THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. RELIGIOUS LIFE.
See bibliography, chap. vi. (g). Aubry, /La Methode des etudes
ecclesiastiques dans nos seminaires depuis le concile de Trente/,
1900. Picot, /Essai historique sur l'influence de la religion en
France/, 1824. Joly, /Les moralistes francais du XVIIe, XVIIIe, et
XIXe siecles/, 1900. Andres, /Dell'origine, progressi, e stato
attuale di ogni letteratura/, 1843. Backer-Sommervogel,
/Bibliotheque des ecrivains de la compagnie de Jesus/, 1890-98.
Feret, /La faculte de theologie de Paris. Epoque moderne/ (vii.),
1910. Quetif-Echard, /Scriptores Ord. Praedicatorum/.
The great theological revival that began with the Council of Trent,
and that made itself felt in the Latin countries, died away gradually,
to be followed in the eighteenth century by a period of decline.
Scholars like Bellarmine, De Lugo, and Suarez had passed away without
leaving anybody behind them worthy to take their places. Except in the
field of ecclesiastical history and of historical theology the whole
tendency was downwards.
The principal causes that paved the way for this universal decline
were the spread of Gallicanism and Jansenism with the consequent waste
of energy to which these controversies led, the state of lethargy
produced by the enslavement of the Church, the withdrawal of
ecclesiastical students, the suppression of the Society of Jesus, and
the rejection of the Scholastic system of philosophy in favour of the
vagaries of Descartes or of the Leibniz-Wolf school in Germany.
The rise of the Rationalist school in France, threatening as it did
the very foundations of Christianity, called for the activity of a new
group of apologists, who would do for Christianity in the eighteenth
century what had been done for it against the pagan philosophers of
old by men like Justin Martyr and Lactantius. Unfortunately, however,
though many able works were produced at the time, few if any of them
could lay claim to the literary charms or vigour of expression that
characterised the works of the enemies of religion. The principal
apologists in France at this period were /Huet/ (d. 1721), /Sommier/
(d. 1737), the Oratorian /Houteville/ (d. 1742), /Baltius, S.J./ (d.
1743), /Bullet/, professor in the University of Besancon (d. 1775),
/Bergier/, one of the most distinguished of Bullet's pupils (d. 1790),
/Guenee/ (d. 1803), the able opponent of Voltaire, and /Feller, S.J./
(d. 1802), whose /Catechisme philosophique/ and /Dictionnaire
Historique/ enjoyed a widespread popularity long after the writer had
passed away.
In dogmatic theology the leading representatives of the Thomistic
school were without doubt /Vincent Louis Gotti/ (1664-1742) and
/Charles Rene Billuart/ (1685-1757). The former of these was born at
Bologna, entered the Dominican novitiate at an early age, was the
author of several polemical works directed against the Lutherans and
Calvinists, and was created cardinal (1728). On account of his
ability, prudence, and sanctity of life he exercised a wonderful
influence both within and without his order in France, so much so that
in the conclave of 1740 his election to the papacy was favoured by a
large body of his colleagues. Cardinal Gotti's greatest work was his
commentary on St. Thomas, entitled /Theologia Scholastico-Dogmatica
iuxta mentem D. Thomae/ (1727-1735). /Billuart/ was born at Ardennes
in Belgium, and on the completion of his classical studies he became a
novice in the Dominican convent at Lille. For the years during which
he held several positions in Dominican houses in Belgium his abilities
as a writer, professor, and preacher, attracted so much attention that
on the petition of Billuart's colleagues at Douay, the general of the
order decided to entrust him with the work of preparing an exhaustive
and authoritative commentary on the /Summa/ of Saint Thomas. After
five years hard work the edition was completed and was published at
Liege in nineteen volumes[1] (1746-51). A compendium was issued in
1754.
The best known and ablest exponent of the theological system of Duns
Scotus was /Claude Frassen/ (1621-1711). He was born at Peronne,
joined the Franciscans, and was sent to Paris, where he taught
theology for years. His great work is his /Scotus Academicus/, a
commentary or explanation of the theological system of Duns Scotus.
Both on account of its faithful exposition of the views of Scotus and
of the excellent method and style in which it is composed this work
enjoyed and enjoys a considerable reputation.[2] Of the theologians of
the Augustinian school the two best known were /Lorenzo Berti/ (1696-
1766) whose /De Theologies Disciplinis/ (1739-45) led to an imputation
of Jansenism, from which the author was cleared by the verdict of
Benedict XIV., and /Cardinal Norris/ (1631-1704) for a long time
professor of ecclesiastical history at the University of Padua,
against whose books, /Historia Pelagiana/ and /Vindiciae Augustanae/,
a prohibition was levelled by the Spanish Inquisition, but reversed on
appeal to Benedict XIV.
The endless controversies to which Jansenism gave rise had lowered the
reputation of the Sorbonne. The greatest representative of this centre
of theological learning at this period was /Honore Tournely/, the
steadfast opponent of Jansenism, whose /Praelectiones Theologicae/
(1738-40) was regarded as one of the most important works of the time.
In the defence of the Holy See against the attacks of Febronius the
greatest writers were /Zaccaria/ (1714-95) who wrote voluminously on
theology, ecclesiastical history and canon law; /Alfonso Muzzarelli/
(1749-1813), the Dominican, /Cardinal Orsi/ (1693-1761), and /Cardinal
Gerdil/ (1718-1802), whose election to the papacy on the death of Pius
VI. was vetoed by the Emperor. The /Theologia Wirceburgenis/ published
by the Jesuits of Wurzburg (1766-71) contained a complete and masterly
summary of the entire theological course.
Though Billuart and many of his contemporaries, following in the
footsteps of St. Thomas, dealt with both dogmatic and moral theology,
the tendency to treat the latter as a distinct department and to give
more attention to what may be termed the casuistical side of moral
theology became more marked. To a certain extent, at least in manuals
intended for the use of the clergy, such a method was rendered
necessary by the frequent and more comprehensive character of the
confessions. Yet it furnished some apparent justification for the
onslaughts of the Jansenists, who thought that they detected in the
new method a degradation of theology, a divorce between religion and
casuistry, and a return to the unholy hair-splitting of the Pharisees.
Closely allied with the opposition to the new method adopted by the
moral theologians was the controversy on Probabilism, that divided the
schools during the greater part of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. In the practical solution of doubtful obligations
Probabilism had been applied for centuries, but it was only towards
the end of the sixteenth century that the principle was formulated
definitely by the Dominican, De Medina. It was accepted immediately by
a great body of the Jesuits, as well as by nearly all writers on moral
theology. The Jansenists, however, in their eagerness to damage the
reputation of their Jesuit opponents charged them with having
introduced this novel and lax system of morals with the object of
catering for the depraved tastes of their degenerate clients, and this
charge when presented in a popular and telling style by their
opponents created a distinctly unfavourable impression against the
Society. The condemnation of Probabilism by the University of Louvain
(1655) and the outcry raised against it by the Rigorist party led most
of the religious orders and the secular clergy to abandon the system.
Two incidents that took place shortly afterwards helped to strengthen
the anti-Probabilist party. One of these was the condemnation by the
Holy See of certain very lax principles put forward by some
theologians who labelled themselves Probabilists (1679), and the other
was the decision given by Innocent XI.[3] in the case of the defence
of Probabiliorism written by Thyrsus Gonzalez (1624-1705) afterwards
general of the Jesuits. His superiors refused him permission to
publish his work, and on appeal to the Pope this prohibition was
removed (1680). But though the Pope certainly favoured Probabiliorism
it is not clear that his decision gave any practical sanction to this
opinion. Rigorism was dealt a severe blow by the condemnation issued
by Alexander VIII. (1690), and in the end the influence and writings
of St. Alphonsus put an end to both extremes.
Amongst the great theologians of the time were the Jesuit /Lacroix/
(1652-1714), /Paul Gabriel Antoine, S.J./ (1679-1743) professor at the
Jesuit College of Pont-a-Mousson, /Billuart/ (1685-1757), /Eusebius
Amort/ (1692-1775), and the /Salmanticenses/, the Jesuit authors of
the series on moral theology begun in Salamanca in 1665. But by far
the most remarkable writer on moral theology during the eighteenth
century was /Saint Alphonsus de' Liguori/[4] (1697-1787), the founder
of the Redemptorists. A saint, a scholar, and a practical missionary,
with a long and varied experience in the care of souls, he understood
better than most of his contemporaries how to hold the scales fairly
between laxity and rigorism. Though his views were attacked severely
enough in his own time they found favour with the great body of
theologians and the approbation given to them by the Church helped to
put an end to the rigorist opinions, that remained even after their
Jansenistic origin had been forgotten.
The spread of indifferentist or rationalist theories could not fail to
weaken the reverence that had been inculcated by the early Reformers
for the Bible as the sole source of God's revelation to men. Acting
upon Luther's principle of private judgment others, regardless of
their inspiration and infallibility, undertook to subject the
Scriptures to the authority of human reason. Faustus Socinus (1539-
1604), one of the founders of the Socinian sect, insisted that
everything in the Scriptures that seems opposed to reason could not
have come from God and should be eliminated. For some time while
religious fervour was at its height both Lutherans and Calvinists held
fast by their religious formularies and refused to accept the
scriptural views of Socinus. But once dogmatic religion had been
assailed by the new philosophico-rationalist school in England,
Germany, and France the way was prepared for the acceptance of more
liberal views. On the one hand, many of the extreme opponents of
Christianity set themselves to point out the errors of the Bible, as a
proof that it could not have come from God, while, on the other, many
of the Protestant scholars, who still held by a divine Christian
revelation, endeavoured to eliminate from it the supernatural without
rejecting openly the authority of the Scriptures.
It was with this design that Jacob Semler (1725-91) formulated the
Accommodation Theory, according to which Christ and His Apostles
accommodated their actions and their language to the erroneous notions
prevalent among the Jews in their time, and for this reason all that
bordered upon the mysterious should be regarded merely as a surrender
to contemporary superstition. Another method of arriving at a similar
conclusion was adopted by Kant, who maintained that the Bible was
written only to inculcate morality and to strengthen man's moral
sense, and that all that is recorded in it must be interpreted by
reason in the light of the object which its authors had in view.
With such liberal theories about the authority and inspiration of the
Scriptures in the air it was almost impossible that the Catholic
exegetists could escape the contagion. One of the ablest Catholic
writers at the time, the French Oratorian /Richard Simon/ (1638-1712),
was accused by his contemporaries of having approached too closely to
the rationalist system in his scriptural theories. He was a man well-
versed in the Oriental languages and well able to appreciate the
literary and historical difficulties that might be urged against the
inspiration and inerrancy of the Old Testament. He maintained that the
Bible was a literary production, and that, as such it should be
interpreted according to the ideas and methods of composition
prevalent in the country or at the time in which the various books
were written. His views were contained in his /Histoire Critique de
Vieux Testament/ (1678) and his /Histoire Critique de Texte du Nouveau
Testament/ (1689), both of which, though undoubtedly able works that
have considerably influenced scriptural study amongst Catholics since
that time, were severely criticised, and were condemned by the
Congregation of the Index.
Another French Oratorian of the period, /Bernard Lamy/ (1640-1715),
dealt with the introduction to the Scriptures in his two books
/Apparatus ad Biblia Sacra/ (1687) and /Apparatus Biblicus/ (1696). As
a professor of philosophy Lamy had stirred up already a strong
opposition owing to his evident leanings towards Cartesianism, nor was
he less unhappy in his scriptural studies. He questioned the
historical character of the narrations contained in the books of
Tobias and Judith, and contended that notwithstanding the decrees of
the Council of Trent less authority should be attributed to the
Deutero-Canonical than to the Proto-Canonical books of the Bible.
Amongst the leading scriptural commentators were /Le Maistre de Saci/
(d. 1684), a Jansenist, who published translations of the Old and the
New Testament, the latter of which was put upon the Index; /Piconio/
(Henri Bernardine de Picquigny, 1633-1709) a Capuchin whose /Triplex
Exposito in Sacrosancta D.N. Jesu Christi Evangelia/ (1726), has not
been surpassed till the present day; /Louis de Carrieres/ (1622-1717),
whose /La Sainte Bible en Francais avec un commentaire litteral/
founded on De Saci's translation was recognised as one of the simplest
and best commentaries on the Scriptures; /Charles Francois Houbigant/
(1686-1783), also an Oratorian, who published an edition of the Hebrew
Bible and the Greek text of the Deutero-Canonical books together with
a Prolegomena, and /Dom Calmet/ (1672-1757), a Benedictine, who
published in twenty-three volumes a commentary on the Old and New
Testament accompanied by an introduction to the various books (1707-
1716).
In no department of theological science were greater advances made
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries than in that of
ecclesiastical history and historical theology. This was due largely
to the labours and example of the Benedictines of St. Maur. Men like
/Luc d'Achery/ (1609-1685), /Stephen Baluze/ (1630-1718), /Jean
Mabillon/ (1632-1704), /Edmond Martene/ (1654-1739), /Ruinart/ (1657-
1709), /Muratori/ (1672-1750), /Bouquet/ (1685-1754), /Jean Hardouin,
S.J./ (1646-1729), /Domenico Mansi/ (1692-1769), and the Orientalists
Joseph /Simeon Assemani/ (1687-1768) and his brother /Joseph Aloysius/
(1710-82) laid the foundations of modern historical research, by their
publication of correct editions of the Early and Middle Age writers
and of the decrees of the various general, national, and provincial
councils, as well as by the example which they set in their own
scholarly dissertations of how historical materials should be used. In
addition to the publication of collections of original sources, works
like the /Gallia Christiana/, begun in 1715 by the Benedictines of St.
Maur and continued by them till the Revolution, /Espana Sagrada/ begun
by the Augustinian Enrique Florez in 1747, and the /Italia Sacra/
(1643-1662) of Ferdinand Ughelli contained a veritable mine of
information for future historians. Of the historical writers of this
period the ablest were /Louis Sebastien Le Nain de Tillemont/ (1637-
1689), the author of the /Histoire des Empereurs pendant les six
premiers Siecles/ and /Memoires pour servir a l'histoire eccl. des six
premiers siecles/ (1693); /Claude Fleury/ (1640-1725) whose great
work, /Histoire Ecclesiastique/ (dealing with the period from the
Ascension till the Council of Constance, 1414) is marred only by the
Gallican tendencies of its author, and /Natalis Alexander/ (Noel
Alexandre, 1639-1724), a French Dominican who published an exceedingly
valuable Church History under the title /Selecta Historiae Eccl.
Capita/, etc., but which was condemned by Innocent XI. (1684) on
account of the markedly Gallican bias under which it was composed.
Amongst some of the most noted authorities on Canon Law during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were /Benedict XIV./ (1675-1758)
many of whose treatises are regarded as standard works till the
present day; /Pirhing/ (1606-1679), a Jesuit, professor at Dillingen
and Ingolstadt and well known as a theologian and canonist;
/Reiffenstuel/ (1641-1703), a Bavarian Franciscan for some time
professor at Freising, the author of several theological works, and
unequalled as a Canonist in his own day; /Van Espen/ (1649-1728)
professor at Louvain, a strong supporter of Gallicanism and Jansenism,
whose great work /Jus Canonicum Universum/ is marred by the pro-
Gallican proclivities of its author; /Schmalzgrueber/ (1663-1735), a
Bavarian Jesuit, professor of Canon Law at Dillingen and Ingolstadt,
who in addition to treatises on such subjects as Trials, Espousals,
Matrimony, and the Regular and Secular Clergy, published a work
covering the entire Canon Law (/Jus Eccl. Universum/), and the Italian
/Lucius Ferraris/ (d. 1763), whose /Prompta Bibliotheca Canonica/ went
through several editions in the author's own lifetime and has been
republished more than once since his death (latest edition 1899).
In the department of sacred oratory the palm must undoubtedly be
awarded to the French Church. /Jacques-Benigne Bossuet/[5] (1627-
1704), in many senses the greatest of the French preachers, was the
son of a lawyer at Dijon. Even in his early youth he was remarkable
for his mastery of the Bible and classical authors. He studied at the
University of Paris, and after remaining two years under the spiritual
education of St. Vincent de Paul was ordained a priest in 1662. He
returned to Metz, in the cathedral of which he held a canonry, and
where his abilities as a preacher and a controversialist soon
attracted attention. He was appointed preceptor to the Dauphin of
France, an office which he held from 1670 to 1681, when he was
consecrated Bishop of Meaux. As bishop he took part in the Assembly of
the French Clergy (1681-82) and, though himself not such an extreme
defender of Gallicanism as many of his contemporaries, he is credited
generally with having been the author of the famous Declaration of the
Clergy, known as the Articles of the Gallican Church. At the
invitation of Louis XIV. he composed a treatise in defence of these
articles, /Defensio Declarationis/, etc., published after his death
(1730). As an orator Bossuet was far ahead of the preachers of his
time, and as a writer and controversialist he had few equals. His
untiring energy and ability are vouched for by the number of able
works that proceeded from his pen. Of these the most instructive and
best known are the /Discours sur l'histoire Universelle/ (1681), and
the /Histoire des Variations des Eglises Protestantes/ (1688-89). His
want of firmness, however, in his relations with the court, leading
him as it did to show a sympathy which he could not have felt in his
heart towards Gallicanism, his failure to move a finger to stay the
ravages of Jansenism, his want of zeal for the spiritual care of his
diocese, in marked contrast with the energy which he displayed when
seeking to score a personal triumph over Fenelon and other less known
adversaries, cannot be forgotten by any one who wishes to arrive at an
impartial estimate of Bossuet's character.
/Fenelon/[6] (1651-1715), the great contemporary and rival of Bossuet,
was sent as a youth for his education to the Universities of Cahors
and Paris. Later on he returned to the seminary of Saint Sulpice then
presided over by M. Tronson the superior of the Sulpicians, to whose
wise and prudent counsels the future Archbishop of Cambrai was deeply
indebted. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes he was sent to
preach to the Huguenots, upon whom his kindness and humility made a
much more lasting impression than the violence resorted to by some of
the officials of Louis XIV. Later on he was appointed preceptor to the
Duke of Burgundy, grandson of Louis XIV., for whose education he
composed the /Fables, Telemaque/, etc., and on the completion of his
work as tutor he was nominated Archbishop of Cambrai (1695). Hardly
had he received this honour than he was involved in a controversy on
Quietism, which controversy cost him the friendship of Bossuet and the
patronage of Louis XIV., by whom he was banished from the French
court. But Fenelon found much at Cambrai to console him for what he
had lost in Paris. In every sense of the word he proved himself a
model bishop, visiting his parishes regularly, preaching in his
cathedral and throughout his diocese, and always affable to those who
came in contact with him whether they were rich or poor. Unlike
Bossuet he never feared to speak out boldly against Jansenism and
Gallicanism. As a preacher and a master of French literary style he
was inferior to Bossuet, but as a man and as a bishop he was
incomparably his superior. In addition to his works on literary and
political questions he wrote voluminously on theology, philosophy, and
the spiritual life.
The opposition to Scholasticism, that manifested itself in the
writings and teaching of so many Humanists, grew more accentuated in
the universities, especially after the establishment of ecclesiastical
seminaries had led to the withdrawal from the universities of a great
body of the clerical students. For centuries philosophy and theology
had gone hand in hand, the former supplying the rational basis for the
acceptance of revelation, the latter providing the necessary restraint
upon the vagaries of human thought. The principal of individual
judgment, proclaimed by the early Reformers and received so
enthusiastically by their followers, had as its logical consequence an
exaggeration of the powers of the human mind at the expense of
authority, with the result that scepticism, atheism, and materialism,
found favour in learned circles.
In face of such evident proofs of the limitations of the human mind,
and with the object of preserving in one way or another the Christian
Revelation, a reaction against the supposed infallibility of reason
set in both amongst Protestant and Catholic scholars. Catholic
philosophers were inclined to distrust reason entirely, and to rely
solely on divine authority as a guarantee of truth. In other words
they accepted Traditionalism, while Protestants, equally suspicious of
reason, proclaimed that in judging the value of revelation the human
will and sentiment must be heeded as well as the intellect, that is to
say they accepted Sentimentalism.
The attempt to replace Scholasticism by some new philosophic system
gave rise to various schools of thought, most of which can be traced
back ultimately to Bacon and Descartes, the former a partisan of the
inductive, the latter of the deductive method. /Rene Descartes/[7]
(1596-1649) was born at Touraine, and received his early education
with the Jesuits. In his desire to see the world for himself he took
service as a soldier in the army of Prince Maurice of Nassau, and
later on in that of the Elector of Bavaria. He retired from active
life to give himself up to the study of mathematics and philosophy. At
first he found a quiet retreat in Holland, from which he migrated to
Stockholm at the invitation of Queen Christina. Here after a few
months' residence he died. Throughout his life Descartes remained a
sincere and practical Catholic. Putting aside Revelation, with which
he did not profess to deal, Descartes, by an application of his
principle of methodic doubt, arrived at the conclusion that the
foundation of all certainty lay in the proposition /Cogito ergo sum/
(I think, therefore I exist). From an examination of his own ideas of
a most perfect being he arrived at the conclusion that God exists, and
from the existence of a good and wise supreme Being who has given men
reason, sense, and perception in order to acquire knowledge, he argued
that these faculties cannot lead men into error, and that consequently
the veracity of God was the ultimate basis of certitude.
The theories of Descartes were pushed to their logical conclusion by
those who succeeded him. /Blaise Pascal/[8] (1623-1662) was influenced
largely by the false mysticism of the Middle Ages. He distrusted
reason and exalted faith, as the only means of answering the
difficulties that pure intellectualism could not solve. /Arnold
Geulincx/ (1625-1669) at first a Catholic and afterwards a Calvinist,
arguing from the antithesis supposed by Descartes to exist between
mind and matter, maintained that since matter was inert it could not
produce the sensations and volitions which men experienced, and that
therefore these must be caused by God. In other words he propounded
the theory of Occasionalism. This doctrine of Occasionalism as
furnishing an explanation of sensations was extended by Malebranche[9]
(1638-1715), a student of the Sorbonne, so as to explain the origin of
human ideas. These he maintained could not come from outside, because
there can be no contact between mind and matter; they could not come
from the mind itself, because creation is an attribute only of the
infinite being, and therefore they must come from God. Hence,
according to him, it is in God or in the divine essence that we see
all things (Ontologism). If all activity and all knowledge come
directly from God, it was only natural to conclude, as did /Spinoza/
(1632-77), that there exists only one substance endowed with the two
attributes of thought and extension (Monism, Pantheism).[10]
From this brief sketch it will be seen that the rejection of the
Scholastic System and the divorce between theology and philosophy led
to dogmatic chaos, and ultimately to the rejection of divine
revelation. By his attacks on the old proofs given for the existence
of God and the motives of credibility, by the emphasis which he placed
upon methodic doubt as the only safe way to certainty, and by the
suspicions raised by him against the reliability of human reason,
Descartes unwittingly paved the way for scepticism and atheism. Though
his system was condemned by Rome and forbidden more than once by Louis
XIV. it was taken up by the Oratorians and by most of the leading
scholars in France.
The spirit of the eighteenth century was distinctly unfavourable to
the religious orders. The Rationalists, the Freemasons, and the
friends of absolutism joined hands in opposing the foundation of new
establishments and in securing the suppression of the houses that had
already been founded. In Austria, in Naples, in Spain, and in France a
violent campaign was carried on to bring about the dissolution of
several of the religious orders and congregations, or at least to so
alter their rules and constitutions that they should be cut adrift
from Rome and subject to the authority of the secular rulers. During
the campaign many houses were suppressed in Austria and in the other
territories of the empire, but by far the greatest victory of which
its authors could boast was the suppression of the Society of Jesus.
Yet in spite of the enemies of the Church the religious orders held
their ground, and apostolic men arose to lay the foundations of new
bodies, that were destined to take a glorious part in the religious
revival of the nineteenth century. One of the most remarkable of these
was St. Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori[11] (1696-1787). He was born near
Naples, adopted at first the profession of a lawyer, but he soon
forsook the bar to give himself entirely to God, and was ordained a
priest in 1726. In 1732 he laid the foundation of a new religious
society, the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, which was
approved by Benedict XIV. in 1749. After having refused various
honours he was compelled to accept the Bishopric of St. Agatha (1762)
from which he retired in 1775 to devote himself to prayer, and to the
composition of those spiritual treatises that have given him such a
leading place not merely as a moral theologian but as a master in the
ascetic life. In 1744 he issued his Notes on Busenbaum's Moral
Theology, which notes formed the basis of his /Theologia Moralis/
published in 1753-55, and which went through nine editions during his
own life-time. He was declared Venerable (1796), canonised (1839), and
recognised as a Doctor of the Church (1871).
The Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (The Redemptorists) was
founded by St. Alphonsus at Scala, near Amalfi, in the kingdom of
Naples (1732), and was approved in 1749. The aim of its members was to
imitate the virtues and example of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, by
consecrating themselves especially to preaching the word of God to the
poor. The opposition of the Neapolitan prime minister, Tanucci, was a
source of great trouble to the holy founder. On the fall of Tanucci
St. Alphonsus thought that a favourable opportunity had come for
securing the approval of the government, but he was betrayed by his
friends into accepting a modification of the constitution, the
/Regolamento/ (1779-80), which led to a separation between the
Redemptorist houses in Naples and those situated in the Papal States.
The dispute was, however, healed in 1793. The Society spread rapidly
in Italy, in Germany, where its interests were safeguarded by Father
Hofbauer, and during the nineteenth century houses were established in
every country in Europe, in America and in Australia.
The Passionists[12] (The Congregation of Discalced Clerics of the Most
Holy Cross and Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ) were founded by St.
Paul of the Cross (1694-1775). The latter was born at Ovada near
Genoa, was ordained by Pope Benedict XIII. (1727) who at the same time
gave his approval of the rules drawn up for the new society, founded
his first house at Argentaro, and thereby laid the foundation of the
Congregation of the Passionists. The new society received the formal
sanction and approval of Clement XIV. (1769) and of Pius VI. (1775).
Before the death of the founder several houses had been established in
Italy, all of which were suppressed during the disturbances that
followed in the wake of the French Revolution. The congregation was,
however, re-constituted by Pius VII. (1814), and spread rapidly in
Europe, in the United States, and in South America. The first house of
the Passionists in England was established by the celebrated Father
Dominic at Aston Hall in Staffordshire (1842), and the first house in
Ireland was opened at Mount Argus in 1856.
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[1] /Summa S. Thomas hodiernis Academiarum moribus accomodata/.
[2] New edition, 10 vols., 1902-5.
[3] Denzinger, op. cit., no. 1219.
[4] Berthe-Castle, /Life of St. Alphonsus de' Liguori/, 1905.
[5] Bausset, /Histoire de Bossuet/, 4 vols., 1814. Jovy, /Etudes et
recherches sur Jacques-Benigne Bossuet/, etc., 1903.
[6] Bausset, /Histoire de Fenelon/, 1809. De Broglie, /Episcopat de
Fenelon/, 1884.
[7] Bouillier, /Histoire de la philosophie cartesienne/, 2 vols.,
1868. Haldane, /Descartes, His Life and Times/, 1906.
[8] Giraud, /Pascal, l'homme, l'oeuvre, l'influence/, 1905. Janssens,
/La philosophie et l'apologetique de Pascal/, 1896.
[9] Andre, /Vie du R. P. Malebranche/, 1886. Olle-Laprune, /La
philosophie de Malebranche/, 2 vols., 1870.
[10] Ferriere, /La doctrine de Spinoza exposee et commentee/, 1899.
[11] Berthe-Castle, /Life of St. Alphonsus de' Liguori/, 2 vols.,
1905.
[12] Pius a Spiritu Sancto, /The Life of St. Paul of the Cross/, 1868.