Canons Regular of Saint Augustine

CANONS REGULAR OF SAINT AUGUSTINE. - They are those clerics who, living in common according to the so-called rule of St. Augustine, devote themselves to the pastoral ministry with the obligation of the choral office.

I. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT.

This Order, which has precedence over the others (CIC, can. 491) and is composed of autonomous Congregations, developed from groupings of clerics of common life or from cloistral chapters that arose in every part at the end of antiquity and in the Middle Ages through the work of zealous bishops. It is named after St. Augustine because at the earliest origins of the institute it was he who realized this form of life in an ideal way, and because from the 12th century onward the so-called rule of St. Augustine was adopted by the Order. This Order, therefore, unites and fuses together the proper office of canons, that is, solemn liturgical worship, with the religious life, to which are associated various activities of the pastoral ministry, predominantly the parochial one. The C.R. of St. A. are distinguished from the Premonstratensian and Crozier Canons Regular, who constitute orders with a particular designation, albeit on the common basis of the canonical life, and who have their own founder and their own organization.

The origin of the name "canon" and of the related regular institute has not always had a satisfactory and uniform explanation. The "canon," which in Charisius meant "grammatical rule" and in the code of Theodosius the regulation of the contributions in kind of the various provinces (canon frumentarius), in ecclesiastical language was soon used to indicate the prescriptions concerning the discipline of clerics and faithful. The canon, a name that is encountered first in St. Basil and in the decrees of the Council of Laodicea, therefore represents, originally, a cleric, instituted and living according to the sacred "canons," often to distinguish him from the "vagantes" clerics or those attached to a private church, without a true relationship with the bishop. In this sense one understands a canon of the Council of Clermont of 535 which prescribes that those priests who are not "canonici" either in the episcopal city or in the rural parishes, but who dwell scattered near private oratories, must go to the cathedral at least on the great feasts. St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, in a letter to Pope Zachary, referring to the decadence of the clergy in the kingdom of the Franks, declares that he has obligated himself to help only the bishops and canonical priests (MGH, Epistulae, III, p. 368).

In time, however, the term "canon" came to be attributed almost by antonomasia to those clerics who lived in monasteries near cathedrals or other distinguished churches, but the uncertainty still persisted for a long time; thus, while the "regula canonicorum" of St. Chrodegang is written precisely for the cloistral chapter of Metz, in it there appear "clerici canonici qui extra claustra in civitate commentare" (c. 21). From the 8th century onward, therefore, rules for canons appear, whose conventual life is modeled, albeit in a milder and more elastic manner, on that of monks; there is talk of "abbates canonici," distinguished from the "abbates regulares" of the monks.

The C.R., for such they were called after the division of Canons into secular and reformed, which occurred in the 11th century, represent, in the first millennium, even before the word "canon" assumed the specific meaning of cloistral canon, that part of the clergy which, under obedience to the bishop, lived in common near a church, observing a form of religious life. Of the existence of these groupings of clerics, who following the example of the monks followed such a manner of life - the three religious vows are not spoken of distinctly until the time of the Mendicant Orders - we have precise testimonies. The first is provided us by St. Ambrose (Ep. 63: PL 16, 1253-60), according to whom St. Eusebius, bishop of Vercelli, was the first in the West to introduce among the clergy of his church the common life of the monks, which he had come to know during his exile in the East. The same is attested of St. Zeno, bishop of Verona, who lived monastically together with the clerics of his cathedral (PL 11, 498).

This exemplary life did not remain an isolated fact, because other prelates with their clergy imitated it. Among all, those stood out who shared with Augustine this kind of life at Hippo. If the ingenious Augustinian institution fell under the persecution stirred up against the African Church with the invasion of the Vandals, it was not however forgotten: many appreciated it as an ideal of holiness and also proposed to imitate it. A proof of this is the little work De vita contemplativa of Julianus Pomerius (PL 59, 415-520), for a long time attributed to Prosper of Aquitaine, and a Vademecum for the clergy, wholly imbued with Augustinian doctrine. The author, who presided at Arles over a community of clerics, also reports the maxims concerning the common life of the clergy. He reproaches those who, living in congregation and possessing goods, claim to be maintained by the church (II, 10). He praises instead the one who leaves his property to his relatives or to the church, or else, having sold everything, distributes the proceeds to the poor in order to be voluntarily poor (II, 11). In the second half of the 5th century we therefore find in Gaul ecclesiastics with a common life without total detachment from goods, while others, certainly fewer in number, as voluntary poor followed the Augustinian ideal integrally. Promoters of it in the 6th century were St. Caesarius of Arles and St. Gregory the Great. When, shortly after 742, Chrodegang was elected bishop of Metz, he, who had previously professed the monastic life, found in the clergy of his cathedral a very relaxed life. The reform of these his closest cooperators, called Canons, was one of his first pastoral cares. For them he composed

CANONS REGULAR OF ST. AUGUSTINE

a rule of common life in 34 chapters (W. Schmitz, S. Chrodegangi Metensis Episc. regula Canonicorum, Hannover 1889), which is the first of its kind. In the prologue that precedes the chapters he declares that the rule would have been superfluous if the pastors and their subjects had observed the canons already in existence concerning their duties. This proves that until then the Canons had no rule of their own. Therefore Chrodegang must be considered the author of the first canonical rule, which contains the norms for common life, the daily occupations and the duties of the Canons. These practices are for the most part drawn from the life of monks and adapted for the Canons. Whoever wished to be part of the chapter had to donate his immovable property to the Church, retaining the usufruct of it; he remained the owner of movable property, and at his death one half was destined for the Canons and the other for the poor. He recalls that the Canons ought to realize the ideal of perfection (total renunciation), and he orders the bishop to provide for the necessary maintenance of those who will do this. The rule was adopted by other Canons and subsequently expanded into 80 chapters (PL 89, 1057-1098). But as regards the faculty of possessing, the new redaction represents a worsening, because it allows the Canons immovable and movable property. However, Chrodegang's prescription regarding the voluntary poor is maintained. But the improvement of life obtained through the reform of Metz was not long-lasting. Another attempt to raise the fortunes of the canonical institute was made by Louis the Pious, at the imperial Synod of Aachen in 816. The body of statutes destined for the Canons of the Frankish kingdom, called the imperial rule of Aachen (PL 105, 811-34), consists of 145 chapters, of which 118 contain many canons and disciplinary decrees of ancient councils and of African synods as well as extracts from the works of the Fathers. The others concern the practices of common life and are drawn from the rule of Metz. In ch. 112 the Canons are reminded of the state of perfection to be attained through total detachment from property; while, a strange anomaly, with ch. 115 common life, similar to the monastic life and to that of St. Augustine, is destroyed by allowing the Canons to possess property. The improvement promoted by Louis the Pious was in part obtained, but it was very ephemeral. The lack of the vow of poverty and of outward equality for those who lived in a community of house and board led to grave abuses. Private property greatly contributed to the relaxing of the rule: hence in the course of time many chapters degenerated (G. Hergenröther, Storia universale della Chiesa, Italian trans., III, Florence 1905, p. 218). The institution met with better days only when the supreme authority of the Church effectively promoted the regular common life of the Canons. In fact the Popes and their zealous co-workers, having understood that the principal cause of the relaxed life of the Canons was the possession of goods and money, opposed the right of property, admitted by the rule of Aachen. This happened in the Lateran Synod of 1059 under Nicholas II, where, in the presence of 113 bishops, Hildebrand, later Pope Gregory VII, delivered a speech of harsh criticism against such license (J. Mabillon, Annales Ordinis s. Benedicti, IV, Lucca 1739, p. 689). Even the daily ration of 2 pounds of bread and 5 pounds of wine or beer granted by the rule (ch. 122) was judged excessive and little suited to ecclesiastical persons. The 4th canon of the Synod ordered the Canons that, besides obedience and chastity, they should also observe common life with the total renunciation of property, as befits religious clerics (Mansi, XIV, 898). Another promoter of the reform, St. Peter Damian, criticized with even severer words chs. 115 and 122 of the same rule (Opusc., 24, Contra Clericos Regulares proprietarias: PL 145, 479 ff.). The severity of the reformers' judgment against the imperial rule was justified by the tenacity of the Canons in defending it in order to escape the reform. Many chapters showed themselves refractory, but the reform obtained notable successes from the beginning in Rome and elsewhere. Hildebrand could affirm in the aforementioned speech that some of the clerical order professed common life with the vow of poverty in tantum ut nil sibi reservassent proprii. This example was imitated by the Canons of S. Martino of Lucca at the time of Leo IX and Victor II. These, however, did not persevere and opposed every further reform. In com-

I think the famous priory of the Canons Regular of S. Frediano arose at Lucca, and they remained for a long time united in fraternal charity with those of St. John Lateran. Through the work of St. Peter Damian the perfect common life was put into practice by the canons of the cathedral of Fano (Opusc., 27: PL 195, 504 ff.). Under Alexander II the Canons of Pistoia also accepted it. At the beginning of the 12th century the regular common life appears to have been put into practice in the cathedral of Città di Castello and a little later in those of Perugia and Gubbio. At the same time the efforts of the pontiffs met with success in France and also in Germany, where the reform was strongly opposed. The common life, already embraced by various chapters such as that of Salzburg, was suppressed by the violence of the imperial forces and could be resumed only after the disappearance of Henry IV. The success obtained among the canons of the cathedrals was limited; on the other hand the number of those living in common life with a perfect renunciation of all private property in the new foundations of collegiate churches grew noticeably. With the favor of the Popes and especially after 1080 these multiplied rapidly, particularly during the 12th century, which was the period of greatest development. Thus deep divisions arose among the Canons; some, resistant to the reform, also abandoned all the practices of common life prescribed by the imperial rule, leading a private life and enjoying a part of the revenues of the Church by title of benefice, and were called secular Canons; the reformed ones, on the other hand, in imitation not only of the monks, but also of the clergy of Augustine, and of the renuntiantes of earlier centuries, called themselves Canons Regular. Between these two classes there remained for some time a group of other Canons, who, little inclined to the reform but still adhering to the imperial rule, nevertheless preserved a semblance of common life. By 1200 they no longer constituted a stable

CANONS REGULAR OF ST. AUGUSTINE

class, and they disappeared with the process of division from which the two aforementioned classes arose. At the same time in the documents one finds the new designation of Order, to designate the collectivity of all the reformed chapters, both those of the cathedrals and those of new foundation. All of them, though independent among themselves, taken together constituted the Order of the Canons Regular called of St. Augustine from the time when, in the course of the 12th century, they adopted the so-called rule of St. Augustine. The great collegiate churches in France and England preferably had the title of abbey; that of provostry in Germany and that of priory in Italy and England. Priories were the collegiate churches of S. Frediano of Lucca, of S. Maria in Porto at Ravenna, of Sts. Victor and John in Monte of Bologna. On the other hand S. Croce of Mortara was a provostry. These collegiate churches and many others abroad displayed a vigorous development in numerous dependencies of priories and parishes, without however altering their original juridical constitution. Only later did some adopt the form of congregation with a central superior direction and with houses juridically equal among themselves.

It does not appear from the documents that a determined rule was imposed on the Canons Regular. The reformers demanded of them the practice of the common life with total detachment from goods; each chapter therefore freely adopted the statutes suited to foster such a practice. Thus various rules arose, adaptations of statutes or particular uses. Nor were they forbidden to make use of the norms contained in the two ancient rules of canons not contrary to the spirit of the new life embraced. Such norms had not been censured in the Roman Synod of 1059. This explains how in the first phase of development of the Order, from 1050 until about 1130, one finds various rules, which may be called primitive in relation to another, which in a second period replaced them.

The official rule of the Canons, that is, the rule of Aachen, was at first not abandoned, but emended and enlarged. The additions to that same rule existing in the 11th-century codices attest this: Ottoboni, 38 and Vat. lat. 4885 and 1351 of the Vatican library (C. Egger, De antiquis regulis Canonic. reg., in Ordo Can., 1 [1946], pp. 44-48), which contain the whole rule of Aachen except for the chapters incriminated by the Synod of 1059, and many taken from the Rule of St. Benedict and of St. Chrodegang (A. Werninghoff, Die Beschlüsse des Aachener Conciis im Jahre 816, in Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtshunde, 27 [1902], pp. 40-45; C. Egger, loc. cit., p. 48). They would be two parts of a common text from which they were transcribed: there appear the chapters of the imperial rule, with the exception of those contrary to the total renunciation of property, which is inculcated with other precepts. This proves that the rule thus emended served the reformed Canons. Another rule certainly used by the Canons Regular is the one entitled: Regula ss. Patrum Augustini, Hieronymi, Gregorii, Prosperi (Pomerio) atque Iudori. The 62 chapters are the very text of the chapters of the rule of Aachen and of the enlarged rule of Chrodegang: only the text is emended in what concerns the perfect renunciation of property. The codex was the liber capitularis of the provostry of S. Michele of Cameri (Pavia) and is found today in the civic museum of Pavia (Inv.: martyrology of Uusardo, B. 28, no. 146). There is then the codex Ottoboni 175 which represents a further and freer elaboration of the rule of Aachen, where many sayings of the Holy Fathers on the discipline of the clergy have been inserted, and some chapters of the Rule of St. Benedict. It is interesting that there appears in it for the first time a passage of the so-called rule of St. Augustine, cited simply as an authority.

Other compilers followed the spirit of the two ancient rules of the Canons in composing the new text of a rule. This was done by Peter, called the Sinner, founder and first prior of S. Maria in Porto (Ravenna). The rule of Porto was approved by Paschal III in 1116. The same method was observed by Manegold of Lauterbach, first provost of the collegiate church of Marbach, founded in 1089. This rule too was approved by Callistus II.

To these various rules adopted by the Order in the first phase of development, one should add the so-called rule of St. Augustine. It is not yet established where it first appeared, whether in some collegiate church of France, of Germany or elsewhere. The present text of the rule, with the exception of the beginning: Ante omnia... principaliter nobis data, is recognized by all as the work of Augustine. It was also affirmed by historians that the text was written as a rule destined for men. On the other hand recent authors hold that it was originally a letter (211) addressed to the sacred virgins of Hippo. It would have been transcribed with adaptation for the male sex during the 7th century, probably in Gaul. The codex of Corbie of the 7th century attests this for us, containing the oldest manuscript of the rule adapted to men, which, it seems, served as spiritual reading for the monks (cf. A. Casamassa, Il più antico codice della regola monastica di S. Agostino, in Realiconti Pont. Acc. rom. arch., 1 [1923], pp. 25-105).

During the 12th century the rule of St. Augustine became the official rule of the Order, although its text had not yet been fixed. This is evident from the codices and is clear proof that it was freely chosen by the Canons. In various collegiate churches, as with the Canons of St. Victor of Paris and those of Marbach, only the genuine text was accepted as the rule. In others this was preceded by another, today regarded by all as spurious, which begins with the already cited words: Ante omnia, exactly as it is found in the Corbie codex of the beginning of the 8th century. Other chapters removed from the spurious text the entire paragraph on the divine office and manual labor and other monastic practices little suited to Canons, so that nothing remained of it but the beginning. Elsewhere this opening appears in the title of the rule and in the genuine text is recalled in the following manner: Hace sunt quae praecipimus observari, et in canonico habitantes post principalia praecepta Dei et proximi, caritatis vinculum custodiatur. Similar variants are found in the codices down to the whole of the 15th century. When the text of the rule of St. Augustine was definitively established, the precept of charity, recommended by the opening words of the spurious rule, was preserved in the Augustinian rule, defined as the rule par excellence of charity to be practiced in the common religious life. With the spread of this rule among the C. r., the Order is mentioned in papal bulls as constituted: secundum Deum et s. Augustini regulam.

With the observance of the perfect common life, divine worship flourished with solemn liturgical functions and the office by day and by night. To this principal purpose the Canons consecrated the greater part of their daily activity.

Many collegiate churches, especially if founded by zealous bishops, at first remained subject to their jurisdiction. Then the C. r. obtained the protection of the Holy See and other privileges, not excluding that of electing their own prelate. Popes and bishops also granted to many chapters parochial benefices. Soon the C. r. practiced charity on behalf of the poor and pilgrims. Outside the enclosure there existed for this purpose a room, called hospitium or hospitale. The care of the inmates was entrusted to a canon called magister hospitii. Of this charity, widely practiced from the 11th century to our own days, the C. of Grand St. Bernard, the C. r. of the Holy Sepulchre, preserved until the 19th century, and the C. r. of St. Anthony and of the Holy Spirit, who had one of their two central houses in Rome which still preserves its name (hospital of the Holy Spirit), rendered themselves supremely deserving. To remedy the lack of a general direction in the Order and the possible relaxation of regular discipline, the Fourth Lateran Council under Innocent III (1215) prescribed for the C. r. and the Benedictines the celebration of triennial provincial chapters. In these they were to appoint visitors and certain prelates to carry out the canonical visitation of the various houses. The need for a reform was felt in the following century. Benedict XII ordered it with the Constitution of 25 May 1339 (Bullarium romanum, Turin 1857 ff., p. 424). The document contains provisions for the acceptance and education of the young, the daytime office, the offices, food, clothing, the administration of goods, libraries and archives. The Order then comprised four provinces in Italy, five in France and seven in the other countries. After an ephemeral improvement, regular discipline worsened with the appearance of the schism and the system of commendams; secularization continued, and of the cathedral chapters only a few remained regular in name until the 17th century. No further general reform was attempted; however, at various times innovative currents manifested themselves, which infused new life into the institution. In this way, almost always through the work of the canons themselves, the Congregations arose. The canonries, until then independent of one another, were united into a single body with a central direction, constituted by a superior general, with some counselors. These Congregations also adopted the celebration of general chapters, annual at first, triennial later. Some, alongside these innovations, maintained the primitive characteristics of the Order, the perpetuity of prelatures and the stability of individuals, at times uniting in such a way as to form a Congregation on the model of the monastic ones.

A particularity of the Order are its spiritual schools:

1. The school of St. Victor: its principal representatives, Hugh, Richard, Adam, Achard, Thomas Gallus, are of a rather speculative character and under the influence of pseudo-Dionysius. All creation, historical events and in particular the Holy Scriptures, contain a "divine nucleus" which is known through intuitive meditation. From this one rises to contemplation, which is an affective consideration of divine truth, free from the "smoke of the passions."

2. The school of Windesheim: better known under the name of "Devotio moderna." It indicates precisely a new spiritual current, which, through the C. r. of Windesheim and the Brothers of the Common Life, spread in the Low Countries, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Spain.

3. The Lateran school: the Lateran Congregation, in the fervor of reform, produced a literature very rich in ascetical character, inspired not infrequently by the "Devotio moderna"; without complex schemes, it insists on renunciation of the world and of one's own will, gives less importance to austerities than to filial and intimate prayer and to the frequent reception of the Sacraments. Among the authors, who also have the merit of having usually used the vernacular, are to be numbered: Paolo Maffei, Serafino da Fermo, Pietro da Lucca, Serafino da Bologna, Alessandro Torre, Nicola Bambacari.

In the missionary field the C. r. of St. A. rendered themselves deserving, in the 12th and 13th centuries, of the evangelization of certain Slavic tribes of northern Germany and of the Baltic peoples. The regular canon St. Vicelinus preached the gospel to the Wagri, St. Meinhard crowned his missionary activity in the Baltic with death. The Portuguese Congregation of St. John the Evangelist later brought the good news to the kingdom of the Congo, to Abyssinia and to India; Spanish C. r. collaborated in 1500 in the conversion of the Indians of America.

The contribution of the Order to culture and civilization is considerable. Let us note first of all the theological school of St. Victor of Paris with Hugh, Richard, Godfrey, Walter, Robert of Flamesbury, Peter of Poitiers and the biblical scholars Andrew and Peter Comestor. The college of the C. r. of Val des Ecoliers was part of the theological faculty of the University of Paris. In the theological field let us note furthermore Gerhoh of Reichersberg, Martin of Azpilcueta, called Navarrus, Giovanni Crisostomo Trombelli and Eusebius Amort, the last two, together with Gabriele Pennotto, also distinguished historiographers of the Order. Throughout the Middle Ages St. Ivo of Chartres and Stephen of Tournai were famous as canonists. For oriental and biblical studies are to be named, limiting ourselves, as above, to a few representative figures, Ambrogio Teseo, Agostino Steuco, Sebastiano Seemiller, Giovanni Crisostomo Mitterrutzner. For medieval Latin poetry Andrew of St. Victor is celebrated, in humanistic poetry Girolamo Vida, Basilio Zanchi, Giovanni Battista Santeul (Santolius), Alessandro Marino can be called the founder of the Academy of St. Cecilia in Rome.

to mention those that still exist.

1. The Congregation of the Most Holy Savior, also called the Rhenish

It was so named from the church of the Savior in Bologna, to which, in the middle of the 14th century, the C. r. of S. Maria di Reno transferred. This renowned collegiate church had arisen at the beginning of the 12th century near the Reno torrent in the territory of Bologna; but the beginning of the Congregation was the work of Stefano Agazzari, prior of the C. r. of recent foundation in S. Ambrogio in Gubbio. He obtained from Martin V in 1418 the union of S. Ambrogio with S. Salvatore, and the following year the Congregation was founded. Other canonries joined them, and by the end of the following century they reached the number of forty, among them the Roman ones of S. Pietro in Vincoli, of S. Lorenzo fuori le mura and of S. Agnese. The Congregation had many men distinguished for virtue and learning, among them the bl. Arcangelo Canetoli, Agostino Steuco, Cardinal Andrea Galli and Archbishop Vincenzo Garofali. Suppressed in 1810, it was restored in the years 1814-19 and united to the Lateranense in 1823.

2. The Congregation of S. Giorgio in Alga-Venice

S. Giorgio was an ancient priory of C. r., reduced in 1404 to the prior alone with two laymen "tacite professi". The priory was suppressed, and at S. Giorgio a collegiate church of secular Canons of common life, very observant, was established. It was approved by Gregory XIII in 1407. Among the first canons figure the Pope's nephews, Antonio Correr and Gabriele Condulmer, later Eugene IV, and St. Lorenzo Giustiniani. They had several houses in Italy, among them S. Salvatore in Lauro in Rome. They became regulars when Pius V in 1570 imposed solemn vows upon them. Clement IX suppressed them in 1668, and their goods passed to the republic for the war against the Turks.

3. The Congregation of Windesheim

It was founded in 1386 at Windesheim near Zwolle by Florens Radewijns and six Brethren of the Common Life and approved by Boniface IX and Martin V. It spread rapidly

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in the Netherlands and in Germany. Especially in the 15th century it was highly meritorious for the reform of canonical life. It disappeared with the Napoleonic suppression. At the beginning of that century various houses of C. r. were aggregated to it, with the principal house of Groenendael built by the bl. John Ruysbroeck. In 1432 another twelve canonries, with the principal one of Neus, of the diocese of Cologne, joined it. The provostship of Marbach too, stripped and ruined by the Armagnacs, revived to new life in 1464 with its incorporation into the Congregation. At its greatest development it counted fully one hundred and twenty houses, many of which perished with the Reformation. In the 17th century there was also an attempt at union with the Lateran Congregation. With the Napoleonic suppression it disappeared definitively.

4. The Congregation of S. Vittore and of S. Geneviève in Paris

The abbey of S. Vittore, founded by William of Champeaux, was approved by Paschal II in 1114. It soon became a renowned center of culture. Among the illustrious Victorine canons figure Hugh, Richard and Adam. As dependencies the abbey had many priories and parishes. After years of splendor, it was swept away by the revolutionary storm. At the end of the 15th century an attempt at union with the Congregation of Windesheim failed. In 1515 it associated itself with the new Congrégation réformée de France, which was named after S. Vittore. But in 1544 the Victorines returned to independence. The series of commendatory abbots began. The government of the abbey was entrusted to prior vicars until 1641; these then became triennial priors. In 1634, from another reform promoted by the prior Charles Faure of the abbey of S. Geneviève and by Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld, the Congregation of S. Geneviève arose. Numerous abbeys and priories of France and some of the Netherlands were part of it, but it too was swept away by the revolutionary storm. Among the last Canons of these Parisian abbeys died as martyrs: the bl. Charles Marie Bernard, librarian of S. Vittore, the bl. Jean François Bonnet de Pradal and Claude Ponce of S. Geneviève.

5. The Congregation of the Most Holy Savior Our Lord

It was founded by St. Peter Fourier, regular canon of the abbey of Chausnousey and parish priest of Mattaincourt in Lorraine. The Saint had already brought to life the Congregation of the Canonesses Regular of Our Lady when (in 1623) he set about the reform of canonical life in the abbeys of his region. In 1628 the reform had been accepted by eight houses, which Urban VIII, with the bull of 28 Aug. of the same year, united into a Congregation. To it he granted at the same time that the superior general be elected for life. It spread especially in Lorraine and in Savoy and was meritorious in the sacred ministry and in the instruction and education of male youth.

6. The Congregation of S. Croce of Coimbra in Portugal

It was so named from the central house erected in 1132 by Tellone, archdeacon of the Cathedral. The Canons adopted the customs of those of S. Rufo of Valencia. At Coimbra St. Anthony of Padua lived among them before entering the Franciscan Order. From a reform promoted by King John II, the Congregation arose in 1527 with various houses scattered throughout the Lusitanian kingdom.

III. CONGREGATIONS STILL EXISTING.

1. Congregation of the Lateran C. r. of the Most Holy Savior

It links back to the ancient C. r. who until 1299 officiated the most distinguished temple of Christianity. The canonical and cloistral life was introduced there, it seems, as early as the 9th century and reformed in the 11th under the pontificate of Alexander II. The C. r. of this reform came from the priory of S. Frediano in Lucca. The Lateran priory possessed various churches, among them S. Giovanni a Porta Latina, castles and lands. The prior Bernard, later cardinal bishop of Porto, wrote before 1145 the Ordo Officiorum Ecclesiae Lateranensis (ed. L. Fischer, Munich 1916), which, besides the prescriptions concerning conventual life, contains interesting information on the liturgy of the Lateran basilica, different from and older than that followed by the Curia.

In 1439 Eugene IV, who had previously belonged to the Congregation of St. George in Alga, charged other Lucchese Canons Regular, that is, those of the priory of S. Maria di Fregionais, which arose in the 12th century and became the center of a Congregation at the beginning of the 15th century, with resuming the tradition of regular life at the Lateran. This new organization had been born from a reform promoted by Bartolomeo da Roma, Leone da Carate and companions, and had spread into other canonries, which Martin V in 1421 united into a Congregation. Having established itself at the Lateran, it received in 1446 the title of "Congregatio Salvatoris Lateranensis". Its stay at the Archbasilica continued under Nicholas V and Paul II, and ceased in 1471 because of the rivalry of external elements, but the Congregation preserved, by the express will of Sixtus IV, the title and all the privileges attached to its residence at the Lateran. It was likewise the heir of many ancient regular canonries, such as S. Frediano in Lucca, S. Croce di Mortara, S. Maria in Porto near Ravenna, S. Vittore and S. Giovanni in Monte in Bologna, S. Andrea di Vercelli, which were gradually incorporated into it. At the beginning of the 17th century it possessed about 80 religious houses in Italy, among them many abbeys. It had its greatest development in the 16th century, with a very remarkable ascetic, cultural and pastoral activity. Reduced to the utmost straits in consequence of the troubles and the suppressions that occurred at the close of the 18th century and during the French domination in Italy, it took on new vigor by uniting in 1823 with the Congregation of the Most Holy Savior of Bologna, through the work of the abbot Vincenzo Garofali, later archbishop of Laodicea. In the decree of union of 28 June 1823, signed by Cardinal Pacca, the new Congregation is called: "Ordo Canonicorum Regularium Sanctissimi Salvatoris Lateranensium".

The Congregation has a centralized regime, resembling in every respect the internal constitution of the Benedictine Congregation of S. Giustina, which arose in the same climate of cloistral reform of the 15th century, and it is governed by an abbot general who resides in Rome. It is also divided into provinces, which, however, in accordance with the tradition of the Order, are simple geographical circumscriptions for the purposes of the canonical visitation. The Congregation devotes itself to the pastoral apostolate in numerous parishes and in the missions (Belgian Congo), and to the education of youth in the schools it administers. To it also belong the Pious Unions of the Daughters of Mary, spread throughout the world, with their central seat in the basilica of S. Agnese fuori le mura in Rome.

The Congregation currently has about forty convents or "canonries", located in Italy, Poland, Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, England and Latin America, with 350 canons.

2. Austrian Congregation of the Lateranense Canons Regular

It was constituted in 1907 on the model of a monastic Congregation, but the six prepositures that compose it all go back to the period of the reform and of the greatest flourishing of the canonical Order, that is, to the 11th and 12th centuries.

They are: St. Florian in the diocese of Linz, founded in 1071, Klosterneuburg near Vienna, granted to the Order by the margrave St. Leopold in 1108, Herzogen-

CANONICI REGOLARI DI S. AGOSTINO

burg in Lower Austria (1108), Novacella or Neustift
in the diocese of Bressanone (1142), Reichersberg, diocese of
Linz (1084), Vorau, diocese of Seckau (1163). Some of
these provostships are true centers of culture with rich
collections of works of art, manuscripts, incunabula (in the
library of St. Florian, 800 of them are preserved). During
the 16th and 17th centuries a charitable union and
the communication of privileges were effected between these monasteries and the
Lateran Congregation of the Savior; from that time these C. r.
are called Lateranenses and the provosts Lateran abbots.

According to the ancient custom of the Order, every provostship
has a certain number of parishes incorporated into
it (altogether in the whole Congregation 110
parishes), where it carries out pastoral activity. In the provostships
the C. r. apply themselves to the choral office, to study and
to teaching. Klosterneuburg is famous for its
"liturgical apostolate" (Volksliturgisches Apostolat), a movement that seeks to stimulate active participation in the
sacred liturgy on the part of the faithful. To this branch of C.
r. belonged the famous Gerhoh of Reichersberg.

In the General Chapter are elected the abbot general,
who presides over the Congregation for six years, and the
co-visitor who carries out the canonical visitation in the provostship
proper to the abbot general. The Congregation today counts
6 houses with 349 canons.

Carlo Egger

3. Hospitaller Congregation of the C. r. of the Great
St. Bernard. - Its origin goes back to the second
half of the 11th century. The original purpose was to provide for the functioning of the Hospice founded by St. Bernard, archdeacon of Aosta (v.), on Mont
Joux, in replacement of the Carolingian hospice of
Bourg-St-Pierre, destroyed. It is governed by a provost
(praepositus), appointed for life by the General Chapter;
he receives the abbatial blessing and is invested
with all the prerogatives of the abbots of monasteries sui
iuris and of other particular privileges, by virtue of the bull that Clement XIII addressed, on 9 Aug. 1762,
to the provost Claude Philibert Thévenot.

Today the Canons, besides the care of the Hospices of the Great
St. Bernard and of the Simplon, exercise in a stable manner the
ministry in nine parishes of the diocese of Sion and in one
of the diocese of Aosta. Moreover, since 1933 they have begun
a mission, situated on the borders of Burma, Tibet
and China (the can. Maurice Tornay, killed in Sept.
1949, is the first victim of the mission). The Constitutions promulgated by card. Giovanni Cervantes on 15 May 1438 are still in use (the original
manuscript is still preserved, described by L. Quaglia in Archives
héraldiques suisses, 63 [1949], pp. 26-29), adapted and completed by the various General Chapters and now conformed to the prescriptions of the CIC. The Congregation today counts 86 members.

BERNARDO d'AOSTA, let there be added: Fréd.-Th. Dubois, Les armoires
de l'hospice du Grand-St-Bernard, in Archives héraldiques suisses,
28 (1914), pp. 130-33; id., Armoires des Précots du St-Bernard, ibid., 53 (1939), pp. 8-13, 48-53, 72-78, 126-32; L. Qua-glia-D.-L. Galbreath, Sigillographie du Grand-St-Bernard, ibid.,
61 (1944), pp. 10-14, 70-75; L. Quaglia, L'habit des chanoines du
Grand-St-Bernard, in Revue d'hist. eccl. suisse, 38 (1944), pp. 34-46;
P. Croidys, Du Grand-St-Bernard au Thibet, Paris [1949]; Chr.
Simonnet, Thibet, Voyage au bout de la Chrétienté, ibid. [1949].
A.

Pietro Frutaz

4. Swiss Congregation of the C. r. of St. Maurice
of Agaunum. - It seems that the monks of Agaunum adopted
the rule of St. Benedict in the 7th or 8th century, but around
824 they were replaced by Canons who probably followed
the prescriptions of St. Chrodegang, bishop
of Metz. From the middle of the 8th century to the middle of the 9th,
the abbots were at the same time bishops of Sion;
afterwards, the officials of the last Carolingians, then the kings
of the second kingdom of Burgundy, and finally the first counts
of the house of Savoy reserved for themselves the supremacy over
this abbey, of which they sometimes bore the title of abbot
or provost, or gave its titles to their relatives, arch-bishops of Lyon or bishops of Aosta. On the advice of St. Hugh,
bishop of Grenoble, the count Amadeus III of Savoy
renounced the commendam and the Canons of the abbey adopted in 1128 the rule of St. Augustine, with the approval of pope Honorius II.

From the beginning of the 14th century to the middle of the 17th, the abbey
had become a collegiate church with several prebends, and
the abbot was temporal lord of many localities. On the initiative of the apostolic nuncio Girolamo Farnese, the abbot
Pietro Maurizio Odet began in 1642 the restoration of the
regular life and the nuncio Domenico Passionei approved
the new Constitutions in 1722, which were then revised in
1820, 1870 and 1931. The king of Sardinia Victor Amadeus III
in 1782 created the abbot a count, and pope Gregory XVI
in 1840 elevated him to the episcopal dignity with the title of
bishop of Bethlehem, with the abbey church as his cathedral.

The Canons wear by privilege of Eugene III,
according to tradition, the red mozzetta; moreover, the
nuncio Odoardo Cibo, in 1675, gave the violet habit
of the Canons of the cathedrals of Savoy and Gregory XVI,
in 1840, the red cape. Since the Middle Ages, the abbey of
St. Maurice has several parishes and Pius XI, in 1933,
established which are of jurisdiction nullius and which
incorporated pleno iure into the abbey from the diocese of
Sion. In the Middle Ages the abbey of Agaunum participated
in the founding of the abbeys of Abondance and of Filly
in the diocese of Geneva, and governed several priories,
such as Vetroz (Valais), Aigle (Vaud), Semur and Senlis
(France), Ripaille (Savoy), the latter founded the one by St. Louis IX, King of France, the other by Duke Amadeus VIII; it also administered various hospices, such as St. James near Agaune and another in Villeneuve (Vaud). Over the course of time, the abbey of St. Maurice concluded various pacts or spiritual alliances with the abbeys of the C.R. of Abondance and of Filly, with the Benedictines of Einsiedeln, with the provostry of the C.R. of Great St. Bernard, the Lateran Congregations of C.R. and those of St. Peter Fourier in Lorraine.

Today, the abbey is an intellectual and spiritual center of Catholic Switzerland. The Canons devote themselves to teaching and to all forms of the priestly and missionary ministry. Within the abbey precincts, about 600 students follow courses in the attached gymnasium-lyceum, recognized by the government of the Valais canton. The Canons of St. Maurice also teach at the college of St. Charles in Porrentruy (Bern) and in the commercial schools of Sierre and of Bagnes (Valais). They also exercise the sacred ministry in the apostolic prefecture of Sikkim (India), which was entrusted to them after 1937. As of Dec. 31, 1948, the Congregation numbered 128 members.

Leone Dupont Lachenal