GASQUET, FRANCIS AIDAN. – Cardinal, Benedictine, born in London into a distinguished Catholic family of French origin, which had emigrated to England at the end of the eighteenth century, on 5 October 1846; died in Rome on 5 April 1929. After completing his studies at the school of the Benedictine priory of Sownside, he entered the novitiate of the same Order at Belmont in 1865. He subsequently held the various offices of the Downside community, until he was elected prior in 1878. After devoting some time to the service of his monastery, he dedicated himself especially to historical studies and, from 1892 to 1902, carried out extensive and methodical investigations in the British Museum and the Record Office, thereby accumulating immense stores of documentation for his future works. In 1896 he was appointed by Leo XIII a member of the pontifical commission on the question of the validity of Anglican ordinations (cf. his work: Leaues from my Diary 1894-96, London 1916), and in 1900 he was elected abbot-president of the English Benedictine Congregation. When the Supreme Pontiff entrusted the revision of the Vulgate to the Benedictine monks and a special commission was established, Abbot G. was appointed its president by a letter from Pope Pius X in 1906. Created cardinal of the title of S. Maria in Portico in 1914, he was made librarian and archivist of the Holy Roman Church in 1919.
A learned and patient historian, a diligent investigator of the memories of the past, and an attractive writer because of the tranquillity and balance of his style, he made a name for himself in the religious history of England.
Works: Henry VIII and the english monastery (2 vols.,
London 1888-89); Edward VI and the book of common prayer (ibid. 1890); The last abbot of Glastonbury (ibid. 1895); The eve of the reformation (ibid. 1896); English monastic life (ibid. 1904); Henry III and the Church (ibid. 1905); Parish life in medieval England (ibid. 1906); Lord Acton and his circle (ibid. 1908); The greater abbeys of England. The black death of 1348 and 1349 (ibid. 1909); The Rule of st Benedict translated with an introduction (ibid. 1910); England under the old religion and other essays (ibid. 1912); A history of the winer, english College Rome (ibid. 1921); The religious life of king Henry VI (ibid. 1924); Monastic life in the middle ages (ibid. 1923).