MAURISTS
70
MAURISTS
reformed liouscs in France. luiviiiK its superior residing
within that kingdom. Tliis proposal was supported by
Louis XIII as wellasby Cardinals de Uetz and Hiehe-
lieu; letters patent were granted liy the king, and the
new organization was named the Congregation of St-
Maur iti order to obviate any rivalry lictween its
component houses. It was formally ap|)roved by
Pope Oregon,' XV on 17 May, 1621, an approval that
was confirmed by Urban VIII six years later. The
reform was welcomed by many of great influence at
the Court as well as by some of the greater monastic
houses in France. Alreatiy. under the first president
of the congregation, Dom Martin Tesniere (1618-21),
it had included about a dozen great hou.ses. By 1630
the congregation was divided into three provinces,
and, under Dom Gregoire Tarisse, the first Superior-
General (1630-48) , it included over 80 houses. Before
the end of the seventeenth century the numlier had
risen to over ISO monasteries, the congregations being
divided into six provinces: France, Normandy, Brit-
tany, Burgundy, Chezal-Benoit, and Gascony.
In its earlier years, however, the new congregation was forced, by Cardinal Richelieu, into an alliance with the Congregation of Cluny. Richelieu desired an amalgamation of all tlie Benedictines in France and even succeeded in bringing into existence, in 1634, an organization that was called the "Congregation of St. Benedict" or " of Cluny and St-Maur". This arrange- ment, however, was short-lived, and the two congre- gations were separated by Urban VIII in 1644. From that date the Congregation of St-Maur grew steadily both in extent and in influence. Although the twenty- one superior-generals who succeeded Dom Tarisse steadily resisted all attempts to establish the congre- gation beyond the borders of France, yet its influence was widespread. In several of its houses schools were conducted for the sons of noble families, and education was pro\'ided gratuitously at St-Martin de Vertou for those who had become poor. But from the beginning the Maurists refused to admit houses of nuns into the congregation, the only exception being the Abbey of Chelles, where, through Richelieu's influence, a house was established with six monks to act as confessors to the nuns.
The congregation soon attracted to its ranks many of the most learned scholars of the period, and though its greatest glory undoubtedly lies in the seventeenth century, yet, throughout the eighteenth century also, it continued to produce works whose solidity and crit- ical value still render them indispensable to modern students. It is true that the Maurists were not free from the infiltration of Jansenist ideas, and that the work of some of its most learned sons was hampered and coloured by the fashionable heresy and by the efforts of ecclesiastical superiors to eradicate it. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, also, there had crept into at least the central house, St^Germain- des-Pres, a desire for some relaxation of the strict regularity that had been the mark of the congregation ; a desire that was vigorously opposed by otlier houses. And, though there is reason to believe that the laxity was much less serious than it was represented to be by the rigorists, the dissensions caused thereby and by the taint of Jansenism had weakened the congregation and lowered it in public esteem when the crash of the Revolution came. Yet, right up to the suppression of the religious orders in 1790, the Maurists worked steadily at their great undertakings, and some of their publications were, by general consent, carried on by learned Academies after the disturbance of the Revo- lution had passed. In 1817 .some of the survivors of those who had been driven from France in 1790 re- turned, and an attempt was made to restore the con- gregation. The project, however, did not meet with the approbation of the Holy See and the congregation ceased to exist. The last surviving member, Dom Brial, died in 1833. In 1837, when CJregory XVI estab-
lished the Congregation of France under the govern-
ance of the .\bl)ey of Solesmes, the new congregation
was declared the successor of all the former congrega-
tions of French Benedictines, including that of St-
Maur.
Constitution. — The early Maurists, like the Con- gregation of St-Vannes from which they sprang, imitated the constitution of the reformed Congrega- tion of Monte Cassino. But before many years the need of new regulations more suitable to France was recognized and Dom Ciri'goire Tarisse, tlie first Supe- rior-General, was entrusted with the task of drawing them up. Dom Maur Dupont, who was elected presi- dent in 1627, had already made an attempt to accomplish this; but the Chapter of 1630 appointed a commission, of which Dom Tarisse was the chief mem- ber, to reconstruct the whole work. The result of their labours was first submitted to Dom Athanase de Mongin in 1633, then again to Dom Tarisse and three others in 1639, and was finally confirmed by the Gen- eral Chapter of 1645. Under these constitutions the president (now styled ".superior-general") and the priors of the commendatory houses of the congrega- tion were to be elected every three years. They were eligible for re-election. The superior-general was to reside at the Abbey of St-Germain-des-Pr^s and was to be subject only to the general chapter, which met every three years. With him, however, were asso- ciated two "assistants" and six "visitors", one for each province. These also resided at St-Germain-des- Pres, were elected by the general chapter every three years, and constituted, with the superior-general, the executive council of the congregation. Besides these officials, the general chapter was composed of three priors and three conventuals from each province. Every three years, there were chosen from its ranks nine "definitors" who appointed the six visitors, the heads of all the houses that possessed no regular abbot, the novice-masters, the procurator in curia, the preach- ers, professors, etc., of the congregation. Each prov- ince also possessed its provincial chapter, which was presided over by the visitor, and consisted of the priors and one elected representative from each house. In each province there were to be two novitiates. Those who desired to embrace the monastic state spent one year as "postulants", a second as "novices", and then, when they had completed the five years' course of philosophy and theology, spent a "year of recollec- tion" before they were admitted to the priesthood. The discipline was marked by a return to the strict rule of St. Benedict. All laboured with their hands, all abstained from flesh-meat, all endiraceil regular pov- erty; the Divine Office was recited at the canonical hours with great solemnity, silence was observed for many hours, and there were regular times for private prayer and meditation. And this discipline was uni- form throughout every house of the congregation. None were dispensed from its strict observance save the sick and the infirm. Until the movement towards relaxation at the end of the eighteenth century, the Maurists were as renowned for the austerity of their observance as for the splendour of their intellectual achievements.
To the great body of .students, indeed, the Maurists are best known by their services to ecclesiastical and literary history, to patrology, to Biblical studies, to diplomatics, to chronology and to liturgy. The names of DD. Luc d'Achery, Jean Mabillon, Thierry, Ruinart, Frangois Lami, Pierre Coustant, Denys de Sainte-Marthe, Edmond Martene, Bernard de Mont- faucon, Maur Francois Dantine, Antoine Rivet de la Grange and Martin Bouquet recall some of the most scholarly works ever produced. To these and to their confreres we are indebted for critical and still indis- pen.sable editions of the great Latin and Greek Fathers, for the history of the Benedictine Order and the lives of its saints, for the "Gallia Christiana" and the
