BURTON
85
BURY
Union, which then consisted of the six abbeys:
Bursfeld, Clus, Reinhausen, Cismar in Schlcswig-
Holstein, St. Jacob near Mainz, and Huyeburg near
Magdeburg. The cardinal likewise decreed tl
Abbot of Bursfeld should always ex officio be one of
the three presidents of the congregation, and that
he should have power to convoke annual chapters.
The first annual chapter of the Bursfeld Congrega-
tion convened in the monastery of Sts. Peter and
Paul at Erfurt in 144(5. In 1 4 ."> 1 , while on his journey
of reform through Germany, the Cardinal Legate,
Nicholas of Cusa, met John of Hagen at "Wurzburg,
where the Benedictine monasteries of the Mainz-
Bamberg province held their triennial provincial
chapter. The legate appointed the Abbot of Burs-
feld visitor for this province, and in a bull, dated
7 June, 14.il, the Bursfeld Congregation was approved,
and favoured with new privileges. Finally, on
6 March, 1458, Pope Pius II approved the statutes
ni the 1 1 >n gregation and gave it all the privileges
which Eugene IV had given to the Italian Bene-
dictine Congregation of St. Justina since the year
1431. In 1401 this approbation was reiterated,
and various new privileges granted to the congre-
gation. Favoured by bishops, cardinals, and popes.
11 as by temporal rulers, especially the Dukes
of Brunswick, the Bursfeld Congregation exercised
a wholesome influence to promote true reform in
the Benedictine monasteries of Germany during
the second half of the fifteenth, and the first half of
the sixteenth, century. At the death of Abbot
John of Hagen thirty-six monasteries had already
joined the Bursfeld Congregation, and new ones
were being added every year. During its most
flourishing period, shortly before the Protestant
revolt, at least 136 abbeys, scattered through all
oi Germany, belonged to the Bursfeld Union.
The religious revolution, and especially the con-
sequent risings of the peasants in Germany, greatly
retarded the progress of the Bursfeld Reform. In
1579, Andrew Luderitz. the last Abbot of Bursfeld,
wis driven from his monastery by the Lutheran
Duke Julius of Brunswick, and, after an existence
of almost five hundred years, Bursfeld ceased to be
a Catholic monastery. The possessions of the abbey
were confiscated, and the abbot was replaced by an
adherent of Luther. About forty other Benedictine
abbeys belonging to the Bursfeld Congregation
were wrested from the Church, their possessions
confiscated by Lutheran princes, and their churches
demolished or turned to Protestant uses. Though
greatly impeded in its work of reform, the Bursfel 1
Congregation continued to exist until the compulsory
secularization of all its monasteries at the end
eighteenth, and the beginning of the nineteenth,
century. Its last president was Bernard Bierbaum,
Abbot of Werden in the Rhine Province, who died
in 1798. Bursfeld (Bursfelde) is at present a small
village with about 200 inhabitants, for whom a
Lutheran minister holds services in the old abbey
church.
Trithfmhs, Chronicon Hiraatigienae (St. Gall, 1090), II. 350; I.m i km u>, Antigvitata Bursfeldenees (LeipziR and Wolfenbuttel,. 1703); Evklt, /</■ At ■■:• der /• Benedin [Monster, 1865); Biedeni
..,. Order (Wi imar, - Brookhoff, /'" Kloeter der hi. kath. Kirche tODerbau en . Hhmhithkr, Die Orden und Kongregationen (Paderborn, 1896 . I. 141: I.iNNt.iumN, Die Reform
BenedictinrrkliKier im IS. JaJtrh. durrh die Bury;. Id. r Con- gregation in Studien u. M utheilungen aui dem Benedii Orden, XX-XX1I; Bkhxieke, tee onginea de la congregation de Bursfeld in Revue Benidietme, XVI.
Michael Ott.
Burton, George A. See Clifton, Diocese op.
Bury St. Edmund's, The Abbey of. — The first re- ligious foundation there was established by Sigebert, King of the Fast Angles, who resigned his crown to found a monastery about 637. It became celebrated
when the relics of the martyred King Edmund were
brought there in 903, after which time the town,
till then called Beodericsworth, became known as
St. Edmund's Town or St. Edmund's Bury. During
the reign of Canute (1016-35) the secular canons
were replaced by Benedictines. In 1095 there was a
solemn transla-
tion of the saint's
relics to the new
church built by
Abbot Baldwin.
The shritii' grew
in fame, wealth,
and magnificence
till the monastery
was considered
second only to
( ilastonbury, but
in 1405 a terrible
fire caused irrep-
arable loss to
the church, from
which it never
recovered. The
abbot had a Beat
in Parliament and
■ I full ju-
risdiction over
the town a a d
neighbourhood.
There was ac-
commodation lor
eighty monks.
but more than
two hundred persons resided in the Abbey. At the
dissolution, the revenues were valued at £2,360,
equivalent to more than £20,000 in present money.
It was in the abbey church that the memorable
meeting of barons took place in the year 1214, when
Cardinal Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, stand-
ing at the high altar, read out the proposed Charter
of Liberties, which in the form of Magna Charts was
signed by King John in 1215. The abbey was
finally dissolved by Henry VIII in 1539, when the
abbey church ami the monastic buildings were in
large measure destroyed, the gateway, an ancient
The Norman Tuwkr
Abbey Hill at Present Day
bridge, and other scattered ruins alone now remaining.
The fate of the saint's nlies has never been decided,
According to one tradition, they were abstracted by
Prime Louis of France in 1217. Relics purporting
to be those of the saint were long preserved at Tou-
louse, until in 1901, Cardinal Vaughan, Archbishop
il Westminster, obtained leave to translate them to England. Doubts having been thrown on the au- thenticity of the relics, a commission of investigation
Was appointed by the Holy See, but no report has been published. Among the famous monks of the Abbey were Abbot Sampson and his chronicler
