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 CAMALDOLESE

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CAMALDOLESE

(1658-1737), one of the founders of the Accademia degli Arcadi; Guido Grandi (1670-1742), historian of the order and famous mathematician, friend and cor- respondent of Newton; the two brothers Collina; An- gelo Calogera (1699-1768), the historian of letters; Claude Fromond (1705-65), physician and chemist; Benedetto Mittarelli (1708-77) and Anselmo Costa- doni (1714-85). authors of the "Annales Camaldu- lenses"; Mauro Sarti (1709-66), historian; Isidoro Bi- anchi (1733-1807) and Clemente Biagi (1740-1804), archaeologists; Ambrogio Soldani (1736-1808), nat- uralist — these are but a few of the illustrious names that adorn the congregation. It has also produced four cardinals: Andrea Giovannetti (1722-1800), for twenty-three years Archbishop of Bologna; Placido Zurla (1769-1834), Vicar of Rome under three popes; Mauro Cappellari (1705-1846), who in '1831 was elected pope and assumed the name of Gregory XV I : and Ambrogio Bianchi, who was also general of the order till his death in 1856. It was Mauro Cappellari to whom the Camaldolese Order is indebted for its survival. The great catastrophe of the French Rev- olution resulted in 1810 in the general suppression of religious orders in Italy. Fonte Avellana was spared in recognition of the scientific attainments of the titular abbot, Dom Albertino Bellenghi. But the Venetian houses were involved in the general ruin. S. Mattia was deserted and ultimately demolished. But Mauro Cappellari. who was at that time Abbot of S. Michele di Murano, succeeded in retaining both house and community, by clothing the latter in the habits of secular priests, and by turning the former into a college for noble youths. The magnificent li- brary was confiscated, and, after its chief treasures had been placed in public libraries, the remaining IS, 000 volumes were sold by public auction. In 1813, after the blockade of Venice by the Austrians, the Com- mune made a public cemetery of the island of San Michele, thus destroying the vineyards of the abbey. In 1829 the same body gave the monastery and island into the custody of the Friars Miner ( (bservant, who still possess them. Meanwhile, in 1825, Cappellari had been created cardinal by Leo XII, and it was ow- ing to the strenuous opposition of the former and of Cardinal Zurla that that pope relinquished his inten- tion to suppress the now enfeebled order. And when Cappellari mounted the pontifical throne as Gregory XVI. he not only materially assisted the finances of the order, but in every way furthered its attempts to regain something of its former prosperity. At his death, in 1846, it had recovered several of its historic houses and had hopes of regaining all. But these hopes have not been realized.

(iii) The Congregation of Monte Corona. — If we ex- cept Camaldoli itself, all the houses of the order may be said to have abandoned, by the end of the fifteenth century, the eremitical mode of life so dear to St. Romuald. The establishment of hermitages in the neighbourhood of towns had rendered the solitary life of the hermit almost impossible, and the munificent benefactions which at various times had been made to the order had caused it to lose not a little of its prim- itive spirit and to abandon many of its stricter observ- ances. It was reserved to Paolo ( iiust iniani, a mem- ber of the illustrious Venetian family of that name, to restore to the order the observance of St. Romuald's ideal of a life of silence and solitude. At an early age he left Venice, where he had been born in 1 I7H, to study philosophy and theology in the famous schools of Padua, and at the end of, a brilliant career there he went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. On

his return to Italy he entered religion at the age ol thirty-four, becoming a hermit at Camaldoli. His promotion to high offices in the order was rapid. Shortly after his profession he was sent on an embassy to the court of Leo X to obtain papal prol against a certain abbot of S. Felice at Florence, who

seems to have been lavishly spending the revenues of Camaldoli, and whom the Prior of Camaldoli. general of the order, was unable himself to deal with. The result of the embassy was a Bull from the pope order- ing restitution to be made to ( lamaldoli and forbidding to the Abbot of S. Felice any further interference. On Giustiniani's return from Rome, the general of the order, Pietro Delphino, invited his co-operation in the difficult task of suppressing the abuses which had grown up. All authority in the order, which by right belonged to the prior of Camaldoli, was now possessed by the superiors of the regulars and conventuals. The discipline and observance of the former seem to have been strict, but the case of the conventuals left a great deal to be desired. Their superiors were per- petual, and apparently independent of one another. Recourse was had to Leo X. who, in 1513, ordered a general chapter to assemble. The results of its de- liberations have been given above in the history of San Michele di Murano.

In 1516 Paolo Giustiniani was elected Prior of Camaldoli, and on the expiration of the three years of office, he again journeyed to Rome on business con- cerning the order. After the lapse of another three years spent in seclusion at Camaldoli, he was re- elected to the office of prior and once again ap- proached the court of Leo X, to obtain permission from that pontiff to attempt an extension of the order. Leo, who appears to have had a great respect for Giustiniani, not only encouraged him in his proj- ect, but allowed the foundation of an entirely new congregation, exempt from the jurisdiction of the general and possessing its own peculiar constitutions. Returning from Rome to Camaldoli, he read the Brief from Leo to the assembled hermits and monks, and proceeded to resign the office of prior. Accompanied by a single companion he travelled on foot to Perugia to seek advice and spiritual direction from a solitary (of the Third Order of St. Francis) who dwelt at Monte Calvo. With this latter and a member of the Order of St. Dominic, he betook himself to a retreat in the Apennines — a dismal and solitary rock known as Pascia Lupo. A ruined chapel appears to have been the sole shelter for the three wanderers, and their right to possess even this was disputed by the priest of the neighbouring village so vigorously that it required papal authority to settle the question. Paolo was soon forsaken by his Dominican and Franciscan com- panions, who were aggrieved at the idea of adopting St. Romuald's rule, he himself remaining at Pascia Lupo with the companion whom he had brought from Camaldoli and two others who had joined him. He was not destined, however, to remain long in this lonely spot, for, acceding to an earnest request from the hermits of Camaldoli to live near them, he came, with his original companion, to a place near Massac- cio, and was there joined by some of the religious from Camaldoli. Such were the first beginnings of the congregation founded by Paolo Giustiniani. Soon it was increased by the addition of two famous monas- teries, viz. that of St. Leonard, situated on the sum- mit of Monte \ olubrio, in the Diocese of Fermo, and that of St. Benedict, near Ancona. The former was given to the order by its commendatory abbot, Ga- brielli, nephew of the Cardinal of Urbino. Massaccio was given over entirely to the ne,\ congregation by Camaldoli in 1522. In the same year Giustiniani drew up his constitutions. \o important additions to previous legislation seem to have been made. The rule of life was to be kept with the greatest rigour, as in St. Romuald's time. The hermits' food was rarely to consist of anything better than dry bread, and wine was very seldom allowed. The form of the mo- n. in habit was considerably altered: the tunic and scapular were so shortened as to come only a few- inches below the knee, and in place of the cowl the new hermits were given a eaptue with a hood attached