Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/841

 LAMBERVILLE

759

LAMBILLOTTE

the soul, and questions of physical science. He is probably identical with Lambert, the canon of St- Omer who wrote the famous " Liber floridus", a kind of encyclopedia of BiWical, chronological, astronomi- cal, geographical, theological, iiliilnsophical and nat- ural history subjects, a detailed dcscri|)tion of which is given in the "Historia eomitum Normannorum, coraitum Flandriae". It is an extract or synopsis from different authors, and was begun in 1090 and fin- ished in 1120.

PoTTHAST, BM. Hist. Med. JEvi. I, 705; Biogr. Nat. de Bcl- gique, XI (1891), 162-66; Wattenbach, Geschichtsouellen, II (1894), 170 sq.

Patricius Schlager.

Lamberville, Jacques de, Jesuit missionary, b. at Rouen, 1041; d. at Quebec, 1710. He joined the Society in l(i61, and proceeded to Canada in 1675 to labour almost uninterruptedly on the Iroquois mis- sions until his death. At Onondaga he discerned the soul of a saint in the Algonquin captive, Catherine Tegakwitha, whom he instructed and baptized. He helped his brother Jean to pacify the Iroquois, irri- tated by Governor de la Barre's untimely campaign. After a few years of respite in Quebec and Montreal, he returned to Onondaga at the request of the natives, only to leave it in 1709 through the intrigues of Abra- ham Schuyler. Like his elder brother, he lived among the Iroquois during a period when the rivalry of the French and English to secure the alliance of that fierce nation endangered the lives of the missionaries. Charlevoix says he was "one of the holiest missionaries of New France"; he was called the " Divine man" by the Indians.

Jean de Lamberville, elder brother of the preced- ing and also a Jesuit missionary, b. at Rouen, 16.33; d. at Paris, 1714. He joined the Society in 1656, and came to Canada in 1669. He spent fourteen years with the Onondaga Iroquois. His patriotic aim was to maintain peace between the French and the Iro- quois, with the latter of whom his influence was para- mount. When Denonville secretly prepared to avenge the humiliating conditions of peace resulting from de la Barre's rash expedition, Lamberville's life was greatly exposed through the governor's fault, as he had been deceived into convoking the assembly at Cataracoui where several Iroquois chiefs were treach- erously captured and condemned to the galleys; his reputation for honesty and uprightness alone saved him. He vainly strove to prevent the devastation of the Tsonnontouan villages, of which the massacre of Lachine (1689) was the retaliation. When the Onon- dagas and Mohawks harassed the French allies, Lam- berville consented to negotiate peace. His wise diplomacy obtained a mitigation of the humiliating terms proposed at Governor Dongan's instigation, and Denonville duly praised his ability and devoted- ness. From France where shattered health forced him to retire, he tried to come back to his mission, but death intervened in 1714. The Menology of the So- ciety says that " he had the spiritual physiognomy of Breijeuf."

RoCHEMONTElx, Les Jcsuiies et la Nouvelle France (Paris, 1890); Lindsay, .V. D. de Lorelte en la Nouvelle France (Mon- treal. 1900) ; Campbell, Pioneer Priests of North America (New York, 1908).

Lionel Lindsay.

Lambillotte, Lonis, Belgian Jesuit, composer and paleographer of Church music; born at La Hamaide, near (l^harleroi, Belgium, 27 March, 1796; died at Paris, 27 February, 1S5.5. His name is now chiefly remembered in connexion with the restoration of Gregorian music, which he inaugurated and greatly promoted by his scientific researches and publications. At the age of fifteen, he became organist of Charleroi; later he went in a similar capacity to Dinan-sur-Meuse. In 1820 he was appointed choirmaster and organist of the Jesuit College of Saint-Acheul, Amiens. While

exercising these functions he also studied the classics, and at the end of live years, in August, 1S25, he en- tered the f^ucii'ty of Jesus. The thirty years of his Jesuit life were spent successively in the colleges of Saint-Acheul, Fribourg, Estavayer, Brugelette and Vaugirard. While occupied in teaching and directing music, he gave himself up more entirely to composi- tion, with a view to enhance the splendour both of the religious ceremonies and the academic entertainments in those newly founded colleges. His powers of com- position were necessarily checked by the limited abil- ity of his performers, liis orchestra, like his chorus, being entirely recruited from the ranks of the students ; nevertheless his facility and his fluency were such that he provided new music for almost every occasion, proilucing in the course of time, besides his celebrated volumes of canliques (French hymns or sacred songs), a vast number of motets, short oratorios, masses and secular cantatas, mostly for four-part chorus and or- chestra. This music became very popular, especially in educational institutions. Late in life Lambillotte regretted having published those written improvisa- tions without taking time to revise them. After his death a revision of the greater part of them was made and published (Paris, 1870) by his pupil, Father Camille de la ("roix, S.J., and by Louis De.ssane, organ- ist of St. Sulpice, Paris, and afterwards of St. Francis Xavier, New York.

The irreligious levity of some of Louis Lambillotte's church music is condemned by his own writings in which he upheld the correct principles; that he did not always remember them in practice is owing no doubt to the utterly secular style prevalent in his day. He spent his best energies in seeking to restore to Gregorian music its original sweetness and melodious character. The decadence of the liturgical chant had been brought about by its faulty execution, and this in turn was due to the corrupt versions that had been in use for several centuries. As a practical guide towards a radical restoration the celebrated Benedic- tine Abbot Dom Gueranger, in liis "Institutions Litur- giques", had laid down the principle that "when a large number of manuscripts of various epochs and from different countries agree in the version of a chant, it may be affirmed that those MSS. undoubtedly give us the phrase of St. Gregory." Acting upon this principle, Lambillotte for many years gathered and compared all the documents that were to be found in the Jesuit houses. He next undertook to visit and re-visit almost every country of Europe, exploring li- braries, secular as well as monastic, in search of the most ancient MSS. and all treatises bearing on the history or the theory of the chant.

His success surpassed all his expectations when, in the library of the former Benedictine Abbey of St. Gall in Switzerland, he found himself in presence of what seems to be the most authentic Gregorian MS. in existence, i. e. a transcription from the original " An- tiphonarium of St. Gregory ", brought from Rome to St. Gall by the monk Romanus in the closing years of the eighth century. The doubts of Fetis and Danjou regarding the identity of this document are proved by Lambillotte to be founded on mere conjectures. This volume of 131 pages of old parchment, the ivory bind- ing of which depicts ancient Etruscan sculptures, con- tains all the Graduals, the Alleluias, and the Tracts of the whole year, in the ancient neumatic notation (a sort of musical stenography), together with the so- called Romanian signs, i. e. the special marks of time and expression added by Romanus. Lamljillotte suc- ceeded, not without serious difficulty, in obtaining permission to have a facsimile of this manuscript made by an expert copjast. This he published (Brus- sels, 1851), adding to it his own key to the neumatic notation, and a brief historical and critical account of the document. The appearance of the " Antiphonaire de St. GrC'goire" made a deep impression on the