his refusal to marry him to Theodota, and the ceremony was performed by Joseph, the treasurer of the church of Constantinople. The patriarch became thenceforth an object of persecution to the emperor, who placed spies about his person, suffered no one to speak with him without their leave, and banished many of his relations and servants. This confinement gave the patriarch more leisure for prayer and contemplation. In the meantime, the ambitious Irene, discontented at being no longer at the head of the administration, formed a conspiracy to dethrone her son. The secret was faithfully kept above eight months, till the emperor, suspicious of his danger, escaped from Constantinople, with the design of appealing to the provinces and armies. By this hasty flight the empress was left on the brink of a precipice. She addressed a private epistle to the friends whom she had placed about his person with a menace that, unless they accomplished, she would reveal, their treason. Their fear rendered them intrepid. They seized the emperor on the Asiatic shore, and transported him to Constantinople, where his mother and the other conspirators decided to render him incapable of the throne by blinding him. Her emissaries assaulted the sleeping prince, and stabbed their daggers into his eyes. He survived for several years, oppressed by the court, and forgotten by the world; whilst his unnatural mother resumed the sovereign power, of which he had divested her by becoming of age. She reigned for five years, during which she recalled all the banished, and favoured the Catholics. But she was in turn conspired against by the high treasurer, Nicephorus, who was secretly invested with the purple, and crowned at S. Sophia by the patriarch. The empress was sent into exile in the isle of Lesbos, where she was obliged to earn a scanty subsistence by the labours of her distaff, till her haughty spirit consuming her, she died of grief.

Under Nicephorus, S. Tarasius persevered peaceably in his practices of penance, and in the functions of his pastoral charge. Through his last sickness he continued to offer daily the holy Sacrifice as long as he was able to move. A little before his death he fell into a trance, as the author of his life, who was an eye-witness of the scene, relates, wherein he was heard disputing with a number of accusers, very busy in sifting his whole life, and objecting to his actions. He seemed to be in fear and agitation, and defending himself against everything laid to his charge. This filled all present with fear, seeing the endeavours of the enemy of man to find some condemnation in the life of so holy and so irreprehensible a bishop. But a great serenity succeeded, and the holy man gave up his soul to God in peace, on the 25th of February, in 806, having sat twenty-one years and two months. God honoured his memory with miracles, some of which are related by the author of his life. His festival began to be celebrated under his successor.

B. ROBERT OF ARBRISSEL.
(A.D. II17,)

[Authority: His life, by Baldric, B. of Dôle (d. 1130); and another attributed to Andrew, monk of Fontevrault, and his disciple.]

ROBERT OF ARBRISSEL was born of poor parents, in a village of Brittany, then called Arbrissel, and now known as Arbresec, in the diocese of Rennes, near La Guierche, in the year 1045 or 1047. His father, Damalioc, who afterwards embraced a religious life, and his mother, Orvenda, were pious people who brought him up to love God above all things. When of an age to study, with their consent he went to several towns of his native province, to learn in the schools without being a charge to his parents; and, making

great progress, he went to Paris, where he so distinguished himself that he became a doctor in the university. At this time Silvester de la Guierche, Chancellor of Conon II., duke of Brittany, was placed upon the episcopal throne of Rennes, but being desirous of relieving himself of his duties on various accounts, he chose Robert, and appointed him his vicar-general, with absolute power in the diocese. Robert employed his authority in restoring ecclesiastical discipline, putting down simony, prohibiting incestuous marriages amongst the laity, and in enforcing clerical celibacy. As long as Silvester de la Guierche was alive, Robert was safe from the enemies his discipline had aroused, but, on the death of his protector, he was obliged to leave Brittany, and take refuge in Angers, where he gave lessons in theology. But, wishing to consecrate himself entirely to God, he quitted Angers, and buried himself in the forest of Craon, in Anjou, where he lived in great austerity, wearing a habit of pig skin, and eating roots and wild fruit. His fame as a second S. John the Baptist, having been bruited about, great numbers came to place themselves under his direction, so that he speedily saw his forest solitude invaded by many hundreds of anchorites. The number became at length so great as to oblige him to disperse them through the neighbouring forests. Not being able to watch over all, he divided them into three colonies, of which he retained one, and gave the others to two of his disciples: the B. Vitalis of Mortain, who founded the order of Savigny; and the B. Raoul de la Futaye, founder of the abbey of S. Sulpice, at Rennes.

Robert was obliged to quit his retired life, and preach the Crusade, by order of Pope Urban II. He, therefore, placed his colony under the care of the bishop of Angers, and undertook the execution of the task imposed upon him.

On the confines of Anjou and Poitou, about four miles from the little town of Candes, was an extensive tract of undulating land, covered with bushes, and wholly uncultivated; a little valley, traversed by a slender stream in this district, bore the name of Fontevrault. Here, in 1099, Robert began to build some huts to shelter his followers, and here he settled to found a new colony. Many religiously disposed persons of both sexes, young and old, gathered round him, and Robert found it necessary to establish distinct residences for the men and for the women, each with its own separate oratory. The work of the women was to sing continually the praises of God; that of the men was, between their spiritual exercise, the tillage of the soil. Charity, unity, modesty, and gentleness, prevailed in this singular colony. All lived on what their hands produced, or on the alms sent them; and they bore the name of "The poor of Jesus Christ."

The example of these new solitaries attracted great numbers, many of whom had only an imperfect or a mistaken vocation. Women who had led dissolute lives, feeling a passing compunction, hastened thither, assumed the outward profession, waxed cold, and gave great scandal by fresh lapses. This drew forth severe censure from Marbod, bishop of Rennes, and Godfrey, abbot of Vendôme. The former wrote to Robert a letter full of reproach, in which he told him that he had quitted the Order of the Regular Canons to run after women, and that the colony of Fontevrault was a scandal to the Church, through the confinement of some of the women, and the cries of new born babes ; and he rebuked him for having given the religious habit to persons who asked for it, without having previously tested their sincerity. The letter of Godfrey of Vendôme, was couched in a similar strain of remonstrance; but he went further, and, trusting to hearsay, reprimanded Robert for

associating too freely with the females of his Order, and seeing them in private without the presence of witnesses. Some have supposed these letters to be spurious, but without sufficient grounds. A man of great singleness of mind and guilelessness of spirit is easily deceived by the professions of others, and is liable to be led into actions which, with more worldly wisdom, he would avoid as indiscreet. Indeed, the formation of this double society was hardly consistent with prudence, and Robert found it necessary to keep it within the bounds of severe and vigilant prescriptions, to prevent the recurrence of those scandals which had called forth the reprimand of Marbod and the abbot of Vendôme. Godfrey was afterwards so thoroughly convinced that he was in error in attributing evil to the saintly Robert, that he became his ardent champion. Robert erected three convents, strictly enclosed, for the women: one for virgins and widows, called the Grand Moutier, was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin; another for penitents, was placed under the patronage of S. Mary Magdalene; and a third, for leprous and infirm women, was dedicated to S. Lazarus. The house of the men was completely distinct, and was placed under the invocation of S. John the Divine. One large church was erected to serve the four houses, and the whole community was placed by Robert under the supreme direction of an abbess; and he set the example of submission, by appointing Petronilla de Craon, widow of the Baron de Chemille, Superior to the Order, and he lived in obedience to her till his death, which took place on February 25th, 1117.