Chapter XVII: Act 1908: ; the Presbyterian and the Methodist Colleges, occupying (10)

BENEDICT XIII. (Pedro de Luna), (c. 1328-1422 or 1423), anti-pope, belonged to one of the most noble families in Aragon. His high birth, his legal learning--he was for a long time professor of canon law at Montpellier--and the irreproachable purity of his life, recommended him to Pope Gregory XI, who created him cardinal in 1375. He was almost the only one who succeeded in making a firm stand in the tumultuous conclave of 1378; but the deliberation with which he made up his mind as to the validity of the election of Urban VI. was equalled, when he took the side of Clement VII., by the ardour and resourcefulness which he displayed in defending the cause of the pope of Avignon; it was mainly to him that the latter owed his recognition by Castile, Aragon and Navarre. When elected pope, or rather anti-pope, by the cardinals of Avignon, on the 28th of September 1394, it was he who by his astuteness, his resolution, and, it may be added, by his unswerving faith in the justice of his cause, was to succeed in prolonging the lamentable schism of the West for thirty years. The hopes he had aroused that, by a voluntary abdication, he would restore unity to the church, were vain; though called upon by the princes of France to carry out his plan, abandoned by his cardinals, besieged and finally kept under close observation in the palace of the popes (1398-1403), he stood firm, and tired out the fury of his opponents. Escaping from Avignon, he again won obedience in France, and his one thought was how to triumph over his Italian rival, if necessary, by force. He yielded, however, to the instances of the government of Charles VI., and pretending that he wished to have an interview with Gregory XII., with a view to their simultaneous abdication, he advanced to Savona, and then to Porto Venere. The failure of these negotiations, for which he was only in part responsible, led to the universal movement of indignation and impatience, which ended, in France, in the declaration of neutrality (1408), and at Pisa, in the decree of deposition against the two pontiffs (1409). Benedict XIII., who had on his part tried to call together a council at Perpignan, was by this time recognized hardly anywhere but in his native land, in Scotland, and in the estates of the countship of Armagnac. He remained none the less full of energy and of illusions, repulsed the overtures of Sigismund, king of the Romans, who had come to Perpignan to persuade him to abdicate, and, abandoned by nearly all his adherents, he took refuge in the impregnable castle of Peniscola, on a rock dominating the Mediterranean (1415). The council of Constance then deposed him, as a perjurer, an incurable schismatic and a heretic (26th July 1417). After struggling with the popes of Rome, Urban VI., Boniface IX., Innocent VII. and Gregory XII., and against the popes of Pisa, Alexander V. and John XXIII., Pedro de Luna, clinging more than ever to that apostolic seat which he still professed not to desire, again took up the struggle against Martin V., although the latter was recognized throughout almost all Christendom, and, before his death (29th November 1422, or 23rd May 1423), he nominated four new cardinals in order to carry the schism on even after him.

See Fr. Ehrle, _Archiv fur Lit. und Kirchengesch._ vols. v., vi.,
vii.; N. Valois, _La France et le grand schisme d'occident_ (4 vols.,
Paris, 1896-1902); Fr. Ehrle, "Martin de Alpartils chronica
actitatorum temporibus domini Benedicti XIII." (_Quellen und
Forschungen aus dem Geb. der Gesch._, Gorres-Gesellschaft, Paderborn,
1906). (N. V.)

BENEDICT XIII. (Piero Francesco Orsini), pope from 1724 to 1730, at first styled Benedict XIV., was born on the 2nd of February 1649, of the ducal family of Orsini-Gravina. In 1667 he became a Dominican (as Vincentius Maria), studied theology and philosophy, was made a cardinal in 1672 and archbishop of Benevento in 1686. Elected pope on the 29th of May 1724, he attempted to reform clerical morals; but neither the decrees of the Latin council (1725) nor his personal precepts had much effect. He confirmed the bull _Unigenitus_; but, despite the Jesuits, allowed the Dominicans to preach the Augustinian doctrine of grace. State affairs he left entirely to the unpopular Cardinal Nicolo Coscia. He died on the 21st of February 1730. His works, were published in 3 vols. at Ravenna in 1728.

BENEDICT XIV. (Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini), pope from 1740 to 1758, was born at Bologna on the 31st of March 1675. At the age of thirteen he entered the Collegium Clementinum at Rome. He served the Curia in many and important capacities, yet devoted his leisure time to theological and canonistic study. Benedict XIII. made him archbishop of Theodosia _in partibus_, then of Ancona (1727), and the next year created him cardinal priest. In 1731 Clement XII. translated him to his native city of Bologna, where as archbishop he was both efficient and popular. He published valuable works, notably _De servorum Dei beatificatione et canonizatione, De sacrificio missae_, as well as a treatise on the feasts of Christ and the Virgin and of some saints honoured in Bologna. In a conclave which had lasted for months he was elected on the 17th of August 1740 the successor of Clement XII. Benedict XIV. was not merely earnest and conscientious, but of incisive intellect, and unfailingly cheerful and witty. In several respects he bettered the economic conditions of the papal states, but was disinclined to undertake the needed thorough-going reform of its administration. In foreign politics he made important concessions to Portugal, Naples, Sardinia, Spain, and was the first pope expressly to recognize the king of Prussia as such. In 1741 he issued the bull _Immensa pastorum principis_, demanding more humane treatment for the Indians of Brazil and Paraguay, and in the bulls _Ex quo singulari_ (1742) and _Omnium sollicitudinum_ (1744) he rebuked the missionary methods of the Jesuits in accommodating their message to the heathen usages of the Chinese and of the natives of Malabar. In accord with the spirit of the age he reduced the number of holy days in several Catholic countries. To the end of his life he kept up his studies and his intercourse with other scholars, and founded several learned societies. His masterpiece, _Libri octo de synoda diocesana_, begun in Bologna, appeared during his pontificate. He died on the 3rd of May 1758.

His works, published in twelve quarto volumes at Rome (1747-1751),
appeared in more nearly complete editions at Venice in 1767 and at
Prato, 1839-1846; also _Briefe Benedicts XIV._, ed. F.X. Kraus (2nd
ed., Freiburg, 1888); _Benedicti XIV. Papae opera inedita_, ed. F.
Heiner (Freiburg, 1904). See Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopadie_, ii. 572
ff.; Wetzer and Welter, _Kirchenlexikon_, ii. 317 ff. (W. W. R.*)

BENEDICT OF ALIGNAN (d. 1268), Benedictine abbot of Notre Dame de la Grasse (1224) and bishop of Marseilles (1229), twice visited the Holy Land (1239 and 1260), where he helped the Templars build the great castle of Safet. He founded a short-lived order, the Brothers of the Virgin, suppressed by the council of Lyons (1274), and died a Franciscan. His writings include a letter to Innocent IV. and _De constructione Castri Saphet_ (Baluze, _Miscellanea_, ii.).

BENEDICT OF NURSIA, SAINT (c. 480-c. 544), the patriarch of Western monks. Our only authority for the facts of St Benedict's life is bk. ii of St Gregory's _Dialogues_. St Gregory declares that he obtained his information from four of St Benedict's disciples, whom he names; and there can be no serious reason for doubting that it is possible to reconstruct the outlines of St Benedict's career (see Hodgkin, _Italy and her Invaders_, iv. 412). A precise chronology and a pedigree have been supplied for Benedict, according to which he was born in 480, of the great family of the Anicii; but all we know is what St Gregory tells us, that he was born of good family in Nursia, near Spoleto in Umbria. His birth must have occurred within a few years of the date assigned; the only fixed chronological point is a visit of the Gothic king Totila to him in 543, when Benedict was already established at Monte Cassino and advanced in years (_Dial_. ii. 14, 15). He was sent by his parents to frequent the Roman schools, but shocked by the prevailing licentiousness he fled away. It has been usual to represent him as a mere boy at this time, but of late years various considerations have been pointed out which make it more likely that he was a young man. He went to the mountainous districts of the Abruzzi, and at last came to the ruins of Nero's palace and the artificial lake at Subiaco, 40 m. from Rome. Among the rocks on the side of the valley opposite the palace he found a cave in which he took up his abode, unknown to all except one friend, Romanus, a monk of a neighbouring monastery, who clothed him in the monastic habit and secretly supplied him with food. No one who has seen the spot will doubt that the Sacro Speco is indeed the cave wherein Benedict spent the three years of opening manhood in solitary prayer, contemplation and austerity. After this period of formation his fame began to spread abroad, and the monks of a neighbouring monastery induced him to become their abbot; but their lives were irregular and dissolute, and on his trying to put down abuses they attempted to poison him. He returned to his cave, but disciples flocked to him, and in time he formed twelve monasteries in the neighbourhood, placing twelve monks in each, and himself retaining a general control over all. In time patricians and senators from Rome entrusted their young sons to his care, to be brought up as monks; in this manner came to him his two best-known disciples, Maurus and Placidus. Driven from Subiaco by the jealousy and molestations of a neighbouring priest, but leaving behind him communities in his twelve monasteries, he himself, accompanied by a small band of disciples, journeyed south until he came to Cassino, a town halfway between Rome and Naples. Climbing the high mountain that overhangs the town, he established on the summit the monastery with which his name has ever since been associated, and which for centuries was a chief centre of religious life for western Europe. He destroyed the remnants of paganism that lingered on here, and by his preaching gained the rustic population to Christianity. Few other facts of his career are known: there is record of his founding a monastery at Terracina; his death must have occurred soon after Totila's visit in 543.

_Rule of St Benedict._--In order to understand St Benedict's character and spirit, and to discover the secret of the success of his institute, it is necessary, as St Gregory says, to turn to his Rule. St Gregory's characterization of the Rule as "conspicuous for its discretion" touches the most essential quality. The relation of St Benedict's Rule to earlier monastic rules, and of his institute to the prevailing monachism of his day, is explained in the article MONASTICISM. Here it is enough to say that nowadays it is commonly recognized by students that the manner of life instituted by St Benedict was not intended to be, and as a matter of fact was not, one of any great austerity, when judged by the standard of his own day (see E.C. Butler, _Lausiac History of Palladius_, part i. pp. 251-256). His monks were allowed proper clothes, sufficient food, ample sleep. The only bodily austerities were the abstinence from flesh meat and the unbroken fast till mid-day or even 3 P.M., but neither would appear so onerous in Italy even now, as to us in northern climes. Midnight office was no part of St Benedict's Rule: the time for rising for the night office varied from 1.30 to 3.0, according to the season, and the monks had had unbroken sleep for 7-1/2 or even 8 hours, except in the hot weather, when in compensation they were allowed the traditional Italian summer siesta after the mid-day meal. The canonical office was chanted throughout, but the directly religious duties of the day can hardly have taken more than 4 or 5 hours--perhaps 8 on Sundays. The remaining hours of the day were divided between work and reading, in the proportion (on the average of the whole year) of about 6 and 4 hours respectively. The "reading" in St Benedict's time was probably confined to the Bible and the Fathers. The "work" contemplated by St Benedict was ordinarily field work, as was natural in view of the conditions of the time and best suited to the majority of the monks; but the principle laid down is that the monks should do whatever work is most useful. There were from the beginning young boys in the monastery, who were educated by the monks according to the ideas of the time. We have seen St Benedict evangelizing the pagan population round Monte Cassino; and a considerable time each day is assigned to the reading of the Fathers. Thus the germs of all the chief works carried on by his monks in later ages were to be found in his own monastery.

The Rule consists of a prologue and 73 chapters. Though it has resisted all attempts to reduce it to an ordered scheme, and probably was not written on any set plan, still it is possible roughly to indicate its contents: after the prologue and introductory chapter setting forth St Benedict's intention, follow instructions to the abbot on the manner in which he should govern his monastery (2,3); next comes the ascetical portion of the Rule, on the chief monastic virtues (4-7); then the regulations for the celebration of the canonical office, which St Benedict calls "the Work of God" or "the divine work," his monks' first duty, "of which nothing is to take precedence" (8-20); faults and punishments (23-30); the cellarer and property of the monastery (31, 32); community of goods (33, 34); various officials and daily life (21, 22, 35-57); reception of monks (58-61); miscellaneous (62-73).

The most remarkable chapters, in which St Benedict's wisdom stands out most conspicuously, are those on the abbot (2,3, 27,64). The abbot is to govern the monastery with full and unquestioned patriarchal authority; on important matters he must consult the whole community and hear what each one, even the youngest, thinks; on matters of less weight he should consult a few of the elder monks; but in either case the decision rests entirely with him, and all are to acquiesce. He must, however, bear in mind that he will have to render an account of all his decisions and to answer for the souls of all his monks before the judgment seat of God. Moreover, he has to govern in accordance with the Rule, and must endeavour, while enforcing discipline and implanting virtues, not to sadden or "overdrive" his monks, or give them cause for "just murmuring." In these chapters pre-eminently appears that element of "discretion," as St Gregory calls it, or humanism as it would now be termed, which without doubt has been a chief cause of the success of the Rule. There is as yet no satisfactory text of the Rule, either critical or manual; the best manual text is Schmidt's _editio minor_ (Regensburg, 1892). Of the many commentaries the most valuable are those of Paulus Diaconus (the earliest, c. 800), of Calmet and of Martene (Migne, _Patrol. Lat._ lxvi.).

AUTHORITIES.--An old English translation of St Gregory's _Dialogues_
is reprinted in the Quarterly Series (Burns & Oates). On St Benedict's
life and Rule see Montalembert, _Monks of the West_, bk. iv.; Abbate
L. Tosti, _S. Benedetto_ (translated 1896); also Indexes to standard
general histories of the period; Thomas Hodgkin's _Italy and Her
Invaders_ and Gregorovius' _History of the City of Rome_ may be
specially mentioned. But by far the best summaries in English are
those contained in the relevant portions of F.H. Dudden's _Gregory the
Great_ (1905), i. 107-115, ii. 160-169; on the recent criticism of the
text and contents of the Rule, see Otto Zockler, _Askese und Monchtum_
(1897), 355-371; and E.C. Butler, articles in _Downside Review_,
December 1899, and _Journal of Theological Studies_, April 1902.
(E. C. B.)

BENEDICT, SIR JULIUS (1804-1885), musical composer, was born in Stuttgart on the 27th of November 1804. He was the son of a Jewish banker, and learnt composition from Hummel at Weimar and Weber at Dresden; with the latter he enjoyed for three years an intimacy like that of a son, and it was Weber who introduced him in Vienna to Beethoven on the 5th of October 1823. In the same year he was appointed Kapellmeister of the Karnthnerthor theatre at Vienna, and two years later (in 1825) he became Kapellmeister of the San Carlo theatre at Naples. Here his first opera, _Giacinta ed Ernesto_, was brought out in 1829, and another, written for his native city, _I Portoghesi in Goa_, was given there in 1830; neither of these was a great success, and in 1834 he went to Paris, leaving it in 1835 at the suggestion of Malibran for London, where he spent the remainder of his life. In 1836 he was given the conductorship of an operatic enterprise at the Lyceum Theatre, and brought out a short opera, _Un anno ed un giorno_, previously given in Naples. In 1838 he became conductor of the English opera at Drury Lane during the period of Balfe's great popularity; his own operas produced there were _The Gipsy's Warning_ (1838), _The Bride of Venice_ (1843), and _The Crusaders_ (1846). In 1848 he conducted Mendelssohn's _Elijah_ at Exeter Hall, for the first appearance of Jenny Lind in oratorio, and in 1850 he went to America as the accompanist on that singer's tour. On his return in 1852 he became musical conductor under Mapleson's management at Her Majesty's theatre (and afterwards at Drury Lane), and in the same year conductor of the Harmonic Union. Benedict wrote recitatives for the production of an Italian version of Weber's _Oberon_ in 1860. In the same year was produced his beautiful cantata _Undine_ at the Norwich festival, in which Clara Novello appeared in public for the last time. His best-known opera, _The Lily of Killarney_, written on the subject of Dion Boucicault's play _Colleen Bawn_ to a libretto by Oxenford, was produced at Covent Garden in 1862. His operetta, _The Bride of Song_, was brought out there in 1864. _St Cecilia_, an oratorio, was performed at the Norwich festival in 1886; _St Peter_ at the Birmingham festival of 1870; _Graziella_, a cantata, was given at the Birmingham festival of 1882, and in August 1883 was produced in operatic form at the Crystal Palace. Here also a symphony by him was given in 1873. Benedict conducted every Norwich festival from 1845 to 1878 inclusive, and the Liverpool Philharmonic Society's concerts from 1876 to 1880. He was the regular accompanist at the Monday Popular Concerts in London from their start, and with few exceptions acted as conductor of these concerts. He contributed an interesting life of Weber to the series of biographies of "Great Musicians." In 1871 he was knighted, and in 1874 was made knight commander of the orders of Franz Joseph (Austria) and Frederick (Wurttemberg). He died in London on the 5th of June 1885.

BENEDICT BISCOP (628?-690), also known as BISCOP BADUCING, English churchman, was born of a good Northumbrian family and was for a time a thegn of King Oswiu. He then went abroad and after a second journey to Rome (he made five altogether) lived as a monk at Lerins (665-667). It was under his conduct that Theodore of Tarsus came from Rome to Canterbury in 669, and in the same year Benedict was appointed abbot of St Peter's, Canterbury. Five years later he built the monastery of St Peter at Wearmouth, on land granted him by Ecgfrith of Northumbria, and endowed it with an excellent library. A papal letter in 678 exempted the monastery from external control, and in 682 Benedict erected a sister foundation (St Paul) at Jarrow. He died on the 12th of January 690, leaving a high reputation for piety and culture. Saxon architecture owes nearly everything to his initiative, and Bede was one of his pupils.

BENEDICTINE, a liqueur manufactured at Fecamp, France. The composition is a trade secret, but, according to Konig, the following are among the substances used in the manufacture of imitations of the genuine article: fresh lemon peel, cardamoms, hyssop tops, angelica, peppermint, thyme, cinnamon, nutmegs, cloves and arnica flowers. (See FECAMP.)

BENEDICTINES, or BLACK MONKS, monks living according to the Rule of St Benedict (q.v.) of Nursia. Subiaco in the Abruzzi was the cradle of the Benedictines, and in that neighbourhood St Benedict established twelve monasteries. Afterwards giving up the direction of these, he migrated to Monte Cassino and there established the monastery which became the centre whence his Rule and institute spread. From Monte Cassino he founded a monastery at Terracina. These fourteen are the only monasteries of which we have any knowledge as being founded before St Benedict's death; for the mission of St Placidus to Sicily must certainly be regarded as mere romance, nor does there seem to be any solid reason for viewing more favourably the mission of St Maurus to Gaul. There is some ground for believing that it was the third abbot of Monte Cassino who began to spread a knowledge of the Rule beyond the circle of St Benedict's own foundations. About 580-590 Monte Cassino was sacked by the Lombards, and the community came to Rome and was established in a monastery attached to the Lateran Basilica, in the centre of the ecclesiastical world. It is now commonly recognized by scholars that when Gregory the Great became a monk and turned his palace on the Caelian Hill into a monastery, the monastic life there carried out was fundamentally based on the Benedictine Rule (see F.H. Dudden, _Gregory the Great_, i. 108). From this monastery went forth St Augustine and his companions on their mission to England in 596, carrying their monachism with them; thus England was the first country out of Italy in which Benedictine life was firmly planted. In the course of the 7th century Benedictine life was gradually introduced in Gaul, and in the 8th it was carried into the Germanic lands from England. It is doubtful whether in Spain there were Benedictine monasteries, properly so called, until a later period. In many parts the Benedictine Rule met the much stricter Irish Rule of Columbanus, introduced by the Irish missionaries on the continent, and after brief periods, first of conflict and then of fusion, it gradually absorbed and supplanted it; thus during the 8th century it became, out of Ireland and other purely Celtic lands, the only rule and form of monastic life throughout western Europe,--so completely that Charlemagne once asked if there ever had been any other monastic rule.

What may be called the inner side of Benedictine life and history is treated in the article MONASTICISM; here it is possible to deal only with the broad facts of the external history. The chief external works achieved for western Europe by the Benedictines during the early middle ages may be summed up under the following heads.

1. _The Conversion of the Teutonic Races._--The tendency of modern historical scholarship justifies the maintenance of the tradition that St Augustine and his forty companions were the first great Benedictine apostles and missioners. Through their efforts Christianity was firmly planted in various parts of England; and after the conversion of the country it was English Benedictines--Wilfrid, Willibrord, Swithbert, Willehad--who evangelized Friesland and Holland; and another, Winfrid or Boniface, who, with his fellow-monks Willibald and others, evangelized the greater part of central Germany and founded and organized the German church. It was Anschar, a monk of Corbie, who first preached to the Scandinavians, and other Benedictines were apostles to Poles, Prussians and other Slavonic peoples. The conversion of the Teutonic races may properly be called the work of the Benedictines.

2. _The Civilization of north-western Europe._--As the result of their missionary enterprises the Benedictines penetrated into all these lands and established monasteries, so that by the 10th or 11th century Benedictine houses existed in great numbers throughout the whole of Latin Christendom except Ireland. These monasteries became centres of civilizing influences by the method of presenting object-lessons in organized work, in agriculture, in farming, in the arts and trades, and also in well-ordered life. The unconscious method by which such great results were brought about has been well described by J.S. Brewer (_Preface_ to Works of Giraldus Cambrensis, Rolls Series, iv.) and F.A. Gasquet.

3. _Education._--Boys were educated in Benedictine houses from the beginning, but at first they were destined to be monks. The monasteries, however, played a great part in the educational side of the Carolingian revival; and certainly from that date schools for boys destined to live and work in the world were commonly attached to Benedictine monasteries. From that day to this education has been among the recognized and principal works of Benedictines.

4. _Letters and Learning._--This side of Benedictine life is most typically represented by the Venerable Bede, the gentle and learned scholar of the early middle ages. In those times the monasteries were the only places of security and rest in western Europe, the only places where letters could in any measure be cultivated. It was in the monasteries that the writings of Latin antiquity, both classical and ecclesiastical, were transcribed and preserved.

In a gigantic system embracing hundreds of monasteries and thousands of monks, and spread over all the countries of western Europe, without any organic bond between the different houses, and exposed to all the vicissitudes of the wars and conquests of those wild times, to say that the monks often fell short of the ideal of their state, and sometimes short of the Christian, and even the moral standard, is but to say that monks are men. Failures there have been many, and scandals not a few in Benedictine history; but it may be said with truth that there does not appear to have been ever a period of widespread or universal corruption, however much at times and in places primitive love may have waxed cold. And when such declensions occurred, they soon called forth efforts at reform and revival; indeed these constantly recurring reform-movements are one of the most striking features of Benedictine history, and the great proof of the vitality of the institute throughout the ages.

The first of these movements arose during the Carolingian revival (c. 800), and is associated with the name of Benedict of Aniane. Under the auspices of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious he initiated a scheme for federating into one great order, with himself as abbot general, all the monasteries of Charles's empire, and for enforcing throughout a rigid uniformity in observance. For this purpose a synod of abbots was assembled at Aix-la-Chapelle in 817, and a series of 80 _Capitula_ passed, regulating the life of the monasteries. The scheme as a whole was short-lived and did not survive its originator; but the _Capitula_ were commonly recognized as supplying a useful and much-needed supplement to St Benedict's Rule on points not sufficiently provided for therein. Accordingly these _Capitula_ exercised a wide influence among Benedictines even outside the empire. And Benedict of Aniane's ideas of organization found embodiment a century later in the order of Cluny (910), which for a time overshadowed the great body of mere Benedictines (see CLUNY). Here it will suffice to say that the most distinctive features of the Cluny system were (1) a notable increase and prolongation of the church services, which came to take up the greater part of the working day; (2) a strongly centralized government, whereby the houses of the order in their hundreds were strictly subject to the abbot of Cluny.

Though forming a distinct and separate organism Cluny claimed to be, and was recognized as, a body of Benedictine houses; but from that time onwards arose a number of independent bodies, or "orders," which took the Benedictine Rule as the basis of their life. The more important of these were: in the 11th and 12th centuries, the orders of Camaldulians, Vallombrosians, Fontevrault and the Cistercians, and in the 13th and 14th the Silvestrines, Celestines and Olivetans (see separate articles). The general tendency of these Benedictine offshoots was in the direction of greater austerity of life than was practised by the Black Monks or contemplated by St Benedict's Rule--some of them were semi-eremitical; the most important by far were the Cistercians, whose ground-idea was to reproduce exactly the life of St Benedict's own monastery. These various orders were also organized and governed according to the system of centralized authority devised by St Pachomius (see MONASTICISM) and brought into vogue by Cluny in the West. What has here to be traced is the history of the great body of Benedictine monasteries that held aloof from these separatist movements.

For the first four or five centuries of Benedictine history there was no organic bond between any of the monasteries; each house formed an independent autonomous family, managing its own affairs and subject to no external authority or control except that of the bishop of the diocese. But the influence of Cluny, even on monasteries that did not enter into its organism, was enormous; many adopted Cluny customs and practices and moulded their life and spirit after the model it set; and many such monasteries became in turn centres of revival and reform in many lands, so that during the 10th and 11th centuries arose free unions of monasteries based on a common observance derived from a central abbey. Fleury and Hirsau are well-known examples. Basing themselves on St Gregory's counsel to St Augustine, Dunstan, Aethelwold and Oswald adopted from the observance of foreign monasteries, and notably Fleury and Ghent, what was suitable for the restoration of English monachism, and so produced the _Concordia Regularis_, interesting as the first serious attempt to bring about uniformity of observance among the monasteries of an entire nation. In the course of the 12th century sporadic and limited unions of Black Monk monasteries arose in different parts. But notwithstanding all these movements, the majority of the great Black Monk abbeys continued to the end of the 12th century in their primeval isolation. But in the year 1215, at the fourth Lateran council, were made regulations destined profoundly to modify Benedictine polity and history. It was decreed that the Benedictine houses of each ecclesiastical province should henceforth be federated for the purposes of mutual help and the maintenance of discipline, and that for these ends the abbots should every third year meet in a provincial chapter (or synod), in order to pass laws binding on all and to appoint visitors who, in addition to the bishops, should canonically visit the monasteries and report on their condition in spirituals and temporals to the ensuing chapter. The English monks took the lead in carrying out this legislation, and in 1218 the first chapter of the province of Canterbury was held at Oxford, and up to the dissolution under Henry VIII. the triennial chapters took place with wonderful regularity. Fitful attempts were made elsewhere to carry out the decrees, and in 1336 Benedict XII. by the bull _Benedictina_ tried to give further development to the system and to secure its general observance. The organization of the Benedictine houses into provinces or chapters under this legislation interfered in the least possible degree with the Benedictine tradition of mutual independence of the houses; the provinces were loose federations of autonomous houses, the legislative power of the chapter and the canonical visitations being the only forms of external interference. The English Benedictines never advanced farther along the path of centralization; up to their destruction this polity remained in operation among them, and proved itself by its results to be well adapted to the conditions of the Benedictine Rule and life.

In other lands things did not on the whole go so well, and many causes at work during the later middle ages tended to bring about relaxation in the Benedictine houses; above all the vicious system of commendatory abbots, rife everywhere except in England. And so in the period of the reforming councils of Constance and Basel the state of the religious orders was seriously taken in hand, and in response to the public demand for reforming the Church, "in head and members," reform movements were set on foot, as among others, so among the Benedictines of various parts of Europe. These movements issued in the congregational system which is the present polity among Benedictines. In the German lands, where the most typical congregation was the Bursfeld Union (1446), which finally embraced over 100 monasteries throughout Germany, the system was kept on the lines of the Lateran decree and the bull _Benedictina_, and received only some further developments in the direction of greater organization; but in Italy the congregation of S. Justina at Padua (1421), afterwards called the Cassinese, departed altogether from the old lines, setting up a highly centralized government, after the model of the Italian republics, whereby the autonomy of the monasteries was destroyed, and they were subjected to the authority of a central governing board. With various modifications or restrictions this latter system was imported into all the Latin lands, into Spain and Portugal, and thence into Brazil, and into Lorraine and France, where the celebrated congregation of St Maur (see MAURISTS) was formed early in the 17th century. During this century the Benedictine houses in many parts of Catholic Europe united themselves into congregations, usually characterized by an austerity that was due to the Tridentine reform movement.

In England the Benedictines had, from every point of view, flourished exceedingly. At the time of the Dissolution there were nearly 300 Black Benedictine houses, great and small, men and women, including most of the chief religious houses of the land (for lists see tables and maps in Gasquet's _English Monastic Life_, and _Catholic Dictionary_, art. "Benedictines"). It is now hardly necessary to say that the grave charges brought against the monks are no longer credited by serious historians (Gasquet, _Henry VIII. and the Monasteries_; J. Gairdner, Prefaces to the relevant volumes of _Calendars of State Papers of Henry VIII._). In Mary's reign some of the surviving monks were brought together, and Westminster Abbey was restored. Of the monks professed there during this momentary revival, one, Sigebert Buckley, lived on into the reign of James I.; and being the only survivor of the Benedictines of England, he in 1607 invested with the English habit and affiliated to Westminster Abbey and to the English congregation two English priests, already Benedictines in the Italian congregation. By this act the old English Benedictine line was perpetuated; and in 1619 a number of English monks professed in Spain were aggregated by pontifical act to these representatives of the old English Benedictines, and thus was constituted the present English Benedictine congregation. Three or four monasteries of the revived English Benedictines were established on the continent at the beginning of the 17th century, and remained there till driven back to England by the French Revolution.

The Reformation and the religious wars spread havoc among the Benedictines in many parts of northern Europe; and as a consequence, in part of the rule of Joseph II. of Austria, in part of the French Revolution, nearly every Benedictine monastery in Europe was suppressed--it is said that in the early years of the 19th century scarcely thirty in all survived. But the latter half of the century witnessed a series of remarkable revivals, and first in Bavaria, under the influence of Louis I. The French congregation (which does not enjoy continuity with the Maurists) was inaugurated by Dom Gueranger in 1833, and the German congregation of Beuron in 1863. Two vigorous congregations have arisen in the United States. These are all new creations since 1830. In Italy, Spain, Portugal and Brazil only a few monasteries survive the various revolutions, and in a crippled state; but signs are not wanting of renewed life: St Benedict's own monasteries of Subiaco and Monte Cassino are relatively flourishing. In Austria, Hungary and Switzerland there are some thirty great abbeys, most of which have had a continued existence since the middle ages. The English congregation is composed of three large abbeys (Downside, Ampleforth and Woolhampton), a cathedral priory (Hereford) and a nunnery (Stanbrook Abbey, Worcester); there are besides in England three or four abbeys belonging to foreign congregations, and several nunneries subject to the bishops. Each congregation has its president, who is merely a president, with limited powers, and not a general superior like the Provincials of other orders; so that the primitive Benedictine principle of each monastery being self-contained and autonomous is preserved. Similarly each congregation is independent and self-governing, there being no superior-general or central authority, as in other orders. Leo XIII. established an international Benedictine College in Rome for theological studies, and conferred on its abbot the title of "Abbot Primate," with precedence among Black Monk abbots. He is only _primus inter pares_, and exercises no kind of superiority over the other abbots or congregations. Thus the Benedictine polity may be described as a number of autonomous federations of autonomous monasteries. The individual monks, too, belong not to the order or the congregation, but each to the monastery in which he became a monk. The chief external work of the Benedictines at the present day is secondary education; there are 114 secondary schools or _gymnasia_ attached to the abbeys, wherein the monks teach over 12,000 boys; and many of the nunneries have girls' schools. In certain countries (among them England) where there is a dearth of secular priests, Benedictines undertake parochial work.

The statistics of the order (1905) show that of Black Benedictines there are over 4000 choir-monks and nearly 2000 lay brothers--figures that have more than doubled since 1880. If the Cistercians and lesser offshoots of the order be added, the sum total of choir-monks and lay brothers exceeds 11,000.

In conclusion a word must be said on the Benedictine nuns. From the beginning the number of women living the Benedictine life has not fallen far short of that of the men. St Gregory describes St Benedict's sister Scholastica as a nun (_sanctimonialis_), and she is looked upon as the foundress of Benedictine nuns. As the institute spread to other lands nunneries arose on all sides, and nowhere were the Benedictine nuns more numerous or more remarkable than in England, from Saxon times to the Reformation. A strong type of womanhood is revealed in the correspondence of St Boniface with various Saxon Benedictine nuns, some in England and some who accompanied him to the continent and there established great convents. In the early times the Benedictine nuns were not strictly enclosed, and could, when occasion called for it, freely go out of their convent walls to perform any special work: on the other hand, they did not resemble the modern active congregations of women, whose ordinary work lies outside the convent. It has to be said that in the course of the middle ages, especially the later middle ages, grave disorders arose in many convents; and this doubtless led, in the reform movements initiated by the councils of Constance and Basel, and later of Trent, to the introduction of strict enclosure in Benedictine convents, which now is the almost universal practice. At the present day there are of Black Benedictine nuns 262 convents with 7000 nuns, the large majority being directly subject to the diocesan bishops; if the Cistercians and others be included, there are 387 convents with nearly 11,000 nuns. In England there are a dozen Benedictine nunneries.

AUTHORITIES--The chief general authority for Benedictine history up to
the middle of the 12th century is Mabillon's _Annales_, in 6 vols.
folio; for the later period no such general work exists, but the
various countries, congregations or even abbeys have to be taken
separately. Montalembert's _Monks of the West_ gives the early history
very fully; the later history, to the beginning of the 18th century,
may be found in Helyot, _Hist. des ordres religieux_, v. and vi.
(1792). A useful sketch, with references to the best literature, is in
Max Heimbucher, _Orden und Kongregationen_ (1896), i. SS 17-28; see
also the article "Benedictinerorden" in Wetzer u. Welter,
_Kirchenlexicon_ (2nd ed.), and "Benedikt von Nursia und der
Benediktinerorden," in Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopadie_ (3rd ed.). For
England see Ethelred Taunton, _English Black Monks_ (1897); and for
the modern history (19th century) the series entitled "Succisa
Virescit" in the _Downside Review_, 1880 onwards, by J.G. Dolan. On
the inner spirit and working of the institute see F.A. Gasquet,
_Sketch of Monastic Constitutional History_ (being the preface to the
2nd ed., 1895, of the trans. of Montalembert) and _English Monastic
Life_ (1904); and Newman's two essays on the Benedictines, among the
_Historical Sketches_. On Benedictine nuns much will be found in the
above-mentioned authorities, and also in Lina Eckenstein, _Woman in
Monasticism_ (1896). On Benedictines and the Arts see F.H. Kraus,
_Geschichte der christlichen Kunst_ (Freiburg-i-B., 1896-1897).
(E. C. B.)

BENEDICTION (Lat. _benedictio_, from _benedicere_, to bless), generally, the utterance of a blessing or of a devout wish for the prosperity and happiness of a person or enterprise. In the usage of the Catholic Church, both East and West, though the benediction as defined above has its place as between one Christian and another, it has also a special place in the sacramental system in virtue of the special powers of blessing vested in the priesthood. Sacerdotal benedictions are not indeed sacraments--means of grace ordained by Christ himself,--but sacramentals (_sacramenta minora_) ordained by the authority of the Church and exercised by the priests, as the plenipotentiaries of God, in virtue of the powers conferred on them at their ordination; "that whatever they bless may be blessed, and whatever they consecrate may be consecrated." The power to bless in this ecclesiastical sense is reserved to priests alone; the blessing of the paschal candle on Holy Saturday by the deacon being the one exception that proves the rule, for he uses for the purpose grains of incense previously blessed by the priest at the altar. But though by some the benediction has thus been brought into connexion with the supreme means of grace, the sacrifice of the Mass, the blessing does not in itself confer grace and does not act on its recipients _ex opere operato_. It must not be supposed, however, that the Catholic idea of a sacerdotal blessing has anything of the vague character associated with a benediction by Protestants. Both by Catholics and by Protestants blessings may be applied to things inanimate as well as animate; but while in the reformed Churches this involves no more than an appeal to God for a special blessing, or a solemn "setting apart" of persons or objects for sacred purposes, in the Catholic idea it implies a special power, conferred by God, of the priests over the invisible forces of evil. It thus stands in the closest relation to the rite of exorcism, of which it is the complement.

According to Catholic doctrine, the Fall involved the subjection, not only of man, but of all things animate and inanimate, to the influence of evil spirits; in support of which St Paul's epistles to the Romans (viii.) and to Timothy (1 Tim. iv. 4-5) are quoted. This belief is, of course, not specifically Christian; it has been held at all times and everywhere by men of the most various races and creeds; and, if there be any validity in the contention that that is true which has been held _semper, ubique, et ab omnibus_, no fact is better established. In general it may be said, then, that whereas exorcism is practised in order to cast out devils already in possession, benediction is the formula by which they are prevented from entering in. Protestants have condemned these formulae as so much magic, and in this modern science tends to agree with them; but to orthodox Protestants at least Catholics have a perfect right to reply that, in taking this line, they are but repeating the accusation brought by the Pharisees against Christ, viz. that he cast out devils "by Beelzebub, prince of the devils."

Though, however, the discomfiture of malignant spirits still plays an important part in the Catholic doctrine of benedictions, this has on the whole tended to become subordinated to other benefits. This is but natural; for, though the progress of knowledge has not disproved the existence of devils, it has greatly limited the supposed range of their activities. According to Father Patrick Morrisroe, dean and professor of liturgy at Maynooth, the efficacy of benedictions is fourfold: (1) the excitation of pious emotions and affections of the heart, and by their means the remission of venial sins and of the temporal punishments due for these; (2) freedom from the power of evil spirits; (3) preservation and restoration of bodily health; (4) various other benefits, temporal and spiritual. Benedictions, moreover, are twofold: (a) invocative, i.e. those invoking the divine benignity for persons and things without changing their condition, e.g. children or food; (b) constitutive, i.e. those which give to persons or things an indelible religious character, i.e. monks and nuns, or the furniture of the altar. The second of these brings the act of benediction into contact with the principle of consecration (q.v.); for by the formal blessing by the duly constituted authority persons, places and things are consecrated, i.e. reserved to sacred uses and preserved from the contaminating influence of evil spirits. Thus graveyards are consecrated, i.e. solemnly blessed in order that the powers of evil may not disturb the bodies of the faithful departed; thus, too, the blessing of bells gives them a special power against evil demons.

Though the giving of blessings as a sacerdotal function is proper to the whole order of priests, particular benedictions have, by ecclesiastical authority, been reserved for the bishops, who may, however, delegate some of them; i.e. the benediction of abbots, of priests at their ordination, of virgins taking the veil, of churches, cemeteries, oratories, and of all articles for use in connexion with the altar (chalices, patens, vestments, &c.), of military colours, of soldiers and of their arms. The holy oil is also blessed by bishops in the Roman Catholic Church; in the Greek Church, on the other hand, the oil for the chrism at baptism is blessed by the priest. To the pope alone is reserved the blessing of the pallium, the golden rose, the "Agnus-Dei" and royal swords; he alone, too, can issue blessings that involve some days' indulgence. The ceremonies prescribed for the various benedictions are set forth in the _Rituale Romanum_ (tit. viii.). In general it is laid down (cap. i.) that the priest, in benedictions outside the Mass, shall be vested in surplice and stole, and shall give the blessing standing and bare-headed. Certain prayers are said before each benediction, after which he sprinkles the person or thing to be blessed with holy water and, where prescribed, censes them. He is attended by a minister with a vase of holy water, an _aspergillum_ and a copy of the _Rituale_ or missal. In all benedictions the sign of the cross is made. In the blessing of the holy water (cap. ii.), the essential instrument of all benedictions, the object is dearly to establish its potency against evil spirits. First the "creature of salt" is exorcized, "that ... thou mayest be to all who take thee health of body and soul; that wherever thou art sprinkled every phantasy and wickedness and wile of diabolic deceit may flee and leave that place, and every unclean spirit"; a prayer to God for the blessing of the salt follows; then the "creature of water" is exorcized, "that thou mayest become exorcized water for the purpose of putting to flight every power of the enemy, that thou mayest avail to uproot and expel this enemy with all his apostate angels, by the virtue of the same our Lord Jesus Christ, &c."; and again a prayer to God follows that the water may "become a creature in the service of His mysteries, for the driving out of demons, &c." In the formulae of blessings that follow, the special efficacy against devils is implied by the aspersion with holy water; the benedictions themselves are usually merely invocative of the divine protection or assistance, though, e.g., in the form for blessing sick animals the priest prays that "all diabolic power in them may be destroyed, and that they may be ill no longer." It is to be remarked that the "laying on of hands," which in the Old and the New Testament alike is the usual "form" of blessing, is not used in liturgical benedictions, the priest being directed merely to extend his right hand towards the person to be blessed. The appendix _de Benedictionibus_ to the _Rituale Romanum_ contains formulae, often of much simple beauty, for blessing all manner of persons and things, from the congregation as a whole and sick men and women, to railways, ships, blast-furnaces, lime-kilns, articles of food, medicine and medical bandages and all manner of domestic animals.

The _Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament_, commonly called simply "Benediction" (Fr. _salut_, Ger. _Segen_), is one of the most popular of the services of the Roman Catholic Church. It is usually held in the afternoon or evening, sometimes at the conclusion of Vespers, Compline or the Stations of the Cross, and consists in the singing of certain hymns and canticles, more particularly the _O salutaris hostia_ and the _Tantum ergo_, before the host, which is exposed on the altar in a monstrance and surrounded by not less than ten lighted candles. Often litanies and hymns to the Virgin are added. At the conclusion the priest, his shoulders wrapped in the humeral veil, takes the monstrance and with it makes the sign of the cross over the kneeling congregation, whence the name Benediction. The service, the details of which vary in different countries, is of comparatively modern origin. Father Thurston traces it to a combination in the 16th and 17th centuries of customs that had their origin in the 13th, i.e. certain gild services in honour of the Blessed Virgin, and the growing habit, resulting naturally from the doctrine of transubstantiation, of ascribing a supreme virtue to the act of looking on the Holy Sacrament.

In the reformed Churches the word "benediction" is technically confined to the blessing with which the priest or minister dismisses the congregation at the close of the service.

See the article "Benediktionen," by E.C. Achelis in Herzog-Hauck,
_Realencyklopadie_ (Leipzig, 1897); _The Catholic Encyclopaedia_
(London and New York, 1908) s. "Blessing," by P. Morrisroe, and
"Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament," by Herbert Thurston, S.J.; in
all of which further authorities are cited.

BENEDICTUS, the hymn of Zacharias (Luke i. 68 sqq.), so called from the opening word of the Latin version. The hymn has been used in Christian worship since at least the 9th century, and was adopted into the Anglican Order of Morning Prayer from the Roman service of matin-lauds. In the Prayer-Book of 1549 there was no alternative to the _Benedictus_; it was to be used "throughout the whole year." In 1552 the _Jubilate_ was inserted without any restriction as to how often it should take the place of the _Benedictus_. Such restriction is clearly implied in the words "except when that (Benedictus) shall happen to be read in the chapter for the day, or for the Gospel on Saint John Baptist's day," which were inserted in 1662. The rubric of 1532 had this curious wording: "And after the Second Lesson shall be used and said, Benedictus in English, as followeth."

The name is also given to a part of the Roman Catholic mass service beginning _Benedictus qui venit_.