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173 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Saint Call Saint-Maur at the new normal school there. This position he held until his death, and during his incumbency he wrote Lettre d un ami, considerations politiques, phi losophiques et religaeuses sur la revolution frangaise (Paris, 1795) ; E kclazr sur l'association humaine (1797); Esprit des choses ou coup d'ceil philoso phique sur la nature des Nres et sur l'objet de leer existence (1800); Ministhre de l'homme esprit (1802), besides translating a number of the works of Bohme. St. Martin's views, a mixture of cabalistic, Gnos tic, and neoplatonic doctrines on a Christian basis, can scarcely be reduced to a system. At the same time, he bitterly hated the Church, yet fell into all sorts of clairvoyance, conjuring, and juggling with numbers and the tetragrammaton. His favorite sphere was anthropology; he held it the aim of man to be still higher than Christ, the highest type of humanity; in his daily life St. Martin sought simply to live like a pious Christian. For his follow ing see MARTINIST ORDER. (C. PFENDER.) BIBLIOGRAPHY: La Correspondance in6dite de L. C. de Saint Martin, . . . ed. L. Schauer and A. Chuquet, Amsterdam, 1862, cf. Mystical Philosophy and Spirit-Manifestations. Selections from the . . . Correspondence between . . Saint-Martin . . . and %irchberper, Exeter, 1863; J. B. M. Gence, Notice biopraphique sur L. C. de Saint Martin, Paris, 1823; L. Moreau, R9fletiona sur les ides de L. C. de Saint Martin, ib. 1850; E. M. Caro, Du mysticiame au aviii. sii'cle. Essai sur la vie et la doctrine de Saint-Martin, ib. 1852; J. Matter, Saint-Martin, Is philosophe inconnu, i b. 1862; A. Franck, La Philosophie mystique en France d la fin du zviii. sUcle. Saint-Martin et son maitre Martinez Pasqualis, ib. 1866. SAINT-MAUR, san-mor', CONGREGATION OF: The name of a branch of the Benedictine order, dis tinguished by reform in discipline and great serv ices tolearning. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the monastery of Saint-Vanne Foundation near Verdun was reformed by Didier of the de la Cour. Soon the famous old mon Congrega- astery of Moyenmoutier and others tion. joined the movement, and Clement VIII. in 1604 confirmed the organiza tion of a congregation within the order under the name of Congregatio SS. Vitonis et Hidulphi. In 1614 the general assembly of the French clergy ex pressed the wish that all the Benedictine monas teries associate themselves with this congregation; but its general chapter, fearing danger to its spirit from too large a growth, advised the formation of a second congregation, and in 1618 Dom B6nard, a monk of Saint-Vanne, was charged with the forma tion of such a union. It adopted the name of St. Maur, the companion of St. Benedict, and was con firmed by Gregory XV. in 1621, and again by Urban VIII. in 1627. By 1652 the new congregation num bered forty houses, and before the end of the eight eenth century it had grown to 191, divided into six provinces. The most influential was the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pr6s in Paris, the seat of the superior-general. Dom B6nard had not proposed to make the congregation predominantly a learned one; it was the first superior-general, Dom Tarisse (1630-48), who laid the foundations of the splendid edifice of learning which was gradually reared by the monks. Their activity has embraced all de partments of knowledge, but especially the history of France and of the Church. Besides the general

outline given here of the long series of master-works which they produced by their indefatigable and intelligent labors, further information will be found in separate articles on the more distinguished members.

They made their own the science of paleography, or, as it was then called, diplomatics; Mabillon is regarded as its actual founder, with his De re diplomatica (1681) and its supplement (1704). As these works had special reference to France,

Contribu- Dom Tassin published a general trea- tions to tise under the title Nouveau traits; de Paleogra- diplomatique (6 vols., 1750-65) ; and phy and what this did for Latin paleography Chronology. Montfaucon attempted to do for Greek in his Palceographia Grceca (1708). Modern scientific chronology may also be said to have taken its rise from them. Every historian knows the value of the Art de v&lfler les dates, be gun by Dantine and finished by C16mencet (1750; 1770; 1783-92; 1818 sqq.), which has been called the most noteworthy monument of eighteenth-cen tury French scholarship. To the knowledge of an tiquity a considerable contribution was made by Montfaucon's Antiquiik expliquee en figures (10 vols., 1719). In the history of language, the con gregation took part in, though it did not originate, Du Cange's great Glossarium medic, et infimce Latin itatis, which, originally published in 1687, was in creased one-half by Dantine and Carpentier (6 vols., 1733-36, with a supplement by Carpentier, 4 vols., 1766; and two revised and enlarged editions, 1840 sqq. by Henschel, and 1883 sqq. by Henschel and Fabre).

The most extensive labors, however, were given to history. Colbert had sought in vain for able scholars to continue the undertaking of a collection of the sources of French history, until

Contribu- Chancellor d'Aguesseau persuaded the tions to congregation of Saint-Maur to take it History. up. Mart6ne and then Bouquet had charge of this branch, and their work resulted in the publication of fifteen folio volumes of Scriptares rerum Gallicarum et Francicarum be tween 1738 and 1818, since which time it has been carried on by the Acad6mie des Inscriptions. This body has also, since 1814, taken charge of the His toire litteraire de la France, begun by Dom Rivet and extending to thirteen volumes between 1733 and 1763, a collection of sources which has immense value for the literary history not only of France but of all medieval Europe. Provincial histories surpassing those of any other country are also due to the congregation. Their researches in the li braries of their own monasteries and their travels in quest of documents (especially Mabillon's jour ney to Italy and Montfaucon's to Germany) gave them an opportunity to bring together unpublished material of the highest importance., The most fa mous of their works in this department are D'Ach ery's Spicilegium veterum aliquot scriptorum (13 vols., 1653-77); the Vetera analeeta of Mabillon (4 vols., 1675-85); Martkne's,Collectio nova veterum scriptorum (1700); the Thesaurus novus anecdotorum by Mart~ne and Durand (5 vols., 1717), as well as their Voyage litt6raire de deux religieux b6nedietins