SS

SS. Vittore e Giovanni in Monte of Bologna. On the other hand, S. Croce of Mortara was a prebendary church. These collegiate churches and many others abroad experienced vigorous development through numerous dependencies of priories and parishes, without, however, altering their original juridical constitution. Only later did some adopt the form of a congregation with a central superior direction and houses juridically equal among themselves.

No document shows that the Canons Regular (C. r.) were bound to a specific rule. The reformers demanded from them the practice of common life with total detachment from property; each chapter therefore freely adopted statutes suited to foster this practice. Thus arose various rules, adaptations of statutes or particular usages. Nor were they forbidden to use the norms contained in the two ancient canonical rules that were not contrary to the spirit of the new life they had embraced. These norms had not been exhausted in the Roman Synod of 1059. This explains why, in the first phase of the Order’s development, from 1050 until about 1130, various rules are found which may be called primitive in relation to another that later replaced them.

The official rule of the Canons, namely that of Aachen, was at first not abandoned but amended and expanded. This is attested by the additions to the rule itself found in the codices of the 11th century: Ottobon. 38 V. Lat. 485 and 1351 of the Vatican Library (C. Egger, De antiquis regulis Canonici. reg., in Ordo Can., I [1946], pp. 44-48), which contain the entire rule of Aachen except for the chapters condemned by the Synod of 1059, and many taken from the Rule of St Benedict and of St Chrodegang (A. Werminghoff, Die Beschlüsse des Aachener Concilis im Jahre 816, in Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde, 27 [1902], pp. 40-45; C. Egger, loc. cit., p. 48). These would be two parts of a common text from which they were transcribed: the chapters of the imperial rule appear there, except those contrary to total renunciation of property, which is inculcated with other precepts. This proves that the rule thus amended served the Canons Regular.

Another rule certainly used by the C. r. is the one entitled Regula de Patrum Augustini, Hieronymi, Gregorii, Prosperi (Pomerio) atque Isidori. The 62 chapters are the very text of the chapters of the rule of Aachen and of the expanded rule of Chrodegang: only the text is amended regarding perfect renunciation of property. The codex was the liber capitularis of the prebendary church of S. Michele of Càmeri (Pavia) and is now in the civic museum of Pavia (Inv.: martyrology of Usuard, B. 28, no. 146). There is also the Ottobonian codex 175, which represents a further and freer elaboration of the rule of Aachen, where many sayings of the Holy Fathers on clerical discipline and some chapters of the Rule of St Benedict have been inserted. It is noteworthy that a passage from the so-called Rule of St Augustine appears there for the first time, cited simply as an authority.

Other compilers followed the spirit of the two ancient canonical rules in composing the new rule text. This was done by Peter, called Peccator, founder and first prior of S. Maria in Porto (Ravenna). The Portuense rule was approved by Paschal III in 1116. The same method was observed by Mangelodo of Lauterbach, first prebendary 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 its first phase of development must be added the so-called Rule of St Augustine. It has not yet been established where it first appeared, whether in some collegiate church of France, Germany, or elsewhere. The present text of the rule, except for the opening: “Ante omnia... principaliter nobis data,” is universally recognized as Augustine’s work. Historians have also affirmed that the text was written as a rule intended for men. Recent authors, however, believe it was originally a letter (no. 211) addressed to the holy virgins of Hippo. It would have been adapted for the male sex during the 7th century, probably in Gaul. Evidence for this is provided by the Corbie codex of the 7th century, which contains the oldest manuscript of the “rule adapted for men,” which, it seems, served as spiritual reading for monks (cf. A. Casamassa, Il più antico codice della regola monastica di s. Agostino, in Rendiconti Pont. Acc. rom. arch., I [1923], pp. 25-105).

During the 12th century the Rule of St Augustine became the official rule of the Order, although its text was not yet fixed. This is evident from the codices and is clear proof that it was freely chosen by the Canons. In various collegiate churches, such as those of the Canons of S. Vittore in Paris and those of Marbach, only the genuine text was accepted as the rule. In others, this was preceded by another text, now universally regarded as spurious, which begins with the already cited words: “Ante omnia,” as found in the Corbie codex from the beginning of the 8th century. Other chapters removed from the spurious text the entire section on the divine office and manual labor and other monastic practices ill-suited to Canons, so that only the opening remained. Elsewhere this opening appears in the title of the rule, and in the genuine text it is recalled as follows: “Haec sunt quae praecipimus observari, ut in canonica habitantes post principalia praecepta Dei et proximi, caritatis vinculum custodatur.” Similar variants are found in the codices up to the end of the 15th century. When the text of the Rule of St Augustine was finally defined, 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 perfect common life flourished the divine cult with solemn liturgical functions and diurnal and nocturnal offices. To this principal aim the Canons devoted the greater part of their daily activity.

Many collegiate churches, especially those founded by zealous bishops, at first remained subject to their jurisdiction. Later, the Canons Regular obtained the protection of the Holy See and other privileges, including that of electing their own priest. Popes and bishops also granted many chapters parochial benefices. Soon the Canons Regular engaged in charity for the poor and pilgrims. For this purpose, outside the cloister enclosure there was a room called the hospitium or hospitale. Care of the guests was entrusted to a canon known as the magister hospitii. This charity, widely practiced from the 11th century to our own day, was most notably rendered by the Canons Regular of the Great St Bernard, the Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre (which survived until the 19th century), and the Canons Regular of St Anthony and of the Holy Spirit, two of whose central houses were in Rome, where one still bears the name (the Hospital of Santo Spirito).

To remedy the lack of a general direction in the Order and any possible relaxation of regular discipline, the Fourth Lateran Council under Innocent III (1215) prescribed that the Canons Regular and the Benedictines should hold triennial provincial chapters. At these meetings visitors and certain prelates were to be appointed to carry out canonical visitation of the various houses. The need for reform was felt in the following century. Benedict XII ordered it by the Constitution of 25 May 1339 (Bullarium romanum, Turin 1857 ff., p. 424). The document contains provisions for the acceptance and education of novices, the performance of offices, clothing, food, the administration of property, libraries, and archives. At that time the Order comprised four provinces in Italy, five

In France and seven in other countries. After a brief improvement, regular discipline declined with the appearance of the schism and the commendatory system; secularization continued, and of the chapters of cathedrals only a few remained regular in name until the 17th century. No further general reform was attempted; however, at various times, reforming currents emerged that infused new life into the institution. In this way, almost always through the efforts of the canons themselves, Congregations arose. The canonries, until then independent of one another, were united into a single body with a central direction, consisting of a superior general and several counsellors. These Congregations also adopted the practice of holding general chapters, initially annual and later triennial. Some, alongside these innovations, preserved the primitive characteristics of the Order: the perpetuity of prelatures and the stability of individuals, sometimes uniting in such a way as to form a Congregation on the model of the monastic ones.

A distinctive feature of the Order is its spiritual schools:

1. The School of St Victor: its principal representatives, Hugh, Richard, Adam, Accardus, Thomas Gallus, were of a rather speculative disposition and under the influence of pseudo-Dionysius. All creation, historical events, and particularly Sacred Scripture, contain a “divine nucleus” that is known through intuitive meditation. From this one ascends to contemplation, which is an affective consideration of divine truth, free from the “smoke of passions.”

2. The School of Windesheim: better known under the name of the *Devotio moderna*. It represents a new spiritual current that, through the Augustinian Canons Regular of Windesheim and the Brethren of the Common Life, spread through the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, and Spain.

3. The Lateran School: the Lateran Congregation, in the fervour of the reform, produced a rich literature of an ascetical nature, often inspired by the *Devotio moderna*; without complex schemes, it insists on renunciation of the world and of one’s own will, places less emphasis on austerities than on filial and intimate prayer and frequent reception of the Sacraments. Among the authors, who also deserve credit for usually employing the vernacular, are to be numbered: Paolo Maffei, Serafino da Fermo, Pietro da Lucca, Serafino da Bologna, Alessandro Torre, and Nicola Bambacari.

In the missionary field, the Augustinian Canons Regular rendered meritorious service in the 12th and 13th centuries in the evangelization of some Slavic tribes of northern Germany and the Baltic peoples. The canon regular St Vicelin preached the Gospel to the Wagrians, and St Meinhard crowned his missionary activity in the Baltic with martyrdom. The Portuguese Congregation of St John the Evangelist later brought the good news to the kingdom of the Congo, Abyssinia, and India; Spanish canons collaborated around 1500 in the conversion of the Indians of America.

The Order’s contribution to culture and civilization is considerable. First, we note the theological school of St Victor in Paris with Hugh, Richard, Godfrey, Walter, Robert of Flamborough, Peter of Poitiers, and the biblical scholars Andrew and Peter Comestor. The college of the Augustinian Canons Regular of Val des Écoliers was part of the faculty of theology at the University of Paris. In the theological field, we may also mention Gerhoh of Reichersberg, Martin of Aspilcueta (Navarrus), Giovanni Crisostomo Trombelli, and Eusebius Amort, the last two of whom, together with Gabriele Pennotto, were also distinguished historians of the Order. Throughout the Middle Ages, St Ivo of Chartres and Stephen of Tournai were renowned as canonists. For Oriental and biblical studies, limiting ourselves, as above, to a few representative figures, we should mention Ambrogio Teseo, Agostino Steuco, Sebastiano Scemiller, and Giovanni Crisostomo Mitterrandner. For medieval Latin poetry, Andrew of St Victor is celebrated, and for humanistic poetry, Girolamo Vida, Basilio Zanchi, and Giovanni Battista Santeul (Santolius). Alessandro Marino may be called the founder of the Accademia di S. Cecilia in Rome.

II. PRINCIPAL EXTINCT CONGREGATIONS

To list all the Congregations of the Augustinian Canons Regular would mean naming a large part of the cathedrals and collegiate churches of Europe; it will suffice to indicate only some of the principal ones that became extinct over the centuries before mentioning those that still exist.

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

It took its name from the church of the Saviour in Bologna, near which, in the mid-14th century, the Augustinian Canons Regular of S. Maria di Reno transferred. This renowned collegiate church had arisen at the beginning of the 12th century near the Reno stream in the Bolognese territory; but the beginning of the Congregation was the work of Stefano Agazzari, prior of the recently founded Augustinian Canons Regular 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 numbered forty, including the Roman ones of S. Pietro in Vincoli, S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura, and S. Agnese. The Congregation had many distinguished men for virtue and learning, including the Blessed Arcangelo Canetoli, Agostino Steuco, Cardinal Andrea Galli, and Archbishop Vincenzo Gorofali. Suppressed in 1810, it was restored in the years 1814–19 and united with the Lateran Congregation in 1823.

2. The Congregation of St George in Alga-Venice

St George was an ancient Augustinian Canons Regular priory, reduced in 1404 to the single prior with two lay brothers in simple profession. The priory was suppressed, and at St George 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 were the Pope’s nephews, Antonio Correr and Gabriele Condulmer, later Eugenius IV, and St Lawrence Giustiniani. They had several houses in Italy, including S. Salvatore in Lauro in Rome. They became regular when Pius V in 1570 imposed solemn vows upon them. Clement IX suppressed them in 1668, and their property 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 Florentius Radewyns and six Brethren of the Common Life and was approved by Boniface IX and Martin V. It spread rapidly

in the Netherlands and in Germany. Especially in the 15th century it rendered great service to 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 Blessed John Ruysbroeck. In 1432 twelve other canonries, with the principal one of Neus in the diocese of Cologne, joined II. The prepositura of Marbach, devastated and ruined by the Armagnacs, revived in 1464 with its incorporation into the Congregation. At its height it numbered as many as 120 houses, many of which perished with the Reformation. In the 17th century there was also an attempt to unite it with the Lateran Congregation. It disappeared definitively with the Napoleonic suppression.

4. The Congregation of St Victor and St Geneviève of Paris

The abbey of St Victor, founded by William of Champeaux, was approved by Paschal II in 1114. It soon became a renowned centre of learning. Among its illustrious canons were Hugh, Richard and Adam. The abbey had many priories and parishes dependent on II. After years of splendour, it was struck by the revolutionary storm. At the end of the 15th century an attempt to unite it with the Congregation of Windesheim failed. In 1515 it associated itself with the new Congrégation réformée de France, which was called the Congregation of St Victor. 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 St Geneviève and by Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld, arose the Congregation of St Geneviève. It included numerous abbeys and priories in France and some in the Netherlands, but it too was swept away by the revolutionary storm. Among the last canons of these Parisian abbeys who died martyrs were the Blessed Charles Marie Bernard, librarian of St Victor, the Blessed John Francis Bonnet de Pradal and Claudius Ponce of St Geneviève.

5. The Congregation of the Most Holy Saviour

It was founded by St Peter Fourier, a canon regular of the abbey of Chaumont and parish priest of Mattaincourt in Lorraine. The saint had already given life to the Congregation of Canonesses of Our Lady when (in 1623) he set about reforming canonical life in the abbeys of his region. In 1628 the reform had been accepted by eight houses, which Urban VIII, by a bull of 28 August of the same year, united into a Congregation. At the same time he granted that the superior general be elected for life. It spread especially in Lorraine and Savoy and rendered distinguished service in sacred ministry and in the instruction and education of male youth.

6. The Congregation of the Holy Cross of Coimbra in Portugal

It was so called from the central house erected in 1132 by Tello, archdeacon of the cathedral. The canons adopted the customs of those of St Rufus of Valence. At Coimbra St Anthony of Padua lived among them before entering the Franciscan Order. From a reform promoted by King John II there arose in 1527 the Congregation with various houses scattered throughout the Portuguese kingdom.

### Canonici regolari of St Augustine

#### 1. General overview
The Canonici regolari of St Augustine (C. r.) are a religious order of canons regular who follow the Rule of St Augustine and live in community under a rule of life approved by the Church. They arose in the 11th–12th centuries as a reform movement within the secular canons, seeking to restore the common life and pastoral service envisaged by the early Church. Their first houses were founded in Italy (e.g., S. Frediano in Lucca, c. 1070) and soon spread to France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. In the 16th–17th centuries many prepositures of canons regular united with the Congregation of the Lateran Canons, forming the Lateran Congregation of Canons Regular of St Augustine, which today comprises six houses with 349 canons.

#### 2. Austrian Congregation of Canons Regular of St Augustine
Among the earliest foundations in the German-speaking world are: St Nikola in Passau (1108), Novacella (Neustift) in the diocese of Brixen (1142), Reichersberg in the diocese of Linz (1084), and Vorau in the diocese of Seckau (1163). Several of these prepositures became true centres of culture, possessing rich collections of art, manuscripts, and incunabula (the library of St Florian preserves some 800 incunabula). During the 16th and 17th centuries a charitable union and sharing of privileges took place between these monasteries and the Lateran Congregation of the Canons Regular of the Most Holy Saviour; from that time these C. r. have been called Lateran Canons, and their provosts are styled abbots of the Lateran.

According to the ancient custom of the Order, each prepositura incorporates a certain number of parishes (110 in the entire Congregation) where the canons exercise parochial ministry. In the prepositures the C. r. devote themselves to choral office, study, and teaching. Klosterneuburg is renowned for its “liturgical apostolate” (Volksliturgisches Apostolat), a movement aimed at fostering active participation in the sacred liturgy among the faithful. The celebrated Gerhoh of Reichersberg belonged to this branch of canons regular.

The General Chapter elects the abbot general, who presides over the Congregation for six years, and a co-visitor who conducts the canonical visitation in the prepositura of the abbot general. Today the Congregation numbers six houses with 349 canons.

#### 3. Hospitaller Congregation of the C. r. of the Great St Bernard
Its origins go back to the second half of the 11th century. The original purpose was to maintain the hospice founded by St Bernard, archdeacon of Aosta (q.v.), on the Great St Bernard Pass, in place of the Carolingian hospice at Bourg-St-Pierre which had been destroyed. It is governed by a provost (praepositus), appointed for life by the General Chapter; he receives the abbatial blessing and enjoys all the prerogatives of abbots of exempt monasteries together with other special privileges, by virtue of the bull addressed by Clement XIII to Provost Claudio Filiberto Thévenot on 9 August 1762.

Today the canons, besides caring for the hospices of the Great St Bernard and the Simplon, exercise stable ministry in nine parishes of the diocese of Sion and one of the diocese of Aosta. Since 1933 they have also undertaken a mission on the borders of Burma, Tibet, and China (Canon Maurice Tornay, martyred in September 1949, was the first victim of the mission). The Constitutions promulgated by Cardinal Giovanni Cervantes on 15 May 1438 are still in use (the original manuscript is preserved and described by L. Quaglia in Archives héraldiques suisses, 63 [1949], pp. 26–29); they have been adapted and supplemented by successive General Chapters and now conform to the prescriptions of the Code of Canon Law. The Congregation today numbers 86 members.

#### 4. Swiss Congregation of the C. r. of St Maurice of Agauno
It appears that the monks of Agauno adopted the Rule of St Benedict in the 7th or 8th century, but by about 824 they were replaced by canons who probably followed the prescriptions of St Chrodegang, bishop of Metz. From the mid-8th to the mid-9th century the abbots were simultaneously bishops of Sion; thereafter the officials of the later Carolingians, then the kings of the second kingdom of Burgundy, and finally the early counts of the house of Savoy reserved supreme authority over this abbey, sometimes taking the title of abbot or provost themselves or conferring it on their relatives, such as the archbishops of Lyon or the bishops of Aosta. At the advice of St Hugh, bishop of Grenoble, Count Amadeus III of Savoy renounced the commendatory system, and in 1128 the canons of the abbey adopted the Rule of St Augustine with the approval of Pope Honorius II.
From the beginning of the 14th to the mid-17th century the abbey became a collegiate church with several prebends, and the abbot exercised temporal lordship over many localities. At the instigation of the apostolic nuncio Girolamo Farnese, Abbot Pietro Maurizio Odet began in 1642 the restoration of regular life, and Nuncio Domenico Passionei approved the new Constitutions in 1722; these were subsequently revised in 1820, 1870, and 1931. King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia created the abbot a count in 1782, and Pope Gregory XVI elevated him to the dignity of bishop in 1840 with the titular see of Bethlehem, the abbatial church serving as his cathedral.

By privilege of Pope Eugenius III the canons traditionally wear the mozzetta of red colour; moreover, Nuncio Odoardo Cibo in 1675 prescribed the violet habit for the canons of the cathedrals of Savoy, and Gregory XVI in 1840 granted them the red cappa. Since the Middle Ages the abbey of St Maurice has had several parishes, and Pius XI in 1933 defined which are of nullius jurisdiction and which are fully incorporated into the abbey from the diocese of Sion. In the Middle Ages the abbey of Agauno participated in the foundation of the abbeys of Abondance and Filly in the diocese of Geneva and governed several priories such as Vetroz (Valais), Aigle (Vaud), Semur and Senlis (France), and Ripaille (Savoia), the latter being founded