Benedict of Aniane, or Acnana, a monastic re- former, was born in Languedoc in 750. In 774, be- ing saved from drowning, he resolved to abandon the world, and retired into the monastery of St. Sequanas, near Dijon. His fastings, prayers, and mortifications were almost incredible ; but be soon saw the folly of excess, and moderated his extravagance. In 780 he returned into Languedoc, and a little hermitage near, on the Aniane. Here a monastery was soon built, and the brotherhood became eminent for sanctity ; a large cloister and magnificent church were built, where, lie- fore long, more than three hundred monks were gath- ered together. All the monasteries of the region now regarded him as their father and superior, and he took advantage of this feeling toward him to introduce the
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needful reforms into the various houses, and thus be- came the celebrated renovator of religious discipline in France. He collected a large library, and encouraged his monks to multiply copies of the books ; and many of the secular clergy, induced by the fame of the estab- lishment, repaired to the monastery of St. Sauveur, on the Aniane, to learn the duties of their calling. He obtained great influence with Charlemagne, and used it to promote monkery. In 779 and 780 Charlemagne sent him, with Leidradus of Lyons and Nephridius of Narbonne, to Felix of Urgel ; and he composed several treatises on the Adoptianist (q. v.) controversy (given by Baluze, Miscell. v, 1-62). In 814 he became abbot of the monastery of Inda, built by Louis near Aix-la- Chapelle on purpose to have Benedict at hand. He used his clerical and political influence in behalf of monkery up to his death in 821. His principal writ- ings are, 1. Codex Rcgidarum, edited by Holstenius at Rome (1661; Paris, 1664, 4to):— 2. Concordia Regu- larnm, cd. Menard (Paris, 1638) : — 3. Modus diversarum panitentiarian (ed. Baluze, at the end of the Capitulaf ria of Charlemagne). — Cave, HistL Lit. anno 801 ; Mos- heim, Ch. Hist, ii, 75 ; Landon, Eccl. Diet, ii, 155. Benedict, Rene. See Benoit. Benedict, Joel, D.D., a Congregational minister, was born at Salem, N. Y., Jan. 8, 17-15, and graduated at the College of New Jersey 1765. In 1771 he was made pastor of the church in Ncwent, Conn. On ac- count of ill health he resigned in 1782, but on partial recovery he became pastor of the church in Plainfield, Dec. 21, 1784. He was made D.D. at Union College, 1808, and died Feb. 13, 1816. He published a funeral sermon on Dr. Hart, 1811. — Sprague's Annals, i, 682. Benedictines, a monastic order of the Roman Catholic Church, founded by Benedict of Nursia in 515 (according to others, 529) in Monte Cassino. The leading ideas in the monastic rule of St. Benedict wero [see Benedict of Nursia], that the monks should live in common a retired life, remain poor, and ren- der unlimited obedience to their superiors. Benedict states explicitly (ch. lxxiii) that his rule can lead only to the beginning of a holy life, while he refers his monks for perfectness to the Scriptures and the fathers. His aim was to give to repentant and religious men of the world a house of refuge, but he had no projects for a universal mission in the Church such as those enter- tained by the later mendicant orders. He received children into his convents, who, under the common superintendence of all the monks, and clothed in the monastic habit, were educated for the monastic life.
The spread of the order was very rapid. As early as 541 it was introduced into Sicily, and in 543 into France. The order began to take extraordinary di- mensions through the exertions of Pope Gregory the Great, who lent the whole weight of his vast influence to its diffusion. Augustine introduced it into Eng- land and Ireland, and the followers of Cassian and Columban in large number exchanged their former rules for those of Benedict. When, in the eighth cen- tury, the bulk of the Cjermanic world entered into con- nection with the Ionian Catholic Church, the promi- nent influence of Boniface, himself a Benedictine, se- cured for the principles of his order almost general adoption by the rising monastic institutions of Germa- ny. As its wealth and power advanced, the Bene- dictine order by degrees almost monopolized the sci- ence and learning in the Christian Chinch, and estab- lished a large number of distinguished schools. Their many Irish teachers (known under the name of Scots) were the first to lay the foundation of the scholastic theology. As many of the convents amassed great riches, the strict rule, and primitive purity of morals disappeared, and attempts at reform were called forth. The most remarkable among these were that of Bene- dict of Aniane (q. v.) in the eighth century, of Ab- bot Benno at Clugny 910, at Hirschau 1069, at Val-
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lontbrosa in the eleventh century, at Bursfield in 1425. These reforms intro- duced among the followers of Benedict the congregation- al system, combining sever- .-.1 convents into a congrega- tion, with a common govern- ment. The congregation of English Benedictines found- ed by Augustine was reform- Mi by St. Dunstan in 900, again by Lanfr.mc in 1072, and finally suppressed by Henry VIII. The congrega- tional government has since remained that of the Bene- dictines, who have never had a general and central govern- ment like the other orders. The efforts to introduce a greater centralization led, from the end of the tenth