Why did the Benedictines object to Daniel van Papenbroeck’s claims about monastic documents?

The Benedictines objected to Daniel van Papenbroeck’s claims because his sweeping assertion that nearly all early-medieval documents were forgeries directly threatened the legitimacy of their monastic records.12

As a member of the Bollandist Fathers, Papenbroeck had discovered that some monastic charters were indeed fraudulent. However, in 1675, he extrapolated this finding to suggest that almost all documents from the early medieval period were spurious, specifically claiming that no authentic charters survived from before 700 CE. Because the vast majority of these documents belonged to Benedictine houses, the order viewed his conclusion as an unfounded attack on their history and property rights.12

In response, the Benedictine scholar Jean Mabillon authored De re diplomatica (1681). By establishing rigorous, scientific methods for verifying the authenticity of charters—such as analyzing ink, parchment, and handwriting—Mabillon successfully refuted Papenbroeck’s broad claims, effectively founding the modern study of diplomatics.312