Ambrosiusad-nemus

Ambrosius-ad-Nemus (AMBROSE-AT-THE WOOD), ORDER OF, monks of. The origin of the order is known from a bull of Gregory XI, addressed in 1375 to the monks of the church of St. Ambrose without the walls of Milan; from which it appears that these monks had for a long time been subject to a prior; but had no fixed rule, in consequence of which the pope, at the prayer of the archbishop, had ordered them to follow the rule of Augustine, permitted them to assume the above name, to recite the Ambrosian office, and directed that their prior should be confirmed by the archbishop of Milan. They afterward had many establishments in different parts of Italy; but they were independent of one another until Eugenius IV, in 1441, united them into one congregation, and exempted them from the jurisdiction of the ordinaries, making the convent at Milan the chief of the order. In 1579 they applied to St. Charles Borromeo to aid them in the reformation of their houses, whose discipline had become somewhat relaxed. In 1589 Sixtus V united them to the congregation of St. Barnabas; but in 1650 both were dissolved by Pope Innocent X. — Helyot, ed. Migne, 1, 203.