date of Feb. 6, exhaustive memoirs of SS. Amandus and Vedastus, Gallic
bishops of the sixth and eleventh centuries whose lives present a
striking picture of those troubled times, amid which the foundations of
French history were laid. Henschenius scorned the narrow limits within
which his master would fain limit himself. He boldly launched out into a
discussion of all the aspects of his subject, discussing not merely the
men themselves, but also the history of their times, and doing that in a
manner now impossible, as the then well stored, but now widely scattered
muniment rooms of the abbeys of Flanders and Northern France lay at his
disposal. Bollandus was so struck with the success of this innovation
that he at once abandoned his own restricted ideas, and adopted the more
exhaustive method of his assistant, which of course involved the
extension of the work far beyond the sixteen volumes originally
contemplated. The first two volumes appeared in 1643, and the next
three, including the "Saints of February," in 1658. About this time the
reigning Pontiff, Alexander VII., who had been the life-long friend and
patron of Bollandus, pressed upon him, an oft-repeated invitation to
visit Rome, and utilize for his work the vast stores accumulated there
and in the other libraries of Italy. Bollandus had hitherto excused
himself. In fact, he possessed already more material than he could
conveniently use. But now that larger apartments had been assigned to
him, and proper arrangements and classifications adopted in his
library--due especially to the skill of Henschenius--he felt that such a
journey would be most advantageous to his work. As, however, he could
not go in person, owing to his infirmities, which were daily increasing,
he deputed thereto Henschenius and Daniel Papebrock, a young assistant
lately added to the Company, and destined to spend fifty-five years in
its service. The history of that literary journey is well worth reading.
The reader, curious on such points, will find it in the "Life of
Bollandus," prefixed to the first volume of the "March Saints," chap.
xiii.--xx. Still more interesting, were it printed, would be the diary
of his journey kept by Papebrock, now preserved in the Burgundy Library
at Brussels, and numbered 17,672. Twenty-nine months were spent in this
journey, from the middle of 1659 to the end of 1661. Bollandus
accompanied his disciples as far as Cologne, where they were received
with almost roya