NAMXJR
679
NAMUR
was empowered to confer degrees (July, 1S93), also to
grant a Teachers' State Certificate good for five years,
and a Teachers' State Diploma qualifying the holder
for hfe. In 1907, an Act of the Washington State
Legislature, afterwards ratified by the State Board of
Education, accredited the Holy Names' Academies at
Seattle and Spokane, as State Normal Schools. Two
other pro\-inces are located in the United States. That
of California, estabhshed at Oakland (186S) by Bishop
Alemany, possesses a novitiate since 1871; the New
York province includes Florida. Quebec has four
provinces; Ontario, one; Manitoba, one. Attached to
Ontario are parochial schools in Detroit and Chicago.
St. Mary's, Portland, opened (1860) a refuge for desti-
tute and orphaned children and still conducts a Home
for Orphan Girls. The congregation numbers (1910)
professed sisters, 1257; novices, 110; postulants, 81.
It conducts 99 schools, residential, select, and paro-
chial, attended by 24,208 pupils. Of these establish-
ments, 48 are in the United States.
M.\RiE R. Madden.
Namuf, Diocese of (N.^murcensis), constituted by the Bull of 12 May, 1.559, from territory pre\nousIy belonging to the Diocese of Liege, and made suffragan of the new metropolitan See of Cambrai. The Con- cordat of 1801 re-established a Diocese of Namur, its limits to coincide with those of the Department of Sambre-et-Meuse, and to be suffragan of Mechhn. On 14 Sept., 1S23, the Diocese of Namur was increased by the territory of Luxemburg, which had formerly belonged to the Diocese of Metz, and which, forming, under the First Empire, part of the Departments of the Forets and the Ardennes, had been given, in 1815, to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. After the Revo- lution of 1830, which brought about the separation be- tween the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg and the Bel- gian Province of Luxemburg, the City of Luxemburg received a vicar Apostolic. In 1840 the jurisdiction of this vicar was extended to the whole grand duchy. On 7 October, 1842, the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Namur was definitively restricted to the two Belgian Provinces of Namur and Luxemburg.
In 1047, Albert II, Count of Namur, caused the erection, on the site of an ancient chapel, which an un- authentioated legend says was dedicated by Pope CorneUus in the third century, of a collegiate church, ser^'ed by twelve canons, who had the right of admin- istering justice within their lands. The first dean, Frederick of Lorraine, brother-in-law of Albert II, about 1050 secured from the chapter of Mainz a por- tion of the head of St. Aubain, martyr. The collegi- ate church took the name of St. Aubain the Martyr. In 1057 Frederick became pope under the name of Stephen IX. The various successors of Albert II en- riched this foundation with numerous privileges. In 1209 Innocent III, by a Brief, took it under his pro- tection. In 1263 Baldwin, Emperor of Constanti- nople, heir of the counts of Namur, sold the count- ship to Guy de Dampierre, Count of Flanders, and the House of Dampierre also protected the collegiate church. In 1429 Count John III sold the countship to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. Thenceforth, until the French Revolution, Namur belonged to the House of Burgundy-Austria, except during the years 1692-95, when it was occupied by Louis XIV. Charles the Bold, Philip the Fair, Charles V, Albert and Isabella all knelt and took the oath in the sanctuary of St. Aubain. This church thus held a most important place in the political life of the country. It was re- built in the eighteenth century after the model of St. Peter's at Rome, as the cathedral. Don .John of Aus- tria is buried there.
The Church of Namur resisted .Josephinism. In 1789, despite the formal prohibition of Joseph II, the image of the Blessed Virgin was carried in processions through the streets in honour of the Immaculate Con-
ception. Under the Directory, the vicar capitular,
Stevens, formerly a professor in the University of
Louvain, and famous for his opposition to Josephin-
ism, directed the clergy bj' mysteriously circulated
communications issued from his hiding-place at Fleu-
rus. After the Concordat, when the Frenchman
Leopold-Claude de Bexon had been made Bishop of
Namur, .Stevens feared that the new bishop would be
too comphant towards Napoleon. The pamphlets
which he circulated under the title "Sophisme d^
voile" advised the clergy to refuse adhesion to the
Concordat, as it would be taken by the State for
adhesion to the Organic Articles. A petile eglise
formed of persons calling themselves "Stevenists"
was formed in the diocese. It was strengthened by
the subservience of Bishop Bexon, whom age had
weakened, for the prefect Peres and bj- the circular
(13 November, 1802) in which he denied having dis-
approved of the Organic Articles. At last Bexon re-
signed, 15 Sept., 1803, and was succeeded by Pisani de
la Gaude. But Stevenism continued to e.xist. Stevens
admitted that the Concordat was legitimate, and that
the new bishops might be received; he only protested
against the formula of adhesion to the Concordat.
But the Stevenists went farther: they held that the
jurisdiction of the bishops was radically defective, and
they would recognize no other spiritual head than
Stevens. The schism lasted until 1814, when Pisani
de la Gaude accepted the declaration recognizing the
legitimate bishop which the Stevenists were willing to
make. Stevens died on 5 September, 1828. He had
submitted all his writings to the Holy See, which never
passed judgment. Since 1866 the right of appointing
the dean and chapter of Namur has been reserved to
the pope. Dechamps, later Cardinal Archbishop of
Mechlin, was Bishop of Namur from 1865 to 1867.
Two abbeys in the Diocese of Namur had great re- nown during the Middle Ages: the Benedictine Abbey of Brogne, founded by St. Gerard (see Gerard, Saint, Abbot of Brogne), and the Premonstratensian Ab- bey of Floreffe (q. v.). In 1819 a preparatory semi- nan.' was installed at Floreffe, which was suppressed by the Government in 1825 and re-established in 1830. The Benedictine Abbey of Gemblours, founded in 922 by Guibert de Darnau, acquired great renown in the twelfth century. Sigebert and Gottschalk wrote there an important chronicle. Ravaged by the Calvinists in 1578, and by fire in 1712, the Abbey of Gemblours was suppressed in 1793. The Abbey of Waulsort was founded in 946 for Scotch (Irish) monks under Bene- dictine rule. Its first two abbots were St. Maccelan and St. Cadroes; the bishop .St. Forannan (d. 980) was also Abbot of Waulsort. In 1131 Innocent II consecrated the main altar of the church of the Abbey of G^ronsart, administered by the Canons Regular of St. Augustine. The buildings of the Abbey of Paix Notre-Dame, founded in 1613 by the Reformed Bene- dictines of Douai, have since 1831 sheltered a college of the Jesuits. The Assumptionist fathers have a novitiate at Bure. A very important centre of studies was founded at Maredsous in 1872 by the Benedic- tines; it was erected into an abbey in 1878, and in 1888 provided with a beautiful Gothic church. The "Revue Benedictine" and the "Analecta Maredso- lana" have already assured the fame of this abbey. The first abbot was Placide Wolter, who in 1890 be- came .Abbot of Beuron; the second was Hildebrand de Hemptinne, who, in 1893, became Abbot of St. .\nselm at Rome and primate of the Benedictine Order. In 1907 there were in the community of Maredsous 140 monks. 64 of whom were priests. A college for higher education and a technical school are connected with the abbey. At Maredret, near Maredsous, was estab- lished in 1893 the Benedictine abbey of St. .Scholastica, which in 1907 numbered 41 nuns.
The Diocese of Namur honours with special venera- tion Sts. Maternus, Servatus (Servais), and Remacu-
