B0LLANDIST3
635
BOLLANDISTS
vain from Innocent XII. I have lived a Catholic,
and I die a Catholic, by the grace of God. I have
also the right of dying a Catholic in the eyes of
men, which is not possible so long as the decree of
the Spanish Inquisition shall appear justly issued
and published, and so long as people read that I
have taught in my books heretical propositions for
which I ha\'e been condemned. " Papebroch had ac-
cepted without appeal or murmur the decision of
the Roman Congregation of 22 December, 1700,
placing on the Index his chronological and historical
Essay on the Popes, published in the "Propylsum
Maii", a decree issued, as was expressly stated, on
account of the sections bearing on certain conclaves
and requiring merely the correction of the passages
in question. But he did not cease working during
the twelve years and a half that he still lived, both
by his own elTorts and those of his friends, not only
to prevent the confirmation bj' Rome of the decree
of the Spanish Inquisition, but also to secure the
retraction of the decree. Father Janninck was even
sent to Rome with this end in view and remained
there for o\er two years and a half, from the end
of October, 1697, till June, 1700. He was completely
successful with respect to the first object of his mis-
sion, as in December, 1697, he received the assurance
that no censure would be passed against the vol-
umes condemned in Spain. The persecutors of Pape-
broch were compelled to sue for an injunction to
silence for both parties, which was accorded them
by a Brief of 25 November, 1098, gratefully accepted
by Papebroch. More time was necessary, however,
to bring about a final decision in the second matter.
Whether it was judged prudent in Rome not to
enter into conflict with the Spanish tribunal, or
whether the latter prolonged the affair by passive
resistance, the decree of condemnation made in 1695
was not revoked until 1715, the year following the
death of Papebroch. As for the "Propyl»um Maii",
it was not withdrawn from the Index of Forbidden
Books until the last edition (1900); but this did not
prevent the French editor, Victor Palm^, from pub-
lishing it in his reprint of the Acta Sanctorum, which
he undertook about 1860.
A grievous trial of another sort was visited on Papebroch during the last years of the seventeenth century. A cataract affecting both eyes reduced him for about five years to a state of total blindness, which compelled him to give up all literary com- position. The sight of his left eye was restored in 1702 by a successful operation. He immediately took up his work again and continued the Acta Sanctorum as far as the fifth volume of June, the twenty-fourth of the whole collection, which ap- peared in 1709. The weight of age — he was then eighty-one — and his infirmities compelled him to abandon the more arduous work of the BoUandist museum. He lived for almost five years, which he devoted to editing the "Annales Antverpienses" from the foundation of Antwerp down to the year 1700. The manuscript of this work comprised eleven volumes in folio, seven of which are at the Royal Library of Brussels, the others probably having been lost. An edition of the volumes which have been preserved to us was published at Antwerp, 1845-48, in five volumes in octavo.
We shall not pursue further the history of the BoUandist work during the eighteenth century up to the suppression of the Society of Jesus, in 1773. The publication continued regularly, though with more or less unevenness as to the ^•alue of the com- mentaries, up to the third volume of October, which appeared in 1770. The suppression of the Society brought about a crisis in which the work nearly foundered. The Bollandists then in office were ■Cornelius De Bye, James De Bue, and Ignatius Hubens. The Fathers Jean CI6 and Joseph Ghes-
quiere had but recently been transferred from the
work. The former, at the time of the suppression
of the Society, was superior of the Flemish-Belgian
province; the latter was in charge of the projected
publication of the " Analecta Belgica", a collection of
documents relating to the liistory of Belgium, a work
for which the funds of the Musee Bellarmin were
appropriated. This Museum was established at
llechlin at the beginning of the eighteenth century,
for the purpose of opposing the Jansenists, but was
aftersvards transferred to the Professed House at
Antwerp. On 20 September, 1773, commissaries of
the tiovemment presented themselves at the residence
of the professed Jesuit Fathers at Antwerp, and before
the assembled community read the Bull of suppres-
sion of Clement XIV and the imperial letters patent
empowering them to execute it. They then affixed
seals to the entrances of the archives, hbraries, and
any rooms of the F'athers which contained money
or objects of value. A hke proceeding took place on
the same day in all the houses of the Society then
existing in Belgium. Nevertheless a special order
was issued enjoining the members of the commission
charged with executing the decree on the Professed
House at Antwerp " to summon the ci-devant
Jesuits employed in the publication of the 'Acta
Sanctorum' and to announce to them that the
government, satisfied with their labours, was dis-
posed to exercise special consideration in their re-
gard". Father Ghesquiere and his collaborators in
the "Analecta Belgica" were included in this indul-
gence granted to the Bollandists. This favourable
attitude of the Government resulted, after various
tiresome conferences, in the removal, in 1778, of the
Bollandists and the historiographers of Belgium,
together with their libraries, to the abbey of Cauden-
berg. at Brussels. Each of the Bollandists was to
receive an annual pension of 800 florins, besides the
500 florins to be given to the community of Cauden-
berg in payment for their board and lodging. The
same indulgence was accorded to Ghesquiere in con-
sideration of his office of historian. The results of the
sale of the volumes were to be divided between the
abbey and the editors on condition that the abbey
should take charge of the matter on hand, and pro-
vide a copyist to make fair copies of manuscripts for
the printers, as well as religious who should be
trained under the direction of the elder Bollandists
for the continuation of the work. The other half
of the profits was to be divided in equal portions
among the writers. The four hagiographers took up
their residence at the Abbey of Caudenberg, and with
the consent of the abbot adopted two young reli-
gious as assistants. One of these soon left them to
pursue his scientific studies, feeling that he had not
the vocation for this work; the other was John-
Baptist Fonson, at that time (1788) twenty-two
years of age, whose name soon afterwards appeared
on the title page as editor. Under this new condi-
tion of things there appeared in 1780 Volume IV of
October under the names of Constantine Suyskens
(d. 1771), Comehus De Bye. Jolm De Bue, Joseph
Ghesquiere, and Ignatius Hubens, all former Jesuits.
In 1786, Volume V appeared, signed with the names
of De Bye, De Bue, and F'onson. In the interval
between these two volumes the corps of hagiog-
raphers had lost, in 1782, the youngest of the Ant-
werp members. Ignatius Hubens. He was replaced
in October, 1784, by a French Benedictine, Dom
Anselm Berthod, who voluntarily resigned the high
positions he held in his order and those for which
he was intended, so that he might devote himself to
the learned work which the Imperial Government of
Vienna requested him to take up. He was to be
engaged upon it only a little more than three years,
for he died at Brussels, in March, 1788.
Two new volumes were issued from the royal press
