GALL, ST. (Ger. St. Gallen), ABBEY OF, a celebrated Swiss Benedictine monastery, which gives its name to the canton in which it is situated. It was founded early in the 7th c. by St. Gall, or Gallus, an Irish Monk, a disciple of Columbanus, and one of that distinguished band, who in that age, from the various monasteries of Ireland and the kindred establishment of Iona. carried the elements of learning and civilization over a large portion of the continent of EtirOpe. 'Gallus had accombanieff Columbanus tv Anegray and Luxeuil, and ultimately himself, in company with a few followers, repaired to Switzerland, where, in a hermitage on the banks of the Steinach, he acquired such fame for sanctity by his teaching and example, that on his death, there arose, in honor of his memory, what, in progress of time, became one of the most celebrated of the many magnificent establishments of the Benedictine order. The succession of abbots from the days of Gallus is carefully chronicled, and the share which each of them had in the erection and enlargement of the monastic buildings. It will be enough to say that, through the piety and munificence of the faithful, the abbey of St. G. gradually became one of the masterpieces of medireval architecture; and that the genius and skill which were lavished on its construction, and on the decoration of its halls and cloisters, had a large share in developing the Christian art of the period. The monks of St. G., too, may be reckoned among the best friends and preservers of ancient literature. They were indefatigable in the collection and transcription of MSS.—biblical, patristic, sacred and profane history, classical, liturgical, and legendary. Some of the MSS. which are still shown in the library are monuments of the skill and industry of the copyists; and several of the classics, especially Quintilian, Silius Italicus, andiminianus Marcellinus, have been preserved solely through the MSS. of St. Gall. For a time, the abbey was subject to the bishop of Constance, and an animated dispute was for a long time main tained between that prelate and the monks• as to the right of electing the abbot. It ended, however, in the recognition of the right of free election; .and ultimately, from
the growth of the monastic possessions, and the important position which the abbot held, the monastic domain, which comprised a great part of northern Switzerland, became a distinct jurisdiction, within which the abbot, like many of his brethren in the great Benedictine monasteries, exercised all the rights of a suzerain. For several cen turies, the abbey of St. G. held one of the highest places in the order. Its schools enjoyed wide reputation. Its members held a distinguished place among the scholars of mediaeval Germany; and many of them, as, for example, Notker, are known to have cultivated not only the ordinary learning of the schools, but also physic, mathetriatics, and astronomy. 'f he school of St. G., too, was one of the most eminent for the cultiva tion of music, and its MSS., preserved in its library, have been extensively made use of by the restorers of ancient ecclesiastical music. A town of considerable importance grew up around the monastery, and was called by the same name; and as the wealth and influence which attached to the dignity of the abbot began to make it an object of ambition to the rich and powerful families, we find the succession of abbots, in the 13th and 14th centuries, sadly degenerated from their pious and learned predecessors in the office. A stringent reform was enforced about the time of the council of Constance; but the burghers of St. G. had grown dissatisfied under this rule; and on the outbreak of the reformation in 1525, they threw off their subjection, and embraced the new doc trines. At the close, however, of the religious war in 1532, the Catholic religion was re-established, and the abbot reinstated, though with diminished authority, in his ancient dignity. At the French revolution, the abbey of St. G. was secularized (1798), and its revenues were soon afterwards sequestrated (1805). By a later ecclesiastical arrangement, the abbacy of St. G. was raised to the dignity of a bishopric, which, in 1823, was united to that of Chun They were afterwards, however, separated; and in 1847, St. Gallen was erected into a bishopric, with a distinct jurisdiction.