SAINT ALBANS
329
SAINT ALBERT
called to the Conference of Poissy held in 1561 be-
tween the Catholics and the Huguenots, at which
Theodore of Beza and Father Lainez, general of the
Jesuits, were present. He was afterwards deputed to
the Council of Trent to represent, with Simon Vigor,
the University of Paris. Upon his return he acquired
a notable reputation by his sermons and his discussions
with Protestants. He published a work against their
spoUation of Catholic churches and a vigorous dec-
laration against the doctrines of Calvin and Theodore
of Beza; the latter replied and drew upon himself a
new attack from Claude de Sainotes. At the same
time he charged the King of France by his treatise on
"L'ancien naturel des Frangais" never to tolerate
heretics and against these latter he defended the
dogma of the Church by an exhaustive treatise on the
Eucharist. Through the patronage of the Cardinal of
Lorraine, he was appointed to the Bi.shopric of Evreux
(1575). He was very zealous in his efforts to convert
Protestants. He assisted at the provincial Council of
Rouen (1581) and published its records in P>ench.
When the League became active he took sides with it
and worked to gain partisans; but the royal troops
took possession of Evreux and the bishop was forced
to flee. Unfortunately for him there were found
among his papers writings in which he approved the
murder of Henry III and maintained that one could
likewise kill his successor. Arrested and arraigned
before the Parlement of Caen, lie was condenmed to
death as guilty of high treiuson. At the request of the
Cardinal of Bourbon and of several bishops, Henry IV
commuted his sentence to life imprisonment, and he
was confined in the chateau of Crevccoeiir where he
died two months later. His works were published,
some in Latin and others in J'rench. The more im-
portant are: "Liturgia; sive missa; SS. Patrum Ja-
fobi, Basilii J. Chry.sostomi " (Greek-Latin, Paris,
15fi0); "Discours sur le saccagement des eglises cath-
oliques par les heretiques anciens et nouveaux cal-
vinistes" (Paris, 1562); "Traite de Tancien naturel
des Frangais en hi religion chn'tlenne" (Paris, 1567);
"Declaration d'anciens atlirisincs lic la doctrine (U>
Calvin et de Beze contre les premiers fontienicnts de !a
chretiente" (Paris, 1567); "De rebus Eucharistiaj
controversis libri X" (Paris, 1575).
PUPIN. flist. des auteurs erclesiastiques du X VI' fiiicli', IV (Paris, 1703), 539; Hurter, Nomencl.
AxToixE Degert
Saint Albans, Abbey of, in Hertfordshire, England, founded about 793 by Offa, king of the Mercians. Venerable Bede (Hist. Eccles.. I, vii), writing at the beginning of the eighth century, speaks of a church, existing at that date, of v/ondei-ful work- manship and worthy of the martyrdom it commem- orated. Offa's monaster^' seems to have been at- tached to this church, which he repaired, having personally obtained the papal approval for his foimdation. Willcgod, a relation of the king, was made abbot. By the year 1000 the old church was evidently in a dilapidated state again and Ealdred and Eadmer, the eighth and ninth abbots, collected materials to build a new church from the ruins of the Roman city of Verulam. The actual building w;is only begun in 1077, when Abbot Paul of Caen, a relative of Archbishop Lanfranc, undertook the work with such energy that the whole church was com- pleted in eleven years; a large part of this church still remains. The abbey increased in wealth and importance; Adrian IV exempted it from episcopal jurisdiction and gave it precedence over all other English abbeys. In the Wars of the Roses St. Albans suffered much, and the unsettled state of the country involved the abbey in a long series of lawsuits by which it was much impoverished. In 1521 Cardinal Wolsey became abbot in commendam. the only in- stance of this practice known in England. On his
disgrace in 1529 Robert Catton, prior of Norwich,
was elected abbot, but was deprived in 1538 to make
room for a nominee of Henry VIII, Robert Boreman,
by whom the abbey was surrendered to the king in
the following year. The list of abbots may be found
in Dugdale. Matthew Paris is probably the most
famous monk of the foundation, which is notorious
for refusing to accept Nicholas Breakspere, after-
wards Adrian IV, when he begged for admission as a
novice. The church of St. Albans escaped destruc-
tion at the dissolution of the abbey, and in 1553
was purchased from the Crown for £400 by the mayor
St. Albans Abbey CHrRCH
and burgesses of the town, to be used as a parish church. Of the church built by Paul of Caen most of the nave, transepts, and pre^sbytery still exist, but portions fell and were rebuilt in the style of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The eastern part of the presbytery with the Lady chapel bej'ond it al.so belong to the latter periods. In the second half of the nineteenth century the late Lord Grimthorpe vmdertook to restore the building at his own expense. In spite of all remonstrance he did this in such a way that "to grimthorpe" has now become an active verb signifying the unintelligent iuutilati(m of an ancient building under the cloak of restoration. The church is 550 feet long, and 190 wide across the transepts, the central tower being 144 feet high. It contains a famous reredos of the late fifteenth century, the re- constructed ba.se of St. Alban's shrine, and several fine c-hantries and monuments. Of the conventual buildings only the gatehouse now remains.
Dugdale, Monnstiron Anulicaiium, II (London, 1846), 178- 2.5.5; Newcomk, Ifislory of the Abbey of St. Albanx (London, 179.5); BccKLER, HUtori/ of the Architecture of the Abbeij Church of St. A. (London, 1817); Brow.ve Willis, History of the Mitred Abbies, I (London, 1718). 13-27; Co.myns-Carr, Abbey Church of St. A. (London, 1877); Perkins. Cathedral Church of St. Albou.-: (Lon.lon, 1910).
G. Roger Hudleston.
Saint Albert, Diocese of (Sancti Alberti). — The immense territories, known to-day as the Prov- inces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, formed till 1871 only one diocese under the name of St. Boniface. On 22 Sept., 1871, St. Boniface having been elevated to the rank of archdiocese, the new Diocese of St. Albert was canonically erected and Right Rev. Vital J. Grandin, O.M.I, (consecrated 30 Nov., 1859, Bishop of Satala and appointed co- adjutor of the Bishop of St. Boniface), was transferred to the new see. The first Bishop of St. Albert died on 3 June, 1902, after a long episcopate of nearly forty- five years, and half a centurj' of missionary life. He was succeeded by Right Rev. Emil(> J. Legal, O.M.I, (consecrated Bishop of Pogla, 17 June, 1897, and coadjutor of St. Albert, 3 June, 1902). This diocese, even after having been subdivided in 1891 to form the Vicariate Apostolic of Saskatchewan, comprises the southern half of Province of Alberta and the western part of Saskatchewan, an area of some 150,000 square miles. It is bounded on the east
