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 VALOIS

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VALOIS

'here is no ground for thr legend given by some Titers of the order of a great Vallunihrosan Congrega- onin Franco with an abbey near Paris, founded by St. ouis. The Vallumbrosan Congregation was reformed 1 the middle of the fifteenth century by Cassinese enedictines, and again by Bi. John Leonardi at the jginning of the seventeenth century. In 148.5 cer- lin abbeys with that of San Salvi at Florence at leir head, which had formed a separate congregation, ere reunited to the mother-house by Innocent VIII. t the beginning of the sixteenth century an attempt as made by .\bbot-General Milanesi to found a 3use of studies on university lines at Vallombrosa ; iit in 1.527 the monastery was burned by the troops

Charles V. It was rebuilt by Abbot Nieolini in 537, and in 1654 an observatory was established, rom 1662-80 the order was united to the Sylves- ines. In ISOS Napoleon's troops plundered Val- mbrosa, and the monastery lay deserted till 1815.

was finally suppressed by the Italian Government

1S66. .\ few monks remain to look after the church id meteorological station, but the abbey buildings ive become a school of forestry founded in 1870 on le German model, the only one of its kind in Italy, allombrosa is also a health resort. The decline of the order may be ascribed to the hard ,te of the mother-house, to commendams, and to the ^rpetual wars which ravaged Italy. Practically all le surviving monasteries were .suppressed during the )urse of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, he present Vallumbrosan monasteries, besides Val- mbrosa itself, are: Passignano, where St. John Gual- ?rt is buried; S. Trinita at Florence, where the jbot-general resides; St a Prassede, in Rome; Gal- iro in the Diocese of Albano, with the sanctuary of 1. Benedict Ricasoli (d. 1107); and the celebrated inctuary of Montessoro in the Diocese of Leghorn, he modern monastery of Signol near Loriol, Drome, ranee, was suppressed by the Ferry laws in 1880. he present abbot-general is Fedele Tarani. The onks now number about 100. The shield of the •der shows the founder's arm in a tawny-coloured >wl grasping a golden crutch-shaped crozier on a ue ground. The services rendered by the order have 'en mostly in the field of asceticism. Besides the allumbrosan saints alluded to in other parts of this tide there niav aLso be mentioned: Bl. Veridiana, ichoress (1208^2); Bl. Giovanni Dalle Celle (feast, ) March); the lay brother Melior (1 Aug.). By the iddle of the seventeenth century the order had sup- ied twelve cardinals and more than 30 bishops. , E. Hugford (1696-1771), born at Florence of Eng- ih parents, is well known as one of the chief pro- oters of the art of scagliola (imitation of marble in aster). .Vbbot-General Tamburini's works on canon w are well known. Galileo was for a time a novice

Vallombrosa and received part of his education ere.

III. Rule.— St. John adopted the Rule of St. Ben- lict but added greatly to its austerity and penitential laracler. His idea wa.s to unite the ascetic ad- mtages of the eremitic life to a life in community, hile avoiding the dangers of the former. Severe ourging wa-s inflicted for any breach of rule, silence 1.S perpetual, poverty most severely enforced. The le of enclosure was so strict that the monks ight not go out even on an errand of mercy. The ain point of divergence lay in the prohibition of the anual work, which is prescribed by St. Benedict. . John's choir monks were to be pure contempla- /es and to this end he introduced the system of lay- others who were to attend to the .secular business, e wa-s among the first to systematize this inslitulion, id it is probable that it was largely popularized r the Vallumbrosans. The term conversi day others) occurs for the first time in .4bbot .\ndrew of rumi's Life of St .John, written at the beginning of t he

twelfth century. The Vallumbrosans do not, strictly speaking, form a separate order, but a Benedictine

congregation, though they are not united to the con- federated congregations of the Black Monks. The oldest extant MS. of the customs of V' allombrosa shows a close relationship with those of Cluny. The Val- lumbrosans should be regarded only as Benedictines who followed the customs observed at that time by the Black Benedictines throughout Europe. "Horror of simony was a special bond between them and Cluny, and it was only special circumstances which caused them later to be looked upon as a peculiar institute within the Benedictine order" (Albcrs, op. cit. infra). The habit, originally grey, then tawny coloured, is now that of the Black Monks. The abbots were orig- inally elected for life btit are now elected at the general chapter, held every four years. The Abbot of Val- lombrosa, the superior of t he whole order, had formerly a seat in the Florentine Senate and bore the additional title of Count of Monte Verde and Gualdo.

IV. Nnxs. — Shortly after the founder's death we find attached to the monastery of Vallombrosa lay sisters who, under the charge of an aged lay brother, lived in a separate lumse and performed various house- hold duties. Til is irist It uti' survived for less than a cen- tury, but when they ccasi'il to be attached to the monas- teries of monks, these sisters probably continued to lead a conventual life. Bl. Bertha (d. 1163) entered the Vallumbrosan Order at Florence and reformed the convent of Cavriglia in 11.53. St. Umilta is usually regarded as the foundress of the Vallumbrosan Nims. She was born at Faenza about 1226, was married, but with the con.sent of her husband, who became a monk, entered a monastery of canonesses and afterwards be- came an anchoress in a cell attached to the Vallum- brosan church of Faenza, where she lived for twelve years. At the request of the abbot-general she then founded a monastery outside Faenza and became its abbess. In 1282 she founded a second convent at Florence, where she died in 1310. She left a number of mystical wTitings. In 1.524 the nuns obtained the Abbey of S. Salvi, Florence. There are still Val- lumbrosan nunneries at Faenza and S. Gimignano, besides two at Florence. The relics of Bl. Umilta and her disciple Bl. Margherita are venerated at the convent of Sjiirito Santo at Varlungo. The habit is similar to that of the Benedictine Nuns.

Ann SS.. Ill July, 311 sqq.: SnBius. Vitte SS., IV, 1S3 sqq.; Davidsohx. Forschungen xur dUeren Gesch. p. Florem, I (Berlin, 1896), 55; Ferrante, Vita di 5. Giovanni Gicatberto (Monza, 1SS3): PoTTHAST, Bibliolheca. 1399.

For the order. — Nardi, Abbati(g el monasteria (Florence, 1726): Id£m. BttlL Vallumbrosanum (Florence, 1729); Kkhr, Reg. pont. Tom., Ill (Berlin, 190S), 83 sqq.; .Martexe and Du- RAND, Amplissima collectio, VI (Paris, 1729), pref.; Heimbucher, Ortlen u. Kongreg., I (Paderborn. 1907), 408 sqq.; H^lyot, Ordres Teligieux, V, 294 sqq.; Costiluzione deW ordine di Vallom- brosa (Florence. 1704); Albers, .iletesle Con^uetudines von VaUom' brosa in Rev. binMicline (Maredsous. 1911).

Statutes of a general chapter of 1223 will be found in Lamy, Delicim erudiiorum, II (Florence, 1737), 238 sqq.; Domenichetti, Guida storica di Vallombrosa (Udine, 1903); I)ei.arc. Pontifical d'Alexantlre II in Rev. des quest, hist.. XLIII (Paris 188.8), 49 sqq.; Beaumont, Une VaUomhreuae en France (Avignon, 1876); Story, Vallombrosa in Btachwood's Magazine (London, 1881); Riv. stor. benedeitina (Rome. 1906), passim.

Raymond Webster.

Valois, Henri (Henricus Valesius), philologist, b. at Paris, 10 Sept., 1603; d. at Paris, 7 May, 1676. He belonged to a family of Norman gentlemen settled near Bayeux and Li.seux; his grandfather, the young- est of the family, l)ecame rich in trade at Paris, Henri Valois made excellent studies with the.Ie,suits, first at Verdun and then at the College de Clermont at Paris, where he had Pel an .'is prfes.sor of rhetoric. He studied law at Bourges (11)22-24) and returned to P:iris, where, to plea.se his father, he practised law against his inclination for seven years. When he regained his liberty he plunged into study, which he had never entirely abandoned. Peirese had pur- chased a MS. in Cyprus containing the work of Con-