TheCongregation of St. Maur, often known as theMaurists, were acongregation ofFrenchBenedictines, established in 1621, and known for their high level of scholarship.[1] The congregation and its members were named afterSaint Maurus (died 565), a disciple ofSaint Benedict credited with introducing theBenedictine rule and life intoGaul. The congregation was suppressed and its superior-general executed during theFrench Revolution.[2]
At the end of the 16th century the Benedictine monasteries ofFrance had fallen into a state of disorganization and laxity. In theAbbey of St. Vanne nearVerdun a reform was initiated byDom Didier de la Cour, which spread to other houses inLorraine, and in 1604 the reformedCongregation of St. Vanne was established, the most distinguished members of which wereCeillier andCalmet. A number of French houses joined the new congregation; but as Lorraine was still independent of the French crown, it was considered desirable to form on the same lines a separate congregation for France. At the suggestion ofLaurent Bénard[3] in 1621 thus was established the famous FrenchCongregation of St. Maur.[2][4]
Most of the Benedictine monasteries of France, except those belonging toCluny, gradually joined the new congregation, which eventually embraced nearly two hundred houses. The chief house wasSaint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, the residence of the superior-general and center of the literary activity of the congregation.[2]
The primary idea of the movement was not the undertaking of literary and historical work, but the return to a strict monastic régime and the faithful carrying out of Benedictine life; and throughout the most glorious period of Maurist history the literary work was not allowed to interfere with the due performance of the choral office and the other duties of the monastic life. Towards the end of the 18th century a tendency crept in, in some quarters, to relax the monastic observances in favor of study; but the constitutions of 1770 show that a strict monastic régime was maintained until the end.[2]
The course of Maurist history and work was checkered by the ecclesiastical controversies that distracted the French Church during the 17th and 18th centuries. Some of the members identified themselves with theJansenist cause; but the bulk, including nearly all the greatest names, pursued a middle path, opposing the lax moral theology condemned in 1679 byPope Innocent XI, and adhering to those strong views on grace andpredestination associated with theAugustinian andThomist schools ofRoman Catholic theology; and like all the theological faculties and schools on French soil, they were bound to teach the fourGallican articles.[2]
Towards the end of the 18th century a rationalistic and freethinking spirit seems to have invaded some of the houses. The congregation (along with all Catholic religious orders) was suppressed in 1790 during theFrench Revolution, and the monks were scattered. The lastsuperior general of the order (Ambroise Chevreux) and forty monks died on the scaffold in Paris[2] in 1792, during theSeptember Massacres.[note 1]
Their historical and critical school produced a number of works of scholarship which still are of permanent value. The foundations of this school were laid byDom Tarisse, the first superior-general, who in 1632 issued instructions to the superiors of the monasteries to train the young monks in the habits of research and of organized work. The pioneers in production wereMénard andLuc d'Achery.[2]
The full Maurist bibliography contains the names of some 220 writers and more than 700 works. The lesser works in large measure cover the same fields as those in the list, but the number of works of purely religious character, of piety, devotion and edification, is very striking. What was produced was only a portion of what was contemplated and prepared for.[2]
Some of their most important contributions are:
TheFrench Revolution cut short many undertakings, the collected materials for which fill hundreds of manuscript volumes in theBibliothèque nationale de Paris and other libraries of France. There are at Paris 31 volumes ofBerthereau's materials for theHistorians of the Crusades, not one inLatin andGreek, but in the oriental tongues; from them have been taken in great measure theRecueil des historiens des croisade whereof 15 folio volumes have been published by theAcadémie des Inscriptions. There exist also the preparations for an edition ofRufinus and one ofEusebius, and for the continuation of the Papal Letters and of theConcilia Galliae. Dom Cafflaux and Dom Villevielle left 236 volumes of materials for aTrésor généalogique. There areBenedictine Antiquities (37 vols.) (Claude Estiennot de la Serre), aMonasticon Gallicanum and aMonasticon Benedictinum (54 vols.) Of theHistories of the Provinces of France barely half a dozen were printed, but all were in hand, and the collections for the others fill 800 volumes of manuscripts. The materials for a geography of Gaul and France in 50 volumes perished in a fire during the Revolution.[2]
The output was prodigious, coming from a single society. The qualities that have made Maurist work proverbial for learning are its critical tact and its thoroughness.[2]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Butler, Edward Cuthbert (1911). "Maurists". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 911.The chief source of information on the Maurists and their work isDom Tassin'sHistoire littéraire de la Congrégation de Saint-Maur (1770); it has been reduced to a bare bibliography and completed by de Lama,Bibliothèque des écrivains de la congrégation de Saint-Maur (Münich and Paris, 1882). The two works of de Broglie,Mabillon (2 vols., 1888) andMontfaucon (2 vols., 1891), give a picture of the life of the great Maurists of the earlier generation. Sketches of the lives of a few of the chief Maurists will be found in McCarthy'sPrincipal Writers of the Congregation of S. M. (1868).
Useful information about their literary undertakings will be found inLéopold Delisle'sLe Cabinet des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque impériale; Fond'sSaint-Germain-des-Prés. General information will be found in the standard authorities:Helyot,Histoire des ordres religieux (1718), vi. c. 37;Heimbucher,Orden und Kongregationen (1907) i. 36;Wetzer und Welte, Kirchenlexicon (ed. 2) andHerzog-Hauck'sRealencyklopädie (ed. 3), the latter an appreciation by theProtestant historianOtto Zückler.
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