MAURINI (MAURISTS). — This was the name given to the Benedictines of the French Congregation of St. Maur, which arose between the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth.
The reform began at St-Vanne, near Verdun, through the work of Abbot Desiderio de La Cour (1598), and soon spread to Lorraine and other French centers. Subsequently, since Lorraine did not at that time fall under the dominion of the French crown, it was decided to establish in France a new congregation which, while taking that of St-Vanne as its model, would be independent of II. Thus, in 1618, the Congregation of St. Maur arose, approved by Gregory XV through the constitution Sacri apostolatus ministerio of 17 May 1621. The superior general resided in the abbey of St-Germain-des-Prés (Paris). The purpose of the Congregation was a return to strict observance of the Benedictine Rule through a rigorous monastic regime; nevertheless, its name became famous above all for the merits it acquired in the field of historical and literary studies. Scholarly activity received a considerable impetus from the program formulated in 1632 by Dom Grégoire Tarisse, general from 1630 to 1648, and was distinguished by such illustrious names as J. Mabillon, B. Montfaucon, E. Martène, T. Blampin, J. Martianay, R. Massuet, R. P. Tassin, and C. Toustain. Works such as the Gallia Christiana, the Spicilegium veterum scriptorum, the Acta SS. Ordinis s. Benedicti, the Annales Benedictini, the Recueil des historiens de la France, the Histoire littéraire de la France
BIBLIOTHECA BENEDICTINO-MAURIANA.
SEU
DE ORTU, VITIS, ET
SCRIPTIS PATRUM BENEDICTINORUM E CELEBERRIMA CONGREGATIONE S. MAURI
IN FRANCIA.
LIBRI II.
AUTORER. D. P. BERNARDO PEZ,
Benedictino; & Bibliothecario Mellicenti, qu' etiam veterem infignem Anonymum de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis addidit, & hic primum ex Bibliotheca MSS. Mellicenti in lucem afferuit.
CUM PERMISSU SUPERIORUM.
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Auguste V. Indelicorum & Greci,
Sumpibus Philippi, Joannis & Martini Velib,
Fratrum. M. DCC XVI.
(photo: Enc. Cots.)
MAURINI (MAURISTI) – Frontispiece of the Bibliotheca Benedictino-Mauriana, Augusta 1716 – Copy in the Vatican Library.
still retain their vitality today. Others, such as the Art de vérifier les dates, the Palaeographia graeca, the De re diplomatica, and the Nouveau traité de diplomatique, although by now outdated, represent milestones in the fields of chronology, diplomatics, and palaeography. But what was produced—more than 700 works by over 220 authors—is only a minimal part of the immense quantity of material collected, which occupies several manuscript volumes scattered among the libraries of France, and above all in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Love of study did not prevent the M. from vigorously opposing the moral propositions condemned by Innocent XI in 1679, nor from rigorously observing the monastic rule to the very end (see the Constitutions of 1770); when the French Revolution overwhelmed the Congregation, bringing about its end, the last superior general, dom Ambroise Augustin Chevreux, serenely faced martyrdom, dying together with 40 of his confrères on the guillotine (2 September 1792).
The apologetic purpose, which was the primary motive behind the M.’s cultural activity, did not distort historical accuracy: convinced that unvarnished truth would confound the enemies of the faith and put an end to the ecclesiastical controversies that were raging in France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they always aimed at the painstaking investigation of the document, the determination of its authenticity, and the unvarnished presentation of the facts that emerged from II. The historical school of the M. constitutes the starting point of modern scholarly research, based essentially on three cornerstones: the complete collection of all sources concerning a single event or period; the thorough examination of the document through recourse to all the auxiliary sciences; and meticulous citation of the source. They nevertheless lacked a broad vision of the historical event, an enlightened conception that would have enabled them to move from the ascertainment of facts to the construction of true history.