03780c.htm">Cistercian</a> <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> in that town. There were a dozen <a href="../cathen/03780c.htm">Cistercian</a> <a href="../cathen/09093a.htm">lay brothers</a> who assisted the <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> in the care of the <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospital</a>, and these, in 1474, formed themselves into a new order intended to be independent of <a href="../cathen/03792a.htm">Cîteaux</a>. They met with much opposition, and, irregularities having crept in, they were reformed in 1587 and placed under the <a href="../cathen/01007e.htm">abbess</a> of the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convent</a>.</p> <p><em>(3) Oblates</em></p> <p>The Oblates of <a href="../cathen/06205c.htm">St. Frances of Rome</a>, called also Collatines, were a congregation of <a href="../cathen/12748a.htm">pious</a> <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a>, founded in 1425 and approved as an order in 1433. They first observed the rule of the <a href="../cathen/06217a.htm">Franciscan</a> Tertiaries, but this was soon changed for that of St. Benedict. The order consisted chiefly of noble Roman ladies, who lived a semi-religious life and devoted themselves to works of <a href="../cathen/12748a.htm">piety</a> and charity. They made no solemn <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vows</a>, neither were they strictly enclosed, nor forbidden to enjoy the use of their possessions. They were at first under the direction of the <a href="../cathen/11244c.htm">Olivetan</a> Benedictines, but after the death of their foundress, in 1440, they became independent.</p> <p><em>(4) Orders of Canonesses</em></p> <p>Information is but scanty concerning the chapters of noble canonesses, which were fairly numerous in <a href="../cathen/09362a.htm">Lorraine</a>, <a href="../cathen/06094b.htm">Flanders</a>, and <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> in <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval times</a>. It seems certain, however, that many of them were originally communities of Benedictine <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a>, which, for one reason or another, renounced their solemn <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vows</a> and assumed the state of canonesses, whilst still observing some form of the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Benedictine Rule</a>. The membership of almost all these chapters was restricted to <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> of noble, and in some cases of royal, descent. In many also, whilst the canonesses were merely seculars, that is, not under <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vows</a> of religious, and therefore free to leave and marry, the abbesses retained the character and state of religious superiors, and as such were solemnly professed as Benedictine <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a>. The following list of houses is taken from <a href="../cathen/09479b.htm">Mabillon</a> and <a href="../cathen/07214a.htm">Hélyot</a>, but all had ceased to exist by the end of the eighteenth century:—In Lorraine: Remiremont; founded 620; members became canonesses in 1515; Epinal, 983; Pouzay, Bouxières-aux-Dames, and Metz, of the eleventh or twelfth century. In <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>: Cologne, 689; Homburg and Strasburg, of the seventh century; Lindau, Buchau, and Andlau of the eighth century; Obermunster, Niedermunster, and Essen of the ninth century. In <a href="../cathen/06094b.htm">Flanders</a>: Nivelles, Mons, Andenne, Maubeuge, and Belisie of the seventh century; and Denain, 764. The members of the following houses in <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> having renounced their solemn <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vows</a> and become canonesses in the sixteenth century, abandoned also the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">Faith</a> and accepted the <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestant religion</a>: Gandersheim, Herford, Quedlinburg, Gernrode.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">The Benedictine Order in General.—Montalembert, <em>Monks of the West</em> (London, 1896), Eng. Tr., new ed., with preface by Gasquet; Newman, <em>Mission of St. Benedict</em> and <em>Benedictine Schools</em>, in <em>Historical Sketches</em> (London, 1873); Gasquet, <em>Sketch of the Life and Mission of St. Benedict</em> (London, 1895); Maitland, <em>The Dark Ages</em> (London, 1845); Mabillon, <em>Annales O. S. B.</em> (Paris, 1703-39); Id., <em>Acta SS. O. S. B.</em> (Venice, 1733); Yepez, <em>Chronicon generale Ord. S. P. N. Benedicti</em> (Cologne, 1603); Hélyot, <em>Histoire des ordres religieux</em> (Paris, 1792); Id., <em>Dict. Des ordres religieux</em> (Paris, 1860); Mege, <em>Commentaire sur la regle de S. Benoit</em> (Paris, 1687); Calmet, <em>Commentaire</em> (Paris, 1734); Menard, <em>Codex regularum</em> (Paris, 1638); Besse, <em>Le moine benedictin</em> (Ligugé, 1898); Braunmuller in <em>Kirchenlex.</em>, s.v.; Herzog, <em>Realencyclopadie</em> (Leipzig, 1897), s.v.; Heimbucher, <em>Die Order und Kongregationen der katholischen Kirche</em> (Paderborn, 1896), I; Ziegelbauer, <em>Hist. Lit. O. S. B.</em> (Augsburg, 1754); <em>Album Benedictinum</em> (St. Vincent's, Pennsylvania, 1880; Rome, 1905); Tanner, <em>Notitia Monastica</em> (London, 1744); Dugdale, <em>Monasticon Anglicanum</em>, with Stevens's continuation (London, 1817-30); Gasquet, <em>Henry VIII and the English Monasteries</em> (London, 1899); Id., <em>The Eve of the Reformation</em> (London, 18990); Gairdner, Prefaces to <em>Calendars of State Papers of Henry VIII</em>; Taunton, <em>English Black Monks of St. Benedict</em> (London, 1897); Dudden, <em>Gregory the Great</em> (London, 1905), I; Eckenstein, <em>Women under Monasticism</em> (Cambridge, 1896); Hope, <em>St. Boniface and the Conversion of Germany</em> (London, 1872); Reyner, <em>Apostolatus Benedictinorum in Anglia</em> (Douai, 1626); Hind, <em>Benedictines in Oxford</em> in <em>Ampleforth Journal</em>, VI, 1901.</p><p class="cenotes">Special Congregations.—Duckett, <em>Charters and Records of Cluni</em> (Lewes, England, 1890); Sackur, <em>Die Cluniacenser</em> (Halle a S., 1892-94); Janauschek, <em>Origines Cisterciensium</em> (Vienna, 1877); Gaillardin, <em>Les Trappistes</em> (Paris, 1844); Guibert, <em>Destruction de Grandmont</em> (Paris, 1877); Salvado, <em>Memorie Storiche</em> (Rome, 1851); Berengier, <em>La Nouvelle-Nursie</em> (Paris, 1878); Brullee, <em>Vie de P. Muard</em> (Paris, 1855), tr. Robot, 1882; Thompson, <em>Life of P. Muard</em> (London, 1886; de Broglie, <em>Mabillon</em> (Paris, 1888); Id., <em>Montfaucon</em> (Paris, 1891); Houtin, <em>Dom Couturier</em> (Angers, 1899); Van Galoen, <em>Dom Maur Wolter et les origines de la cong. De Beuron</em> (Bruges, 1891); Dolan, <em>Succisa Virescit</em> in <em>Downside Review</em>, I-IV.</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Alston, G.C.</span> <span id="apayear">(1907).</span> <span id="apaarticle">The Benedictine Order.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02443a.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Alston, George Cyprian.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"The Benedictine Order."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 2.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1907.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02443a.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Susan Birkenseer.</span> <span id="dedication">Dedicated to Sr. Monica Marie (P.J. Kamplain), O.S.B.</span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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