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proget for notice here, more distinctly, who stul d to the praise of having preserved and 1 fodle diches and human-learning in the Romish Fatour a fargs part of the century the Jesuits were deco of all branches of learning; and they

tood; worn mecounted learned men. And Wheele, bondant, or uncandid, who can deny Teeclinary and very learned men have been ornaLasting as hterature itself, will be the

Peter Possin', Philip Labbé', Nicholas Abrams', and even of John Harduin3, though in many things erratic, and not of a sound mind; as well as of many others. But as the century advanced, this literary glory of the Jesuits was greatly obscured by the Benedictines, especially by those belonging to the Congregation of St. Maur. For while the Jesuits immoderately vaunted of their merits and renown, and were unceasingly censuring the sloth and indolence of the Benedictines, in order to give plausibility to their designs of invading and appropriating to themselves the revenues and the goods of the Benedictines; the latter thought it necessary for them to wipe off this stain upon their character, which they could not deny, and to disarm their harpy enemies by becoming really meritorious. Hence they not only opened schools in their convents for instructing youth in all branches of learning, but also appointed select individuals of the best talents, to publish great and imperishable works, which might vindicate the ancient glory and reputation of the Benedictine family against its traducers. This task has been admirably fulfilled, and with a success which baffles description, for about a century past, by such superior men as John Mabillon, Luke D'Achery (Dacherius), René Massuet, Theodore Ruinart', Anthony

church history, and edited several of the fathers. His works were printed, Paris, 1696. 5 vols. fol. Tr.]

[Possin, born in 1590, and died at Rome near the end of the 17th century; was distinguished as a Hebrew and Greek scholar, and for his editions of the fathers. Tr.]

1

1 [Labbé of Bourges, died in 1667, aged 60. He was a man of great learning, particularly in church his tory; but proud and overbearing. Tr.]

[Abrams, born 1589, died 1655, was chiefly distinguished for polite learning, and for his comments on Cicero's Orations, and on Virgil. Tr.]

' [Harduin, died at Paris in 1729, aged 83. He was a prodigy of learning; but maintained, that most of the Greek and Latin Classics were forgeries of the monks in the middle age. His best work is his Acts of the Councils, in 12 vols. fol. Tr.]

• Mabillon was born in 1632, and

died at Paris in 1707. He travelled much for literary research, in France, Germany, and Italy; and besides published the works of St. Bernard, and the Lives of sainted Benedictines, (Acta Sanctorum ordinis Benedicti,) and his Analecta Veterum, he composed Diplomatics, Annals of the Benedictines, and some smaller works. Tr.]

[D'Achery, born 1608, died 1685; collected judiciously, and published numerous unprinted writings, pertaining to ecclesiastical history, in 13 vols. 4to. or (2nd ed.) in 3 vols. fol. entitled Spicilegium, &c. Tr.]

[Massuet, born 1665, died 1716; published the best edition of Irenæus. Tr.]

[Ruinart, born 1657, died 1709; was associated with Mabillon, and published Acts of the ancient Martyrs, the works of Gregory Turonensis, and of Victor Vitensis; and some other works. Tr.]

pleasant, rather than austerely, and according to the laws by which they were bound. But the number of the Unreformed far exceeds that of the Reformed: and moreover, most of the Reformed not only depart widely from the mode of living prescribed by their rule, but are also, in one place and another, gradually relapsing into their former negligence.

§ 25. Among the Reformed monastic associations, certain Congregations of Benedictines surpass the others, partly in the beauty and excellence of their regulations, and partly in the constancy with which they observe their rules. The most famous of these is the French Congregation of St. Maur'; which was formed under the authority of Gregory XV. in 1621, and endowed with various privileges and rights by Urban VIII. in 1627. This association does not indeed consist of genuine followers of St. Benedict, nor is it free from every thing censurable yet it has many excellences which raise it above all others. Of these excellences the first and the most useful is, that it devotes a certain number of persons of superior genius to the cultivation of learning, both sacred and civil, and particularly to the study of history and antiquities; and that it furnishes them abundantly with all the helps they need to prosecute their business with advantage. Those who are

1 See the Gallia Christiana; not the old work of this name, but the new and elegant production of the Benedictines of this same Congregation of St. Maur; vol. vii. p. 474, &c. Hipp. Helyot's Histoire des Ordres, tom. vi. cap. xxxvii. p. 256. The Bull of Gregory XV. approving the society of St. Maur, is severely criticised in all its parts, by Jo. Launoi, that scourge of the monks, even the best of them, in his Examen Privilegii S. Germani; Opp. tom. iii. pt. i. p. 303. He also treats of the dissensions and commotions in this order, soon after its institution, (though with considerable prejudice, as is usual for him when speaking of monks,) in his Assertio Inquisit. in Privileg. S. Medardi, pt. i. cap. lxxvi. in his Opp. tom. iii. pt. ii. p. 227. [This Congregation consists of more than 180 Abbeys and Conventual Priories, which are divided into six provinces; (extending over the greatest part of France ;) and it is governed by a general, two assistants,

and six visitors, who are elected, as are the superiors of the several cloisters, every three years, in a general chapter of the order. As it is the object of this Congregation to revive the spirit of St. Benedict, in the observance of his rule; so special care is taken to train up the young religious according to it. Hence, in each province, one or two houses for novices are erected, from which, those to be admitted to profession are removed to other cloisters, where they are trained for two years, to virtue and to acts and exercises of worship. After this, they study human learning and theology five years and then spend one year in collecting their thoughts, and thus prepare themselves for orders, and for more assiduity in their spiritual offices. In some cloisters there are also seminaries for the education of youth. Schl.]

2 The Benedictines talk largely of the great services done by this Congregation in various ways; and among

acquainted with the history of learning need not be informed how much this institution has benefited the literary world, or what a multitude of excellent and immortal works it has produced, illustrative of every branch of learning except philosophy'.

§ 26. But the best and most sacred of these changes were

other difficult enterprises, they mention numerous cloisters of monks, which had collapsed and become corrupt, recovered and restored to order and respectability. See Voyage de Deux Religieux Bénédictins de la Congrég. de St. Maur. tom. i. p. 16. tom. ii. p. 47. and nearly throughout that work. And a person must be much prejudiced, who can look upon all these statements as fictions. There are, however, in the Romish community, persons who, for various reasons, dislike this society. First, some of the bishops are unfriendly to these learned Benedictines. For after these monks had thrown great light upon ancient history, and upon diplomatics, by their learned works, they were able to defend their possessions, property, and rights, more learnedly and successfully in the courts, against the bishops who coveted them, than when they were destitute of this literature and erudition. In the next place, the Jesuits, whose merits and glory were greatly obscured by the splendid works undertaken and accomplished by these Benedictines, endeavour, to the utmost of their power, to run down both them and their pursuits. See Rich. Simon's Lettres Choisies, tom. iv. p. 36. 45. Others are led by superstition to indulge hatred of them; but it is, perhaps, a superstition tinctured with envy. For these Benedictines have substituted the pursuit of learning, in place of that manual labour, which the rule of St. Benedict prescribes for his monks. The more robust are required to labour with their hands during certain hours of the day but the more feeble, or such as possess superior genius, are taxed with intellectual or mental labour, or the pursuit of sacred and secular learning. This is censured by certain austere persons, who are very fond of the ancient monastic discipline, and who think that literary

pursuits are disreputable for monks; because they divert the mind from the contemplation of divine things. As this sentiment was advanced with excessive ardour, especially by Armand John Bouthillier de Rance, abbot of La Trappe, in his book des Devoirs Monastiques (on the duties of monks); the most learned of the Benedictines, John Mabillon, was directed to defend the cause of his fraternity; which he did, in his well known work, de Studiis Monasticis, which was first published, Paris, 1691. 8vo. and often afterwards, and translated also into the Latin and

other languages. Hence arose that noted controversy, in France, "How far is it suitable for a monk to attend to literature?" an elegant history of which has been given to the world by Vincent Thuillier, a very learned monk of the congregation of St. Maur: published among the Opera Posthuma Mabillonii et Ruinarti, tom. i. p. 365-425.

3 A list of the writings and works, with which the congregation of St. Maur have favoured the learned world, is given by Philip le Cerf, Bibliothèque Historique et Critique des Auteurs de la Congrégation de S. Maur; Hague, 1726. 8vo. and by Bernh. Pez, Bibliotheca Benedictino-Mauriana: Augsburg, 1716. 8vo. These monks are going on, with great perseverance, to benefit both sacred and profane learning, with their elaborate and excellent productions. [A more complete catalogue of their works is in the Histoire Littéraire de la Congrégation de S. Maur, ordre de St. Benoit, où l'on trouve la vie et les travaux des auteurs, qu'elle a produits depuis son origène en 1618, jusqu'à present, avec les titres, énumération, l'analyse, des différentes éditions des livres, qu'ils ont donnés au public, et le jugement, que les Sarans en ont porté ; ensemble la notice de beaucoup d'ourrages manuscrits, composés par des Bénédictins du même corps. Brussels and Paris, 1770. 4to. Schl.]

esteemed trivial and imperfect by those whose eye was fixed on the ancient discipline, and who wished to see the lives of monks strictly conformed to their first rules. The number of these in the Romish church was not inconsiderable; though they had little influence, and were odious to most persons on account of their severity. These thought that a monk should spend his whole life in prayers, tears, contemplation, sacred reading, and manual labour; and that whatever else might occupy him, however useful and excellent in itself, was inconsistent with his vocation, and therefore vain, and not acceptable to God. Besides others, who had not the fortune to become so celebrated, the Jansenists proposed this rigid reformation of the monks; and they exhibited some examples of it in France1, the most perfect and best known of which, was that which took place in the convent of sacred virgins, bearing the name of Port Royal, and which has flourished from the year 1618 down to the present time, [A. D. 1753.] Several emulated this example: but the most successful and zealous of all these, was, in the year 1664, Armand John Bouthillier de Rance, abbot of La Trappe, a man of noble birth; who was so happy as to prevent the accusation of extravagant superstition, which the Jansenists had incurred, from being brought against his associates, notwithstanding they lived in the most austere manner of the old Cistercians;-nay, carried their austerity beyond the ancient discipline of the Cistercians. The fraternity established by this noted man still flourishes under the name of the Reformed Bernardines of La Trappe, and has been propagated among the Italians and the Spaniards: though, if credit is to be given to the testimony of many, it has gradually departed much from the very painful discipline of its founder®.

♦ See Mémoires de Portroyal, tom. ii. p. 601, 602. In particular, that most celebrated Jansenist, Martin de Barcos, introduced the austere discipline of ancient monks into the monastery of St. Cyran, of which he was abbot. See Gallia Christiana, tom. ii. p. 132. Moleon, Voyages Liturgiques, p. 135, &c. But after his death, the monks of St. Cyran, like those of other places, relapsed into their old habits. See Voyage de Deux Bénédictins, tom. i. pt. i.

p. 18, &c.

Helyot, Histoire des Ordres, tom. v. cap. xliv. p. 455.

See Marsollier, Vie de l'Abbé de la Trappe, Paris, 1702. 4to. 1703. 2 vols. 12mo. Meaupou, (a doctor of the Sorbonne,) Vie de M. l'Abbé de la Trappe, 1702. 2 vols. 8vo. Felibien, Description de l'Abbaye de la Trappe, Paris, 1671. 12mo. Heylot, Histoire des Ordres, tom. vi. cap. I, &c. [The author of this reformation lived, as the