ehalf of real and learned
inquiry, of accurate, painstaking, and often most critical research into
the sources whence history, if worth anything, must be drawn.

I propose in this paper to give an account of the origin, progress,
contents, and value of the work of the Bollandists, regarded as the
vastest repertory of original material for the history of mediaeval
times. This immense series is popularly known either as the "Acta
Sanctorum" or the Bollandists. The former is the proper designation. The
latter, however, will suit best as the peg on which we shall hang our
narrative. John Bolland, or Joannes Bollandus as it is in Latin, was the
name of the founder of a Company which, more fortunate than most
literary clubs, has lasted well-nigh three centuries. To him must be
ascribed the honour of initiating the work, drawing the lines and laying
the foundations of a building which has not yet been completed. That
work was one often contemplated but never undertaken on the same
exhaustive principles. Clement, the reputed disciple of the Apostles
Peter and Paul, is reported--in the "Liber Pontificalis" or "Lives of
the Popes;" dating from the early years of the sixth century--to have
made provision for preserving the "Acts of the Martyrs." Apocryphal as
this account seems, yet the honest reader of Eusebius must confess that
the idea was no novel one in the second century, as is manifest from the
well-known letter narrating the sufferings of the martyrs of Lyons and
Vienne. Space would now fail us to trace the development of hagiography
in the Church. Let it suffice to say that century after century, as it
slowly rolled by, contributed its quota both in east and west. In the
east even an emperor, Basil, gave his name to a Greek martyrology; while
in both west and east the writings of Metaphrastes, Mombritius, Surius,
Lipomanus, and Baronius, embalmed abundant legends in many a portly
volume. Still the mind of a certain Heribert Rosweid, a professor at
Douai, a Jesuit and an enthusiastic antiquarian, was not satisfied.
Rosweid was a typical instance of those Jesuits, learned and devout, who
at a great crisis in the battle restored the fallen fortunes of the
Church of Rome. As the original idea of the "Acta Sanctorum" is due to
him, we may be pardoned in giving a brief sketch of his career, though
he was not in strictness a member of the Bollandist Company.

Rosweid was born at Utrecht, in 1569, and entered the Society of Jesus