RELIGIOSUS ORDO LEO BISHOP SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD

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For perpetual remembrance

Benedictine work in England

The holy order of Saint Benedict has rendered valuable service in many nations both to the Church and to the civil state, but nowhere has it done so much as amongst the English. At the close of the sixth century St. Gregory, who is rightly styled the Apostle of England, sent Benedictine monks to instruct that nation, which was in deplorable ignorance of the gospel, and to bring it into true unity with Christ. By their continual labours, by their great learning, by the striking holiness of their lives, these men, with the help of God, most successfully accomplished their mission: and these same monks introduced into that land the principles and practice of a true and lasting civilization. The English people valued these benefits at their real worth, and ever treated the Benedictine Order with the greatest honour and generosity,so that it is wonderful to see how day by day its houses multiplied and its influence spread over the country, and how the nation, enriched with the precious fruits of civilization and still more of religion, won for itself in the annals of the Church the imperishable renown of holiness.

Destruction of Monasteries: Sigebert Buckley

But in the sixteenth century, in that disastrous and calamitous falling away of England from the Catholic faith, the religious houses were devastated and reduced to ruins, the monks were put to death or scattered, so that by the beginning of the next century, out of so great a number of Benedictines, scarcely more than one survived, viz. Sigebert Buckley. Filled with grief at the fate of his brethren and at the ruin of everything that was best in the land, this monk deliberated whether he could not in some way help his church, his country, and his order. He therefore aggregated to himself some monks from other Benedictine bodies, chose and clothed with the holy habit some young Englishmen, and thus made the beginning of that association or congregation which still flourishes, the English Benedictine; and it is to the labours of this congregation we chiefly owe whatever the Catholic Church was able soon afterwards to restore among that noble people.

Papal approvals of the Congregation

There is no need to say how welcome and pleasing to the Roman Pontiffs were the designs conceived by Sigebert, and the work which he began. Recognizing in them a singular instance of God's providence, they took every care that the congregation, revived with such promise for the salvation of suffering England, should grow and prosper. Paul V in the apostolic letter Cum sicut accepimus of 21 December 1612 greatly extolled it, and provided for its government by appointing nine definitors who were to determine some matters of the congregation which were still in question, and were to draw up suitable constitutions which were to be regarded as laws; when these constitutions were prepared the same pontiff in his letter Ex incumbenti of 23 August 1619 by his apostolic authority approved and fully confirmed them. Urban VIII in the Constitution Plantata of 12 July 1633 further confirmed the acts of his predecessor and granted many privileges to the congregation, and gave it a definite form of government to secure the proper discharge of the work which is called missions. Again Benedict XIV in his Constitution Apostolicum ministerium of 30 May 1753 ratified and confirmed these privileges, and at the same time defined the relations between the missionary monks and the Vicars who had previously been placed over the church in the island. Then Pius IX of happy memory,in the year 1858, after consultation with the General Chapter, took steps to secure that perfect common life should be introduced into the whole congregation, and on 20 May 1860 he ordered that there should be one and the same house for trying the vocations of all who entered the body.

Visitation by Dom Boniface Krug

We ourselves also have had no little care for the English Benedictine Congregation, and it is a pleasure to us to remember how in the year 1881 we delegated as an examiner, or as he is called a visitor, our beloved son Boniface Krug, himself a Benedictine, that in our name he might inquire into the present condition of the Congregation to ascertain whether possibly there was anything which called for our care, and that he might report fully to us. That his report might be examined with the greatest solicitude and prudence, we appointed a special commission of cardinals, who were also to consider and give their opinion as to what would be for the benefit of the whole body, and for the apostolic work of the missions to which the members of the congregation in great measure devote themselves. By rescript of 6 July 1883 we approved of the suggestions which they submitted to us. And now, desiring still further to give evidence of our affection for this congregation and of our zeal for its honour, we have thought that we should be acting most opportunely and most profitably if we removed certain difficulties which prevent it from fully attaining its end.

Source of present difficultiesÄdouble government

As the root of these difficulties is the existing form of government, it seemed to us that this must with prudence be changed so that it may be more in harmony with the conditions of the present day, and may preserve the principles which are peculiar to the Order. For the form of government which now exists was ordered by Urban VIII in the constitution Plantata because at that time there was no monastery in England, and because both the political and religious state of the country prevented there being any: therefore he decreed `that the English congregation thus established shall be governed by one superior called President, who while the schism lasts shall live out of England, and by two provincials living in England, who shall be immediately under the President; and in the same way by the priors of the residences or monasteries out of England; and finally by a fixed number of definitors.' In this way, the jurisdiction over the missions and over the monks serving the missions was withdrawn from the monasteries from which the monks had been taken and to which they had remained attached even when they were doing their missionary work, and was transferred wholly to the two provincials who resided on the missions. Considering the circumstances of the position, this arrangement was certainly wisely made, and was even necessary in order to prevent the missions suffering from a want of government, and also to provide the missioners with a common point and as it were a centre to which in all their affairs they could go. But when the condition of things throughout England changed, and some monasteries began to be restored there, and were governed by their own prelates, it was sure to happen, which indeed soon did happen, that if this system of government continued, many and considerable inconveniences would arise, viz that owing to this kind of double authority the government of the whole congregation would be thrown into utter confusion. At the present moment matters have come to such a pass, that the very peace of the body is in danger; for there are some who call in question whether the English Benedictine Congregation is in its essence and nature monastic or missionary; and again whether the supreme authority belongs to the monasteries, and the missions ought therefore to be subject to the monasteries, or whether the missions are free to carry on their work by their own laws and are exempt from all obedience to the monasteries.

Nature and Ends of the English Congregation

Now it is perfectly clear that the English Benedictine congregation is by its very nature monastic; moreover it is so far missionary in that as it has been accustomed to labour in the other duties of the priesthood, in the same way it has been accustomed to labour in the missions, and from this it is equally clear that the missions ought to be subject to the monasteries, and by no means the monasteries to the missions. Indeed the nature of the congregation and its origin, and the obvious teaching of history absolutely demand this. For as all other orders of religious, so also this congregation aims at and pursues two ends, distinct one from the other: first to lead its members by means of the evangelical counsels to every perfection of soul, undertaking for this purpose those works which its rule declares to be special to it and to be of chief importance: secondly, to perform with thoroughness and care any other works to which the Order is able and chooses to extend the activity of its members.

Since then the essence and nature of an order inheres in the first end,it is from this that the principles and laws which govern the body must certainly be taken, and all other works, whatever they may be, which fall under the second end, must obey and submit to these same laws; the contrary would be preposterous. The essence, then, and the nature of the English Benedictine Congregation, which its rules, constitutions, and its history declare to be altogether monastic, require of their natural right that those who with full jurisdiction rule the monasteries, shall with equal authority rule and govern the congregation in all its parts,in the discharge of its various duties, whether within or beyond the enclosure of the monasteries.

Relation between Mission and Monasteries

It was so in past times. For in the year 596 St.Augustine together with his fellow-monks to the number of forty came at the bidding of St Gregory to England, `that they might convert those nations to Christ', where in most perfect obedience to the will of the pontiff `he appointed no other ministers than monks'. And for this reason the work which he first undertook was the building of a monastery at Canterbury, the chief city, and henceforth from that monastery depended all the government not only as connected with the preservation of regular discipline but also as connected with the exercise of the offices relating to the salvation of souls. This was done because St Gregory had given directions that the Benedictines were to be at the same time apostles and monks, in order that they might have monasteries as the bases of their apostolic work; and he also directed that the abbots were to administer the churches which the monks (for there were no other clergy in the country) would build as the faithful increased From this it resulted that although the monks were most actively engaged in all the duties of the priesthood, yet the supreme authority and government remained in the monasteries with the abbots. At the beginning of the eighth century there were eight noble monasteries in the island; the bishops were taken from these, and although they still lived, as was suitable, in the monasteries, yet the whole of the jurisdiction over the missionary monks remained with the abbot. Under this system of government the Congregation continued to prosper more and more, until in the fifteenth century it included forty-two abbeys and twenty-two priories; and it maintained its uninterrupted course until its destruction in the following century. Now the existing Congregation in England is to be regarded as exactly the same as that former one, since it was restored by a survivor of those old monks, and has the same end, viz the christian instruction of the English; for what their forefathers did for the English by drawing them out of pagan degradation and superstition, these latter monks labour to accomplish by bringing them back to the Catholic faith.

In Plantata, and in other Congregations

For this reason our predecessors, most liberal patrons of this congregation, have never at any time by their decrees even appeared to wish to introduce into the body any form of government of a different nature; indeed the contrary can be plainly seen from a careful and accurate examination of this very constitution Plantata. For because during the time when the monasteries were not permitted in England, the superiors of the monks were unable to be in that country to rule, as should be the case, the Benedictine missionaries with their watchfulness and instructions, therefore Urban provided that two provincials should be appointed and devote themselves to this care. But that this arrangement was not to last for ever but was a provisional departure from the ordinary rule, to endure and to be valid for so long as it was necessary to yield to the conditions of the times, may be seen quite well from more than one place of this same constitution: as where it is ordered that `the President shall reside out of England during the schism': where again, it is permitted that the Congregation may be governed `by priors of residences or monasteries out of England', which things are surely to be regarded as a permission, and a temporary favour, to last for such time as the priors were kept out of the sphere of their authority. There is this further evidence, viz that the same pontiff decreed that the congregation retained intact all the privileges, favours, indults, faculties and prerogatives of the order and Congregation of black monks of St Benedict and of its monasteries in England, and amongst these the cathedral rights of nine churches: by which decree the pontiff, tacitly certainly, but very forcibly, affirmed that the administration of all ecclesiastical cures and churches to which the Benedictines gave their services belonged to the monasteries of these monks (if ever they should be restored to their full rights), just as they did before the schism: so far from the truth then is it that Urban by this Constitution opposed the monastic authority. There is this further evidence again, viz that it is the universal custom of the Benedictine order; for amongst the other branches of the same order, if they possess any jurisdiction over missions and Benedictine missionaries, this authority is given to no one save to the superiors of the monasteries; and the whole world knows that there are abbeys which not only have the care of their own convent, but which have jurisdiction over many external churches and ecclesiastical cures and administer them under every aspect.

Some advantages of the change now made

Moreover this system in which the authority is combined and harmonized in such a way that the missions are in obedience to monasteries is also most desirable on account of the very great benefits which result alike both to the one and to the other. For the monasteries, as is known to all, are not flourishing at present either in good discipline or the higher studies, and the reason of this is to be attributed not to the members of the monasteries as if they were wanting in good will and energy, but undoubtedly to the want of means and of men, and to the over- burden of work which results from this: the best remedy for these evils is to be found in the authority of one superior who will treat all interests with due consideration. Similar and possibly greater advantages will result to the missions. For that they may prosper and be productive of real good, the mere ministry of monks is not sufficient, but what is still more wanted is the example of their holy lives, for this example has a marvellous power in convincing the world of truth and in leading men to virtue: and although there are already such labourers in the vineyard of the Gospel, devoted and good men, yet they will increase in number and enjoy greater influence, in proportion as the safeguards of good training increase in the monasteries and the perfection of community life shines forth. Further, there is a vast field of usefulness at hand for the missions in literary work, a field in which the Benedictine order throughout all ages has laboured with such renown; to this same work the English Congregation with united hearts and efforts, with its studies raised and carried higher, will be able to devote itself with honour and great usefulness; for writings of learned character and literary merit do much good in England, where they are sought for and esteemed by men of culture, where they win approbation for Catholic writers, beget reverence for the Roman Church, and not infrequently lead back wanderers to her fold. Further, that laborious and important work of teaching the young both in grammar schools and in colleges, to which the missioners devote themselves, will greatly profit by a closer connection with the monasteries, so that a better class of work will be done, the schools will be held in greater estimation and become in many ways more useful to the state.

Explanation of Rescript of 1883 Modifying Plantata

It was to secure this end, viz to make one body of the monasteries and the missions, by bringing the missionary monks under the jurisdiction of the superiors of the monasteries, as being the higher authority, that the special commission of cardinals gave the answers which we confirmed with our authority. For although to the first question, `whether and in what manner the Urban constitution Plantata relating to the Anglo-Benedictine Congregation should be derogated from, &c' the answer given was that `it seemed that it ought not to be derogated from', yet this answer was not given as if that system of government did not appear to require any alteration or modification, but rather because it was hoped that a request of this kind would emanate from the monks themselves, who frequently on previous occasions had professed themselves anxious readily to obey and carefully to carry out the wishes of the Apostolic See no less than its admonitions and orders, and they could not have given any evidence more marked or more acceptable to us of their affection and zeal for this Apostolic See, and for their own congregation.

New Missions, Studies, Superiors, General Chapter

Now our intention and wish was sufficiently understood and explained in the following answers to the remaining questions. Namely, to the second question which stood thus, `whether and how the missions and the course of studies are to be provided for, and whether for this end the law that there shall be one and the same house of training is to be retained?', the answer given was, `We wish provision to be made in the following way, that in the future no more missions be taken except with the permission of the Apostolic See, and that the monks selected for the missions must be men of approved learning and goodness; that the President, Definitors and Provincials shall reside in monasteries; that the course and regulation of the studies shall conform to the law of the Constitutions (c. xvii), with this additional counsel, that the students who show the greatest promise shall be sent to Rome, in order that their studies may be more complete and thorough; that there shall be one house of training for all; that the conventus or General Chapter shall be made up of those titulars only who hold jurisdiction'.

These instructions and declarations of our will were, each of them, most admirably adapted to bring about what we valued and desired, the peace and welfare of the whole Congregation. For in the first place, in order that further burdens might not be added to those by which the monasteries had been exhausted and almost destroyed and are left in a state of weakness, it was provided that in the future no missions were to be undertaken except with the permission of the Holy See. Then, to prevent monks who were too young, being sent to undertake missionary work, for such would not be sufficiently educated, nor formed by good discipline, and also to prevent the general duties in the monasteries being neglected on account of the small number of monks, it was ordered that this missionary work should be given only to those monks who were of approved knowledge and goodness. Again, to stir up zeal in the pursuit of knowledge and to bring back the studies to their former prestige, it was ordered that the course of studies should be carried out in conformity with the excellent standard laid down in the Constitutions, and that for religious of greater ability a higher course should be secured at Rome. So again to bring about the union of the conventual and missionary monks, and to fix the government of the missions and of the whole Congregation in the monasteries,the President, Definitors, and Provincials were ordered to live in the monasteries and according to rule; so that they might be convinced that the two forms of life, the monastic and the missionary, are perfectly consistent. And once more, in order that all the brethren might learn early in their religious life that they had one common object in view, although attained through various works, the direction regarding the single house for trying and training novices was confirmed. Finally, to prevent the conventuals being in a minority at the General Chapters on account of the excessive number of missioners, the precaution was taken of abolishing the custom by which titulars, as they are called, ie those who had no jurisdiction, were allowed the right to attend the chapter and to vote, and this right was properly given to those who held office with jurisdiction.

Revision of Constitutions

For the same reason this special commission of cardinals in reply to the fifth question, `whether and how the Anglo-Benedictine constitutions are to be reformed', answered that they thought they ought to be reformed, in this sense, that five men shall be chosen from the Congregation itself, viz the President-general and four monk sunder him called to advise him, and that it shall be their duty to revise the Constitutions and report what changes they think are required, yet preserving their substance; and in this revision they must provide for the answers given to the foregoing five questions, for the recent decrees super statu Regularium in reference to the reception and profession of novices, and for the altered condition of civil and religious life in England: and finally reform them in such a way that while the Congregation retains intact its missionary institute, it shall yet give up nothing at all of its religious spirit and zeal for the monastic rule given by St Benedict. Indeed it shall cultivate these daily with greater earnestness. From all this it certainly followed that any regulation at all which is not in harmony with the rule of the holy Legislator, and which had been occasioned by some necessity arising from the difficulties of the times, ought to be removed in future from the Constitutions and abrogated, now that the condition of the country is altered and has become peaceful.

Guided by such motives, and to secure the protection Ä and the development - of the Anglo-Benedictine Congregation and its greater prosperity by bringing about an agreement of purpose and unity in the endeavours of the monks; and in order that the body may advance with increased energy towards the renown which attended the earlier Congregation of which this is the continuation, in order further that its labours for the advancement of the missions may be productive of still richer harvests, therefore by our Apostolic Authority we decree and order as follows:

• Derogating from the constitution Plantata of Urban VIII in that part which relates to the government of the Benedictine Congregation and missionaries in England, we abolish and declare to be abolished the office of provincials and in like manner the two missionary provinces.

• The missions which are now in England, and as many others as may with the consent of the Apostolic See be there established by members of the Congregation, all these are to be joined with the monasteries, and are to be governed by the superiors of the monasteries, under whose jurisdiction both in things spiritual and temporal we place both the missions and the missioners: saving however, the rights which by the sacred canons and apostolic constitutions are reserved to the bishops and other ordinaries.

• The special faculties and privileges of the provincials or of the definitors, so far as they relate to the care of the missions and missioners, in what way so ever granted to them, whether by the Apostolic See, or by General Chapter or by Constitutions, all these we transfer to the superiors of the monasteries, so that they and their councils enjoy all the faculties and privileges which up to this time have been enjoyed by the former.

• But these Superiors are under obedience to the President- general and his council in those matters also which relate to the missions and missionaries: and they may not send any monk to the mission except with their knowledge and consent.

• The President-general and his council shall take care that the young religious shall pass through a solid course of studies and monastic training, and they shall not permit of anyone being sent to the mission whose fitness for the work both in character and capacity they have not investigated; and if there are not enough members of the Congregation fitted for the work, they shall see that their place is supplied by vicars from the secular clergy.

• The president general shall take advice of the superiors of the houses and make provision for the missioners being able to retire every year to their respective monasteries, and to remain there for some time, not less than a month, that by following a stricter rule and a fixed course of spiritual duties they may renew and strengthen their good resolutions.

• Further, we order that as soon as possible a special commission be assembled consisting of the President-general as moderator, of the actual superiors of the monasteries and of three monks known specially for their prudence as well as for their learning, whom the President shall select from those who are serving the missions. The following are the instructions for this commission:

First, it shall allot to the various monasteries the missions which are already established; and it has authority to found even new monasteries for the common benefit of the missions;

Second, it shall take the sums of money, which have been deposited with the provincials for the administration of the missions, and give them in equal shares to the monasteries, by whom in future they shall be administered in accordance with our constitution Romanos Pontifices, issued on 8 May, 1881;

Third, they shall prepare a new arrangement of the Constitutions, and in making this arrangement they shall adhere to the decrees of this present constitution, they shall have careful regard to those things which have been previously ordered concerning full and canonical observance of common life, the maintenance of the single house of novitiate, the residence of the President-general and his council in the monasteries, and concerning those who are to be called to the General Chapters, and shall not overlook the recent decrees super statu Regularium regarding the reception and profession of novices. The first and second of these directions must be carried out by this commission within six months from the date of this constitution, and the third within a year.

Therefore we will and command that everything which is decreed and published and ordered by this letter shall be observed by all those whom it concerns, and may not be censured, made void nor called into controversy on any ground, colour, or pretext, even privileged, but shall have its full and entire effect, notwithstanding any previous rules (so far as this is necessary) of our and the Apostolic Chancery, or constitutions of Urban VIII or of other Pontiffs, even if issued in general and provincial councils, also any statutes, customs, prescriptions of any kind although confirmed by Apostolic or by any other authority whatsoever; all which, just as if they had been inserted word for word in this letter, are in particular and expressly, for the purposes of this letter, derogated, and declared derogated, and all things else to the contrary notwithstanding.

Given at Rome at St. Peter's in the year of our Lord 1890, 12 November, in the thirteenth year of our pontificate.

A. Card. Bianchi pro-Datary M. Card. Ledochowski Seen on behalf of the Curia I.de Aquila de Visconti The place of the seal

Registered in the Secretariate of Briefs I. Cygnoni c.4800 words

Translation: Abbot Justin McCann ca.1935
Updated: 8 March 2006           Contact Editor