Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/165

 FONTENELLE

129

FONTEVRAXJLT

P. L., CXZ.IV, CXLV (Paris, 1867); Acta SS.. Feb., Ill, 406- 427; Aug., VI, 811-812; Sept., Ill, 146-175; Oct.. VI, 611-62S; Oct., VIII, 182-199; Heimbucher. Die Orden und Kongrega- timen der kalholUchen Kirche, I (Paderbom, 1907), 262. 405; GiBELLi, Monogralia deW antico monastero di S. Croce di Fonte- Avellana (Faenza, 1896); Rivista Storica Benedeltina, I, 466; II, 127.

Leslie A. St. L. Toke.

Fontenelle, .\bbet op (or Abbey of Saint- Wan- drille), a Benedictine monasterj' in Normandy (Seine-Inferieure), near Caudebec-en-Caux. It was founded by Saint- Wandrille (Wandregesilu.s; d. 22 July, 6(57), the land being obtained through the influ- ence of his friend St-Ouen (Audoenus), Archbishop of Rouen. St-Wandrille was of the royal family of .\us- trasia and held a high position at the court of his kins- man, Dagobert I, but being desirous of devoting his life to God, he retired to the Abbey of Montfaucon, in Champagne, in 629. Later on he went to Bobbie and then to Romain-lloiltiers, where he remained ten years. In 648 he returned to Normandy and founded the monaster}' which afterwards bore his name. He commenced by building a great basUica dedicated to St. Peter, nearly three hundred feet long, which was consecrated by St-Ouen in 657. This church was de- stroyed by fire in 756 and rebuilt by .\bbot Ansegisus (823-833), who added a narthex and tower. About 862 it was wrecked by Danish pirates and the monks were obliged to flee for safety. After sojourning at Chartres, Boulogne, St-Omer, and other places for over a century, the community was at length brought back to Fontenelle by Abbot" MajTiard in 966 and a restoration of the buildings was again undertaken. A new church was built by Abbot Gerard, but was hardly finished when it was destroyed by lightning in 1012. Undaunted by this disaster the monks once more set to work and another church was consecrated in 1033. Two centuries later, in 1250, this was burnt to the ground, but .\bbot Pierre Mauviel at once com- menced a new one. The work was hampered by want of funds and it was not until 1331 that the building was finished. Meanwhile the monastery attained a posi- tion of great importance and celebrit}'. It was re- nowned for the fervour, no less than for the learning of its monks, who during its periods of greatest pros- perity numbered over three hundred. Many saints and scholars proceeded from its cloisters. It was especially noted for its library and school, where let- ters, the fine arts, the sciences, and above all callig- raphy, were a.ssiduously cultivated.

One of the most notable of its early copyists was Hardouin, a celebrated mathematician (d. 811), and who wrote with his own hand four copies of the Gos- pels, one of St. Paul's Epistles, a Psalter, three Sacra- mentaries, and many other volumes of homilies and lives of the saints, besides numerous mathematical works. The Fontenelle "Capitularies" were com- piled under Abbot Ansegisus in the eighth century. The monks of St-Wandrille enjoyed many rights and privileges, amongst which were exemption from all river-tolls on the Seine, and the right to exact taxes in the town of Caudebec. The charter, dated 1319, in which were enumerated tlieir chief privileges, was con- firmed by Henry V of England and Normandy, in 1420, and by the Council of Basle, in 1436. Commen- datory abbots were introduced at Fontenelle in the sixteenth century and as a result the prosperity of the abbey began to decline. In 1631 the central tower of the church suddenly fell, ruining all the adjacent parts, but fortunately without injuring the beautiful cloisters or the conventual buildings.

It was j ust at this time that the newly formed Con- gregation of St-Maur was revivifjnng the monastieism of France, and the commendatory abbot Ferdinand de Neufville invited the Maurists to take over the ab- bey and do for it what he himself was unable to accom- plish. They accepted the offer, and in 1636 .set about rebuilding not only the damaged portion of the chiu'ch, VI.— 9

but also other parts of the monastery as well. They added new wings and gateways and also built a great chapter-hall for the meetings of the general chapter of the Maurist congregation. They infused new life into the abbey, which for the ne.xt hundred and fifty years again enjoyed some of its former celebrity. Then came the Revolution, and with it the extinction of monastieism in France. St-\\'andrille was suppressed in 1791 and sold by auction the following year. The church was allowed to fall into ruins, but the rest of the buildings served for some time as a factory. Later on they passed into the possession of the de Stacpoole family, and were turned to domestic uses. The Duke de .Stacpoole, who had become a priest and a domestic prelate of the pope, and who lived at Fontenelle until his death, in 1896, restored the entire property to the French Benedictines (Solesmes congregation), and a colony of monks from Ligug^ settled there in 1893, under Dom Pothieras superior. This community was e.xpelled by the French government in 1901, and is at present located in Belgimn. Besides the chief basilica, St-Wandrille built several other churches or oratories, both within and without the monastic enclosure. All of these have either perished in course of time, or been replaced by others of later date, except one, the chapel of St-Saturniii, which stands on the hillside overlooking the abbey. It is one of the most ancient ecclesiastical buildings now existing and, though restored from time to time, is still substantially the original erection of St-Wandrille. It is cruciform, with a central tower and eastern apse, and is a unique example of a seventh- century chapel. The parish church of the village of St-Wandrille also dates from the Saint's time, but it has been so altered and restored that little of the original structure now remains.

Ste-Marthe, Gallia Christiana (Paris, 1759), XI; d'Ach£rT, Chron. Fonlanellense in Spicilegium, III; Migne, Diet, des Abbayes (Paris, 1856); Langlois, Essai kistorigue et descnptif sur I'Abbaye de Sl-Wandritle (Rouen, 1825); Sadvagb, St- Wandrille (Rouen, 18S9); Acta SS., Jul.v.

G. Cypri-vn Alstqs.

Fontevrault, Order .\nd Abbey of. — I. Charac- ter OF THE Order. — The monastery of Fontevrault was founded by Blessed Robert d'Arbrissel about the end of 1100 and is situated in a wooded valley on the confines of Anjou, Tours, and Poitou, about two and a half miles south of the Loire, at a short distance west of its union with the Vienne. It was a " double" monastery, containing separate convents for both monks and nuns. The government was in the hands of the abbess. This arrangement was said to be based upon the text of St. John (xLx, 27), "Behold thy Mother", but want of capacity among the brethren who surroimded the founder would seem to be the most natural explanation. To have placed the fortunes of the rising institute in feeble hands might have compromised its existence, wliile amongst the nuns he found women endowed with high qualities and in every way fitted for government. Certainly the long series of able abbesses of Fontevrault is in some measure a justification of the founder's provision.

Fontevrault was the earliest of the three orders which adopted the double form and it may be useful to point out the chief differences in rule and govern- ment which mark it off from the similar institutions of the English St. Gilbert of Sempringham, founded in 1135 (see Gilbertines), and that of the Swedish prin- cess, St. Bridgett, founded in 1344 (see Brigittines). At Fontevrault both nuns and monks followed the Benedictine Rule (see below, II). as did the Gilbertine nuns, but the male religious of that order were canons regular and followed the Rule of St. .\ugustine. The Brigittines of both sexes were under the Regula Sal- vatoris, an adaptation and completion of the .\ugus- tinian Rule. The Abbess of Fontevrault was supreme over all the religious of the order, and the heads of the dependent houses were prioresses. Each Brigittine house was independent, and was ruled by an abbess