[8] McIntyre, /Giordano Bruno/, 1903.
[9] Bzovius, /Vita Pauli V./, 1625.
[10] Campbell, /Vita di Fra Paolo Sarpi/, 1875. /Irish Ecc. Record/ xv., 524-40.
[11] /Bullar. Romanum/ (xii., 662 sqq.).
[12] Chinazzi, /Sede vacante per la morte del papa Urbano VIII. e conclave di Innocenzo X./, 1904.
(c) The Religious Orders and the Counter-Reformation.
Helyot, /Histoire des ordres monastiques religieux/, etc., 8
vols., 1714-19. Heimbucher, /Die Orden und Kongregationen der
Katholischen Kirche/, 1907-8. Mabillon, /Annales Ordinis Sancti
Benedicti/, 1703-39. Albers, /Zur Reformgeschichte des
Benediktiner-ordens im 16 Jahrhundert/ (/Stud. u-Mitteil/, 1900,
1901). Daurignac, /Histoire de la comp. de Jesus/, 1862.
Cretineau-Joly, /Histoire religieuse, politique et litteraire de
la comp. de Jesus/, 1859. Huber, /Der Jesuitenorden Duhr,
Jesuitenfabeln/, 1904. Abelly, /Vie de Ven. serviteur de Dieu,
Vincent de Paul/, 1891. Bougaud-Brady, /History of St. Vincent de
Paul, etc./, 1908. Boyle, /St. Vincent de Paul, and the
Vincentians in Ireland, Scotland, and England/, 1909.
The religious orders, like most other institutions of the age preceding the Reformation, stood badly in need of re-organisation and reform. Various causes had combined to bring about a relaxation of the discipline prescribed by their holy founders, and to introduce a spirit of worldliness, that boded ill both for the individual members as well as for the success of the work for which these orders had been established. The interference of outside authorities lay or ecclesiastical in the appointment of superiors, the union of several houses under one superior, the accumulation of wealth, the habitual neglect of the superiors to make their visitations, and a general carelessness in the selection and training of the candidates to be admitted into the various institutions, were productive of disastrous results. It is difficult, however, to arrive at a correct estimate as to the extent of the evil, because the condition of affairs varied very much in the different religious orders and in the different provinces and houses of the same order. At all times a large proportion of the religious of both sexes recognised and deplored the spirit of laxity that had crept in, and laboured strenuously for a return to the old ideals long before the Lutheran campaign had made it necessary to choose between reform and suppression.
The Benedictines, who had done excellent work for the promotion of the spiritual and temporal welfare of the people amongst whom they laboured, suffered more than any other body from the interference of lay patrons in the appointment of abbots, as well as from the want of any central authority capable of controlling individual houses and of insisting upon the observance of the rules and constitution. Various efforts were made, however, to introduce reforms during the sixteenth century. In France the most important of these reforms was that begun in the abbey of St. Vannes by the abbot, Didier de la Cour. Recognising the sad condition of affairs he laboured incessantly to bring about a return to the strict rule of St. Benedict. His efforts were approved by Clement VIII. in 1604. Many houses in France having accepted the reform, it was resolved to unite them into one congregation under the patronage of St. Maur, the disciple of St. Benedict.[1] The new congregation of St. Maur was sanctioned by Louis XIII. and by Pope Gregory XV. (1621). The Maurists devoted themselves to the study of the sacred sciences, more especially to history, liturgy and patrology, and set an example of thorough scholarship which won for them the praise of both friends and foes. The names of D'Achery, Mabillon, Ruinart, Martene, Thierry, Lami and Bouquet are not likely to be forgotten so long as such works as the /Amplissima Collectio Veterum Scriptorum/, /Thesaurus Anecdotorum/, /Gallia Christiana/, /Histoire Litteraire de la France/, /De Re Diplomatica/, /L'Art de verifier les dates/, the /Receuil des historiens des Gaules/, etc., survive to testify to the labours and research of the Congregation of St. Maur.[2]
The reform movement among the Dominicans had made itself manifest from the days of Raymond of Capua (1390), who ordered that in every province there should be at least one house where the rule of St. Dominic might be observed in its original strictness. The success of the reform varied in the different countries and even in the different houses of the same province, but in the sixteenth century the general tendency was undoubtedly upwards. The religious rebellion inflicted serious losses on the order and led to the almost complete extinction of provinces that once were flourishing; but the Spanish and Portuguese discoveries in America and the spread of the missionary movement opened up for the order new fields, where its members were destined to do lasting service to religion and to win back in the New World more than they had lost in the Old. Discipline among the Cistercians, too, had become relaxed, but a general improvement set in which led to the formation of new congregations, the principal of which were the Congregation of the Feuillants approved by Sixtus V. (1587), and of the Trappists, which take their name from the monastery of La Trappe and owe their origin to the zealous efforts of the Abbot de Rance (1626-1700).