Edward Cuthbert Butler

“ MABILLON, JOHN (1632–1707) , Benedictine monk of the Congregation of St Maur (see Maurists) , was the son of a peasant near Reims. In 1653 he became a monk in the abbey of St Remi at Reims. In 1664 he was placed at St Germain-des-Prés in Paris, the great literary workshop of the Maurists, where he lived and worked for twenty years, at first under d’Achery, with whom he edited the nine folio volumes of Acta of the Benedictine Saints. In Mabillon’s Prefaces (reprinted separately) these lives were for the first time made to illustrate the ecclesiastical and civil history of the early middle ages. ”

“ Mabillon produced in all some twenty folio volumes and as many of lesser size, nearly all works of monumental erudition (the chief are named in the article Maurists) . A very competent judge declared that, “he knew well the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th centuries, but nothing earlier or later.” Mabillon never allowed his studies to interfere with his life as a monk ”

“ The chief authority for his life is the Abrégé de la vie de D. J. M. (also in Latin) , by his disciple and friend Ruinart (1709) . See also, for a full summary of his works, Tassin, Hist. littéraire de la congr. ”