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de la France (1733-63, 12 vols. 4to), inaugurated by Dom Rivet and others, and continued by the order tUI 1814, when it was taken up by the Academie des In- scriptions ; the xxth voUime was published iu 1842. It is a very valuable collection of documents, not only for the history of French literature, but also for that of the Middle Ages generally. The researches iu the libraries of the convents, also the journeys, prin- cipally in Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands, gave occasion to publish extensive catalogues and descrip- tions of them. Among these we notice the Spicilegium veterum aliquot scriptorum of D'Achery (1553-1677, 13 vols. 4to ; new edit, by De la Barre, 1723, 3 vols, fol.); Vetera Analecta, by Mabillon (1675-85, 4 vols. 4to); Colledio nova veterum scriptorum, by IMarteue (1700, 4to) ; Thesaurus novus Anecdotorum, by Martene and Durand (1717, 5 vols, fol.); Voyage litteraire de deux religieux Benedictins, by the same (1724, 4to) ; Diarium Italicum (1702, 4to), and Bibliotheca bihliothe- caruni inanuscrij^toy-um nova (1739, 2 vols, fol.), both by Montfau9on. In Church history, their most important works are their revision of the Gallia Christiana of the brothers De Sainte-Marthe (1656, 4 vols, fol.). The new work was commenced by another member of that distinguished famih', Dom Denis de Sainte-Marthe. It was intended as an introduction to a contemplated Orhis Christiatms, for which a large amount of documents were collected, yet this work was never completed. The first volume of the Gallia Christiana appeared in 1715. Sainte-Marthe died on the completion of the third vol- ume, in 1725. The order continued the work until the thirteenth volume, which appeared in 1785. It was then interrupted, until of late years Haureau, the author of the Histoire de la Philosophie scholasiique (1850, 2 vols.), took it up again, and in 1856 he published his continuation. The Gallia Christiana was used as a model for other similar works, such as the Italia sacra, the Espaiia sagrada, the Illyria sacra, etc. It also gave rise to numerous histories of special convents by others of the congregation ; the greater part of them, howev- er, remain unpublished. The only two which appeared are the Histoire de VAhhage de St. Denis of Fi'Iibien (1706, fol.), and the Histoire de VAhbaye de S. Germain des Pres of BouiUart (1724, fol.). The collection of the French councils, commenced by Dom de Coniac, and afterwards continued by Dom Labat, was to be appended to the Gallia Christiana. The first volume appeared in 1789, at the moment of the outbreak of the French Eev- olution, and the congregation was dispersed before the second was complete. The history of martyrs was treated by Dom Ruinart in his Acta primorum marty- rum (1689, 4to). Of greater interest are the works on the old litingies and convent customs, some of which are among the earliest works of the congregation. Me- nard published the Sacramentarium of Gregory the (ireat (1642, 4to), Mabillon the Liturgia Gallicana (1645, 4to), Mart(?ne his Libri V de antiquis monachorum riti- bus (1690,2 vols. 4to), and his De antiquis ecclesiai riti- bus (1700, 4 vols. 4to ; 2d edit. 1736, 4 vols, fol.) ; finally, among the most renowned works in that line, we must mention the Acta Sanctorum Ordinis S. Benedict i, com- menced liy D'Achery', and continued by Mabillon and Ruinart (1668, etc., 9 vols, fol.: the tenth remained un- published); the Annales Ordinis S. Benedicti, the cele- brated work of Mabillon, completed by Massuet (1703, etc., 6 vols. fol.). • The same congregation wrote also a history of their own order, whicli formed 3 vols. fol. in MS., but the superiors refused permission for publica- tion. Dom Tassin pulilished, however, an abstract from it, down to 1766. Dom Clemencet wrote a history of Port Royal, of which the first part alone appeared (1755, 10 vols. 12mo) ; the second (lart remained in MS., as being too favorable to the Jansenists.
The greatest claim of the Benedictines of St. Maur to the gratitude of theologians lies in their editions of the works of the fathers. They -had at first contemplated only publishing the complete works of authors of their
own order ; but the favor with which their productions were received, as also the requirements of their schools, induced them to publish first the works of the Latin fa- thers, and afterwards of the Greek also. For this pur- pose they compared the various texts of the different works existing in France, Itaty, England, Holland, Ger- many, etc. The residt was a set of works which for correctness of the text remains imsurpassed, especially for the works of the most important among the fathers. Among these works we must not forget their valuable Latin translations of the Greek fathers, and their Indices, so important for all historical students. The first Latin father wliose works they published is St. Augustine. His views afforddl them powerful weapons in the Jan- senistic controversj-. The edition was commenced by Dom Delf'au, and continued by Blampin and Constant (1679-1700, 11 vols, folio); Garet published Cassiodor (1679, 2 vols, fol.) ; Du Frische and Le Nourri, A mbro- sius (1686-90, 2 vols, fol.) ; Constant, Ililarius of Poi- tiers (1693, fol.) ; Martianay, Jero?ne (1693-1706, 5 vols, fol.). The works of Cyprian, commenced by Baluze, who was not of St. Maur, were completed by Dom Ma- ran (1726, fol.). In 1645 the Benedictines published the Epistle of Barnabas (4to). But it is only towards the close of the 17th century that they seriously applied themselves to this branch of ancient ecclesiastical liter- ature. Montfau(;on published the works oi Afhanasiun (1698, 3 vols, folio) ; this was followed by his Collectio nova p)atnim (1706, 2 vols, fol.), containing additions to Athanasius; the works of Eusebius ofCcesarea, and the Topography of Cosmas. Massuet published Irenceus (1710, fol.) ; Montfau^on, Chrysostom (1718-38, 13 vols, fol.) ; Toutee, Cyril of Jerusalem (1720, fol.) ; Gamier, Basil the Great (1721-30, 3 vols, folio); Charles de la Rue and his nephew Vincent de la Rue, Origen (1733-59, 4 vols, folio) ; Maran, Justin and the other apologetists (1742, fol.). Maran commenced an edition of the worlcs of Gregory of Nazianzum, which was continued b}^ Cle- mencet, but the breaking out of the French Revolution prevented the publication of any but the first volume (1788, folio).