MAURISTS (MAURINI). - This name was given to the Benedictines of the French Congregation of St. Maur, which arose between the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century.
The reform began at St-Vanne, near Verdun, through the work of the abbot Desiderius de La Cour (1598) and soon spread to Lorraine and to other French centers. At a later stage, since Lorraine did not then fall under the dominion of the French crown, it was thought to establish in France a new congregation which, while taking that of St-Vanne as its model, would be independent of it. Thus in 1618 arose the Congregation of St. Maur, approved by Gregory XV with 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 the return to strict observance of the Benedictine Rule through a rigid monastic regime: nevertheless its name became famous above all for the merits it acquired in the field of historical and literary studies. Its scholarly activity received notable impetus from the program formulated in 1632 by dom Grégoire Tarisse, general from 1630 to 1648, and was illustrated by glorious names such as J. Mabillon, B. Montfaucon, E. Martène, T. Blampin, J. Martianay, R. Massuet, R. P. Tassin, 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 FRANCE.
LIBRI II.
AUTORE
R. D. P. BERNARDO PEZ,
Benedictine; & Librarian of Melk, who also added an ancient distinguished Anonymous on Ecclesiastical Writers, and here for the first time brought it to light from the manuscript library of Melk.
WITH PERMISSION OF SUPERIORS.
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Augsburg & Graz,
At the expense of Philipp, Johann & Martin Veith,
Brothers. 1716.
(phot. Enc. Cots.)
MAURINI (MAURISTI) - Title page of the Bibliotheca Benedictino-Mauriana, Augusta 1716 - Copy in the Vatican Library.
still preserve their vitality today. Others, such as the Art de vérifier les dates, the Palaeographia graeca, the De re diplomatica, the Nouveau traité de diplomatique, even if by now superseded, represent a milestone in the fields of chronology, diplomatics and palaeography. But what has been produced (over 700 works by more than 220 authors) is only a minimal part of the vast mass of material collected, which occupies several manuscript volumes scattered through the libraries of France, and above all in the National Library of Paris. The love of study did not prevent the M. from fighting tenaciously against the moral propositions condemned by Innocent XI in 1679, nor from observing the monastic rule rigorously to the end (compare the Constitutions of 1770); when the French Revolution swept away the Congregation and brought it to an end, the last superior general, dom Ambroise Augustin Chevreux, serenely faced martyrdom, dying together with 40 of his confreres on the guillotine (2 Sept. 1792).
The apologetic purpose, which is the primary motive of the M.'s cultural activity, did not alter their historical precision: persuaded that plain truth would confound the enemies of the faith and would put an end to the ecclesiastical controversies that agitated France in the 17th-18th centuries, they always aimed at the meticulous search for the document, at the determination of its authenticity, at the bare exposition of the facts that arose from it. The historical school of the M. constitutes the starting point of modern scholarly research, based essentially on three cornerstones: the complete collection of all the sources concerning a single event or period; the thorough examination of the document through recourse to all the auxiliary sciences; the meticulous citation of the source. Yet they lacked a broad vision of the historical fact, an enlightened conception that would allow one to rise from the ascertainment of facts to the construction of true history.