The New International Encyclopædia/Corvei

CORVEI, kôr′vī (ML. Corbeia Nova, New Corbeia, as it was first occupied by monks from Corbie). A Benedictine abbey of Germany, on the Weser, near Höxter, the oldest and most famous abbey in Saxony. It was founded by Louis the Pious in the beginning of the ninth century, being a colony from the monastery of the same name in Picardy. It received rich endowments and was the centre of great agricultural improvement and prosperity during the earlier part of the Middle Ages, besides being the seat of a famous school. In 1793 it was made a bishopric by Pius VI. Its territory then embraced about 22 square miles, with 10.000 inhabitants. In 1802 it was secularized and annexed to Nassau, from which it was transferred, in 1807, to Westphalia, and in 1815 to Prussia. The church of the abbey is built in Gothic style, magnificently adorned in the interior, and contains a multitude of monuments of successive dynasties. The library and archives of the cloister, which contained most valuable records of the early ages of German history, have all been destroyed, the Chronicon Corbeiense, an alleged record of this abbey from its foundation to the end of the twelfth century, being a forgery. Certain brief Annales Corbeienses from 648 to 1148 are, however, printed in the Monumenta Germaniæ Historica. Consult Wigand, Geschichte der Abtei Korvey (Höxter, 1819).