The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

THE BENEDICTINES. 273
Dominicans in the front rank in the matter of learning ; he
therefore ordered in the case of the Dominicans of Aragon that
no one should take a bachelor's degree unless he had taught
theology and philosophy for four years, and that no one should
attain the degree of master unless he had been appointed by
the General of the Order or the chapter-general to interpret
Peter Lombard, had taught for four years, and had been
proposed for the dignity by the provincial chapter.^
The prescription of the Council of Trent which ordered the
grouping into congregations of those monasteries which were
isolated and independent of the bishops was of great import-
ance to the Benedictines. The fresh imipulse which that Order
experienced during the post-Tridentine period coincided with
the formation of such groups, as had already been the case
in the XVth century and even earlier. The grouping of five
abbeys in Flanders into the Congregation of the Exempts of
Belgium (1569) took place in the time of Pius V.^ Before the
close of the century two of its abbots had been appointed
Bishops of Cambrai and St. Omer respectively, while the
Society of Jesus owed various colleges to it.^ The day of the
faculty for absolution of the " bolla crociata ") ; of March 21,
157T, ibid. 904 (superiors may nominate their subjects as notaries).
Pius V. issued several bulls of reform for the female branch of the
Order, as well as one for the Dominicans of Paris ;
see supra p. 267 ;
in Spain he abolished the Dominican Conventuals; see supra. p.2o2.
^ Edict of July 7, 1569, Bull. Rom., VII., 760.
'^
Cf. ScHMiEDER in Stiidien iind Mitteilungen aiis dem Bene-
dictiner- und Zisterzienserorden ,
XII., 78.
3 The abbot of Saint-Bertin as Bishop of St. Omer set up a
college there " e pecunia, quam sacerdotali frugalitate ac par-
simonia ad alendos pauperes studiosos seposuerat."
Sacchini, P.
III., I, 3, n. 151. Brief of Pius V. of November 3, 1569, on the
college at Douai, ibid. 1, 4. n. 208 (with wrong date 1568 ; cf.
Previa, Arm. 44, t. 14, n. 276b, Papal Secret Archives) : " Collegium
vestrae Societatis sumptibus monasterii Aquicinctensis
[Anchin] eiusque abbatis [Jean Lentailleur] nuper illic institutum
esse cognoscentes . . . et monachorum eorum, qui in opere tam
egregio perficiendo de religionc quam optimc meruerunt, pietatem
caritatem devotionem vchcmenter in Domino commendavimus."
VOL. XVII. x8