VALLO
262
VALLUMBROSAN
Innocent III, on 12 February, 1205, in a rescript pre-
served (in connexion with one of the Scottish houses)
in the Register of Moray, and entitled "Protectio
Apostolica". In the same year Odo III, Duke of
Burgundy, gave the brethren a large grant of forest
land round the priory, which was further endowed
by the Duke's successors, by the Bishops of Langres,
and other benefactors. Hclyot states, on the author-
ity of Chopin (Traitc des droits religieux et des mo-
nasteres, II, tit. i., no. 20), that there were thirty de-
pendent houses of the order, but the names of only
twenty are known. Seventeen of these were in France,
the principal one being at Val-Croissant, in the Diocese
of Autun; and the remaining three were in Scotland.
References in the statutes of 12t)8 and elsewhere show
that priories of the order existed also in Germany.
A complete list of the priors-general has been pre-
served, from the founder Viard (also styled Guido),
who died after 1213, to Dorothfie Jallontz, who was
also abbot of the Cistercian house of Sept-Fons, and
was the last grand-prior of Val-des-Choux before the
absorption of the Valliscaulian brotherhood into the
Cistercian Order. In the middle of the eighteenth
century there were but three inmates of the mother-
house; the revenues had greatly diminished, and there
had been no profession in the order for twenty-four
years. Gilbert, Bishop of Langres, strongly urged
the remaining members to unite with the Cistercians,
whose rule they had origin.illy, in great part, adopted.
The proposal was agreecl to, the change was authorized
by a Bull of Clement XIII in 1764, and Val-des-Chou\
was formally incorporated with Sept-Fons in March.
1764, the Parliament of Burgundy having previously
ratified the arrangement. For the next quarter of
a century the monastery flourished under its new con-
ditions; but it was swept away in the Revohition of
17,S9, with the other religious houses of France. Of
the three Scottish houses of the order, Ardchattan,
Beauly, and Pluscarden, the first two became Cis-
tercian priories, and the third a cell of the Bene-
dictine Abbey of Dunfermline, a century before the
dissolution of the monasteries in Scotland, (See
Ardchattan, The Priory of; Pluscarden Priory.)
Birch, Ordinah contentus Vallis Caulium (Rule of the Order of Val-des-Chou.\), from the original MSS. (London. 1900); Helyot, Hisioire des ordres monastigues, VI (Paris, 1718), 178-80; MiGNARD, Histoire des principales fandations en Bour- gogne (Paris and Dijon, 1864), 200, 207, 218, 221, etc.; Mac- PHAlL, Hist, of the Religious House of Pluscardyn (Edinburgh, 1881), with illustrations of Val-des-Choux in 1833; Batten, The Charters of the Priori/ of Beauly (Edinburgh, 1877); Registr. Episcopatus Moraviensis (Edinburgh, 1837), 331, 332.
D. O. Hunter-Blair. Vallo. See Capaccio and Vallo, Diocese of.
Vallumbrosan Order. — The name is derived from the motlier-house, Vallombrosa (Latin Vnllis timhrnsa, shady valley), situated 20 miles from Flor- ence on the north-west slope of Monte Secchieta in the Pratomagno chain, 3140 feet above the sea,
I. The Founder. — St. John Gualbert, son of the noble Florentine Gualbert Visdomini, was born in 98,5 (or 995), and died at Passignano, 12 July, 1073, on which day his feast is kept; he was canonized in 1193. One of his relatives having been murdered, it became his duty to avenge the deceased. He met the murderer in a narrow lane and was about to slay him, but when the man threw himself upon the groimd with arms outstretched in the form of a cross, he pardoned him for the love of Christ. On his way home, he entered the Benedictine Church at San Min- iato to pray, and the figure on the crucifix bowed its head to him in recognition of his generosity. This story forms the subject of Burne-Jones's picture "The Merciful Knight", and has been adapted by Shorthouse in "John Inglesant". John Gualbert became a Benedictine at San Miniato, hut left that monastery to lead a more perfect life. His attraction Wivs for the cenobitic not eremitic life, so after staying
for some time with the monks at Camaldoli, he settled
at Vallombrosa, where he founded his monastery.
Mabillon places the foundation a little before 1038.
Here it is said he and his first companions lived for
some years as hermits, but this is rejected by Martene
as inconsistent with his reason for leaving Camaldoli.
The chronology of the early days of Vallombrosa has
been much disputed. The dates given for the found-
er's conversion vary between 1004 and 1039, and
a recent Vallumbrosan writer places his arrival at
Vallombrosa as early as 1008. We reach surer ground
with the consecration of the church bv Bl. Kotho,
The Monastery of Vallombros.\
Bishop of Paderborn, in 1038, and the donation by
Itta, Abbess of the neighbouring monastery of Sant'
EUero, of the site of the new foundation in 1039.
The abbess retained the privilege of nominating the
superiors, but this right was granted to the monks by
Victor II, who confirmed the order in 1056. Two
centuries later, in the time of Alexander IV, the nun-
nery was united to Vallombrosa in spite of the pro-
tests of the nuns.
The holy lives of the first monks at Vallombrosa attracted considerable attention and brought many requests for new foundations, but there were few pos- tulants, since few could endure the extraordinary austerity of the Ufe. Thus only one other monastery, that of San Salvi at Florence, was founded during this period. But when the founder had mitigated his rule somewhat, three more monasteries were foimded and three others reformed and united to the order during his lifetime. In the struggle of the popes against simony the earlj' Vallumbrosans took a con- siderable part, of which the most famous incident is the ordeal by fire undertaken successfully by St. Peter Igneus in 1068 (see Peter Igneus, Blessed, and Delarc, op. cit.). Shortly before this the monas- tery of S. Salvi had been burned and the monks ill- treated by the anti-reform party. These events still further increased the repute of Vallombrosa.
II. Development of the Order. — .After the founder's death the order spread rapidly. A Bull of Urban II in 1090, which takes \allombrosa under the protection of the Holy Sec, rmMner;ites fifteen monas- teries besides the mioIIut-Iiousc. Twelve more are mentioned inaBuU of Paschal II in 1115, and twenty- four others in those of Anastasius IV (11.53) and .\dri:in IV (11,56). By the time of Innocent III they numbered over sixty. All were situated in Italy, except two monasteries in Sardinia. .\l)OUt 1087 Bl. .Vndrew of Vallombrosa (d. 1H2> founded the niona,s- tery of Cornillv in the Dio<-e.se of Orleans, and in 1093 the .\bbcy of Cliez;d-Benoit. which became later the head of a considerable Benedictine congregation.
