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Rh Jesuits is the collection of documents called Acta Sanctorum, or the Bollandists, so named after the first editor, Father Bolland († 1668). The most distinguished of the Bollandist writers was Father Papenbroeck († 1714). Fifty-three folio volumes appeared before the suppression of the Society. This gigantic collection is a work of prime importance for the history of the whole Christian era, a monumentum aere perennius. Leibnitz said of it: "If the Jesuits had produced nothing but this work, they would have deserved to be brought into existence, and would have just claims upon the good wishes and esteem of the whole world."

In literature we find the names of several distinguished Jesuits. The odes of Matthew Sarbiewski († 1640) were praised as successful rivals of the best lyrics of the ancients; Hugo Grotius even preferred them to the odes of Horace, although we must call this an exaggerated estimate. Sarbiewski was surpassed by James Balde († 1668), who for many years taught rhetoric in Ingolstadt and Munich, and was styled not only the "Modern Quintilian", but also the "Horace of Germany". His Latin poems manifest a variety, beauty, warmth of feeling, and glowing patriotism unrivalled in that period. He was, however, not altogether free from the mannerisms of his age. Protestant critics, as Goethe and others, have admired the productions of this highly gifted poet, and Herder,