Members of the Benedictine Congrégation de Saint-Maur, which was originally founded in 1618 to promote the reform of the order, but became famous for the learning of its members. The Maurists produced monuments of erudition, editions, histories, collections of documents, mainly concerned with theology and church history, but including the Histoire littéraire de la France, which aims to describe all works produced in France until 1500. 12 volumes were produced in the 18th c. under the leadership of Dom Rivet and Dom Clémencet; the work was continued after the Revolution by the Académie des Inscriptions.
[Peter France]
