RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Aaron Abbey
Rotterdam, 1684; vol. iii., 1689; Eng. transl., 2 vols., London, 1694), became one of the standard apologetic works in French literature. Of his other works, L'Art de se connattre soi-meme (Rotterdam, 1692) giving an outline of his moral system, attracted much attention and was warmly defended by Malebranche.
Bibliography: For full list of his writings, consult E. and E. Haag, La France protestante, i., s.v., Paris, 1846; for his life, the collection of his sermons, Amsterdam, 1760, iii., and D. C. A. Agnew, Protestant Exiles from France, pp. 223-228, Edinburgh, 1886; on his work, R. Elliott, The Consistent Protestant with
some observations on a treatise by J. Abbadie, Lon-
don, 1777, and M. IUaire, Etude sur J. Abbadie considere comme predicateur, Strasburg, 1858.
ABBATE ; ABBE. See Abbot.
ABBESS : The title of the head of many monastic communities of women, even in some orders where the head of the monasteries for men does not bear the title of abbot. An abbess is commonly elected by the community. Cases of appointment by the pope on the nomination of the sovereign have occurred less frequently than in the case of abbots. By the ruling of the Council of Trent, only those are eligible who have been eight years professed and reached the age of forty, except, in exceptional circumstances, when a dispensation is granted by the pope. An absolute majority on a secret ballot is required. The election must be confirmed by the bishop (or, in certain cases of exemption, by the pope, or the head of the order), before the new abbess possesses full jurisdiction. A formal benediction, for which there is a form in the Pontificate Romanum, is also given by the bishop in many cases. The power thus assigned to the abbess is merely that requisite to rule her community, and in no sense a spiritual jurisdiction; she can not commute or dispense from vows, laws of the Church, or statutes of the order. She may inflict light punishments in the spirit of the rule; but the more severe ones are reserved to the ecclesiastical superior of the convent, who has jurisdiction in the forum externum. In general it may be said that the power of an abbess has been and is much more restricted than that of an abbot. For the peculiarly wide jurisdiction of abbesses over men as well as women in the order of Fontevraud (not without precedent in the Celtic monastic system), see Fontevraud, Order of. See also Abbot; Monasticism.
ABBEY: A monastic house under the rule of an abbot or an abbess. The name is strictly applicable only to the houses of those orders in which these titles are borne by the superiors. While in the East the free form of a group of scattered cells (known as a laura) continued side by side with the common dwelling of a cenobite community, the West developed a distinct style of its own in monastic architecture. The extant plan of the monastery of St. Gall (820) may be taken as typical of the construction of Western monasteries in the early Middle Ages. The center of the entire group of buildings was occupied by an open rectangular space, on the north side of which was the church, while on the other three sides ran the cloister or ambulatory; a vaulted passage open on the inner
side, and serving both as a means of communication and as a place for exercise in bad weather. Connected with the cloister, on the ground floor, were the refectory and kitchen; the chapter-house, in which the reading and exposition of the rule and the chapter of faults took place; the calefactarium or winter dining-room; and the parleatorium or reception-room of outsiders. On the floor above, opening on a similar passage which connected with the choir of the church or the organ-loft, were the vestiarium, where the clothes were kept, the library, the dormitory, the infirmary, the rooms for the novices, and the apartments of the abbot, which were supposed to be accessible from outside without passing through the enclosure into which strangers were not allowed to penetrate. The kitchen, which lay within this enclosure, had in like manner a connection with the house for the reception of pilgrims, and with the various farm-buildings, which usually formed a separate quadrangle. The entire group of buildings was surrounded by a high, solid wall, which in some cases was fortified against the dangers of rude times by towers and strong gates. The monks' burying-ground was also within the enclosure.
This system was preserved, with slight modifications, throughout the Middle Ages, the Cistercians adhering to it with especial closeness, as may be seen at Clairvaux and Maulbronn. Sometimes it was enriched by architectural decoration, as in the high- vaulted double refectories of St. Martin at Paris and of Maulbronn, or adorned with painting, as the world-famous " Last Supper " of Leonardo da Vinci in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie at Milan. In houses occupied by female religious the extensive farm-buildings were naturally lacking. The combination of hermit and community life among the Carthusians required a larger space, which was obtained by adding to the original quadrangle on the basis of the church a second larger one, commonly surrounded also by a cloister, with an open sp?re or garden (containing a cemetery) in the cente.,, ,^i with individual dwellings for the monks around it. The mendicant orders strove for simplicity in building as in other things, and were forced by their situation in towns to a more restricted plan. The teaching orders added a wing or a separate house for their pupils. The Jesuits completely abandoned the traditional plan, and built themselves large palatial houses, while modern monasteries have little to differentiate them from other large institutions. For a more detailed treatment of the structural system of abbeys and monastic buildings, consult the exhaustive monograph by Venables in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, s.v. Abbey. See Monasticism.
Bibliography: In general: DCA, ii. (1880) 1243-68 (gives a list of 1,481 monasteries founded before 814); DACL, i. 26-39; A. Ballu, he Monastere de Tebessa, Paris, 1897 (valuable for detailed description of a typical abbey). Austria : G. Wolfsgruber, A. Hiibl, and O. Schmidt, Abteien und Kloster in Osterreich, Vienna, 1902. France : L. P. Herard, Etudes archeologiques sur les abbayes de I'ancien diocese de Paris, Paris, 1852; M. F. de Montrond, Dictionnaire des abbayes et monasteres, ib. 1856; J. J. Bourass<§, Abbayes et monasteres; histoire, monuments, souvenirs et ruines, ib. 1869; E. P. M. Sauvage, Histoire litteraire des abbayes Normandes, ib. 1872; A. Peigne-Delacourt, Tableau des
Abbo Abbot