Victor de Buck
Encyclopedia
Victor de Buck was a Jesuit
theologian and Bollandist
hagiographer. His family was one of the most distinguished in the city of Oudenaarde. After a distinguished course in the humanities, begun at the municipal College of Soignies and the petit seminaire of Roeselare
and completed in 1835 at the college of the Society of Jesus at Aalst
, he entered the Society on 11 October 1835. After two years in the novitiate, then at Nivelles
, and a year at Tronchiennes reviewing and finishing his literary studies, he went to Namur
in September 1838 to study philosophy and the natural sciences.
The work of the Bollandists had just been revived and, in spite of his youth, Victor de Buck was summoned to act as assistant to the hagiographers. He remained at this work in Brussels
from September 1840, to September 1845. After devoting four years to theological studies at Leuven
where he was ordained priest in 1848, and making his third year of probation in the Society of Jesus, he was permanently assigned to the Bollandist work in 1850. He remained engaged upon it until the time of his death. He had already published in part second of Vol. VII of the October Acta Sanctorum
, which appeared in 1845, sixteen commentaries or notices that are easily distinguishable because they are without a signature, unlike those written by the Bollandists.
Moreover, he composed in collaboration with scholastic Antoine Tinnebroeck an able refutation of a book published by the professor of canon law at the University of Leuven, in which the rights of the regular clergy
were assailed and repudiated. This refutation, which fills an octavo volume of 640 pages, abounding in learned dissertations, was ready for publication within four months. It was to have been supplemented by a second volume that was almost completed but could not be published because of the political disturbances of the year, the prelude to the revolutions of 1848. The work was never resumed.
Besides the numerous commentaries in Vols. IX, X, XI, XII, and XIII of the October Acta Sanctorum, which won much praise, Father de Buck published in Latin, French and Dutch a large number of little works of piety and dissertations on devotion to the saints, church history, and Christian archaeology. The partial enumeration of these works fills two folio columns of his eulogy, in the forepart of vol. II of the November Acta. Because of his extensive learning and investigating turn of mind he was naturally bent upon probing abstruse and perplexing questions. Thus in 1862 he was led to publish in the form of a letter to his brother Remi, then professor of church history at the theological college of Leuven and soon afterwards his colleague on the Bollandist work, a Latin dissertation, De solemnitate praecipue paupertatis religiosae. This was followed in 1863 and 1864 by two treatises in French, one under the title Solution amiable de la question des couvents and the other De l'état religieux, treating of the religious life in Belgium in the nineteenth century.
In order to satisfy the many requests made to Rome by churches and religious communities for relics of saints, it had become customary to take from the catacombs of Rome
the bodies of unknown personages believed to have been honored as martyrs in the early Church. The sign by which they were to be recognized was a glass vial sealed up in the plaster outside the loculus
that contained the body, and bearing traces of a red substance that had been enclosed and was supposed to have been blood. Doubts had arisen as to the correctness of this interpretation and, after careful study, Victor de Buck felt convinced that it was false and that what had been taken for blood was probably the sediment of consecrated wine. The conclusion, together with its premises, was set forth in a dissertation published in 1855 under the title De phialis rubricatis quibus martyrum romanorum sepulcra dignosci dicuntur. Naturally it raised lively protestations, particularly on the part of those who were responsible for distributing the relics of the saints, the more so, as the cardinal vicar in 1861 strictly forbade any further transportation of these relics.
De Buck had only a few copies of his work printed, these being intended for the cardinals and prelates particularly interested in the question. As none were put on the market, it was rumored that de Buck's superiors had suppressed the publication of the book and that all the copies printed, save five or six, had been destroyed. This was untrue; no copy had been destroyed and his superiors had laid no blame upon the author. Then, in 1863, a decree was obtained from the Congregation of Rites, renewing an older decree, whereby it was declared that a vial of blood placed outside of a sepulchral niche in the catacombs was an unmistakable sign by which the tomb of a martyr might be known, and it was proclaimed that Victor de Buck's opinion was formally disapproved and condemned by Rome. This too was false, as Father de Buck had never intimated that the placing of the vial of blood did not indicate the resting-place of a martyr, when it could be proved that the vial contained genuine blood, such as was supposed by the decree of the congregation.
Finally, there appeared in Paris a large quarto volume written by the Roman prelate, Monsignor Sconamiglio, Reliquiarum custode. It was filled with caustic criticisms of the author of De phialis rubricatis and relegated him to the rank of notorious heretics who had combated devotion to the saints and the veneration of their relics. Victor de Buck seemed all but insensible to the attacks and contented himself with opposing to Monsignor Sconamiglio's book a protest in which he rectified the more or less unconscious error of his enemies by proving that neither the decree of 1863 nor any other decision emanating from ecclesiastical authority had affected his thesis.
However, another attack made about the same time touched him more deeply. Grave and direct accusations were made against him and reported to the pope himself. He was credited with opinions which, if not formally heretical, at least openly defied the ideas that were generally accepted by Catholics. In a Latin letter addressed to Cardinal Patrizzi, and intended to come to the notice of the pope, Father de Buck repudiated the calumnies in a manner that betrayed how deeply he had been affected. His protest was supported by the testimony of four of his principal superiors, former provincials, and rectors who eagerly vouched for the sincerely of his declarations and the genuineness of his religious spirit. With the consent of his superiors he published this letter in order to communicate with those of his friends who might have been disturbed by these accusations.
What apparently gave rise to these accusations were the amicable relations established, principally through correspondence, between Victor de Buck and such men as Alexander Forbes
, the learned Anglican bishop, and the celebrated Edward Pusey in England, Montalembert
, and Bishop Félix Dupanloup
in France and a number of others whose names were distasteful to many ardent Catholics. These relations were brought about by the reputation for deep learning, integrity, and scientific independence that de Buck's works had earned for him, by his readiness to oblige those who addressed questions to him, and by his earnestness and skill in elucidating the most difficult questions.
Father Peter Jan Beckx
, Father General of the Society, summoned him to Rome to act as official theologian at the First Vatican Council
. Father de Buck assumed these new duties with his accustomed ardor and, upon his return, showed the first symptoms of arteriosclerosis, which finally ended his life.
----
This article incorporates text from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
article "Victor de Buck" by Charles De Smedt
, a publication now in the public domain
.
Society 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...
theologian and Bollandist
Bollandist
The Bollandists are an association of scholars, philologists, and historians who since the early seventeenth century have studied hagiography and the cult of the saints in Christianity. Their most important publication has been the Acta Sanctorum...
hagiographer. His family was one of the most distinguished in the city of Oudenaarde. After a distinguished course in the humanities, begun at the municipal College of Soignies and the petit seminaire of Roeselare
Roeselare
Roeselare is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Roeselare proper and the towns of Beveren, Oekene and Rumbeke....
and completed in 1835 at the college of the Society of Jesus at Aalst
Aalst, Belgium
Aalst is a city and municipality on the Dender River, 19 miles northwest from Brussels. It is located in the Flemish province of East Flanders in the Denderstreek. The municipality comprises the city of Aalst itself and the villages of Baardegem, Erembodegem, Gijzegem, Herdersem, Hofstade,...
, he entered the Society on 11 October 1835. After two years in the novitiate, then at Nivelles
Nivelles
Nivelles is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. The Nivelles municipality includes the old communes of Baulers, Bornival, Thines, and Monstreux....
, and a year at Tronchiennes reviewing and finishing his literary studies, he went to Namur
Namur (city)
Namur is a city and municipality in Wallonia, in southern Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia....
in September 1838 to study philosophy and the natural sciences.
The work of the Bollandists had just been revived and, in spite of his youth, Victor de Buck was summoned to act as assistant to the hagiographers. He remained at this work in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
from September 1840, to September 1845. After devoting four years to theological studies at Leuven
Leuven
Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium...
where he was ordained priest in 1848, and making his third year of probation in the Society of Jesus, he was permanently assigned to the Bollandist work in 1850. He remained engaged upon it until the time of his death. He had already published in part second of Vol. VII of the October 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...
, which appeared in 1845, sixteen commentaries or notices that are easily distinguishable because they are without a signature, unlike those written by the Bollandists.
Moreover, he composed in collaboration with scholastic Antoine Tinnebroeck an able refutation of a book published by the professor of canon law at the University of Leuven, in which the rights of the regular clergy
Regular clergy
Regular clergy, or just regulars, is applied in the Roman Catholic Church to clerics who follow a "rule" in their life. Strictly, it means those members of religious orders who have made solemn profession. It contrasts with secular clergy.-Terminology and history:The observance of the Rule of St...
were assailed and repudiated. This refutation, which fills an octavo volume of 640 pages, abounding in learned dissertations, was ready for publication within four months. It was to have been supplemented by a second volume that was almost completed but could not be published because of the political disturbances of the year, the prelude to the revolutions of 1848. The work was never resumed.
Besides the numerous commentaries in Vols. IX, X, XI, XII, and XIII of the October Acta Sanctorum, which won much praise, Father de Buck published in Latin, French and Dutch a large number of little works of piety and dissertations on devotion to the saints, church history, and Christian archaeology. The partial enumeration of these works fills two folio columns of his eulogy, in the forepart of vol. II of the November Acta. Because of his extensive learning and investigating turn of mind he was naturally bent upon probing abstruse and perplexing questions. Thus in 1862 he was led to publish in the form of a letter to his brother Remi, then professor of church history at the theological college of Leuven and soon afterwards his colleague on the Bollandist work, a Latin dissertation, De solemnitate praecipue paupertatis religiosae. This was followed in 1863 and 1864 by two treatises in French, one under the title Solution amiable de la question des couvents and the other De l'état religieux, treating of the religious life in Belgium in the nineteenth century.
In order to satisfy the many requests made to Rome by churches and religious communities for relics of saints, it had become customary to take from the catacombs of Rome
Catacombs of Rome
The Catacombs of Rome are ancient catacombs, underground burial places under or near Rome, Italy, of which there are at least forty, some discovered only in recent decades. Though most famous for Christian burials, either in separate catacombs or mixed together, they began in the 2nd century, much...
the bodies of unknown personages believed to have been honored as martyrs in the early Church. The sign by which they were to be recognized was a glass vial sealed up in the plaster outside the loculus
Loculus (architecture)
Loculus is a Latin word literally meaning little place and was used in a number of senses. In architecture it is a recess large enough to receive a human corpse. Usually found in either a catacomb, hypogeum, mausoleum or other place of entombment. Loculus can also refer to an alternative name for...
that contained the body, and bearing traces of a red substance that had been enclosed and was supposed to have been blood. Doubts had arisen as to the correctness of this interpretation and, after careful study, Victor de Buck felt convinced that it was false and that what had been taken for blood was probably the sediment of consecrated wine. The conclusion, together with its premises, was set forth in a dissertation published in 1855 under the title De phialis rubricatis quibus martyrum romanorum sepulcra dignosci dicuntur. Naturally it raised lively protestations, particularly on the part of those who were responsible for distributing the relics of the saints, the more so, as the cardinal vicar in 1861 strictly forbade any further transportation of these relics.
De Buck had only a few copies of his work printed, these being intended for the cardinals and prelates particularly interested in the question. As none were put on the market, it was rumored that de Buck's superiors had suppressed the publication of the book and that all the copies printed, save five or six, had been destroyed. This was untrue; no copy had been destroyed and his superiors had laid no blame upon the author. Then, in 1863, a decree was obtained from the Congregation of Rites, renewing an older decree, whereby it was declared that a vial of blood placed outside of a sepulchral niche in the catacombs was an unmistakable sign by which the tomb of a martyr might be known, and it was proclaimed that Victor de Buck's opinion was formally disapproved and condemned by Rome. This too was false, as Father de Buck had never intimated that the placing of the vial of blood did not indicate the resting-place of a martyr, when it could be proved that the vial contained genuine blood, such as was supposed by the decree of the congregation.
Finally, there appeared in Paris a large quarto volume written by the Roman prelate, Monsignor Sconamiglio, Reliquiarum custode. It was filled with caustic criticisms of the author of De phialis rubricatis and relegated him to the rank of notorious heretics who had combated devotion to the saints and the veneration of their relics. Victor de Buck seemed all but insensible to the attacks and contented himself with opposing to Monsignor Sconamiglio's book a protest in which he rectified the more or less unconscious error of his enemies by proving that neither the decree of 1863 nor any other decision emanating from ecclesiastical authority had affected his thesis.
However, another attack made about the same time touched him more deeply. Grave and direct accusations were made against him and reported to the pope himself. He was credited with opinions which, if not formally heretical, at least openly defied the ideas that were generally accepted by Catholics. In a Latin letter addressed to Cardinal Patrizzi, and intended to come to the notice of the pope, Father de Buck repudiated the calumnies in a manner that betrayed how deeply he had been affected. His protest was supported by the testimony of four of his principal superiors, former provincials, and rectors who eagerly vouched for the sincerely of his declarations and the genuineness of his religious spirit. With the consent of his superiors he published this letter in order to communicate with those of his friends who might have been disturbed by these accusations.
What apparently gave rise to these accusations were the amicable relations established, principally through correspondence, between Victor de Buck and such men as Alexander Forbes
Alexander Forbes
Alexander Forbes was a 19th century Scottish merchant, explorer, and author. His book California: A History of Upper and Lower California, published in 1839, is perhaps the first full account in English of California. He is the brother of distinguished Scottish physician Sir John Forbes.Forbes...
, the learned Anglican bishop, and the celebrated Edward Pusey in England, Montalembert
Montalembert
Montalembert can refer to:* André de Montalembert , French officer* Marc René, marquis de Montalembert , French military engineer and writer* Charles Forbes René de Montalembert , French publicist and historian...
, and Bishop Félix Dupanloup
Félix Dupanloup
Félix Antoine Philibert Dupanloup was a French ecclesiastic.-Biography:He was born at Saint-Félix, in Haute-Savoie. In his earliest years he was confided to the care of his brother, a priest in the diocese of Chambéry. In 1810 he was sent to a pensionnat ecclésiastique at Paris...
in France and a number of others whose names were distasteful to many ardent Catholics. These relations were brought about by the reputation for deep learning, integrity, and scientific independence that de Buck's works had earned for him, by his readiness to oblige those who addressed questions to him, and by his earnestness and skill in elucidating the most difficult questions.
Father Peter Jan Beckx
Peter Jan Beckx
Peter Jan Beckx Peter Jan Beckx Peter Jan Beckx (also Pieter Jan Beckx, in French Pierre Jean Beckx, (8 February 1795, Zichem, Belgium - 4 March 1887, Rome, Italy) was a Belgian Jesuit, elected 22nd Superior-General of the Society of Jesus.-Early Years and Formation:...
, Father General of the Society, summoned him to Rome to act as official theologian at the First Vatican Council
First Vatican Council
The First Vatican Council was convoked by Pope Pius IX on 29 June 1868, after a period of planning and preparation that began on 6 December 1864. This twentieth ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, held three centuries after the Council of Trent, opened on 8 December 1869 and adjourned...
. Father de Buck assumed these new duties with his accustomed ardor and, upon his return, showed the first symptoms of arteriosclerosis, which finally ended his life.
----
This article incorporates text from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
Catholic Encyclopedia
The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia and the Original Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index...
article "Victor de Buck" by Charles De Smedt
Charles De Smedt
Charles De Smedt was a Belgian Jesuit priest and hagiographer. He was a Bollandist, and is noted for having introduced critical historical methods into Catholic hagiography, so that it became a collection of accounts of the accretion of legends, as well as the compilation of original materials.He...
, a publication now in the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
.