DÖLLINGER'S HISTORICAL WORK 387
Marino. During the tranquil century before the H,evolu- tion, Italians studied the history of their country with diligence and success. Even such places as Parma, Verona, Brescia, became centres of obscure but faithful work. Osimo possessed annaJs as bulky as Rome. The story of the province of Treviso \vas told in t\venty volumes. '[he antiquities of Picenum filled thirty-two folios. The best of all this national and municipal patriotism \vas given to the service of religion. Popes and cardinals, dioceses and parish churches became the theme of un- tiring enthusiasts. There too ,vere the stupendous records of the religious orders, their bulls and charters, their biography and their bibliography. In this immense world of patient,' accurate, devoted research, Döllinger laid the deep foundations of his historical kno\vledge. Beginning like everybody with Baronius and Muratori, he gave a large portion of his life to Noris, and to the solid and enlightened scholarship that surrounded Benedict XIV., down to the compilers, Borgia, Fantuzzi, Marini, with whom, in the evil days / of regeneration by the French, the grand tradition died away. He has put on record his judgment that Orsi and Saccarelli were the best writers on the general history of the Church. After- wards, when other layers had been superposed, and the course he took \vas his own, he relied much on the canonists, Ballerini and Berardi; and he commended Bianchi, De Bennettis, and the author of the anonymous Confutazione, as the strongest Roman antidote to Blondel, Buckeridge, and Barrow. I taly possessed the largest extant body of Catholic learning; the whole sphere of Church government ,vas within its range, and it enjoyed something of the official prerogative. Next to the Italians he gave systematic attention to the French. The conspicuous Gallicans, the J ansenists, from whom at last he derived much support, Richer, Van Espen, Launoy, \vhom he regarded as the original of Bossuet, Arnauld, \vhom he thought his superior, are absent from his pages. He never overcame his distrust of Pascal, for his methodical scepticism and his et.1deavour
