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 BOLLANDISTS

637

BOLLANDISTS

the storm of persecution had somewhat abated, an attempt was made to collect these scattered effects. Naturally, many of them were lost or destroyed. The remainder were restored to the abbey of Ton- gerloo, where they were undisturbed until 1825. Then, as all hope of resuming the BoUandist work seemed lost, the canons of Tongerloo disposed of a great number of the books and manuscripts by public sale. Such as remained were given to the Govern- ment of the Netherlands, which hastened to in- corporate the volumes into the Royal Library of The Hague. The manuscripts seemed destined to a like fate, but as a residt of earnest sohcitations they were depo:ited in the Library of Bourgogne, Brussels, where they still remain. Nevertheless, the idea of resuming the pubhcation of the Acta Sanctorum had never been entirely abandoned in Belgium. The prefect of the department of the Deux Nethes (province of Antwerp), in 1801; the Institute of France, with the Minister of the Interior of the French Republic as mediator, in 1802; and la.«tly, in 1810, the Baron de Tour du Pin, Prefect of the Department of the Dyle (Brussels), at the request of the incumbent of the same important office, then the Count de Montalivet, applied to such of the former

that by 29 January, 1837, he received from Father van Lil, Provincial of the Society in Belgium, assur- ance of the appointment by the Society of new BoUandists, with their residence at the College of Saint-Michel at Brussels. These w-ere Fathers Jean- Baptiste Boone, Joseph Van der Moere, and Prosper Coppens, to whom was added, in the course of the same J'ear, Father Joseph Van Hecke. The provin- cial, in behalf of these Fathers, asked free access to public libraries and archives, and the privilege of taking home with them from the Librarj' of Bour- gogne and the Royal Librarj', such manuscripts and books as they would need for reference in the course of their work. Both requests were immediately granted. Moreover, an annual subsidy was prom- ised, which was fi.xed in May, 18.37, at 6,000 francs. This subsidy was continued from year to year un- der the diilerent governments, both Catholic and Liberal, which succeeded to power, until the parlia- mentary^ session of 1868, in the course of which the Liberal majority of the Chamljer of Deputies cut it out of the budget. It has never been re-established. The new hagiographers began by drawing up a list of the saints whose acts or notices remained to be published, that is to say, those who are hon-

COLLEGE OF SaINT-MiCHEL, BRUSSELS

BoUandists as were still Ii\Tng, to induce them to resume their task once more. But the attempts weie futile.

Matters rested here until 1836. It was then learned that a hagiographical society had been formed in France under the patronage of several bishops and of M. Guizot, Minister of Public Instruction, and that it especially proposed to itself the resumpn tion of the work of "the BoUandists. The chief pro- moter of the enterprise, Abb6 Thfodore Perrin, of Laval, came to Belgium that same year, 1836, to solicit the support of the Government and the col- laboration of Belgian savants. He did not meet with the reception he had hoped for. On the con- trary, it aroused indignation in Belgium that a work which had come to be regarded as a national glory should pass into the hands of the French. The Abb6 de Ram, Rector Magnificxis of the University of Louvain and member of the Royal Commission of History, expressed this feeling in a letter addressed under date of 17 October to the Count de Theu.x, Minister of the Interior, urgently irnploring him to lose no time in securing for their native land of Bel- gium the honour of completing the great hagiograph- ical collection, and engaged him to entrust the work to the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, by whom it had been begim and carried so far in the preced- ing centuries. The Minister immediately took the field and conducted negotiations with such energy

cured in the Catholic Church on the various days of October, November, and December, beginning from 1.5 October, the day at which the work of their predecessors had been brought to a halt. This list was published in the month of March, 1838, with an introduction containing a summarj- of the his- tory- of the BoUandist movement, the announcement of the resumption of the work, and an earnest appeal to aU friends of religious learning, imploring their assistance in securing what was felt by the new workers as the most necessary thing for their success, namely, a hagiographical librarj'. This was pub- lished under the title of "De prosecutione operis BoUandiani" (in octavo, 60 pp.). The appeal was heard. Most of the European governments, many societies of learned men. and several great publish- ers sent copies of the historical worlds undertaken by them or under their patronage; private individ- uals made generous donations of books, often pre- cious and rare volumes that had adorned their li- braries. Everj'where, also, on their literary journeys, the BoUandists were accorded the most enthusiastic and flattering receptions.

The first volume published after the resurrection of BoUandism. \'olume VII of October, appeared in 184.5, containing over 2,000 pages in folio. There followed successively Volumes VIII to XIII of Oc- tober, and I and II of November, besides the "Propy- laeum Novembris", an edition of the Greek Synaxa-