Gasquet, Francis Aidan

GASQUET, FRANCIS AIDAN. - Cardinal, Benedictine, b. in London on 5 Oct. 1846 to a distinguished Catholic family of French origin that had emigrated to England at the end of the 18th century, d. in Rome on 5 Apr. 1929. After completing his studies at the school of the Benedictine priory of Downside, he entered the novitiate of the same Order at Belmont in 1865. He subsequently held the various offices of the community of Downside, until he was elected prior in 1878. After a certain time devoted to the service of his monastery, he dedicated himself especially to historical studies and spent the years 1892 to 1902 conducting vast and methodical research in the British Museum and the Record Office, whereby he accumulated immense treasures of documentation for his future works. In 1896 he was appointed by Leo XIII a member of the pontifical commission for the question of the validity of Anglican ordinations (cf. his work: Leaves 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 to the Benedictine monks the revision of the Vulgate, a special commission having been set up, Abbot G. was appointed its president by a letter of Pope Pius X in 1906. Created cardinal of the title of St. Mary in Portico in 1914, he was made librarian and archivist of the Holy Roman Church in 1919.

A learned and patient historian, a laborious researcher of the records of the past, a writer attractive for 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).

Pietro Salmon