PROVIDENCE
507
PROVIDENCE
Kings, iv, 29-32, that, in his great wisdom, Solomon
"spoke 3000 Mashah", they have no difficulty in
admitting that this monarch may be the author of
the much smaller number of proverbs included in
the three collections in question. Guided by ancient
Jewish and Christian tradition they feel constrained
to abide by the exphcit titles to the same collections,
all the more so because the titles in the Book of
Proverbs are manifestly discriminating with regard
to authorship, and because the title, "These also are
Mishle Shelomoh, which the men of Ezechias, King
of Juda, copied out" (xxv, 1), in particular, bears
the impress of definiteness and accuracy. Lastly,
looking into the contents of these three large collec-
tions, they do not think that anything found therein
with respect to st3-Ie, ideas, historic background etc.
should compel anyone to give up the traditional
authorship, at whatever time — either under Eze-
chias, or as late as Esdras — all the collections em-
bodied in the Book of Proverbs reached their
present form and arrangement. A very different
view concerning the authorship and date of the col-
lections ascribed to Solomon by their titles is gaining
favour among non-Cathohc scholars. It treats the
headings of these collections as no more reliable than
the titles of the P.salms. It maintains that none of
the collections comes from Solomon's own hand and
that the general tenor of their contents bespeaks a late
post-exihc date. The following are the principal argu-
ments usually set forth in favour of this opinion. In
these collections there is no challenge of idolatr}^
such as would naturally be expected if they were
pre-exihc, and monogamy is everj^vhere presupposed.
It is very remarkable, too, that throughout no men-
tion is made of Israel or of any institution pecuhar
to Israel. Again, the subject of those collections is
not the nation, which apparently no longer enjoys
its independence, but the individual, to whom wisdom
appeals in a merely ethical, and hence very late,
manner. The personification of wisdom, in particular
(chap, viii), is either the direct result of the influence
of Greek upon Jewish thought, or, if independent of
Greek philosophy, the product of late Jewish meta-
physics. Finally, the close spiritual and intellectual
relation of Proverbs to Ecclesiasticus shows that,
however great and numerous are the differences in
detail between them, the two works cannot be sepa-
rated by an inter^■al of several centm-ies. Despite
the confidence with which some modern scholars urge
these arguments against the traditional authorship
of i-ix; x-xxii, 16; xxv-xxix, a close examination
of their value leaves one unconvinced of their proving
force.
V. Caxgniciti-. — The Book of Proverbs is justly numbered among the protocanonical writings of the Old Testament. In the first century of our era its canonical authority was certainly acknowledged in Jewish and Christian circles, for the Sacred Writers of the New Testament make a frequent use of its contents, quoting them at times expUcitlv as Holy Writ (cf. Rom., xii, 19, 20; Heb., xii, 5, "6; James, iv, 5, 6, etc.). It is true that certain doubts as to the inspiration of the Book of Proverbs, which had been entertained by ancient rabbis who belonged to the School of Shammai, reappeared in the Jewish assembly at Jamnia (about a. d. 100) ; but these were only theo- retical difficulties which could not induce the Jewi.sh leaders of the time to count this book out of the Canon, and which in fact were there and then set at rest for ever. The subsequent assaults of Theodore of Mopsuestia (d. 429), of Spinoza (d. 1G77), and of Le Clerc (d. 173C) against the inspiration of that sacred book left likewise its canonical authority un- shaken.
For Introduction.^ to tlii* ( )lil Testament see Introduction, H.cent eomnu-nturies — Catholic: RoHLiNa (.Mainz, 187!)); LEsfeTKE (Parid, IWSI); Fillion {Paris, l 1892); Vigouroux (Paris, 1903); Knabenbaueb: (Paris, 1910), Protestant;
ZoCKLEB (tr. New York. 1S70); Deutzsch (tr, Edinburgh
1874); NoWACK (Leipzig, 1883); Wildeboer (Freiburg, 1897)'
Frankesberg (Gottingen, 1898); Strack (Nordlingen, 1899)
Toy (New \ ork, 1899). General works: Meignan Salomon
son rigne, ses icrita (Paris, 1890); Cheyne, Job and Solomon
(New York. 1899); Ke.vt. The Wise Men of Ancienl Israel (New
York, 1899); Davison, The Wisdom Literature o/ the Old Testa-
inent (London, 1900).
Fr.^ncis E. Gigot. Providence, Congregations of. — I. Daughters OF Providence, founded at Paris, by Madame Polaillon (Marie de Lumague), a devout widow. In 1643 Madame Polaillon, having obtained letters patent from Louis XIII, opened a home to provicle protection and instruction for young girls, whom beauty, pciverty, or parental neglect exijoseil to the loss of Faith and other spiritual perils, placing it under the protection of Providence, with the name Seminary of Providence. Among the many who sought admission were some capable of instructing the rest, and of these, seven, who gave evidence of a religious vocation, were selected to form a religious community under rules drawn up for their use by St. Vincent de Paul at the direction of Francois <le Gondy, Archbishop of Paris (1647). New letters patent were granted by Louis XIV, whose mother, Anne of Austria, gave the institute its first fixed abode, the Hospital de la Sante in Faubourg Saint-Marcel (1651), previously a home for convalescents from the Hotel-Dieu, a grant confirmed by royal letters in 1667, bestowing on the rehgious all the privileges, rights, and exemptions accorded to hospitals of royal founda- tion. The Archbishop of Paris established other houses in various parts of the city, and foundations were made first at Metz and Sedan, where special attention was devoted to Jewish converts and the reclamation of heretics. After two years of probation candidates were admitted to the simple vows of chas- tity, obedience, the service of others, and perpetual stability. The superior, elected every three years, and the ecclesiastical superior, appointed by the Arch- bishop of Paris, were assisted in the temporal admin- istration of the community by two pious matrons, chosen from among the principal benefactresses. In 1681 some members of the congregation joined the Sisters of Charitable Instruction of the Child Jesus of Saint-Maur, estabhshed by Nicolas Barre in 1678, thenceforth known as the Ladies of Saint-Maur and of Providence; the remaining members became canon- esses of the Congregation of Our Lady, founded by St. Peter Fourier. The foregoing congregation became a model for others estabhshed to carry on a similar work in various dioceses of France, whose activities, however, came eventually to embrace the administra- tion of elementary schools for girls, oi-phanages, and asylums for the bhnd and deaf mutes, and the care of the sick in hospitals and their own homes. In 1903 the number of Sisters of Providence in France ex- ceeded 10,000. From the original seminary of Providence also came the rehgious who formed the nucleus of the Congregation of Christian Union sub- sequently estabhshed by M. le Vachet, a priest whose counsels had encouraged Madame Polaillon.
H^LYOT, Diet, des ordres relig. (Paris, 1859); HElMBrcHER. Orden u. Kongregationen (Paderborn, 1908): Faidead. Vie de Madame Lumague (Paris. 1659); R^glements de la maison et hos- pital des filler de la Providence de Dieu (Paris, 1657).
Florence Rudge McGahan.
II. Sisters of Providence (St. Mary-of-the- Woods). — Among the teaching rehgious orders that originated in Fiance :it tlie close of the Revolution was the Congregut i( jii cf I he Sist ers of Providence of Riiilld- sur-IiOir, founded in ISOG by M. Jacquos-Fran(;ois Dujari^, Cure of Ruille (Sarthe). The sucicty li:id a struggling existence for several years, but \\;i.s Cmnlly established with the collaboration of Jo.sepliine Zo6 du Roscoat, the first superior general. ^Iother du Roscoat was of an ancient noble Breton family and was renowned for her piety, charity, and zeal. Many
