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# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Marcosians

From volume 9 of the work.
A sect of Valentinian Gnostics, founded by Marcus (q.v.) and combated at length by Irenaeus (Haer. I, xii-xxiii). In the district of Lyons, the Rhone Valley and Spain, they continued to exist till well into the fourth century. They maintained their Gnostic system not merely in theory but, forming Gnostic communities, they were addicted to Gnostic practices. In their conventicles prophecy was habitually practiced; not only men but women were bidden by their leaders or by lot to stand up in the congregation and prophesy. The incoherent gibberish they uttered was taken for the voice of God. Women were likewise bidden to utter the Eucharistic formula over the elements. The wine was then poured in a larger cup and by a chemical trick increased in volume. Irenaeus scornfully repeats that the sect was an affair of silly women, ruining their souls and their bodies, and narrates that women who repented and returned to the Church confessed their past degradation.
The Marcosian system was a degraded variety of that of Valentinus. It retained the 30 Æons, but called them "Greatnesses" and gave them numerical values. It kept the myth of the fall of Sophia but called it a "Divine Deficiency". Peculiar to it was the adaptation of the Pythagorean number theory to Gnosticism. The 30 Æons are obtained by adding the numbers of the Ogdoad together: 1+2+3+4+5+7+8 = 30. The 6 is purposely omitted for it is the episemon and not a letter of the usual Greek alphabet. The fall of Sophia is clearly shown by the fact that Lambda which equals 30, or the complete set of Greatnesses, is really only the eleventh letter of the alphabet, but to make up for this deficiency it sought a consort and so became M (= Lambda Lambda). The episemon, or 6, is a number full of potency; the name Iesous consists of six letters, hence the name of the Saviour. When the Propator, who is the Monas, willed the Unspeakable to be spoken, He uttered the Word which has 4 syllables and 30 letters. The plenitude of Greatness is 2 tetrads, a decad and a dodecad (4+4+10+12 = 30); the 2 tetrads are the Unspeakable, Silence, Father and Truth followed by Logos, Life, Man and Church. These form the Ogdoad. The mutes of the Greek alphabet belong to Father and Truth (The Unspeakable, and Silence, of course, do not count); these being mute reveal nothing to man. The semivowels belong to Word and Life, but the vowels to Man and Church, for through Man voice gave power to all. The 7 Greek vowels go through the seven heavens, which thus sing the Great Doxology in harmony. Even numbers are female, odd numbers male, by the union of the first of these, 2 3, was begotten the episemon, or 6, the number of our Salvation. G. Salmon well remarks that Marcus's system is the most worthless of all that passed under the name of knowledge in second century literature. Irenaeus (1. c) is practically our only authority. (See GNOSTICISM.)
J.P. ARENDZEN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Abbey of Saint Augustine

From volume 13 of the work.
A Benedictine monastery, originally dedicated to Sts. Peter and Paul, founded in 605 outside of the City of Canterbury, on the site of the earlier Church of St. Pancras given by King Ethelbert to St. Augustine in 597. It was subsequently enlarged, and in 978 St. Dunstan, then Archbishop of Canterbury, dedicated it anew to St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Augustine, since which time it has always been known by the name of the latter saint whose body lay enshrined in the crypt of the abbey church. In spite of its proximity to the neighboring cathedral priory of Christ Church, the abbey precincts covered much ground and the monastery was of considerable importance for many centuries. At the dissolution in 1538 the act of surrender was signed by the abbot and thirty monks, who were rewarded with pensions. The abbey itself was appropriated by Henry VIII as a royal palace, but since that time the greater part of the buildings have been allowed gradually to fall to ruin. In 1844 the remains of the abbey were sold at public auction and on the site was erected a college for missionaries of the Church of England. The revenues of the abbey at the time of its suppression were £1684.
TANNER, Notitia Monastica (London, 1744) DUGDALE, Monasticon Anglicanum (London, 1817-30); Customary of St Augustine's Abbey (ed. THOMPSON), XXIII, Henry Bradshaw Society's publications (London, 1902).
G. CYPRIAN ALSTON
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Abbey of Saint Vaast

From volume 15 of the work.
Situated at Arras, the ancient capital of Artois, Department of Pas-de-Calais, France; founded in 667. St. Vaast, or Vedast, was born in western France about 453; and died at Arras in 540. Having lived for some years as a recluse in the Diocese of Toul, he was ordained priest by St. Remi (Remigius), Archbishop of Reims, who deputed him to prepare Clovis for the reception of the Sacrament of Baptism. After this he remained at Reims and acted as archdeacon for St. Remi. In 499 that prelate consecrated him first Bishop of Arras, and his labours in planting the faith in those parts were blessed by many miracles. Ten years later St. Remi committed to him the care also of the Diocese of Cambrai, and these two sees remained united until the eleventh century. At the death of St. Remi he was chosen to succeed him but declined the honour. His own death occurred in 540 and he was buried in his cathedral at Arras. In 667 St. Auburt, the seventh bishop of that see, commenced to build an abbey for Benedictine monks on the site of a little chapel which St. Vedast had erected in honour of St. Peter. St. Vedast's relics were transferred to the new abbey, which was completed by St. Auburt's successor and munificiently endowed by King Theodoric, who together with his wife was afterwards buried there. This Abbey of St-Vaast flourished for many centuries and held an important position amongst the monasteries of the Low Countries. It was ruled by many distinguished abbots, a list of whom, numbering seventy-nine, is given in "Gallia christiana". It was exempt from episcopal jurisdiction and maintained its independence until 1778 when it was aggregated to the Congregation of Cluny. At the Revolution it was suppressed and the conventual buildings became first a hospital and then a barrack. In 1838 the barrack was purchased by the down, a portion being used as a museum and archivium, and the rest becoming the residence of the bishop. The church, which had been desecrated and partially destroyed, was rebuilt and consecrated in 1833 and now serves as the cathedral.
G. CYPRIAN ALSTON
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Abbey of Saint Remy

From volume 12 of the work.
Founded at Reims before 590. Its early history is very obscure; at first a little chapel dedicated to St. Christopher, it obtained great renown when it acquired the relics of St. Remy in 553, and gifts poured in upon it from pious donors. By the ninth century the abbey possessed about 700 domains and was perhaps the richest in France. It seems probable that secular priests were the first guards of the relics, but were succeeded by the Benedictines. From 780 to 945 the archbishops of Reims were its abbots. It was there that Charlemagne received Leo III. In 1005 the Abbot Aviard undertook to rebuild the Church of St-Remy, and for twenty years the work went on uninterruptedly but then collapsed. The Abbot Theodoric erected a magnificent basilica which in 1049 Leo IX dedicated and granted many special privileges. The schools and the library were, during the Middle Ages, of such great repute that Alexander III wrote a commendatory letter to the Abbot Peter. The archbishops of Reims and several princes, Carloman, Charlemagne's brother, Henri d'Orléans (d. about 1653), and several kings, Louis IV and Lothaire, were buried in the monastery.
Among the illustrious men of the abbey may be mentioned: Henri de Lorraine (1622-1641), who affiliated, in 1642, the abbey to the Congregation of St. Maur; J. Nicolas Colbert (1665), later archbishop of Rouen; Charles Maurice le Tellier (1680-1710); and Joseph de Rothechouart, appointed abbot by the king in 1745.
Gallia Christiana, IX (1751) 219-239; VARIY, Statuts de l'abbaye de St-Remy in Arch. legisl. Reims, I (1844), 165-99; GUERARD, Polyptique de l'abbaye de St-Remy (Paris, 1853); POUSSIN, Monographie de l'abbaye de St-Remy (Reims, 1854); MOLINIER, Obit. Franc. (Paris, 1890), 194; CHEVALIER, Sacramentaires et martyrologes de l'abbaye de St-Remy in Bibl. Liturg., VII (Paris, 1900), 305-57; LECESTRE, Abbayes, prieures et couvents d'hommes en France (Paris, 1902), 12.
Joseph Dedieu.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Abbey of Rievaulx

From volume 13 of the work.
(RIEVALL.)
Thurston, Archbishop of York, was very anxious to have a monastery of the newly founded and fervent order of Cistercians in his diocese; and so, at his invitation, St. Bernard of Clairvaux sent a colony of his monks, under the leadership of Abbot William, to make the desired foundation. After some delay Walter Espec became their founder and chief benefactor, presenting them with a suitable estate, situated in a wild and lonely spot, in the valley of the rivulet Rie (from whence the abbey derived its name), and surrounded by precipitous hills, in Blakemore, near Helmesley. The community took possession of the ground in 1131, and began the foundation, the first of their order in Yorkshire. The church and abbey, as is the case with all monasteries of the order, were dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. At first their land being crude and uncultivated, they suffered much until, after a number of years, their first benefactor again came to their assistance and, later on, joined their community. Their land, also, through their incessant labours, eventually became productive, so that, with more adequate means of subsistence, they were able to devote their energies to the completion of church and monastic buildings, though these were finished only after a great lapse of time, on account of their isolation and the fact that the monastery was never wealthy. The constructions were carried on section by section, permanent edifices succeeding those that were temporary after long intervals. The final buildings, however, as attested by the magnificent, though melancholy, ruins yet remaining, were completed on a grand scale.
Within a very few years after its foundation the community numbered three hundred members, and was by far the most celebrated monastery in England; many others sprang from it, the most important of them being Melrose, the first Cistecian monastery built in Scotland. Rievaulx early became a billiant centre of learning and holiness; chief amongst its lights shone St. Aelred, its third abbot (1147-67), who from his sweetness of character and depth of learning was called Bernardo prope par. He had been, before his entrance into the cloister, a most dear friend and companion of St. David, King of Scotland. History gives us but scant details of the later life at Rievaulx. At the time of its suppression and confiscation by Henry VIII the abbot, Rowland Blyton, with twenty-three religious composed its community. The estates of this ancient abbey are now in the possession of the Duncombe family.
MANRIQUE, Annales Cistercienses (Lyons, 1642); MARTENE AND DURAND, Thesaurus novus anecdotorum, IV (Paris, 1717); HENRIQUEZ, Phoenix reviviscens (Brussels, 1626); DUGDALE, Monasticon Anglicanum, V (London, 1817-30); Cartularium abbatiae de Rievalle in Surtees' Soc. Publ. (London, 1889); St. Aelred, Abbot of Rievaulx (London, 1845); OXFORD, Ruins of Fountains Abbey (London, 1910); HODGES, Fountains Abbey (New York, 1904).
EDMOND M. OBRECHT
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Abbey of Saint-Ouen

From volume 13 of the work.
Located in Rouen, France, this abbey was a Benedictine monastery of great antiquity dating back to the early Merovingian period. Its foundation has been variously credited, among others, to Clothair I and to St. Clothilda, but no sufficient evidence to settle the question is forthcoming. It was dedicated at first to St. Peter when the body of St. Ouen, Archbishop of Rouen (d. 678), was buried there; the name of St. Peter and St. Ouen became common and finally St. Ouen only. The history of the abbey, on record from A.D. 1000, presents nothing of an exceptional nature. The list of abbots is in "Gallia Christiana" XI, 140. In 1660 the monastery was united to the Congregation of St. Maur, and when suppressed, in 1794, the community numbered twenty-four.
The chief interest of Saint-Ouen lies in its glorious church, which surpasses the Cathedral of Rouen in size and beauty, and is one of the few among the greater French churches completely finished. The present building, the third or fourth on the same site, was begun in 1318 by Abbot Jean Roussel, who had completed the choir with its chapels in the Decorated style, and a large portion of the transepts, by his death, twenty-one years later. The nave and central tower, more flamboyant in design, were finished early in the sixteenth century after the original plan. Unhappily the west facade, which had been planned on a unique and most beautiful scheme, was left unfinished. Although nothing could have been simpler than to execute the original designs still existing, the whole of the old work was swept away about the middle of the last century and an ugly pretentious modern design put up instead. Internally the church is 416 feet long, 83 feet wide, and 104 feet high, the central tower, crowned with an exquisite octagonal lantern, being 285 feet in height. Within, the effect is remarkably light and graceful, "the windows seem to have absorbed all the solid wall", and the roof rests simply on the pillars and buttresses, the intervening spaces being huge masses of glass. Fortunately most of the old glass has been preserved, and its silvery white and jewels of color give the final touch to one of the finest interiors in-the world.
POMMERAYE, Historie de l'abbaye royale de S.-Ouen de Rouen (Rouen, 1662), Gallia Christiana, XI (Paris, 1759), 135-55; Antiqua statuta archimonasterii Rotomagensis S. Audoeni in MARTENE, Thes. nov. anecdot. (Paris, 1717), IV, 1205; Chronique des abbes de S. Ouen de Rouen, ed. MICHEL (Rouen, 1840); GILBERT, Description historique de l'eglise de St-Ouen de Rouen (Rouen, 1822); COOK, The story of Rouen (London, 1899).
G. ROGER HUDLESTON
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Abbey of Saint Emmeram

From volume 5 of the work.
Emmeram, Abbey of Saint, a Benedictine monastery at Ratisbon (Regensburg), named after its traditional founder, the patron saint of the city. The exact date of foundation is unknown. St. Emmeram flourished in the middle of the seventh century and 652 is given by most authorities as the approximate date of the establishment of this monastery. Its beginnings were connected with a chapel in which certain much venerated relics were preserved, and which, in 697, was enlarged and beautified by Theodo, Duke of Bavaria, who built at the same time a new monastery for Benedictine monks, of which Appollonius was first abbot. It was still further enlarged by Charlemagne about the year 800 and endowed with extensive possessions and many privileges. When St. Boniface, in 739, divided Bavaria into four dioceses, the first Bishop of Ratisbon fixed his see at the Abbey of St. Emmeram, but later on it was removed by a subsequent bishop to the old Cathedral of St. Stephen, which stands beside the present one. In 830, the then bishop obtained from Louis, King of Bavaria, the administration of the abbey for himself and his successors, and for upwards of a hundred years the Bishops of Ratisbon ruled the monastery as well as the diocese, but in 968 St, Wolfgang restored its independence and from that time forward it enjoyed the rule of its own abbots. For some centuries it was customary to elect as bishop a canon of St. Stephen's and a monk of St. Emmeram's alternately. Many of the early bishops of Ratisbon were buried in the abbey church and their tombs are still to be seen there, as also is that of the Emperor Arnulph (d. 899). The abbots held the rank of princes of the Empire, and as such had a seat in the Imperial Diets. The present church, which is a Romanesque basilica, dates from the thirteenth century, but was restored in a somewhat debased style in the eighteenth. It is one of the few German churches with a detached bell-tower. The cloisters date from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and are in a fair state of preservation. The monastery was suppressed early in the nineteenth century and in 1809 the conventual buildings became the palace of the Prince of Thurn and Taxis, hereditary postmaster-general of the old German Empire, whose family still (1909) reside there. The cloister garth, in the center of which is a modern mortuary chapel, is now used as the family burial-place.
G. CYPRIAN ALSTON
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Pierre d'Aubusson

From volume 2 of the work.
Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, born 1423; died 1503. He made his first campaigns against the Turks, and fought next under the French Dauphin in a war against the Swiss (1444). It was on his return from this last expedition that he obtained from Charles VII permission to join the Hospitallers. The year 1460 found him Castellan of Rhodes, and he soon after became captain-general of the city, which had been the seat of the order since 1309, and was now the chief obstacle to Ottoman supremacy in the Mediterranean. Mahomet II therefore resolved to subdue it. D'Aubusson, who bad been raised (1476) to the Grand Mastership, foresaw the sultan's design, and lost no time in making what preparations he could for the defense. A letter to the houses of his order brought him whatever men and money they could spare. Additional sums came from Sixtus IV and Louis XI, together with some of the bravest soldiers of Italy and France. Yet with all his exertions he was able to muster no more than 450 knights and 2,000 auxiliaries. The Turkish armament, which appeared before Rhodes 23 May, 1480, was overwhelmingly superior in numbers, and was furnished with the best artillery then obtainable. But the example of d'Aubusson's good right arm, and his omnipresence, made heroes of all the defenders. After three months of almost incessant fighting, which cost him 25,000 of his best warriors, the Turkish commander was forced to raise the siege. For this brilliant achievement d'Aubusson received a cardinal's hat, and was revered by all Christendom as "the Shield of the Church." In his subsequent efforts to form a league that would drive the Turks from Constantinople, he failed.
BOUHOURS, Histoire de Pierre d'Aubusson (Paris, 1676; 3d ed., Hague, 1739; tr., London, 1679); MARULLI, Lives of the Grand-Masters . . . of St. John . . . (Naples, 1636); FLANDRIN, History of the Knights of Rhodes (Paris, 1876).
A.J.B. VUIBERT
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Pierre de Lauzon

From volume 9 of the work.
Lauzon, Pierre de, a noted missionary of New France in the eighteenth century, born at Poitiers, 26 September, 1687; died at Quebec, 5 September, 1742. Though sometimes mentioned as Jean, in his official acts he invariably signed Pierre. He joined the Jesuits at Limoges, 24 November, 1703, and after ordination was sent to Canada in 1716. From 1716 to 1718 he was Father Daniel Richer's assistant at Lorette, where he studied the Huron-Iroquois language. He did missionary duty at Sault St. Louis (Caughnawaga) from 1718 to 1731, with the exception of the scholastic year 1721-22, when he replaced Father François Le Brun as instructor in the royal school of hydrography in the college at Quebec, as the exhausting labours of the mission had undermined his health. His Iroquois Indians clamoured for his return, and on 12 May, 1722, they formally petitioned Governor Vaudreuil and the Intendant Bégon to that effect. These in turn, persuaded that it was he alone who, on the occasion of a change in the village site, had prevented two-thirds of the Indians from moving away and settling within easy reach of the English, urged the superior to send him back, and in 1722 he returned to Sault St. Louis. It was none too soon, for the spirit of revolt was spreading among the Caughnawaga Iroquois, in consequence of a menace of again quartering upon them a French garrison, an ever prolific cause of debauchery and disorder. He made his solemn profession of the four vows at Sault St. Louis on 2 February, 1721.
In 1723 he was named superior of the Caughnawaga mission, and the ability he displayed in governing during the nine succeeding years determined the general, Francis Retz, to place him in 1732 over the whole Canada mission. This, according to established custom in Canada entailed the duties of rector of the college at Quebec. During his term of office, which lasted seven years, he crossed over to France (1733) in quest of recruits. Among those whom he brought back with him was the saintly Father Jean-Pierre Aulneau, massacred in 1736 at the Lake of the Woods. Mgr Dosquet of Quebec, returned at the same time, bringing with him three Sulpicians. The party embarked 29 May and reached Quebec 16 August, after a distressing voyage of eighty days. Terrific winds and pestilential disease marked the long journey. De Lauzon, besides ministering to the sick, as did the other priests on board, was appointed boatswain's mate, for the ecclesiastics did not shirk their share of the work. In September, 1739, he resumed his missionary labours with the Caughnawaga Iroquois, but owing to failing strength he was recalled to Quebec in 1741, where, after a short illness of two and a half days, he died in the following year.
Jones, Aulneau Collect., passim; MSS. documents, and catalogues in St. Mary's College Archives; Paris Archives, Ministère, des Colonies, Canada, gén., XXXIX, xi., fol. 320; Thwaites, Wisc. Hist. Coll., XVI, 395.
Arthur Edward Jones.