RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Saint Gall Saint-Maur
at the new normal school there. This position he held until his death, and during his incumbency he wrote Lettre a un ami, considerations politiques, philosophiques et religieuses sur la revolution francaise (Paris, 1795); Eclair sur V association humaine (1797); Esprit des choses ou coup d'ceil philosophique sur la nature des etres et sur Vobjet de leur existence (1800); Ministere de I'homme esprit (1802), besides translating a number of the works of Bohme. St. Martin's views, a mixture of cabalistic, Gnostic, and neoplatonic doctrines on a Christian basis, can scarcely be reduced to a system. At the same time, he bitterly hated the Church, yet fell into all sorts of clairvoyance, conjuring, and juggling with numbers and the tetragrammaton. His favorite sphere was anthropology; he held it the aim of man to be still higher than Christ, the highest type of humanity; in his daily life St. Martin sought simply to live like a pious Christian. For his following see Mabtinist Oedee. (C. Pfendeb.)
Bibliography: La Correspondance inedite de L. C. de Saint- Martin, . . . ed. L. Schauer and A. Chuquet, Amsterdam, 1862, cf. Mystical Philosophy and Spirit- Manifestations. Selections from the , . Correspondence between . . . Saint-Martin . . and Kirchberger, Exeter, 1863; J. B. M. Gence, Notice biographique sur L. C. de Saint Martin, Paris, 1823; L. Moreau, Reflexions sur les id&es de L. C. de Saint- Martin, ib. 1850; E. M. Caro, Du mysticisme au xviii. siecle. Essai sur la vie et la doctrine de Saint-Martin, ib. 1852; J. Matter, Saint-Martin, le philosophe inconnu, ib. 1862; A. Franck, La Philosophic mystique en France a la fin du xviii. siecle. Saint-Martin et son maitre Martinez Pasqualis, ib. 1866.
SAINT-MAUR, san-mor', CONGREGATION OF:
The name of a branch of the Benedictine order, distinguished by reform in discipline and great servicesto learning. At the beginning of the seventeenth
century the monastery of Saint- Vanne
Foundation near Verdun was reformed by Didier
of the de la Cour. Soon the famous old mon-
Congrega- astery of Moyenmoutier and others
tion. joined the movement, and Clement
VIII. in 1604 confirmed the organization of a congregation within the order under the name of Congregatio SS. Vitonis et Hidulphi. In 1614 the general assembly of the French clergy expressed the wish that all the Benedictine monasteries associate themselves with this congregation; but its general chapter, fearing danger to its spirit from too large a growth, advised the formation of a second congregation, and in 1618 Dom Benard, a monk of Saint- Vanne, was charged with the formation of such a union. It adopted the name of St. Maur, the companion of St. Benedict, and was confirmed by Gregory XV in 1621, and again by Urban VIII. in 1627. By 1652 the new congregation numbered forty houses, and before the end of the eighteenth century it had grown to 191, divided into six provinces. The most influential was the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pr^s in Paris, the seat of the superior-general. Dom Benard had not proposed to make the congregation predominantly a learned one; it was the first superior-general, Dom Tarisse (1630-48), who laid the foundations of the splendid edifice of learning which was gradually reared by the monks. Their activity has embraced all departments of knowledge, but especially the history of France and of the Church. Besides the general
outline given here of the long series of master-works which they produced by their indefatigable and intelligent labors, further information will be found in separate articles on the more distinguished members.
They made their own the science of paleography, or, as it was then called, diplomatics; Mabillon is regarded as its actual founder, with his De re diplomatica (1681) and its supplement (1704). As these works had special reference to France, Contribu- Dom Tassin published a general treasons to tise under the title Nouveau traite de Paleogra- diplomatique (6 vols., 1750-65); and phy and what this did for Latin paleography Chronology. Montfaucon attempted to do for Greek in his Palceographia Grozca (1708). Modern scientific chronology may also be said to have taken its rise from them. Every historian knows the value of the Art de verifier les dates, begun by Dantine and finished by Clemencet (1750; 1770; 1783-92; 1818 sqq.), which has been called the most noteworthy monument of eighteenth-century French scholarship. To the knowledge of antiquity a considerable contribution was made by Montfaucon's Antiquite expliquee en figures (10 vols., 1719). In the history of language, the congregation took part in, though it did not originate, Du Cange's great Glossarium media et infimm Latinitatis, which, originally published in 1687, was increased one-half by Dantine and Carpentier (6 vols., 1733-36, with a supplement by Carpentier, 4 vols., 1766; and two revised and enlarged editions, 1840 sqq. by Henschel, and 1883 sqq. by Henschel and Fabre).
The most extensive labors, however, were given to history. Colbert had sought in vain for able scholars to continue the undertaking of a collection of the sources of French history, until Contribu- Chancellor d'Aguesseau persuaded the tions to congregation of Saint-Maur to take it History, up. Martene and then Bouquet had charge of this branch, and their work resulted in the publication of fifteen folio volumes of Scriptores rerum Gallicarum et Francicarum between 1738 and 1818, since which time it has been carried on by the Academie des Inscriptions. This body has also, since 1814, taken charge of the Histoire litteraire de la France, begun by Dom Rivet and extending to thirteen volumes between 1733 and 1763, a collection of sources which has immense value for the literary history not only of France but of all medieval Europe. Provincial histories surpassing those of any other country are also due to the congregation. Their researches in the libraries of their own monasteries and their travels in quest of documents (especially Mabillon's journey to Italy and Montfaucon's to Germany) gave them an opportunity to bring together unpublished material of the highest importance. The most famous of their works in this department are D'Achery's Spicilegium veterum aliquot scriptorum (13 vols., 1653-77) ; the Vetera analecta of Mabillon (4 vols., 1675-85); Martene's Collectio nova veterum scriptorum (1700); the Thesaurus novus anecdotorum by Martene and Durand (5 vols., 1717), as well as their Voyage litteraire de deux religieux benfdidivs
Saint-Maur Saints