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 PREMONSTRATENSIAN

390

PREMONSTRATENSIAN

was mitigated first in 1290, then in the constitutions of 1505, and again in those of 1630, but in spite of these mitigations, the "Statuta" composed and approved in the time of St. Norbert have remained substantially the same as thej' were in the begirming. At the be- ginning of the seventeenth century a new spirit seemed to animate the whole order, but especially in Lorraine, where the venerable Abbot Lairvelz succeeded in re- forming forty abbeys and in introducing into them the obser\'ances of the primitive constitutions. It was seen that the order was full of vitahty and doing good and useful work. To encourage the studies of their religious, colleges were established near some univer- sity, as at Rome, Louvain, Paris, Cologne, Prague, Madrid, Salamanca, and elsewhere. To these colleges and universities young religious were sent. After the completion of their studies they returned to the abbey, where they taught philosophy and theology.

Commendatory Abbots. — To speak of one country only, the concordat between Leo X and Francis I in 1516, which gave power to the King of France to nomi- nate bishops, abbots, and other Church dignitaries, was abused to .such an extent that, with reference to abbeys alone, bishops, secular priests, and even laymen were put at the head of an abbey, and sometimes of two or more abbeys. They took possession of all the temporalities, and frequently cared noth- ing for the material and spiritual welfare of the abbey. And all this was done when Lutherans and Cal- vinists were making the fiercest attacks on the Catholic reli- gion, and when ear- nest men were pledil- ing for reform in Catholic institutions. Hugo, the annalist of the order, who gives the fists of abbeys and of the abbots elected by the order or commendatory, shows how far the evil had pre- vailed for more than two hundred years. Tai^e (vol. II, 195) in his "Etude sur Pr^montre" (Laon,1874), writes that in 1770, of the 92 Norbertine abbeys anil priories in France, 67 were given in commcndam and only 25 had abbots or priors of the order.

Loss OF Abbeys. — Owing to a decree of the general chapter numerous convents of nuns had already dis- appeared before the end of the twelfth century. As to abbeys and priories the continuous wars in many countries, and in the East the invasions of Tatars and Turks, made community life almost impossible and ruined many abbeys. The wars and the heresies of Hus and Luther destroyed several abbeys. The Abbey of Episcopia in the Isle of Cyprus was taken by Islam in 1571. The Hu.ssites took possession of several houses in Moravia and Bohemia; the Luther- ans, in Saxony, Prussia, Denmark, and Sweden; the Calvinists, in Holland; and Henry VIII in England and Ireland. In Hungary many were destroyed by Solyman. With all these losses the order had still in 1627 twenty-two provinces or drearies, and Lienhardt gives a list of 240 houses still in existence in 1778. Joseph 11 of Austria suppressed many houses and put others under commendatory abbots, but Leopold, Joseph's successor, restored nine abbeys and with these he incorporated others. The French Revolution sup- pressed in 1790 all religious houses in France, in 1796 in Belgium, and afterwards all those in the occupied provinces of the Rhine. Only a few houses were still existing (9 in the Austrian Empire, 3 in Russian Poland, and 15 in Spain), but the abbeys in Spain were

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suppressed by the revolution which convulsed that country in 1833. The dispersed religious of the Bel- gian Province had long wished to reassemble and form new communities, but they were not allowed to do so under the Dutch Government (181.5-30). ■\\Tien Bel- gium was separated from Holland and made into a separate kingdom, freedom of religion was granted, and the surviving religious, now well advanced in years, revived community life and reconstituted five Norbertine houses in Belgium (see Backx).

The religious of the confiscated abbey of Berne in Holland founded a new abbej' at Heeswijk. The Abbey of Berne-Heeswijk has founded St. Norbert's Priory at West De Pere, Wisconsin, U. S. A. To the priory is attached a flourishing classical and commercial college. The Abbey of Grimbergen in Belgium obtained possession of the former Norbertine Abbey of Mondaye in France, and founded a new abbey. Mondaye in turn founded the priories of St. Joseph at Balarin (Department of Gers) and of St. Peter at Nantes. The Abbey of Tongerloo has founded three priories in England, viz. : Crowle, Spalding, and Manchester. The same abbey has also sent mission- aries to Belgian Congo, .Vfrica, where the Prefecture of Ouelle (Welle) has been confided to them. The pre- fecture has four chief centres: Ibembo, Amadi, Gom- bari, and Djabir, with many stations served from each centre. The Abbey of Aver- bode founded three Priories in Brazil (Pirapora, Jaguarao, and Petropolis), with a college attached to each priory. TheAb- bc>- of the Park, near Louvain, has also sent to Brazil several priests who have charge of parishes and do missionary work. The Abbey of Grimbergen founded a house of the order at Wetaskiwin, in Alberta, Canada. The Priory of West De Pere has been made independent, with a novitiate of its own. The other priories are attached to the abbey by which they were founded.

In 1856 a new congregation of Norbertine canons, since incorporated with the order, was formed at Frigolet. Frigolet founded Conques and St-Jean de Cole in France, and Storrington and Weston- Bed worth in England. The abbeys in Hungary have jointly founded at Budapest a college where young religious of these abbeys study under Norbertine pro- fessors, and also follow the university lectures in order to obtain the diploma required to become professora in one of the six colleges conducted by these abbeys. The order also possesses a college in Rome (Via di Monte Tarpeo) for Norbertine students at the Grego- rian LTni versity. The procurat or of t he order resides at this college, of which he is also the rector. At the death of Li^cuy in 1834, the last Abbot General of Pr^montre, the order was left without a spiritual head. In 1867 Jerome Zeidler, Abbot of Strahov, was elected, but he died in Rome during the Vatican Council. At a general chapter held in Vienna in 1883 Sigismond Starj', Abbot of Strahov, was elected. At his death he was succeeded by Norbert Schachinger, Abbot of Schlilgl, in Austria.

Statistics.— The following statistics show the pres- ent state of the order in each circary. Particulars are also given having reference to some convents of nuns who, though no longer under the jurisdiction of the order, are or have been related to it. The figures have been taken from printed catalogues pubUshed in