the Benedictines, whence they are often called 'white monks' (William of Tyre, xii. c. 7). In 1129 he assisted at the hearing of a case by Walter, bishop of Chalons, between the abbots of St. Stephen's at Dijon and of St. Seine. The abbot of St. Seine being dissatisfied with the decision, Innocent II appointed Stephen to act as judge, and decide the case as he thought fit. Innocent, who took refuge in France in 1130, and owed much to St. Bernard, granted in 1132 that the abbots of Cistercian houses should be exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, and that their abbeys should be free from tithe. In 1133 Stephen, having grown old and infirm, and his eyes being dim, resigned his office, and designated his successor, who was elected by the monks. His choice was not wise, and his biographer says that the new abbot's fall was miraculously revealed to him; but independently of its supernatural character, the story is wrong in representing that the fall happened at the end of a month; for the new abbot held office for two years (Robert De Monte). Stephen died on 28 March 1134, and was buried in the tomb of his predecessor Alberic, in the cloister near the door of the church. His day in the Roman calendar is 17 April, and his festival is kept by the Cistercians on 15 July possibly the day of his canonisation with an octave, and with greater reverence than the day of St. Robert, the first founder. Stephen was indeed the true founder of the order. The idea of the necessity of reform may, as his countryman William of Malmesbury maintains, have originated with him, and he may very probably have been the moving spirit in the migration. Certainly the continuance of the new society and its marvellous success were largely due to his devotion, perseverance, and wisdom. Without him the new house would scarcely have been able to attract St. Bernard, who carried the order to an extraordinary pitch of greatness. Besides the abbeys which he personallv founded, about a hundred Cistercian houses were founded during his lifetime, and it is said, though the number is perhaps exaggerated, that by 1152 there were nearly five hundred Cistercian abbeys (ib.} The order was introduced into England in 1128 by were in the north, where 'white monks' were settled atRievaulx and Fountains before the death of Stephen. William of Malmesbury, writing shortly after Stephen's death, describes the order as a 'type of all true monasticism, a mirror to the zealous, and a goad to the slothful.' Stephen wrote a fine copy of the Bible for the use of the brethren at Citeaux, revising the Latin text by availing himself of the help of some Jews, who told him the meanings of Hebrew words. This Bible was apparently preserved at Citeaux until the French revolution. His 'Charta Caritatis' is printed in the 'Annales Cisterciencium' of Manriquez, and the 'Exordium sui Ordinis,' which may not have been his, in Dugdale's 'Monasticon,' vol. v. Two sermons are attributed to him, and two of his letters, noticed above, are included in the 'Epistolae S. Bernardi' (Epp. 45, 49).
[Orderic; Duchesne's Scriptt. pp. 711-14; William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum, iv. c. 334-7 (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Gallia Christiana, iv. 980-4; Acta SS. Bolland. April, ii. 493-8; Histoire des Ordres Monastiquos, v. c. 33; Histoire Litteraire de France, xi. 21; Lives of the English Saints, iv. 166-73; Acta SS. O.S.B., Mabillon, ii. 1062; S. Bernardi Epp., Recueil des Historiens, xv. 544, 548, see also for other matters t. xiv. 246, 248, 281; Labbe's Concilia, x. 923; William of Tyre, xii. c. 7 ap. Gesta Dei per Francos, p. 820; Dugdale's Monasticon, v. 220-6; Norgate's England under Angevin Kings, i. 69-71.]
HARDING, Mrs. A. (1779–1858), novelist and miscellaneous writer, born in 1779, wrote the following novels: 1. 'Correction,' 3 vols., 1818. 2. 'Decision,' 3 vols., 1819. 3. 'The Refugees,' 3 vols., 1822. 4. 'Realities,' 4 vols., 1825. 5. 'Dissipation,' 4 vols., 1827. 6. 'Experience,' 4 vols., 1828. She also wrote 'The Universal History' (London, 1848), 'Sketches of the Highlands,' other 'instructive and popular volumes,' and many contributions to 'the reviews and different periodicals of the day.' Mrs. Harding published all her works anonymously. She died on 28 April 1858, at the house of her son-in-law, the Rev. Kynaston Groves.
[Gent. Mag. 1858, i. 684; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Halkett and Laing's Dict. of Anonymous and Pseudonymous Lit.]
HARDING, GEORGE PERFECT (d. 1853), portrait-painter and copyist, was a son of Silvester Harding [q. v.] of Pall Mall. Adopting his father's profession, he practised miniature-painting, and exhibited at the Royal Academy at intervals between 1802 and 1840; but, like his father, he mainly devoted himself to making water-colour copies of ancient historical portraits. In his pursuit of this occupation he visited the chief family seats of the nobility, the royal palaces, college halls, &c., and the highly finished copies which he executed are of great value as faithful transcripts of the originals. In 1822-3 he published a series of eighteen portraits of the
