FLETE
102
FLEURT
siderations on the Importance and Happiness of At-
tending to the Care of Our Salvation " (1834); "The
Guide to the True Religion" (1836); " Transubstan-
tiation: a Letter to Lord " (1836); "On the Use
of the Bible"; "The Letters of Fenelon, with illustra- tions" (1837); "A Short Historical View of the Rise, Progress and Establishment of the Anglican Church" (1843). He translated Blessed Edmund Campion's "Decem Rationes" (1827); de Maistre's "Letters on the Spanish Inquisition" (1838); and F^nelon's "Re- flections for Every Day of the Month" (1844). He also brought out an edition of "My Motives for Re- nouncing the Protestant Religion" by Antonio de Dominis (1828).
Catholic Magazine (1833), III, 112; Butler. Historical Memoirs of Eng. Catholics (London, 1819), II, 321; (1822), IV, 441; GiLLOW, Bibl. Diet. Eng. Cath. (London, 1886), B. v.; Cooper in Did. Nat. Biog. (London, 1889). s. v.
Edwin Burton.
Flete, William, an Augustinian hermit friar, a con- temporary and great friend of St. Catherine of Siena; the exact place and date of his birth are unknown and those of his death are disputed. He was an English mystic, and lived in the latter half of the fourteenth cen- tury ; educated at Cambridge, he afterwards joined the Austin Friars in England, but desiring a stricter life than they were living, and hearing that there were two monasteries of his order which had returned to the primitive discipline near Siena, he set out for Italy. On reaching the forest of Lecceto near Siena, in which one of these monasteries stood, he found the place, which abounded in caves, so suited to the contempla- tive life, that with the consent of his superiors he joined this community. Henceforth he spent his days in study and contemplation in one of these caves, and returned to the monastery at night to sleep. He was called the "Bachelor of the Wood"; here he became acquainted with St. Catherine, who occasionally vis- ited him at Lecceto and went to confession to him. He had so great a love for solitude, that he declined to leave it when invited by Pope Urban VI to go to Rome, to assist him with his counsel at the time of the papal schism, then disturbing the Church.
He wrote a long panegyric on St. Catherine at her death, which , with another of his works, is preserved in the public library at Siena. For at least nineteen years he led a most holy and austere life in this wood, and is said by Torellus to have returned to England immediately after St. Catherine's death in 1383, and after introducing the reform of Lecceto, to have died the same year. Others say he died in 1383, but there is no mention of his death in the book of the dead at Lecceto, and the exact date of it is uncertain. He was considered a saint by his contemporaries.
None of his works have been printed: they consist of six MSS.; (1) an epistle to the provincial of his or- der; (2) a letter to the doctors of the province; (3) an epistle to the brethren in general; (4) predictions to the English of calamities coming upon England (in this he prophesied that England would lose the Catho- lic faith); (5) divers epistles; (6) a treatise on reme- dies against temptations. A fifteenth century MS. of this last is now in the University Library at Cam- laridge, to which it was presented by George I.
OssiNGER, Bibliotheca Augusliniana (1768), 343-5; Drane, The History of SI. Catherine of Siena and her Companions (Lon- don, 1887). ^ „ „
Francesca M. Steele.
Fleuriot, Zionaide-Mahie-Anne, a French novel- ist, b. at Saint-Brieuc, 12 September, 1829; d. at Paris, 18 December, 1890. She published her first novel, " Les souvenirs d' une douairiere", in 1859, and its success led her to adopt the literary profession. Either under her real name or the pseudonym of "Anna Edianez de Saint-B.", she published a large number of novels, most of which were intended for women and girls. She was a constant contributor to
" Le Journal de la jeunesse" and "La Bibliotheque
rose", whose aim is to provide young people with un-
objectionable reading. Her novels are written in a
simple, easy style which leaves the reader's whole at-
tention free to occupy itself with the interest of the
story; they are Catholic in the true sense of the word,
for they not only contain no unorthodox opinion, but
present none of those evil suggestions with which so
many writers have won popularity and lucre. The
following deserve to be specially mentioned: "La
vie en Famille" (Paris, 1862); "La clef d'or" (Paris,
1870); "Le theatre chez soi" (Paris, 1873); "Mon-
sieur Nostradamus" (Paris, 1875); "Sans beauts"
(Paris, 1889).
Larousse, SuppUmenl au DicUonnaire nnivcrsel du XIX' sibcle.
Pierre Mariqde.
Fleury (more completely FLEURY-SAiNT-BENotT), Abbey of, one of the oldest and most celebrated Bene- dictine abbeys of Western Europe. Its modern name is Saint-Benoit-sur- Loire, applicable both to the monas- tery and the township with which the abbey has always been associated. Situated, as its name implies, on the banks of the Loire, the little town is of easy access from Orleans. Its railway station, St-Benoit — St- Aignan (Loiret) is a little over a mile from the old Floriacum. Long before reaching the station, the traveller is struck by the imposing mass of a monastic church looming up solitary in the plain of the Loire. The church of Floriacum has survived the stately habitation of abbot and monks. The list of the abbots of Fleury contains eighty-nine names, a noble record for one single abbey. From Merovingian names like St. Mommolus, and Carlovingian names like St. Abbo, we come upon names that arouse differ- ent feelings, like Odet de Coligny (Cardinal de Chatil- lon), Armand du Plessis (Cardmal de Richelieu). The last twenty-two abbots held the abbey in commendam. 'The list closes with Georges- Louis Ph^lypeaux, Arch- bishop of Bourges, in 1789. Tradition, accepted by MabUlon, attributes the foundation of Fleury to Leo- debaldus, Abbot of St-Aignan (Orleans) about 640. Before the days of the monks there was a Gallo-Roman villa called Floriacum, in the Vallis aurea. This was the spot selected by the Abbot of St-Aignan for his foundation, and from the very first Fleury seems to have known the Benedictine rule. Rigoraarus was its first abbot.
Church building must have made busy men of many abbots of Fleury. From the very start the abbey boasted of two churches, one in honour of St. Peter and the other in honour of the Blessed Virgin. This latter became the great basilica that survived every storm. In 1022 Abbot Gauzlin started the erection of a gigantic feudal tower, intending it to be one day the west front of the abbey church. His bold plan became a reality, and in 1218 the edifice was completed. It is a fine specimen of the romanesque style, and the tower of Abbot Gauzlin, resting on fifty columns, forms a unique porch. The church is about three hundred feet long and one hundred and forty feet wide at the transepts. The crypt alone would repay an artist's journey. The choir of the church contains the tomb of a French monarch, Philip I, buried there in 1108. But the boast of Fleury is the relics of St. Benedict, the father of Western monasticism. Mommolus, the second Abbot of Fleury, is said to have effected their transfer from Monte Cassino when that abbey fell into decay after the ravages of the Lombards. Nothing is more certain than the belief of western Europe in the presence of these precious relics at Fleury. To them more than to its flourishing schools Fleury owed wealth and fame, and to-day French piety surrounds them with no less honour than when kings came thither to pray. The monks of Monte Cassino impugn the claims of Fleury, but without ever showing any relics to make good their contention that they possess
