FONTFROIDE
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FONTFROIDE
house. In the course of liis preaching journeys
through France, Robert d'Arbrissel had founded a
great number of houses, and during the succeeding
centuries others were given to the order. In the sev-
enteenth century the Fontevrist priories numbered
about sixty in all and were divided into the four prov-
inces of France, Brittany, Gascony, and Auvergne.
The order never attained to any great importance out-
side France though there were a few houses in Spain
and England. The history of the order is, as will al-
ready have been seen, that of the mother-house. The
Angevin kings were much attached to Fontevrault;
Henry II and his queen, Eleanor of Guienne, Richard
Coeur de Liori, and Isabel of Angouleme, the wife of
King John, were buried in the Cimeticre des Rois in the
abbey church, where their effigies may still be seen.
The remains were scattered at the Revolution.
IV. The Abbey Buildings. — The Abbey of Fonte- vrault was in four parts: the Grand Moustier, or convent of the nuns, the hospital and lazaretto of Saint-Lazare, the Madeleine for penitent women, and, some distance apart, the monastery of St-Jean de I'Habit for the monks, destroyed at the Revolution. The most nota- ble buildings were naturally those belonging to the nuns with the great minster dedicated to Our Lady. This was consecrated by Pope Oallistus II, in 1119, but the church was probably rebuilt in the second half of the same century. It is a magnificent specimen of late Romanesque and consists of an aisleless nave vaulted with six shallow cupolas, transepts, and an ap- sidal chancel with side chapels. In 1804 the abbey became a central house of detention for 15,000 prison- ers, and the nave of the church was cut up into four stories forming dormitories and refectories for the con- victs, while the choir and transepts were walled up and used as their chapel. Five of the six cupolas were de- stroyed, but the nave has recently been cleared, and a complete restoration begun. The length of the church is 84 metres (about 276 ft.), the width of the nave 14m. 60 (about 48 ft.), and the height 21m. 45 (about 70 ft.). The interesting cloisters and chapter-house may be visited, but the magnificent refectory, dating from the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, is not shown.
V. English Houses. — These were the Priories of Araesbury, in Wiltshire, and Nuneaton, in Warwick- shire, and the Cell of Westwood, in Worcestershire, with six nuns. Amesbury had been an abbey, but on account of their evil lives the nuns were dispersed by royal orders and the monastery given to Fontevrault in 1 177. The community was recruited from the high- est ranks of society and in the thirteenth century num- bered among its members several princesses of the royal house, among them Queen Eleanor of Provence, widow of Henry III. A survey of the English houses was taken in 1256, when there were 77 choir nuns, 7 chaplains and 16 conversi at Amesbury, and 86 nuns at Nuneaton. In the fourteenth century the officials were appointed by the Abbess of Fontevrault, but the bonds uniting the English nunneries to the mother- house were gradually loosened until from alien they became denizen, that is to say, practically indepen- dent. In the last days some of the Prioresses of Ames- bury seem to have resumed the ancient abbatial title; at the dissolution, in 1540, the house was surrendered by Joan Darrell and thirty-three nuns. A Prior of Amesbury is mentioned in 1399, but it does not seem certain that there were at any time regular establish- ments of the Fontevrist monks in England.
VI. Modern Development. — In 1803 Madame Rose, a Fontevrist nun, opened a school at Chemille, the home of the first abbess, and three years later was enabled to buy a house and start community life; only temporary vows were taken, and the constitutions were approved by the Bishop of Angers. A few years later the habit of Fontevravilt was resumeil. Twelve more Fontrevists joined the community, and the anci- ent Rule was kept as far as possible. In 1847 permis-
sion was granted by the government to remove the
relics of Blessed Robert from Fontevrault to Chemill(5,
and by 1849 there were three houses of the reviveci
congregation: Chemille in the Diocese of Angers; Bou-
lor in the Diocese of Auch; and Brioude in the Diocese
of Puy. In this year a general chapter was held, in
which certain modifications of the Rule were agreed
upon: the many fasts were found ill adapted to the
work of teaching; the houses were made subject to the
ordinary; and the superioress elected only for three
years. There are no Fontevrist monks.
For full bibliography see Beaunier, Heimbucheb, and Walter as below. — The standard work is Nicquet, Hist, de VOrdre de Fontevrault (Paris. 1642); Lasdier, Saincle Famille de Fontevraud (16.'J0), unfortunately still in MS. For the Rule .see Walter, Ersten Wanderprediger Frankreichs (Leipzig, 1903), I; Reoula Ordinis Fontis-Ebraldi (Fr. and Lat., Paris, 1642). See also Heimbucher, Ord. u. Kong, der Kath. Kirche (Paderborn, 1907), I; Cosnier, Fontisbraldi Exordium (Masserano, 1641); Helyot. Hist, des Ordres Religieux, VI; Beaunier, Recueil hist, des archeveckes, etc.. Introductory vol. (Paris, 1906), 215-226; Besse, Fontevraud and the English Brnrdielines at the Beginning of the Seventeenth Century in The .\mplelorth Journal, II; Bishop, Bishop Giffard and the Reform of Fontevraud in The Downside Review (Jan., 1886); Jubien, L'.Xbbrsse Marie de Bretagne et la reforme de Vordre de Fonte- vrault {.\ng.ers. 1872); Cl.Etsf:HT,AbbeaaedeFontevraultauXVII' .SiMc (Paris, 1869); Uzureau, DcratVre ylfcbfsse de Fontevrault in Revue Mabillon, II. The only adequate account of the buildings, though now a little out of date, is given by BosSE- BCKUP, Fontevrault, son histoire et ses monuments (Tours, 1890.)
Raymund Webster.
Fontfroide, Abbey op (B. Maria de Fonte Frigido), a Cistercian monastery in the department of Aude, six miles north-west of Narbonne, formerly in the diocese of Narbonne, now in that of Carcassone. It was founded at Narbonne some time before 1097 by Aimery, Count of Narbonne, and was originally a filia- tion of the Benedictine abbey of Grandselve. In 1118 the monks settled at Fontfroide, so-called from a spring in the place where the new monastery was built, and in 1146 the Cistercian reform was adopted. The abbey held a position of considerable importance in the Middle Ages and many of its abbots and monks were drawn from the nobility and highest families of France. One, Jacques Fournier, was elevated to the papacy as Benedict XII in 1334; some became car- dinals, amongst whom were Arnaud Novelli (1310), Augustin Trivulce (d. 1548), and Hippolyte d'E.ste (d. 1572) ; and several others became Bishops of Nar- bonne or neighbouring churches. In the seventeenth century three successive abbots were members of the de La Rochefoucauld family. Fontfroide was the burial place of the Counts of Narbonne, its chief pa- trons, and it had also many royal benefactors.
In 1401 the use of abbatial pontificalia was granted by Benedict XIII, and other papal privileges were conceded at different times. The abbots also exer- cised civil jurisdiction over their dependents. The abbey escaped the intrusion of commendatory abbots, so common in the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- turies, and flourished under the rule of monastic supe- riors right up to the time of the Revolution, when it was suppressed. The buildings then became private property and, dismantled and untenanted, were grad- ually falling into decay, when, in 1858, they were pur- chased for a sum of eighty thousand francs by Pere Marie-Bernard (Louis Barnouin), the founder of the "Cistercians of the Immaculate Conception" and re- storer of the abbey of Senanque, which had been in- corporated into the Order of Citeaux a year previously. A colony of about a dozen monks, under Pere Marie- Jean, as first abbot of the restored Fontfroide, was sent there from Senanque. In 1905 the "Association Laws" obliged them to leave, and the community is now domiciled at T;lrrega, in the province of L^rida, Spain, in the diocese of Solsona. It numbers about thirty-one members, of whom fourteen are priests. They belong to the " Cisteri'ians of the Common Ob- servance", who were separated from the Trappists or "Stricter Observance" in 1834. The monasteries of
