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BOLLANDISTS

vain from Innocent XII. I have lived a Catholic, and I die a Catholic, by the grace of God. I have also the right of dying a Catholic in the eyes of men, which is not possible so long as the decree of the Spanish Inquisition shall appear justly issued and published, and so long as people read that I have taught in my books heretical propositions for which I ha\'e been condemned. " Papebroch had ac- cepted without appeal or murmur the decision of the Roman Congregation of 22 December, 1700, placing on the Index his chronological and historical Essay on the Popes, published in the "Propylsum Maii", a decree issued, as was expressly stated, on account of the sections bearing on certain conclaves and requiring merely the correction of the passages in question. But he did not cease working during the twelve years and a half that he still lived, both by his own elTorts and those of his friends, not only to prevent the confirmation bj' Rome of the decree of the Spanish Inquisition, but also to secure the retraction of the decree. Father Janninck was even sent to Rome with this end in view and remained there for o\er two years and a half, from the end of October, 1697, till June, 1700. He was completely successful with respect to the first object of his mis- sion, as in December, 1697, he received the assurance that no censure would be passed against the vol- umes condemned in Spain. The persecutors of Pape- broch were compelled to sue for an injunction to silence for both parties, which was accorded them by a Brief of 25 November, 1098, gratefully accepted by Papebroch. More time was necessary, however, to bring about a final decision in the second matter. Whether it was judged prudent in Rome not to enter into conflict with the Spanish tribunal, or whether the latter prolonged the affair by passive resistance, the decree of condemnation made in 1695 was not revoked until 1715, the year following the death of Papebroch. As for the "Propyl»um Maii", it was not withdrawn from the Index of Forbidden Books until the last edition (1900); but this did not prevent the French editor, Victor Palm^, from pub- lishing it in his reprint of the Acta Sanctorum, which he undertook about 1860.

A grievous trial of another sort was visited on Papebroch during the last years of the seventeenth century. A cataract affecting both eyes reduced him for about five years to a state of total blindness, which compelled him to give up all literary com- position. The sight of his left eye was restored in 1702 by a successful operation. He immediately took up his work again and continued the Acta Sanctorum as far as the fifth volume of June, the twenty-fourth of the whole collection, which ap- peared in 1709. The weight of age — he was then eighty-one — and his infirmities compelled him to abandon the more arduous work of the BoUandist museum. He lived for almost five years, which he devoted to editing the "Annales Antverpienses" from the foundation of Antwerp down to the year 1700. The manuscript of this work comprised eleven volumes in folio, seven of which are at the Royal Library of Brussels, the others probably having been lost. An edition of the volumes which have been preserved to us was published at Antwerp, 1845-48, in five volumes in octavo.

We shall not pursue further the history of the BoUandist work during the eighteenth century up to the suppression of the Society of Jesus, in 1773. The publication continued regularly, though with more or less unevenness as to the ^•alue of the com- mentaries, up to the third volume of October, which appeared in 1770. The suppression of the Society brought about a crisis in which the work nearly foundered. The Bollandists then in office were ■Cornelius De Bye, James De Bue, and Ignatius Hubens. The Fathers Jean CI6 and Joseph Ghes-

quiere had but recently been transferred from the work. The former, at the time of the suppression of the Society, was superior of the Flemish-Belgian province; the latter was in charge of the projected publication of the " Analecta Belgica", a collection of documents relating to the liistory of Belgium, a work for which the funds of the Musee Bellarmin were appropriated. This Museum was established at llechlin at the beginning of the eighteenth century, for the purpose of opposing the Jansenists, but was aftersvards transferred to the Professed House at Antwerp. On 20 September, 1773, commissaries of the tiovemment presented themselves at the residence of the professed Jesuit Fathers at Antwerp, and before the assembled community read the Bull of suppres- sion of Clement XIV and the imperial letters patent empowering them to execute it. They then affixed seals to the entrances of the archives, hbraries, and any rooms of the F'athers which contained money or objects of value. A hke proceeding took place on the same day in all the houses of the Society then existing in Belgium. Nevertheless a special order was issued enjoining the members of the commission charged with executing the decree on the Professed House at Antwerp " to summon the ci-devant Jesuits employed in the publication of the 'Acta Sanctorum' and to announce to them that the government, satisfied with their labours, was dis- posed to exercise special consideration in their re- gard". Father Ghesquiere and his collaborators in the "Analecta Belgica" were included in this indul- gence granted to the Bollandists. This favourable attitude of the Government resulted, after various tiresome conferences, in the removal, in 1778, of the Bollandists and the historiographers of Belgium, together with their libraries, to the abbey of Cauden- berg. at Brussels. Each of the Bollandists was to receive an annual pension of 800 florins, besides the 500 florins to be given to the community of Cauden- berg in payment for their board and lodging. The same indulgence was accorded to Ghesquiere in con- sideration of his office of historian. The results of the sale of the volumes were to be divided between the abbey and the editors on condition that the abbey should take charge of the matter on hand, and pro- vide a copyist to make fair copies of manuscripts for the printers, as well as religious who should be trained under the direction of the elder Bollandists for the continuation of the work. The other half of the profits was to be divided in equal portions among the writers. The four hagiographers took up their residence at the Abbey of Caudenberg, and with the consent of the abbot adopted two young reli- gious as assistants. One of these soon left them to pursue his scientific studies, feeling that he had not the vocation for this work; the other was John- Baptist Fonson, at that time (1788) twenty-two years of age, whose name soon afterwards appeared on the title page as editor. Under this new condi- tion of things there appeared in 1780 Volume IV of October under the names of Constantine Suyskens (d. 1771), Comehus De Bye. Jolm De Bue, Joseph Ghesquiere, and Ignatius Hubens, all former Jesuits. In 1786, Volume V appeared, signed with the names of De Bye, De Bue, and F'onson. In the interval between these two volumes the corps of hagiog- raphers had lost, in 1782, the youngest of the Ant- werp members. Ignatius Hubens. He was replaced in October, 1784, by a French Benedictine, Dom Anselm Berthod, who voluntarily resigned the high positions he held in his order and those for which he was intended, so that he might devote himself to the learned work which the Imperial Government of Vienna requested him to take up. He was to be engaged upon it only a little more than three years, for he died at Brussels, in March, 1788.

Two new volumes were issued from the royal press