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| A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
The Benedictine Order comprisesmonks living under theRule of St. Benedict, and commonly known as "blackmonks". The order will be considered in this article under the following sections:
I. History of the Order;
II. Lay brothers, Oblates, Confraters, and Nuns;
III. Influence and Work of the Order;
IV. Present Condition of the Order;
V. Benedictines of Special Distinction;
VI. Other Foundations Originating from, or Based upon, the Order.
The termOrder as here applied to the spiritualfamily of St. Benedict is used in a sense differing somewhat from that in which it is applied to otherreligious orders. In its ordinary meaning the term implies one complete religiousfamily, made up of a number ofmonasteries, all of which are subject to a common superior or "general" who usually resides either inRome 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 beingimmediately subject 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 thepope 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 termOrder is applied in this article to allmonasteries professing to observeSt. Benedict's Rule.
St. Benedict did not, strictly speaking, found an order; we have no evidence that he ever contemplated the spread of his Rule to anymonasteries besides those which he had himself established.Subiaco was his original foundation and the cradle of the institute. FromSt. Gregory we learn that twelve othermonasteries in the vicinity ofSubiaco also owed their origin to him, and that when he wasobliged to leave that neighbourhood he founded the celebratedAbbey of Monte Cassino, which eventually become the centre whence his Rule and institute spread. These fourteen are the onlymonasteries of which there is any reliable evidence of having been founded during St. Benedict's lifetime. The tradition ofSt. Placid's mission toSicily in 534, which first gained general credence in the eleventh century, though accepted as genuine by such writers asMabillon and Ruinart, is now generally admitted to be mere romance. Very little more can be said in favour of the supposed introduction of theBenedictine Rule into Gaul bySt. Maurus in 543, though it also has been strenuously upheld by many responsible writers. At any rate, evidences for it are so extremelydoubtful that it cannot be seriously regarded as historical. There is reason forbelieving that it was the thirdAbbot ofMonte Cassino who began to spread aknowledge of the Rule beyond the circle of St. Benedict's own foundations. It is at least certain that whenMonte Cassino was sacked by the Lombards about the year 580, themonks fled toRome, where they were housed byPope Pelagius II in amonastery adjoining theLateran Basilica. There, in the very centre of theecclesiastical 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 aknowledge of Benedictine monasticism. It is generally agreed also that whenGregory the Great embraced themonastic state and converted hisfamily palace on Apostle, it was the Benedictine form of monachism that he adopted there.
It was from themonastery of St. Andrew inRome thatSt. Augustine, the prior, and his forty companions set forth in 595 on their mission for the evangelization ofEngland, and with them St. Benedict'sidea of the monastic life first emerged fromItaly. The arguments and authorities for this statement have been admirably marshalled and estimated by Reyner in his "Apostolatus Benedictinorum in Angliâ" (Douai, 1626), and hisproofs have been adjudged byMabillon to amount to demonstration. [Cf. Butler, "Was St. Augustine a Benedictine?" in Downside Review, III (1884).] At their various stopping places during the journey throughFrance themonks 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 chiefmonasteries of Gaul during the seventh century. Lérins, for instance, one of the oldest, which had been founded bySt. Honoratus in 375, probably received its firstknowledge of theBenedictine Rule from the visit ofSt. Augustine 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 toRome to implore thepope to allow them to abandon the object of their journey. During his absence they remained atLérins. Not long after their departure, Aygulph,Abbot of Fleury, was called in to restore the discipline and he probably introduced the full Benedictine observance; for whenSt. Benedict Biscop visited Lérins later on in the seventh century he received the Benedictine habit andtonsure from the hands of Abbot Aygulph. Lérins continued through several centuries to supply from itsmonksbishops 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 inSwitzerland, it had to contend with and supplement the much stricterIrish or Celtic Rule introduced by St. Columbanus and others. In or practised side by side.Gregory of Tours says that at Ainay, in the sixth century, themonks "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 theBenedictine Rule when it reached them. In othermonasteries it entirely displaced the earlier codes, and had by the end of the eighth century so completely superseded them throughoutFrance thatCharlemagne could gravelydoubt whethermonks of any kind had been possible before St. Benedict's time. The authority ofCharlemagne and of his son, Louis the Pious, did much, as we shall presently see, towards propagating the principles of the Father of western monachism.
St. Augustine and hismonks established the firstEnglish Benedictinemonastery atCanterbury 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 inEngland 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 inEngland. Through the influence of saintly men, Wilfrid, Benedict Biscop, andDunstan, theBenedictine Rule spread with extraordinary rapidity, and in the North, when once theEaster controversy had been settled and the Roman supremacy acknowledged (Synod of Whitby, 664), it was adopted in most of themonasteries that had been founded by the Celtic missionaries fromIona. Many of theepiscopal sees ofEngland were founded and governed by the Benedictines, and no less than nine of the oldcathedrals were served by the blackmonks of thepriories attached to them. Even when thebishop was not himself amonk, he held the place of titularabbot, and the community formed his chapter.
Germany owed its evangelization to theEnglish Benedictines, Sts. Willibrord andBoniface, who preached the Faith, there in the seventh and eighth centuries and founded several celebratedabbeys. From thence spread, hand in hand,Christianity and Benedictine monasticism, toDenmark and Scandinavia, and from the latter even to Iceland. InSpainmonasteries had been founded by theVisigothic kings as early as the latter half of the fifth century, but it was probably some two or three hundred years laterSt. Benedict's Rule was adopted.Mabillon gives 640 as thedate 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. InSwitzerland the disciples of Columbanus had foundedmonasteries early in the seventh century, two of the best known being St. Gall's, established by thesaint 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 ofPepin the Short, the father ofCharlemagne. By the ninth century, however, the Benedictine had become the only form of monastic life throughout the whole of WesternEurope, exceptingScotland,Wales, andIreland, where the Celtic observance still prevailed for another century or two. At the time of theReformation there were nine Benedictine houses inIreland and six inScotland, besides numerousabbeys ofCistercians.
Benedictine monasticism never took such deep root in the eastern countries ofEurope as it had done in the West. TheBohemians and the Poles, nevertheless, owed their conversion respectively to the Benedictine missionaries Adalbert (d. 997) and Casimir (d. 1058), whilstBavaria and what is now theAustrian Empire were evangelized first bymonks from Gaul in the seventh century, and later on bySt. Boniface and his disciples. A few of the largerabbeys 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 theBenedictine Rule never penetrated in early times, and the greatschism between East and West effectually prevented any possibilities of development in that direction.
During the first four or five centuries after the death of St. Benedict there existed no organic bond of union amongst the variousabbeys other than the Rule itself and obedience to theHoly See. According to the holy legislator's provisions eachmonastery constituted an independentfamily, self-contained, autonomous, managing its own affairs, and subject to no external authority except that of the localdiocesanbishop, whose powers of control were, however, limited to certain specific occasions. The earliest departures from this system occurred when several of the greaterabbeys began sending out offshoots, under the form of daughter-houses retaining some sort of dependence upon the motherabbey 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.
A system which comprised many hundreds ofmonasteries and many thousands ofmonks, 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 themonks often failed to live up to the monastic ideal and sometimes even fell short of theChristian and moral standards. There were failures andscandals in Benedictine history, just as there were declensions from the right path outside thecloister, formonks 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 thetrue 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.
The first of the reforms directed towards confederating themonastic houses of a single kingdom was set on foot early in the ninth century byBenedict of Aniane under the auspices ofCharlemagne and Louis the Pious. Though a Benedictine himself born in Aquitaine and trained at Saint-Seine nearDijon, 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 amonastery adjoining his own palace atAix-la-Chapelle, 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 themonasteries of the empire. Absolute uniformity of discipline, observance, and habit, after the pattern of the royalmonastery, was then the general scheme which was launched at an assembly of all theabbots atAachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) in 817 and embodied in a series of eightycapitula passed by the meeting. Though by reason of the very minuteness of thesecapitula, which made them vexatious and ultimately intolerable, this scheme of centralized authority lasted only for the lifetime of Benedict himself, thecapitula (printed in full inHerrgott, "Vetus Disciplina Monastica", Paris, 1726) were recognized as supplying a much needed addition toSt. Benedict's Rule concerning points not sufficiently provided for therein, and as filling much the same place then as the approved Constitutions of amonastery or congregation do now.
A century later, in 910, the first real reform that produced any widespread and general effect was commenced at the Abbey of Cluny inBurgundy, under St. Berno, its firstabbot. 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 bySt. Benedict of Aniane, was introduced. It was in fact the establishment of a veritableorder, in the common acceptance of that term, within the Benedictinefamily, theabbot of Cluny retaining an actual headship over all dependent houses, the latter being governed only bypriors as his vicars. For two centuries or more Cluny was probably the chief religious influence in theLatin Church, as it was also the firstabbey 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 314monasteries in all parts ofEurope,France,Italy, the Empire,Lorraine,Spain,England,Scotland, andPoland. 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).
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 theRule of St. Benedict as a basis, aimed frequently at a greater austerity of life than was practised by the blackmonks or contemplated by the holy Rule. Some were even semi-eremitical in their constitution, and one — Fontevrault — consisted ofdouble monasteries, the religious of both sexes being under the rule of theabbess. 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, likeCîteaux, and have always been looked upon as outside the Benedictine confederation, though still professing theRule of St. Benedict 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),Cîteaux (1098), Fontevrault (1099), Savigny (1112),Monte Vergine (1119),Sylvestrines (1231),Celestines (1254), andOlivetans (1319). All of these will be described in detail under the respective titles.
The influence of Cluny, even inmonasteries which did not join its congregation or adopt any of the other reforms mentioned above, was large and far-reaching. Many suchabbeys, includingSubiaco andMonte Cassino, 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 ofmonasteries based on a uniform observance derived from a centralabbey. These unions, the germ of the congregational system which developed later on, deserve a somewhat detailed enumeration here. InEngland there had been three distinct efforts at systematic organization. The variousmonasteries founded bySt. Augustine and his fellow-monks had preserved some sort of union, as was only natural with new foundations in apagan country proceeding from a common source of origin. AsChristianity spread through the land this necessity for mutual dependence diminished, but whenSt. Benedict Biscop came toEngland withArchbishop Theodore in 669, it fell to him to foster a spirit of uniformity amongst the various Benedictinemonasteries then existing. In the tenth centurySt. Dunstan set himself to reform theEnglishmonastic houses on the model of Fleury and of what he had seen successfully carried out atGhent during his exile inFlanders. With his co-operationSt. Ethelwold brought out his "Concordia Regularis", which is interesting as an early attempt to procure a uniform observance in all themonasteries of a nation. A century laterLanfranc continued the sameidea by issuing a series ofstatutes regulating the life of theEnglish Benedictines. It should be noted here that these several attempts were directed only towards securing outward uniformity, and that as yet there was apparently noidea of acongregation, 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 theCluniac reform, as did alsoSt. Benignus of Dijon, 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 theRevolution, Val-des-Choux, which becameCistercian, and Lérins, which in 1505 joined the Italian congregation of St. Justina of Padua. InItaly the chief groups had their centres at Cluse inPiedmont, at Fonte Avellana, which united to theCamaldolese 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 Benedictinefamily. Themonasteries ofGermany were divided chiefly betweenFulda and Hirschau, both of which eventually joined the Bursfeld Union. (SeeBURSFELD.) InAustria there were two groups ofmonasteries, theabbeys ofMelk (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 theTridentine 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 inScotland, Scandinavia,Poland,Hungary, and elsewhere, in which the sameidea 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.
Notwithstanding all these reform movements and unions ofmonasteries, a large number of Benedictineabbeys 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 theFourth Lateran Council, 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 themonasteries of eachecclesiastical province were to unite into a congregation. Theabbots of each province or congregation were to meet in chapter every third year, with power to passlaws binding on all, and to appoint from amongst their own number "visitors" who were to makecanonical visitation of themonasteries and to report upon their condition to the ensuing chapter. In each congregation one of theabbots 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 eachabbot in his ownmonastery.England 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 theBull "Benedictina" byBenedict XII, 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.
At the time of this important change in the constitution of the order, the blackmonks of St. Benedict were to be found in almost every country of WesternEurope, including Iceland, where they had twoabbeys, founded in the twelfth century, and from which missionaries had penetrated even intoGreenland and the lands of theEskimo. At the beginning of the fourteenth century the order is estimated to have comprised the enormous number of 37,000monasteries. It had up to that time given to theChurch no less than 24popes, 200cardinals, 7,000archbishops, 15,000bishops, and over 1,500canonizedsaints. 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 theReformation and the religiouswars spread havoc amongst itsmonasteries and reduced their number to about 5,000. InDenmark,Iceland, and Sweden, where several houses had joined the German (Bursfeld) Union, the order was entirely obliterated by theLutherans about 1551 and itsproperty confiscated by the crown. The arbitrary rule ofJoseph II of Austria (1765-90) and theFrench Revolution and its consequences completed the work of destruction, so that in the early part of the nineteenth century, the order numbered scarcely more than fiftymonasteries 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 fiftymonasteries of blackmonks, or, including affiliated congregations andconvents ofnuns, 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.
(1)The English Congregation.—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 thedissolution underHenry VIII 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 themonasteries of the southern province ofCanterbury were represented, but in 1338, in consequence of theBull "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 ofmonasteries, though theBull "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 inEngland there was never any further advance along the path of centralization. At the time of thedissolution there were inEngland nearly three hundred houses of blackmonks, and though the numbers had from one cause or another somewhat declined, the English congregation may truthfully be said to have been in a flourishingcondition at the time of the attempt to suppress it in the sixteenth century. The grave charges brought against themonks byHenry VIII's 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 theReformation, London, 1890), and Gairdner (Prefaces to "Calendars of State Papers of Henry VIII").
Throughout the period of suppression themonks 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 inEngland hoping for a restoration of the former state of things, whilst not a few preferred to suffer lifelongimprisonment rather than surrender their convictions and claims. InQueen Mary's reign there was a brief revival atWestminster, where some of the survivingmonks were brought together underAbbot Feckenham in 1556. Of themonks 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 ofimprisonment, when nigh unto death, in 1607, invested with the English habit and affiliated toWestminster Abbey and to the English congregation twoEnglishpriests, already Benedictines of the Italian congregation. By this act he became the link between the old and the new lines of English blackmonks, and through him thetrue succession was perpetuated. About the same time a number ofEnglishmonks were being trained abroad, mostly inSpain, for the English mission, and these were in 1619 aggregated bypapal authority to the English congregation, though themonasteries founded by them had perforce to be situated abroad. St. Gregory's atDouai was established in 1605, St. Lawrence's at Dieulouard in Lorraine in 1606, and St. Edmund's atParis in 1611. The first two of these communities remained on the continent until driven toEngland by theFrench Revolution, but the third has only recently returned. In 1633, by theBull "Plantata",Pope Urban VIII bestowed upon the restored English congregation "every privilege, grant,indulgence, faculty, and other prerogative which had ever belonged to the ancient English congregation" and also approved of its members taking onoath by which they bound themselves to labour for the reconversion of their country. Sozealous were they in this twenty-seven sufferedmartyrdom for the Faith, whilst eleven died inprison. Two othermonasteries were added to the congregation, viz., Lamspring inGermany in 1643, and Saint-Malo in Brittany in 1611, the latter, however, being passed over to the French (Maurist) congregation in 1672.
In 1795 themonks ofDouai were expelled from theirmonastery by theRevolution, and after many hardships, includingimprisonment, escaped toEngland, where, after a temporary residence at Acton Burnell (near Shrewsbury), they settled in 1814 atDownside in Somerset. Themonks of Dieulouard were also driven out at the same time and after some years of wandering established themselves in 1802 atAmpleforth in Yorkshire. Themonks of St. Edmund's, Paris, not successful in making their escape fromFrance, were dispersed for a time, but when, in 1818, the buildings of St. Gregory's atDouai 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 theirschool for English boys, until, in 1903, the "Association Laws" of the French government once more expelled them from theirmonastery; returning toEngland, they have established themselves at Woolhampton in Berkshire. The Abbey of Lamspring continued to flourish amongstLutheran surroundings until it was suppressed by thePrussian 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. Themonks 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 inScotland. In 1859 St. Michael'spriory, at Belmont, nearHereford, was established, in compliance with adecree ofPius IX, as a centralnovitiate and house of studies for the whole congregation. It was also made the pro-cathedral of theDiocese of Newport in England, thebishop and canons of which are chosen from theEnglish Benedictines, thecathedral-prior acting asprovost 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 thatnovices might henceforth be received for St. Michael'smonastery. In 1899Leo XIII raised the threepriories of St. Gregory's (Downside), St. Lawrence's (Ampleforth), and St. Edmund's (Douai) to the rank ofabbeys, so that the congregation now consists of threeabbeys, and onecathedral-priory, each with its own community, but Belmont still remains the centralnovitiate andtyrocinium for all the houses. Besides its regularprelates, the English congregations, by virtue of theBull "Plantata" (1633), allowed to perpetuate as titular dignities the ninecathedral-priories which belonged to it before theReformation, viz.,Canterbury,Winchester,Durham, Coventry,Ely,Worcester, Rochester,Norwich, and Bath; to these have been added three more,Peterborough, Gloucester, and Chester, originally Benedictineabbeys but raised tocathedral rank byHenry VIII. Six ancient abbacies also,St. Alban's,Westminster, Glastonbury,Evesham, Bury St. Edmunds, and St. Mary's,York, are similarly perpetuated by privilege granted in 1818.
(2)The Cassinese Congregation.—To prevent confusion it isnecessary to pint out that there are two congregations of this name. The first, withMonte Cassino as its chief house, was originally known as that of St. Justina of Padua, and with one exception has always been confined toItaly. 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.
Most of theItalianmonasteries 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 theCluniac observance was retained. The Abbey of St. Justina atPadua, which had formerly beenCluniac, was in a very corrupt and ruinous state in 1407 whenGregory XII bestowed itin commendam on theCardinal of Bologna. Thatprelate, desirous of reform, introduced someOlivetanmonks, but the three remainingCluniacmonks appealed to theVenetian Republic against this encroachment on theirrights, with the result that theabbey was restored to them and theOlivetans dismissed. Thecardinal resigned theabbey to thepope, 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 twoCamaldolesemonks and two canons of Alga, he instituted a reformed observance, which was quickly adopted in othermonasteries as well. Permission was obtained from thepope 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 celebratedabbeys ofSubiaco,Monte Cassino,St. Paul's inRome, St. George's atVenice, La Cava, andFarfa. In 1504 its title was changed to that of the "Cassinese Congregation". It gradually came to embrace all of the chief Benedictine houses ofItaly, to the number of nearly two hundred, divided into seven provinces,Rome,Naples,Sicily,Tuscany,Venice,Lombardy, andGenoa. 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 smallestmonastery. 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 thewars of theRevolution period; and the later decrees of the Italian government put a check to its reception ofnovices 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 sixteenmonasteries, some entirely without communities, and only three or four with sufficient numbers to keep up full conventual observances.
(3)The Cassinese Congregation of Primitive Observance.—In the year 1851 Abbot Casaretto ofSubiaco initiated atGenoa a return to a stricter observance than was then in vogue, and several othermonasteries of the Cassinese congregation, includingSubiaco itself, desiring to unite in this reforming movement, Pius IX joined all suchabbeys into one federation, which was called after its chief house, the "Province ofSubiaco". Before longmonasteries in other countries adopted the same reformed observance and became affiliated toSubiaco. In 1872 this union ofmonasteries 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 theAbbot ofSubiaco as abbot-general of the whole federation.
(a) The Italian Province dates from the original federation in 1851, and comprises tenmonasteries with over two hundred religious. One of these is theAbbey of Monte Vergine, formerly the mother-house of an independent congregation, but which was aggregated to this province in 1879.
(b) The English Province was formed in 1858 when certainEnglishmonks atSubiaco obtained permission to make a foundation inEngland. The Isle of Thanet, hallowed by the memory ofSt. Augustine's landing there twelve hundred and sixty years previously, was selected and a church whichAugustus Welby Pugin had built at Ramsgate was placed at their disposal. By 1860 amonastery had been erected and full conventual life established. It became apriory in 1880 and in 1896 anabbey. In course oftime, in addition to serving several neighbouring missions, the community embarked on work inNew Zealand, where Dom Edmund Luck, a Ramsgatemonk, was madeBishop ofAuckland. They also undertook work in Bengal in 1874, but this has since been relinquished to thesecular clergy.
(c) TheBelgian Province began in 1858 with the affiliation toSubiaco of the eleventh-century Abbey of Termonde. Afflighem followed in 1870, and since then two new foundations have been made inBelgium, and quite recently missionary work has been undertaken in the Transvaal, South Africa.
(d) The French Province, perhaps the most numerous and flourishing in the congregation, dates from 1859. Jean-Baptiste Muard, aparishpriest and founder of asociety ofdiocesan missioners, became amonk atSubiaco. After his profession there in 1849, he returned toFrance 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, theabbey 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),Oklahoma, Indian Territory,U.S.A. with an Apostolic vicariate attached (1874), Belloc (1875), Kerbeneat (1888), Encalcat (1891), Nino-Dios,Argentina (1899), andJerusalem (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 inEngland, where in 1882 they acquired the site of the oldCistercian Abbey of Buckfast, in Devonshire. Here they are gradually rebuilding theabbey on its original foundations. The "Association Laws" of 1903 again dispersed the congregation, themonks of Pierre-qui-Vire finding a temporary home inBelgium, those of Belloc and Encalcat going toSpain, and Kerbeneat to SouthWales, whilst those of Béthisy and Saint-Benoît, being engaged inparochial work, obtained authorization and have remained inFrance.
(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 oldmonasteries 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 atManila (Philippines) in 1895. This province also includes the Abbey of New Norcia in Western Australia, founded in 1846 by two exiledmonks from St. Martin's Abbey, Compostella, who after the general suppression in 1835 had found a home at La Cava inItaly. Seeing no hope of a return toSpain 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 inhonour of St. Benedict's birthplace, and there worked as pioneers of civilization andChristianity amongst the natives. Their labours werecrowned with success and theirabbey gradually became the centre from which a number of outlying mission stations were established. Dom Serra became coadjutor to theBishop of Perth in 1848, and Dom Salvado was madeBishop ofPort Victoria in 1849, though he still remained superior of New Norcia, which was made anabbey in 1867 with adiocese 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. Themonks own vast tracts of bushland around theirmonastery and they rear horses, sheep, and cattle on a large scale. The community includes a number of aboriginal converts amongst its lay brethren.
(4)The Bursfeld Union.—Although more fully dealt with in aseparate article, something must be said here about this congregation. Formed in 1430, it included all the principalmonasteries ofGermany, and at the height of its prosperity numbered one hundred and thirty-six houses of men and sixty-four ofwomen. It flourished until theProtestant Reformation, which with the religiouswars that followed entirely obliterated it, and most of itsmonasteries passed intoLutheran hands. In 1628 the few remaining representatives of the congregation, having recovered aright to some of their possessions, offered sevenmonasteries to the newly resuscitated English congregation, on condition that the task of getting rid of theLutheran occupants should devolve upon theEnglishmonks, whilst themonasteries 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 aseminary for a few years by theEnglish Benedictines, and Lamspring, which continued as an abbey ofEnglishmonks from 1644 to 1802. No othermonasteries of the Bursfeld Union were ever restored to Benedictine use. (SeeBURSFELD.)
(5)The Spanish Congregation.—There were originally two distinct congregations inSpain, that of the "Claustrales" or ofTarragona, formed in 1336, and that of Valladolid, organized in 1489. At the time of the general suppression in 1835, the former comprised sixteenabbeys, and the latter fifty, besides one or twopriories inPeru 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 inSpain. 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 inSpain; St. Vincent's, Salamanca, famous for itsuniversity; Our Lady's, Montserrat; and St. Domingo at Silos. Of the sixty-sixmonasteries 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 theFrenchmonks from Ligugé. Of the rest, sixteen remain asparish churches, thirteen are now occupied by otherreligious orders, two or three are used as barracks, two asprisons, one as adiocesanseminary, a few have been converted into municipal buildings or private residences, and the remainder have been destroyed.
(6)The Portuguese Congregation.—In the sixteenth century themonasteries ofPortugal were all held by commendatoryabbots and consequently were in a very unsatisfactory state as regards discipline. A reform was initiated in 1558 in the Abbey of St. Thirso,monks fromSpain 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 thePortuguese 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 themonasteries ofPortugal and continued in a flourishing state until the wholesale suppression ofreligious houses in the early part of the nineteenth century, when its existence came to an abrupt end. Only one Benedictinemonastery inPortugal has since been restored—that of Cucujães, originally founded in 1091. Its resuscitation in 1875 came about in this way: to evade thelaw forbidding their reception ofnovices, theBrazilian Benedictines had sent some of the subjects toRome for study and training in themonastery of St. Paul's, where they were professed about 1870. TheBrazilian government refusing them permission to return to that country, they settled inPortugal and obtained possession of the oldmonastery of Cucujães. After twenty years of somewhat isolated existence there, unable to re-establish thePortuguese congregation, they were, in 1895, affiliated to that of Beuron. ThusBrazil, which had received its first Benedictines fromPortugal, became in turn the means of restoring the Benedictine life in that country.
(7)TheBrazilian Congregation.—The first Benedictines to settle inBrazil came fromPortugal in 1581. They established the followingmonasteries: St. Sebastian,Bahia, (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 fourpriories dependent on Sao Paulo. All these remained subject to thePortuguese superiors until 1827, when in consequence of the separation ofBrazil from the Kingdom ofPortugal, an independentBrazilian congregation was erected byLeo XII, consisting of the above eleven houses, with theAbbot ofBahia as its president. Adecree of theBrazilian government in 1855 forbade the further reception ofnovices, 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 wereabbots of over seventy years of age. The abbot-general appealed for help to thepope, who applied to the Beuronese congregation for volunteers. In 1895 a small colony of Beuronesemonks having spent some time inPortugal learning the language, set out forBrazil and took possession of the abandoned Abbey ofOlinda. The divine office was resumed, mission work in the neighbourhood commenced, and aschool ofalumni (pupils destined for themonastic state) established. Two newabbeys have also been added to the congregation: Quixada, founded in 1900, and St. Andre atBruges (Belgium) in 1901, for the reception and training of subjects forBrazil. In 1903 Rio de Janeiro was made the mother-house of the congregation and the residence of the abbot-general.
(8)TheSwiss Congregation.—The earliestmonasteries inSwitzerland were founded from Luxeuil by the disciples of Columbanus, amongst whom was St. Gall, who established the celebratedabbey afterwards known by his name. By the end of the eighth century theBenedictine Rule had been accepted in most, if not in all of them. Some of thesemonasteries still exist and their communities can boast of an unbroken continuity from those early days. The variousmonasteries ofSwitzerland were united to form theSwiss congregation in 1602, through the efforts of Augustine,Abbot ofEinsiedeln. The political disturbances at the end of the eighteenth century reduced the number ofabbeys 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)Einsiedeln, founded 934, theabbey 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 inFrance; expelled thence in 1902, they moved to Dürnberg inAustria, and in 1906 settled at Bregenz. The sixthabbey was Rheinau, founded 778, which was suppressed in 1862; itsmonks, being unable to resume conventual life, were received into othermonasteries of the congregation.
(9)The Congregation of St.-Vannes.—To counteract the evils resulting from the practice of bestowingecclesiastical benefices upon secularpersonsin commendam, then rife throughout WesternEurope, Dom Didier de la Cour, Prior of the Abbey of St.-Vannes inLorraine, inaugurated in 1598 a strict disciplinary reform with the fullapprobation of thecommendatory abbot, theBishop ofVerdun. Othermonasteries soon followed suit and the reform was introduced into all the houses of Alsace and Lorraine, as well as many in different parts ofFrance. A congregation, numbering about forty houses in all, under the presidency of theprior of St.-Vannes, was formed, and was approved by thepope in 1604. On account of the difficulties arising from the direction of theFrenchmonasteries by a superior residing in another kingdom, a separate congregation — that of St.-Maur — was organized in 1621 for themonasteries inFrance, whilst that of St.-Vannes was restricted to those situated inLorraine. The latter continued with undiminished fervour until suppressed by theFrench Revolution, but is privileges were handed on byGregory XVI in 1837 to the newly founded Gallican congregation, which was declared to be itstrue successor, though not enjoying actual continuity with it.
(10)The Congregation of St.-Maur.—TheFrenchmonasteries 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 inFrance except those of theCluniac congregation. The reform was introduced mainly through the instrumentality ofDom Laurent Bénard and quickly spread throughFrance. Saint-Germain-des-Prés atParis became the mother-house, and the superior of thisabbey 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 countedMabillon, Montfaucon, d'Achery, Martene, and many others equally famous for their erudition and industry. In 1790 theRevolution suppressed all itsmonasteries and themonks 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, andabbeys ofSwitzerland,England, and North America. A few of the survivors endeavoured to restore their congregation atSolesmes 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. (seeMAURISTS.)
(11)The Congregation of St. Placid.—This congregation was also an outcome of the reform instituted at St.-Vannes. The Abbey ofSt. Hubert 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,monks were sent from St.-Vannes in 1618 to initiate the stricter observance. In spite of some opposition from the community as well as from thediocesan, theBishop ofLiège, the revival of discipline gradually gained the supremacy and before long othermonasteries, including St. Denis in Hainault, St. Adrian, Afflighem, St. Peter's atGhent, and others followed suit. These were formed into a new congregation (c. 1630) which was approved byPope Urban VIII, and existed until theRevolution. Twoabbeys of this congregation, Termonde and Afflighem, have since been restored and affiliated to theBelgian province of the Cassinese P. O. congregation.
(12)The Austrian Congregations.—For many centuries themonasteries ofAustria maintained their individual independence and theirabbots acquired positions of much political power and dignity, which, though considerably diminished sincemedieval times, are still such as are enjoyed by no other Benedictineabbots. The example of reform set by the congregation of St. Justina in the fifteenth century exercised an influence upon the Austrianmonasteries. Beginning (1418) in theAbbey of Melk (founded about 1089), the reform was extended to other houses, and in 1460 a union of those that had adopted it was proposed. Sixteenabbots were present at a meeting held in 1470, but for some reason this union ofabbeys does not seem to have been at all lasting, for in 1623 a new Austrian congregation was projected to consist of practically the sameabbeys as the former congregation:Melk, Göttweig, Lambach, Kremsmünster,Vienna, Garsten, Altenburg, Seitenstetten, Mondsee, Kleinck, and Marienberg. In 1630 it was proposed to unite this congregation, those ofBursfeld andBavaria, and all the houses that were still independent, into one general federation, and a meeting was held atRatisbon to discuss the scheme. TheSwedish invitation, however, put an end to the plan and the only result was the formation of another small congregation of nineabbeys, with that of St. Peter's,Salzburg, at its head. These two congregations,Melk and Salzburg, lasted until towards the end of the eighteenth century, when the despotic rule ofJoseph II (1765-90) gave them their death-blow. In 1803 many of theabbeys were suppressed and those that were suffered to remain were forbidden to receive freshnovices. 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 theAbbot of Göttweig, and the latter seven, with theAbbot ofSalzburg at its head. The congregation of the Immaculate Conception, in which are Kremsmünster, dating from 777, St. Paul's in Carinthia, and the Scotsmonastery atVienna, 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).
(13)The Bavarian Congregation.—A reform initiated amongst themonasteries ofBavaria, based upon theTridentine 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, thepious King Ludwig I restored theabbeys of Metten and Ottobeuern (founded in the eighth century), Scheyern (1112), and Andechs (1455), and founded newmonasteries atAugsburg (1834),Munich (1835), Meltenburg (1842), and Schäftlarn (1866). Pius IX restored the congregation (1858) comprising the above houses, of which theAbbot of Metten is president. Theabbeys of Plankstetten (1189) and Ettal (1330) were restored in 1900 and 1904, respectively and added to the congregation.
(14)The Hungarian Congregation.—This congregation differs from all others in its constitution. It comprises the fourabbeys 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" oreducational establishments conducted by themonks. The members of this body are professed for the congregation and not for any particularmonastery, 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 ofHungary, in 1001, and together with the other houses enjoys an unbroken succession from thedate of foundation. The congregation is affiliated to the Cassinese, though it enjoys a status of comparative independence.
(15)The Gallican Congregation.—This, the first of the new congregations of the nineteenth century, was established in 1837 atSolesmes inFrance byDom Guéranger. He had been professed atSt. Paul's,Rome, and though at one time desirous of joining the community ofMonte Cassino, was urged by theBishop ofLe Mans to restore the Benedictine Order inFrance. He acquired possession of the oldMauristpriory ofSolesmes, whichPope Gregory XVI made anabbey and the mother-house of the new congregation. He also declared it to be thetrue successor to all the privileges formerly enjoyed by the congregations of Cluny, St.-Vannes, and St.-Maur.Guéranger was soon joined by numbers of offshoots. In this way Ligugé, originally founded bySt. Martin of Tours 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 atMarseilles in 1865, Farnborough (England), and Wisque in 1895,Paris 1893, Kergonan 1897, and a cell from Silos was established in Mexico in 1901. The community ofSolesmes have been expelled from theirmonastery by the French government no less than four times. In the years 1880, 1882, and 1883 they were ejected byforce, and, being afforded hospitality in the neighbourhood, kept up their corporate life as far as possible, using theparish church for theDivine Office. Each time they succeeded in re-entering theirabbey, but at the final expulsion in 1903 they were, in common with all other religious ofFrance, driven out of the country. TheSolesmesmonks have settled in the Isle of Wight,England, those of Fontanelle, Glanfeuil, Wisque, and Kergonan have gone toBelgium, those of Ligugé toSpain, and those ofMarseilles toItaly. The Fathers atParis 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 theMaurists, and numbers many well-known writers amongst its members. TheAbbot ofSolesmes is the superior general, to which position he has been twice re-elected.
(16)The Congregation of Beuron.—This congregation was founded by Dom Maurus Wolter, who, whilst aseminary professor, was fired with the desire of restoring the Benedictine Order inGermany. He went toSt. Paul's,Rome, 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 thepope's blessing, to reconquerGermany 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 firstabbot of Beuron and superior of the congregation. In 1872 a colony was sent toBelgium to found the Abbey of Maredsous, of which Dom Placid was firstabbot. The community of Beuron were banished in 1875 by the "May Laws" of thePrussian Government and found a temporary home in an oldServitemonastery in the Tyrol. Whilst there their numbers increased sufficiently to make new foundations atErdington,England, in 1876, Prague in 1880, and Seckau,Styria, in 1883. In 1887 Beuron was restored to them, and since then new houses have been established atMaria Laach,Germany (1892),Louvain, and Billerbeck,Belgium (1899 and 1901), and in 1895 the Portuguesemonastery of Cucujães was added to the congregation. The founder died in 1900, and his brother, Dom Placid Wolter, succeeded him as Archabbot of Beuron.
(17)The American Cassinese Congregation.—Nothing very definite can be said with regard to the first Benedictines in North America. There were probably settlements amongst theEskimo fromIceland, by way ofGreenland, but these must have disappeared at an earlydate. In 1493 amonk from Montserrat accompaniedColumbus on his voyage of discovery and became vicar-Apostolic of the West Indies, but his stay was short, and he returned toSpain. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries one or twoEnglishmonks, and at least one of theMaurist congregation, worked on the American mission; and at the time of theFrench Revolution negotiations had been commenced by Bishop Carroll, firstBishop ofBaltimore, for a settlement ofEnglish Benedictines in hisdiocese, which, however, came to nothing. The Benedictine Order was first established permanently in America byDom Boniface Wimmer, of the Abbey of Metten, inBavaria. A number ofBavarians hademigrated to America, and it was suggested that their spiritual wants in the new country should be attended to byBavarianpriests.Dom Wimmer 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,Pennsylvania, which had been founded some time previously by aFranciscan 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 moremonks fromBavaria 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 dependentpriories was made anabbey and the mother-house of a new congregation,Dom Wimmer being appointed firstabbot and president. Besides St. Vincent's Arch-Abbey, the following foundations have been made: St. John's Abbey, Collegeville,Minnesota, founded 1856, mainly through the generosity of King Ludwig I ofBavaria; connected with theabbey is a large college for boys, with an attendance of over 300; St. Benedict's Abbey, Atchison,Kansas, 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 aschool with 150 boys; St. Mary's Abbey,Newark,New Jersey, founded 1857, with aschool of 100 boys; Maryhelp Abbey, Belmont,North Carolina, founded 1885, theabbot of which is also vicar-Apostolic of North Carolina; attached to theabbey are two colleges and aschool, with over 200 students; St. Procopius's Abbey,Chicago, founded 1887, with aschool of 50 boys and anorphanage attached; St. Leo's Abbey, Pasco County,Florida, founded 1889; thisabbey has a dependentpriory in Cuba; St. Bernard's Abbey, Cullman County,Alabama, founded 1891, with aschool of over 100 boys; St. Peter's Priory, established in Illinois in 1892 and transferred to Muenster,Saskatchewan, N. W. T., in 1903; St. Martin's Priory, Lacey, the State of Washington, founded 1895.
(18)TheSwiss American Congregation.—In 1845 twomonks fromEinsiedeln inSwitzerland came to America and founded themonastery of St. Meinrad, inIndiana, serving the mission and conducting a smallschool for boys. It became apriory in 1865, and in 1870 was made anabbey and the centre of the congregation which was canonically erected at the same time. The firstabbot, Dom Martin Marty, became, in 1879, firstVicar Apostolic 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), theabbot of theabbey being president of the congregation; New Subiaco Abbey, Spielerville, Arkansas (1878); St. Benedict's Abbey, Mount Angel,Oregon (1882); St. Joseph's Abbey,Covington, Louisiana (1889); St. Mary's Abbey, Richadton,North Dakota (1899); St. Gall's Priory, Devil's Lake (1893), the last two communities subject to the sameabbot. To all thesemonasteries are attached numerous missions, in which themonks exercise thecure of souls. They also have severalseminaries and colleges.
(19)The Congregation of St. Ottilien.—This congregation, specially established for the work of foreign missions, was commenced in 1884 in the Abbey of St. Ottilien, inBavaria, 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. TheAbbot of St. Ottilien is the superior general and the BeuroneseAbbot ofSeckau 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, inBavaria, and it has also ten mission stations in Central Africa, one of its members beingVicar Apostolic of Zanzibar. Its roll ofhonour was opened in August, 1905, by abishop, twomonks, twolay brothers, and twonuns, who sufferedmartyrdom for the Faith at the hands of the Central African natives.
(20)Independent Abbeys.—Besides the above congregations there also are two independentabbeys, which belong to no congregation, but areimmediately subject to theHoly See; (a) The Abbey of Fort Augustus,Scotland. Founded in 1876, as apriory 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 Scottishmonasteries that had from time to time been founded in different parts ofGermany andAustria, and of which there was, likewise, only one survivor—Father Anselm Robertson, professed at St. Jame's,Ratisbon, in 1845. Thesemonks took up residence with the new community and assisted in the clothing of the firstnovice received for Fort Augustus. In order that its members might be exempt from the external mission work with which theEnglish Benedictines are specially charged, themonastery was, in 1883, separated from the English congregation by theHoly See, and in 1888 was made an independentabbey, directly subject to thepope. Amonk of the Beuron congregation, Dom Leo Linse, was at the same time appointed its firstabbot. 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 threeparishes in the vicinity of theabbey. (b) St. Anselm's Abbey and International Benedictine College,Rome. This was originally founded in 1687 as acollege for Benedictines of the Cassinese congregation, but later onmonks of other congregations were also admitted. Having ceased to exist in 1846, it was revived on a small scale by theAbbot ofSt. Paul's, and reconstituted in 1886 as acollege anduniversity for Benedictines from all parts of the world byLeo XIII, who at his own expense erected the present extensive buildings. In 1900 theabbey church wasconsecrated, in the presence of a great gathering ofabbots from all over the world, by Cardinal Rampolla, acting as representative of thepope. St. Anselm's is presided over by Abbot Hildebrand de Hemptinne (who is alsoAbbot of Maredsous) with the title of "Abbot Primate" of the whole order. It has power to grant degrees intheology,philosophy, 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.
(1)Lay Brothers.—Up to the eleventh century in Benedictine houses no distinction of rank was made between theclerical and the lay brethren. All were on an equal footing in the community and at first comparatively few seem to have been advanced to thepriesthood. St. Benedict himself was probably only alayman; at any rate it iscertain that he was not apriest. Amonk not insacred orders was always considered as eligible as apriest for any office in the community, even that ofabbot, though for purposes of convenience some of themonks were usuallyordained for the service of the altar; and until literary and scholastic work, which could only be undertaken by men of someeducation and culture, began to take the place of manual labour, all shared alike in the daily round of agricultural and domesticduties. St. John Gualbert, the founder of Vallombrosa, was the first to introduce the system of lay brethren, by drawing a line of distinction between themonks who wereclerics 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 choirmonks. Lay brothers were entrusted with the more menial work of themonastery, and all thoseduties that involved intercourse with the outside world, in order that the choir brethren might be free to devote themselves entirely toprayer and other occupations proper to theirclerical vocation. The system spread rapidly to all branches of the order and was imitated by almost every otherreligious order. At the present day there is hardly a congregation, Benedictine or otherwise, that has not its lay brethren, and even amongst numerous orders ofnuns a similar distinction is observed, either between thenuns 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 choirmonks, sometimes differing from it in colour as well as in shape; and thevows of the lay brethren are in most congregations only simple, or renewable periodically, in contrast with the solemnvows for life taken by the choir religious. In some communities at the present time thelay brothers equal and even outnumber thepriests, especially in those, like Beuron or New Nursia, where farming and agriculture are carried out on a large scale.
(2)Oblates.—This term was formerly applied to children offered by theirparents in a solemn way to amonastery, a dedication by which they were considered to have embraced themonastic state. The custom led to many abuses in theMiddle Ages, because oblates sometimes abandoned thereligious life and returned to the world, whilst still looked upon as professed religious. TheChurch, therefore, in the twelfth century, forbade the dedication of children in this way, and the termoblate has since been taken to meanpersons, either lay or cleric, whovoluntarily attach themselves to somemonastery or order without taking thevows of religious. They wear the habit and share all the privileges and exercises of the community they join, but they retain dominion over theirproperty 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 themonastery, but it only partakes of the nature of a mutual agreement and has none of the properties of avow or solemn contract.
(3)Confratres.—A custom sprang up in theMiddle Ages of uniting lay people to areligious community by formal aggregation, through which they participated in all theprayers andgoodworks of themonks, 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 Benedictineconfratres as early as the ninth century. The practice was widely taken up by almost every other order and was developed by themendicants in the thirteenth century into what are now called "third orders". It was peculiar to Benedictineconfratres that they were always aggregated to the particularmonastery 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 distinguishedpersons amongst theirconfratres, and there is hardly amonastery of the present day which has not some lay people connected with it by this spiritual bond of union.
(4)Nuns.—Nothing very definite can be said as to the firstnuns living under theRule of St. Benedict.St. Gregory the Great certainly tells us thatSt. Benedict's sister, Scholastica, presided over such a community of religiouswomen who were established in amonastery situated about five miles from hisAbbey of Monte Cassino; but whether that was merely an isolated instance, or whether it may be legitimately regarded as the foundation of thefemale department of the order, is at least an open question. We do not evenknow what rule thesenuns followed, though we may conjecture that they were underSt. Benedict'sspiritual direction and that whatever rule he gave them probably differed but little, except perhaps in minor details, from that formonks which has come down to us bearing his name. It seems tolerably certain, at any rate, that asSt. Benedict's Rule began to be diffused abroad,women as well as men formed themselves into communities in order to live areligious life according to its principles, and wherever the Benedictinemonks went, there also we findmonasteries being established fornuns. Nunneries were founded in Gaul by Sts. Caesarius and Aurelian of Arles,St. Martin of Tours, and St. Columbanus of Luxeuil, and up to the sixth century the rules fornuns 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 earliestnunneries to make the change were Poitiers, Chelles,Remiremont, and Faremoutier.Mabillon assigns the beginning of the change to the year 620 though more probably theBenedictine Rule was not received in its entirety at so early a date, but was only combined with the other rules then in force. Remiremont became forwomen what Luxeuil was for men, the centre from which sprang a numerous spiritualfamily, and though later on it was converted into aconvent of noblecanonesses, instead ofnuns properly so called, a modified form of theBenedictine Rule was still observed there.St. Benedict's Rule was widely propagated byCharlemagne and his son, Louis the Pious, and the Council ofAix-la-Chapelle in 817 enforced its general observance in all thenunneries of the empire. The Abbey of Notre Dame de Ronceray, atAngers, founded in 1028 by Fulke, Count of Anjou, was one of the most influentialconvents inFrance in theMiddle Ages, and had under itsjurisdiction a large number of dependentpriories.
The earliestconvents forwomen inEngland were atFolkestone, founded 630, and St. Mildred's in Thanet, established 670, and it is probable that under the influence of the successors of St. Augustine'smonks atCanterbury and elsewhere, thesenunneries observed theBenedictine Rule from the first. Other important Anglo-Saxonconvents were: Ely, founded bySt. Etheldreda in 673, Barking (675),Wimborne (713), Wilton (800), Ramsey, Hants (967), and Amesbury (980). In Northumbria, Whitby (657) and Coldingham (673) were the chief houses ofnuns.St. Hilda 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 theseconvents were destroyed byDanish invaders during the ninth and tenth centuries, but some were subsequently restored and many others were founded inEngland after the Norman conquest.
The firstnuns inGermany came fromEngland in the eighth century, having been brought over bySt. Boniface to assist him in his work of conversion and to provide a means ofeducation 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 fromWimborne,St. Boniface established manyconvents throughout the countries in which he preached. In other parts ofEuropenunneries sprang up as rapidly as theabbeys for men, and in theMiddle Ages they were almost, if not quite, as numerous. In latermedieval times the names of St. Gertrude, called the "Great", and her sisterSt. Mechtilde, who flourished in the thirteenth century, shed a lustre on the Benedictinenuns ofGermany. InItaly theconvents seem to have been very numerous during theMiddle Ages. In the thirteenth century several were founded in which the reform of Vallombrosa was adopted, but none of these now exist. There were alsoconvents belonging to the reforms of Camaldoli and Mount Olivet, of which a few still survive.
Except in the Bursfeld Union, which included houses of both sexes, and in theCistercian reform, where thenuns were always under theAbbot ofCîteaux, and a few others of minor importance, the congregational system was never applied to the houses ofwomen in an organized way. Theconvents were generally either under the exclusive direction of some particularabbey, through the influence of which they had been established, or else, especially when founded by lay people, they were subject to thejurisdiction of thebishop of thediocese 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.
Early in the twelfth centuryFrance was the scene of a somewhat remarkable phase in the history of the Benedictinenuns.Robert of Arbrissel, formerly chancellor to the Duke of Brittany, embraced aneremitical life in which he had many disciples, and having founded amonastery of canons regular, carried out a newidea in 1099 when he established the double Abbey of Fontevrault in Poitou, famous inFrance for many centuries. Themonks andnuns both kept theBenedictine Rule, to which were added some additional austerities. Thelaw of enclosure was very strictly observed. In 1115 the founder placed the entire community,monks as well asnuns, under the rule of theabbess, and he further provided that theperson elected to that office should always be chosen from the outside world, as such a one would have more practicalknowledge of affairs and capacity for administration than one trained in thecloister. Many noble ladies and royal princesses ofFrance are reckoned amongst the abbesses of Fontevrault. (See FONTEVRAULT.)
Excepting atFontevrault thenuns seem at first not to have been strictly enclosed, as now, but were free to leave thecloister whenever some specialduty or occasion might demand it, as in the case of theEnglishnuns already mentioned, who went toGermany for active missionary work. This freedom with regard to enclosure gave rise, in course oftime, to gravescandals, and the Councils ofConstance (1414), Basle (1431), andTrent (1545), amongst others, regulated that all the professedly contemplative orders ofnuns should observe strict enclosure, and this has continued to the present time as the normal rule of a Benedictineconvent.
TheProtestant Reformation in the sixteenth century affected thenuns as well as themonks. Throughout northwesternEurope the Benedictine institute was practically obliterated. InEngland theconvents were suppressed and thenuns turned adrift. InGermany,Denmark, and Scandinavia theLutherans acquired most of thenunneries and ejected their inmates. Thewars of religion inFrance also had a disastrous effect upon theconvents of that country, already much enfeebled by the evils consequent on the practice ofcommendam. The last few centuries, however, have witnessed a widespread revival of the Benedictine life forwomen as well as for men. InFrance, especially, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there sprang up several new congregations of Benedictinenuns, 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 individualconvents still remained for the most part subject to their respectivebishops. Mention may be made of the reforms of Montmartre,Beauvais, Val-de-Grace, andDouai, and those of the Perpetual Adoration founded atParis in 1654 and Valdosne in 1701. TheFrench Revolution suppressed all theseconvents, but many have since been restored and fresh foundations added to their number.
The firstconvent ofEnglishnuns since theReformation was founded atBrussels in 1598; and another was established atCambrai in 1623 under the direction of theEnglish Benedictine Fathers ofDouai, from which a filiation was made atParis in 1652. At Ghent in 1624 aconvent was founded underJesuit 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 theFrench Revolution and escaped toEngland. That ofCambrai is now atStanbrook and still remains a member of the English congregation under thejurisdiction of itsabbot-president. TheBrussels community is now at East Bergholt, and theParisnuns at Colwich, whence an off-shoot has been planted at Atherstone (1842). Those ofGhent are now at Oulton; Boulogne and Dunkirk, having combined, are settled at Teignmouth. Theconvent of Ypres alone remains at the place of its original foundation, having survived the troublous times of theRevolution. There are also small Benedictineconvents 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 toEngland in 1792, and now almost exclusively English. Thenuns of Stanbrook, Oulton, Princethorpe, Ventnor, and Dumfries conduct boarding-school for the highereducation of young ladies, and those of Teignmouth, Colwich, Atherstone, and Dumfries have undertaken the work of perpetual adoration.
InAustria many of themedievalconvents have remained undisturbed, and likewise a few inSwitzerland. InBelgium there are sevendating from the seventeenth century, and inGermany fourteen, established mostly during the last half century. InItaly, where at one time they were very numerous, there still remain, in spite of recent suppressions, eighty-five Benedictineconventsdating from theMiddle Ages, with over a thousandnuns.Holland has threeconvents of modern date, andPoland one, atWarsaw, founded in 1687. Theconvents ofSpain numbered thirty at the time of the suppressions of 1835. Thenuns 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 oldconvents have since been restored, and eleven new ones founded. It is a peculiarity of theSpanishconvents that their abbesses who are elected triennially, receive no solemn blessing, as elsewhere, nor do they make use of any abbatial insignia.
Benedictine life in America may be said to be in a flourishingcondition. There are thirty-fourconvents with nearly two thousandnuns, all of which have been founded within the last sixty years. The first establishment was at St. Mary's,Pennsylvania, whereAbbot Wimmer settled some Germannuns fromEichstätt in 1852; this is still one of the most importantconvents in theUnited States and from it many filiations have been made. St. Benedict'sconvent atSt. Joseph,Minnesota, founded in 1857, is the largest Benedictineconvent in America. Other important houses are at Allegheny (Pennsylvania), Atchison (Kansas),Chicago (2), Covington (Kentucky), Duluth (Minnesota), Erie (Pennsylvania), Ferdinand (Indiana), Mount Angel (Oregon), Newark (New Jersey),New Orleans (Louisiana), Shoal Creek (Arkansas), and Yankton (South Dakota). Thenuns are chiefly occupied with the work ofeducation, which comprises elementaryschools as well as boardingschool for secondaryeducation. All the Americanconvents are subject to thebishops of their respectivedioceses.
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 northwesternEurope; (3)educational work and the cultivation of literature and the arts, the forming oflibraries, etc.
(1)Missionary Work of the Order.—At the time ofSt. Benedict's death (c. 543) the only countries of WesternEurope which had beenChristianized wereItaly,Spain,Gaul, 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 inEngland in 597, the missionary work of the order can be easily traced. The companions ofSt. Augustine, 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 otherheathen invaders.St. Augustine andSt. Lawrence atCanterbury,St. Justus at Rochester,St. Mellitus atLondon, and St. Paulinus at York were Benedictine pioneers, and their labours were afterwards supplemented by othermonks who, though not strictly Benedictine, were at least assisted by the blackmonks in establishing the Faith. Thus St. Birinus evangelized Wessex, St. Chad the Midlands, and St. Felix East Anglia, whilst the Celticmonks fromIona settled atLindisfarne, whence the work of St. Paulinus in Northumbria was continued bySt. Aidan,St. Cuthbert, and many others. In 716England sent forth Winfrid, afterwards calledBoniface, a Benedictinemonk trained atExeter, who preached the Faith in Friesland, Alemannia,Thuringia, andBavaria, and finally, being madeArchbishop of Mentz (Mainz), became the Apostle of centralGermany. AtFulda he placed aBavarian convert named Sturm at the head of amonastery he founded there in 744, from which came many missionaries who carried the Gospel toPrussia and what is nowAustria. From Corbie, in Picardy, one of the most famousmonasteries inFrance, St. Ansgar set out in 827 forDenmark,Sweden, andNorway, in each of which countries he founded manymonasteries and firmly planted theBenedictine Rule. These in turn spread the Faith and monasticism through Iceland and Greenland. For a short time Friesland was the scene of the labours ofSt. Wilfrid during a temporary banishment fromEngland in 678, and the work he began there was continued and extended toHolland by theEnglishmonks Willibrord and Swithbert.Christianity was first preached inBavaria by Eustace and Agilus,monks from Luseuil, early in the seventh century; their work was continued bySt. Rupert, who founded themonastery and see ofSalzburg, and firmly established bySt. Boniface about 739. So rapidly did the Faith spread in this country that between the years 740 and 780 no less than twenty-nine Benedictineabbeys were founded there.
Another phase of Benedictine influence may be founded in the work of thosemonks 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 ofEurope during that period.
In more recent times the missionary spirit has manifested itself anew amongst the Benedictines. During the penal times theCatholicChurch inEngland 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 itsCatholicity and itshierarchy. The English congregation supplied some of its earliest missionaries, as well as its firstprelates, in thepersons ofArchbishop Polding,Archbishop Ullathorne, and others during the first half of the nineteenth century. Later on, theSpanishmonks, 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 theNorth American Indians by themonks of the Swiss-American congregation from St. Meinrad'sabbey,Indiana; and those of the American-Cassinese congregation in various parts of theUnited States, from St. Vincent's Arch-Abbey, Beatty,Pennsylvania. Apostolic work was also done by the English Fathers of the Cassinese P. O. congregation amongst theHindus in Western Bengal, and amongst the Maoris in New Zealand; andFrenchmonks 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 theSylvestrine Benedictines have undertaken (1883) missionary work amongst the natives in theDiocese of Kandy, thebishop 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 firstmartyrs.
(2)Civilizing Influence of the Order.—Christianity and civilization go hand in hand, and hence we naturally look to North-westernEurope for the effects of the civilizing influences exerted by the Benedictine missionaries. St. Benedict himself began by converting and civilizing the barbarians who overranItaly in the sixth century, the best of whom came and learned the Gospel principles atMonte Cassino. 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 thedesert. Wherever themonks went, those who were not employed in preaching tilled the ground; thus whilst some sowed inpagansouls the seeds of theChristian Faith, 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 themonasteries thus reared as from object lessons the secrets of organized work, agriculture, the arts andsciences, and the principles oftrue government. Neander (Eccl. Hist.) points out that the profits accruing from the labour of themonks 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 themonks. The accounts of the beginnings ofabbey afterabbey 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 theirevil ways by the industrious and unselfishmonks. Around many of the greatermonasteries towns grew up which have since become famous in history;Monte Cassino inItaly and Peterborough andSt. Alban's inEngland are examples. Large-heartedabbots, eager to advance the interests of their poorer neighbours, oftenvoluntarily 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 offaith, has been successfully emulated by themonks 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 theSpanish Benedictines of New Nursia, and the great industrial and agricultural work done amongst the native tribes of South Africa by theTrappists at Mariannhill and their numerous mission stations in Natal.
(3)Educational Work and the Cultivation of Literature.—The work ofeducation 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 themonasteries that they might beeducated by themonks. At first such children were always destined for themonastic state, and St. Benedict legislated in his Rule for their solemn dedication by theirparents to the service ofGod. St. Placid and St. Maur are examples from St. Benedict's own day and amongst other may be instanced the English saint,Bede, who entered themonastery of Jarrow in his seventh year. Theeducation of these children was the germ out of which afterward developed the greatmonasticschools. Although St. Benedict urged upon hismonks theduty of systematic reading, it wasCassiodorus, the quondam minister of the Gothic kings, who about the year 538 gave the first real impetus to monastic learning atViviers (Vivarium) in Calabria. He made hismonastery aChristian academy, collected a great number ofmanuscripts, and introduced an organized plan of study for his disciples. The liberal arts and the study of theHoly Scripture were given great attention, and amonasticschool was established which became the pattern after which many others were subsequently modelled.
InEnglandSt. Augustine and hismonks openedschools wherever they settled. Up to that time the tradition of thecloister had been opposed to the study of profane literature, butSt. Augustine introduced the classics into the Englishschools, and St. Theodore, who becameArchbishop ofCanterbury in 668, added still further developments.St. Benedict Biscop, who returned toEngland withArchbishop Theodore after some years abroad, presided over hisschool atCanterbury for two years and then, going north, transplanted the neweducational system toWearmouth and Jarrow, whence it spread to Archbishop Egbert'sschool atYork, which was one of the most famous inEngland in the eighth century. ThereAlcuin taught the sevensciences of the "trivium" and "quadrivium", i.e. grammar, rhetoric, andlogic, arithmetic, music, geometry, andastronomy. (SeeTHE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS.) Later onKing Alfred,St. Dunstan, andSt. Ethelwold did much to foster learning inEngland, substitutingmonks for secular canons in severalcathedrals and greatly improving themonasticschools. Ramsey Abbey, founded by St. Oswald ofWorcester, long enjoyed the reputation of being the most learned of theEnglishmonasteries. Glastonbury, Abingdon,St. Alban's, and Westminster were also famous in their day and produced many illustrious scholars.
InFranceCharlemagne inaugurated a great revival in the world of letters and stimulated themonks of his empire to study, as an essential of their state. To further this end he brought over fromEngland in 782Alcuin 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 otherschools which he caused to be started in different parts of the empire.Mabillon gives a list of twenty-seven importantschools inFrance established underCharlemagne (Acta Sanctorum O.S.B., saec. IV, praef., 184). Those ofParis,Tours, and Lyons eventually developed intouniversities. In Normandy, later on, Bec became a great scholastic centre underLanfranc andSt. Anselm, and through them gave a fresh impetus to the Englishschools. Cluny also took its share in the work and became in turn the custodian and fosterer of learning inFrance.
InGermanySt. Boniface opened aschool in everymonastery he founded, not only for the youngermonks, but also for the benefit of outside scholars. Early in the ninth century twomonks ofFulda were sent to Tours by theirabbot to study underAlcuin, and through them the revival of learning gradually spread to other houses. One of the two,Rabanus Maurus, returning toFulda in 813, becamescholasticus or head of theschool there, laterabbot, and finallyArchbishop ofMainz. He was the author of many books, one of which, his "De Institutione Clericorum", is a valuable treatise on thefaith and practice of theChurch in the ninth century. This work probably exercised a beneficial influence on all the cloister-schools of theFrankish Empire. Hirschau, a colony sent out fromFulda in 830, became a celebrated seat of learning and survived till the seventeenth century, when both themonastery and itslibrary were destroyed during theThirty Years War.Reichenau, which suffered a similar fate at the same time, owed its early celebrity to itsschool under Walafrid Strabo, who had studied atFulda and on his return becamescholasticus and subsequentlyabbot. In Saxony themonastery of New Corbie also possessed a famousschool, which sent forth many learned missionaries to diffuse learning overDenmark,Sweden, andNorway. It was founded by Ansgar, the apostle of Scandinavia, who came from Old Corbie in 822, where he had been the favourite disciple ofPaschasius Radbertus, atheologian, poet, musician, and author of Scriptural commentaries and an exposition of thedoctrine of theHoly Eucharist.
After the death ofCharlemagne the revival of secular learning which he had begun waned somewhat, except in the Benedictineabbeys where the study of letters still remained the prerogative of themonks. The Abbey of St. Gall, in particular, during the tenth century drew to its walls numerous students desirous of gaining theknowledge that was imparted there, and produced many celebrated writers. The fame ofReichenau also revived, and from it was foundedEinsiedeln (934), which helped to carry on the traditions of the past. Nor wasItaly behindhand, as is shown by the history of suchmonasticschools asMonte Cassino, Pomposia, andBobbio.
Most of the olderuniversities ofEurope have grown out ofmonasticschools.Paris,Tours, and Lyons have been mentioned; amongst others wereReims and Bologna, and, inEngland, Cambridge, where the Benedictines ofCroyland first set up aschool in the twelfth century. At Oxford, theEnglish Benedictines, though they could not claim to be the founders, took an important part in theuniversity life and development. Monks had from time to time been sent from differentabbeys to study there, but in 1283 a number of the chiefmonasteries combined in founding a joint college for their members, called St. Benedict's, or Gloucester, Hall, which is nowWorcester College. In 1290 thecathedral-priory ofDurham established for its ownmonksSt. Cuthbert's College, which is now Trinity; and in 1362 another college, now Christ Church, was founded for themonks ofCanterbury. TheCistercians had Rewley Abbey just outside the town, founded about 1280, and St. Bernard's College, now St. John's, established in 1436 byArchbishop Chichele. All these colleges flourished until theReformation, and even after thedissolution of the monasteries many of the ejectedmonks retired to Oxford on their pensions, to pass the remainder of their days in the peace and seclusion of theirAlma Mater.Feckenham, afterwardsAbbot of Westminster underQueen Mary, was the lastEnglish Benedictine to graduate at Oxford (about 1537) until, in 1897, the community of Ampleforth Abbey opened a hall and sent some of theirmonks there to study for degrees.
Besides being the chiefeducational centres during theMiddle Ages, themonasteries were, moreover, the workshops where preciousmanuscripts 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 inNewman, Essay on the Mission of St. Benedict, 10.) The monasticscriptoria were the book-manufactories before the invention of printing, and raremanuscripts were often circulated amongst themonasteries, each one transcribing copies before passing the original on to another house. Withoutdoubt the copying was often merely mechanical and no sign of real scholarship, and thepride taken by amonastery in the number and beauty of itsmanuscripts sometimes rather that of the collector than of the scholar, yet the result is the same as far as posterity is concerned. Themonks preserved and perpetuated the ancient writings which, but for their industry, would undoubtedly have been lost to us. The copyists of Fontanelle,Reims, and Corbie were especially noted for the beauty of their penmanship, and the number of differentmanuscripts transcribed by some of theirmonks was often very large.
Full particulars are given byZiegelbauer (Hist. Lit. O. S. B., I) of the most importantmedieval Benedictine Libraries. The following are some of the chief amongst them: InEngland: Canterbury, founded bySt. Augustine, enlarged byLanfranc andSt. Anselm, 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;Wearmouth;Croyland, burnt in 1091, containing 700 volumes; Peterborough. InFrance:Fleury,manuscripts deposited in the townlibrary ofOrléans, 1793; Cobrie, 400 of the most valuablemanuscripts removed to Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, 1638, the remainder, partly to the National Library,Paris (1794), and partly to the townlibrary ofAmiens; Saint-Germain-des-Prés; Cluny,manuscripts dispersed by theHuguenots, except a few which were destroyed at theRevolution; Auxerre; Dijon. InSpain: Montserrat, the majority of themanuscripts still existing; Valladolid; Salamanca; Silos,library still existing;Madrid. InSwitzerland:Reichenau, destroyed in the seventeenth century; St. Gall, dating from 816, still existing;Einsiedeln, still existing. InGermany:Fulda, much indebted toCharlemagne andRabanus Maurus, with 400 copyists under Abbot Sturm, and containing, in 1561, 774 volumes; New Corbie,manuscripts removed to the University of Marburg in 1811; Hirschau, dating from 837; St. Blaise. InAustria andBavaria: 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;Melk, the eleventh century, 60,000 volumes; Lambach, the eleventh century, 22,000 volumes; Garsten; Metten. InItaly:Monte Cassino, three times destroyed by the Lombards in the sixth century, by theSaracens, 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 theAmbrosian Library,Milan, printed by Muratori (Antiq. Ital. Med. Aev., III); Pomposia, with an eleventh-century catalogue printed by Montfaucon (Diarium Italicum, c. xxii).
Besides preserving the writings of the ancient authors, themonks were also the chroniclers of their day, and much of the history of theMiddle Ages was written in thecloister. English history is especially fortunate in this respect, the monastic chroniclers includingSt. Bede,Ordericus Vitalis,William of Malmesbury,Florence of Worcester,Simeon of Durham,Matthew Paris, and Eadmer ofCanterbury. The rise of the scholastics, for the most part outside the Benedictine Order, in latermedieval times, seems to have checked, or at any rate relegated to the background, both the literary and theeducational activity of the blackmonks, whilst the introduction of the art of printing rendered superfluous the copying ofmanuscripts by hand; at the same time it is worth noticing that many of the earliest printing presses were set up in Benedictinecloisters, e.g. by Caxton atWestminster, and by some authorities the invention of movable types is also ascribed to the sons of St. Benedict.
The most notable revival of learning in post-Reformation times was that effected by the congregation of St.-Maur inFrance in the seventeenth century. Diligent and profound study in all departments ofecclesiastical literature was one of the professed objects of this reform, and a congregation that produced such men of letters asMabillon, 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 andLatinFathers and their numerous historical,theological, archaeological, and critical works are sufficient evidence of their industry. There were not less successful in the conduct of theschools they established, of which those at Soreze, Saumur, Auxerre, Beaumont, and Saint-Jean d'Angely were the most important. (SeeMAURISTS.)
The arts,sciences, and utilitarian crafts also found a home in the Benedictinecloister from the earliest times. Themonks of St. Gall andMonte Cassino excelled in illumination andmosaic work, and the latter community are credited with having invented the art ofpainting on glass. A contemporary life ofSt. Dunstan states that he was famous for his "writing,painting, moulding in wax, carving of wood and bone, and for work in gold, silver, iron, and brass". Richard of Wallingford atSt. Alban's and Peter Lightfoot atGlastonbury were well-known fourteenth-century clockmakers; a clock by the latter, formerly in Wellscathedral, is still to be seen in the South Kensington Museum, London.
In modern times themonks of Beuron have established aschool of art wherepainting and design, especially in the form of polychromatic decoration, have been brought to a high stage of perfection. The printing presses ofSolesmes and Ligugé (both now confiscated by the French Government) have produced much excellent typographical work, whilst the study and restoration of the traditionalplainchant of theChurch in the samemonasteries, under DD. Pothier and Mocquereau, is of world-wide reputation.Embroidery and vestment-making are crafts in which many communities ofnuns excel, and others, like Stanbrook, maintain a printing office with considerable success.
A brief sketch of the constitution and government of the order is necessary for a proper understanding of its present organization.
According to St. Benedict'sidea, eachmonastery constituted a separate, independent, autonomousfamily, the members of which elected their own superior. Theabbots, 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 theambition of individual superiors, all combined in course oftime to bring about a modification of this ideal. Although foreshadowed by the Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle)capitula of 817 underSt. Benedict of Aniane, 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 theCluniac congregation was that of one grand centralmonastery with a number of dependencies spread over many lands. It wasfeudalism applied to the monastic institute. Every prior or subordinate superior was the nominee of theAbbot of Cluny and held office only during his pleasure; the autonomy of the individual communities was destroyed so far, even, that nomonk could be professed in any house except by permission of theAbbot of Cluny, and all wereobliged 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, inGermany, copied Cluny, though with less conspicuous success, andCîteaux 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 ofmonasteries subject to a centralabbey 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 theCluniacideas, 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 themonasteries 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 individualmonasteries were to be preserved. The plan promised well, butEngland alone seems to have given it a fair trial. In some of the countries it was not until the issue of theBull "Benedictina" in 1336, or even theTridentine 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 theCluniac congregation the power of theAbbot of Cluny was, after the twelfth century, somewhat curtailed by the institution of chapters and definitors. TheSylvestrines (1231) preserved the perpetuity of superiors and recognized the advantages of a representative chapter, though its chief superior was something more than a mereprimus inter pares. TheCelestines (1274) adopted a somewhat similar system of centralized authority, but differed from it in that their superior was elected triennially. TheOlivetans (1319) marked the furthest point of development by instituting an abbot-general withjurisdiction over all the otherabbots as well as their communities. The general chapter nominated the officials of all the houses; themonks belonged to no onemonastery in particular, but to the whole congregation; and by thus destroying all communityrights, and placing all power in the hands of a small committee, theOlivetan congregation approximated nearest to the alter orders like theDominicans andJesuits, 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 ofSpain. 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 andfamily 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 theBull "Benedictina". The Austrian,Bavarian, andSwiss congregations of the same period followed out the sameidea, as do also almost all of the more modern congregations, and by the legislation ofLeo XIII the traditional principles of government have been revived in the English congregation. In this way thetrue Benedictine ideal was restored, whilst by means of general chapters, at which everymonastery of the congregation was represented, and by the periodical visitations made by the presidents or others elected for thatduty, uniform observance and regular discipline were preserved. The presidents were elected by the otherabbots composing the chapter and their office was merely presidential not that of a superior general orabbas abbatum.
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 calledConstitutions. 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 atRome, after which they have binding force upon the congregation for which they are intended. Thecapitula ofAachen and theConcordia Regularis were the earliest examples of such constitutions. Amongst others may be mentioned the "Statutes" ofLanfranc, the "Discipline of Farfa", the "Ordo" ofBernard of Cluny, and the "Constitutions" of St. William of Hirschau. (The three latter are printed byHerrgott 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 ofmonasteries, theabbots 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 ofabbot is usually for life, that of the president is generally only for a term of years and theperson 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 eachmonastery, and discipline is maintained according to the constitutions.
In order the better to bind together the various congregations that constitute the order at the present day,Pope Leo XIII, 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, theabbotprimate's position with regard to the otherabbots is to be understood rather from the analogy of aprimate in ahierarchy than from that of the general of an order like theDominicans orJesuits.
The recruiting of the variousmonasteries of the order differs according to the nature and scope of the influence exerted by each individual house. Those that haveschools attached to them naturally draw their members more or less from theseschools. The English congregation is recruited very largely from theschools attached to itsmonasteries; and other congregations are similarly recruited. Someeducate and train in theirmonasteries a number ofalumni, or pupils provisionally intended for themonastic 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.
A candidate for admission is usually kept as apostulant for at least some weeks in order that the community he seeks to join may judge whether he is a suitableperson to be admitted to the probationary stage. Having been accepted as such, he is "clothed" as anovice, 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 ofnoviceship, and canon law requires that for the most part thenovice is to be kept apart form the rest of the community. For this reason thenovices' quarters are generally placed, if possible, in a different part of themonastery from those occupied by the professedmonks. The canonicalnovitiate lasts one year, at the end of which, if satisfactory, thenovice may be admitted to simplevows, and at the conclusion of another three years, unless rejected for grave reasons, he makes his solemnvows of "Stability, Conversion of manners, and Obedience". (Rule of St. Benedict.)
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, ascapular, 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 "blackmonk" has come to signify a Benedictine not belonging to one of those separate congregations which has adopted a distinctive colour, e.g. theCamaldolese,Cistercians, andOlivetans, who wear white, or theSylvestrines, whose habit is blue. The only differences in colour within the Benedictine federation are those of themonks ofMonte Vergine, 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.
Parochial work is undertaken by the following congregations: Cassinese, English,Swiss,Bavarian, Gallican, American-Cassinese, Swiss-American, Beuronese, Cassinese P.O., Austrian (both),Hungarian, and the Abbey of Fort Augustus. In the majority of these congregations the mission are attached to certainabbeys and themonks serving them are under the almost exclusive control of their own monastic superiors; in others themonks only supply the place of thesecular clergy and are, therefore, for the time being, under their respectivediocesanbishops.
The work ofeducation is common to all congregations of the order. It takes the form in different places ofseminaries forecclesiastical studies,schools, and gymnasia for secondaryeducation not strictlyecclesiastical, or of colleges for a higher oruniversity course. InAustria andBavaria many of the governmentlycées or gymnasia are entrusted to the care of themonks. InEngland and America the Benedictineschools rank high amongst theeducational establishments of those countries, and compete successfully with the non-Catholicschools of a similar class. Those of the American Cassinese congregation have already been enumerated; they include threeseminaries, fourteenschools and colleges, and anorphanage, with a total of nearly two thousand students. TheSwiss American congregation carries on scholastic work at five of itsabbeys. At. St. Meinrad's, besides theseminary, there is a commercial college; at Spielerville (Arkansas) and Mount Angels (Oregon) areseminaries; and at Conception, Spielerville, Covington (Louisiana), and Mount Angel are colleges. TheEnglish Benedictines have large and flourishing colleges attached to each of theirabbeys, and belonging to Downside are also two other smallerschools, one a "grammarschool" at Ealing, London, and the other a preparatoryschool recently established at Enniscorthy,Ireland.
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.,Canada), 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 inArgentina, under themonks of the French province, in New Zealand under the English province, in Western Australia (Diocese of New Nursia and ApostolicVicariate of Kimberley) and in thePhilippines under the Spanish province, and theBelgian province has quite lately made a foundation in the Transvaal, South Africa. TheBrazilian congregation has several missions inBrazil, which are under the direction of theAbbot of Rio de Janeiro, who is also abishop. In the island of Mauritius theBishop ofPort Louis is generally anEnglish Benedictine. Mention has already been made of the work of theSylvestrine Benedictines inCeylon and of theCistercians in Natal, South Africa.
| Congregation | Monasteries | Monks | Missions and Churches Served | No. of Souls Administered to | Schools | Students | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cassinese | 16 | 188 | 274 | 170,540 | 6 | 476 | |||||||
| Cassinese | 16 | 188 | 274 | 170,540 | 6 | 476 | |||||||
| English | 4 | 277 | 79 | 87,328 | 5 | 380 | |||||||
| English | 4 | 277 | 79 | 87,328 | 5 | 380 | |||||||
| Swiss | 5 | 355 | 42 | 34,319 | 7 | 978 | |||||||
| Swiss | 5 | 355 | 42 | 34,319 | 7 | 978 | |||||||
| Bavarian | 11 | 383 | 51 | 78,422 | 10 | 1,719 | |||||||
| Bavarian | 11 | 383 | 51 | 78,422 | 10 | 1,719 | |||||||
| Brazilian | 13 | 110 | 6 | 4 | 770 | ||||||||
| Brazilian | 13 | 110 | 6 | 4 | 770 | ||||||||
| Gallican | 11 | 374 | 1 | 550 | 2 | 42 | |||||||
| Gallican | 11 | 374 | 1 | 550 | 2 | 42 | |||||||
| American Cassinese | 10 | 753 | 151 | 110,320 | 18 | 1,702 | |||||||
| Cassinese | 10 | 753 | 151 | 110,320 | 18 | 1,702 | |||||||
| Beuronese | 9 | 711 | 14 | 3,812 | 5 | 141 | |||||||
| Beuronese | 9 | 711 | 14 | 3,812 | 5 | 141 | |||||||
| Swiss American | 7 | 348 | 103 | 35,605 | 10 | 675 | |||||||
| American | 7 | 348 | 103 | 35,605 | 10 | 675 | |||||||
| Cassinese P.O. | 36 | 1,092 | 90 | 115,410 | 17 | 859 | |||||||
| 36 | 1,092 | 90 | 115,410 | 17 | 859 | ||||||||
| Austrian: | |||||||||||||
| Imm. Conc. | 11 | 647 | 367 | 460,832 | 11 | 1,891 | 11 | 647 | 367 | 460,832 | 11 | 1,891 | |
| St. Joseph | 7 | 293 | 61 | 55,062 | 10 | 901 | Joseph | 7 | 293 | 61 | 55,062 | 10 | 901 |
| Hungarian | 11 | 198 | 145 | 37,269 | 6 | 1,668 | |||||||
| Hungarian | 11 | 198 | 145 | 37,269 | 6 | 1,668 | |||||||
| St. Ottilien | 2 | 163 | 10 | 2,835 | 3 | 190 | Ottilien | 2 | 163 | 10 | 2,835 | 3 | 190 |
| Fort Augustus | 1 | 47 | 8 | 430 | Augustus | 1 | 47 | 8 | 430 | ||||
| St. Anselm's | 1 | 1 | Anselm's | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| 155 | 5,940 | 1,402 | 1,192,734 | 114 | 12,392 | ||||||||
| 155 | 5,940 | 1,402 | 1,192,734 | 114 | 12,392 |
Orders and congregations professing theRule of St. Benedict but not included in the Benedictine Federation are as follows:—
| Monasteries | No. of Religious | |
|---|---|---|
| Camaldolese | 19 | 241 |
| Vallombrosa | 3 | 60 |
| Cistercians (Common Observance) | 29 | 1,040 |
| Cistercians (Trappists) | 58 | 3,637 |
| Sylvestrines | 9 | 95 |
| Olivetans | 10 | 122 |
| Mechitarists | 14 | 152 |
| 142 | 5,347 |
Nuns, Benedictine and others:—
| Convents | No. of Religious | |
|---|---|---|
| Benedictine Nuns: | ||
| 1. Under BenedictineAbbots | 9 | 251 |
| 2. Under Bishops | 253 | 7,156 |
| CamaldoleseNuns | 5 | 150 |
| Cistercian Nuns | 100 | 2,965 |
| Olivetan Nuns | 20 | 200 |
| 387 | 10,722 |
The foregoing tables, which are taken from the "Album Benedictinum" of 1906, give a grand aggregate of 684monasteries, with 22,009 religious of both sexes. The statistics for missions and churches served include those churches and missions over which themonasteries exercise the right of patronage, as well as those actually served bymonks.
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.
St. Gregory the Great (Rome); born c. 540, d. 604; one of the four Latindoctors; celebrated for his writings and for his reform ofecclesiastical change; called the "Apostle ofEngland" because he sentSt. Augustine to that country in 596. Sylvester II or Gerbert (France), 999-1003; amonk of Fleury.St. Gregory VII or Hildebrand Aldobrandeschi (Tuscany), 1073-85; amonk of Cluny and afterwardsAbbot ofSt. Paul's,Rome.Bl. Victor III (Benevento), 1087-87;Abbot ofMonte Cassino. Paschal II (Tuscany), 1099-1118; amonk of Cluny. Gelasius II or Giovanni da Gaeta, John Cajetan (Gaeta), 1118-19; historian.St. Celestine V or Pietro di Murrhone (Apulia), b. 1221, d. 1296; founder of the order ofCelestines; was electedpope 1294, but abdicated after reigning only six months.Clement VI (France), 1342-52; amonk of Chaise-Dieu.Bl. Urban V (France), 1362-70;Abbot of St. Victor,Marseilles. Pius VII or Barnaba Chiaramonti (Italy), 1800-23; was taken by force fromRome andimprisoned atSavona and Fontainebleu (1809-14) byNapoleon, whom he hadcrowned in 1804; returned toRome in 1814.Gregory XVI or Maurus Cappellari (Venice), 1831-46, aCamaldolesemonk andAbbot of St. Andrew's on the Coelian Hill,Rome.
St. Augustine (Rome), d. 604; Prior of St. Andrew's on the Coelian Hill; the Apostle ofEngland (596); firstArchbishop ofCanterbury (597).St. Boniface (England), b. 680,martyred 755; Apostle ofGermany andArchbishop ofMainz.St. Willibrord (England), born c. 658, d. 738; the Apostle of Friesland. St. Swithbert (England), d. 713; the Apostle ofHolland.St. Rupert (France), d. 718; the Apostle ofBavaria andBishop ofSalzburg. St. Sturm (Bavaria), d. 779; firstAbbot ofFulda. St. Ansgar (Germany), b. 801, d. 865;monk of Corbie and Apostle of Scandinavia.St. Adalbert, d. 997; the Apostle ofBohemia.
St. Erkenwald (England), died c. 693;Bishop ofLondon; founder of Chertsey and Barkingabbeys.St. Benedict Biscop (England), d. 690; founder ofWearmouth and Jarrow. St. Filbert (France), d. 684; founder ofJumièges.St. Benedict of Aniane (France), d. 821; reformer ofmonasteries underCharlemagne; presided at council ofabbots, Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), 817.St. Dunstan (England), d. 988;Abbot of Glastonbury (c. 945), and afterwardsArchbishop ofCanterbury (961); reformer ofEnglishmonasteries. St. Berno (France), d. 927; founder and firstAbbot of Cluny (909). St. Odo or Eudes (France), b. 879, d. 942; secondAbbot of Cluny. St. Aymard (France), d. 965; thirdAbbot of Cluny. St. Majolus or Maieul (France), b. 906, d. 994; fourthAbbot of Cluny;Otto II desired to make himpope in 974 but he refused.St. Odilo (France), d. 1048; fifthAbbot of Cluny.Bernard of Cluny (France), d. 1109; famous in connexion with the eleventh-century "Ordo Cluniacensis" which bears his name. Peter the Venerable (France), d. 1156; ninthAbbot of Cluny; employed by severalpopes in important affairs of theChurch. St. Romuald (Italy), b. 956, d. 1026; founder of theCamaldolese congregation (1009). Herluin (France), d. 1078; founder of Bec (1040).St. Robert of Molesmes (France), b. 1018, d. 1110; founder andAbbot of Molesmes (1075); joint-founder and firstAbbot ofCîteaux (1098). St. Alberic (France), d. 1109; joint-founder and secondAbbot ofCîteaux.St. Stephen Harding (England), d. 1134; joint-founder and thirdAbbot ofCîteaux. St. Bernard (France), b. 1091, d. 1153; joinedCîteaux with thirty other noblemen (1113); founded Clairvaux (1115); wrote many spiritual andtheological works; was a statesman and adviser of kings, and aDoctor of the Church; he preached theSecond Crusade throughoutFrance andGermany at the request of Eugenius III (1146). St. William of Hirschau (Germany), c. 1090; author of "Constitutions of Hirschau". St. John Gualbert (Italy), b. 999, d. 1073; founder of Vallombrosa (1039). St. Stephen or Etienne (France), d. 1124; founder of Grammont (1076).Bl. Robert of Arbrissel (France), d. 1116; founder of Fontevrault (1099). St. William (Italy), d. 1142; founder ofMonte Vergine (1119). St. Sylvester (Italy), b. 1177, d. 1267; founder of theSylvestrines (1231). St. Bernard Ptolemy (Italy), b. 1272, d. 1348; founder of theOlivetans (1319). Ludovico Barbo (Italy), d. 1443; first a canon regular, thenAbbot of St. Justina of Padua and founder of the congregation of the same name (1409). Didier de la Cour (France), b. 1550, d. 1623; founder of the congregation of St.-Vannes (1598).Laurent Bénard (France), b. 1573, d. 1620; Prior of Cluny College, Paris, and founder of theMaurist congregation (1618). José Serra (Spain), b. 1811, died c. 1880; Coadjutorbishop of Perth, Australia (1848); and Rudesind Salvado (Spain), b. 1814, d. 1900;Bishop ofPort Victoria (1849); founders of New Nursia, Australia.Prosper Guéranger (France), b. 1805, d. 1875; founder of the Gallican congregation (1837); restoredSolesmes (1837); well known as aliturgical writer. Jean-Baptiste Muard (France), 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);Abbot of Beuron (1868). Pietro Francesco Casaretto (Italy), b. 1810, d. 1878; founder and first Abbot-General of Cassinese congregation of Primitive Observance (1851).Boniface Wimmer (Bavaria), b. 1809, d. 1887; founder of American Cassinese congregation (1855). Martin Marty (Switzerland), b. 1834, d. 1896; founder ofSwiss American congregation (1870);Abbot of St. Meinrad's,Indiana (1870);Vicar Apostolic of Dakota (1879). Jerome Vaughan (England), b. 1841, d. 1896; founder of Fort Augustus Abbey (1878). Gerard van Caloen (Belgium), b. 1853; restorer ofBrazilian congregation;Abbot ofBahia (1896);titularBishop ofPhocaelig;a (1906).
St. Bede (England), b. 673, d. 735;monk of Jarrow,Doctor of the Church, historian, and commentator.St. Aldhelm (England), d. 709;Abbot of Malmesbury andBishop of Sherborne.Alcuin (England), d. 804,monk of York; founder ofschools inFrance underCharlemagne.Rabanus Maurus (Germany), d. 856;Archbishop ofMainz.St. Paschasius Radbertus (Germany), d. 860;Abbot of Corbie. Ratramnus (Germany), d. 866; amonk of Corbie, who took part in Sacramentarian controversy. Walafrid Strabo (Germany), d. 849; amonk ofFulda, and afterwardsAbbot ofReichenau. Abbon of Fleury (France), tenth century; at one time amonk atCanterbury.Notker (Switzerland), d. 1022; amonk of St. Gall; theologican, mathematician, and musician. Guido d'Arezzo (Italy), died c. 1028; inventor of the gamut.Hermannus Contractus (Germany), eleventh century; amonk of St. Gall; learned in Eastern languages; author of the "Salve Regina". Paul Warnefrid, orPaul the Deacon (Italy), eighth century; historian and teacher (scholasticus) atMonte Cassino.Hincmar (France), d. 882; amonk of St. Denis;Archbishop ofReims (845).St. Peter Damian (Italy), b. 988, d. 1072; amonk of theCamaldolese reform at Fonte Avellano;Cardinal Bishop ofOstia (1057).Lanfranc (Italy), b. 1005 inLombardy, d. atCanterbury, 1089; amonk at Beck (1042); founder of theschool there;Archbishop ofCanterbury (1070).St. Anselm (Italy), b. 1033 inPiedmont, d. 1109; amonk atBec (1060);Abbot of Bec (1078);Archbishop ofCanterbury (1093); usually considered the first scholastic. Eadmer (England), d. 1137; amonk ofCanterbury and disciple ofSt. Anselm, whose life he wrote. The English historians;Florence of Worcester, d. 1118;Simeon of Durham, d. 1130;Jocelin de Brakelonde, d. 1200, amonk and chronicler of Bury St. Edmunds;Matthew Paris, d. 1259, amonk ofSt. Albans;William of Malmesbury, died c. 1143;Gervase of Canterbury, died c. 1205;Roger of Wendover, d. 1237, amonk ofSt. Albans.Peter the Deacon (Italy), died c. 1140; amonk ofMonte Cassino.Adam Easton (England), d. 1397, amonk ofNorwich;Cardinal (1380). John Lydgate (England), died c. 1450; amonk of Bury St. Edmunds; poet. John Wheathamstead (England), d. 1440;Abbot ofSt. Albans.Johannes Trithemius (Germany), b. 1462, d. 1516;Abbot of Spanheim, a voluminous writer and great traveller. Louis Blosius (Belgium), b. 1506, d. 1566;Abbot of Liessies (1530); author of the "Mirror for Monks". Juan de Castaniza (Spain), d. 1599; amonk of St. Saviour's, Onna.Benedict van Haeften (Belgium), b. 1588, d. 1648; Prior of Afflighem. Clement Reyner (England), b. 1589, d. 1651; amonk at Dieulouard (1610);Abbot of Lamspring (1643).Augustine Baker (England), b. 1575; d. 1641; amonk of Dieulouard and author of "Sancta Sophia".Augustine Calmet (France), b. 1672, d. 1757;Abbot of Senones-en-Vosges; best known for his "Dictionary of theBible". Carolus Meichelbeck (Bavaria), b. 1669; d. 1734; librarian and historian of Benediktbeuern.Magnoald Ziegelbauer (Germany), 1689, d. 1750; author of a literary history of the Order of St. Benedict.Marquard Herrgott (Germany), b. 1694, d. 1762; amonk of St.-Blasien. Suitbert Baumer (Germany), b. 1845, d. 1894; amonk of Beuron.Luigi Tosti (Italy), b. 1811, d. 1897;abbot; Vice-Archivist to theHoly See. J. B. F. Pitra (France), b. 1812, d. 1889; amonk ofSolesmes;Cardinal-Bishop ofFrascati (1863); librarian of theHoly Roman Church. Francis Aidan Gasquet (England), b. 1846; amonk of Downside andAbbot-President of theEnglish Benedictine congregation. Fernand Cabrol (France), b. 1855;Abbot of Farnborough (Gallican congregation). Jean Besse (France), b. 1861; amonk of Ligugé. Germain Morin, of the Beuronese congregation, b. 1861. John Chapman, of the Beuronese congregation, b. 1865. Edward Cuthbert Butler (England), b. 1858;Abbot of Downside (1906).
The following are some of the chief writers of this congregation: Adrien Langlois, d. 1627; one of the firstMaurists. 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 ofMabillon. Claude Martin, b. 1619, d. 1707; the greatest of theMaurists. Thierry Ruinart, b. 1657, d. 1709; a companion and biographer ofMabillon. François Lamy, b. 1636, d. 1711.Pierre Coustant, b. 1654, d. 1721. Denis de Sainte-Marthe, b. 1650, d. 1725.Julien Garnier, b. 1670, d. 1725. Edmond Martène, b. 1654, d. 1739. Ursin Durand, b. 1682, d. 1773. Bernard de Montefaucon, b. 1655, d. 1741.René-Prosper Tassin, d. 1777.
St. Laurence (Italy), d. 619; came toEngland withSt. Augustine (597), whom he succeeded asArchbishop ofCanterbury (604).St. Mellitus (Italy), d. 624; a Romanabbot, sent toEngland with othermonks to assistSt. Augustine (601); founder of St. Paul's, London, and firstBishop ofLondon (604);Archbishop ofCanterbury (619).St. Justus (Italy), d. 627; came toEngland (601); firstBishop of Rochester (604) and afterwardsArchbishop ofCanterbury (624).St. Paulinus of York (Italy), d. 644; came toEngland (601); firstBishop ofYork (625);Bishop of Rochester (633). St. Odo (England), d. 961;Archbishop ofCanterbury.St. Elphege or Aelfheah (England), d. 1012;Archbishop ofCanterbury (1006); killed by the Danes. St. Oswald (England), d. 992; nephew ofSt. Odo of Canterbury;Bishop ofWorcester (959);Archbishop ofYork (972).St. Bertin (France), b. 597, d. 709;Abbot ofSaint-Omer. St. Botolph (England), d. 655;abbot.St. Wilfrid, born c. 634, d. 709;Bishop ofYork.St. Cuthbert, d. 687;Bishop ofLindisfarne.St. John of Beverley, d. 721;Bishop ofHexham.St. Swithin, d. 862;Bishop ofWinchester.St. Ethelwold, d. 984;Bishop ofWinchester.St. Wulfstan, d. 1095;Bishop ofWorcester.St. Ælred, b. 1109, d. 1166;Abbot of Rievaulx, Yorkshire.St. Thomas of Canterbury or Thomas Becket, born c. 1117,martyred 1170; Chancellor ofEngland (1155);Archbishop ofCanterbury (1162).St. Edmund Rich, d. 1240;Archbishop ofCanterbury (1234); died in exile.Suger (France), b. 1081, d. 1151;Abbot of St. Denis and Regent ofFrance.Bl. Richard Whiting,abbot of Glastonbury, Bl. Roger James, and Bl. John Thorn,monks of Glastonbury;Bl. Hugh Faringdon,Abbot of Reading, Bl. William Eynon, and Bl. John Rugg,monks of Reading; andBl. John Beche,Abbot of Colchester; all executed (1539) for denying the supremacy ofHenry VIII inecclesiastical matters.John de Feckenham (or Howman), d. 1585; lastAbbot of Westminster; died inprison. Sigebert Buckley, born c. 1517, d. 1610; amonk of Westminster; the link between the old and new English congregations.Ven. John Roberts, born c. 1575,martyred 1610; founder of St. Gregory's,Douai. William Gabriel Gifford, b. 1554, d. 1629; professor oftheology atReims (1582); Dean ofLille (1597); amonk at Dieulouard (1609);Archbishop ofReims (1622). Leander of St. Martin (John Jones), b. 1575, d. 1635; President of the English congregation and Prior of St. Gregory's,Douai. Philip Ellis, b. 1653, d. 1726;Vicar Apostolic of the Western District (1688); transferred toSegni,Italy (1708).Charles Walmesley, b. 1722, d. 1797;Vicar Apostolic of the Western District (1764); a Doctor of the Sorbonne and F. R. S. William Placid Morris, b. 1794, d. 1872; amonk of Downside;Vicar Apostolic of Mauritius (1832).John Bede Polding, b. 1794, d. 1877; amonk of Downside; Vicar Apostolic in Australia (1834); firstArchbishop ofSydney (1851).William Bernard Ullathorne, b. 1806, d. 1889; amonk of Downside;Vicar Apostolic of the Western District (1846); transferred to Birmingham (1850); resigned (1888). Roger Bede Vaughan, b. 1834, d. 1883; amonk of Downside; Cathedral Prior of Belmont (1863); coadjutor toArchbishop Polding (1872); succeeded asArchbishop ofSydney (1877). Cardinal Sanfelice (Italy), b. 1834, d. 1897;Archbishop ofNaples; formerlyAbbot of La Cava. Joseph Pothier (France), b. 1835; inaugurator of theSolesmesschool ofplain-chant;Abbot of Fontanelle (1898). Andre Mocquereau (France), b. 1849; Prior ofSolesmes and successor to Dom Pothier as leader of theschool. John Cuthbert Hedley, b. 1837; amonk of Ampleforth;consecrated CoadjutorBishop of Newport (1873); succeeded as Bishop (1881). Benedetto Bonazzi (Italy), b. 1840;Abbot of La Cava (1894);Archbishop ofBenevento (1902). Domenico Serafini (Italy), b. 1852; Abbot General of the Cassinese Congregation of Primitive Observance (1886);Archbishop ofSpoleto (1900). Hildebrand de Hemptinne (Belgium), b. 1849; AbbotPrimate of the order;Abbot of Maredsous (1890); nominated Abbot Primate byLeo XIII (1893).
St. Scholastica, died c. 543; sister to St. Benedict. AmongEnglish Benedictinenuns, the most celebrated are:St. Etheldreda, d. 679;Abbess ofEly. St. Ethelburga, died c. 670;Abbess of Barking.St. Hilda, d. 680;Abbess of Whitby.St. Werburgh, d. 699;Abbess ofChester. St. Mildred, seventh century;Abbess in Thanet.St. Walburga, d. 779; anun ofWimborne; sister toSts. Willibald and Winnibald; went toGermany with Sts. Lioba and Thecla to assistSt. Boniface c. 740.St. Thecla, eighth century; anun ofWimborne;Abbess of Kitzingen; died inGermany. St. Lioba, d. 779; anun ofWimborne; cousin toSt. Boniface;Abbess of Bischofsheim; died inGermany. Among other Benedictinesaints are:St. Hildegard (Germany), b. 1098, d. 1178;Abbess of MountSt. Rupert; St. Gertrude the Great (Germany), d. 1292;Abbess of Eisleben in Saxony (1251).St. Mechtilde, sister to St. Gertrude andnun at Eisleben.St. Frances of Rome, b. 1384, d. 1440;widow; founded order of Oblates (Collatines) in 1425.
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 ofSt. Benedict's Rule 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.
Besides those communities which professedly adhered to theBenedictine Rule 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 bySt. Chrodegang,Bishop ofMetz, who in the year 760 brought together hiscathedralclergy 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 theidea thus started spread very rapidly to almost everycathedral ofFrance,Germany, andItaly, as well as to some inEngland. In the latter country, however, it was not an entirely newidea, for we learn fromBede's "Ecclesiastical History" (I, xxvii) that even in St. Augustine's time some sort of "common life" was in vogue amongst thebishops and theirclergy.St. Chrodegang's institute and its imitations prevailed almost universally in thecathedral and collegiate churches until ousted by the introduction of theAustin Canons.
A word must here be said as to theCarthusian Order, which some writers have classed amongst those founded on theBenedictine rule. This supposition is based chiefly on the fact that they have retained the name of St. Benedict in theirConfiteor, but this was more probably done out of recognition of that saint's position as thePatriarch of Western Monasticism than from anyidea that the order was a filiation from the older body. Confusion may also have arisen on account of the founder of theCarthusians,St. Bruno, being mistaken for another of the same name, who wasAbbot ofMonte Cassino in the twelfth century and therefore a Benedictine.
The various reforms, beginning with Cluny in the tenth century and extending to theOlivetans 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 theHumiliati, founded in the twelfth century by certain nobles ofLombardy who, having rebelled against theEmperor Henry VI, were taken captive by him intoGermany. There they commenced the practice of works ofpiety and penance, and were for their "humility" allowed to return toLombardy. The order was definitely established in 1134 under the guidance of St. Bernard, who placed it under theBenedictine rule. It flourished for some centuries and had ninety-fourmonasteries, 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 modernArmenian Benedictine congregation (known asMechitarists), founded by Mechitar de Petro in the eighteenth century, in communion with theHoly See; this is now reckoned amongst the non-federated congregations of the order. (SeeHUMILIATI,MECHITARISTS.)
(1) Military Orders
Hélyot enumerates severalmilitary orders 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 atJerusalem, when not so engaged, theseknights lived a kind of areligious life in commanderies or preceptories, established on the estates belonging to their order. They were not in any senseclerics, but they usually tookvows of poverty and obedience, and sometimes also of chastity. In some of the Spanish orders, permission to marry was granted in the seventeenth century. Theknights practised many of the customary monastic austerities, such asfasting 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 hadjurisdiction over the whole order, and under him were the commanders who ruled over the various houses. The following were themilitary orders connected with the Benedictine Order, but for fuller details the reader is referred to separate articles. (a) TheKnights Templars, founded in 1118.St. Bernard of Clairvaux drew up their rule, and they always regarded theCistercians as their brethren. For this reason they adopted a white dress, to which they added a red cross. The order was suppressed in 1312. InSpain there were: (b) The Knights of Calatrava founded in 1158 to assist in protectingSpain against theMoorish invasions. The Knights of Calatrava owed their origin to theabbot andmonks of theCistercianmonastery of Fitero. The general chapter ofCîteaux drew up a rule of life and exercised a general supervision over them. The black hood and shortscapular which they wore denoted their connexion withCîteaux. The order possessed fifty-six commanderies, chiefly inAndalusia. The Nuns of Calatrava were established c. 1219. They werecloistered, observing the rule of theCisterciannuns and wearing a similar habit, but they were under thejurisdiction of the Grand Master of theknights. (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 ofSt. Benedict's Rule, to which certain observances borrowed from Calatrava were added. They also used the black hood and abbreviatedscapular. 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)Knights of Montesa, founded 1316, an offshoot from Calatrava, instituted by tenknights of that order who placed themselves under theabbot ofCîteaux instead of their own Grand Master. (e) Knights of St. George of Alfama, founded in 1201; united to theOrder of Montesa in 1399.
InPortugal there were three orders, also founded for purposes of defence against theMoors:— (f) The Knights of Aviz, founded 1147; they observed theBenedictine Rule, under the direction of theabbots ofCîteaux and Clairvaux, and had forty commanderies. (g) TheKnights of St. Michael's Wing, founded 1167; the name was taken inhonour of the archangel whose visible assistance secured a victory against theMoors for King Alphonso I ofPortugal. The rule was drawn up by theCistercianAbbot 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 ofChrist, reared upon the ruins of theTemplars about 1317; it became very numerous and wealthy. It adopted theRule of St. Benedict and the constitutions ofCîteaux, 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 theconvent of Thomar, the principal house of the Order ofChrist, under this title, where the full monastic life was observed, with a habit andvows similar to those of theCistercians, though themonks were under thejurisdiction 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., inEngland. InSavoy there were the two orders: (k) the Knights ofSt. Maurice, and (l) those of St. Lazarus, which were united in 1572. They observed theCistercian rule and the object of their existence was the defence of theCatholicFaith against the inroads of theProtestant Reformation. They had many commanderies and their two principal houses were atTurin andNice. InSwitzerland also the Abbots of St. Gall at one time supported (m) the military Order of the Bear, whichFrederick II had instituted in 1213.
(2) Hospitallers
The Order of the BrothersHospitallers ofBurgos originated in ahospital attached to aconvent ofCisterciannuns in that town. There were a dozenCistercianlay brothers who assisted thenuns in the care of thehospital, and these, in 1474, formed themselves into a new order intended to be independent ofCîteaux. They met with much opposition, and, irregularities having crept in, they were reformed in 1587 and placed under theabbess of theconvent.
(3) Oblates
The Oblates ofSt. Frances of Rome, called also Collatines, were a congregation ofpiouswomen, founded in 1425 and approved as an order in 1433. They first observed the rule of theFranciscan 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 ofpiety and charity. They made no solemnvows, neither were they strictly enclosed, nor forbidden to enjoy the use of their possessions. They were at first under the direction of theOlivetan Benedictines, but after the death of their foundress, in 1440, they became independent.
(4) Orders of Canonesses
Information is but scanty concerning the chapters of noble canonesses, which were fairly numerous inLorraine,Flanders, andGermany inmedieval times. It seems certain, however, that many of them were originally communities of Benedictinenuns, which, for one reason or another, renounced their solemnvows and assumed the state of canonesses, whilst still observing some form of theBenedictine Rule. The membership of almost all these chapters was restricted towomen of noble, and in some cases of royal, descent. In many also, whilst the canonesses were merely seculars, that is, not undervows 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 Benedictinenuns. The following list of houses is taken fromMabillon andHélyot, 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. InGermany: 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. InFlanders: Nivelles, Mons, Andenne, Maubeuge, and Belisie of the seventh century; and Denain, 764. The members of the following houses inGermany having renounced their solemnvows and become canonesses in the sixteenth century, abandoned also theCatholicFaith and accepted theProtestant religion: Gandersheim, Herford, Quedlinburg, Gernrode.
The Benedictine Order in General.—Montalembert,Monks of the West (London, 1896), Eng. Tr., new ed., with preface by Gasquet; Newman,Mission of St. Benedict andBenedictine Schools, inHistorical Sketches (London, 1873); Gasquet,Sketch of the Life and Mission of St. Benedict (London, 1895); Maitland,The Dark Ages (London, 1845); Mabillon,Annales O. S. B. (Paris, 1703-39); Id.,Acta SS. O. S. B. (Venice, 1733); Yepez,Chronicon generale Ord. S. P. N. Benedicti (Cologne, 1603); Hélyot,Histoire des ordres religieux (Paris, 1792); Id.,Dict. Des ordres religieux (Paris, 1860); Mege,Commentaire sur la regle de S. Benoit (Paris, 1687); Calmet,Commentaire (Paris, 1734); Menard,Codex regularum (Paris, 1638); Besse,Le moine benedictin (Ligugé, 1898); Braunmuller inKirchenlex., s.v.; Herzog,Realencyclopadie (Leipzig, 1897), s.v.; Heimbucher,Die Order und Kongregationen der katholischen Kirche (Paderborn, 1896), I; Ziegelbauer,Hist. Lit. O. S. B. (Augsburg, 1754);Album Benedictinum (St. Vincent's, Pennsylvania, 1880; Rome, 1905); Tanner,Notitia Monastica (London, 1744); Dugdale,Monasticon Anglicanum, with Stevens's continuation (London, 1817-30); Gasquet,Henry VIII and the English Monasteries (London, 1899); Id.,The Eve of the Reformation (London, 18990); Gairdner, Prefaces toCalendars of State Papers of Henry VIII; Taunton,English Black Monks of St. Benedict (London, 1897); Dudden,Gregory the Great (London, 1905), I; Eckenstein,Women under Monasticism (Cambridge, 1896); Hope,St. Boniface and the Conversion of Germany (London, 1872); Reyner,Apostolatus Benedictinorum in Anglia (Douai, 1626); Hind,Benedictines in Oxford inAmpleforth Journal, VI, 1901.
Special Congregations.—Duckett,Charters and Records of Cluni (Lewes, England, 1890); Sackur,Die Cluniacenser (Halle a S., 1892-94); Janauschek,Origines Cisterciensium (Vienna, 1877); Gaillardin,Les Trappistes (Paris, 1844); Guibert,Destruction de Grandmont (Paris, 1877); Salvado,Memorie Storiche (Rome, 1851); Berengier,La Nouvelle-Nursie (Paris, 1878); Brullee,Vie de P. Muard (Paris, 1855), tr. Robot, 1882; Thompson,Life of P. Muard (London, 1886; de Broglie,Mabillon (Paris, 1888); Id.,Montfaucon (Paris, 1891); Houtin,Dom Couturier (Angers, 1899); Van Galoen,Dom Maur Wolter et les origines de la cong. De Beuron (Bruges, 1891); Dolan,Succisa Virescit inDownside Review, I-IV.
APA citation.Alston, G.C.(1907).The Benedictine Order. InThe Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02443a.htm
MLA citation.Alston, George Cyprian."The Benedictine Order."The Catholic Encyclopedia.Vol. 2.New York: Robert Appleton Company,1907.<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02443a.htm>.
Transcription.This article was transcribed for New Advent by Susan Birkenseer.Dedicated to Sr. Monica Marie (P.J. Kamplain), O.S.B.
Ecclesiastical approbation.Nihil Obstat. 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
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