PRECIPIANO
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PRECIPIANO
to establish a home for destitute children and a nor-
mal school for the training of religious teachers, asked
for six members of the community of the Sisters of the
Precious Blood from Ottmarsheim, Alsace. They
responded and began their work with twelve poor chil-
dren under the direction of Father Kessler. Under the
auspices of Archbishop von Vicari of Freiburg, a
novitiate and normal school were established; the lat-
ter was affihated with the educational department of
Karlsruhe. Other schools and academies were opened.
In 1869 Bishop Junker of Alton, 111., asked for sisters
for his diocese. In 1870 a number of sisters sailed for
Belle Prairie (now Piopolis) in the Diocese of Alton.
Meantime Bishop Baltes succeeded Bishop Junker; he
entrusted to them several parochial schools and prom-
ised further assistance on condition that the commu-
nity should establish itself permanently in his diocese
subject to his authority. Mother Augustine, superior
of the mother-house at Gurtweil, ajiprehended a pre-
mature separation from Gurtweil, and wiis also op-
posed to limiting the sisters' activity to one diocese
only. She went to St. Louis where tlu-ough the efforts
of Father Muehlsiepen, Vicar-General of St. Louis, the
Sisters of the Precious Blood were received into the
Archdiocese of St. Louis (1872) and obtained charge
of a number of schools in Alissouri and Nebraska. In
1873 the Kulturkampf had reached its climax and the
entire community was expelled ; some went to Rome,
others settled in Bosnia, Hungary, while the greater
number joined their sisters in America. A mother-
house was established in O'Fallon, St. Charles County,
Mo., completed in 1875. News arrived that Mother
Clementine, mistress of novices, with a few professed
sisters and the entire no\'itiate had resolved to follow
the dictates of Bishop Baltes and establish a mother-
house in his diocese. Consequently a new novitiate
was begun in O'Fallon. The novitiate of Mother
Clementine's branch was established at Ruma in 1876.
They conduct schools in the Archdiocese of St. Louis,
the Diocesesof Alton, Belleville, Oklahoma, St. Joseph,
and Wichita. They number (1911): professed sisters,
230; novices, 20; candidates, 30; schools, 51; orphans,
150; pupils, 49,430. The O'Fallon community was
incorporated (1878) under the laws of the State of
Missouri with the right of succession, under the legal
title of St. Mary's Institute of O'Fallon, Mo. The
sisters conduct schools in the Archdiocese of St. Louis,
and in the Dioceses of Alton, Kansas City, Lincoln,
and Omaha. They number (1911): professed sisters,
179; novices, 17; candidates, 11; academy, 1;
schools, 20; pupils, 2943.
Ulhich F. Mueller.
V. Sisters of the Precious Blood, founded in the canton of Grisons, Switzerland, in 1833, by Maria Anna Brunner, and her son Rev. Francis de Sales Brunner (q. v.). They were inspired to the undertak- ing by a visit to Rome, during which they were much impressed by the devotion to the Most Precious Blood as practised by the congregation of Blessed Gaspare del Bufalo. Tlie rule was founded on that of St. Bene- dict and approved by the Bishop of Chur, the object of the community being the adoration of the Most Precious Blood and the education of youth, including the care of orphans and homeless or destitute girls. The sisters became affiliated with the Society of Priests of the Precious Blood, of which Father Brun- ner was a member, and on his being sent to America to establish his congregation there he enabled the sisters also to make a foundation, first at St.Alphon- sus, near Norwalk, and permanently at New Riegcl, Ohio. In 1886 Archbishop Elder found it advisable to revise the rule drawn up by Father Brunner in order to adapt it to altered conditions, and this revision, be- sides extending the time of adoration through the day as well as the night, increased the teaching force of the community, who were thus enabled to take charge of a
larger number of parochial schools. In this year, also,
the sisters were separated from the society of priests,
with which it had hitherto been affiliated, and made a
separate congregation with a superior general under
the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Cincinnati. The
present mother-house is at Maria Stein, Ohio. They
conduct schools in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, and
in the Dioceses of Cleveland, Ft. Wayne, Kansas City,
Nashville, St. Joseph, and Tucson. The statistics for
1911 are: professed sisters, 592; novices, 48; postu-
lants, 26; pupils, 6954.
Heimbucher, Die Orden u. Kongregationeii der kathol. Kirehe, III (Paderborn, 1908), 399, 476.
Sister Mary Victoria.
Precipiano, Humbert-Guillaumb de. Count, b. at Be.sangon, 1626; d. at Brussels, 7 June, 1711. Having studied the classics at Constance, philosophy in his native town, and theology in the Jesuit college, Louvain, he graduated as Licenciate in Law and Doc- tor of Theology at the University of Dole. He was named successively canon, archdeacon, and dean of the metropolitan chapter of Besancon; commenda- tory Abbot of Bellevaux in Burguncly; and was then appointed ecclesiastical councillor at the Court of Dole by Philip IV of Spain, La Franche-Comt6 being a Spanish dependency. In 1667 Philip sent him to the imperial Diet of Ratisbon as plenipoten- tiary for Burgundy. After 1672 he resided at Madrid as chief councillor for the affairs of the Netherlands and Burgundy. Ten years later he was raised to the See of Bruges, and consecrated on 21 March, 1683. For seven years he laboured zealously to maintain the purity of the Faith and the rights of the Church, and to check the spread of Jansenism. In 1690 he was offered the Archbishopric of Mechlin, which he accepted only upon the express order of the pope. At Mechlin his life was a constant struggle against the doctrines which were being actively disseminated by the French refugees, Arnauld, Quesnel, and others (see Jansenius and Jansenism). In union with his suffragans, the archbishop began by insisting on the oath formulated by Alexander VII as a necessary condition for admission to Holy orders, benefices, and ecclesiastical positions. Three episcopal assemblies held under his presidency at Brussels in 1691, 1692, and 1697, confirmed this regulation. The second (1692) moreover, to prevent all subterfuges regarding the distinction of law and fact, had made certain additions to the formulary. Through Dr. Hennebel, the Jansenists lodged a pro- test at Rome, and succeeded in having their claim upheld by Innocent XII. The pope ordered the adoption of the precise words of the Alexandrine oath, as being quite sufficient since it condemned the five propositions "in the obvious sense which the words of the propositions express, and which our predecessors condemned". Thereupon, men of bad faith declared that the Constitution of Alexander VII and the obligations it imposed had been changed, and that it was no longer necessary to reject the propositions "in sensu auctoris". The bishops com- municated with Rome to obtain a more drastic and efficacious remedy; and the pope, now better in- formed, authorized them to proceed, not only in virtue of their own authority but also as delegates of the Holy See, against all who by word or writing opposed the well-known decisions of the sovereign authority. The archbishop at once censured and prohibited seventy-one defamatory pamphlets of Jansenistic origin; "but, as the propaganda in favour of the "Augustinus" continued and moral suasion proved entirely ineffectual, he sought the interven- tion of the secular power. Quesnel, Gerberon, and Brigode, the distributor of their writings, were ar- rested at Brussels, by order of Philip V, and con- fined to the archiepiscopal palace (1703). Quesnel escaped to Holland, but his vast correspondence was
