Heribert Rosweyde
Encyclopedia
Heribert Rosweyde was a Jesuit hagiographer. His work, quite unfinished, was taken up by Jean Bolland
who systematized it, while broadening its perspective. This is the beginning of the association of the Bollandists.
in 1588. A professor of philosophy
in the Jesuit college at Douai
during the last years of the sixteenth century, Rosweyde devoted his leisure to the libraries of the monasteries of Hainaut and French Flanders
. He copied with his own hand a vast number of documents relating to church history in general, and to hagiography in particular, and found in the old texts contained in the manuscripts coming under his observation quite a different flavour from that of the revisions to which many editors, notably Lippomano and Surius, then the latest and most celebrated, had believed it necessary to subject them.
at Antwerp, an alphabetical list of the names of the saints whose acts had been either found by him or called to his attention in old manuscript collections. This list filled fifty pages; the prefatory notice in which he indicates the character and arrangement of his work, as he had conceived it, takes up fourteen. Finally, the work contains an appendix of twenty-six pages containing the unpublished acts of the passion of the Cilician martyrs, Tharsacus, Probus, and Andronicus, which Rosweyde regarded -- wrongly -- as the authentic official report from the pen of a clerk of the court of the Roman tribunal.
According to this programme the collection was to comprise sixteen volumes, besides two volumes of explanations and tables. The first volume was to present documents concerning the life of Jesus Christ and the feasts established in honour of the special events of His life; the second volume would be devoted to the life and the feasts of the Blessed Virgin, and the third to the feasts of the Saints honoured with a more special cult. The twelve succeeding volumes were to give the lives of the saints whose feasts are celebrated respectively in the twelve months of the year, one volume for each month. This calendar arrangement had been prescribed by his superiors, in preference to the chronological order Rosweyde himself favoured. But this presented, especially at that time, formidable difficulties. Lastly, the sixteenth volume was to set forth the succession of martyrologies which had been in use at different periods and in the various Churches of Christendom
. The first of the two supplementary volumes was to contain notes and commentaries bearing on the lives divided into eight books treating respectively of the following subjects:
The other supplement was to present a series of copious tables giving:
"And others still," adds the author, "if anything of importance presents itself, of which our readers may give us an idea."
Cardinal Bellarmine, to whom Rosweyde sent a copy of his little volume, could not forbear exclaiming after he had read this programme: "This man counts, then, on living two hundred years longer!" He addressed to the author a letter, the original of which is preserved in the present library of the Bollandists, signed, but not written by the hand of Bellarmine, in which he intimates in polished but perfectly plain language that he regarded the plan as chimerical.
Rosweyde was nowise disconcerted by this. From various other sources he received encouragement, enthusiastic praise, and valuable assistance. The new enterprise found an especial protector, as generous as he was zealous and enlightened, in Antoine de Wynghe, abbot of the celebrated monastery of Liessies
in the now Nord department of France. Venerable Louis of Blois, whose third successor de Wynghe was, seemed to have bequeathed to him his devotion to the Jesuits. The large sympathy of this patron manifested itself in every way; in letters of recommendation to the heads of the various houses of the great Benedictine Order which opened to Rosweyde and his associates monastic libraries; in loans and gifts of books, of manuscripts, and of copies of manuscripts; and in pecuniary assistance.
Rosweyde quite counted on completing by his own efforts the monument of which he had dreamed, and on bringing it to a worthy end. As a matter of fact, he did not get beyond the first stages of the structure. His literary activity was expended on a multitude of historical works, both religious and polemical, some of which, it is true, would have later formed a part of the great hagiographical compilation. The majority, however, bear no relation whatever to the work. At the time of Rosweyde's death, then, which took place in Antwerp in 1629, not a page was ready for the printer.
His labour was not lost however, as Jean Bolland
, entrusted with going through the papers and documents gathered by Rosweyde saw the value of them all and embarked decidedly on the vast project identified later with the association of the Bollandists. The first volume of the Acta Sanctorum
came out of the press in 1643.
, which he first published in Latin (1615 in fol.), dedicating the work to the Abbot of Liessies, and later in Dutch (1617) in fol., with an inscription to Jeanne de Bailliencourt, Abbess of Messines. Rosweyde apparently commissioned and dedicated to de Wynghe an emblematic work of fifty plates of hermits, engraved by Boetius à Bolswert
to designs by Abraham Bloemaert
(Sylva Anachoretica Ægypti Et Palæstinæ. Figuris Æneis Et Brevibus Vitarum Elogiis Expressa. (Hendrick Aertssens, Antwerp 1619).)
The rest, however, as for instance the Dutch edition of Ribadeneira's Flowers of the Saints (1619, two folio volumes), the General History of the Church (1623), to which he added as an appendix the detailed history of the Church in the Netherlands, both in Dutch; the Flemish lives of St. Ignatius
and St. Philip Neri; the Flemish translation of the first part of the Treatise on Perfection, drew his attention.
Jean Bolland
Jean Bolland was a Jesuit priest and prominent Southern Netherlandish hagiographer....
who systematized it, while broadening its perspective. This is the beginning of the association of the Bollandists.
Research
He entered the Society of JesusSociety of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
in 1588. A professor of philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
in the Jesuit college at Douai
Douai
-Main sights:Douai's ornate Gothic style belfry was begun in 1380, on the site of an earlier tower. The 80 m high structure includes an impressive carillon, consisting of 62 bells spanning 5 octaves. The originals, some dating from 1391 were removed in 1917 during World War I by the occupying...
during the last years of the sixteenth century, Rosweyde devoted his leisure to the libraries of the monasteries of Hainaut and French Flanders
French Flanders
French Flanders is a part of the historical County of Flanders in present-day France. The region today lies in the modern-day region of Nord-Pas de Calais, the department of Nord, and roughly corresponds to the arrondissements of Lille, Douai and Dunkirk on the Belgian border.-Geography:French...
. He copied with his own hand a vast number of documents relating to church history in general, and to hagiography in particular, and found in the old texts contained in the manuscripts coming under his observation quite a different flavour from that of the revisions to which many editors, notably Lippomano and Surius, then the latest and most celebrated, had believed it necessary to subject them.
Plan
Rosweyde thought it would be a useful work to publish the texts in their original form. His superiors, to whom he submitted his plan in 1603, gave it their approval, and allowed him to prepare the projected edition, without, however, relieving him of other occupations. Rosweyde pursued his project, which he announced publicly in 1607, as well as the plan he proposed to follow. Under the title: Fasti sanctorum quorum vitae in belgicis bibliothecis manuscriptiae, he gave in a little volume in 16mo., published by the Plantin pressPlantin-Moretus Museum
The Plantin-Moretus Museum is a museum in Antwerp, Belgium honouring the famous printers Christoffel Plantijn and Jan Moretus. It is located in their former residence and printing establishment, Plantin Press, at the Friday Market.- History :...
at Antwerp, an alphabetical list of the names of the saints whose acts had been either found by him or called to his attention in old manuscript collections. This list filled fifty pages; the prefatory notice in which he indicates the character and arrangement of his work, as he had conceived it, takes up fourteen. Finally, the work contains an appendix of twenty-six pages containing the unpublished acts of the passion of the Cilician martyrs, Tharsacus, Probus, and Andronicus, which Rosweyde regarded -- wrongly -- as the authentic official report from the pen of a clerk of the court of the Roman tribunal.
According to this programme the collection was to comprise sixteen volumes, besides two volumes of explanations and tables. The first volume was to present documents concerning the life of Jesus Christ and the feasts established in honour of the special events of His life; the second volume would be devoted to the life and the feasts of the Blessed Virgin, and the third to the feasts of the Saints honoured with a more special cult. The twelve succeeding volumes were to give the lives of the saints whose feasts are celebrated respectively in the twelve months of the year, one volume for each month. This calendar arrangement had been prescribed by his superiors, in preference to the chronological order Rosweyde himself favoured. But this presented, especially at that time, formidable difficulties. Lastly, the sixteenth volume was to set forth the succession of martyrologies which had been in use at different periods and in the various Churches of Christendom
Christendom
Christendom, or the Christian world, has several meanings. In a cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community of Christians, adherents of Christianity...
. The first of the two supplementary volumes was to contain notes and commentaries bearing on the lives divided into eight books treating respectively of the following subjects:
- The authors of the lives;
- the sufferings of the martyrs;
- the images of the saints;
- liturgical rites and customs mentioned in hagiographical documents;
- profane customs to which allusions had been made;
- questions of chronology;
- names of places encountered in these same documents;
- barbarous or obscure terms which might puzzle the readers.
The other supplement was to present a series of copious tables giving:
- the names of the saints whose lives had been published in the preceding volumes;
- the same names followed by notes indicating the place of the saint's birth, his station in life, his title to sanctity, the time and place in which he had lived, and the author of his life;
- the state of life of the various saints (religious, priest, virgin, widow, etc.);
- their position in the Church (apostle, bishop, abbot, etc.);
- the nomenclature of the saints according to the countries made illustrious by their birth, apostolate, sojourn, burial;
- nomenclature of the places in which they are honoured with a special cult;
- enumeration of the maladies for the cure of which they are especially invoked;
- the professions placed under their patronage;
- the proper names of persons and places encountered in the published lives;
- the passages of Holy Scripture there explained;
- points which may be of use in religious controversies;
- those applicable in the teaching of Christian doctrine;
- a general table of words and things in alphabetical order.
"And others still," adds the author, "if anything of importance presents itself, of which our readers may give us an idea."
Cardinal Bellarmine, to whom Rosweyde sent a copy of his little volume, could not forbear exclaiming after he had read this programme: "This man counts, then, on living two hundred years longer!" He addressed to the author a letter, the original of which is preserved in the present library of the Bollandists, signed, but not written by the hand of Bellarmine, in which he intimates in polished but perfectly plain language that he regarded the plan as chimerical.
Rosweyde was nowise disconcerted by this. From various other sources he received encouragement, enthusiastic praise, and valuable assistance. The new enterprise found an especial protector, as generous as he was zealous and enlightened, in Antoine de Wynghe, abbot of the celebrated monastery of Liessies
Liessies
-References:*...
in the now Nord department of France. Venerable Louis of Blois, whose third successor de Wynghe was, seemed to have bequeathed to him his devotion to the Jesuits. The large sympathy of this patron manifested itself in every way; in letters of recommendation to the heads of the various houses of the great Benedictine Order which opened to Rosweyde and his associates monastic libraries; in loans and gifts of books, of manuscripts, and of copies of manuscripts; and in pecuniary assistance.
Rosweyde quite counted on completing by his own efforts the monument of which he had dreamed, and on bringing it to a worthy end. As a matter of fact, he did not get beyond the first stages of the structure. His literary activity was expended on a multitude of historical works, both religious and polemical, some of which, it is true, would have later formed a part of the great hagiographical compilation. The majority, however, bear no relation whatever to the work. At the time of Rosweyde's death, then, which took place in Antwerp in 1629, not a page was ready for the printer.
His labour was not lost however, as Jean Bolland
Jean Bolland
Jean Bolland was a Jesuit priest and prominent Southern Netherlandish hagiographer....
, entrusted with going through the papers and documents gathered by Rosweyde saw the value of them all and embarked decidedly on the vast project identified later with the association of the Bollandists. The first volume of the Acta Sanctorum
Acta Sanctorum
Acta Sanctorum is an encyclopedic text in 68 folio volumes of documents examining the lives of Christian saints, in essence a critical hagiography, which is organised according to each saint's feast day. It begins with two January volumes, published in 1643, and ended with the Propylaeum to...
came out of the press in 1643.
Works
The writings which would have been available are: the edition of the Little Roman Martyrology, in which Rosweyde believed he recognized the collection mentioned by Gregory the Great in his letter to Eulogius of Alexandria; the edition of the martyrology of Ado of Vienne (1613); the ten books of the Lives of the Fathers of the Desert, or Vitae patrumVitae patrum
The Vitae Patrum is an encyclopedia of hagiographical writings from early Christianity. The Greek and Latin texts were compiled, edited, and translated into Latin by Heribert Rosweyde. It was published in ten books in 1628. The bulk of the texts date from the third and fourth centuries....
, which he first published in Latin (1615 in fol.), dedicating the work to the Abbot of Liessies, and later in Dutch (1617) in fol., with an inscription to Jeanne de Bailliencourt, Abbess of Messines. Rosweyde apparently commissioned and dedicated to de Wynghe an emblematic work of fifty plates of hermits, engraved by Boetius à Bolswert
Boetius à Bolswert
Boetius à Bolswert was a renowned copper-plate engraving engraver of Friesland origin. In his time the paintings of Peter Paul Rubens called forth new endeavours by engravers to imitate or reproduce the breadth, density of mass and dynamic illumination of those works...
to designs by Abraham Bloemaert
Abraham Bloemaert
Abraham Bloemaert was a Dutch painter and printmaker in etching and engraving. He was one of the "Haarlem Mannerists" from about 1585, but in the new century altered his style to fit new Baroque trends...
(Sylva Anachoretica Ægypti Et Palæstinæ. Figuris Æneis Et Brevibus Vitarum Elogiis Expressa. (Hendrick Aertssens, Antwerp 1619).)
The rest, however, as for instance the Dutch edition of Ribadeneira's Flowers of the Saints (1619, two folio volumes), the General History of the Church (1623), to which he added as an appendix the detailed history of the Church in the Netherlands, both in Dutch; the Flemish lives of St. Ignatius
St. Ignatius
-People:* Ignatius of Antioch, third Patriarch of Antioch, considered a saint by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches*Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, considered a saint by the Roman Catholic Church...
and St. Philip Neri; the Flemish translation of the first part of the Treatise on Perfection, drew his attention.