her disciple of B. Robert of
Arbrissel, in 1109, in the forest of Tiron, in Le Perche. It parsed
into the Congregation of St. Maur, in 1629. These of Savigni and
Tiron had formerly several houses in England. The Congregation of
Bursfield in Germany, was established by a Reformation in 1461: that
of Molck, vulgarly Mock, in Austria, in the diocese of Passaw, in
1418: that of Hirsauge, in the diocese of Spire, was instituted by
St. William, abbot of S. Aurel, in 1080. The history of this abbey
was written by Trithemius. After the change of religion it was
secularized, and, by the treaty of Westphalia, ceded to the duke of
Wirtemberg. The independent great Benedictin abbeys in Flanders,
form a Congregation subject only to the Pope, but the abbots hold
assemblies to judge appeals, in which the abbot of St. Vaast of Arms
is president. The Congregation of Monte-Virgine, in Italy, was
instituted by St. William, in 1119. That of St. Benedict's of
Valladolid, in Spain, dates its establishment in 1390. In England,
archbishop Lanfranc united the Benedictin monasteries in one
Congregation, which began from that time to hold regular general
chapters, and for some time bore his name. This union was made
stricter by many new regulations in 1335, under the name of the
Black Monks. It is one of the most illustrious of all the orders, or
bodies of religious men, that have ever adorned the Church, and, in
spite of the most grievous persecutions, still subsists. The
congregation of Benedictin nuns of Mount Calvary owes it original to
a Reformation, according to the primitive austerity of this order,
introduced first in the nunnery at Poitiers, in 1614, by the abbess
Antoinette of Orleans, with the assistance of the famous F. Joseph,
the Capuchin. It has two houses at Paris, and eighteen others in
several parts of France. See Helyot, t. {} and 6. Calmet, Comment.
sur la Regle de St. Benoit, t. 2, p. 525. Hermant Schoonbeck, &c.
10. St. Greg. Dial. l. 2, c. 12; Dom. Mege, p. 180.
11. Procop. l. 3, de Bello Gothico. Baronius, &c.
12. Exitum suum Dominici corporis et sanguinis perceptione communivit.
St. Greg. Dial. b. 2, c.37.
13. Some have related that Aigulph, a monk of Fleury, and certain
citizens from Mans, going to Mount Cassino in 653, when that
monastery lay in ruins, brought thence the remains of St. Benedict