Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/342

 CANONS

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CANONS

from St. Frigidian at Lucca, a house of strict observ- ance. The reform spread, till at length the houses that had embraced it were formed into one large con- gregation. In the eighteenth century the Lateran Congregation numbered forty-five abbeys and seven- ty-nine other houses in Italy, besides many affiliated convents of canonesses, monasteries, and colleges of canons regular outside of Italy. The canons regular served the Lateran Basilica from the time they were put in possession till 1391, when secular canons were introduced by Boniface VIII. Several attempts were made to restore the basilica to its original owners, and finally Pope Eugenius IV, in 1445, gave it over to them, an act which was confirmed by Nicholas I. But the arrangement did not last long, and eventually the canons regular were definitively displaced, and the basilica made over to secular canons. All that remains now to the canons regular is the name they derive from the basilica and a few other privileges, such as precedence over all the other religious orders and the faculty of saying all the Offices which are said by the Lateran Canons in their Church.

There are at present houses belonging to the Lat- eran Congregation in Italy, Poland, France, Belgium, England, Spain, and America. The congregation is divided into six provinces, each presided over by a visitor or provincial. The abbot general and procura- tor general reside in Rome at S. Pietro in Vincoli, where is also the directorate of the confraternity called "The Children of Mary". There are novitiate- houses, where young men are prepared for the order, in Italy, Belgium, Spain, England, and Poland. The proper habit of the Lateran Congregation is a white woollen cassock with a linen rochet, which is worn as an essential part of the daily dress. Their work is essentially clerical, the recitation of the Divine Office in church, the administration of the Sacraments, the preaching of the Word. In Italy they have charge of parishes in Rome, Bologna, Genoa, Fano, Gubbio, and elsewhere.

It is the opinion of Helyot and others that no Canons of the Holy Sepulchre existed before 1114, when some canons regular, who had adopted the Rule of St. Augustine, were brought from the West and introduced into the Holy City by Godfrey of Bouillon. On the other hand, Suarez, Mauburn, Ferreri, Vander- speeten, and others, upholding the tradition of the canonical order, maintain that St. James the Less, the first Bishop of Jerusalem, established clerics living in common in the Holy City, where also, after the time of the crusaders, flourished the Congregation of the Holy Sepulchre. Driven away by the Moslems, the canons sought refuge in Europe, where they had mon- asteries, in Italy, France, Spain, Poland, and the Low Countries. In these several countries, with the excep- tion of Italy, they continued to exist until the French Revolution. In Italy they seem to have been sup- pressed by Innocent VIII, who, in 14S9, transferred all their property to the Knights of Malta. As re- gards men, the congregation seems now extinct, but it is still represented by Sepulchrine Canonesses, who have convents in Belgium, Holland, France, Spain, and England. According to Dugdale's " Monasti- con", the canons had two houses in England, one at Thetford and the other at Warwick. By a Bull, dated 10 January, 1143, to be found in the " Bulla- rium Latoranense", Pope Celestire II confirms the church and the Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre in all the possessions they had received from Godfrey of Bouillon, King Baldwin, and other benefactors. Mention is also made in I lie Bull of several churches in the Holy Land and in Italy belonging to the canons. Cardinal de Vitry, a canon regular of Oignies, and Cardinal Patriarch of Jerusalem, who had lived in Palestine some years, relates that the canons served, amongst other churches, that of the Holy Sepulchre and those on Mount Sion andon Mount Olivet. The

patriarch was also Abbot of the Holy Sepulchre, and was elected by the canons regular.

In the year 1109 the famous scholar and teacher, William de Champeaux, formerly Archdeacon of Paris, and afterwards a canon regular, opened, at the request of his disciples, in his monastery of St. Victor near the city, a school which, owing to the great repu- tation of the master for learning, soon drew crowds of students from many parts. Founded by a scholar, the monastery of St. Victor for many centuries was a centre of learning and virtue, or, as a French writer (Pasquier) says, " Les lettres y furent toujours logees a bonnes enseignes" (there, letters were always enter- tained at good inns). Here were formed men like Hugh, Richard, and Adam of St. Victor, all famous for their theological works and their piety. The last- named, Adam, has been called by Dom Gueranger "the greatest poet of the Middle Ages". It was Adam who, among his beautiful liturgical hymns, composed three admirable proses in honour of St. Thomas of Canterbury, beginning "Gaude Sion et laetare", "Aquas plenas amaritudine", "Pia Mater plangat Ecclesia". The pious composer writes very feelingly of the holy martyr, whom he had heard and seen at St. Victor only sixteen months before his martyrdom. The archbishop, while at Paris to thank the king for his protection, wished also to visit the monastery of St. Victor, where at the time lived the saintly Richard. This visit took place on the octave of the Feast of St. Augustine, and the chronicler re- lates how the future martyr was joyously received by the community and was introduced into the chapter- room, where he made an address to the brethren from the text, "In pace factus est locus" (Ps. lxxv). This visit and conference of their holy brother (for it must be remembered that St. Thomas had made his profes- sion as a canon regular) made a great impression, we are told, on all who were present, and they remem- bered it when they shortly after heard of his cruel death.

So great was the reputation of the monastery built by William de Champeaux that houses were soon established everywhere after the model of St. Victor's, which was regarded as their mother-house. At the death of Gilduin, the immediate successor of William, who had been made Bishop of Chalons, the Congrega- tion already counted forty-four houses. From this congregation, in 1149, sprang another, that of Sainte- Genevieve, which in its turn became very numerous and, reformed as the Gallican Congregation, in the sixteenth century, by a holy man called Charles Faure, had, at the outbreak of the Revolution, no fewer than one hundred abbeys and monasteries in France. Both these congregations became extinct, as far as men are concerned, but the ancient congregation of St. Victor is still represented by a very old community of canon- esses at Ronsbrugge, near Ypres, in Belgium. Some years ago the congregation was revived, with some modifications, by the Very Rev. Dom Grea, then Vicar-General of St. Claude in France, under the de- nomination of Canons Regular of the Immaculate Conception. Before their expulsion from France they served the ancient Abbey of St. Anthony in 1 tauphine. They have now emigrated to Italy and to Canada. Their habit is a white woollen gown and linen rochet with a black cloak.

The Premonstratensian Congregation was founded at Premontrt;, near Laon, in France, by St. Norbert, in the year 1120, and approved by Pope Honorius II in 1126. According to the spirit of its founder, this congregation unites the active with the contemplative life, the institute embracing in its scope the sanetitiea- tion of its members and the administration of the sacraments. It grew large oven during the lifetime of its founder, and now has charge of many parishes an.! schools, especially in Austria and Hungary. The Premonstratensians wear a white habit with white