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 BOLLANDISTS

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BOLLANDISTS

by themselves and by the copj^sts they had been obliged to engage, but they found awaiting them at Antwerp a like number from the copyists whom they had employed in the principal cities they had visited (notably, Rome, Florence, Milan, and Paris) and who were still carrying on the labour with which they had been charged. This long journey caused little delay in the progress of the work, for which, on the other hand, it was so productive of good results. Thanks to the incredible acti\'ity of the three eminent hagi- ographers, the three volumes for March were given to the pubHc in 1668. They bore only the names of Henschen and Papebroch, as BoUand had passed to a better life, 12 September, 1665, thirty-six years after succeeding Rosweyde in the preparation of the "Acta Sanctorum". Seven years later, in 1675, the three volumes for April appeared, preceded by pre- liminary treatises, the subjects of which were re- spectively: in the first volume, the two most ancient collections of notices on the popes (catalogues of Liberius, and Felix) and the date of St. Ambrose's death, both by Henschen; in the second, the attempt at a diplomatical treatise by Papebroch, "whose chief merit", as the author himself was fond of saying with as much sincerity as modesty, "was that it inspired Mabillon to write his excellent work: 'De re diplomatiea'"; in the third, a new revised edition of the "Diatriba de tribus Dagobertis", which had made the name of Henschen celebrated twenty years previously. The custom of having these "Parerga" was kept up in the succeeding volumes; there was even an entire volume, the " Propyla?um ad tomos Mail", filled with notes of Papebroch on the chro- nology and history of the popes from St. Peter to Innocent XL .\nother happy thought first carried out at that time was the publication of the Greek acts in their original text; previously, only Latin versions had been given. The Greek texts were still relegated to the end of the volumes in the form of appendices; it was only in the fourth volume of May that they were first printed in the body of the work. The first three volumes of May were published in 1688. Besides the names of Henschen and Pape- broch, the title-page bore those of Conrad Janninck and Frangois Baert, who had been appointed to the work, the former in 1679; the latter in 1681, at the same time as Father Daniel Cardon, who was carried off by a premature death the second year after his appointment.

Up to this time BoUand and his first two compan- ions had met with nothing but encouragement. A severe storm was soon to burst on the one who was now head of the undertaking and on the work itself. In the first volume of April Papebroch had occasion to treat, under date of the eighth, the Acts of St. Albert Patriarch of Jerusalem, and author of the Carmelite rule. In his preliminary commentary he had combated, as insufficiently groimded, the tra- dition universally received by the Carmelites, that the origin of the order dated back to the prophet Elias, who was regarded as its founder. This was the signal for an outburst of wrath on the part of these religious. From 1681 to 1693 there appeared no less than twenty or thirty pamjihlets filled with abusive language against the unfortunate critic, and adorned with titles often ludicrous through their very efforts at violence: " Novus Ismacl, cuius manus contra omnes et manus omnium contra eum, sive P. Daniel Papebrochius . . . "; "Amyclae Jesuit icae, sive Pape-

brochius scripfis Carmeliticis convictus ";

"Jesuiticum Nihil . ., "; "Hercules Commodianus Joannes Launoius . . . redivivus in P Daniele Pape- brochio . . . ";" R. P. Papebrochius Historicus Con- jecturalis Bombardizans S. Lucam et Sanctos Patres ", etc. The series culminated in the largo (juarto volume signed with the name of Father Scl)astiaii of St. Paul, provincial of the Flemish-Belgian province of the

Carmelite Order, and entitled: "Exhibitio errorum quos P. Daniel Papebrochius Societatis Jesu suis in notis ad Acta Sanctorum commisit contra Christi Domini Paupertatem, jEtatem, etc. Summorum Pontificum Acta et Gesta, BuUas, Brevia et De- creta; Concilia; S. Scripturam; Eccle.sice Capitis Primatum et Unitatem; S. R. E. Cardinahum Dig- nitatem et authoritatem; Sanctos ipsos, eorum cul- tum, Reliquias, Acta et Scripta; Indulgentiarum Antiquitatem; Historias Sacras; Breviaria, Missalia, Martyrologia, Kalendaria, receptasque in Ecclesia traditiones ac revelationes, nee non aha quaevis an- tiqua Monumenta Regnorum, Regionum, Civitatum, ac omnium fere Ordinum; idque nonnisi ex meris conjecturis, argutiis negativis, insolentibus censuris, satyris ac sarcasmis, cum jEthnicis, Haeresiarchis, Hsereticis aUisque Auctoribus ab Ecclesia damnatis. — Oblata Sanctissimo Domino Ncstro Innocentio XII .. . Coloniae Agrippina>. 1693." Papebroch, who was receiving at the same time from the most dis- tinguished scholars lively protests against the at- tacks of which he was made the object, met them at first merely with a silence which perhaps seemed dis- dainful. But learning that active steps were being taken at Rome to obtain a condemnation of the col- lection of the Acta Sanctorum or of some of its vol- umes, he and his companions decided that the time for silence had passed. It was Father Janninck who entered the lists in an open letter to the author of the "Exhibitio Errorum", followed soon afterwards by another in which he repUed to a new little book published in support of the work of Father Sebastian of St. Paul. The two letters were printed in 1693. They were followed by a more extended apology for the "Acta", published by the same Jamiinck in 1695; and lastly there appeared in 1696, 1697, and 1698 the three volumes of the "Responsio Danielis Papebrochii ad Exhibitionem Errorum ", in which the valiant hagiographer takes up one by one the charges hurled against him by Father Sebastian and confutes each with an answer as solid in argument as it was temperate in tone. The adversaries of Papebroch, fearing lest they slioukl not be able to obtain from the Court of Rome the condemnation for which they were begging, addressed themselves, with the utmost secrecy, to the tribunal of the Spanish In- quisition, where they won over to their side the most {powerful influences. Before the writers of Antwerp lad any suspicion of what was being plotted against them, there was issued, in November, 1695, a de- cree of this tribunal condemning the fourteen vol- umes of the "Acta Sanctorum" published up to that time, under the most rigorous qualifications, even going so far as to brand the work with the mark of heresy. Papebroch was painfully and deeply moved by the blow. He could submit to all the other insults heaped upon him, but he was obliged to refute the charge of heresy. He made the most vehements entreaties and had all his friends in Spain on the alert to let him know which propositions the Holy Office of Spain had regarded as heretical, in order that he might retract them, if he was unable to furnish satisfactory explanations, or secure the correction of the sentence, if his explanations were acceptable. His efforts provetl fruitless. Having fallen seriously ill in 1701, and believing himself at the point of death, immediately after receiving the last sacraments he had a notarj'-public draw up in his presence and before witnesses a solemn protest which shows how greatly he was affected by the condemnation levelled at his head by the Spanish Inquisition. "After forty two years of assiduous toil, devoted to the elucidation of the Acts of the Saints, hoping to go to the enjoyment of their so- ciety, I asK only one thing on earth, and it is that His Hohness Clement XI be immediately implored to grant me after death what in life I have sought in