Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/549

 SAVARY

SAVONA

Savary. — A noble French familj^ of the seven- teenth century especially devoted to trade and to the publication of works on commercial matters of last- ing and widespread authority. The most illustrious member was Jacques Savary, b. at Doue in Anjou, 22 September, 1622; d. 7 October, 1690. He be- longed to the younger branch of the Savary. His parents being in the commercial class had destined their son Jacques for that career. After having studied law in Paris with a procureur he entered the ranks of the haberdashers as a wholesale merchant, and in 1658 his fortune was made. His relations with the superintendent, P'ouquet, enabled him to devote his abilities to the service of the State; the contract for collecting the revenues of crown lands was given to him. After Fouquet's fall Savary gained the favour of the Chancellor Seguier, and as the numerous arbitrations with which Savary was charged in all commercial ques- tions daily increased his prestige, he was summoned in 1670 to take an active part in the commission for the revision of the laws pertaining to trade. So well did he acquit himself there that Pussort, president of this commission, named the ordinance of 1673 the "Code Savary". On the appearance of this ordinance Pou.s- sort and .several other commissioners requested Sa- vary to pubhsh in book form the numerous memoirs read by him before the Commission during the prep- aration of the ordinance. This book appeared in 1675 under the title, "Le parfait negociant ou In- struction gen^rale pour ce qui regarde le c;ommerce dcs marchandises de France et des pays etrangers." (The Perfect Merchant or General Instruction re- garding the mercantile trade of France and foreign countries). Numerous editions followed, and it was translated into various languages. "Les Pareres, ou Avis et Conseils sur les plus importantes INIatieres de Commerce" was published by Savary in 1688 as a sequel to "Le parfait negociant".

Such was the authority of Savary that during his lifetime lawyers quoted his opinion as equal in value almost to a law. After the death of Colbert (1683), the controller general of finances, Pelletier, continued his patronage of Savary, and ordered him to make an investigation of the financial affairs of the \\'e.steni crown lands. His family was very numerous. He had seventeen children, eleven of whom survived him. His son Jacques Savary des Bruslons (h. 157; d. 1716) was appointed by Louvois, in 16S6, insjjector general of the Custom House in Paris. He under- took the composition for his personal use of an alpha- betical li.st of all ol)j('cts sul)ject to duty, then of all the words relating to coniinerce and industry. He added a repertoire of the ordinances and rules regard- ing commerce in France and abroad. Tins double work was the starting-point of his "Dictionnaire du Commerce", which he undertook in colhiljoration with his brother Louis-Philemon and which he left un- finished. But Loui.s-Philemon Savary (b. 1654; d. 1727), at first a preacher, later canon of the Chai>ter of Saint-Maur, and French agent for the reigning house of Mantua, finished the dictionary and pub- lished it in 1723. This Dictionary of Commerce was translated into English in 1774. At the time of his death Louis Philemon had nearly completed a sup- plementary volume, which appeared in 1730.

Vie (le Savary, prefixed to Le parfait negociant (Paris, 1721); MoRERi, Grand Diet. Hist., s. v.

Georges Goyau.

Savigny, Abbey of, situated on the confines of Nor- mandy and Brittany, Diocese of Coutances, France, founded by Vital de Mortain, Canon of the Collegiate Church of St. Evroul, who, resigning his prebend to embrace an eremitical life under Robert of Arbrissel in the forest of Craon (Anjou), and leaving the latter, retired to the forest of Savigny (1105), where he built a hermitage. Soon, however, the number of dis- ciples who gathered around him necessitated the

construction of adequate buildings, in which was in- stituted the monastic life, following the Rule of St. Benedict, and interpreted in a manner similar to the Cistercians. Rudolph, lord of Fougeres, confirmed to the monastery (1112) the grants he had formerly made to Vital, and from then dates the founda- tion of the monastery. Once firmly established, its growth was rapid, and it soon became one of the most celebrated in France. Its founder was judged worthy of canonization, and many of his successors in the abbatial office, as well as simple religious of the Abbey, were canonized or beatified by the Church; the best known of them being St. Aymon. From the number of its foundations Savigny became the head of a Congregation, numbering thirty-three subordinate houses, within thirty years of its own inception. In 1119 Pope Celestine II., then in Angers, took it under his immediate protection, and strongly com- mended it to the neighbouring nobles. Under Geoffroy, successor to Vital, Henry I., of England, established and generously endowed twenty-nine monasteries of this Congregation in his dominions. St. Bernard also held them in high esteem, and it was at his request that their monks, in the troubled times of the antipope Anacletus, declared in favour of Pope Innocent II. Serlon, third successor of the Founder, found it difficult to retain his jurisdiction over the English monasteries, who wished to make themselves indcix-ndcnt, and so determined to affiliate the entire Congregation to Citeaux, which was effected at the General Chapter of 1147. Several English monasteries objecting to this, were finally ol)lige(l to submit by Poi)e Eugene III (1148). Little by little (lisci])lin(' becjuue relaxed, and commenda- tory Abbots being introduced (1501) it never re- gained its first greatness. In 1509 it was pillaged and partly burno^d by the Calvinists, and records of the following year mention but twenty-four monks re- maining. It continued to exist until the Revolution reduced it to a heap of ruins, and scattered its then existing members. The church, a model of Cis- tercian architecture, was restored in 1869, and now serves for parish purposes. Of all its former de- jx'iidencies. there remains only La Grande Trappe. Tliis, though not founded directly, was a daughter of the Al)l)ey of Hreuil-Benoit, which latter was a direct filiation of Savigny.

TissiKit. liihliotheca patrum cisterciensum (Bonnefont, 1660- 69); Mkki.kt and Moutier, Cartulaire des Vaux de Cernay (Pari.s, 18.57) ; de Dion, Eludes sur le.i iglises de I'ordre de Citeaux (Tours, 1889); du Monstier, Neustria Pia (Rouen, 1663); Hist. Liu. de la France, by the Benedictines of St. Maur IX, X, XII (Paris, 1868-70); Manrique, .Atinales cistercienses (Lyons, 1642-59); Martene and Durand, Thesaurus novus anecdo- torum (Paris, 1717); Gallia Christiana, XI (Paris, 1865); Janatt- 8CHEK, Originum cisterciensuim (Vienna, 1877), I; Dodsworth, Monasticon anglicanum (London, 1682), II; Jongblinus, Notitia nbhatiarum ord. cist. (Cologne, 1640); Migne, Diet, des Ord. lielig. (Paris, 1850).

Edmond M, Obrecht.

Saviour. See Jesus Christ.

Savona and Noli, Diocese of(Savonensis et Nau- LENSi.s), province of Cienoa, on the Gulf of Genoa, hav- ing a small but safe luubour. In addition to its maritime trade and ship-building, the jiopulation is chiefly en- gaged in manufactures of steel, gla.ss, delph, majolica, and in the quarrying of lignite and marble. The cathedral, dating from 1589, restored in the nine- teenth century, has three naves and a cupola; it con- tains beautiful frescoes by Coghetti. Close by the cathedral is the Sistine chapel, erected by Sixtus IV, whose ancestors belonged to Savona. The other churches contain paintings of great value. Among the secular buildings the most noteworthy is the Palazzo della Rovere, constructed by Sangallo; the paintings of Seniini were destroyed when the palace was converted into a convent. Savona was formerly called Salabatia or Savo. In the tenth century its bishops were counts of Savona, but later the count-